NZXT PODCAST - #196 - Case-A-Thon 4 (Ft. Laurent)

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

On this week's episode of the #NZXT Podcast... We have our Account Representative (Enterprise Sales), Laurent, talking to us about NZXT for Business and how your studio, school, or business can benefit from NZXT PCs! Look into NZXT for Business here! https://nzxt.com/about/nzxt-for-business Save up to 38% on NZXT cases on Amazon! https://nzxt.co/43RyEDE

Hello and welcome to episode 196 of the NCC podcast, the official podcast at NXC community. This podcast recorded live Fridays at 10 a.m. Pacific, same time on the official NCC Twitch and is available to stream on demand on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and SoundCloud. My name is Mike. It was me as always is Ivan. How are you doing, Ivan?

How I do, baby boo? Happy Friday, the first Friday in April. Also, the very last of our case-a-thon extravaganza. going on today. We have a very special guest, but before I introduce them, I want to make some quick announcements. So announcement number one is, it is April, and today is the last day of our April's Fool's Day giveaway. So we are giving away an elite gaming gear bundle for two people, so you and your favorite duo. Go to nzxte.co slash GG Fool. Mike, please drop the link in the chat if you can for a chance to win. Second announcement I got going on today is for those who are in the NZXD Club and are tuned in live, you will get some poochie points for watching today's stream. So if you tune in for 15 minutes, you will get 500 poochie points.

If you tune in for 30 minutes, you will get 1,000 poochie points. And if you tune in for the entire show, you will get 5,000 poochie points. Last announcement before I introduce our special guest here is we are also having a giveaway for those who tune in live. So if you are tuned in live on twitch.tv slash nzxte right now, type exclamation giveaway in the chat. You will get a link to a giveaway for a chance to win an NZXT case of your choosing any case you want.

And if you stick around to the end of the stream, you will get a secret word that will get you a bunch of bonus entries into the giveaway. So stick around. And that's that. Business is done. Now it's time to talk about NZXC for business with our very special guest, Laurent. Laurent, welcome to the NZXD podcast. How are you?

Thank you. Hello. I'm doing great. What's up, chat? Laurent loves the chat. He's always in the chat. He's in the chat more than the NXC chinchilla who just stops me to say high right now. Lauren, you've been on the show before, but for those who missed your previous appearance,

tell everyone, who are you? What do you do at NST? How did you start out working here? Oh, that's a really good question. So my name is Lawrence Goze. I am the account representative for enterprise sales. I've been with NST moving a little over five years now. my journey started here in the customer service now customer experience department and transitioned to where I am at today. It's been a crazy ride, but I love the journey. You know, I've seen the growth from just not just myself, but everyone that I've worked with. So it's been great.

So you started working in customer service. How did you actually transition into enterprise sales? What was that? How did that go for you? So, you know, like everyone else, you know, I was as hungry to progress in my own career. I was the lead, then turned into supervisor. But then I just saw a problem, like a little gray area within the business. I said, hey, you know, no one's taking care of businesses or, you know, businesses that would reach out to us rather than going to, you know, other websites or competitors.

it would like our PCs, our products in their companies. So pretty much it started off in customer service. I'd see one or two in queries, like, oh, I know this brand, and I'd take care of them myself. It's usually just, you know, how do I get a discount? It started off with a discount, but then it made sense, right? You go to Costco, you buy in bulk, and, you know, you get that savings. So the same concept with businesses, businesses would reach out

and ask for a small discount if they buy. like 10, 20, 100 stuff, units, PCs and then it turns into a relationship. So, like, how, like, what's the day-to-day aspect of being the enterprise sales representative look like?

Oh, it's a, it's a, I want to say I do a lot of different things at the same time, right? Yes, in the office, everyone's like, oh, it can make us coffee. But outside of that, yeah. I mean, outside of that, it's more on, you know, I get my inbound inquiries. People would reach out to a customer service team. Customer service would pretty much send us or send me the inquiry, take care of it from there.

I also do the outbound inquiries reaching out to businesses. Doesn't matter the size of the business, whether it would be a small mom and pop shop to your large Fortune 500 company just reaching out, seeing if, you know, if we can be a solution for them. You know, what's funny is you have probably the most official sounding job title in the entire company, in my opinion. Like, Enterprise Sales Account, whatever it is. It sounds like super important. And then you're the only person in the office, Laurent, who has a window seat in the office. You're the only person who actually has a window next to their desk.

super important and then yeah you know you also park in Johnny's spot every morning you're like the closest parking into the office and then you're also like

the doorman you know because you're like you're the only one that's a view to the actual door so anytime someone rings the bell here like Loren is the first one to read everyone he's also the one that's making everyone coffee does a lot here

Do too much sometimes. Yeah. All right. So, you know, how does working with business clients differ from helping individual PC builders? Because I know when you were in customer service, the focus was, you know, you're going to help people that are building PCs or buying PCs. But now it's very different. So what's the difference like for you? I'm not going to lie to you.

It's pretty much the same thing. You know, it's like talking to some. someone with a higher title between like your everyday person, it's the same concept. Instead of selling one PC, it's like selling hundreds. But now you also have to cater to their business needs, you know, cater to their budget. Same thing as any other customer. If you have a budget for a PC, you know, you want to just try to maximize that budget, maximize that return.

But everything is just back to the foundations of customer service, building that relationship, building that rapport, just talking to them, just like regular people. You know, this is why I'm just like this. I'm not wearing a buttoned up t-shirt, a tie. You know, I want you to be casual with me. Just be yourself talking to me. The business clientels are pretty much appreciative of that. You know, I'm just a normal person.

