Flipping the Script: Host Pete Shau's Journey in the Rent-to-Own Industry

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello and welcome to the RTO show.
I'm supposed to be your host,pete Schell, but today it looks
like the tables have turned andwe have some great guys here
that are going to turn thetables on the RTO show today and
make it so that the host isactually the guest.
So I have Paul Metivier andstill doing the impact holdings,
and then Josh Zysiecki, whodecided that he's going to be on

(00:30):
the other end of this becausehe's been on the other side the
receiving side, the interviewside for a couple of times.
Now he's going to be on theother side of this, and so I
just so we all know I am notscripted.
I have no idea where we'regoing with this.
This is Full Monty right here.
So, without further ado, if youguys want to introduce yourself
, go ahead.
Josh.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Sure, no problem.
Obviously, Josh Sycycki, GreatRooms, celebrating 11 years been
in Red Zone for 20.
So what are?

Speaker 1 (00:57):
you looking to do today, man?
What's the accomplishment?
What are you trying to get outof this?

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Well, like you said, you're not scripted and you
don't know where this is goingto go.
So neither do we.
All you said you, you're notscripted and you don't know
where this is going to go.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
So neither do we.
All right.
And then Paul.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Metivier, what's going on, Paul?
I'm the guy that knows what'sgoing on today.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
That's right, paul knows it all Paul's got the plan
.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yeah, exactly.
So this is the podcast where weturn the mic around right, and
we've talked about this for aminute, I think, when you and I
we had a chance to talk over ayear ago, and then I know Josh
got on a podcast with you and heeven brought it up towards the
end of his podcast.
When are we going to talk toyou?
When do we get your story out?
And today's the day, and youare right.

(01:32):
No one here knows whatquestions I have planned.
Real quick.
You know one thing I know it'simportant to all of us.
We're all part of the all nameteam, which is all of us have a
name that is very, verydifficult to pronounce, or
people call us whatever theywant to call us.
So before we even get startedwith this, pete, can you tell us
the proper pronunciation ofyour name, so everyone knows?

Speaker 1 (01:54):
So everybody knows the Pete Chow and it was.
It was easier for me to do thatbecause you know, as everybody
has like a stage name, you knowthe big guys have a stage
because it's easier, it's easierto work with.
But my legal given name isGuiming Pedro Xiao Jr, so it's a
hybrid of a Chinese PuertoRican name.
I am a junior, so it comes frommy father.

(02:15):
My father is well, he's halfPuerto Rican, half Chinese.
My grandfather came from China,my grandmother came from Puerto
Rico and so they wanted to passthat down Right, and so my mom
wanted that to be passed down.
And so here we go, but inschool that was hard, so Peter
eventually.
But then my dad got remarriedso she had a Peter, my dad's a

(02:36):
Peter and I'm a Peter, and I waslike I, we need Pete, pete's
going to work and I will, I willtake that to my grave.
So it became Pete Schau Allright, good, well, thank you.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
That's a great story by the way, and Josh, I've
called you personally differentnames, but it's Sy Zicky right.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Just like I tell everybody, you can just call me
Josh, it's all right.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Josh Zicky.
Yeah, you know Sy.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Zicky, but you know, you can just call me Josh.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
All right.
So, Pete, I want to kind ofstart this off and I'd like you
pre-RTO, I'd like you to walk usthrough your childhood, Take us
all the way up to the beginningof RTO.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
It doesn't have to be long, but tell us a little bit
about yourself.
Born in New York, born inBrooklyn in 78, in the 78
snowstorm that happened, went toa private school for the first
few years of my life.
After that we came to Floridafor a couple of different
reasons, but mom needed to getout of New York and the family
was just.
You know, it was the way it was.
So mom and me and my brother,we came all the way down to
Florida.

