The RTO Show: "Let's talk Rent to Own"
The RTO Show Podcast is the podcast for the rent-to-own industry, hosted by Pete Shau, an industry insider with more than 20 years of experience in RTO operations, sales, leadership, marketing, and store growth.
Each episode brings candid conversations, practical insights, and real stories from the people shaping the RTO community, including operators, vendors, association leaders, store teams, industry veterans, and innovators helping move rent-to-own forward.
Pete’s conversations are built for seasoned veterans, newcomers, owners, managers, vendors, and anyone who wants to learn from the shared experiences, hard-earned lessons, and fresh perspectives inside the rent-to-own industry.
From lead generation, lead management, customer behavior, store traffic, door swings, sales process, collections, training, recruitment, and leadership development to technology, CRM integration, mobile-first shopping, Google ranking, Facebook ads, video marketing, advocacy, APRO, TRIB Group, RTO World, LegCon, and the future of the rent-to-own business model, The RTO Show helps listeners understand what is really happening in RTO.
If you work in RTO, serve the RTO industry, or want to better understand the people, challenges, trends, and opportunities behind rent-to-own, The RTO Show Podcast is your insider’s guide to the industry’s pulse.
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The RTO Show: "Let's talk Rent to Own"
Overcoming our failures
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This episode was requested by GM Radimus Robles of CPL Group, and Danny and Pete deliver a straightforward roadmap for what to do when you've had a rough year and need to get back on track.
Step one is the honest audit. Pete goes analytical — pull your trend reports, find the specific months where things slipped, and identify the root cause. Danny goes inward — look at your leadership, your team, and ask yourself whether you trained and guided people well enough. Both agree it has to be both. You can't fix a store without understanding whether the problem was the numbers, the people, or the person running it.
From there, take real responsibility without drowning in it. Acknowledge your part, involve your team in the reset, and then change your approach — because the definition of insanity, as Danny puts it, is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Track the differences between what you did before and what you're doing now so you can see whether the change is actually working.
Surrounding yourself with the right people is next. Danny is direct about this: if your inner circle of managers and teammates isn't succeeding, you'll fall into that same pattern. Seek out the people who are doing well, ask them what they're doing differently, and don't be intimidated. Pete adds that this applies at every level, not just GMs — a driver or account manager can learn just as much from a top-performing peer.
Don't give up when you get benched or transferred. Pete shares that he's been moved, demoted, and sent an hour and a half in the wrong direction in his career. The difference between those who recover and those who don't is whether they use the setback as fuel or let it define them. Danny closes with the mindset piece: you can read every book, set every goal, and replace every underperformer, but if you have a single ounce of self-doubt, you're already setting yourself up to fail again. Believe you'll get there, and act like it.
The episode wraps with a "Who Said What" segment featuring Max Hernandez of Buddy's Home Furnishings in Tampa — 17 years in the business — who says customer service is going to be the defining factor for getting through 2023 as inflation rises and a possible recession looms. His plan is simple: keep customers happy, stay stocked on core items, and take care of people
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And welcome to the RTO show with Danny and Pete. I'm your host, Danny.
Pete ShauAnd I'm your host, Pete. And today we're talking about how to overcome failure and keep going. And that's uh it's not a good topic sometimes, man. You come out of the fourth quarter, you have a lot going on, right? And then what happens? What happens if you didn't have a good fourth quarter, Danny?
Danny LastraWell, when you say that, the first thing that comes to my mind is Dory from finding the email, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, you know. And you know, it's such a cliche thing to say, but it's true, man. You gotta keep going. You can't let it go. You know, everyone experiences failures in life, but failure is life's greatest teacher.
Pete ShauWell, yeah, I don't think you can get on and do the right thing without it. So you can't succeed without failure. And uh this topic was brought to us by Radimus Robles. He is a GM that works under a CPL group and he wanted to talk about how to overcome failure and keep going. And I think we have a couple of different podcasts that kind of in the past that we've done that would kind of approach how to be successful. But I think one of the things is if you're not and you didn't make it, and not necessarily make it, but you weren't as successful as you thought you were, you had a really rough time. How do you take that beating, get up, and keep going? And I know that you got a couple of uh favorite memes out there that we're gonna go into, but I know, man, sometimes it's hard. Sometimes life, you know, rent owned especially comes down and it's it's not always easy. It's not always easy to retain customers, it's not always easy to grow your rental revs, it's not always easy to keep you know that profit up and your credit down. And what we want to talk to you guys today about is overcoming those failures and where do you go from there?