They're not talking to a bot or an AI. They're talking to someone like me. And it's like, oh, if this guy just makes coffee in the office or the guy that steals parking spots. But, you know, I think it's more on what I've learned in customer service that carries on to my business client. and pretty much just being yourself. It's not any different. Sometimes I do wish I could talk to customers again, but rather than the business clients.

But it's fun overall, you know, building relationships and then them coming back to you saying thank you. And I think that does definitely go a long way. You're all business, Laurent. In fact, like this morning, I got to the office really early today. I got here like at 8 in the morning, and Laurent was already here,

parked in Johnny's spot as usual. So I figured, you know, Lorenz probably here all prep for the podcast and all that. Like, he's ready to rock and roll, right? So I walk in the office, and yes, Laurent is in his, you know, windows seat there. And I see him with his headset on, and he's, like, talking.

I'm like, oh, he must be an important meeting. So I walk in and see what he's doing. He's watching a video on about chicken, you know, but the best chicken, but the best chicken, but the best. Chicken, fast food chicken restaurants in the United States or something. So I'm like, all right. I'm glad that our enterprise sales rep here is taking care of business, watching chicken videos.

Absolutely, absolutely. Testing the audio and making sure we find out who's number one in fried chicken. Who is number one in fried chicken? Oh, Jollybee. Jollybee. Makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense.

All right. So we talked a little bit about NZXT for business. and I'm going to actually go to show the website right now. Thank you. Do you want to go into NXT for business and also like, who have you worked with in the past so that people kind of understand like, oh, this is like something way bigger than you think?

Absolutely. So everyone knows NZXT.com. You know, you're able to purchase your PC components, your PCs, your gaming elite products. I have my headset and my microphone with me today. But NZXT for Business. isn't any different. I'm just catering to the business clientele. Again, it's it doesn't matter the size of the company. You know, if you're a startup or, you know, well established, I'm helping you

out. So notables I've worked with, you know, Twitch, surprisingly, right? I've worked with a lot of companies that I've never heard of that I would never imagine of working with. And I've worked with with UCI just recently, University of Irvine. So it's a lot of clientele still building. I'm a one-man team here at Enterprise Sales. So I can't wait to see what's happening in the future. But I do hope that everyone on the next podcast, hopefully, that you guys invite me back.

I can share more on who I'm working with and some more success stories. You mentioned UCI, and I did see a picture of you on the internet speaking to. UC Irvine students the other day. What were you telling them, Lauren? Career path in the gaming industry. Just the truths, it's a tough industry to get in. One, two, just the reality that people change their majors and people that graduate from college tend to pivot.

So, for example, myself, I just real quick on that, I went to Cal State LA. I started off my career as a nursing student. And then I said, this is not for me. got into business and then I stuck through it and I graduated with a marketing degree, but I'm not using my degree. Yeah, there it is. So just the realities of life.

I think college and then transitioning into real world is a scary way to navigate through life. But I think a lot of people that mentored me, you know, helped me get through where I'm at today is good conversations to talk about. So beyond selling PCs, how does NCAC for business support companies, Laurent? Ooh, that's tough. You know, just providing just the reality of, you know, what our product can bring to their businesses. Even if they're not purchasing from us, you know, I do provide consultation. I know that a lot of businesses are trying to save wherever they can, especially in these times.

and, you know, just giving them the real truth of what they're buying, right? A lot of businesses don't know that a gaming PC can fit their needs. Believe it or not, you know, these gaming PCs can do other things than game. You know, I can open up Excel without any issues or any lag or delay. But, you know, long-term-wise, I'm here to help. So people reach out to me, hey, what's a best fit for my needs? I'll do my research as much as possible, you know, with programs that they'll use on a day-to-day. I know Google Chrome uses a lot of RAM, so, you know, download some more RAM if possible.

And, you know, we'll be the solution for you. What type of businesses do you think benefit the most from using NZXT hardware? Ooh. Early on, I thought it was universities and students, you know, being the core demographics, but it ventured out. You know, our products are very aesthetically pleasing to look at. And believe it or not, the architectural firms that I've worked with love our cases. I think as soon as we introduced the H9 elite, they wanted it in their office. and these are showcased PC cases.

You know, yes, you have a panoramic view of your case. You have the RGB lighting. You know, even down to our smallest one, when we had the H1 a couple of years back, they wanted that, you know, elegant look. You know, it's very uniform when it comes down to how it's displayed in the office. Again, these are desktops, not desk bottoms. And, you know, you want to showcase these PCs and the performance and what it can do. So, yeah, outside of architectural firms, I've worked with law offices.

You know, they want to have something elegant to look at on their, on their desktops. But even it's crazy to hear that, you know, I've worked with first responders and they have our PCs. I just imagine someone walking into a law office because they're in legal trouble and then they see a RGB PC on the lawyer's desk. So they Google it. And the first thing they see is a chinchilla. and they're like, yeah, this is my kind of lawyer right here. I'm just like, can you imagine just like going to it? They're like, oh, man, I got into an accident.

You see your lawyer has an H-9 with a 50-90 and stuff like that. Like, that would be insane. I mean, it happens. I thought when I was doing, who was it? It was with a nonprofit, I believe in Hawaii. And they were doing pro bono work. And he was definitely a fan of NGXT before. bought our PCs for his business.

And he was like, yeah, I need something to do both legal work and gaming. I spent a lot of time in the office. I was like, it's true. I mean, I do too. So I try to sneak in a couple games here and there after making coffee and parking in Johnny spot. Watching chicken videos. Watching chicken videos.

