Building Beyond RTO: Mark Connelly on Expansion Done Right

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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?

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:07):
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 intothat, make sure that you
subscribe, you hit thatnotification bell wherever you
listen to us, whether it'sSpotify, whether it's Apple
Podcasts, whether it's YouTube,no matter where it is, make sure
you subscribe.
Also, reminders, we have somesponsorship spots available

(00:27):
going into the summer season.
Please let me know.
The newsletter is out.
If you want to sponsor that aswell, you're more than welcome.
Go to the RTO Show Podcast.com.
Make sure you subscribe to thenewsletter and then let me know
if you need anything.
Also, got to tell you guys,today, probably somebody that
has done more in their lifetimethan I can imagine.
What a great turnaround that uhmy guest has, Mr.

(00:50):
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 aconglomerate of things that you
are a part of.
I am I am so glad to have you onthe show today.
How are you doing?
Doing great.
I'm doing really good.
Thank you.
I you know, after going throughmy notes, I'm surprised that you

(01:11):
have five minutes to talk to me.
I really, I really am.
I've seen some of the stuff onhere, and I'm just like, it's
it's amazing.
So, first off, thank you foryour service.
Do appreciate that your service.
I know that you uh you got an89, but no matter what time you
did, it was a great service tothis country, and we do
appreciate that.
Um normally I have uh when we dosome of our vets, I didn't have

(01:32):
my shirt today, so I didn't wearit, but we have wear the red for
remember everybody deployed.
That's something that uh Voxdoes, and we we stick to that.
We also do Wake for Warriors.
This show is a very, very bigproponent of making sure that we
take care of our veterans.
So thank you for that.
So thank you down to the brasstax.
How in the world does a Marinecome out and do rent to own?

(01:54):
Like I like I didn't see it, butnot only have you done that, you
kind of like conquered it.
Like, where did that where didthat come in and how did you get
started in a rent-to-ownedspace?

SPEAKER_01 (02:03):
Um, so after getting out, you know, officer in the
Marine Corps in 1989, I was outlooking for a job and just had a
baby, married, and uh needed ajob after the Marine Corps.
You know, never intended to stayin the Marine Corps, and so I
went to a job fair and I met aguy named Dave Dunbar, and he
was the regional manager forRemco, which you know he was

(02:26):
based in Dallas.
The Remco was based in Houston,and Chuck Sims was the owner of
Remco and Rentko.
He worked closely with ErnieTalley in Ernie Talley's early
days, and uh and Chuck Simsstarted his own, you know, his
own brand and got into a wholedifferent business model in
Rentone, which is a monthlybusiness model.
But Dave was there, and uh kindof I talked to him and and you

(02:50):
know, came home, told my wife,you know, I'm gonna try this out
for a little bit.
Not gonna, you know, don't thinkI'm gonna stay in it, but I'm
gonna I'm gonna do it until Ifind something better.

SPEAKER_00 (02:58):
Well, he's he says that, Anthony, we're like 58
Aurona stores later, he saysthat, right?
Like, you know, I don't want tostick into a little I'm just
gonna own half the planet, butit's okay, don't worry about
that.
So you you were a VP ofoperations for a 14-store color
time franchise who worked atRemco, you were a part of Rena
Center.
Where did you you got in, youstayed?

(03:21):
Where was the trajectory going?
Like, was it really a thoughtprocess like, hey, I'm going
into this and this is what Iwant to do, or was it like, hey,
this is a job, I think this ispretty good for me, and then it
sprouted from there.

SPEAKER_01 (03:31):
So it so it really, I mean, it truly was like, I'm
gonna do this until I findsomething else.
It was, you know, my wife hatedme working on Saturdays type
stuff.
And if and I had a uh Mondaythrough Friday offer, which was
about 10 grand more than I wouldI 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 thefirst store I worked in.

(03:54):
And uh Andy showed me hispaycheck.
And again, this is 1989.
Andy with you know with bonusand 70,000 bucks.
And and 70,000 bucks in 1989 wasa lot of money.
Even today managers, it's a lotof money.
And but they paid a goodpercentage of profits and
bonuses and things like that.
And and I and I go and quitehonestly, I said, Man, if he can

(04:16):
make this kind of money, I can Iknow I can make a lot more
because I just thought I wasbetter.

SPEAKER_00 (04:23):
Hey, listen, if you could do it, I know I could do
it.
I mean, 70,000 in in whateighty-nine is probably what one
one oh five, one ten?
Right about now?
Wow.
Yeah, I mean that's a that's abig it's a big deal.
So before you got intoownership, you were in

(04:44):
multi-unit and you got into abig multi-unit situation.
So you're going from Remco tosome bigger companies.
When did you get into themulti-unit?
And then how and how did you endup with 320 plus stores under
the Renaissance flag?

SPEAKER_01 (05:00):
Right.
Okay, so and then you know, soyou go with Remco, and um
in '89, '92, Rena Center boughtRemco, and uh and I stayed with
them, and and with that, Iasked, you know, Rena Center
also had another model calledThorn International Rental.
They call it TIR stores.
And so they had some some ofthose stores in so I ran a store

(05:23):
for, you know, account managerfor 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 topiece up.
My boss is a VP, takes me toCincinnati.
I'm my wife thinks I'm inHouston.
I go I fly to Houston to talk tohim.
Hey, hey, I want to talk to you.
Hey, I want to offer you thisopportunity in Cincinnati,

(05:43):
Louisville.
Let's go on a plane and we'llfly toward the stores.
My wife's still thinking I'm inHouston.
In the meantime, we're flying toCincinnati.
We go tour the store,Cincinnati, Louisville.
My boss offers me the job, and Icall my wife, and she I I go,
hey, I got good news and badnews.
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 rightnow, and I took the job right

(06:06):
now.

SPEAKER_00 (06:10):
I couldn't imagine if if my wife called me and be
like, hey, uh, you know, I'm I'mnot in Florida anymore, right?

SPEAKER_01 (06:15):
So, so to to to take that for so it did that about a
year, and then uh and then theytried they uh with Remco, they
transferred me to Chicago andgave me Chicago, Milwaukee, and
uh it was about to give meKansas City, so about a
40s-store deal.
And uh and so moved to Chicagoin an apartment.

