A sign supply distributor with weird videos, a slightly serious podcast, and 82 straight weeks without missing. That rhythm shifts casual viewers into customers who already feel like they know the team. Hosted by Kyler Nixon, this conversation with Tyler Hull from Wesco Sign Supply walks through how consistent content, in person events, long form podcasting, and honest recommendations create real sales instead of vanity metrics. Tyler shares how post COVID trade show conversations moved into a long form format, why impressions mean nothing without quotes and orders, how customers walk into events already connected through the Slightly Serious Sign Podcast, and why showing up in more places with real faces, real teaching, and real stories still cuts through AI noise and traditional ads.

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Tyler Hull is the director of marketing at Wesco Sign Supply and host of The Slightly Serious Sign Podcast. He comes from sales into marketing and focuses on long form content, in person events, and honest conversations with vendors and customers. Tyler and his team are known for weird videos, weekly podcast episodes, and a style that helps sign shops learn tips, tricks, and products while getting to know the people behind the distributor.

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• How Wesco Sign Supply went from weird, funny videos to The Slightly Serious Sign Podcast as a long form channel for real product conversations.
• The simple launch: buying a few pieces of equipment, recording episode one while “plugging everything in,” and not missing a week for 82 weeks.
• How to get leadership buy-in when you are not a massive business by starting bare bones, proving results, and letting sales performance sell the idea.
• Why impressions, clicks, and open rates are vanity metrics when they do not lead to quotes, equipment inquiries, or orders.
• Stories of customers meeting Tyler at events, already knowing him from the podcast, and bringing real jobs and revenue because of that connection.
• The idea that giving value, tips, and honest recommendations (even when a product is not the right fit) earns trust and makes the ask easier.
• How omnipresence, video, and consistent content help a distributor show up in a customer’s day without feeling like an ad.
• Why Wesco is shifting focus from broad trade shows toward regional events, trainings, and in person experiences that grow customer business and move spend away from competitors.

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• The Slightly Serious Sign Podcast
• Wesco Sign Supply
• Santa videos and other “weird” Wesco content
• Buzzsprout (podcast hosting and distribution)
• StreamYard (virtual recording and live stream tool)
• YouTube monetization for long form video and podcast clips
• Gary V
• 10X (omnipresence concept)
• HubSpot
• Marketing Against The Grain podcast

A 40th year in distribution brings perspective on culture, leadership, and growth. Kyler Nixon sits with Mark Knight, CEO at Fibre Glast, to talk management style, respect, and giving credit where credit is due. Mark shares early lessons like “sometimes you just need to show people who’s boss,” and why he chose assertive, direct, and supportive leadership instead. He explains servant leadership and the step beyond it he calls conservancy, where leaders and teams serve each other. The conversation moves into day one at Fibre Glast in 2021, building core values with integrity and respect as must haves, and investing in people resources. Tactically, the team prioritized phone systems, CRM, and a risk-mitigating web replatform without breaking what customers love. Growth remains balanced, profitable, and sustainable, with high barriers to entry and a differentiated value proposition, including AS 91 20 B aerospace certification driven by customer feedback.

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Mark Knight is the CEO at Fibre Glast. His 40th year in distribution includes roles across industrial management, operations, and supply chain, growing into marketing and general management. He has led in large publicly traded industrial businesses and small privately held organizations. Mark stepped into Fibre Glast in 2021, created a set of core values with integrity and respect as must haves, and emphasizes servant leadership, conservancy, and building a healthy, supportive culture.

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• Management style and culture shifts from the eighties to today
• Servant leadership and the team-first idea Mark calls conservancy
• Hiring and leading for passion in B2B distribution
• The pride moment when families recognize where you work
• Day one at Fibre Glast in 2021 and creating core values with team ownership
• Prioritizing phone systems, CRM, and people resources
• Replatforming to mitigate risk without breaking SEO juice or customer experience
• Balanced, profitable, sustainable growth with high barriers to entry and aerospace certification

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• Fibre Glast website: https://www.fibreglast.com
• EOS and the L 10 meeting
• PPG
• AS 91 20 B aerospace certification