It's a very busy day. So you kind of touched a little bit about like people want, like people in the office wanting nzxte or gaming PCs in general i'm going to show like an office PC like i just looked up office PC on google and you know you see the standard black case all encompassed kind of standard right kind of boring uh so what are like some advantages of using like a gaming PC compared to something like this like the black box of office PC that's a good question uh when you look at these office PCs, it's a very bare bones component. You don't even get a GPU at times.

And for people that use these PCs, depending on what their profession is, we've worked with graphic designers. We've worked with architectural firms. And their programs utilize a lot of resources. And you can't just use an office PC without these dedicated hardware, like RAM, your graphics card, a really good GPU or CPU,

that workhorse to, you know, work, do your work, right? When people reach out to me and ask me, hey, you know, I'm using so-and-so product, it does word, but as soon as I open Google Chrome or do some sort of important task, I spend almost half my day just waiting. I'm like, dude, what? So I asked them, hey, what programs are using? I was like, oh, you know, we do a lot of Photoshop or a lot of rendering. Yeah, those are graphic intensive.

program. So, you know, do you know what, like your hardware are using? Like, no. And then they will show me a picture. I'm like, yeah, you'll definitely need a graphics card in there. You know, believe it or not, our gaming PCs can support your needs. So to hear that, see that and, you know, be a true testament to that, it is definitely, I'm glad that I'm able to be a solution for a lot of my clientele.

So I know you talked about basically buying in bulk. like offices are probably going to need they're not going to be like oh can i get like two or three PCs they're probably asking for tens or even hundreds of PCs like how how does that work like for most people being like buying one PC is like a whole process by itself how how does it work buying it for a whole outfitting a whole office or even a warehouse or stuff like that oh you cut off towards the end. Oh, how does that work like for,

you know, for office and stuff like that? Oh, got it. So I am the process, right? Customers reach out to me, I need this and,

you know, I pretty much do the rest. Magic just happens here. You know, I have very close relations with the product team and the warehouse. So they pretty much help me get organized.

It does take some time. You know, yes, you can do a few, few clicks and then you'll receive your PC overnight or whatever the shipping selection is. So, you know,

I'll take up to a week or, you know, two weeks to get something done with a customer. When orders come into the bulk, you know, expect a palette to be delivered. And I do, again, I do all the grunt work. You know, whether it's starting off with the quote or,

you know, building out the PCs, having that same vision, trying to understand their needs. I'm pretty much, I'll do everything for them. They send me a picture of what they want to, you know, how our PCs can fit in their environment. Usually always starts off with the case because, you know, again, it has to be a showcase piece and then go from there.

So, you know, I do the whole end-to-end process from quote to payment to shipping to everything. You set the magic word, Laurent, which is case, and it is the case-a-thon, and Z-Z-T is, you know, known for having some of the best cases out there. So we'll say even the best, no bias here. But I am curious, Laurent, how can businesses actually customize their NZXT case, either with branding or unique designs? Like, what's that process look like?

So it does add some time on delivery. They would share with me their design and, you know, see if it's doable. and then I'll partner up with our vendor to, you know, get some quotes and get that process taken care of. But it is very doable. I think it's worth having, you know, both our cases and their branding displayed. Again, these PCs are on top. Everyone sees these PCs, their branding and, you know, put hand in hand. So it's like NZXTX, whatever brand that you'd like to put, right?

Like, hopefully one day I'll work with McDonald's and have that NZXT and then the M logo. A grimace shake PC. Yeah, I would love to see a purple NZXT case. So when a business reaches out, Laurent, like, how do you determine which NZXT case is going to be the best fit for their needs? So it really starts off with what they had before or if they never had anything before. and go from there. If they have a performance thing that they want to do and achieve, then we'll look for our best performing case.

If they want something that looks elegant and something nice to look at, then we'll start from the top down. If they want to reduce footprints on their desktop, so previously the H1, but even our H5 has a small footprint. But overall, since the release of H6, it's been my favorite case to share with businesses and start from there. But yeah, I think all of our cases look beautiful with RGB or without

RGB. So you mentioned three things. Size, performance, and aesthetics, right? When it comes to, those are the key factors companies should consider when selecting their case slash PC. If you had to rank size, performance, and aesthetics, one, two, three. How would you do that? Size performance, aesthetics.

I think it's more on the performance first. They want to make sure that they're able to do their day-to-day, followed by aesthetics than size. It's funny because I put size on the bottom because that's something that is least talked about amongst my customers. And it's more on, you know, they already know what our cases look like just visiting our web page and seeing the fact that we have multiple cases choose from that would fit their their needs. So, you know, I think, again, performance comes first. than the aesthetics and the size. Because I'll draft something up. I'll show them what the case would look like,

how it would fit their needs. And they would ask me, can we try something smaller? I was like, sure. And then we'll go from there. But again, it starts off with 8-6 for me and then, you know, revolve around that. Okay.

So there are, gosh, there's so many industries you're earlier talking about. So there's like, you know, We talked about e-sports with UCI. We talked about, like, companies that need, like, big processing power. Probably, like, people that do, like, a lot of creative stuff, you know. You know, you have people that are making games and everything like that.

So, how do, how are there different case needs per thing? Oh, hello? Yeah, you're there. You're, uh, it looks like our videos, buffering here a little bit. I'm not on Wi-Fi. I think we're good. I think it's Mike.

Yeah, I think it's my thing. Wherever we're good. We're good. We're good. All right, we're good. All right. Just to reiterate, basically, we have all these industries. We have people that are in e-sports like UCI.

