January 13, 2025 • 47 mins
Unlock the future of the rent-to-own market with our special guest, Brandon Jin from Living Essentials. Discover groundbreaking innovations like USB ports in headboards and massive soundbars integrated into fireplace TV consoles. Dive into the realities of navigating shifting demographics, inflation, and the unknowns of an election year, all while exploring how Living Essentials is strategically maneuvering through potential tariffs and the logistical challenges of the Chinese New Year.
Journey with us through the evolution of rent-to-own furniture and the fascinating transition from technical roles to customer-facing positions. Brandon shares his personal growth story, highlighting the role of mentorship and collaboration in shaping his career. From the novel concept of "Unfold Assembly" to the latest trends in home decor aimed at younger consumers, our discussion sheds light on how style meets functionality in modern living spaces.
In a landscape marked by unique challenges, hear about Living Essentials' strategic plans to enhance customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. From shifting warehouse locations to embrace flexible solutions, to navigating business dynamics in high-tax states like California and the burgeoning markets of Texas and Florida, Brandon reveals the innovative approaches that keep Living Essentials at the forefront of the industry. We wrap up with heartfelt appreciation for our listeners, celebrating community growth and the promising path ahead.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello and welcome to the RTO Show.
I'm your host, pete Hsiao, andtoday we're doing a vendor
spotlight on Living Essentials,brandon Jin, and how they're
doing in the 2024-2025 yearconcepts what's coming up,
what's going on and, better yet,how the heck are you doing,
brandon?
It's so great to have you onthe show.
How are you doing today, man?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hey, pete, thanks for having me on.
We're getting through 2024.
That's the biggest thing Ithink everyone's going through
right now and we have a lotplanned and it's making sure
that we have those plans come tolife.
And that's what 2024, what 2024has been about.
You know we want to make surethat we're getting products out
(00:48):
to you guys and you know, kindof going into this further,
where we have a lot of productdevelopment.
And you know one thing I don'tknow if it's been stressed
enough, but we product developspecifically for run to out.
You know we don't just makeproduct just so that it can be
made and it goes to the masseson e-commerce.
(01:09):
No, we really want to focus ondeveloping products that work
for run-to-own.
Whether it's adding small,little kinks, like USBs in your
headboards, the good stuff, it'sthe good stuff.
It's small kinks, like, youknow, usbs in your headboards.
Recently we just it's the goodstuff, you know it's things,
little, small things that peoplelike.
But you know like recently wejust did a 62 inch sound bar on
(01:31):
all of our TV consoles and it'sa fireplace.
So we're looking at doing a lotof those things and you know we
there's a lot in the pipeline.
So 2025 is going to turn out tobe very exciting, but 2025 baby
.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Listen, let me tell you, 2025 is where it's at.
2024 is rough.
It's been rough here.
I'm not going to lie.
Rentone has been going throughit.
Some people want to talk aboutit.
Some people are a little shy totalk about it.
I can tell you right now thatthe sales haven't really slowed.
They've changed.
There's a lot more online thanthere used to be, but that means
that our demographics arechanging.
(02:05):
You know the older people arestarting to tap out.
The younger generation iscoming in.
We've got inflation that'skicking our butt all over the
way.
You know I mean going into thisand I know this is a little bit
of a sidebar the election years.
I've had conversations withpeople about the election years.
The election years are roughbecause you don't know what's
coming in.
You're sure of what's leaving,but you don't know what's coming
(02:27):
in.
You don't know how it affectsyour business.
Now, living Essentials does alot of things overseas, right,
so that you bring it over.
How does that affect thebusiness when you have?
You know you're stationedoverseas and then somebody goes
hey, you know what, weappreciate your business, but we
might start adding some tariffsor there might be something
that you ship in.
How does that affect you andyour customers?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, I think for us right now you know that's one of
the biggest things that's beenkind of kicking my butt right
now is you know kind of howwe're going to combat this
tariff that's coming in, whetherit happens or not.
Or you know, because there'srumors that are going around
that they're saying it's very,it's used as a negotiation tool,
right, but you know, on ourside, whether or not it happens,
(03:10):
we want to make sure we'rebeing reactive and we're not.
We're not reactive, we'reproactive.
That's the right word there.
But you know it's, you knowwe're just trying to make sure
you know.
The other thing is is, alongwith the tariffs, we have
Chinese New Year's coming up.
So during Chinese New Year's inthe overseas they kind of halt
(03:30):
everything for like two weeks.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I was going to say it's a long thing.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Right, it's not like a little timeframe, it's like
man, everybody's getting up andwe're parting, we're going to
we're trying to make sure thatwe have, make sure we have
adequate inventory, and alsowhat we're trying to do is as
(03:53):
well is, you know, come up witha lot of different solutions, a
lot of different game plans tosee how we can kind of reduce
the tariff, you know.
And so there's a lot ofbackground work going on, a lot
of talks with partners overseas,and it just kind of sums up my
last two months.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
So yeah, I mean you got a lot going on.
Here's a question, thoughYou're getting ramped up for the
tariffs Impossible, because,you're right, they did say it
was a negotiation tool, so itdoesn't mean that it's happening
, but you do have to prepare,like you said.
I mean, god only knows it'sgoing to affect the rest of the
rental home industry.
So I agree with you.
And then you have everythinggoing on with the Chinese new
year.
You're coming out of 2024.
It's an election year.
(04:33):
There's a lot going on.
So what happened with trips?
You just came back from a tripshow.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
How was that Well, it's not a trip show, it was a
trip meeting.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I'm sorry I phrased that Trip meeting.
That's what I meant to say.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Trip meeting.
I think it went great.
You know, something that Tribhad mentioned to us last year
was Living Essentials.
We kind of started doingeverything.
You know, I think primarilybefore we were known as like
kind of your fireplace one-stopshop type place, but we really
wanted to change that, and so,but one thing I think we did
while we did that change was welost our identity within
(05:13):
Rent2Own as a whole for even oneof our customers, and this year
that kind of really solidifiedour identity, where you know,
what we are at a core is, youknow, coming up with innovative
products and that's specificallymanufactured for rent to own.
And so, you know, during thatmeeting I had a chance to kind
of sit in front of the board andjust go over our 2025 pipeline,
(05:36):
and you know, I've been to thatmeeting three times now, which
is about three years, so it'sprobably the best reaction I got
out of that meeting.
So it helps me because it goesin 20.5 and I'm really excited,
I'm piped up and I'm excited forthe next show that's coming up.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
So the next show what it's in February.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
It's at the end of February in Georgia.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Yeah, and you ready for that?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Ready as can be, of course.
And then we have, you know,we're actually doing our first
showroom in vegas for the vegasmarket that's coming up too.
So, um, that's something elsewe discussed during the meeting
um, kind of an opportunity forus to showcase all of the new
2025 things we're bringing in.
Um, and really, from there it's, you know, creating creating
the hype, creating, you know,some of the items that we're
(06:21):
looking at here, where it'sthings that people have talked
to us about, where they said,hey, I'm looking for this.
Do you guys have something likethis?
No, we don't, but hey, give ussome time, we can work on
something.
So how does it work?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Do you guys take a whole let's say, there's a list
of things.
You guys write it downsomewhere it's an input box,
right Then you go okay, enough,people have asked me for this
LED.
You know fireplace withscreaming speakers everywhere
and somebody in the back cooking, something like everything's
going on.
And then you take all that.
And then how does that work?
How do you, where do you go andsay, hey, I think this is a
(06:55):
great idea, I want to implementthis without being able to
charge too much and still beingable to get it within the right
timeframes, where I'm not sayingI want it today and I get it
six to 10 months down the road.
Like how does that work?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Really it just comes down to a lot of the
conversations I have with,whether you know they're my
customers or they're not mycustomers.
They haven't really purchasedfrom me, but you know it's.
It's just a lot of theconversations I have with um
when I go to these shows, alsothese one-on-ones like this, and
you know I just spend the timeto, you know kind of discuss
what are some of the needs thatthey're looking for and you know
(07:28):
product specific needs, andsometimes they'll just throw out
a random idea and we're kind ofwe look at, we hear it and
we're like, oh, that could beinteresting.
And then we kind of start doinga little bit of homework, kind
of just some quick R&D, and thenwe kind of start seeing where
pricing comes in and from there,you know, if we think there's
life in it, we'll kind of startpitching it to some of our
really close customers that wehave really good relationships
(07:49):
with.
And if they believe in it andthey give us some kind of
preorder, you know we're fullsteam, we won't step on the
brakes, we're just going tocontinue producing and just
continue to manufacture productsfor people that need them and
ask for them.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
So you know, here's the thing that rent-to-own has
always had right.
They always people have an ideathat when furniture comes into
rent-to-own, we sell it and it'sa sit and stay.
Nothing that we have is a sitand stay right.
You rent it, it goes out.
Whether somebody keeps it,whether they're moving, whether
it's short-term, whether they,you know, at the point where
they want to, you know they wantto upgrade, downgrade, can't
(08:27):
afford it.
They want to get a lifetimereinstatement.
That goes into.
I'm taking it out there Now I'mbringing it back.
I'm taking it out there and I'mbringing it back.
I know that some of the stuffthat you guys carry is that you
know you got to make it ons siteand then you've gotten into the
to the unit, the unibody kindof thing right, where it's kind
of already prebuilt.
Yeah, cause I mean that'sthat's a huge step for for rent
(08:49):
to own, like.
Not only does it help us snapit together, but when we're
doing deliveries and bringing itback it holds together better.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
So I mean, yeah, really, that's the whole idea of
that, the, the, what we call it, is our unfold assembly.
Now, um, we used to just referto it as our easy assembly.
But easy assembly is a termthat's so generically used
between everyone.
Now, or someone they can, theirtv console, can come in a
thousand pieces and say, hey,it's easy assembly, we got you
(09:16):
there.
We're like man, like I don'tknow, it took me an hour to put
it together.
I mean, so we, we kind of movedaway from that name because we
just tell you got to tell themeasy and quick, ain't the?
same.
Okay, exactly Easy and quick isnot the same, but it's so
misused in the furniture worldwhere we just said we had to
find out a name that can reallykind of tell someone what this
is like, straight to the point,right.
(09:37):
And so that's how UnfoldAssembly came about, and really
it's again what you just saiddelivering it out.
And really it's again you knowwhat you just said, you know
delivering it.
