Ace Rent to Own COO Ben Leach on Black Friday Sales and family

What happens when a second-generation leader takes the mic and the wheel? We sit with Ace Rent to Own COO Ben Leach to unpack how a family legacy becomes a modern operating system built on people, service, and smart use of technology. Ben shares how growing up in the stores, spending a decade in software and high-growth environments, and returning with fresh eyes shaped his approach: empower employees, obsess over client outcomes, and let data quietly guide the path.

We dig into the heart of rent-to-own—why it’s more than payments and products. Ben explains the real advantage: free delivery, flexible swaps, step-down options during tough times, and hands-on service that keeps essentials in homes when life hits hard. He talks through the changing customer journey as foot traffic fades and online leads rise, and how Ace meets clients where they are with responsive phone, text, and digital agreements. The result is a faster, smarter sales process that still feels like white-glove care.

Holiday strategy takes center stage with a meaningful pivot: seven months same-as-cash all November and a true Black Friday hook—a 65-inch TV priced below Amazon’s sale, Friday and Saturday only. Ben shares why loss leaders can create long-term value, how stores win with outbound calls and flexible down payments, and why special ordering toys or unique items helps families stretch budgets. We also get an inside look at Ace’s community impact and employee traditions—from local sponsorships and a holiday wish list to a Christmas party complete with The Price Is Right and tenure gifts employees actually choose.

If you care about leadership, customer experience, and making retail work in a mobile, on-demand world, this conversation delivers practical ideas and a shot of heart. Subscribe, share with a teammate, and tell us: what’s one people-first change you’ll make this season?

APRO
Association of Progressive Rental Organizations

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Thanksgiving Framing
• 3:51 Second-Generation Leadership Pressure And Purpose
• 6:16 Ben’s Mark: Employees First, Clients First
• 8:47 Growing Up In The Stores
• 12:58 Leaving For A Decade And Lessons Learned
• 17:51 Fighting RTO Misconceptions With Service
• 21:24 Early Roles, Collections, And Credibility
• 25:49 What He Missed Most: Clients And Community
• 29:02 The Big Shift: Fewer Walk-Ins, More Online
• 33:11 Preparing For COO: Field Time And Trust
• 38:11 Data, Training, And Spreading Best Practices
• 42:48 Black Friday Strategy: Seven Months SAC
• 46:22 The Loss-Leader TV And Why It Matters
• 50:03 Community Giving And Local Impact
• 53:08 Employee Traditions And The Price Is Right
• 57:21 Making Black Friday Work Without Foot Traffic
• 1:01:21 Practical Store Advice For Holiday Sales

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 2:14

Hello and welcome to the RTO show. I'm your host, Pete Shao, and today we're talking to somebody who I've been dying to talk to for a long time. I'm gonna tell you right now, Ben, I've been trying to talk to you for a long time. So I've got Ben Leach on from Ace Ren to Own in Nebraska. And listen, they have been in this game a very long time. As a matter of fact, one of their legends, Dad Lynn Leach, has been the number one episode so far in the Legends series that's come out. We're doing this on Thanksgiving week because we wanted to say, hey guys, we appreciate everything you do, and we want to be thankful for you. Ben, I'm glad that you made it. I'm glad that you were able to come on. First off, let me thank you for having the time to do this because you are the new COO of Ace Rent to Own. Is that right?

SPEAKER_00: 2:56

Yeah, that's true. And I appreciate you having me on, Pete. I was looking forward to it. We talked back at RTO world and I've been looking forward to it ever since.

SPEAKER_02: 3:02

So, you know, just to make sure that we get this right, Ben goes, hey man, you got you got to let me step into the role a little bit because I got I got a lot to do. You know, let me let me get my feet wet. And I'm like, I totally understand that. You know, being Ben Leach, you have cut your own way. You didn't make it to CEO because you didn't deserve it, but there is a question that I've got to ask, and it'll come up a little bit later. But not only do you have the family legacy, not only do you have now a leadership role because the operations is 100% leadership, something that you guys do very well at Ace Ren to Own, you got Black Friday coming up. We're entering the holiday season full steam. We're almost a few days away from Black Friday. We'll talk about that a little bit too. And uh at the end, I just I just want you guys to know we're gonna do a quick round of questions just to find out what's behind Ben's hood. We're gonna find out what's going on over there in the new COO. So listen, I want to talk to you first about in the beginning. How is it being a second-generation rent-owned, you know, COO behind somebody like your father Lynn Leach?

SPEAKER_00: 4:04

Well, I'll tell you that it's equal parts great and equal parts nerve-wracking, right? Like I learned from one of the best um and and spent my whole life growing up around him in and outside of the business. Um, but alongside that comes with replicating what he's done and carrying that torch forward and continuing to grow the business like he grew it and treat employees the way that he treated them and treat clients the way that he treated them. And you know, the the bar has been set really high. Uh, but the good news is I learned from the one that set the bar high. So, you know, it comes with both both sides of that.

SPEAKER_02: 4:37

So when you're doing this, because this is what I want to know, right? Because you're right. Lynn's been able to come in, he's got his take on it, right? He comes from when when his you know, when his father helped him out, he gets into this. He's been doing this a long time. Now comes Ben. Now here's the question: what is your mark when you're starting to do this, right? And you have this bar, you know what dad does, you you've seen it in action. Where is the mark that Ben leaves? What is it that Ben wants to like, hey, I'm here, and this is what you can expect from Ben, or let me say the COO, Ben, versus what you've been there. Like it's it's gonna be obviously you want it to be the great, you know, what what you've had. It's been good, you know, we're gonna take care of you. There's that loyalty, there's a camaraderie, there's collaborations together as you and the people together. But where is that, Mark? Where's Ben gonna be a little bit different than dad?

SPEAKER_00: 5:24

Well, I think not necessarily different, but one thing that I'm highly focused on, uh, have been since I came back, is making sure I mean it's it's the the core to our mission statement, which is basically treat the employees right so that they in turn will treat your customers or your clients correctly uh and they'll return, you know, and in both sides of that, treat your employees so well that they love working for you uh and they want to stay for years and years, and then in turn they will treat your clients so well that they want to, you know, keep doing business with you for years and years. And that is always the question that I try to ask myself is are we doing the right thing for the employees? And and you know, are we giving them the tools that allow them to do the right things for the clients? Um, so as far as what I've sort of, you know, hopefully shared with employees that that they uh would tell you the same thing is that I listen to them and I want to make sure that anything that we can change that empowers them to do better for our clients and to have that work-life balance that everybody talks about, um, well, we still get stuff done at work, but let them, you know, empower their families and do what they want to do at home, that the rest will take care of itself. Obviously, we have to focus on revenues and collections and sales and you know, all that stuff is is important to making sure the business grows, but you can't do any of that if you don't have employees that carry your mission forward.

SPEAKER_02: 6:43

Well, you're carrying this mission forward. Now I gotta ask, what was it like growing up in the family with the rent to own? I mean, do you have stories of like running around a store in the beginning and kind of making sure you didn't drop over the lamps and stuff like that? I mean, how was it back then? How did it work? How was how is growing up in a family that meant so much to the RTO space now?

