RTO Legend: John Cleek Jr on "Tiger" John Cleek of Cleek’s Home Furnishings

This Legend Series episode of The RTO Show features John Cleek Jr. of Cleek's RTO, reflecting on the life, leadership, and lasting industry impact of his father, John “Tiger” Cleek.

From the early days of a family appliance business to decades of service through state and national associations, this conversation highlights what it means to lead with conviction, integrity, and heart. John shares how his father’s commitment to community, advocacy, and people-first leadership helped shape not only Cleek's RTO, but the rent-to-own industry as a whole.

This episode is a powerful reminder that true leadership isn’t measured by store count or titles—but by the lives you touch, the standards you set, and the legacy you leave behind.

Transcript

Opening And Book Giveaway

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, I'm Pete Cow. You may know me from the Archgo podcast, but today, I'm doing something a little bit different. April and Wild Brands have launched a special project to bring the story of our industry to life like never before. Today that's going to sit down with some of the true legends of our stuff. After their stories, their impact, and their vision for the future. And now, I get to share those conversations with you. A new book. The Rental Revolution is the fitness history of advocacy of the story. Written by April Studios called Friday. The wildware studio called Firecraft. The book is for the grassroots of RTO, the advocacy that is defined, and the future that we're building together. Here's where you covered. We're giving away free copies once the book is built together. Just head over to RTORevolution.com and sign up for a chance to receive a copy of 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. Hello and welcome to the RTO Show podcast. I'm your host, Pete Chow. Today we have another Legend Series interview. And listen, this one is a little bit different because I have to meet what I would consider is a legend of my current day, talking about a legend of that that's already come through and John Cleek and John Cleek Jr. The Tiger Moniker, I think, just follows you guys everywhere. And it's a it's it's amazing. But you know, I'm talking to John Cleek Jr. right now about Senior and some of the amazing things that he's done. Uh you guys have both have a legendary career, but today we're gonna we're gonna do the legend series some justice. We're gonna talk about dad a little bit and some of the things that he's been able to do in his long esteemed career through the mind and eyeset of his son who does an amazing job. We were just talking about this earlier, who can also dance Michael Jackson very, very well. I'll give you that. So how you doing, John? How's everything going today?

SPEAKER_01 2:06

I'm doing great, Pete. Just getting ready for uh Christmas and spending some awesome time with our family.

Introducing The Legend Series Guests

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Uh you know, we were talking about that earlier, and I'll say you were very blessed. I've seen your family on the commercials that you did. Amazing. It was beautiful to see. And it's kind of like why we're here today, right? We're talking about family. We're talking about, you know, where where you came from and some of the direction that you've taken from your father, who did an amazing job in this industry, and then kind of set you on your way. Talk to me a little bit. How did Cleeks RTO get started? Because I know that Elmo was a part of that as well, right?

Cleek Family Origins And Tragedy

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Yeah, I mean, Cleek's was uh founded back in 1956. My late grandparents, Clifton Elmo Cleek and my grandmother Wilma Cleek, uh started the business. It's actually known as Cleek's Appliance and Food Service. My grandfather, there was a business down the road called Wilson's Meat Market, and my grandfather rented the back wall from Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson would basically sell them, you know, the meat, and then my grandfather would sell them in a mana freezer, and then they had a local community bank that uh financed the whole deal over like two years. So that's kind of how it got started. And uh so it's Cleeks Appliance and Food Service, and then about three years later, there was a building um 1000 West Broadway. Uh it's still there today, the the building, and my grandfather purchased that uh building and it was a couple thousand square feet, but certainly much bigger than what they had before, and then uh they started uh expanding the line, more appliances, more electronics, and so forth. Um so and of course everything was, you know, retail back then, obviously. And then uh back in nineteen seventy-three there was another location a couple blocks away at 1000 West Whirley, uh here in Columbia. And uh it was an old grocery store. It was like six or seven thousand square feet, and over the summer, like in August, basically they moved the whole store and set up the whole new store over the course of a weekend, and then you know, nine o'clock Monday morning, they're open for business, you know, and then Wow. My grandfather, of course, you know, I I'll get to this here in a second. I didn't get to know him very well, but you know, he was an ultimate promoter, you know, much like my dad, and I try to be today as well, too. But uh you know, he uh they had a a huge grand opening event. You mean they had the mayor, they had the head football coach back then was Al Anafrio. They had a a little band, the Golden Girls. I mean, it was a it was a big time event. The community came out, supported it. Um that was in August of 73. I was two years old, so I was there. I think I was doing a couple of drawings or something, but uh and then unfortunately, and uh my you know, well, my grandfather and of course my dad and you know, big uh big Missouri Tiger fans and love to uh quail hunt and all kinds of other stuff too. So my grandfather was up with a friend of his. They'd took taken a small plane up to Ames, Iowa, and uh for a quail hunting trip and then the Missouri Tiger game. And then unfortunately on the way back on November the 19th of 73, got into bad weather and the other pilot wasn't instrument rated and they ended up flying the plane in the ground and killed both of them. And uh, you know, my dad was twenty three years old. I was only two years old, and uh there wasn't any, you know, it wasn't any money or anything like that. It was just, you know, obviously it was total devastation from my father. He lost his uh lost his best friend, lost his dad, lost his business partner and his hero and everything. But uh, you know, there wasn't any quitting my father, there wasn't any other options either. I mean, he just had to figure out a way to make it work. Right. So he kept it going. You know, he uh you know, his cliques cliques appliances and uh, you know, kept the business running for long, well, obviously a long time, but back then, you know, it's just it was devastating. You know, his mother's still alive and then he had an older sister and a younger sister too, but uh that's kind of how everything got started and so forth with the business.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

