"Hello Indy!" APRO's RTO World Convention 2022 Recap - What Really Happened!?

RTO World 2022 Recap: Hello, Indy!

The RTO Show Podcast | Hosted by Pete Shau & Danny

In this lively recap, Pete Shau and Danny take listeners inside RTO World 2022, the rent-to-own industry's premier annual conference held August 10–12 in Indianapolis, Indiana. From educational sessions and leadership panels to rooftop ballrooms and bike cab rides through downtown Indy, this episode captures the energy and community that makes RTO unlike any other industry.

A Last-Minute Presentation That Delivered

Pete and Danny co-facilitated a session on managing in a post-pandemic world alongside Chrissy Livey of Impact RTO. Despite just three days to prepare, the session drew strong feedback — including praise from a 28-year industry veteran. The biggest lesson: be genuine, know your material, and speak from the heart.

Industry Highlights

• Chris Cale Sr. received the RTO Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by his son Chris Cale Jr., president of Trib
• Paul Mativier (VP of Impact RTO, President of FRDA) teased a future podcast appearance
• The Two Million Dollar Club session with Magic's team reframed what's possible for RTO store revenue
• Workforce wages, generational management, and vendor relationships dominated the conversation

What's Next

The FRDA meeting in Tampa and deeper dives into APRO, FRDA, and the Trib buying group are on the horizon.

Transcript

Pete Shau 0:15

Welcome to the RTO show with Danny and Pete. What's going on, everybody? Just want to talk to you a little bit about the RTO world. And last week or the week before last, August 10 through the 12th, 2022, we had an amazing time at the RTO world in Indianapolis, Indiana, where oh my God, it was a beautiful place. It was it was at a great meeting. I mean, this was the place to be for all kinds of things. If you want to learn, if you want to see, Trib was out there, uh, the rental industry for buying group, part of the APRO, which is the Association of Progressive Rental Organizations, it was an amazing time. What did you get out of it?

Danny Lastra 0:47

Well, first off, the city was absolutely beautiful. I mean, when we went walking around downtown and we saw all the old buildings and churches and the statues of the history and the stone, it was just breathtaking. Like to be standing where history took place. I mean, I'm a history guy, so I mean, for me, I know you enjoyed it too, Pete. Um, so that was just nice to walk around and get known to the city. You know, the last day we did go to the Indy Speedway, that was pretty cool.

Pete Shau 1:13

Uh Indianapolis, the raceway capital of the world.

Danny Lastra 1:16

Yep, yep. So so awful work. The the trip was fun. We got to see a lot of cool places, cool things, experience new things. Uh, as far as the show goes, man, it it was unbelievable. I loved the energy, I love the the classes to where you get so many people from across the nation, and we're all trying to do the same thing, and we are just literally learning from one another, asking each other's questions. What works for you over there, what works for us over here? Well, are you guys experiencing the same obstacles and uh adversities that we're dealing with? And um, you know, special shout out to Chrissy Livey, me and her, we co co-facilitated a district manager, regional manager meetup, and you know, she's from Impact RTO, North Carolina. And before we got to Indiana, you know, we had the chance of talking over the phone a couple times and talking about employee wages and how it's we're facing the same obstacles. I'm in Florida, she's in North Carolina. Our minimum wage is four dollars higher than North Carolina's minimum wage is, yet we both know and we both talked how we can't get anybody for less than $15 an hour. You know, that was that was interesting to see that across you know the US, we're all kind of facing the same stuff and hurdles and we're getting through it. And the classes, what do you think about the classes, Pete?

