Industrial Marketing Summit 2026 Preview with Brendon & Wes
Want to get ahead of the biggest marketing trends shaping manufacturing in 2026? In this episode of Stop Being the Best Kept Secret, we dive into a preview of the Industrial Marketing Summit 2026 with none other than Brendon Forrest and Wes Temple!
Brendon is the Director of Accounts at Gorilla 76 and host of The Manufacturing Marketer podcast. He turns complex B2B manufacturing stories into smart, clear marketing strategies that fill pipelines. A National Guard veteran, Brendon knows how to keep things focused and mission-driven.
Wes, a Marketing Strategist at Gorilla 76, helps manufacturers move fast and communicate clearly. He leads demand-gen efforts, driving millions in revenue, and knows how to simplify strategy, enabling teams to create work that connects and converts.
They are teaming up to share a sneak peek into the Industrial Marketing Summit 2026, where top minds in manufacturing marketing will gather to shape the future of demand generation, digital presence, and growth strategies. Brendon and Wes will walk us through the biggest trends, session highlights, and why this summit is the event for forward-thinking manufacturers.
Key Highlights of Marketing Trends Shaping Manufacturing
• Introduction and Personal Backgrounds 0:00
• Heroes and Influences 1:18
• Career Paths and Military Service 7:08
• Gorilla 76 and Industrial Marketing 14:24
• Industrial Marketing Summit 2026 27:51
• AI in Marketing 40:28
• Final Thoughts and Closing Remarks 43:19
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Transcription
Damon Pistulka 00:00
Okay. Hey, Damon, happy Monday, dude. How are you, man, I’m doing great. Curt and ready to go for this. It’s gonna be, it’s a short week, but it’s gonna be a good
Curt Anderson 00:08
week. Oh my goodness gracious, dude. I didn’t sleep a wink for this one today, so I am absolutely thrilled, honored. What a privilege. We’re here with my dear friend. Wes temple, Wes How are you, dude,
Wes Temple 00:19
I’m good. I’m good. I’m excited to to be here today. I’m excited to talk about what we got going on for IMS. I think it’s really exciting.
Curt Anderson 00:25
And you guys had no idea what you’re getting into. Joe was just like, hey, just like, we feel bad for this guy. Just jump on the live show. Right? Is that what the message you got? Right? Brandon, how are you, man? What’s happening?
Brendon Forrest 00:36
I am doing great. No snow yet up here in Minnesota, but really ready for some Thanksgiving turkey. So, yeah, it’s gonna be a good
Curt Anderson 00:43
one. Yeah, nice. Awesome. Alright. Well, go Vikings, go brown. So much, right? So that’s alright. We’ll dive in. So before we we’re going to talk about industrial marketing Summit. Today. You guys have a great workshop, great session coming up. We’re going to do a deep dive there. I want to do a deep dive into gorilla 76 but before we go there, let’s take a step back in time. So I have a I have different questions for each of you. I’m going to go alphabetical. Brendan, you ready before? W right? Damon, is that right? That is okay. So Brendan, here’s Wes. I have a totally different question. Brendan, here’s your question. Ready? Yeah, when you were a little guy growing up, you’re a little guy growing up, who was your hero? Who’d you look up to? Who did like, who was just the rock star of your life? Loved you unconditionally. Who was your hero?
Brendon Forrest 01:31
Oh, man, that is a good question. Um, you know, I think easy answer is dad, obviously, but I think I had some really good I’m not going to name any names, but I had really good coaches growing up. I played a lot of football, played a lot of baseball, and all those guys were really instrumental, I think, in making me the man I am today. So shout out to all my football and baseball coaches. It was, you know, that was big part of my life growing up, was playing sports and so, you know, having like another male authority figure outside of dad was was a really good thing for me.
Curt Anderson 02:06
Well, I absolutely love it. So two questions, number one, what’s dad’s name? Please. Dad’s name is Bill. Bill. What? What made Bill such a phenomenal dad? Um,
Brendon Forrest 02:15
he just had a really great work ethic. Um, you know, he was a blue collar construction guy, owned his own business for a while, subcontracted for a long time, and, you know, he just kind of set the bar for, you know, getting out and working hard, but then, you know, being a dad at the end of the day. My mom worked nights, and so I had a lot of time with him in the evenings, you know, a lot of, like, Domino’s Pizza dinners and stuff, yeah, but so he, you know, just really hard worker. Didn’t say, I love you a lot, but you could just tell, yeah, he could, because of, you know, how much care and effort he put into us, you know, bring us to football practice, baseball practice, throwing the ball when he could outside. And then, just, like, high standards, like, didn’t let me slip. He knew, like, you know, he’s a good student. Like, I, like, one memory burn in my brain was me walking with a late assignment slip to one of my football coaches in like, almost been, like, fifth or sixth grade, and my dad said, hey, if Brendan comes back to practice with another late assignment slip, he’s not practicing with you anymore. And so, like, like, just gonna let me, like, slip on anything was really tough that way, which probably made me not a big fan of him, like, going into my teenage years, but like, looking back on it now, like that was, that was really good stuff for for me to, like, build my work ethic and how I treat my kids now, and maybe I do a little soft with them now. You say I love you a lot more, but yeah, he was a, he was a, he was a great man, and I miss him a lot. So yeah, it’s, yeah, he’s a good dude. Well,
Curt Anderson 03:43
beautiful, thank you for sharing that big shout out to our friend Bill, for being just a wonderful dad. I’m sure he passed on a lot of traits. Yeah, you’re raising your three beautiful kids, and so kudos to you. That’s awesome, and that’s a great testament to what a wonderful young man that you are. Mister temple, are you ready? Or sitting down. I have a totally, completely different question for you. Are you ready? I am. I’m kind of nervous, but I’m ready. Okay, here’s the question. I lied. It’s not a different question. Glass, when you were a little guy growing up, who was your hero? Who did you look up to, who showered you with unconditional love, man?
Wes Temple 04:17
I mean, I think the easy answer, again, with with Brennan, is my dad, but I think if I look outside of that, just like Brennan, it was really important to to me and my growth and my development, to have male role models outside of that. And I played sports, I was not very good. So it was not my coaches, but there was, there was two men at my church growing up who really poured a lot into me, especially my teenage years, when I didn’t really want to listen to my parents at all, but they walked with me, and, you know, they really cared about me in my life and my development, and actually, one of them now is, is still my. A, you know, professional and personal mentor as well, because he does marketing. So it it all worked out in the end.
