Building Beyond RTO: Mark Connelly on Expansion Done Right

A “short-term job” after the Marine Corps turned into a career that put Mark Connolly in charge of hundreds of rent-to-own stores, and the path there is anything but clean. We talk through the real story: job fairs, brutal hours, constant relocations, industry consolidation, and the leadership decisions that separate a manager from a builder.

Mark breaks down what actually scales an RTO business: recruiting great people, protecting customer experience, and never pretending collections are optional. He shares the hiring tells he trusts, the traits he knows he cannot coach, and the practical operating advice that helped him rebuild performance across multiple markets. If you run multi-unit operations or you’re trying to grow from one store to two, you’ll hear blunt guidance on when to slow down, when to push, and why profitability has to be the foundation.

We also dig into the Arona story and the broader portfolio strategy behind BCP: buying stores, investing in real estate, and expanding into businesses like Valvoline quick lube, restaurants, pet retail, and equipment rental. The thread that ties it together is simple and hard: keep great operators in place, treat vendors as partners, and don’t outgrow your leadership bench.

If you’re serious about growth in the rent-to-own industry, hit play, take notes, and then tell us what you’re building next. Subscribe wherever you listen, share this with an operator who’s scaling, and leave a review so more RTO leaders can find the show. What’s the next move you’re considering?

Transcript

Welcome And Sponsor Opportunities

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Hello and welcome to the RTO Show podcast. I'm your host, Peach Cow. I've got an amazing guest today. Real quick before we get into that, make sure that you subscribe, you hit that notification bell wherever you listen to us, whether it's Spotify, whether it's Apple Podcasts, whether it's YouTube, no matter where it is, make sure you subscribe. Also, reminders, we have some sponsorship spots available going into the summer season. Please let me know. The newsletter is out. If you want to sponsor that as well, you're more than welcome. Go to the RTO Show Podcast.com. Make sure you subscribe to the newsletter and then let me know if you need anything. Also, got to tell you guys, today, probably somebody that has done more in their lifetime than I can imagine. What a great turnaround that uh my guest has, Mr. Mark Connolly. I I can't even begin to start. Mark, you have so much going on, and I did not know how much you were a part of, but you have a conglomerate of things that you are a part of. I am I am so glad to have you on the show today. How are you doing? Doing great. I'm doing really good. Thank you. I you know, after going through my notes, I'm surprised that you have five minutes to talk to me. I really, I really am. I've seen some of the stuff on here, and I'm just like, it's it's amazing. So, first off, thank you for your service. Do appreciate that your service. I know that you uh you got an 89, but no matter what time you did, it was a great service to this country, and we do appreciate that. Um normally I have uh when we do some of our vets, I didn't have my shirt today, so I didn't wear it, but we have wear the red for remember everybody deployed. That's something that uh Vox does, and we we stick to that. We also do Wake for Warriors. This show is a very, very big proponent of making sure that we take care of our veterans. So thank you for that. So thank you down to the brass tax. How in the world does a Marine come out and do rent to own? Like I like I didn't see it, but not only have you done that, you kind of like conquered it. Like, where did that where did that come in and how did you get started in a rent-to-owned space?

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Um, so after getting out, you know, officer in the Marine Corps in 1989, I was out looking for a job and just had a baby, married, and uh needed a job after the Marine Corps. You know, never intended to stay in the Marine Corps, and so I went to a job fair and I met a guy named Dave Dunbar, and he was the regional manager for Remco, which you know he was based in Dallas. The Remco was based in Houston, and Chuck Sims was the owner of Remco and Rentko. He worked closely with Ernie Talley in Ernie Talley's early days, and uh and Chuck Sims started his own, you know, his own brand and got into a whole different business model in Rentone, which is a monthly business model. But Dave was there, and uh kind of I talked to him and and you know, came home, told my wife, you know, I'm gonna try this out for a little bit. Not gonna, you know, don't think I'm gonna stay in it, but I'm gonna I'm gonna do it until I find something better.

A Marine Finds Rent To Own

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Well, he's he says that, Anthony, we're like 58 Aurona stores later, he says that, right? Like, you know, I don't want to stick into a little I'm just gonna own half the planet, but it's okay, don't worry about that. So you you were a VP of operations for a 14-store color time franchise who worked at Remco, you were a part of Rena Center. Where did you you got in, you stayed? Where was the trajectory going? Like, was it really a thought process like, hey, I'm going into this and this is what I want to do, or was it like, hey, this is a job, I think this is pretty good for me, and then it sprouted from there.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

So it so it really, I mean, it truly was like, I'm gonna do this until I find something else. It was, you know, my wife hated me working on Saturdays type stuff. And if and I had a uh Monday through Friday offer, which was about 10 grand more than I would I was getting paid to do this. But well, when I started the SP, I'd I had a manager named Andy Jones in Irving, Texas was the first store I worked in. And uh Andy showed me his paycheck. And again, this is 1989. Andy with you know with bonus and 70,000 bucks. And and 70,000 bucks in 1989 was a lot of money. Even today managers, it's a lot of money. And but they paid a good percentage of profits and bonuses and things like that. And and I and I go and quite honestly, I said, Man, if he can make this kind of money, I can I know I can make a lot more because I just thought I was better.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Hey, listen, if you could do it, I know I could do it. I mean, 70,000 in in what eighty-nine is probably what one one oh five, one ten? Right about now? Wow. Yeah, I mean that's a that's a big it's a big deal. So before you got into ownership, you were in multi-unit and you got into a big multi-unit situation. So you're going from Remco to some bigger companies. When did you get into the multi-unit? And then how and how did you end up with 320 plus stores under the Renaissance flag?

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Right. Okay, so and then you know, so you go with Remco, and um in '89, '92, Rena Center bought Remco, and uh and I stayed with them, and and with that, I asked, you know, Rena Center also had another model called Thorn International Rental. They call it TIR stores. And so they had some some of those stores in so I ran a store for, you know, account manager for eight months, ran a store for two years, bought you know, Lena Center buys us. They offer me the region. Actually, it's a funny story to piece up. My boss is a VP, takes me to Cincinnati. I'm my wife thinks I'm in Houston. I go I fly to Houston to talk to him. Hey, hey, I want to talk to you. Hey, I want to offer you this opportunity in Cincinnati, Louisville. Let's go on a plane and we'll fly toward the stores. My wife's still thinking I'm in Houston. In the meantime, we're flying to Cincinnati. We go tour the store, Cincinnati, Louisville. My boss offers me the job, and I call my wife, and she I I go, hey, I got good news and bad news. She goes, Well, what's you know, what's the good news? I go, Well, I just got promoted. Well, what's the bad news? Well, I'm in Cincinnati right now, and I took the job right now.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

I couldn't imagine if if my wife called me and be like, hey, uh, you know, I'm I'm not in Florida anymore, right?

