Speaker 1: And welcome to Cindy Stumbo Toughest Nails on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 1: And I'm in the studio tonight. So I have the
Speaker 1: group from Peller Windows and Doors, right, everybody introduced yourself.
Speaker 1: This is Steve Whitney, Okay, what's your name?
Speaker 2: Brad Kramer?
Speaker 1: And who else do we have on with us?
Speaker 3: David Haley?
Speaker 1: Okay, David Hadley. I think this is probably I'm probably
Speaker 1: your most interesting client you've ever had at Peller. I
Speaker 1: don't care what you say. I'm taking all the credit
Speaker 1: for being the most crazy stories with Peller. Okay. In
Speaker 1: my thirty seven year career, I have never left Pella Windows.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows that people have gone by my job site,
Speaker 1: have stood out with their signs movin window reps andoson
Speaker 1: window reps, local schmokels. Hey, Cindy, do I have your
Speaker 1: attention now? Yeah, you have it, and I still can't
Speaker 1: give you a window order, right. My loyalty to Peller
Speaker 1: has always been the same, and my loyaltyat with all
Speaker 1: my vendors have been the same. I don't jump venders
Speaker 1: and that's just who I am. But when I think
Speaker 1: back of the days, how we all started off like
Speaker 1: it was pretty rocky at the beginning, right, So every
Speaker 1: one of us has a story of something that happened
Speaker 1: with one of us with Peller, and that's what makes
Speaker 1: it fun. Like when I think back of the days
Speaker 1: with Peller, Steve Whitney screaming at you, turn that goddamn
Speaker 1: truck around, you deliver my windows right now. You didn't
Speaker 1: have a check on the job site. The check's coming
Speaker 1: out there, And then I think we can get to
Speaker 1: that one. And another great story is when you guys,
Speaker 1: Brad came to work at Peller and brag can probably
Speaker 1: tell the story better than me, and then Steve and
Speaker 1: I and somehow from the first couple of years of
Speaker 1: trying to work out this relationship with some young girl
Speaker 1: that's twenty three, twenty four to twenty five, and you
Speaker 1: guys are rolling your eyes, going what is this girl
Speaker 1: all about? Probably the first girl Builder you had. And
Speaker 1: as the story goes, this girl Builder kept her loyal
Speaker 1: with your company for thirty seven years and that you
Speaker 1: can't take it away from me for sure. Start with
Speaker 1: the thirty eight Sammy, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna hurt my daughter okay, so go ahead. So we
Speaker 1: have Pella in the house tonight. And the relationship between
Speaker 1: Peller and Cindy Stumble and c Stumble has been one
Speaker 1: hell of a great great ride. So Brad, you start
Speaker 1: as a salesman, you go, you come to work for Pellaeah,
Speaker 1: tell the story.
Speaker 2: Thanks, Cindy. Happy to be here in the studio. I think, yes.
Speaker 2: I was handed your account over from Steve and.
Speaker 1: He and by the way, Steve was so happy to
Speaker 1: get rid of me, but go ahead, okay.
Speaker 2: Lots of smiles and taker, and he said, he's she's
Speaker 2: not going to be your typical, ordinary builder. So that
Speaker 2: was the first thing, and and he was right. I
Speaker 2: had gone through, you know, several months of training on
Speaker 2: the Pella job truck, knowing how a traditional builder thinks
Speaker 2: and works.
Speaker 1: And oh you were trained to deal with how builders are.
Speaker 1: So you took a training course with Pella before they
Speaker 1: stuck you out on the road and said, okay, now
Speaker 1: go se windows correct, okay.
Speaker 2: And I show up at your office and uh, you know,
Speaker 2: I I was on time. I prepared prepared a quote
Speaker 2: for you. I was very I'm a very black and
Speaker 2: white person.
Speaker 1: You think I think you guys are all trained. Can
Speaker 1: you push his mike down? So, okay, because I don't
Speaker 1: want to go ahead, just down a little further. Good, okay,
Speaker 1: you're good. No, ites up, It's right, okay.
Speaker 2: And yeah, So I came into your office, probably a
Speaker 2: little nervous because I was prepared that you know.
Speaker 1: That you're walking into Han's office or something. You didn't
Speaker 1: know what together.
Speaker 2: I didn't know what I was getting, right, So I
Speaker 2: had my By.
Speaker 1: The way, they didn't have Google back then, so you
Speaker 1: couldn't even google what somebody look like. Right, you have
Speaker 1: no idea what you're walking into.
Speaker 2: No idea, okay, no idea. So I had my plans
Speaker 2: in one hand, and I had my proposal in another,
Speaker 2: and I had spent hours making sure that everything was
Speaker 2: right because I wanted it to be right for you
Speaker 2: and be thorough, thoroughly prepared. And you took one look
Speaker 2: at me, you said, just give me the quote. You
Speaker 2: ripped it from my hands, and you went right to
Speaker 2: the last page. All you wanted to know is what
Speaker 2: the price was. And once you saw it, yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Look at the bottom line.
Speaker 2: Look at the bottom line.
Speaker 1: So you prepared this whole proposal, Yeah, and all I
Speaker 1: cared about was we're okay, flicking through probably twenty five pages, right, correct.
Speaker 1: So you get to the bottom line and yeah, and.
Speaker 2: You said this is ridiculous. Let me and you started
Speaker 2: flipping through and said, I need to find out where
Speaker 2: you're screwing me because this makes no sense at all,
Speaker 2: and I didn't know how to take it. And next
Speaker 2: thing you know, you start just again doing things your way,
Speaker 2: and you start looking at elevation and you're like, how
Speaker 2: much does that window cost? How much does that window cost?