Danny LastraYou know, I know with us, January is always the big evaluation time, and we let our managers know how they did for the year. And some managers get super nervous, and it's understandable, especially if you had a rough year. If you know, you can have a great fourth quarter. I know I was talking about the fourth quarter a lot last season because we're approaching it, and now we're in the first quarter. The first quarter is just as important as the fourth quarter because you can have an explosive fourth quarter, but had such a loss in that previous year's first quarter that you still take a loss in the year, even though you grew, if that makes sense. So, you know, and that's why there's a whole 12-month evaluation to see how did you do for the whole year. And, you know, I think everyone kind of looks for that fourth quarter as like a saving grace. Like, yeah, I know the first nine months sucked, but hey, look what I did the last three months. Please don't fire me.
Pete ShauYou know, I mean Well, I think when I look at the fourth quarter and the first quarter, I look at the fourth quarter like a ladder, and the first quarter is like a shovel. And depending on how, you know, how much you dig yourself in, or are you building a mountain or are you building a trench? And then, you know, the fourth quarter you always use as a bailout with that ladder, but how big is your ladder, right?
Danny LastraSo ironically, the way I look at the calendar, I actually look at the fourth quarter as it's the first quarter, if that makes sense. Because you're growing, and then the first quarter is all right, how much of that we're gonna keep? So that's how I kind of look at it. Retention. Yeah. But all right, so but let's talk about let's say you didn't have a great year. In fact, let's no, let's go extremely hard. Let's say you have a bad year, one of the worst years. How do you come back from that? Like mentally and statistically, how do you come back from that?
Pete ShauSo I think the first thing is you got to take a long look. You get you've got to look at what you've done, right? So you're gonna have to pull out reports, you're gonna have to pull out your yearly trend reports, whether they're daily reports, whether they're monthly reports, you're gonna have to find out exactly where you where your rough patches are, right? I mean, you don't fix a car by changing the tires and you have an engine problem. So you got to take a look at what's wrong and kind of take say, okay, this is where I lost. I didn't grow enough customers, I didn't grow enough rental revs. Uh my fees were out to lunch, my back end, you know, I got some past two customers that I just didn't reel in on time. What was that issue? And then kind of sit back in your chair and go, man, I cannot let that defeat me. Okay, so you don't be threatened by failure. Failure does not mean that your job is ending, it means that it's changing. All right. Everyone fails. And the difference is that not everyone gets back up and keeps trying. Failure is a mindset. So if you did something wrong, then the first thing you got to do is, okay, I can get through this. I can do this. I can I can change and figure out what's going on and then move on. That's part one. It's not the entire part, but it is the first part to look at and go, I'm this is not gonna defeat me. What did I what am I gonna do to make this better? And the first thing is this failure is not gonna define me.
Danny LastraWell, I think in addition to that, it's so funny how opposite we are. Because of course, your go-to is look at the reports, look at the numbers, look at the analytical side of it. Which it's a good thing. You want to do that, especially if you're reflecting on the year of productivity. But what I think is also just as equally as important is looking at yourself internally and self-evaluating, admitting your faults, admitting your mistakes, because this business is run off people. So if you fail, that means the team failed. I think you got to look at yourself and ask yourself, why did my team fail? Did I not, did I not provide proper training? Did I not give them enough guidance? Did I not delegate enough? Maybe I was trying to do everything myself and I didn't trust my staff to help me move the ball forward. Those are things you're gonna have to look at. You have to look at your leadership skills. Do people want to work for me? Do they respect me? Do they look up to me and say, man, I want to be like him or her when I get to that position? I think that's all part of step one. It's looking at the reports, looking at the statistics, of course, looking at yourself. What could I have done better to lead my team into victory?