Promotions Moves And Big Acquisitions

SPEAKER_01 6:15

So, so to to to take that for so it did that about a year, and then uh and then they tried they uh with Remco, they transferred me to Chicago and gave me Chicago, Milwaukee, and uh it was about to give me Kansas City, so about a 40s-store deal. And uh and so moved to Chicago in an apartment. My wife and kids are still in Cincinnati, and during that time, during that was about five months, six months in Chicago, uh the old guy or guy named Danny Wilbanks, who's the CFO of Remco, went to Austin, Texas and bought a 12-store Colortown franchise that became a 14-store. And so he called me and said, Hey, do you wanna you wanna come run this colortown uh you know, stores for us that which are, you know, just around Texas and based in Austin, but we had Beaumont, we had Waco, Killeen, uh Huntsville, so we just all around Texas. I said, South Texas, you know, on on the border. I said, sure, I'll sounded good. Because at that time, the culture of Renaissance, you know, Remco had such a great culture, it just Renaissance couldn't match it. It just wasn't we just felt at Remco, we just, I don't know, we had a little we thought we were different, we thought we were better, and we were grew that way. And we and and we just we felt we treated customers better. We had a, you know, our stores are higher model, you know, higher volume, more profitable, and things like that. And and didn't mean the Renacenter was bad, just meant we thought we ours was better, and I you know, just left for that reason, you know, ran that color time. We did that for about two years. Again, took it from 12 to 14 stores, and then you know, Ernie Talley bought when he was at Ran, he bought Color Time. Well, then he bought our Color Town franchise, and so then I was all of a sudden with Renner's choice. And so during all this time, a lot of this was just I I was bought and sold a few times. We didn't didn't have any choice, and so uh I I drive up to Dallas and and uh first meeting with Ernie. We we have, you know, and at that time we had two regional managers in our 14 stores, and both of them were really good. One was at Andy Jones, who you know, he was my first store manager. The other one was a guy named Brent Gregorick, who's still a partner with me today, and we've been working together and best friends, and I was in his wedding, and we we've been hanging out for that long on 35 years. We've been working together as store manager, multi-unit, and he was the regional director with Venice Center, and and uh so yeah, we so uh had those two guys working with me, and then we we go to rent a show, so we go up there and and then uh so they're telling the you know Brent and and uh Andy, hey, they got regions, they would do this, and and uh they're gonna have this region. I go, Well, Ernie, what about me? You know, and and oh he he does this big spill. Hey, you have any questions? And I go, Yeah, what what about me? Like we're like I'm hearing what these guys are getting, I'm not hearing what I'm getting. And uh he goes, Well, we'll give we'll give you a you know, we'll give you a region somewhere, we'll give you a market somewhere. I mean, that was it. Um, Ernie was just so to the point and wasn't a lot of explanation. And uh he goes, Are any questions? I go, Yeah, I got a I got a question. And all his VPs are there, and he goes, Well, what's the question? I go, Well, you need a one-day notice, 30-day notice, what do you need? Because for me, there was no respect there. This is I just didn't approach her. I didn't didn't find out anything about me. Didn't and and by the way, our rent, our color town store, and Renters Choice had probably the best standards in the in the industry as far as collections. We were kicking their butt with our stores, you know, and and he, I'm sure he saw those numbers. So so he just didn't so so I did. I went and left, and and uh he said, Well, I'll tell you what, I'll pay you to the end of the month to go ahead and go. So I got up and that was my first meeting with Arnie Tally, and I just stood up, walked out and and uh found another job at Rentmart. And now there'll be no Rentmart, Rent, you know, so Ford Motor Company owned a company called the Associates. Associates owned Rentmart, started Rentmart, and based in Texas, and then we started opening Rentmart stores. Well, we're into that, and Rentmart just they were the first, you know, first group that said, uh, we don't need to verify, we're you know, we have two, three references is enough, and I go, guys, you guys are messing up really bad. You got to do a better job than this. And and we're going to inner city Houston. I had Houston, Austin, Waco, you know, all those same areas, and uh it wasn't that long, and and then they grew up, they opened 40, 50 stores in like a year, all from ground up. It was, I mean, they had that much money, it moved so fast, and then they just saw how much money you have to put in it, and so they just they sold the errands. And so I'm like, I'm not, I don't want to work for the errands, and uh don't didn't really want to do that at that time, and then moved and then a company called Central Rinse, another guy that worked for RemGo, uh, Steve uh Pearson was his name. So he said, Hey Mark, I have 40, 50 stores in the back in the Cincinnati area. And I said, I'll take it. And so I, you know, and we love Cincinnati, moved back to Cincinnati, took my wife's.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Wait, wait, wait. How how how often did you move? Like how does your wife not not go we're not moving again?

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Well, every two years. I mean, ever it's we never I mean I I probably you know, my wife got used to it, my kids, you know. I mean, there's some there's some trauma with that with your family, you know, your kids get in the sports and then they you move in the middle of the season, they they kind of lose interest or they get left behind and stuff like that. And that kind of happened. That was a that was a downside of that. But I was always a person if he gave gave me a promotion or an opportunity, I was like, yep, I'm taking it. You're gonna take it. To me, that's not so easy with people, right? You just hey, I just need you to run this store on the other side of the city. Oh, that's too far, that's too far. I don't like you know, I don't want to drive an hour. And uh and so those those are the things that were you know kind of happening, and then that's that's kind of what happened. And what's funny is so so I go up to central rents, and I don't know, I'm I'm I'm probably there three months, four months. So Ernie bought a oh say, so it runs central rents. Ernie Tally buys that three months into my club. Right back around. Right back renters, so renter's choice buys central.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Mark, didn't I just get rid of you? What Mark, what happened? I just finished paying you three months later, you're back on the payroll.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

You know, after these other deals, so so I did so I called Mark Speace, who was their president, and I go, Mark, I'm not gonna go through this again because I don't I'm not gonna stay here and keep working for you guys if it's just gonna be the same deal. And he goes, Mark, no, we need you. This is 200 stores we're buying. We need good people. We can, you know, we we made a mistake, kind of losing you that first time. We you know, we need you to stay. And and I stayed. And and uh and so Rent of Choice bought us. It wasn't I bet it was four or six months later, think they bought Rena Center. So Ren's Choice went from 500 stores, bought central rents, went to 700 stores, and then Rena Center's 1400 stores, and so at 500 to 700 to 1400, they Ernie did it that quick.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

I mean, it was huge. I re I was there during that when I so I worked for uh Renters Choice uh probably for about a year before they had bought, you know, with their before they acquired uh Rena Center, and it was it was crazy because I mean at that point in time I didn't know as much as I know now. I was just like, I know that they're bit the bigger guys on the block, but I mean Ernie Talley was not he he was just dude, he was a bulldozer. I mean, he was just gonna take and he was gonna take it all if he could. Got it. And it was huge. It was it was huge at that point in time.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

You know, he paid people well. He was he paid the manager way more than anyone else at that time, and and uh he knew the value of that side of the business. And uh yeah, so he so he buys central rents, uh he, you know, then he buys rent a center, and then with the fallout of that, became more opportunities. And so I went from and and renters choice called him regional vice president. Well, he flew me to Dallas, and I go to Dallas and do a little interview, and they offered me a regional vice president position over all the Midwest. So I went from running those 40 stores, did that for a little bit right after they bought us, and then then I had I don't know, 300 some stores in the Midwest, and then did that for a couple years, and then a couple years later they gave me Northeast, another 320 stores in the Northeast as a as a senior vice president.