(06:36):
My wife and kids are still inCincinnati, and during that
time, during that was about fivemonths, six months in Chicago,
uh the old guy or guy namedDanny Wilbanks, who's the CFO of
Remco, went to Austin, Texas andbought a 12-store Colortown
franchise that became a14-store.
And so he called me and said,Hey, do you wanna you wanna come

(06:57):
run this colortown uh you know,stores for us that which are,
you know, just around Texas andbased 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, theculture of Renaissance, you

(07:19):
know, Remco had such a greatculture, it just Renaissance
couldn't match it.
It just wasn't we just felt atRemco, we just, I don't know, we
had a little we thought we weredifferent, we thought we were
better, and we were grew thatway.
And we and and we just we feltwe treated customers better.
We had a, you know, our storesare higher model, you know,
higher volume, more profitable,and things like that.
And and didn't mean theRenacenter was bad, just meant

(07:42):
we thought we ours was better,and I you know, just left for
that reason, you know, ran thatcolor time.
We did that for about two years.
Again, took it from 12 to 14stores, and then you know, Ernie
Talley bought when he was atRan, he bought Color Time.
Well, then he bought our ColorTown franchise, and so then I

(08:02):
was all of a sudden withRenner's choice.
And so during all this time, alot of this was just I I was
bought and sold a few times.
We didn't didn't have anychoice, and so uh I I drive up
to Dallas and and uh firstmeeting with Ernie.
We we have, you know, and atthat time we had two regional
managers in our 14 stores, andboth of them were really good.

(08:23):
One was at Andy Jones, who youknow, he was my first store
manager.
The other one was a guy namedBrent Gregorick, who's still a
partner with me today, and we'vebeen working together and best
friends, and I was in hiswedding, and we we've been
hanging out for that long on 35years.
We've been working together asstore manager, multi-unit, and
he was the regional directorwith Venice Center, and and uh

(08:45):
so yeah, we so uh had those twoguys working with me, and then
we we go to rent a show, so wego up there and and then uh so
they're telling the you knowBrent 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 aboutme?
You know, and and oh he he doesthis big spill.
Hey, you have any questions?

(09:06):
And I go, Yeah, what what aboutme?
Like we're like I'm hearing whatthese guys are getting, I'm not
hearing what I'm getting.
And uh he goes, Well, we'll givewe'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 thepoint and wasn't a lot of
explanation.
And uh he goes, Are anyquestions?
I go, Yeah, I got a I got aquestion.

(09:26):
And all his VPs are there, andhe goes, Well, what's the
question?
I go, Well, you need a one-daynotice, 30-day notice, what do
you need?
Because for me, there was norespect there.
This is I just didn't approachher.
I didn't didn't find outanything about me.
Didn't and and by the way, ourrent, our color town store, and
Renters Choice had probably thebest standards in the in the
industry as far as collections.

(09:46):
We were kicking their butt withour stores, you know, and and
he, I'm sure he saw thosenumbers.
So so he just didn't so so Idid.
I went and left, and and uh hesaid, Well, I'll tell you what,
I'll pay you to the end of themonth to go ahead and go.
So I got up and that was myfirst meeting with Arnie Tally,
and I just stood up, walked outand and uh found another job at
Rentmart.

(10:07):
And now there'll be no Rentmart,Rent, you know, so Ford Motor
Company owned a company calledthe Associates.
Associates owned Rentmart,started Rentmart, and based in
Texas, and then we startedopening Rentmart stores.
Well, we're into that, andRentmart just they were the
first, you know, first groupthat said, uh, we don't need to
verify, we're you know, we havetwo, three references is enough,

(10:28):
and I go, guys, you guys aremessing up really bad.
You got to do a better job thanthis.
And and we're going to innercity Houston.
I had Houston, Austin, Waco, youknow, all those same areas, and
uh it wasn't that long, and andthen they grew up, they opened
40, 50 stores in like a year,all from ground up.
It was, I mean, they had thatmuch money, it moved so fast,

(10:48):
and then they just saw how muchmoney you have to put in it, and
so they just they sold theerrands.
And so I'm like, I'm not, Idon't want to work for the
errands, and uh don't didn'treally want to do that at that
time, and then moved and then acompany called Central Rinse,
another guy that worked forRemGo, uh, Steve uh Pearson was

(11:09):
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 loveCincinnati, 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 notgo we're not moving again?

SPEAKER_01 (11:28):
Well, every two years.
I mean, ever it's we never Imean I I probably you know, my
wife got used to it, my kids,you know.
I mean, there's some there'ssome trauma with that with your
family, you know, your kids getin the sports and then they you
move in the middle of theseason, they they kind of lose
interest or they get left behindand stuff like that.
And that kind of happened.
That was a that was a downsideof that.
But I was always a person if hegave gave me a promotion or an

(11:51):
opportunity, I was like, yep,I'm taking it.
You're gonna take it.
To me, that's not so easy withpeople, right?
You just hey, I just need you torun this store on the other side
of the city.
Oh, that's too far, that's toofar.
I don't like you know, I don'twant to drive an hour.
And uh and so those those arethe things that were you know
kind of happening, and thenthat's that's kind of what
happened.
And what's funny is so so I goup to central rents, and I don't

(12:15):
know, I'm I'm I'm probably therethree months, four months.
So Ernie bought a oh say, so itruns central rents.
Ernie Tally buys that threemonths into my club.
Right back around.
Right back renters, so renter'schoice buys central.

SPEAKER_00 (12:30):
Mark, didn't I just get rid of you?
What Mark, what happened?
I just finished paying you threemonths 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 wastheir president, and I go, Mark,
I'm not gonna go through thisagain because I don't I'm not
gonna stay here and keep workingfor you guys if it's just gonna
be the same deal.
And he goes, Mark, no, we needyou.
This is 200 stores we're buying.
We need good people.
We can, you know, we we made amistake, kind of losing you that

(12:58):
first time.
We you know, we need you tostay.
And and I stayed.
And and uh and so Rent of Choicebought us.
It wasn't I bet it was four orsix months later, think they
bought Rena Center.
So Ren's Choice went from 500stores, bought central rents,
went to 700 stores, and thenRena Center's 1400 stores, and

(13:19):
so at 500 to 700 to 1400, theyErnie did it that quick.

SPEAKER_00 (13:24):
I mean, it was huge.
I re I was there during thatwhen I so I worked for uh
Renters Choice uh probably forabout a year before they had
bought, you know, with theirbefore they acquired uh Rena
Center, and it was it was crazybecause I mean at that point in
time I didn't know as much as Iknow now.
I was just like, I know thatthey're bit the bigger guys on
the block, but I mean ErnieTalley was not he he was just

(13:44):
dude, he was a bulldozer.
I mean, he was just gonna takeand he was gonna take it all if
he could.
Got it.
And it was huge.
It was it was huge at that pointin time.

SPEAKER_01 (13:53):
You know, he paid people well.
He was he paid the manager waymore than anyone else at that
time, and and uh he knew thevalue of that side of the
business.
And uh yeah, so he so he buyscentral rents, uh he, you know,
then he buys rent a center, andthen with the fallout of that,
became more opportunities.
And so I went from and andrenters choice called him

(14:14):
regional vice president.
Well, he flew me to Dallas, andI go to Dallas and do a little
interview, and they offered me aregional vice president position
over all the Midwest.
So I went from running those 40stores, did that for a little
bit right after they bought us,and then then I had I don't
know, 300 some stores in theMidwest, and then did that for a
couple years, and then a coupleyears later they gave me

(14:35):
Northeast, another 320 stores inthe Northeast as a as a senior
vice president.

