The Front Porch

Caleb Yell is one of Point of Rental's boomerang employees, having started here with Rental Essentials. He left for an opportunity that was too good to pass up and wound up leading RentalHosting as it got acquired by Point of Rental again - and he couldn't be happier to be back.  We also talked about the alligator he keeps behind him, his soccer-playing career, and the worst piece of advice he eve...

Tim Dodd came to the Porch to talk starting from the bottom in the party rental industry, career planning, business advice, dealing directly with Chinese companies, and why, after living in so many places, he loves to call Atlanta home.

Roberto Hernandez is a Tier I Windows Support Technician and the only thing that rivals his obsession with helping customers is his obsession with finding the perfect banana pudding.  We talked about his love of Japanese sports cars from the '90s, how he got to Point of Rental, and if he'd consider changing his name to Rob, Bob, Robert, or Bobbert.

Patrick Flannery has been a busboy, a grocery clerk, painter, bar bouncer, crane yard worker, pizza store clerk, construction worker, copywriter, writer, and salesman in several industries. He also prepped taxes and worked in call support before finally going back to his roots in journalism,  eventually becoming the editor of not just Canadian Rental Service, but several other trade publications a...

Lathan Andrews is Point of Rental's talent manager, which we've decided is a much cooler title than "recruiter". He talks about how he got into the business, joined Point of Rental, and how the movie Midsommar really changed his life.

Peerless Events & Tents' Will Wright didn't grow up in the rental industry; he had to fall in love with it. He talks about the move from the finance industry to acquiring Peerless and learning to run a rental business, recommends some books, and tells us about his time as a literal sea captain.

Kacie Brewer, United Rentals' Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Manager (and member of Rental Management's "12 to watch under 40" list for 2021) joined us to talk about what got her into HR and rental, hiring challenges, and being a YouTube star.  The video we reference in the podcast can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if63vRuD8Ac

Ben Santiago is Point of Rental's graphic designer and the marketing team's Pokemon expert, we think. His dream since childhood has been to become an "artificial pastor" and he has an extensive acting background thanks, in part, to his wife being a high school drama teacher.  The music interlude in this podcast is part of a track by new Pointer (and music producer) @muzofficialmusic.

The American Rental Association's Event Segment VP stopped by the PORch...turns out journalism degrees can be useful! He's built businesses from the inside and now works with them as an industry advocate in the ARA. Stay tuned after the podcast seems to be over for a great take on French fries.

Gustavo Castaneda, our Salesforce Platform Manager, tells us about his journey from engineering to software, the time he thought he was going to have his organs harvested, and gives us his top 5 board games.  He also played along with English 101, our game where our non-English Pointers learn UK English words and phrases. 

Josh Nickell likes his steaks with a reverse sear and his metaphors to be orchestra-related. He's helped build a rental business, worked in rental software, and now he's able to use his knowledge and leadership abilities to benefit the entire industry at the ARA. His English and Scottish accents, though, need a lot of work.

Andrew Sherrington, our resident videographer/media manager, joins us on the porch to talk his path to videography, the time he almost killed his now-father-in-law, and the time basically the entire office convinced him he was going to prison.

Senior Accountant Evelyn Perez talks about how she got into accounting, taught us a bit about her teammates, and her future political ambitions. We also learned how she developed a distaste for pork, which of her dogs is her favorite, and what she knows of her mom's enchiladas recipe.

Jody Kerr, a Key Account Manager at The Toro Companies, talks about growing up in Denver, being a remote-work expert, her time as a beer taste-tester, and a pretty cool project Toro and the ARA are working on together.

Account Executive Mark Jordan joined us on the PORch. He told us about his dream of becoming a professional football player. He told us about the roadtrip from hell. And he took it pretty well when we made fun of his Indiana Hoosiers.

Alexis Brumm of Rental Magazine is used to being the one asking the questions. She joined The Front PORch anyway to talk about how she got started in the construction and rental industries, about her favorite Star Wars movies, and to pick out her fast-food all-star meal.

Oh no! Lauren left the PORch for this episode! We'll talk to the next-best thing; her now-husband and the reason she's not a part of this podcast, Ben Mohorc. We'll learn how he came to Point of Rental, how he and Lauren got together, and his many sausage parties.

APAC Director Dave Cameron joins Lauren and Brian on the Porch to talk about his journey to Point of Rental, what he does in his downtime, and more before he has to log off for a meeting with Wayne.

Earl Sherman is the longest-tenured Pointer, having joined the company in 1985. 35 years later, he's still helping Point of Rental users get the most out of their software. We learned about his favorite city, his art, and what keeps him coming back to work after all these years.

We're getting international now! Kristian Pisano joined us from our Australian branch to talk about his time as a sports journalist, what a big Taylor Swift fan he is, and we even learned about the time he roadtripped through the US to catch up with his favorite American team. (Which team is it? I guarantee you won't guess - listen and find out!)

Implementation Specialist Patrick Kiefer tells us about his pre-Point of Rental music career, his bobblehead collection, and the list of countries he's no longer allowed in.

Dante Ramos-Delgado, IT Lead Windows Implementation Engineer, has fulfilled his childhood goals by becoming an IT Lead here at Point of Rental. We found out his music preferences and why he's called "24/7" by his fellow IT Pointers.

Sailesh Kumar, one of Point of Rental's Elite developers, talks about coming to America, his top museums, and how it was either this, medicine, or becoming a mechanic for him.

Scott Lovell, owner of Party Time Rentals, actually didn't grow up renting! He did grow up with an entrepreneurial mindset, however, and we learn how he got into rental, what it was like growing up in the middle of Florida, and more. (Note: This episode was recorded prior to the ARA Show in February 2020).

Thomas Choi was born in South Korea and immigrated to the United States with his parents when he was 10. He pursued a musical career as an excellent cellist before realizing that there weren't many jobs out there for cellists. And now he's Point of Rental's web developer, responsible for our cool website. He's also a proud new papa.