Creating Value-Driven Experiences with RNR CEO Adam Sutton

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello and welcome to the RTO Show podcast.
I'm your host, pete Schaul, andtoday I finally get to sit down
with Adam Sutton.
It's been a little while, guys,just so you guys know.
We've been planning on this fora while, tried to get it done
for a while.
We have, but you know thingshappen.
You know how the rental worldis.
One minute you're there.
One minute you just got to runand take care of some business.
So, adam, so glad to have youon the show.
Listen, guys at the R&R Studios.

(00:30):
Now, real quick interjection.
If you don't know this studio,you probably should, because
Adam and team have spent a lotof time making this happen.
Is it Tread, tire, tread TV?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Tread TV, basically a YouTube channel which the
handle would be R&R Tires plural, but we call it Trend TV and
hundreds of videos up there forthat video SEO right.
Youtube is the second largestsearch engine after Google, so
that's what it's all about.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Just so you guys are aware there is a responsibility
behind that.
So if you're not getting shownon YouTube, you need to get
shown on YouTube.
You got to do it.
Good quality video.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Quality video.
Quality, quality video.
It's the Renzo and Indus Relic.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
But I mean honestly, when you take a look at the
scope of what we have here atthe R&R Studios right now, they
have hundreds, hundreds ofvideos for you guys to take a
look at.
If you don't know, now you know.
Now you know.
And one of the reasons that Ihave Adam here is because not
only is he now the CEO of R&RTires, which is actually
expanding exponentially Everytime I turn around, I think I
see another store on there.
What I will say, too, is, aswe're trying to get here,

(01:32):
there's this article that comesout in RTO HQ Magazine, right?
So it's about Tracy Cintron,who's done amazing things for
this industry.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Oh, that's the better article I thought you were
talking about the other one.
Oh, no, no, no, she's notbelieving me.
She does this great thing.
Our franchise director, rockstar.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Absolutely.
So we get on this article andthen it just so happens that the
show is right next to thearticle and Adam's face is right
there.
So you guys got to check thatout.
But you know, having Tracy here, having the legacy being the
CEO First off, how are you doing?
How are you?
I mean, you seem so busy andeverything's going on.
What's going on?

Speaker 2 (02:09):
with you.
How are you doing?
Well, first of all, thank youfor having me and R&R.
Glad you're here, me too andhonestly just honored to be on
the show we were talkingbeforehand.
I love what you're doing and Ihope whoever's listening to this
or watching this that you passthis on to people in the
rent-to-own industry, because Ithink it's valuable just truly
valuable or invaluable or both.

(02:31):
No, just really honored to behere.
So, thank you, and doing well.
Honored to have recently beenpromoted and honored to work in
the rent-to-own industry, whichI grew up in under my father,
larry Sutton, aka the Reverendof Arkansas.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
The Reverend God.
You know, if you guys listen tothe show every time that I make
that reference, that's whatwe're talking about, somebody
who's been in this industry along time and we did talk about
generations because I felt likeit was slowing down, but with
you guys it's spot on.
I mean, not only did he startsomething, you've taken that,
that football and just kind ofmade it happen in your own way.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Sure, yeah.
Well, I mean here's the deal.
I think Rentone, anybody that'sin the Rentone industry.
Now we can all thank those thatcame before us because they've
laid an amazing foundation.
Right, I mean going back 40 plusyears and um, but certainly for
me to be able to come into thiscompany, uh, about seven or
eight years ago in 2017, um, itwas just a great foundation to

(03:30):
be able to to, to come back tohelp what they've started and,
just, you know, help kind ofbring that um, growth and uh,
honor to be here on and play apart Well let's start with that.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
So you're right now.
Let's, let's take a snapshot.
We're going to go backwards.
So right now, you're the CEO ofRent and Roll Tires, which is
amazing.
Did you say Rent and Roll Tires?

Speaker 2 (03:49):
It's Rent and Roll, right.
So we're going to make adisclaimer.
I'm glad you did See, I'm gladwe're doing it.
Let's know we didn't play this,but I'm glad you did it,
because Rent and Roll we love it.
Uh, my father jokes says healways wanted to be a rock and
roll star, didn't make it.
He got a little R&R with rentand roll and we opened our doors

(04:10):
in 2000, which means this yearis our 25th anniversary.
However, there is, there hasbeen an evolution which we
became, uh, 10 years ago maybe,uh, officially, uh, I tried to
make it more official when Icame back, um, r&r Tire Express.
So rent and roll is dead.
Uh, technically We've moved on,quote unquote but it's in our
hearts, it lives on forever andyou know it did really well for

(04:32):
us.
We can get into that of why wedid that branding transition.
But you know, yeah, we go byR&R Tire Express.
Well, now the marketing worksbecause everybody, even in our
hometown or wherever, oh, rentand roll, or we're like we
haven't been called rent androll in 15 years.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
No, it's true.
I mean, well, listen, I workfor Buddy's Home Furnishings and
they say, buddy, Buy Right allthe time.
And that was you know.
We're talking about slat days.
Oh, yeah, so we start here.
You're at the CEO.
Let's back up when you say youfirst came in a few years ago,
you kind of rejo rejoined andthen decided, hey, this is what
I'm going to do, so you make itto president.

(05:06):
Now you're how do you?
How do you?
Let's go back to that day whenyou decided to come back or dad
was like, hey, you're coming in.
Like how did that happen?
What was the thought processbehind coming?
Coming to R&R Tire Express?
Yeah, so thank you.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Self-correction, we got a good slide I'm actually
really glad because if anybody'slistening to this, hey, it's
written rules gone.
We love it, good years, butArnor's here.
So it's funny.
Specifically how I came back ismy father called me in 2017,
january 2017, and said, hey, Iknow you're leaving your
industry.
The company I was with that'skind of the right hand of the

(05:40):
CEO and we were selling, and youknow how that works.
If you stay, you would havebeen locked into an agreement
all this and I loved it.
I loved everything I was doing,but it was great for me, it was
awful for my family and, youknow, I tell people I normally
loved my wife and kids, but Iliked them and if I had stayed

(06:02):
in that industry, I just, youknow, it just was hard to to
make both, uh, fully successful.
So, uh, he knew that and and sohe calls me and says, hey, um,
can I take you to lunch, whichwasn't uncommon.
I've always kind of been closeto the business and acted.
Somewhat're going to be, youknow, I think we're at like 88
stores or something.
We're going to be hitting ahundred stores and, um, you know

(06:24):
, it's going to take a lot ofthings to get to that next 100.
And I'd like for you to thinkabout coming home.
He called it and uh which iswhat I kind of say for the rent
to own industry, any, any, anyfriends, or said I can't pay you

(06:47):
what those other people areoffering you, cause I had five
kind of job offers on the tableand he goes uh, so I'm not going
to pay you that, just so youknow which was not abnormal.
He taught me very young, sinceI was a child If you can't take
advantage of your family, whocan you take advantage?
of I don't know if that's just aRentown, but growing up in the
80s in Rentown that certainlywas used and infused but learned
a lot from it.

(07:07):
Wouldn't change a thing.
And he goes.
But I got something they don't.
I said what's that?
And he says I have a job inTampa that'll get you home for
dinner.
And that was kind of his clue.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Where do you go from there?

Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah, yeah, and that's honestly.
I mean, he knew he's a salesman, he knew what I needed to hear
and it was just the right time.
I call it a kind of God timing,a God moment, but just perfect
timing, perfect scenario forcoming back into the family
business.
And yeah, and then I just heldhim at gunpoint until he finally

(07:39):
made me the CEO, held it downand tried waterboarding and
finally he just did it.
Ceos held it down and triedwaterboarding and finally he
just he did it.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
Well, you know it's crazy because for the people who
are really intent on thepodcast and I love you guys to
death that's kind of whathappened with Tissot.
You know, if you go back andand and and, you just listen to
that point.
But it was like he had, he hada sit down, sit down with his
dad.
I want to hear that.
It was kind of like he sat downwith his dad.
He went out to you know aftergolfing.
They went out to you know lunchone day and he was like, hey,
this is what I'm laying out andthat's what essentially got it

(08:12):
back.
So listen, guys, if you haveanybody around to own that's not
coming back, take them to lunch.
Buy anything, yeah, but, and youknow, but it's, it was one of
those things like I think inboth situations and not that I'm
trying to compare, yeah, butlike you cannot be compared to
that right now.

