Get to Know Our Chief Member Experience Officer
Podcast Transcription
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Maddy: Welcome to the next episode in our special series getting to know PFCU’s Senior Vice President team! For this episode, I chatted with the SVP of Member Experience, Theresa Burgess. We’ll learn what she loves about being outdoors, what she does with her time when she’s not at work and where she would like to travel to someday but what might be stopping her. Without further ado, here’s Theresa.
Theresa: Hello everyone, my name is Theresa Burgess. I am SVP of Member Experience here at the credit union. I’ve been at the credit union almost ten years, I’ve been in the credit union world for 15 years, prior to that I was in banking. My role is, I oversee all of the branches and our department of our contact center, cards and our teller machines.
Maddy: Very good, you’re a busy lady.
Theresa: Yes, I am very busy but we all are.
Maddy: Of course. Could you think back to the very first job that you had, maybe when you were just a kid? What was that?
Theresa: Well, so, of course you know, I grew up in a farming community so we grew up on a farm so we always did farming chores. Probably my first paying gig was babysitting, of course. But you made me laugh when you asked this question because my very first paying, paying job was when I was in high school. I was a junior and small, small farming community that I grew up in, we didn’t even have a stoplight and it surprisingly put our small town on the map because it was a huge steakhouse with a huge salad bar and everybody in town pretty much worked there and so, all my friends worked there so I thought, oh I’ll get a job working there and you know, prep work. Cutting up all the vegetables and the fruit and everything for the salad bar. But I’ll never forget they moved me up to assist on the cookline, you know, plating the food and setting it out for the waitresses. And our very first Mother’s Day about did us all in because you see how busy all the restaurants are on Mother’s Day and as a Junior, my friend and I, we worked 14 hours that day, straight.
Maddy: Oh my god.
Theresa: Straight. For Mother’s Day and everybody was almost numb by the end of the day because, you know, it was just insane. We ran out of baked potatoes, it was just, it was crazy. And to this day, Maddy, and I’ve been out of school for a long time, to this day I will not go to a restaurant on Mother’s Day. I just won’t do it, I’m like, it’s too crazy.
Maddy: You’re like, those poor people that are working.
Theresa: I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to do, I’m not going to do that to you guys.
Maddy: That’s so funny.
Theresa: Cook your mom dinner at home, people!
Maddy: Right. Stay in!
Theresa: Yes.
Maddy: That is took funny that that stuck in your mind like that.
Theresa: Oh, it was something else, it was impressive, it was something.
Maddy: Did you go back after that 14-hour day?
Theresa: Yes.
Maddy: Or were you like, never again?
Theresa: Yes, no we did, we all went back and finished working and everything. It was just surprising, I laugh, you know, now being in the position I’ve been in, in my industry saying well, obviously child labor laws were not in effect at that point in time because of what we worked but you know, it was a good experience, a good learning experience and it put me to the test too. I worked for ten hours and I stuck right in there with the adults that were working. So, even though we were almost like zombies afterwards, we all felt very accomplished.
Maddy: Yeah, yeah. What is something that someone would be surprised to learn about you?
Theresa: Well something that, so, when I met my husband, I had always grown up with hunting, my dad and my brother would hunt but my husband is an avid hunter and for the longest time I would also stay in the hunting cabin while he went out hunting and a couple times I went out with him and I really enjoyed, I enjoy being out in nature to begin with, out in the woods and just communing with nature, so to speak. So, I told him I wanted to get into it and so, he started, he taught me how to do it and my very favorite, so now we’re both avid hunters but my very favorite time of the year is bow season because it’s fall which is so beautiful and you’re sitting up in a tree stand and just being quiet and what you get to see in nature is amazing. My husband has told me he’s been husband since he was a little kid and I’ve been hunting for maybe ten years and the things that I’ve seen, he’s like, I can’t believe what you’ve seen, he said it’s so impressive. You know, big grey horned owls swooping down on a branch trying to check me out and, in my mind, I’m going, do owls attack people? I don’t know.
Maddy: Right.
Theresa: So, you know, we just have seen really things that and it’s just a really great time to connect with nature and to get peaceful inside myself, you know, with the crazy stressful world we live in. It’s just a really nice time to, you know, we don’t get good phone reception so we’re able to unplug and just kind of regenerate and it’s a great thing that he and I get to do together.
Maddy: I love that, I love that perspective that you have. My husband’s a big hunter too and I’ve been never been into but hearing that, how you can just sit there and connect with nature, that’s a good perspective to have, I really like that.
Theresa: Fall is so pretty in Michigan, it’s just beautiful and you get to look around and see everything and see what the animals are doing, it’s really interesting.
Maddy: Yeah.
Theresa: I love it. It’s peaceful and enjoyable.
Maddy: Yeah. Is there a favorite vacation that you’ve taken or a dream vacation that you would like to take?