Pete Shau 2:33

I thought the classes were amazing. Uh I like sitting in with you guys, uh, you and Chrissy, just kind of going over and and getting picked out of the crowd every couple times. That you know you like picking on me. That was awesome. But I really liked the crowd. They were uh attentive, they were very, very lively, they had a lot of things to say. Real quick, talking about shout-outs, shout out to Larry Pividal, Paul Shaller, and Sharon Tomazowski, who allowed us to be part of the APRO show this year, coming all the way from Florida. We wanted to thank you guys to appreciate everything that you guys have done for us and allowed us to be to be there. The dynamic duo always loves to be available for anything that we can do, especially for Jill McClure, the CEO, uh, who was doing a great job at APRO, and and Jen Troke, who was the director of education and membership. She kind of reached out to us last minute and said, Hey guys, you know, I have a spot to fill. Can you do it? Of course, we're gonna be up to the challenge. We are not gonna let you, you know, we're gonna leave you with your hands empty. Of course, Jen, we will do it, whatever you need us to do. Um, hashtag whatever it takes. So don't ever hesitate to give us a call, uh, reach out, email. We will help you out in any way possible. That was the probably uh the most amazing thing is that their their staff, their people, they I mean they were just so caring, they were very nurturing, they were understanding, they were very open to helping us out and giving us any feedback, any needs that we we had, they really kind of met. They gave us you know everything that they could possibly give us to have the best time and to give the best uh you know class that we could give. Um shout out to a lot of people who had uh time to talk and and reach out and kind of give us uh a little bit of information from what they know. Dan Fisher and his guys, uh Patrick Hartman and Raymond Adams from um Magic. Magic. Magic. I mean you guys just killed it at two million dollar club. I I I I'm telling you, I want to make two million dollars right now. Definitely got us fired up. Oh, I know you came back. We're making we're making two million dollars. Oh, let me show you how it's done. So that was that was amazing, and it was really nice to hear from other people that you know it's possible. We've in the rent-owned industry been kind of stuck on this. If you have a million dollar store, it's it's it's really good. And then here they come out and they're like, Well, we have a hand of five, and and most of them are way over two million. So, you know, that was great, um, great sitting on that class, and it was kind of nice to meet them afterwards, and just great people, uh, great time. You know, the first day we're there, of course, we're walking around, we're shaking hands, and and just meeting everybody that we could, trying to really kind of get a feel for uh what we're what we're in. You know, this is one of the biggest uh things that I've been a part of, so I always appreciate that, looking forward to it next year. We as a group uh had quite a few people with us, of course. Daniel Astra came with us, um Peach out. We were both the DMs for uh a rental organization in Florida. Lindy DeSantiago manager came, she came to represent as well. Amberly Maya came to do uh basically she's the reason why the dynamic duo exists today. Oh, shout out Amber Lee, thank you. Absolutely, she's just doing an amazing job. She has a lot of leadership uh when it comes to marketing and a lot of ideas, and we take those things and literally do crazy stuff with them, turn it on its ear, and and of course do what we do best.

Danny Lastra 5:30

But you know, if it you know what was pretty crazy though, and I think even Larry Pividal was kind of impressed because Larry Pivotal came with us to the show. Unfortunately, Paul and Sharon couldn't make it this time. Um, but again, we appreciate the opportunity for us to go out there. But I think Larry was impressed that by our our videos, how how popular the videos are, and you know, is those guys, is the guys in the video. It's these guys, these guys, and everywhere uh we went, it was oh, we're watching videos, and uh you know, and again, not to toot our own home. I think we did a pretty good job on our on our lecture, our presentation of managing in a post-pandemic world. Again, it was very last minute. I we appreciate Joe and Jennifer the opportunity.

Pete Shau 6:13

The very last minute we had three days if that to really come up and make something. Shout out to Amberlee for having a PowerPoint.

Danny Lastra 6:19

Oh, Amberlee in like six whole seconds PowerPoint in Indiana with just her laptop, right? Right, right. We're just like downloading pictures off the internet and sending it to her. Can you make something out of this? Can you make this work? Yeah, but I know you know I got I got some f positive feedback after our presentation, and a lot of other guys came up to us like, thank you so much. You know, hey, I've been in the the industry for a long period of time. So I had a gentleman from Texas, 28 years, say, hey, you know, that was some good stuff, especially dealing with millennials. Sometimes I forget, and you know, because I'm so used to the Gen X way. And then I also heard Lendy did pretty shout out to Gen X. And uh Lendy did a very well job in her panel uh for store managers. I heard great feedback. I think we got to see her near the end because we were like time-lapsing, but she held it, she was a great representation uh for the organization as well. You know, I remember speaking over the first day we got there, the day before we did our presentation, you know, talked to a couple people that are used to speaking, you know, Chris Kell Jr., owner of the Happies and president of Trib. Pete, you also talked to uh Mike Tissett.