(08:32):
Now, listen, now he's got, he'sgot a lot to go on with a
certain name again.
See, you guys, you guys gotsomething going on, but but it's
like one of those things whereyou know, when family really
reaches out, yeah, and, and oneof the things about rent to own
is that it is family related.
There's a lot of.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
It's very family industry more so than others,
for sure.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
It can be.
It can be, and because it'sfunny that you know you say time
, because I've known a lot ofguys who go rent to own.
That's pretty hard, that's apretty hard sell for time
no-transcript and I like to saythat this is a timeframe where

(09:12):
it's working for me.
Yeah, but you know, as you getthat and you come back, where
did you come back from?
Because you have this hi hiatusand you're doing other things.
What were you doing?
Then that dad said you knowyou're, you're, you're out there
, you're working, you're, youknow you're working your tail
off.
You probably could be better athome.
Let me help you out.
What were you doing?

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, um, so I won't go all the way back.
But long story short um, in2004 started a creative agency,
uh with my wife called redletter studios.
Um, in fact, did a lot of workfor rent-owned companies buddies
included Rent King, whichyou've been to those and picked
up a few REA awards.

(09:50):
They don't do those anymore butloves love working in the
rent-owned industry with that.
Did that for about 10 years inLondon, did pretty well with it,
very blessed, learned a lot.
I mean you know those firstcouple of years of owning your
own business and I was newlymarried.
I got married in 2004, marriedmy high school sweetheart and um
, and with a new business andjust I mean I failed so much, uh

(10:11):
, but you learn a lot fromfailure.
I prefer to learn from othersfailures in this time period.
Uh, I learned a lot from my ownand um, I had a client, uh
named Thuzy T-H-U-Z-Y that keptasking me hey, I was doing some
consulting for her, I was doingstuff for them and then they
would bring me in and do stuffon behalf of them and really

(10:32):
unique things digital, like theyhad developers.
They were developing out somedigital applications, primarily
for social media, which was youknow, this is 2010.
Many brands weren't even onsocial media, which was was, you
know, this is 2010.
Um, many brands weren't even onsocial media yet, right, which
is kind of crazy.
Yeah, yeah, we're like, no,you're right out head in the
sand and um, and so they werevery early on in that and they

(10:53):
just kept asking me like, whydon't you come on, let me, let's
hire you?
And I was like I love workingfor myself.
I was in a pretty good spot andcan make my own schedule and
and um, but I was looking atwhat I was doing and you know it
was design and branding andvideo production.
I loved it was a passion ofmine.
Um, new media at the time, whichis really websites and you know
all these things.

(11:13):
Um, I don't think by that timewe'd stop probably doing cd-roms
for the older, uh, part ofpeople in the crowd.
Uh, you know, some of thedigital things were just coming
about and I was looking at that,you know I, okay, I was
watching what was happening onthe internet and all of that was
becoming more accessible.
And, uh, you know, all of thesewebsites to get media and just
the, the knowledge you know,with iMovie and these different

(11:34):
applications just made data moreaccessible and thus cheaper uh,
you know, less needed, so lessuh price, uh skillset.
And so I'm watching my industrykind of be like and I'm
watching this social media thingand I'm going I don't know if
that's going to have a bubblelike that's just going to
continue to grow.
And they were really early indeveloping some things for

(11:56):
social media and so I justthought I should probably, I
should probably take, take, takethis on and go learn a lot of
things there and tap into thesocial media thing.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
Well, I mean, it sounds like you grabbed a lot of
that and brought it with you,tried to yeah, a little bit, I
mean.
So you guys just understand,okay, I've been trying to meet
with Adam for a while and I comein here today and I will tell
you that R&R has a lot going onno-transcript, or it's going to

(12:52):
be so important to us that we'regoing to make that part of
where we are and what we do.
It's huge.
And so, as you do that, youbring all this in, you come in
and now dad's not paying you andyou're figuring all this out,
right, yeah, yeah.
So what changes happen when Adamcomes?
Right, because I don't want tosay nothing about Larry, because

(13:14):
Larry is probably one of thebiggest names in Ren's own.
I can't say anything withoutsaying anything.
It's bigger than life, right.
But you know, as we do this,the idea is Adam's son's made a
name for himself.
I don't think this is the same.
I don't know about that.
But, yeah, I don't know if thisis the same R&R that it was,
and not necessarily that it waswrong or not right, but I feel

(13:36):
like there's something differentabout it now that you're here
and you've put your spin on itand, and you know, dad's kind of
been able to say, hey, I mean,he must have trusted you.
You're a CEO now.
Right, he did.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
So one of the greatest gifts he gave me was
because you hear some horrorstories.
I mean, you know, I think my20th high school reunion was a
couple years after I came backand I was talking to a buddy I
hadn't seen since high school.
You know, and hey, how's itgoing?
And you know he was inconstruction or something.
It's a tough industry.
And I'm like, and I just comeback a couple of years and I'm

(14:06):
like, oh, how's that going?
You know that's awesome.
You know he's like, oh, it'sterrible.
He's just he starts listing allthese like negative attributes
and I already knew I had itpretty good, a with an amazing
dad, but B with someone who'swho's, you know, not controlling
, and not just you know, no, I'ddo it my way or that way, not
to say we never got into any.
You know nice conversations,deeper conversations and

(14:29):
elevated voices, but I'mlistening to this guy tell this
story and I'm like, wow, I haveit really, really good.
You know, kind of, do my thingand bring in changes.
And you know the end of my kindof work story leading up to
just filling the gap was I leaveto go do this social media

(14:51):
thing and basically we werecreating these digital apps for
mega brands and doing somereally unique things.
We're giving away the first caron Facebook.
I mean giving away 500,000Bloomin' Onions for Outback, you
know, in five days and withthat, collecting 500,000 emails
and all the Facebook data.
You can't get this data anymore, but we got it all back then

(15:13):
and then we were learning fromit.
And long story short is, some ofour clients were I'll give you
two as example Gatorade andUnder Armour kept saying, hey,
we love what you're doing for usin the digital space.
We do all these events.
What could you do to tie thetwo together?
And so we actually startedinventing technology for event
marketing, for that liveexperience and sharing it with

(15:36):
the online friends.
So you'd be able to come in andyou saw in my office some of
the RFID wristbands yes, to beyour token and where,
historically, you'd go into anevent and I'll just use one of
the fan favorites we used toalways talk about kind of put us
on the map but the Oprah tourwe land in 2014.
There's 12 global sponsors inthe fan village right Before you
go into the big stadium and getyour Oprah on Mrs Winfrey.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
You get a card.
You get a card.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
It was fun, yeah.
So if it was, you get a lightup, yeah, and we're all you know
everybody's dancing with thesebracelets, but you would have
had to go to 12 different globalsponsors.
So Toyota, oprah, magazine, p&gBrands, and you have to go and
register to win that car.
As an example to you know,wells Fargo, you had to go
register to scan to get whateveryou were getting, and so our

(16:20):
system kind of centralized allthat.
But we also created some ofthat media back and all that fun
stuff for, like, we want toentice people to register.
So we created all these reallyunique experiences that would
instantly share on Facebook orTwitter or sent to your email,
and so we were creating socialamplification with events and so
, long story short, that tookoff and did really well.

(16:43):
We landed the Super Bowl in2013, and now that's kind of ran
on our platform ever since.
If you go to any major sportingleague event today, you're
going to interact with ourtechnology, which is really cool
.
But I learned a lot in thatprocess from kind of being in
startup mode, extended startupmode, meaning you don't have all
the money you need, so you'rescrappy.
Right, right, right, right.

(17:03):
Hundreds of events and you know, um trying to figure out how to
make all the work and you'resolving problem after problem
and it was amazing.
I mean, all of it was donebecause of our amazing team and
um learned a lot through that.
That, when I came back to R&R,um was just trying to to to look
at.
Okay, we had this greatfoundation and, honestly, I
don't even know for 17 years, Idon't know how R&R Tire Express,

(17:27):
not Ritten Roll, anybody outthere that just heard Ritten
Roll when I said R&R, it's R&R,r&r, asterisk, asterisk.
I don't know how theyaccomplished so much that they
did.
It was on the backs of theseamazing people, right, many of
which are still here, likeeverybody was.
You've been there like wearinga hat, change the hat, change
the hat.
We used to say wipe morebusiness cards, right, and which
can last for a while, butthere's at some point you have

(17:49):
to say I'm no longer a startup,right, we need a healthy work
environment, a for the health ofour team members, but B to be
able to get it to that nextlevel.
And so came in with a greatfoundation of what they had done
.
I was able to bring an outsideperspective on some things
because I wasn't just here andif I had been just here, I
wouldn't have been able to bringsome of these outside things.
I'd learned from others goodthings and mistakes, right, what

(18:11):
not to do in my own as well.
Um, so I think one of thebiggest things, probably to
answer your question, would bebringing kind of the scalability
and trying to help buildtowards a scalable model more so
and productize certain thingsand just enhance all the
processes of going.
Okay, we hit our store 100,actually right down the street

(18:32):
from you and I in Sarasota,florida corporate store most
first corporate stores inFlorida but how do we get to
that next 100?
How do we get to 200?
And I'm proud to say that wejust opened up store 200 in
December and sitting here today,in July of 2025.
Now we're at 207, right, oh,wow, which in marketing what we
get to say we're over 200.