So dad was kind of thrust into it and he did everything that he had to do to kind of make amends for his family and make sure everything was going, and then turned it into what it is today. Because I mean, you guys have a following in Missouri that is second to none. I don't I can't think of a person in Missouri or the Missouri area or around your stories that don't know the clique name, especially your face with the clique name. And so, you know, it's it's uh it's uh important to see that, you know, uh family is always a driver, right? Whether you want to take care of them, whether you want to make sure that they have, or you want to make sure they take care of their future, you know, that drives. And it says a lot that your father was able to come out of that and be able to create more from what that was. Because at that point you're saying it was and I gotta say, a little off-camera here, but you have uh the memory of uh like you have the ability to say addresses and dates and times. Listen, at two years old, I couldn't remember anything. But you know, as you come through, and and and I obviously I know the the uh uh information comes later, but you have the ability to just quote names and times and dates, and I mean like nobody's business. And I I love when I talk to you because you're so detailed about that. But uh so out of this tragedy, uh cliques goes to dad, and together at some point in time, because I know that there's a time frame where you're still kind of going growing up and getting through this, you develop and and grow out to more. So, how was it, you know, how did it go from dad's one store location where you you know you guys are just going through this and kind of making it happen, getting through the transition and the pain of what happened, and then grow it more and become more a part of the community?

The Rules That Shaped The Company

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Sure. So, well, as far as remembering the dates and some of that other stuff, I mean, I wish I could have remembered stuff back in school, that would have done me a lot better. But uh I'm I'm full of all kinds of information that doesn't matter a whole lot in some ways. But uh anyhow, no, you know, my grandfather had two rules to the company we still use today, and then we added a third rule. You know, my grandfather's number one rule of our company is never say anything you have to remember. So basically, if you always tell the truth, it always comes back to you. And then a second rule is get bigger, get better, or get out. And then uh the other rule that we adopted was you know the golden rule of uh treat everyone the way you want to be treated. Okay, so those are our three rules that we run our company by. We try to live our life by, and you know, are we perfect? No, but we try to adhere to those the best that we can. So, you know, again, it was all retail. My dad also got into the carpet business a little bit as well. He pretty much hated that business though, because he couldn't stand dealing with the carpet installers and everything else, and it just wasn't his thing. When I was a kid, you know, I'd kind of got started in this thing. I went to school down the road and I'd walk down from school and we had all these rolls of carpet all over the floor. And I mean, I'm a little kid crawling all over the carpet and just not doing anything super productive other than just being a kid. But then once I got a little bit older, I started coming down, vacuuming the floor, clean some stuff, you know, put TV stands together and stuff like that. Stuff you can do when you're 14, 15 years old, whatever. My father always worked with his dad. He just knew that's what he wanted to do, and his dad always worked, and if he wanted to see his father, they probably need to work together. My dad was the best salesman that I ever saw in my life, and you know, according to all the conversations that I've had with my dad in the past, you know, his his dad, you know, Elmo, you know, he was the best that he'd ever seen. You know, there's a lot of good stories. You know, my dad, you know, back in the day, you know, he knew all the product knowledge, he knew, you know, what the competitors had, what their pricing was. I mean, he he pretty well knew everything, and they they couldn't afford to miss a sale back then either, because it was all about survival. And you know, I'd like to think we could have that same mentality today, but that's probably not necessarily reality. But nonetheless, I know there's one time, you know, my dad's sitting there telling this one customer uh everything about this, I don't know, washer or dryer or whatever it was, and just kept going on and going on and going on. And he'd probably already closed his sale about five times, and then his uh his dad comes over to him and uh slips him a little note, and uh, you know, I can't really say what was on the note, but you can probably take a guess, and about you know two seconds later he's like, Yes, sir, and you know, hey Mr. Smith, let's go get him written up on this washer dryer, you know. So um, but you know, my dad, you know, he would he could do everything in the store when he was, you know, 14, 15 years old except drive the truck. So there was a lot of times, you know, he'd customers would be like, you know, hey, can we get this TV delivered tonight? And he's like, Well, yes, sir, I'll get it to you, but you know, do you mind driving the d the truck? Because I can't drive.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

Oh my wow. That's dedication. That's dedication. Listen, I'll get it to you. Just help me out.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

You know, and my family was everything, you know. My grandfather coached uh my dad and Little League Baseball, and my grandfather was one of the co-founders of Daniel Boone Little League here in Columbia, Missouri. And so, you know, if he didn't have anybody to run the store while my dad would had a game, I mean he'd literally just put a sign on the uh door saying, you know, go on to the ballpark for two hours and be back later. So, you know, they didn't miss baseball, didn't miss Missouri Tiger football. Um, but it was all about family and all about work, taking care of customers.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

You know, I that's something that I've always admired, and and I know that you and and Heather always have kind of brought that tradition up to today, you know, always being the fans and uh making sure that you guys represent your teams out there, and I love that. So talking about the expansion, there was a little bit of expansion. I know that at some point in time there was an expansion into uh you know a different franchise. I mean, we did errands, apparently it didn't work out because you guys are back to clique, still kind of representing the home team. Um what was the what was the the difference in that that you decided, you know what, we're gonna go back to doing what we did because you guys have a really strong bond with your community. You probably do more community events in a year than people that I know who probably do it in 10 years. I mean, you're just always raising money, you guys are always out there doing what you need to do, whether it be ALS, whether anything. And you guys represent your company and your community very, very well. Um, but you know, as a franchise, it's a little bit different. You mean they have like these cooker cookie cutter kind of things, you gotta follow these rules and stuff like that. Was that some of the reason why you decided to go back to cliques and and why didn't it stay that way?

