Darn Good Distributors

Forward Studios

Darn Good Distributors is the podcast for B2B eCommerce professionals who are tired of fluff and ready for the real stuff. Hosted by Kyler Nixon, each episode features conversations with boots-on-the-ground leaders—from CEOs and marketers to operators and digital pioneers—who are redefining what success looks like in B2B distribution. You’ll hear practical strategies, hard-earned lessons, and honest takes on what’s working right now. Whether you’re scaling your company, rethinking digital, or just trying to stay sharp in a rapidly evolving space, this is your home for insights that actually matter.

  1. 2d ago

    Behind Every B2B Buyer Is a B2C Buyer (with Isaac Ransom from Epik Workwear) | Ep. 46

    Most people treat B2B and B2C marketing like two different sports. Kyler Nixon opens this one by admitting he loves pushing buttons on that exact idea, and his guest agrees they're far more similar than different. Isaac Ransom of Epik Workwear studied economics, not marketing, and that outsider view is what made the B2B/B2C separation feel foreign to him. His argument: behind every B2B buyer is a B2C buyer, so why strip away the ease and emotion that make consumer marketing work? The conversation runs from why leading with visuals beats leading with specs, to Isaac's four-funnel model of branding, advertising, marketing, and product, to the unglamorous work of actually calling customers and standing in a freezer to understand the gear. ㅤ 👤 Guest Bio Isaac Ransom is Chief Marketing Officer at Epik Workwear, a Bay Area brand that makes specialized workwear and uniforms for cold storage, logistics, food processing, and construction. He came to marketing from an economics background, which shaped his skepticism about the usual B2B rulebook. At Epik he leads product messaging and marketing, working closely with the product and sales teams and spending time on-site with the people who actually wear the gear. ㅤ 📌 What We Cover Why "behind every B2B buyer is a B2C buyer," and what that means for how you writeThe case for leading with strong visuals, then backing them up with specs and spec sheetsIsaac's four-funnel model: branding is your story, advertising is attention, marketing is your mirror, product ties it togetherWhy "marketing is your mirror" means the numbers keep you accountable, or the rest is fluffDropping features like double-stitch threading from the pitch when they stop moving the buyerCustomer service as a "silver bullet" you prove by experience, not by claiming itSaying the customer's problem and solution in seven words or lessGetting close to the customer: calling five to 10 buyers a day, site visits, and reading a greenhouse manager's search history ㅤ 🔗 Resources Mentioned Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller — the storytelling framework Kyler recommends as an easy starting pointEpik Workwear — Isaac's companyFastenal and McMaster-Carr — referenced as large-catalog distributors

  2. Jul 14

    When Nobody's Selling Parts Online, That's the Opportunity (with Jeff Hedrick from Keep Supply) | Ep. 45

