The Grit Blueprint
The Playbook for Building Unmistakable Brands in the Built World
You can be the best in your market and still get passed over by a competitor who simply shows up better and more consistently where their customers are looking.
The Grit Blueprint Podcast is where visibility, media, customer experience, and creative brand strategy turn trust into growth in the built world.
Hosted by Stefanie Couch, a lifelong building industry expert born and raised in the business, this show explores how companies in building materials, construction, manufacturing, and distribution position themselves to win before the first conversation even starts.
You’ll hear from executives, operators, and decision-makers who are rethinking how they show up in the market. You’ll also hear from Stefanie and the Grit Blueprint team as they share the systems, strategy, and content that make good brands impossible to ignore.
Every episode turns insight into action. Because in this space, great work alone isn’t enough. You have to be seen, be known, be chosen, and ultimately, become unmistakable.
Produced by Grit Media. Powered by Grit Blueprint.
The Grit Blueprint
Beyond the Glass: Innovations and Hurricane-Proof Engineering with Jack Redden of ES Windows
Jack Redden, Director of Architectural Sales for ES Windows, shares how vertical integration and hurricane-resistant engineering have positioned the company as a leader in the glass industry. With 30 years of experience and a passion for the business, Jack explains how ES fabricates their own glass and extrudes their aluminum to deliver consistent quality products that withstand Florida's extreme weather conditions.
• ES Windows stands out through vertical integration, controlling their supply chain from glass fabrication to aluminum extrusion
• Hurricane impact testing involves shooting 2x4s from air cannons and cycling products through 4,500 positive and negative pressure swings
• Market diversification has been key to growth, expanding from high-rise condos to residential, education, and healthcare projects
• Conducting over 200 architectural lunch and learns has helped build brand awareness in new markets
• Product innovation continues to push boundaries with glass panels now reaching 18-20 feet tall
• GlassBuild 2025 in Orlando will showcase ES Windows' latest products including their new Structural Glass System
• The company recently announced a record-setting backlog of $1.2 billion in projects
Join us at GlassBuild 2025, November 4-6 in Orlando, Florida, where the glass industry will gather to showcase products, provide training, and offer networking opportunities.
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Grit Blueprint is a media and growth company for the building industry. We help ambitious businesses in the building materials and construction industries grow through visibility, storytelling media, and smart systems.
I have the best job in the company. I'm like a kid in a candy shop so many design options, so many different products. It's something I'm very passionate about.
Stefanie Couch:It's always amazing to me the human ingenuity of figuring out how to continue to grow and expand the limits of these products. 10 to 15 years ago, there's no way we could consider that we would have an 18-foot tall glass panel. But here we are in 2025 and this is what you're showing at Glassfield.
Jack Redden:You make a great point and what makes us unique versus a lot of our competitors is our vertical integration. We like to say we're our own supply chain and we deliver that product at a very competitive price point.
Stefanie Couch:Welcome to the Grit Blueprint podcast, the playbook for building unmistakable brands that grow, lead and last in the built world. I'm Stefanie Couch, the founder of Grit Blueprint, and I'm a lifelong building industry insider. I was raised here, built my career here, and now my team and I help others win here. The truth is, you can be the best option in your space and still lose to someone else who simply shows up better and more consistently Each week. On the Grit Blueprint, I'm going to show you how to stand out, earn trust and turn your brand into a competitive advantage that lasts. If you're ready to be seen, known, chosen and become unmistakable, you're in the right place. Let's get started. We are here today on site in Miami, Florida, and I'm here at ES. We are in person with Jack Redden Behind The Build is happening live. We are showcasing your amazing showroom here behind us. Welcome to the show. Thank you for joining me today.
Jack Redden:Thanks for having me. I'm looking forward to this. Thank you.
Stefanie Couch:Yeah, and you are actually the sales leader here in Florida, so tell me a little bit about you. You've been in the industry a long time. You're a pro on the sales side for commercial and residential products. Tell me about Jack and what you're doing here at ES.
