New as a GM?! Here's what you need to know!

Taking over a rent-to-own store as a new general manager is one of the most challenging transitions in the RTO industry — and most new GMs walk in without a real playbook. In this episode, Pete Shau and Danny draw from their combined experience across more than a dozen rent-to-own store takeovers to give new and aspiring RTO store managers the honest, practical advice nobody sat down and gave them.

This episode was inspired by a real listener — Vinny Safey, a new GM at Buddy's Home Furnishings in Tampa, Florida — and the advice Pete and Danny deliver is the kind that only comes from years of managing RTO store operations, leading multi-unit rent-to-own teams, and learning hard lessons in real stores with real stakes.

They cover the mistakes that sink new GMs in the first two weeks — including why walking in guns blazing, dismissing what came before you, and making immediate procedural changes is one of the fastest ways to lose your team before you've even earned their trust. Instead, Pete and Danny lay out a step-by-step approach to the new GM takeover: how to evaluate your staff, conduct one-on-one employee meetings, complete a full inventory audit, check your delivery vehicles, tackle delinquent accounts, and become the face of your rent-to-own location in the community.

They dig into the importance of RTO store culture, daily coaching, positive reinforcement, and holding employees accountable without creating a toxic work environment — especially when managing millennials and Gen Z employees who expect transparency and respect in return for their effort. They also make the case for why new GMs should start recruiting immediately, even when fully staffed, and why building your bench is just as important as fixing today's problems.

The episode closes with three fundamentals every new rent-to-own GM needs to master — prioritization, time management, and training — shared through a real email exchange with RTO Trainer Jay Roberts, and a personal story about the DM who shaped Pete's entire management philosophy through brutally honest feedback.

If you're stepping into your first GM role, taking over a struggling RTO store, or mentoring someone who is — this episode belongs at the top of your list.

Transcript

Danny Lastra 0:07

And welcome to the RTO show with Danny and Pete. I'm your host, Danny,

Pete Shau 0:11

and I'm your host, Pete. And today we are talking about what it takes for a new GM to take over and the advice that we would give if we were doing it.

Danny Lastra 0:18

And man, do we have some advice? I know I ran a couple stores successful. Pete you ran 12 successful locations.

Pete Shau 0:24

We took over 12 different locations.

Danny Lastra 0:26

And not to toot our own horn, I think we've done, you know, above average as a DM. Oh man, you talk to LP, we're probably doing mediocre.

Pete Shau 0:34

Every time I talk to him, I feel like I'm doing mediocre.

Danny Lastra 0:37

No, I think he would say we're doing a good job, but are there things that need to be improved? Absolutely. But who can improve, right? He would be like, this is what I would say.

Pete Shau 0:47

That's exactly what he would do. But this actually was an idea that was given to us through email by Vinny Safey, who's working at a buddy's home furnishings down in Tampa, Florida, off of Adamo Drive. And he's new to the GM situation. He's had a couple of stories, but he hasn't been doing it for a long time. And he wanted to know what we would do to advise him on a new GM takeover. And this is something that Danny just like run wild with. This is what he wanted to talk about. He's like, I got this. I got this. And I'm like, there's a couple things I would do differently. So the truth is we're going to approach this from a new GM takeover. Not necessarily somebody who's been there for years and years and has done it before, but somebody who's new to the game and that it's their first store, and that's usually a problematic situation. They're going to give you the store. You got to prove yourself, make it happen. And these are some of the things that we would do to make it a little easier for you guys.

Danny Lastra 1:34

Yep. My first piece of advice would be don't go in guns blazing. Don't go in pounding your chest. I'm going to fire everybody. Oh, you guys suck. Oh, that's why I'm here. We're good, you know. You want to go in very humbled. You know, that's the number one mistakes I've seen rookie GMs make is make immediate changes in the first two weeks. And that's I would not, I'll advise against that. What you want to do is go in, first off, build a report with your staff, evaluate them, evaluate the productivity, get to know them, let them see you work hands-on as well. Because you want them to buy into you as their new leader.

Pete Shau 2:07

Well, you don't want to walk in and the first thing you say is, I'm not this person, I'm better. They were not what I am. You know, you don't want to go in there beating your chest and make it seem like the guy who was there before you was not trying their heart out. Because you don't know the situation. They might not have been good as you, they might not have been as successful as you, but it doesn't mean that they were, for lack of a better term, a bad person, right? So you go in there and they have people that they have worked for time, for months, maybe for even for years. You don't want to go in there and say, hey, I'm better than you know, Joe was because. No, you want to go in there and show who you are. Don't even focus on the past. Focus on who you are and the changes that you're gonna bring to the table.