SPEAKER_00: 7:03

Yeah, I mean, it there's so many stories that I could tell you about it, but I'm I think the thing that some of the employees that have been with us for a long time remember are opening up new stores. You know, I would be the story is that I was, you know, eight years old or maybe younger when I was first building coffee ends as we opened up, you know, got ready to open up a new store and and going to stores with my parents. And, you know, while I was there, if I had told them I was bored, I would get handed a bottle of Windex and a paper towel ring and like, okay, well, you know, go go do some cleaning. So I was always in the business since I can ever remember, you know, and then eventually got added to the payroll when I was 16 and could drive to work and you know, go out and visit clients and and do all that stuff. So I formally joined the business when I was 16 and could get there myself, but I was doing stuff for the company long before that.

SPEAKER_02: 7:52

So you know, when I was young, right? I first started my first job when I was 16. And the first the one thing that that manager told me that I will never forget, my first job was at Burger King. And I walked in, and like five minutes into it, she was like, Yeah, I just want you to know. If you have time to lean, you got time to clean. And I was like, what does that mean? Let me show you. So, you know, putting together things. I mean, how many? I just want to ask a side question. How many Allah renters did you end up with in your lifetime?

SPEAKER_00: 8:21

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_01: 8:22

Uh dude, I used to come home with those things in my pockets and everything, putting tables together, and all of a sudden I got like 10 of them. I'm like, what is this? So what made you decide?

SPEAKER_02: 8:34

You know, dad's in the business, you're running around, you're building tables, you're kind of learning this literally from bottom to top, from growth and everything. But what made you decide you wanted to follow in those footsteps? I mean, just because you did that didn't mean that you had to, right? You you at some point inside the head had to say, you know what, dad, myself, Ben, you know, like, hey, I think I want to do this. I think I want to go down this road, you know, and and kind of be my own. This is gonna be my career. What made you decide that after all this?

SPEAKER_00: 9:03

Well, um, it was kind of a long decision, I'll tell you that. So when I graduated college, I actually left the business and I was gone for a little over 10 years. Um and traitor. You're a traitor, you left us. The whole time I was gone, there was, you know, when I left, I didn't have intentions not to return, and I didn't have intentions to return. I didn't know what I was going to do, but I knew that I wanted to go out and see what else was out there and and sort of make my own way in the world. I didn't want to just have Ace be, you know, it was my first job at 16, and I didn't want that to be my whole career without ever seeing anything else. Um and I'm very glad that I left. And likewise, I'm I'm even more glad that I returned. So along along the way, I had always kind of thought as I got, you know, as the years went by that I was outside of the company, that thought was always in the back of my mind, should I go back, uh, and what would that look like? Um, you know, going back. And so we started to, you know, have more serious conversations probably around three years ago about me returning back to the company and what that would look like. And I was able to bring back what I learned from leaving the company. Most of the time that I was gone, you could summarize to that I was in the the software space. I was recruiting software developers, my first job out of college for about three or four years. Um, and then I sold software and then supported the software and took over, you know, managing a team of coaches for software. And so I I came back with that experience of what software looks like in the workplace, and I for a while even coached construction business owners how to make software run their businesses better. So I got a lot of experience in both how to run a business from you know being the kid on the other side of the phone teaching this 50-year-old contractor that's been running a business forever how he can make his business better. Just using the software.

SPEAKER_01: 11:41

Are we gonna have like a meta are we gonna have like a meta X RTO now? Because you have all this uh software ideas and building and stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 11:48

What's gonna happen to these? No, I can tell you I haven't really brought too much software into the company. I have, you know, leaned further into the software that we already have. You know, let's use emails a little bit more than phone calls and let's uh let's use Excel to manage some, you know, some projections of the business and things like that. You know, that that was already happening when I came back, but I think I've helped the company lean into what we can do to just work faster and smarter while we work harder. You know, that's not going away anytime. But yeah, um all that experience I came back with, and I worked for a giant international company, and then I worked for a, you know, it you could say a startup. It was around 300 employees when I started, and when I left, it was well over a thousand. So I watched that company completely boom and grow so fast that it, you know, that those pain struggles of growth uh gave me some insight too to bring back to the company. So all those things together is why I'm glad that I left, but I'm so glad to be back and work with people that I worked with when I was here before. I mean, a lot of those employees are still around and catching up with them over the last couple of years that I've been back. Um, and then, you know, figuring out, like you said, what can I do to make my mark and how do I carry the torch forward to make sure that Ace Rent to Own keeps growing the way that it has uh under my dad's leadership?

SPEAKER_02: 13:54

I'll tell you what. Um it sounds it you are part of a very select group. There is a second generation coming up through the ranks, and we're gonna talk about that a little bit later. But I mean, you have the ability to not only have this core value that's come with you for so many years, but as dad comes and takes a little bit of a step back and you have that ability to step forward. I mean, uh one thing I've always said about Rentone, I love Rentone, I love it to my core. We always seem to be on the back end of the bell curve when it comes to forward thinking on technology and some of the things that we're doing. I just think that we should have maybe a little bit better software, a little bit better integrated internet. Uh uh as far as like, you know, how our our essence is online, I think we could just do better than that. And I think with you and you know, the Chris Krail Jr. and the Mike Tissetts and you know um Gary Fairman's son, I think you guys are gonna usher that in. I'd love to see that. We'll talk about it a little bit more, but as you're doing it, you're seeing this, and then you get to go out, you get you get to spend 10 years away, which is awesome because I I really do believe that being away, you also get to look back reflectively and go, it's this is good or this is not good, or I want to change that, or this could be better, or you know what, I really missed that because this was like amazing and I'm not getting that somewhere else, which is usually the relationship piece. But like what's some of the lessons that you learned growing up to like that 16-year-old Mark and then the Ben who ends up leaving home and going out for 10 years? What's some of that you know, you you look at it from 10 years, that 10 years thing and go, you know what? This was something that I missed. This was something that was great that we did as a family that we did as Ace Rent to own that I'm not seeing here.

