Leading Multi-Unit Teams Through Change with Sean Knupp

Strong teams don’t happen by accident—they’re built by leaders who put people first and still demand performance. We sit down with regional leader Sean Knupp to unpack the playbook behind consistent growth in rent-to-own: GMs who operate like owners, rolling P&Ls that drive clear choices, and a culture that treats customers and employees like family. Sean shares how early work ethic and years of union leadership shaped his approach to conflict, fairness, and accountability, and why embracing smart risk beat his old obsession with perfect collections.

We dig into the weekly rhythm that keeps stores moving: Monday lead sprints from the weekend’s online traffic, daily targets for sales and accounts, and bite-size course corrections that protect compounding revenue. Sean explains how to coach a team through tough months—especially January—by holding the line rather than burning bridges, and how to create buy-in by letting managers build the plan. Ethics stay non-negotiable, but flexibility and trust power execution.

The conversation also tackles the digital shift defining modern RTO. Customers shop from the couch and expect Amazon-speed delivery, so Sean widened sourcing to 24–48 hours and leaned into e-signatures, automation, and frictionless payments. He calls it a classic “who moved my cheese” moment: adapt or get left behind. Along the way, we talk servant leadership, the value of dissenting voices, and the constant work of developing your replacement so the team scales with you.

If you lead a store or a region—or want to—this is your field guide to people-first performance, smarter risk, and operational cadence that wins. Listen, share with your team, and tell us: what’s one leadership habit you’ll change this week? And if you enjoy the show, subscribe, leave a review, and pass it on to a fellow operator who needs a spark.

APRO
Association of Progressive Rental Organizations

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage: Meet Sean Knupp
• 3:22 Early Work Ethic And Customer Empathy
• 8:27 Relationship First: People Over Metrics
• 13:42 Union Lessons: Personalities, Grievances, Grit
• 20:22 Ownership Mindset For GMs
• 23:12 Sponsor: The Rent-To-Own Revolution Book
• 24:32 Breaking Risk Aversion To Grow
• 32:12 Teaching The Gray: Save Relationships
• 38:02 Building Budgets And Thinking In Rolling P&Ls
• 46:32 Operations Rhythm: Weeks, Days, And Channels
• 53:32 E‑Commerce Reality: Amazon-Speed Expectations
• 1:00:32 From Single Store To Multi-Unit Leadership

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 1:09

Hello and welcome to the RTO show. I'm your host, Pete Shao, and today I've got my man Sean Nupp. He's we listen, we're gonna and and am I saying that right? Is it nup? Am I saying that? It's a hard K, baby. That's Knupp. Knupp, okay. All right. Hey, I'm getting educated here. Listen, my man's gonna talk about some great things that I I really, really hold to heart when I do this. And that's number one, multi-unit leadership and management. It goes both ways. But a lot of the things that we're gonna talk about today, you can take down to the GM level, right? If you it anything leadership, anything multi-unit really can be dialed down. So for anybody who's not in that position, don't feel like you need to be. All you got to do is take a long look at the lessons that Sean's gonna teach us today. And I promise you, you're gonna be able to apply those. Sean Knupp, I appreciate seeing you today, man. Listen, we were just talking about Arona, one of the first Arona people to be on. I appreciate that. You guys have a lot going out there in the RTO space for real, for real. We appreciate that. Talk to me, my man. How are you doing today? And from what part of the country are you dialing in from?

SPEAKER_00: 2:09

So, Pete, first, thank you for having me on here. We've uh a lot of us in a Rona have been kind of following the podcast for a long time, and it's it's amazing watching what you've been growing this thing into. So we feel honored that we're being part of this also. Um I'm calling in to you right now from southeast Missouri. Uh my hometown is Cape Drado, Missouri. And we are I'm staring out a window right now as the roads are all turning white, and over the next uh 24 hours, I think we're supposed to have somewhere between nine and 14 inches of snow. So wow.

SPEAKER_01: 2:40

Yeah, that's that's that's that's a little bit of a of a that weather. I know he says that it takes my breath away, right? Right, dude. But so I I hate to tell you, it's like maybe 65 outside, and we're gonna have this conversation. I didn't wear a jacket in today. But listen, where you're from, where I'm from, where we're all from, multi-unit management, leadership thought processes, they're exactly the same. And that's why we're bringing him to you today because as I'm going through and checking out my doing a little background, right? I'm doing a little bit and man, Sean's name comes up all the time and how well he's doing with his guys, how he puts them forward. The first thing that I always see is it's a team effort. This is how we do as a team. And now, let me tell you, there's always a coach, right? There's always a coach on a team, and you might have a couple players that kind of are on the front line, but no one does it without the full team. If you have a question on that, you can always look up Michael George's The Last Dance, and he'd tell you, it doesn't matter who he is, you you have to do it with a team. So, Sean, tell me, baby, what's going on out there? How do you make it work? Because you've been doing really, really well, especially what some of us would call a kind of hard 2025. It hasn't been that easy. Um, what I've seen is I've seen revenues go a little bit up, I've seen customer accounts go a little bit down. People are saying, well, you know, it's the economy, it's this, it's that. Well, I mean, I can say all of it. Sometimes the uh the amount of what people have to pay goes up. So that you see the revenue year over year go up a little bit, but then you're seeing the customer count go down, which means that the cost of the agreements are costing a little bit more. And how do you handle that? Well, Sean and his team seem to be doing it pretty darn well. That's why I wanted you on the show, man, because you are just killing it right now. But let's talk a little bit, let's let's let's back up a little bit. Sean, tell me, real quick, we want to find out why every why I think everybody should be listening to what you have to say. What have you accomplished in the last uh 12 months, six months that you know you have shined on your team from a Rona?

SPEAKER_00: 4:31

I mean, again, you alluded to that. I I have to give my success to my squad. Um, the region, our region is region nine for a Rona. And these guys, I I couldn't ask for a better group of people to to try to stand beside. And I and I'm very I'm very important in that in that metaphor that I stand beside them, not in front of them. Um, I do take the leadership side of how I wanted to be led from regionals, and I really wanted to want to need your help, give me help, but otherwise, get out of my way. Let me let me run. Um, and so I do try to take that approach with the team of, you know, if they've got a different path to success, as long as we get the end result, I try to give a pretty healthy degree of freedom. Um, and I use a metaphor that I stole from one of my mentors is you and I are both equals. The only difference is if we end up in a tie, I get to break the tie.

SPEAKER_01: 5:23

Okay. I like that. I like that thought process. So let's go back a little bit because where you are is not just where you landed. It's a combination of what you've been able to do, how you've grown as a person, how you've grown as a manager, how you've grown as a leader and the things that got you there. Talk to me a little bit about, you know, you were working since eight. What what did that instill in you that still shows up to you and how you run your regions today?

SPEAKER_00: 5:46

We, you know, grew up in a in a fairly poor family. And you know, when you're a kid, you don't realize you're poor until you start to see a lot of your other friends' houses and you're like, Amen to that, right?

SPEAKER_01: 5:56

Amen to that.

