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Transcript for Naked Talk with Beyond the Bedroom with special guests from Revel Furniture

0:05 Elizabeth: Are you tired of having to hide your sex toys from your friends, family, or even your kids? If so, stay tuned for this episode of Naked Talk from Beyond the Bedroom and we’ll give you some answers. My name is Elizabeth Wood…
0:19 Dan: And I’m Dan Power. Tonight we’ve got a really fun show, I think. We came across a lot of people from Revel Furniture and they’ve got some really sexy furniture but– oh I guess we should probably do our introduction first, huh?
0:36 Elizabeth: Yes!
0:36 Dan: Sorry, I like to get started ahead of time!
0:39 Elizabeth: Here we go! Welcome to tonight’s version of Naked Talk. Naked Talk is where we get naked in a talk of sexuality, intimacy and relationship. We strip down and expose the bare facts so that you can learn what it takes for your love to thrive. Welcome, welcome! So, Dan, I will let you introduce Kevin and Erin!
1:02 Dan: OK. Well, Kevin and Erin Jensen are with Revel Furniture. We came across them after Twitter, of all places. And they started following our Tweets and started commenting on them and I saw this Revel Furniture and I said, “What is this? Who are these people about?” And I went to their website and they’ve got some of the sexiest, most fun furniture that’s out there. We’ve found things like the liberators and other stuff that’s out there but this stuff is really cool and so we very excited, we reached out to them and invited them onto tonight’s Naked Talk so we can, kind of, speak for itself.
1:44 Elizabeth: We’re really glad to have you with us and look forward to hearing lots about this, actually, let’s just say sexy story! So, let’s see, the first question–
1:53 Dan: So first of all, are you there?
1:54 Elizabeth: Are you there?
1:56 Kevin: We are! You froze just for a second but you’re intro was very nice, thank you. And thank you for having us on and for searching us out. We find it interesting ’cause sometimes you do things on Twitter and it’s almost like it goes into that little atmosphere and nothing ever happens; you ask questions to really get people involved and, you know, nothing. And it’s quite interesting because you’ll do a Tweet and, like, five seconds later there’s five thousand other Tweets that just– yours comes to the bottom and it goes so fast that it’s nice to be seen, so thank you for that.
2:31 Dan: Yeah, yeah, our pleasure. And it definitely is our pleasure because we have looked at your furniture and we think it’s awesome. We’ve told some friends of ours about it, hopefully they’re gonna get some.
2:41 Kevin: Thank you.
2:43 Dan: Maybe us as well, but yeah.
2:46 Elizabeth: So if you wouldn’t mind telling us a little bit about your story. I know, from your bios, you’re a married couple with children, but what on earth caused you to create– what was the impetus? How did you create the first piece?
3:01 Kevin: You want me to do it?
3:03 Erin: OK.
3:03 Kevin: Well, you know, being married, we have three daughters and the short story is, out of the two– out of the three kids, two of ’em have very serious illnesses. In the hospital– one was in the hospital for a long period of time and after a while of dealing with– years and years– of dealing with hospitals, hospital bills, a back and forth to hospitals, dealing with trying to get the other kinds to have somewhat of a normal life, you know, and then the second one got really ill and it kind of just all compounded. After many years of that we just– we just lost our– that whole “spark” thing, you know the “spark”, and we just lost the ability to really be a married couple and, because everything else was so on top of us. So, actually, Erin brought it up. She said that we needed to start again, you know, with the simplest thing and really just start with the simplest thing, which was sex. And it kind of went from there. And I’ll have you…
4:09 Erin: So with Kevin having a background in construction, when we– he know what he wanted to build us. We had searched online to try and find something to give us that spark again and what we were finding online, I’m sure has a great purpose for certain couples, but it wasn’t reaching out or speaking to us directly. We both knew what we were looking for but we weren’t finding it at all so Kevin began to sketch something out. He went out into the garage and built a chair and brought it in and started using it…
4:44 Kevin: Out of plywood.
4:44 Erin: Out of plywood, yeah. And we used it for a little bit, and kind of made adjustments after every time we would participate in it and after that he decided to continue to build on it– make it bigger, make it better. And we had a friend come over and spend some time in it in our living room, just casually chatting with us, and she said, “This chair’s so great, where’d you get it?” And Kevin said, “I actually built it.” And so we ended up telling her what it was about. She’s a physician in San Francisco and she said, “You have got to sell this. This is amazing.”
5:22 Kevin: Yeah. It never was meant to be a product that was to, you know, bring out there. It was really just for us. Never thought, in a million years, when I came home from work and I said, “I have this idea for a chair we can have sex on”, you know, her eyes were like, “What?!” and I said, “No trust me, I think this is really cool and I think I could build this thing.” And so, and I only built it out of plywood in like half an hour and of course, my kids were like, “What are you doin’ Dad?” And I’m like, “Nothin’!” And we just threw a blanket over the top of it and we had a great time. And so when she said– when our physician friend said, “I want one”, I said, “Why would you want one?” And she said, “My husband and I are doctors. We live in San Francisco in a two-bedroom apartment with three kids. Where on earth do you think we have sex?” And they’re on-call all the time and so that’s really how it started, and then another one and then another one. And then our friend Doug, and his wife, came over one night and said, she was, his wife was sitting on this chair ’cause I wanted to bring it out into the family room to see if anybody would say, “Hey, what’s that?”, but she wouldn’t get off the chair. And we were like, “You know, you can come over here and sit?” And she was like, “No, this thing is so comfortable. Where’d you get it?” And so Erin said, “Well…”, and she explained the whole story. And this guy, Doug, who I’ve barely met for like fifteen minutes, literally looks over at me, and I thought he was gonna hit me and he goes, “Do you have a website?”, and I said, “No”, and he goes, “I’ll build you one for free.” And that’s how the whole thing started. You know, the people who come in contact with what we do and who we are really enjoy what we do, there’s a positive message to it, there’s a lot of great things but it’s usable, sexy-looking furniture that you can customize for your house. And, you know, we’re not blowin’ off the charts with sales, but the people who find us and find out what we do really, really think it’s an amazing thing.