(18:53):
So it doesn't matter if 200 pluswe're over 200.
And so a lot of it is.
I mean, the full credit goes tothe team and the franchisees
that are doing the putting themoney, you know, in the effort
of going there.
But just we tried to just do agood job of taking that 20 year,
that 17th time year history,and kind of productizing it,

(19:14):
packaging it up and making itwhere we could very quickly open
up more and help enable ourfranchisees to get to that
finish line a little quicker.
And you know a lot of that wasjust stuff learning it from the
software industry and the eventmarketing industry and you know
all of those things.
But I wish I could take thecredit it's really a point of
mirror back to the team and theywere able to do it.

(19:38):
Well, it's a team that taught methat when I was very young.
You attract the right peopleand it's very easy for him and I
he literally taught me thiswhen I was young.
You just have a simple trickyou hire smarter people than you
and you let them do what theydo, and that's been my secret to
success.
Now you know.
Now you know the secret tosuccess.
And look, I'll say something tothat too, because if there's
any leaders listening to that,if you hear that and you go well

(20:00):
, there is nobody smarter thanme.
You will not ever succeed asmuch as you can, because that's
your ego talking.
And uh, you're going to limityourself by that thought.
Right, you need to makeyourself not the smartest person
in the room, and certainlymentally, not thinking you're
the smartest person in the roomand surround yourself with good
people and get them.
Get them on the right people onthe bus and the right seats on
the bus.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
Right, so I will.
I will say all the time uh, oneof the guys that I talk to a
lot, fox Popular.
I talk to Andrew a lot.
He's like always show me yourfive closest friends and I'll
show you, I'll paint you apicture, and it can't be much
more clear than that.
If you're the smartest guy inthe room, you're in the wrong
room.
That's just the way it goes,and so sometimes it's great to

(20:41):
feel that rah, rah, rah, andthen you need to go somewhere
else when you're beingchallenged all day.
So you make these processesthat help the scalability, you
bring these processes that helpkind of the media and everything
else, and bring in the rightpeople like Tracy Cintra.
Go read her article Right.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
Go read the article RTOHQ.
Listen, guys.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
I don't want to tell you.
It's a great article andthere's probably things about
her you didn't know, like Ididn't know.
She was all that into pets andshe travels all over the place
and I thought that was awesome.
There's also an article withAdam's comments in it.
We'll talk about that in a bitSure.
But so now that you come in andyou get all that, what's really

(21:19):
important because you saidthere's a difference.
You've got the corporate storesand then you've got the
franchise stores.
How stores?
How did the franchise modelcome out of R&R and how much of
a game changer was that?
You know, was there a lot like?
It's like, hey, man, we werebuilt for the franchise model.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
I know we kind of trudged through that.
Well, I won't tell the wholestory because I believe you're
going to have the Reverend ofRTO, my father, larry Sutton, on
in a future episode.
So I plan on answering thatquestion because it's a great
story.
But I can tell you for some ofthe legacy folks that are
listening, mike Kent was a bigpart of that story and so Mike
Kent was around when Renton wasinvented and just a great man,

(21:57):
great, great family.
The long story, short, is weopened our doors under Renton
Roll custom wheels andperformance tires, because you
know, the longer the name thebetter, right, right, the better
.
If you don't know that, justmake it as many words as you can
.
And it's the URL's right toofor the website.
But some people, particularlyMike, heard what we were doing
and the 30-second backstory.

(22:18):
My father, I said I grew up inthe industry.
He had a traditional companycalled Champion Rent to Own and
so together with his partnerthey had about 100 stores.
He had about 27 to 30 of themand he had sold those.
He retired, did a couple ofthings, got bored Again.
You'll have to ask about thiswhen you do him in the episode
and then he kind of came up withthe written role thing.

(22:39):
So after a year or two, peopleare hearing about it and it's
like man, that's exciting, tireas wheels.
So, mike Kent, people arehearing about it and it's like
man, that's exciting, tireswheels.
What so?
Mike kent comes down and goes,uh, hey, larry, I want to see
what you're doing, and myfather's the most giving person
on the planet.
He'll help anybody.
Give you the shirt off his back.
Uh, which he has.
Um, and mike comes down and atthe end of it, mike says hey, I
want to do this.
And my dad goes do it.
And he goes no, no, I want todo exactly this.

(22:59):
I want to call it.
He's like go for, go for it.
He's like no, larry, we got tohave an agreement in place.
So he calls Ed Wynn and says Ed, you know me, you know Mike, I
want to do this.
And he goes like okay, I knowMike, can, we can do a license
agreement.
And so that was our very firstlicense agreement.
Wow.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
You know, ed Wynn forgot to mention that.
Ed, I'm going to tell you youdid not mention that when we had
our conversation.
If you guys don't know is legalcounsel for APO for many, many
years.
A legend, a legend.
He was also a legend that'sbeen on the show.
He did recently retire,although I don't think he's out
of the game fully.
It always says he's not out ofthe game, you can reach him.
So Edwin puts this together andthen is born the very first.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
Okay, so that's part one.
So part two here in the wholestory, my dad same exact thing.
I want to do it.
Yeah, I got a license.
So he calls Edwin.
He goes Ed, I need a licenseagreement.
And he goes.
I know Mike Kent, I don't knowthat guy.
And Larry, you're really, ifyou're going to be doing this,
that's really a franchiseagreement.

(23:58):
You're going to be a franchisor.
My dad goes I don't want to bea franchisor.
And when True Story goes, Ididn't say you're going to be a
good franchisor, but you'regoing to be a franchisor.
And he goes why would you saythat?
And he goes Larry, I've knownyou 40 years.
You don't know how to say no.
And a franchisor has to say no.
And my father, ultraentrepreneur and just you know
didn't want to tell people whatto do and he was attracting

(24:35):
entrepreneurs and so very earlyon that's how we became a
franchise, by accident, not bydesire, and we really in the
beginning were very loose.
I mean too loose Me and VinceFicarota, who's been in, and I
was my third.
I had three jobs at the time.
It was my kind of my night job.
I'd come late.
Vince always worked late, sowe'd be doing P and P together.
I was doing mostly marketing,but we're inventing stuff.
When the tire tech called outI'd be down there slinging tires
and I, yeah, towards the end ofthe day.

(24:56):
And we used to get in argumentswith my dad like that You're
going to be all about my dad's.
Like, oh, forget that, I wouldjust let them do what they want.
And reality is we were bothwrong.
Right, he was too loose and meand Vince were like going too
far.
We finally found our sweet spot, um, and and I wouldn't hear
they get credit for this, butyou know if, being that that
balance of having the guardrails, you've got to have branding

(25:17):
and protection around your brandand your customer experience.
But we still have some of thatflexibility and I think I know
some of our best ideas came fromfranchisees, right?

Speaker 1 (25:28):
And so that goes back to surrounding yourself with
the smart people.
Absolutely.
Now we say we award them right.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
Because you just, yeah, you want this, you got
that.
So now we don't do that.
You're right, pro tip, if youwant to get into franchising,
don't give it away.
And it's harder in thebeginning because you don't have
much.
You're like, okay, sign away.
But now we really look at it,for what is the DNA that we're
allowing into the system?
We want somebody that's goingto fit into the system and the
culture and our values, and sowe award them and we've turned

(26:09):
people down, you know, becausewe don't feel like they fit the
rent-to-own culture and you knowthat relationship-driven
business, but also our own kindof family-owned business that we
want to permeate across the30-plus states we're in now.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
So in sudden value, somebody wants to go into a
franchise.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
Let's, let's.
Let's say it's not on our tireexpress.
Let's just say it's franchising.
Sure, Right, and I got thisbrand and I want to start
franchising.
Don't do it, Don't do it.
No, no, that's great.
So what?
What is a small bit of advicethat you'd say, if this is your
goal, if be a franchisor, youthink you've got this brand that