Jack Redden:So my name is Jack Redden. I'm the director of architectural sales for ES Windows. I've been in the industry 30 years, which is a polite way of saying I'm getting old. I've been with ES now about three years. I'm based in Orlando, but I do cover the entire state of Florida in a business development capacity for ES and all of our lovely brands that we have here. So, on a personal note, outside of working hard, I like to play hard with my family and power, watch Netflix and travel and all that kind of fun stuff.
Stefanie Couch:Well, you were telling us earlier you actually have four daughters.
Jack Redden:I do. The baby is soon to be 12, and my oldest one is 28 and living in Boston.
Stefanie Couch:Well, my dad had three daughters. I can't imagine adding a fourth. You're quite outnumbered. And you even have a female dog.
Jack Redden:I do Our little Shih Tzu, who's five, going on six. She's the apple of my wife's eye. My wife has said many times if we're in a boat we're all getting pushed out. She's saving the.
Stefanie Couch:Shih Tzu, I can understand that it's me and five females, basically. Well, that's amazing, and you are here in Florida doing a lot of cool stuff with ES. Tell me a little bit more about ES and what they are offering in their product line.
Jack Redden:Well, the nice thing about ES Windows is just the breadth of the product offering. You mentioned commercial and residential. We play in both of those arenas quite robustly. Kind of what makes us unique versus a lot of our competitors is our vertical integration. So by that I mean, if you look at the primary components of commercial aluminum windows, you have glass and aluminum. We're vertically integrated, meaning that we actually fabricate all of our own glass in-house and we actually extrude our own aluminum and paint them with fluoropolymer finishes up to a 20-year warranty.
Jack Redden:So we like to say we're our own supply chain, and that's crucial to our customers because it really allows us to keep our lead times incredibly consistent. It also allows us to implement some pretty aggressive quality control mechanisms to ensure that that product that we're getting out into the field is of pristine quality. And then, most important for our designers and construction clientele and for their client, the developers, is we deliver that product at a very competitive price point. So just a lot of different product options. I have the best job in the company. I'm like a kid in a candy shop so many design options, so many different products and just the ability to go out there and promote them to design and construction professionals is something I'm very'm very passionate about.
Stefanie Couch:Yeah, and you guys have a beautiful showroom here. You have some showrooms in other places in Florida as well, and you have one in Charleston, south Carolina.
Jack Redden:We're getting close to your neck of the woods up there.
Stefanie Couch:Yeah, for sure, and that is really a hurricane zone. So is Florida, obviously. Talk to me a little bit about your hurricane and impact products.
Jack Redden:Yeah, well, that's kind of where we cut our teeth. Initially, I mean, es was synonymous with Impact windows. So going back maybe 15 years, it was primarily high-rise condos in Miami with just ridiculous design pressure requirements, structural wind load requirements. So that's kind of where ES kind of cut their teeth and then it's kind of trickled. We've really diversified our portfolio more into residential over the last 10 to 15 years, so it's more of a balanced portfolio. But we are first and foremost an impact company. We have over 100 Miami-Dade product approvals and Florida product approvals, tested to some of the highest wind zones on the planet, quite frankly. So there's a lot of engineering, a lot of testing, a lot of blood, sweat and tears that goes on kind of behind the scenes to get these products out into the market, to pass these rigorous codes.
Stefanie Couch:Yeah, let's talk a little bit more about that, because everyone in the US is not aware of how strenuous the testing is for things like this hurricane rating in Florida. Those that are in Florida it's second nature, but when I moved to Florida for a year and started selling products down here, it was really eye-opening to me. You have block wall construction, which is different than a lot of places in the US, and you also have a lot of high-rises and a lot of big buildings that are right on the coast. So tell me a little bit about the testing process that you guys go through. How does that work? What are the regiments that you go through to get these products to market?
Jack Redden:Fantastic question. Yeah, the Florida market is kind of unique in the United States. I mean, it really kind of all changed when Andrew came through in 92, and it really stimulated what we now know as the Florida Building Code. So part of the testing requirements for South Florida what we call the high velocity hurricane zone is we're literally shooting two by fours out of air cannons at these products, which is impacting the glass. We're cycling it through 4,500 positive, 4,500 negative pressures swings, so these windows and doors are literally breathing out in and out like iron lungs, these large panels.
