In Hindsight... let's review

Danny and Pete close out Season 1 with a look back at everything they built — 15 episodes, a sponsorship, merch, a giveaway winner, and listeners as far as Missouri, Texas, Nebraska, and Idaho. They recap each episode briefly, from the pilot and RTO 101 all the way through Black Friday prep, managing your sweet spot, standing out from the crowd, training, and the fault-admitting finale. Danny's personal favorite was that last one for how honest it got. Pete's most heartfelt pick was the family effects episode, which drew the most personal responses from listeners.

A good chunk of the episode is spent on the campaign videos they made for Rent King — from the hoarse-voiced "Max Your Tax" debut to the controversial Swing and Spring, the Gone Fishing shoot that had Pete wading in murky pond water in borrowed socks for over an hour, and the Christmas video that ended with Pete as an unwilling elf chasing Danny out on an e-bike. The bed scene from the first commercial has apparently followed them into every work trip since.

The bigger takeaway Danny and Pete keep returning to is execution. They both know people with great ideas who never act on them, and Season 1 was proof that just starting — even imperfectly — creates momentum. The conversation with Dan Fisher at Magic Rentals about running a two-million-dollar store is a prime example: they heard it, applied it, and now have two stores approaching that threshold.

For Season 2, they're planning regular guest interviews, a social media mini-series called "Who Said What?" featuring voices from across the industry, and short "Fun Tip Fridays" for listeners who want something quick. They'll also be at the Vegas Market Show in late January and potentially the Meeting of the Minds in Atlanta, mic in hand.

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're talking about everything we've done on season one. Recap, recap. Going over the lovely things that we have decided to share with everybody and all the mistakes that we've made along the way. What was your favorite episode, Pete? Bro, you can't take my questions, bro. You can't take my questions. He like fired straight into it.

Danny Lastra 0:30

What's your man? I'm going straight into it. It's a recap. That's what I'm saying. What what was your favorite episode? I'll tell you mine. Okay, I'll tell you mine. Okay, okay, okay. My favorite episode, to be honest, was probably our last one, admitting our false. Like really? Go ahead. Yeah, well, well, because I feel I I you know, just looking at a lot of our episodes, you know, we we have some great knowledge here, we have some great tips, and I think it's informative, educational. We have some fun episodes, but the last one for me was just so personal because it it was almost like a reflection of how am I gonna get better for next year, and I had to get it off my chest. So on a personal base, that was my favorite. I think the funnest one, the funnest one is a toss-up between RTL 101 and Hello Indy.

Pete Shau 1:24

I you know, Hello Indy was fun for me. Um actually the pilot was fun for me. Um because we just we we are trying it out, we don't know what's going on, right? We don't know what to say. We're brand new on podcasting, and uh I remember just going on there and going, oh my god, did I just did I just do that? You know? So I think fun was definitely between uh 101 and Indy. But I have to say, I started listening to this of the episodes just to try to kind of see what I thought was my favorite, and I think the most, I don't know about favorite, but the most heartfelt one's probably family, you know, the family effects.

Danny Lastra 1:57

Oh man. You know, I did get a lot of response to that one. Actually, that was a requested episode by um Rick McCaff. Yeah, because I I think even my wife actually listened to that one and she appreciated that one very much. So that was a heartfelt one. I think a lot that's another relatable one. Everybody in the industry can relate to that one and appreciates the work life balance, especially in this day and age. Going back to the the pilot, do you remember exactly what happened with that pilot episode? We were we were talking about it. We were like, man, we really gotta just start. And and I was like, no, bust out the equipment, let's just do it right now. And you were like, What are we gonna talk about? Let's just do it, because if we don't start, we'll never start.

Pete Shau 2:38

Danny's motto is shoot fire aim. But but it worked. But it worked. Well, you know, now I believe this is our 15th episode. 15th episode is in. And I think we've been able to do a lot of things that we didn't know that we would be able to do. We thanked, we definitely thank all the listeners and the uh and the RTO show family. We've done some really crazy things in these last couple weeks because you know, we had special guest Teddy Kervin in to kind of help me out when you were gone.

Danny Lastra 3:00

Yep.