Danny Lastra 2:38

Well, correct, because those employees might have really respected that manager. And regardless of the failure or the success of the store and whatever reason for the change, you don't want to down talk them and then make these employees of yours resent you. And you know, the number one thing you'll probably hear the most as you take over is, well, this is how we've always done it, or this is how we do it. And you have to be very careful with your next response because I know a lot of GM's response with we're not gonna do it that way anymore, or well, that way is stupid, or well, that's why that person's not here no more. That's not how you want to respond. What you want to respond with is, no, I understand. And how has that worked for you guys? Because maybe it does work, maybe it doesn't work, but you have to show them that you're also open-minded. If you want them to be open-minded to your decision making and your leadership, you also have to be open-minded and to them as part of the team and what they bring to the table and their advice and their opinions and some facts. You know, maybe some things can improve, but maybe the credit is going really well and it's working a certain way. You really don't want to reinvent the wheel, as they sort of speak.

Pete Shau 3:36

But so be careful how you respond to that. Absolutely, because then you can go in there and inadvertently change something that's actually working for something that actually isn't. And if you are going to change something, make sure that you bring them in when they're talking about it and you're listening to them and you're saying that how did that work for you? Did it work well? Did it not work well? But also tell them this is why I want to do it this way, because of the things that we're missing by that decision. We're not getting the name and number, we're not calling the references, or we're not handling sales a certain way, and this is what we're missing because we're not doing it that way. And give them information as to why you're making the decisions you're making so that it's not from out of the blue. You know, yeah, I'm gonna take your advice and yeah, I'm gonna hear it. Maybe it's great, maybe I don't have to change anything. But if I do, here are the reasons and why I'm gonna do that. Now, you don't have to explain yourself in the sense that, well, I need your permission. No, we're gonna do it this way because of these reasons, and this is why we're gonna be more successful than we were before. Correct.

Danny Lastra 4:26

And we talked about this before in this day and age of 2022 and how to manage individuals in this era digital, and you know, people are a little bit more sensitive nowadays. And this whole do it my way because I said so is not gonna fly. And they're not gonna want to follow you. So when you do make a decision, the explanation is more including them and helping them understand why. Even if they disagree, which is okay, you have the final say so, but explaining your reasoning can help them understand your thought process behind it. And hopefully y'all can move forward together as a team, which is the whole point at the end. You want to be the hero when you first walk into a store and you're taking over, you're not the bad guy. And part of being the hero is taking care of stuff. So when I say don't go in there and make immediate changes, I mean don't make immediate changes on like the procedures of how we're doing everything or changing everyone's schedule right away. It's more of what needs to be fixed? What need what do you guys need help with? What has been put on the back burner that maybe it's important to you? Let's get that done. And then you're gonna look like a rock star. Pete, you were just talking about like vehicles. You know, that's something I didn't even think about when you first take over stores checking out the vehicles, right? Why is that?