Pete ShauWell, team evaluation is definitely the last part of part one because you got to look at what you did wrong to do to make a difference. And then in my book, you got to see who's on board because they got to be on board with you. You can't just change yourself and then your team stays the same because everybody works together as a unit, and everybody's got to change. We got to have that sense of unity. We grow together, we succeed together, and sometimes when when the ball drops, we fail together. And what are we gonna do as a group to make that change to do that? I think the second part is really just taking responsibility for your part. You you take responsibility for the part that you failed, and that's kind of what I was getting into when you were gonna say that what did I not do? You know, it's it's what happened, and then what did I not do? And that's where I would kind of pull my staff into that thought process. And you know, we've talked a lot about it, and this year I think our theme is training. Throughout the entire year, I think our team is gonna be training and not just training. Accountability, yeah, and you know, it's in every which way we can. And so taking responsibility, taking responsibility for what you played in it or your part in it, don't take it to the point where you're like, oh my god, this is all me. I sank the Titanic. Well, dude, if you had this, if you had the binoculars, then maybe it is your fault, but you got to take a look at it and go, this is what I did. So, with that being said, change your approach to doing the same job again and always track the differences. What's the difference between what I did last week and what I'm gonna do this week? What's the difference between my last 12 months and this 12 months? And it could be, you know, that failure could be a year, it could be a month, it could be you didn't make it through the fourth quarter the way you wanted. Uh, it could be that you didn't grow the customers that you expected to in the last month or two months or three months or whatever goals, you know, a lot of uh companies they do forecasting. You know, this is where we kind of expect you. This is where you've been growing, this is where your strong points are, this is where we expect the store to be. And when you don't make those uh forecasting numbers, man, I'll tell you, it's a it's a this it's a defeat. Everybody goes through it. I've gone through it. I I don't know if Super Danny's gone through it, but I've gone through it. And I it's it's a it's a hard feeling, but you got to put your pants back on like everybody else does, and stand up in the morning, get yourself ready, and attack the day with a different mindset.
Danny LastraI I think it's very important when you're doing the team evaluating, you want to surround yourself with successful people. You want people with positive attitudes, you want people that buy into your vision, into your goal. And I think that's where a lot of managers end up failing because I don't, I I really don't believe it's really them per se. I think it has a lot to do with the team. And I think what the problem is there's a lack of accountability and they're scared to make the call on employees, maybe because they're not performing, but hey, they show up every day and we make excuses up. And again, I think that also goes into self-evaluating, like what am I what am I doing wrong as a manager? I think that's a big part of it because we've said it all the time, all last season, this business is all about people, it's about customers, it's about employees. So, what are you doing to replace or retain? What are you doing to train and develop? And are you surrounding yourself with your internal group of all successful people? People that want to be the best account managers, people that want to be the best salespeople, drivers that want to be the best drivers. And then more importantly, then as let's say you are a manager, are you surrounding yourself with other successful managers? Because it's like that old saying goes, you know, show show me your friends and I'll show you who you are. You know, watch the company you keep. Are you are you associating with other managers that are not succeeding? You're gonna fall into that trap. Or are you surrounding yourself with all these successful managers? Don't be intimidated. Try to get in with them, try to try to become a little group, try to, you know, and talk about it, reach out to them. What are you doing over there? Can you give me some guidance? What would you do in this situation? And I think if you do that, and I'm gonna use as an example, I think that's why me and you're so successful because we have each other to lean on. We're both successful in our own ways, we approach everything differently, but we bottom line is we always have the same goal, the same destination. And I think that's why we work.