Pete Shau 7:21

Listen, my I just want you to know, Mike is like, he's one of my favorite guys in the whole wide world, and he's a he's a secret mentor. I have never told him that. But uh outside of of one of the uh meetings, we got I got to kind of sit with him for about five, ten minutes, and I was like, look, Mike, you know, I had three days to prepare for this. I really, you know, what do you do? You you're you're a good orator, you stand there, I mean you you command the room, you're you're funny at times. There's no really everybody's like, you know, not just going kind of oh god, when has this guy done? But they're really listening to what you say. Do you have any advice? Um, and of course, there was a you know, two or three things I took out of that. Number one was know your information inside and out. Make sure that you called on the people that you know. You know, make sure that everybody's involved in your conversation, and then always fact check yourself. Go back and look at it. You know, Google this, look at that, talk to people in the industry so that you have the right information and the current information when you're going in to talk to the people that you're trying to educate. And uh, you know, shout out to Mike to so who really just he really helped me.

Danny Lastra 8:14

Well helped us and him, you know, don't overthink it, don't plan right P and me and you were up to two o'clock in the morning the night before, really trying to write down speeches and realize this isn't us, we don't even sound like us. Like we're way overthinking. And you know, you know, Mike Tisson and Chris Kell Jr. just said it, you know, just speak from the heart. People can tell and they'll notice genu genuine.

Pete Shau 8:35

Right, right, be genuine. And I would think that was probably the biggest thing you hit on the head was be yourself. Yeah. And when you're genuine, people can understand that and then kind of get with that beforehand. Because if you if you come in there and you look like you're just you're stiff and you're really not going over something you believe in, it just kind of shines through what you're trying to say. So I absolutely be genuine is one hundred percent what I agree with.

Danny Lastra 8:54

Another special announcement, this was really cool, real personal for me too. I thought it was great. Um, Chris Kale Jr.'s dad, Chris Kale Sr., owner, original previous owner of Rank King CPL Group, he just received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Rentone.

Pete Shau 9:09

How crazy is that that your son has the ability? You know, because it it's a line thing. Yeah. That's amazing. I would think that not only getting that award, but having my son, who's in the president role, present it, right? Present it to you. Yeah, that's that's that's a moment. Yeah. And when we talk about ranking, I mean, shout out to Ranking. You know, Larry was there, like you said, Paul and Sharon couldn't make it. But Ranking represented in a big way. They had two DMs there talking. That was us. Lendy, Amber Lee, they both were speakers. Lendy was a part of a panel. Amber Lee was also part of a panel. Um, we you know, Danny had done two different situations where one where he was facilitating and then one where he was with me. We were talking about a post managing in a post-pandemic world. And this small you know, company, and is it's not small in the sense of our heart, we have a big heart and a big mind, we have big aspirations. But you know, when you talk to some of the other companies that are fifty stores wide, two hundred stores wide, a thousand stores wide, we represent it in a big way. We represent you know, Florida in a big way, rent owned in a big way, and uh and what we're doing here at Rank King. I mean, uh there were a couple of things that we did and we did it well. And I'll just shout out to to Rank King for being able to represent in in such a huge way.

Danny Lastra 10:12

We might Ranking might have ruffled some feathers a little bit, I heard. I mean, according to the president of FRDA.

Pete Shau 10:20

So we gotta paint the picture because we're standing there, you know, we're at the rooftop ballroom on the second night. Everybody's had a great you know, deal of alcohol, and we're you know, we're enjoying ourselves. And of course, I'm talking to Paul, and and we were talking about the past. I've known Paul for a span of almost 20 years. Paul Mativier, the vice president of Impact RTL Holding, and the president of RD FRDA.

Danny Lastra 10:40

Yeah.