Damon Pistulka 05:05
Nice, awesome.
Curt Anderson 05:06
Any any names, just give a shout out. Any names that you want to give a shout out
Wes Temple 05:10
to, the one that that I still keep in contact with, really, he’s actually a speaker at IMS. It’s Eric Seiberling, and then Chris was the other one, personally growing up, awesome, you know what?
Curt Anderson 05:23
Well, I’m going to be hitting up Eric to be a victim I mean, to be a guest on our live show pretty soon. So I’m glad you shared that. I might, I might. I might shamelessly name drop. Yeah, hey, West West temple told me to reach out to you. So, yeah, hey, Damon, we got a couple friends here. Something by saying
Damon Pistulka 05:39
hi, yeah, I do. Hey, Terry, thanks for stopping by. Said thanks for sharing. Thanks for dropping the comment today, and we got Muhammad in there. I am a fan of my dad as well. Yeah, there’s a lot of people out there like that.
Curt Anderson 05:50
Did we catch your dad’s name? By any chance Wes
Wes Temple 05:55
my dad’s name is also Eric, actually, all right. So why Eric’s in my life?
Curt Anderson 05:59
Eric and Bill. So hey, you know what? And they just, they sharpen our edge to be good fathers ourselves. And so I just, I absolutely love that. So Brendan, let me come over to you. So alright, you have Bill, tons of sports. As a matter of fact, I think I saw on your LinkedIn. So first off, guys, welcome Happy Monday. Welcome to stop being the best kept secret. We’re here today talking about the industrial marketing summit with two rock star speakers and Damon, if like, people need to be at the industrial marketing Summit. Do they not like, can you Yes, yeah, right
Damon Pistulka 06:27
now there, if you’re, if you’re in B to B manufacturing, industrial space, you need to go to the industrial marketing summit 2026, in March of next year.
Curt Anderson 06:36
I’m just, we’re just saying, but you’re going to get a little sliver of it. So, Brendan, I saw you played football. You played football in college. I did
Brendon Forrest 06:44
for a couple years. I red shirted at Bemidji State, up in northern Minnesota, and then I transferred down to the University of Saint Thomas. Nice. They were d3 when I played, but now they’re d1 so, so I love d1 athlete. No, what position I was. I was a tight end.
Curt Anderson 06:59
Nice. So let’s go here. So your college sports guy, Dad, just all the things going on, what attracted you? Did you see yourself kind of getting into Oh, and you know what? Before I go with that question, National Guard, I want to give a shout out. Thank you for your service to our country. What inspired you? I’m going to dive into your career, but let’s talk about National Guard first. What inspired you to join the National Guard?
Brendon Forrest 07:22
Yeah, so it’s kind of funny. So my I have a long history of service in my family. I had a grandpa that was in the Air Force, stationed in Iceland. My other grandpa was in the Navy. Can’t remember the name of a ship, but he sailed somewhere in like the Northern Pacific. Both served around the time of the Korean War. My dad was in the Marine Corps in the early 80s. He was a single man. It’s, I always like, was like, I’m not going to serve. I don’t want to do that. Remember, kind of like laughing at the recruiter in high school. So, you know, all that kind of stuff, and I’m just going to go be a college guy and play football. Well, go to St Thomas, you know? So it’s private Catholic University in St Paul Those are expensive. I got to figure out how I’m going to pay for this, because, you know, there’s no scholarships available for d3 athletes. So I was like, Alright, let’s do this. So went and talked to the Navy recruiter. I could not do push ups back then. So they’re like, how we we’re not going to take you. But I was coming up in like, oh, wait, oh, nine during the surge in Iraq, so the army was taking everybody. So, yeah, I had a conversation with the with the army. So I joined the ROTC program at the University of Minnesota. So eventually ended up contracting, signed a contract with the National Guard. So I got, you know, full tuition at Saint Thomas got, you know, room and board and all that’s like, all the financial stuff was taken care of. That was really, like, the motivators, like, I just need to pay for college, yeah, yeah, and, yeah. But it worked out. And, you know, it’s, like, one of those things too. It’s like, well, I’ll join the ROTC program. I’ll go be an officer for a couple years, and then I’ll get out. And then here I am, 16 years later, with two deployments to the Middle East. And, you know, I got, I got a major oak leaf on my chest now. So it’s been kind of a wild ride. It’s been really good though. Learned, learned a lot. There’s a lot of lot of people in the guard that have been very influential my life, too. And it’s, I think it’s helped my civilian career a lot. But yeah, so just hit 16 years this this month.
Curt Anderson 09:20
Well, hey, round of applause, my friend. So congratulations, well done. God bless you for serving. And so, hey, Wes, did you hear him say, paid for college tuition? Brendan, can you talk to my daughter? I’m just teasing.
Brendon Forrest 09:34
We’ll talk about that offline. One paper, piece of paper you gotta sign. And yeah,
Curt Anderson 09:39
they take 18 year old, alright, so we’ll talk later, see if my daughter might say. But anyway, Brandon, did you ever see yourself going into when you were in college, like, Hey, I’m gonna be this B to B marketer. What’s that look like? Um,
Brendon Forrest 09:50
so when I was in high school, I was in like, the business club. I was in deca, so, you know, like, like, going to do competitions on, like, marketing plans and stuff. Uh, kind of funny that, you know, that’s where I was back then. But I, like, went down to Atlanta and presented a marketing plan for car shop. So I was kind of, like, I knew I was going to go into marketing. I just, like, really picked it up the B to B side, though, it was just like, happenstance, right? Like, you go to Marketing. I think a lot of us are like, oh, man, I want to go work for, you know, big consumer brand, or, you know, big, big, fancy agency that’s doing commercials and all that stuff. And kind of just found myself after college, you know, looking for a full time role. And Graco incorporated out of Minneapolis, was looking for interns. So that’s kind of what started me down the path. And then, just by luck, like, you know, I my contract ended with Graco. I did some, or some officer training with the guard came back. They weren’t looking for a full time role, but I found a full time sales role. You know, I think a lot of marketers kind of take that path, like, not a lot of marketing jobs, but go do sales for a little bit. That was a B to B manufacturing company called proto labs, found out I don’t like doing sales, don’t like being on the phone. Found another job in our B to B manufacturing company. So I was a coordinator there for like, four years, a small company called micro control company out of Northern Minneapolis, and was there for four years, and then went back to Graco, you know? So it’s just like, it just keeps happening. So by that time, I was like, Well, I guess I’m a B to B manufacturing marketer, and, you know, I found, found gorilla, and it’s been history. So it’ll be four years with Gorilla next month, yeah? Just like, it’s just, like, one of those things. I never saw myself. It just how life happens, I guess. Yeah,
Curt Anderson 11:27
you’re the accidental marketer. So Wes, if I’m not mistaken, your OU grant grad, and for friends out there, like, who’s ou? Well, Wes, what’s the best Halloween party on the planet?