(26:57):
works, and somebody comes toyou and says, hey, this is
something I like doing, and yourmindset goes okay.
What is a piece of advice thatyou'd say this is a must.
Before you go and walk downthat road, you should know this
or try that.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
Yeah, that is probably its own podcast.
There's probably smarter people, not probably.
We can do that.
I'm just saying we can do that.
No, no, no.
So let me try to summarize inshort, being short, I would say
be careful.
What you wish for.
I will say I love being afranchisor and a big part of
that is because we have amazingfranchisees.
But I talk to a lot offranchisors and the bigger you

(27:25):
get, the harder it is tomaintain that.
Right, and I think Edwin gavethis advice to Larry around that
same time.
He gave an old April.
It's attributed to AbrahamLincoln.
I don't know if that's actuallytrue, but he says look,
franchising is very simple.
It could have been somebodyelse, but, ed, I'm going to give
you the credit.
The quote is and I'm sureyou've heard it you can please

(27:47):
some of the people all the time,all the people some of the time
, but never all the people allthe time.
Right, that's franchising on apaper napkin.
And so you, just you got to beable to say no to Edwin's point,
and we didn't for a while.
That bit us in the butt RightIn 2008,.
We had a lot of closures becausewe let some people in that, you
know shouldn't happen and alsowe weren't giving enough support

(28:20):
, I think, than what we shouldhave been doing.
So you got to be able to say no.
You got to be able to strikethat balance between being
supportive and being firm, andyou got to.
You know we talked aboutproductizing things.
You really have to know theamount of time, effort, energy
and money it's going to take inthe people to make a franchise
sustainable.
I mean, everybody thinks youcould go to any franchise rep
company now and oh here's 50grand.
Make me a franchise, correct.
That is the easiest part.
By the way, there's a lot ofrisk in that.

(28:40):
I don't suggest that I'm notsaying there's not good ones out
there, but, like yourrinse-repeat model, you're
paying and giving up all thisliability risk and all that.
So I would say, have goodfranchise lawyers, that risk and
all that.
So I would say, have goodfranchise lawyers.
That'd probably be another tip,but that's not the hard part.
Right, you got to have a productor something that somebody
wants to buy, so you got to findthem.
That is hard, but the supportis the long tail end of that,

(29:00):
right.
If you're looking at the graph,it's like and then support,
right, and that's the longestthing.
And so you just got to bewilling and ready to commit and
to support that, because theyare going to have they being the
franchisees your name.
You know they're going to ownyour customer experience.
You're never going to meettheir customers, but they're
going to own it.
And why do I say yours?

(29:22):
We live in an online world,baby, right?
So what you say is now on notjust Better Business Bureau, but
it's on Google and it's on,it's everywhere.
And now, with this video filmculture and the PR.
Oh, absolutely.
You know, something that getsdone out there could be a high
PR risk for everybody.

(29:43):
So a lot of negatives, but Imean more.
So I'd say there's morepositives than good.
You just got to know whatyou're asking and make sure
you're ready to commit to it.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
You have this face, the way we mentioned for
franchising, you're like it'sthe greatest nightmare.
But I think that when you havepeople that are in this business
, the rent-to-own industry youhave some serious entrepreneurs,
you have some serious pioneersthat they're thinking.
I don't know the end result,but I know that I want to get
started.

(30:12):
I know that this is what I wantto do and, again, one of the
things I love about Adam isbecause I feel like we both feel
the same way.
We're passionate about what wedo.
I don't know if he's thatpassionate about podcasting, but
I know that R&R Tire andExpress is.
You know, we started talkingwithin a couple minutes.
Adam's like you know this, thisand this, because it's
something that is innately builtinto you.

(30:33):
I want to do this and I want todo it well.
I am concerned about not onlythe customer value but what
we're providing to the ownerswho come in and want to say, hey
, I want to be a part of the R&Rfamily.
How do I do?
What we're both passionateabout is the rent-to-own
industry Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
Right, and you can feel that from listening to your
podcast, just from meeting youfor a minute, and you bring that
to what you do in thepodcasting.
But it's a lot of the samevalue.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
Well, we're trying Now flipping that on its ear.
Being able to do that is beingable to create leaders, people
in the industry who not onlyhave the passion to do what they
do, but guys.
This is almost just as, if notmore, important.
You can't do it all by yourself.
You've got to create peoplewithin the industry that can
also do what you can do, whetherit be because yeah, because

(31:24):
whether they bring it in, orwhether you teach them that
leadership value is so importantto growth and making sure that
it's scalable.
Yeah, you have to be able toteach other people who can teach
other people.
That's good.
So, going back to and you got tobe able to trust them to do it.
Well, trust is yeah, absolutelyright.
So, going back to what we saidin the beginning, there's a room

(31:45):
not very far from here that'sdedicated to helping those
people become leaders and kindof leading others to success.
How did that come about?
Whose idea was it to say, youknow what?
Not only do we believe in thisso much, but we need to carve a
niche out in home office and saythis is dedicated solely to
creating better employees thatcan serve.

(32:06):
Not only can they grow in whatthey're doing.
Grow professionally, but alsogrow the business.
Where did that idea come from?

Speaker 2 (32:12):
Yeah, Well, I wish I could take credit for that.
I mean, part of it was just outof necessity, right?
Because, like you mentionedearlier, we were renting hotel
rooms.
Again, there's nothing wrongwith that, you know.
It's been done for and will bedone for 50 years On and on.
No-transcript is reallyvaluable, um, but making it

(33:02):
scalable, you have to be able toduplicate those leaders, and so
for us, um, you know, I know, Ithink one of the topics you
want to hit in this section waskind of that, the core values
and what we subscribe to.
So you want to go into that now.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
Yeah, I mean absolutely, because because,
through the leadership, theyhave to know what flag they're
carrying, right, that's.
That's another, another brand,you know.
And I'd love to say, guys, justso you guys know, we support
armed services.
I don't have my red shirt ontoday, but if you guys support,
please go to Vox Populi and getone of.
Their shirts are red.
It does support for thedeployed members of the military

(33:36):
and, god, I'm so glad thatthey're available.
But you know, talking about theflag, you've got to know what
you're doing.
You got to stand for somethingor you'll fall for anything,
right?
So, and I believe the statementthat you were making about the
people who you can and cannot, Ibelieve it was PT Barnum
actually yeah, huge fan of PTBarnum, but I mean that culture

(33:57):
has got to be just as or I don'twant to say always more
important, but it's got to bethere, because if I don't know
how to lead, I at least need toknow how to act.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
How do I fall back in ?
I love Walt Disney, I'm a fanof Walt Disney, I was in the
event marketing technology space, but a lot of that's the
entertainment space and it'scalled experiential marketing,
right, but all that comes downto the experience and our main
goal is to ultimately provide avalue-driven experience and
that's going to be with our teammembers and we use the word

(34:28):
team members.
On employees, I'll come backAbsolutely, and if you don't do
it there, then you're not goingto do it where it really counts,
which is down to the people andI hate to use the word down,
but over to the people who canfire anybody in the company and
everybody in the company up toCEO, which is the customer,
right, because they're the onespaying.
Ah yes, so create thatvalue-driven experience.
And so, going back to kind of,how do we make it scalable and

(34:51):
duplicatable and how do you makeit important for your leaders?
One of my favorite quotes Ibrought up Walt Disney, because
there's a great Roy Disney quotewhich, if you're unfamiliar
with Walt and Roy, there's justamazing stories there.
But I love to tell people youwould have never heard this is a
sidebar you would have neverheard of Walt Disney without Roy
Disney?
That's right.
I say that because leaders comein different shapes and sizes.

(35:14):
Right?
Walt was this, you know, verymuch like my father, this
amazing, just bigger than lifeperson, and you know, and we've
had several of those in theindustry, but there's also some
amazing people in the industrythat are more of the numbers and
analytical, and that was RoyDisney.
And you would have never heardof Walt because he would have
not made any money, because hewould have spent it all if Roy
wasn't.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
I read on that because he was like, so like,
let's just get it done.
I was like whoa, whoa.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
You know an EOS entrepreneur operating system.
If anybody's familiar with that, they would call that the
visionary and the integrator,not is integrator.
Great system too.
If you're looking for a goodeos, uh traction book, uh, gene
whitman.
But the quote from from roy isum, decisions aren't hard when

(35:59):
you know what your values areright, and so when you've
defined and created those values, uh, they're not hard and so.
So, knowing that, I mean that'sage-old, you know wisdom,
nothing new there.
But, um, when we were lookingat the landscape of like, okay,
how do we?
We're, we're going to be ahundred stores soon.
What's that next 100, which wejust hit.
You know a good, good culture,but be, replicate that a hundred

(36:33):
times, a hundred times, ahundred times in a franchise
system where you can't alwayscontrol it, right.
Uh, and I do want to say thisthis is a disclaimer I love our
franchisees.
I don't want anybody coming offthis going, oh, he hates
franchising.
I love franchising, I lovebeing a franchisor, um, and a
big part of that is because ofthe amazing franchisees we have.
But I just was trying to stressit is a very hard thing to take

(36:56):
on, so just be careful.
It's a scale, it's hard toscale and it's hard to scale.
But back to this, it's hard toreplicate that family-owned
mindset.
Right, we have a lot of familyownership groups in our thing.
But now, especially now, we gota lot of the people out of the
rent-owned industry, we've got alot of just finance people
coming in and okay, well, how dowe take that finance guy or gal

(37:17):
and make sure we replicate thisculture?
So, four or five things is kindof what I identified which is
probably in a thousand books.
I didn't come up with this, butwhen looking at creating a
value-driven experience, I wasjust kind of sitting back and
going well, how are we going todo that and how do we productize
it?
I like to use that word to saypackage it up and make it easy

(37:37):
for someone to understand andalign with Two of my.
Well, I'll start with this Twobrands I admire we mentioned.
One is Disney, the other isChick-fil-A.
Oh God, yes, I challenge you, Ichallenge you, I challenge you,
challenge People are going tosend in tapes, they're going to
send in links.
Here I did have a bad experience.

