Speaker 0 00:00:05 Welcome
Speaker 1 00:00:05 To the clear impact podcast brought to you by PTI university.
Speaker 0 00:00:09 Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sherry Conner and I am your host.
Speaker 1 00:00:21 It went great. I couldn't believe I was able to do it. I had this in drilling kind of rush afterwards where I just couldn't stop smiling. Like wow. I, I, I got up on stage in front of a large crowd and I just loved it as we continue with our introduction series on the clear impact podcast today, we're chatting with Patrick Jamison and yes, he's Irish. Patrick is our customer education manager, and one of our primary trainers here at PGT university. He's also a bit of a YouTube sensation. We talk about the importance of proper installation and a couple of myths surrounding the fenestration industry. We also learn how much Patrick loves coffee and why he doesn't mind driving to Miami to get some poco cafecito. I hope you enjoy today's episode with Patrick. So today on the clear impact podcast we have with us, Patrick Jamison, who is our customer education manager, Patrick, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1 00:01:21 Thanks for sharing. I appreciate it. I'm glad you could take some time out of your day today. Um, can you tell our audience just a little bit about yourself? Sure. Um, well, I'm been married for 18 years. We're actually 18 years at the end of this month. I have one daughter that's nine years old that keeps us going every, every day, every weekend. And I am a big coffee fanatic. If anybody remembers me from the classes, they know I like my, my coffee. And if you ever want to brighten me, you can bribe me with general towels chicken. That goes a long way. Okay. Those are really good things to know. So Patrick, tell us a little bit about where you began at PGT or in the fenestration industry. Yeah, I started actually in a department, which is called nature scape nature. Scape is a four season room that was kind of like a, like a Lego set in a way you put these glass windows or easy breeze products in this pre-made wall and out in the field, you snapped them together.
Speaker 1 00:02:17 It had a roof, it had a floor deck and it was a great department to be in because you got to deal with a little bit of everything. When I was working in the department, people seen how I was, you know, a good worker and they asked me to help them. In other departments, I started helping other departments, the word got out, and then it was just incredible of different departments, different products that I've learned. But nature scape is where I started. And how long ago was that? That was actually back in April 2nd of 2001. So just over 20 years ago I started. Wow. That's amazing. So you've seen a lot of changes over the years in the industry and within the company, I'm sure. Oh, absolutely. I mean, you've seen the, I've seen the products evolve. I've seen the products change. I've seen people go from where I was at up to the office to other leadership roles. It's just incredible. And I love doing like plant tours and seeing those people because it's like, Hey Andre, how you doing? Hey, Rebecca, how are you doing? And so it's really fun just seeing everybody that's been there at the same time with me or before me. Wonderful.
Speaker 2 00:03:19 That's fantastic. So, Patrick, how did you arrive in your current role?
Speaker 1 00:03:24 So, yeah, my current role is the customer education manager. I sat next to a lady whose name was Maggie and she was a trainer on the quoting system. We were moving from one quoting system to another and she needed to go on stage for three different shows and talk about this new quoting system. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to make it and they asked me, Hey, since you sit next to work, would you be able to do this? It's like, ah, never done anything like that before, but I would love to give it a try. So I went to Daytona with the other trainers in the department. I got up on stage in front of about 180 people and it went great. I couldn't believe I was able to do it. Uh, I had this in drilling kind of rush afterwards where I just couldn't stop smiling. Like, wow, I, I got up on stage in front of a large crowd and I just loved it. We went down to Fort Lauderdale, we went to Sarasota. And after that I knew I wanted to be a trainer. I wanted to be a TA.
Speaker 2 00:04:19 Did you know that the biggest fear is, uh, the fear of public speaking thought maybe spiders was no spiders is up there, but people are actually more afraid of public speaking than they are of death. I did not know that. And so, uh, people would rather be at their own funeral than speak at one that is so crazy. Isn't that crazy? It's wonderful that you enjoy it. And it shows when you're in front of a group of people, when you're helping people understand something, um, it really comes through that. You enjoy what you're doing, which is important. The audience picks up on that. Students know whether a teacher is engaged or if they're just killing time. So it really does come across as something that you enjoy, which is a benefit to the people who come to our classes. So I want to talk for just a minute about the importance of installation, how important is it for proper installation on windows and doors? And here's why, because we make really incredible products. Our windows and doors are the best in the industry, but that doesn't really mean anything if they're not installed properly, as I understand it. So tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 1 00:05:31 Absolutely. You're right. Our products are only as good as they're installed and if they're leaking while the homeowner doesn't see the improper installation, they see the windows leak and they see the door leaking and right away, they're looking at us, Hey, what's going on, PGT? How come you can, you know, make a window that keeps the water out? Well, actually we have, but unfortunately somebody use maybe the wrong sealant or maybe they didn't use enough sealant or there's so many different things that could go wrong in a poor installation. And when you have that poor installation, it affects so many people. It affects one, the homeowner and the damage that it might've caused. It affects the company. That's installing the windows because you start doing that over and over and over that reputation for the company is affected. Something we talk about in class is if the installer or a company does a great job installing windows and doors, how many people does that homeowner tell? Well, they tell their family and that they might take pictures and post them on Facebook and the neighbors see great. But if you do a bad installation, who does that homeowner tell? They tell everybody, you got little Mrs. Smith. That's nine, nine years old on Snapchat, Twitter, Twitch, Facebook, and every other social media platform that they can get on to announce that that company messed up my windows, that company poor installation. And they are, you know, expressing that from the top of the mountains. So yeah, having a right and correct installation is extremely important.