Pete Shau 5:27

Well, you want to look at the vehicles because you want to solve the problems, right? Sometimes we have bald tires, sometimes they're not aligned right, and then you get you had an issue, right? Sometimes that was an ignition issue, sometimes the batteries need to be fixed. You want to make sure that the lift gates work and the trucks don't, you know, they don't have leaks in it because of those things that you don't really know. And there are things that they should be fixed right away. Sometimes GMs get cluttered down with everything that's going on and they feel like that's a backburner issue. But as a new GM, when you come in, you fix those things, you show the drivers right away, hey, you're just as important as my sales guy, you're just as important as my credit guy, you're just as important as my assistant, but I'm gonna go out here and I'm gonna do it with you. And it does a couple of things. Number one, it shows even the drivers that they're important, but it also gives you an eye of exactly what's going on. You don't want to be in the middle of their busiest day of that month. You're sending your guys out. You didn't know that there's a bad battery and all of a sudden your liftgate doesn't work and you have a truck stuck out in the middle of nowhere with three more deliveries to do. That's a terrible time to find out that you probably should have got some maintenance done. Not that the previous GM didn't do it, but it's something that you want to know you're doing correctly. You want to go out there and check. Is the starter okay? Do we have enough keys? Is there an insurance in the glove box? Do we have the right tools in there? Are they stocked the right way? Are they leaking? Are they not leaking? Do we have any issues with the doors not working? In Florida, huge problem, ACs. Is the AC working? You don't want to send out your guys on the hottest day and realize they're taking a little bit longer because they're got they got to stop by at the local store to cool off, man. They're just dying. You want to take care of everybody. Vehicles is an important part of it, making sure that probably the biggest thing you can do after you come in is you don't shout to the world, this is my way or the highway. You kind of evaluate. You take a look at your staff, you take a look at the productivity. You make sure that when they say this is how we've always done it, you have something to say in return of that. But then do your inventory. Oh your inventory is a huge part of what you do, and the two biggest expenses are your people in your inventory. Your inventory has to be checked. That includes your services, your loaners. You want to check inside your vehicles for any furniture because some people do that. They shouldn't. They should always clean it out every night and lock it up. But it happens. If you have furniture out there, you need to know it. You need to know the content of everything that you have and don't just look at it. Put your hands on it, check serial numbers, check models, take your time. It's gonna take you a long time to verify, but you're gonna want to make sure all your electronics are marked, you want to make sure your furniture is marked, you want to make sure if it's damaged, that you write it down, that you know I need to order this chair, I need to order this cushion, I need to order these remotes. You want to do a complete full inventory. It's probably gonna take you a day or two if you're doing it correctly. But you want to know about power cords, you want to know what needs to be serviced. You might have something on the floor, but it's not up to your standards. Take care of it up front. Get all of that done within the first couple of days. You don't want to sit on that. So I think that's a huge, big thing that a new GM needs to do to start getting things turned in the right direction.

Danny Lastra 7:57

Yep. Just like we mentioned about the vehicles, taking care of your drivers with the AC or any tools that they may need. Again, you're looking like a hero. You're coming and saving the day, you're providing tools and equipment that's gonna help them do their job. And while you're doing the inventory with the services and loaners, why is that important? Take care of your customers. If there's been service issues, you want to take care of that right away. So one of the first calls you can make is to these customers to say, Hey, Pete, I'm the new GM Danny. How you doing? I see you've had your washing machine here for a couple weeks. Just want to let you know I just got it fixed. When can we switch it out? Oh man, I've been waiting forever for that thing. Nobody's been calling me, you know. And you're gonna hear a lot of that when you take over a store. So be careful with the hearsay from employees, from customers. You know, you're gonna hear the bad, the negative. And what you don't want to do is fall into that trap and then talk negatively about the previous manager at all. Water under the bridge. Well, this is how we're gonna do it moving forward, and I'm gonna take care of you. The services alone is super important. That's how you become the hero, which is what you wanna do. You wanna be the hero to the employees, heroes to the customers, making sure your inventory is completely checked and signed off. After that, my my next advice to anybody that just takes over, I always say is time to organize the store exactly how you want it. And I mean organize it. Like a lot of new GMs, especially if they just got promoted from an assistant, they immediately want to like dive into credit, dive into sales, and get the numbers up. And I love that passion, but hold on for a second. Get everything organized first. And when I mean organized, like the office counter, where is everything? The tools. Do you have a place for everything? Everything should be set up in a proper place to where your employees now know this is where the rental order forms go, this is where the blank agreements go, this is where the price tags go, this is the price tag gun. This is where these files go, from step one to step five, whatever. This is where the tools go. We're gonna have this toolbox neat and organized and for moving forward. That's the little step that you can make an immediate change that won't throw everybody off, like, oh my God, you're trying to dictate all these changes, but you're actually gonna do it for a positive cause and they're gonna appreciate it. And I number one thing I hear from a staff when a new GM takes over is, oh my goodness, way better organized now. And again, it's not because maybe the previous manager wasn't organized, but sometimes they fall to the trap of the day-to-day of being there for so long that they lost sight of the basic of organization skills from everything. Get your office exactly how you want to set it up. Go ahead and paint that room, get a new desk or file a cabinet, whatever it is that you need to make it kind of feel like home for you because you're gonna be there quite a bit, you know.