SPEAKER_00: 5:58

Um, but it was, yeah, I mean, at an early age, mowing yards at seven, eight years old, paper routes at nine and ten, and you know, a lot of those extra things that, you know, if I wanted the stuff that my friends had, a lot of times I had to buy it. Um, and that's, you know, and my parents both worked their tails off for us to just have basics, you know, and it's not until you become a provider yourself that you start to realize sometimes the importance and the sacrifices you make that you hide from your kids. So that that work ethic, I think, was instilled in me at a pretty early age. Um, and you know, the measure of a man is what he does when nobody's looking. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: 6:34

I I can't I love that statement because I completely agree with that. So growing out with growing up without the excess, you know, how does that affect how you feel about the customers and the employees that are under some financial pressure as they come into a Rona sometimes? Because, you know, listen, we're we're there for everybody in the community, okay? But we like to help out the people who are in need, who need something, and and understanding where they're coming from, understanding that, hey man, nothing's nothing's given to you. You have to, you have to earn it. You got to go out there and work and hustle. But every once in a while, it doesn't hurt to have a hand handed out and say, you know, hey, let me help you along. Let me show you what's going on, let me let me get you from point A to point B as far as the your needs, as far as appliances or furniture, or whatever the case is for your for your children. Does does getting to understand them on a personal level, where your life has been and where it's gone, does that affect and shape the way you do business as a regional?

SPEAKER_00: 7:30

100% it does. Uh it's you know, you you guys have alluded many times over the course of your podcast with everybody, it's a relationship business. You know, we're we we set lines in the sand, or you know, Rona's got our standards that we have, and you know, we'll probably touch base on that a little bit throughout the course of this, but it's just it's a relationship business. We're in this business for the people. Um, I I love the you know the comment that Larry Carico had said once, you know, I'm not selling you a fridge, I'm selling you the milk. I'm selling you the place where you can put it. I'm not selling you this bedroom set, I'm selling you a night's sleep. Um, and I think if you focus too hard on just a profit percentage or focus too hard on hitting a certain metric, you lose sight of the whole reason we're doing this is because of our customer base, the people. And I think equally as important for our employees, they need a place to come in and feel like they're part of a bigger picture. They are part of a family. And I I use that, I use the word family nonstop with my group. We are region nine fam. So I think that that relationship side of our business is if you don't have that, none of the other things are going to matter.

SPEAKER_01: 8:39

So building pride, let's say you so you're a region nine fam, building pride with that. Uh, it's always great to say, you know what, hey, there are those days that we succeeded, we did it, we got it. Guys, we're on, you know, we're on number one, we're on number two, look where we made it to. How do you share the days where it's been a rough walk? Maybe it might not have been uh what they consider on a KPI success, but how do you share those lumps with the team when it comes up?

SPEAKER_00: 9:03

So um, and again, a lot of what I do, I said, I I can't take too much credit for our success because I've stolen good ideas from a lot of people. And one of the best euphemisms I heard was from one of the mentors I had with Arona, and his his simple response to bad days was, all right, guys, today the bear got us. Tomorrow we turn that bear into a rug.

SPEAKER_01: 9:23

No, bear, I'll never look at a bear rug and say we can. I love that. I love that. Um, you know, you have a lot of history from going to from where you've been. And I'm not just talking about the eight-year-old Sean, I'm talking about things that you've done. You've also been part of a union, which I will say, a lot of guys in the South, we don't have that kind of background. I'm not saying that it couldn't have come from up north and come down, but a lot of guys that are here, born here, bred here, work here, there is no unions down here. But you've been able to take some of your union work and kind of pull that over. Talk to me a little bit. You spent 13 years in a postal union, ate as a president, congratulations on that. I don't know if anybody knows that, but you know, he's he was up there. What did that teach you about strong personalities, about getting everybody together? Because I can only imagine in the union days, especially as a president, you've got a couple of different people. You know, you got Butch Cassidy, you've got, you know, the Sundance kid coming around, and he's and he's but you gotta you gotta make them part of a team. They have to understand that they're part of the team, that everybody serves this goal. And you know, you have your individual wins, but it's it's to further the total cause. How did those days in your union days as president kind of help you to get to where you are now?

SPEAKER_00: 10:37

Uh a lot of the leadership skills I learned there, I think kind of delve into the way I want to treat my employees now. I I'm you know, I'm a I'm a member of management, I'm on this side of the fence right now, but I still have that approach of these employees and then i.e. these customers, they are my responsibility. I am the one that you guys allow me to be the person that takes care of you. You about allow me to be that shepherd. So uh that a lot of it is I think just knowing I've I've my mindset has always been defending my uh my employees, my you know, constituents, any of those people. So I still carry that mindset a lot. And then when you kind of describe the different um personalities, uh, you know, in the structure in the union, we had, you know, if when you know employees feel grieved or something and they're gonna file a grievance, I I had probably my more empathetic uh personalities at that entry-level steward position because the goal is, you know, we're not filing grievances all the time and tying up the process. The goal is if something was wrong, then how's the easiest, shortest way to fix it? So the empathetic people I'd have on the front lines a lot to kind of how do we get this fixed? We got a problem, let's fix it as quickly for both sides as we can. And then sometimes when we don't agree, some of those, uh, some of those bulldogs um I had at the different tiers, uh, because at that point we feel, you know, if this is if this truly was aggrieved, okay, it's time to dig your heels in, draw a line in the sand, and then square your shoulders if you know you're right.

SPEAKER_01: 12:11

Let me ask you a question. Because you said something. You said these are these are my customers, these are my situations. How important do you feel it is for a GM, for an RM, for somebody in a position in operations to feel that particular way? Not necessarily the way you feel, because that that could be, you know, your unique thing, but like in overall, how do you feel that that changes, that that it's necessary is it necessary for somebody to feel like that ownership and how well does that serve them, in your opinion?

SPEAKER_00: 12:38

It does. It's that is a piece I think that what most attracted me to a well now when I came on a little over five years ago, almost six, um, was the the ownership levels that we give GMs. The GMs are trained very early on. It's their store. They run this like the owner. Um, they have full financial transparency. Uh, they're expected to understand the financial transparency of everything down to every penny. Um, and I, you know, we'll touch base on these a little bit later, but the approach has always been employees, customer, store. It has to be those three things and in that order. Uh, the employees have to be first. If you don't have that family dynamic in the store, you're gonna be hard pressed to ever find success. So for a GM, I think a lot of times you have to put your employees' schedules first, sometimes over your own. You've got to do those things so that these guys that, you know, when they don't make as much as the GM, you're not gonna find too many employees that feel sorry for their GM when they're making a little more money. So take care of your staff, and then from there you take care of your customers. If you're doing those two things, typically the store part, the last piece, kind of takes care of itself. Hi, I'm Pete Chao.