Expansion Across Mid-Missouri

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Yeah, I kind of take you full circle on the uh expansion, backing up a little bit. So again, following, you know, the get bigger, get better, get out, you know, my dad made the decision, you know, retail business had kind of gone flat in the late mid mid-80s, and then the Columbia Mall here had opened up and there was a Sears retail store and so forth. So retail had kind of gone flat. My dad was kind of dabbled in the rent owned business in the mid to late 70s, but then made the decision to uh get into rent owned full-fledged back in 1987. The only way he figured this was gonna work is that we had to expand. So we opened up our second store and and we were back as we were still cliques, of course, back in. It opened up in 1988 in Fulton, Missouri, and then in 1989 we opened up in Mexico, and then let's see, in 95 we opened up uh another store here in Columbia, Missouri, and then we opened up in Boonville, so that gave us five. Uh in 1998, we opened up in Jeff City, Missouri, and then in 2000 we opened up in Moberly, so that gave us seven, and then uh back in 2006, we opened up in Marshall and Sedalia, which is about an hour or so west of Columbia. But my dad, you know, big TV marketer and uh looked at ADA, area dominant influence, or and uh you know, TV and where you know our local stations would hit and so forth, and he kind of drew these rings around a map, and these nine locations basically you know checked the box for him, kind of where we wanted to be. So it's 2006, things are rolling along pretty well. Um we had we owned a 14,000 square foot warehouse. My dad and I owned 5050, we'd own another strip center in uh in Sedalia, and uh but then you know this other competitor called you know Aaron's was coming along, and uh well they'd already been around for a long time. They had you know much similar kind of starting out, honestly, as kind of our company. Um, of course, the late great uh Charlie Louder Milk. Um, you know, start they started in 1955, you know, renting folding chairs, and then of course just built it into a little you know multi-billion dollar business. But uh just a little one, just a little just a little one. Um but anyhow I can't really say that about cliques. We're working on stuff. But anyway, um, you guys are doing great. You guys are doing great. Aaron's was in a couple of our markets. You know, obviously not like we're you know afraid of competition or you know, it's natural everybody's gotta compete against each other, but you know, they were starting to come into one of our other markets. We were already competing against them in two or three markets. Um we could kind of tell that uh, you know, the writing was on the wall that eventually they're probably gonna be in all of our markets. And, you know, they had kind of approached us, you know, Robert Briley and Abilene, Texas had uh contacted my father. Well, I think he called about everybody in the country at one point, but anyway, you know, and he came down here, and you know, my little Robert Briley Tiger, just you know, come on down to Texas and I'll show you how it works. And you just gotta see the system, Tiger. It's something else. And then so we came down there to Texas, and I gotta admit, you know, I mean, it was a hell of a system. It probably still is today. I'm glad I'm not in it, but I mean, nonetheless, it it, you know, it was a great system. It was better than what we had at the time. You know, we were a 53-year company. It was not an easy decision to make. We definitely didn't take it lightly, but you know, there was seemed like a family thing to us at the time. They had some buyback guarantees. We, you know, thought we were getting into this national buying power and all this other stuff. And and then plus on top of that, you know, we'd take out our biggest competitor at the time. And it's kind of like the old, you know, if you can't beat them, join them mentality, I guess. So that's pretty much what the decision was to go to Aaron's. And in December 1 of 2008, we converted our company to Aaron's. So, you know, we still always maintain though the cliques is now Aaron's. We always kept cliques as part of it. Right. And you know, arguably, I'll just say it like it is. I mean, m my dad is, you know, he was very hard-headed. Hell, I'm hard-headed. We probably really weren't the greatest franchisees to some degree, because I mean, we've been doing this forever ourselves. Right. All these other people coming in to, you know, telling you to do this, telling you to do that. And I mean, again, we still use a lot of the same things that we did back as Aaron's today. There's some of the same policies that we use today that we think were very good, but then you know, and we we grew like crazy. I mean, you know, but you know, when you uh you give up that six percent, that's a that's a pretty big number. And then uh we just never really could overcome that. And uh we had several stores that did well, we had a couple that didn't. Uh but uh at the end of the end, we ended up selling one of our stores to a friend of ours, you know, Larry Carico. We sold the Mobily store to rent one. In Columbia, we had two stores, and uh, you know, we we owned the real estate here in one of them, the other one we leased, and we just decided, you know, you had to do all these big major upgrades and all this kind of stuff, and they're really pretty expensive. We just decided to kind of improve efficiencies or whatever and combine everything into one store. Also, when we did the deal, there was another franchisee in the area, and we we tried to buy him out, but he he didn't want to sell out at the time, so it involved us having to sell a store or two, merge a store, buy a store. It was a little bit messy and complicated, but we made it all work for a while and so forth. But then you know, there's some things that you know obviously transpired with uh you know Mr. Loudermilk kind of retired, and then Ken Butler, uh, you know, of course, was the COO of Aaron's, and you know, when he was there, uh, you know, the thing was growing and going, and I mean he obviously is a legend in this business, and uh you know, we have a lot of respect for him. He definitely was never lacking a lot of confidence. I love Ken Butler. KB is like one of my favorite people.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Yeah.