(37:57):
I challenge you to go to one ofthose places and not have an
exceptional experience, right, avalue-driven experience, and so
they happened to be two of myformer clients in my former life
, right, and really enjoyedworking with them backstage, as
Disney calls it, and so I kindof really was looking at that
going.
How did they do that, right?
Um, is Chick-fil-A importingmillennials with manners from

(38:18):
some planet?
Right?
They're not right, and I cansay that because I'm a
millennial.
I do younger millennials outthere, you can't be mad, I'm a
millennial, um, but they'reduplicating this replicatable
experience, and it's always thisreally great thing is you know
you replicatable experience, andit's always this really great
thing is you know you don'tleave Chick-fil-A and check your
bag You're going to get theright food right and you don't
go to Disney and not have agreat time.
So I think it's four or fivethings.

(38:40):
One, what they did, if you pullback and look at it.
One is they identified thosecore values.
They identified what they'relooking to replicate and who
they are.
Then they kind of productizeand they brand them and they
make it known.
Right, it's not a hidden thingthat's kept behind this wall,
it's out there.
Disney has it in the five keysof success, right before you

(39:00):
walk on stage you'll see.
Here's a reminder.
This is what we want, right.
Number three they hire peopleto that.
Hire smiling people.
Right?
It's much easier to help teachpeople rent-a-hood or automotive
or furniture than it is toteach them how to be happy or
treat people with respect.
Yes, we know that right.
The next one is you've got totrain those people to all of

(39:24):
those values and make it veryplain and simple and break it
down in a way they're going tounderstand.
And the last one is you've gotto hold them accountable to it.
And that's one of the hardestthings, especially for people,
driven people.
Right, you and I are, I think,probably both people.
That's probably a weakness ofours that we've always had to
work on, you know.
And there's a pendulum, there'sa balance of like all things,
that's, you can be hey, at thosefive things, we kind of said

(39:52):
what does that look like for us?
Who are we, who do we want tobe and how do we replicate it?
And I brought some visuals.
Can we bring some visuals?
We've got some visuals, guys,everybody watch the video on
YouTube.

Speaker 1 (40:01):
I didn't have to ask because he was so excited about
showing me that within the firstfew minutes I knew about it.
That's how you know thatsomebody is very interested and
passionate about what they'redoing, because you bring it to
the forefront and say, just likethe leadership thing.
I think within two minutes hewas like this is our room and
we're going to make it bigger,we're going to tear it down.
And then, you know, as we'regoing through, he's like, hey,
let me show you this, becausethat's important.

(40:21):
That's how you get that processdown to the franchisees, down
from the franchisor and listen,if you're not looking to do that
, to your other companies, yourother store brands that are just
you're saying, hey, you knowwhat, this is how you get from
here to there and I'm going tolet you explain that.
But absolutely, this is goingto be the first time I think we

(40:43):
got props on this show.
Here we go.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
I love this Slides and props.
So no slides today, but I'llexplain it for anybody listening
as well.
But if you've noticed, on myshirt, I've got a logo here that
says DX3, the letter D, theletter X, the number three and
the visual here I'm holding up.
This is just one of our mousepads that we put out there
because you got to put it infront of people, you got to

(41:05):
remind them about it.
This is it.
Yeah, in the middle here is DX3.
And what that is is the Dstands for driven right, because
there's you can be motivated bysomething, but motivation fades

(41:27):
right when you're driven bysomething.
It's those values that youmultiply and make each one
better.
And so here it is.
The visual I'm holding up is acircle, and the first one on the
left of the circle is culture.
That's our first core value.
Our second one is customers andour third one is community.
So we want to be driven bycreating these value driven
experiences for our culture, ourcustomers and ultimately impact

(41:50):
our community.
Now here's the beauty.
This is in a circle.
For the audience at home, thisis in a circle, so it starts
with culture, then it has anarrow going over to customers,
because you're not ever, ever,ever going to be able to
replicate a great customerexperience.
If you aren't treating yourteam members great, If you're
not building a value-drivenexperience for your team members

(42:11):
, you're probably I mean, you'llhave occasionally that good
team member.
He or she will just be thatsmiling person and woke up happy
and you know who you are.
We love you, I love you.
But guess what?
If you don't create avalue-driven experience, they're
not going to stay becausethey're going to go somewhere
where they're appreciated orworse, they're going to stay,
and they're and you're going to.
You're just going to squeezethat out of them, because people

(42:33):
don't, you know, naturally growup.
They go down.
That's easier, it's harder togo up, and so you've got to
create a value driven culturewhich will then help influence
that and create a value drivencustomer experience.
Right, and quick note on that.
I said come back to team memberversus employee.
Um, true, cathy, founder ofChick-fil-A, you know I love

(42:54):
this story.
I think it took him nine yearsto get it's my pleasure across
everybody's lips, right?
So that gives me a little bitof pause.
And what I'm about to tell you,which is this I'm trying to
eradicate the word employee inour organization.
Right, and I'm trying toreplace it with team member Very
hard to do in the HR departmenttoo.
They, right, and I'm trying toreplace it with team member Very

(43:15):
hard to do in the HR departmenttoo.
They hate me for it.
I'm like remove the wordemployee.
I'm like Adam, we've got to saywhat they are and I'm like okay
, okay, okay, but wherever elsewe can, I want to use team
member of employee.
And why is that?
It's this and this is kind ofthe mindset behind the
leadership style we want and webelieve in, right, and that we
want to replicate.
An employee is transactional, anemployee is just a number and
they're replaceable, right?

(43:37):
A team member?
There's two things.
One, they're on your team, andthat comes with some
responsibilities.
They need to do what you needthem to do, because that's why
you pay them, right.
But the flip side of that is weare on their team, yes, and
that's a mindset shift.
That's something I learned frommy father very on.
I think it's something reallyunique in the rent-to-own
industry which is why we havesuch longevity with so many
people is that team mindset,that upside down kind of pyramid

(44:01):
, and when you show that andwhen they feel that it helps
create this visual, the culturewith that right, and so the
ultimate goal is we want tocreate a value-driven culture,
and when you're doing that andyou look at them as team members
, aren't just employees, what'sthat going to do?
That's going to create avalue-driven customer experience

(44:24):
.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
Well, you know it's funny.
You say that because the ownerof Virgin Atlantic, who also
believes the exact same thing,said you want a better customer
experience.
Take care of your employees100%.
Take care of your employeesbecause they're the ones that
take care of your customers 100%.
And if they feel that culture,like hey, I have somebody who
has my back, they're going totrain me, they're going to show
me the best way, and if I haveto say the words no, it's for

(44:45):
the right reasons, and not thatwe ever want to say no to our
customers.
But you have to understand thatwhen they feel the culture,
when they believe what they'redoing and they're like this is
all of us, we're all in a teamtogether, how can I best serve
you?
That's when the customerexperience starts going through
the roof, 100% 100%.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
The customer is the only person that can fire
everybody in the company,including the CEO.
Fired, they just stop paying it.
Fired, they stop coming.
That's it Right.
And so a hundred percent thegoal.
And again, none of these thingsI'm about to share are brand
new.
But going back to Disney andChick-fil-A, how do we
productize that?
How do we design some easilyunderstandable and recognizable

(45:24):
things of who we want to be?
Right?
And because once people knowtheir values, it's not hard to
make decisions Exactly.
So you start with the cultureand create a value-driven
culture that ultimately createsa value-driven customer
experience.
Right.
We believe that will impact thecommunity on its own.
I think rent-to-own is one ofthe biggest industries that as