SPEAKER_01: 13:50

You may know me from the RTO Show podcast, but today I'm doing something a little bit different. April and WoW Brands have launched a special project to bring the story of our industry to life like never before. They've asked me to sit down with some of the true legends of Rent to Own, capturing their stories, their impact, and their vision for the future. And now I get to share those conversations with you right from the legends themselves. All of this leads to something groundbreaking, though. A new book. The Rent to Own Revolution, a definitive history of advocacy and consumer access, written by Afro CEO Charles Witcherman and Wildbrand CEO Brian Kraft. The book explores the grassroots of RTO, the advocacy that is defined, and the future that we're building together. Here's where you come. We're giving away free copies once the book is released. Just head over to RTORevolution.com and sign up for a chance to receive a copy in early 2026. Don't miss the chance to be among the first to hold this piece of RTO history. That's rtorevolution.com. Check it out and become a part of RTO History. Through all this, would you say handling conflict, negotiation, uh consistency, accountability, those were kind of bred in those years before you came over. Something that you were able to hold on to, hone your blade, make sure that you understand those 100% before you came over. Those are fundamentals, guys. Just so you don't, if you're not aware, those are the fundamentals of what you need to understand in leadership. And leadership can be at any level. It can be from the account management level. Being a leader doesn't mean you were leading others, but leaders can be led. They can lead others by their actions and what they do and the examples they set. And again, that's why I have Sean on here because I think he's leading you guys pretty well. So before you come on, you have all this experience. You spent eight years as a president, then you're thinking about RTO, and in your own words, there was some skepticism. There was like, uh, I don't know. I don't know if this is what I want to do yet. And I can't tell you the amount of trepidation I have gone through with a lot of people. I talked to a lot of people, and before they get into business, including myself, I was like, I I don't know. I just don't know. And then after I was it was all done. How did you get through that first part? I mean, you have a lot of experience, you're coming from a different area, especially when you're talking about you know, postal, and then getting into this. What were your concerns? And then after that, how did those concerns fade away?

SPEAKER_00: 16:05

So there's a piece, and you alluded to, you know, the the way you look at it or coming in, and it's a piece that I don't ever want to forget as how we view our industry to our non-customer base. Um, I was fortunate that you know I had a comfortable living at that time and never needed the rent-to-owned world. And I'd see the flyers and the ads of you know,$100 a month for two years, and that was the only thing I understood of it. And I just I had a pretty negative um existing condition of what this RTO world looked like. And so I actually almost kind of looked down when I was gonna take a position as an account manager back in the days, I think back in 2009 or something like that. It feels like a hundred years ago, but kind of that notion of is man, is this what I'm at? Is this what I'm about to go do? And it almost felt like it was a step backwards. And then after getting into the role and seeing the the help that you do with people, you start to these customers become your extended family and you realize the service and the benefit that you provide, the alternatives that you know, that that 24-month window, that's just the most extreme option. There's a thousand options between there on getting them to ownership. And so I think it's important. Um, you know, if you spend enough time with these customers, you can't help but fall in love with them. I've heard you say you walk into a store three, four years later and they still recognize you and remember you. And that's yeah, um so I you build a relationship with the ones that are there, but I think it's also the image and how we handle the non-customers and educating them to the benefits that we provide are beyond, it's not just that payment for a long time. It's you can still have the nice things in your house. You can still have you know best buy products if you're still on a Walmart budget. Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_01: 17:58

I love that. I'm not stealing that one because that was all him right there, but that was good. That was good, Sean. I well, I might steal it. I'm just saying, I might steal it. So you're entering the world with a little skepticism, and you figure out that right then, as you're coming through, there is so much more to it, right? That what we're offering and the ability to, you know, there is never gonna be that ability to give without the offset, right? That there is always gonna be the offset. But the question isn't always the price, the question is the value. What are you getting for that? Now, Sean's team has done an amazing job of doing that, which we're gonna get into. So, first, yeah, I mean, you come up with an odd knowledge, you you see a little skepticism, but you're starting off from the basics, like you said. You start off now, you're in a single store. How did you learn to master that? And what were some of the challenges that you came into from the single store, you know, perspective? Well, I'm coming into this, I haven't done this before, I'm learning that you had to overcome versus where you were, and you know, the application of such to put you on a on the right level, but you had to learn that. You gotta learn the single store thing and figure it out. Where were some of the speed bumps that you had along the way that you said, you know what, I've I've got to figure this out, or you did that helped you get to where you are now?

SPEAKER_00: 19:10

So the first two years were probably not the most successful. I went from being an account manager to a general manager, and I think everyone that's ever followed that path can probably relate. You're locked in on where to your your buckets, your nons, your cards, whatever you call that, your retention side of it, though, where you clothes. I'm not gonna have any charge offs. You know, to me in those early years, success was my 32 plus was zero. I we didn't have charge offs, we just eight, nine months with no charge-offs. But it truly was probably around year two or three, one of the franchise consultants, um, and that back in those days it was Aaron's, came to me and he said, You're you're running your store like an account manager. And I took that as a compliment at first. And that's when he said, It's risk business. He said, You're selling three agreements a week that are no risk, they're not gonna burn you. What if you sold 10 agreements a week and one or two of them burn you? You're still net six ahead on that week. And that was it took a little conversations because I might be a little stubborn at times, um, but he made me see the difference of starting to see that extra revenue, what it does. And yes, you're gonna you're gonna get burned a few times, but starting to take that risk over the next probably three years, we took the store from a I think it was around 600 customers when I took it, and then our peak was a little over a thousand twenty customers, I think, our highest mark. So that taking that risk and realizing you know there's a reason that they're shopping with us does not equate to whether they're a good or a bad person. And that that that changed my mindset a lot to start looking at it from a a broader uh panning back and seeing that thing from a broader picture than the narrow accounts. I'm not gonna get burned focus that I had in the beginning.

SPEAKER_01: 20:56

Sean, I got a question for you. I'm gonna put you on the spot. What was his name? What was the person's name that gave you that? Vision. Russell Greer. And you know you can say it right off the top of your head, right? So I will tell you, Michael Drawn, if you're listening to me, that was my guy. Michael Drawn at the at the time we were Renter's Choice. We were about to convert over to uh Rena Center because Renters Choice, I bought Rena Center, and uh he came in and and I'm gonna tell you, I did a no-no that week I closed at a zero percent. I was man, I was hustling. I was hard, I was hard, and I'm like, I got no problem. Yeah, I gotta visit it like that Monday. And he was like, hey, let's have a conversation. He was like, No, that is not how you treat your customers, and I didn't understand that. And exactly like you did, it was a mindset that I had to overcome. And I'm glad that somebody stepped in and said that. How many conversations now? So so let's put it on its ear a little bit. Now that you're in the position that you're in, how many conversations of that like have you had with your guys?

SPEAKER_00: 21:51

Uh what time is it?

SPEAKER_01: 21:54

Uh it's not a message that you pass along quite a bit.

SPEAKER_00: 21:58

Yeah. And it's and again, it's, you know, just trying to make sure that we pan back, see that bigger picture. You've got some, I've got some tenured guys. I've got a lot of seniority on my team. So I'm very, very blessed in having a handful of guys that have been in this industry as long as I have. I've got one guy on my team who's been in this world longer than I have. So for those guys, they kind of see that bigger picture. It's when I've got the newly promoted, you know, they're watching a PL, they're watching charge off dollars, they're watching these things and not letting that tunnel vision happen, but to keep that camera pan back and see the bigger picture. Let's, you know, there'll be a bad week or two here. You may have a bad month. Let's look at all 12 and make sure that we're on the right track.