Converting To Aaron’s Franchise

SPEAKER_01 19:31

But then he kind of left, and they had a couple of other CEOs come through. Uh, you know, there's one of them that couldn't even explain uh who our customer was. You know, I mean I we felt that was kind of surprising, and then uh another CEO came in and you know, Aaron's had made the decision to buy out progressive leasing. And uh so then we kind of you know, there's a lot of the franchisees that weren't really happy about the So you know, at the end of the day, you know, it's about 2017 or so now, and my dad and I were at an Aaron's franchise meeting, there was some things that were said, and we just kind of looked at each other and decided that you know this this just really isn't for us. This was a 10-year agreement. And, you know, I probably a lot of things I could say but probably shouldn't say. So um, but they uh I'll say this. Aaron's was very cordial with us. Um a guy named Scott Harvey, who was the VP of franchise at the time, and Julie Scott, they were very great to work with. They made it very easy for us, and uh, we were able to exit, and then on as you'll know on my dates, on September the 10th of 2018, we converted back to cliques, and it's been cliques ever since. So, and it'll be cliques until it's not cliques anymore. Until it's not cliques, right? So, you know, and then you know, there's been uh, you know, some other franchisees that have uh decided to exit the Aaron's plan as well since that time, and I'm not gonna speak for them, but you know, and then uh you know, and I but again I'll say this I don't have anything bad to say about it. It was a learning experience. It you know, ultimately we we didn't get into it to get out of it, but ultimately we decided that it wasn't the best fit for us, and again, they were cordial and letting us get out, and so be it, that's where we're at.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

Hey everyone, it's Pete Chow here from the R2O Show podcast, and I want to tell you about a company that's making a real difference in the rent owner space, WoWrand. I've seen firsthand how they approach marketing. Let me tell you, it's not just about ads. Wow brands have complete digital ecosystems designed specifically for the rental. They're coming to qualify, they're actively working for rental. They designed still kind of retail. So if you're serious about growing, reach out to Wild Brands at WildBrands.com. I trust it, and I think you will too. Well, so during this time, as you're going through this, right? So we're trying to expand, we've got a bunch of stores, you've you're going either into or out of the errands franchise. There's a lot going on between you and dad. You guys are sharing the the uh the reins, so to speak, I would imagine. Where do you find time to be on the April board as the president? How did how did he find time to do that with everything that was going on? I mean, he you know, not only did he do that, but you guys also are very, very into uh the Missouri Rental Dealers Association as well. So you're not only you know in April on a on a on a whole level, uh, you know, you you guys are an MRDA, which is huge.

Why They Returned To Cleek’s

SPEAKER_01 23:07

So my dad joined the well, first of all, I back up. He started the Missouri Rental Dealers Association, him and another gentleman named John Thompson. They started it back in 1987, November, and a group of uh rental dealers all got together. There's a gentleman named Dave Egan, who was an attorney for Rent Center, had called my father and said, you know, hey, I need you to get you know the rental dealers together. We gotta get a state association formed there in Missouri. So they all got together, and then they had hired a lobbyist, um, a guy named John Britton. And uh, you know, Mr. Britton was a legend in the Capitol in Jefferson City, Missouri. Um he's kind of like the only guy I think that's ever been allowed to smoke inside the Capitol and everything. Anyway, he gets together with this the group of rental dealers, and then like in June of 88, um, they're having a subcommittee hearing down in the Capitol, and my dad's down there with a bunch of other dealers, and uh John Britton's going on about our rent-to-owned statute, and my dad's looking at this other guy, and he's like, Is anything this guy's talking about sound like anything that we really do in this business? And he's like, No, not really, but just let him go. He's got these guys spinning in circles, they don't know what to think, so he'll get it done, don't worry about it. And in June of 1988, we had a state law passed in Missouri. It's a very favorable law. Missouri's a very favorable business um climate. So, you know, and then MRDA was formed. Uh, you know, my dad was uh, you know, an AMRDA president, he was on the board, you know, the whole time until his passing. He's always been a member of April. You know, we're a 40-year April member now. Oh, yeah. And back in 1998, uh my dad ran for the April board and got elected. And then uh, you know, back in 2008, uh he he got elected as president. And uh so yeah, just in the midst of, you know, we're changing over our entire business uh to this new thing and errands, and then my dad's the president of APRO. And then on top of that, they're uh you know, they're right in the middle of trying to get federal legislation passed. I mean, they were, I mean, as close as they had ever been. We had a a representative in the House out of St. Louis, Missouri, named Lacey Clay. He's a great guy, and uh he represented our industry very well. He, you know, he was a liberal Democrat, but he he loved uh he loved our business because he really saw the value that we provide, you know, to his constituents, and he got fully behind it. He came to our, you know, uh LedgeCon, I believe. He was probably at the April session at one point or another, too. But I mean, when my dad was the president and you know, there's a lot of lobbyists involved, and of course, Ed Wynne, Bill Keese, all this, and um, a lot of people working on this. But my dad, literally from sunup to sundown, was working on April, working on trying to get this federal legislation passed, and they ended up getting more co-sponsors in the House than they'd ever had before. And then it uh actually passed through the House, and then uh they got to the Senate and it died and didn't go anywhere. But uh I mean it wasn't from a hell of a lot of effort, you know, especially on my dad's part. And but literally him and Ed Wynne were talking all the time, different lobbyists and so forth, John Raffielli, I believe, and so forth. So that was a lot of a lot of effort put on federal legislation by my dad. Unfortunately it didn't didn't ever happen. But uh, you know, it's kind of amazing how at the state level, you know, we can get a bill passed in six or seven months, and then at the federal level, you know, all we really need is some type of a definition bill that'll say, you know, rent own is a lease, not a credit sale, and you know, millions and millions of dollars and tons of trips to DC and bunch of people working on it, and twenty-five, thirty something years later still nothing. But uh, you know, that was a big thing. Uh of course, also the other thing that was a big legacy for my dad, and really I'd say was his legacy, was the state associations. My dad, he uh saw the need, you know, he you know, he felt that this is a grassroots thing. You know, it's uh we got all these dealers all over the country, everybody's trying to start this, start that, and do their own thing. And you know, we kind of had this already developed in Missouri. Um, you know, we had a great executive director from Missouri, a guy named Ken Steiner. My dad hired him and he ran our trade show for years. We had a lot of great board members. Um, you know, we had the late Mark Windsor with Dan Cole, Gary Romine, Chuck Kaluva, um you know, and then I I think I joined the board in about 2001 or so, kind of started getting involved at the state level on the board, and then you know went through the ranks, you know, vice president, and then became president and did that for a while and so forth. But now my dad, you know, he he would travel at his own expense from coast to coast, reorganizing these state associations, and a lot of times, you know, Ed Wynne would go with him. And you know, my one thing my dad's very proud of, you know, is that you know, back in 1998 there was like 10 state associations, I believe. And then in there was a really nice article written in the April magazine back in 2010, and by that point in time there was like 37 state associations. Okay, and my dad had a had a really big part in helping get those off the ground or you know, revamped or what have you. And I know there was a time, I think, in Georgia, my dad had to go there a couple different times, but it you know, he he didn't really sugarcoat things a whole lot. Um, but he he basically said, Listen, I don't know what the hell we need to do if we need to, you know, put a chain on the door or put armed guards at the door or whatever, but we're not leaving here until we've got a president, a vice president, and a board of directors. So I've been here twice, and you guys are gonna get this fixed today. And that's pretty much where you know the tiger comes out too at times. But, you know, like I've I was talking to my good friend, you know, David David, who of course, you know, has served this industry forever in all kinds of different capacities. And you know, the one thing that he said about my dad was that, you know, Tiger was the perfect president for the time of what and what we needed. And uh I really appreciate that. And you know, he always promoted the state associations. Um, you know, and I talked to Bill Keys too, and uh, you know, he just you know basically said the Tiger is always true to himself, always, you know, honest with everybody. And uh, you know, my dad gave his heart and soul to this industry. I mean, you know, obviously first and foremost, he loves God, he loves his family, but you know, April's our second family. And uh we have some of our best friends in this industry, vendors, other dealers, um, even though maybe the Aaron's thing didn't work out for us ultimately, but some of my best friends in this industry are Aaron's franchisees, you know. So so no, it's been a great ride for us. Uh it was a great ride for my dad. He's proud of a lot of different things, but uh, you know, again, the state associations were certainly first and foremost to his heart. And then my dad was uh received several awards uh that are really important in the you know the industry. Um, you know, his first award that he got was back in 1996. He was recognized as the rental dealer of the year, and then in 2016, uh he received the Ernie Talley Lifetime Achievement Award, which is the highest honor you can receive at April.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