Why APRO Membership Matters

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Anthony, I just want you to know I I got I got like 300 stores. Oh, no, they're gonna they're gonna give you some other 300. It's not a big deal. So 300 stores. 320 plus stores is what I accounted. Dude, that's not that is huge. I mean, we're talking about some dealers who would love to just have that, not necessarily just that part of it, but just to have that. I mean, that's an amazing feat. Let me ask you something. Are you getting everything out of your rent-to-owned business? If you're not an APRO member, then the answer is probably no. Look, advocacy is APRO's bread and butter. This is why they were created and what they do best. But here's the thing Apro membership is about way more than advocacy. Apro connected to the movers and the shakers of the industry, people who've been there, done that, and they could help you do it even better. Apro's monthly webinars give you expert insights and actionable takeaways. It's like having a masterclass for your business every single month. Got questions about complex regulations or sticky situations? No problem. April's legal hotline gives you direct access to experts who have got the answers. That's a peace of mind that you can't put a price on. And let's not forget the resources. News, updates, and tools that keep you ahead of the curve. Scholarship screen team, check. Is that the relief we need the most? Double check. April is your ultimate support system in the rent-to-owned world. So stop selling for less. With April members, get more. More support, more connections, and more success. Head over to rto.org and join the April family today. Because in this business, more isn't just better, it's essential. See you at the top with April. Now, uh, you know, so how much of the marine came out in you that got you these stores? Was it the performance? Was it the drive? Was it like, you know what, I'm just gonna make this happen? Like what where was the mindset to make 320 stores happen over, you know, not that long ago, we were running 14 color time stores.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Now you're running 320. I mean, that's that's a huge, that's a huge multiplier.

Discipline Faith And People First Leadership

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Well, so I I would say, so all of that. So number one, you have a wife and a family that support you, right? You can't go through that many moves and do those those things without that support. And I and I've seen a lot of good people like that I that I thought would be really great managers multi. And if they didn't have the support of their, you know, and this goes both ways, wives or husbands. If you don't have the support of that, it just breaks down, it doesn't work. Or then or they get divorced. I've seen a lot of people get divorced in this industry because people just the hours back then were weren't great, you know. Well, they were brutal. That's true. The 54-hour work week. Our standard week was a 54-hour work week, not a 40-hour week. And uh, so I grew up in normal, but yeah, a big part of you know, my dad, huge part of that, he was a phone number Marine also. And uh, you know, he'd wake me up every morning, six, seven o'clock, and there wasn't it wasn't you can get up later, I'm gonna come back later. It's like get up right now, you know, and then I'd he'd come in and boom, I'd jump up and I'm going to work, you know. And and uh so I think he was a job, the Marine Corps, absolutely what they taught you, you know, and you know, going through officer candidates school, you just have a lot of, you know, when you go through that situation, Pete, you're you know, they teach you to be in that combat situation. Never was, God bless I wasn't. And you know, the other thing, Pete, is you know, it's a God thing, you know. I think everything happens for a reason. And you know, my younger years, I I wouldn't say that. Today I I've been very blessed by, you know, because of that faith. And then that faith has grown over the years, and and a matter of fact, I I tell people and they go they because they know me, I'm still a party guy, still drink, I do that, you know, but I'm not a bad guy. I you know, I've I've been married 40 years this August. And uh Congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Congratulations.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

But I've been reading the Bible and again brought me in and out. I've read the Bible every day for probably the last 15 and 16 years. So that's why I think that's a big part of of what I've done. And and uh again, the Marine Corps, yeah, they they you know, they teach you to be in those kind of combat situations, you know, decisions you make as an officer affects whether people live or die. And so when I came into rent home, I'm like, this is easy compared to that, right? The pressure for that, if if I make a bad decision, I gotta, you know, call some soldier, you know, some Marine's wife and say, hey, your husband died because of my decision. Yeah. So and you know, that's that's that's kind of what they they put you through that. So once you get through that, you go through that training. I there's just nothing else. There's nothing that there's nothing more important than people. And and so that, you know, if you if you take that mindset into this industry and take care of your people and just you owe it all to them. And and and that's what my drive was, is you know, the the success for me wasn't what I did. I mean, it was early on feet, but it was really how many other people can I get promoted? How many people can I get to a store manager level, multiple unit manager, C level? And that's what I love doing.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Well, so Mark, help me out. Like as you're going through all this, how did you go from having that northeast region from Renaissance to being with Arona?

The Moment Respect Broke Down

SPEAKER_01 19:54

Okay, so this can be, and then this is the absolutely true story, Pete. And so it and it's weird, and people don't understand it, but it's just again, it's a principal thing, right? It's so that northeast region, by the way, I don't know, 350, 400 million in revenue, 20, probably 22, 23% profit. And uh so ran big stores, killed my budget, you know, beat all at the end of the year, and as the as the senior VP, we we'd have pretty good bonuses. So our max bonus was 100 Rand. And so we had a regional director meeting that, you know, they came in and you know, and you know, we had a trainer kind of come up there and started talking to all the regional uh all our retail directors, and and they were in one of my stores, by the way, the most the highest volume of store in the country, eight hundred thousand in profit. I mean and and annual base, this most profitable store in the in the cu in the company. And uh the trainer goes in there and comes back and he's just trashing all the things that store did wrong. Like in front of the whole group. And I just I you know, I took it personal. I I overreacted by the way, and and I go I and him his guy his and and I love the guy, and it didn't and I really should have sat back, walked out of the room, took a breath. And that's what they you're supposed to do, but the uh you know, I I just at that point in my life I wasn't quite like that. And so I just I stood up, I go, Joe. I go, you know, and I I maybe said the F-word or something like that. I said, I don't know, you know, why I don't know what you're doing here with the store. You should be going to that store finding out what they are doing, and let's share that with their this group and not what they're not doing. Everything's about what they're not doing, negative, you know. And he wasn't doing it, he didn't intend to do that, Pete. He's a great guy. And uh, but that's the way I took it. And uh and so bonus time came instead of getting my hundred thousand dollars, they gave me ninety-seven thousand. I mean, they took me three thousand bucks and and all my all my you know, other senior vice presidents got the hundred grand. And I go, That's it, I'm I'm I'm looking for another job. And so Charles Smith gone. Um, a long time during those Renco days when I lived in Cincinnati, he was opening his first stores in Louisville and and ran a great huge Aaron's franchise. He tried to recruit me to go to Louisville to open his first store. And I go, Charles, I can't go from 40 to 1 and uh and and so didn't do it. And I thought as soon as you know I left that that meeting and got a$97,000, I called Charles Smith, go, hey, you need me now. And so he he uh he he came and talked to me, but he had a at that time he had already hired uh Dave, um Dave Edwards, and Dave was doing a great job for him just so really didn't need both of us. And uh so he hooked me up with a guy named Tom Bernard. Tom Bernard at that time had five stores, five Aaron stores in the mid, you know, based in Des Moines. And so Tom called me. Tom flew to, you know, we met in Great Vine, Texas, and and uh where I lived at that time was you know, because a rental center was based in Dallas. And by the way, Ernie, you know, here's another funny story about Ernie. So all of us, all of us senior VPs wanted to keep the name Renter's Choice. Again, culturally, all that. And and Ernie tied a wanted to. Well, when Ernie saw the price tag of changing signs for the 1500 the 1400 rental centers to Renner's Choice, instead of changing the 500, you know, Rena Center to Renter's Choice Towers or he goes, No, we're gonna be rental center.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

Yeah. Well, I thought I thought of I thought uh I thought Renaissance Home Office was in Plano, Texas. It is. Rent Renaissance is in Plano, Texas. I lived in Great Pine, Texas.