(03:33):
So Lake Placid planted roots,stayed there, middle school,
high school.
My brother went to the sameschool as I did, my daughter
went to the same school I did,and then it wasn't that.
Lake Placid wasn't great, justneed to kind of spread my roots
a little bit Ended up going intorent to own Sebring at that
time it was Renner's Choice,before they had gotten with
Thorne, and so we startedRenner's Choice, ernie Talley,

(03:57):
michael Drawn those guys backthen and you know, then the
Thorne joining ended up in HardyCounty where I took over my
first store, which was theWachula Rent-A-Center.
And during that transition, whenI was in Sebring trying to
figure out what the hell Iwanted to do, I was a bank, I
worked at a bank and you know,somebody doing their job was
coming around kind of scopingthings out.

(04:18):
I had seen him quite a fewtimes come into a deposit.
He's like I like you kid, youknow.
I was like I appreciate it.
And he's like, hey, why don'tyou?
You know, come check us out.
He gave me a card.
He's like come on down, we'lltalk.
And I'm like I've never heardof anything we're talking about.
I don't know what rent to ownis.
I don't want to really delivera listen.
I'm in a shirt and tie.
He's like we do shirt and tie.

(04:46):
And uh, you know, he offered mea whole lot more money than I
was making.
I was making like $7, seven, 25an hour and at that time they
were doing a $13 an hour.
It was.
It was a whole different ballgame, it was a career.
He sold it to me as a careerand like that was in 2000.
So I graduated in 96, 2000, I'mtalking to him at the bank and
I just kind of went, went fromthere and um, so that eventually
led me to work in Sebring, thentook my first store in Huachula

(05:07):
, and I think I've worked inevery store in Hardy County and
Highlands County and then LakeWales for a little bit and
Bartow, arcadia, huachulaseveral times Just went on from
there.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
What was it about you at the bank that you think that
person saw that made them wantto recruit you?
You're making $7 an hour.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
You said this was about the year 2000?
Yeah, okay.
Well, from seven to 13 is a bigjump too.
And was it just the money?

Speaker 1 (05:33):
So it wasn't.
But here's the thing.
So I was, I was doing collegeat the time, right?
And it's actually 99.
I started in January of 2000.
So it's actually the end of 99,probably November, and he's
coming in.
He does deposits every singleday.
That's part of what they did.
And you know, in any business,especially in the rent-to-home
business, we try to create thatfamiliarity between ourselves

(05:54):
and whoever we're with, right,we create the relationship.
So he would just come in and,hey, how you doing, how's
everything going?
Looks like.
I mean, back then the cashdeposits were a lot more than
what they are now, right.
So it's like oh man, you had agreat weekend.
Oh, you had a great week.
Oh, this one isn't so big.
You know, you guys got to workharder and I didn't.
I have no idea what he did, buthe did have a certain tie and he
was really nice to me too.
And I think the idea of havingsomebody who was very open to

(06:16):
that relationship as wellbecause give me the positive
slip, I'm good and he's stillnice to them.
But there was no talk, therewas no open dialogue, and so he
was just more like that, andwhen he said something about it
it was flattering.
I'd never had anybody tell meanything like that at work, like
, hey, you know what, I reallyappreciate what you do.
You sound really nice, you know, I think you might be

(06:38):
interested in this.
But the fact that he evenmentioned it, the fact that he
said there was a career to it, Ihad no idea what I was going to
do.
So, even though I was going toschool, even though I had a job,
I had no direction and the onlything I knew for sure at that
point in time is I didn't wantto work at the bank.
It was too quiet, there wasn'ta lot going on, nobody was as

(07:00):
friendly as I kind of wantedthem to be.
You know what I mean.
It was just so transactional.
You know, you come in, you doyour business, you go home.
People would come in and bigdeposits, small deposits, but
nobody ever seemed really happy.
It was just what I noticed.
When he mentioned the wordcareer, it did catch me.
Did he have me sold?
No, but it was a good stickingpoint.
So when he, you know, when Istopped by and he mentioned, hey