Pete Shau 3:01

We have uh we have Katie in Idaho, we have Leroy in Texas, we have Brian in Nebraska, Jay in Missouri, Mr. Vinny Savvy, who won the Venetian Worldwide giveaway.

Danny Lastra 3:12

If you haven't seen uh the post, go to the our Facebook at the RTO show and you'll see pictures and videos of him receiving his award.

Pete Shau 3:20

We got our first sponsorship from Unlimited Marketing Solutions. Uh you know, we got we got avid listeners like Chris and Newport Richie. It's been a great ride, man. So far, it's been an amazing ride.

Danny Lastra 3:31

Wait, don't don't forget, we actually had a couple people buy a couple RTO shirts.

Pete Shau 3:37

That's right. We have people who actually own the RTO show merch from the RTO show studios. And uh listen, talk about coming at you from the RTO show studios. This January, when we come back from our vacation, we will be going to the Vegas Market Show in late January from January 29th through February 2nd. If you guys are out there, please stop us and say hello. If you don't know what we look like, go to the website at www.theRTO Show Podcast and take a good look at us because that's what we're gonna look like riding around. And we definitely want to meet you guys and and talk to you for a little bit.

Danny Lastra 4:10

Don't forget, I think, I don't know, did you mention Dan Fisher? He was another one that uh he was a big help for our show. He was probably the first, I don't want to say interview, but he was one of the first people that we talked to to get information for an episode off-air interview. Yes, there you there you go. Shout out to Dan Fisher and Magic Rentals. Mike Tissett, we we talked to him a couple times. We just recently talked to Mike Tissett. And speaking of convention shows, there might be something in the works for the meeting of the minds in Atlanta, Georgia.

Pete Shau 4:42

How about you guys come meet our minds in Georgia, in Atlanta, Georgia? Come meet us. Please stop by, say hello, give us ideas on the show, tell us what you want us to talk about. If you want to be a guest on the show, let us know. You can email us at uh Pete at the RTO Showpodcast.com or Danny at the RTO Show Podcast. I promise I don't bite, but you're welcome to hit us up and just let us know what you think and let us know what we can do better. Let us know if you want to be on the show. If you have something to share, we definitely want you on there. Uh, you know, some crazy things that happened. We went through a hurricane.

Danny Lastra 5:12

Oh, yep, hurricane Ian for sure. That was uh especially for down south. We don't have any stores down there, but Fort Myers and all the southern cities of Florida. They got hit pretty hard. We definitely wished them well. We we um April did a great job. Shout out to April for having the hurricane relief fund. That was awesome of them.

Pete Shau 5:29

But then we were checking in on Paul, make sure Paul was okay because I think he was in the thick of it down there.

Danny Lastra 5:32

Oh, because FRDA got canceled. Yep, that's right. That which kind of sucked, but we understood we understand, you know, it's always safety first. You gotta make sure, you know, what's the point of having a show we're gonna be trapped inside of a hurricane with, you know, 130 miles per hour wind, you know? You're not gonna get the merchandise out of there.

Pete Shau 5:47

Well, welcome to Florida, right? Oh, man. So we've done some of our best work under the idea that this is what's coming. This is what we need to talk about. You know, when the RTO show started taking off and we started doing the FR, you know, FRDA show was coming up, we did a small partnership with uh APRO just to kind of show that we want to give uh as much love to the RTO show community as we could. So, you know, we also shared APRO's the ability to give back to the people if you donate on our website. And then, of course, after that we do some more crazy stuff. So if you haven't seen the craziest videos that you've ever seen done in Rent to Own, you've got to go to our website again and take a look at our videos. What were we thinking?

Danny Lastra 6:31

What were we thinking in that? You know, just reflecting. Let's let's talk about those videos real quick. Also, side note, real quick, also shout out to Amberly Maya, again, our marketing director at Ren King. She started and innovated the digital marketing for us here and implemented the video footage for YouTube and Google Ads. And it's it's it's really helped us out in 2022. And of course, we volunteered to be the guinea pigs, the actors, and I think it worked well. I think we have a great chemistry, me and you with Amberly, and then uh shout out to uh Steve and Sergio, which you know, great partnership with the editing and recording. So looking back at all those videos, I'm I'm just thinking back to that very first one of Max Your Tax. How crazy was that?