Pete ShauI think it's true. I think you always got to find somebody you don't want to, you don't want an echo chamber, right? You don't want everybody to be like, hey man, I understand and I agree with you. I understand what you're saying and I'm on board with you. And it's not being a yes, man, but sometimes when you have too many people that think in the same direction, you don't come across uh that extra thought, the process is something that'll challenge the way you think so that you can change it for the better. And I don't know if it just applies to to GMs too. I mean, listen, guys, if you if you're a driver, if you're an account manager, if you're a salesperson, make sure that you surround yourself with successful people, positive-minded people. And don't be afraid to reach out to your peers because as an account manager, there's definitely more account managers in the arena than there are GMs, right? There are definitely probably more or at least the same amount of salespeople in the arena. So don't just hold yourself out to one particular thing. Reach out to everybody. I mean, there could be some good people out there, and and not necessarily just on the management tip, but it could be anywhere. Um, you know, call that number one salesperson and sometimes I'm gonna tell you, sometimes they tell you the things that you already know, you're just not applying. And they believe in it in a different way than you do, and they apply it in a different way than you do, and that what's what makes them a little bit more successful, and it helps you come out of those hard times. But you know, finding inspiration through others and surrounding yourself with positive people is definitely a way to get out of that that hole that you put yourself in mentally. When you're coming out of failure when and and you keep going, you got to remember that the first part is hard, man. It's it's like anything. Those first few steps are the hardest. It's like taking a hit and then getting back up and walking it off. That walking it off requires the first two steps. And those steps, you feel them. You know, you're gonna feel them. You're gonna be in your head, you're gonna be uh, you know, you're gonna be achy a little bit, you know, God, I did this wrong, I did that. Don't kill yourself, learn from it. Now you never want to say, don't go over it, right? Don't go over what happened. No, you you gotta you gotta look at it and say, okay, this is what I did, or that's what I did, or this is what I felt, or this is the leadership that I provided that wasn't great. But then after that, get out of that mindset. Like don't get stuck there, right? And you know, don't give up. It's it's easy to do, but it's hard to come back from. You know, getting to the same place again, you know, if you've gone so far and then you just give up and then you have to start over, man, it's twice as hard work to kind of get your mindset back to where it was. Don't fall backwards, don't give up. You know, always stay the course. And I think that's another thing that you know it's it's hard, it's easy to say, harder to do. Yeah, you get hit. Uh yeah, things sting. But if you don't keep on walking, if you don't put one foot in front of the other, if you don't keep on going towards the goal, if you don't admit to yourself, yeah, this wasn't this wasn't a good idea. This wasn't a good idea, or you talk to your team and you guys agree, man, we thought it was great. It sounded great on paper, but it sucked. Nah, let's not do that again.
Danny LastraI I think you also have to be mindful and and not so proud, but you're gonna have to change your ways if you did fail, and after you evaluate and figure out why you failed, then one of the next steps is changing how to what actions to take place because the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. You gotta change it up. You know, Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, took him a thousand tries before being successful. And when he was asked, how does it feel knowing you failed 999 times? His response was, I didn't fail. I just learned 999 ways how not to make a light bulb. So, right there, perfect example of inspiration is he kept, even though he was quote unquote failing, he didn't see it as a failure. He just saw it as a life lesson. I'm just learning how not to make a light bulb, and he kept moving. He then also kept changing things until he got the right formula, the right bulb, the right whatever, the right current, so he got the light bulb. And I think that's an important step as well to like you're gonna have to change it up. You're gonna have to change it, you're gonna have to go through the uncomfortableness and change it up.
Pete ShauOkay, with with all clarity, I just want to say this public service announcement. If you fail 999 times in rental own, you might not get another chance. So take take that as a this is what you should try to learn from, but don't take 999 times. Okay, just wanted to give you a heads up.
Danny LastraWell, you know, let's let's talk about that as well because I I call it getting bench. I I've known several people to get demoted, get put into a different position, maybe get transferred to a different location because they weren't being that successful. You know, if you get benched, don't take it so personal. You should make it a personal goal to get off the bench. But you know, players get benched all the time for different reasons, injuries, statistical reasons, and thing, I guess it falls into, you know, don't give up, you know. I love movie quotes. You know this, Pete. I love movie quotes so much. And here comes another one. And I we even listened to this one the other day in my marriage's meeting, you know, it was a Rocky Balboa speech. You know, I'm gonna short it for you, but you know, he says life isn't about how hard you can hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. And that's how winning is done. I love that speech, but you know, it that's what it is. You're gonna take your lumps.
