Speaker 1 00:00:05 Welcome to the Clear Impact Podcast, brought to you by P G T I University. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sherry Connor, and I am your host.
Speaker 2 00:00:19 They got to be, that's a big part of our culture, right? Um, and wanting to come alongside our team members and, you know, help them out in the midst of just like, even with Ian, just wanting to be there as much as we can for them and to try to help them as much as we can.
Speaker 1 00:00:31 We are launching a new series today called Community Matters. It's a play on words. Of course. PGT Innovations believes in serving, leading, and thriving. And these drive our behaviors whether we serve our own team members or folks in our larger community. In today's episode, we chat with our corporate chaplain and coach Brian Lingle as he shares about our Crisis Connection Fund and other ways in which we care for our team members who are facing challenges. Good afternoon. We are here on the Clear Impact Podcast, and so excited to be able to bring this episode, especially as we round up the end of 2022. And we wanna get back to the basics of caring about people. And this organization does an amazing job of caring about people both inside our organization and outside our organization. And this series is going to highlight a little of both. And so, uh, in studio today we have Brian Lingle. Welcome.
Speaker 2 00:01:21 Welcome now. Thank you. Appreciate
Speaker 1 00:01:22 It. It's actually welcome back because that's true. Yeah, we had a great episode last year and, uh, it was probably one of my favorite conversations when I go back and listen to them. And so today we're gonna be talking about specifically the Crisis Connection Fund. But before we get into that, just for those that maybe didn't catch the previous episode, tell us a little bit about your role, your responsibilities, and how long you've been here.
Speaker 2 00:01:45 Yeah, sure. Um, I'm happy to be here excited to talk about Crisis Connection and how we, uh, serve our team members and serve our community. It's this, uh, wonderful part of who we are as an organization. So, my name's Brian Lingle. I'm the corporate chaplain, uh, for PGT Innovation. So I have the honor and privilege to serve all 5,600 of our team members, uh, across the organization. And, um, I've been with the company for, uh, just under nine years, and I've been serving in that capacity, uh, for about five years now with the organization. So, uh, a lot of the things I oversee are training from a leadership standpoint. Uh, we're a big servant leadership company, uh, so we provide a lot of training, uh, and resources for our team members. And then a lot of times I provide a lot resource from financial education.
Speaker 2 00:02:25 Uh, my background is in, um, I'm a Dave Ramsey, certified financial coach and also John Maxwell Leadership coach. So I provide those skills, uh, through the chaplaincy programs and through those different things that we do to help team members and leaders excel mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and, and also really help a lot of team members excel with the financial strains and struggles that they go through. So we've, we provide free financial coaching that's available for any of our team members that need it to be, provide a ton of programs similar to Crisis Connection. We have another one called the Family Fund Loan Program. Uh, and then they also have resources where they can meet with me one on one for free financial coaching. So there's a lot of different areas that I get involved with. Um, I also marry team members and coach and council team members and provide a lot of different things that a chaplain would provide mm-hmm. <affirmative> within the organization.
Speaker 1 00:03:08 Wow. And so how many of you are there? Just one. Well,
Speaker 2 00:03:11 I'm blessed. We're blessed with more than just one. Okay. Uh, we're, we're blessed to have, uh, Chaplain Carlos in, uh, Miami, uh, cgi. And, uh, he is the Spanish version of me. So, um, Cause my Spanish is not that good, <laugh>, as in I have none of it, so. Okay. Um, he, uh, he's awesome and he does exactly the same things that I do here, but he takes care of the Miami, uh, side of things with CGI and echo. So I count want him a lot to, to do a lot of different things over there while I take care of everything here in the Venice area, Tampa, uh, and then all the West Coast, uh, Lin Phoenix, all those locations I travel to.
Speaker 1 00:03:43 Nice. Yeah. Wow. So I just appreciate your time. Yeah, I know it's valuable. Obviously, we have just come through a pretty catastrophic event Yes. And for our area, uh, with Hurricane Ian passing through just, uh, about a month ago. Right. And so tell us just briefly a little bit about how that effort has gone and, and what your involvement has
Speaker 2 00:04:05 Been. Yeah, so that really, uh, you know, Ian obviously has brought unbelievable amounts of devastation, uh, to a large percentage of our PGT Innovations family. Uh, when we think about our folks, uh, most of them reside south of us. Um, we also have a location in Fort Myers. Uh, obviously when we think about in where it hit at, it impacted that area greatly. And so the crisis fund and, and different things that we do as an organization is to try to provide relief, uh, whether that be through financial assistance programs. We did that during Irma when Irma came through, and also tried to provide relief there. Uh, but the need this time has been exponentially greater than what we could have ever imagined. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, so we've gone beyond what we've done during Irma and we've expanded that to create a resource hub over an AP two where Windows located.