SPEAKER_00: 15:34

I'll tell you, I think one of the things that I missed the most, I enjoyed, you know, the thrill of climbing a corporate ladder. Um, but along with that comes all the politics of, you know, making sure that you have the right friends in the right areas and making the right bets on who you should, you know, network with within the company. And like there's all that nuance that just is, you know, it's thrilling, but it's also a waste of time. Um, and at a family business and at a smaller business, you s you always have some of that, but it's not the same. You know, you you know who the leaders of the company are, you know them personally. And so I, you know, now being one of the leaders of the company, enjoy meeting with those employees and figuring out what their goals are. Some of their goals are I want to be an assistant manager, right? Like I don't really want to run a store. I like making sales, I like doing collections, but I don't want the rest of it. Some of them, day one, they're saying, How fast can I get into management? When can I take over my own store? And, you know, the managers, some of them are happy, some of them want to become district managers, some of the district managers want to know, well, what's next? What positions are getting created in the company that I could take over that don't exist yet? And I think that is what I really missed. And alongside of that, the the relationship with the customers. I had it deeply when I was in the store full time before I left the company. But even though those customers are still around, right? When I go back to the store that I worked at all through college, um, a lot of the same names are on those lists of, you know, the the potential leads and and the collection report. And like it a lot of those names still uh you know go down memory lane for me. And you just don't get that in a big corporate world. You don't have the 30-year employee that, you know, some of them I've known for probably my whole life, right? Like they watched me build coffee and sets at eight years old. Um, and so you just don't that full family feel, you know, we we call it the ace rent-town family, and I that's not unique to us in the rent-to-owned space because we are such a tight-knit group, um, both within our own companies, like every company that I meet with at RTO World, meeting of the minds, et cetera, they all have that same feel where their their employee base is their family. And then when you go to RTO World and you go and you you talk to other trib vendors and you talk to people in April, that's another family. And and we were able to bring a lot more people to RTO World this year because it was in Omaha, it was in our backyard. And so watching some of those district managers and store managers see that widened perspective in their eyes for the first time of like, oh my god, like there's so many people that do the same things that we do, and they have the same problems we have, and it's it's it's all like we're all in it together and we're all rowing the same boat.

SPEAKER_01: 18:19

Ben, you get to go to this every day and all the time, and I miss this. You didn't take me.

SPEAKER_02: 18:23

No, yeah, I I I would tell you, when I first went, it opened my eyes to a whole different side. I had been it for many, many years, and I had I really had no idea who April was. I had no idea who Tripp was, I had no idea who all these people were. And like, I my buy-in really did come in the first time I went. And I was just like, oh my God, who are these people? What's going on? Like that guy is like, he knows everybody, and he and who is this? And you know, I gotta say, the first one of the first people that I did meet meet was was Mike Tissett. If I don't tell you anything about how everything else followed that. Um hard act to follow, but it was great to meet him first. But it was just one of those things, you know. Um, and I remember my first hot show, and your dad was up there, you know, so so and I was just like, man, I missed all this. You know, it's it's gotta be great, you know, to be in the position you are now to bring those people to that and kind of pull them forward and show them what you get to, you know, see and be a part of now. In the within that 10 years though, you know, flipping in a little bit, within that 10 years, you know that you grew up in rent to own, you know the positivity and all the relationships and all the people that you've built and seen and grown with during that time frame. Did you also get to see that moniker that sometimes people feel rent-to-owned in in in its many different ways? It's like, you know, but that's rent-to-owned. It's you know, it's like you don't know anything about rent to own, but they they have this negative idea about it because they feel like, you know, it's not credit-based. That's not the transaction that we like. Did you see any of that in your 10 years out?

SPEAKER_00: 19:48

Yeah, I did. Um, no, I don't I didn't talk to a lot of people about rent-to-owned while I was gone. It just didn't come up. Uh, but for sure that you know, when when they found out who my dad was and they're like, oh, well, I've seen him in commercials. I, you know, I see your guys' uh businesses or stores all around. Uh, and it would come up then, right? And and that is something that I think that for you know, me and and the rest of second generation folks and anybody that's in the business today, it's the same struggle that we're fighting that my parents fought before me and and everybody else, you know, that that started the industry fought before me is that rent to own has this connotation of, oh, well, you know, it's it's small payments, but they pay way more for it along the way. And they don't know all the things that we do where we're servicing that stuff, we're giving free delivery, we're letting clients switch stuff out if either they need to step down into a cheaper product because they you know lost a job or had a new baby in the family and they can't afford what they could afford before. Or the more exciting flip of that coin is I've had a 50-inch TV and now I want to upgrade it to a 98-inch TV. Exactly. You can do that in our industry, and you can't do that anywhere else. And it, you know, service issues are never fun, but we treat clients way better than if I called, you know, Best Buy and said my my washer and dryer went out that I bought from you a year ago. They're gonna say, Well, here's a 1-800 number to Whirlpool, you know. Good luck. I wish you all the best.

SPEAKER_01: 21:10

I'm sorry to hear that, Ben. You're gonna have to figure that one out. And we also sell new ones. So if you if Whirlpool can't take care of you, we are still selling washers. If you don't need service, you need another expensive set.

SPEAKER_02: 21:21

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SPEAKER_00: 22:42

Uh I was what we called at the time a rental clerk, you know, customer service associate, uh delivery driver, hybrid, like what it basically do whatever the store needs to be done. But most of that is, you know, it was still clean that washer that came back, clean that refrigerator, go, you know, knock on some doors for the collections managers so that they can make phone calls, do a delivery, you know, a little bit of everything, but it was what it was the behind the scenes work that kept that keeps the stores running. Um, and it wasn't it really wasn't until I was, gosh, I don't remember now. Maybe I was in high school, but I think I was in college when I first stepped into more of an account manager role and took on like, okay, I'm gonna have my own route of clients and I'm gonna make my own sales and I'm gonna go up through the management training program just like everybody else does. Um, you know, but I had the benefit of working in the store for my entire life before I joined all of that. So I saw people doing that work for you know 10 years while I was a little kid before I was 16 and and you know started to do it all for myself. Um but I'm glad that I did that and and came up through the company so that I know, you know, when I talk to an account manager, I know their struggles very well. I've had the same struggles, and I I'll still call a past to a client, I'll still go knock on a door, I'll, you know, whatever we need to do to to all row the boat together. Um, and I think that's what's important to employees, and it's important to clients that it's not just oh, well, who's the owner of this place? I don't know. I think it's this guy that I've never talked to, I've never met. Like, you know, they they all know us, both the clients and the employees, you know, there's no there's no secrets anywhere.

SPEAKER_01: 24:18

So yeah, this 16-year-old kid, he's like a 10-year vet. He knows the business better than we all do.

SPEAKER_00: 24:25

I will say I think that was a unique struggle. You know, if you're a 16, 18-year-old kid that's knocking on somebody's door saying, hey, you owe$152 for your past due washer dryer, hearing that out of the lips of a 16-year-old, you know, it's it's a little bit different. And that was a struggle to get people to take me seriously when I'm knocking on their door or trying to sell a washer dryer in the store. You know, do you even know what you're doing? You're just a young kid, and it's like, well, yeah, you know, I've I've been around a little bit.

SPEAKER_01: 24:54

I I really know what I'm doing. I might have more experience in my business than you do.

SPEAKER_02: 24:58

So talking about that or the early memories, and because I mean, how valuable is that to really learn as you're growing through the business, to be a part of it and to really see this upfront and personal as you're growing, as you're grinning. You know, I mean, a lot of people I my first job was at 16. I think you know, you're having your job earlier and then and being able to be a part of the family, but that's gotta give you a leg up like nobody's business. And it's great to see that you've made it, you you've come back and put all of this experience to good use. Tell me, what's something I gotta know? What's something you have at 16? You already got years of experience. You're gonna be there for a little while longer, then you go out to college. But what's something that happened in those early years that you're like, man, that was an experience that helped kind of shape me, guide me. Somebody said something to you, and you're like, that never left me. Like, what what's something that you would say, God, that was a good moment, that was a good part, a good memory?