Pete Shau 10:15

So well, when you're when you're a new GM, you're gonna camp out for a while. That's for sure. You gotta remember that not everybody's the enemy. Sometimes I've seen new GMs come in and are like, everybody's bad. That's why I'm here. I'm here to fix everything. I'm gonna come in like that drill sergeant. No, you gotta give customer service. Customer service is gonna cover your services, it's gonna cover, you know, your guys. Let them know, hey, while I'm here, yeah, we got to greet them when they come in the door. We gotta greet them or say thank you when they're making that payment, or we gotta say thank you for when you know they come in and maybe they've been dealing with something that you just came across and we're finally getting it settled because you're the new GM. You want to get it done. I'm not gonna put on a back burner. But thank them for going through that process and sticking with you because being a customer is number one, how you get paid, right? So you want to thank them for being a customer, whether they're making a payment, whether they're going through a situation, whether even when they're getting picked up, hey, listen, I I know that you can do business anywhere. Probably gonna take it somewhere else. I understand that. I appreciate you doing business with us this far. And keep us in mind when you're going forward. I'm gonna hopefully take us in a different direction. I'd like you to give me another chance when you have that opportunity. When you're organizing, you know, remember that you're gonna cover a file flow process. You're gonna cover how you want people to be greeted when you walk in the door. You want to make sure, you want to make it yours. Because the truth is this as you're making it yours, you're gonna you're gonna streamline how you work. And it's really what you're doing. You're you're looking to streamline it to make it easier for you to check up on people, to go over the file flow process, to call the customer sale after it's been done like a day or two later, and find out what's going on, what people expect. Make sure that you're that example, right? Lead by example. If you want it done, make sure that you're doing it. And this is the time framework. Some GMs I've seen, uh, I don't go on a truck or I don't do that. No, you do everything. You want your guys to hustle, show them hustle. You want them to load it right, show them how to load it right. You want them to wrap it, wrap it, strap it, and put it in the truck, that's exactly what you need to do. You need to be out there and showing them exactly how you want it done. If you're physically incapable of that, that's fine. Go to that situation and make sure that they're doing it the way you need it to be done correctly. You don't want to perpetuate anything that has been happening before you that is incorrect because that's the best way to fail just like the other person did. And you don't want to do that. So for some of my tenured guys taking over stores, I would probably pull up some reports and kind of go over the last few months and see the trends and what's going on, watch your floating funds, make sure that you're checking any due dates that are in the future. You want to look for anybody that has a suspicious account, and I'm not saying that there are out there, but are there payoffs that need to be done that are still hanging out on the books? Are you overloading your customers? Are a lot of people set up on the wrong due date? You know, do you have a lot of weekly dues Wednesday, Thursday, Fridays that probably shouldn't be on a Saturday? Are we have people on the off-due dates where you're looking at some payment histories and you're saying, there's a seven, seven, seven, seven. Why don't we fix this? Why are they on the off-due date? So, you know, that's a couple things that I would expect to be done in the first weeks. If you're a new GM, you might want to wait till maybe the second week or the third week to kind of get into that because you got a lot to do. Fix your credit. That's going to be an issue on there as you're going through it. And the best way to fix your credit is to sit down with your account managers, pick up the phone, and start making phone calls. Don't just take their word for it. Get involved in it. Whether you're sitting behind them and training them, look at your credit yourself, dial into it, let them know, hey, I'm the new GM. My name is Vinny, since I'm the guy who's taking over, right? I'm giving you a call and I want to see if I can help you out. It seems like you were due last Saturday. You haven't been able to make payments on time. It looks like you're running a week behind. Can you explain to me what was going on or how did you get behind, or what did we do that allowed that to happen? And let's see if I can get that fixed for you. Going forward, I need this to be corrected. And the first thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna start with you. What can we do to make this better?