(07:21):
, you know, this is what we do,and I'm like man, there's a
truck involved, like, reallyhe's like you know, if you don't
start there, you're not goingto understand where we are now
right, so you can't go intomanagement without getting
through these things.
And so we talked about it inthe money situation at that
point in time was a tippingpoint, but it wouldn't have been
the whole thing, because therewas a lot more physical involved

(07:43):
in that.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
So for me, I feel like he sold you on.
What we really do in rentalhome period is he came in and
built a rapport with the bankrep and you were able to give
that back to him and you guysbuilt the rapport, which is what
we do with our customers at ourcounter.
We build that rapport with them.
He got to know you and becauseyou were able to reciprocate
that back to him, that made youa great candidate for what we do

(08:08):
.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
The smart move on his part is he didn't pull the hook
too soon, right?
Because sometimes we go outthere and we do see people that
are great, and I think sometimeswe haven't talked to them long
enough.
And here is a stranger out ofnowhere coming up to me and
going hey, I have thisopportunity for you, would you
like to come?
And they're like, yeah, you'regreat, but I've only known you
for like five seconds.
This was after severalinteractions and when I say

(08:30):
several, not just him coming inand doing a deposit, after
several times of actuallyphysically talking with him more
than just, hey, there's adeposit, cause the first time he
came in, here's a deposit.
And I was like, okay, great, youknow, hey, what's this?
And he's like, yeah, wedeferred your.
Okay, I have no idea what hewas talking about.
I was just like, okay.
And so he hooked me at a timewhere I I kind of knew who he
was in a sense not for sure, butI knew more of about him and I

(08:54):
was like, okay, let me try thisout.
And then when I went now I wason his turf and he was a lot
more outgoing and he was showingme this and that and the
possibilities, and I don't knowif I was a hundred percent sold
at first, but he had meintrigued and it was definitely
a time for me to go.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, sounds like he was interviewing you every time
he dropped a deposit off.
That's what it sounds like hegot to know you by that seventh
time, Right, and then he was heyyou should come work for me,
man, you know you had a greatpersonality.
I like who you are.
You built a rapport with me.
You did every single thing Ineed you to do in my business.
Come work with me.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
He was feeling me out for sure.
All right, and you know what?
I didn't even understand thatuntil a couple of years after I
was already on board.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
Well, I'll tell you this when we talk about podcasts
, we always look to getsomething out of it, like what's
a skill I could take back,what's a story that I could
apply to my business that'sgoing to help me get through.
You unintentionally just sharedone that I think gets
overlooked a lot of times, whichis out-of-store recruiting.
Out-of-store recruiting I don'tthink he intended to be

(09:55):
recruiting you at the bankeither.
I think it was a naturalprogression of relationship
building, rapport building overtime that led to it.
But this is the way out ofstore recruiting goes.
You hear people say go out andjust go out and recruit somebody
at the grocery store becauseyou're shorthanded right now.
No, that's not the way it goes.
You're recruiting out of storehappens at the places you

(10:16):
typically shop.
So if you go to a restaurantfrequently, you don't just get
one look at a person, you get asecond, a third, a fourth even
if that waiter or waitress orbartender is not waiting on you
this time.
You still see them interactingwith other people.
You see good days, you see baddays.
You see challenging situations.
You see what they do when it'sslow.

(10:37):
You see what they do when it'sbusy.
This is applicable to grocerystores, gas stations, fast food
restaurants, wherever you are.
So what's interesting is thisindividual, over a period of
time, started transactionalrapport, gets built, it turns
relationship right and he likedyou and you liked him, and

(10:58):
that's the beauty of humanconnection.
So now it became a time wherehe was at a point where he felt
comfortable enough, he trustedyou enough, just off those many
interactions, to offer you a job.
Luckily for you, that job alsoalmost doubled your pay.
Yes, you made a mention thatyou wanted to get out of the