Pete ShauIf you guys haven't looked at that speech, you know, I'm gonna start putting these on our website as Danny's go-to montage speeches from from movies, so we can have Denzel Washington and Rocky Balbo on there. But, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna create a page just for Danny's speeches. But you know, when you're when you're looking to overcome failure and you're looking to get through it, you have to really, it's gotta be a learn lesson. So if you are gonna get benched, if you are being moved, if something's gonna change, one of the go-to things might be to sit down with whatever management staff that you have, or sit down with the person making those decisions and really come across the why. And not necessarily question the situation like, why did you make this decision? Because I'm better than that. No, it's what did I not do, or where did I not perform, or what could I have done better, or where what circumstances led to this decision that that I'm coming here? Because given the chance again, I don't want to make those same mistakes. You know, study yourself, right? Study yourself and take action. Be candid about what you might be doing wrong. Don't be afraid of a second opinion. Don't be afraid to go to somebody else and say, hey man, what do you think I'm doing? And be honest and be able to be honest with them and then be honest with you. They might give you some feedback that might hurt. But the thing is, is that nobody, you know, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. Well, you can't you can't get better without realizing your faults. And, you know, when you're overcoming failure, sometimes you have to understand that overcoming failure means looking in the mirror and going, wow, I that wasn't right. That wasn't right. That was my call. It wasn't a good call. You know, going back to the team thing, you know, when you mentioned it before, and we always use those analogies, Michael Jordan to me, uh, you guys can say whatever or do whatever. I still think he's the goat as far as basketball is concerned. But I can tell you this, he did not do it alone. Whether he had a defensive title, whether he had a rebound, whether he was on you know, the Olympic team, no matter what it was, he never did it alone. And as much as I care about him being the GOAT at the time when I was watching basketball and I thought it was the greatest, you put Michael Jordan against five guys by himself, and he will be eaten alive. So you gotta remember that you know it it is a team sport. Um, no matter how you look at it, it is a team sport. Now, if you get benched, you know, sometimes teams aren't doing too good. Right now, the Bucs are probably having their hands full with what's going on, even though they are eight and eight. Um they didn't do so great this season. And I hear a lot of people talking about the management staff. So when the team's not performing, somebody's gonna pay that price. And it's not necessarily like you're fired, but it's hey man, you need to step back. You need to step back and take an evaluation. But they're not giving up. Well, I'm gonna tell you what, if I was getting paid a salary like that, I wouldn't give up either. But I what I will say is you guys got to understand that giving up is not moving forward. Giving up is just that. Giving up. And you've got to take a long look at what you got going. How long do you plan on being in this business? How long do you plan on being in any business? Because failures are part of it. I can tell you right now that um some of the people that we look up to and some of the people that we have going on, if they didn't have failures, they wouldn't be where they were. And I take that very seriously. One thing that I can tell you again is keep looking ahead because if you stay stuck in the rear of you, you will kill your momentum. It's not always about what's behind you or what you're in, but you got to keep your eyes focused on the future. Keep your eyes focused on the ball, keep your eyes focused on the goal. When you're trying to overcome failure, don't stay in that moment. Learn from it and then move on. Keep your eyes forward and keep your eyes on the goal of what you plan on doing. Make sure that you track that and then show the differences. I mean, you you've got to get ahead.
Danny LastraNo, that's that's a perfect example. And if you guys haven't already listened a couple weeks ago, we just did an episode about how to set goals and what we recommend, how to do it from short term to long term. And that that's exactly now you're taking the action step to not become a failure this year. How are we going to overcome? How are we going to succeed? It's by is by creating that action plan, is by setting those goals and long term, and then you break them down to short term, and then you just stay on it. Week after week, day after day, you just stay on it. You keep looking at it, you keep going after it, staying in a positive mindset that you're going to get there. That's how you overcome failure. I mean, at the end of the day, that's that's what you need to do.