SPEAKER_00: 25:50

Um well, I think it was the the I the the saddest I was to leave was to leave the clients. Like I had great employees that I had worked with forever, but everybody has that in every job, like a best friend, coworker, that kind of stuff. So I was sad to leave those people when I left the business, but I was even more sad to leave the clients because it's people that I had worked with for years and and saw them grow their families and saw them, you know, get married or move into a house out of an apartment for the first time, and you know, struggled with them the time that they lost their job. And how do we keep this stuff in your house and you know keep keep you moving forward with us to where you're not you know having to return things? So, how do we do that? And so it it's so unique to the rent-to-own space that we are salespeople, we're collections managers, we're all these things, but we're deeply ingrained in their lives because we they're with us for years, and so we see all these growth moments that happen in their lives and we're with them for it. And so to then leave and go like out on my own path, that was the sad part is to leave them and like you know, I won't be there for the next kid or the you know, whatever whatever's next in their life, and that was sad for me. And it's the thing that's that's the most powerful part of art rent to own. I I think probably everybody shares that opinion somewhere along, you know, in their top three. Um, but how much we help our customers, and to go back to your point, rent to own has this perception of like, oh, well, you're just there to take advantage of your clients. No, quite the opposite. Like to I mentioned service, we're there for that, but we're there when they lose their job and then they can't pay. A credit card company is not doing that. They're saying, well, you either pay the minimum balance or you don't, and believe me, you don't want to do the you know, option. You don't want to miss you don't want to miss that bill, you know. And so that that part of how we help clients is what people don't see out of rent to own that have never, you know, been a client, never worked in the industry. Um, and it's what it's the million-dollar question for all of us. How do we get the person that maybe is thinking about using rent to own for the first time or has a credit card that's dang near maxed out, but they don't even look at rent to own as an option because it uh well, I don't do that. Like I I'll go to Best Buy and max out my credit card, but I'm not gonna go to rent to own because I won't get a good deal there. And how do we get them to understand that that's just so far from the truth? Um, that you know, come experience what we have, and if you don't like it, return it. And then, you know, you're you're out, you're not in debt at all, so return it when you want. Uh, if if we don't treat you right, you can leave at any time. And I think that's something that we we the next generation and just everybody in the industry, how do we get that perception that people are excited to go, you know, use rent owned for the first time and then see all the benefits of it once they're in the door.

SPEAKER_02: 28:42

Absolutely. You know, I have a lot of people that have been on the show, but there's one person that stands out to me. Uh Jason Winters does operations a lot. You know, he's he's a rat guy, he's done a long time. And one of the things that he said was, you know, you don't perform, you get fired. And I've had other people say that too. You don't treat your client right, they can fire you. They can go somewhere else. They can hire somebody else. Treat them right, give them the right relationship, give them the right respect. I love that you call them clients. I really do. I got to get better at that. You you're you're teaching me here, man. I need to learn this. What's your favorite part about rental? Is it is it relationships? Is it helping customers? Because you say a lot about helping customers, and it seems like that's a passion of yours coming out of you when you say, you know, we we provide that service, we help them when things get bad. I know these people. Actually, I got to cut off just one second. What is one of your favorite customers' names that you remember?

SPEAKER_00: 29:29

Oh God, that's a really good question. Uh, I would tell you that it's probably Donna Reichschneider.

SPEAKER_01: 29:35

Um, I worked for Donna, if you're if you're watching this, Ben remembers you. Okay, I'm just for years and years.

SPEAKER_00: 29:41

She was one of the only clients that I, you know, that we were Facebook friends, and I was Facebook friends with her daughter, who was also a client of ours. And, you know, it I just always got along deeply with her. But there's other clients that, you know, were were more of the always have a unique struggle and and always were maxed out at how many accounts we would let them hold, and then would have struggles of like, oh well, bills are short this month, and therefore bill was one of the highest weekly, you know, totals that we had in the store. And so I'll go sit at a dinette with one of them and let's get all your agreements out on the table here and figure out what can we swap, what can we put on hold, what can we, you know, and and being that deeply ingrained. But um, yeah, I I I have a list of of clients, and then that's growing too as I go to stores that you know, just just to pop in and talk to the team there. And I've met some of those clients now in in out outside markets that I never really worked in when I was at the company before. Now that list of clients is growing that you know, I know their names, and and when they come in, they're excited to see that I'm there. You know, it's it's that's really fun.

SPEAKER_02: 30:43

Uh, it's it's Donna, Donna, we haven't forgotten about you. We haven't forgotten. So getting back to it, is it is it the relationship building? Is it helping customers? Is it problem solving? What is it that kind of really draws your attention? What's your favorite part of what you do on a daily basis? Because operations, you have you wear a lot of hats, but what is your favorite part?

SPEAKER_00: 31:03

Well, I think it's I think it's dealing with the clients and and building those relationships. But to that point, unique to our industry, working with clients and and building that relationship with them is mostly problem solving. Whether it's problem solving, you know, is it the right time for me to get a washer dryer? I don't know if I'll be able to afford it, or hey, I my my child just had surgery and now I don't know what to do because my bills are really all my bills are stacking up, and I have these hospital bills that I don't know if I can afford, you know, the bunk bed and the washer dryer and the refrigerator, and you're sitting there looking at the list of stuff that they have with you, going, none of these are wants. Every single one of these things on their list is a need. And so how do I solve the problem to keep all this stuff in their house? I don't, I cannot let the answer be, okay, you just had a really hard, you know, your your kid just got diagnosed with cancer, and so you have all these surgeries, and I need to be the guy that's not saying, Well, I'm gonna have my delivery crew come out there and pick up that wash or dryer and take it out of your house. And now I'm gonna make your life worse because you don't have a wash or dryer and you have all these family problems that are stacking up against you. I'm gonna be the guy that says, We'll figure it out. I don't we'll have we'll redo the terms, we'll swatch out, we'll swap out your washer dryer, we'll do something, but I promise you that when you get home from the hospital every night, you're gonna have a spot to wash your clothes and get ready for the next day. Like that it's problem solving in a way that is so unique to rent to own because there's just not that many industries that can help people with that deep of issues in their life and and go, okay, that guy was actually there for me. And then in turn, when they're at a barbecue with their friends and somebody says, My washer dryer just went out, I don't know what I'm gonna do, I can't afford to go get one. Who's the first name that they're gonna say? It's us, but that's the byproduct of just treating clients well. That's not why we do it, but it is really fun when when that client walks in and their sister for the first time and says, Hey, I brought my sister in and I told her how awesome you are, and then you know, there's there's that same bar that you set so high, and you're like, Well, I better not let your sister down because you just said all these good things about me.

SPEAKER_01: 33:14

How do I keep Ben's face off the center of the dartboard? Well, you gotta change your lift bar. So, what would you say has been the biggest change?

SPEAKER_02: 33:23

You had this tenure gap, you were there, you you you spent a lot of time there growing up, and then you have this tenure gap where you get to experience life, do your own thing, have all this other experience that kind of helps build who you are, and then you come back. What would you say changed in that time frame, in that 10 year time frame from the beginning to now?