Speaker 2: And I didn't know because you had my quote in
Speaker 2: your hand, so I'm asking for the quote back and
Speaker 2: you start adding it up and you're like, this makes
Speaker 2: no sense. And I think I was so flustered because
Speaker 2: you threw me off my game and I didn't know
Speaker 2: what to do, and I think I walked out of
Speaker 2: there and I'm like, I have no idea what just
Speaker 2: happened to me?
Speaker 1: But those way, is that what you went back to?
Speaker 1: Steven said, yeah, what did you go?
Speaker 2: Probably because we're always supposed to come back knowing did
Speaker 2: we get the sale or not? And I said, I
Speaker 2: really don't know, but.
Speaker 1: He's probably saying in the back of mine she's going
Speaker 1: to stay here, She's going to give it to you.
Speaker 1: It's just she's got to understand what she's paying for.
Speaker 1: And that's really truly what it comes down to, right,
Speaker 1: And that's when I realized, and we can go backwards
Speaker 1: and we go forward on this. So look, there have
Speaker 1: been companies that have come to me and said, we
Speaker 1: service Pella right and we can give you a better number.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you can, But can you sit as a
Speaker 1: salesperson with me? And can you advise me when I
Speaker 1: don't have these windows proportioned the way I want them?
Speaker 1: Can you bring to me what Brad's been bringing to
Speaker 1: me because Brad reads my mind? And that answer is nobody.
Speaker 1: You can't because see, the architect's going to make mistakes,
Speaker 1: but Brad's going to catch them every time. Be just
Speaker 1: because Brad knows exactly what Cindy wants in a house,
Speaker 1: and that is worth for me. If it's two percent
Speaker 1: more I want to pay over here, why would I
Speaker 1: give up having you that's going to come in there
Speaker 1: and know this architect's got transoms. These windows are too short,
Speaker 1: you're not going to be happy, or they're too long,
Speaker 1: or they're too we've got to get them wider. I
Speaker 1: know you're Cindy, you want that big window over the kitchen.
Speaker 1: Who else is going to service me that way? It
Speaker 1: took you and I probably two houses, maybe three to
Speaker 1: get our groove together. And we've been together all this time,
Speaker 1: so I can't give up that guy that's going to
Speaker 1: do that. And Steve Whitney's the same thing. Steve knows
Speaker 1: he can sit in my office. He knows exactly what
Speaker 1: I want. So if somehow you retire, you decide, you
Speaker 1: know what, I've had an off from stepping out of
Speaker 1: the business. I know that there's guys that can stand
Speaker 1: behind you, and you guys would never send me out
Speaker 1: the wrong guy to handle my account service. I call
Speaker 1: you and I say, look, I can't lock this. Doore
Speaker 1: for the love of God, right. It's usually it's usually
Speaker 1: a Cindy problem or a client problem. Typically you want
Speaker 1: to get honest right. You pull it out, you turn it,
Speaker 1: you twist it. You to do this sometimes well sometimes
Speaker 1: it's a little out of alignment. You come right out,
Speaker 1: grow you come right out, you come right out. You
Speaker 1: try to fix it first, and then if we need service,
Speaker 1: you get service out there. But you always say I'll
Speaker 1: be out there tomorrow. You never give me I'll be
Speaker 1: out in two weeks because that wouldn't work with my personality. Right.
Speaker 1: So my presonal is I'm going to be loyal, but
Speaker 1: you got to be loyal back, because that's how business
Speaker 1: relationships work. It can't be I'm loyal, but you're not loyal.
Speaker 1: And that's what's made Cindy and Brad be together as
Speaker 1: a salesman. You're the salesman, right, and that's what's kept
Speaker 1: us together all this time. And that's the truth. Like
Speaker 1: I can always say, I don't care, like, well we
Speaker 1: make a better window. Okay, great, but I'm not leaving Pella.
Speaker 1: I don't care how good you into is. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to mob and I'm staying with Pella. I'm not
Speaker 1: going with Innocent. I'm staying with Peller. If you guys
Speaker 1: saw how many times my phone rings throughout the last
Speaker 1: thirty seven years, to jump me from Pella, hold that thought,
Speaker 1: by the way, I would never jump, but hold that thought.
Speaker 1: We're going to break. You're listening to Cindy Stumbo on
Speaker 1: Toughest Nails on WBZ News Radio ten thirty and welcome
Speaker 1: back to toughest nails on WBZ. And I'm Cindy Stumpo
Speaker 1: and you're here with Sammy.
Speaker 2: And Brad and Steve.
Speaker 1: And do you know your name? David? I know we
Speaker 1: get nobody. Okay, thank you. So that's the story of
Speaker 1: Brad nin Now Steve, we've probably had the biggest blow.
Speaker 1: It's at the beginning, right, a learning.
Speaker 4: Curve was steeper for both for both of us. It
Speaker 4: was early for you. It was you know, it was
Speaker 4: relative literally in my sales career at Peller as well.
Speaker 1: And Steve was the first guy that I met. It's like, David,
Speaker 1: every guy at Pella had a certain look back then.
Speaker 1: It was a very like checked shirt, very conservative. There's
Speaker 1: just a look to Pella guys. If that makes any sense.
Speaker 1: I don't know why every headlight blonde here, blue eyes
Speaker 1: and and I'm the girl builder and you guys must
Speaker 1: be shaking your head. Steve, in all honesty, was I
Speaker 1: your first girl builder that you met out there?