(11:19):
bank because the bank is boring.
Right, pete?
It was absolutely paint dry,boring.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
The best thing that I had to do at night was just
count the money.
Yeah, you know, and it wasreally that simple.
You sat there and just kind ofpeople walked up and at that
point in time, you know again,there was more money.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
I couldn't even imagine doing it now, because
now there's not much money right, so you know there was a lot of
money.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
So the main thing that I was even worried about is
make sure I said hi and I gotthe cash count right, because
you always have to make sureit's right, and so balance down
to the penny, and that was it.
I was gone.
I couldn't tell you the name ofthe lady I worked for.
I couldn't tell you what theyliked.
I couldn't tell you what theirfavorite animal.
I didn't know anything aboutthem.
It was strictly come to work.
They liked the way I worked andI liked getting paid, and that

(12:04):
was it.
There was nothing to it.
So it was like I didn't haveany loyalty to that.
I just did, definitely.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
Well, that's awesome.
It was probably the best bankhe ever walked into.
I mean, he got peed out of it.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Right, and then, 20 years later, yeah, here we are
20 years later.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
You know you mentioned you were studying at
the time you're going to school.
What were you studying?
Studying at the time you'regoing to school?
What were you studying?
Business, business, yeah.
So that's going to lead to alater question I have, in terms
of you know.
Well, let me ask you what madeyou go into business, what made
you want to study business?

Speaker 1 (12:32):
So when we came down, my mother.
She's been in healthcare forlike ever and ever and ever and
I did not ever want to be inhealthcare.
I don't want anybody's lives inmy head, even if it's insurance
, I just don't want that.
But I had grown up with hergoing to an office every day.
She got up, she got dressed, itwas always reports and meetings
and deadlines and that's justkind of what I knew.

(12:53):
So my thought process was I'mgreat with my hands and I like
what mom does.
And right now, at the point intime that I was doing it, I was
in school and I was wearing ties.
So I was like okay, well, thisis kind of where, where the
direction is just going.
So business was the idea and itkind of just went that way.

Speaker 3 (13:09):
You mentioned that you didn't want to be in the
healthcare health field.
My wife is also.
She's a mental health counselor.
So to me I don't understand howshe can keep all of that
together and still sit down atthe end of the night.
You know, for me rent, own orbusiness, you know, it's much
easier, I think it's easier tounplug.
I think then when you'redealing with maybe a crisis

(13:31):
situation of somebody's mentalhealth or physical health so I
think you mean that.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
but you do, you do have a direct responsibility for
people's lives.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
What you do right now you're in multi-unit management
, right?
It's so critical to being ableto motivate individuals and
teach individuals to keep themto where they can provide for
their families and maybe theirchildren go on to be healthcare
workers, right?
So it's still greatresponsibility that we all have
sitting at this table to providea greater good for our
coworkers, if nothing else, justto set a good example, right?

(14:02):
Yeah, so what you're doing?
It may not be healthcare I mean, you might not be the person on
the other end of a life ordeath situation with the scalpel
, but I guess, metaphorically,you could be in terms of the
mental scalpel that you might,yeah, cause the idea was they
have a responsibility.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
The responsibility that I have now was learned
right, so I got into it and itwas gradually given to me as
somebody who came in as anaccount manager and then I
became an assistant and then itbecame a store manager and
eventually managed severalstores to become a district or a
regional whatever position youknow they call it now or just
multi-unit between.
Well, I've always had sevenstores, so seven stores.
But like it's one of thosesituations where I can

(14:41):
understand it more now becauseI've done it and I've been
through it.
So there was a transitionperiod in around 2009, when I
came to Tampa, I didn't go rightback into rent to own, because
I didn't understand rent to ownin the big city.
I understood rent to own insmaller towns.
You know, like you know, you'retalking about Huachula and Lake
Placid, sebring, lake Wales.
I knew that, I knew therelationships that I can make

(15:01):
out there, but Tampa was likescary to me.
It was like I've heard storiesand I don't know anything about
it.
So I'm going to stay away fromthat.
And so, again, mom, being in thehealth field, I became a
financial counselor in theemergency room and the idea was
with your background, you shouldbe able to collect the dollars
needed for the insurances.
I had no idea what I wasgetting into and not on a bad
thing.