Wes Temple 11:39
You know? You know to be, to be honest with you, I was there my senior year actually was covid. But over the years, when I was there, it was, it was pretty crazy freshman and sophomore year, but junior year, it really died down, like it’s just slowly kind of declining. I don’t know if it’s, you know, I don’t know if it’s picked up a lot more, but it’s, it’s definitely crazy for Halloween. There still
Curt Anderson 12:01
so so for friends out there, Ohio University in Athens Ohio, it’s, it’s a, it’s a wonderful, historic College, long time college. And if I’m not mistaken, you’re a Communications major. And so when you were at OU, did you kind of see yourself, you know you’re in Cleveland, great industrial, wonderful legacy of of industrial companies in Cleveland. Did you see yourself getting into the B to B space marketing wise? Or what did you What’s that look like?
Wes Temple 12:25
No, I mean, not at all. So coming out of high school and even growing up, I wanted to make movies. It’s not too late, right, but so I picked ou, and I went to OU. I’m from a pretty small town in west central Ohio. I picked ou because the scripp school of journalism and communications is like number two, number three in the country, behind Syracuse and Mizzou. They’re always kind of interchange with each other, yep. And so during my time there, I was heavy into video production, worked for some TV stations, did a lot of sports video production, had a couple different internships, and I was actually interning with with NFL films when covid hit, and then covid hit, and like a lot of other people, I lost my job, and I, you know, moved home and everything had to, had to finish up school. And what I learned was I really still had a passion for it, but I don’t know if what it looks like from a real career sense, as far as the happiness of people working in it. You know where you have to live to be able to have these opportunities? I didn’t know if it made sense for my life, especially as I was looking to get married and everything. So I graduated, I got my first job. I thought it was a video production job, but it was actually more of a kind of multimedia position at a B to B trade publication in downtown Cleveland. I growing up, Cleveland was like this mythical, far away place, like three and a half hours from where I grew up, and
Speaker 1 14:05
ever Cleveland. Yeah, exactly.
Wes Temple 14:08
I never, never thought I would, I would be here, but it’s where my wife and I got jobs after covid. And so I did that for a little bit, and then went to an agency that was in B to B, and a lot of my clients, if you’re familiar with with RPM, that was a really big client that we had a Cleveland who does a lot of industrial things and products. Then I went to a commercial construction company that worked across the country doing not only finished carpentry, drywall, steel framing, things like that, but also clean rooms, radiation shielding. And so I’ve been in B to B for a while, and then, you know, came over to gorilla to kind of get back into that manufacturing space that I enjoyed when I was with my other agency. It took a lot of the lessons that I had from that previous role in that construction job, and now I’m here so awesome.
Curt Anderson 14:57
Well, wonderful story, man, I’ll tell you. Cleve. Is a great city, so congratulations, you and your wife and just wishing you tons of success. Brandon. Do us a favor for folks. We keep talking about this gorilla thing. Yeah. Alright, hands on. Best name in the manufacturing B to B. Marketing space, gorilla 76 your owners, dear friends of ours, been on the show multiple, multiple, times. Massive respect, lots of love for your team. And we’ve had multiple teammates of yours on our show, Brendan, who is gorilla 76 How do you guys make the world a better place?
Brendon Forrest 15:30
Yeah. So we are the industrial marketing agency. There aren’t any others. Are there? There are, but we don’t talk. No, yeah. So, you know, John and John and Joe started the company back in 2006 and so we’re coming up on 20 years next year, which is pretty, pretty incredible. So big shout out to John and Joe for for running the company for this long. And, you know, it’s very successful. So it’s, it’s been cool, we, you know, over time, you know, I think they started, you know, doing, like, local stuff in St Louis, but over time, like, they just started to see, like, oh, we actually, like, really working in the GDB space, and in particular, you know, we like working with the manufacturing side of things. So, you know, started as kind of general marketing agency a couple college guys, basically, like, you know, out of their garage, you know, on the weekends and stuff from their full time agency jobs. And it’s just, like, morphed over time, you know, I think, you know, I think, you know, we talked a lot about positioning and messaging, and this is like one of those things where it’s like, we’re just going to niche down into the thing that we really like doing. And, you know, really good people make good money with them, really interesting marketing problems that we get to solve. So, yeah, just kind of like really focus in on the digital side of things, demand generation, brand building, performance marketing, you know, really good content writing, kind of, like, those are our specialties. And I’d say, like, I was attracted to gorilla just because of how open they were when, you know, I was looking for a new role. Like, this is how you do marketing. Like, you know, I was, like, one of those guys. Like, I was with, you know, my first real marketing job. I was a marketing team of one, and then I got to Greg, a little bit bigger company, and I had, you know, a couple product marketers and a channel marketer that I worked with. And, you know, you just kind of do the thing where it’s like, all right, you just take the orders from the sales team and the boss and, all right, well, I’m just going to be a brochure maker guy that with no InDesign experience, learn how to do InDesign and illustrator so you can, like, make brochures on a shoestring and oh, now you gotta do this trade show. So it’s just like, you know, all these tactics, right? I was like, there’s a better way. I feel like, you know, I did marketing in my undergrad. I eventually got my degree, my my graduate degree in marketing was like, I didn’t learn how to do any of this stuff. Like, execution wise at school, you know, it was all like, you know, it’s good theoretical brand like stuff, but you don’t like, how do you do digital marketing today, and how do you do demand generation? And so I found, you know, back then, we called it industrial marketing, live was run by Matt shanella. And I was like, man, they’re like, just giving you the playbook. And, oh, hey, honey, I’m on a call right now.