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, for sure, the first woman builder you know,
Speaker 4: even in the in the business at that time. You know,
Speaker 4: we certainly have homeowner connections and stuff, and we're interacting
Speaker 4: with with you know, spouses and wives. But those and us,
Speaker 4: but they're talking about the details of the project, which
Speaker 4: but not to the way that you clearly were prepared
Speaker 4: to do. And so that was the first time for
Speaker 4: me for sure, and still somewhat unique in the business,
Speaker 4: not exclusive, but somewhat unique for sure.
Speaker 1: So the first time did you say to yourself, and
Speaker 1: let's have an honest conversation because you can't hurt my feelings.
Speaker 1: You said, she's roughing, she's rough and tough around the edges, right,
Speaker 1: because I wasn't sure. Okay, she's says it. You're not
Speaker 1: used to this now, this is this is a girl
Speaker 1: that's in her twenties, right, early twenties, twenty four, twenty five,
Speaker 1: twenty six, around that age, and coming after you and
Speaker 1: you're at that you're about my age at that time, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, just a few years more, Okay, not much, So.
Speaker 1: You had to walk. He would get stavid. He would
Speaker 1: get so frustrated with me. He had no patience for me,
Speaker 1: by the way, right, And that was just Steve. But
Speaker 1: no matter how much he'd have the patience for me,
Speaker 1: and I didn't have the patience for him, I wasn't
Speaker 1: leaving because I go with my gut and I run
Speaker 1: this business at C. Stumple Development for this length of
Speaker 1: time on my gut feeling. And even though if I
Speaker 1: can't groove with somebody right away, I don't throw the
Speaker 1: towel in. I'll get there. I'll get there because this
Speaker 1: is the product I want to work with now. Could
Speaker 1: if I jump to another you know, Peller, Sure, But
Speaker 1: the more you I'm funny, the more you push me
Speaker 1: and I got to push you. It's like two kids
Speaker 1: in high school get into a fight and then they
Speaker 1: become best of friends. Or junior high school or elementary school,
Speaker 1: those always seem to be the best relationships. You got
Speaker 1: to be scrappy, get the fight out, have you a
Speaker 1: few little go rounds, and then it always seems to
Speaker 1: just well, time has proven that I'm still here. So
Speaker 1: there's nothing that Steven and Steve and I went down
Speaker 1: in dirty times. That one time I was down the
Speaker 1: cape seam of you were a little girl, like you
Speaker 1: a little girl, and it was like I want my windows.
Speaker 1: You empty that truck out. But and I remember that
Speaker 1: like it was yesterday, and that's a lot of that's
Speaker 1: decades ago. But yeah, when you go back to Pella, now,
Speaker 1: who do you have to tell he how to tell
Speaker 1: you what happened with him? And I Brad, I sure,
Speaker 1: Now who do you go back? You answered to Dave,
Speaker 1: until David, this woman's crazy. This girl's crazy.
Speaker 4: At that time, I'm not sure it was ninety or
Speaker 4: ninety one. I think time it was. Yeah, it was
Speaker 4: right out of the banking crash. And I remember the details.
Speaker 4: You were over on Washington Street, up in the of
Speaker 4: the old garage there where the car dealership was. You
Speaker 4: were running that program, and I mean, I remember everything
Speaker 4: about the dynamic of that first deal, sitting up in
Speaker 4: that little office above the office above in the top floor,
Speaker 4: and sitting there with Joe sitting on the desk kind
Speaker 4: of looking down at me, and me sitting across from
Speaker 4: you at the desk, and I just remember the entire dynamic.
Speaker 4: And it was really quick to easily understand that you know,
Speaker 4: you were in charge, and that was easy for me
Speaker 4: to adapt, to understand and be respectful of. But it
Speaker 4: was still also a unique dynamic. And clearly you.
Speaker 1: So did you think, because Joe was sitting in that meeting,
Speaker 1: that he's the one that owns the team, he owned
Speaker 1: the dealership. Is he the one that owns the building company.
Speaker 4: Not No, it didn't feel that way at all, because
Speaker 4: it was clearly I mean, I guess you know, No,
Speaker 4: you knew that you were running the program there, so
Speaker 4: I felt like, you know, he may have some involvement
Speaker 4: on some level, but it was clearly I understood very
Speaker 4: quickly that this this was your show to run, and
Speaker 4: that was easy for me to like theain. I felt
Speaker 4: like it was comfortable to adapt to. But then it
Speaker 4: was questioned, I think, as I said, I think you
Speaker 4: were still in the learning curve of the construction business. Yes,
Speaker 4: and I was still relatively early in my business as
Speaker 4: well and very much learning the construction businesses at the
Speaker 4: same time as a supplier. So it was important for
Speaker 4: me to understand that. And you were just one more
Speaker 4: builder developer in a sense for me to come to
Speaker 4: understand the terms. But that was, like I said, you
Speaker 4: or someone who clearly knew what you wanted and understand
Speaker 4: was starting to understand that. But was, as Brad described,
Speaker 4: just kind of asking pointed questions and you know, and
Speaker 4: being who you are at the time. It's really funny,
Speaker 4: as you know, after thirty seven years, you're still you
Speaker 4: and you were that you were that back then, Yes,
Speaker 4: just with a great deal more knowledge today correct as
Speaker 4: we have too. But but you were who you were
Speaker 4: back then and that was recognizable. So it was easy
Speaker 4: whatever that was three or four or five years later
Speaker 4: for me to transition the account to Brad when my
Speaker 4: role changed, and for Brad to kind of understand what
Speaker 4: we're dealing with, and for me to help kind of
Speaker 4: guide that and give them a little bit more understanding
Speaker 4: of what and who you were at the time. And David,
Speaker 4: as I said that experience with the delivery and so forth,
Speaker 4: was house number three or four or something on Dudley Road.