For us it was not just thedelivering aspect, but it was
mainly focusing on how can wehelp you guys when you guys go
to pick up product.
And so we know, we hear it allthe time because we get all
these part requests and you know, especially for TV consoles, we
(09:58):
know if they have todisassemble it, bolts get lost,
remotes- get lost.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Now you're talking my lingo man bolts get lost,
remotes get lost.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Now you're talking my lingo, man, so we know, you
know, we know that the lot ofthese little tiny parts, like in
the moving parts, they all justget lost, and so what we really
tried to do is minimize all ofthat um.
And so that's how unfoldassembly came about, and yeah,
that's.
You know, that's kind of thebread and butter of us and we're
trying to expand on that now.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
So and you know we have a, we have a market too.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
So.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I can't tell you how many times that there's probably
like this, this nice lookingstand that we have.
It might've been pre-leased,but it still looks good, it's
got a life, a lot of life, leftinto it.
And then we go to sell it andthere's a piece missing.
They were like oh man, it doeshave this great feature.
Give me a minute while I call arep, you know and and get it
(10:49):
and get the remote.
So that definitely plays a bigpart in it.
Now I want to go back just aminute because, man, I'm going
to be real honest with you.
I love to see a brandon jen anda and a sea of non-brandon jens
.
Where are you from?
Where's your origin?
How the heck did you get intothis man?
I am curious to know.
I want to know your story.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Man.
I came into Living Essentialspretty much straight out of high
school.
I came on as an intern.
I started in the operationsside, kind of just being an
assistant, and then I startedreally functioning with Andrew
Perez, who's now our VP of sales, and I kind of worked under him
(11:31):
and then we became this yin andyang duo kind of thing that's
how we kind of call it at theoffice here, where he's a sales
guy straight to the core.
I'm I'm not too much of a salesguy, but you know I do love
talking to people.
You know I do love creatingsolutions for things that they
(11:51):
might have issues with.
And that kind of plays into thepart.
Where I came to this role toois I kind of helped Andrew with
the whole technical side.
You know, setting up with somecustomers.
You have to be able to do theAPIs, the EDIs, you know all the
automation parts of that, um,order processing, you know, kind
of coming up with a betterprocess, all of that.
(12:12):
I kind of that's when I kind ofstarted Um and then from there
I started helping Andrew a lotmore and then, you know, kind of
throughout there I just gotinto this position and you know
wait, wait.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
You said right out of high school man, like, like,
like was, was he just waitingoutside the doors for you to
graduate and go?
Hey, man, let's make thishappen.
Like, what, like, how do youcome right into this?
This is, this is a hardbusiness to come into man oh, no
, no and now you're a nationalsales manager.
I mean this is not just one spotor other.
I mean you, you've got a lot todo and kudos to you for that.
(12:46):
But how do you like?
Come on, tell me the truth.
You want to be like a cop or alawyer or a doctor or something.
Right?
What happened?
I mean, where did it go?
Where did it all go?
Speaker 2 (12:56):
No, no, I, you know I I did not know exactly what I
wanted to do.
Um, for me, a huge passion ofmine was gaming and you know I
got pretty good and you know,out of high school I had, you
know, in high school I was I hadthe opportunity to run our
eSports club.
So you know I was like I wasmanaging that club where it's
(13:20):
pretty much high schoolcompetitive gaming.
I had gotten some offers to goplay Collegiate Wait you say
high school competitive playingon eSports.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
What do you play?
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Any game you can kind of think about there right now
has an eSports like aprofessional high school scene,
a college scene and some amateurscene and then a professional
league as well.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
What do you play?
Don't you tell me League ofLegends or something like that.
It better be like Madden orsomething.
Yeah, no, League of.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Legends was actually one of the games that I got as a
scholarship.
See, I knew it, I knew it, Iknew it.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
I think it brings everybody in.
So you're in that and you'redoing this.
And how did that transition toAndrew?
Because it sounds like you hadyour mind set on more of a
technical factor, a morecomputer side, and then you're
literally into the physical side.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yeah, quite honestly, it just kind of happened.
I don't know exactly when ithappened, but I just started
playing more of a role to assistAndrew and I came to a point
where I started to communicatewith customers.
I was doing it quite often andI was, you know.
They kind of were like, hey,you know, we think you might be
able to do it, and they gave methe opportunity to go ahead and
try for it and after about ayear and a half of really trying
(14:35):
, I ended up getting theposition and we're here now.
So it's just again.
There's no like.
You know.
He's like oh, go into sales.
No, it was just again.
There's no like.
He's like, oh, going to sales.
No, it was just like.
I just kind of woke up one dayand it happened.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
There's no like story behind it or anything, man, he
had you following the yellowbrick road.
So how old are you then?
I'm 23.
Really, wow, good for you, man.
I'm an old buck man, you're anew guy in the system, but I
mean, I'm telling you when I,when I look out there, there's a
.
There's a lot of differentpeople and I love seeing what
(15:13):
you bring to the table with you.
Know, the way you, the way youtalk to people.
I've always noticed that when Icome over, it's always like a.
It's never like, always on thebusiness tip, it's always like
hey, man, how are you doing?
And then getting to know yourcustomers and the relationships
that we build, just likeRent-A-Home does.
I mean, it is a relationshipbusiness, but I guess, where are
you from?
Where is your family?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
from.
I'm born and raised inCalifornia and my parents are
first-generation immigrants outof Korea, korea, awesome.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
My grandfather was born, was born well, born and
raised in Hong Kong and mygrandmother was born in Puerto
Rico, and I have no idea how inGod's name that they ever met
and had a relationship.
But those are two probably thefarthest speaking languages that
you can come up with and theymade it work.
But you know, I always loveseeing the diversity.
(16:07):
It's hard sometimes because Igot a lot of family over there,
I mean a lot that I probablydon't even know of.
I found out like three yearsago I'm related to Genghis Khan,
but then I think the third ofthe world is related to Genghis
Khan, right?
So, uncle Genghis.
But I mean, it's one of thosethings where I just love seeing
that.
I love seeing the diversity, Ilove seeing the difference,
(16:27):
because we all bring somethingdifferent to the table, and I
think that with LivingEssentials I mean that's what
I've seen that you guys havebeen a little bit on the edge of
implementing new things.
Now I saw some the last showthat we had, where it was like a
wall and you had the standthere and it was a lot going on.
Can you explain to me?
That was one of the newest ones, right?
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Yeah, that was our 2024 Trib Show Spotlight product
.
It was also a product that wehad in the Hot Show.
Something that I focus a lot onright now, too, is seeing what
my age group is looking to startbuying and what even friends of
mine talk about.
Um, you know, they really youknow a lot of the apartments
(17:10):
nowadays.
They're tiny, they're small,but the biggest thing about our
group is, you know, we want tohost, we want to have parties,
we want to have friends over, wealways want to have friends
over like, we want to like showoff that we have our own
apartment and then, you know, wealways want to have furniture
here and you know, and those LEDlights, like the whole video
live tracking that was sopopular with products like the,
(17:34):
the Govee, and you know, um.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Govee's actually.
Yeah, they've, they've, they'vecome up quite a bit in the last
couple of years.
So, matter of fact, my wifewants to put some Gobi lights in
the outside permanent outsidelights and I'm just like, is
that where we come?
But it's true though it's sopopular.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yeah, I mean, everyone does, even like you
know, the biggest thing is rightnow is like TikTok, instagram
Reels, like all these short formcontents.
They, everyone in thebackground has some like
satisfying setup where personalto their characteristic, and we
thought like, hey, wouldn't thatbe a great opportunity for us
(18:15):
to kind of solve three things atonce.
One, it's giving you thatunfold TV console that we just
talked about earlier.
Two, it's giving you thebackboard where we're not
telling you to go and nail thecustomer's house and mount a TV
up there.
We, we give you the backboard.
In that backboard we give youthe tv mounting kit as well, and
(18:36):
so now you're able to go andoffer your customer a the look,
the look of a hanging tv.
Um, because we know there's some, there's properties out there
that are very strict on thosethings.
And you know one thing, onething you see a lot is on social
media.
Everyone really likes thishanging TV, mounted TV aesthetic
(18:57):
.
So that's kind of what thebiggest purpose of it was.
But you know one thing I willsay is, with that product we
might have jumped a little toofar ahead.
We don't think one.
We didn't educate Trib enough,essentially, on how the product
exactly works and how it does,and you know we're still giving
(19:20):
it some life.
We're still going to continuetrying it out.
One thing is, you know it justcreates a solution for problems
that we've been hearing about.
You know, and I know, tvs usedto be a huge rental thing for
rent-to-own back in the days,and now I'm like, well, black
Friday just happened.
I was in Costco and I saw an86-inch TV for $799.
(19:44):
And I'm like holy crap, it's socheap.
And 65-inch TVs are $200, $300.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I saw a 75-inch.
I want to say I saw a 75-inchTCL for $338, and it almost fell
out of my chair.
Now I can't tell you to thequality of the model.
I can tell you it's still 4K.
It still had either Roku orConsidered Smart.
It still had four HDMIs.
It's thin as all get-out, soit's not like you're talking
about a thicker product.
Back in the day it was like LCDversus plasma.
(20:14):
They're all LEDs right now, sothey weigh half to what they
used to, if not a quarter whatthey used to weigh.
And so I was like, I was likewow, you know, and I think with,
with rent to own, the situationhas been more.
We're carrying TVs becausepeople still want them, but we
have to carry them so muchbigger because, like you said,
the smaller ones I mean even nowthe bigger ones, but the
smaller ones on a regular basisare between $200 and $300.
(20:36):
Maybe a great model at Walmartis like $350 for a 55-inch.
I mean you're talking aboutevery single bell and whistle.
So if somebody's just going inlooking for a TV to either game
or watch Netflix on or somethingfor the kids' room, it isn't
expensive.
So I think that we've seen.
You know, 55 used to be thebiggest model, the most popular
model.
Now it's gone up to well, itwas 65.
(20:58):
Now it's like turning into 75is turning into like the average
one, and it's because for theprice you have to go up, because
the truth is, for the price ofa 55, you might as well just buy
it.
So that's where we're trying toget into.
I need some living essentialsright, cause I'm not only
selling a TV.
I need to sell a TV and a standand everything that comes with
(21:19):
it, cause I'm.
I really want to sell theambience.
I want to sell not only theproduct itself but, like you
said, I want to.
I want to sell the situation.
I want to sell the party.
I want to sell the get together.