Stefanie Couch:It's impressive, to say the least, that our design engineers can develop products to withstand two by fours getting shot out of air cannons yeah, and for those that have never experienced that in real life, it is one of the funnest things to see, because you don't realize how fast that's coming out and that's really what a hurricane is like. I've seen in a few different places and it is really fun. They haven't let me fire the cannon yet, so if you guys are, I would be very intrigued by that.
Jack Redden:I'll tell you what. We'll make a deal If you come down. We'll do like a David Letterman, Remember he used to do different things, so we'll shoot watermelons. We'll do some other stuff besides, two by four. We'll have some fun with it.
Stefanie Couch:I'm pretty sure that I can probably make that happen. That sounds like a large span of different customer bases. You have a challenging market here in Florida with the hurricanes and all the weather stuff you deal with. How are you solving challenges?
Jack Redden:for glazers and people out in the field that are putting in this product. Florida's a unique market, as we've said. I mean we were kind of fortunate after COVID. I mean COVID was a tragedy but the market itself became very, very white hot. Everybody was moving to Florida and builders could not keep homes on an inventory quick enough, they couldn't build them quick enough. Projects were being bought sight unseen. So it was really a seller's market. That has changed a little bit over the last couple of years, where the market has kind of stabilized that a little bit, and it's what I would call more of a stable market, you know, not necessarily a buyer's market or a seller's market, kind of in the middle.
Jack Redden:I think the challenge with our glazing subs and our dealer base is that, depending on what market sectors they cover and what segments they deal in, there has been a bit of a slowdown.
Jack Redden:So what I'm trying to encourage them to do to really mitigate any negative impacts of having all of your eggs in one basket, so to speak, is to kind of follow suit and do what EF did 15 years ago. We were high-rise condos, that was pretty much it. Over the last 15 years we've diversified into residential, into education projects, into healthcare projects. We've moved out of South Florida into different geographies so I'm encouraging our dealers to not put all their eggs in one basket. So if they're tied to just new construction home builders, well guess what? Those permits are down 11% this year. If that's where all your eggs are, potentially if you're riding the market, you'll be down 11%. So trying to get them to maybe jerk out into some R&R project work or maybe into some light commercial work and really just diversify their portfolio to mitigate any one sector or segment kind of drying up on them.
Stefanie Couch:Yeah, it sounds like you're pretty involved in trying to help them grow their business. Tell me a little bit more about how you do that. Are you doing trainings? How are you helping them to sell more product?
Jack Redden:Yeah, I'm a big fan of training. I think the better you know a product, the more professionally you can represent it out into the marketplace. So what we're looking to do is create folks that are what I call ES ambassadors, and that goes for whether it's a dealer that's selling our product. They certainly need to know the features and benefits and the YES pitch, if you will, but it also goes for architects who are designing and specifying products. I like to draw a parallel and distinction between brand awareness versus brand loyalty. Here in South Florida we have both. Everybody knows ES and folks are loyal to ES. As you trickle kind of north and certainly out of Florida, the branding recognition dissipates a bit. What I'm working is in central Florida and north Florida is to really grow that branding recognition and kind of what follows that is that brand loyalty. So we're having some good success. We're really growing into new markets. Like I said, central Florida has not been a historically strong market for us. We've closed several big projects this year, so our development efforts are working. It really goes down to training. So we like to train our dealers, make sure they're up to speed on the latest and greatest from ES. We also like to do a lot of what we call lunch and learns with architects. It's a big push that I've been making since I've joined ES. So over the last three years I've had the pleasure of presenting over 200 architectural lunch and learns for over 3,000 attendees. These are basically CEUs, meaning that architects get continued credit for this, but we also obviously feather in some nice what's new with ES type of thing. So these have been received very, very well. A lot of architects in Central Florida and different areas.
Jack Redden:I'll give you an example. I was just at an architect in Orlando on Tuesday for a Lunch and Learn 16 architects. I always like to poll the audience. Who here has heard of ES. I'm at Ziskevich in Miami with 16 architects All 16 hands go up. Everybody in Miami knows 16 architects all 16 hands go up. Everybody in Miami knows us. In Orlando, one hand out of 16 went up. So there's certainly opportunities in different markets to expand our brand presence and grow that brand awareness and brand loyalty. So that's what I'm really excited about is getting into these different markets that don't know ES as well, and I think teaching through Lunch and Learns whether it's at an architect's office or with a dealer training I'm all about education. I think education is a crucial part of how you grow your brand in a market, regardless of your audience.