Speaker 1: And that I think that was Hollywood Drive, guys.
Speaker 4: The first one was Hollywood Drive.
Speaker 1: You on Hollywood Drive. Then I came right out of
Speaker 1: the listen that first house was seven thousand square feet
Speaker 1: that I built, and the second one was ten. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I'm in my early twenties, and everybody's going, does
Speaker 1: this goo crazy? That's that coming out of the coming
Speaker 1: out of the box building those I didn't start with
Speaker 1: twenty five hundred square for track homes. Here. I went
Speaker 1: out on the big boys, and my father's going, hey,
Speaker 1: do you read the newspaper, like there's a recession out here.
Speaker 1: Think about it, right, I'm like, yeah, no problem, Newton
Speaker 1: adjusted by five percent. We're going to be good. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be good. Don't wry about dad, and yeah, cocky right, yeah,
Speaker 1: well there's no question. But it was a cocky'st. But
Speaker 1: I remember saying to you one time, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve,
Speaker 1: and you're like, what's it. I'm like, you got to
Speaker 1: teach me. You got to teach me the difference of
Speaker 1: the line of the windows. You're telling me we got
Speaker 1: designal line, architecture series line. So I would come off,
Speaker 1: but I had to learn what's the difference between the
Speaker 1: pro line, what's the difference between this line that line?
Speaker 1: Why am I paying more for this? What explained to me?
Speaker 1: And then you would then I'd understand, okay, we have
Speaker 1: a price difference. Because so when I didn't understand something,
Speaker 1: I would always be the first to say, I don't understand. Explain.
Speaker 1: Now let me wrap my arms on. Do I need, Steve?
Speaker 1: Do I need the architectural series line on this? Do
Speaker 1: I need the designer? And you'd say, okay, Sydney, Yes,
Speaker 1: there were some places you need the designer because they're
Speaker 1: custom and bump up bar the architecture I can't remember anymore,
Speaker 1: and then yes, you can fill in with pro line here.
Speaker 1: So that's when I realized, Okay, they're not shoving the
Speaker 1: most expensive windows down my throat. They're mixed matching where
Speaker 1: I can save and where I have to step up,
Speaker 1: and I'll never forget. I said, why are these windows
Speaker 1: so much money? They were curved transoms and you said
Speaker 1: they are transom windows. I go, well, what does that mean?
Speaker 1: What does that mean? Right? What do you mean? Like
Speaker 1: he said, it's a curve transom windows, so it's going
Speaker 1: to be built in whatever, the architectural design whatever. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, maybe we should square those off. And
Speaker 1: you said to me, the plans say they round, Well
Speaker 1: we're going to change those. And you said, well, maybe
Speaker 1: you might want to talk to your architect and make
Speaker 1: sure that you want them square it off. And I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: give me the price difference between the square transom in
Speaker 1: the round. So even back then, I would look at
Speaker 1: the difference of money, not the transom. So if I
Speaker 1: really want the round transom, what was the difference between
Speaker 1: the square transom and the round If we're talking one
Speaker 1: hundred dollars more window, then I said, oh no, I
Speaker 1: want the round and the whole way. I'd always say
Speaker 1: to Brad, how much is it this to this? And
Speaker 1: what people don't ever do is they don't look at
Speaker 1: the difference. Do you really want to say that two
Speaker 1: hundred dollars a window when you it's not worth it
Speaker 1: to me. That's why I always need to see what's
Speaker 1: the difference, Brad. I always say to you, what's the
Speaker 1: difference between this window and this window? Then I'll make
Speaker 1: a decision if I should step it up. But sometimes
Speaker 1: when you look at the difference, see some people just go, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: that windows one thousand and fifty nine. Okay, but the
Speaker 1: other window's nine to twenty. So we just step up
Speaker 1: the extra money to have the thousand and fifty nine window.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm just using an example, right, get it
Speaker 1: and anybody that the half of brain would, even if you're
Speaker 1: on a budget, because it's worth it, right, because you
Speaker 1: might want your mullion is a certain way you might
Speaker 1: There's so many different things, so I'm I'm inquisitive, but
Speaker 1: I still play the same games with Brad all these
Speaker 1: years later. Sit down with me, explain let's do this.
Speaker 1: Oh now he asked me. Now he says, I have
Speaker 1: your quote? Can we sit down? Yeah, he did that
Speaker 1: the other day. Because no, he always did that. No,
Speaker 1: because he knows you're going to go through the whole
Speaker 1: thing with him. So never once does Brad not say
Speaker 1: I have your quote? Can we sit down? Send me
Speaker 1: the quote and then we'll sit down. That's how it's
Speaker 1: always been. Send me the quote and we'll sit down,
Speaker 1: and we go through window by window by window. Hold
Speaker 1: that thought. I'm sitdy stumping and listen at Toughest Nails on WBZ.
Speaker 1: Will be right back and welcome back to Toughest Nails
Speaker 1: on WBZ. And I'm Cindy and I'm here with Sammy. Sammy. Sorry,
Speaker 1: go ahead, Brad Kramer and Steve and David Hadley. David,
Speaker 1: So you're the CEO of Pella of what New England?