SPEAKER_01: 22:37

Okay, so I'm glad you said that. And I want to take a pause off of my directional sheet right here. And I want, so how is it, how do you get somebody to see, right? Because there are different people out there in the world. And I'm not gonna lie to you, when I first came on, I was exactly like you're saying, I was the PL guy. Like if there was a if there was a problem somewhere, I was gonna burn that sucker until it was right where right as rain. But I never understood until I I've gotten those visits where it was like, listen, there is a gray area somewhere in there where you might have a day or two where it's not 100%. But if did you save the relationship? Did you give that customer the type of feeling, the type of relationship where they know they can come back or they should stay, or you're gonna help them out in any way possible before you burn that bridge? And I was I man, I walked around with a lighter and a thing of matches for quite a long time before I realized that. How do you talk to your guys? How do you get them to understand that there is that that there's an area where you have to learn the nuances between the PL all the way down to talking to somebody at the front counter? How do you approach that?

SPEAKER_00: 23:38

So there is a piece that Arona does that I I wish I would have had the tools that Arona has given me over the last five years in my previous lifetime in RTO because of just how much it would have helped me. But one of the things that we do with these guys is the general managers set their own budgets. We kind of create our budget at the beginning of the year, and we just, you know, we're coming out of this over these last probably four weeks, but the budget is just a it's the rolling PL. And so it's easy to go in and show them, okay, well, you know, you last year you lost this many agreements in January, and this is what it did. So we can plug that thing in and just show them, hey, if you if you can just hold your own in January and not take a bloodbath, but you just find a way to help these guys because we know what they're doing, they're waiting on W-2s, they're not answering that phone right now because they know there's a check here in just a few weeks. So uh is it if it's you know, if it's a bad account that needs to come back, bring it back. If it's if they've if they've gotten too far down, and sometimes the right thing to do is to help them recognize don't bring this bridge. Let's take a pause right now because we can get we'll keep this door open for you in the future when you're ready again. But a lot of them, it is you've got to help them through. So when they see that rolling, you know, keep that thing at a thousand agreements or eleven hundred agreements, uh, whatever that number is, they see in real time, well, okay, now you're set to do 180,000 in profit this year, versus you do if you lose 10 agreements this month, that drops that down to about 160,000 because of that compounding revenue. So we do, like I said, we teach them to be owners. Um, we want them to have that understanding of it is it's a customer-based business. It is a little bit of risk at times, and sometimes the right thing to do is to be the shoulder for them and offer them the financial. You're helping them learn how to do their finances a lot of times.

SPEAKER_01: 25:31

Yeah, you know, I love man, when we get and start talking operations, man, you start getting me all excited over here. You know, I say uh there's no bad month unless it starts with the J. Those are the hardest months here in in Florida, but you know, I can't tell you how many yearly meetings we've had where we're like, listen, January will set you up. It's one of the hardest months, but you know, like you said, you lose 10 now and you're coming off your peak, right? You're always coming off the peak. You just had, you know, you had your Black Friday, you had your Santa Saturday, whatever cases, you had your your your December 25th, where everybody you're trying to crowd it all in, get everything done. And of course, there's always going to be some comeback, but like you don't want to lose that edge because if you can carry that through the entire year next year, just staying level through January can literally turn your entire store around as far as a PL standpoint. And and those things are so important because not only do you do that, but then your team gets to see a success compounded on success, right? You have a good January, you didn't fall behind. It doesn't feel as terrible as when those payouts start coming in because you know come February, March, there's gonna be some payouts, but you're not feeling it as much because you didn't lose as much in January. You get to hold on to those revenues, you know, 10 more months of revenues. You can't argue with that. You know, you can't, you really can't. So you learn how to be a GM, right? You you're you're you're getting it through. Can you walk me through a successful week as a GM?

SPEAKER_00: 26:50

Yeah. Um the biggest piece for my stores is nobody died and you didn't burn the building down. You have all your fingers, you're good. But and it especially with my newer GMs, a lot of times in that it's helping them to navigate what truly is important and everything is not the sky falling. Be patient, be calm, it's okay. Um, and again, and I've used that silly little euphemism, but uh when they call me and saying, Oh, this and this happened or this or this, okay. Well, did did anybody die? Did we did we burn the building down? Okay, well then that other stuff we can fix. So you don't sometimes my calm helps their calm. Um, but for the the successful GM, it's start a successful week starts on Monday morning. As soon as we come in, uh we have boards that we do for the GMs, the sales managers, the account managers, and obviously everybody's got different acronyms, but I'll use that term because it's universal. Uh but they have their goal of what they have to set for that week. Accounts teams know exactly where they started, where they've got to get to for that to be a good, and we report that every single day. Um, the tech thread, I can't tell you how many times this thing's been going off. Um, as my team is getting their information that they have to roll up to me in the mornings. And the general manager, you need to be the person who's just the conductor in the middle of the ring of the circus. Um, keep the accounts team doing what they need to do. Sales teams have a certain percentage of sales they've got to hit every week, and we track that every day. Um, you know, if you miss a number, well, that number's got to carry over to the next day. We still have to hit 3% sales this week. So, uh, and again, I think a lot of times it's the mindset. If you allow a mindset to say, I think this and this is gonna happen, like we accept that January's negative. I will challenge you to say, no, it's not. January's gonna be positive. And region nine right now is up on the month. Um, our our budget we set with the GMs was just to be break-even at the end of the month. And if they can just hold water, this year is gonna be huge. Um, and right now we're actually up right now. So we've got we've got about a week and a half to kind of hold this thing down, but I have I have faith in this squad. Um, they're soldiers.

SPEAKER_01: 29:04

Hold the line, guys. I'm telling you, hold that January line. There is nothing like it because you're you will see as your year goes on, it is completely, completely different. So good week. We all come in, we kind of sit down, we figure out where we need to go, we set that roadmap of where we are as far as collections, how much revenues we want to get, how many sales that we need to get, or or customers that we want to gain. How do we even level that out? If that's this week, you know, this is gonna be a hard week, let's at least level it out so that we can replace what we lose, um, come out on top. Now, here comes Saturday. And I want to ask, because a lot of people have been asking me, it used to be Saturday was the day, but I realized that it turned to Friday, and then sometimes it was even another day of the week that was actually our high day, whether we were sales or revenues. Are you still seeing Saturday as the high day, or is it of the week, or is it a different day of the week now?

SPEAKER_00: 29:54

Um, Mondays are big because all the online leads and everything that came in, you know, from whatever time we closed our doors on Saturday, you've got a ton of leads that have come in over, you know, a 36, almost 48-hour window. Uh, so there's a lot of activity on Mondays to like, okay, these guys were on our website, they presented, they have a need that we can fulfill, attack it, get them figured out, find what it is. Uh, and then Tuesdays and Wednesdays are hit or miss on what they do. Uh, but Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, I think are pretty strong days. Still, that part still holds true. But it's a, you know, a lot of the old world used to be you got a truck every week or every two weeks or something like that, and all your product came at once. Um, and everything is it's an Amazon world. Everybody wants everything now. So we've we've changed our purchasing program from, you know, the traditional vendors and we're gonna get that stuff, you know, 10 days, two weeks later, to opening up almost anything where we can get it within 24 to 48 hours. And so we incorporate a lot of that because if you want to be competitive, you've got to shop where they want to shop, and they want to shop from the comfort of their couch on their phone and not come into a store. So it's it's uh you know, one of the one of the old uh management books that were around for 100 years who moved my cheese. And that's you know, anyone that's read that, I think we're in one of those moments and have been for these last five or six years, especially post-COVID, when people learned or were forced to learn other ways to do things without the immediate social interaction. And uh it's you either stick to the old mindsets and get left behind, or you decide something has changed, I have to change with it.