We have game development studios. You have people that probably just need something powerful, you know, probably to handle a lot of rendering and stuff like that. how does each company have like different case needs? Oh, dude, that's, that's tough too. Because again, I think in terms of performance, you need airflow. When we first introduced the H510 flow, it was definitely something that, you know, we've heard the community, they want airflow, we've delivered airflow,

and then the H510 was that solution. Ever since we produced the H510 flow, we introduced the H5 flow. and then from the H5 Flow, we introduce the flow variant cases from the H6 to H9. And definitely, it starts off with the flow cases. I know myself, I use an elite case, and I do love the front glass panel with the RGB lights. But, you know, it's the same thing with e-sports. I think with e-sports teams, they do love that elegance. But then it's like you want to also cater to our first responders.

They don't really care so much about the aesthetics, but they do care about the performance and if it's able to run what they need to do, you know, saving lives. So, you know, the case, the flow cases are always going to be topped here when it comes down to providing that performance. You know, you don't want to choke out your GPU or your CPU for aesthetics, right? So I'm glad that we listen to our community. We were able to produce wonderful products and that look good, you know, and perform as well. so it's all about performance. Airflow is up there. So what is the,

what's the case that most, I know you say there's like, there's, you know, you're caring about airflow and most people choose, do most people choose like an H5 flow or do they go for like the aesthetics of like an H9 or H7 flow? So it usually starts off with the H5.

I personally just issue out like the H6 is out. I know a couple of schools that I've worked with in Florida outfitted with all H6s, 86 flows ever since the introduction. We were ranked pretty high up, if I recall, like number one case for performance when the H6 flow was released initially. And everyone wanted it, and the demand was just so high that we had to wait for cases to become available for them. So, I mean, it was definitely worth the wait. I still have a lot of feedback from my customers.

Love it. The H6 flow is one of the best case that we've made to date. but all kudos back to the H510 H5 Flo that started it all for the businesses that I worked with. We should rename you. You should change your name to Flose instead of Gozy. Laurent Flose. Thank you.

I'll take it. Are there any common misconceptions businesses have when they're picking a NZXT case? Not so much. they always reference the competitor and I completely understand I think we've already branded ourselves in the gaming community

and to diversify ourselves to other industries you'll notice the fact that a certain brand is associated with a certain industry. When they come to us they also notice, hey we have good deals our prices are pretty much solid when it comes down to performance.

You can see that our PCs are pretty much at industry pricing per se you know if you were to purchase all these components yourselves and build it yourself rather than having us do it it's pretty much the same price you save the legwork you don't have to stress out on you know did I build this correctly did I forget to connect my front panel connector or what's the worst cable that you could possibly connect and pretty much mess up something rather than you know us building a hundred units or

hundred PCs and then shipping that out for you it's all ready to go but But the thing is, there's not much outside of the fact that, you know, we're known in the gaming industry and businesses automatically assume that gaming PCs are only for gaming. But they do beyond that. And I think we exceed those expectations when they get our PCs into their hands. You know, unboxing, the whole unboxing experience, the customer service experience, even the performance, and just the follow up. You know, I like to follow up with customers and ask them to see how our PC. are doing so it's a it's a speaking of following up we may have to follow up with the Ndxc club members here within the Pucci points because the the stream keeps

keeps freezing I don't know Mike I don't know if you pay your Wi-Fi bill or or what's going on there but anyway if you guys are having issues with the Pucci points and whatnot just go to the club members channel on Discord and we'll take carry you. So last week, Laurent, we had Jules from the customer service team, customer service team talking about obviously customer service issues, but I am curious how does ND customer support actually help out and extend to our business clients? I mean, it all I'll start from the beginning, right? I think when businesses do reach out, They don't know that the NGC for business landing page does exist or that even I exist.

They'll reach out to our customer support team and ask them all these questions and those inquiries get routed to me and then I take it over from there. Aside of that, you know, I love our customer experience team from the get-go. I mean, I started there. So I know what's like to, you know, get the best calls to even getting the worst calls. And it does get frustrating when you can't solve a problem. But, you know, when businesses that unexpectedly receive problems or get problems with our PCs upon delivery, you know,

they're the first person that they speak with. So kudos to the customer experience team for pretty much holding it down for us. You know, something as simple as, hey, did you turn on the power, or is a power switch on their PSU on the eye position? Or did you connect your HGMI cable to your graphics card? not your motherboard. So simple questions like that, I know that they get a lot. And, you know, businesses, you know, they're in a rush to pretty much get their business up and running and having their PCs ready to go. So it's simple things like that that our team does help support

and having these businesses have running successful PCs. And I know you, you have a lot of relationships with a bunch of different businesses. What kind of long-term relationships are you trying to build with NST for business? Ooh, long-term-wise. Have a good example with UC Irvine, for example. I know that when we furnish our PCs, this was back around 2023. It's a lot of, you know, me volunteering outside my time outside of NST to even just come talk to students. Last week I was just there talking about career development.

Even prior, I was there for, you know, their welcome week. So it did bring up some good memories from being in college, but, you know, being able to support the community is, I think, the long-lasting relationship for me. Even outside of that, talking to, I don't know who else other businesses I've worked with where I would just do on-site visits and saying hello and just talking about everything PC gaming related and anything. outside of that. So it's building relationships. It's just not a transaction. Not only you get a transaction, you get a PC, you get me. So, you know, I think it's just one of those things where it's not just, hi, here's a PC, take your money, goodbye. I'm going to be around for a while. So I'll talk to you, talk your ear off. For those I don't know, UC Irvine is our founder and CEO's alma mater.