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'regonna give you some other 300.
It's not a big deal.
So 300 stores.
320 plus stores is what Iaccounted.
Dude, that's not that is huge.
I mean, we're talking about somedealers who would love to just
have that, not necessarily justthat part of it, but just to
have that.
I mean, that's an amazing feat.

(15:02):
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(15:22):
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(15:44):
And let's not forget theresources.
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(16:04):
Head over to rto.org and jointhe April family today.
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See you at the top with April.
Now, uh, you know, so how muchof the marine came out in you
that got you these stores?
Was it the performance?
Was it the drive?

(16:24):
Was it like, you know what, I'mjust gonna make this happen?
Like what where was the mindsetto make 320 stores happen over,
you know, not that long ago, wewere 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.

SPEAKER_01 (16:41):
Well, so I I would say, so all of that.
So number one, you have a wifeand a family that support you,
right?
You can't go through that manymoves and do those those things
without that support.
And I and I've seen a lot ofgood people like that I that I
thought would be really greatmanagers multi.
And if they didn't have thesupport of their, you know, and

(17:02):
this goes both ways, wives orhusbands.
If you don't have the support ofthat, it just breaks down, it
doesn't work.
Or then or they get divorced.
I've seen a lot of people getdivorced in this industry
because people just the hoursback 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-hourwork week, not a 40-hour week.

(17:23):
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 meup every morning, six, seven
o'clock, and there wasn't itwasn't you can get up later, I'm
gonna come back later.
It's like get up right now, youknow, and then I'd he'd come in
and boom, I'd jump up and I'mgoing to work, you know.

(17:43):
And and uh so I think he was ajob, the Marine Corps,
absolutely what they taught you,you know, and you know, going
through officer candidatesschool, you just have a lot of,
you know, when you go throughthat situation, Pete, you're you
know, they teach you to be inthat 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 areason.

(18:05):
And you know, my younger years,I I wouldn't say that.
Today I I've been very blessedby, you know, because of that
faith.
And then that faith has grownover the years, and and a matter
of fact, I I tell people andthey go they because they know
me, I'm still a party guy, stilldrink, I do that, you know, but
I'm not a bad guy.
I you know, I've I've beenmarried 40 years this August.

(18:26):
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 dayfor probably the last 15 and 16
years.
So that's why I think that's abig part of of what I've done.
And and uh again, the MarineCorps, yeah, they they you know,
they teach you to be in thosekind of combat situations, you
know, decisions you make as anofficer affects whether people

(18:51):
live or die.
And so when I came into renthome, I'm like, this is easy
compared to that, right?
The pressure for that, if if Imake a bad decision, I gotta,
you know, call some soldier, youknow, some Marine's wife and
say, hey, your husband diedbecause of my decision.
Yeah.
So and you know, that's that'sthat's kind of what they they

(19:12):
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'snothing more important than
people.
And and so that, you know, ifyou if you take that mindset
into this industry and take careof your people and just you owe
it all to them.
And and and that's what my drivewas, is you know, the the
success for me wasn't what Idid.

(19:33):
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 astore 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 allthis, how did you go from having
that northeast region fromRenaissance to being with Arona?

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, andpeople don't understand it, but
it's just again, it's aprincipal 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, killedmy budget, you know, beat all at

(20:19):
the end of the year, and as theas the senior VP, we we'd have
pretty good bonuses.
So our max bonus was 100 Rand.
And so we had a regionaldirector meeting that, you know,
they came in and you know, andyou know, we had a trainer kind
of come up there and startedtalking to all the regional uh
all our retail directors, andand they were in one of my
stores, by the way, the most thehighest volume of store in the

(20:40):
country, eight hundred thousandin profit.
I mean and and annual base, thismost profitable store in the in
the cu in the company.
And uh the trainer goes in thereand comes back and he's just
trashing all the things thatstore did wrong.
Like in front of the wholegroup.
And I just I you know, I took itpersonal.
I I overreacted by the way, andand I go I and him his guy his

(21:02):
and and I love the guy, and itdidn't and I really should have
sat back, walked out of theroom, took a breath.
And that's what they you'resupposed to do, but the uh you
know, I I just at that point inmy life I wasn't quite like
that.
And so I just I stood up, I go,Joe.
I go, you know, and I I maybesaid 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.

(21:23):
You should be going to thatstore finding out what they are
doing, and let's share that withtheir this group and not what
they're not doing.
Everything's about what they'renot doing, negative, you know.
And he wasn't doing it, hedidn't intend to do that, Pete.
He's a great guy.
And uh, but that's the way Itook it.
And uh and so bonus time cameinstead of getting my hundred
thousand dollars, they gave meninety-seven thousand.

(21:46):
I mean, they took me threethousand bucks and and all my
all my you know, other seniorvice presidents got the hundred
grand.
And I go, That's it, I'm I'm I'mlooking for another job.
And so Charles Smith gone.
Um, a long time during thoseRenco days when I lived in
Cincinnati, he was opening hisfirst stores in Louisville and

(22:06):
and ran a great huge Aaron'sfranchise.
He tried to recruit me to go toLouisville to open his first
store.
And I go, Charles, I can't gofrom 40 to 1 and uh and and so
didn't do it.
And I thought as soon as youknow I left that that meeting
and got a$97,000, I calledCharles Smith, go, hey, you need
me now.

(22:26):
And so he he uh he he came andtalked to me, but he had a at
that time he had already hireduh Dave, um Dave Edwards, and
Dave was doing a great job forhim just so really didn't need
both of us.
And uh so he hooked me up with aguy named Tom Bernard.
Tom Bernard at that time hadfive stores, five Aaron stores
in the mid, you know, based inDes Moines.

(22:47):
And so Tom called me.
Tom flew to, you know, we met inGreat Vine, Texas, and and uh
where I lived at that time wasyou 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 seniorVPs wanted to keep the name
Renter's Choice.
Again, culturally, all that.
And and Ernie tied a wanted to.

(23:08):
Well, when Ernie saw the pricetag of changing signs for the
1500 the 1400 rental centers toRenner's Choice, instead of
changing the 500, you know, RenaCenter to Renter's Choice Towers
or he goes, No, we're gonna berental center.

SPEAKER_00 (23:21):
Yeah.
Well, I thought I thought of Ithought 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 upin, 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 aplacement 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 knowthis going in, I just thought,
you know, again, we're alwaysAaron, but we're Arona
Corporation D B A Aaron's.
Well, when Aaron's went publicthe first time, the stock was
called A-R-O-N-A, Arona A.