SPEAKER_01 23:30

And so so yeah, then they're always in Plano. But before that, they were up in, you know, up in uh Kansas, Wichita before they moved it.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

Now I am curious because I've seen it and I just want to know. I see Arona, I see Aaron's. They are very similar with a placement of an A. Yeah. Did you do that on purpose?

SPEAKER_01 23:49

So no, I you so Tom Ranau, so if if Arona would, you know, time and and I didn't know this going in, I just thought, you know, again, we're always Aaron, but we're Arona Corporation D B A Aaron's. Well, when Aaron's went public the first time, the stock was called A-R-O-N-A, Arona A. A-R-O-N-A. And so Tom used that name Arona as his company name when he became an Aaron's franchise. And so when we when we left Aaron's, which was a you know, it was a mutual thing, and it was nice, and they're you know, very still friends with them, still talk to, you know, just a matter of fact, had a had a uh uh conversation with the president this last week. And so still we're still very friendly, and we just we came to terms, said, hey, we got to go this way, you guys are kind of staying in this, you know, going this way, and and uh we we you know managed to to exit that system and become uh Rona Homo essentials. So we just switched all our Aaron's names to Arona Homo Sanchovs at that time.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

So one thing that I really wanted to get into, especially in this podcast, because you have such a background, it's it's diverse. You've been a part of a lot of companies, you've had multi-unit, you've gone small, big, you've seen the big guys take bigger guys, you've been you've been acquired and gone out of that. Going into a Rona and then beyond that, which we'll get into that in a few minutes. You know, the entrepreneurial spirit that you have, regardless of being shifted around, regardless of what part of the country you're in, I mean, Mark, you've kind of laid a footprint and it's just grown. I mean, it's it's literally grown into a very large part of what we do and more and what other people do. I mean, 58 stores is not you know, when we're talking about 1400 stores and 500 stores, 58 stores is quite an accomplishment, regardless of the fact. And and that's from what I hear, I mean, Aurona's got an amazing culture. I know right now that, you know, I I've interviewed some of your people. They're they love being here, you know, um and and doing what you do. When you started that journey, and now that you're you know, now that you're doing a Rona and you you were at five, we're at 58 now, when was that? And how did you how did you really come up with the idea like we need to scale, we're going to grow? What were the the you know the bumpers and and the things that you came across as you said, you know, once we cross this plateau, we're gonna have more, we're gonna become more. And then, you know, the trigger point to literally go outside of rent to own, because you're we've been talking nothing but rent to own, but your portfolio has more than rent-to-own stores, which is another reason why I want to talk to you, because I mean, you you know, people in rent to own are very entrepreneurial, they have that spirit. They want to grow, they want to do what they can. Now, what I've seen in some is they'll either branch out and do another rent to own or they'll do a tire and wheel. You went a completely different, you have literally different companies or different parts of the company that do different things. And I really wanted to get into that. Where where did the growth from Aurona come from? And then what triggered you to go into other businesses?

Arona Origins And The Name Story

SPEAKER_01 26:54

So um two, you know, two big readings. Number one, Tom Bernard, you know, my you know, he's again, he's our principal owner. He calls myself and Brent partners with him, and we are. He treats us as complete partners. And uh he's he's always had a now when we signed with Internet, we had an 11th store development. And and when I went to Des Moines, I said, Tom, I'm gonna we're gonna get to I'm gonna help you get this 11 stores or we're gonna cash out in five years and move back to Texas. So you know, so that was 23 years ago, Pete. So or 22 years ago. So those things changed. What do you was gonna just take that one job until I got something better, and then I was gonna stay up in Des Moines for five years, and here I am. I've I lived there 17 years, still working with him. But but Tom's always been the driving force. He's like, he just has this vision of doing all these other things, and he grew up, and you go back to you know, multi-tenrant, his dad was a Harvard graduate, his his grandfather still owned businesses, so way into his 90s, his dad ran banks into his 90s, owned his banks, and uh they just worked, they worked forever. And uh, and so Tom's always had that drive. And then as we were growing around, and so we were growing that, you know, we we did our new stores in the the areas we had, but the best the best way to grow is just buy other Aaron's franchisees or Aaron's corporate stores. So, for example, we bought South Florida all from Aaron's corporate. We bought 10 stores at one time from Aaron's corporate. Oh, wow. They were struggling down there, south South Florida's tough market, and uh, and so that gave us that opportunity. We bought a franchisee in Michigan, we bought some franchisees in Missouri, and so that's kind of you know, and then and then we still do new stores. We do a couple new stores in Puerto Rico, and uh so we, you know, that's kind of what we did on the Arona side just and it's 48 stores beat, not 58.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Oh, so I'm sorry, is it 48? I'm I apologize. That's okay, that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

So now that are so when we were about 17 stores beat, and and and uh then we just bought some more corporate stores in the in Nebraska. I think it was six stores in Omaha and Link, you know, all those areas of of Nebraska. And Brent Gregorick, who was also a regional director with Renaissance, left ran it, ran his own Aaron's franchise with with some investors. They sold back to Aaron's corporate. And I go, Brent, you got to come back and join us. And uh, and he did, and that just put us on steroids because he's I mean, just an amazing operator, amazing, you know, great with people, like you said, and and so and because of us three, Tom, myself, and Brent, we just you know, we we did everything. We did the real estate, we did the marketing, we did, I mean, it didn't, you know, we did the legal work. We did it was just and we grew it to a a point where today we you know we have people that do all that, but up really up until about four or five years ago, Pete, we we didn't have any of that. We just did it ourselves. And and uh I really think we were lucky, you know, again, call it a blessing. We we got by, we you know, we were negotiating leases and reading them and we're like, Yeah, this is okay. And we didn't know if they were okay or not. We didn't have the legal background. But Tom was a lawyer, so he was the so we always had that check and balance on that side. But we also grew beyond where you know he couldn't do all that. We had so much going on that it was just hard to keep up with. And so those are the two things, you know, Tom and Brett. Those Tom, Brett, and Mark, it's a it's a that three-legged stool.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Well, you you talk about successes. I have that there at one point in time, Arona was listed as one of the fastest growing companies from 2009 to 2014. What was it like to really go from being sold, moving, growing, being sold, moving, growing, and then on your own? Well, I don't want to say on your own, but but as a group that you just mentioned now, to be able to say we're one of the fastest growing companies for almost five total years listed, somebody actually recognized that that we were just on the move and making it happen. I mean, what kind of how does that make you feel knowing that you're on the right track?