Pete ShauWell, I can tell you that if you failed due to lack of marketing, we have a sponsor for that. And our sponsor today will give you the heads up and the how-to on how to grow your social media. And now a quick word from our sponsor. 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. You can also email them at unlimited marketing solutions LLC at gmail.com. And now back to the podcast. Last but not least in my book, when you're looking at things, take inspiration from your failures. When you take inspiration from your failures, that might sound like an oxymoron, but here. When you're taking a look at it, use that fuel. Where did I where did I not go? And then I I circled back around too. I pulled my reports, I found out where I wasn't doing so good. I talked to people, uh, my team, and I talked to my management team. Not only my team to tell them that where we've been, but where we're going. I talked to my management team to find out what I didn't do correctly or did correctly. I talked to my peers to find out what made them successful and maybe they're doing the things that I'm not doing. And then you take inspiration from that. I'm not gonna do that again. I'm not gonna allow this to stop me. I'm not gonna take my failure and let that define me. I'm gonna use that fuel and I'm gonna stick that in my fire and I'm gonna burn bright as hell because tomorrow is a different day. My approach to it is different, and I can tell you this, and I will tell you guys this from personal experience. I have been dropped down, I have been transferred, I have been transferred, you know, an hour and a half in an opposite direction when I worked an hour and a half in that direction. So a three-hour spread. I have been knocked down positions, I have been knocked down places, and uh if I would have never learned from the situation, I would I would not be here. And I'm not saying that I'm the business head story, what I'm saying is don't let other things kill your drive, don't let it take from you. And chess, you are not gonna win with every single piece on the board. It is impossible, but you can win with just two players, just two because I think you can't beat a king and a king, but you can't beat a king with one other point piece. That's a lot of pieces to lose, and you gotta remember that you you you're not gonna take everything with you. You will lose at some point, you will lose some pieces, but you can still win the game.
Danny LastraI would say one of my last steps to overcome failure is a couple things. I I want to learn as much as I can on how to improve myself. I like to read a lot of self-help books, I like to listen to self-help podcasts, and that's something I would recommend is always work on yourself mentally, spiritually, and physically. Because by doing so, you release a lot of stress, and stress is a killer, man. Um, that's that leads to to heart attacks, strokes. Nobody needs that. Always work on yourself on a daily basis. I want you to read as much as possible. Do your homework, find out what previous managers did at your location, how they became successful, or other managers at other locations. Always try to learn. But the last bit is this you could take all these notes. You can admit your faults, you can read inspirational quotes, you can read self-help books, you can set goals, you can replace your staff, you could do all of it. But if you don't believe in yourself, when you're looking at the goal that you made, if you have an ounce of doubt, you're already setting yourself up to fail again. You cannot doubt yourself. You look at these goals and you have to subconsciously and undoubtedly believe no. We're going to get there. And you need to manifest that. I'm really into this book. I know I've said it a couple times. You really guys really got to read The Secret of the Power. You know, the positive output you put into the universe, you will receive back. And if you believe in yourself with the right attitude and your mindset, you're already halfway there. If you believe you're going to fail, you're already halfway there. So you got to believe in yourself, believe in your staff, and just move forward. I mean, we said it a thousand times already in this past 20 minutes or so. Don't give up.
Pete ShauDon't give up. So, in a recap, don't be threatened by your failure. Don't get stuck in it. Review wherever you went wrong so you don't repeat the cycle. Take responsibility and learn from it. Change your approach. Track the differences. Talk to your staff and peers. Talk to the people around you. Find inspiration through others and surround yourself with positive people. Don't give up. It's easy to do, but hard to get back from. Study yourself, take actions, and be candid what might you might be doing wrong. Don't be afraid of a second opinion. Keep looking forward. Take inspiration from your failures. Listen to the Rocky meme. Read Danny's books and get ahead. And listen, guys, we all know that it's a hard place to be at, but it's a better place to come from. If you've never failed, you will never know the taste of success. It just it it's there when you've gone through it. If you get it, if you win all the time, you don't know how to lose. When you lose and then you're successful, that's a win because you turned it around and that's what happens. And that's what this is all about. That's what a rentone is about, man. It's about overcoming your losses.
Danny LastraYou know, if if you would have told me a couple years ago that we would be here at a trade show recording a podcast, I'd probably think you're crazy. But here we are, and I and I believe that we're here. We've gone through some failures, we've gone through some lumps, but we learned from it, we overcame them, and we put a goal in in action. Remember, I I'll I'll never forget this. I want to say it was 2020 or 21. It was at FRDA, and me and you were talking about this, like, man, we want to go to shows, we want to speak at shows. You put it into motion and you don't give up and you keep moving forward. Success will always be at the end of the tunnel.
Pete ShauYeah, success is a journey, it's not a destination, right? You've got to you've got to walk the walk to get to where you're going.