Speaker 2 00:04:51 Uh, and also expanded that to create, uh, an environment where we bring in tractor trailers full of food, uh, and goods, and we do food distributions. Uh, and we've done that the last three weeks, and we're actually getting ready to do it again next week. And then we also created a resource hub for team members to come to help with FEMA applications, small business administration loan applications, and then just as many resources as we can find. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> from the Red Cross, from fema, from you name it, uh, we have a resource center that's got all that information for team members. And we've been kind of having that, that set up and volunteers have been staffing that. Uh, so we're fortunate to have great community partners. You think about caring about our community, we have, our community cares about us as well. Mm. Um, and that's been probably one of the things that has stood out to me the most.
Speaker 2 00:05:33 Uh, it's been the community that stepped up because they value P G T mm-hmm. <affirmative> and what we stand for. Uh, and that's just been incredible to see take place. So we've been manning that every week. This week we took a break, uh, and we'll be back at it again next week to sort of work through that and help team members get their applications in completed, you know, navigate through the, the minutia and all the different things that they kind of deal with and, and what that looks like. But Crisis Connection has been one of those funds that we've used over the years where we try to connect with team members and help them in the midst of the crisis and what that looks like. Now challenge this year with this, this storm has been the magnitude. Right. Um, we have well over 800 team members that have been impacted, uh, in some way, shape, or form.
Speaker 2 00:06:13 And, and that's probably, probably more than that. But that's how many have really come forward. Um, that we have a list that we're trying to triage through that list to determine how we can help, um, and what we can provide. And that's kind of where Crisis kind of jumps in and kind of helps with those things. Um, but we've been blessed this year too cuz Gulf Coast Community Foundation has partnered with us. We have another fund set up where we're working with them as well. I try to help team members out that have really lost everything. We have a lot of team members that literally have lost everything. Wow. All their earthly possessions are gone. Uh, so we're really trying to help them out a lot, um, and, and just try to see what we can do to provide resources for
Speaker 1 00:06:45 Them. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, And just for a scale, so when we talk about 800 team members, so between Venice and the Fort Myers branch, about how many employees is that? Is that like about 2,500 or So?
Speaker 2 00:06:56 There's about 25, 2600. And so I think probably I would say be safe to figure 50% of our population has been probably impacted in some way, shape or form. Wow. Uh, not everybody's come forward. We still have team members that, that haven't come forward. And we're still sort of getting those, uh, you know, contacts. Like this week alone, I had a contact from a team member that didn't register with us or let us know. And so we're trying to help out with that as much as we can. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:07:20 Wow. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:07:21 <laugh>, it's unbelievable. Really
Speaker 1 00:07:23 Is. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it makes me grateful that I fight the traffic to go to Sarasota every day.
Speaker 2 00:07:28 Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 00:07:29 Yeah. I'm, I'm north and not south.
Speaker 2 00:07:31 Yeah. Myself was, Well, so it's a but that's, and that's just, again, that's a picture of everybody's pouring into the area to try to help mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and you see that as a result of traffic coming back out. Sure. There's nowhere to stay down in the, the Englewood northport that
Speaker 1 00:07:45 Area. Right. Yeah. It's a mess. It is. So, normally, normally, normally there's just a few individuals who come across your desk and need help with, you know, extra medical bills or a family emergency where they have to fly out or, or something along those lines. How is that funded on a, on a normal basis? Or how is it funded now?
Speaker 2 00:08:05 Yeah, So really when you think about crisis, I always like to think of a benevolent fund, right. That those monies that are in that fund are really raised by pg t and others that feel they want to donate to that fund. Right. We, so we offer, uh, as a PTT member, you can do payroll deduction and have money taken outta your check every week. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that just goes into the Crisis Connection Fund. Um, we do, uh, Christmas basket raffles, we do t-shirt sales. We do a bunch of events across the organization as a whole. And all of the proceeds from those events go into the Crisis Connection Fund. And so that fund is really funded by us. It's by us wanting to help and support team members in the midst of their hardships and their difficulties and what that looks like. And with that comes that stewardship element of the fund itself and what that looks like.