Speaker 3 18:00
Awesome. Wow. That was awesome. So, yeah,
Brendon Forrest 18:03
just so open with information, you know, you go to the website and there’s, like, all these blogs, IML, you know, now we have the manufacturing marketer that I host, just like giving away all the information that a marketer needs to run their to run their marketing program. And so that was cool. And the people here just really cool, you know, it’s Midwest based, you know, I’m up in Minnesota, but the company’s out of St Louis, you know, West is out in Ohio. So, like, is, is Ohio, Midwest, I will say it is for the show. So I just feel like, I think we’re making the marketing world a better place by just giving, giving out the information, you know, yeah, nice. Help with with the strategy and execution side of things. Obviously, like, we’re here to help run programs for companies and help them, you know, hit the goals that they have said, and like, support these marketers that are out there on the front lines, you know, one two person teams. So, yeah, I really love working for this company. People are good. John and Joe are great. Yeah, I think we’re just like, trying to make the marketing world for manufacturing just a little bit better every day. Little bit better every day, just making a little better. And you know, the industrial marketing summit definitely a big part of that now.
Damon Pistulka 19:08
And and you talk about one thing I really love about gorilla 76 is, like you said, and I believe this as well. Just share everything, right? Share everything how we do it, the playbook, whatever you want, because there are some people that that’s really going to help, and there are some people that that want to work with you, and want to work with somebody, because they don’t have time to do it, they don’t want to learn how to do it. They have more important things to do. And I just think this is such a great way to do it. You know, I was just on your site again this morning preparing and so much great information on there.
Curt Anderson 19:43
Yeah, it’s perfect. I’m going to grab their website real quick. We got a couple comments. Terry says, Hey, congrats. I respect you. Say factors are exactly the same in eight How about you guys sitting down? What Wes, you’re still sitting down? How about, Oh, lovely. Like, what? Her, Peyton, one of my favorite individuals on the planet is here today. Peyton, what a rock star she is. Wes keep the ball rolling. Matter of fact, if you guys don’t mind, I’m going to pull up her website. And what we talk about, you know, a lot of marketers will say, like, you know, hey, you know, we’re the kids with we’re the cobbler kids with no shoes, right? Yeah? Marketing for other people. But then you go to, like, our website, or this in and out of the speed, I’ll tell you, gorilla 76 like Damon was just saying, you guys, I’m going to pull up your website, but Wes, what would you continue on from what Brandon saying about, like, what makes, how do you guys make the world a better place? What’s so amazing about gorilla 76
Wes Temple 20:38
Yeah, I mean, I think even Damon to kind of touch on your point, what you were calling out about Brendan, I think that there’s, you know, a lot of people in the space who say they’re experts, right? They’re experts at marketing, they’re experts in the manufacturing field, but a real common denominator is that they don’t show it publicly, right? And I think that begs the question, Are you really an expert if you’re not showing your expertise? And so I think that’s why you know how we talk about marketing, how we give away our playbook, how we’re giving away this information to enable people to be more successful, is what actually makes us experts in the field. And when I think that it’s really important, if you’re you know, with any company, if you’re saying we can get you these results, we can do these things for you. Well, we need to make sure that we actually do them for ourselves, right? And I think, yeah, a huge part of that is, of course, all the media properties that we have where we’re sharing information. I mean, again, we just talked about Peyton, but Peyton, seriously, is amazing. As far as working on our brand, maintaining our brand, putting out content, and really putting out a really solid foundation for us, for marketing, to demonstrate our capabilities and show that you know, the things that we’re saying to you, the KPIs we say we could hit the different foundational work that’s super important for your website, for video, for your brand, we’re actually doing it for ourselves, and so you can actually see and trust that what We’re saying we can deliver for you. We already have delivered already.
Curt Anderson 22:05
Yeah, absolutely love it. And so here you see, like Joe’s got his marketing executive podcast. It’s a wonderful, incredible podcast. You guys have the collective and just all sorts of wonderful information. So guys again, connect with these guys on LinkedIn, go to the gorilla 76 website, and you’re going to see all sorts of great information. Let’s check out their learning center. So how about this? You know, all sorts of wonderful information. Let’s go here. So, Brendan, what you let me stop sharing. Give me one second. Let me come back to you guys. So, Brendan, what would you share? Like, What’s your specialty? So there’s a manufacturer out there, like, hey, you’ve really picked my curiosity, my interest. Like, what is like a really sweet spot for you? And why? Why should they be reaching out to you as soon as possible?