Speaker 3: Over there, I'm the CEEO and owner of Powella, New England.
Speaker 1: Now we can hear you. Okay, now we can hear you.
Speaker 1: That's good, Okay, all right, So we just left off.
Speaker 1: I was saying that the way Brad and I do business, right, Brad,
Speaker 1: Look if Brad retired tomorrow would I be lost, No,
Speaker 1: because I would say to David and Steve, get me
Speaker 1: a guy out here, and he better be just like
Speaker 1: Steve right, which sometimes hard to do. But I have
Speaker 1: faith that you guys would step in and do what
Speaker 1: we need to do. But David, I have a question
Speaker 1: for you, as long as all of you, how many people,
Speaker 1: how many developers or builders would sell you guys out
Speaker 1: to save a thousand or two thousand or three thousand
Speaker 1: dollars on a bid? Honestly?
Speaker 3: Too many?
Speaker 1: Too many? So there's the difference, right, You got, Cindy,
Speaker 1: that was in your face little you know I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm definitely rough around the edges, no one can you know.
Speaker 1: It's where I was raised and that's who I am,
Speaker 1: and Steve said it, but I'm loyal. And if every
Speaker 1: client stayed loyal and wasn't looking for always just the
Speaker 1: bottom line number and doesn't realize how important services it's said,
Speaker 1: it's sad everybody that walks and says, well, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm going to go with this? You might want
Speaker 1: to call Cindy Stump. You'll explain why. Right. So there's
Speaker 1: the problem not at the narration coming out our industry
Speaker 1: are they loyal or they're not loyal either. In your opinion,
Speaker 1: I think more people.
Speaker 3: It depends on what they're looking for, and it depends
Speaker 3: on what they value. A partner who is going to
Speaker 3: have their back and be in the foxhole with them
Speaker 3: thick and thin. Then then you know, loyalty and trust
Speaker 3: is a huge issue and something that's not to be
Speaker 3: taken lightly. But if they don't have the wisdom to
Speaker 3: value loyalty and trust, then they're going to make some
Speaker 3: mistakes along the way.
Speaker 1: You know. The crazy part is we all know, especially
Speaker 1: in the Newton on the south side, Brad, you noticed
Speaker 1: to be fit. To be honest, you've picked up a
Speaker 1: lot of builders from my name thousand percent. Pella has
Speaker 1: picked up a lot of builders in my area from
Speaker 1: my name. Okay, Now, whether you got them as clients
Speaker 1: or somebody else got them as clients. But those builders
Speaker 1: that came in the last ten, twelve years or fifteen,
Speaker 1: they came in copying Cindy Stumpo's look. So the copy
Speaker 1: Sydney Stumpos look. You had to go with her windows too, right,
Speaker 1: So Pella, when I drive by all those houses, those
Speaker 1: guys used to come by my job sites, before we
Speaker 1: had Instagram and Facebook and social media and literally take
Speaker 1: pictures of everything, right, and I have to throw them
Speaker 1: out of my houses. Whip falls out of their hands. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's crazy. Get out of my house. You got noise
Speaker 1: to be here. But I know from other builders that
Speaker 1: they went with you guys because if Cindy Stumpos do
Speaker 1: in it, We're going to use them, right. So a
Speaker 1: lot of these guys have built their careers off my
Speaker 1: back of my hard work getting my connections made. And
Speaker 1: a lot of my subs would say, look at Cydy
Speaker 1: without you, we went to made it out here. We
Speaker 1: use your name wherever we go. And you know, framers
Speaker 1: down to framers whatever. They say it all the time
Speaker 1: when a builder goes, who do you work for? Give
Speaker 1: me some names I work for. The first name is
Speaker 1: Sydney Stemple. If you can work for her, then you
Speaker 1: can there. I'll hire you because she's tough, right. I'm
Speaker 1: not tough. I just want a good job. I want
Speaker 1: to deliver the best of the best, and that's why
Speaker 1: I'm with Pella. It's very simple. I don't push products.
Speaker 1: I can sit here on my radio show and have
Speaker 1: a million commercials. I will not allow it on my show.
Speaker 1: I only want and will only push on my social media.
Speaker 1: I can't stop by heart media. They want to push
Speaker 1: some metapause, go push you on somebody else's show, because
Speaker 1: for those while say well, I'm having a metopause moment.
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden we had cases of
Speaker 1: this stuff from CBS and Walgreens. I'm like, yep, I'm
Speaker 1: not pushing that, and they're like, but Cindy, Nope, doesn't work.
Speaker 1: I'm not Nope, it doesn't work. I don't push stuff
Speaker 1: I don't work. That doesn't work. Nobody can deny our relationship.
Speaker 1: Nobody out there. Everybody knows that. And even some of
Speaker 1: the old guys from Marvin that start to retire and
Speaker 1: now they'll call me. They're all on my social media
Speaker 1: and they'll say, Cindy, if I only had that loyalty
Speaker 1: that you gave Pella with my guys throughout the years,
Speaker 1: you know, and a lot of times they'd say, you know,
Speaker 1: they'd push hard, and I'd say, God, what are you
Speaker 1: not listening to? I'm not gonna waste your time. Have
Speaker 1: you been a job that you're never going to get?