Stefanie Couch:Yeah, that's a great point. I love the branding initiative. As a person who focuses on visibility and helps people in our industry do that, I don't think historically our industry has done a great job of that at all. I think branding and some of the things that are front facing with B2C or direct to consumer people do a good job, but especially around architects and people that more B2B presence we do a lackluster job of that. So I love that you're really going head on at that and trying to 15 lunch and learns a month or something like that is what you said you're doing. That's an amazing pace. What would you say to young people coming into the industry that maybe aren't sure how to develop business, that are coming in with the trainings? Is there a resource, something like a National Glass Association, that you use or tell people that are glazers, people like that that don't know how to sell these products? Is there a way that you tell people to learn more to grow their business?
Jack Redden:There's a lot of different resources out there If you're looking for targets to go. I mean, the AA has been a great resource for networking. I'm always a fan of, whenever you're with an audience, ask them who they're working with. So if I'm with a developer, I ask them you know who's your top five designers that you work with? If I'm with an architect, who are the top five developers you work with? You can build your network kind of that way.
Jack Redden:As far as actual training resources go, I mean there's a wealth of information available online ES our website even has some incredible training resources available Just a lot of technical information and data Specific to glazing subs.
Jack Redden:I know there's some certifications. I myself have what they call a CSI CDT, so I'm a construction document technologist, which is just a fancy way of saying I know how to navigate around the different phases of a project lifecycle, through schematic design, through design development, through final design and CDs, et cetera. So I think that's a huge credential that not a lot of folks getting into industry are taking advantage of. I think it really does help you understand the different phases of a product lifecycle and kind of how you can support those in different ways. So there's things as a manufacturer that we can be doing in the conception phase, that if you don't know what's typical of that, these feasibility studies, know what's typical of that, these feasibility studies. You can provide a lot of value add services to architects that are just looking for high level ROM budgets just to see if a product's even feasible for a developer before they invest a lot of time and energy designing something that might not pencil.
Stefanie Couch:Yeah, that's a really great point because I think a lot of times that we worry about the very last stage of the project so much and whether or not it's going to look good and all that. But it's figuring out how do you help them from start to finish, even pre-construction, pre-drawings that moment where it's a yes or a no based on hey, this is 50% higher than what we have spec for budget here. It's not even a conversation for this product line, but maybe there is another application and another product that could fit. That's a huge resource for people. If you're providing that, it's awesome.
Jack Redden:Yeah, absolutely. I always like to say engage us as early as possible. I'd rather find out in SD schematic design that we're, like you said, 50% over the budget than waiting until you're at 100% CDs, when redesigns cost more money. And, to your point, if we do determine that we are over the budget early on, there's a lot of things that we can bring to the table as far as value engineering ideas, and you'd be amazed um, maybe their panelized window wall if they shrink it just two inches. This way, we can go from a, an SGP interlayer, to a PVB interlayer and save ten dollars a square foot yeah some of these projects are 50, 60, 000 square feet.
Jack Redden:I mean, that's, that's a small, that's not a small amount of money that you're saving, so we can do these value engineering exercises and maybe approximate 95% of the design intent but maybe shave 20% off the budget and make the project pencil. So we love to add those services throughout the process.
Stefanie Couch:That's excellent. Well, I want to shift a little bit. We are both members of the National Glass Association and woo, let's go. We have a really exciting year coming this year because it is right in your hometown Glass Build 2025, november 4th through the 6th in Orlando, florida. So tell me how excited you are for Glass Build.
Jack Redden:Extremely excited. We get excited every year Me personally this year, as you alluded to, orlando is my hometown, so the greatest city in Florida. Personally, this year, as you alluded to, orlando's my hometown, so the greatest city in Florida. Not that I'm biased which I am but it's kind of cool to have it in my hometown. I think it's a great venue. It's a great location.