Brendon Forrest 22:52
I would say the thing that I’ve been really thinking about over the last year, so is probably positioning and messaging. I think it’s just like that is the thing that I think separates a lot of industrial companies. You know, that is the thing that lets you drive price, lets you kind of drive the market. I see a lot of manufacturing companies that don’t do a good job of talking about their value proposition, and they end up competing on price. They commoditize their product and their service, you know, they end up on Thomas net. They end up on xometry, you know, all these other, like, catalog kind of situations, you know, like when I was, like, when I was at Graco, you know, like we were in the Grangers, we were in the McMaster cars, you know, on motion, you know, all these big national distributors, and you’re in there with all the other, you know, like I was in the pumps division. So, you know, we have the arrows and the wildens and all these other brands, and you end up just like, man, what is, what is making my pump different than these five other brands? And, you know, over, like, since I’ve been a gorilla, but especially over the last year, my thought is, like, man, really like having a solid position. And, you know, we talked about this on industrial marketing collective live last week. I think most companies have a position, right? Like, we all know, like, here’s the product I have, here’s my ideal customer, here’s generally who I compete with in the marketplace. They miss the last piece, though, they miss, like, what is the thing that makes me different? What is the thing that actually drives value? And I think that is, like, really, what that what your message is. And we just, we fail to, like, understand the problem that our ideal customer has. Like, what is the thing that keeps that engineer, that manufacturing operations, person up at night? We don’t do a good job of telling that story, and then we don’t do a good job of telling them. Well, here’s the ideal outcome, I know you’re trying to get to, and then here’s how I’m going to help you get to it. It’s, you know, you go to a lot of manufacturing websites, and it’s just bullet points of lists and features and technical specifications. You’re putting a lot of equalness on your buyer to. To connect the dots, and they don’t want to do that. Like, there’s too many options now, especially, like, man, you just go into like, Gemini or chat GBT. Like, yeah, who’s the best welder in Minnesota? Like, you’re gonna get a big list. Like, how are you competing against that list? Your message is how you do that. So that’s what I’ve been really thinking about over the last year, is, how do we elevate our value proposition to convince people that we are the only choice. And I think there is the piece here too, where you know, once you understand the message, now you can start building a content strategy that targets that message and positions you as the expert and the thought leader in the space. So when somebody thinks, I need a welder, oh, I need you know Brendan’s welding company.com because he gives me all this information for free. Otherwise, like, I’m at the mercy of a Google search, or I’m at the mercy of some result in chat. GPT, no, I want people like, Hey, I don’t really have experience with Brendan. I learned a lot from his YouTube channel, his LinkedIn, his website. You should go talk to him if you need a heavy welding problem. Like, that’s kind of like, where I see like, yeah, that having that message in that position is, is critical to a really strong marketing platform that drives revenue and profit,
Damon Pistulka 26:06
yeah, and just letting, first of all, so many manufacturers and industrial companies don’t even have the content to even start to do that, right, because you’re talking about Brendan’s welding, and if Brennan’s welding, like You said, had had some good YouTube videos explaining things and like, like you guys are doing, explaining different pieces of marketing and and just really letting people learn first of all from you, and then get to know you in the process. That’s such a huge relationship building piece that we miss in industrial and marketing companies that don’t really embrace the fact that, hey, you know, I was part of the the years of sales people going out and visiting everyone that’s that’s behind us until someone gets to know us online, learn from us and get and get real comfortable with we’re the choice, Hopefully, or one of two, or maybe three at the most, before they even start to talk to us exactly. And it’s just so critical now, and it’s not hard. It’s just to get that strategy so great.
Curt Anderson 27:13
What you said? And Terry says, yeah, yes, exactly. And then he drops a brilliant and so here you’re getting a nice confirmation again. Guys, we’re here. We are dear friends from gorilla 76 you want to stop by their website connect with these two fine young gentlemen on LinkedIn. Wes, I’m going to slide into the industrial marketing Summit. But anything that you want to piggyback off of what Brendan just said for that manufacturer out there, or from a gorilla perspective, your expertise, anything you want to share, and then we’re going to slide right
Wes Temple 27:40
into the summit. Yeah, I would say, as far as, just to add to what Brendan said, really, for people who might be watching this and say, you know, oh, is this me? I need to work with Gorilla. I think another thing is, we see it a lot in the industrial sector, and B to B in general, really, where it’s kind of random acts of marketing. And so, you know, if you’re a B to B company who’s tried to hire the marketing coordinator, tried to go to a couple trade shows, try to run some Google ads, and things aren’t working, really, where we specialize in, where our expertise in is being a partner coming in and strategically looking at, You know, what are the goals and the challenges that you’re trying to work through? You know, whether that’s over a year period or what have you, and then, you know, what are the actual tactics that apply to that strategy? And I think that with the, you know, B to B in general, the industrial segment miss a lot of that strategy. And so I think that’s where we’ve kind of planted our flag, and really had success, is is working to actually implement a solid strategy that’s going to work, and you’re going to start seeing that that return on investment when you look at marketing,
Curt Anderson 28:52
yeah, yeah, phenomenal point. Absolutely love it. And so as we’re coming to the top of the hour, if you’re just, if you’re just joining us again, we’re here with Brendan, and Wes, we’re going to dive into the industrial marketing Summit. Wes, while you’re at it, could you please share with folks, what is the industrial marketing Summit? I’m going to grab the website. But why? What? What is the industrial marketing Summit? And why does everybody have to be there?
Wes Temple 29:14
Yeah, I mean, I think IMS, when you boil it down, is the in person gathering, the in person element of all of that expertise that is being shared, all of those different communities that we have online with people who are involved. This is kind of the culmination of all of that. And so we’re bringing together not only all of our internal expertise, but also a lot of thought leadership and expertise out in the industry on a variety of different topics. And it’s meant to be a summit where people who are working in these fields, who are working as those marketing coordinators, as those sales people, as those operational people, can come and can learn and can be with a group of people who are working in the same. Environments who might have the same challenges as them, and who might be able to just build a relationship and be more ingrained in manufacturing and in B to B, because it’s a wonderful community. And I love when there’s where there’s new people that are being brought to the fold. And so it’s just like I said, to say it succinctly, it’s a culmination of all of our expertise, external expertise, and all those communities that we’ve built over time.
Curt Anderson 30:27
Yeah, and I’m telling you, man, it’s just such a great time. So let’s go. You know what? Brendan, I don’t know. Do you know any any particular speakers I know, like, I know there’s a couple of handsome guys that might be speaking at the conference. Do you know of any in particular that I can be speaking at the conference this year.
Brendon Forrest 30:43
I’m gonna have to give you one second. Put me on the spot here. I can’t remember. I cannot remember. Oh, I was really looking forward to Rand fishkins keynote. That’s gonna be really great. You know, he’d been, he’s been doing a lot of work, like digging into the AI kind of stuff. So I think that’s gonna be really good. I’m really looking forward also to to Dale Bertrand discussions. He’s also doing a lot of AI, very interested in, like, how, you know, folks are actually using AI. So Dale’s actually doing a workshop, and he’s got a he’s got a talk as well. You know, we got video marketing happening. Emily Ting, a big, big friend of industrial marketing collective live, she’s going to be there talking about distribution programs. Josh Rosman was just on industrial marketing collective live with Peyton and talking about, they have, like, he’s got, like, a branded cartoon mascot, and so, like, our, how is he using that character to help build his brand? So there’s gonna be, there’s gonna be a lot of really great talks. You know, it’s a lot of the talks are from people that are in the trenches doing marketing too. So it’s not just us here up at the agency. It’s like people that are in manufacturing companies doing marketing at a really high level, you know, like things like, I have a hard time talking about these days, like, I haven’t run a distribution program in four or five years, but Emily’s doing it every day, so she’s going to be up on stage and talking about how she’s doing that. So it’s going to be really fun to sit down. It’s me, actually, my first one too. You know, I missed the last two because the army commitment, so my first time going down to Austin with the team. It’s going to be a good time.