Pete Shau 7:16

How nervous were you? No, no, no, you know what crazy is about it. So we walk in the first day of ready record, never done this before, and they've got cameras out and they got lights out, and we're staying there ready to go. And Danny's first line is You got You gotta max your tax. You gotta you gotta max your tax.

Danny Lastra 7:35

Like, what the hell, bro? What happened to you? It was Super Bowl weekend, okay? So we recorded, I believe it was on a Tuesday, two days after Super Bowl Sunday, and you know I'm a sports fanatic, so I'm I I go I get very into it, and I'm all go, knackle up! And but of course I'm yelling, and yeah, I lost my voice. And hey, I think I powered through it. I think you know, I powered through it.

Pete Shau 8:04

Well, if you guys listen to that commercial, that is not exactly what Danny sounds like. Listen to commercial two, it gets much better in Swing and a Spring. That one was one that I enjoyed a lot.

Danny Lastra 8:13

That was uh What was the number one comment we got from that video though? Which one? Swing and Spring? No, Matrix Tax. What was the number one comment from that video? That to this day, we still have to hear about it.

Pete Shau 8:25

Okay, so if you guys know anything about Danny and I, I am I am willing to try almost anything. I mean, I do have my limitations, but I I am willing to try about anything. And so Steve is sitting there talking to us about ideas, how we're gonna finish up, you know, one of the scenes, and he's like, it would just be hilarious if you guys were in the same bed. Holy cow, did that follow us around? That's that followed us home, that followed us to work.

Danny Lastra 8:48

I mean, so even the email that we just got about our flight information and hotel booking information for um the Vegas show.

Pete Shau 8:58

Yeah, Sandberly, we're we're looking at you.

Danny Lastra 9:00

Yeah, yeah. Because in parentheses, we're sharing a room, two Queen beds, but in parentheses, she goes, I was very tempted to order just one king bed. I'm like, come on, it's been a year now.

Pete Shau 9:11

It was one time, one time. Uh, you know, it's funny too because as we're doing it, so if you guys saw us uh in the show, in the A Pro show.

Danny Lastra 9:21

Oh, and Indiana, yeah, RTO show. Yeah.

Pete Shau 9:24

RTO World in Indiana. So we did a small skid on that, and I probably got more questions that day about us having the same room that I as we did when we first did the first show.

Danny Lastra 9:34

We oh, we had so many views, I don't even remember the number. We had so many views just in that first 24 hours. Speaking of which, so if you go to our website, as Pete said, RTO Showpodcast.com, you can see all of our campaign videos. But if you actually go to TikTok and go to my ranking, or you can go to at DM Danny or at Pete the DM, you can see a lot of our other quick little TikTok skits that we played on. You know, speaking of videos, I'm gonna jump ahead now to this recent one, the Christmas one. I think it was a very fun video. I think we're getting a lot of traction, but I think the TikToks, the small little TikToks we're doing, is getting some traction as well. It's funny, I know you're probably not a big fan of it because they're all kind of you know listen, guys.

Pete Shau 10:18

I'm I'm a little bit more old school than the rest of the team. Uh, I'm a lot older than the rest of the team, so when I do some of this stuff, I definitely feel out of skin, but I will do what it takes because you guys are worth it. We definitely appreciate everything that you guys bring to the table. So I will continue to make myself be the folk I and these.

Danny Lastra 10:35

I mean, we're already planning for the videos for 2023. I think we already got a first concept idea for the first quarter. I I think it's gonna be another great video, hilarious, entertaining. Um so besides the videos, what what else? Or was there what which video was your favorite? I I I probably know I know which video is my favorite to film, and I have a favorite video to watch. But uh but you, you go first, Pete. What give me those two? Which one was your favorite to film, and which one is your favorite to watch?

Pete Shau 11:06

I gotta say, the the my most favorite to film, if you guys haven't seen it yet, there is a one where it's it's gone fishing.

Danny Lastra 11:13

Gone fishing is kind of gone fishing is I'm super surprised that was your favorite to film, but okay, that was.