Danny LastraI agree.
Pete ShauYou know, talking about different things. This past, well, a little time has passed now, but we talked to Max uh Hernandez from Buddies Home Furnishings on Armenia in Tampa. That's right. And we stopped by and we wanted to talk to him as our as our, you know, who said what? We didn't get to record it on film, so guys, we just kind of take our word for it. But we talked to Max and uh 17 years of experience at Buddies. Congratulations to Max for 17 solid years. What? And uh a couple things that we talked about. And one of the main things that we wanted to talk about, uh there's five questions, and we'll just go over some information. But you know, his his big tip was service. Service is gonna be the number one way that we're gonna get through this next year. Service with a smile, right? Customer service and keeping it up as one of the big things that uh he has. And uh, we talked to him about a couple of things that we're probably gonna have on the next podcast, but that was the difficulty with some products, man. Some sometimes we come across some crazy things, and uh, we'll probably have this in another episode. But e-bikes and stream boxes, and he loves them. But some of you guys out there have problems with them. So, you know, there's gonna be some tips and tricks on how to get through that, but those are eccentric items that people love, they're going to. I mean, e-bikes and stream boxes are on the rise, and you know, we're gonna take a look at that. But we're probably at some point in time going to face a little bit of adversity into this next year. You know, the job market's changing, uh, there's a possible recession looming, uh, inflation's on the rise. How are we gonna face it? Well, there's gonna be a change in the atmosphere, and uh, you know, Max has his idea of what's gonna happen, but basically he's gonna he's gonna get through it with customer service, keeping them happy, keeping them on the books, and letting them know that regardless of what he does have available, he's always gonna have those core items that's gonna push to to keep them set up, whether it be the washer and dryers, whether it be the ranges, whether it be the TVs and and bedrooms or just the beds, those core items he thinks is gonna get them from you know through 2023. Thanks, Max, for talking to us for a little while and just taking the time to see us and who said what. But Danny, I think that uh it's gonna be a crazy year. I think that's uh I think it's coming. I think it's coming, but I think the success of Rentone is gonna shine through.
Danny LastraI think we're gonna come out on top. I really do. I think it's gonna be a struggle. I think it's gonna be hard work, but I think if we face adversity together as a team with uh our action plan and our goals and we stick together and we just keep moving forward, I think this time next year we're gonna say, hey, that was one rough year, but we made it.
Pete ShauWell, you know what's funny is that rent to own is generally more successful because we have the products, we have the ability to reach the products that people need, and they don't have to be as financially set as they do in some other areas. Correct. So I think it's gonna, it's you know, it's I think it's gonna be a good time for rent to own to shine. And uh, like Max said, that customer service, when you come through and you show them this is what I can do for you, and it's not gonna cost you any extra. You know, whether you do it weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, however it's set up and whatever you go to, and whomever you go to, man, this this is the business that's gonna take care of our customers and our people and our areas for the 2023 year.
Danny LastraGuys, if you have if you're not already, please follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok at the RTO show. You can go to our website at www.theartoshowpodcast.com. You can check out our latest commercial YouTube videos, you can download and listen to our current episodes, our past episodes. Make sure you download, make sure you subscribe so you don't miss an episode when we release them. And if you want to reach out to us with any questions or comments, um, you can contact us at Pete at the RTO Show Podcast.com, or you can reach out to me directly as well at Danny at the rto showpodcast.com. Thank you so much for continuously to listen to us and follow our show. We love doing this.
Pete ShauWell, don't don't forget we got we got some merchandise on the on the site, right? So if you guys want to look stylish and cool in the 2023 year, make sure that you go to the website. Um, we are changing the website, it's getting revamped all the time. But take a look at the shirts. We're gonna have a couple other things on there. If you want to look great to your next RTO meeting, you should be wearing the RTO show t-shirt and show everybody how cool you are because you listened to the RTO show podcast. And that last tidbit of information you got from us, and that would be awesome. And if you want to be on the show, then you can email us, and then we might even put you on the show.
Danny LastraSo look forward to everybody commenting, emailing us. Thank you guys very much. With that being said, this is the RTO show with Danny and Pete.