Jack Redden:Obviously it's central in the state of Florida, so we're going to get a big draw from all four corners of the state to Orlando, obviously a big focus on Florida products, impact rated products and I think we're going to get a lot of out-of-state and potentially international travel as well. Orlando's got a lot going for it. Maybe you've heard of Disney World and Universal Studios and Epic Universe now, so I'm hopeful that we'll get a lot of out-of-state and international folks coming down just to enjoy the Orlando experience but also partake in Glass Build. So it's a fantastic opportunity for us, obviously to showcase our latest and greatest products. We have some amazing new products that we're going to be launching at Glass Build, so the marketing team has put together an amazing booth. I saw the renders. I couldn't be more excited. The fact that it's in Orlando is just a bonus for me.
Stefanie Couch:I can't wait to come see it. Tell me a little bit about what you're expanding upon. I don't want you to give away any secrets, but what will you be showing at Glass Build that you can share with me early?
Jack Redden:Sure, yeah, no real corporate secrets, nothing like I don't have to do a men in black with a pen and make you forget about it. So it's heavily skewed towards our commercial product offering. We have a lot of residential products in our lovely showroom here, but glass build is really focused more on commercial stuff. So we'll be showcasing some of our curtain wall systems, some of our window wall systems. Some of the trends we're seeing commercially as well as residentially is everybody wants larger glass panel sizes. So you're gonna be seeing stuff that's 20 foot tall glass panels, just stuff like that.
Jack Redden:Our newest product that we're launching there is called our SGS, our structural glass system. So we're gonna show some glass fin products with that line. I think that one is about 18 feet tall. So you're gonna walk in and you're gonna see a lot of very, very big, big window wall and curtain wall panels and structural glass panels. Just a lot of sizing capabilities and very narrow profiles. Or, in the case of our SDS stuff, no aluminum at all. So just maximum transparency, just inviting all this beautiful Florida sunshine into your structures that we live and work in. And, just as an example, when you're walking through the showroom, we have some product in here. That's 12 foot tall. Just imagine almost double that in height.
Stefanie Couch:It's always amazing to me the human ingenuity of figuring out how to continue to grow and expand the limits of these products, because I think 10 to 15 years ago what we are doing now, it wasn't just impossible, it was unfathomable. There's no way we could consider that we would have an 18 foot tall glass panel. That doesn't even make sense to most people. But here we are in 2025 and this is what you're showing at GlassBuild. So congratulations to all these engineers who really make that happen and push the limits of physics every single day.
Jack Redden:Amazing team. Yeah, you make a great point. When I got into this industry 30 years ago, back in the mid-90s just look at sliding glass doors it was eight foot tall. Then it kind of went to 10 foot tall. Now it's 12 foot tall. Maybe 40 years from now it'll be 20 foot tall sliding glass doors, who knows? At some point it's got to stop. But it really is a feat of engineering.
Jack Redden:It's amazing what our design engineers do to create these products, not only at these sizes but to meet the ridiculous hurricane codes that we have here at those sizes with narrow or no aluminum profiles. It's just, it's mind boggling.
Stefanie Couch:So it definitely needs to be pointed out as a bullet point. We're not just doing this in the industry with the size, but with hurricane rated impact glass that can withstand a two before getting shot at it at you know, a few hundred miles an hour. So it's really crazy how this works, and kudos again to the industry for continuing to push. I do want to ask you again another question about NGA and National Glass Association. You've been in this industry a long time. You've seen a lot of things. What does an organization like the NGA bring to our industry that's helpful for you and the next generation?
Jack Redden:I think there's a lot of educational tools and I think just the ability to Glassworld's a great example. I'm a big fan of trade shows. I think any time you can get an audience of potential project influencers together to launch new products, it's just, it's invaluable. I mean it's priceless the exposure that you can get. So I mean I'm not sure how many folks will become through Atlanta, but I'm sure it's going to be north of a thousand, two thousand. Who knows, maybe you know what the data is.
Stefanie Couch:It's a lot. I think last year was over 8,000 people at Glassville, no-transcript speaking, and you're helping the next generation of glazers to sell more products and be better glazers and in the market. What excites you the most? Coming into 2025, going into 2026? What are you the most excited about?