Pete Shau 10:41

Right. So we're sitting there and I'm talking to Paul, and you know, he's kind of talking to me about some of our videos, right? They're funny. He said they were funny, he said he liked them. They're funny, at least we have one subscriber. Yeah, and then of course, Chris Kale Jr. comes over. Um, that's my boy. Yeah, Chris Jr. We were talking about it. It was just kind of like, hey guys. So to make a long story short, we got in trouble. I was scolded, and uh, but it was absolutely uh amazing. It was fun to just be able to say that I was in there uh, you know, around them and be able to talk to them, you know, normal people that that really understand and really love the business. That's what I love about going to these meetings is that you know, Paul's been in it for years. Kale is second generation, we've been in it for years. It's people that are not just fly by night, like you really have people who care about this business and want you to advance. And when we talk about these things, you know, of course the podcast came up. Now we might have some competition. Paul says that he might have given us some competition, but he also said that he will be on our podcast sometime soon. Yes, you know, coming to you. We're gonna have Paul Mativier.

Danny Lastra 11:42

Hey, maybe maybe maybe on September 27th. Who knows? Oh no, we may maybe. You know, I mean the FRDA meeting is on September 27th in Tampa, Florida. We're gonna sit down with the big man himself. You know, hopefully, hopefully we don't get another lecture. But I think I think, you know, and all and and when it's all said and done, a lot of the stuff we do is just in jest, you know, it's just friendly competition, but we we we took the the concern to heart and you know evaluated.

Pete Shau 12:06

We are willing to adjust and we will include everybody in the target area.

Danny Lastra 12:10

You know, it's not specific. Yeah, it's not specific.

Pete Shau 12:13

We we have no problem calling out the group. And it, you know, so that night also was an amazing night because the first night we actually got to sit with Kevin Dawk and talk a little bit, the director from Nationwide. Um Oh, and he took us out to that restaurant, Ocean Air. Ocean Air.

Danny Lastra 12:29

Man, Ocean Air, like several blocks of the city. Thank you so much. Amazing. Wow, delicious. Uh I don't know how many appetizers we got, and then the main entree, and then it was just uh he was great.

Pete Shau 12:39

I mean, not not only was he fun to hang with, but yeah, you know, just a real genuine guy. Yeah. Um, doing what he does best, you know. I mean, he's really good. Nationwide is amazing. Um, we met up with Christina Smallwood, who works for Nationwide now, but used to work for Ren King. Shout out to Ran King. Yeah. And you know, she used to work with us, but we, you know, keep it close in the family. It was really, really fun night.

Danny Lastra 13:00

And then real quick, Amber Lee actually went to the nationwide show in Orlando. So we come back from Indiana. Nationwide had their show in Orlando, and Amber Lee actually did attend uh one to one of the days. And it's see, she snuck out. She snuck out and went to the show. But it was it was huge. I mean, I wish we could have gone to both, you know. I wish we could have gone to the Orlando one as well. But she did say like it was really cool, a lot of good classes as well. So definitely shout out to Nationwide, Kevin Dog, Christina Smallwood. Keep doing your thing, we'll be in touch soon.

Pete Shau 13:31

Absolutely uh fun time, Kevin. We will go out with you know, on your dime anytime. But shout out because you you you did a great job. We love you, man. It was awesome. You know, and then um the next night we actually end up so you gotta imagine everybody's walking to the rooftop hotel when you were when you were with Larry. And so we go out and we make it out of the front door, we make that left, and where we all took that selfie right in front of that park. Right, there's this guy on a bike, right? He's on this, it's basically like a tricycle bike. He's on a bike, he's got a seat, you know, in between the back seats. Yeah, it's like a little bike cab. Yeah, so you know, me and the ladies were walking, Amber Lee and Lendy, and we're walking, and we was like, Are we gonna walk all the way with you? Does anybody know where it's at? I'm like, I have no idea where it's at. And then I looked like, hey man, do you know where it's at? And he's like, Yeah, where are you guys going? Some place called the rooftop. He's like, Oh, yeah, it's right around the corner. Let's roll. So we all jump in the back of his bike and we're riding past everybody, dude. We rode past pipe uh everybody, everybody, and we're just waving hide. He took a straight up. We probably skipped. Sorry for everybody who we passed. We skipped about three quarters of the line getting all the way to the front. So shout out to Jeff, the bike cab guy. I actually have his number if anybody ever wants him. That is wow, Jeff. Shout out Jeff. Yeah, Jeff is awesome, bro. If you're ever in Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, please call Jeff. He will ride you around. He knows every spot, slippery noodle. Everybody knows that uh the slippery noodle is the best. What is it? Is it RB jazz jazz? It was a jazz. I love jazz. I love live music, I love live bands. It was absolutely that was a cool place, yeah, for sure. We went there with uh a couple of the guys that we met. Um couple magic guys, yeah. It was a couple magic guys, actually, great guys that we met. Yep. And Katie Meyer was with us, from uh from Idaho. Yep. And then, of course, our people, Lendy, Amber Lee, uh, Danny and myself, we were all there. The band was amazing. The band was amazing. The guy was just amazing. So we go to the rooftop ballroom, and there is a jazz band playing there. Unbeknownst to us, we go out later that night to the sleeper noodle, and they show up there as special guests. Like we're like stalking them, right? Right. So that was awesome. Uh just it was just a great fun night.