Pete Shau 11:20

It was my favorite to film. It was it was the hardest to film, it was the hardest to look at, but there was a lot of fun in that. There was a lot of there was a lot of camaraderie. I I enjoyed doing I didn't enjoy doing it, but I enjoyed doing it. I kind of had to conquer one of my fears. Uh, I really, really don't like the bottom of lakes. I like being in lakes. I don't like the bottom of lakes.

Danny Lastra 11:38

Pause.

Pete Shau 11:39

But uh Pause.

Danny Lastra 11:40

Side note for all you guys what Pete means by his fear. So he was treading in in murky pond water for at least an hour, right? Bro, it was it was at least. And you were so terrified about what you were gonna touch that Steven had to give Pete his own personal long tube socks to jump in the water. They were ankle socks, they were ankle socks. Okay, okay, whatever you want to call it, but it was hilarious. I'm sorry, man, back to you.

Pete Shau 12:08

So we're doing we're doing the uh the first scene that where I get in the water, and they had it cut in such a way, and unfortunately didn't make it to the to the final cut, so you guys didn't see it, but there's this part where the first part of the scene, I actually have to get in the water, and they're filming it, and I haven't been into the water, so I'm not I can't do it wet, so I can't test out the waters by going down, you know, the shallow end to the deep end. I literally have to jump in. So you guys have no idea. I've got this long pole and I'm like stabbing the water, making sure there's like nothing down there, you know. Like, I don't know what's down there. I'm making sure they're landing a stick right up my my backside, right? So I'm I'm stabbed, and then it's just like it's just like that moment you're gonna be like, okay, we're filming it, let's do it. And uh finally got in the water, and I swear to you, I didn't get out of the water for like an hour and a half. I felt like an hour and a half. I don't know if it was it was about an hour, but it felt so long because the sun is beating on you, you know, and you're just sitting out there trying to, and we did the same scene. Like I think Steve got me like three times. He's like, do the scene again, do it again. But uh I wish we could have used some of that, some of that, that video, but you know, it it was probably my most fun to film because I had to get over some of my fear. Just like I think we do in rent-to-own, man. Sometimes you just gotta go out there and do it. You've got to go out there and make the situation happen. You've got to go talk to customers in a way that you know, some of us are a little bit more introverted. We just gotta go talk to customers. We've got to go make that situation happen. You know what? I gotta go flyering. I'm gonna go fly around some doors, I'm gonna get over that. And so that's kind of what I used. You know what I mean? It's kind of crazy that I use it an opposite way. I've learned something at rent-to-own that I took to my life. And I was like, you know what? You just gotta do it. So I hopped in, ass first, and uh that was a that was a really weird way to do it, but it was ass first. And then Danny just got to sit there and dry the whole time and just look at me and why just watch these scenes unfold. I handed you a towel.

unknown 13:50

Yeah.

Danny Lastra 13:51

Okay, okay. So that was your favorite one to film. Which one's your favorite to watch?

Pete Shau 13:55

You know, I have to say, if I'm really looking at the situation, the way that that gone fishing ended up was pretty good. But I have to say, I I even though I'm on the the back end of it, I I like the Christmas one the most. I think the Christmas one really kind of stands out to me as the most fun one.

Danny Lastra 14:11

So yeah, Christmas is definitely up there. Maybe because it's just Christmas. I think it was one of our best stories, in my opinion. You know, me, I'm Jolly, you're grumpy, you know, we're slowly turning into sand at the end. You convert into an elf, you're you're upset, you chase me around, I'm leaving on an e-bike, and then and then of course we have extra TikToks behind it, so that was definitely fun. I I do find that entertaining. Um, the Black Friday one on a personal level, I think, you know, I think from a consumer standpoint, it wasn't funny, and it probably wasn't what they want to see, it was just a very direct and it probably didn't make sense to a lot of them. But I think from the industry side, if you watch it, like I know for me, like it's a I think it's hilarious. You know, it's like a board meeting, we're pitching our Black Friday stuff. The owners got involved, they're blinking, you know, they threatened to fire us.