Speaker 2 00:07:00 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
[email protected]. You can also find us on Facebook and LinkedIn. And you developed a little
Speaker 1 00:07:20 Of, um, a stage presence this past year with COVID and not being able to do installation classes in person. So the university actually has a YouTube channel where our own Patrick Jamison stars in a lot of installation videos. So people don't even have to come to a class to really get some basics. They can just go onto YouTube, find our channel and watch the videos and learn a little bit more. At least just the basics. You're absolutely right. I've had so many people come up to me already saying that I've signed up for your install class and I've, I don't know anything about installing, but I wouldn't watch your, uh, videos at PGT university on YouTube. And now I've got an understanding of what you mean by sealing and what you mean by fasteners or, you know, just different terms. Now they can come to class and put it all together.
Speaker 1 00:08:09 One gentlemen down to Fort Myers came up to me and says, I wanted to replace my sliding glass door. I have a buddy of mine that does installing for a company and our schedule just never worked out. My wife was scared, but I watched your videos and I was able to, you know, do it myself. He's part of a company, one of our independent dealers, but he's just never done it himself before. But when the YouTube video, he was able to assemble it, he was able to seal it and anchor it the right way. That has to feel really rewarding. That you're able to share your knowledge in such an easy to access platform in something I've never even dreamed about being able to help somebody from YouTube. I just, I'm not a YouTuber, I guess. Well, now you are now I am. So, uh, I have another question. It seems like there are a lot of myths around the
Speaker 2 00:08:56 Industry. What are some of the most common myths that we hear about regarding windows and doors?
Speaker 1 00:09:02 The first one is probably when somebody sees me just wearing a PGT shirt, they're like, Oh, you make the hurricane proof windows. It's like, yeah, not really. We make hurricane resistant windows. If mother nature wants it, she's going to take it. She can be a powerful storm. So we have to say hurricane resistant, they're not hurricane proof, just like security resistant. The other big one is we make impact resistant glass. We make Winguard Winguard is glass that can still break people think just because we can make a hurricane resistant window, the glass will never crack. It will never break prime example. Several years ago, I had a gentleman call me up saying, I have all your brand new windows and doors in my house. I had a few buddies over. We were kind of talking about it. I show my buddies about how good this glass is. I took out a hammer and I started tapping on that glass and then it cracked. So I don't know what happened, you know, is this window just a fluke thing? It's like, no, you hit it hard enough. It's going to crack. So when we make winged guard glass, it doesn't mean that we're turning into rubber. It's still glass, but it's impact resistant. It's shatterproof.
Speaker 2 00:10:04 So it won't actually create a hole in the window if you hit it with a hammer, but it will crack and break. The glass will break, but it won't, uh, pop through.
Speaker 1 00:10:14 And like I told him, I said that window did exactly what it was supposed to, you know, it cracked, but it did not allow you to put the hammer all the way through.
Speaker 2 00:10:21 Mm. Do you think there were a couple of beers involved in that conversation?
Speaker 1 00:10:26 I know he, uh, he mentioned that,
Speaker 2 00:10:30 Well, you know, that'll happen. Tell us a little bit about what you love most about your role here at PGT. Oh boy.
Speaker 1 00:10:37 Well, I know my performance reviews coming up, so I should probably say my boss,
Speaker 2 00:10:40 But that's always a good thing to see.
Speaker 1 00:10:42 It's a really hard decision. My team, I love the team I work with. We all get along great. You know, we were all pretty much in the same brainwave. We all have the ultimate goal of reaching out to our customers and giving them exactly what they, what they want, what they're looking for in trying to give them, um, the information before they ask for it. We all have each other's backs so we can always fill in when we need to. You know, like I said, it's a hard decision because I also love the customers. I love our customers that come in, whether they're dealers, maybe they're homeowners, maybe they're architects, but I just, you know, I really enjoy talking to our customers and hear in what's going on out there in the real world. What are they experiencing? What are the trends? I mean, we get a lot more information from our customers. The third one I do have to mention is our other teams, like our sister companies, you know, like when you get CGI down high Aaliyah or you get wind WinDoor, you get echo window systems, especially like Delia at CGI. She is awesome. You know, people remember her customers that come for training, remember Idealia for the little poco, Kapha C dozer. We call them Cuban red bulls, but she's awesome.
Speaker 2 00:11:44 Seize the dispenser of the coffee.