SPEAKER_01: 31:40

Well, I you know, I so agree. I remember the days when Saturdays were huge because we didn't have the credit cards, we didn't have the online pay, we didn't have the auto auto pays. And now I think that's why, you know, Friday kicked up so much. You have all the auto pays that are set up as soon as first thing in the morning comes, they have the money. We take it out. That way there's no issues as long as we can get our auto pays up to where they need to be. You know, a lot of people um didn't have that back when I when I started, I hate to say that when I first started, it wasn't like that. Um, you know, and the advent of of cards, I mean, we didn't have to wait till they were home or they weren't working that weekend. They can just call it in and make it happen or do it online or text a pay or whatever, which completely changed the game. But something that you said that I I really love to talk about is because the online has shot up. Now, with the induction of COVID, which I hate to say the C-word, but it is just out there. I mean, a lot of people decided to shop differently. And what do we do? They move the cheese. We have to follow that. We have to follow where they are, and and that's part of it. Is they're sitting at home, kind of looking at our stuff, looking through the lineup and saying, hey, I want this, this, and this. We've got to jump on that immediately. So I agree. Mondays was our second biggest day as well. It was just like huge. I mean, between customer sales, acknowledgement, getting all the uh lineup as far as who missed us this weekend and how can we get that corrected and and all that? It was the second biggest day we had too. So I was curious as how it went with that. But now let's talk about how it happened. You're doing great jobs, you're doing 600 to 1100 COR, which is an amazing jump, by the way. When did the multi-unit come to you and and how did that take place?

SPEAKER_00: 33:12

So the I guess my my first dabble in multi-unit was probably with the union leadership because you know, I worked in a building that had a little over 300 employees in it, one of the processing facilities. Everybody thinks of the mailman, you know, the guy that walks around the daytime. We all work night shifts. Somebody had to move that, you know, when he picks and delivers that mail during the day, somebody's got to work it at night. But we had, you know, 48 satellite offices because every little town has a post office in it. So learning how to manage from afar and do a lot of these other things, I think that's where it started a little bit. My time with my rent-to-owned store. Um, we had we had some measured success over that 10-year window. And so we were fortunate that you know, a lot of the powers that be started to trust us to start going out and mentoring at other stores, or we would be the training ground when somebody would hire, or even it's sometimes a different franchise would hire people, they'd come over to our store in Cape Girarde and kind of train there. So there was a lot of us uh feeling honored, and so you know, when somebody trusts you at that level, you put a lot of time and energy into making sure you don't break that trust at that point. So that was a lot of it. Um but I will say when I when I hired into a Rona, I was used to the leadership role of managing a lot of groups of people as they all look to you for the guidance. And when I came in, I thought it was gonna be a lot of the same. And that first year was a pretty steep learning curve. On I don't have everybody just waiting for me to show them what to do. I've gotten miniature versions of me in these stores, they know the answers, they have their vision of how they want to do it. It it was uh it was a learning curve. Um, they say you learn from your mistakes, and I'll just say that first year, I learned a lot.

SPEAKER_01: 35:01

It was a lot of learning. So let me ask you a question. In in so you have all this leadership ability that you've already had kind of come in, and then you go through, right? And as it comes down, now you're in this spot. But what does it take when you're when you're in your position, right? Let's say you're where you are now, and somebody says, Hey Sean, I'm looking at your team. I mean, you guys are doing very well. We usually pick from the top teams. Who do you think is ready? As you look at your team, and I don't want you to calling any names because I don't want nobody saying anything. You call me out on the show. But like as you as you're looking at the team that you have, what are the qualifications that you would say? What makes you comfortable enough to say, this is going to be Sean's pick, and this is why I would pick this person? Not necessarily because they're old enough or they've seasoned, but what is it you look at and say, you know, whether there'd be their leadership ability, whether it be um, you know, that they've they've trained, they're just mentally ready. Like what do you what do you look at?

SPEAKER_00: 36:03

So I kind of take that approach now with my group that I took as a general manager. And as a general manager, I felt an obligation. I needed to be grooming my replacement all the time. Um, so I would, you know, have the sales manager, the account manager, if I'm grooming them to become a GM, they start sitting in on doing interviews, then they start doing the interviews while I just watch it and kind of you know tweak and edit here and there um schedules, inventory management, ordering, all those things. I'm every every time I'm doing something, somebody can learn from that. So I always wanted to stop for a moment, pull them in and say, hey, I you know, here's kind of an extreme scenario. Come over here, let's walk through this together. So uh I've kind of got a few people on my team that I'm fortunate right now, and but I have what if I take a vacation, I turn my codes over to somebody else and I have them, okay, here's the plan, this is what I still want done. But you guys know how I do these things, and I let them run the region for a week. Or if I've got a different thing, I have them kind of take that roll on a little bit. Uh, because one, it it just helps. If I've you know, if you've got a if you're a GM, if you can have a store running where you've got two or three other GMs in there, they're just waiting on that spot, your store is kicking. And so that's kind of what I want with this group is I want to I really want a team with the eight locations that I've got right now. I've my old goal, my ultimate goal is I have eight people that are just regional managers, they're just waiting on the spot, and so a lot of that is just kind of helping them. But the things I look for is um kind of look to paying that camera back, look at the big picture. You've got to not look at your store because you are out here in rural county USA. This store is in inner city USA, and you have very, very differing dynamics there, uh, but also in allowing the freedom. Don't don't be cut because we you you kind of get to success levels by being a little bit of a control freak. Um, you don't let any anything fall on stage while you're there, but taking that time to listen to the other guys hear what they had to say, allowing them to try it sometimes. And sometimes, sometimes you know, you know what, I think we're gonna fall on our face in this one. But if I'm gonna, if I'm gonna build trust and do these things, sometimes I gotta let them at least make that mistake and then okay, you know what, let's try this way now.

SPEAKER_01: 38:28

Like, you know, there's so many times that I unfortunately see that some GMs uh they don't do that, they they they hold on to what they have, right? And they control the show, but they they forget to pass on the knowledge that they have uh in the situations they have. And I and I know sometimes that there's always a situation where like we're doing this, it's hard, I need to really be a hold of this. But to have somebody alongside of you and say, this is how you control the mass, this is how you control the craziness that's going on right now. You focus on these three things, or you make this your northern star, and everything else has to line up to that situation. This is how you rally the troops, this is how you get control of the situation. And uh I, you know, and I'm not saying it's not getting done, I'm just saying that I on certain points, I think that we forget to do that when when the time comes to pull somebody along and say, hey, it's it's the craziest it's gonna be right now. This is when you get your feet wet. This is a great time to kind of let's let's do this together and figure it all out.