So that's why we are the e-sports sponsor there. By the way, Laurent, do you know do you know what sound an ant-eater makes? Yes, I do. Zot, Zot, Zat.

There you go. So, Loret, if a company that you're working with needs to scale up over time, you know, how does NZAC for business help them bro? So same thing.

you know, I do get word of what's happening in the future. So 50 series, I knew 50 series was already going to come out. When the turnover does come, I try to prepare them as much as possible. And same likewise with our team. I try to prepare our team to expect what's going to be expected coming out the quarter. So, you know, let them know, hey, you know, we have new cases. I don't want to say new cases, but we have new products coming out. We have new graphics cards coming up pretty soon, new CPUs.

And I would like for you guys to be the first to have those. So pretty much maintain that relationship, keeping the conversations warm, talking to these customers, letting them know I'm your friend. You know, I want to be your go-to guy when it comes down to making sure that you have the latest and greatest. So even when we launched our egg products, the elite gaming gear, you know, I think a lot of people were looking for wireless mouses and our friends at Discord were one of the first people that got some stuff. Yeah.

You're talking about eggs and chickens. What else are you going to talk about? All right. So with all these different businesses that you're working with, what's some of the feedback that you've received after they've integrated their NZXT cases into their setups? I think what comes to mind at very top is customer service. Not only me.

I know, yes, I do run and operate NXT for business by myself, But the support that the customer service team does provide is very exceptional. That's the very first thing that comes to mind when my businesses give us that feedback, followed by the product and performance. I do think that without their customer service team and then the excellent products that we produced, I think it's just another PC that you can just purchase off Best Buy or Amazon or whatever. Costco. Costco, yes. You gave a lot of interesting examples of different types of businesses that you've worked with.

So you got e-sports orgs, schools, architecture firms, law offices, you name it. So can you give us an example of a business that has actually improved their workflow with NXD PC? Ooh, there's actually a lot. I think a lot of businesses are, you know, unexpectedly surprised by our PCs. I know that one of the firms that I've worked with, the clients I've worked with, you know, was able to release their product as quicker than expected

because a lot of rendering happens, right? Even coding. If you guys go to McDonald's, this is a good example right here. If you guys ever gone to McDonald's, they have these kiosk, the self-service kiosk. The software that was developed on those kiosks was pretty much built on an NZXT PC. So believe it or not, you go to McDonald's and every time you touch that screen, just know the fact that that software was built on an NZXT PC.

Are you serious? Yeah. Wait, really? Yeah. I apologize to the company that worked with us, but yeah, they're the ones that built it. I feel like we should get some free chicken nuggies for life because of that. Just hope that Shohay Otani hits another home run.

And if you download the app, you'll get the free chicken nuggets. I thought it was, no, Dodgers get a, they have a deal with jack-on-the-box, not McDonald's. They're all good to me. You get your chicken messed up, Laurent. What's one of the most unique or interesting business setups that you've helped configure? besides the McDonald's kiosk? The McDonald's kiosk was, I think, my favorite. The other ones, I do am surprised about the first responders.

I've worked with a first responder in, I believe, Middle America. I'm sorry, anything after Vegas, I just don't know anymore, and then coming to New York and then Florida. But Middle America, they wanted a really good PC, price to performance, something that can last them a long time. They came to us and they were able to tell me that, you know, them being able to respond to calls quicker, you know, and being able to save lives faster, it's crazy to me, you know,

the fact that our machines did that, right? That part, who else did I work with? The forest, foresters, forest, people that navigate through the forests, that scale forests or mountains. They've worked with us in the past. I think that's interesting, you know, to hear those type of stories and letting me know. But I think every customer that I've worked with has a fantastic story.

I just wish that this podcast was longer and I'd share it all with you guys. We're here all day. Oh, don't see that. Have you ever had a client come to you with a request that was just completely unexpected or ridiculous? When they asked for two GPUs and water cooling, I'm like, we can't do that. But they were adamant about, I still want an NGXT product. I was like, okay, we'll start there. I'll give you a PC, but you know, just know that you can do whatever you want once you

receive it. At the end of the date, they didn't do anything to it. They were happy at the fact that we built it correctly, that the cables were managed well. They opened it up and they're like, oh, wow. You know, why would I want to touch this? It's artwork within an artwork within itself followed by the performance. So I know kudos to all the teams that were involved in putting our products together. Yeah, I know.

I had a, I had, I think you helped make my original PC, right? And then I had to ruin that beautiful art because I had to transition to another case. for video and I'm so sorry I'm I ruined it I try my best I try my best to like do some cable management is nowhere good let's see it's it's a it's a tough duty to do to fulfill but luckily you know if you get if anyone gets our cases we have one of the nicer cable management in the back of our TCs to help you route your cables and it's pretty much pre-routed our front panel connectors I've built in it multiple times.

The only one that really, like I get stuck on is the front panel connector. So read your instruction booklets, know your motherboards, and make sure you, you know, connect that or else that your PC won't turn on

or those buttons on the front don't work. I don't need a crash course and cable manager, no, no. I just full, back panel on, that, that's it.