That's it. Right.

Advocacy And APRO Leadership

SPEAKER_01 31:15

And then uh, you know, as you know, my father was uh diagnosed with ALS in June fourth of 2020, and uh you know, we kind of kept it under wraps for a while, um for whatever reasons, but uh then you know, as it kinda got to the point, you know, with ALS, which is a you know, crappy disease, I definitely don't recommend it. But you know, he started losing his functions, you know, you know, couldn't speak as clearly, you know, so forth, and so he decided to go ahead and use his celebrity status here in town to kind of be the spokesperson for ALS, and uh, we got involved with the ALS Association and everything. Back in 2021, April decided to honor my father with coming up with the RTO Tiger Award. So that was my dad was the first recipient of that. And uh so and then I've you know I've uh presented the award ever since. And then uh so one of the coolest moments though, back and I'll say this, you know, like I say, the very first year we did the ALS walk, we formed Team Tiger, and that was back when my father was, you know, still alive. So there was a lot of uh a lot of emotion, a lot of support throughout the industry, all over the country. And you know, we we raised like, I don't know, 85,000, 90,000 bucks or something that first year, you know, for the walk here in Columbia, which was huge. But uh, I know I was standing on the stage at an April event, and uh we kind of did a video and uh got even though it's probably a little bit reluctant for some of my friends in Kansas to say this, but they still did it on behalf of my father. But I got everybody to uh you know give a big M-I-Z-Z-O-U, you know, we love you, Tiger, showed that to my dad, and obviously that was pretty special.

SPEAKER_00 33:09

Oh, absolutely. You know, you mentioned so many times a lot of leadership, a lot of times that he has dealt and done different things, whether it's the accolades that he's gotten from APRO, whether it's being a part of an MRDA, whether it's being on the board of April. You know, that's a lot of leadership. Did he have people that he collaborated with, people that, you know, mentored him on the way up, or was was he just one of those guys that was like he just led his own way?

SPEAKER_01 33:33

Well, of course, first and foremost, his number one mentor was his father, but you know, he lost him at an early age at twenty-three. Now there was another gentleman, you know, of course, he's passed away quite a ways back, but uh gentleman named Hartley Banks, who uh was a banker. He owned a he owned a local bank here in town, and he was one of my grandfather's best friends, and he kind of took my dad under his wings. And uh Hartley was uh he was a character, there's no doubt about it. He kind of liked to have a few cocktails maybe, and he was a little a little gruff, but uh I know there was some I don't know what this guy was. He was a business analyst or something, but you know, my dad was talking to him about this rent-to-one thing back in the day. This guy kept going on and on and on about you know the event of this and the event of that and blah blah blah. And Hartley finally just told this guy to shut the hell up. And listen, Alex no tiger. If you know if he can't figure it out, then he'll be smart enough to get the hell out of it. But you just shut your butt up and he'll figure it out, and that's kind of how that went. And um, but yeah, Hartley, again, a little bit rough, but he was uh another very honest person to the day was long, and uh you know he'd do anything for you, but he was definitely one of my dad's best friends. You know, there's another gentleman that is still alive that's a mentor to me. I have lunch with him every week. We had lunch today, actually, and he was a good friend to my father, but guy named Bill Schultz, he owned a local uh Culligan water distributorship here in town and a very successful businessman and great guy, and so he was a good mentor to my father as well, too, so and to me as well.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

So, you know, talking about Hartley, it'd be kind of funny that it comes up this way. How how involved were you and dad when it came down to the Heartland Expo with with the way you guys did, you know, what what you do, the the fact that you guys have this every year and it's this big gathering of everybody that just it has just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger every year. How involved was dad in that, and then where did it transition off to you?