7:26 Dan: Well, and I think that’ll come with time, too ’cause– well I hadn’t heard of you and I’ve been in this industry now for about ten years. So just coming across it and just seeing the style of furniture that it is– I mean, literally, it’s something that I could put in my living room, I could have my mother sit in it, they wouldn’t know anything about it. I could have my kids, I could have my wife, you know, anybody, and they wouldn’t know and I wouldn’t be embarrassed about it.
7:55 Kevin: Yeah.
7:55 Dan: ‘Cause it’s good-looking furniture.
7:59 Kevin: Thank you.
7:59 Dan: My– A former partner of mine had a chair somewhat similar to it, but not as robust that was specifically designed for back issues and it was very nice furniture, it was very expensive and, you know, this is like that. I mean, it’s that kind of nice furniture that I would absolutely have in the room.
8:21 Elizabeth: And I think, what you just said, Kevin, about, you know, it’s– first of all, it looks like something you could find in Scandinavian designers– Scandinavian design– any one of those, like, high-end– actually, not Ikea, but, like, it kind of has a Swedish-Scandinavian look to it. I mean, I love the design of the chair. I know you also have a bed– a bed frame. But anyway, I like what you said about it sending a positive message because the whole back story is that you and Erin were just looking for ways to reconnect–
8:54 Kevin: Yeah.
8:54 Elizabeth: And I think that’s why Dan and I, as part of Beyond the Bedroom, are so attracted to your story because it’s for everyday couples looking for something that will, you know–
9:11 Dan: Spark their life up again
9:12 Elizabeth: Spice, yeah, spice or spark up the bedroom and, you know, it’s also a really fun way to play an inside joke on the relatives that might come over for Thanksgiving and never get out of that chair during that football marathon. You know, so it’s cheeky and kind of fun too, which I think makes– you know, makes it, you know, more appealing, ’cause there’s some fun put into it. What we also heard from you, when we were emailing back and forth, was that Playboy has come knocking. So tell me how they found you and what their interest is.
9:49 Kevin: Well we– they actually never came knocking. We’ve been knocking and we’ve been knocking on lots of people’s doors. You know, the hard part is is that you’re– it’s a tough thing to sell, “Positive Sex”– it’s really tough. But the reality is, is we’re not selling positive sex. We’re selling furniture that has a really positive, sexual message. And it’s really hard to show people– like, this isn’t a sex toy. You know? You wanna go buy a $45 vibrator, or whatever, go do that. And I really hope it works for you. But we look at it like, “That’s something I have to hide, something I have to put away, something that goes under my bed.” You know, we have some things from Liberator and where in the world does it– is it put? It’s in our closet, up on the very, very top. ‘Cause there’s no place to put it.
10:38 Dan: Right.
10:39 Kevin: We have friends that have bought Liberator things and in one case, she– the wife came home and said, “What the heck is this?” And he was like, “Hey, it’s gonna be great.” And she made him return it because she was very put off by it. It was just a big, giant piece of foam and she’s like, “Where in the world am I gonna put this thing?” So the furniture is there, it’s meant to be used, but it’s also meant to be, you know, you see it everyday. You don’t have to get it ready, you don’t have to blow it up, you don’t have to hang it from the ceiling– it’s there and ready to go. And, you know, that’s the biggest thing that we’re trying to do and so people haven’t really reached out because most people on the internet aren’t looking for positive sex, they’re just looking for sex.
11:24 Dan: Right.
11:24 Kevin: And so, we decided we were going to put together our own price release, that Erin did, and I said, “We’re gonna send them to all these people and let’s see what happens. And then we’ll Tweet some people, we’ll start following some people.” We’ve been listening to a lot of pod-casts and so that’s what we did. And we got a response back from Holly and Michael from Swing Time 69, they have a show called ‘Swing’ on Playboy TV and they have a show called ‘Swing’ on Playboy Radio and we’re not swingers and, you know, it’s not a big deal to them and they just called us and said, “We’d love to do an interview and it just kind of went from there.”
12:04 Dan: Nice. And one of the things that I really like about your furniture is I love your story, that you’re looking for something to try to help, kind of, rekindle, for yourselves and– what’s her name?– Ester Perel talks about, you know, the whole mating captivity that we’ve gotta have variety, we’ve gotta have change. And yes, some people go off the swing and look at variety that way, or some people just go off and have affairs, but this is a nice way to bring variety into your relationship and in a way that you can keep it so that it is out in the open. We have a Liberator and you’re right, it’s in our closet, somewhere, and we pull it out once in a while and it’s nice to have and, you know, we’re happy to have that kind of furniture and that kind of stuff– it’s what we do. But I really like the idea of the chair being able to be in the living room and just be another thing in there or even in the TV space and bedroom and have fun with each other, give a nice little massage, something like that, and just be comfortable in general. I really like that idea.
13:06 Erin: That’s one of the things about the chair that helped, initially, I’d go as far to saying saving our marriage, as well. As you know, men are more sexual, physically, I guess you could say it was about communication, for me. It was about the two of us reconnecting. The more sex we were having, the more we were reconnecting. The more connected we were, the more sex we were having and so it was a cycle that fulfilled both of our needs. And it was a piece of furniture that was just a reminder to put Kevin at the forefront. I could walk in our house, if it’s in our living room it’s one of the first things that I see. Although the kids are running around and there’s piles of laundry everywhere and dishes in the sink, that’s one thing that reminds me of him and how important our sexual relationship is as well and that is important to me.