Pete Shau 14:59

I mean, that was that was the best, yeah. That was the best part. The owners being a part of that, they they played their part and did it very well. Um, just so you guys know, they don't they don't generally look like that. They usually have a smile on their face, it's usually a bigger thing. So when we see it and we see it like that, man, it just it it it did take on a thing of its own. I think a lot of it was a little bit more inside joke, yeah, uh kind of. So we we had to look back at that and go, okay, not everybody works for uh CPL groups, so let's let's do it a little differently. But if you guys know the owners, it was an absolute blast to do with them.

Danny Lastra 15:29

So I'm gonna be honest, probably one of my favorite ones to watch is probably like the Evergreen video, because it shows like the history, the owners are totally involved. We're part of that, we're in the video, and showing just like from the industry side, the business side that we care about our customers and that it is more than just profit sometimes, you know. Like we do care and give back to the community. But speaking of inside jokes, the most controversial one that we made, and the one that we got a lot of I don't know, a lot, but we definitely got some heat. We got some heat was that swing in the spring, was that swing in the spring campaign video, uh, which I thought was hilarious. I thought it was fun. No, no, it was hilarious. But it was hilarious. Um, so if you haven't seen it, go take a look and you know let us know if you can get the inside joke. But there is some hidden puns, is that correct?

Pete Shau 16:25

Puns or they were definitely puns. You you gotta you gotta take it for the context that it's in. But listen, we like to joke and we like to have fun.

Danny Lastra 16:35

But remember at the RTO show world in Indiana, Paul's the one that came up to us and was like, hey guys, love the videos, but I'm getting some phone calls. And we're like, really? And so me and you took that two totally different ways. You took it like, oh man, you know, because like, you know what you and I agree with you, we want to be respectful, like, you know, it's all fun and games, and we're all in the same industry, so you know, let's not cross the line. But I took it as like definitely not how Danny took it.

Pete Shau 17:00

That's what I'm talking about.

Danny Lastra 17:01

I took it like that's what I'm talking about. Yeah, get the phone calls in. That's right. You know, I'm very competitive. David and Goliath, bitches. You know, I want to go head ahead, you know. You know, that's that's actually how um I got Rick was he started making TikTok videos against us, and I thought they were h I thought it was hilarious. I thought it was super hilarious, you know, but um it's just like you know, the way I think about it is when you see those fast food chains have their billboard wards, dude, they're funny, they're hilarious, and they're making fun of each other, and I think from the customer-consumer standpoint, they find it hilarious and relatable. You know, I don't really think it's really gonna make you choose Dairy Queen over Wendy's today, you know. Like, I just think it's just fun and games, and it's just if anything getting everybody involved, everybody's getting a little recognition, everybody's getting brand awareness because it's all over social media.

Pete Shau 17:52

I will say that if you guys have a board outside of your store, not a lot of stores do, but some stores have taken over places that they do carry that letterboard. You know, go to your go to your friendly competitor, see if you guys can start a board wars and see where that ends up. The worst thing that can do is it can end up viral. You know, you you do it with a sense of morality, right? You don't you don't do it to contradict or be uh mean or like you guys stink, but it's a friendly competition. And the truth is the only people that win are you guys. You know, put yourself out there, try new things. One of the things that I will tell you a 2022 taught me is it's great to have ideas. It's great to think of these new things and how we're gonna do them. If you're sitting down and you don't implement them, they will take you nowhere. You're gonna have to get out of your chair and try something new. And if there's anything that I've done for 2022, it's that. It's it's like we've got to do it. Like we had the idea, you know, probably a few months, or probably like six months into the making of the podcast, you know, we were like, yeah, we should do it. What are we gonna do? And then it was like, all right, we're buying some mics, we're gonna do it, and we're gonna figure it out later. And I wouldn't say that everything works that way, but guys, if you guys have an idea in your mind, take control of it, make it happen. Birth it because you never know what's gonna happen. You never know what's out there for you to attain. And I'm gonna tell you guys right now, sky's the limit. There's so much out there to do. Take advantage of it. 100% take advantage of it.