Danny Lastra 15:39

Oh man, the ballroom, it was an exquisite atmosphere. It was two stories, it was a big, you know, ballroom, and then there was the upstairs that were wrapped around the center of the dance floor.

Pete Shau 15:49

It's it's like indoor but two-story.

Danny Lastra 15:51

Correct, yeah. Um, you know, great dinner. The food was awesome, delicious. You know, we we ate with some of our vendors that provide products for us. Shout out Felix Menendez with the Rourke, Scott Hancock Living Essentials, Scott Woodham, Ash from Ashley Furniture, and Kevin Gaughan from Ashley Furniture. It was a fun dinner. It was a nice dinner, a little business talk, of course. I, you know, I heard Pete slipped away and had some personal fun.

Pete Shau 16:16

I don't know what we're talking about there. I'm just saying. Listen, we had a great time. I will tell you, there was there was a gentleman there by the name of Mo. He facilitated, he was a great facilitated a lot for us that night. He was he was a kind of like a he was just like a great uh wingman, so to speak. Right? It's like a third wingman.

Danny Lastra 16:36

We we met him on the second night, wasn't it? I think I don't remember. And then somehow he just he was one of the group. He was he just became part of the group. And um a little backstory in him, I know he owns a retail magazine and he's trying to dip his toe into the rent to own. I believe we have his contact info. We told him if he ever comes, but isn't he, isn't he, he's in Florida too or no?

Pete Shau 16:54

He's uh he is in Florida.

Danny Lastra 16:56

He's in Florida.

Pete Shau 16:57

He's well, uh you know what? I say he's in Orlando.

Danny Lastra 17:00

I I could have sworn I mean I could be wrong, but I could have sworn he was because I remember saying something like, Well, hey, if you're listening to this video, if you're ever in Tampa, yeah, let's go have lunch, man.

Pete Shau 17:08

Uh Mo is a great guy. Yeah. So it was it was an awesome, awesome time. So we have dinner with everybody. Listen, these guys, we're talking about guys that have been in the business a long time. I I know personally everybody. Felix, Scott Hancock, Scott Woodham, Kevin Gaughan, every one of these guys has been in the business for years. Yeah, I mean, they've they've helped us get through the pandemic, they've always been there for us. Scott's actually knows uh Larry and Paul almost personally. They've worked together on several different things.

Danny Lastra 17:35

They go all the way back to Buddy by rights.

Pete Shau 17:37

Scott hired Chris Cale senior.

Danny Lastra 17:40

See, I mean, I don't know if you know that story. No, you talk about history.

Pete Shau 17:43

I don't know.

Danny Lastra 17:43

Yeah, so so so Scott Hancock, I believe, was a DM at the time of Buddy by Rights. I don't know what the year it was, probably early 80s. And Chris Cale Sr. just got um his uh degree for accounting, okay? And so there was a post in the newspaper, remember early 80s, for an account manager at Buddy by rights. And Chris Cale Sr. shows up in a student tie for an accounting job, and Scott Hancock asks him, What the hell are you wearing? And says, Let me show you what we do and throw him in a truck and they went and represents it over. So then years later, you know, here comes the president of the trip group, right?