I want to sell the moment.
I want to sell the moment thatyou can get into right.
If you're in there and you wantto be by yourself, you want to
just turn up the music and kickon the lights.
You know, at least you havethat and that's why you know
(21:42):
Living Essentials is so cool,because you guys have really
gotten it well.
But you've got into this.
You've got the look of thehanging TV.
That that's so 2024, homie.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
What are we doing for 2025?
What's down the pipe, man?
Oh, 2025.
Um, one thing we're doing isyou know, I guess this is an
exclusive for you um, so anyonewho's listening to this will be
the ones that know first beforeall right so, um it's, we're
calling it our all-season TVconsole, and that TV console is
(22:22):
coming with a heater and fan,and so we're doing a lot of the
littlest things.
We're coming with everythingfrom the start, and so we know
there's one out there right now,but the price point is just a
little bit too high.
So you know, what we're tryingto do is kind of bring it back.
How can we make it moreaccessible for rent to own?
How can we make this a thingfor you guys?
(22:42):
Because you know, we know thatfireplace and you know you're
talking about products, that wewant them to go out and you want
them to stay out.
You don't want them to comeback, right, and we know
fireplaces kind of run into thatsituation where kind of once,
like, the summertime startsrolling around and you know
everyone kind of just like, do Ireally need this fireplace
anymore?
No, I'd rather just kind ofreturn it.
And you know, go use thatrental rate for the PS5 or Xbox,
(23:05):
like we know things like thathappen.
So we're trying to come up witha solution for you guys where
that TV console now has a heaterbut now also has a fan, and
it's an oscillating fan, so it'snot just a fan that just stays
in one motion and it just letsout air.
We're having it go up and down,so that way you can position
that fan to circulate the wholeroom.
(23:27):
Oh, really, yeah, so that'ssomething we're working on.
Two big things that we're alsoworking on.
They're kind of the I call itthe living essential special,
where we kind of just do themost uh, obnoxious thing that
you can probably possibly thinkof um, we're doing a tv mounted
bed, um, so it's a tv mount inthe footboard of a bed and so
(23:49):
that way it rises up and risesdown, and so if that, if that
fan's their boat, you know,that's something we we're
working on right now too, um,and then we have a, a modular
sofa that's coming.
Um, we know right now there's alot of popularity with modular
sofa.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
They're huge see, the thing with the modular sofa is
if we can get the price pointright, because right now it's
still got that retail pricepoint on our end, so we get that
expensive thing and we got topass that along, obviously for
reasons you know free delivery,free setup and all that stuff
and it goes into the well, nowyou're in a higher bracket.
But, man, I can tell you, rightnow even I want a modular sofa.
(24:30):
I don't think my wife wants one, but just the idea of being
able to change that around, youknow what I mean?
Because I can take a modularsofa, put it on my floor and
display it three different ways,and I think that's, I think
that's a win-win.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
And that's the plan too.
It's we.
You know our modular sofa.
We're coming up with six corecomponents of it and with those
six core components in my head,like a a couple weeks ago before
the trip meeting, I was kind ofjust doing how many
configurations we can think ofdoing.
It's literally endless.
You know, we, you can do au-shape, you can do the l-shape,
(25:02):
you can do a sofa love.
You can do an l-shape sectionalwith the left facing chase or a
right facing chase.
Um, if you, if you have a roomthat's big enough, you can.
You can stack that whole thingup with making a huge square
with just a sofa.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Um, I keep on thinking of, like the kid ball
pit, where you just make itsquare.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
You just jump in the middle.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
But I think the great , I think a great idea with it.
And every time I think ofmodular, I think wouldn't it be
crazy to have like a four basicsetup?
Right, you have four or five orwhatever the basic setup is,
and then you're like, if youwant an extra one of that color
boom, I'll throw it in for $10or 12, 15 or whatever it is you
know a week and add to it.
So if you want that nine piece,I can get you a nine piece.
(25:43):
If you want a four piece, I canget you a four piece.
And so you know, you've gotpeople that are like
no-transcript, let's just addthat on and make a bigger
package.
(26:03):
I really think it's a good idea.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
I mean, here I am pitching it to you but telling
me I love the idea yeah, and youknow you mentioned that the
whole the price point thing, um,you know we've been working on
this module so far now for abouta year and a half, um, and this
is our third iteration of it.
But you know what they say, thethird one, we're hoping it hits
(26:26):
three times a charm.
Exactly, the third time is acharm, and it's.
We got the price point rightthis time and I think that's the
biggest point.
We haven't done all the numberscalculations quite yet, but we
know our price point is just farlower than what our second
iteration was, and already we'rehaving positive feedback.
(26:50):
So the greatest thing about us,too, is our modular sofa.
If you really just need one,you need an L shape.
We can ship you an L shape, onepiece at a time.
You don't need to order a threeL shapes or three extra sofas
to go along with that.
And then, on top of that, whatwe're also doing is we're adding
(27:10):
this customizable factor to it,where we're giving you three
different fabrics.
One's going to be your typicalChanel kind of your everyday
sofa everyone carries right now.
We know cord is really hotright now.
And then there's this Sherpateddy material that's getting
really popular again right now.
Um, and then there's thissherpa teddy material that
people are.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
That's getting really popular again right now my god,
everybody has a version of thaton their floor.
Man, let me tell you it's like.
It's like falling into a towelexactly, and you know.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
But the thing is is everyone has it on the floor.
But then when you walk, whenyou see it on the floor, it's
your brown, it's your grace,there's no, you know, you don't
have that fun twist to it.
And so our covers, they're goingto be removable and
customizable, so let's say yeah,so we're trying to make it so
that way each fabric has threeto four different colors that
(27:57):
we're offering.
And from there you know, let'ssay, one day you're turning your
shirt over and you, you want ared sofa out sitting in there
and just be the eyesore.
Right, I'm not an eyesore, I'dsay more, it's like eye candy.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Sorry, um, you could do that, and then let's say
potato, potato, because thatdoesn't mean everybody wants it
right, exactly.
But I can tell you right nowthat's going to be a hit.
If you have something that youcan not only move around, add to
and subtract from and you canchange the color, living
essentials is going to be likehere.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
I'm telling you that's the next level yeah, pete
, let me add on to it's alsochange.
You can change the color, butall the fabrics are machine
washable.
Um, we can replace one seat ata time, if that's something you
need.
Um, because we know people havefavorite seats and some of
those favorite seats they getbeat up my grandpa had a
favorite seat, man I knowexactly so, exactly so.
(28:49):
We're thinking ahead, we'retrying to make sure again, it
just goes back to what we'retrying to do is it's product
development for rent-to-home,and we're putting you guys first
.
And so some of these products,we may have life in them in the
e-commerce marketplaces, butwe're giving it to rental first,
because we know right now, thecompetition for you guys is the
(29:11):
Amazon, the TikTok shops.
These are just getting far morepopular between Gen Z
especially, and why are theygoing to those places?
One price point.
But the second one is thefunctionalities, the small
things that they add, you know,and the biggest thing right now
is that it's LEDs.
It's that aesthetic, thatambiance that they really want
(29:32):
to create.
So that's what we're reallyfocusing on and, you know, I
think 2025 product line isreally speaks to that.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Well, I can tell you right now, resale factor is huge
in the rental home business.
If we can put it out there andlet's say, on the other side of
that, instead of using it justto change the color, but if
we're using it to give it lifeagain, to rejuvenate this piece
and put it back out there.
That's the bread and butter ofrent-to-own.
You put something out one timeand it stays.
Hey, it's great and I'm notgoing to, I would never knock it
(30:02):
.
I appreciate every customerthat comes in and goes from
beginning to end, but that's notthe world we live in.
All right, so you know, there'sgoing to be customers that have
to bring it back.
They're going to be customersthat move.
They're going to be customersthat change their mind and they
want something else.
And being able to to rejuvenatethat piece, be able to to give
it that life, is reallysomething that's going to speak
volumes to where we're gettingit from.
If Living Essentials has theability to do that, I'm telling
(30:24):
you right now that's the way togo and you guys heard it here
first.
Okay, but I'm just telling youI think it's a great idea.
I'd love to see that because, Imean, that's something we don't
have, and a lot of times that alot of the things that I spend
talking to people about is likewhat's new and what's going on?
Right, you always want to talkabout what's in the industry.
Now, who's the new guy?
What are their ideas?
(30:45):
How are things going?
We've had everybody from AdamBall.
He had this idea when he cameon and he was just fresh and new
to the idea that a renter ownand I can make a difference.
We love that and we have theguys that have been doing it for
a long time.
Mike Tissett's been on the showand he gives so much great
advice because he's been doingit for a long time.
(31:06):
He's a generational person.
But we also need what's new.
Right, we've got what's now.
We've got what's new.
I think the newness of this manit's going to kill it.
I think Living Essentials isgoing to do a great job.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
And kind of just backtracking there you were
talking about.
You want a customer.
If they change their mind,specifically right, and you know
it could be that they just wanta different color of a sofa.
And now you guys have anothersell point, you guys have
another opportunity to save thatcell, keep it out there and not
have to go pick it up.
You just, you know, order acover from us, we'll get it
shipped to you and you guys canget to the customer's house,
change out the covers and damn awhole new sofa, a whole new
look right, right, and that thatthat does happen.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
And you know we've had people, you know I've just
changed the color of my house,this brown isn't going to work,
this gray isn't going to work,whatever.
And being able to say, you knowwhat, you didn't lose your
investment, let me, you know,let me go out there and change
this, and I'm sure there's goingto be a small price point to
that.
But to say I got to go there, Igot to pick it all the way back
up, you've got to start on abrand new product or whatever.
The case is to just say, yeah,man, you know, let me know, and
in 10 days or seven days orwhatever the ship value time is,
(32:09):
you know, we can get that takencare of for you.
That can be huge, really huge.
Leaving the product insomebody's house is the utmost
importance in rent to own.
I do not want to pick it up.
If I could service it there, Iwant to keep it there.
The only thing that I ever wantto do is deliver you something
else.
So if you can do that, man,kudos to you guys for kind of
coming up with and implementingthat idea, because every time I
(32:32):
talk to somebody I say what'snew?
We talk about a lot of thingsthat I've already heard, but
what's new?
And the new man?
It fills the vacuum of the roombecause everybody wants it,
everybody needs it, and nomatter if you're with Eagle
Rents, if you're with Buddies,if you're with, you know, rent
to Own, everybody would love toget something on the shroom that
(32:52):
nobody has, and as quick as youcan get that, I guarantee you.