(24:09):
A-R-O-N-A.
And so Tom used that name Aronaas his company name when he
became an Aaron's franchise.
And so when we when we leftAaron's, which was a you know,
it was a mutual thing, and itwas 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 uhuh conversation with the

(24:31):
president this last week.
And so still we're still veryfriendly, and we just we came to
terms, said, hey, we got to gothis way, you guys are kind of
staying in this, you know, goingthis way, and and uh we we you
know managed to to exit thatsystem and become uh Rona Homo
essentials.
So we just switched all ourAaron'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 ofcompanies, you've had
multi-unit, you've gone small,big, you've seen the big guys
take bigger guys, you've beenyou've been acquired and gone
out of that.
Going into a Rona and thenbeyond that, which we'll get

(25:13):
into that in a few minutes.
You know, the entrepreneurialspirit 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 literallygrown into a very large part of
what we do and more and whatother people do.
I mean, 58 stores is not youknow, when we're talking about

(25:36):
1400 stores and 500 stores, 58stores is quite an
accomplishment, regardless ofthe 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,

(25:58):
now that you're doing a Rona andyou you were at five, we're at
58 now, when was that?
And how did you how did youreally come up with the idea
like we need to scale, we'regoing to grow?
What were the the you know thebumpers and and the things that
you came across as you said, youknow, once we cross this
plateau, we're gonna have more,we're gonna become more.
And then, you know, the triggerpoint to literally go outside of

(26:19):
rent to own, because you'rewe've been talking nothing but
rent to own, but your portfoliohas more than rent-to-own
stores, which is another reasonwhy I want to talk to you,
because I mean, you you know,people in rent to own are very
entrepreneurial, they have thatspirit.
They want to grow, they want todo what they can.
Now, what I've seen in some isthey'll either branch out and do
another rent to own or they'lldo a tire and wheel.

(26:40):
You went a completely different,you have literally different
companies or different parts ofthe company that do different
things.
And I really wanted to get intothat.
Where where did the growth fromAurona come from?
And then what triggered you togo into other businesses?

SPEAKER_01 (26:54):
So um two, you know, two big readings.
Number one, Tom Bernard, youknow, my you know, he's again,
he's our principal owner.
He calls myself and Brentpartners with him, and we are.
He treats us as completepartners.
And uh he's he's always had anow when we signed with
Internet, we had an 11th storedevelopment.
And and when I went to DesMoines, I said, Tom, I'm gonna

(27:15):
we're gonna get to I'm gonnahelp you get this 11 stores or
we're gonna cash out in fiveyears and move back to Texas.
So you know, so that was 23years ago, Pete.
So or 22 years ago.
So those things changed.
What do you was gonna just takethat one job until I got
something better, and then I wasgonna stay up in Des Moines for
five years, and here I am.

(27:36):
I've I lived there 17 years,still working with him.
But but Tom's always been thedriving force.
He's like, he just has thisvision of doing all these other
things, and he grew up, and yougo back to you know,
multi-tenrant, his dad was aHarvard graduate, his his
grandfather still ownedbusinesses, so way into his 90s,
his dad ran banks into his 90s,owned his banks, and uh they

(27:57):
just worked, they workedforever.
And uh, and so Tom's always hadthat drive.
And then as we were growingaround, and so we were growing
that, you know, we we did ournew stores in the the areas we
had, but the best the best wayto grow is just buy other
Aaron's franchisees or Aaron'scorporate stores.
So, for example, we bought SouthFlorida all from Aaron's
corporate.
We bought 10 stores at one timefrom Aaron's corporate.

(28:19):
Oh, wow.
They were struggling down there,south South Florida's tough
market, and uh, and so that gaveus that opportunity.
We bought a franchisee inMichigan, we bought some
franchisees in Missouri, and sothat's kind of you know, and
then and then we still do newstores.
We do a couple new stores inPuerto Rico, and uh so we, you
know, that's kind of what we didon the Arona side just and it's

(28:42):
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 wejust bought some more corporate
stores in the in Nebraska.
I think it was six stores inOmaha and Link, you know, all
those areas of of Nebraska.
And Brent Gregorick, who wasalso a regional director with

(29:09):
Renaissance, left ran it, ranhis own Aaron's franchise with
with some investors.
They sold back to Aaron'scorporate.
And I go, Brent, you got to comeback and join us.
And uh, and he did, and thatjust put us on steroids because
he's I mean, just an amazingoperator, amazing, you know,
great with people, like yousaid, and and so and because of
us three, Tom, myself, andBrent, we just you know, we we

(29:33):
did everything.
We did the real estate, we didthe marketing, we did, I mean,
it didn't, you know, we did thelegal work.
We did it was just and we grewit to a a point where today we
you know we have people that doall 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 wewere lucky, you know, again,

(29:53):
call it a blessing.
We we got by, we you know, wewere negotiating leases and
reading them and we're like,Yeah, this is okay.
And we didn't know if they wereokay or not.
We didn't have the legalbackground.
But Tom was a lawyer, so he wasthe so we always had that check
and balance on that side.
But we also grew beyond whereyou know he couldn't do all
that.
We had so much going on that itwas just hard to keep up with.

(30:14):
And so those are the two things,you know, Tom and Brett.
Those Tom, Brett, and Mark, it'sa it's a that three-legged
stool.

SPEAKER_00 (30:20):
Well, you you talk about successes.
I have that there at one pointin time, Arona was listed as one
of the fastest growing companiesfrom 2009 to 2014.
What was it like to really gofrom being sold, moving,
growing, being sold, moving,growing, and then on your own?
Well, I don't want to say onyour own, but but as a group

(30:42):
that you just mentioned now, tobe able to say we're one of the
fastest growing companies foralmost five total years listed,
somebody actually recognizedthat that we were just on the
move and making it happen.
I mean, what kind of how doesthat make you feel knowing that
you're on the right track?

SPEAKER_01 (30:56):
Well, oh, you it you know, so when you look at my
office, I have all those plaguesin my office.
You know, top 500 or top 5,000fast food economic companies.
And, you know, and when you gofrom six to twelve, that's a big
jump.
You go from twelve to twenty.
You know, when and when you havethose kind of jumps, and you buy
10 stores at one time whenyou're you know, 17 stores, then

(31:17):
you buy 10, all of a suddenyou're 27, then you're 27, you
buy 10, you're 30.
Those are big jumps, and that'sit'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 trackedthat as much as we did in the
past, but he but that was fun.
It was just fun doing that,celebrating those those wins

(31:38):
with with our team.

SPEAKER_00 (31:40):
So I mean, it's great to be recognized.
You know, you mentioned fiveyears.
You mentioned that you weregonna get in, you're gonna do
five years, you're gonna cashout after so many stores.
I I I in some of my research,was that the five-year promise
that you made to your wife thatafter your five years you were
gonna you were gonna kind ofcall 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 exactlywhat happened.
You get you know, the game, thegame's fun, Pete, right?
It's the it's you know, you lookat, you know, I mean, how many,
you know, I mean, it's um you'rea Tampa guy.
You love the fact that Tom Bradydidn't quit when he didn't he
came to Tampa.

SPEAKER_00 (32:15):
Oh god, yeah.
Oh god, listen, I don't care whosays what.
I am so good.
Anthony knows it, I am so gladhe came over here and got a
championship.
You know what?
I think you can say what youwant to, right?
I I listen, I'm a Gronk fan too.
I was so glad to see them comeand at least do that one time
for Tampa Bay.
You know, puts it Belichick.
I'm sorry, dude, it wasn't youall the way.