Pete Shau 18:22

And he, you know what I mean? He's getting the lifetime achievement award. What's that for like a success story? You know what I mean?

Danny Lastra 18:27

It's just oh my goodness, I wish I could have been there. But yeah, they go way back, way, way back. And that's awesome. That's history. You know, I love history, so absolutely.

Pete Shau 18:35

It was it was a really, really good time. Um, and the best thing is is that we were be able to really be personal and be a part of it, and I think that was the greatest thing. So they all now the FRDA is has a meeting coming up on September 27th at the Weston Hotel here in Tampa. So we're just gonna be in our home stomp grounds. We'd we'd love that it's here because we get to have so much fun and then actually go home that night, which is completely awesome. You know, what I I wanted to make a note, we're getting on the plane, right? We're getting on the plane in Indianapolis, and this plane is full of the most star-studded cast of Rent to Own I've ever seen in my life, right? So, shout out to Ranking. Everybody in Ranking is on there, right? So we all get on. Then Cale is a part of of this, so we got Kale senior. Senior and junior. Junior and senior, right? So they're they're getting on. All of the happy home furnishings guys are getting on. Um we had by the way, it was Adam Son's birthday the day we left.

Danny Lastra 19:32

Right, right, right. So it was Adam's birthday.

Pete Shau 19:34

Happy birthday, Adam Sun. I I think that somebody mentioned on the airplane, right? Didn't the stewardess mention? So and my thought, you know, my thought, I don't know why I think this, of course, it's a morbidar. The first thing I'm looking at, Danny goes, man, if this plane goes down like half the rent to own in Florida, then we'll just shut down.

Danny Lastra 19:49

I'm like, what's gone? You say that to me, and I'm like, bro, why would you even say that? Like, tell me after we land back in Tampa.

Pete Shau 19:56

So I don't know why I thought about him just thinking, man, if it lands, there is like 300 years of rent-owned experience just flushed down the toilet, right? But the great thing is, Southwest provided a great flight the best that they could. Weather wasn't forthcoming, but it was nice that we got home in one piece, and it was just it was just a great time all the way around. So for everybody that was a part of the RTO World 2022, thank you for having us. We appreciated being there. The show was amazing. It was one of the things that I can always say I was a part of. And uh now going forward, we're gonna have more discussions of exactly what APRO does, what FRDA does, what the Trib Show does, a little bit more in-depth about you know the rental own and and the area and what we think is next. But those subjects will be coming up in following uh episodes. But we wanted to shout out to everybody that we said, and we just wanted to be give the most forthcoming uh analysis we could without going completely overboard.

Danny Lastra 20:48

Real quick, real quick. So we're here, we're talking, and we I we both just got a text Pete. Who did we get a text Pete from? And what does this say? No way. So I I was right, Orlando. Orlando, you were right, you were okay Mo from Orlando.

Pete Shau 21:03

So listen, we got a shout out to Mo in Orlando, and he pops up immediately as we're on the show, guys. We do apologize. We but we did get some messages on the show that Mo is alive and well in Orlando. So he was at the nationwide show. I'm sure he was. Yeah, I'm sure he was. Man, he's trying to get in. We gotta maybe we open a door.

Danny Lastra 21:22

Maybe we open a door, open a window, something.

Pete Shau 21:24

We're gonna we're gonna I I'm sure he'll be there. I'm sure he'll be there. So we're gonna look out for uh the future and a couple of things. Now, pretty soon we're going to have a way to contact and or be contacted by you know the podcast uh crew would be able to contact by you. Um you'll be able to send us emails and and let us know what you think and subjects that we can talk about. Oh, clean out that information as soon as we do have it. Um, right now, we are literally flying by the seat of our pants. Like literally. I don't even know if we can wing it any harder than this, but it's an awesome, awesome thing that I can tell you. We are we are live, we're doing this. This is us. There's no retakes, there's no doovers, this is us shooting from the Hip, and that's why we love to do what we do because we are very serious about this. And if we didn't do it from the heart, we wouldn't be giving you what we thought was the best content.