Speaker 1: Why do you want to bid something that I'm never
Speaker 1: going to give you ever. And they'd be like, just
Speaker 1: give us a shot. No, I'm not gonna even look
Speaker 1: at it. So Julie one time, let you know, the
Speaker 1: guy was on Julia and Julia and then Rob, you know,
Speaker 1: at National he said, let me, you know, bit out
Speaker 1: the pillar. Okay, you're not going to get it. He said,
Speaker 1: just give me one. I said, you can have the
Speaker 1: client that we're doing a renovation up the street. I'll
Speaker 1: never forget the Sammi. They delivered Pella windows that didn't open.
Speaker 1: Rad do you remember that on Countryside Road? Not one
Speaker 1: window open. I go, well, good move. There was people
Speaker 1: gonna have windows that don't open. Not one Haskell's house, Sammika,
Speaker 1: not one window open, right, And I said, Rob, you
Speaker 1: see why don't use you? Now take all these windows back, Brad,
Speaker 1: get your ass up to Countryside Road and get me
Speaker 1: my windows as fast as you can. Right.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 1: But I let him fall in his face. But he
Speaker 1: was my lumber salesman, right. And again, I've been with
Speaker 1: them for as long as I've been with you. But
Speaker 1: it was I knew he would fall, and that was
Speaker 1: a job. I could allow it. And then say, okay,
Speaker 1: now you see why I'm with Pella. Now do you
Speaker 1: see why you can't haul the windows out and you
Speaker 1: couldn't even get them correct that they don't open. Who's
Speaker 1: going to live in a house no windows that open?
Speaker 1: You can't make this up? Right? So I didn't know
Speaker 1: that story. Oh yeah, oh you remember that story, don't you?
Speaker 1: Because you had the two houses on Countryside, and the
Speaker 1: Haskells had the third, and we were renovating and helping
Speaker 1: them out. She was your friend. That's why I stepped in,
Speaker 1: because you were going to high school and we were
Speaker 1: on that street. So I said, okay, you know what
Speaker 1: they're paying directly, will give it to Rob.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: It's like it was ten windows they needed, but the
Speaker 1: ten windows didn't open, not one, Okay, And that's a
Speaker 1: good reason. But I think as all those guys have
Speaker 1: now retired out, you know now they're riding their boats
Speaker 1: and their fishing, and they literally always send me you know,
Speaker 1: they watched my stories and they'll send me messages, Cindy.
Speaker 1: If we just like I said, if we just had
Speaker 1: that same type of loyalty from all the guys, it
Speaker 1: would have been great. It would have been great. So
Speaker 1: I believe in loyalty. I believe in Pella, and I've
Speaker 1: never had a situation, David. I've never had a problem,
Speaker 1: you know, Yeah, of course, you know the delivery guys
Speaker 1: pull up. Okay, that's not a problem. I don't know, Like,
Speaker 1: I can't. There's nothing I can say, David. Was there
Speaker 1: one point that you had walked onto Pella and then
Speaker 1: came back or you've been there?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I sold a portion of the business for a
Speaker 3: bit and uh, but it didn't work out and now
Speaker 3: I'm back for good. So you're stuck with me.
Speaker 1: That's not a bad person to be stuck with because
Speaker 1: I can go bang my hand on your on your
Speaker 1: desk and say I want what I want right, Like,
Speaker 1: I'm not really that bad of a pro.
Speaker 3: Actually, well, you know, Cindy, owner to owner, it is.
Speaker 3: It is a really unique, uh dynamic that you and
Speaker 3: I know each other well and that we've done business
Speaker 3: for so long. First of all, it's unique to have
Speaker 3: a business be in business and owned by the same
Speaker 3: person and managed by the same person for over three decades.
Speaker 3: That's unique to have two people who are doing business together,
Speaker 3: who are walking that path parallel for that length of
Speaker 3: time and still and then have the trust and the
Speaker 3: loyalty between the two of us that we have built
Speaker 3: over over three decades. That's a really unique story. And
Speaker 3: you know you and I my first interaction with you
Speaker 3: directly was scary. I don't know if you remember this,
Speaker 3: but ahead, well, no, So when I first became aware
Speaker 3: of you as a person and as a C STUMPO development,
Speaker 3: you were a unique set of extremes. You were very young,
Speaker 3: you were very talented, you were very aggressive, you were
Speaker 3: very female, and you were very attractive, and you were
Speaker 3: very tough than you were very smart and street savvy,
Speaker 3: and the industry had not seen anything quite like you.
Speaker 1: El well, that thought hold, that thought was going to break.
Speaker 1: Eme Sanney Stumpy listened to Toughest Nails on WBZ. We'd
Speaker 1: be right back and welcome back to Toughest Nails. I'm Cindy,
Speaker 1: and we're here with Sammy, We're here with Brad, we
Speaker 1: here with Steve, and go ahead, David.
Speaker 3: And so you were a very disruptive force in a
Speaker 3: what is traditionally a male dominated industry. And my first
Speaker 3: direct encounter with you was well over thirty years ago.
Speaker 3: We had a disconnect on a delivery and our truck
Speaker 3: did not make the delivery. It started its way home,
Speaker 3: and I was in a two hour, not to be
Speaker 3: disrupted interrupted meeting with Pella Corporation executives on the phone,
Speaker 3: and my seventy five year old little receptionist kept sliding
Speaker 3: these notes in front of me. The first one said,
Speaker 3: Cindy Stumple really wants to speak to you, and I
Speaker 3: shook my head no. And then five minutes later, ten
Speaker 3: minutes later, Cindy Stumpo says it's urgent. I said no,
Speaker 3: And then five minutes ten minutes later, Cindy Stumpo is
Speaker 3: scaring me. And then the last one was the most
Speaker 3: experience that Cindy Stumpo is sending two men to our
Speaker 3: warehouse to put you on the phone, and.