    Most B2B distributors compete on price, availability, and assortment. Keep Supply took a different bet: that the technicians turning wrenches in refrigeration facilities care about brand, vibe, and experience just as much as anyone shopping at a grocery store. ㅤ Kyler Nixon sits down with Jeff Hedrick, Director of Brand and Marketing at Keep Supply, to trace the full arc of how a startup industrial refrigeration parts distributor built a consumer-grade brand from scratch in one of the least glamorous corners of B2B commerce. From a sole-entrepreneur operation selling parts out of a home workshop, to 150 employees and a national fulfillment center, the story is less about the product and more about the people who need it and what actually earns their attention. ㅤ The conversation covers the origin of their pro-wrestling-inspired Parts Mania campaign, what it means to build a brand around a commodity, why trade show booths matter more than most distributors think, and what comes next with contractor-focused strategy and the Keep Pro loyalty program. ㅤ 👤 Guest Bio Jeff Hedrick is Director of Brand and Marketing at Keep Supply, a Springfield, MO-based e-commerce-first distributor of industrial and commercial refrigeration parts. He began his career in advertising at The Marlin Company, then served as Creative Director at Convoy of Hope before joining Keep Supply as one of its earliest employees. He's spent the last several years building a brand known as much for its wrestling puns and custom merch as for next-day parts fulfillment. ㅤ 📌 What We Cover How Keep Supply went from a home-workshop sole-proprietorship to a national distributor, and why the founders' software background shaped their e-commerce-first model from day oneWhy Jeff saw a commodity product as a brand-building opportunity rather than a marketing dead endThe thinking behind the rebrand from Industrial Refrigeration Parts to Keep Supply, including the grocery store aisle walk that led to the nameWhy Keep Supply started at the facility level, targeting technicians and operators before going after corporate procurementThe origin of the Parts Mania campaign, how it borrowed from pro wrestling, and why grandiose showmanship was exactly right for the momentThe full campaign roster: Parts Mania, Parts Camp, Spring Parts Classic, Partstock, Parts Ball, Parts Madness, Parts Pick 'Em, Parts Wood Derby, Parts to Table, and moreHow trade show booth activations became a core part of Keep Supply's go-to-market after the pandemicWhat "make every part rewarding" actually looks like in practiceThe contractor relationship: why Keep Supply views contractors as customers, not competitors, and how they're building programs around thatThe forthcoming Keep Pro loyalty program and the shift from transactional promos to annual account retentionWhy B2B SMS and loyalty programs that flopped a few years ago are worth revisiting now ㅤ 🔗 Resources Mentioned Keep Supply — industrial and commercial refrigeration parts distributorEurolink Fastener Supply — metric fastener distributor, mentioned by Kyler in the context of trade show brand-buildingReinders — previous DGD guest; cited for their B2B loyalty program execution (featuring Jackson Orin, Marketing Manager)Forward Studios — Kyler Nixon's company, presented by DGD

  3. Jul 7

    Four Acquisitions. Three E-Commerce Platforms. One Team to Figure It Out. (with John McMillian from Solve Industrial Motion Group) | Ep. 44

    Most manufacturers know what they sell. Solve Industrial Motion Group is in the middle of figuring out how to tell people everything else they can do. VP of Marketing John McMillian joins Kyler Nixon to talk through a pivotal moment: Solve acquired four companies in roughly 60 days in 2025, shifted from a bearings-heavy portfolio to a full drive solution provider, and jumped from about 5% US manufacturing to 25-30%. Now they need their web presence to catch up to the business. ㅤ The conversation covers Solve's decision to separate its brand site from its e-store, a no-AI content strategy backed by an engineer-turned-product-marketer, how to measure brand equity when views don't tell the whole story, and what a distributor's relationship with EDI means for e-commerce traffic. Plus, John closes with a story about a joke of the day that proves customer data beats best practices every time. ㅤ 👤 Guest Bio John McMillian is Vice President of Marketing at Solve Industrial Motion Group, a Charlotte-based manufacturer of engineered bearings and power transmission components backed by Audax Private Equity. He joined Solve in October 2024 after serving as Director of Marketing at MacLean Power Systems and spending more than a decade in marketing leadership at General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems. He holds an MBA from Wake Forest University and a BA from Elon University. ㅤ 📌 What We Cover Why Solve is building a separate brand site alongside its e-store, and what two distinct customer journeys that's designed to serveThe "tripod" content strategy: brand site, vertical campaign systems, and a product marketer with an engineering background — and why all three tent poles have to stand togetherWhy John ruled out AI for Solve's content despite using it personally, and what credibility costs when you slip up once in an industrial audienceHow 15-year-old installation videos are still pulling thousands of monthly views on YouTube — and what that tells John about the demand for educational content in manufacturingThe $250,000 benchmark for a dedicated videographer and edit suite, and how John is building the business case before the budget is thereTwo web metrics John reports monthly to make the case for brand investment: competitive sessions/users benchmarking and traffic inflow/outflow patternsHow EDI is becoming a real force with distributor customers, and why deep EDI integration can quietly cannibalize e-commerce traffic without anyone noticingWhy a joke of the day on a product footer drove inbound calls when it disappeared — and what it says about knowing your customer ㅤ 🔗 Resources Mentioned Solve Industrial Motion GroupB&B Manufacturing — acquired by Solve; source of the Todd Talks video seriesHubSpot — Solve's email and marketing automation platformOptimizely — e-commerce platform for legacy SolveBigCommerce — e-commerce platform for one of the acquired brandsFaith Tank, Zip's AW Direct — referenced by Kyler as a prior guest example of in-house content expertiseAmanda Clark, Barron Equipment Company — referenced as a prior guest doubling down on SEO