(15:21):
They're definitely neededbecause if you're coming from a
certain standpoint, that youhave to look at it from the
insurance point the taking careof it there's a monetary
situation that comes with it.
So I become a financial counselin the ER and I found it
extremely difficult to be ableto go into a room where
somebody's having a crisisbroken leg, kids not feeling.
Well, it could, it could be, itcould be something very crazy.

(15:44):
It could be something as smallas a couple of stitches.
But you know and and say, listen, this is the kind of coverage
you have, this is, this iswhat's going to cover.
But you have a copay of and Imean, I would say some numbers
that would just throw me outthere 250, 350.
And it's like I became theimmediate enemy number one in
the entire hospital.
They were looking at me going.
I'm here because it's anemergency, hence emergency room,

(16:08):
and you're asking me fordollars, and so, if there's
anything that woke me up to, Iunderstand the business of
healthcare, but I don't think Ican do it.
I just didn't have the heartfor it and I stuck it out for
two years and I just knew at theend of that, it's it just it's

(16:31):
not me, I can't.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
So I get what you're saying and that's awesome, and I
also got what Paul's sayingwith his wife that's a mental
health counselor.
But a lot of what you justdescribed we deal with on a
daily basis other than insurance.
We're still having the sameconversation.
We're still having the sameemergency situations where
someone well, you can't take myrefrigerator because I need my
refrigerator, and then you stillhave to have that financial
talk with that customer.

(16:52):
So how do you feel thedifferences between the two
being that you said you had ahard time in the healthcare part
of it versus what we do?

Speaker 1 (17:01):
So one was explainable to me and I think
this is purely in my head right.
So, absolutely, emergency isemergency, no matter how you
look at it, just how you defineit internally.
I think it made me a bettercollector, for sure.
But it also made me realize, inthe mindset of going into a
situation, I think I was aharder collector before that and

(17:21):
it made me empathize a lot morewith situations and I think I
was able to build better rapportafter that.
And it made me empathize a lotmore with situations and I think
I was able to build betterrapport after that.
Hence why I came back to rent ahome.
But it was hard at that time andI did not take it well.
I personally brought it homeLike it just bothered me, and so
, with those four days on, threedays off, and I did four 10
hour days and that was it.
And so if you land on a weekend, you land on the weekend.

(17:44):
If you land here, just holiday.
It's just that's the way it is.
I mean, that's how it works,we're open all the time.
And so that brought up to me.
Okay, I need something that Ican plan around, something that
I know, okay, if I have this off.
I wanted that.
Being able to relate was a loteasier after that.
Understanding what the customerwas going through was a lot
easier after that.
Understanding what the customerwas going through was a lot

(18:04):
easier after that because I was,in a sense, being able to put
myself in somebody else's shoesand go.
I understand what you're saying.
Here's the hard point of it.
You know this is what the canand can't do moment, but I
understand it, and it used to behey man, this is the deal, this
is where we're at.
Okay, like, this is where yougot yourself.
I didn't get you here.
It's kind of where you're atright now to a tell me what's

(18:25):
going on and then after that,okay, these are my options.
You help me, help you.
How can we get through thistogether?
You know what I can do.
You know the hard nose andwhere we're at with that.
So how do we get to where weneed to be?
That opened up dialogue for allof that, but I didn't know that
.
Then I was just scared to death.
I mean, I saw some stuff that Iwas just like is that leaking?