14:06 Kevin: That’s what I built the furniture for, that was really it. Selling it to other people, it’s just a really cool bonus but it’s nice– the furniture– like, the chair’s light enough, “Ehhh I might wanna have some fun”, and I’ll move it on purpose, like I’ll move it into the family room– it’s normally in our bed room. And the kids have no clue what it’s for but, you know, and they read on it, they sit on it, they love it and it’s really funny because you have to get over the idea that– it’s not a vibrator and it’s not a piece of, you know, something crass that, you know, if they find you’re like, “Oh my god, what am I gonna tell ’em?” It’s a piece of furniture and a lot of parents go, “Oh what happens if they sit in it?” And I’m like, “Well, don’t your kids hop on the bed? You know, don’t they sit on the couch? You never fooled around on the couch?” You know? So people kind of– they almost, kind of, equate it to going into a lingerie store and, “I’m not supposed to be here”, you know? It’s a piece of furniture and it’s– but it’s designed– it’s cleanable, it’s anti-microbial, it’s sturdy, it’s everything you want it to be. You wipe it off and it’s just as good as it was before you had sex on it, so you should use it like a piece of furniture and that’s the only hump that we’re trying to get over.
15:22 Dan: Well, and it’s funny how people look at things– ’cause we have the same issue with Beyond the Bedroom. Sex is one of the top three reasons why people get divorced.
15:31 Elizabeth: Or lack thereof.
15:32 Dan: Or lack thereof.
15:34 Kevin: Yeah.
15:33 Dan: And it’s one of the things that is really there to connect us but we’ve connected such a stigma around it, in our society, that we try to get people to come to some of our events– it’s the same kind of issue. Like, “Yeah, I can’t do that.” Even though we can teach them how to have better sex lives, –
15:51 Kevin: Yeah.
15:52 Dan: Better connect with our partners, they still kind of run away from it. So that’s why we do what we do– have these Naked Talks, have different events that we have to show people that you can actually learn something and enjoy it and there’s nothing wrong with it, either.
16:08 Kevin: Right.
16:09 Dan: The one question I have is, I’m 6’4”, and Elizabeth is almost 6′, but I’ve got friends who are, like, 5’1”, does it fit everybody?
16:21 Erin: It does.
16:22 Kevin: It does, yeah.
16:22 Erin: It does.
16:24 Kevin: It’s completely designed, we– you know, I didn’t have a background in furniture, but through studying of torsos and body types and, you know, we talked to different doctors about the curve that the chair should be and the chair is our main flagship piece. The bed fits anybody, it’s just, you know… But the chair is just designed around the human form, it really is. You can be, you know, any– a little person to 7” tall. It can fit anybody.
16:57 Erin: We do have a testimonial on the website, though, as well from a couple that– he was over 6′
17:04 Kevin: 6’5”
17:05 Erin: And she was about 5’2”, maybe, 5’3”
17:08 Kevin: I think, yeah, she was about 5’4”, 5’6”, but it was a huge difference.
17:10 Erin: And she had commented that it was the first time she was able to look her husband in the eyes when they were having sex, instead of staring at his chest.
17:21 Erin: So it really not just connects you intimately but emotionally as well.
17:26 Kevin: And it allows you to touch each other’s bodies in ways that you’ll never be able to do– the support that we designed for the chair, it supports the person below and the person on top and you don’t have to think about, “How do I get in this position?” You don’t have to think about that. You just need to think about, “What position do I want?” ‘Cause that’s another challenge, is people don’t really have, like you were talking about, they don’t have that mental capacity to think outside that box, you know. You really need to think about sex, whatever you want is completely possible. Whatever position you can think of– her on bottom, him on top, sideways, whatever you want. It’s completely possible. And the chair will support everything. I’m– it’s incredible.
18:15 Dan: And I know some men who, and women, you know they’re a little overweight or they’re older so they’ve got some knee issues and they’re not able to be as flexible as possible and this chair looks like it would be great to support them.
18:30 Erin: It really is. We also have quite a few pictures on our website that show you I’d say thirty examples of positions. By no means is that the full collection.
18:42 Kevin: Yeah.
18:43 Erin: But we do have people emailing us on a fairly regular basis about, “I’m overweight, my wife’s overweight. Is this going to hold us? Is, you know, what is the height of the legs because we wanna make sure that it’s going to fit both of us comfortably?” And Kevin is really, like he said, designed the chair so absolutely any body, type and style are able to enjoy it.
19:10 Kevin: And it’ll hold whatever you put onto it, weight-wise. We’ve– I built a frame a long time ago and actually put a big, black Chevy motor and I actually put it right on top of it and then I stood on top of that and jumped up and down at– I had this metal fabricator that, locally, that makes the actual brackets and I was like, “I wanna see how much it can hold”, and it didn’t even flex. And we have yet to break it. I’m not saying to, like, go bang on it and try it, but everything is so reinforced. Even the bearings, there’s four ’em in the bracket guide, each one can hold thirteen hundred pounds so, yeah, you’re not– it’s meant to be– you could make this an heirloom piece of furniture. If you really wanted to pass it through the– this isn’t something that you just buy, a couple years, and then throw it away. Even if you’re not having a lot of sex and you’ve gone on with life and whatever, it’s a piece of furniture and your family can– and even my father says, “You know, it’s just a piece of furniture. Why not, like, pass it through generations? And if they figure out it was actually for sex, good for them!” You know? So, we built it to last.
20:22 Elizabeth: We’ll have to leave that in some– what are they called? — like a treasure chest for our children.
20:28 Kevin: “Hey by the way…”
20:29 Elizabeth: “Hey that Uncle Kevin, he was pretty cool I should–”
20:33 Kevin: Pretty cool!