Danny Lastra 19:11

So we made some videos, started our podcast, we were running divisions. 22's been kind of crazy. Like when I'm looking back, I'm like, bro, this this fourth quarter? Woo! Fourth quarter's been crazy. You know, again, this is uh first real year post-pandemic, honestly. I know last year we kind of talked about being post-pandemic, but it was kind of the ending of the pandemic. I think we were still very much still kind of somewhat into it. I think 22 is the real first year post-pandemic. You know, we've talked to some our friendly competitors in the business just to see, hey, what are you guys experiencing? What are we experiencing? And we're kind of all experiencing the same thing to where you know obstacle number one is it's difficult to hire, especially drivers, which is why we made a driver episode. Uh two, accountability, because we we're really starting to see who are the true key players and who were just lucky during the pandemic with relief funds. And so I think it's been a crazy year. I think we really did sort out our strong players from our weak players, and I think it's gonna help us prepare us for the next coming year, how we're gonna get better, how we're gonna get bigger, no cap. Love that, love that episode that we did. Also, shout out again to Dan and Magic. You know, that's where it was inspired from.

Pete Shau 20:33

Two million dollar revenue. Oh man, Dan, you have uh you and the guys, because there was there was a couple of guys up there. So you and the guys have inspired us. We actually took that very much to heart, just so that you're aware. We actually have two stores that are on the verge of breaking two million dollar revenues a year next year that I think that we wouldn't have next year. Yeah, and I don't think we would have really thought that was attainable until we had that conversation and saw how you guys structured it and saw how Magic was kind of taking it to the next level. And we we very much took that to heart, and not only we take it to heart, we put it to application. Because I'm gonna, if there's anything I'm gonna say on this episode, guys, is you gotta put it into application. And here we are, and I have I actually have a general manager who's doing that. Danny actually has a general manager in his division that's doing that, and together, I mean, we're we're doing things and we're breaking records in a completely different way than we've ever done. And it and I really want to say we're sitting there, right? And Dan's doing this, and we're sitting front and center to probably one of the most influential meetings that I've seen in the last year. And and we we took it to heart and made it happen. That's how you do things, guys. You and I'm not saying you do it like us, but you gotta see what you want and then go after it. And I I really believe that that was a catalyst that kind of put us here.

Danny Lastra 21:45

You know, when I think about you know me, I'm a motivational, inspirational individual. I love quotes, I love reading things that inspire me to do better. And, you know, one of the sayings I've heard before, it actually was in a movie, I believe. Maybe it's just a long time ago, but it was if you fail to plan, then you're planning to fail. And I you know, again, I took that to heart, and I think you do a great job of that, Pete. You know, even with these podcast episodes, I am more of a let's just do it. Like you said, I'm a fire ready aim, and you're very much a aim ready fire. And but I think there has to be a balance. Like I think you do have to plan. You can't just always execute because you will make a lot of mistakes on the way. You have to plan, but then at the same time, at some point, the planning almost has to not not stop, but pause, whatever. You have to execute it. Because if we talk about all these great ideas and all these great things, but nobody implements it, then all you're really just wasting time planning for nothing.

Pete Shau 22:46

Yeah, I've talked to a lot of guys, a lot of guys who have great ideas and they they pitch these things and they talk about it, and they talk about it so much so that it goes into this almost stage of where, wow, man, this is a great idea, and they don't implement it. And I've seen guys time and time again kind of put, you know, they they kind of kneecapped themselves. And you know, at the end of the day, when you ask, man, did you do it? No, I didn't do it. But why didn't you do it? Why did that was a great idea? Oh, because of this or because of that. I'm not saying, you know, make excuses or not, but man, it if you if you spend that much time thinking about something that you love and you don't go after it, man, shame on you, man. Shame on you. Go get it, go make it happen. I agree with you a whole bunch. Like sometimes you just got to experience the downside to it. And that's what makes you grow, making those mistakes and then going, crap, I completely screwed this up because I didn't think about this part versus this part. You might not have thought about that part because you didn't even know it was there. Correct. And then you just go back to the drawing board, you fix it, move it on, move on.

Danny Lastra 23:40

You know, that's another saying is whenever you feel things aren't going your way, remember the plane takes off against the wind.

