The MDM Podcast · 2026-04-09 · 14 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
56 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
Kevin Kegley's approach to IPS Packaging's social media strategy challenges the assumption that industrial distributors lack compelling content. Rather than highlighting stretch film, bubble wrap, or fasteners, he discovered that storytelling centered on people - their values, dedication, and everyday moments - resonates far more deeply with both prospective employees and customers. His first piece of content, featuring David, a 20-year warehouse employee meticulously cleaning, became a breakthrough moment that internally boosted morale and externally conveyed the company's commitment to detail and quality. This philosophy extends to recruitment: job seekers researching IPS on LinkedIn and YouTube now see stories of a family-owned, veteran-owned business celebrating 50 years of service, making the company attractive to talent seeking meaning alongside employment. As Google search transformed supplier discovery and AI continues reshaping how audiences find companies, Kegley argues that authentic human narratives - not product-focused content or AI-generated material - will differentiate brands. He recommends starting with nothing more than a smartphone camera, listening to stories within your own organization, and remembering that successful content is roughly 90% human story, 10% product mention.
He walked into the warehouse as a reporter looking for stories and found David, a 20-year employee, meticulously cleaning concrete floors with such care he bent down to pick up a dime-sized piece of debris. That moment became the first video, showing that 'the details matter,' which resonated both internally and externally.
Focus on the people and stories within your organization - capture moments of employees doing their work, celebrate company milestones like 50 years in business, highlight being family-owned or veteran-owned, and share culture moments that help prospects and job seekers see themselves working there.
Job seekers now research companies on LinkedIn and YouTube before applying, and seeing stories of real people enjoying their work and company culture makes the business seem like a great place to work, which video content about products alone would not achieve.
Kegley recommends roughly a 10-to-1 ratio, where about 9 out of 10 posts focus on human stories and culture, with only 1 post directly about products - so by the time you mention fasteners or stretch film, your audience already trusts and likes your story.
As AI-generated content becomes ubiquitous, authentic human stories and real moments from actual people will become increasingly rare and valuable, making brands that invest in genuine narratives stand out against AI-generated slop.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode centers on a repeatable insight - that B2B distributors have human stories worth telling - but develops it through a single anecdote (David polishing the warehouse floor) rather than multiple novel claims. The advice to 'find stories' and 'focus on people over products' is intuitive and somewhat familiar to modern marketing. There is limited unpacking of *why* stories drive hiring, customer selection, or sales lift beyond assertions of emotional connection.
everybody's got a story
it's not about the fasteners. It's about that person. It's about that story that can be told.
The core premise - that storytelling builds brand and culture - is well-established in modern marketing discourse. The guest frames it as novel discovery for B2B distribution, but the mechanics (humanizing the brand, leading with people, de-emphasizing products) echo widely circulated narratives. The Mel Gibson anecdote is a minor differentiator, but the broader framework lacks contrarian or first-principles thinking.
every distribution company already has a compelling story. They just have to find a way to tell it.
what will fail are people and stories
Kevin Kegley is a practitioner who has built a social media presence at a real company (IPS Packaging, 50-year-old, family/veteran-owned, $8T industry context). He has hands-on experience requesting budget, launching content, and measuring employee and recruitment impact. He is not a consultant or theorist, which is a strength, though his seniority level and scope of results are not deeply established in the transcript.
My guest today has spent the last few years building a social media presence for IPS packaging and automation.
I got so much feedback from my colleagues. They came up and they're like, man, that was great. That gave me goosebumps.
The episode offers one concrete example (David polishing the warehouse floor) and references a few specific details (IPS is 50 years old, veteran-owned, based in Greenville, South Carolina, the budget request for 'over 10 grand'). However, it lacks metrics on engagement rates, hiring lift, sales impact, or comparisons before/after content strategy. The Mel Gibson anecdote is mentioned but not elaborated. Most claims about storytelling's impact rely on assertion rather than data.
I put in a budget or a request for like over 10 grand.
Kevin Kegley of IPS for joining us... a family-owned, veteran-owned business based in Greenville, South Carolina, 50 years in the industry
Vesna asks reasonably structured questions ('what were you trying to convey?', 'what are they getting wrong?', 'how do you believe that the marketing landscape is impacting that brand storytelling?') and shows genuine curiosity. However, she rarely pushes back, challenge claims, or dig into contradictions. When Kevin asserts storytelling will outcompete AI or that one video got approval immediately, there's no follow-up on mechanism, ROI, or skepticism. The conversation feels more like a platform for Kevin's views than a rigorous interrogation.