20:35 Elizabeth: So how many positions, I know Erin you just said there are more than thirty, you just specifically– you know, are there new ones that are being …
20:48 Dan: Invented? Created?
20:48 Elizabeth: Yeah, invented or created? It seems like thirty is quite a lot more than we know of on any given day.
20:56 Erin: I wouldn’t even know how to…
20:57 Kevin: No there’s —
20:59 Erin: How to say how many there are.
20:59 Kevin: It’s hard.
20:58 Erin: We’ve, you know, gone through those position of the day books, you’re pretty much able to do just about–
21:08 Erin: Each of those on the chair.
21:09 Kevin: Mathematically, when we did the photo shoot with the models, we have in our collect– we were only able to shoot for eight hours, that’s what we paid for the studio and everything, we have over two hundred and fifty actual photos of different positions. Now, some of them are similar, but you have to think, “Each position, I can click into seven different positions on the chair”, the chair reclines into seven different positions. So even if you have one, you have to multiply by seven. And because each angle will feel completely different, especially for the female. And so even if it’s just a simple I’m just on top facing you, think about that– you can recline that in seven different positions. And then just by her, let’s say, rotating around and now she’s– now her back is to you, you now have fourteen positions and you haven’t even really moved and that’s why it was– it’s really difficult to– you really have to imagine sex in a completely different way. Whatever you can think of, you can do it.
22:21 Elizabeth: I think that’s what’s so fantastic. Dan referred back to, earlier, to Ester Perel’s Mating in Captivity and that variety, not only in the reclining, standing up, back and forth position, you’ve taken sex outside of the bedroom. Well, not really, but you’ve taken to a place off the bed. I mean that, sometimes, can be variety enough. So I really like that idea that, you know, rather than somebody hanging from the chandelier or contorting themselves into some Kama Sutra position, you’ve just given the– our audience, your audience, your demographic a new opportunity to experience something, possibly more deeply intimate, such as the testimonial you got from that woman that was able to look her partner in the eye. I think that’s beautiful.
23:17 Kevin: Thank you.
23:17 Elizabeth: So, congratulations on that. Talk to us about the– is it a bed frame? ‘Cause I know I’ve seen the frame…
23:26 Dan: So we’ve got two different products. We’ve got something called the Essence Chair, and that’s what we’ve been talking about mostly and so now you’re talking about the Odyssey Bed, right?
23:35 Elizabeth: Yes. So tell us–
23:37 Dan: Did I get that right? Make sure I do…
23:38 Kevin: Yeah, you did! So the Odyssey really came about– we had this bed in our bedroom and I hated it and it squeaked, it was loud, it was kind of– it was mostly squeaky, loud and noisy and it was made from all the fake wood and after the chair goes next to it, you really realize, “Wow, this is really a crappy piece of furniture”– that, you know, the bed is, and so, you know, we de– I designed this furniture– it changed a little bit. Not only did I want the furniture to enhance your sex life, but I realized that your furniture takes up an enormous amount of room in a house. So I really started to talk– Erin and I started talking and I said, “Well if you had a bed, what would you need?” And I realized that we’re plugging in our phones, we’re needing power for laptops. You know, the bed is become this place, it’s almost like a mini-office, it’s where you sleep, it’s where you read with your kids, it’s where you have sex, it’s all of these things. But yet, it’s just an inanimate object that just sits there and takes up a lot of place. So we started talkin’ and she said, “I’d love to be able to charge my phone”, and I was like, “Done.” And I said– and then we decided it needed to have hidden storage for things of a personal nature. It needed to do this, it needed to do that. And I didn’t like the fact that– one of my favorite positions is standing up and I didn’t like the height of our bed and I wanted to raise it like an inch. So I was like, “What if it was adjustable?” And that’s how the whole bed came. So the frame– it’s a complete frame. So it has a headboard, two sideboards and a foot board. It goes together. Every joint has a felt pad in between so it’ll never squeak. It’s reinf– every joint is also reinforced with actual hurricane straps that we use out here in California that you pick up at the local Home Depot. But, so it’s a solid piece of furniture once it’s together. But, it has the same fabric that automatically adjusts to the heat of your body that’s on the headboard, it’s got the hidden storage, it’s got pop-up outlets on each side that has, you know, you can plug in up to three things on each side of the bed, it has outlets on the back because how hard is it to plug in an end table lamp? You know, a night stand, a lamp, how do you get to that? And so we basically just started adding to make sure it had pillow storage in the back, the height is, when you set it up, I can adjust the bed height up to five inches. So if you’re tall or if you’re short you can lower the bed, you can raise it, do all of these things. So it was really not just about sex, it was really about having better sex and having all of these things that make your life, overall, better.
26:30 Erin: In addition to that, though, it also has hidden straps at the head and at the foot of the bed frame so if you’re into bondage you’re able to hook in to those straps and it’s not like you’re down there tying it around the bottom of your bed post, by any means. There’s also a hidden, in the hidden compartments that are in the head board, it has the flip down cabinets.
26:58 Kevin: It has flip down…
26:59 Erin: And so you can charge vibrators in there, that goes to the electrical outlet, and so you don’t have your vibrator sitting out on your bathroom counter top for anybody to see, you know, that might come in and out, you know. You could hide your passports, you could hide your jewelry, whatever the case may be.
27:15 Kevin: Whatever you want, yeah.
27:16 Erin: Teeth from the tooth fairy, that kind of stuff, so… It has a variety of uses. It also has some under mount mood lighting, which is really great. Kevin is fabulous about being romantic but I know it’s not the strong suit of a lot of people, so there’s no need to think about having to light all these candles or getting the room looking just right. Turn off the lights, flip on the under mount lighting and it provides a really nice ambiance.