Now, does Living Essential?
Do containers?
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Yeah, so we are able to do containers.
But you know one thing we'vekind of we've gotten really
popular now for like the onepiece minimum, but you know
we're kind of rolling back that.
We're rolling that back nowwhere we're still going to offer
that one piece minimum, butwe're also going to start
offering the FOB out of ourGeorgia location Because we know
(33:21):
FOB doesn't work for everyone.
At first we thought it would,but turns out no.
So we're kind of making thoselittle changes.
But containers are definitelypossible.
If you need a container we candefinitely get that sorted for
you.
We just haven't had anycontainer orders like that.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Where are the ship points at?
Where are the ship points fromin the US?
Because you say you'restationed out of California, so
obviously stuff is coming fromthere, but where else is the
ship from?
Speaker 2 (33:49):
No, so we actually closed up our California
warehouse earlier this year inMay.
We actually had to move ourfacility and we actually did a
complete change in the directionof who we are too, where we no
longer operate a warehouseoperator warehouse we're just a
(34:10):
firm and corporate office inCalifornia, but our warehouses
we have two locations in Texasone in Dallas, one in Austin.
We have Chicago, illinois, wehave Georgia out of Savannah,
and the thing is, if we need awarehouse somewhere else, we can
easily get one.
We have a very tight connectionwith our partners and they're
(34:33):
able to get us warehouses wherewe need them.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Now talking and talking about that because you
know California is a beautifulstate, but they're making it
quite difficult to run a companyfrom in any way, shape or form.
Run a company from in any way,shape or form?
I mean right now, I think.
Recently, I just heard thatthey're about to introduce
another gas tax and it's like tothe highest gas in the country
and you want to tax it.
That's probably not a greatidea.
(34:55):
Is there plans to stay or areyou guys thinking about moving
out of there as well?
Speaker 2 (35:00):
In the long term?
I wouldn't know.
But we just signed thefive-year lease release, so for
the next five years we're atleast five years you ain't going
anywhere.
We're stuck here for five years, um, but you know who knows?
Um, but yeah, I've, I've alwayslived in california, um, but
you know, it's just, I've seenthe problems I hear about all
(35:22):
the time.
Um, certainly I don't enjoypaying all the taxes that we pay
, and so you know, maybe it's afuture thing that happens.
Who knows?
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Well, I wish you guys the best.
I know that there's a lot goingon over there and I couldn't
tell you six ways from Sundayhow it's going to end up, but I
just I've heard of a lot ofbusinesses leaving that area.
I've heard a lot of people whohave said you know what?
I've tried the California wayand I love California, I love
the weather, I love the people.
What I don't love is justgetting taxed to death on
(35:53):
everything and there's a lot ofopportunity out there.
So the problem is you go outthere and there's a lot of
opportunity and you turn aroundand there's a lot of tax that
come with it, and so it turnsthose opportunities almost into
the same kind of opportunityyou'd get anywhere else.
I know Texas is starting toreally boom.
As far as where the business isgoing, I know some of it's
actually coming to Florida.
If you ever come over here, letme know.
But I mean, I think it's one ofthose situations where you got
(36:14):
to do what's best for thecompany and absolutely I think
that's what you guys are doingover there at Living Essentials.
So let's say that I'm involvedin the rent-to-own space, I get
my own place, I open up my ownbusiness and I want to do
business.
How do I get a hold of LivingEssentials and Brandon?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (36:29):
It's 909-590-1000.
And then you'll be prompted tolook for a department and just
click sales and I'll be happy tohelp you out.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Now, is Living Essentials anywhere as far as
social media is concerned?
Or is that because the way youship and the way you vend that's
just not for you yet?
Speaker 2 (36:51):
So it's not for us yet, but that's actually
something we're working on for2025.
We want to start kind ofgetting a little bit more of a
social presence out there, butin the meantime we're nowhere.
We're nowhere to be found.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
So.
So in that case, how did?
How did you get into the rentto own space?
I mean, I know a lot of peoplewho know your face.
Everybody knows who livingessential is, how did you guys
get in and break into that spacewhen there really isn't a lot
of advertising going on?
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Harry, who's our um president of the company.
He's been he's been servicingRantone now for about 20 years.
You know, before LivingEssentials we rebranded from
InnoVex.
Beyond InnoVex I actually don'tknow what the company was, I
think it might've been Leta Lockor Leta L-E-D-A.
But I know he's had a lot ofexperience working with errands,
(37:45):
a little bit of Rent-A-Center,and so you know, I've kind of
been able to have the kind ofhave all that knowledge kind of
just trickled down onto me andthat's.
We've just been in Rent-A-Ownfor a while now and obviously
through Harry, andrew and youknow there was someone previous
that did it before, but that'show we've been in rent-to-own
(38:06):
for a while now we're doing theproduct development for
rent-to-own and it's for you tohelp you guys compete against,
like the Walmarts and Walmarts,amazon, because we know
everything is becoming so pricesensitive, and so again the
thing is is we really want toget more involved now,
(38:27):
especially from my standpoint askind of heading rent-to-own.
Now I just want to kind of getmore insight where we can kind
of.
You know, if we can bring thatinnovation where you guys need
something, I'm more than happyto look at it.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Is there a specific way that you would like
rent-to-own to contact you or toreach out to you and say hey,
this is what I think that yourbrand can do, better or
differently?
That would put us in the rightspot to get more living
essentials out into thecustomer's home.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Yeah, no, I would love to hear that.
I think it's just hearing,because the thing is this
everything I've done up untilnow within Rent2Own is because
I've had the opportunity to talkto people like you and the
people that I have developed avery close relationship with.
You know, from when I firststarted with Red 2 On, I
literally was kind of shadowingEric Moore pretty much like
(39:15):
every show opportunity that Igot.
You know, I was always justshadowing him.
I was just always standing nextto him kind of listening to how
he converses with customers andyou know he introduced me to
some great people as well.
He's been doing it for a longtime.
He's been doing it for a longtime.
He's been doing it for a longtime, so you know with him and
you know with the people thathe's introduced me to.
Um, you know I think you and Iwere connected because of Scott
(39:36):
and Daniel.
You know he was still aroundand it's just I spent a lot of
time cause I knew, coming in, Ihad no idea what the hell I was
even doing and so I knew I hadto kind of become like a sponge
and just absorb all theinformation I can.
And you know.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
I can tell you right now we appreciate what you do, I
appreciate what you do and Ilove having you on the show,
Even for me, like I don't evenreally tell people how old I am,
because I've had someexperiences where customers
would be like oh, you're 21 or22.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Oh, I don't know if I want to do business with you,
and I've had that reaction.
So the people that I've kind ofthey've kind of started working
with me and given me thatopportunity Very grateful for
them.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
You know, sometimes I always found a way that
sometimes I've been into it.
You know he said hey, I totallyunderstand.
I'm literally half your age andI'm sitting here trying to tell
you what to sell in yourshowroom.
But how about you give me anopportunity first and you let
that talk first.
Right, let me show you what Igot.
Let me show you the product andfeatures.
Let me show you how I can getit to you.
(40:41):
Let me show you how fast thisworks and how simple it is.
You can order one.
You can order five.
You can order six.
If there's something that youwant to talk about, we can
implement.
You might be able to see thatdown the road and we can give
you the.
You know we can say this camefrom the conversation that we
had in RTO.
Before you judge me, let meshow you what I got going on.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
That's kind of the idea that I've, kind of that
mindset that I've been followingtoo, is like the people who you
know.
I've had some sour interactionswith people who are like, oh,
you're, you're young, like Idon't even know what you're
doing, like you know, I've.
I've kind of like, well, I'mkind of used to it, where I've
like, all right, well, if that'sthe cow you want to think about
it, then I'll pass you along toandrew, kind of andrew will
(41:19):
talk you down.
But you know, that's kind ofwhat I've been just doing.
It's's just like, if that's howthey believe, then sure, hey,
give me another year, howeverlong you think it takes for me
to earn status quo with you, tobelieve that I can take care of
you or take care of yourbusiness, then yeah, the same.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
I know guys who have spent two years in the business
and have way more experiencethan guys that I've seen with 10
and 12.
And it's because they're notafraid to put themselves out
there every single day to bebetter at their craft.
And I know people who show upto work and they go home and
that's okay If you want to do anine to five or if you want to
rent homes on nine to five.
But if you want to do that,that's okay and I get that.
But there are people that areon that grind, like you said,
are listening into theconversation.
(42:06):
You're trying to learn abouthow it goes.
I want to learn the ambiancebetween the seller and the
sellee and what's going onbetween the customer and you
guys, you and me, me anddistribution and how we put
things together.
And when you're in that youknow you're running the race and
it's kind of like I can run amile at five miles an hour.
I can run a mile at five milesan hour, I can run a mile at 10
(42:28):
miles an hour and they're bothgoing to get to the same thing
but in different timeframes.
So you know, time isn't alwaysa situation.
I think that even if you havethat age situation going on, I
don't think it has anything todo with how good you do your
business.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
No, no, I've kind of it's been.
I've been at this now for aboutfour and a half years.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
And now I'm kind of more like you know, I'm
confident in what I know, I'mconfident in what I think.
So I have no doubts anywhere inthat process.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Listen, guys.
If you guys have any questionsfor Brandon, jen and you want to
reach out to Living Essentials,don't be afraid, but you can
also reach out to the show.
If you guys have any questions.
You're also welcome to hit upthe show at Pete at the RTO show
, podcastcom.
That's our email.
You can hit us up on Facebookor Instagram, both at the RTO
show and if you want to hit uson LinkedIn, because our
LinkedIn is actually gettingpretty good, look me up on there
(43:17):
at the RTO show, ask thequestion, say hey, I didn't
really catch.
That number is.
Can you hook me up with brandon?
What do you think?
And I'm going to give you, theguys, the detail.
I think living essentials has alot going on and I can tell you
right now I think that modularsofa is going to be a super hit.
Uh, I'm going to tell you rightnow.
I'm calling that.
I'm calling that into theliving space.
All right, it's going to be.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Hopefully, I'll come back within a year and I'll give
you an update on that that'swhat I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Well, listen, we can do a follow-up next, next time,
and we Next time I'm going tosay hey, how did it work out,
pete?
I'm going to say you're goingto say it right now.