(45:45):
far as biggest percentage-wisefor customer referrals.
They're going to tell theirfamily and their friends, by the
way, they're going to tell themeither way, if they have a good
experience or a bad experience,so you might as well make it a
good experience.
Don't even allow them to tellthe people that they know yeah,
yeah, and that used to live atthe water cooler and now, for 15
years plus, it's lived online.
You know, it's not just the BBB, it's Google reviews, it's all

(46:26):
of these other platforms andplaces, including their own
social media, oftentimes evenvideo.
Oh, you're talking to me likethat.
So we've never had morepressure than ever to deliver a
good experience.
But I'll also tell you gosh,that's going to be true one day.
It's been true for years,Younger generations, millennial,
which I am I'm on the outeredge of a millennialism.
On down value, experience overprice.
The first time in history, yes,right, which is pretty wild to
think about.
So I hope you're going todeliver that because you want to
.
But if you're sitting theregoing like I don't give a crap

(46:47):
about it Well, going like Idon't give a crap about it Well,
you need to because there's atipping point here where these
older customers are aging out,and we've talked about there,
you've talked about that in yourshow Absolutely Shows ago, I
believe where it's like thatbuying experience, that shopping
experience, that mindset isevolving and you not only got to
be where these people are nowand they're shopping, but you
got to treat them the way thatthey feel A they deserve right.

(47:10):
And let me, let me pause onthat Cause I want to share what
I tell my team and I believeeverybody listening to this or
will agree with this a hundredpercent.
But when I'm talking tosomebody that doesn't understand
rent, own and they're like,well, you're, you have a product
that you're, you're, you'recharging more for it, you know
you're taking advantage of thecustomer.

(47:35):
There's a lot of everybody atRentone is perfect, they're not
right, but they should betreating every customer amazing
and it should be value-driven.
But I look at it and I like totell our people that we have the
honor and privilege of servingthe hardest working, most
deserving and oftentimes mostunderappreciated people in
America.
Yes, right, I mean they'redoing blue collar jobs on down
that most people don't evenrealize how hard that is and
they're not feeling appreciated,they're not feeling valued and
they're oftentimes not creditworthy, so they're getting taken

(47:58):
advantage of wherever they go.
We have the solution for thatright.
Come in here.
We're going to treat you theway you deserve, we're going to
give you what you want and we'regoing to be with you forever.
That's the recipe for successin Rentone, in a nutshell, that
is.

Speaker 1 (48:12):
It is the right thing to do and they deserve it.
And the thing is, too, is thatwhen you take care of them,
these are essential situations.
A lot of times we think, allright, it is what they decided
to do and that's okay, they cando it.
Yeah, okay, if you're gettingyour eggs in the morning, that's
something.
If you're driving on good roads, that's something.
When you call because somethingis backed up in the bathroom,

(48:34):
that's something.
Those are all important andessential.
It's nice to say that my daynever changes, but it does, and
those essential people that takecare of us deserve to be taken
care of.
Now, talking about thecommunity, because we've got
community, we've got culture,we've got customers we're going
to start with the culture, whichleads to the customers, which

(48:56):
leads to the community, andwe're talking about customers
and community.
We have a stack.
We have a stack of bags overthere, talking about giving back
to the community and what thatmeans to you and R&R, tire and
Express.
What's going on with the bags?
I'll let you explain that thebags.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
Right, then we'll come back to community on the
visual.
So we're in our back warehousehere where our studio is, and
Pete's referencing a fewthousand backpacks which every
year yesterday actually one ofmy favorite days of the year we
get to pack as a corporate teamthese backpacks with a fully
loaded back-to-school kind ofkit, so the notebook and the

(49:27):
paper and the pens andeverything's in one.
We put them in the bag, we'vegot this nice little note and
these other things, zip it up.
All of those go to our storesand we give those out for free
to a customer or a non-customerand they love it.
I mean, one of my favoritethings is yesterday when we
stuff it as just a community.
My daughter was here and justyou know the camaraderie of that
but also getting photos fromour team members, from the kids,

(49:49):
where the backpack and thestuff, oh, that's awesome, it is
really cool, yeah.
So so back to the graphic.
So if you're watching theYouTube, uh, I'll show you.
If not, I'll explain it.
So Pete just mentioned it startswith culture.
There's an arrow going tocustomers and then an arrow
going to community.
So all the things we justtalked about when you treat the
customer, right, you're going tohave an impact on your
community, which is going tohave an impact on your business,

(50:09):
right?
Absolutely.
But we believe, on top of that,we should be giving back to the
community with our time, talentand treasure, right, we believe
we don't want to just take, wealso want to give, because we
think that's the right thing todo.
But here's the good news whenyou do that just from a simple I
mean there's a reaping andsowing concept there, but also

(50:35):
from a PR perspective, that'sactually the arrow from
community goes back to cultureand that's going to impact your
culture and people are going tofeel a part of something bigger
and that's going to paydividends.
And that's kind of it for DX3,driven by our three core values.
Each one's a multiplier onitself and you can't talk about
it enough, and I'll show you onemore graphic here.
We created what we call a fieldguide.
I talked about this a littlebit at my talk in April a year

(50:57):
or two ago, and in this fieldguide it's a fun, designed
breakdown of who we are and whatwe're about in our three core
values, right?
How?
What does culture look like?
What does a value-drivencustomer experience look like
and how do we impact ourcommunity.
So this is a breakdown of that.
And then last year we talkedabout we created a leader's

(51:20):
guide, right?
So we focused on how do wecreate value-driven leaders,
because the ultimate question is, how do you become a
value-driven company?
And the answer is by creating avalue-driven culture.
That will never, ever, everhappen by accident, right, right
, how do you do it?
You create and buildvalue-driven leaders.
Back to your original question,right, I'll close the loop

(51:42):
right here.
So what does a value-drivenleader look like?
We created some things, threethings that they're driven by
and again, a nice fun visualgraphic putting it in front of
them.
There's some supplemental stufflike that with our purpose
statement.
Our purpose statement is we arehere to serve our customers,
not just provide service.
And we even shorten that, right, just the branding guy that

(52:04):
lives in the same and goes.
Got to make it quick, got tomake it rather go.
So we call it serve, notservice.
So that's kind of under the DX3thing with our purpose
statement.
And we have that taken anotherline from Disney when it's
printed vinyl graphic goes toall of our stores above the door
when you walk out of youroffice or when you walk out of
the shop into the showroom, theysee, hey, serve, not service.

(52:25):
It's that subtle reminder.
Here's what we're about, right.
And then our vision statement ischanged lives, changing lives,
and that kind of goes back tocommunity Like that's our
ultimate goal.
We're not just about changingtires, right.
Our three main things that wedo is tires, wheels, alignments,
with flexible payment options,obviously.
But we're really about changinglives and I think that's a huge

(52:47):
testament to the rentalindustry in general.
It's certainly a testament tomy father's legacy that I have
the honor of just kind ofhelping try to carry on and
multiply, and I hope everybodylistens to this podcast.
That's just what they and Ibelieve they already are
latching onto and helpingreplicate across the country,
because that's one of thegreatest gifts we can give to
people is empowering them,showing them what a good leader

(53:10):
looks like by our actions,teaching them how to be a good
leader with materials like thisand you know all the other
materials that are availableJohn Maxwell, simon Sinek, you
know you name it and then havingsome grace with accountability
and helping them get there sothat they can go duplicate that
and use their changed life tochange more lives.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
Well, if you guys talk about Simon Sinek, I'm
going to love you.
I love Simon Sinek.
Leaders Eat Last and myfavorite book was Find your why.
The why is huge.
If you don't know that one,look up that YouTube video.
It's huge.
It's so important.
But going through all this, youcreated this culture, We've
created this mindset, We'vecreated the franchise that we
now go 200 plus.

(53:51):
When you're talking about theleadership, talk to me about
Will Jackson.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
Will Jackson, he's a beast.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
Okay.
So just so you guys are aware,I do plan on having Will Jackson
on the show, but Adam isactually the first tire RTO
situation that we've had on theshow.
Because, listen, we're all inthe same world, it doesn't
matter what you have.
The relationships are important, the leadership is important
and how we got here is important.
And I saw something at FRDA.