27:43 Kevin: So we had the– we designed the lighting to have, like, a candelight-like lighting, but it also– when you wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, if you do, you’d flip it on. Or at night, if she’s asleep, and you wanna read or watch TV or somethin’, you know, you can flip it on. And it’s ambient lighting so it’s going down and reflecting so it’s not in anybody’s eyes so she’d never say, “Please turn the light off ’cause it’s shining in my eyes”. So all of those little things. We’re also developing a knee board that actually clicks in to three different sides so, if you wanted to, you can kneel on the edge of the bed and actually lean over the bed, you can– it helps with coming in from behind, or like you were talking about, with people with back problems, you know, if you’re in a position where you need to have your legs hang over, actually put them on the foot board, it helps relieve stress from the back and all of those things. So there’s a lot of things that the foot board will actually bring to it and we’re just finishing up– about another month we should be able to have all the brackets fabricated and tested and everything for weight and those should be a part of the bed pretty soon.
28:52 Dan: So do you have the mattress that comes with it or do you just sell the bed frame?
28:56 Kevin: No, we just sell the bed as itself and it has a– all the platform and everything so you just, literally, throw a mattress on it. You can– it has a platform so you could just do a mattress, but if you want it to be higher you can do a box spring and a mattress. It really is up to you what you wanna do with it.
29:12 Elizabeth: Well, what I’m also hearing, as you both talk, there– for the physically challenged, whether through disability or obesity, it sounds like, I know that’s not your target market, but that’s a whole market that really could expand their own sex lives with either one of your two pieces– the chair or the bed frame. So, I’m really excited for the first– I don’t know, what are they– osteopath? Or, first chiropractor who gets wind of these pieces of furniture because it’s something that we come across when we talk to couples that, you know, double-knee replacement or a bad hip which decreases a woman’ flexibility. And it really sounds like using your furniture really could be, as it was for you, not because of disabilities, but real enhancements to, certainly, the sexual side of a relationship which, of course, then, the trickle-down effect spills down into all other factors of the relationship pie. So…
30:19 Kevin: Well we’re trying– it’s marketing and getting our name out there has been a challenge. You know, we– we’re a small company and the money that’s made through the furniture kind of helps keep everything going and it takes a lot more energy and money to do a lot of the marketing and we’re slowly trying to get out there to different sex educators, sexual therapists, marriage and family counselors and other doctors and things like that. But, again, it’s that challenge of saying it’s not about just sex, this is about improving lives and sex is a big part of that. And that’s really hard. People don’t– people wouldn’t watch a TV show if it was all positive, you have to have the negative, that’s what people wanted. And that’s the hardest part. It’s a really big hump to get over and so, you know. But we’re trying, ever so hard, to do things like this, Beyond the Bedroom– we love your website, it’s got amazing information. You can ask any question and just go click down and it’s a great website, it really is and–
31:37 Dan: Thank you.
31:37 Kevin: And we hope that people look at our website and find that same exact– you know, that information, just through furniture and a different avenue, but that’s what we’re trying to bring.
31:49 Elizabeth: Yeah I love the look of your website. So back to the small company, it’s– you’re building them, they’re custom-ordered, custom-made. Obviously, looking it over, high-end wood selection,
32:03 Kevin: Oh yeah.
32:02 Elizabeth: Fabric so it’s not– your price point is not comparable with something, as I said earlier, that you find in Ikea. It is a higher price point, but you justify that perfectly– you don’t need to justify it to me– by the fact that it is custom-made, per order. So could we talk a little bit more about that? ‘Cause somebody may look at the price, which I think the chair is around $2100– am I wrong?
32:31 Erin: It is.
32:31 Kevin: Yeah.
32:32 Erin: We accept credit cards, obviously, online when somebody’s making a payment or if they wanna call in and purchase a chair online as well. We’ve also just started accepting the ability to break up the payments, so that has helped a few individuals as well.
32:53 Kevin: Yeah.
32:54 Erin: When they make the deposit and then they give us the second half because we recognize that it is an important piece of furniture that you really need to put a lot of thought into, because of the price point. It’s not something that you’re just going to buy on a whim.
33:10 Kevin: Yeah.
33:10 Dan: Like an investment.
33:10 Kevin: It’s completely hand-picked, solid– everything is solid, there’s not a thing that’s MDF or fake on it. It’s 100% solid wood, it is built, you know, by these hands right here. It’s built– it is! I build them and Erin, yesterday, she was dressed to go somewhere and I said, “Hey I need some help running things through the table saw”, and there she is in, like, some high heels and a dress shirt and slacks, literally helping me hold the wood as it goes off the table saw, you know, ’cause we’re building a bed for a customer right now. And I just looked at her and I was just like, “This is really our life, this is totally our life, isn’t it?” And she just kind of smiled and was like, “Yeah this is…” I said, “I would’ve thrown at least a different shirt on.” She was like, “Oh I gotta get goin’ after this”, so it was just kind of funny, but we do– it’s handmade, selected– the chair is made out of solid oak and the wood is steam-bent by a company out in Michigan for us and– which even makes the bend even stronger. Because a lot of people think those are like a lot of little pieces tacked together, they’re not. That’s a steam-bent piece of solid wood. And the bed is made from solid Alder and other pieces to come, it’s all solid, you won’t find anything of higher quality. This is the best we could do.
34:32 Elizabeth: So am I understanding that you are, you, Kevin, with the help of Erin, you are single-handedly building each piece or do you have other, other than your suppliers, do you have–
34:45 Dan: A kind of crew
34:45 Elizabeth: Santa’s elves out there?
