The Roots Interview - Troy Mileski

The Wireless Industry is changing rapidly. Now more than ever, we look toward the people who have guided both ourselves and our company through the changing tides. TEAM Wireless has worked for almost 20 years to connect multiple communities with everything from stereo systems, to electronics. Our successes throughout the years have been brought about by people working tirelessly to ensure an incredible product with top of the line service. 

TEAM Wireless: The Roots features one on one conversations with some of the most integral members of our TEAM. 

My name is Madison, and the idea for this blog came about during one of the craziest years our company has seen. With all the changes that occurred both with TEAM and the industry itself, I found myself and others, leaning on those who brought to the table a wealth of knowledge and experience. TEAM Wireless has been in business for nearly 20 years, and over that time, has been fortunate enough to acquire some incredibly talented employees. The interviews that comprise this series come from amazing people who have helped shape the company into what it is today, and forged the relationships required to ensure a meaningful business, and product. These people are integral to the success of TEAM Wireless, and their knowledge is invaluable. It is my express belief that no matter what channel of business you are in, or what industry, there is so much we can learn from people who have remained resilient throughout the years in any company/industry/business.

I caught up with our very own Troy Mileski this winter, someone who has worked for TEAM Wireless for a number of years and has had his hand in many different sectors of the company. He knows the business more than many people, and [we] have agreed that his opinions and knowledge of this industry are extremely valued. I wanted to give him the opportunity to speak about his experience with the company and industry itself. 

Madison: Could you please introduce yourself and your position within TEAM Wireless?

Troy: Yes, so I am Troy Mileski, the Inventory Control manager for TEAM Wireless. I have been with TEAM for about 15 ½ years now. [An Inventory Control Manager is responsible for every aspect of inventory management. Including everything from inventory tracing to conducting an inventory audit to inventory maintenance, and purchasing.]

Madison: TEAM has been in business for nearly 20 years, and now has over 70 store locations. When you started over 15 years ago, how many stores did TEAM have?

Troy: One store. In the building that we now call our Corporate offices, that was our sales floor. 

Madison: Where did you see yourself within the company by this time? Was there any specific goal that you had initially?

Troy: I had just turned 19 when I started, so I really didn’t have a clue as far as what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go, or life. Just starting fresh out of high school, I started here because we had sold car audio back in the day and home theater products, and TV’s, all that kind of stuff, as well as cell phones, but I was mainly interested in the car audio systems side of it; even though that was kind of leaning toward cell phones at the time. So that’s what I started as doing, and didn’t really have any sort of direct path to anything that I wanted to do. It was more or less that I liked the people I worked with, I liked the company, and just decided to stay and grow with TEAM and see what happened.

Madison: Is there anyone in particular who has been really important to you as a mentor throughout your time with TEAM so far?

Troy: It has definitely shifted throughout the years. So, I started with Brian [Owner of TEAM Wireless] directly, so I was reporting to him originally and he taught me a lot of what I know on the sales floor as far as the sales process goes. I was on the sales floor for the first year and a half, two years maybe. So, he taught me quite a bit about that side, as well as some basic programming things in RQ that I still do to this day, those came from Brian. 

From there, I also worked under Justin for quite a few years. So, Justin taught me quite a few things as far as managing people, and trying to help me be a better employee, so I’ve learned quite a few things from Justin over the years as well. 

Essentially it was Brian and Justin for a while, and then I started reporting to Paul for the past 5 years or so. Man, has it been that long? Wow. Time flies. Paul has helped me quite a bit with the management side of things like, negotiating with vendors, just being able to manage employees, and being a great supervisor overall. Being there when I need something, whether it’s personal life or work things. He’s just always been a good person to have.

Madison: How many people are currently working on your Inventory Team?

Troy: We have two people currently, three including myself.

Madison: So you’re an Inventory Control Manager, with the requirements of the job in mind, what makes a great ICM?

Troy: I would say attention to detail, sometimes being able to juggle multiple things at one time as well. Maybe a bit of OCD, and a whole lot of care goes a long way to keep things organized, especially in RQ. 

Madison: Is there anything that is going on in the industry right now that you have been thinking about a lot lately? Have shipping issues been affecting your side of the business lately?

Troy: Yeah, yeah that’s a huge one. So the chip shortage, which has sort of been the one thing out of character for the industry in the past year. The chip shortage and shipping issues have definitely affected our industry, and especially my job. So, we are just unable to get a lot of the products that we need right now, when we need them. I mean, some products, specific devices, it’s been months since I have been able to order one. So, it is just very difficult now to navigate through that, but we are doing the best we can. And we order everything we can reasonably order if it becomes available, and stock any extra stock that we get at our Corporate location and the Warehouse when we can, just so we have extra product to ship out. Sometimes we might be able to order a batch of devices and that’s the only time we will get the chance to order them for another month or two, so we have to get what we can.

Troy also expressed that some of his favorite memories from TEAM were made at our yearly company conferences, stating, “...They provide a great opportunity to hang out and meet new people. Put faces to names finally, after having communicated with some people for four, five, even six months without ever seeing them. That’s definitely a favorite for me.”

As a Bark River native, Troy spends a lot of his time outdoors doing his favorite things. Whether it’s fishing, dirtbikes, ATV’s, or hunting. When it comes to his hobbies, he says, “I’ve got too many hobbies… Pretty much anything outdoorsy really. I do a little bit of gaming as well, but not so much nowadays. I used to be a big gamer, I actually just built my most recent gaming PC about two years ago. I just haven’t had much time to [game] lately.”

When Troy is not at work, you can catch him doing his favorite thing, watching sunsets. 

On an endnote, he wrapped up by wishing luck to our TEAM members.

“I would like to wish anybody coming on board to TEAM, best of luck. It’s a great company to work for, and I have enjoyed it for many, many, many years now.”

We are so grateful to have had Troy on our TEAM over the years. It was an absolute honor to be able to have this conversation with him, and see a side of the business I was not familiar with prior. I want to extend a personal thank you to Troy for being willing to speak with me and share his story. 

Thank you to Troy for participating in this interview. If you have any suggestions for later interviews, please feel free to reach out at meazsol@teamwireless.com.

Written by:

Madison Eazsol

Marketing Coordinator 

TEAM Wireless, Verizon Authorized Retailer