  4. Jun 30

    No Money In The Bank, Just Assets And A Dream (with Nick Muscari from Factory Cleaning Equipment) | Ep. 43

    Four months before the call that nearly ended it, Nick Muscari's company was the one getting praised at every weekly meeting. Great gross margin. Strong cash flow. The favorite little side company. Then the parent distributor collapsed, the assets went to a competitor, and Factory Cleaning Equipment was set to be liquidated. ㅤ Kyler Nixon sits down with Nick Muscari to walk through a company takeback, front to end. Nick had 48 hours to decide whether to try buying the business, one phone call to the original founder, and two weeks to close the deal in cash. The reopening took about 45 minutes. Nobody missed a paycheck. ㅤ This one covers what it actually takes to save a business on a deadline, why a profitable company can still end up on the chopping block, and what Nick is building now that the ropes are off. ㅤ 👤 Guest Bio Nick Muscari leads Factory Cleaning Equipment, a floor-cleaning equipment dealer and service company with locations in Aurora, Illinois and the Carolinas. He started in the distribution industry at Jon-Don in 2008 in customer service, worked his way into sales and sales management, and later joined Factory Cleaning Equipment to build its sales team. In May 2025, he helped the original founder buy the company back and relaunch it as Factory Cleaning Equipment, LLC. ㅤ 📌 What We Cover How Factory Cleaning Equipment went from being the praised, high-margin division to days away from liquidationThe 48-hour window to decide on the buyback, and the dinner six months earlier that made the founder pick up the phoneClosing the deal in cash inside two weeks, reopening under a new name with about 48 jobs savedRebuilding a field sales team in 2020 while everyone else went inside, showing up with a mask on instead of cold calling from a deskWhy a locally based industry makes national expansion the wrong play, and the decision to drop 11 locations and refocus on Chicagoland and the CarolinasPromoting a driver and a service technician into territory managers, and why the next leaders were already on the routeWhere Nick is placing his next bet: autonomous floor-cleaning equipment ㅤ 🔗 Resources Mentioned Factory Cleaning EquipmentExtreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

  5. Jun 23

    Why "We Sell Everything" Is the Hardest Position to Defend in 2026 (with Kevin Fielder from Iron Mountain Refrigeration) | Ep. 42