Scaling Stores Through Smart Buying

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Well, oh, you it you know, so when you look at my office, I have all those plagues in my office. You know, top 500 or top 5,000 fast food economic companies. And, you know, and when you go from six to twelve, that's a big jump. You go from twelve to twenty. You know, when and when you have those kind of jumps, and you buy 10 stores at one time when you're you know, 17 stores, then you buy 10, all of a sudden you're 27, then you're 27, you buy 10, you're 30. Those are big jumps, and that's it's kind of eating, you know, today would be harder unless we, you know, bought a 40 or 50 store, we could do that again. So we haven't really tracked that as much as we did in the past, but he but that was fun. It was just fun doing that, celebrating those those wins with with our team.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

So I mean, it's great to be recognized. You know, you mentioned five years. You mentioned that you were gonna get in, you're gonna do five years, you're gonna cash out after so many stores. I I I in some of my research, was that the five-year promise that you made to your wife that after your five years you were gonna you were gonna kind of call it and then and then it and then it just kind of blew past.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Yep, yeah. That's exactly that's exactly what happened. You get you know, the game, the game's fun, Pete, right? It's the it's you know, you look at, you know, I mean, how many, you know, I mean, it's um you're a Tampa guy. You love the fact that Tom Brady didn't quit when he didn't he came to Tampa.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

Oh god, yeah. Oh god, listen, I don't care who says what. I am so good. Anthony knows it, I am so glad he came over here and got a championship. You know what? I think you can say what you want to, right? I I listen, I'm a Gronk fan too. I was so glad to see them come and at least do that one time for Tampa Bay. You know, puts it Belichick. I'm sorry, dude, it wasn't you all the way. I mean, Brady's just a player and a half, you know. He had a great team, and and you know what? I mean, a little bit. And it wasn't about money at that, right?

SPEAKER_01 32:43

So the only point it's never about money anyway. You when I was young, it was always about money. It really was self, you know, so you know, my own awards, that manager of the year. I just mean all those that that meant a lot. You know, bonuses, you know, Rem probably got a$10,000 bonus for being manager of the year. It was an awesome experience. It was great, you know. Wow. But the older you get, it's not about it's it's it's about being in the game. It's about working with the people that you truly love. You just they're truly teams, and they become your extra family, and then they truly are. You know, Brent, you know, we call him up. He's he's he's my brother. It's not, he's not, you know, he's not a co-worker. He's he's you know, we're in each other's families. We're he's my daughter's godfather, I'm his daughter's godfather. So it's that's just the way, and you don't want to leave those people, you know. It's you know, the game's fun, the competition's fun, we're you know, the team's awesome, and then your family, you know, and uh so you just you kind of just stay in it until it's those things go away. If it's not fun, or you know, there's a time I guess we're all gonna get old where we can't keep doing it, and you know, that will happen to all of us someday. But you know, as long as it's fun and it's you know, you're grown and you're enjoying it and you're working, and uh it's you know, think of this industry's done a lot for my family because put all my kids, you know, all my kids are successful, put kids through college as but you know, my my wife and my you know and myself houses along the way, and we've we've been very blessed because of this.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

Let me ask you Let me ask you a question because you know you mentioned other people before. You said that uh Brent was an excellent operator. You said that Ernie Talley was like straight to the point. He was the guy who went out and got it, he acquired it, he grew it. What is Mark Conley's claim to fame? What what led you to your success? What was that you know, one or two things that you say? This is what I did, and and I was good at that. That was my personality, that was the driver that helped me lead to my success.

Hiring Signals You Cannot Coach

SPEAKER_01 34:42

Yeah. Um, so I think probably more than anything, you know, what again, going back to the Marine Corps, what it taught me, it's it's all about people, D. And I think, you know, I think probably one of my probably one of my strongest traits, and I think this is why I was promoted really early as a store manager. I did almost all the recruiting for the region, and so did Brent, by the way. So Dave Dunbar, who was our regional manager, he he took us to every job for he did, you know, anytime it was, hey, recruiting somebody, interviewing somebody, it went through myself and or Brent. And uh he taught us, you know, as young managers how important people were. And and so Peter, you know, I'd hire somebody, bring them in, and I train them, and they and Dave would take him out and give them another store. But I'd hire somebody else and bring them in and sound and and I just knew as long as you kept bringing in great people, everything's you know, company's gonna grow, your store's gonna grow, and and and your customers are gonna still love you. And that would there's always that, well, what's what's gonna happen? Your customers love these people. But as long as they're great people, and and and I just had I I caught on really quick to that fee. I knew how to interview and and hire good people. And and when I, you know, not that I was perfect, but I also was one of those that if I made a mistake and didn't hire right, I would, I, I, I, I would, you know, I would fire right too. I would make people, I'd have they'd have dignity, but I'd have to let them go. Hey, this is not the industry for you. I thought it was, maybe you thought it was. Man, you're gonna be so good doing this or something like this. You just you can't do this. You just can't. It's not fair to you or me or any of the other people around here to keep you here. And you know, I'd take them to line and I'd still do that. And years later, I mean, I've had a couple people come back and knock them out. Hey Mark, it thank you. Uh, you that was the best thing that could have happened to me. It's I moved on to a different career that been very successful, and as much as it hurt me during that time. And so I think just the people side feet is is I I think I was just always really good at that, just because I you know, it I valued that. It just that that's too that's inside me who I was, and that's the upbringing my parents gave me.

SPEAKER_00 36:47

So well, I want to I want to walk off the the beaten path for just a second because you bringing all these people on and being able to see um sometimes within people what they don't even see for themselves and being able to to to pick the right people to be in the right places, that's actually a very good leadership trait, a management trait. Give me a like a little detail. You're sitting across from somebody, what are some of the tells that you would say, you know what, I know this guy or this gal is going to be right for the rent-owned industry, or you know what, I think you're gonna be right, but maybe not for this industry. What what were your tells? What how did you go about it and decide? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

You get so yeah, so I I'll go back to, you know, again, I'm store manager in Dallas. I I go run Cincinnati, Louisville tour, tour that with the VP, and I think there were I think there were six stores, seven stores. Oh, actually, I'll even go beyond that. Same, same story. I go to work for Tom on these Aaron stores, right? So he's got six to call it six stores. Take the initial tour, I we come back, Tom goes, how'd it go? I go, well, Tom might say, uh, well, but what's gonna happen is your best store manager is probably gonna be the our worst store manager, and the other five I'll replace and within the next three or four months. And uh because I just knew they were you know, and it's just it's just it's a gut feeling that you can get. You've been in the industry long enough. You work with people and you just you see how they interact with customers. You know, to me, if I'm looking for a person it's a c if that door opens and somebody just doesn't instinctively like look at that customer, greet that customer, drop everything, I mean everything, to greet and and talk to that customer, there's something wrong. That's not the person or people that I want in a store. And uh so it doesn't, and and so those are the you just kind of can see, you know, store could be, you know, it you know, again, I promoted a manager one time in in Des Moines and you know, one day there's this big screen TV that came in for service. I come in the week later, that TV's still sitting at the front of the store. You know, seriously, I don't need to talk to somebody about stuff like that. I just don't. I I I can't coach, I can't coach that, don't want to coach that. I'm not gonna I'm I if I can't work on personality, I can't work on work ethic. Right? If that if you don't bring those two to the game, I there's not a lot I could do for you, so I can't help you. But if you bring those, I'll I'll do anything for you. As long as you're willing to go and and work and and things like that, then I I'm I'll do anything for you. But you gotta do that. And so uh and so you just get it, you just you just kind of get over the experience of working with people for that long. You just kind of get a sense of, yeah. Or but you also might see somebody on the sidelines go, man, that person's really, really shy. You know, and they're not even in, they're not running the show. But they got something in them that I can just tell by the way they're talking or asking questions or conversing with the customer. And I'm like, let's work, you know, man, let's get them trained, let's get them into some leadership program, let's, you know, so those are the things you're just always looking for. You know, as well.