34:48 Kevin: No. No, we are single-handedly building these things. My dad actually sometime helps me with the upholstery, because he does upholstery work. And that’s it. And then I have a metal fabricator that builds the brackets for us. Everything’s local, it’s all made in California, all made– all the wood’s from a sustainable tree farm, from a hardwood company up here and it is literally made by us. And our hope is that it grows and we could, obviously, hire people and do that but right now, it’s kind of one off piece every single time an order comes in, it’s like, “Alright, let’s go get all the stuff and let’s start buildin’ this.” And that’s really what we do, and the down time is spent really with marketing and doing things like this and radio shows and tryin’ to go to different shows and stuff like that.
35:42 Dan: Nice, so what kind of shows have you been going to?
35:45 Kevin: Well, we’ve been asked to do a couple of different things. We’ve gone to a lot of the AEs, we’ve gone to Exotica, we were just a part of the show in Toronto, Canada called “Everything About Sex Show”, but we just feel that it’s really not the avenue for our furniture.
36:07 Erin: I kind of feel like the kind of people that are going to those events are going to get some quick answers or quick novelty items, they’re there to see the talent of some shows or videos, but not necessarily ready to go in and make a purchase of $2000. And so, although they’ve been very beneficial to us, it’s always good to be out there and know who may be your competitor who you want to, maybe, get some partnerships going with, I don’t feel like it’s an environment that is worth our financial resources to have a booth at something like that. So that’s where we partnered up with Playboy for the position or conference in Toronto, which was really great to be able to have Holly and Michael represent us and pass out our cards. We were able to send a chair to Toronto as well and they had it at the booth that they were representing as well at the X Club, which is a night club for those in the lifestyle, as well.
37:10 Kevin: They love our product and they’re really great people and it’s not just about swinging, they’re really about the positive message of sex and talking and communicating and really exploring what do you want from each other? And so, they were a great avenue, they called us and said, “We’re goin’ to the show, can we grab your stuff?” And we’re like, “Sure.” ‘Cause to do a show is between ten and twelve, fourteen thousand dollars, to do a show.
37:43 Dan: Yeah.
37:43 Kevin: It’s a lot of money. And so we’d like to, you know, figure out other avenues to use fourteen grand with, you know?
37:52 Dan: Yeah, I understand that completely. We’ve got a lot of the same issues here, you know. What can we use to get the message out to people who really need what it is we have in a way that they can hear it, so yeah, I feel for ‘ya and understand that one.
38:08 Elizabeth: Yeah, I mean, that’s what we’re dealing with is really how to put that sex-positive message forward and, you know, I think the resonance that attracted us so much to the work that you’re doing, the products that you’re creating, is because this is what it’s all about; it’s about connecting deeper in your or your audience’s committed relationships. Nothing against, you know, the other– the lifestyle people who wanna use the chair, but what you developed it for was your own personal use and then other people got wind of it and encouraged you to create more. So I like–
38:49 Dan: Necessity is the mother of invention.
38:50 Elizabeth: Yeah. I like that and, you know, can I ask a few more private and personal questions? When–
38:58 Dan: What’s your favorite position?
38:59 Elizabeth: No, not that one, Dan can ask that one.
39:00 Dan: Oh, OK
39:01 Elizabeth: But I’m gonna ask–
39:03 Kevin: I have too many. I have too many.
39:07 Elizabeth: Oh yeah, well that’s great! You’re a good salesman, Kevin.
39:12 Kevin: *laughter* I’m just being honest.
39:14 Elizabeth: Well that’s good, that’s fantastic. You know, variety, as we say, is the spice of life. How long have you been– when was your first protype built which will then tell me how long you’ve been using your chair?
39:25 Erin: It was built in…
39:30 Kevin: Avery was… Avery was like two– three. So that’s five years ago.
39:35 Erin: Yeah.
39:36 Kevin: About– a little over five years ago. Avery got sick when she was– just after she turned one and it was just when she about turned two when, then, Hellen got sick and that just– it was just shortly after that. So they’re eight…
39:51 Erin: Actually, four years ago.
39:54 Kevin: Yeah, between four and five years ago. It’s a blur.
39:57 Dan: And they’re all better now, right?
39:59 Kevin: They are, I’m sorry, yeah.
40:00 Erin: They are.
40:01 Kevin: I meant to say that. The story has a happy ending, everybody’s fine, everybody’s good. They, you know, they’re great kids, we love them to death and they’re very tight because of all the things that we’ve gone through. We’re probably one of the tightest knit families that people know. And they say that to our face. It’s just, we love bein’ around each other and the kids just love each other and when you go through some traumatic stuff, you know, the sisters– they’re three daughters– and they just truly engage with each other and you take one of ’em out of the equation, just to go play with another friend and the other two just kind of shut down. It’s really interesting and they just, when Hollen got sick, the other two just they were there. And even though Avery was still sick, they were there for her, it was really cool. It’s really– but they, in the end everything is great, so far it’s been great.
40:57 Dan: Well it’s good to hear.
40:58 Elizabeth: And what we also know, sort of, statistically, is that is one of the most difficult things for a couple to go through is an illness of a child. So I can imagine, obviously and as you’ve already said, that during that time your sex life had to take a back seat. I mean, your top priority was taking care of the first child, your first daughter and then boom, back to back, the second one falls ill. So, you have that positive happy ending because you then decided to put the focus back onto your sex life. So go Erin! ‘Cause I hear that that was really your making, so what led you– a lot of women could just potentially shut down from that. What were you missing? What were you craving? What decided– or what made you decide to move forward in that question or that inquiry or whatever you wanna call it?
41:55 Erin: I think we’ve always known that it’s an important– having sex and being intimate is an important part of our relationship and Kevin and I are opposites in many, many ways and we’re kind of a ying to the yang, right?
42:12 Kevin: Right.
