A Cracked Door: Hager

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Moving to the Gateway

I have been slowly spreading the word that I will be moving from Tampa to St. Louis mid-July to start an exciting new job with Hager Companies. I am lucky enough to have been offered a job that merges my knowledge of the door and hardware industry with my passion for social media.

I have been selling Hager products for the entire 20 years I have been in the industry. It started with hinges and as Hager branched out to locks and closers, I did too. I found that both the locks and closers were great products, at a reasonable cost and with lifetime warranties. That beat any other product that I could offer. My customers have been satisfied with Hager products. And by satisfied I mean I never have any complaints about the products! I feel I have grabbed the brass ring to have this opportunity to be a part of the Hager Team!

As excited as I am about my new opportunity I am sad to leave my home for the last 17 years and most especially the friends that I have made here. I have been blessed to have lived in an amazing neighborhood called Seminole Heights and have never experienced anything like it. People care in this community. People share in this community. I will miss the many yappy hours, yoga parties and game days. I will miss the sore muscles that come with constant belly laughs when we gather together. I will miss my new Relay For Life crew members that I have had the joy of working with over the past 9 months.

I know the friendships will survive the new distance and we will become familiar with Skype and Facetime. I also know I will be back to visit though I am sad the dogs probably won’t see their girls, Trixie and Carsen, again.

In the meantime I am working on downsizing my belongings. That alone might be an entire blog post! The house currently has a contract on it. Again, amazingly blessed that neighbors were ready to upsize with their growing family and thought my house, with its big backyard, would be perfect.

The only less than bright spot has been trying to find housing in St. Louis. I think I have it settled now. If this is “the place” I can’t wait to share it with you! Waiting for a lease to be emailed to me so I can sign and send a deposit!

July 12^th is my last day with a-fabco and I roll out of Tampa on July 19^th.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Winthrop Charter School

I am very particular about which projects I bid. I am an A-Z type of salesperson, meaning I develop the relationships, bid, close, submit, order, tag material, project manage and if pay applications are involved I do the billing. Yes I am very particular about the jobs I bid because I always want to make sure that both myself and the a-fabco team can provide the level of service I demand. 75 door openings or less is my typical comfort zone.

So when one of my favorite customers, Ryan Companies US Inc, called me and asked me to bid a 116 opening I actually paused for a moment. The thought that finally sifted out of the 100's in that 60 second span was this is a really good customer who always performs spectacularly so I said sure! (gulp) There were actually two charter schools. Both very fast track since they wanted to be open for the first day of school August 23rd. I bid both projects and held my breath. a-fabco was awarded the charter school located in Riverview!! I was excited in that nervous, holy cow I hope I do a great job, sort of way. My boss was ecstatic.

The job was very fast track but with great communication from the GC's project managers Brian Smith and Eric Overgard and job superintendent, Jeff Lawler, all material was at the jobsite when requested with only 1 incorrect door. a-fabco was able to get a new door out to the jobsite in a few days. Of course with any construction project there were changes and adds but all were able to be processed in a timely manner. This is why I used the word spectacular in the first paragraph when describing Ryan Companies. They run their projects so incredibly well it is a pleasure to be part of their team.

I received an email from Eric when the project was almost complete and let me say it made my day. "Also, I wanted to let you know that you are by far the best door and hardware supply company I have ever worked with, and I have work with many. Thank you very much for all of your hard work and again, excellent work all the way through this project. I look forward to working with you again in the future." Wow! How awesome on so many levels not the least of which he took the time to write.

Thanks to the entire Ryan Companies team for such a great project. I also want to give a special shout out to Joe Gray with Ryan. Though he wasn't part of this project I wouldn't have been a part of it without him. It was his recommendation that got me in the door. I have done many many projects with him through out the years, with current employment and previous. His level of professionalism, organization and support is outstanding. Joe is truly an exceptional human being.

I will continue to be particular on which jobs I pursue but I feel a lot more comfortable having broken the 100 opening mark.

Below please find a few pictures of Winthrop Charter School. The photographer on noted pictures is Richard Steinmetz. Ryan Companies - Tampa has been using him for 6 years to photograph all of their projects. Richard's contact information is: Tel: 813-935-3293 and email: richardsteinmetz@hotmail.com. Thanks to Jody Byler with Ryan for putting up with my constant requests and getting me these great pictures.