SPEAKER_00 39:51

Was there ever one of those uh were there with this was there ever one of those questions that were like uh this is the go-to question that I have or something, an exercise that you did with any of your uh in in your interviewees that you were like, I pretty much do this in almost all, maybe not all, but almost all of my interviews just to kind of give me a feel, you know, a special question, a comment, uh some kind of work workbook thing or anything.

SPEAKER_01 40:16

You know, I don't you know, it's not not really. I mean it's you know, we're uh again, and and Brad would be the same way. So we're in Remco. Remco, I there I there's not another company today that spends the money that Remco did on training. And I'm talking the you know, the you know, Mark Kamen courses, uh, you know, the uh the um the uh Disney uh Vance uh Mike Vance. I mean we had we had all those. We the the management program for that company was 19 days. You go down to Houston, that was all cost, you go down to Houston for 19 days and go through these training courses, and and they just made a big a huge emphasis on the people side. And uh and so I think I just brought a lot of that without, you know, we don't have a 19-day champ. You know, we're we're on the job and we're just seeing what's going on and and just a lot of contact. But you know, and what of the you know, I probably some advice I got from a guy named Robert Harris, who was a VP, and and uh and so we're going around like uh Cincinnati little bill. He goes, Mark, you just you can't fix every store at once. You just can't. You just you gotta start with one, you gotta get it fixed, get the people, get the credit, get the game, get the you know, get all the things in place. And uh, and he goes, and then you know, you can start with that and you know, say it's a week or two or whatever you gotta do, and then go to the other one. And then a year, and instead of waiting, you know, because I was bouncing around a lot as a as a multi, my first multi-unit. I was just jumping, trying to fix everything. Well, he said, Mark, stay put. And think about it. If you got seven stores in seven weeks, where you would be if you spent a week in every one of those stores, instead of bouncing around, spending two hours here, three hours there, half a day there, day there. I mean, driving all around, and you're just he goes, just think of where you I go, wow. So, you know, then at that time, Pete, and and and so what I just did, I just said, you know what, it it's a similar deal that when I we I walked in the Aaron's, but when I walked into those, uh I I just knew out of those six stores I needed to replace four to five of the managers. So I went and hired five great people. And and and not, you know, hired more than that and other business, but five potential managers that I said, these these five, I have to like, I need to ramp them up because I don't have time to wait, and and I'm not a very patient person on you know, stores not performing. And so I'm like, and so anytime, you know, and and it was kind of bad thing, because I'd say, hey, guys, you know, on your day off, I want you to spend time with me, and and I'll be in any store and I will work on anything we all, you know, with that store. So you can be with me. It could be merchandise in a store, it could be, you know, working accounts, it could be doing this, but you're all gonna be with me. And uh, and and while I'm while I'm you know doing some of these things, and I made them all under if you want to do that, great. If you don't want to do it, that's okay too. But I'm just trying to get you promoted as fast as you can. And because all of you are will be replaced with some of these other managers I got right now because they just don't they don't have it, they're good people, they're gonna treat you right and all that. But I you know, I need you to personally spend time with me so I could show you all these things. And and then I, you know, again, right, Dave Dunbar, when I first took out, I brought them up to Cincinnati to help me kind of run the stores when I was out recruiting, because I had to go spend a lot of time recruiting, and and I was fortunate enough to have good friends in the business that would help me run the day to day stuff while I was out building a team. And uh, and they and they would help train them to be, you know, I'd hire them and put them in those stores. So, you know, that now there's a downside to that, B. So so you got to find people that you spend a lot of time with, you got one opening, and all of a sudden you take one that you can. Is the best at that time. And so you you plug that person in. And so you might make a mistake there, but it's still bet way better than what you had. But but you might piss off one of the ones you didn't promote that thinks they're better than that five. And so you that's the that's the risk of that. But it was definitely and and I've and I did. I lost a really good person that I thought probably was numbered out of those five. She was probably two or three on that list. My number one was my number one, and I promoted him, and she got mad and left. So and and she would have had the very next stop. She would she would have had it. But it just happened to be the store that she worked in where I promoted the guy. And so she got mad at me because that was the store she was working in. And he to this day, he kicked butt. You know, it would she if she would have stayed, she would have been promoted next and and she would have been running great stuff.

SPEAKER_00 44:51

So but I mean Mark, we can't we can't win them all, right? I mean, we do the best we can with what we have. Hey everyone, it's Pete Chow here from the Arts Go Show Podcast, and I want to tell you about a company that's making a real difference in the rent-owned space. WoW brands. I've seen firsthand how they approach marketing. And let me tell you, it's not just about ads. WoW brands build complete digital ecosystems designed specifically for the rent-owned. Their e-commerce and integrity are built with qualified data. Wow also being members of Facebook and these folks are actually profitable. They don't just clap stuff together, they design, build, and scale the kind of digital retail tools your business needs. So if you're serious about growing, reach out to WoWBrands at WildBrands.com. I trust it, and I think you will too. I think in most cases a Rona would be enough, but uh BCP now includes Valvelines, real estate, restaurants, car lots, finance company, which we're going to talk about, the finance company, uh, and a marathon. What uh like that is a huge portfolio. How did it go that far outside of rent to own? Because again, what we're talking about for the last 40 minutes has been rent to own. You know, this is rent-to-wn, it's how we do, but you you have now included all of these other businesses in what you do. How do you maintain? Because rent to own is a very involved business. How do you maintain being involved in rent to own and still actively successfully running these other businesses?