Speaker 3 (18:46):
out Like I'm in the wrong room right now Because I
feel bad.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
I just I felt bad.
I just like I can't.
I mean, I did, I do it, yes,and I even remember when we did
our podcast and you said I'm agood soldier, I did it.
If you asked me to do it,that's my job, I'll go and do it
.
But internally, after I closedsome doors, I was like God.
I just felt like, wow, that Ijust do that you know.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
So the experience in RTO for you is a better
feel-good feeling than you weregetting from the healthcare
industry.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, okay, yeah, absolutely.
I was definitely able toquantify a refrigerator versus
like a broken bone.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
All right Awesome.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
And it also made me appreciate what I did.
Yeah, right, because at somepoints and not that it's a real
comparison, because it's not butat some points you've got the
healthcare worker and you havesomebody who's coming in for the
insurance and they both do this.
They're both covering you in away.
One is covering you right nowbut one's covering you down the
road.
Okay, you get a $20,000 billand that can really hurt you.

(19:42):
That you get a $20,000 bill andthat can really hurt you.
That can wreck you in some ways.
So, same thing what we're doingnow is we're serving the need
now, but we're also making surethat you're not hurting six
months down the road when you'remaking all kinds of off
payments.
You've been giving me all kindsof late fees that aren't going
towards a payoff.
We might be there to pick it upnow because we just we are at a
hard pass right now that wehave to do something.
So it translated a lot morethan I expected.

(20:02):
It really helped drive thingshome.
Yeah, but there was a four and ahalf year period that I was
gone.
Two years I was a financialcounselor in the ER and two
years I worked as a warehousemanager after that because it
did bother me, and so I went tothat.
And then one day I was likethis is not what I want to do.
So hence 24 years, and I have20 years of experience.
One day I looked at my wifethen and I was like it's time to

(20:30):
go back.
And it was crazy because itactually came out that way.
It was like it's time to goback and my ex-wife used to
actually work for Rentone andshe knew exactly what I was
talking about Like it's timeReal, real quick.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
Were the breaks simultaneously or were they
spread out?
Did you leave?
You were the counselor at theER.
Did you come back to Renton andthen take another break, or was
that four years?
It was back to back?
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
So I did the financial counselor thing and I
called my mom one day and I wasjust like I just want you to
know my decision.
I'm letting them know, but I'mletting you know like I don't
know how you do it.
I don't know how to do it andbecause sometimes and again not
not that what we do isn'tdissimilar it was just like
she'd get a phone call at fiveo'clock in the morning because
she did admissions, you know, indifferent areas of the hospital

(21:09):
and we're like hey, we got this, came up and the doctor moved
it up and like we need an off.
Like stat, there's nobody thereat 5am At least I don't, I, you
know, I don't know how she didit.
She was able to get offs, butlike you've got to know people,
you've got to be able to pullsome strings because there's
nobody in their offices at thattime.
And so you're going through anemergency line and you're
actually literally sending faxesand you're you're like waiting

(21:32):
down to the second becausethere's a doctor going.
Like listen, we're talkingabout a $50,000 difference
between this minute and thisminute and this customer needs
it now.
The customer, I'm sorry, I'm,I'm used to rent zone, that's
all right.
This patient needs it now andit, that's what I.
I just, it was like my heartjust would go out to them.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
So, yeah, I totally understand what you're saying,
cause what I'm the vibe I'mpicking up from you is you know,
there's a difference in termsof what introduced the chaos to
the person's life, and this canbe on rent zone, or this could
be the patient.
The chaos could be frombehaviors, poor behaviors.
I struggle sometimes withempathy when it's behaviors.
When I see the personcommitting bad behaviors,

(22:17):
whether it's a coworker or acustomer, or maybe in the
medical field if I was a medicaldoctor or a dentist, I would
feel the same way about thepatient.
It's like why are you doingthis?
We've talked about this, we hada game plan, but your behaviors
are not changing and you'recreating your own problems or
crisis.
And then there's the other side, is tragedy.
When a tragedy strikes, I thinksometimes we even have
coworkers in our industry thebad actors, I'll say.