SPEAKER_00: 33:41

It's the fact. That people don't walk in the door as often. Um, when I left, we weren't doing a whole bunch of sales calls and cold calling. I mean, it was a lot of people that just walked through the door and were pointing at things of I want this, this, and this. And that was great. That's really easy to sell. If somebody comes in and says, I would like one washer dryer, please, you know, you better close that sale because they just walked in and told you what they want. But that's not happening as much anymore. It definitely still does, and it's because of the relationships that we have with clients that they want to come in and pay their bill in person instead of pay it online or pay it over the phone. You know, those clients are still coming in that have been with us for years. But how do we get the clients that are sitting on their couch at night, their washer just didn't run a load of laundry or something, and so they submit a lead online. We've never met them. How do I close that deal where it's not as simple as, okay, I'm I'm online, I'm gonna add my credit card and it's gonna show up on my doorstep tomorrow. How do we replicate that experience in the rent-to-own industry? Is is one of the other million dollar problems to solve. And I'll tell you, it's the it's the biggest thing that I'm trying to grab a hold of of since coming back of how do we step into the new age? Clients aren't coming to us anymore, so how do we come to them? And how do we get those online clients that want that white glove experience of well, I'm just gonna click some buttons on my phone, and then a sofa love is just gonna be in my living room. Like you'll you'll bring it to me. How do we close that gap compared to people walking through the door and pointing out things that they want? Um and in in that regard too. I mean, when I left, we were still doing handwritten paper agreements. It's like doing all the math and writing it, and you had the carbon copies of here's your yellow sheet, I keep the pink one, you know. Like that that was different coming back. We have digital agreements, now the computer does all the work for you. I can email you your contract and never have to see you. You sign it without me being there. Like that's a that's a difference, but it's a good difference because it would be so much harder to solve that problem of clients don't swing through the door anymore. If I have to handwrite an agreement and bring it out to you to sign it with a pen, that's gonna slow me down way more than anything else. So, you know, it we definitely needed it, but seeing technology come into the rent-to-own space even more than I left now empowers us to be able to uh, you know, find those clients that aren't walking through the door and pointing out six things they want.

SPEAKER_01: 36:04

You know, it's crazy, Ben. You just stepped back in a time portal. You don't look old enough to be saving those things, man. You just dated me a little bit. You know, you go back, you got like the triple carbon copies and stuff.

SPEAKER_02: 36:13

But uh it's great that you were able to be a part of that so that you can see that difference. You know, seeing those differences and having that tenure gap and and just seeing how we've come along and obviously you want to take it a little bit further, which I really do. I call it the Amazon effect. Everybody's gotten to the Amazon effect. They want to get on their phone, boop, hit it, and I want it here in a couple of minutes, you know. I mean, you can literally get it the same day, and you're like between like 8 a.m. and 5 a.m. Like, oh my god, or 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. Like, who does that? But then it ends up at your door, and you're like, yeah, I like that. We we're we're we've got a lot of we got a lot to do. But like, so how did you prepare for this COO role? Now that you've got all this experience and you're seeing the differences, you've seen what you want to bring to the table, how did you prepare for this when you know, and I would imagine that there was a there was a seating, everybody sat down and said, hey, we're gonna point at that guy and make him the COO, and now he's got to do it. So how did that how did that happen? How did you prepare for it? And what do you think you've done to prepare yourself even before that? That they came to you and said, Ben, we think you're the you're the right guy.

SPEAKER_00: 37:12

I think that there's two ways that I'll answer that. One of the ways that I continue to prepare for it is, you know, read, listen to podcasts, um, you know, go watch you know, uh YouTube videos or you know, of of people doing in it in different industries, uh people that are are you know operating the same way, or how do you clean up operations, or how do you fix what's not working, how do you relate to people? Like it it I try to read more and more every day and find time for that, which is incredibly hard. As far as inside the business, how did I get ready for the role? Some of it was when I was coming back, we kind of were starting to talk about what stair steps do we want, what will this look like when I come back to the company. And when I came back, I was the regional manager, is is the title that uh I had. And basically that was sitting just above the district managers to help them run their districts. And and a lot of that hasn't changed. I'll tell you one of the biggest struggles I've had since trying to step out of that and be at corporate more and do more planning for what we need to change and bring in new ideas and and different ways of doing things. Finding the time to do that and step out of stores has been hard because I mean, I've talked about it a lot this whole time that you and I have been speaking. I love the clients and I love, you know, the employees and and rolling up your sleeves and being with them and doing that. That's something that I miss as I step more into the corporate leadership, you know, side of the business. Um, but coming back, that was my main goal for the first two years is go out to the stores, meet all the employees and and kind of do all the jobs again, get that 10 years of dust knocked off. That uh, you know, what what is collections like in some of that was different. Like when I left, we were doing paper chase cards, you know, you would write down the date and phone number, voicemail, right? Like, but now we have a computer that does all that. So um, you know, learning the new way that we're doing all the same things that we've been doing for years and years, um, but meeting all the employees. And I think that was really important to go out and so that it wasn't just, oh, this kid came back, yeah. His last name matches the one that leads the company, and so he's just gonna come back and run it. And who is this guy? And I don't think I want to work for this kid that, you know, just stepping into the role. And so that was the biggest lead up to it is making sure that employees trusted me and knew that I was gonna do what was right for them, um, and and still do that today and now step out of it a little bit more. I still go to stores, you know, not quite every day, but I it's hard for me not to go to one. Um and also do annual reviews with employees, and we have a management and training program that I handle the final test when they're testing out of the program to become what we call an associate manager, who's just basically then waiting in the pipeline for uh the next store manager role if that's what they want to take. Um, and I really enjoy going out and doing those things. And I'm pretty data-driven. I have a lot of spreadsheets that I track and try to project where we're going and uh you know what we how we are tracking this year versus last year and whatnot. And so stepping into those annual reviews with store managers and with associate managers and just showing them all the data and showing them here's where you've come and how do we grow from here and how do we make it better? Maybe you're you need to improve the store's not doing well, so how do we do that? Or me more asking them, like, okay, you're one of the best stores we have, you tell me how you're doing it. Like, I see the numbers on the sheet, but how are you doing this? I need to take this, bottle it up, and take it to the next store. And that's been probably fun for me as I I step more on that side of things and less on the you know, selling Mrs. Smith old watch or dryer in the store.

SPEAKER_02: 40:52

It's gotta be crazy when you start talking to somebody and they're like, you know, this guy's the new guy in the room. You're like, look, I was doing this in my diapers, okay? You need to calm down. Talking about, you know, getting into all this and all the tradition, all the stuff that you've you've done and going to do, I love it. I love the nuance. I love bringing the technology into it because one of the big things that the technology brings is the advent of information like we've never had before. It was just so hard to gather that information as it used to be versus it is now. You can kind of consolidate, put it all together and go, I can show you trends from the last three years, I can show you when you sell more, when you sell less, what products are sticking longer than you might think that they do now. Oh, that doesn't sell, oh yeah, well, it's it's got a stick rate of six months minimum versus something that can come back in every two weeks. You know, the COD affects things, the longevity of it affects things, what's the payout rate on these things? Well, let's figure it out. All those things really make a difference. So it's it's it's really awesome to to hear about all that. But now that we go into this Thanksgiving era, now we're here in that month, what's Ace doing? What's what is Ben doing and what's Ace doing for the Black Friday holidays? What's your sales pitch on all this?