Pete told me it was going to bea hit and it's going to happen.
I think it's going to be new tothe system and I can't wait to
see it.
Listen, we appreciate you guyslistening to us and listening to
Brandon today.
If you have any questions,again hit us up at the show.
But, more importantly, I wantyou guys beginning of a great
2025, and everything that youguys do we appreciate.
(44:03):
Please feel free to look us upon YouTube as well the RTO Show
podcast.
You don't want to miss us thereand always hit that subscribe
button and I will tell you guys,as always.
Hey, I appreciate you, Brandon,keep your collections low to
get your sales high.
Have a good one.
Hello and welcome to the RTO Show.
I'm your host, pete Hsiao, andtoday we're doing a vendor
spotlight on Living Essentials,brandon Jin, and how they're
doing in the 2024-2025 yearconcepts what's coming up,
what's going on and, better yet,how the heck are you doing,
brandon?
It's so great to have you onthe show.
How are you doing today, man?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hey, pete, thanks for having me on.
We're getting through 2024.
That's the biggest thing Ithink everyone's going through
right now and we have a lotplanned and it's making sure
that we have those plans come tolife.
And that's what 2024, what 2024has been about.
You know we want to make surethat we're getting products out
(00:48):
to you guys and you know, kindof going into this further,
where we have a lot of productdevelopment.
And you know one thing I don'tknow if it's been stressed
enough, but we product developspecifically for run to out.
You know we don't just makeproduct just so that it can be
made and it goes to the masseson e-commerce.
(01:09):
No, we really want to focus ondeveloping products that work
for run-to-own.
Whether it's adding small,little kinks, like USBs in your
headboards, the good stuff, it'sthe good stuff.
It's small kinks, like, youknow, usbs in your headboards.
Recently we just it's the goodstuff, you know it's things,
little, small things that peoplelike.
But you know like recently wejust did a 62 inch sound bar on
(01:31):
all of our TV consoles and it'sa fireplace.
So we're looking at doing a lotof those things and you know we
there's a lot in the pipeline.
So 2025 is going to turn out tobe very exciting, but 2025 baby
.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Listen, let me tell you, 2025 is where it's at.
2024 is rough.
It's been rough here.
I'm not going to lie.
Rentone has been going throughit.
Some people want to talk aboutit.
Some people are a little shy totalk about it.
I can tell you right now thatthe sales haven't really slowed.
They've changed.
There's a lot more online thanthere used to be, but that means
that our demographics arechanging.
(02:05):
You know the older people arestarting to tap out.
The younger generation iscoming in.
We've got inflation that'skicking our butt all over the
way.
You know I mean going into thisand I know this is a little bit
of a sidebar the election years.
I've had conversations withpeople about the election years.
The election years are roughbecause you don't know what's
coming in.
You're sure of what's leaving,but you don't know what's coming
(02:27):
in.
You don't know how it affectsyour business.
Now, living Essentials does alot of things overseas, right,
so that you bring it over.
How does that affect thebusiness when you have?
You know you're stationedoverseas and then somebody goes
hey, you know what, weappreciate your business, but we
might start adding some tariffsor there might be something
that you ship in.
How does that affect you andyour customers?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, I think for us right now you know that's one of
the biggest things that's beenkind of kicking my butt right
now is you know kind of howwe're going to combat this
tariff that's coming in, whetherit happens or not.
Or you know, because there'srumors that are going around
that they're saying it's very,it's used as a negotiation tool,
right, but you know, on ourside, whether or not it happens,
(03:10):
we want to make sure we'rebeing reactive and we're not.
We're not reactive, we'reproactive.
That's the right word there.
But you know it's, you knowwe're just trying to make sure
you know.
The other thing is is, alongwith the tariffs, we have
Chinese New Year's coming up.
So during Chinese New Year's inthe overseas they kind of halt
(03:30):
everything for like two weeks.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I was going to say it's a long thing.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Right, it's not like a little timeframe, it's like
man, everybody's getting up andwe're parting, we're going to
we're trying to make sure thatwe have, make sure we have
adequate inventory, and alsowhat we're trying to do is as
(03:53):
well is, you know, come up witha lot of different solutions, a
lot of different game plans tosee how we can kind of reduce
the tariff, you know.
And so there's a lot ofbackground work going on, a lot
of talks with partners overseas,and it just kind of sums up my
last two months.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
So yeah, I mean you got a lot going on.
Here's a question, thoughYou're getting ramped up for the
tariffs Impossible, because,you're right, they did say it
was a negotiation tool, so itdoesn't mean that it's happening
, but you do have to prepare,like you said.
I mean, god only knows it'sgoing to affect the rest of the
rental home industry.
So I agree with you.
And then you have everythinggoing on with the Chinese new
year.
You're coming out of 2024.
It's an election year.
(04:33):
There's a lot going on.
So what happened with trips?
You just came back from a tripshow.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
How was that Well, it's not a trip show, it was a
trip meeting.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I'm sorry I phrased that Trip meeting.
That's what I meant to say.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Trip meeting.
I think it went great.
You know, something that Tribhad mentioned to us last year
was Living Essentials.
We kind of started doingeverything.
You know, I think primarilybefore we were known as like
kind of your fireplace one-stopshop type place, but we really
wanted to change that, and so,but one thing I think we did
while we did that change was welost our identity within
(05:13):
Rent2Own as a whole for even oneof our customers, and this year
that kind of really solidifiedour identity, where you know,
what we are at a core is, youknow, coming up with innovative
products and that's specificallymanufactured for rent to own.
And so, you know, during thatmeeting I had a chance to kind
of sit in front of the board andjust go over our 2025 pipeline,
(05:36):
and you know, I've been to thatmeeting three times now, which
is about three years, so it'sprobably the best reaction I got
out of that meeting.
So it helps me because it goesin 20.5 and I'm really excited,
I'm piped up and I'm excited forthe next show that's coming up.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
So the next show what it's in February.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
It's at the end of February in Georgia.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Yeah, and you ready for that?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Ready as can be, of course.
And then we have, you know,we're actually doing our first
showroom in vegas for the vegasmarket that's coming up too.
So, um, that's something elsewe discussed during the meeting
um, kind of an opportunity forus to showcase all of the new
2025 things we're bringing in.
Um, and really, from there it's, you know, creating creating
the hype, creating, you know,some of the items that we're
(06:21):
looking at here, where it'sthings that people have talked
to us about, where they said,hey, I'm looking for this.
Do you guys have something likethis?
No, we don't, but hey, give ussome time, we can work on
something.
So how does it work?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Do you guys take a whole let's say, there's a list
of things.
You guys write it downsomewhere it's an input box,
right Then you go okay, enough,people have asked me for this
LED.
You know fireplace withscreaming speakers everywhere
and somebody in the back cooking, something like everything's
going on.
And then you take all that.
And then how does that work?
How do you, where do you go andsay, hey, I think this is a
(06:55):
great idea, I want to implementthis without being able to
charge too much and still beingable to get it within the right
timeframes, where I'm not sayingI want it today and I get it
six to 10 months down the road.
Like how does that work?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Really it just comes down to a lot of the
conversations I have with,whether you know they're my
customers or they're not mycustomers.
They haven't really purchasedfrom me, but you know it's.
It's just a lot of theconversations I have with um
when I go to these shows, alsothese one-on-ones like this, and
you know I just spend the timeto, you know kind of discuss
what are some of the needs thatthey're looking for and you know
(07:28):
product specific needs, andsometimes they'll just throw out
a random idea and we're kind ofwe look at, we hear it and
we're like, oh, that could beinteresting.
And then we kind of start doinga little bit of homework, kind
of just some quick R&D, and thenwe kind of start seeing where
pricing comes in and from there,you know, if we think there's
life in it, we'll kind of startpitching it to some of our
really close customers that wehave really good relationships
(07:49):
with.
And if they believe in it andthey give us some kind of
preorder, you know we're fullsteam, we won't step on the
brakes, we're just going tocontinue producing and just
continue to manufacture productsfor people that need them and
ask for them.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
So you know, here's the thing that rent-to-own has
always had right.
They always people have an ideathat when furniture comes into
rent-to-own, we sell it and it'sa sit and stay.
Nothing that we have is a sitand stay right.
You rent it, it goes out.
Whether somebody keeps it,whether they're moving, whether
it's short-term, whether they,you know, at the point where
they want to, you know they wantto upgrade, downgrade, can't
(08:27):
afford it.
They want to get a lifetimereinstatement.
That goes into.
I'm taking it out there Now I'mbringing it back.
I'm taking it out there and I'mbringing it back.
I know that some of the stuffthat you guys carry is that you
know you got to make it ons siteand then you've gotten into the
to the unit, the unibody kindof thing right, where it's kind
of already prebuilt.
Yeah, cause I mean that'sthat's a huge step for for rent
(08:49):
to own, like.
Not only does it help us snapit together, but when we're
doing deliveries and bringing itback it holds together better.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
So I mean, yeah, really, that's the whole idea of
that, the, the, what we call it, is our unfold assembly.
Now, um, we used to just referto it as our easy assembly.
But easy assembly is a termthat's so generically used
between everyone.
Now, or someone they can, theirtv console, can come in a
thousand pieces and say, hey,it's easy assembly, we got you
(09:16):
there.
We're like man, like I don'tknow, it took me an hour to put
it together.
I mean, so we, we kind of movedaway from that name because we
just tell you got to tell themeasy and quick, ain't the?
same.
Okay, exactly Easy and quick isnot the same, but it's so
misused in the furniture worldwhere we just said we had to
find out a name that can reallykind of tell someone what this
is like, straight to the point,right.
(09:37):
And so that's how UnfoldAssembly came about, and really
it's again what you just saiddelivering it out.
And really it's again you knowwhat you just said, you know
delivering it.
For us it was not just thedelivering aspect, but it was
mainly focusing on how can wehelp you guys when you guys go
to pick up product.
And so we know, we hear it allthe time because we get all
these part requests and you know, especially for TV consoles, we
(09:58):
know if they have todisassemble it, bolts get lost,
remotes- get lost.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Now you're talking my lingo man bolts get lost,
remotes get lost.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Now you're talking my lingo, man, so we know, you
know, we know that the lot ofthese little tiny parts, like in
the moving parts, they all justget lost, and so what we really
tried to do is minimize all ofthat um.
And so that's how unfoldassembly came about, and yeah,
that's.