Speaker 2 00:08:49 So we have a team that oversees the crisis fund. So I kind of, I kind of am the head of that, that group. But then I have a team that sort of, when we have someone come forward for a crisis request, I tell the story to the team. I kind of gather the information from the application, and I kind of just tell that story to the crisis team. And then the crisis team goes back and forth as to what level of help we can provide. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, most often when we're dealing with crisis, uh, we're dealing with situations where team members are most often dealing with some sort of medical situation or we're dealing with homelessness, uh, especially when it involves children or we're dealing with abuse issues. Those are really the catastrophic events that we, we kind of encounter now. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, thank God we don't often see, uh, a large number of those, which I'm thankful for.
Speaker 2 00:09:34 Right. Um, but we do see them every year. We, we do have them come into view. I think last year, uh, we had 14, uh, crisis events that we, we interacted into. And, and most of those were around, uh, medical mm-hmm. <affirmative> medical issues. And we dealt with some homelessness, uh, with some individuals. Uh, but most of them were often around just sort of critical issues with, with issues of medical necessity in regards to like, they have to have a surgery or they have to have something. There's deductible copay, or whatever it might be. And they just simply don't have it. Right. And so then crisis committee, really, after they get that story from me, um, they go back and forth as to what they feel should be the proper level of support mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And that that committee has 12 people on it that are across their organization, uh, our different sites that they serve.
Speaker 2 00:10:14 And they kind of talk to us about, Okay, here I think we ought provide this amount of money or this relief, and we can do it in two fashions. We, we can do a grant, uh, to the team member where we, we are giving them money to take care of that. Or we also do a loan mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, and then the loan is repayable back through payroll deduction. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> no interest, and they pay it back every week out of their pay. Typically with the medical situations is typically a grant, uh, that we do. Uh, matter of fact, I'm the only one today. Um, so, you know, I'm, I'm gonna be helping a team member out today that's dealing with a medical situation.
Speaker 1 00:10:41 What a wonderful thing to have as an employee here. Yeah. It really is. I mean, because I think everyone does their best to manage their finances and, you know, inflation has been crazy. Yeah. The cost of housing, at least in this area, it's unbelievable. Just insane. Yeah. And so it is hard to keep up <laugh>. Oh,
Speaker 2 00:10:59 It's, it very much is. And I, I think we see a lot of that this year. Our, we have the other fund, which is called Our Family Fund, uh, program. And that's a loan program. Um, and, and that's just simply a program that is really kind of built around the four walls principles. And what I mean by that is you gotta keep a roof over your head. You've gotta be able to, um, have a vehicle to get yourself to work. You gotta be able to provide, you know, pay your utilities. It's really kind of that kind of a fund where team members can apply. Uh, and if they're approved and they're good standing, uh, they can get up to a six week average, which is about equals to one week's pay mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and then they pay that back over eight weeks to us. Uh, but we write checks to the vendor, not to the team member.
Speaker 2 00:11:35 Sure. We're paying the mortgage or we're paying the lease, or we're paying for a car payment, or things like that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, and we've seen more of that this year than I've ever seen in my eight years of, uh, being involved with it. And most of it is around rent. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, rent, Rent has been the biggest issue by far this year. And I mean, not even even close to previous years. So I'm interested when I run the numbers for my end of year kind of report on what that looks like, it's, it's probably gonna be pretty staggering.
Speaker 1 00:12:00 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and it's good not to, to enable either. Right. Exactly. Like to have that financial coaching that can, that comes along with it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:12:10 That's, that's a tough balance. Right. Um, it really is. You know, that's one of the things we've navigated through this year is, is trying to help team members understand you've got to be self-sufficient in, in many of these things. So part of that goes back to the education component of it as well. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, cause as great as these programs are, your point is an incredibly important one. I'm not helping you and I truly don't care about you if I'm not really addressing the heart of the matter.
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Speaker 2 00:12:54 Um, and so we've, even this year, uh, I know myself looked at it and said, Okay, this has gotta change up a bit because we've gotta really have team members say, Okay, I can help you this month mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but what are you gonna do next month? Right. Right. And, and that's the part where I focus in on, if they, if they come to us and they need assistance, then they qualify and they're good standing, we will help them. But if they would require a second assistance, they have to meet with me for four budgeting sessions. Right. Um, to where they're not eligible until they complete those sessions. Because we wanna really, we don't wanna fish for 'em. We wanna teach 'em to fish. Right. We wanna be able to provide them the skills and knowledge they need to change their financial future.