WoW Brands Marketing Shoutout

Diversifying Beyond Rent To Own

SPEAKER_01 46:28

So again, it goes back to the people, the people you get to run those, but it so it starts out, you know. So you you look at a run up, we start out, so hey, let's just own our own locations. You know, Aaron's really kind of wanted standalone stores, bigger, you know, footprints, and and uh, and again, this is where Tom comes in. Hey, let's buy, so we started buying real estate, you know, and and or if leases were coming up, hey, let's buy real estate, let's move our stores into that. And so we just started growing the real estate business from that initially. Tom also had a a uh Globe balloon, but he had he did have a subprime finance company prior at the same time, very small scale, but he had that before. And uh, and so we kind of had that all along, and but then we boom, we started morphing into real estate. And then, you know, on the Valveine, we had a guy come in that was that Tom had knew. He came in our office one time, and this this Valveine company just went, I don't know, they were thirty, five, forty store, they went bankrupt and they were going through the this guy came, Hey, you you guys can buy the stores in the Des Moines area. And so we bought the we bought five Valvein stores in Des Moines and uh out of bankruptcy, and so we we said we'll we'll start with that. And so uh today we're you know, so that's how it started. We went back and bought the rest of that company, we bought the other thirty-five stores two years later. And then we start and and then so we just you know, and and so now today, uh yesterday we bought two more, that puts us at 89 in that, doesn't speak. And so we'll be with what we're building right now without any other acquisitions, which I I hope we get, you know, another acquisition or two, but we'll be 94.95 by the end of this year, just on what's the number, you know, and just what we've already bought the ground, started building things like that, just new stores, you know, de novo type stores. And so you know, restaurant. Tom Tom bought a Hick Creek Park, it's called Hick Creek Park Barbecue. It's probably the largest volume restaurant in the state of I does ten to twelve million dollars in in revenue on an annual basis in a barbecue restaurant. It's a machine, but we have a lady named Tracy. Tracy worked for the previous owner, and uh, she's an amazing operator. She she knows all everything about that business. She's still with us. And you know, so when you look at and and so then again, you you look at other, you know, so now the real estate, 140 relocations, uh banking, you know, I think it's eight bank charters, eight smaller banks that are under our umbrella. Now that's where Tom's, you know, uh sadly Tom's dad passed away, but so now that's under our umbrella. Um the uh Des Moines Marathon, you know, one day it's just a one event thing that Tom bought, gosh, I don't know, 12 years ago, something like that, and wasn't really making money. I I think they yeah, I can't even tell you how many races we have under that umbrella. I think it's you know, we we own some and we manage some for other people, but I think it's 20-something races, maybe even more peak. I don't do I don't really spend any time on that. Brent kind of spends more time in all these other business where now I've I've moved into the merger acquisition side, and Brett, you know, and then Brent hired a guy named Shannon Griffiths that is a great operator to run our Valvelline. You know, we got Tracy running that. So we got it at Pestiplied Plus two years ago, you know, bought 10 or no, we bought uh seven stores. And then uh opened one last year, year before, and then we bought two in Chicago last year, and now we're in the process of buying four to five more. So we'll be 15 of those here probably by June. And uh, and that's that's just it just starts with one. But but the key is you buy them that are currently operating and you have good leadership in place on those. Our Pet Supply Plus business, a girl, a lady named Susie, who's a partner with another guy running those, well, she stayed with us. And uh and now we're growing that business. So if you can buy a current business that's successful, profitable, has a good leadership team that comes with it, and hopefully it's a you know, like a somebody wanting to retire, just get out of the business, just tire or whatever, but the operators stay, then then we won we want to look at that. That's kind of Tom's more and you know, it's just diversified and it's it's helped during those COVID times during things like that. You know, people like during COVID, that restaurant, you know, we 250 employees we in that restaurant, by the way. Uh work time, it's in a college time, but you know, and Brent had to go up there during COVID, and you know, when the state shut us down, we had to shut we had to let everyone go. You know, all of a sudden then we started opening for you know tick up service, things like that, things started coming back. Now we're back to full service, and I still don't think we we're back to 250, but I think we could we could probably bring that many in and we could hire that many.

SPEAKER_00 51:16

So I mean that's every business is my hands like that. So how does so you're going you have all this, you're a part of all this. You wake up Monday morning. What does your week look like? What what does a week in Mark Connolly's life look like with all this going on?

What Mark’s Week Actually Looks Like

SPEAKER_01 51:36

Yeah. Um so again, every company has a chief operating officer. So they're doing their own meetings. Now we have what we uh we we call it BCP for now capital partners. We have a meeting every uh every Monday, 9 30 a.m. And we all talk about what we're working on. So me being the merger acquisition guy, I'll talk about hey, here's some deals coming up, working on this, working on that. There's pet supply plus here. There's a you know, oh rental. We just bought an equipment rental business, by the way, last the 17th of this month. Our first venture in equipment rental. And so um again, it comes with a great operator, good business model. We really thought some of those products we could do something in in the irrelevant side, maybe not. May I think it's still a completely separate business, but that's a big business. And uh, and so we start with one and with the good leadership, and we we want to grow it. But our so we'll talk about those things. Uh, we have our general council now. We you know, again, think think about I think we have eighteen hundred employees feet in in a year and a half, two years ago was fourteen hundred employees. And so that's how fast we're growing now. And uh, and so we got a general council in-house, and again, Brent and I handled all that for the longest time, and so we got a great general and CFO over all that, and you know, manages all the money, banking relationships, all HR, VP of HR, Amy Lynn, she's been with us for years, and she's yeah, she's our rock star in our whole and in our company. And then uh we got a VP of real estate now because our real estate holdings, and with all the leases, we got to have that going on. And so um, and just think on the real estate side, you got to refinance every five years. You know, you don't sign 20-year fixed rates on real estate. You're it's uh every five years you gotta re-up those. And so with 140, well think, you know, just divide that by five, that's how many you got to refinance. So you gotta have great CFO, great banking relationships, great partners. And and we think everything's you know, kind of like the our our vendors are partners, Pete. And so all those people that help us are partners with us, and we treat them that way, and it and it goes back to the people side of everything. So but it's still I mean, I tell us it's not I I just couldn't imagine.

SPEAKER_00 53:51

I mean, that that's an amazing day. How do you how so if you're in the merger and acquisitions, how do you come across the deals that you do to bring it to the partners and go, I think this is a good idea? Like, where does it come from?

SPEAKER_01 54:02

So, you know, in the rental one, it's just the relationships I've built over the years. It's easy. You know, I I know enough, and and really being part of April, being part of Trib and going to those meetings, you're always and and you you know, people will come up to you and say, Hey, you guys interested in buying this many stores or that you you want to do this, or and so you're that's kind of the relationship I built and other people have built over the years that you just you stay in the know on that. Valveine is very similar now. You know, we valveing has an annual meeting. So I go to those and I'm talking to every Valve lean franchise. Hey, if you ever, especially the ones with great hair like mine, a little older, I go, hey, if you ever you start with that, right? Because that just makes sense. They're gonna retire, they're gonna, you know, and just hey, if you ever anytime you want to depart and you want somebody to run, you know, we'd be your exit strategy. And then uh, and and I get a list, like on on, you know, the quick lubs, I'll get a list of quick lubs in our areas, the mom and pops, and you know, I'll send them, I'll send them an email if they're or or if there's a phone number, I'll call them, try to get the owner's name. And in valveing quite a lot as a partner, they do a lot of that. They go out and knock on doors. They have people that, you know, knock on doors all around the, you know, all around the country, but in our area that and and they'll send us leads. And so uh and then you know, just Tom will bring Tom has great relationships with very successful business people that will talk to him and they know what he's about. And so they'll say, hey, you you want to buy like there's a music company that was for sale. Tom, you want to do this? And and uh, and so heck, we got a construction company now that because our valve, and we have to build so many, we said it makes sense to just build it ourselves. And so that construction company was last year, and it's already it's already profitable. Made money is first year, so wow, it's it's just those are the things you just got to do.