You know, that's kind of thebread and butter of us and we're
trying to expand on that now.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
So and you know we have a, we have a market too.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
So.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I can't tell you how many times that there's probably
like this, this nice lookingstand that we have.
It might've been pre-leased,but it still looks good, it's
got a life, a lot of life, leftinto it.
And then we go to sell it andthere's a piece missing.
They were like oh man, it doeshave this great feature.
Give me a minute while I call arep, you know and and get it
(10:49):
and get the remote.
So that definitely plays a bigpart in it.
Now I want to go back just aminute because, man, I'm going
to be real honest with you.
I love to see a brandon jen anda and a sea of non-brandon jens
.
Where are you from?
Where's your origin?
How the heck did you get intothis man?
I am curious to know.
I want to know your story.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Man.
I came into Living Essentialspretty much straight out of high
school.
I came on as an intern.
I started in the operationsside, kind of just being an
assistant, and then I startedreally functioning with Andrew
Perez, who's now our VP of sales, and I kind of worked under him
(11:31):
and then we became this yin andyang duo kind of thing that's
how we kind of call it at theoffice here, where he's a sales
guy straight to the core.
I'm I'm not too much of a salesguy, but you know I do love
talking to people.
You know I do love creatingsolutions for things that they
(11:51):
might have issues with.
And that kind of plays into thepart.
Where I came to this role toois I kind of helped Andrew with
the whole technical side.
You know, setting up with somecustomers.
You have to be able to do theAPIs, the EDIs, you know all the
automation parts of that, um,order processing, you know, kind
of coming up with a betterprocess, all of that.
(12:12):
I kind of that's when I kind ofstarted Um and then from there
I started helping Andrew a lotmore and then, you know, kind of
throughout there I just gotinto this position and you know
wait, wait.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
You said right out of high school man, like, like,
like was, was he just waitingoutside the doors for you to
graduate and go?
Hey, man, let's make thishappen.
Like, what, like, how do youcome right into this?
This is, this is a hardbusiness to come into man oh, no
, no and now you're a nationalsales manager.
I mean this is not just one spotor other.
I mean you, you've got a lot todo and kudos to you for that.
(12:46):
But how do you like?
Come on, tell me the truth.
You want to be like a cop or alawyer or a doctor or something.
Right?
What happened?
I mean, where did it go?
Where did it all go?
Speaker 2 (12:56):
No, no, I, you know I I did not know exactly what I
wanted to do.
Um, for me, a huge passion ofmine was gaming and you know I
got pretty good and you know,out of high school I had, you
know, in high school I was I hadthe opportunity to run our
eSports club.
So you know I was like I wasmanaging that club where it's
(13:20):
pretty much high schoolcompetitive gaming.
I had gotten some offers to goplay Collegiate Wait you say
high school competitive playingon eSports.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
What do you play?
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Any game you can kind of think about there right now
has an eSports like aprofessional high school scene,
a college scene and some amateurscene and then a professional
league as well.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
What do you play?
Don't you tell me League ofLegends or something like that.
It better be like Madden orsomething.
Yeah, no, League of.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Legends was actually one of the games that I got as a
scholarship.
See, I knew it, I knew it, Iknew it.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
I think it brings everybody in.
So you're in that and you'redoing this.
And how did that transition toAndrew?
Because it sounds like you hadyour mind set on more of a
technical factor, a morecomputer side, and then you're
literally into the physical side.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yeah, quite honestly, it just kind of happened.
I don't know exactly when ithappened, but I just started
playing more of a role to assistAndrew and I came to a point
where I started to communicatewith customers.
I was doing it quite often andI was, you know.
They kind of were like, hey,you know, we think you might be
able to do it, and they gave methe opportunity to go ahead and
try for it and after about ayear and a half of really trying
(14:35):
, I ended up getting theposition and we're here now.
So it's just again.
There's no like.
You know.
He's like oh, go into sales.
No, it was just again.
There's no like.
He's like, oh, going to sales.
No, it was just like.
I just kind of woke up one dayand it happened.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
There's no like story behind it or anything, man, he
had you following the yellowbrick road.
So how old are you then?
I'm 23.
Really, wow, good for you, man.
I'm an old buck man, you're anew guy in the system, but I
mean, I'm telling you when I,when I look out there, there's a
.
There's a lot of differentpeople and I love seeing what
(15:13):
you bring to the table with you.
Know, the way you, the way youtalk to people.
I've always noticed that when Icome over, it's always like a.
It's never like, always on thebusiness tip, it's always like
hey, man, how are you doing?
And then getting to know yourcustomers and the relationships
that we build, just likeRent-A-Home does.
I mean, it is a relationshipbusiness, but I guess, where are
you from?
Where is your family?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
from.
I'm born and raised inCalifornia and my parents are
first-generation immigrants outof Korea, korea, awesome.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
My grandfather was born, was born well, born and
raised in Hong Kong and mygrandmother was born in Puerto
Rico, and I have no idea how inGod's name that they ever met
and had a relationship.
But those are two probably thefarthest speaking languages that
you can come up with and theymade it work.
But you know, I always loveseeing the diversity.
(16:07):
It's hard sometimes because Igot a lot of family over there,
I mean a lot that I probablydon't even know of.
I found out like three yearsago I'm related to Genghis Khan,
but then I think the third ofthe world is related to Genghis
Khan, right?
So, uncle Genghis.
But I mean, it's one of thosethings where I just love seeing
that.
I love seeing the diversity, Ilove seeing the difference,
(16:27):
because we all bring somethingdifferent to the table, and I
think that with LivingEssentials I mean that's what
I've seen that you guys havebeen a little bit on the edge of
implementing new things.
Now I saw some the last showthat we had, where it was like a
wall and you had the standthere and it was a lot going on.
Can you explain to me?
That was one of the newest ones, right?
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Yeah, that was our 2024 Trib Show Spotlight product
.
It was also a product that wehad in the Hot Show.
Something that I focus a lot onright now, too, is seeing what
my age group is looking to startbuying and what even friends of
mine talk about.
Um, you know, they really youknow a lot of the apartments
(17:10):
nowadays.
They're tiny, they're small,but the biggest thing about our
group is, you know, we want tohost, we want to have parties,
we want to have friends over, wealways want to have friends
over like, we want to like showoff that we have our own
apartment and then, you know, wealways want to have furniture
here and you know, and those LEDlights, like the whole video
live tracking that was sopopular with products like the,
(17:34):
the Govee, and you know, um.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Govee's actually.
Yeah, they've, they've, they'vecome up quite a bit in the last
couple of years.
So, matter of fact, my wifewants to put some Gobi lights in
the outside permanent outsidelights and I'm just like, is
that where we come?
But it's true though it's sopopular.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yeah, I mean, everyone does, even like you
know, the biggest thing is rightnow is like TikTok, instagram
Reels, like all these short formcontents.
They, everyone in thebackground has some like
satisfying setup where personalto their characteristic, and we
thought like, hey, wouldn't thatbe a great opportunity for us
(18:15):
to kind of solve three things atonce.
One, it's giving you thatunfold TV console that we just
talked about earlier.
Two, it's giving you thebackboard where we're not
telling you to go and nail thecustomer's house and mount a TV
up there.
We, we give you the backboard.
In that backboard we give youthe tv mounting kit as well, and
(18:36):
so now you're able to go andoffer your customer a the look,
the look of a hanging tv.
Um, because we know there's some, there's properties out there
that are very strict on thosethings.
And you know one thing, onething you see a lot is on social
media.
Everyone really likes thishanging TV, mounted TV aesthetic
(18:57):
.
So that's kind of what thebiggest purpose of it was.
But you know one thing I willsay is, with that product we
might have jumped a little toofar ahead.
We don't think one.
We didn't educate Trib enough,essentially, on how the product
exactly works and how it does,and you know we're still giving
(19:20):
it some life.
We're still going to continuetrying it out.
One thing is, you know it justcreates a solution for problems
that we've been hearing about.
You know, and I know, tvs usedto be a huge rental thing for
rent-to-own back in the days,and now I'm like, well, black
Friday just happened.
I was in Costco and I saw an86-inch TV for $799.
(19:44):
And I'm like holy crap, it's socheap.
And 65-inch TVs are $200, $300.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I saw a 75-inch.
I want to say I saw a 75-inchTCL for $338, and it almost fell
out of my chair.
Now I can't tell you to thequality of the model.
I can tell you it's still 4K.
It still had either Roku orConsidered Smart.
It still had four HDMIs.
It's thin as all get-out, soit's not like you're talking
about a thicker product.
Back in the day it was like LCDversus plasma.
(20:14):
They're all LEDs right now, sothey weigh half to what they
used to, if not a quarter whatthey used to weigh.
And so I was like, I was likewow, you know, and I think with,
with rent to own, the situationhas been more.
We're carrying TVs becausepeople still want them, but we
have to carry them so muchbigger because, like you said,
the smaller ones I mean even nowthe bigger ones, but the
smaller ones on a regular basisare between $200 and $300.
(20:36):
Maybe a great model at Walmartis like $350 for a 55-inch.
I mean you're talking aboutevery single bell and whistle.
So if somebody's just going inlooking for a TV to either game
or watch Netflix on or somethingfor the kids' room, it isn't
expensive.
So I think that we've seen.
You know, 55 used to be thebiggest model, the most popular
model.
Now it's gone up to well, itwas 65.
(20:58):
Now it's like turning into 75is turning into like the average
one, and it's because for theprice you have to go up, because
the truth is, for the price ofa 55, you might as well just buy
it.
So that's where we're trying toget into.
I need some living essentialsright, cause I'm not only
selling a TV.
I need to sell a TV and a standand everything that comes with
(21:19):
it, cause I'm.
I really want to sell theambience.
I want to sell not only theproduct itself but, like you
said, I want to.
I want to sell the situation.
I want to sell the party.
I want to sell the get together.
I want to sell the moment.
I want to sell the moment thatyou can get into right.
If you're in there and you wantto be by yourself, you want to
just turn up the music and kickon the lights.
You know, at least you havethat and that's why you know
(21:42):
Living Essentials is so cool,because you guys have really
gotten it well.
But you've got into this.
You've got the look of thehanging TV.
That that's so 2024, homie.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
What are we doing for 2025?
What's down the pipe, man?
Oh, 2025.