Pete Shau 23:50

Well, that's the best way to fly high, bruh. There's some other ways to fly high, but we won't talk about that. So talk about going against the grain and doing something new. Just so that you guys are aware, we're doing a couple different things for the 2023 second season of the RTO show. One of them is we're gonna have a lot more uh interviews where we're talking to people. We are gonna start our season off with an interview and probably uh every other episode or maybe twice a month, or we want some, we're gonna bring somebody on so that you guys can hear from your peers and your in the industry leaders how this is going and what's going on. But we also have a planned mini series. I don't know if it's gonna be on TikTok, I don't know if it's gonna be on Instagram Reels, and it's gonna be called Who Said What? And we are gonna go and venture around to the local RTO shops as the RTO show, and we're gonna put some of you guys on the air. We're gonna we're gonna ask simple questions from you guys that you want to hear, things that you want to discuss, maybe some simple advice that you would give somebody. Uh, and we're gonna go everywhere that we go. So starting next year, you're gonna see this little series, Who Said What? Um, and it's gonna be a video series. We might add some of the audio on the podcast just so that you know if you don't watch us on one, you'll see us on the other. But uh this I'm actually ready for this series. I can't wait to do it. Um Who Said What's gonna start in probably the the third or fourth episode. We're gonna be able to get that together so that we can put put some uh editing behind it because you know we we gotta edit the show and work at the same time. But who said what is coming your way 2023 season two?

Danny Lastra 25:22

I believe we also talked about potentially doing a quick five-minute tips where we alternate, maybe one week Pete gets some tips, the next week I give some tips, and that way, you know, if you if if you if you're an admin listener, we definitely appreciate that. But we also understand that sometimes 30 minutes, 45 minutes could be time consuming, and most likely most people admit that they listen while they're driving commuting, and that makes the most sense. But if you just want some quick little tips that'll take five minutes or less, that's something we're thinking about doing just to start adding. So maybe you just have that quick five minutes, maybe you can listen to it at work, or you're thinking about how do I overcome this, how do I grow my customer base, how can I think outside the box? And oh, let me go to the RTO show, let me see if they have a quick five-minute tipment, you know, and that's something else we're gonna try to implement as well. I know we're I know we're trying to take on the world and conquer, but baby steps.

Pete Shau 26:15

Well, so the things that we are bringing your way, more interviews, crazier things coming up. We are doing the social media mini-series, Who Said What? We are going to do the the fun tip Fridays, and that's gonna be on Fridays, it could be every Friday or it could be every other Friday, and you're probably gonna hear one of us on the on that particular tidbit um, it'll either be Danny or I. We do come up with different things and different times, so it's not always together that we have these great ideas. So you might just hear uh Danny for five minutes, or you might just hear me for six minutes or two minutes. We're gonna throw some fun tips together for you guys so that you know you can get through your day and maybe as a quick listening tip, maybe you're on your lunch as opposed to drive to work and you can hear something that we have to say that we think will help you guys out. Also, on some of those uh Fun Tip Fridays, we'll probably give you a little bit of a newscast sometime. Something's going on in an industry that we want to add to our Fun Tip Friday. Uh, so we'll probably throw those in there. But a lot of different things coming to the show. We're gonna revamp the uh website a little bit so that we can have a little bit more content on there. And we just want to make it fun and and go with you. And again, guys, please reach out to us if you have anything that you want to talk about, anything you want to say. It is in private unless you guys decide that it's okay for us to talk about. I actually I'm setting up an interview uh after the one we did with uh Leroy Steen. He has got a great thing going on uh in Texas, and we want to talk to him about it. He's actually an owner operator, and I think that that's something that we haven't touched on a lot here, how to get things open and what we're gonna do. So we're gonna talk to Leroy from Texas and kind of get his his words and his tidbits of information. I can't wait. I've that's been something almost like three months in the making that I've been I try to set up. So we're finally gonna get that on the road as well.

Danny Lastra 27:51

Speaking of interviews, again, little preview, sneak peek of the possible future, maybe at the meeting of the minds, maybe at FRDA. Hey, Paul, don't forget about us. We might we might be setting up a little live interview at those shows.