(32:36):
I mean, Brady's just a playerand a half, you know.
He had a great team, and and youknow what?
I mean, a little bit.
And it wasn't about money atthat, right?

SPEAKER_01 (32:43):
So the only point it's never about money anyway.
You when I was young, it wasalways about money.
It really was self, you know, soyou know, my own awards, that
manager of the year.
I just mean all those that thatmeant a lot.
You know, bonuses, you know, Remprobably got a$10,000 bonus for
being manager of the year.
It was an awesome experience.
It was great, you know.

(33:04):
Wow.
But the older you get, it's notabout it's it's it's about being
in the game.
It's about working with thepeople 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, wecall 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 ineach other's families.

(33:25):
We're he's my daughter'sgodfather, I'm his daughter's
godfather.
So it's that's just the way, andyou 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, andthen your family, you know, and
uh so you just you kind of juststay in it until it's those
things go away.

(33:46):
If it's not fun, or you know,there's a time I guess we're all
gonna get old where we can'tkeep doing it, and you know,
that will happen to all of ussomeday.
But you know, as long as it'sfun and it's you know, you're
grown and you're enjoying it andyou're working, and uh it's you
know, think of this industry'sdone a lot for my family because
put all my kids, you know, allmy kids are successful, put kids

(34:07):
through college as but you know,my my wife and my you know and
myself houses along the way, andwe'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 otherpeople before.
You said that uh Brent was anexcellent operator.
You said that Ernie Talley waslike straight to the point.
He was the guy who went out andgot it, he acquired it, he grew
it.
What is Mark Conley's claim tofame?
What what led you to yoursuccess?
What was that you know, one ortwo things that you say?

(34:36):
This is what I did, and and Iwas good at that.
That was my personality, thatwas the driver that helped me
lead to my success.

SPEAKER_01 (34:42):
Yeah.
Um, so I think probably morethan anything, you know, what
again, going back to the MarineCorps, what it taught me, it's
it's all about people, D.
And I think, you know, I thinkprobably one of my probably one
of my strongest traits, and Ithink this is why I was promoted
really early as a store manager.
I did almost all the recruitingfor the region, and so did
Brent, by the way.

(35:02):
So Dave Dunbar, who was ourregional manager, he he took us
to every job for he did, youknow, 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'dhire somebody, bring them in,

(35:23):
and I train them, and they andDave would take him out and give
them another store.
But I'd hire somebody else andbring them in and sound and and
I just knew as long as you keptbringing in great people,
everything's you know, company'sgonna grow, your store's gonna
grow, and and and your customersare gonna still love you.
And that would there's alwaysthat, well, what's what's gonna
happen?
Your customers love thesepeople.
But as long as they're greatpeople, and and and I just had I

(35:46):
I caught on really quick to thatfee.
I knew how to interview and andhire good people.
And and when I, you know, notthat I was perfect, but I also
was one of those that if I madea mistake and didn't hire right,
I would, I, I, I, I would, youknow, I would fire right too.
I would make people, I'd havethey'd have dignity, but I'd
have to let them go.
Hey, this is not the industryfor you.

(36:06):
I thought it was, maybe youthought it was.
Man, you're gonna be so gooddoing this or something like
this.
You just you can't do this.
You just can't.
It's not fair to you or me orany of the other people around
here to keep you here.
And you know, I'd take them toline and I'd still do that.
And years later, I mean, I'vehad a couple people come back
and knock them out.
Hey Mark, it thank you.
Uh, you that was the best thingthat could have happened to me.

(36:26):
It's I moved on to a differentcareer that been very
successful, and as much as ithurt me during that time.
And so I think just the peopleside 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'sinside me who I was, and that's
the upbringing my parents gaveme.

SPEAKER_00 (36:47):
So well, I want to I want to walk off the the beaten
path for just a second becauseyou bringing all these people on
and being able to see umsometimes within people what
they don't even see forthemselves and being able to to
to pick the right people to bein the right places, that's
actually a very good leadershiptrait, a management trait.
Give me a like a little detail.
You're sitting across fromsomebody, what are some of the

(37:08):
tells that you would say, youknow what, I know this guy or
this gal is going to be rightfor the rent-owned industry, or
you know what, I think you'regonna be right, but maybe not
for this industry.
What what were your tells?
What how did you go about it anddecide?
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 inDallas.
I I go run Cincinnati,Louisville tour, tour that with
the VP, and I think there were Ithink there were six stores,
seven stores.
Oh, actually, I'll even gobeyond that.
Same, same story.
I go to work for Tom on theseAaron stores, right?

(37:43):
So he's got six to call it sixstores.
Take the initial tour, I we comeback, Tom goes, how'd it go?
I go, well, Tom might say, uh,well, but what's gonna happen is
your best store manager isprobably gonna be the our worst
store manager, and the otherfive I'll replace and within the
next three or four months.
And uh because I just knew theywere you know, and it's just

(38:07):
it's just it's a gut feelingthat you can get.
You've been in the industry longenough.
You work with people and youjust you see how they interact
with customers.
You know, to me, if I'm lookingfor a person it's a c if that
door opens and somebody justdoesn't instinctively like look
at that customer, greet thatcustomer, drop everything, I
mean everything, to greet andand talk to that customer,
there's something wrong.

(38:28):
That's not the person or peoplethat I want in a store.
And uh so it doesn't, and and sothose are the you just kind of
can see, you know, store couldbe, you know, it you know,
again, I promoted a manager onetime in in Des Moines and you
know, one day there's this bigscreen TV that came in for
service.
I come in the week later, thatTV's still sitting at the front

(38:49):
of the store.
You know, seriously, I don'tneed to talk to somebody about
stuff like that.
I just don't.
I I I can't coach, I can't coachthat, don't want to coach that.
I'm not gonna I'm I if I can'twork on personality, I can't
work on work ethic.
Right?
If that if you don't bring thosetwo to the game, I there's not a
lot I could do for you, so Ican't help you.
But if you bring those, I'llI'll do anything for you.

(39:12):
As long as you're willing to goand and work and and things like
that, then I I'm I'll doanything for you.
But you gotta do that.
And so uh and so you just getit, you just you just kind of
get over the experience ofworking with people for that
long.
You just kind of get a sense of,yeah.
Or but you also might seesomebody on the sidelines go,
man, that person's really,really shy.

