Santo Pernicano on Liberty Fence & Supply’s Journey to Success | F&D Mastery Podcast #32

Santo Pernicano brings nearly 40 years in fencing across both the contracting and vendor sides, and served as president of the American Fence Association in 2013 — experience he credits as the single most important investment in his career.

Since Santo joined about five years ago, Liberty Fence & Supply has grown from roughly $5 million to $12 million (headed toward $15M) and expanded from three locations to seven across Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma.

The company leans commercial (about 70%) and uses subcontractors for roughly 90% of installs, deliberately seeking subs who want to run a business and enjoy the operational side rather than just sell their labor.

Their expansion strategy is 'person over location' — they find a strong branch manager or salesperson first, then bid work immediately since commercial contracts often don't start for a month or two.

Growth came down to ownership vision plus a disciplined, quarterly-reviewed plan; owner Kirby Reinhardt's drive to win paired with Santo's operational execution and relationship-building with the team.

Santo's core sales philosophy is to become the customer's 'fence guy' — never give a general contractor a reason to call anyone else by being responsive, knowledgeable, and never making them feel like an interruption.

They moved into digital marketing after recognizing it wasn't their expertise, guided by Kirby's principle that 'investing money is way different than spending money' — you measure the return, track KPIs, and tie leads to revenue.