SMS marketing shows up where busy professionals live, on their phones. In this conversation, Kyler Nixon sits down with Kristin Dean to unpack why hairstylists, massage therapists, and spa pros engage in the middle of the day, how product-focused texts beat education in SMS, and why webinars still win. Kristin shares the starting point, taking top-performing short emails and turning them into concise texts, then testing send times, segmentation by profession, treatments, and a simple benchmark approach to attribution. She details the move from SMS Bump to Klaviyo, low-cost tests, and a 75X ROI that ended internal pushback fast. The discussion expands to education as a funnel, cross-functional content with licensed staff, and company-wide momentum for brand building at a family-owned business. Listeners will hear practical send cadences, how engagement changed over time, and why knowing the customer shapes every message.

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👤 Guest Bio

Kristin Dean is Revenue Director at Universal Companies. Kristin has led email and SMS programs, uses AI daily for copy and analysis, and partners with licensed staff across product development, sales, and the call center to create blogs and webinars. Her team tested SMS with product-focused messages, refined send times, and reported a 75X ROI. Kristin is focused on education as a funnel, cross-functional collaboration, and brand building for a family-owned company.

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📌 What We Cover

• Why a B2B audience still acts like consumers, and how that unlocked SMS testing
• Turning top-performing, shorter emails into texts, then expanding into new arrivals roundups, discounts, and webinar signups
• Segmentation by profession and treatment types, mirroring email while adjusting for SMS engagement
• Send time insights, evenings for email, and the middle of the day for SMS between appointments
• Measuring ROI with low-cost sends, simple benchmarks, and realistic attribution expectations
• Platform shift from SMS Bump shutting down to Klaviyo to tie channels together
• Send cadence changes, weekly to every other week, as engagement settles
• Education as a funnel, webinars that get quick daytime signups, and company-wide support for brand building

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

• Klaviyo
• SMS Bump

Branding can carry a mythical connotation, but the real signal shows up in how you communicate when the waters get murky. In this conversation, Kyler Nixon sits down with Andrew Haring to contrast blanket price increases with a customer-first stance that says we are here to serve our customers and we are in your corner. Andrew unpacks proactive pricing announcements, why trust and service trump price points, and how being natural, genuine, and authentic builds a single version of yourself that customers recognize. The discussion moves from personal brand to channels and tactics, including robust social, a strong email calendar, consistent point of purchase, printed catalogs, and create once and distribute everywhere. Andrew details segmentation by product brand categories and buying behavior, the role of quarterly specials and product launches, and a simple playbook focused on shortening lead times, regional support, and technical service that makes marketing easy to promote.

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Andrew Haring is a Friend of the Glass Industry and CMO at FHC. He has 20 years in the glass, construction, and architectural industries with an emphasis on marketing, education, sales, and advocacy. He served as Vice President of Business Development at the National Glass Association and previously as Vice President of Marketing at C.R. Laurence. Recognitions include Glazier Nation’s Advocate of the Year and a USGlass Magazine Most Influential People mention. He is a calculated noisemaker who likes glass and values brand equity.

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• Handling tariffs with proactive communication, mitigation, and a customer-first pricing announcement
• Trust and service outweigh price points, with actions that back partnership and support
• Authenticity over polish: fewer versions of yourself, what you see is what you get
• Channels that work in a squirrely industry: robust social, strong email calendar, point of purchase, printed catalogs, trade publications
• Create once and distribute everywhere with automation and programmatic advertising
• Email as both relationship and transaction: quarterly specials, product launches, staying top of mind for project-driven purchases
• Segmentation by product brand categories and buying behavior across commercial and residential profiles and company sizes
• A simple playbook for growth: shorten lead times, add locations for regional support, invest in technical service, and make adoption easier

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• Kyler Nixon on LinkedIn
• Andrew Haring on LinkedIn
• FHC — Frameless Hardware Company

A big e-comm overhaul with brick and mortar, e-commerce, sales reps, and education moving together. Kyler Nixon sits down with Jeremy Ott to unpack a massive ecommerce overhaul. The conversation walks through a six to eight month RFP process, executive buy-in from a forward-thinking CEO, and the push for more core out of the box functionality, personalization, and newer technologies. Jeremy shares regrets around more beta testing, internal testing, customer facing webinars, and customer advisory boards. He explains how data and being more analytical driven met real feedback on features like requisition lists, brands pages, and a personalized my top products view. The team reworked a brand statement, rebuilt customer personas across product lines, and aimed for an omnichannel experience that feels cohesive in store, email, social, and the website. Education, sales rep specific emails, and training videos help customers learn and buy.