Curt Anderson 32:15
Well, awesome. And so Wes this, this gentleman here, Craig was just on our show on Friday. He’s a he’s a fellow Clevelander. So Craig coffee is in Cleveland now. Wes I’m going to pose a question to you that I posed to Craig. Are you familiar with any particular guys, any two handsome guys? They’re going to be speaking like doing a workshop of any type. Do you know any particular names or thoughts? What are your What are your comments,
Wes Temple 32:37
sir, you know not. I not. I think about it. I think maybe you’re sitting setting Brendan up to talk about our workshop, but I wasn’t. Was, oh, no, not Am I correct on that one? No,
Curt Anderson 32:46
I’m just asking for a friend I’ve just seen. If there’s any you know, like anybody in particular, but no. But now that I’m looking at this, there are two particulars. Yeah, handsome. Now look how much more you know what Damon, I can’t help myself, ready. Now look at the three mustaches, right? And now look what he looks like without the mustache. So I’m going to come back to share my screen. So Wes just talk a little bit about this. How did your workshop come up? Come about? And what can just give us a little sliver because they have to go to the industrial marketing Summit, by the way. Damon, we haven’t we have a coupon code for everybody out there, right?
Damon Pistulka 33:23
B2Btail.com B2Btail.com all
Curt Anderson 33:27
small letters. And so if you type in when you go to check out today, get out that credit card before Christmas shopping starts, right? Or any of the holiday shopping, or anything out ahead, or buying your turkey for Thanksgiving, go out and go ahead and book yourself for the industrial marketing Summit, and we have a little coupon code B to B, tail drop down to coupon code when you check out, and you will save a few dollars. Wes tell us a little bit about the workshop. What can they expect at your workshop?
Wes Temple 33:52
Yeah, absolutely. I don’t want to give give too much away, but really, where this, you know, kind of came from and originated from, really, is we’re seeing a lot of the companies that we’re working for and working with, really with marketing, are also struggling on the sales aspect. And I think you guys know, just working in B to B that a lot of B to B companies say we have a great sales process. And then you, you know, you look at the sales process and you think, wow, there’s a lot of different areas that we can improve. And so sales enablement and sales has come up a lot with a lot of our customers, and it’s been a really awesome opportunity for gorilla internally to add another dimension to what we’re doing and how we’re strategically helping our customers. And so our workshop is going to focus on a couple different things, as far as sales enablement. Number one, is starting to work on and change mindsets and thinking about sales enablement, right? I think it’s very easy to be in your silo of I’m in marketing, I’m in sales. There’s not much crossover until our boss makes us. Or sales request something of me or complains about the leads, and the list goes on and on and on, but yeah, I think it’s important to change the mindset. And then number two, we want to look at, okay, how do you strategically think about sales enablement, not just making brochures, but actually creating impact, just with market like, just like with marketing, excuse me, with specific things, and then we’re going to enable you to do that. We’re going to give you a framework on how to do that. And then finally, work with you and talk through some different action items that could come off the back of that to take what you’re learning and using in the workshop and actually apply to your company to drive measurable results.
Curt Anderson 35:41
Love it. All right. Thank you, Brendan. What do you want to
Brendon Forrest 35:43
piggyback on? Yeah, I think I’ll just say Wes has been doing some yeoman’s work since coming on to gorilla, he’s been kind of working on the sales enablement product, so he’s been thinking about this a lot. So I’m really excited to have him get up in front of the group and and lead us in this. Is this, this, this important discussion on enablement, you know, my not hot take on this topic is manufacturing marketing is really just sales enablement. Like almost everything I do is to enable the sales team to go out and close deals. Yeah, you know, it’s not like, you know, you see a lot of the B to C stuff on, you know, marketers running e commerce plays on Instagram and Facebook and YouTube and all this stuff. And you don’t need a salesperson there, right? Like they’re closing deals out of, you know, performance marketing and but it is a whole system here, in in the B to B side, you know, we’re talking months long sales cycles a lot of times. Yeah, we’re talking equipment that, you know, 100 200 $900,000 million dollar, plus pieces of equipment. You know, we’re talking buying teams that have like 15 people in it. We’re talking like, you know, engineers and operations people and buyers and finance people and company leadership all like, on their different social media platforms. And then, you know, there’s the, you know, we have distribution networks. We have internal sales teams. There’s just a lot going on to close deals in B to B manufacturing. And so we have to, like, create a system that allows us to support the sales team in a way that they can close deals, close them faster, hit their goals. And so I’m excited to have this conversation so it’s not a hot take, you know, B to B marketing is sales enablement, like those. It’s almost equal everything I do, like, you know, earlier I was talking positioning and messaging, well, man, if I can, like, have a really good, solid position and message that enables my sales team to go out and find the exact right accounts that are going to be the ones that really need the solution to, you know, to solve their, like, most, most difficult problems. So, you know, we’ll talk about a little bit of that, but yeah, we’ll really dive in. Like, one the rubber hits meets the road. You know, at the mindset, strategy and tactics level, how the do you as A, B to B marketer go out and support your sales team and hitting their sales goals? You know, I think when I look back on my career, it’s, it was always those moments where, man, what am I doing to help the sales team go out and have really good conversations? That’s what’s kind of propelled me forward. So I think this is a really important piece for us to think about. And like, Wes said, like, it’s a team effort. Like, if I go and build stuff in a silo, it’s not gonna have any effect on the on the on the top line or the bottom line. So I’m really looking forward to this conversation. You know, we have 90 minutes. We’re going to be in and out, but I think it’s going to be super impactful for those, you know, one to two person market teams out there. They’re trying to support large sales teams and distribution teams and all that.