(39:34):
You know, and they're not evenin, they're not running the
show.
But they got something in themthat I can just tell by the way
they're talking or askingquestions or conversing with the
customer.
And I'm like, let's work, youknow, man, let's get them
trained, let's get them intosome leadership program, let's,
you know, so those are thethings 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 thosequestions that were like uh this
is the go-to question that Ihave or something, an exercise
that you did with any of your uhin in your interviewees that you
were like, I pretty much do thisin almost all, maybe not all,
but almost all of my interviewsjust to kind of give me a feel,
you know, a special question, acomment, uh some kind of work

(40:14):
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 uhagain, and and Brad would be the
same way.
So we're in Remco.
Remco, I there I there's notanother company today that
spends the money that Remco didon training.
And I'm talking the you know,the you know, Mark Kamen
courses, uh, you know, the uhthe um the uh Disney uh Vance uh

(40:39):
Mike Vance.
I mean we had we had all those.
We the the management programfor that company was 19 days.
You go down to Houston, that wasall cost, you go down to Houston
for 19 days and go through thesetraining courses, and and they
just made a big a huge emphasison the people side.
And uh and so I think I justbrought a lot of that without,

(41:00):
you know, we don't have a 19-daychamp.
You know, we're we're on the joband we're just seeing what's
going on and and just a lot ofcontact.
But you know, and what of theyou know, I probably some advice
I got from a guy named RobertHarris, who was a VP, and and uh
and so we're going around likeuh Cincinnati little bill.
He goes, Mark, you just youcan't fix every store at once.

(41:23):
You just can't.
You just you gotta start withone, you gotta get it fixed, get
the people, get the credit, getthe game, get the you know, get
all the things in place.
And uh, and he goes, and thenyou know, you can start with
that and you know, say it's aweek or two or whatever you
gotta do, and then go to theother one.
And then a year, and instead ofwaiting, you know, because I was

(41:44):
bouncing around a lot as a as amulti, my first multi-unit.
I was just jumping, trying tofix everything.
Well, he said, Mark, stay put.
And think about it.
If you got seven stores in sevenweeks, where you would be if you
spent a week in every one ofthose stores, instead of
bouncing around, spending twohours here, three hours there,
half a day there, day there.
I mean, driving all around, andyou're just he goes, just think

(42:06):
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 sixstores I needed to replace four
to five of the managers.
So I went and hired five greatpeople.
And and and not, you know, hiredmore than that and other

(42:28):
business, but five potentialmanagers that I said, these
these five, I have to like, Ineed to ramp them up because I
don't have time to wait, and andI'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,

(42:48):
I want you to spend time withme, and and I'll be in any store
and I will work on anything weall, you know, with that store.
So you can be with me.
It could be merchandise in astore, it could be, you know,
working accounts, it could bedoing this, but you're all gonna
be with me.
And uh, and and while I'm whileI'm you know doing some of these
things, and I made them allunder if you want to do that,

(43:10):
great.
If you don't want to do it,that's okay too.
But I'm just trying to get youpromoted as fast as you can.
And because all of you are willbe replaced with some of these
other managers I got right nowbecause they just don't they
don't have it, they're goodpeople, they're gonna treat you
right and all that.
But I you know, I need you topersonally spend time with me so
I could show you all thesethings.
And and then I, you know, again,right, Dave Dunbar, when I first

(43:32):
took out, I brought them up toCincinnati to help me kind of
run the stores when I was outrecruiting, because I had to go
spend a lot of time recruiting,and and I was fortunate enough
to have good friends in thebusiness that would help me run
the day to day stuff while I wasout building a team.
And uh, and they and they wouldhelp train them to be, you know,
I'd hire them and put them inthose stores.
So, you know, that now there's adownside to that, B.

(43:53):
So so you got to find peoplethat you spend a lot of time
with, you got one opening, andall of a sudden you take one
that you can.
Is the best at that time.
And so you you plug that personin.
And so you might make a mistakethere, but it's still bet way
better than what you had.
But but you might piss off oneof the ones you didn't promote
that thinks they're better thanthat five.
And so you that's the that's therisk of that.

(44:15):
But it was definitely and andI've and I did.
I lost a really good person thatI thought probably was numbered
out of those five.
She was probably two or three onthat list.
My number one was my number one,and I promoted him, and she got
mad and left.
So and and she would have hadthe very next stop.
She would she would have had it.
But it just happened to be thestore that she worked in where I

(44:37):
promoted the guy.
And so she got mad at me becausethat was the store she was
working in.
And he to this day, he kickedbutt.
You know, it would she if shewould have stayed, she would
have been promoted next and andshe 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 canwith what we have.
Hey everyone, it's Pete Chowhere from the Arts Go Show
Podcast, and I want to tell youabout a company that's making a
real difference in therent-owned space.
WoW brands.
I've seen firsthand how theyapproach marketing.
And let me tell you, it's notjust about ads.

(45:12):
WoW brands build completedigital ecosystems designed
specifically for the rent-owned.
Their e-commerce and integrityare built with qualified data.
Wow also being members ofFacebook and these folks are
actually profitable.
They don't just clap stufftogether, they design, build,

(45:34):
and scale the kind of digitalretail tools your business
needs.
So if you're serious aboutgrowing, reach out to WoWBrands
at WildBrands.com.
I trust it, and I think you willtoo.
I think in most cases a Ronawould be enough, but uh BCP now
includes Valvelines, realestate, restaurants, car lots,

(45:55):
finance company, which we'regoing to talk about, the finance
company, uh, and a marathon.
What uh like that is a hugeportfolio.
How did it go that far outsideof rent to own?
Because again, what we'retalking 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 otherbusinesses in what you do.

(46:17):
How do you maintain?
Because rent to own is a veryinvolved business.
How do you maintain beinginvolved in rent to own and
still actively successfullyrunning these other businesses?

SPEAKER_01 (46:28):
So again, it goes back to the people, the people
you get to run those, but it soit starts out, you know.
So you you look at a run up, westart out, so hey, let's just
own our own locations.
You know, Aaron's really kind ofwanted standalone stores,
bigger, you know, footprints,and and uh, and again, this is
where Tom comes in.
Hey, let's buy, so we startedbuying real estate, you know,

(46:50):
and and or if leases were comingup, hey, let's buy real estate,
let's move our stores into that.
And so we just started growingthe real estate business from
that initially.
Tom also had a a uh Globeballoon, but he had he did have
a subprime finance company priorat the same time, very small
scale, but he had that before.
And uh, and so we kind of hadthat all along, and but then we

(47:14):
boom, we started morphing intoreal estate.
And then, you know, on theValveine, 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, theywere thirty, five, forty store,
they went bankrupt and they weregoing through the this guy came,
Hey, you you guys can buy thestores in the Des Moines area.

(47:35):
And so we bought the we boughtfive 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 restof that company, we bought the
other thirty-five stores twoyears later.
And then we start and and thenso we just you know, and and so

(47:57):
now today, uh yesterday webought two more, that puts us at
89 in that, doesn't speak.
And so we'll be with what we'rebuilding right now without any
other acquisitions, which I Ihope we get, you know, another
acquisition or two, but we'll be94.95 by the end of this year,
just on what's the number, youknow, and just what we've
already bought the ground,started building things like

(48:20):
that, just new stores, you know,de novo type stores.
And so you know, restaurant.
Tom Tom bought a Hick CreekPark, it's called Hick Creek
Park Barbecue.
It's probably the largest volumerestaurant in the state of I
does ten to twelve milliondollars in in revenue on an
annual basis in a barbecuerestaurant.
It's a machine, but we have alady named Tracy.