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Jeremy Ott is Director of eCommerce and Digital Marketing at Reinders Inc. Reinders is one of the Midwest’s largest full service distributors to the commercial green industry, a one stop source from growing grass to watering it, from mowing it to keeping it looking great. The team offers quality products and solutions with staff that includes degreed specialists in Turf, Plant Pathology, Soils, and Aquatics. Learn more at reinders.com.

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• A big web overhaul that went live in September of 2023 after a two year migration and an ERP to the cloud
• Re-platforming from a homegrown solution to Rock Commerce, then to Adobe Commerce with open APIs and less customization
• A three to five month RFP build, six to eight month vendor selection, demos, and signing with Adobe in October of 2021
• Executive buy-in with leadership focused on customer experience, performance, speed, and integration with the ERP
• What Jeremy would do differently: more beta testing, internal testing, focus groups, user groups, and customer facing webinars
• Data driven decisions vs real customer insights on requisition lists, brands pages, and a personalized my top products view
• Reevaluating the UI UX across desktop and mobile using heat mapping and video recordings to find frustration and drop off points
• A refreshed brand statement and rebuilt customer personas across product lines to drive a cohesive omnichannel experience
• Educational emails, sales rep specific emails, and in-house training videos on equipment like fairway mowers and sprayers

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• Adobe Commerce
• Rock Commerce
• AmericanEagle.com
• Google Analytics

“Customers are buying trust.” That line stopped the conversation and set the tone for a candid look at long sales cycles, culture, and product bets. Host Kyler Nixon sits down with Nic Breedlove to unpack a model that blends distributor and manufacturer, serves about 350 distributors, and manages operations in Indianapolis, Savannah, and Houston. The buying journey is often 90 days or more, and a custom order can take six months from order to revenue. Nic shares why passion and knowledge build credibility, why one-time buyers must be educated quickly, and how a seven-year nurture still converted. He opens up about a painful chapter of betrayal, the absence of checks and balances, and rebuilding with direct expectations, behavioral analysis, and daily core values in huddles and quarterlies. The conversation closes with new product development, a quick ship line that now represents about half of revenue, a new inspections app for owners and operators, and a three-year planning horizon tied to a big, hairy goal to reduce avoidable injuries on playgrounds.

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Nic Breedlove is the founder and CEO of NVB Playgrounds. His team operates as a manufacturer and a distributor, supplying about 350 distributors across the United States and serving government and business buyers. NVB runs operations in Indianapolis, Savannah, and Houston. Nic is active on LinkedIn, leads a design and new product development team, and focuses on quick ship structures, software for inspections, and daily core values that guide performance and growth.

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• “Customers are buying trust,” and how passion and knowledge show up in posts, safety, layout, and community
• A blended model, manufacturer and distributor, supplying about 350 distributors with operations in Indianapolis, Savannah, and Houston
• Sales cycles that average 90 days, custom timelines that push orders to six months from order to revenue, and cash flow strain
• One-time buyers on boards and school teams, why education must be quick, specific, and directed
• A seven-year sales story from catalog request to close, and the power of staying in touch with the same salesperson
• Trust inside the team, hiring fast in the past, direct feedback, behavioral analysis, and quarterly reviews
• The betrayal chapter, shell companies, missing checks and balances, silos, and rebuilding morale after terminations
• Core values in daily huddles and quarterlies, shout-outs, and scoring performance on growth mindset
• Quick ship as a distribution backbone, inventory across three locations, guarantees to distributors, and about 50 percent of revenue
• New product development on structures, reviewing thousands of orders, color schemes, components, and using tools like ChatGPT and Claude
• A new app for owners and operators, inspections and digitalized services, and a launch at the National Park and Rec show in Orlando
• Three-year planning, not ten, Cameron Harold’s perspective, and a big hairy goal to reduce avoidable playground injuries in North America