Theresa: My husband and I love history so in the United States, Charleston has been a really good place that we’ve gone several times and we love it for the history. It’s so nice to be able to see what’s happened in the history of our United States. There’s so much that’s gone on that not everybody is even familiar, we go out of state, go to country but we’ve got so much right here within the United States that we really enjoy the architecture, the history, just like, the building of some of these structures, you know, so long ago that they withstand the test of time, wars and attacks so, that’s probably one of our favorite in state. Dream vacation would be, I’ve always wanted to go to Australia or to Ireland. I got to be honest, I don’t know if I’ll ever do it because I don’t know if I can take the flight. I’m not a good flyer so, it’s a really long flight. My in-laws have gone to Australia and they said it’s just absolutely stunning and Ireland just always looks the same way to me and the history in Ireland which would really be interesting to me as well. Just don’t know if I could actually, the flight would be the only thing that would stop me.
Maddy: Yeah, I understand that, that probably is, yeah. I haven’t flown very much, maybe twice in my life so I totally get that.
Theresa: Okay, yeah.
Maddy: What do you like to do for fun in your free time?
Theresa: Anything outdoors. My husband and I love being outdoors but actually we’re not real good relaxers so we like to have projects and my husband is a commercial contractor so what we really like to do is, we like to have a rehab project is what we call it. And you know, we bought a place up north and took it right down to the studs and totally and completely remodeled it. He taught me a lot during that time so it was really something fun that we did together. It was a lot of work but it was a lot of satisfying work, we enjoyed it while we were doing and then when the work was done, we sold it during the high market so we made a good profit off of it. Our condo that we’re in right now, we are in the process of doing our master bedroom and bathroom and after that, then everything has been touched by us and remodeled. And I wouldn’t be surprised, well we have been looking at real estate already and just seeing if we can find something and we’re the ones that are looking for the total gut job, that’s what we like to do and we like to take and bring it back to its former glory or new glory and we enjoy it for a while, we’re not flipper, we enjoy it for a while and then we move on to the next project.
Maddy: That’s really cool, I didn’t know that about you, I love that. I would love to see pictures of work that you’ve done and then you can say, I was able to do this, like, that’s something to be proud of that you, and the place you’re living in now, you can say that it’s got your work that you’ve done on it.
Theresa: Yes, there’s such a good sense of accomplishment, Maddy, it’s just, you’re right, I did this. Our cottage, the before and after pictures, people are like, this isn’t even the same place and we’re like, no, it’s not supposed to look like the same place. It’s just, we enjoy it and we take our time with it, we’re not on a time limit or anything and it’s something that we do enjoy doing together.
Maddy: Yeah, that’s cool. Seeing as how we are in credit union world, I have to ask, what your favorite thing to spend money on and your least favorite thing to spend money on is?
Theresa: Well, my favorite thing to spend money probably is our rehab projects because I know it will, I’m not a huge shopper. If anybody who knows, I’m Amazon and good lord, while I’m going to Sam’s club to get groceries, I’ll pick up some clothes there too.
Maddy: Oh yeah.
Theresa: I’m not a huge, I’m not a girly girl, I’m not a huge shopper. Being that we’re in tax time, I can tell you what my least favorite thing to spend money on is our taxes because my husband is self-employed, it’s always, I drag it out as long as I possibly can because I know we got to right checks at the end of the year so that is definitely my least favorite thing to spend money on.
Maddy: Yeah, not fun, not fun. Alright, that was the last question I had for you. I do have a quick lightening round for you though.
Theresa: Okay.
Maddy: We are going to do this or that so we will run through those really quickly and then we will be all done. Alright so the first one, coffee or tea?
Theresa: Coffee.
Maddy: Summer or winter?
Theresa: Summer.
Maddy: I’m waiting for summer.
Theresa: We all are.
Maddy: It was so beautiful yesterday.
Theresa: Gorgeous.
Maddy: And today it’s windy and cold and I’m just done.
Theresa: And another possibility of snow, Maddy. Don’t forget another possibility of snow.
Maddy: Yeah, what is that?
Theresa: I know.
Maddy: Hulu or Netflix?
Theresa: Netflix.
Maddy: Online shopping or would you rather go the store?
Theresa: Online, definitely.
Maddy: I know you mentioned Amazon being a big one. Are you an early bird or more of a night owl?
Theresa: Dare I say both? I get up early and I don’t sleep well so I have to say both now. But I try to go bed early.
Maddy: Right.
Theresa: but we get up pretty early in our house and we like getting up early and getting our day started.
Maddy: Yeah. Do you prefer cats or dogs?
Theresa: Dogs.
Maddy: Do you have any dogs?
Theresa: Yes, I do. We have a springer spaniel and he’s, we don’t have children, we weren’t able to so, he is like our baby and he’s two, he was just two last week and he’s spoiled rotten but he’s a good boy. He actually good and he gives us a ton of joy.
Maddy: And he’s only two so he is still just a baby.
Theresa: Yup.
Maddy: Do you prefer eating in or going out to eat?
Theresa: I used to prefer eating in because I like to cook. I’m finding the older I’m getting or maybe just, I don’t care anymore, I can’t come up with the ideas of what to cook so now I’m leaning more towards going out.
Maddy: Yeah, understandable. And the last one, beach or mountains?
Theresa: Mountains.
Maddy: Okay good, that’s all I had. That’s all I had, I really appreciate your time.
Theresa: Well, thank you.
Maddy: Thanks, Theresa.
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