Said it and forget it. Not a side out of mine. Yep. once that backbones on I'm like yeah well at least the front looks good the front looks actually pretty decent so that's all that matters that's so funny

we got the stream crashing we got people telling us that the club website's timing out it's chaos today on the internet so like I said if anyone's having issues with their poochie points just messages on Discord will take care of it

all right so if someone Laurent wants to get in touch with NZXC for business what's the best way for them to get started? So if you guys can link the landing page

in chat, the NXC4 business landing page, it's hidden pretty funny, it's hidden in our website, you have to actually go down to the footer and it says NZXT for business that's where you'll find my contacts. There's two options, there's an

email option, and then there's going to be my Twitter or people call it X now to reach out to me. I'm very responsive on all mediums. So, you know, send the inquiry out and I'll take care of you from there. We should make a short URL for that, Mike, like NCXT chicken or something. All right. Last question before we get into our rapid fire. questions here. What is your favorite part, Laurent, about working with businesses and helping

them find the right NXT products? I think this is a two-part question, really, or two-part answer. One, building relationships is very important. You know, I'd be truthful and honest, letting them know if this is possible, if this is not possible, or even telling them the truth. I think a lot of people get that misconception of salespeople or salesmen or whoever may be that everyone is just looking out for themselves. I'm not. I'm more on the fact that, hey, if you do decide to go with us or don't go with us, I'm able. I'm happy that I was able to provide some sort of a solution or even having that conversation started. The funny thing is people do reach back out after months and it's like, hey, I didn't forget about you and now I do want to work with you again.

But, you know, I think building relationships is one of the best parts. But also finding the solution, the second part would be finding that solution. Being able to say, you know, I was able to find a solution for this business is amazing. You know, going back to my McDonald's story, I was. It always comes back to chicken with you. Comes back to food. It's funny that, you know, I was able to find that solution and being able to see what our products was able to produce, right? To say, you know, that our PCs built or helped build the codes for this program is

amazing, you know, and then, you know, even with our nonprofits that we work with, a lot of Make a Wish Foundation participants or requests would come in and I'm just happy to be able to help some kid with our PCs, being able to be that one-stop shop, you know, again, not only do we sell cases, we have our products. We have monitors, keywords, mice, headsets, microphones that work efficiently. I'm using all of our NXC products here, not just because I work here, but, you know,

it's amazing. I hope I sound nice on stream, so, you know, just know the fact that it was recorded or streamed on a, what's that, elite microphone, so. There you go. There you go. Shameless plug.

Before, before Mike gets into the the fun questions here. We do have a question in the chat from Harley Hart. Oh, I want to ask you. No, I already know the answer to this. The answer is happy meals,

because I have seen you wait in line for these Travis Scott meals and whatnot. Oh, yes. So she's asking, what is your McDonald's order and how many points do you have? So our good friend Dom knows my order and it's pretty funny.

If I don't tell, if I don't say this, then he'll get mad at me. It's usually a number one, depending on the day. I probably do pickles or no pickles, six piece chicken nuggets with a sweet and sour sauce and a doctor pepper. So that's my usually go to. Now I'm all big on the value meal. So, you know, buy two cheeseburgers, get the one for a dollar. They're not even value. anymore it's so expensive I know tariffs but yeah you should always get the

pickles and I recommend I'm checking my points right little little pickle in Costa Mesa best best sandwiches in town right now I am standing at 27,446 points on McDonald I'm Mick Rich Lord oh my yeah I know I love that place so much for instance. I can't see what chat says, but... All right, Mike, let's stop talking about chicken because I'm getting hungry.

Can you start asking Laurent some questions about video games? Yeah, we'll get through the things because Xfinity apparently is having allergies around my area right now. So that is my bad, but the recording is good, so you guys catch a replay on YouTube

and on SoundCloud, so that's no problem. Okay, first, rapid fire. Lauren. Oh, no. Are you ready? No, we ease it in. We'll ease it in. You know, we're going to do the standard stuff, you know, like right now.

What games are you playing right now? Easy. I just played Valerant last night, but outside of Valerant, it is Destiny 2 and Cod. What is your favorite game of all time? Ooh, oh, my goodness. Damn, all time. It has to be Super Mario Brothers. any Super Mario Brothers game.

How about can you narrow down to at least one or two? The very first one on NES, the Super Mario Brothers. The very first one. Okay. With the collab with Duck Hunt. Oh, I know exactly what you're talking about.

What is a game you'd recommend to everyone? Oh, man. Believe it or not, the games on LinkedIn are... LinkedIn. I know I'm an adult now. I'm playing this game called Zip, and it's like Snake with Sudoku and stuff. I don't know.

I'm old. I peaked. I've been playing these games for the last couple weeks now. Only an enterprise sales account representative will be playing video games on LinkedIn. Yes, no, try it out. I think it's nostalgic when it comes down to playing snake on the Nokia phone. but it's been my favorite so far and I recommend just

you know I think if you're hit peak 30s or or whatever at least try it out but if you're actually downloading a game I just wanted to say just you know play destiny you know it's kind of late now

but it's a beautiful game through and through forget the DLCs forget everyone else's like stats or whatever and just just play it I've been playing it since the first Destiny came out on on playstation for a long time ago.

And then now I'm like, knees deep. Can't finish the game. I'm still waiting for my co-op partners to join me. Speaking of which, would you rather only play single player or multiplayer for the rest of your life? Oh, man. Multiplayer.

I like to, you know, talk to people. But, you know, at times, I've known I played with my valerent friend, and they hate the fact that I'm just so good, you know, I'm just kidding. I suck. And they would always yell at me and like, why do we have you on the team? I was like, dude, I'm here for the vibes. Dobbs says, heal me, sage. He knows.