Speaker 1 00:11:47 She's the dispenser of the coffee. And she makes great.
Speaker 2 00:11:50 And you've already confessed that that is your love language, my love language. So that makes sense that a Delia would be among your favorite things here. That's awesome. And I know that it always feels good when people appreciate the talents that you bring. And obviously they're learning something. When they participate in a class, they feel more equipped to do their job. They feel more confident in what they're doing. And so I can see where there'd be a lot of positive affirmations around what you're doing, which is also helpful for you and helpful for the rest of the team. We, all, everybody wants to do a good job. We do help by providing that training for them. So,
Speaker 1 00:12:24 Yep, you're right. And like a lot of our service class information we add to that probably every couple of months, because somebody will come up and say, actually I got a different trick or I've got a new way of looking at that. And it's like, show us, how do you do that? I take what they've shown us. I put in our, in our information and we handed out, it's like, there's no true secrets in this industry, but we can all help each other out.
Speaker 2 00:12:44 Well, one of the things I know that I've watched before, um, at the beginning of your classes is you just flat out say at the beginning, anybody got any problems or issues or concerns what's happening out in the field. And that's a very vulnerable question to ask, especially right now, when lead times are a little longer than they normally are. Builders are just through the roof with our volumes. There are more and more people moving to Florida every day and there's not enough houses to go around. So everyone's feeling the pressure and the intensity of the supply chain demands, and we're feeling it on the glass side, we're doing what we can to increase our production. And we've made great strides in that, but you just open it up and say, w how's everybody doing? And that's a, that's a tough question to ask, but, um, what does that do when you ask that question?
Speaker 1 00:13:33 You can see the look on their faces. When I first asked that question is, are you sure you want to open this Pandora's box? Are you sure? It's like, yes, there's an elephant in this room and we needed to talk about it right now because I don't want anybody sitting there, you know, just boiling on that, you know, I'm sales support, but I'm not, uh, um, one of those kinds of sales reps that always wants to talk about the good stuff, you know, I'm, I'm your trainer. And I want to talk about the pros and cons about everything. And that is definitely one con. So let's talk about it after we get done discussing it, you could see the look on everybody's faces the, the way the class flows after that. They know that I am trustworthy, that I'm open. And I'll tell you what I know if, uh, if I don't know something, I'll tell you that I just don't know about that or how to install something in a particular application. Unfortunately, I have not been in every situation in every application, but if I do know, I'll tell you, and that's what great about our attendees in the classes is usually one other person knows something about something. And it's just great being able to talk freely in the classes because those classes are for the attendees, for our customers.
Speaker 2 00:14:37 And I love that you're sensitive to that and that you really do tailor the content to the attendees. So if someone already has a lot of knowledge, then you can get a little bit more technical with them. Um, if someone is a brand new rookie, like I was like many other people are and they walk in and they don't know anything that you're very patient and you give a more of a broad level view and try not to stump us too much with detail. So I think you're great at your job. I'm so glad that I get to work with you every day. And, uh, I know our customers benefit from that and their customers will benefit from what they learned from us. So I have one last question I want to know, uh, who is a person or what is an event that has had a huge impact on your life?
Speaker 1 00:15:19 It would have to be my father, my father and I worked together when I was, it was about 14, 15. It was one of those take your son to work days. And me, I was chomping at the bit to get out in the workforce. It was funny because back then school was just not an interest to me. It's like education. Ah, I, I, you know, I want to make money. That's where I want to get to. So he took me to work and I got to watch how he interacted with everybody. Everybody that walked by, it was always good morning. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, John. Good afternoon, Paul. You know what, whatever their name was. He always, he showed me about being very polite. That gets you a really long way. Good work ethics being there on time, you know, before the, the time of, uh, the start being there every day. And he showed me just the right way of doing it. And then he also showed me because we're Irish, you know, when to put up a, you know, a little fight, it's like, eh, I like to challenge that process. Or I think there might be a different way of looking at that. So what he has shown me, I I've taken in and now I'm trying to educate my daughter in the same kind of mentality.
Speaker 2 00:16:21 It's a wonderful thing to have that passed down. And, and I didn't know that that was really the Irish. I think I have a little of that myself. So it's good to challenge the status quo and to always question, why are we doing things that way? And I think it helps everybody improve. So absolutely that's wonderful, Patrick, our time is up. Thank you so much for spending a little time, chatting with us and helping us to understand who you are and where you came from and some of your passions. And so for those of you that may have forgotten already, Patrick loves general shouts, general towels, general towels, chicken, general towels, chicken, and coffee. Yes. Awesome. Well, I'm sure we'll have more conversations in the future regarding different products in different class and all different kinds of things. We're going to tap into this, uh, vast bank of knowledge that you carry around with you.
Speaker 2 00:17:10 So we're looking forward to our next conversation. Thanks for having me. I had a great day. Awesome. Thanks so much. PGT university is the customer education team for an entire family of brands. We began with the original, easy breeze, ports and closure line 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.