Building State Associations Nationwide

SPEAKER_01 35:45

Yeah, I mean, my dad was really involved in it, starting out, and again, you know, we had I mentioned a lot of the names in the past, but you know, we had a really good board of directors. Ken Steiner's the one that pretty well organized the show as far as dealing with the vendors and making sure they got registered and everything. So Ken did a lot of the work and deserves, you know, a lot of the credit. But I mean, you've got also you've got to have a leader, you know, in any state association or any business. You gotta have somebody that's got that passion to make it one work. And uh, you know, these you know, people just show up to these trade shows or whatever and just think this, you know, just happens, you know, and it's like, no, you could kind of work on this stuff for you know, six months or something or whatever to make it happen. But uh, my dad was very involved, and you know, at the originally it was the MRDA show, okay, and then we did that for, I don't know, probably 10 years. So we'd have, you know, 25, 30 vendors show up, you know, a little bit smaller venue at a hotel, and then uh we've kind of, you know, you were there last year, but we've always kind of now been at the lodge of the four seasons, and you uh you see the big exhibit hall that we have and everything. We're able to get about 70 booths in there or so, and the vendors do come with product, and uh, you know, that's kind of the o the opportunity for our managers to that's kind of their you know, trib show or their April show or whatever, because most of us can't afford to send our people to those national events. So um and then, you know, I want to say 15 or probably 20 years ago we started the the Heartland concept. I don't remember if that was kind of something at my direction or my father or the board in general, but um we just kind of think, you know, again, get bigger, get better, get out, you know, we gotta get this thing. We gotta get the we got other states involved that are right around us, you know, and Kansas, uh Arkansas, you know, so forth, Illinois. You know, let's put on a bigger show, and they're more than welcome to attend. And, you know, that that did pay off for quite a few years. And um, you know, we last year was probably our best show that we've ever, one of the best shows we ever had. A couple years ago, well of course, you know, with COVID, that kind of screwed everything up. We had to cancel the show. And we tried to come back the following year, and well, I think we did come back with a show. It wasn't we had to delay it at a different time of year. Wasn't quite as great. But then each and every year since then, we've we've gotten back to where we were. Ken Steiner did retire uh about three years ago. We he tried to retire quite a few times, but we'd never let him. But uh he did finally retire, and him and his wife Laura, uh, they actually live in Mexico. Um, I don't remember the name of the town exactly, but they're in Mexico and they're having fun down there. But uh thankfully, and then we were at a little bit of a crossroads. I mean, you know, my father had passed away, Mark Windsor had passed away, uh, you know, Ken retires, Dan Cole sells out, Gary Romine sells out, Chuck Kaluva sells out. Uh, we lost uh some pretty heavy hitters on our board. Fortunately, Macy Mitchell and his mom, Liz Mitchell, you know, and Scott, but they own all American rental in the Springfield area, and uh they decided to uh kind of try to take on Macy's also an executive director for the Republic Chamber of Commerce, so he's very good at he's very good at getting in front of cameras and taking pictures of himself and all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 39:23

Oh, because he's always pumped up. You know, he's always bumped up. Yeah, I don't he does he does an amazing job.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

I'm like the before picture, and Macy's the after. But uh you know, he but uh you know they're they're a great family, and you know, Scott was the president for four years, and then he kind of wanted to step away from that, so I got back in the saddle and probably president until I guess I don't want to be anymore, or if somebody else wants to do it, they can. But no, they stepped in and you know they've run the show now for three years, and uh they learn a little bit each year, too. But uh you know, no, they're they're doing a fantastic job organizing the event. And you know, we're not missing a beat. I think it's June 9th through the 11th next year. But you know, it's not easy, you know, to keep this thing going. And, you know, what I definitely think we got one of the best state associations in the country. You know, Ohio. Ohio also runs an excellent uh Midwest training expo, and their show is set up a little bit differently. I've been out there before to it, haven't been in 15 years or so, but uh, you know, they're more based on the training aspect of it. Um we try to we try to incorporate a little bit of everything. You know, we have a bass tournament, we have a golf tournament, we have a couple of we have a social event called the Tiger Social. We have a little event up in my suite. Uh I make some pretty awesome chocolate martinis.

SPEAKER_00 40:47

Yes, I can I can attest to that. I can attest to that. It was really good. I enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_01 40:51

Yeah, and then you know we have a full-blown trade show for five hours. And last year, or I mean, sorry, this year we did, I think almost right at a million dollars. And then the following day, um, you know, we have a couple uh vendors do some product training, and then you were nice enough to come and do a panel discussion this year, and that was very beneficial. And we always try to have an industry person come in because just think that's always a lot more beneficial to everybody to have somebody that's you know that knows what it's like to do a delivery, that's what it's like to do a collection call, then just some motivational speaker that you're gonna pay five thousand dollars to and you're gonna forget everything they said an hour later.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

Yeah, I agree. No, I totally understand. Listen, I love being a part of it. It was great. It was great being able to be there, meet everybody. Macy does an amazing job. It was it was great to meet him and see everybody in action. I've always wanted to see it and I heard about it, but uh I never got a chance on an opportunity to go. So going as a show was probably one of my uh my my checkoffs. I was able to say you know, my list of things that I wanted to get done so I can say it was a great job. And so here you are at all all that, all these uh all these retirements, everything is changing. It puts you in the forefront. You've done a very good job of not only being forced being but but taking it by the reins and kind of doing your own thing and and really kind of shining your own light on how you do it, which is I gotta say, amazing. You know, as we come to the end, uh how do you see your father's legacy in this industry? Because uh you have seen it from both sides. You've you've you've seen it growing up, you've seen it working with him, and now you get to see it after he's already made his mark and he's and he's gone. How do you see your father's legacy in everything that you do and everything that you've done in this industry?