SPEAKER_00: 41:57

We did two new things this year um that I I won't take credit for them entirely, but they were I helped carry him across the finish line to to say, I let's try it. Uh I've been working with Mike Tissett a lot as I've been you know stepping into this role and since I've been back, and you he's a guy that you can't talk to enough. You can't learn enough from him in the conversation you have. Um and one of the things that he said uh one of the last times I I talked to him was, you know, one of the questions that people ask themselves is, oh well, the what if you know, what if somebody pawns that? What if we step into the jewelry space and they steal it or they pawn it or they like what if all these bad things happen? And since I had that last conversation with him, the question that he asks at the end of all that is what if it works? What if what if it works? Like what what if it's one of your new core business? You know, what what if jewelry becomes one of the things that you go, how did we ever not do that? And for Ace, they made the decision before I came back. But I think one of the things for us that is that what if it worked moment was tires. You know, it was okay, well, what tires are scary, we're not gonna get into it. How do you repo tires? And then it worked. And tires is a huge piece of our business. And what if we wouldn't have done it because it worked so well? Um, so to get back to your question, what are we doing this this Black Friday? The two new things that we did, one of which was seven months same as cash that we used to offer on Black Friday for anything in in the building. This year, you look at Target, you look at Walmart, you look at these big you know box stores, their Black Friday doesn't look like Black Friday anymore. It's Black November. Like it's the whole month long, and they're doing this sale these years.

SPEAKER_01: 43:38

That's so true.

SPEAKER_00: 43:39

Uh and so we did seven months same as cash all month long. There's no the the only parameter we had was a there was a bottom dollar to it, but it was way lower than it typically is. Um, and so everybody gets seven months same as cash on practically every agreement that we're writing this month. The other thing that we did, how do we keep a Black Friday? Like, okay, so does that mean that we're just leaning away from Black Friday and we don't want Friday and Saturday to be one of the biggest weekends of the year? So what we did is we brought in a 65-inch TV that we're gonna make nothing on um and sell that practically at cost to our client. Um, so that we can we I mean, I even looked it up on what Amazon's selling it for, they're selling it for$150 more than us. Um, and so that's our Black Friday sale. We won't make a dime on the TVs that we sell, but that's what you know I I I made the you know, as we were having these conversations between my dad and Frank, uh who's our chief strategy officer, but we were talking about it, and I I want that experience to be where they got the best deal that like they got a better deal than they could have if they would have sat on their couch and ordered it from Amazon. So I want that experience to then be what carries them forward and go, I got a really good deal on that. I got a 65-inch TV for eight dollars and ninety-nine cents a week. Like I I paid it off for$409, right? Like I can't get that deal anywhere else. And so then the bet behind that is when their refrigerator stops making ice or stops cooling and they come in to get us, they're they know that they're gonna get a similar deal on that refrigerator. It's not gonna be a Black Friday blowout where we sell it at cost, but it's gonna be the same thing. They know that we want to take care of them and have that exciting special that gets clients to come in after Thanksgiving and buy that TV because we're only available, we're only making that TV available Friday and Saturday. Um, if you don't get it those days, you're not getting it at that price.

SPEAKER_02: 45:34

So those are Ben, I just want you to know. Let's see, the time now. So I just want you to know I live in Florida, so you're gonna have to deliver that TV because I'll be there to pick one up on Saturday morning. That's a great deal. Don't forget to get it.

SPEAKER_01: 45:46

Come on, that's not a great deal. That's a great deal.

SPEAKER_00: 45:49

It's gonna be a little higher, though.

SPEAKER_01: 45:52

Pete, you're a couple states away. You can expect it December.

SPEAKER_02: 45:56

Uh hey everyone, it's Pete Chow here from the Arts Go Show Podcast, and I want to tell you about a company that's making a real difference in the rent-owned space. WoW Brands. I've seen firsthand how they approach marketing. Let me tell you, it's not just about ads. WoW Brands built a complete digital ecosystem designed specifically for the rent-owned industry. Their e-commerce and lead generation strategies are built to bring qualified leaders. Did I mention that they are actively working with the rent owned industry while also being members of April and Crib? These folks are passionate problem solving. They don't just slap something together, they design, build, and scale the kind of digital retail tools your business needs. Your customers actually want. So if you're serious about growing, reach out to Wild Brands at WoWBrands.com. I trust it, and I think you will too. You know, we were going to talk about that, and you you kind of covered a whole a whole lot of it. I mean, yeah, there's a lot less going on, I think, on the actual day of. You know, I we still call it Black Friday for a lot of different reasons, but I don't I I think we started it uh the same time as a lot of other people, and they were like, yeah, we can't save this all for one day. Because I've seen the traffic on on that Friday, and I think it came from that is like the traffic on the cycle that we've seen in the last few years is that the Friday is not really pulling in as much as we did. It's really a month-long thing. And honestly, it drags into December because we we always have to kind of like tweak it going into December, so it's not the same thing. But I mean, it it just doesn't show the same. You know, it used to be the door swings are crazy. Now it's you know, what's coming up online? And are you ready for the next email? Are you ready for the next hit that that you know that that thing that we have to do is really, and I don't want to say sit around and waiting for it because we always gotta advertise for it, but like we have to be ready when the internet, when that email goes off and says, hey, you have a lead here. Somebody just post, you gotta jump on it. You've got to be able to take them off the market right off the bat. I don't think it'll be that hard with an 899 TV, but you know, I can tell you right now, you got you probably got a foothold on that one. So that's awesome. But you guys are doing this for the month. You have a great deal. You you've obviously done some inventory planning and some other things to make your weekend very good as opposed to the entire month as well. What are some of the other things that because you know, one thing that I noticed is that Ace is involved in the community. What are some of the community things that happen during the holidays with Ace Rent Own?