Jack Redden:specific to work, or we're talking poker, world Series of Poker. No, I'm joking. I'm excited about a lot moving into the back half of 2025 and into 2026. We mentioned some of the new products, but I guess, if I had to put it into a single word, what I'm excited about is just expansion, and by expansion from a product standpoint, we continue to expand our portfolio of products and options. From a networking standpoint, we continue to bring on new dealers, we continue to network with new developers, architects, gc builders, so we're just expanding our network as well. And, at the end of the day, it's all about expanding market share. And that's really.
Jack Redden:We've done an incredible job over the last 15 years of diversifying that portfolio and getting into new markets that we wouldn't even have thought about 15 years ago. We're doing condo renovations in Naples, we're doing new construction hotels in Orlando, we're doing hospitals in the Panhandle. We're doing all these different sectors new construction, retro. It's a very healthy portfolio. So I guess I'm just really excited that ES is so healthy right now. It's just a stable company, financially stable, and just an incredible backlog. We just had a record-setting backlog announced at our earnings call of $1.2 billion in projects. So that speaks volumes for what 2026 and beyond looks like for us. So it's a healthy pipeline of opportunities and I think it's not by coincidence that you know that's on the heels of us doing all this developmental efforts with developers, gcs and architects and all these lunch and learns. It's really helped to build that very robust pipeline.
Stefanie Couch:That's amazing. $1.2 billion, that's impressive. Well, speaking of money and winnings, let's talk about a little fun fact about you. You actually are a world-class World Series of Poker Texas Hold'em player. Tell me a little bit about that.
Jack Redden:Yeah, it's funny and thank you for bringing that up. Yeah, it's one of my passions outside of work is? You know, one of my hobbies is going to the World Series of Poker every year with my best buddies and my brother. So this is five years in a row now that we've went out there. So I've cashed in eight different events over those five years. So I will blame my grandmother, who was actually a bad influence on me in my childhood. So I used to play penny poker with her and my uncles. She was an old Italian mother, but uh and um, I used to let her win until I became a little devious as a teenager. Then I started taking her money and she.
Jack Redden:She got mad and stopped playing with me, but um, so she kind of. I've been playing poker since I was, before I could read, honestly, so, uh, I've always had a passion for poker. The World Series of Poker is just something I look forward to every year. Typically, my wife and kids will go out with me. They spend time shopping and having fun and doing their thing, and daddy's at the poker table for 12 hours a day trying to win the million dollars. So we haven't hit the million dollar one yet, but we've had some deep caches and deep runs. So we'll see what 2026 holds.
Stefanie Couch:That's incredible. And when is the 2026 event?
Jack Redden:It's a six-week series, so it usually starts right after Memorial Day, through like mid-July. So I usually go out there for a week or two.
Stefanie Couch:That's super cool and I can tell you you did surprise me with the. Where did you learn and get inspired to be a poker player? With your grandmother? So that's, I didn't see that one coming, so that was always a lovely surprise to learn that she's the one that taught you. But if you win the million dollars, it'll be in her honor, so she'll be smiling down proud for you 100% yes.
Stefanie Couch:All the luck right. That's amazing. Well, thank you for sharing that with me. It's always fun to see. You know we work a lot and we all have these amazing professional careers, but there's so much more your daughters, your wife, your shih tzu that your wife loves more than maybe you and the kids and your Netflix and poker playing. We all have so much amazing things in the stories of who we actually are beyond the windows and the doors, even though we love them so much. So thank you for sharing that with me.
Jack Redden:My pleasure and I really appreciate you taking the time to come and look at our showroom and looking for the glass build.
Stefanie Couch:Absolutely, we will see you in Orlando, right in your backyard, and if you aren't planning to come to Glass Build, you cannot miss this event. November 4th through the 6th in Orlando, florida, and we are going to have products, people, training, all the networking and the industry here in one place in Orlando, florida, so don't miss it. Thank you for listening to the Grit Blueprint podcast. If this episode helped you think a little differently about how to show up, share it with someone in your building world who needs it. If you're ready to turn visibility into growth, then head to gritblueprintcom to learn more and book a call to talk to us about your growth strategy. Until next time, stay unmistakable.