SPEAKER_00: 39:20

Um there's there's eight core standards that Arona holds. It's I mean, they're on posters in every store, everything, and we have there are eight metrics that we require everybody lives by, but one of them is hiring and development. And so we've put a lot of time into you know the interview process and what you look for and doing behavioral-based interviews, finding the right people to come in, but then it doesn't stop there. It's the development side. And I think a good GM, as you're training your second up how to be a GM, you also need to be training them how to be a developer. If they have a you know a delivery driver under them or they have a second accounts associate under them and there's a tier, then I think the approach should be you don't manage that accounts associate, your account manager manages them. So you help them start to set plans for the day and develop those people. But it's the developing side, I I I'm with you there in lockstep. Um, you've you've got to put that time and energy into them because it they feel the pride for you investing in them, but ultimately it just it helps you.

unknown: 40:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 40:28

Well, you know, and it makes the choice easier. If somebody's ready to go versus somebody that you're trying to get ready to go and say, you know what, that's the person I'd select next, and here's why. Because they can do my job. Not necessarily the as well as I can because I don't have the experience, but if they walk in, they're not gonna be kind of sink or swim. They're gonna they're gonna be able to control what's going on. And uh with a little bit of help, they can make it you know be very successful. And that's usually where you want it to be. You know what I mean? You want somebody to be able to step in and just handle some business. I will say there's a couple of times that you know you when you mention that I love the idea, when you mention a rona, you you like you get excited about that. Is it about our own that that is different from where you've been that you say, you know what, I am glad to be here with this company?

SPEAKER_00: 41:08

This company, more than any place I think I've ever worked for, the amount of caring that they have for employees, and I am just an employee. Um, Tom Bernal is our owner. I've got uh divisional vice president that's over me, and I've got my COO, Jason Coombs, who is the gentleman that actually convinced me to get back into RTO because I had stepped away from RTO for a while and actually gotten into the banking and finance world. And when somebody tried to recruit me back, I kind of laughed. I'm like, no, dude, I literally have banker hours. I'm not, I'm good. Um and meeting with Jason, um, I sat at a table and within 20 minutes, his passion and what exuded off of him. I was just slide of a biscuit. I'm I'm getting back into RTO. Um, and so the number of times I've seen this company, the company drives hard. We we are very um upfront about how hard we drive. Um, we are going to be number one. When that happens, don't know, but we have done nothing but grow and continue to grow, and we're building what we think is a very expandable platform. And we've you know done quite a few purchases over the last three years, and we're we're getting bigger. Um, but the the owner has made it very clear it is about the employees, it is about the staff, and um, you know, and I've had conversations with other people, and you know, there's always a little bit of recruiting, and I headhunt people, and sometimes we people headhunt us. Um, and I I'm I'm pretty loyal to this company. It's just I think the way they handle the approach with employees and customers mirrors the things that are in my heart. Um, and so I couldn't work for a company where I felt like I had to put a face on every time to do things. And with this company, um, I think they see it the same way. And I think everybody takes care of their customers. That's not to ever knock a different brand of any kind. Everybody has a place, they have customers that are loyal to them. Uh, but um, yeah, there's a there's a pretty strong sense of pride, and I I wear that around a logo.

SPEAKER_01: 43:09

Hey everyone, it's Pete Chow here from the RTO Show Podcast, and I want to tell you about a company that's making a real difference in the rent-to-owned space. WoW brands. I've seen firsthand how they approach marketing. Let me tell you, it's not just about ads. WoW brands build complete digital ecosystems designed specifically for the rent-to-owned industry. Their e-commerce and lead generation strategies are built to bring qualified leaders. And did I mention that they are actively working with the rent-town industry while also being members of April and Trib? These folks are passionate problem solvers. 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 WoWBrands at WoWBrands.com. I trust them, and I think you will too. Is passion the unsung hero? It's like like is it a is it the unsaid superpower? Because I know that people like they're facing an uphill battle, and it's like, you know what? That passion, that that that idea that there's nothing that you're gonna do that's gonna take away the way I feel about this situation, and it's going to happen one way or another. I can see that when you talk, it's it's it's it's great, man. I love that. I love that energy. Have a good day. That's it, man. Let's do it. So, you know, as you go from single unit to multi-unit, I mean, walk me through a typical week now. It's not the same as when you were, you know, running a store. It's got to look a little bit different. For some of the listeners that are out there, what what does a week seem like to an to somebody who's doing very well in the position? What do you do to get yourself there and your team there?

SPEAKER_00: 44:44

So a lot of it is still, you know, the the end goal is the same. We need to be a certain percent of growth by the end of a week. We, you know, there's different weeks. You've got charge offs on certain periods of time, you've got different promotions that sales are going to be stronger, you know, first, third, fifteenth, none of that's changed. You know, payouts are gonna be heavier on certain days. So, and a lot of it is kind of understanding the store. Um, two stores can be down, but that down's very different. One store is down because they're returning everybody, the charge-offs are through the roof. They're they have a very different problem that's going on than a store that's down because we just haven't had strong sales volume. We haven't had this. I've got an accounts guy running a store, nothing slips through the cracks, but we're not growing. Um, and so I think some of that is understanding each store and not not trying to manage them from this blanket policy. Everybody do this and it will work. So for me, it is kind of dialing in. I've got a ton of spreadsheets that I start with in the morning that they they paint a picture for me. I kind of plug in our numbers, I see who's where, um, and then I try to help them in bite-sized chunks. Okay, if you're if you're 4% off of this metric, you're not gonna fix 4% in one day. But if you got four days left, then obviously 1% a day isn't gonna do it. It needs to be 1.5. So for you, today, this needs to be what you guys are. So let's set a goal today of you do this, and while you don't get the win yet, you move that needle closer. And to then tomorrow we got to do the same thing. Um, and then just I start my morning text off at 8 a.m. to my group. Um, it is the same text thread, which I won't say, but it is I start with the same message every morning. And I had this approach as a general manager for a long time. Um the store will mirror the manager. People have said that for a hundred years in in any kind of leadership roles. So, as a manager, if you're negative, if you had a bad day, if you let that one customer that kind of got under your skin carry over to the next customer, it it's just it starts to breed that toxicity. And so I think the biggest thing for in for me as my with my group, but also for general managers and their store, you got to be the same person every day. If you're human, you'll have a bad day, you'll say something off the cuff that you let fly, you handle um a correction with an employee a little more sternly than when you look back at it, you're like, I probably carried three things or the issue that happened at home or anything else into that conversation. And so I think just be the boss that you want to have. That's just that's a powerful statement.

SPEAKER_01: 47:19

So let's let's shift it a little bit. I'm gonna go to the A-word, it's a hard word. Accountability. As you're doing all this, you want to stay, you you you want to be loyal to the situation, you want to be loyal to your people, but there's always got to be that accountability, right? You can't just everybody just can't be going sideways and going crazy, and it just doesn't work that way. To be successful, you have to have it. How do you use it? How do you implement it? How do you realize when you when you're you know facing a situation, this is the accountability that I want to have from it? Um, the beforehand, the afterhand, whatever your thought process is, because to be successful, they have to know that they've got to stay within bounds. And that's just the way it is. And you don't really want to take that, you know, that drive from them, but you have to implement it in a way where they understand there are rules to this game, regardless of the situation. Sean, how do you do that?