What is your guilty pleasure? Ooh, no, fried chicken. Outside of fried chicken. Outside the fried chicken stuff? no I think just playing games on like free time I think that's I feel guilty because then it's like there's a lot of work to be done

here if my boss is listening if my boss is listening I'm not playing games I do a lot of work your boss probably walks by your desk and they're like oh Lawrence on LinkedIn must be networking for networking playing video games on LinkedIn now we know

yeah so that's a little big guilty pleasure reminds I transitioned out of playing video games so I could work more, but it's a bad habit sometimes. It's a good in bed. What is your jollybee's order? Jollybee? Oh, man, I think everything on that menu is pretty good.

But my go-to would be the two-piece with the jolly spaghetti, and then you've got to have the pineapple drink. Well, who's asking these questions? I feel like they know me. What is your hidden talent? Um, I, I, make coffee. I don't have any talent. What?

I really don't. I mean, I really don't. I, I, I like to eat food. I don't know. It's funny because your hidden talent is eating food. Making food disappear. I'm a magician. Every time there's food in the office, it's gone after, you know.

I don't have any talent. I'm just here. I, if you think about it, I just like to see people smile, so I make other people laugh without even trying. Yeah, I guess that's a talent. Okay, now we're going to go into some would you rathers, and these are my favorite. I love would you rather questions. Would you rather never be able to have a hobby again or never be able to enjoy food and drinks again?

Bro, you can take away the hobby. Give me my food. That's a trick question because his hobby is food. And jokes on you. Jokes on you, like, but the thing is, like, people say, like, for the, if you don't enjoy food and drinks, you could, like, be super healthy and eat, like, broccoli and stuff. Like, you were like, I don't care.

I'll just eat some healthy stuff. And then I enjoy, like, gaming and, you know, going on merit, you know, all that other stuff. I've never finished a game, so it's okay. Is that true? No, I finished only a handful of games. Would you rather wake up every morning with a Charlie horse or a brain freeze? Remind me a Charlie horse. It's like, that's like a leg cramp.

Oh, dude. Dang. Yeah, give me the leg cramp. I hate brain freezes. It's like me sticking my tongue on the roof, my mouth, and trying to make that go away. But I enjoy cold drinks, ice cream and everything. So I'll be fine without walking. Would you rather have your favorite food only once every year or have to eat it every day?

Once a year. I think you lose value over time. And it doesn't taste as good the third time in the third week. You know, that's why Thanksgiving happens. Thanksgiving is the once a year. You've only eaten it once. And, you know, I look forward to next year's festivities. but once a year, not every day.

I can't eat McDonald's every day. That's so bad for you, but I mean, I love the place. Follow a question. What's the best Thanksgiving food? Stuffing. I'm not going to lie to you. That's the most simple and easing, and I think everyone oversees it. Stuffing, add a little gravy on there, and you're good.

Yes, thank you. Turkey's overrated. I'm just kidding. I agree. But it's still good. No, turkey. Turkey is definitely overrated. Like, I'd rather eat like ham or chicken.

over turkey. Yes. How many times have we said chicken on this podcast today? Oh, so much. Can we get the chicken counter? Yeah, maybe we should make the cold word chicken. But that's okay. Mike?

Would you rather live in a timeline where humanity never uses seasonings or sweeteners? Ooh. Oh, man, I have a big sweet too, so no seasoning. No seasoning? No seasoning. No seasoning. Pepper, no seasoning. Give me the sugar.

What? Yeah, no, I, I, salt and pepper is the most basic, uh, seasoning that you'll ever need. So that's fine. Oh, that's, that's rough. But I, I, I would go with season these because, like, I, I can cut out the sweets. I can't cut out, like, garlic and, like, pepper and, like, onion powder. It's, it's too hard. Start off with a fried egg.

No salt, no pepper. then, you know, move on to like a steak without salt and pepper or anything. You're going to be okay. But follow up with an ice stream and then you'll be all right. Okay, yeah, yeah, I got to end on a good thing. Got to end up a good thing. Would you rather have 24-hour nights or days? Oh, so in my previous life, I would have chosen the nights,

but I think nowadays you get older. The days, the longer days feel nice. You know, I enjoy daytime naps. And it feels good because you only need like 30 minutes to 45 minutes to take a nap and then, you know, do you feel refreshed, energized. Nighttime, you know, you just knocked out the whole time. And, you know, yes, you could still be gaming till 2 o'clock in the morning, yelling, like losing or whatever.

But the night, I can't. can't do nights anymore. So now I'll do 24-hour daytimes. Stephen the Jeep says that they inject their turkey with bacon grease and then smoke it. That sounds really good. Wait, that sounds so good. We're coming over for Thanksgiving. Wait, wait.

So do you just inject it like we're into the turkey, like with the stuffing and then you smoke it? That sounds really good. Dang. Let's see. Oh, all right. Two more. Two more would you rather. Two more would you rather.

All right. One, would you rather be a cowboy, a samurai, or a pirate? Oh, man. They're all cool. Cowboy samurai or pirate. I would choose, oh, man. Give me samurai. I think swords are cool.

I mean, well, two of them have swords. Cowboys have guns. Cowboys have guns. Pirates you want to sea. Pirates, I get seasick. I can't swim either. So, yeah, let me be a ninja. Yeah.

What would you rather be? Cowboy, Samurai, Pirate. I think I would rather be a cowboy. Mm. Yeah. I think most people I know say cowboy or samurai. Most people don't want to go on the seas as a pirate. And I'm like, oh, come on.

Yeah. But I don't want to be a pirate because I don't want to rob from people. what a pirate does, right? And then a samurai, I feel like samurai are just constantly fighting. You know, a cowboy seems like a more fun lifestyle, you know, riding horses and cooking beans over open fire. You know, I'm down for that.