Curt Anderson 38:32
Well, this is phenomenal. I’ve been to the last three industrial marketing summits, and I’d say they just keep getting better with each one. And again, number of our friends here, you guys want to catch Brendan, and Wes doing their workshop. Morgan was just on our show last week. She’s got a workshop coming up as well. You guys just mentioned that Rand Fishkin is going to be Brendan. You mentioned it. You know, speaker. I’ve been following this guy for a long time. If you guys haven’t read his book, it is phenomenal. Lost and founder. He was actually the founder of Moz and just a rock star in the search industry for many, many years and up and down. You know, from Dale to Jake was on the show a few months ago. Mandy’s going to be coming on the show. Jim was on the show not too long ago. Emily’s coming on. So, like all these folks, are going to be coming on our live show. Eric and so again, great speakers are going to be at in Austin, at the industrial marketing Summit. Alright, I’m going to come back to you guys. I’m going to stop sharing. Is there a reason I left out that people should not be going to the industrial marketing Summit. Should not be going. I mean, like, you just, you have to go and,
Brendon Forrest 39:34
like, like we said, like, the speakers are going to be great, and this is my first one. But, like, man, after, you know, after, you know, we get back, you know, the girl team gets back. Man, it’s just like, raving about, like, man, we finally get to meet all these people that we hang out with in zoom. Go get a beer, go get some barbecue, you know, go to the sessions. Go and like, but it’s like, man, there’s somebody else in the trenches with me. It’s hard to see that when you’re like, you know, that one or two person marketing team out there trying to do. Do all this work, and, man, am I by myself. I was like, No, you’re not, like, there’s a group of people here that are like, it feels like we’re all on this big team together. It’s, it’s a, it’s a really cool experience. And I love how, you know, there’s obviously a lot more industrial marketers out there that are not plugged into it, but, you know, it’s growing every year. But, man, it feels like, like a nice little like, yeah, it’s not a family, but it’s definitely a team of people that are all working together. And it’s just, it’s a good time. I It’s like the best people. I
Curt Anderson 40:28
couldn’t agree more, man, it’s the best, best opportunity for, you know, your solo marketer, kind of doing your own thing, just a great place, meet people, network, like you mentioned, barbecue, it’s great weather, and just, it’s a wonderful event. Wes, let’s start winding down one thing that we did not discuss, that be remiss if we didn’t AI. What is AI? What’s it? What’s it kind of look like? What’s the latest, greatest for you, from a grill 76 standpoint, what tips, advice you want to share for folks, from an AI standpoint, anything that you want to go go to there? Yeah.
Wes Temple 40:58
I mean, what a what a big topic to wind down on the
Damon Pistulka 41:06
land mine. You
Wes Temple 41:08
know, when we look at what we look at AI with Gorilla, you know, our, one of our co founders, Joe, says this and, and I really do, do believe it to be true. He says, You know, I don’t want to be the the person selling the horse and buggy next to the Ford plant. And you know what he means by that, really, is, as an agency, we’re really focused on, you know, AI is here to stay? You know, I think that is there a bubble? Is there a bubble? Is there not a bubble? It doesn’t matter. It’s here to stay in some way, shape or form, yeah, and it’s important, you know, if we say that we’re going to be the experts in marketing, in industrial marketing, we need to make sure that as new tools and technologies are coming out, we’re applying them in a responsible way and also a way that’s actually productive and beneficial. So personally, I’ve just been experiencing experimenting a lot with some different gpts to run through some different things to help my production and my workload. But you know, I’m sure Brendan, also, as well, has a couple of different things that he’s been trying. But you know, again, internally, it’s a priority for us, and I’m sure that we’ll talk about it more as we begin to unravel that and build some solid, foundational stuff in our workflows. Awesome.
Curt Anderson 42:24
Brendan, what do you want to share? Yeah, I just say
Brendon Forrest 42:27
I’ve been using it a lot to get me to be one of something that I can actually work off of. I’m not a very good at blank sheet of paper. Get my thoughts down. Yep. So that part of the, you know, the strategy piece, was always really difficult, but I can, like, you know, run a podcast, right? So, like, I could talk to a microphone for a long time, and so I can have a lot of thoughts that it helps me organize and get to a v1 that I can start editing from. So I don’t know if it’s like saving me any time, but it’s at least like helping me, like, organize my thoughts in a way that’s easy for me to digest and to share with the team. I am really looking forward to all the AI discussions that are happening. I think there’s a big opportunity to learn how to use it to do some analysis of, like, how our ads doing, how are campaigns doing? Yeah, I haven’t figured out how to do any of that yet, but, yeah, it’s a, it’s a big topic for sure, yeah. But for me, it’s mostly just like my little assistant to get me to be one, you know, go out and do some research, for me, all that kind of stuff.
Curt Anderson 43:22
Love it. And, hey, how about we got a little comment from your friend here?
Damon Pistulka 43:27
Yeah, even, what do we got? Bayton says, if you’re a solo marketer, you definitely won’t be alone at IMS 2026, lots of friendly folks that you’ll be in company with come and you’ll understand exactly why everyone said, says, I found my people.
Curt Anderson 43:43
Man, I couldn’t agree more, Peyton. And the thing, like, we it should almost be like the tagline for T shirts at IMS, like, I found my peeps and and I got to give a shout out to Peyton. So it wasn’t last year, the year before Peyton was like, just running the whole show. And I’m Tony Peyton, your work ethic, your the way you ran it. You were it was just, I was in complete awe, and you did an amazing, incredible job. I will never forget that. So big round of applause for Peyton for a great job. Great contributor to gorilla 76 and to IMS, the success. And I tell you, what I love is like, how true marketing and gorilla 76 here are two agencies that are running their businesses and just really dedicating themselves to get this. This is the go to conference for B to B marketers. Damon, your thoughts as we wind down and close out with our friends? What are your
Damon Pistulka 44:31
thoughts? Oh, I think it’s just awesome that we’re able to talk to Brendan and Wes here today about the industrial marketing summit 2026, and just really show people an overview of it, and then highlight what, what these two are going to be talking about. It’s going to be awesome. Because, as you said, Brendan and, and Wes and helping out there, you know that sales enablement is really what marketing is doing, B to B. Because you said all the things along cycle, the complexity of it, the complexity of the stuff you’re selling and, and, you know, and really. It is a, an interesting journey, that’s for sure. You know, such it’ll be so cool, so cool demon.