    What does it actually look like when a small distributor decides to go deep on one product instead of wide across a whole market? That's the question at the center of this episode. Kyler Nixon sits down with Kevin Fielder from Iron Mountain Refrigeration & Equipment, a Wisconsin-based commercial refrigeration distributor that has deliberately stayed in its lane while the industry around it keeps expanding in every direction. ㅤ The conversation moves from private-label brand strategy to frontline service culture to the case for owning your local market before you try to compete nationally. If you've been wrestling with whether to niche down or grow out, this one will give you something to think about. ㅤ 👤 Guest Bio Kevin Fielder is part of the sales and business development team at Iron Mountain Refrigeration & Equipment, a family-owned commercial refrigeration distributor based in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. Iron Mountain stocks and sells their own private-label brands, PeakCold and ProCool, directly from their 50,000 sq. ft. warehouse, and recently added True Manufacturing to their lineup as an authorized highline distributor. The company serves restaurants, bars, cafes, convenience stores, grocery stores, and anywhere else commercial refrigeration is a daily necessity. ㅤ 📌 What We Cover Why Iron Mountain chose to stay strictly in commercial refrigeration rather than expanding into adjacent product categories, and how that decision shapes everything from warehouse operations to customer retentionThe mechanics of owning your own private-label brand: controlling manufacturing, cutting out middlemen, and being able to troubleshoot product issues in-house over the phoneHow Iron Mountain partnered with True Manufacturing to serve the premium-tier buyer without losing focus on their core house brands, PeakCold and ProCoolA real customer service story involving a wrong-door refrigerator, a same-day swap in February, and no restocking feeHow leadership culture determines whether frontline reps will make a judgment call or wait for permission, and why Iron Mountain runs a non-revolving-door teamThe Wisconsin initiative: a deliberate local-first growth strategy built around trade shows, Tavern League of Wisconsin events, and face-to-face relationships before going nationalWhy running a 30x20 booth next to a 700-foot competitor at a Las Vegas trade show isn't a growth strategy, and what to do insteadExploring Spotify advertising for targeted local reach, and Iron Mountain's upcoming podcast, Keeping It Cool with Iron Mountain ㅤ 🔗 Resources Mentioned Iron Mountain Refrigeration & EquipmentTrue ManufacturingTavern League of WisconsinJasmine Widmer at Industrial Supply (Episode 29 of Darn Good Distributors)Spotify advertising for B2B local reach

  6. Jun 16

    The Outsider Who Changed Everything (with Marlee D'Arco from Safety Services, Inc.) | Ep. 41

    Most distribution leaders say they're open to change. A lot fewer have actually been forced to rebuild a 70-year-old company from the inside out, with no industry background, during a pandemic, before buying out their own family to take ownership. That's the situation Marlee D'Arco walked into when she joined Safety Services, Inc. in 2019. ㅤ On this episode, Kyler Nixon and Marlee go deep on what change management actually looks like inside a real distribution company: not the textbook version, but the version where people quietly check out, where the acquisition team is shocked they can wear jeans, and where the only way to create lasting change is to build it around a clear answer to "why us?" ㅤ 👤 Guest Bio Marlee D'Arco is President & CEO of Safety Services, Inc. (SSI), a third-generation, woman-owned industrial safety distributor headquartered in Kalamazoo, Michigan, founded in 1948. Before joining SSI, she practiced law, ran a healthcare marketing firm, and worked as a specialty pharmaceutical sales representative at Allergan. She joined SSI in 2019 as Chief Strategy Officer, drove a full technology and operations overhaul through COVID, and completed a family buyout to become owner and CEO in 2022. SSI is a nationally certified Women Business Enterprise (WBE) and distributes PPE, safety training, engineered fall protection systems, and gas detection instrumentation. ㅤ 📌 What We Cover How Marlee entered a third-generation family business with no industry experience and the early distrust she had to earn her way throughWhy she became obsessed with SSI's value proposition before COVID hit, and how that obsession set the company up to survive the commodity crunch that followedThe signals that too much change is happening at once, including how they usually don't get voiced directly but show up in energy and moraleHer framework for self-selection: making objectives and requirements clear enough that people opt in or opt out without a blowupThe three criteria she used when acquiring a local competitor: technical skill, margin insulation, and low competitive densityWhat she learned the hard way about communicating before a change, not afterThe "blended family" dynamic that comes with an acquisition and how cultural differences play out in surprisingly small waysHer warning to independent distributors who are digging their heels in: reluctance to change is probably the fastest way to erode what you've built ㅤ 🔗 Resources Mentioned Safety Services, Inc. (safetyservicesinc.com)Good to Great by Jim CollinsNo BS Strategy by Alex M H Smith

  7. Jun 9

    How to Build a Digital Roadmap That Leadership Will Actually Fund (with Sam Schwartz) | Ep. 40