Danny Lastra 13:24

You can't grow your store until you take care of your active customers. So you can't worry about new customers until you take care of the ones that you already have. So that's the most important thing when it comes to that. And that's why fixing the credit is most important because if you can save your customers, save accounts, and yeah, you're gonna hear a lot of excuses. You're gonna hear the, oh, this wasn't taken care of or blah, blah, blah. And my advice to you is this 90% of your customers, give them the benefit of the doubt. It's a brand new relationship, brand new start. Now, granted, if they're a first payment default over 30 days late, you know, nah, that's a no-brainer, obviously, you know. But if the customer's been with that location for at least three months or higher, and regardless if they're an over or a couple of days later, whatever the case may be, give them the benefit of the doubt. Every, I shouldn't say every, but majority of every company or DM or regional kind of gives you that first month free pass when it comes to extensions and whatever case may be, because they understand that if you're taking over a store, is because most likely it was not succeeding. It wasn't meeting the quota. Very rare do you take over a store that's already successful. That case because that manager moved on for probably good purposes, probably got a promotion or just decided to do something bigger and better for themselves. But it's most of the time, if you're taking over a store, it's because it's failing. I mean, that's the bottom line. And they know that you're gonna go through the rough patch. They know that it's gonna take you a little bit of time to get in an order. Now, of course, everybody has their own standards of when that turnaround is. I know some owners they want to see immediate reaction within one or two weeks. Some people give you three months. I'm more of like a 30-day guy. I'm a 30-day of the action I see you take inside the store. If I can see the trends going to get better next month, I'm cool with that. You know, personally, give it one, two weeks of evaluating and before you're really trying to ruffle any feathers, whether it's on the credit side or the employee side. But, you know, you want to go in level-headed and try to be nice to everyone and get them to buy into you, customers and employees. I know I keep saying that a lot, but that's the best advice I can tell you is you want them to buy into you. And, you know, that includes having one-on-one with your employees. And there's a saying, you know, trust but verify. You want to give everybody the benefit of the doubt. You want to trust what they say, but verify it. And when you have the one-on-one to your employees, get to know them on an intellectual level. 15 minutes. Who are you? Talk to me about your family. You know, we're gonna be here 40 to 50 hours a week. You know, what do you think we can get better at? What are some negative things you've seen? You know, where do you want to be in the next couple of years? Do you want to move up? Have you felt you got the proper training? You know, and if they haven't, make sure they make a checklist for that training for that specific individual because that's what that individual is requesting. That's what they want to do, that's how they're gonna get better. And that's gonna be part of your job now is to train that employee to be part of your team and to meet the expectations and to hold them accountable. But you can't hold them accountable if they're not trained. You'd be surprised. Even as a DM, I was shocked when I learned that some employees that have been with us for six months didn't even know the basics that I thought they were getting trained on by the GM, the previous GMs. And then the new GM comes, takes over, and they go, Hey, did you know that they didn't they weren't even verifying order forms? And I was, I fell out of my seat. I was like, You gotta be kidding me. I immediately called my own lever. I'm like, Larry, you're gonna flip out, but here's the truth. I never lie, I always tell the truth. And he's like, Yeah, doesn't shock me, you know. You know, he always says that uh, you know, not much can shock me nowadays, but it's just amazing. And this kid is great, great sales manager, and he wasn't doing the basic of verifying the order form. You got to ask those basic questions, the common sense questions that, you know, we take for granted. You know, so get the training checklist, have the one-on-ones with them, hold your meetings Mondays and Fridays. Pete, you were always great at this, you know. Monday was to prepare them for the week, and Friday was like, here, this is where we were at so far. We got two days left to make it happen. That's so important, guys. You gotta let them know where they're at. You got to. If not, we're just freestyling and shooting in the wind with no target, no aim.

Pete Shau 16:47

Yeah, well, you know, it was always a Monday was always a, hey, listen, this is our goals. This is where we're at from, you know, let's say the third week. And now, this is our goals for this week. This is what we're shooting for. We have a sale going on on Saturday. We want to make, you know, 40, 50 sales this week, whatever the case, whatever the quota was. You know, make sure that we you always address what's going on in the store. We're having a lot of services coming up. You know what? There was a storm. We're probably gonna get a lot of storm surge, you know, things. Hey, electronics went out. Like you're in Tampa, we are the lightning capital of the world. You have a bad storm, you're probably gonna get some bad TVs and bad stereos. You know, you kind of repair them for what's going on. Hey, I've seen this trend happening when you guys call the routes. It's not what we want. Or, you know, the sales are coming in. Hey, remember that we have this $5 sale or we have this match or contract sale, whatever the case is. You know, you kind of remind them, you kind of set them on focus. And then Friday was always like that sales reminder meeting. Hey, this is what our goals were at the beginning of the week. But now this is where we are, this is what we have left to do. And Friday and Saturdays are the days to make it happen. They're big money days, big sale days. Let's get that going. And when we talk about following up and getting things going, make sure that you are doing the best you can with social media. And social media starts with making sure that you have the right person on it. So when we talk about that, we're talking about unlimited marketing solutions. Unlimited Marketing Solutions is a social media marketing company that can market directly to your specific customer base and provide solid and trackable results. Unlimited Marketing Solutions are also extremely flexible to meet your unique needs and budget and are currently running a promotion for 10% discount off your first six months of marketing when you mention the code RTO show. That's R T O S H O W. When you call them at 352-553-3245, that's 352-553-3245. You can also email them at unlimited marketing solutions lc at gmail.com.