42:12 Erin: And I got my degree in social work, he’s from an East coast, Italian family so our lifestyles growing up were very, very different and what we’ve– who we are is very different. But I know how sexual he is and I need him to talk to me and, like I said, it was just cyclical. If he was talking, or if we were communicating we were having better sex which meant he was happier, which meant, in addition to the communication aspect, I had got the trash taken our and the dishes were done or I had help with the kids, right? It was something that we both needed. I’m from a divorced family and I wasn’t going to let that happen for my marriage over something like sex either. So…
43:09 Dan: And how long have you two been married?
43:11 Erin: Almost sixteen years!
43:13 Elizabeth: Wow! Fantastic! A child bride!
43:17 Erin: That’s right! We’re from Indiana, that’s just what happens.
43:23 Elizabeth: Not a lot in the mid-west, I’m from Chicago. So I wanna give a shout out also, I’m a former social worker and I love what you just talked about. The difference between, so if we’re talking, obviously, heterosexual couples, the difference between the way that the man functions and the way that we, women, function because I always say to– one of the top tips is “feed her emotionally”, which means listen to her, communicate with her, talk to her, show her that you’re interested in things outside of her body just for sex and guess what? You’ll get more sex. And then, you know, the women who actually will then pay attention to men and sexually needs, the more that they will get listened to and cared about and their emotional, nurturing needs will get met. So you just talked about one of my favorite tips is, you know, men, feed her emotionally, and women, feed him physically, and the whole family’s actually happier. So–
44:28 Erin: It’s a …
44:28 Elizabeth: You know, I was doin’ a thumbs up off camera when you were talkin’ about that, I had a huge grin on my face.
44:35 Dan: When mama’s happy, everybody’s happy.
44:36 Kevin: That’s true.
44:37 Erin: That’s exactly right and, you know, I– we find that people put so much time and energy into other aspects of their life, but you kind of take your marriage or your partner for granted, a lot of the times, because you’re focused on so many different areas– you’re really stretched with the kids and with work and with bills and commitments and our furniture are reminders, just daily reminders. Like I said, I can walk in the living room and it reminds me of Kevin, that’s– or, you know, you wear a special piece of jewelry that they’ve given you. This is more of a in-your-face, you walk in, here it is, “Oh I need to use that tonight”. You know? It’s not something that you need to put a lot of thought into.
45:22 Elizabeth: Did you have a comment, or a question to ask?
45:29 Dan: No, no. Everything’s great.
45:29 Elizabeth: That’s one of the things that Dan and I– that’s sort of a cornerstone of our relationship; the more he listens to me, you know, and asks me questions and seems to care, the more he’ll get what he wants and then, again, both of us end up with our needs and desires met and fulfilled. So, I think that’s a great reminder for our audience, as well. What other social work tips have you pulled out in terms of your relationship and making it work? Around the furniture, or not, I think this could be another fascinating topic, too.
46:07 Erin: It’s honesty. It is really listening to one another.
46:14 Kevin: It’s honesty, yeah.
46:15 Erin: And communicating in a fashion that you’re– we had a conversation this morning and I said, “Don’t take this as me attacking you or criticizing you, but what I’ve noticed is…”, and he’ll say, “Your psycho-babble”, you know, “Don’t psycho-babble me”.
46:33 Kevin: I don’t sound like that, though.
46:33 Erin: You kinda do!
46:34 Kevin: OK
46:36 Erin: I just, I think it’s important for us to be honest with each other and if you can’t be with your spouse then who else are you going to be able to listen to it from? Kevin has really taught me that I need to communicate more on an intimate level and I’m not so good at that and so, but that’s what he needs. And so I’m working on that while he works on communicating out of the bedroom.
47:08 Elizabeth: This is so perfect, you guys should come out here and teach a class for us!
47:12 Kevin: As a matter of fact, I don’t know if we can time-out… this computer that we’re on is about to die. And I have the other one put up here and we can swap, I don’t know how it’s gonna happen. ‘Cause we just got a notice and Erin– Erin forgot the chord.
47:32 Erin: Which he’ll communicate with me about later, I’m sure. *laughter*
47:37 Elizabeth: Do we have time? ‘Cause I don’t know how it’s gonna switch over. You know…
47:42 Dan: We can just go until it dies.
47:44 Elizabeth: Yeah, you’re right.
47:48 Kevin: Uh-oh.
47:49 Elizabeth: *inaudible due to feedback*
47:53 Kevin: I didn’t get that.
47:56 Elizabeth: Just shut off the first one.
47:57 Kevin: I am.
47:59 Erin: No, this one. You’re shutting off the second one.
48:02 Kevin: Oh no.
*feedback*
48:08 Elizabeth: Can you use that and just click Kevin?
48:11 Dan: Oh– we just got disconnected. OK, well. Anyways, I guess it’s a good enough time to wrap it up.
48:16 Elizabeth: So it is! So it is with technology and Beyond the Bedroom. Please forgive us for the fact that we just, sort of, simultaneously kicked both of the screens of. We might as well set up what we’re gonna do when we post this after editing it is let you know that it’s– well we could tell you– it’s RevelFurniture.com, is that correct?
48:40 Dan: Yeah, RevelFurniture.com
48:42 Elizabeth: RevelFurniture.com
48:43 Dan: They have a beautiful website.
48:44 Elizabeth: It’s beautiful website. Oh there– they’re back! You guys are so funny. OK. The couple that returns. That’s perfect ’cause we were–
48:54 Kevin: It didn’t, I don’t know why it did that. All of a sudden it just opened by itself and I’m so sorry about that.
49:00 Elizabeth: Hey–
49:01 Dan: Not a problem.
49:01 Elizabeth: No you’re great!
49:02 Kevin: I’m so sorry but we have the back up.