SPEAKER_00: 48:11

So for me, I've always, and it this probably goes back to kind of some of the union leadership and defending employees. Um, one thing that we were very paramount then, and I've used this entire through my entire leadership career is when you have those accountability discussions, is it a coaching and a corrective action or is it discipline? If you just slap someone's hand and say, hey, you didn't do this, and I'm gonna put you on paper, that's defeatism. That is, you're never gonna get their buy-in from it. So it takes time to say, okay, look, we missed that mark. So here's what I want to do. I want you to give me your goals. If you close that 4% over, can you close within 2% of being over this week? So tell me how you do that. What's your plan? And I try to allow that if we, you know, on accounts time. Sometimes you've got to have some evenings that you run a little past supper time to get things done. And so I try to tell the guys, all right, we know we're off track. That takes a few weeks to get done. So next week you pick the three nights that you need to be running because people have families. I don't, I've never been a fan of it's a Tuesday. I just saw a report, and then I'm gonna everybody's gotta run because I don't know your kid has a parent-teacher conference tonight, your spouse is still at home recovering, and you're just trying to get to an eight-hour day and get back home. There's so many dynamics to us just being humans. So I try to allow them, you know, uh you guys know we're off track. So set the plan, tell me what the plan is. I may tweak it and edit it a little bit, uh, but it's the buy-in comes from them creating their plan. And then when the success happens, um, that's that's that one-minute manager. Oh, I love that book.

SPEAKER_01: 49:47

There's so many one-minute managers out there. You guys need to read that if you haven't. You know, one thing that I used to love to do is get in the mindset, right? So we sit down and talk, and uh you you know, you obviously want to bring up what happened first. Okay, this was the goal, this was the set, this is what we were going to do, this is what ended up happening. But I always wanted to sit down and go, you I I I would like to believe that 99.9 of the percent of the people that I sat down with had a good intention. It might not have worked out that way. What was your mindset? Where were you at of the thought process of when this came up? What was your goal? What did you intend to do? Did you intend to just like did you get upset and just reach out to that customer and say, hey, you missed that commitment? Like you know, right? Come on, but Jones, you can't do that. Um, was the idea to get that payment immediately when you called? Is that is that how it happened? And then you realize that you were in a mindset that you weren't gonna get that payment? Because you know what? If somebody called you in that mindset, that probably wouldn't get you to do anything either, right? Well, where were you at? Where were you thinking? And obviously, they're gonna see it in in in a hundred different ways. And the thought process was always, okay, let's let's tweak that and figure out where that that might that might need to change just a little bit. Where was your mindset? Were you thinking on on point? Were you trying to go home? And it's okay to it's okay to say that, right? You've got to create that safe space, and it's okay to say that. I might tell you why it's wrong, but it's okay to you know say, hey, listen, I was I was in this mindset, I was doing this, I had one, you know, one account left to get my numbers. I knew it was getting late, I kind of hammered on the phone or whatever the case is and kind of bring them back. But I love your your your foresight on that and just kind of get their buy-in on how to solve that problem because the truth is it not everybody's gonna want to make that you know puzzle the same way, as long as you make the puzzle. It doesn't matter whether you start the corners or the side first, or you want to pick the shiny rows in the middle and grow on from there, whatever works, you know, get their buy-in on that. And I and I love that idea. I like that puzzle analogy.

SPEAKER_00: 51:42

Uh, I'm gonna steal that. As I said, I steal from everybody to build. Um, and I use the one similar with you know, if the end result is to be at a six, my path might be three plus three, your path might be two plus six, a two plus four. Um, so if you have a different path to get there, but you get there, I'm okay with it. Um, and then kind of finding out if you don't get there, normally it's a front-end process, not an end process. Make sure that you're not just being reactionary like what you just said. What was that phone call like? What was your tongue like? How how stern were you with someone? Are you are you bringing a ton of bricks on them when they're six days late?

SPEAKER_01: 52:22

Yeah, did you just get off your 15 plus calls and you just called that one person like they hold on a little bit, you know? Ms. Jones still loves you, okay? She's gonna be in here on Friday. Um, you know, talking about all that stuff, uh, and I want to cut to some of this. I mean, how has your definition of leadership changed over these last few years?

SPEAKER_00: 52:40

I think just going from RTO multi-unit is just a different beast from anything else I had that was even if I say it's in proximity, it's not. Um, and so I think being a servant leader has probably been the biggest change I can see in myself. Um I still I had uh a person tell me once when I was when I was the president of the union, and I had a couple different, you know, uh board members with me, and I had one that was just an irritant all the time. And I had this older lady say to me once, are you want to get rid of her because she disagrees with you? Um because maybe you need someone around you that will tell you the things a lot of people don't. And that that kind of resonated with me, and I've I've really that that was one of those kind of paradigm moments when my leadership shifted, and it became a I kept, and I'll her name was Ruth, and I won't go past that, but I kept Ruth on close to me because of how differently we did see things, and she would be the eyes sometimes that would see the things that I didn't, because I have a vision of what this looks like, and we're going in that path, and the same thing on social media and everything. We kind of push out the things that we don't always align with, and your so your TikTok fee aligns with the crap that you just want to watch. Um, so early on, that was me learning, I was building my own algorithm for lack of a better word. Um so I think that's probably been one of the biggest changes that I've seen is just always listening to the people that want to do it differently than I do, um, and then trying to find where the merit's at in doing it. And if if we can't get to success, okay, well then you know what? Let's I get to break the tie and let's try this way now.

SPEAKER_01: 54:31

Yeah, well, you know what? I I admire that. I that I've got a couple guys in my life that that do that, a couple of mentors of mine. And uh I hit a plateau and I couldn't tell what it was, and it was that it was that I was I was surrounded by people who kind of thought the same way I did, felt the same way I did, and we just created this echo chamber. We and and and I I wanted growth. And so I'm reading books that say something different, and one of them was that if everybody says the same thing, you're probably in the wrong room. And so I started talking to one of my mentors, and like within five minutes, he told me what he really thought. He was like, That is the dumbest idea. Why? But you know, he always backed it up with, What about this? Or what about this situation? Or what did you forget about that? Or what is your real overall goal, purpose, idea? And I was like, one of my Let me go back, let me go back. I wasn't prepared for this, you know? And it really helped me. It helped me to have people around me who said, Pete, that that's you know, you I see where you're coming from. I know your thought processes, but you need to hear something maybe you don't want to hear, or or there's thinking out there that that doesn't align with yours, and it might actually work better. And you know what? I cannot tell you how much I appreciated that. Ruth, I don't know anything else about you, but I love you. I want to tell you we appreciate that because it it really grows the person who can take that feedback and go, you know what, I I don't need you to like my idea. I need you to tell me what's wrong with it. I need you to find the cracks for me because that's how you build, grow, and get better. I need to know where I'm going wrong. And I don't want to be the guy who's like, hey, I'm a regional, you can't tell me I did anything wrong. No, tell me. I mean, within reason, but tell me, you know what I mean? If it's not right, tell me that it's not right. And then I want to bring you in because you're the one who stood up and said it. Help me figure this out. Where do you what are you saying that I don't see? Because I I have this goal, this is where I want to get to be. You obviously see where it, where there's some trepidation, there, where there's some wrongs in there. Help me get there. You know, I love those people. I Ruth, I love you. I'm just saying that right now. I appreciate it. Um, what advice would you give someone stepping into multi-unit leadership now that you've you and I don't want to I don't want to put you on this plateau show, but you're doing good. You guys are doing good. My squad's doing good. Your squad. Um, you know, what would you say to somebody who wants to get into that?