(48:41):
Tracy worked for the previousowner, and uh, she's an amazing
operator.
She she knows all everythingabout that business.
She's still with us.
And you know, so when you lookat and and so then again, you
you look at other, you know, sonow the real estate, 140
relocations, uh banking, youknow, I think it's eight bank
charters, eight smaller banksthat are under our umbrella.

(49:03):
Now that's where Tom's, youknow, uh sadly Tom's dad passed
away, but so now that's underour 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, andwasn't really making money.
I I think they yeah, I can'teven tell you how many races we
have under that umbrella.

(49:23):
I think it's you know, we we ownsome and we manage some for
other people, but I think it's20-something races, maybe even
more peak.
I don't do I don't really spendany time on that.
Brent kind of spends more timein all these other business
where now I've I've moved intothe merger acquisition side, and
Brett, you know, and then Brenthired a guy named Shannon
Griffiths that is a greatoperator to run our Valvelline.

(49:44):
You know, we got Tracy runningthat.
So we got it at Pestiplied Plustwo years ago, you know, bought
10 or no, we bought uh sevenstores.
And then uh opened one lastyear, 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 hereprobably by June.

(50:06):
And uh, and that's that's justit just starts with one.
But but the key is you buy themthat are currently operating and
you have good leadership inplace on those.
Our Pet Supply Plus business, agirl, a lady named Susie, who's
a partner with another guyrunning those, well, she stayed
with us.
And uh and now we're growingthat business.
So if you can buy a currentbusiness that's successful,

(50:28):
profitable, has a goodleadership team that comes with
it, and hopefully it's a youknow, like a somebody wanting to
retire, just get out of thebusiness, just tire or whatever,
but the operators stay, thenthen we won we want to look at
that.
That's kind of Tom's more andyou know, it's just diversified
and it's it's helped duringthose COVID times during things
like that.
You know, people like duringCOVID, that restaurant, you

(50:50):
know, we 250 employees we inthat restaurant, by the way.
Uh work time, it's in a collegetime, 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 wehad to let everyone go.
You know, all of a sudden thenwe started opening for you know
tick up service, things likethat, things started coming
back.
Now we're back to full service,and I still don't think we we're

(51:12):
back to 250, but I think wecould we could probably bring
that many in and we could hirethat many.

SPEAKER_00 (51:16):
So I mean that's every business is my hands like
that.
So how does so you're going youhave 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 MarkConnolly's life look like with
all this going on?

SPEAKER_01 (51:36):
Yeah.
Um so again, every company has achief operating officer.
So they're doing their ownmeetings.
Now we have what we uh we wecall it BCP for now capital
partners.
We have a meeting every uh everyMonday, 9 30 a.m.
And we all talk about what we'reworking on.
So me being the mergeracquisition guy, I'll talk about

(51:58):
hey, here's some deals comingup, working on this, working on
that.
There's pet supply plus here.
There's a you know, oh rental.
We just bought an equipmentrental business, by the way,
last the 17th of this month.
Our first venture in equipmentrental.
And so um again, it comes with agreat operator, good business
model.
We really thought some of thoseproducts we could do something

(52:18):
in in the irrelevant side, maybenot.
May I think it's still acompletely separate business,
but that's a big business.
And uh, and so we start with oneand with the good leadership,
and we we want to grow it.
But our so we'll talk aboutthose things.
Uh, we have our general councilnow.
We you know, again, think thinkabout I think we have eighteen
hundred employees feet in in ayear and a half, two years ago

(52:40):
was fourteen hundred employees.
And so that's how fast we'regrowing now.
And uh, and so we got a generalcouncil in-house, and again,
Brent and I handled all that forthe longest time, and so we got
a great general and CFO over allthat, and you know, manages all
the money, bankingrelationships, all HR, VP of HR,
Amy Lynn, she's been with us foryears, and she's yeah, she's our

(53:04):
rock star in our whole and inour company.
And then uh we got a VP of realestate now because our real
estate holdings, and with allthe leases, we got to have that
going on.
And so um, and just think on thereal estate side, you got to
refinance every five years.
You know, you don't sign 20-yearfixed rates on real estate.
You're it's uh every five yearsyou gotta re-up those.

(53:25):
And so with 140, well think, youknow, just divide that by five,
that's how many you got torefinance.
So you gotta have great CFO,great banking relationships,
great partners.
And and we think everything'syou know, kind of like the our
our vendors are partners, Pete.
And so all those people thathelp us are partners with us,
and we treat them that way, andit and it goes back to the
people side of everything.

(53:46):
So but it's still I mean, I tellus 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 inthe merger and acquisitions, how
do you come across the dealsthat you do to bring it to the
partners and go, I think this isa 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 overthe years.
It's easy.
You know, I I know enough, andand really being part of April,
being part of Trib and going tothose meetings, you're always
and and you you know, peoplewill come up to you and say,
Hey, you guys interested inbuying this many stores or that
you you want to do this, or andso you're that's kind of the
relationship I built and otherpeople have built over the years

(54:24):
that you just you stay in theknow on that.
Valveine is very similar now.
You know, we valveing has anannual meeting.
So I go to those and I'm talkingto every Valve lean franchise.
Hey, if you ever, especially theones with great hair like mine,
a little older, I go, hey, ifyou ever you start with that,
right?
Because that just makes sense.
They're gonna retire, they'regonna, you know, and just hey,

(54:44):
if you ever anytime you want todepart and you want somebody to
run, you know, we'd be your exitstrategy.
And then uh, and and I get alist, like on on, you know, the
quick lubs, I'll get a list ofquick lubs in our areas, the mom
and pops, and you know, I'llsend them, I'll send them an
email if they're or or ifthere's a phone number, I'll
call them, try to get theowner's name.
And in valveing quite a lot as apartner, they do a lot of that.

(55:07):
They go out and knock on doors.
They have people that, you know,knock on doors all around the,
you know, all around thecountry, 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 verysuccessful business people that
will talk to him and they knowwhat he's about.
And so they'll say, hey, you youwant to buy like there's a music

(55:28):
company that was for sale.
Tom, you want to do this?
And and uh, and so heck, we gota construction company now that
because our valve, and we haveto build so many, we said it
makes sense to just build itourselves.
And so that construction companywas last year, and it's already
it's already profitable.
Made money is first year, sowow, it's it's just those are
the things you just got to do.

SPEAKER_00 (55:48):
What are we doing, Anthony?
I I feel like I'm not doingenough.
We're doing something wrong.
I feel I feel like I feel likethere's so much more left on the
table.
Have you ever thought about thetire and wheel?
I don't know.
I've you ever thought about thetire 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 prettyprofitable uh businesses.
I don't I don't know if we'regonna shed a light to that one.