What are they getting wrong when they have that freedom of mind?
I want to talk about the piece too, that in the same way that Google search, as we all know, changed how customers find and choose their suppliers and their distributors. I think so will AI.
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
Many distribution companies assume they're not interesting enough for social media. Kevin Keigley, Marketing Manager at IPS Packaging and Automation, disagrees. In this episode of the MDM Podcast, Keigley shares how he built a brand presence for a 50-year-old packaging distributor and emphasizes the power of storytelling in connecting with customers and attracting talent. Takeaways: Authentic storytelling builds brand trust and attracts top talent. Brand storytelling is more urgent than ever, especially in the age of AI and digital marketing. Kevin Keigley will be presenting "The Power of Storytelling" at NAW's SHIFT Conference in Denver on May 13. Register here:
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Vesna Brajkovic: That's a wrap on today's episode of the MDM podcast. Thank you to Kevin Kegley of IPS for joining us and for reminding us that the story was always there, is always there. Sometimes you just have to walk into the warehouse to find it. If you want to hear more from Kevin and get into the tactics behind everything that we've discussed today, he'll be presenting The Power of Storytelling at NAW Shift Conference to be held in Denver on May 13th.
We'll have a link to register in the show notes. Once again, I'm Vesna Brajkovic. Thank you for listening to the MDM podcast. Welcome back to the MDM podcast.
I'm Vasa Brajkovic, MDM's senior editor at NAW and the host for today's episode. Distribution is an $8 trillion industry. And for most of that history, it has somehow managed, despite its scale, to operate pretty quietly behind the scenes. Relationships, of course, were built in person and reputations were built over decades.
And now marketing is simply changing and evolving. Today's buyers research suppliers before they ever pick up the phone. And we've also heard that today's workforces choose employers based on what they see online. And of course, the conversation always goes to AI.
AI is reshaping how both of those audiences find the companies they work with. My guest today has spent the last few years building a social media presence for IPS packaging and automation. Kevin Keigley: Thank you, Vesna. It's a pleasure to be here.
Vesna Brajkovic: So I would love for you to kind of think back to when you first walked into IPS and you started to think, okay, how am I going to build a brand presence? What were you trying to convey before you even made first piece of content? it's one that doesn't look like a lot of others we see in the industry. Really, it's built on a simple belief that ⁓ every distribution company already has a compelling story.
They just have to find a way to tell it. Kevin Kegley is joining us today from IPS Packaging. It's a family-owned, veteran-owned business based in Greenville, South Carolina, 50 years in the industry, a nationwide footprint in packaging supplies, equipment, and automation. Today, he's giving us a taste of the conversation he'll be presenting at NAW Shift Conference, presented by MDM in Denver in May.
We hope to see you there. But for now, Kevin Keigley: That is a great question. And I remember arriving on the shores of IPS in October of 2022. And I had never in my life worked for an organization of that size.
So immediately I'm thinking, I don't know anyone. I don't know anyone's names. This place is giant. I'm in an office.
There's a warehouse out back. What do I do? And so after about an hour or two of kind of freaking out a little bit, just, landed on just do what you always do, which is Vesna Brajkovic: Hehehe. Kevin, welcome to the MDM podcast.
Kevin Keigley: just try to find a story somewhere. So I grabbed the camera that we had available at the time, wasn't the best, but ⁓ used what I had. And so I started walking around and almost like a reporter, just looking for a story. ⁓ And wandered out into the warehouse and I noticed a guy.
⁓ Vesna Brajkovic: Yeah. Kevin Keigley: At the time I didn't know his name, but his name is David. He's been with us for over 20 years, but he keeps all of our facilities in shape, in order. He cleans the floors.
He's in the warehouses all the time, just making sure that ⁓ concrete floors shine. So walking around and he's down at the end of this aisle with his polishing machine. ⁓ And just watching him for a minute. And I noticed he stops and he bends down with his fingernail.
He scrapes something up. and he picks it up and puts it in the trash and keeps going. I was like, was probably a dime sized piece of who knows what in this enormous warehouse. Yet in that moment, David saw that and I thought, man, the details matter.
Wait, the details matter. And so that was the very first video I did. And I think everyone was blown away at IPS because it was, it was their story and they didn't know it. The details matter at IPS.