Danny Lastra 18:21

And speaking of social media, shout out to Blake at Venetian Worldwide. They are donating an official NFL logo helmet to one lucky winner to the RTO show. And if you haven't already, there's there's a couple days left, but you need to like, share, and comment on our Facebook posts. And a winner will be notified and announced on Saturday, November 5th. So if you haven't done it already, go to RTO show on Facebook, Instagram, like, share, and comment. That specific post, it was posted on Monday the 24th. And you could be a winner of an official NFL logo helmet of your team choosing. It's football season, guys. You know, make sure you get that subscribed and make sure you do what you can to win that free NFL helmet.

Pete Shau 19:00

Well, the last time we mentioned Tampa Bay in our podcast, it's actually of your choosing. So we mentioned it to them. They're actually going to give us a choice of who you guys want. It could be the Steelers, it could be the Packers, it could be Tampa Bay, it could be the Patriots. So anybody that you choose, you get this for free by like, sharing, and subscribing to our podcast. And we want to give back to you guys because you guys have done amazing things for us. So we want to get back to you with this priceless, one-of-a-kind, the RTO show giveaway helmet giveaway. So please make sure that you guys go to the website, make sure that you guys follow on a Facebook, like and subscribe.

Danny Lastra 19:31

So going back to the advice of a GM takeover. So we I think we've given you all some solid advice. You know, come in, don't come in, guns blazing, evaluate, get your inventory done, services loaners, vehicles, have your one-on-ones, hold meetings, get a training checklist. So now it's all about you being that face of that location. And that starts with you need to be the individual to greet every customer that walks in. You know, you might have a salesperson, that's fine. But again, you're leading by example. And again, you're you're now developing a rapport and a relationship with these customers. You want to be first in line. Hey, how you doing? I'm Danny, I'm the new GM. What brought you in today? What's your name? Pete, Pete, nice to meet you. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you want to do that. Like, I want to say the first three to six months. I mean, that's my advice.

Pete Shau 20:13

Well, we have somebody that works at Ranking that does an amazing job of that. And our and our number one flagship store, Devin Zentenno, probably is the mayor of Lake Wales. And when we say that, we don't mean officially, but we do mean that everybody knows his name because he's been there for years. I mean, I think he's ran that store uh for over a decade at least. And nobody in that town can say that they don't know who he is. Now, it doesn't mean that they all do business with him, but they know who he is because he's in every function, right? He's at the schools, he's at Little League, he's at different functions that happen throughout the town, and he's been there a long time, and he is the face by far of that store. And he didn't get there by not putting himself out there. He got there by making himself the first guy who gets up and says hi, making sure that he's there time and time again. When those relationships fail, they come back. Hey, you know what? We'll try it again. We'll talk to you. He is the guy to go to when it comes to rent home in Lake Wales. And let me tell you, that's Lake Wales, Florida. He is doing an amazing job and he's been doing it for years. And I haven't been able to get away from it because he does it so well. So make sure that you are the face. Make sure that you're coaching your guys daily. Make sure that you give them a lot of positive reinforcement, but don't forget to follow it up with the real situation. Don't sugarcoat it. Be quite honest when you're giving that honest feedback. You can be a positive reinforcement and say, hey, Johnny, Danny, you're doing this very well. But you're not doing this well. Let me explain what you're not doing right and what I expect going forward because this is the results that we're looking to get. Don't try to say, well, you kinda and you sorta, and maybe, and if you could. No, it has to be a direct conversation that you're letting people know this is the expected requirement of this position. This is what I need you to do. You do this fairly well. Why don't you do integrate what I'm telling you into what you do very well? And I guarantee you success. That's gonna be the best thing to do because you want to explain everything, you want to keep your staff in the loop. You want to make sure that they understand the decisions that you're making and why you're making them. And the direct and honest feedback approach. I've noticed a lot of managers lately sometimes are going, they're beating it around the bush a little too much. I'm not going to say that we haven't done it. I've done it myself, been guilty of that. And we got to get back to the straightforward. This is exactly what's expected. This is exactly the outcome that we want. And this is how we want you to get there.