Speaker 1: Me, yep.
Speaker 3: In the meantime, you had instructed your project manager to
Speaker 3: go jump in his truck and force our delivery crouc
Speaker 3: off the road so that he could hand his cell
Speaker 3: phone to my driver. And you were on the other
Speaker 3: end of that phone call, and that was not a
Speaker 3: pleasant phone call. And all this happened while I was
Speaker 3: in this meeting, so I was kind of fat, dumb,
Speaker 3: and happy, didn't know what was going on exactly, and
Speaker 3: by the time I got off that call, it was
Speaker 3: it was all over. It was the end of the day.
Speaker 3: And you and I spoke, I think first thing the
Speaker 3: next morning, and you were extremely pleasant, extremely professional, and
Speaker 3: we worked it out. And so it was then that
Speaker 3: I realized that we were dealing with a very different
Speaker 3: cat in the marketplace, and this was going to be
Speaker 3: a really fun, different kind of ride with a what
Speaker 3: has turned out to be one of our very most
Speaker 3: valuable long term customer partners. And as loyal as you
Speaker 3: are to us, we are to you. And I want
Speaker 3: you to know that. And our relationship is between our businesses,
Speaker 3: but it's also between you and I personally, and you
Speaker 3: do have a direct line to me twenty four to seven.
Speaker 3: You could call me anytime, night or day, and I
Speaker 3: will pick up the phone.
Speaker 1: And I know that, and I know that, and I
Speaker 1: never bought you know, I bother the brand. And then
Speaker 1: everyone swell.
Speaker 3: And you're waiting for you to call. You'd never called,
Speaker 3: I know, because.
Speaker 1: You know what where I go wrong. I'll tell you why.
Speaker 1: Because your front end boys take care of everything right,
Speaker 1: so they don't have to bother you. But oh my god,
Speaker 1: I must I remember, I want him on the phone now,
Speaker 1: and the pool woman kept going, I'm trying, Cindy, I'm trying.
Speaker 3: You scared her. She was scared for me.
Speaker 1: Seemy. I literally was sending to you guys. I'm like,
Speaker 1: if you believe, I'll put the phone. Welcome to nineteen
Speaker 1: crazy days, right, but I want I want that truck
Speaker 1: turned around and we caught up to the truck and
Speaker 1: I'm like, you stop that truck right now. You get
Speaker 1: your boss on the phone. No, I I gotta deal
Speaker 1: with dispatch. I don't care who you gonna deal with, right,
Speaker 1: I'm like, get that person on the phone, Simmy with
Speaker 1: Chase the Pellow truck up the street, like your mom
Speaker 1: was still google crazy back then. But you guys, you
Speaker 1: have to these are like you have legendary stories, all
Speaker 1: of you guys. I don't know if they can be
Speaker 1: as legendary with any other one of your guide builders,
Speaker 1: but this one is probably when you guys have parties
Speaker 1: and things, these stories must come up somewhere along the line.
Speaker 3: It's it's that's particular event is iconic in our company's history,
Speaker 3: and it also speaks to why you are considered tough
Speaker 3: as nails.
Speaker 1: I mean, let's go to my headstone, you know there, Right, David,
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna go.
Speaker 3: I hope, So, I hope. So, I mean, listen what
Speaker 3: you've accomplished. And you know, you're a developer, you're a builder,
Speaker 3: you're an influencer, you're a syndicated podcaster, you're you know,
Speaker 3: a bonafide reality TV star. I mean, and and we're
Speaker 3: still going strong. And it's three decades later. That is
Speaker 3: so unique in any industry. So whatever you're doing, it's
Speaker 3: worked very very well for you.
Speaker 1: So, David, when do we sit back and enjoy our lives?
Speaker 1: Because I don't see that anytime in my near future,
Speaker 1: do you.
Speaker 3: We're not built that way.
Speaker 1: We're not built that.
Speaker 3: We're not built that way. You know, it's not how
Speaker 3: we're wired.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, we have waiting for approvals for
Speaker 1: seventy townhouses that hopefully, by the summertime will be out
Speaker 1: of special permit and approved. Right And I don't care
Speaker 1: what economy we're rolling into, those are getting built. Those
Speaker 1: are getting built.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: Look, We've think about how many ups and downs we've
Speaker 1: been through. Right, I started in the worst market that
Speaker 1: eighty seven Black Monday and built up, learned to live
Speaker 1: through that recession. Then we had a hiccup in ninety nine,
Speaker 1: and then we had another one to No. Eight, and
Speaker 1: we're all still standing here together. We're all still standing together,
Speaker 1: so we must all be doing something right. The point is, well,
Speaker 1: one thing we share good.
Speaker 3: One thing we share is we both attack a down market. Yes,
Speaker 3: and I see that in you clearly, And it's something
Speaker 3: I've always believed in because when everybody else is on
Speaker 3: their heels, that's the best.
Speaker 1: Time to charge forward. And you saw what I did
Speaker 1: in those bad years. Ten eleven slowed out. We were
Speaker 1: building a street on Heat Street at the time, and
Speaker 1: I kept moving and going. Yeah, product was taken longer
Speaker 1: to sell, but our product was selling and nothing was
Speaker 1: gonna start me like what people do. And I will
Speaker 1: say this all the time. As long as you don't
Speaker 1: get over leveraged and underfunded, okay, you will keep yourself
Speaker 1: in the game. When you stop robbing Peter to pay
Speaker 1: Paul to carry these houses, then you're gonna get yourself.