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• PlaygroundEquipment.com
• ChatGPT
• Claude
• HubSpot training
• COO Alliance podcast with Cameron Harold
• National Park and Rec show in Orlando

Launching a business focused podcast under a distribution brand can open doors and still fall short of the sale. Host Kyler Nixon sits down with James Gilman, president of Perimeter Office Products and host of “Pushing the Envelope,” to talk about starting in January 2024, recording forty plus episodes, and choosing to pause when it did not drive what he thought it would. James shares why the show was an inexpensive way to brand the company, connect with the ideal client, and open doors for the sales team. He breaks down live show vs prerecord, the push for consistency, the couple grand a month reality, and why building a deep bench matters. The conversation shifts to people, core values, and clarity, with contests, town halls, and every person having a number. It is a look at attention, screens, and the need to communicate the why while you kill ambiguity and keep growing.

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Check out Pushing the Envelope, hosted by James Gilman. Sponsored by Perimeter Office Products, the show highlights Atlanta’s business landscape through candid conversations with entrepreneurs, leaders, and industry experts. Each episode uncovers stories of growth, challenge, and innovation, offering a fresh perspective on what drives business forward in Georgia’s dynamic market. Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

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James Gilman is the president of Perimeter Office Products and host of “Pushing the Envelope.” His background is in sales, with fifteen years of one-on-one conversations and meeting twenty new businesses every single week. He moved into the president role in 2022 and describes himself as a visionary who needs implementers and integrators. “Pushing the Envelope” carries a double entendre from the office supply industry and reflects his focus on moving the needle, trying new things, and celebrating wins and challenges.

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• Why a company sponsored podcast can brand the business, connect with the ideal client, and open doors for the sales team
• The realization that sales did not just start coming in and why the show paused to focus on people, team, and processes
• Live show vs prerecord, blocking a morning to record three or four episodes, and why consistency is the number one thing
• The real cost and time tradeoffs, dialing back time, and spending a couple grand a month with outside help
• Account-based podcasting to celebrate decision makers, learn the landscape, and build relationships without a hard pitch
• Using a podcast to speak into the team, talk about culture, and let employees hear interactions on a public forum
• Core values that people can name, contests that nominate peers, quarterly town halls, and awarding people publicly
• Fighting ambiguity with clarity, start-stop-keep feedback, communicating the why, and giving every person a number
• Scaling Up vs EOS, cash focus, collections, and growing without outgrowing cash
• Attention and screens, going where the eyeballs are, and adjusting how you communicate

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Welcome to Darn Good Distributors with Kyler Nixon. Today’s conversation with Eric Reffett centers on a 360 view of the organization, moving from a finance path to president, and building a team that is direct, respectful, and aligned. Eric explains starting in a space between a startup and an established company, doing invoice entry and reconciling accounts, then letting new people come in and own them. He shares how attribution, analytics, and pipeline make growth decisions simple, why an organic LinkedIn presence matters, and how core values shape a platoon mindset with open conversations. The team is launching a new website to give big buyers a B2C experience with pay terms, credit approvals, tax exemption, and self-serve customization. With a new investor, a move to 150,000 square feet, and a new operating system, the sky is the limit.

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Eric Reffett is president at ePackageSupply. His background runs through finance and operations with early mentorship at Berry Global. He joined the company five years ago, grew from a space between a startup and an established company, and recently stepped into the president role. Eric is focused on connecting operations, sales, and B2B processes while keeping a 360 view of the business.

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• Using finance as an opportunity to get into all aspects of the business
• Doing everything from invoice entry to reconciling accounts, then letting new people own them
• Breaking away from native finance tasks to connect operations, sales, and B2B processes
• Pushing the growth lever with data, attribution, analytics, and pipeline
• Building a visible team with an organic LinkedIn presence and strong core values
• A founder’s Marine Corps ethos, direct conversations, and a platoon approach
• Treating B2C and B2B customers the same with a seamless online and personal experience
• A new website for big orders, pay terms, credit approvals, tax exemption, and self-serve customization
• Adding an investor, moving to 150,000 square feet, and launching a new operating system
• Bundling in-house design as part of the offer, growing with customers, and the role of AI

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• Darn Good Distributors by Forward Studios
• Kyler Nixon
• Eric Reffett
• ePackageSupply