Danny Lastra 22:18

Well, that falls right into the daily coaching, Pete. And very true. You hit the nail right on the head. Every day you have to coach your employees. Me too, as well, with my managers. This is where you went wrong. This is the correct way of doing it. This is how you should do it moving forward. These are the expectations. This is the accountability. These are the potential consequences for the company, for me, and for you. And that's so important, especially as a new GM takeover. You want to set that expectation and you got to follow through with that daily coaching. On the flip side of that, you can't leave out the positive reinforcement. You have to tell them, good job. When they hit that standard, when they get that nice sale, that's the motivation that comes along. Your salesperson closes three brand new customers, 15 items with a great COD. Awesome. Give them a high five. You know, congratulate them. Tell them to get five more. You believe in them. This whole, oh well, you're doing your job attitude. That's not going to fly this day. So you know, it goes hand in hand. Positive reinforcement and daily coaching has to be a consistent thing by you, their new leader.

Pete Shau 23:15

But it's starting with millennials and Gen Z, one of the most important things that they're saying right now in a position is the culture of in the environment of their workplace. And they don't mind working hard. They don't mind giving you what they got, but they want to be appreciated and they don't want a toxic culture. And if you're not there, you know, to kind of let them know, hey, you're you are doing a good job. Hey, you know what? Take your breaks if you have them. Take your lunch if you I don't know, or work through them because, you know, hey, we got a lot going on. You've got to give them what they've earned. You have to hold them accountable, but you have to give them the process of what it, you know. If you have an hour lunch, take an hour lunch. Not 55 minutes, not 50 minutes, and then you answer the phones, or not 30 minutes, but uh 10 minutes of that, you know, I know you got preparation, you gotta do that. No, you give them all the time that they've got. If it's something, if there's something that they've earned, if they've earned PTO time, let them have it. If they have a vacation, let them have it. Now, the flip side of that coin is of course there always has to be approval because there are certain times of the year that it just doesn't fly. But make sure that you give them as much as you expect from them. And and that has to be a relationship just like you would have with your customer. You want to explain that rental agreement because you expect something from them, then give them what they expect from you. Give them the service. If you're gonna give them a delivery, make sure you're on time. If you're not on time, make sure you call them. Make sure you do the callback and make sure, hey, did we deliver it right? Did they set it up correctly? Did they tell you how to use it? Did they give you all the accessories? You have to give them what you expect from them as well. So the same thing goes on when you're a new GM taking over a store. Our advice to you is make sure it goes both ways. Don't be that Napoleon conquering the world and you don't give it back in return because it's not gonna work out for you.

Danny Lastra 24:39

So that leads me to one of the last pieces of advice I have. And that is speaking of what Pete just mentioned about the culture, you want to establish that immediately right away. What is the culture going to be inside your store? What is your company's core values? What is your personal core values? And how are you gonna display that as a unit? And when you're evaluating your staff, you have to evaluate do they possess these core values and are they gonna be on board and follow my lead? And you have to be prepared for worst-case scenario. So, one of my last pieces of advice is start recruiting immediately. If you haven't had a chance, listen to we've had two recent episodes. One is called to retain or replace that could give you good advice on whether you should retain or whether you should replace an individual. And the other episode is interview tips. Maybe you're new to it now. You just became a GM. I don't know if you had any interview skills, if you conducted them yourselves, but that's another episode you can listen to to give you some advice on the well, how do I interview and what questions should I be asking? What am I looking for? Give those two episodes a listen that can help you develop the skill sets you need to when it comes to recruiting, but always pass out your business card, go online to Indeed, even social media. You always want to be recruiting, even if you are fully staffed. And let's say you have the best staff. Let's say you're walking into the greatest situation where, oh wow, I got the best account manager, the best assistant, the best salesperson. I don't need to recruit. You're wrong because you don't know what tomorrow may bring. That great assistant might get promoted. That great account manager might win the lotto and give you a two-week notice. So, for good or bad purposes, you always want to be recruiting. You always want to be looking for the next you, that next assistant, that next account manager, that next delivery driver. You don't want a situation where you're you're already going into a store that's suffering, and now you don't want short staff to be another problem that you can't fix. So you got to have a game plan, you know. And I'm gonna just say it, I've heard this. A lot of people, what they want to do is bring somebody with them from another location, or can I have that person? Can I have that person right off the rip? No. No, you cannot. Okay, they're there for a reason. And then I'm not saying no indefinitely, because sometimes it happens, but that shouldn't be your go-to. Your go-to is let me find the new talent, let me go out there and recruit. And you can find somebody with experience from another company, that's okay too. But take pride in creating and developing your team. So always be on the lookout, always, always, always be talking about who the next person on your team can be.