Danny Lastra 22:08

RT.

unknown 22:09

Oh.

Pete Shau 22:09

RT. Oh.

Danny Lastra 22:12

RT. Oh. Oh, so yeah, look forward to the next one. I'm definitely excited about the FRDA. You know, I'm hoping, I'm hoping by then we'll be a little bit more established that we could actually do a live show at that FRDA. That'll be pretty cool.

Pete Shau 22:28

Well, once I figure out how to uh add a third mic, we're gonna have Paul and we're all gonna sit down. Oh, for sure. And we might even uh you know have to ask the real real questions like holy cow, bro, what made you start in Rent to Own and what what got you to where you are? Because I I gotta say, I I've met when I met Paul, we were both GMs at Rental Center. And I mean we're talking about years and years ago. I had I was working in the city of Wachula and Charlie, the hurricane had come through. Charlie made a left uh or excuse me, a right. It was it was coming up the coast and made a right and it just blew Wachula out. And uh we had been working out of a trailer for uh Rena Center for about nine months, and uh Paul was a part of that and he knew you know what we were going through. And I gotta say back then, you know, I could I always tell that Paul was was probably the guy to to beat. You know, he was always doing very well, and obviously he's taken that all the way to the top. So congratulations to him for that.

Danny Lastra 23:21

Yes, Paul, thank you very much. Looking forward to working with you in the near future. We're looking forward to getting some response. Wait till the next video. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, that was my response, and then Peter's like, Danny, chill out. Because I'm I'm I'm you know, I'm a kind of go-to-war kind of guy. I'm ready, you know. But it's you know, Pete's peace like the big brother's like, you know, let's think about our consequences. I'm like, okay, you're right. Yeah, you know, uh, but it's true. But again, it for me it's just fun and games, you know. I just I love bantering, I love that, you know, friendly competition. I'm an instigator. I mean, I do that. You know this.

Pete Shau 23:57

No, I have no idea what you're talking about, Dad. No idea.

Danny Lastra 24:00

I'm gonna be the best, you know. So, but um, but no, thanks, Paul, for uh giving us those two cents and letting us know, hey, that the videos are funny and hilarious, but that they did struck a chord and you were getting phone calls, and you politely asked us to, hey, maybe uh just tone it down a notch and you guys play nice for once.

Pete Shau 24:19

Yeah, we'll you know, so okay.

Danny Lastra 24:20

Share the toys. Maybe we'll take a month off and we'll play. You know, we we to we took the um the consideration into consideration. Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm gonna say, Ball, you made me think bigger twice. Yeah, yes, yeah, and bigger, yeah. Absolutely. And kale. Yeah, for sure. Yes. Well, see, I like Kale Junior's response. He was more he was I do was kind of more on he was kind of more on my side on that situation. I won't touch that one. I won't touch that one. But it's all fun and games, and hopefully at the end, just like April, FRDA, you know, when it really comes down to it, it's different companies. Yes, we're in competition, but it's one industry. You know, we we use this terminology in our company now, you know, it's it's one team. We might have separate divisions, but if two-thirds of the c organization goes down, what where you go where's that gonna leave you?

Pete Shau 25:08

We are all vying for the same pieces. Correct, you know. I mean so in in the end, I've been around, you know, Danny's been uh with Ranking for a while. I've actually worked for Renacenter, I've worked for Buddy's Home Furnishings, um, corporate and franchise, and I work for Ranking now, and I'm telling you what, it it is the same thing done a little bit differently, but let me tell you, the people in this organization, the people that rent home, they are the most hard-working people that I've ever met in my life, and I wouldn't change what I do for anything in the world. This is an amazing, amazing opportunity that we have. So, with that being said, I want you guys to know we will be coming at you with more content and more things coming up soon and a way for you to reach out to us.

Danny Lastra 25:44

Yes, absolutely. Definitely looking forward to the near future and insight, comments, positive or negative. I'm always willing to learn and grow, and Pete's the same way. So, with that being said, this is Danny and Pete on the RTO show.