(56:09):
I mean, coming into the end, Ikind of feel like I haven't done
enough with my life, Anthony.
I gotta do more.
You know, when I when I look atwhat you've done, Mark, it's
it's amazing with with the groupthat you're you're with and the
things that you were able toaccomplish.
You know, being able to comefrom you know humble beginnings
to having this long-termrelationship with your wife,

(56:29):
which number one, that is ablessing.
That is a that is a that'ssomething more important than
anything else, you know, yourfaith.
And then being able to be a partof what you're being a part of,
that that's amazing.
And it was great to see you inDC, by the way, just to say, we
did see uh Mark in DC, which wasuh a great time.
If you guys haven't been toLedgeCon, I'm going to tell you,
and yes, I am a spokesperson,but I want to tell you, LedgeCon

(56:51):
is amazing.
You need to go and advocate forthe industry because this is how
we stay alive, especially what'sgoing on right now in in New
York and a couple other states.
You always want to advocate, youwant to always be on the front
end of that, and that's the wayto do it.
So think about Ledge Con 2027.
And uh, and then if you have anyquestions, you can always ask
Mark how he's doing because he'sdoing 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 goback to Tom, Brent, and Mark,
and uh, and then our team, youknow, Jason, who runs our rent
owned, Shannon runs our youknow, valveing, uh, Tracy that
runs the the restaurant, andSusie runs the Pestify Plus.
It's they all have a name andthey're all just great people,

(57:33):
and that's it's it's it's youknow, 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 thatkind 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 somequick questions.
Um, and I just want to get yourthoughts on it towards the end
here.
What mistakes do you see thateven experienced operators make
when they expand?

SPEAKER_01 (58:01):
Um, probably the biggest one is it's you know,
overexpanding, expanding toofast, 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 youknow another five or ten stores,
that's hard.
You know, especially, you know,the the the challenge is when
you buy somebody like that, ifyou if you if they don't stay, I

(58:24):
mean that's that's just a lot ofwork.
And you can and and so you knowto me, and and even you know,
say an acquisition where you'rebuying accounts.
If you if you have a manager ina store, and I love buying
accounts, by the way.
It's it's just a great, youknow, it's an easy add-on,
typically.
But if you don't have a managerthat's really managing your
store that great right now,don't don't add in anymore.

(58:47):
Don't do it.
And and so just don't outgrowyour people.
You know, make sure that's a bigpart of any growth.
And if you have the people thatcan support it, go for it.
Go all out.
As long as you think it's a goodbusiness, 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 ingood enough hands to be able to
expand to a second?

SPEAKER_01 (59:10):
Uh, you're very profitable at the first
business, you know.
If if you're if your first storeis not making money, why would
you open a second one?
Right?
I mean, that does that makesthat's always made zero sense to
me.
You know, I'd gotta go, youknow, and and I know operators
right now have six stores andthey've had one of those stores
been losing money for 10 years.
Well, why is it still open?

(59:30):
Why shut it down?
I mean, don't who cares aboutnumbers like that?
I don't we've always saidprofit, you know, yeah, we're
we're very people oriented, butyou know, we're in it to make
money.
We're not there's we don't makeany, you know, we don't
apologize for that.
That's we can only grow if we'remaking money.
We can only hire more people ifwe're making money.
We can't do any of that if we'renot making money.

(59:51):
And so it just makes no senseto, you know, I I've seen people
do it.
You know, though they're at onestore, maybe it's a great store,
and they they all of a suddenthey open a second, that
second's not even profitable.
They're open a third and afourth.

unknown (01:00:04):
Really?

SPEAKER_01 (01:00:05):
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 thatsecond one's there, open the
third, and you know, and thenyou can build faster as you get
more, you know, your base getsbigger.
Yeah, you can do multi, butdon't don't go from one and open
three more, right?
That's dumb.
Now, if you go from one and buythree good ones, that's

(01:00:27):
different.
You know, because then you'reyou're profitable, you got cash
flow, you got those thingscoming in.
That that makes a hugedifference.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:33):
Last question.
What's your specific advice forsomeone in RTO looking to
translate what they know into anadjacent opportunity?

SPEAKER_01 (01:00:41):
Um, you know, we've done a lot of things that, you
know, we we know what ourcustomer is.
So, you know, okay, if you're inRentone, I'd I'd probably look
at R and R stores, very samecustomer base.
I'd look at, you know, we we youknow, we have a subprime, you
know, car finance company.
And uh, you know, I don't know,you know, we we looked at JD

(01:01:01):
Byrider a long time ago.
You know, we we we feel we'regood in that space.
We we we know the customers.
We're we don't we know exactlywho they are, we know how to
treat them, and they're greatpeople, they're hardworking
people, and and so if you if youwant to do that, but same time,
you know, if you're if there'san opportunity in multi-unit
anything that's making moneythat has good people, and we've

(01:01:22):
looked at quick serverestaurants, you know, and that
I've always been kind of afraidof that business.
We we've not gone into that yet,and I wouldn't say we never
would, but we've looked at it, Iyou 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 signup a lot of mob a lot of stores
to to open.

(01:01:43):
And uh I'd give me give me fiveto ten to buy that are
successful with man, you know,with with good leadership.
I'll do that any day, as long asit has that, and then we could
move forward from that.
Now to do a bunch, that's justscary if you don't know the
business.
I saw a lot of Aaron's, I a lotof you know, and I'm sure Redis
Center franchisees, Aaron'sfranchisees.

(01:02:03):
Um, I've seen a lot of them comein not knowing a lot about the
business and just grew, opened abunch 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 aboutsales, it's it's about the
relationships and collectionsand things like that are every
bit as important.

SPEAKER_00 (01:02:22):
So well, that is the advice from Mark Connolly,
someone who's very successful,but the truth is driven,
focused, and very, verydetermined to say that he has a
team behind him that is really,really making a difference.
I'm so glad that you're ontoday.
I've really learned a lot moreabout you than I've ever really
known.
I know we had a couple ofstories about uh Ernie Tally

(01:02:43):
that we didn't throw in there.
That might be good for Tally'ssake.
But you know, just talking aboutwhat you know and what you've
been through and the ability toexpand beyond the four walls of
Run to Own while doing and beingsuccessful at Arona is a great
thing.
And I want you guys tounderstand it is a chore to be a
part of Rent to Own and stillhave those other businesses.
So, Mark, you and your groupdoing a great job.

(01:03:04):
Listen, if you want to hear morestories about that, you are more
than welcome.
Go to the websitewww.thertoshowpodc.com, hit me
up directly at Pete at the RTOShow Podcast.
Listen, you can follow us onFacebook and LinkedIn and
Instagram and YouTube whereyou're gonna see this.
Mark, I appreciate you being onthe show today.
An amazing, amazing guest.
Thank you so much.
And I will tell you guys asalways, get your collections low

(01:03:25):
to get your sales high.