SPEAKER_00: 56:40

The same as a general manager taking over a regional. Um, I think the respect comes from you don't just talk it, you walk it. Get in there and jump on a truck and deliver until eight o'clock at night because a driver was out. Get in there and run field visits and do things with people. I mean, I still, you know, I want to try to find that balance, but um I don't ever want to ask someone to do something they haven't seen me already do. And it's to me, the higher up you go does not mean your workload gets easier if you're doing it right, the workload. And it it is a it is a six to seven day a week job um a lot of times, but that's I don't fuss about that because I get to do this. I am Bernal Capital and Arona permit me to do these things, to help these guys, to do this. Um, you know, we get the rewards of it and we see some success, and that feels good, but I don't ever want to forget that there's there are 5,000 people that'll trade spots with me right now in a blink of an eye, not knowing anything. And so taking that mindset of I get to do this, um, is that that's the biggest piece is just get in there. I my day has to start before my team. I get up every day between 5:30 and 6. I want to have reports, I want to have numbers. If we've got a plan for that day, I need my team to just kind of it helps them to have a lot of those nuances out of the way because we have a thousand things we got to do, but at its core element, we rent and we collect.

SPEAKER_01: 58:11

Oh God, I love it. Now we get into the basics, baby. What do we do? We rent and collect. Listen, I love, dude, we could sit here all day, but as we come to the end, man, as we come around the, you know, we come around that corner because I've got to talk operations all day. I love operations. Sean, you're you're killing it, man. I love it. I want to I want to ask you some quick questions. I don't want you to think about them too much. I just want you to answer them. We're gonna quick fire some questions, and I want to pick your brain just a little bit. How's that sound? D, all the above. All right. I made that Christmas tree. What do you mean it wasn't right? And Anthony's over here, like, yeah, I made a Christmas tree or two before it. All right. What leadership habit you refuse to compromise on? We already got him thinking. He's already already thinking.

SPEAKER_00: 58:53

Ethics. Um, the one thing I can't do is just don't take shortcuts that compromise you being able to square your shoulders and answer for what you did. So there's always on the gray areas. Um, I use the old racing, you know, if you didn't trade a little bit of paint, you weren't really racing. So I get the gray areas on somebody fighting a little bit, but just on the ethic line. Never just draw that line. Be able every action you do, be able to square your shoulders and answer for it.

SPEAKER_01: 59:18

Uh, you know, I I I always say if if anything you do in the dark can be done to light, then you're okay. Don't don't have a different view of one side or the other. Uh all right, one mistake multi-unit leaders repeat. That one I'm struggling on.

SPEAKER_00: 59:33

Um I think, and again, it's we we we do where you got to the higher levels by being a control freak, and I know I am a control freak, and it is the uh my Achilles heel that I is always being tried to I keep it at bay. So allowing the influence of other people's opinions to still carry the same weight as your own. Uh, just not not getting so tunnel visioned on this is how we get here, this is the path, everybody do it exactly like this. Um, and allowing allowing the freedom and fluidity between your group.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:08

Sounds good. I'm hoping I I'm gonna try to stump them with another one, Anthony. Let's see if we can do this. Yeah, I'm thinking.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:13

Best advice you've ever received. The I'm gonna put it between kind of I have to split it. One, Russell Greer early on in that career, um, and telling me it's a risk business, take some risks, take educated risks, but take the risks. Um and in the union work, um, the the gentleman, if we had you know, grievances or things that went up to a state or a national level, um this guy was just he delivered a master class in managing people. And one thing he said was make sure you treat everything so that the other, if even if you're getting everything you asked for, you've got to do it in a way that the other guy felt like he won or he got you. Because the person that felt like they won, they'll come. Back and negotiate with you every time because they think they've got you. And so it it kind of carries over into if a manager's pushing back and they want to do something different. I'm using my verbiage to kind of guide, I know where I want to land, but there's a lot of times I need them to feel like they got there on their own. Um, that uh that buy-in there. So that that may be getting a little more deep and inflective, but um I think just letting letting the managers have to own it. And sometimes you've got to step back and let them do that.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:34

Well, you know, there's a book, uh, How to Win Friends and Influence People has big coverage on that. If you're gonna read a book, I suggest from this podcast today. I'm gonna say read that book. And last but not least, why RTO leadership, solid leadership means so much right now.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:49

You've got a lot of people, the the new people hiring in have to understand what this new model looks like. And that is that Amazon world, the instant gratification, the things, because if we've got a lot of old dogs that are stuck on, well, you've got to come into the store and do the order form and look at the product, or I've got to meet you face to face. I don't want to do an e-signature online. There are things that are evolving, and so I think the true leadership, um, we need new. And this is a piece I know I've heard you say a lot. RTO needs new. We're looking at the AI stuff, um, you know, incorporating that into not just our marketing and campaigning, but also our collecting activity and sales. So it's, I think the leadership has to embrace the changes because that's going to trickle down. You've got to treat the, you've got to train these new guys coming in the right way to do these changes, and you've got to get the old dogs coming around to that line of thought of, hey, the cheese moved.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:47

I'm gonna tell you guys right now, too, there's a big section in the book, Need to Lead, by Dave Burke. He comes across that with old leadership and new people. I love the idea. Sean, you have killed it today. I I'm telling you, man, I loved having you on. Uh I tell you, I could do operations all day. But seriously, take some of what he said, apply it to what's going on. Again, you can do this at any level. It could be the GM level, it could be account manager, it could be sales. Just be vigilant. Rose, or excuse me, it's it's it's uh Russell and Ruth. Russell and Ruth, we appreciate you guys. Thank you so much for helping Sean get to where he is and he's taking some stuff out of you. You guys are being great mentors. Uh, Rona has uh done a great job with you, man, having you on and and having you a part of their team. It was a great call on their part. Jason, hey, you knew what you were doing, man. That passion came through. I appreciate it so much. Listen, if you guys have any questions, hit us up at the show, Pete at the RTO Show Podcast.com. Ask me any questions you like. Go on any social media, look up the RTO show, and you're gonna see us there. You're probably gonna see Sean's face too, because I'm gonna put him out there all over the place. He's got some good answers there that I think we need to share. I'm also gonna tell you right now, am I gonna see at LedgeCon this year? Are you gonna go LeggeCon? Are you doing LeggeCon this year? Oh, no.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:54

No, okay. Um next year I plan on being at it. I've got with M R D A and IRDA. We've got we've got too many other things moving right now, but I plan on getting involved. I want to get I want to get into the fellowship.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:04

Well, I'm gonna miss Sean this year, but I'm gonna see you guys at LedgeCon. If you have anything that you want to do there, please hit me up at the show. If you go to www.therto showpodcast.com, scroll all the way to the bottom, fill out your name, your number, your email, and a reason why you want to go, you might actually join me at LedgeCon this year. I would love to see you there, but this is only until February 28th. So you got a little bit of time. Make sure you put in the reason you want to go, and maybe we will take you there and we will do. We'll miss Sean this year, but we're gonna make it happen. Uh, listen, Sean, I really appreciate you being a part of the show and sharing our knowledge, your knowledge, and some of the stuff you've been able to go through because I really love to feed some of the guys who are watching this, some of the gals, and really them to understand it's leadership, it's multi-leadership, it's single leadership, it's growth, it's understanding, it's education coming from one of the guys who's doing it very well. So, Sean, I do appreciate it. And I'm gonna tell you guys as always get your collections low to get your sales high. Have a great one.