(54:18):
Will Jackson talked a littleabout Cleaps Clipboard, yeah,
and he said I was like I love it, I love it.
So it's not just that we'reteaching that leadership value,
we've actually dedicatedsomebody to really dial in on
that.
How much has that changed thegame to have somebody very much

(54:39):
diving in and say this is what Ido.
I'm not a manager who doesleadership, this guy just does
it.
How well does it?
Because he's the guy that givesaway the cars, right?
Yeah, you guys see the videosand everything you can see it on
our video.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
Yeah, I'll tell you the brief story on how we got
there, but I mean, I got to tellyou he's phenomenal, one of the
things that's come out of thisthat we've.
You know, going back to, yougot to put your money where your
mouth is.
You can't just delegate cultureto a wall.
You know, I heard somebody saythat and it's like it can't just
be the poster on the wall.

(55:13):
You have to be able to A liveit but B you know, instill it in
the people and show people whatthat looks like.
And so one of the things we cameup with is what we call DX3
Live, and it's a two day.
The version right now we'redoing is a two-day leadership
course.
We've done five or six of themall across the country.
I fly out in a couple days toNorth and South Carolina to do
another one with Will, and it'sjust.

(55:35):
Those two days are all aboutleadership and we bring in our
managers, operators, I mean evenowners.
We're getting good feedback andWill just does a phenomenal job
.
We're talking about ego.
We're talking about you sawclips to clip, about you saw
Clips to Clip, clip Cleats toClipboard, which is hey, how do
I go from a player mindset A lotof people.
I got promoted as that top salesguy or gal, right, yes, and and

(55:56):
you, you, that's great, that'smade you what you are.
But when you to empower othersand try to do it and he just
kills the sessions on that.
And we've seen some greathonest feedback.
We create some table time aftereach session where the group
like we tell them you got to getraw and honest with each other.
And just one of my favoriteparts is just listening to the

(56:19):
feedback of some of these guysare 15 year old veterans of
rent-a-home or automotive.
Some of them are two years inright and they've never.
One of my favorite things aboutthis material we're doing and
these DX3 lives and other thingswe've got going on is we have
to remember, like for me in mycase, I always got to remember
like I've had a lot of privilegein my life, certainly in the
respect of growing up under theReverend of.

Speaker 1 (56:41):
RTO.

Speaker 2 (56:42):
And I grew up in the halls of APRO, literally, and I
would watch my father on stagetalking about his talk he used
to have in the 80s RTO, whichstood for Relationship to
Opportunity, and I'm just, youknow, in awe watching this guy
going.
That's my dad.
But also just not only what hedid on stage, but what he did
and how he treated his people inthe store.
When I travel with him on theweekends or in the summers, you
know, um, uh, in the store whenI travel with him on the

(57:04):
weekends or in the summers, youknow, and, and that that some of
that comes a little bitnaturally.
A lot of that was from hismentors and a lot of that's just
him.
How do you take that andreplicate it?
You, you gotta go around thecountry and you gotta do these
things, um, and real quick onWill.
Just, you know he's one ofthose.
I follow this in the categorywhen you, when you have somebody
like this talented, you justgot to hire him, I don't care

(57:24):
what you put him in, you justgot to hire him and and, and,
you know, get better peoplearound you, right, uh, he was,
I've known him for a long timeand, uh, we used to do a lot of
stuff actually in the church.
We go to this mega church and,uh, I was funny enough, I used
to work at it 25 years ago.
He did too.
And uh, you know, just, we'veknown each other for a while.

(57:44):
We kind of, when I came back andwe were building the studio and
like, okay, we're in this videodeficit.
You know, video is a passion ofmine.
I'm like we got you metMichelle, who's an amazing
national content manager, whomade all this happen.
We're like we just got to gocreate videos.
I'm like we kind of need aspokesperson, and my father is
an amazing spokesperson.
He did all the Champion, thechampion went to own commercials
.
But I wanted some of thatyounger you know kind of thing,

(58:06):
whatever.
No offense to my dad, he'syoung at heart.
If you know him, he's, you know, 35 at heart.
We won't say his real age andI'm like I got a guy.
I got a guy that would be sogood.
He's not an actor, but he'sjust great on stage and so we
started using him in that roleas our talent.
And then eventually I was likedude, let's just get you on and
let's go do this.
And so it's been fun, it's beengreat, and again you've got to

(58:27):
put your money where your mouthis.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
You can't expect your people to accomplish great
things if you're not, you know,helping them get there, showing
them the goals and the targetsand then equipping them to
actually get there successfully.
Well, just so you guys areaware, you know I didn't just
happen to want to be a podcaster.
It was the passion of bringingall this information from people
like adam and the sudden familyout to you guys and kind of
just being able to see that.
But you know I've also beentold I got a face for radio.
So but if you guys don't evenknow, will, has this voice I

(59:02):
wish I had a magazine.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
He looks great.
I want to tell you, though,will has this voice like he wish
I had the April magazine, buthe looks great.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
I want to tell you, though, will has this voice,
like he could host the Price isRight.
He has this voice, that just hehas that voice where he can do
all kinds of stuff.
Not only does he represent arealm I'm not on the face or
voice of our.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
By the way, can you make sure you add the manly
filter to this?
We just got to drop it downhere.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
It's usually a higher version, I'm going to say, but
the truth is is that he does itand he embodies it very well.
And that goes to say, whenyou're investing in your people
and you take the time and I willsay it on the other side of
that too, is, if you guys everwant to make an investment, the
biggest investment you can makeis in yourself 100%, 100%, 100%.
Figure out where you want to beand what you want to do and how

(59:48):
you can get there.

Speaker 2 (59:48):
Can I add?

Speaker 1 (59:49):
something Absolutely Today the year of our Lord,
2025,.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
There is zero excuse.
You know YouTube was invented.
I'm probably a little bit olderthan you, but YouTube is.
I'm guessing YouTube wasinvented in our era.
We didn't have it.
Yeah, right, no, right, no.
Our kids, anybody in their 20sand 30s.
You have zero excuse becauseyou have YouTube University.
We say that all the time.

(01:00:13):
Every time I'm in a video,every John Maxwell video, pick
your person and in all theavailable, even for low-cost
material, if you're not pouringin yourself, like that's one of
the greatest gifts, I think myfather taught me very young,
when I'm driving around, he'slistening to Zig Ziglar tapes,
and so I just thought that wasnormal.
So that's what I started doingas a teenager, right, and I'm
listening to Zig Ziglar and someof these early people via a

(01:00:34):
tape, by the way, Right, he'sbrought up CD-ROM.
Yeah, and I'm taped.
I just want too.
So I'm not, I'm an old soul.
I'm not too, too old.
And, by the way, if anybody'sover 42, I'm starting to
alienate half the audience.
That's not old, you know 90s.
If you're in your 90s, that's alittle bit old.

(01:00:58):
But no, you have to have thatgrowth mindset and pouring into
yourself first I'm so glad yousaid that and then you have to
take the next step and pour intoyour people.
I go back to you can't expectthese great things if you're not
helping your people become no.
And, and you know, if you'renot hiring people that can get
there too.
Right Back to that.
You got to hire smiling people,naturally happy people, what
goes a long way?
Then you can teach them therest.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
You just got to think like Disney and Chick-fil-A,
that's right.
So, after all this is done, youopen this business, you get it
going, says hey, I think I thinkwe can get you home, I think
this is important.
Yeah, you come on home.
You really kind of dig in, webuild.
We really build the culturebased on how we treat the

(01:01:35):
customers, on how and they reactin the community.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
I can't take credit for that.
It was yeah, it was just namingit and and claiming it and
making it replicated we made itshiny, made it shiny.

Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
There you go, but you know, and coming full steam,
getting to understand that dadwas a big part of the business.
Huge, being able to kind oftrailblaze your own kind of way.
Yeah, being on April'scommittee of trying to get more
people involved in April, justso you guys know we're both on
that committee.
If you're not part of April,you need to be, because there's
a lot going on.
Let me say this If you're notan April member.

Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
I love you, but you're crazy, yeah.
I mean there is no good reason.
It's not expensive, right?
So it's like, oh, the P&L, justto have it and to be able to
put money in the organizationfor the risk aversion alone,
like, look at them as aninsurance policy.
The work that's done inWashington alone is worth it,
but the additional material, theadditional training, if you're

(01:02:29):
not a member you got to be amember?

Speaker 1 (01:02:30):
Yeah, absolutely.
Just take a look at New Yorkand I can tell you it's
important what they do, whatwe're a part of, it's super
important.
So, coming out of all this,what's something that you want
to leave them with and say, youknow what, out of everything you
take and talk like Will Jackson, no, but what, what, what is it
?
What is it?