Speaker 1: You're gonna gem yourself up. Right. So I figured away
Speaker 1: and the greatest thing that I learned in my twenties,
Speaker 1: and maybe I just have this natural ability to live
Speaker 1: vicariously through other people. As I watch those other builders
Speaker 1: go down in ninety ninety one ninety two, I try
Speaker 1: to figure out, as a young girl, what did they
Speaker 1: do wrong? So I don't do that. And I remember
Speaker 1: I drove around and said, okay, and my dad said, Cindy,
Speaker 1: what's bringing them to their knees? As interest? Interest will
Speaker 1: kill you. It'll eat you up and spit you out.
Speaker 1: You build what you can afford to build you. You
Speaker 1: build what you can afford that won't change your lifestyle
Speaker 1: if you're holding onto products. So I never want to
Speaker 1: be the biggest guy in the room. I want to
Speaker 1: be the most consistent guy in the room. And that's
Speaker 1: what I set out to do and that's what I've done.
Speaker 1: So I wasn't living through the EKG five years like
Speaker 1: I always say to Samantha, Okay, we'll be living last
Speaker 1: for five years, and then three years later we're bankrupt,
Speaker 1: and then five years you know, goes by again and
Speaker 1: you're you're up and down. Like I don't want. I
Speaker 1: can't meet personally live that way. So I don't mind
Speaker 1: being the turtle. The turtle has showed that longevity can
Speaker 1: survive what's the sense when you're worth twenty million today
Speaker 1: and then you're worth negative and you owe and you're
Speaker 1: out of the game. Right, It doesn't work right. So
Speaker 1: that's what I took from the older guys. That was
Speaker 1: their mistake. And then they come back, you know, back
Speaker 1: out of a into a good economy again after they
Speaker 1: credit cleaned up, and back and doing the same thing
Speaker 1: over and over again, expecting a different result. And Sammy,
Speaker 1: you see the same guys out there still doing the
Speaker 1: same thing. It's like they never learned from their past mistakes.
Speaker 1: I only have to make one mistake one time, and
Speaker 1: I'll make thirty more, but there'll be thirty different other mistakes.
Speaker 1: They won't be the same mistake over and over again.
Speaker 1: So look, we have a long way to go still.
Speaker 1: We got a lot of projects coming up out of ground.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here waiting for Brad to bid. I don't
Speaker 1: know how many you bidding right now. Did you get
Speaker 1: you got Lineman's plans?
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 1: Did you get Cabins plans yet? No? No, So you
Speaker 1: got to get those. You got the other one that
Speaker 1: I sent you? And then what's that? And then the
Speaker 1: crazy part here, David is what's holding us up is
Speaker 1: the citas and towns are just ridiculous. They've got our hands.
Speaker 1: We have nine build outs that we should be working
Speaker 1: on right now, right at this moment, and we're sitting
Speaker 1: waiting for special permits. We're waiting for building permits, but
Speaker 1: we're not getting building permits for thirty sixty days. Right,
Speaker 1: these could be I'm sorry, sixty ninety days. It used
Speaker 1: to be thirty days in and out.
Speaker 3: Why are they okake us so long?
Speaker 1: Welcome to Massachusetts. Now it's a new you know it's
Speaker 1: a new I don't know since COVID. It's just the
Speaker 1: way it is. But see the problem is we have
Speaker 1: to follow codes, we have to do everything. But then
Speaker 1: they don't have to follow codes, right, so it's just
Speaker 1: a short of help. Who knows. You know, We've got
Speaker 1: so much stuff coming at us here. No more fossil fuel, right,
Speaker 1: so that's going to put a heart on me. No
Speaker 1: more gas in where I build a Newton Brookline. If
Speaker 1: you go to Revere Chelsea, you can have gas. You
Speaker 1: come to Newton brook Line you can't have gas. Right,
Speaker 1: And now they change the tree ordans in both they
Speaker 1: changed the grade average. You can't change the grades. So
Speaker 1: some of these deals that we want to buy, we
Speaker 1: can't even buy because they don't make sense to buy.
Speaker 1: They're just making it very tough on developers. But we
Speaker 1: need houses. But we're gonna put your hands behind you're back.
Speaker 1: It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. So you have
Speaker 1: to have money to carry the cost of this stuff
Speaker 1: all that time. I'm Sinny Stumpy listening to Toughest Nails
Speaker 1: on WBZ News Radio ten third and welcome back to
Speaker 1: Cindey Stumbo Toughest Nails on WBZ. David take us out, Buddy.
Speaker 3: So the reason thoughhy I coll In New England and
Speaker 3: see Stumbled Development are such great long term partners because
Speaker 3: we share the same core values. We are world class products,
Speaker 3: world class service, world class people, all at a competitive price,
Speaker 3: and at the end of the day, creating very satisfied
Speaker 3: customers is our number one priority.
Speaker 1: That's the best you got, I got one better. You
Speaker 1: guys are phenomenal. You're fantastic. There for your clients. That's
Speaker 1: what makes you different, that's what stands up you apart
Speaker 1: when you add there for your clients. You guys have
Speaker 1: never not been there for me or any of my
Speaker 1: end users I appreciate. I love PELL, the Windows. Everybody
Speaker 1: have a great safe wee get. This is Cindy Stumble.
Speaker 1: We'll see you next weekend.