Michelle Meloche, one of Point of Rental's data specialists, shares her path from Detroit to Point of Rental. She explains how the data team cross-trains and how her role converts customer-supplied spreadsheets into deployed databases via SQL, with every customer's data a new and different challenge. Michelle also discusses learning emotional intelligence while supporting her kids’ autism needs, moving away from people-pleasing, and embracing a “let them” mindset.

Michelle Hazen, Point of Rental’s Data Services Essentials Lead, covers her background from Northeast Wisconsin, moving from a hairstyling career to working in call centers, getting into finance, and finally becoming the data specialist we know her as. Michelle outlines her responsibilities across Essentials and Elite implementations, reporting, tracking, training, and process documentation, and shares why learning is her favorite part of the job. She discusses the importance of timing and communication in data work, her apothecary and crochet hobbies, homesteading goals, and offers a top five list for preparing to implement new rental software.

Justin Prusi joins the Front Porch from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We dicsuss his background from a childhood dream of becoming a police officer to pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering to finding a career in the rental industry. He highlights how he got to Point of Rental, a unique job search, and what he does as an implementation consultant.

We also talked about his leadership philosophies, building a career in the rental industry, and went through his top 5 records. Also, he has a really unique "greatest fear."

Support Solutions Engineer Asher Cotton joins us on the porch this month from Jacksonville, Florida.

He tells us about how his entrepreneurial spirit and some serendipitous encounters have guided his career across industries and to Point of Rental, the business philosophies that have guided him through running a variety of multi-location businesses, and where he got his love for the water. He explains his current role’s focus on advanced problem-solving, process guidance, and coaching support staff and how that ties in with his values and the lessons he's learned over decades of dealing with people of all kinds.

Melissa Christensen, a Support Solutions Engineer at Point of Rental, shares her journey from literal dancing to the metaphorical dance of the rental industry. She recounts a 25-year rental-industry career, including joining LiftWorks as the second employee, working long hours to help grow it into a 75-person business, and using early manual and fax-based processes before software modernization. Melissa explains her move to Point of Rental, her role helping premier customers, her belief in relationships, extensive volunteering including a COVID “sprinkle” pay-it-forward group, and shares favorite Chicago spots and personal reflections.

Point of Rental's Head of AI, Matt Gaffin, talks with industry experts Brittany Haas (Crown Rental), Grant Christopher (Christopher Equipment), and Anthony Durante (The Owl, formerly of Durante Rentals) about how rental leaders use AI in their lives.

They share practical applications like SOP and policy/manual creation, professionalizing emails and job descriptions, marketing content and images, research and event outreach, brainstorming, and drafting sensitive employee communications, while noting limitations in deeper analytics like utilization, fleet moves, and buy/sell decisions without better context and continuous data.

Brian talks with Point of Rental e-commerce strategy lead Caleb Yell about how rental e-commerce has shifted from a "nice to have" to a business-critical tool and how you can avoid a lot of the growing pains that come from implementing it. You'll learn about the tools being used to digitize counter workflows online (e-sign, ID verification, ACH/payments), common breakdowns, and the need for optimized consumer-facing images and descriptions. They cover underused tools, key metrics to watch, and highlight the need for great SEO, especially in the AI age.

Senior implementation consultant Phil Clark shares his path, from trampolining, engineering and IT curiosity to bus driving, coaching, and ultimately training customers at Point of Rental. He talks about what good training looks like, what he enjoys most about working with customers and teams, and some standout travel experiences on the job. March is MS Awareness month, so Phil also opens up about his experience with multiple sclerosis and how it’s shaped his life and relationships. We also learned about Phil's off-the-clock stories—volunteering with an inshore lifeboat crew and doing the occasional “disco” as a hobby DJ.