Speaker 1 00:13:33 Right. What is the saying? You can pull people out of the river that are drowning, but you have to figure out why they're landing up in the river in the first place. Exactly. Exactly. So to keep them from falling in again. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:13:43 It's so important. Cause again, really you're, you know, if we really want to help, we really wanna make a difference. Uh, you know, that's, we, we've gotta keep our eye on that, um, and not lose focus on what really help looks like.
Speaker 1 00:13:54 Right. And I think that that's an important principle because obviously not all organizations, I'm, you know, specifically speaking to our dealer audience today, you know, they're smaller organizations. They're a mom and pop shop. Right. Or, you know, family owned business and they may not have the depth of resource to help a team member, but if they can help direct them or give them, you know, a little bit of grace here and there or you know, Hey, how about some overtime this weekend? Or, you know, some way of just partnering with them so that they can, they can thrive and, and be well and that they can, you know, show up and do their job. Right. You know, it's hard to do your job fully when you're sweating if your electric's gonna be off Oh yeah. When you get home. True. At the end of the
Speaker 2 00:14:35 Day. True. Yeah. I mean, and that's such a big part of it too, is just recognizing the impact that has to the bottom line of any organization. And I think far too often that's not really captured. Cuz if you're not financially well, that adds a tremendous amount of strain, stress, and anxiety in your life. Life. Um, you're waiting for that phone call or that letter. Right. And you're constantly living under that pressure of like, we don't have overtime. What, how am I gonna navigate through that? And so we navigate through a lot of those things within the environment that we operate in and trying to help team members say, It doesn't have to be this way, it can be better, but you're gonna have to change some behaviors. Right. And will help you with that. Like, you can come and meet with me on the clock, no charge, where I'll walk you through it in four sessions.
Speaker 2 00:15:17 You can walk out with a completed allocated spending plan that you're ready to move forward with and you're ready to put in place. Mm-hmm. Um, so it really is about, listen, a year from now, I want you to be in a much better financial situation Right. Than you are now. Right. Uh, Right. Um, and so I wanna help you do that. Uh, and then when you do that, I believe you've, and I know, I know it works. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I just know it does. I, I, I testimonial upon testimonial team members. I had one just two weeks ago. I was walking in, uh, from the parking lot and then a team member said hello. He said, Hey, you don't remember me, do you? I'm like, Well, I'm sorry, I don't. He says, Well, back in 2015, he goes, You met with me and you challenged me to get my budget in place and to get my life back in order. Um, and he goes, I wanna tell you, I, I've done that. He goes, I just got done completing my, my bachelor's degree. He goes debt free. And he goes, I'm now back, I'm now back here working in my degree field. He was in the glass plant working at one point in time. It does work.
Speaker 1 00:16:11 Oh, that's
Speaker 2 00:16:12 Awesome. It's transformational. Uh, and I have story after story of team members that have come up and shared from those meetings of talking with them about, Hey, follow these steps. Right. And I'll tell you it'll make a difference if you do it. And so it it just getting team members grab hold of that, embrace it and move it forward. And it works. Right.
Speaker 1 00:16:29 It works. So Dave Ramsey is a good resource for people that may not have the bandwidths to do financial counseling for their team members.
Speaker 2 00:16:39 Yeah. Dave Ramsey's a great resource. Again, you know, um, I'm, I've went through his program and, and help coach folks in that we, we believe in it so much here at P G T. We buy, um, every year we buy Smart Dollar, which is Dave Ramsey's business platform for all of our team members. So every one of our team members has Smart Dollar available to them, free of charge, um, only needs an email address and their employee number. Uh, and it's their own personal platform to help them with getting their budget in order. It's got all of Dave Ramsey's resources on it. It you, it's got everything you need to have to be successful. It's got videos, it's got everything that's available to you to change your financial future. Um, and we, that's how committed we are. We make that investment every year and it's a pretty sizable investment to, to sort of help our team members get engaged in that regard. So, uh, Dave Ramsey, um, has got a ton of resources out there that are available to others as well, so mm-hmm. <affirmative> great. Great stuff.