Heartland Expo And Community Events

SPEAKER_01 42:38

Yeah, that's a great question. You know, again, my father was one of these kind of guys that was extremely passionate. He loved you know anything he was gonna do, he was gonna put 100% into it with his heart, um, honesty, everything else. You know, he definitely believed in what we do in this business and serving customers and improving their lives with our products, services that we, you know, give our customers and everything. And, you know, you want to get a group of people together that, you know, want to come together, you know, back in the 50s and so forth, when there was some tax stuff came up in this industry, and then you got some other Congress people trying to pass negative legislation and put us out of business or drastically change how we do business. Just get a group of very passionate people together and they'll show you how to get that turned around. And you know, my father was, you know, one of the leaders in that group. And, you know, we he bled red, of course, but he bled the black and gold from Missouri and he bled April. I mean, he just we've always been an April member. And, you know, again, like I said, it's our second family. And, you know, again, my dad's legacy in this industry is the state associations, the grassroots, you know, just you know, a lot of stuff happens in Washington, D.C. and all that kind of stuff. But you gotta make sure you got business taken care of at home first. And, you know, we've got, I think, 47 state laws, and um, so for the most part, we've got a pretty safe environment to do business in this industry, but you know, of course that can always change with elections and things. Uh, but right now I feel pretty confident in where we're at. But you know, my dad, you know, he loved being in the stores, he loved talking to our customers. You know, I remember there was a probably a time twenty-five plus years ago or so, we were in a store in Mexico, Missouri. There was a young man that was in a wheelchair, and he had one of those uh he had a keyboard and it kind of like a stick deal on his head that he had to use to kind of talk through the keyboard, and he was having a problem with his television or something, and you know, just watching everything this young man was going through and everything, and I just looked at my father and I said, Can we just give this guy a television? You know, I mean, and he's like, Absolutely, you bet we will. And I know there's another story with uh a lady had paid off her account, and you know, my dad came around the counter and just told her how proud he was of her for that and congratulated her on paying off the account, and the lady just kind of started to break down in tears. She's like, You know, Mr. Cleek, you know, I've never had anybody in my life tell me they were proud of me. Um wow. So just that, you know, way about him, uh, just making people feel good about themselves. You you know you knew everything with my dad was genuine, you know, it was from the heart. Um, you know, sometimes there was obviously some tough conversations, but I mean, you know, my dad liked to cut up, he liked to have fun. Um this business. He put everything, you know, he had into it, and uh he loved, you know, loved the rent-owned business. Probably wishes he would have got into it a little bit earlier, back in the 70s, a little bit more than the retail, but such is life, you know, you live and learn. So but then, you know, the best thing for me was the opportunity that I got to work with my father. You know, I I guess I could have gone and done anything else that I wanted to do as well, too, but I decided, you know, I worked all through high school and through college. You know, I knew that I was gonna work with my dad. So when I graduated from college in '93, um, you know, became the manager of the store, and then uh, you know, we had started to open up some more stores after that point in time and really started to expand and everything. So um, you know, I got the blessing to work with my father for 35 years. Um, one great thing about you know this industry, you know, is and I guess you mentioned some other mentors and things, but I mean, you know, we c we could uh pick up the phone and call about anybody in this business, and uh, we got a lot of great friends, and uh, you know, they're willing to share ideas, you know, willing to help each other out. You know, we have seminars and trade shows, and we all get in the same room, and yes, some of us might compete against each other or whatever, but I mean, you know, we're we're still trying to help each other out because we know at the end of the day we're all here to serve our customers. We're all here to make our team members better so they can provide better service to our customers. And uh, you know, that's 100% what what my father believed in. We love seeing customers own washers and dryers and mattresses and other products. You know, our company mission statement that I came up with, you know, a couple years ago, but you know, it's to you know to make a positive impact in the communities we serve and to improve the quality of life for our customers and team members. And uh, you know, we've tried to do that uh every day, but you know, we do some things within our community, um, you know, whether it's bowling for autism tournament or an ALS walk or donating TVs to a local youth group, or you know, we've provided uh turkey Thanksgiving dinners to six of our customers at each store, so we help make you know 30 of our customers' Thanksgiving meal a lot better.

unknown 48:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:11

My wife, Heather, was very instrumental in helping to orchestrate. We adopted two families, I believe, at each one of our stores to provide Christmas for those families. Oh wow. You know, just giving back to the community, supporting those that support us, um, are all things that my father taught me. And then I've, you know, I don't do a lot of things right, but one thing I am pretty good at, I'll admit, is raising money for organizations. I always I always joke I can raise money for every organization except my own. You know, it uh you know, you need, you know, like I'm kind of the guy now at April events, you know, when it's time to raise money, they give me the microphone. So I'm not afraid to put myself out there a little bit and everything, but uh, you know, you just gotta you gotta have some fun with it. You know, we got a good group of people in this industry. A lot of people have made quite a bit of money, and everybody is very generous, understands the mission, understands the cause. You know, one of the great things that APRO's done is the uh scholarship fund, you know, to help support kids going to college so they can chase their dreams. And uh you know, all three of my kids were recipients of APRO scholarship, so we appreciated that. And uh we support a you know a scholarship in my dad's name every year, and then you know they got the disaster relief fund. You know, unfortunately there's been a lot of hurricanes and windstorms and other tragic events that have affected our uh team members and other or April members and stuff. So, you know, we're all family. Uh you know, there's a lot of great family businesses at April, uh too many to mention, but I mean it just, you know, again, I got the opportunity to work with my father. You know, I've tell any of my friends, uh, you know, they've still got the opportunity to work with your dad to cherish every day, cherish every moment.