    Most distributors don't have a digital roadmap. They have a list of projects someone wants to do, a budget fight waiting to happen, and a general sense that they're behind. Kyler Nixon sits down with Sam Schwartz, B2B ecom expert, to walk through a real framework for building one. Sam presented this process at B2BEA in Scottsdale, where the RICE prioritization method she introduced reportedly had every person in the room writing it down. This episode gets into the meat of that: how to actually uncover what customers need, generate ideas worth acting on, attach financial outcomes to those ideas, and then rank them without politics getting in the way. ㅤ 📌 What We Cover Why voice of customer is a spectrum, from five-minute phone calls to Google Analytics, and why you need both ends to make sense of anythingHow to write survey questions that reveal actual customer behavior instead of just confirming what you already believeWhy your technology vendors are an underused idea source, including how asking a Shopify rep for a site audit surfaced features the team didn't know existedHow to build a business case when the ROI is fuzzy, using product data enrichment as a worked exampleWhy presenting conservative, target, and aggressive financial projections is more useful than a single number, especially in front of a leadership teamThe full RICE method (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort): what each variable means, how to score them, and how the formula produces a priority ranking you can actually defendWhy effort scoring should include every team involved, not just ITWhy roadmapping is a cultural activity, and why change management is the part no framework fully solves

  8. Jun 2

    From 1% To 15% AI Traffic In Three Months (with Bob Goodliffe from Cyberweld) | Ep. 39

    Cyberweld has been in business since 1938, online since 2000, and is watching AI-referred traffic climb from 1% in February to 15% this month, with 25% expected by summer. Kyler Nixon sits down with Bob Goodliffe, fourth-generation CEO of Cyberweld, to get into how a welding distributor builds product pages, runs retention, and survives a platform migration. Bob's philosophy on product copy hasn't changed in 25 years, but it turns out the same approach that helps his customer service reps answer questions is exactly what AI search engines reward. They also get into rewards programs in B2B, email as a retention tool, and the two-year organic hangover from migrating off a legacy platform. ㅤ 👤 Guest Bio Bob Goodliffe is President and CEO of Cyberweld, the online welding supply business operated by J.W. Goodliffe & Son, Inc. Bob is a fourth-generation family employee. His son and daughter are fifth generation. The company started in 1938 in Elizabeth, New Jersey as a traditional welding supply distributor. Bob took it online in 2000 with 50 SKUs and went fully online in 2016 after selling the gas distribution side of the business. Cyberweld now operates from locations in New Jersey and Mesa, Arizona. ㅤ 📌 What We Cover Why Bob built Cyberweld's product pages for his customer service team and how that same approach turns out to be what AI search wantsThe 1995 marketing conference moment that put Bob five years ahead on e-commerceHow AI-referred traffic at Cyberweld went from 1% in February to 15% this month, projected at 25% by summerA competitor running AI-generated product copy with disclaimers admitting the content may not be accurate, including on a $5,000 welderWhy specs belong in the first 200 characters of a product page and marketing fluff does notCyberweld's two-prong retention playbook: phone number on every page plus email replenishment to a 350,000-person opted-in listThe reality of a rewards program on skinny industrial margins and how the math actually worksThe two-year organic search hangover after migrating off a 20-year-old e-commerce platform ㅤ 🔗 Resources Mentioned CyberweldEpisode 15 with Jackson Orrin from Reinders (B2B loyalty program deep dive)Miller, Millermatic 200Kyler NixonBob Goodliffe

See All (47)

Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

Darn Good Distributors is the podcast for B2B eCommerce professionals who are tired of fluff and ready for the real stuff. Hosted by Kyler Nixon, each episode features conversations with boots-on-the-ground leaders—from CEOs and marketers to operators and digital pioneers—who are redefining what success looks like in B2B distribution. You’ll hear practical strategies, hard-earned lessons, and honest takes on what’s working right now. Whether you’re scaling your company, rethinking digital, or just trying to stay sharp in a rapidly evolving space, this is your home for insights that actually matter.

Information

  • Creator
    Forward Studios
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    47
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Forward Studios
  • Show Website
    Darn Good Distributors

You Might Also Like