Pete Shau 28:06

If we don't do the live booth, what we might be doing is actually walking around and we're doing uh two to three minute interviews with you directly with the mic. If you see Danny and I together, please let us know. You want to be on the show. We will kick on the mic and do something quick with you. Get your name out there, get your store out there, get your company out there. Because the best way to do it, I mean, this is free advertising for everybody, okay? So if you guys want to talk about, you know, your store, you know, in Missouri or Nebraska or, you know, wherever it is in Texas, make sure that you guys come to us and let us know what's going on. Just uh say hello and then we'll we'll record a spot with you. And if anything, if you guys have a lot more to say or something that we should cover, we'll sit down with you. You know, we'll take five minutes and kind of sit down, or 10 minutes or 20 minutes, or whatever you need and sit down with you and kind of you know pick your brain a little bit, and you can let us know what you think is good, bad, or indifferent about the RTO industry, and we'd love to hear what you have to say about it.

Danny Lastra 28:53

So, just real quick, uh I'm I'm gonna fly through these episodes just to let you know what we've talked about so far. Uh, we had our pilot episode, we have the breakdown of RTO 101, we did a recap of Indiana April RTO World, we did an episode of No Cap fired by Dan Fisher and the magic rental industry. We then did a retain a replace episode, which I think that was a good one. That I think a lot of managers, a lot of managers, yeah. Um that was a good episode. We followed that with seven tips to grow your customer base. We then talked about the RTO family effect. We did an interview one-on-one, tips on how to what kind of questions to ask, what what to look for, what not to look for. We then did a social media marketing advantage, new GM takeover, delivery tech, what makes the best drivers? Turn slow to go. That was with guest Teddy Kervin. Thank you, Teddy. Again, shout out. I was on vacation, y'all held it down for me. That was also another good one because a lot of people ask what to do in their downtime. Speaking of which, this being the last week of the year, we all know it's probably the slowest week of the year. If you haven't listened to that episode yet, I highly recommend listening to that episode now this week, so you have an idea of what you can do this week that is slow. It's the last week of the year, and you want to get cleaned up and get prepared for the new season and new year to come.

Pete Shau 30:10

This is a great time to do spring cleaning without it being in spring.

Danny Lastra 30:13

Right.

Pete Shau 30:13

This is a great time to get your showroom done and your back room done, get your filing taken care of and the files, get your inventories done for this year, make sure that you, you know, you charge off any inventory that's broken, destroyed, not going to happen, not gonna get you anywhere. This is a lot a good time to get things fixed and worked on. I mean, this is a great time to catch up before the new year, before January 2023 hits, and then all of a sudden you're back on the world running. Yep. This is a good time to do it.

Danny Lastra 30:36

And we immediately went into Black Friday here. Let's get ready, follow with realizing your sweet spot as far as management goes, how to stand out from the RDO crowd, gave you ways to train your team to success. And last week we admitted our faults because who's perfect anyways? I know I'm not.

Pete Shau 30:54

Well, you know what's funny, as we're doing the, you know, and you guys will see this come out next season, but we're doing our episode with George, and without having heard the episode, he actually talked to us about the sweet spot. And for anybody who doesn't know Rent to Own in depth, a lot of what we talk about, some of you guys might know right off the bat, but there are things that we talk about that are in the industry that just aren't in textbooks. They aren't in the training manuals. And he knew right away, this is what I do and this is what I do best. And I had to venture out a little bit in this direction, I had to venture out a little bit that direction to be a little bit more successful. But he knew what his base was. He knew it right away. It was part of the conversation. He mentioned it to us and not the other way around. And he's like, this is the type of manager I am, this is what I do, this is what I've done for years. So to come out of that, I've had to hire somebody or do something. I want to give all the goodies out. But he was doing, you know, it was just amazing to hear a vet who's been around for a long time kind of agree with what the way we we look at things and say, yeah, that's exactly the way it was. And we had to, I had to turn it on its ear to get better. And so it's it's really nice, it's affirming to know that there's somebody out there who's not listened to the show but kind of still agrees with us in their own way.

Danny Lastra 32:00

And it was really awesome. Listen, folks, we love y'all. We love the support. Please keep listening. Please keep downloading each episode. If you're not already, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram at the RTO show. As Pete's mentioned, go to our website. You can email both of us. I think it's been a great ride so far. I can't wait to see what the future is going to bring us.

Pete Shau 32:21

It's going to be a bigger season. 2023, season two is going to be amazing.

Danny Lastra 32:25

And I guess with that being said, this is the RTO show with Danny and Pete.