Pete Shau 26:51

So recently received a me email from Jay Roberts. Jay Roberts is he has the RTO trainer.com and he we were going back and forth. And what came up in one of the emails was three things that a GM probably can fix right away, or their biggest three issues that if they they conquered these right away, it might help them uh be better GMs, work better in a store. And that was prioritizing your time, making sure that you're doing things quickly and making sure that you're doing them efficiently, uh, as in time management and then training. So prioritizing, time management and training. And if you don't correctly prioritize, you're gonna put out the wrong fires first. And if you let something lit linger on the stove too long that needs to be addressed right away, or something you address something that is not necessarily important and you leave something there, that's gonna that's gonna create havoc. You don't want to do that. Time management is knowing what needs to be worked on longer than others and how to get as many things done with the day that you have as possible. And then training is making sure that if you solve the problems, train your people so that you're not solving those problems again. There's nothing worse than getting in there and taking care of everything. And then the next month, you're doing the same rotation. Fix it by training your staff and empowering them to be better at their position. Because with training and with time, it gives you better time management because you prioritize better. Those three things will create a circle, and eventually you'll be able to spend more time management and less time putting out those fires. And we talked about that, and we appreciate the information and we appreciate the banter going back and forth. So, Jay, we do appreciate that email. But you know, I had this DM uh at the time it was called uh district manager, division manager, I don't remember, it was it RAC. And uh his name was Raphael Torres. And man, let me tell you, when it came to putting something in an honest, straightforward way, he had no problem. He was like on point, and and we just went back and forth on a number of events. I actually had him as a GM, and then believe it or not, after I got promoted to uh a GM, I had him as a DM. So I never really got away from and uh we had this really crazy love-hate relationship. But one of the few things that I did really admire about that situation was he never let me get away with something by giving me the short end of the of an explanation. He told me what I was doing wrong, and he was very honest and very open about that. And let me tell you, I I don't know if I would be here today if I didn't have that, somebody to tell me I really did something wrong. They didn't sugarcoat, like, hey, you kind of did this well, but no, it was like you did do this well, but you you know, you you kind of spit the bed over here, you know what I mean? Like this this was not right, this is wrong, and let me let me tell you a couple areas where you need to get better at how to do it. So I can't say that it's all him, but I will say that he played a big part of that, and I appreciate somebody kind of telling me, hey, this is how to do it, this is what you need to do. Now, explanations weren't as great as as back then as I wish they were, but now looking at what we're talking new GM takeovers and being careful what you say, but being earnest in what you say and being honest in what you say and making sure that you uh back up what you say, right? And you learn to trust and verify. That is that is probably a huge process of what got me here today, and I hope that I keep on going further in this business. But Raphael played a big part in that.

Danny Lastra 29:48

Well, that about wraps it up. That's Danny and Pete's advice on new GM Takeover. If you haven't already, please subscribe to our episode. We're on we're on Apple Podcasts, we're on Spotify, we're on Amazon Music, you name it. Click that plus button so you don't miss an episode. Download every episode every Monday at midnight. We will be streaming new episodes. Uh, check out our website. If you have any additional comments or questions regarding being a new GM Takeover, you can email us at Pete at the RTO Showpodcast.com, or you can email me directly at Danny at the RTO Show Podcast.com. We'd love to hear feedback. We've been getting a lot of reviews lately. I'm loving the energy, the RTO family we're building. Pete has something to say about the shirts that will be on our website here soon. I know we've already got a couple orders already.

Pete Shau 30:30

The shirts are coming on this week. We're gonna have the pictures of at least three different shirts that you can get. Just let us know. Um, we're gonna try to build it around the sizes. That's pretty probably been our biggest problem is making sure that we get the sizing right. But we will make sure that we get uh at least three different on. And then I have we're gonna try to get a picture of an NLFL helmet without a logo on there so that we, you know, you can kind of see what it is we're talking about. That's gonna be on the website as well this week. So make sure you go to www.thertoshow podcast.com. And uh everybody, if you see Raphael, tell them I love him, regardless of the fact.

Danny Lastra 31:00

But with that being said, we love you, family. Keep listening, keep downloading, and this is the RTO show with Danny Pete.