How They Source Acquisition Deals

SPEAKER_00 55:48

What are we doing, Anthony? I I feel like I'm not doing enough. We're doing something wrong. I feel I feel like I feel like there's so much more left on the table. Have you ever thought about the tire and wheel? I don't know. I've you ever thought about the tire and wheel business now that we're talking about that? I don't know. I'm just curious. Have you ever thought about it? I mean, uh they're pretty profitable uh businesses. I don't I don't know if we're gonna shed a light to that one. I mean, coming into the end, I kind of feel like I haven't done enough with my life, Anthony. I gotta do more. You know, when I when I look at what you've done, Mark, it's it's amazing with with the group that you're you're with and the things that you were able to accomplish. You know, being able to come from you know humble beginnings to having this long-term relationship with your wife, which number one, that is a blessing. That is a that is a that's something more important than anything else, you know, your faith. And then being able to be a part of what you're being a part of, that that's amazing. And it was great to see you in DC, by the way, just to say, we did see uh Mark in DC, which was uh a great time. If you guys haven't been to LedgeCon, I'm going to tell you, and yes, I am a spokesperson, but I want to tell you, LedgeCon is amazing. You need to go and advocate for the industry because this is how we stay alive, especially what's going on right now in in New York and a couple other states. You always want to advocate, you want to always be on the front end of that, and that's the way to do it. So think about Ledge Con 2027. And uh, and then if you have any questions, you can always ask Mark how he's doing because he's doing great right now, apparently.

SPEAKER_01 57:12

You know, you said what that I've done, it's not, it's what we've done. We, you know, and again, I go back to Tom, Brent, and Mark, and uh, and then our team, you know, Jason, who runs our rent owned, Shannon runs our you know, valveing, uh, Tracy that runs the the restaurant, and Susie runs the Pestify Plus. It's they all have a name and they're all just great people, and that's it's it's it's you know, and plus all that some you know, the the general counsel, the CFO, the DP real estate, our BPA, it's all of that. You can only do it with that kind of group.

SPEAKER_00 57:44

Well, congratulations to them and what they're doing. Quite amazing, I'm gonna say, Mark, quite amazing. Love to hear it. Listen, I want to ask you some quick questions. Um, and I just want to get your thoughts on it towards the end here. What mistakes do you see that even experienced operators make when they expand?

SPEAKER_01 58:01

Um, probably the biggest one is it's you know, overexpanding, expanding too fast, growing, you know, growing beyond your people. And uh, and so when I say that, if you know you're five stores and say you're gonna go buy you know another five or ten stores, that's hard. You know, especially, you know, the the the challenge is when you buy somebody like that, if you if you if they don't stay, I mean that's that's just a lot of work. And you can and and so you know to me, and and even you know, say an acquisition where you're buying accounts. If you if you have a manager in a store, and I love buying accounts, by the way. It's it's just a great, you know, it's an easy add-on, typically. But if you don't have a manager that's really managing your store that great right now, don't don't add in anymore. Don't do it. And and so just don't outgrow your people. You know, make sure that's a big part of any growth. And if you have the people that can support it, go for it. Go all out. As long as you think it's a good business, the thriving business, and things like that, go for it. You know.

SPEAKER_00 59:03

So for those people who want to expand, how do you know when your business is in good enough hands to be able to expand to a second?

Expansion Mistakes And Profit Rules

SPEAKER_01 59:10

Uh, you're very profitable at the first business, you know. If if you're if your first store is not making money, why would you open a second one? Right? I mean, that does that makes that's always made zero sense to me. You know, I'd gotta go, you know, and and I know operators right now have six stores and they've had one of those stores been losing money for 10 years. Well, why is it still open? Why shut it down? I mean, don't who cares about numbers like that? I don't we've always said profit, you know, yeah, we're we're very people oriented, but you know, we're in it to make money. We're not there's we don't make any, you know, we don't apologize for that. That's we can only grow if we're making money. We can only hire more people if we're making money. We can't do any of that if we're not making money. And so it just makes no sense to, you know, I I've seen people do it. You know, though they're at one store, maybe it's a great store, and they they all of a sudden they open a second, that second's not even profitable. They're open a third and a fourth.

unknown 1:00:04

Really?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:05

I've seen it too. I've seen it stop, slow down, wait for that second one to kind of get up. And uh, and then when that second one's there, open the third, and you know, and then you can build faster as you get more, you know, your base gets bigger. Yeah, you can do multi, but don't don't go from one and open three more, right? That's dumb. Now, if you go from one and buy three good ones, that's different. You know, because then you're you're profitable, you got cash flow, you got those things coming in. That that makes a huge difference.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:33

Last question. What's your specific advice for someone in RTO looking to translate what they know into an adjacent opportunity?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:41

Um, you know, we've done a lot of things that, you know, we we know what our customer is. So, you know, okay, if you're in Rentone, I'd I'd probably look at R and R stores, very same customer base. I'd look at, you know, we we you know, we have a subprime, you know, car finance company. And uh, you know, I don't know, you know, we we looked at JD Byrider a long time ago. You know, we we we feel we're good in that space. We we we know the customers. We're we don't we know exactly who they are, we know how to treat them, and they're great people, they're hardworking people, and and so if you if you want to do that, but same time, you know, if you're if there's an opportunity in multi-unit anything that's making money that has good people, and we've looked at quick serve restaurants, you know, and that I've always been kind of afraid of that business. We we've not gone into that yet, and I wouldn't say we never would, but we've looked at it, I you know, and we kind of backed off. But you know, the opportunity, you know, I don't I I think at that point they want us to sign up a lot of mob a lot of stores to to open. And uh I'd give me give me five to ten to buy that are successful with man, you know, with with good leadership. I'll do that any day, as long as it has that, and then we could move forward from that. Now to do a bunch, that's just scary if you don't know the business. I saw a lot of Aaron's, I a lot of you know, and I'm sure Redis Center franchisees, Aaron's franchisees. Um, I've seen a lot of them come in not knowing a lot about the business and just grew, opened a bunch of stores right away. And you know what they do? They always grow really fast, but that they always forget about that other component, which is you got to collect that money. And you know, it's not all about sales, it's it's about the relationships and collections and things like that are every bit as important.

Adjacent Bets And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_00 1:02:22

So well, that is the advice from Mark Connolly, someone who's very successful, but the truth is driven, focused, and very, very determined to say that he has a team behind him that is really, really making a difference. I'm so glad that you're on today. I've really learned a lot more about you than I've ever really known. I know we had a couple of stories about uh Ernie Tally that we didn't throw in there. That might be good for Tally's sake. But you know, just talking about what you know and what you've been through and the ability to expand beyond the four walls of Run to Own while doing and being successful at Arona is a great thing. And I want you guys to understand it is a chore to be a part of Rent to Own and still have those other businesses. So, Mark, you and your group doing a great job. Listen, if you want to hear more stories about that, you are more than welcome. Go to the website www.thertoshowpodc.com, hit me up directly at Pete at the RTO Show Podcast. Listen, you can follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn and Instagram and YouTube where you're gonna see this. Mark, I appreciate you being on the show today. An amazing, amazing guest. Thank you so much. And I will tell you guys as always, get your collections low to get your sales high.