Um, one thing we're doing isyou know, I guess this is an
exclusive for you um, so anyonewho's listening to this will be
the ones that know first beforeall right so, um it's, we're
calling it our all-season TVconsole, and that TV console is
(22:22):
coming with a heater and fan,and so we're doing a lot of the
littlest things.
We're coming with everythingfrom the start, and so we know
there's one out there right now,but the price point is just a
little bit too high.
So you know, what we're tryingto do is kind of bring it back.
How can we make it moreaccessible for rent to own?
How can we make this a thingfor you guys?
(22:42):
Because you know, we know thatfireplace and you know you're
talking about products, that wewant them to go out and you want
them to stay out.
You don't want them to comeback, right, and we know
fireplaces kind of run into thatsituation where kind of once,
like, the summertime startsrolling around and you know
everyone kind of just like, do Ireally need this fireplace
anymore?
No, I'd rather just kind ofreturn it.
And you know, go use thatrental rate for the PS5 or Xbox,
(23:05):
like we know things like thathappen.
So we're trying to come up witha solution for you guys where
that TV console now has a heaterbut now also has a fan, and
it's an oscillating fan, so it'snot just a fan that just stays
in one motion and it just letsout air.
We're having it go up and down,so that way you can position
that fan to circulate the wholeroom.
(23:27):
Oh, really, yeah, so that'ssomething we're working on.
Two big things that we're alsoworking on.
They're kind of the I call itthe living essential special,
where we kind of just do themost uh, obnoxious thing that
you can probably possibly thinkof um, we're doing a tv mounted
bed, um, so it's a tv mount inthe footboard of a bed and so
(23:49):
that way it rises up and risesdown, and so if that, if that
fan's their boat, you know,that's something we we're
working on right now too, um,and then we have a, a modular
sofa that's coming.
Um, we know right now there's alot of popularity with modular
sofa.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
They're huge see, the thing with the modular sofa is
if we can get the price pointright, because right now it's
still got that retail pricepoint on our end, so we get that
expensive thing and we got topass that along, obviously for
reasons you know free delivery,free setup and all that stuff
and it goes into the well, nowyou're in a higher bracket.
But, man, I can tell you, rightnow even I want a modular sofa.
(24:30):
I don't think my wife wants one, but just the idea of being
able to change that around, youknow what I mean?
Because I can take a modularsofa, put it on my floor and
display it three different ways,and I think that's, I think
that's a win-win.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
And that's the plan too.
It's we.
You know our modular sofa.
We're coming up with six corecomponents of it and with those
six core components in my head,like a a couple weeks ago before
the trip meeting, I was kind ofjust doing how many
configurations we can think ofdoing.
It's literally endless.
You know, we, you can do au-shape, you can do the l-shape,
(25:02):
you can do a sofa love.
You can do an l-shape sectionalwith the left facing chase or a
right facing chase.
Um, if you, if you have a roomthat's big enough, you can.
You can stack that whole thingup with making a huge square
with just a sofa.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Um, I keep on thinking of, like the kid ball
pit, where you just make itsquare.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
You just jump in the middle.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
But I think the great , I think a great idea with it.
And every time I think ofmodular, I think wouldn't it be
crazy to have like a four basicsetup?
Right, you have four or five orwhatever the basic setup is,
and then you're like, if youwant an extra one of that color
boom, I'll throw it in for $10or 12, 15 or whatever it is you
know a week and add to it.
So if you want that nine piece,I can get you a nine piece.
(25:43):
If you want a four piece, I canget you a four piece.
And so you know, you've gotpeople that are like
no-transcript, let's just addthat on and make a bigger
package.
(26:03):
I really think it's a good idea.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
I mean, here I am pitching it to you but telling
me I love the idea yeah, and youknow you mentioned that the
whole the price point thing, um,you know we've been working on
this module so far now for abouta year and a half, um, and this
is our third iteration of it.
But you know what they say, thethird one, we're hoping it hits
(26:26):
three times a charm.
Exactly, the third time is acharm, and it's.
We got the price point rightthis time and I think that's the
biggest point.
We haven't done all the numberscalculations quite yet, but we
know our price point is just farlower than what our second
iteration was, and already we'rehaving positive feedback.
(26:50):
So the greatest thing about us,too, is our modular sofa.
If you really just need one,you need an L shape.
We can ship you an L shape, onepiece at a time.
You don't need to order a threeL shapes or three extra sofas
to go along with that.
And then, on top of that, whatwe're also doing is we're adding
(27:10):
this customizable factor to it,where we're giving you three
different fabrics.
One's going to be your typicalChanel kind of your everyday
sofa everyone carries right now.
We know cord is really hotright now.
And then there's this Sherpateddy material that's getting
really popular again right now.
Um, and then there's thissherpa teddy material that
people are.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
That's getting really popular again right now my god,
everybody has a version of thaton their floor.
Man, let me tell you it's like.
It's like falling into a towelexactly, and you know.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
But the thing is is everyone has it on the floor.
But then when you walk, whenyou see it on the floor, it's
your brown, it's your grace,there's no, you know, you don't
have that fun twist to it.
And so our covers, they're goingto be removable and
customizable, so let's say yeah,so we're trying to make it so
that way each fabric has threeto four different colors that
(27:57):
we're offering.
And from there you know, let'ssay, one day you're turning your
shirt over and you, you want ared sofa out sitting in there
and just be the eyesore.
Right, I'm not an eyesore, I'dsay more, it's like eye candy.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Sorry, um, you could do that, and then let's say
potato, potato, because thatdoesn't mean everybody wants it
right, exactly.
But I can tell you right nowthat's going to be a hit.
If you have something that youcan not only move around, add to
and subtract from and you canchange the color, living
essentials is going to be likehere.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
I'm telling you that's the next level yeah, pete
, let me add on to it's alsochange.
You can change the color, butall the fabrics are machine
washable.
Um, we can replace one seat ata time, if that's something you
need.
Um, because we know people havefavorite seats and some of
those favorite seats they getbeat up my grandpa had a
favorite seat, man I knowexactly so, exactly so.
(28:49):
We're thinking ahead, we'retrying to make sure again, it
just goes back to what we'retrying to do is it's product
development for rent-to-home,and we're putting you guys first
.
And so some of these products,we may have life in them in the
e-commerce marketplaces, butwe're giving it to rental first,
because we know right now, thecompetition for you guys is the
(29:11):
Amazon, the TikTok shops.
These are just getting far morepopular between Gen Z
especially, and why are theygoing to those places?
One price point.
But the second one is thefunctionalities, the small
things that they add, you know,and the biggest thing right now
is that it's LEDs.
It's that aesthetic, thatambiance that they really want
(29:32):
to create.
So that's what we're reallyfocusing on and, you know, I
think 2025 product line isreally speaks to that.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Well, I can tell you right now, resale factor is huge
in the rental home business.
If we can put it out there andlet's say, on the other side of
that, instead of using it justto change the color, but if
we're using it to give it lifeagain, to rejuvenate this piece
and put it back out there.
That's the bread and butter ofrent-to-own.
You put something out one timeand it stays.
Hey, it's great and I'm notgoing to, I would never knock it
(30:02):
.
I appreciate every customerthat comes in and goes from
beginning to end, but that's notthe world we live in.
All right, so you know, there'sgoing to be customers that have
to bring it back.
They're going to be customersthat move.
They're going to be customersthat change their mind and they
want something else.
And being able to to rejuvenatethat piece, be able to to give
it that life, is reallysomething that's going to speak
volumes to where we're gettingit from.
If Living Essentials has theability to do that, I'm telling
(30:24):
you right now that's the way togo and you guys heard it here
first.
Okay, but I'm just telling youI think it's a great idea.
I'd love to see that because, Imean, that's something we don't
have, and a lot of times that alot of the things that I spend
talking to people about is likewhat's new and what's going on?
Right, you always want to talkabout what's in the industry.
Now, who's the new guy?
What are their ideas?
(30:45):
How are things going?
We've had everybody from AdamBall.
He had this idea when he cameon and he was just fresh and new
to the idea that a renter ownand I can make a difference.
We love that and we have theguys that have been doing it for
a long time.
Mike Tissett's been on the showand he gives so much great
advice because he's been doingit for a long time.
(31:06):
He's a generational person.
But we also need what's new.
Right, we've got what's now.
We've got what's new.
I think the newness of this manit's going to kill it.
I think Living Essentials isgoing to do a great job.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
And kind of just backtracking there you were
talking about.
You want a customer.
If they change their mind,specifically right, and you know
it could be that they just wanta different color of a sofa.
And now you guys have anothersell point, you guys have
another opportunity to save thatcell, keep it out there and not
have to go pick it up.
You just, you know, order acover from us, we'll get it
shipped to you and you guys canget to the customer's house,
change out the covers and damn awhole new sofa, a whole new
look right, right, and that thatthat does happen.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
And you know we've had people, you know I've just
changed the color of my house,this brown isn't going to work,
this gray isn't going to work,whatever.
And being able to say, you knowwhat, you didn't lose your
investment, let me, you know,let me go out there and change
this, and I'm sure there's goingto be a small price point to
that.
But to say I got to go there, Igot to pick it all the way back
up, you've got to start on abrand new product or whatever.
The case is to just say, yeah,man, you know, let me know, and
in 10 days or seven days orwhatever the ship value time is,
(32:09):
you know, we can get that takencare of for you.
That can be huge, really huge.
Leaving the product insomebody's house is the utmost
importance in rent to own.
I do not want to pick it up.
If I could service it there, Iwant to keep it there.
The only thing that I ever wantto do is deliver you something
else.
So if you can do that, man,kudos to you guys for kind of
coming up with and implementingthat idea, because every time I
(32:32):
talk to somebody I say what'snew?
We talk about a lot of thingsthat I've already heard, but
what's new?
And the new man?
It fills the vacuum of the roombecause everybody wants it,
everybody needs it, and nomatter if you're with Eagle
Rents, if you're with Buddies,if you're with, you know, rent
to Own, everybody would love toget something on the shroom that
(32:52):
nobody has, and as quick as youcan get that, I guarantee you.
Now, does Living Essential?
Do containers?
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Yeah, so we are able to do containers.
But you know one thing we'vekind of we've gotten really
popular now for like the onepiece minimum, but you know
we're kind of rolling back that.
We're rolling that back nowwhere we're still going to offer
that one piece minimum, butwe're also going to start
offering the FOB out of ourGeorgia location Because we know
(33:21):
FOB doesn't work for everyone.
At first we thought it would,but turns out no.