(01:02:51):
You can say that you know thisis something that I've learned,
that I will always take with me,and I think that if you
embodied a little bit of this,it will help you on your RTO
journey.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
Um, I mean, look a few words and it's simple Love
your people, they'll love yourcustomer.
That's it.
I had the honor and privilegeof growing up I didn't go to
college, but I tell people Iwent to LSU, which is Larry
Sutton University that actually,when I came back here in 2017,

(01:03:24):
I said I'm coming back for mymasterclass, right, and I just I
truly had the privilege of myfirst mentor, my father,
watching him just love on peopleand watching him listen to
people.
He didn't talk at anybody, hetalked with them and if you
don't have a good mentor, I meanthat'd be a tip I'd say.

(01:03:45):
On top of the growth mindset,the biggest thing you do for
growth mindset is find somebody,an older person that has been
successful or been in your shoes, that can pour into you, that
you can be honest with and alsocan help keep you accountable.
I just watched A how much ofthe right thing to do.

(01:04:05):
That was right Just love peoplebecause they're working so hard
and they're working their buttsoff.
Renton industry is not an easyindustry.
I mean, there's blood, sweatand tears.
There is, there is literallyyeah, and I think it's the
greatest industry in the world,but it can be hard and what our
guys do in the shops I meanthese hot shops or the tires,

(01:04:42):
but the account management Imean the most under.
I could put some of mytombstone love, love people.
If you do that in your case ofyour team members, they're going
to.
If you do that in your homeoffice I'm talking to the owners
they're going to do that foryour directors and managers.
And if the directors manage todo that for the team members,
the frontline workers, they aregoing to pass that on to the
people that deserve it the most,which is that rent to own that

(01:05:05):
least purchased customer.
And you know again, sometimeswe have to remember that we can
get store blind, we can getcomfortable, we can get
complacent or just busy.
We have to remind ourselves andour people like this is a
privilege we get to serve thehardest working people in
America and beyond.
And you know that's, that'sgotta be, I think, at the, at

(01:05:28):
the baseline of your core value.
And when you know what yourvalues are, it's not hard to
make decisions by.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
Well, I mean listen words to live by, make sure that
you love everybody and makesure you have the growth mindset
.
Find a good mentor.
You know, I think in the end,the idea has to be how do I get
better at what do I do?
How do I get better?
I did not conquer this.
It is always a hill to beclimbed and there are going to

(01:05:55):
be times where you hit a tierand you're like finally it's
behind me.
Now I've got another tier toclimb.
You beat your chest and you putit back on the shelf and you
put the trophy away and okay,what else do I need to learn?
Because we're always learning,like you said earlier, whether
you're learning from thefranchisors, whether you're
learning from the guy who's inthe bay, whether you're learning
from your GMs, or whetheryou're one of the guys learning
from them and you have an ideato share.

(01:06:16):
Don't stop sharing.
We are all in this together.
Listen, no one person issmarter than the entire group.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
Share what you know.

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
Get it all together, get it all out, experience it.
Now.
We're going to be going intoour world very soon where we're
going to be able to do that.
You're actually going to beable to see him talk to people,
right?
So you're going to be able tosee it firsthand.
So you know we have the culture, the customers, the community.
Guys, it doesn't get any betterthan this At the end, do what
you do best, lean on your others, learn, do what you do best.

(01:06:44):
Lean on your others.
Yeah, learn, learn from thingslike this, from either the
YouTube situation or howeverthat we look at it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:57):
Learn, grow and be who you can be.
Yeah, and I would say find agood mentor.
And eventually I'll add to that, going back to giving back Be a
good mentor.
Be a good mentor, give, giveback.
Find ways, not just in yourcompany but in your community.
You know, when you go to serveand you start giving back some
people, that's going to excitethem.
Oh, I love doing that.
And some people are like ah,I'm talking to everybody.
You go, do that, you startserving others and you're going

(01:07:19):
to get better.
And I love what you said.
From anybody and everybody, oneof the best pieces of advice I
learned from a janitor at one ofmy first jobs as a teenager.
I was a janitor and it was theconcept of work smarter, not
harder, that was sweeping thefloor right.
She came over and she taught mehey, adam you know, let me show
you this.
And I've carried that with me myentire life, applied it to
every single thing I've done.

(01:07:40):
Are we okay if I share one morequick thing, One of the most
beneficial things that hashelped me?
I learned when I was 15 yearsold and right before I learned
that note from the janitor, andit was the story of Hamburg.
I read this from somebody Ifollowed, this famous person
that talked about how they, howhe, became famous and very

(01:08:00):
successful and he says it hadhelped him.
So I love sharing this,particularly for young leaders.
Hamburg, Germany, okay.
Post-world War II there wasthis little band called the
Beatles and their manager—.

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
Little band, Little band.
Well, at the time they werelittle right, Nobody had heard
of them.
Right, right, right.

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
And their manager had secured this year-long gig at
this pub when they were nobodythey were teenagers, right, okay
, and basically they hated itLike it was awful People are
throwing beer, fruit, like,people are drunk, like they
didn't sound that great, right?
If you asked them at the timeany of the Beatles, they would

(01:08:38):
have said this is awful, I hateit.
I don't even know if I want tobe a musician anymore, right.
But if you ask them later, theysay it was in Hamburg that we
became the Beatles.
It was in Hamburg that we gotbetter at our instruments, that
we found our sound, we got ourhaircuts and matching outfits
right, which is a big deal backthen.
That was kind of a unique thingit was.

(01:08:58):
It was they found their drummer, that crafting and that molding
.
Through all that hard stuff,through repetition and through
continuing to try and not givingup, they became what the world
soon after heard and found outabout and now beloved, right,
which was the Beatles.
And so I read this story andthis famous gentleman was
telling you how he just appliedthat to everything he did.
And so I've had that mindset,which now is probably called a

(01:09:20):
growth mindset, since I was 15years old is what I'm doing now
is probably not what I'm goingto be doing forever.
So what can I learn and getbetter at?
And when I've my flesh istempted to want to complain
about it and be negative, I gono.
No, that's hardening me andit's stretching me.
And as I look back on my career, you know I started the janitor
job.
I started some things at thechurch.

(01:09:42):
I learned things there thatultimately helped me create Red
Letter Studios with my wife andfor that 10 years learned what
not to do by doing all the wrongthings for a long time and
learned how to work with clientsand customers and that prepared
me for Thuzy and I couldn't bedoing what I'm doing now if that
six years at Thuzy you know allthe fire and the iron sharpens
iron inside of that and learningfrom others with different

(01:10:03):
mindsets, all the developers,completely different train of
thought, right Analyticalthinker people, and even now I
go and I'm not going anywhere,by the way but what can I be
learning now and what Hamburg amI in that's preparing us to do
what we're doing even better.
And anyway, I love sharing thatstory.
I thank you for letting meshare it because, as a young
leader, that just gave me alittle bit of pause, patience

(01:10:26):
and hope.
That has kind of carried methrough to today.

Speaker 1 (01:10:29):
Well, I will say you know one of the bands that I
like.
They said God bless the brokenroad, right, yeah, yeah, so you
know, it's the things that gotus here, that helped to build
who we are.
Yeah, and that's what it's allabout.

Speaker 2 (01:10:41):
That's right Just.

Speaker 1 (01:10:42):
It's just figuring out who you are, where you want
to go and how to get there.
Love it, that's how we do it.
So, listen, if you guys haveany questions for Adam, you
definitely want to check us outon the show Now.
You can send me an email atpete, at the rtoshowpodcastcom,
but that's not the only way.
You can also send me a DM toFacebook, linkedin, instagram.
You can go on to YouTube, allthe things.
It's everywhere, right?

(01:11:02):
Because you've got to besearchable on YouTube.
That's right.
Make sure that you reach out tous.
If we have anything that comesup, we'll definitely ask Adam
and if he wants to be on asecond time, we can also do that
.
No-transcript.

Speaker 2 (01:11:34):
And let your team members know that right
Absolutely, and they will seeyou doing that.
That's going back to thecommunity impact.
We'll impact your culture.

Speaker 1 (01:11:40):
We actually have a link on the website at the
rtoshowpod podcastcom, but youcan go to rtohqcom and also, or
is it org, org, org.
I'm sorry, rtohqorg, you canalso go on there and donate to
either way you guys fact checkon all those channels, I know
right we fact check both of us.
Make sure you send me a messageif that wasn't right, but do

(01:12:01):
that.
You can also go buy some swagon the show, because not only
does it help us, but it makesyou look really good out there
in the world, just like thisstudio for R&R Elevates you up,
baby, amazing right.
So we appreciate you guys beingon the show.
Adam, I really appreciate youbeing here.
It's been a blast.

Speaker 2 (01:12:17):
It's been an honor.
It's been a pleasure.

Speaker 1 (01:12:19):
We're going to have to do this again, and if you
guys don't know,

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