SPEAKER_00: 48:17

We do every year we do a uh wish list um so that clients can say, like, you know, if if whatever whatever is a need in their life. So, you know, my my mother just had surgery and so now she's gonna need a mobility scooter or she's gonna need a walker or a, you know, like what's a need that's in your life that that you haven't figured out how you're going to fulfill yet. Um and so they're able to submit those leads or those those uh needs, uh I should say, uh or wants, and then we'll pick one of those clients and give it away um whatever it is that they want us to order, even if it's something we don't sell typically, like a walker. You know, we don't you you're not coming in seeing a walker on our show floors, but we'll go out and buy whatever it is that you need and fulfill that you know Christmas wish for our clients. And I think it's one thing that I've thought of as we're coming into this Christmas season and I'm more involved in that planning. How can we expand that to be where we can help more people and touch more people's lives? Um, because you know, picking one is great. What if we could pick 10? You know, it starts to run into the you know, the PTL still matters, and you need to make sure that you're taking care of the business and the clients all at the same time. But expanding that on what can we give back to the community uh is really important. And one thing that we do for our stores and and continue to do more, I try to empower store managers and and their staff. You tell me, like, is there a little league team that you want to sponsor? Is there a uh you know, a community event that you want to get involved in, a donation that you want to make for somebody's silent auction to help pay for their uncle's surgery? Like, tell me what your community needs, and then we'll see if we can make it happen. And so that comes from in our industry, you know, we have quite a few stores in the two metro areas in Nebraska, but we serve small town communities. That's the bulk of our business of small town communities. And so when you take care of somebody's neighbor in a small town, it has a huge impact on that community. And I don't know what somebody in McCoop, Nebraska needs unless the staff out there tells me, hey, our client said that their uncle just had surgery and now they're doing a fundraiser to try to get you know those expenses paid for. I would never know that from sitting in corporate in Lincoln's. So having the staff tell me, well, you tell me how we need to get it back to your community, and then we'll do as much as we can to make it happen.

SPEAKER_02: 50:39

Is there going to be a Ben Clause riding around? Are you gonna be riding around like some kind of red Camaro with a sack full of goodies? Come on, tell me about it. We can talk about that off air, I'm just saying. So it, I mean, it sounds like you're very dialed into a lot of what's going on in the community and and what and uh and I love those things. Um, is there anything, any traditional things that you do for maybe the employees? Is there something that they they get out of this the Christmas season? Do we walk around with a sock full of coal? How does it work?

SPEAKER_00: 51:06

Yeah, we do uh we do our Christmas party um right around Christmas. It's uh I think on the 20th this year. Um and so we do that Christmas party, and along with that, we do giveaways at the Christmas party. So you show up, you get some door prizes that are, you know, t-shirts and and little things that they, you know, a polo to wear to work every day, stuff that people need and and want. But we also do uh the big thing that we've done for years and years and years is my dad will do the prices right. Uh, and so we call up you know employees or spouses, everybody puts their name in when they come. And so we draw out of a hat and say who's gonna come up on stage, and then we play the prices right, and we'll wheel a 65-inch TV or a you know a uh electric scooter or like something fun. Um, we'll pull that up and do a prices right with it, closest to retail, but not over. Uh and whoever guesses that gets to take it home. And so they get Oh my god, that's awesome. Uh and we also at that same time we do we do give backs for tenure of employees, and basically the longer they've spent with us, the more money that they have as their gift. But we don't do uh, you know, you've been with us 10 years and so you're gonna get a watch, or you've been with us 20 years and so you're gonna get a a necklace, you know, and like the commemorative plaque or something. Um we let them choose. We say you've been with us X amount of years, and so you have X amount of dollars to spend. And it's pretty cool to see that a lot of employees will fill that. Let's say they have$200 to spend for their tenure. They say, Well, I want a Lego set and I want uh, you know, play kitchen, and I want a toddler bike. And it's like, well, you don't want that, you know, Mr. District Manager. You're filling all your kids' needs with your tenure gift that you're getting. And so that's pretty cool to see that they what they put on their wish list of what they want for their tenure, uh, you know, prize or or whatever you want to call it, um, is pretty cool to see what they choose. Um, and we do awards too, like, you know, collections manager of the year, store of the year, store manager of the year, all those things to do to recognize the employees that are going above and beyond. So I I think that our employees really look forward to the Christmas party and have a good time with it because it's equal parts of I might go home with a 65-inch TV and I I might win store manager of the year. You know, I'm a finalist for it. So we try to make that a really fun event.

SPEAKER_02: 53:19

And I get my kids' Lego set. Um, I love it. I love that is amazing. That's good. That's really good. So, like, give me some tips, okay? What is some tips to make Black Friday worth it? Like, what should a store focus on if I'm trying to make it worthwhile? What is the balance between remembering that there are still collections to do at that point in time, but you don't want to not focus on sales because this is one of the biggest sales holidays of the year? What are some of the things that we can focus on or that you focus on, or that you say, you know what, these this is a three or four things that we just cannot forget and we have to do on Black Friday?

SPEAKER_00: 53:54

Well, I think one of it is leading up to Black Friday. We have this TV special that you know we've mostly kept under wraps because we don't want to sacrifice a TV sale today for you know them waiting for Black Friday for it. So that's a really fine balance to walk. But then once it's once it's go time, how do you get those clients? They're not swinging through the door, they're not waking up at 1 a.m. any morning and like waiting in line to go Black Friday shopping like they used to. So how do you get those people in the door? And the thing that I've talked to stores about this year, you don't need to get them in the door. Get them on the phone and say, I have a TV that I'm selling for$400. I have a TV that's$8.99 a week. Um, uh tell your brother about it, tell your sister about it. Like, you need to get on the phone and talk to people about what sales you have in the store and then schedule the delivery. They never even need to come through the door, and those should all be our current clients. Like, why are we giving away a TV at cost? Yeah, we we might want to win a new customer with it, but I would way rather take care of a customer that's been doing business with us for 30 years that's going, oh my gosh, I this is the best deal I've ever gotten here in all the time that I've been with you guys. Uh, you know, and so you want to do both of them, but it's the thing that I've been trying to get our company to do more and more of is that sales are up over the phone and sales are via text and sales are via email. They're not coming through the door. And so don't necessarily just ask yourself, how do I make Black Friday busy in the store? It could just be that you and all your colleagues are busy on the phone, and it's not I've got 10 people waiting in line at the counter to write up an agreement like it used to be. It's all over the phone, it's all online, you know. And how do we get that excitement drum up? And some employees have been really excited to talk about this TV, and I've always had to caution them of like, I want you to, but just make sure that you're not not selling a TV today so that you can sell one tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02: 55:45

Right, right, right. Be careful, you know. Ben, uh now that I look at it, I've got to be there, you know, next Friday, and I've got to be there December 20th. So I just want you to know if you pop in and I start giving you, hey, that's 500 bucks. I'm just saying, I don't know how I'm gonna get back to Florida, but so if you had to give advice, somebody advice on a Black Friday, and you're saying, you know, this is one of your store managers coming to you, and what's the best bit of advice you think you can give them for a Black Friday sale to make it the most successful that they can, knowing what you know now, that you know it's a little bit different, door swings are a little bit slower, you are gonna see more people online, you are gonna see more people on the phone, um, but you always still want to dress up your showroom, right? You always want to be a you you you want to put all best foot forward. What's the best advice you would give?