SPEAKER_00 50:05

You know what I will say, John? You know, I don't think the apple falls far from the tree. I see a lot of your passion, I see a lot of your leadership, I see a lot of your interconnectivity to the community, to the people that you serve all the time. I see it in you all the time. And you know, it's it's amazing when you when you get to say some of those things. And I it's great because I got to see the the magazine that finally came out with Chris Bolin on the front and the pages. You have those shining faces of some of the people that April has been able to touch with those scholarships. So that was great to see. But you know, my last question, I really want to ask this to you because you know, I didn't get to ask this to you the first time we had your first interview, and now we're talking about dad. But this one is really about you. Uh you don't fall far from the tree. I see a lot of it what he had in him and the way you represent yourself, the way you represent your company and your family. How is it to be able to do what you do and follow in your father's footsteps and be a success in the community and and be a pillar of the communities that you serve?

SPEAKER_01 50:57

Yeah, well, uh again, fortunately, um, you know, my mom and Cleek, who's still alive, and you know, my father, they were tremendous parents to me and gave me a lot of love. I had a great upbringing and everything, you know. So I'm first give a lot of credit to them. Uh you know, I've got a wonderful wife, Heather. We've worked together for the last five years. Uh Heather's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 51:22

I love Heather. I think she's amazing.

Tiger’s Legacy Of Service

SPEAKER_01 51:25

So she's obviously a very generous person as well, too, and loving heart and everything. And then, you know, we have uh, you know, some long-tenured team members have been with us 30 plus years and everything. So, you know, I just decided a long time ago that you know, if I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna do it the best that I can, gonna jump in, you know, a hundred percent. Uh some of this stuff that we've gotten involved with has, you know, in reality, kind of been through a personal reason or whatever. So, like, for example, you know, we have three adult children and then c a son-in-law and a daughter-in-law, but you know, our son Johnny's 30, and then our daughter Mary's 28, and then our youngest son, Thomas, is 26, and he has mild autism. So, and Heather has a uh has a master's and early childhood education and so forth. So she really, really utilized that a lot when it came to Thomas and so forth. But uh, you know, so to say that, you know, and you know, so we got involved with the autism association here in the the area, um, Easter Seals Midwest, what's called now. But um and then, you know, I saw the need, you know, they needed to raise funds so they could provide better services. So started a bowling for autism tournament 22 years ago. Um they've since renamed it the Cleek Family Bowling for Autism Tournament, so that's kind of a nice honor. Amazing. Um proud to say that you know, in the 22 years I've been doing this, I've raised over$600,000 for that organization. Um and then of course, you know, we we got involved, you know, our local church. Um, you know, they you know, so we do there the school the our kids went to a local Catholic high school and you know, it was kind of one of those from the ground-up deals. And so we got involved with that and helped raise some money in different events there. Um, you know, the food bank were very instrumental, trying to help out the food bank and and then, you know, unfortunately, kind of got involved with ALS and still, you know, raising money for them today, of course, not near to the impact that you know I used to back when my dad was still alive, but we'd still raise about ten thousand dollars for them a year, and we uh you know probably raised, I don't know, around 150 or so thousand since we got got involved. And you know, I uh I just you know I just find the time to make it work. I mean, uh some of the times it comes as the sacrifice of my business, um, which isn't always good, but you know, I'm a strong believer in trying to make other people's lives better, um, give them back to the community. And uh, you know, but I mean to be honest with you, if I didn't have a son that had autism, would I have gotten involved in the autism association? I don't know. Um, you know, we've gotten really involved with Special Olympics. There was a training for life campus that was built in Jefferson City, Missouri about, I don't know, seven or eight years ago. It's a state-of-the-art facility. I was on the Cam Camp campaign committee to help raise money for that. And, you know, so did my part there and so forth. But nonetheless, you know, I just want to see other people do well. I want to see uh, you know, I I love getting out to the stores too and visiting with customers. Uh, you know, I love selling things. I still make, you know, some collection calls, sales calls. I don't really do deliveries anymore because physically I just can't. I got kind of a little bit of an issue with my heart, but uh so physically can't really lift stuff like I used to. But uh, you know, I just uh I want to do my best to represent our company in a first class manner that my dad would be proud of and uh you know give back to our community and make other people's lives better.

SPEAKER_00 55:14

Well, I think you're doing a great job, John, and I'm I'm glad that you're here on this Legends podcast talking about Tiger John Cleek. John Cleek Jr., thank you so much for coming on and just having us today to be able to talk about this and all the things that you've been through, how much he really meant to this industry and everything. Guys, I want to tell you I really appreciate you stopping in and listening. Listen, if you have any questions or you want to be on the podcast and talk about some of the legends, hit me up, Pete at the RTO ShowPodcast.com. You can also go to the website www.thertoshowpodcast.com and go on there, buy some swag. It really helps out the show. Make sure you subscribe. You can see us on Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn and YouTube where you're gonna see this. I'm gonna tell you guys as always, John, thank you so much for being here. Tell Heather I said hello. Hopefully I'll get to see them this year coming up. I really hope I get a chance to do that again. The traveling this year is gonna be a little bit different, but thank you so much for being on the show. And I'm gonna tell you guys as always, get your collections low to get your sales high. Have a great one.