And then, all right, this was a fun one. All right. Would you rather be able to repeat a day anytime or never have to pay taxes. Oh, easy, never have to pay taxes. Do taxes, taxes suck? To everyone listening, don't grow up. I think that's the best piece of advice I can do.

Taxes as you get older, just, you know, yeah, no, not fun. But repeating a day, I think we do things in a purposeful way that, you know, we can learn from. So don't want to repeat, you know, either mistake. stakes or successes. Just let it live in the past and not repeat it again. I mean, if you could, you could repeat,

like big events, like a boxing fight or like the Super Bowl and you could bend and you win a bunch of money that way. That's unethical, Mike. Or for business, remember, remember.

No, but yeah, when I was a kid, you know, I was buying these, you could buy chips for a dollar. But I didn't know that you needed seven cents because of tax. I was like,

You just robbed me from my childhood. But back then, a dollar went a long way. I was able to get like a can of soda and a small bag of trips. And, you know, I was a happy camper. But when the store said that you had to pay some seven cents for tax, I was like, oh, I didn't know. Do you have seven cents? That story lives on forever. All righty.

I think that is all the questions. I have anything before I go into an announcement? Yes. just want to thank Laurent for joining us. It was a pleasure, as always. I was not expecting to talk about food so much, but either way, it was a blast. So thank you, Laurent.

Also, thank you to all the NZXD club members. You will get your poochie points. If you did not get your poochie points, because things are broken today with the internet, it seems like, just messages on the club members channel on Discord, and we will hand them over. So thank you, everyone. Yes, sorry about everyone.

Xenity is having out. in my area right now. So, of course, the moment that we're having outages is the most important time. Like, couldn't happen yesterday or on Wednesday. It happens today during the stream. So, I mean, blame Xfinity. All right. So let me go to some announcements.

And then Lauren, we'll get some final closing in. And we'll give you guys a code for that. First of all, check out nzc.c.com. Or Escommitter point deals in the chat. And you can save up to 38% off NZC cases on Amazon and other things. well. The deal ends soon. So please, please, please take a look at the Amazon link so that you can get some awesome deals because there's some there's some good stuff right now. This is our final caseathon. So if you guys want to check out all the details of the caseathon that we just went up, go to nzc.com slash blog. You guys take a look at everything we've done for the caseathon and it was super fun doing all of the stuff. having our employees talk to you guys about the NCC cases and all the stuff that you do. It's super fun.

Let's see. Oh, yes, some big stuff. I don't know if NCC Chichillas. Oh, yeah, NCC Chichol is in the chat right now. You can sign up for the NCC Club. That's where all the poochie points and all the hard requests, like, updates are going on. You go nzc.c.com slash club or estimation point club in the chat. now we have

NZXT stickers and Chinchilla magnets Ivan do you have a Chichella magnet? Yeah, he was actually going to get up and grab it right now we're going to go grab it up You can add NXT Chilla I don't know if you're still in the chat but we have magnets

Like we I don't know what came over Ivan But oh yeah there it is he's got it He's there it is Yeah he's in the chat So you can slap it on your PC You can slap it on your refrigerator So go go join our club

of ASAP. By the way, I am going to mail one to the NXC chinchilla. Yes, I mean, we have to. We got to. Let's see. Follow at NXT on all social media platforms. You can email

podcast at ncc.com and let us know what you think about the caseathon or anything in general if you have any questions. Obviously, I'm going to also go ahead and link if you guys are into uh

make sure if you guys are interested in the edzicc for business and you have any you know friends family or even maybe co-workers or bosses that are interested in buying in bulk

from us you can go ahead and you can talk with Lauren I mean I mean that's like the best thing you don't even have to buy a piece that you can just talk with him it's a fantastic time so Lauren do you have any anything you want to say before I give these guys the code? Yeah, real quick, I want to say thank you.

Congratulations on completing the Caseathon. And shout-outs to, you know, Jules and Kevin Prior being first guest before me. This is a great show. I thank you for having me here. Again, if you guys are interested, I do want to recommend to our listeners to check out our, you know, gaming gear elite products or elite gaming gear products. They're awesome. So check that out.

And then, you know, reach out to me. if you guys are looking to hopefully have our NGCT PCs in your workplace. Yeah, I'm excited. Okay, so we talked about fried chicken. We usually give the code as a pun, you know, what we had. We had just in case, catch a case. We had some good, we have some very funny ones in the chat. Let me see if I have them.

Case me outside. How about that? We had, you know, just in case. Yeah, we had some. So we decided for the final case-a-thon and the final giveaway of, you know, three winners will get a case and everything like that for the final one. As our way saying, thank you guys for joining us during the case. I don't think you, Laurent, for joining us today.

Talk about NCC for business. Thank you guys for joining us. And I'll see, sorry for all the Expedity outages and weird crashes and stuff like that. So sorry about that. But our way of saying thank you guys for joining us on the caseathon is to give you the best code word and the best pun. It's just case. That's it. It's just case.

No pun. It's just case. So you guys put that in and you guys get some extra entries into the giveaway and we'll pull the winners during this week. So thank you guys for joining us. Thank you, Lauren, for joining us as well. And tune in live on Fridays at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on the official N6. Twitch. And don't forget to listen to previous episodes

on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud. You got any questions for us? Send an email to podcast at ncc.com or tag at NZC on social media platforms. If you guys have any issues with your club rewards,

just go to the, what is it, the hashtag club dashed member's channel on our Discord. We'll help you out with that. That's my fault for crashing. But thank you guys. And have a good weekend.

Thank you, Lauren, for joining us. All right. Thank you. Hello? Sheesh.