49:08 Elizabeth: Well and now you’re all over this Google Plus, or whatever it’s called. So I was just telling them about your website, it’s RevelFurniture.com
49:16 Erin: Yes.
49:17 Elizabeth: Do you have any YouTube postings of the chair? Anything that anybody could see short videos on?
49:23 Kevin: You know, we’re actually– a couple weeks ago actually– we decided to turn part of our shop into kind of a–
49:33 Erin: Like a mock studio.
49:33 Kevin: Like a mock studio and we are actually floating all the walls and we’ll have a wood floor because we’ve decided it’s really hard to explain in some sort of a form or a handout to say, “Hey this is what our furniture is about and this is how to use it.” So, or even how to put it together, so the chair just comes out of the box and there it is, but with the bed, you know, you gotta put it together and, as a man who knows how to build things, I’m always amazed at how awful the instructions are. Well we have more instructions than just to put it together so we’re gonna do a few videos, put them up on YouTube. Every client who purchases an item of furniture, we’ll actually email that to them so they know how to put it together and to refer to certain pages of our website in order to view positions and how to use them. So, they’ll be up soon, we’re just kind of finalizing that in our shop– in our showroom.
50:34 Dan: Nice.
50:35 Elizabeth: Well I think you two, you know, your testimonial is– and the proof is in the pudding. It’s helped you revitalize, first of all I might say, possibly say, save your marriage, and then it’s revitalized your sex life. That’s so fun– there are way too many favorite positions for you, Kevin, to talk about just one. So I think people are curious about what others think about furniture they can go and check out all the testimonials and we can all look forward to your growth, your expansion, and more products that come out there. So…
51:12 Dan: Yeah and what’s the lead time on both the chair and the bed?
51:15 Kevin: Typically they’re around five to six, sometimes seven, weeks. It just depends on where it’s going and how many– what time of the year. We tend to get more around, you know, October because people want it for Christmas and then it’ll start up again in end of December, January, ’cause they’ll want it for Valentine’s day. And we’ve had clients, we just had one just recently and it had to be there on this day, you know, last week actually. And we have no idea why, but it’s like, “OK, that’s what you need.”
51:51 Erin: It’s a Thanksgiving present, maybe.
51:52 Kevin: Yeah. ‘Cause it just had to be there on the 27th or the 26th, and we’re like, “OK. As a Thanksgiving gift. Hey, if that’s your thing, great.” You know, maybe that’s– maybe her birthday’s on Thanksgiving, I don’t know. So, but yeah, our lead time’s typically four to–four to– I can do it in about four.
52:12 Erin: Six weeks.
52:13 Kevin: Let’s say six weeks.
52:14 Dan: OK, great.
52:15 Elizabeth: That’s cool.
52:16 Kevin: And we want to come over to Denver, by the way. If you would ever want us to come by and… We love Colorado. Love it, love it. And so we’ve been actually talkin’ about getting out to Colorado quite a few times and go do some sightseeing, just some skiing. But we’d love to– if you have an event and you want us to have a talk at it, we’d sure love to talk to you about that.
52:40 Dan: OK.
52:41 Elizabeth: Yeah, we’re that’s– that’s kind of a nice lead-in Kevin, thank you for the seg-way.
52:47 Kevin: Oh.
52:47 Elizabeth: Beyond the Bedroom is really gearing up for an exciting year for 2015. What we’re hoping to do is bring back our live three-day conference. If not 2015, we’re gonna be looking to 2016 to do that as our audience grows larger and larger. Let me see what time it is. But actually we’re at that time. So, stay tuned for more and you can always check out our website at BedEvents.com and for more information on Erin and Kevin, again, it is RevelFurniture.com. So, that about wraps up tonight’s Naked Talk. We wanna thank our guests Kevin and Erin for being a part of this very potent and fun conversation. We also wanna thank our sponsor, Tantra Dakini, the ultimate resource for all materials related to spiritual and sacred sexuality. Check them out at TantraDakini.org.
53:43 Dan: Yeah and just so everybody knows, December, other than tonight’s presentation, we’re gonna take off. We’re gonna, kind of, buckle down a little bit and plan next year and figure out what we’re gonna be doing, specifically. We do know that we’re gonna have a lot more web presence out there and we still are gonna have a lot of things coming up. We’ve got some exciting people we’re talking to about coming out to Colorado, maybe we’ll have Revel Furniture, as well, as part of that. So, definitely stay tuned with that. And one of the things I wanna ask you, Kevin and Erin, before we leave, is do you have a Facebook page, as well that people can go to? Or is it just your website?
54:25 Erin: Just our website and Twitter at this point.
54:29 Kevin: Well, we actually do have a Facebook page but we just really don’t go onto it that often. It is actually just Revel Furniture.
54:38 Erin: Yes.
54:37 Kevin: On Facebook. But we really don’t update it as much as we are on Twitter. We have a few followers that find us but mostly it’s just through Twitter.
54:49 Dan: OK.
54:49 Elizabeth: So we’ll go, Beyond the Bedroom, will like that page so that Beyond the Bedroom so that your Facebook, even though you don’t use it, are linked. So I think people always, from us, what we’re trying to become, this resource for, you know, fact-based teachings or furniture that lasts or quality products, linking the two of us together, I think, would be really great for our audience.
55:15 Kevin: Yeah, that’d be great.
55:15 Dan: Yeah.
55:16 Elizabeth: Well hang on online, Kevin and Erin, as we end the broadcast ’cause we’ll do a final wrap up, but thank you so much for joining us.
55:24 Kevin: Thank you for having us.
55:24 Elizabeth: — fun, and since this is December, happy holidays to all of you out there and we look forward to seeing you in 2015. Thank you.
55:34 Dan: Yeah. Goodnight everybody.