SPEAKER_00: 56:26

I would say that it's work with people on their down payments. I know that right now, you know, Christmas time is what we're getting into. That's when the Black Friday kicks off. And everybody's bills get tight during Christmas time because they're buying all these Christmas presents and Christmas season is just expensive. And so, like you said, we still have to remember that we have to collect on the back end of this. And so make sure if you're making a good decision that the client can afford long-term, that it's not somebody that's just gonna give us ten dollars down and we will never see them again. We have to make good decisions, but make sure you're working with clients. I mean, it it's in that training program I talked about of the management training. Um, don't lose their business over a client or over a down payment. If the client says, Hey, how much do you need down for this? The answer is I'll work with you. I'm not gonna lose your business. What were you thinking you wanted to put down? You know, like don't say$200, because then they're gonna go, oh okay, well, I'll be back later. You know, I I don't need$200, I'll work with you. And so, especially that on Black Friday, getting clients what they needed in their house. The goal is to get the product in their house so that they can start to enjoy it, especially now when when bills are tight. And we also bring in some things we don't typically sell, like we'll bring in kids' toys and some of those smaller items that we're not they're not our core business all year long, but we bring those in and so help your clients do the shopping for their kids that they're wondering like I'm gonna have to go to Walmart and fill my cart with$300 worth of kids' toys. I can't do that. Right. Well, we can help them with that too. Do those special orders, have clients tell you what they want. I want this specific Darth Leg the Darth Vader Lego set that's at Walmart. Well, we'll go out and get it for you. And then you're gonna make payments and and you know, uh take care of your kid on Christmas through us. And so driving that unique business around Christmas time is something that you know, usually we're wondering how we sell tires and wash the dryers, and that's what we do all year long. But some of this season is how do we sell the Lego set?

SPEAKER_02: 58:20

You know, some of those. Well, I'll tell you right now. Ben, Ben, you sound like you've been there before. The Darth Vader set. I'm just letting you know right now. That's the set. So, you know, in closing, man, I I want to I want to know because you did the hot show, right? Didn't you do the hot show recently? How did that feel? Did you know to be to to take over? I don't want to say take over dad's bot, but that's something that he has done. They've made that, they've literally made that. You got to do it this year. Are you doing it again? And how did it feel?

SPEAKER_00: 58:49

It felt really good. I am doing it again this year. I think the plan is to slowly have me do it more. Um that's it. And there you go. It was nerve-wracking, not because I necessarily get nervous in front of a large room of people like that, but it's going back to I know the shoes that I'm filling, and you walk around the show floor, like not just the hot show, but you walk around when you're you're filling all your orders the next day, and everybody that sees my dad walking down the aisle is screaming sold, sold, sold at him. You know, how do I fill those shoes? It's what everybody gets excited about that hot show because it's really fun. So let's make sure I don't drop the ball on that. We got to keep it fun and engaging and you know, keep the excitement high. That's the hard part to do is fill those shoes that he built, you know. But like you said, the hot show, he was the first one on the mic. Like that was that was part of uh it was all created with him in tow. Um, and so how do I pick that up and and just the goal is just keep it as good as it was, then we'll worry about maybe making it better. That's almost impossible, but like don't let it falter. There you go.

SPEAKER_02: 59:56

Well, I I I have a lot of faith in you, man. It was great to see you up there. I'm glad that we're gonna see you again. We're gonna go into the quick minute, quick question shout out, uh, real quick, and I just want to get some things out to you before we close it up. Turkey or ham for Thanksgiving?

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:10

Well, the short answer is both, but if I had to pick one, it's probably ham, which is unpopular, I think.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:16

I'm with you. I'm up we're the unpopular guys. All right. Best advice that your father's ever given you. That's really hard.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:22

I think one thing that I was just thinking about the other day, and that it's actually advice that his father gave him and then he gave me. Um, and it's when you you get upset, you know, somebody, whether it's a client, it's a customer, it's a friend, it's somebody in the grocery store parking lot that does something that upsets you, and then it it has the potential to ruin your whole day, where you keep thinking about it and going back to it. And the phrase that they use is 10 minutes past the taillights. That's how long you get to be upset about whatever happened. As soon as their taillights have been all over the horizon for 10 minutes, it's time to just move on with your day and make it a great day again, like you were doing before they ever stepped into your your realm for the day. So 10 minutes past the taillights is something I try to think about when you're in you're in your red zone in your head and you're like, How did I let that conversation go that way? Or they just called me whatever name they called me under the sun, and having that be like, okay, it's been 10 minutes, get over it, move on. It don't let it ruin your day.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:21

I like that. I like that. 10 minutes past the taillights. Anthony, we're gonna have to use that one. All right. The Christmas tradition that your family feels is quite unique.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:30

Okay. Um, it is something we changed. So when my grandmother passed away, our Christmas tradition on my dad's side of the family was always to go over to her house and do the traditional Christmas. And we've changed that over the years since she passed away. We started to get together and do the gift exchange, and it just didn't ever feel the same. And so, where that's evolved now is we go to Dave and Buster's on, you know, whatever Christmas weekend we get together for our family get together. We don't really do a gift exchange, we just go to Dave and Buster's and play whack-a-mole and you know, shoot hoops and you know, do just have a fun time.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:04

Shoot dad's eyes out, baby. That's it. That's it, dad. Take that. You know, it's what you get for giving me the wrong answer on the price is right. Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. Best book you've read this year.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:15

Well, I'm I'm I'll tell you two things. One is a book that I'm reading that's called Behave. It's probably twice as thick as the Bible, and it's a really struggle for me to read because it's like basically a neuroscientist book of like how the brain works and how human behavior functions. And it's a slow read for me. I've been reading it all year, and I need to take breaks from it because I'm not smart enough to read it, and so I need to take a break. And so, one one book that I've gone to that's been suggested to me for years, years is how to make friends and influence people. I never read it, I always heard about it. But I'm about halfway through that one, and I'll tell you, it is probably the best book that I've read this year. Uh it is it is an amazing book. It's a simple advice that it gives you that it's like I I somewhat think about this, but I hadn't landed the plane on that thought. And it's just easy to, you know, to carry forward into your life with the small nuggets of advice that book gives.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:09

Well, it's crazy because that book was written a very long time ago, and it is still very relevant till this day. It is very relevant. It's a great book. So I gotta know. I need a soundbite. I would love to get you saying sold, sold, sold. Is that something that we can do? Can we do that? Yeah, we can do that.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:26

All right. Anthony, we good? Let's do it, baby. Let's do it. So we are sold, sold, sold.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:34

That's awesome, man. That was great. Listen, I appreciate you guys being here with me and Ben Lee today, the COO of Ace Rentone in Nebraska, doing an amazing Job. I love that you're here, Ben. I really appreciate it. Guys, if you guys have any questions, please reach out to the show at pet at the rtoshowpodcast.com. That is an amazing place to reach me at. You can also go on the website at the rtoshowpodcast.com, see what we're doing, the shenanigans that I get into. You can hit me up on Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn and now YouTube where you're going to see this. Please make sure you subscribe so that you can see everything that's going on. Ben, thank you so much for being on today. I really, really appreciate you being here. Tell Dada I'm glad he let you out of the, he let you out of the stores just long enough to talk to me a little bit. I do appreciate that. And I want to tell you guys, you know, we enjoy you this holiday season. Thank you for spending some time with us. Make sure that you do your best for Black Friday because there's a lot of people, like Ben says, there's some clients out there who really need it. Let's take care of them, do what we got to do. And I will tell you guys as always, get your collections low to get your sales high. Have a great one.