So we're kind of making thoselittle changes.
But containers are definitelypossible.
If you need a container we candefinitely get that sorted for
you.
We just haven't had anycontainer orders like that.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Where are the ship points at?
Where are the ship points fromin the US?
Because you say you'restationed out of California, so
obviously stuff is coming fromthere, but where else is the
ship from?
Speaker 2 (33:49):
No, so we actually closed up our California
warehouse earlier this year inMay.
We actually had to move ourfacility and we actually did a
complete change in the directionof who we are too, where we no
longer operate a warehouseoperator warehouse we're just a
(34:10):
firm and corporate office inCalifornia, but our warehouses
we have two locations in Texasone in Dallas, one in Austin.
We have Chicago, illinois, wehave Georgia out of Savannah,
and the thing is, if we need awarehouse somewhere else, we can
easily get one.
We have a very tight connectionwith our partners and they're
(34:33):
able to get us warehouses wherewe need them.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Now talking and talking about that because you
know California is a beautifulstate, but they're making it
quite difficult to run a companyfrom in any way, shape or form.
Run a company from in any way,shape or form?
I mean right now, I think.
Recently, I just heard thatthey're about to introduce
another gas tax and it's like tothe highest gas in the country
and you want to tax it.
That's probably not a greatidea.
(34:55):
Is there plans to stay or areyou guys thinking about moving
out of there as well?
Speaker 2 (35:00):
In the long term?
I wouldn't know.
But we just signed thefive-year lease release, so for
the next five years we're atleast five years you ain't going
anywhere.
We're stuck here for five years, um, but you know who knows?
Um, but yeah, I've, I've alwayslived in california, um, but
you know, it's just, I've seenthe problems I hear about all
(35:22):
the time.
Um, certainly I don't enjoypaying all the taxes that we pay
, and so you know, maybe it's afuture thing that happens.
Who knows?
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Well, I wish you guys the best.
I know that there's a lot goingon over there and I couldn't
tell you six ways from Sundayhow it's going to end up, but I
just I've heard of a lot ofbusinesses leaving that area.
I've heard a lot of people whohave said you know what?
I've tried the California wayand I love California, I love
the weather, I love the people.
What I don't love is justgetting taxed to death on
(35:53):
everything and there's a lot ofopportunity out there.
So the problem is you go outthere and there's a lot of
opportunity and you turn aroundand there's a lot of tax that
come with it, and so it turnsthose opportunities almost into
the same kind of opportunityyou'd get anywhere else.
I know Texas is starting toreally boom.
As far as where the business isgoing, I know some of it's
actually coming to Florida.
If you ever come over here, letme know.
But I mean, I think it's one ofthose situations where you got
(36:14):
to do what's best for thecompany and absolutely I think
that's what you guys are doingover there at Living Essentials.
So let's say that I'm involvedin the rent-to-own space, I get
my own place, I open up my ownbusiness and I want to do
business.
How do I get a hold of LivingEssentials and Brandon?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (36:29):
It's 909-590-1000.
And then you'll be prompted tolook for a department and just
click sales and I'll be happy tohelp you out.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Now, is Living Essentials anywhere as far as
social media is concerned?
Or is that because the way youship and the way you vend that's
just not for you yet?
Speaker 2 (36:51):
So it's not for us yet, but that's actually
something we're working on for2025.
We want to start kind ofgetting a little bit more of a
social presence out there, butin the meantime we're nowhere.
We're nowhere to be found.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
So.
So in that case, how did?
How did you get into the rentto own space?
I mean, I know a lot of peoplewho know your face.
Everybody knows who livingessential is, how did you guys
get in and break into that spacewhen there really isn't a lot
of advertising going on?
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Harry, who's our um president of the company.
He's been he's been servicingRantone now for about 20 years.
You know, before LivingEssentials we rebranded from
InnoVex.
Beyond InnoVex I actually don'tknow what the company was, I
think it might've been Leta Lockor Leta L-E-D-A.
But I know he's had a lot ofexperience working with errands,
(37:45):
a little bit of Rent-A-Center,and so you know, I've kind of
been able to have the kind ofhave all that knowledge kind of
just trickled down onto me andthat's.
We've just been in Rent-A-Ownfor a while now and obviously
through Harry, andrew and youknow there was someone previous
that did it before, but that'show we've been in rent-to-own
(38:06):
for a while now we're doing theproduct development for
rent-to-own and it's for you tohelp you guys compete against,
like the Walmarts and Walmarts,amazon, because we know
everything is becoming so pricesensitive, and so again the
thing is is we really want toget more involved now,
(38:27):
especially from my standpoint askind of heading rent-to-own.
Now I just want to kind of getmore insight where we can kind
of.
You know, if we can bring thatinnovation where you guys need
something, I'm more than happyto look at it.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Is there a specific way that you would like
rent-to-own to contact you or toreach out to you and say hey,
this is what I think that yourbrand can do, better or
differently?
That would put us in the rightspot to get more living
essentials out into thecustomer's home.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Yeah, no, I would love to hear that.
I think it's just hearing,because the thing is this
everything I've done up untilnow within Rent2Own is because
I've had the opportunity to talkto people like you and the
people that I have developed avery close relationship with.
You know, from when I firststarted with Red 2 On, I
literally was kind of shadowingEric Moore pretty much like
(39:15):
every show opportunity that Igot.
You know, I was always justshadowing him.
I was just always standing nextto him kind of listening to how
he converses with customers andyou know he introduced me to
some great people as well.
He's been doing it for a longtime.
He's been doing it for a longtime.
He's been doing it for a longtime, so you know with him and
you know with the people thathe's introduced me to.
Um, you know I think you and Iwere connected because of Scott
(39:36):
and Daniel.
You know he was still aroundand it's just I spent a lot of
time cause I knew, coming in, Ihad no idea what the hell I was
even doing and so I knew I hadto kind of become like a sponge
and just absorb all theinformation I can.
And you know.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
I can tell you right now we appreciate what you do, I
appreciate what you do and Ilove having you on the show,
Even for me, like I don't evenreally tell people how old I am,
because I've had someexperiences where customers
would be like oh, you're 21 or22.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Oh, I don't know if I want to do business with you,
and I've had that reaction.
So the people that I've kind ofthey've kind of started working
with me and given me thatopportunity Very grateful for
them.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
You know, sometimes I always found a way that
sometimes I've been into it.
You know he said hey, I totallyunderstand.
I'm literally half your age andI'm sitting here trying to tell
you what to sell in yourshowroom.
But how about you give me anopportunity first and you let
that talk first.
Right, let me show you what Igot.
Let me show you the product andfeatures.
Let me show you how I can getit to you.
(40:41):
Let me show you how fast thisworks and how simple it is.
You can order one.
You can order five.
You can order six.
If there's something that youwant to talk about, we can
implement.
You might be able to see thatdown the road and we can give
you the.
You know we can say this camefrom the conversation that we
had in RTO.
Before you judge me, let meshow you what I got going on.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
That's kind of the idea that I've, kind of that
mindset that I've been followingtoo, is like the people who you
know.
I've had some sour interactionswith people who are like, oh,
you're, you're young, like Idon't even know what you're
doing, like you know, I've.
I've kind of like, well, I'mkind of used to it, where I've
like, all right, well, if that'sthe cow you want to think about
it, then I'll pass you along toandrew, kind of andrew will
(41:19):
talk you down.
But you know, that's kind ofwhat I've been just doing.
It's's just like, if that's howthey believe, then sure, hey,
give me another year, howeverlong you think it takes for me
to earn status quo with you, tobelieve that I can take care of
you or take care of yourbusiness, then yeah, the same.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
I know guys who have spent two years in the business
and have way more experiencethan guys that I've seen with 10
and 12.
And it's because they're notafraid to put themselves out
there every single day to bebetter at their craft.
And I know people who show upto work and they go home and
that's okay If you want to do anine to five or if you want to
rent homes on nine to five.
But if you want to do that,that's okay and I get that.
But there are people that areon that grind, like you said,
are listening into theconversation.
(42:06):
You're trying to learn abouthow it goes.
I want to learn the ambiancebetween the seller and the
sellee and what's going onbetween the customer and you
guys, you and me, me anddistribution and how we put
things together.
And when you're in that youknow you're running the race and
it's kind of like I can run amile at five miles an hour.
I can run a mile at five milesan hour, I can run a mile at 10
(42:28):
miles an hour and they're bothgoing to get to the same thing
but in different timeframes.
So you know, time isn't alwaysa situation.
I think that even if you havethat age situation going on, I
don't think it has anything todo with how good you do your
business.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
No, no, I've kind of it's been.
I've been at this now for aboutfour and a half years.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
And now I'm kind of more like you know, I'm
confident in what I know, I'mconfident in what I think.
So I have no doubts anywhere inthat process.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Listen, guys.
If you guys have any questionsfor Brandon, jen and you want to
reach out to Living Essentials,don't be afraid, but you can
also reach out to the show.
If you guys have any questions.
You're also welcome to hit upthe show at Pete at the RTO show
, podcastcom.
That's our email.
You can hit us up on Facebookor Instagram, both at the RTO
show and if you want to hit uson LinkedIn, because our
LinkedIn is actually gettingpretty good, look me up on there
(43:17):
at the RTO show, ask thequestion, say hey, I didn't
really catch.
That number is.
Can you hook me up with brandon?
What do you think?
And I'm going to give you, theguys, the detail.
I think living essentials has alot going on and I can tell you
right now I think that modularsofa is going to be a super hit.
Uh, I'm going to tell you rightnow.
I'm calling that.
I'm calling that into theliving space.
All right, it's going to be.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Hopefully, I'll come back within a year and I'll give
you an update on that that'swhat I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Well, listen, we can do a follow-up next, next time,
and we Next time I'm going tosay hey, how did it work out,
pete?
I'm going to say you're goingto say it right now.
Pete told me it was going to bea hit and it's going to happen.
I think it's going to be new tothe system and I can't wait to
see it.
Listen, we appreciate you guyslistening to us and listening to
Brandon today.
If you have any questions,again hit us up at the show.
But, more importantly, I wantyou guys beginning of a great
2025, and everything that youguys do we appreciate.
(44:03):
Please feel free to look us upon YouTube as well the RTO Show
podcast.
You don't want to miss us thereand always hit that subscribe
button and I will tell you guys,as always.
Hey, I appreciate you, Brandon,keep your collections low to
get your sales high.
Have a good one.
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