And that is what is a differentiator. ⁓ it started just by looking for a story. And it was right there in front of me. Vesna Brajkovic: Yeah Right.
Kevin Keigley: warehouse with David who was just cleaning. It wasn't flashy, it wasn't about stretch film, wasn't about bubble wrap, wasn't tape, it was a guy. was man that has worked with us for years. Vesna Brajkovic: And this such a micro moment in his day that he probably didn't even realize that he did.
And it tells so much about the company as a whole. And like you said, this tiny moment in this giant warehouse and it's just, it shows so much this respect for your company and you know, having that brand presence, like we're talking about, you know, in every day. So I love that. ⁓ Kevin Keigley: No.
Right. Exactly. That was the beginning of it and it's grown since then. I put in, think within the first week, I just, I put in a budget or a request for like over 10 grand.
Like we need this. I've been doing this for a long time. Can we get these things? And I think that that first piece of content was like, yeah, I think this guy might have a vision for where we can go.
So it was approved, thankfully. Vesna Brajkovic: And I'm sure the engagement on it too, showed a lot, you know, it's like, okay, wait, wait, maybe there was something to this. Yeah. Kevin Keigley: It did.
And I think we did get engagement, but what really blew me away, and I think this is why I do this, why I tell stories, because it connects with people. I got so much feedback from my colleagues. They came up and they're like, man, that was great. That gave me goosebumps.
And it's like, well, it's your story. And I think that by telling a good story, by capturing that moment, everybody sat up a little higher in their chair. And they're like, you know what? Details do matter.
And I'm a part of that. I am aware of the details. And that's the kind of service that I can offer my customers. So I think not only when you tell a story does it resonate with people, but the people that are a part of that story.
it kind of boosts them up a little bit, builds morale. Vesna Brajkovic: Totally. It's all part of that culture piece too. It's a little bit of marketing, little bit of culture, kind of building the whole company as a whole.
Yeah. I think a lot of distribution executives I've spoken to in the field, you know, and they might be listening to this saying, okay, we're not a consumer brand. We're not flashy. We sell industrial packaging or we sell safety equipment or we sell fasteners.
Who wants to scroll through a video about, know, just this day to day. Kevin Keigley: A lot of heart too. Mm-hmm. Vesna Brajkovic: What are they getting wrong when they have that freedom of mind?
Kevin Keigley: Well, I would say first of all that that frame of mind is exactly right. No one wakes up saying, man, I really want to look into a video about fasteners today. Unlikely there might be one or two out there. know, people are, you know, we're across the spectrum, but typically ⁓ average human isn't waking up thinking about that.
In the problem is not thinking about much at all. But I as humans, we're always looking for connection. And I think that's what stories do. So to that executive that thinks, we sell widgets or you know what why would anyone care about our fasteners or whatever they probably don't however Chances are you have a story.
There could be someone that is packaging those fasteners or someone along the line somewhere in your warehouse, somewhere in your office that has a story that you could then sort of tie into a fastener. know, the fastener, that's a background character. Like the main character is this person that has a story, that has a story to tell. And it could be, it's their first day.
It could be they've been there for 30 years. That's a story to tell and that's something that can be captured very simply. You know, I know that I said when I got to IPS, we had an older camera that wasn't the best and I put in a request, but I've been doing it for a long time. So I know what tools I can use and what I can grow with, but it doesn't have to be expensive.
Chances are. ⁓ People have a phone and this phone probably has a camera on it. So you can just pick up your phone, capture five seconds of this person doing what they do, packaging the fasteners. You could talk to them for 10 seconds, 20 seconds.
You could take a photo. Regardless, it's not about the fasteners. It's about that person. It's about that story that can be told.
And anybody can do that. Vesna Brajkovic: And I think we're seeing more and more the that brand presence has, not just for the company as a whole, but also ⁓ attracting next workforce that's coming in ⁓ and really looking websites and looking at people's social media presence, whether we like it or not, or we think so or not. ⁓ I that is what's happening. ⁓ And that's another piece too.
Can they see themselves ⁓ at company? ⁓ Do understand what you do? Yeah. Kevin Keigley: That's exactly right.
Not only when you tell these stories are you hopefully capturing the ⁓ of ⁓ potential customer or partner, but you're also capturing the attention of top talent. have the privilege of onboarding new folks that come in and I always ask them what was your first encounter with IPS? And they talk LinkedIn, they talk about YouTube. And thankfully we're there and we're of those things.