Speaker 1 00:17:29 Yeah. And just like listening, he has a podcast, I believe, and several books out he does, um, Smart Money Makeover is one that I'm familiar with. And then of course, Financial Peace University is available everywhere.
Speaker 2 00:17:42 Yeah. You can find that in a lot of local churches. I know. Um, I just got done teaching, uh, a six week course, uh, at my church church up in, uh, Bradenton. Um, and then we'll be launching Financial Peace University as well. That's a nine week course you can go through and that's again, transformative as well. So there's a ton of resources out there for individuals if they want mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, to change their financial future. Uh, it's not easy. Yeah. It's not, I mean I've been doing it in a long, long time and it's challenging, but it's a life altering, uh, once you embrace it and, and really execute
Speaker 1 00:18:11 It. Yeah. Well, and the underlying heart is that we want people to do well Yes. In, in their life. Exactly.
Speaker 2 00:18:17 They work hard. Yeah. I mean, our team members work incredibly hard. I mean, you know, my passion for it is because I know how hard they work. I see what they do and I see the average, the energies they put in, uh, to what they're doing. And, and I want them to be successful cuz it's not just really about them. I mean, really when we think about financial wellness, it's about generations beyond yourself. Sure. Um, it's that financial legacy. It's about changing that up. Um, and so, so often you'll see this, it's just secular patterns of behavior that you have to break from that cycle mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and that's why I get very passionate about it because I wanna help them break that cycle. Um, because I know it can not only impact them, but it can impact their kids and can impact their grandkids. Right. Uh, and that's the Yeah. That's kinda the passion behind it and helping them
Speaker 1 00:18:57 Out. Right. Well, because the mindset drives the behavior. Exactly. And the behavior drives the spending. Exactly. So it's, there's two sides to the money equation. There's the income, which sometimes you have control over that sometimes you don't, but the outgo you usually have a little more control over. Very
Speaker 2 00:19:13 Much so that's at least a good percentage
Speaker 1 00:19:15 Of it. Right. And that's where, that's where it's, you know, Okay, I'm gonna stay home and, and eat, you know, this, that I'm cooking myself versus I'm gonna go have a nice dinner somewhere. Exactly. I spend $40. Got it. You know, like, no, no, no, no, no. I gonna cook dinner at home tonight. So, um, but when people are in a real crunch and that isn't even an option, it's nice to know that there's some kind of a safety net for people here. So
Speaker 2 00:19:38 Yeah. Very much so. I mean, I think that's a big part of our culture. Right. Um, and, and wanting to come alongside our team members and, you know, help them out in the midst of just like with Ian, just wanting to be there as much as we can for them and to try to help them as much as we can. Right. Um, and you know, it's a big part of who we are as an organization. Yeah. Uh, you know, that's why I'm so proud to be a part of it and, uh, and excited about, you know, the future and, and continuing to sort of, uh, drive these kind of things throughout the organization.
Speaker 1 00:20:03 Exactly. Awesome. Anything else?
Speaker 2 00:20:05 No. No. I mean, I, I think, uh, I think it's a good bit on what we do and a part of what who we are and, and, uh, and I'm excited. I mean, today's one of those days where, uh, after this I'm, I'm leaving to go help a team member with a crisis connection grant. You know? Um, and so days like this as, as my role as the chaplain, you know, are exciting for me, when you have team members that are in, uh, difficult situations. Right. I mean, you know, you think about team members that are suffering from different illnesses and things like that and, you know, if they don't have family or they don't have friends or they don't have connections, we say, Hey, we're here for you. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, we want to help Right. In the midst of that. So I, I I just always try to think about how I would feel if I worked for an organization like that. Right. Which I do. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> that would be willing to come alongside me and say, Hey, listen here, we wanna make sure your rent's covered. Yeah. Um, while you recover, while you get better. Cause we wanna see you back here. You're part of our family.
Speaker 1 00:20:54 Aw, yeah. That's awesome. To be the it is to be the messenger of good news. Yeah. Yeah. The bearer of good gifts today. That's right. <laugh>. Nice. Well, Brian, I really appreciate everything that you do for us and for the team. And, uh, I know it's been a, a big month for you. Yes. And I hope you have a little rust coming soon and, um, I just appreciate your time today. Thank you so much. My
Speaker 2 00:21:16 Pleasure. Thank you for
Speaker 1 00:21:16 Having me. All right. Take care. Right. Bye-bye.
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