Financial Planning with Jessica Cannella Around a Live Edge Conference Table

Operator: It’s time to take a seat. A seat at the table. This is where we share meals with friends and family, enjoy holidays, we love, laugh, debate and have tough conversations with those we love. It is around this table that lifelong memories are made, memories that we hope never fade into the distance. Around this table we gather, it is a centerpiece to our lives. Yet this table did not start its journey here. It started as a small seed planted beneath the surface in fertile soil in need of water. As it began to grow a sprout is birthed stretching towards the sky and reaching its roots deep into the earth.

As the seedling begins to transform into a sapling the tree grows stronger, every year stronger and stronger. The roots reach deeper, the timber higher, this now mature tree serves as protection from a sudden rainstorm, shade from the blazing sun and if this tree is lucky, that is when the true transformation begins. For Isaac Garcia, a Houston artist and owner of Once A Tree, his passion for transforming trees that spent decades in the forests of Costa Rica, Mexico, and Texas into hand-crafted one-of-a-kind masterpieces has been his lifelong passion for 16 years.

Let’s join in on the conversation Jessica had about her partnership with Isaac for a recent project for Oak Harvest Financial Group and learn about where this journey all started for him. We’ll have more information about Once A Tree in the description below. We hope to see you soon around our table to discuss how you can best prepare for your retirement. Just as you make many memories around the tables in your home, we can help you prepare to make even more with our experienced retirement specialists here at Oak Harvest Financial Group.

Jessica Cannella: I’m Jessica with Oak Harvest Financial Group, Co-founder and President and I am here with Isaac from Once A Tree and I wanted to do a little off-the-cuff YouTube video today to tell you about the wonderful shop that is Once A Tree and how Oak Harvest and Once A Tree are collaborating to design some conference room tables that will sit around and meet with our clients and talk a little bit about retirement planning. I’d like to introduce you to Isaac. Isaac and I are just going to chat a little bit about how we met. I found Isaac on Instagram.

I was searching for a live edge table to adorn our office with and at the time in our budget we only had enough budget to have a little coffee table and it’s been such a wild success having that table in the conference in the lobby area that we wanted to, as we expand, add some pieces and so I reconnected with Isaac and Once A Tree and wanted to just introduce you to him, the work that he’s doing here. Isaac, if you would just tell me and our viewers a little bit about how you got started in the business? You shared with me a story about your dad and how this shop even came to be.

Isaac Garcia: This story is actually unique and funny in a way. We were in the food industry since I was a kid. One day, my dad opened a new business, a grilled chicken business and so he started growing fast and one day, the restaurant was always packed and he was worried about, hey, we don’t have enough space and there’s always customers outside waiting.
In that property, we had a big cypress tree in the back. It was already dead. One day my dad was like, “Hey you know what, I’m going to make a table so we can have more people sitting down here.” He basically asked a friend of his for a chainsaw and he cut a piece of the tree and it’s the ugliest table that I have ever seen in my life. He was so rustic and–

Jessica: This was in Mexico, right?

Isaac: This was in Monterey, Mexico. Then he basically just made a cut a slab out of it and then some squares to make the bases and then from the top, he put just big nails and it was just rough. It was super rustic and in about two days a customer was sitting there, so basically, he made his goal. He was like, “Okay, cool, we have more,” it was a big table. “We have more space now.” One customer who was eating was like, “Hey, I really like this table, how much do you want for it?” My dad was like, he just threw a number. I don’t remember the exact amount but let’s say–

Jessica: Your dad was a businessman, he’s doubled in many different businesses. He threw out a number.

Isaac: He was like 20,000. The guy was like, “Okay. I want it.”

Jessica: 20,000 pesos.

Isaac: Yes.

Jessica: Different than dollars. [chuckles]

Isaac: The tree was so big and he made another table out of it. The same thing happened about four or five times.

Jessica: Other customers here in the store for chicken and left with the table?

Isaac: Yes. People eating and then, “Hey, I want this table, how much for it?” Then he told me like, “Hey, I feel like this is the way I want to go now. I’ve been in the industry all my life, and this just feels like fun. I want do this.” He didn’t knew about wood at all. More customers started buying the tables and that’s how we started this business. We changed our whole business 180.

Jessica: That’s awesome. You’ve worked since you were 10 years old, you told me. You are no stranger to work. Whenever I come into the shop, I refer to your work as your art, because, in my opinion, you really are an artist. I really appreciate your ability to color match our logo for the epoxy and the table. It was just something so unique. It’s a statement piece that we have in our lobby. It’s the first thing that people see when they come in and they’re always commenting on it. Tell me a little bit about what the process is like in creating the tables. Are they still come from Mexico, your dad still involved?

Isaac: Well, my dad, he’s still involved and this wood is Guanacaste, is a wood from Costa Rica.
Jessica: Beautiful.

Isaac: We have some local wood from here from Houston, Texas, some wood from Mexico. The way it works since everything is custom, I always love to talk first with the customer, so that way, I can understand what he or she wants like in your case. Whenever we talk, basically, I already had it in my head like, “Okay, I know what she wants.” Then I start showing you different pieces. Once you like one piece, I work with that one, again, customizing the shape, the size, the colors. That’s pretty much it.

Jessica: What trees are the tables made out of?

Isaac: The Guanacaste is a bestseller. Then the Montezuma Cypress is the biggest tree in the world. Those are the two best sellers.

Jessica: Awesome. Thank you. I wanted to just introduce y’all to Isaac and a little bit about his process and now he puts the tables together and construction and get them out to consumers. Where can people find you if they’re interested in purchasing their own table?

Isaac: Instagram oatree, Facebook oatliveedge. My website is onceatreeus.com. I already know I messed up.

Jessica: That’s okay because we are going to put it in the description box so that you can go to our page and find Isaac at onceatree and get your custom table made. We hope to see you around our table in the conference room.

Isaac: Thank you very much.