And they have said this place looks like great place to work. Now would we have won them over by showing them stretch film? Maybe not. But if we show them stories of Vesna Brajkovic: I am.
Kevin Keigley: how my CEO Derek was in a film with Mel Gibson. We were soldiers. ⁓ They see him wearing a, if he really was, you can check it out. It's pretty funny.
But we can go into detail about that later. ⁓ But if you show people around the office just enjoying themselves, smiling, making a video with their colleagues, just having fun, they can see themselves there because everybody's got a. Vesna Brajkovic: Wow, really? You Kevin Keigley: Everybody's got to work to some degree.
Everybody's got to make a living somehow. if they can do it somewhere where they might actually enjoy themselves, ⁓ pretty attractive. Vesna Brajkovic: I want to talk about the piece too, that in the same way that Google search, as we all know, changed how customers find and choose their suppliers and their distributors. think so will AI.
And we've talked about this a little bit offline, but how do you believe that the marketing landscape is impacting that brand storytelling? I'm just wondering, is brand storytelling more urgent now than it has ever been really? Kevin Keigley: ⁓ I would think so. think being human going to be priceless going forward.
Because probably seen a spectrum of good AI AI slop. Some people think, well, I'm using AI. That does not mean it's going to be a banger. It could blow up in your face.
You could actually repel people. But what will fail are people and stories. ⁓ And telling that ⁓ Vesna Brajkovic: You Kevin Keigley: is going to build your brand. It's not necessarily your brand.
Your is going to help build the brand. You have to keep that in mind. So it's like, what story do we want to tell? know, again, going back to the fasteners, you're not going to lead with fasteners.
It's like, instance, IPS, it's a veteran owned service, disabled veteran owned company. ⁓ It's a owned company. ⁓ We we're celebrating 50 years this year. So that's a story to tell that set that says trust.
that says people that have showed up in the worst of times. And those are the moments and the stories that I glean from. I capture those moments because not everyone was in the military, not everyone been there for 50 years, but the people ⁓ up this organization ⁓ has been around for 50 years. And so that's the brand.
That is the brand that we're building. Vesna Brajkovic: And for a distribution executive listening to this who, you know, maybe they're convinced they're like, okay, but I generally don't know where to start and where to begin. Maybe they don't have a dedicated team yet, or they don't have the budget for it, or maybe they do. what's the first thing that you tell them to do?
Kevin Keigley: Much like my first day at IPS, it felt overwhelming. I didn't know anyone, didn't know where to begin, what I settled on was there's a story somewhere, so I went out to find it. So ⁓ we've established that typically everyone has a tool ⁓ their phone. ⁓ can capture photos, they can capture video.
⁓ go out and ⁓ something different ⁓ listen. Go the break area, go to the... ⁓ the place where people congregate, hang out in the warehouse, maybe ride along with a driver. It's not gonna cost you anything but a few moments or a day of your time.
And ⁓ that's I know, but ⁓ if take the moment to begin to listen and hear the stories that are all around you, there'll be many stories to capture. Then it will be, well, which one do I grab and which one do I wanna tell as I'm building ⁓ the brand our organization. Vesna Brajkovic: Amazing. Any, any final thoughts?
you would love to share with our listeners. Kevin Keigley: I just think that the beginning of time, everyone is connected with story. And we around campfires, ⁓ we shared ⁓ How'd the go? It was terrible, know, everybody laughs because they've been there.
So we all crave connections. We all want to relate as human beings. And the quicker you can get to that where you forget about products, because I know I've had those conversations. It's like, well, we don't have enough product that's on LinkedIn.
And that's for a reason. I would say just in general terms out of the 10. that I'm posting something where I want to engage with people, maybe one of them might be about a product. The rest of that is telling story where people begin to understand who you are, they relate to you, they trust you, they like your story, so that one time when you're like, we sell fasteners, they're like, me in.
So find your story, tell it, ⁓ get fans, because they'll be there. Vesna Brajkovic: Love that, Kevin. This has been a great conversation. I have a feeling that the folks in your shift session in Denver are going to walk away with a lot more inspiration, but also maybe some concrete tactics and strategies for maybe how to implement storytelling into their company strategies.
So thank you so much for joining us on the MDM podcast. Kevin Keigley: Absolutely, thank you, Vesna.
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