Curt Anderson 45:08
Did I mention there’s a couple, two, like, really handsome guys are going to be speaking to the did i I can’t, did I mention
Damon Pistulka 45:13
that before I’m getting, you know, I’m older, I remember, but, you know, I forget pretty easily. Anyway,
Curt Anderson 45:18
I know we’re, like, we’re not young guys anymore. We forget pretty so if I, you know, just in case, I just wanted, like, hey, there’s two guys that are giving this workshop, and it’s just gonna be awesome. So I just wanted to make sure, I couldn’t remember if I brought that up, Brendan must did I mentioned that before?
Speaker 4 45:31
I can’t remember. I think he missed it. So thanks. You’re saying we hit
Curt Anderson 45:35
Yeah, we’ll hit the replay and catch it again. So hey and Peyton says, Thanks. Curt and say, Hey, lots of love to you, Peyton, you and your family and wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving this week. So Brendan, let’s go here. We’re going to start winding things down, closing out. So any last words of wisdom, any parting shots, any any thoughts,
Brendon Forrest 45:53
yeah, the other thing I’ve been thinking about a lot recently is just iterate, iterate, iterate. Like, you know, for most of us, like we’re doing digital programs, right? Like, man, we could change our website copy, like that. Like, it’s, it’s pretty easy, right? Like, so I think it’s okay to go out there and do some stuff and experiment with stuff, and, you know, test, figure out a message, put it out into the world. You know, like we’ve been talking about, the main places are, update your hero on your website, get into your sales pitches and start, you know, weaving it into the content that you’re doing. And if it doesn’t hit, it doesn’t hit, and do it again. And just keep iterating on it till you get it right. Yeah, you know, maybe of, you know, a nice, highly produced video, or, you know, some sort like, you know, printed piece, you probably want things kind of buttoned up for that, but just for, like, all the digital stuff we’re doing, like, yeah, just keep iterating on until you find a thing that’s you find a thing that resonate be tied in with your sales team. Like, especially if they’re doing sales pitches with your message. Like, first off, make sure that they’re tied into you building the message, because they’re the ones that are talking to customers every day and then get their feedback in their sales conversations. Like, Hey, did was that problem? Like, some of that resonated? Is our solution resonating? You know, are we actually different than what our competitors are saying? So just be real tight on the sales team. Iterate a lot, and I think you’ll go go far with your programs. If you do
Curt Anderson 47:11
that, drop the mic. My friend, that was that was phenomenal. Wes, can you top that? What do you what do you got? As we close
Wes Temple 47:17
out, oh, gosh, okay, I don’t know if I can top that. But, you know, something I really believe personally, and I think it’s important we need to, we need to bring a little bit more of it into the manufacturing space, is we just got to move fast and break more stuff. Yeah, you know, when you’re looking at marketing, when you’re looking at sales, it is not one size fits all. There are a lot of things that work for a lot of companies that will not work for you. And so it’s important to get out there and try things, and if they don’t work, don’t be afraid to think of a different, a unique solution, something that could have real impact, because it’s important, and it also stretches you and helps you grow. So I think that’s something you got to work on.
Curt Anderson 47:56
Alright? Another drop the mic. Go out and break things. Man. Damon, we’re good at breaking things, right? We’re a little clumpy. Oh yeah, I’m pro at it. We can break things. So I guys, you know what I I’m I’m keeping you a lot longer tonight, but so I’m having so much fun, I don’t want to Alright, Damon, we got a one last question. You guys ready? Yeah, yep. Brandon, you’re sitting down. Okay, who’s a baseball fan? Anybody a baseball fan out there?
Brendon Forrest 48:18
I’ve been a baseball fan since like 2009 when the twins were okay. It’s
Curt Anderson 48:22
been, it’s been a while. Wes
Wes Temple 48:27
originally reds, because I’m from West Central Ohio, but also guardians, you know, I live in Cleveland. I got a root for him so
Curt Anderson 48:32
well, let’s you know what I started with, Brendan. I’m gonna go. I’ll go to Wes. Russ. You ready? All right? The Cleveland guardians. AK, the old the old tribe, right? So the Cleveland Indians are playing the dreaded Yankees. You kind of like you feel the tension, right? Yep. So it’s bottom of the ninth. There’s two outs, and there’s a guy on second base. Manager turns on the bench and says, Hey, Temple, grab your helmet, grab your bat, get up to the plate and hit in the winning run. Will you please? So bottom of the night, out of the night, two outs, Guy on second playing the dreaded Yankees. You grab your helmet, grab your bat. You’re walking up to the plate. What’s your walk up song?
Wes Temple 49:18
Oh man. Oh man, okay,
Wes Temple 49:29
I gotta do eruption by Van Halen. That’s dude.
Curt Anderson 49:32
You’re way too young for Van Halen. Yeah, David, we just, we just had somebody say that my dad used to play. We had AC DC a couple weeks ago. Yeah, Brendan, Yankees are playing the dreaded twins. Man, what’s your walk up song?
Brendon Forrest 49:56
Yeah, my we’re. Big hockey family over here. So, you know, we go to the rink. My kids ask for music, so I’m going to go with my son’s song right now. Master of Puppets by Metallica.
Curt Anderson 50:13
What’s more juice than that, right there. So, all right, guys, thank you great answers. I appreciate you playing wrong. So hey, how about if we wind as we wind down, if you’ve been hanging out with us, we appreciate you more than you can imagine. Let’s give our two guests a big round of applause. Thank you guys for sharing your expertise, your passion. Damon, what do you are you just fired? You ready to run through a wall or what?
Damon Pistulka 50:34
This is awesome. This is awesome.
Curt Anderson 50:36
Alright, we’re going to wind down so guys, thank you both. Thank you. Wes Thank you. Brendan, hang out with us for one second as we close out again. Just a recap, catch out industrial marketing Summit. 2026, 2026 you’re going to have an absolute great time. Wonderful workshops. In the meantime, connect with these fine young men on LinkedIn. They’re doing amazing, incredible work. And for everybody out there, big shout out. Big thank you to you and happy Thanksgiving. We wish you your family, a wonderful, amazing, safe and wonderful holiday. God bless you, and we will catch you. Damon, we’re off on Friday. We’ll catch them next week. Yes, we are. All right. All right, hang out, guys. We’ll see you. See you next time. Thanks, everyone. All right, guys.