(22:38):
They can't recognize thedifference between behavioral
issues and tragic situationsthat occur, unfortunately for
customers and even patients.
Sometimes those tragedieshappen back to back to back.
So then it makes you wonder arethey telling me the truth or
this?
And that we don't have to judgepeople, but we should have a
relationship with the individual, whether it's the patient or

(22:58):
it's the customer or thecoworker, to be able to ask
those questions and be able totrust that what they're telling
us is actually true.
Coming back, but I can see yourpoint, because when tragedy
strikes in the medical field,whether it's a crisis happening
to somebody, whether they'resuffering from a mental break or
a physical break, if it's notsomething they brought on
themselves, it's hard not to.

(23:20):
We should be, I think, more thanempathetic.
I think we should besympathetic to those individuals
when they're going throughtimes like that, and then we
should react as a human beingwould and put everything else to
the side and just be presentwith that person, really listen
to them and help them get there,trying to collect money in
those situations, especially, Ithink, in the medical sense,
because it is more life anddeath.

(23:40):
Let's be honest, I can see whythat caused your problems.
I think you gave us a goodwindow into who you are just by
that conversation.
Pulling it back to business alittle bit, you brought up on
two separate occasions in thefirst 10, 15 minutes we've been
talking here about starting onthe truck.
You've said it at two separatetimes, whether you know it or
not, but I've been taking noteshere, that's why I have my pen,

(24:01):
and I want to know from yourperspective, why was that so
important for you?
I don't want you to speak foranyone else.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
Well, I can tell you right now that it's easy as
general managers, it's easy asanybody who's in a position of
management over other people, tomake it very logical.
Right, I have a job to get doneand I have these several things
that are part of my day.
Right, I need call-throughsdone.

(24:29):
I need deliveries done.
I need services done, trucksgot to get done.
There is a point in that thatyou have to understand what
you're asking people to do, andI do not like to ask people to
do something that I do not knowhow to do.
That bothers me, and we're nottalking about like, hey, build
me a house, because I don't knowhow to build a house, right.
But when I say, hey, I need youto have this conversation with

(24:51):
this customer, I know how totackle it by training you,
because I've seen thosesituations when I say you cannot
talk to a customer that way,because this is what you're
going to get out of it.
It's because I've done it, Iknow what's going to happen.
Starting on a truck, you know,it never meant as much to me as
it then, as it does now to sayI've been in customers' homes,
I've said things I really neededto and I've said things that I

(25:13):
didn't need to and I caused somestrife in that relationship
that we had with that customerbecause I didn't do it right and
this is why I don't want you todo it.
I learned that you know, notevery delivery is the same.
It's easy to see it on paper,but you can tell the difference
between who's setting up a DAPthat's done it before and who
hasn't.
Right, so you go.
Hey, I want this delivery done.

(25:34):
First thing you're finding outis what side of town is it in?
What time are you going?
Are you going between four andsix when it's heavy traffic?
Are you going between, let'ssay, 11 and 12, where it's a
little bit less traffic?
You go in between two and three, where I can expect you to get
there pretty quick.
Is it on the first floor?
Is it on the second floor?
Is it on the third floor?
Florida, you don't need anelevator to hit four floors,
right?
Third floor makes it difficult.

(25:55):
All right, now I got to findout what are you taking upstairs
?
Are you taking, like, a coffeeand table set that you can do by
yourself, or are you taking abedroom set that's still in the
box so you have to unbox it,take it up the stairs and then
put it in the house and set itup.
All those things I learned onthe truck and I can say, okay,
now and back then I don't wantto show my age too much, but

(26:17):
back then we had a map right andso I knew my customers by map.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Was that a paper map?
Or was that a paper map?
No, it was a paper map.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
These phones nowadays- but it was a paper map
and it also helped meunderstand why it was important
to run my route.
As I was doing deliveries, as Iwas doing my services, who am I
passing up?
And at the time I never had totell my GM.
He kind of understood it.
But I mean, they expected thatout of me.
Like if I'm going past thehouse that I've been to twice,
two times this week, and I gotno results, and I'm there at a

(26:46):
different timeframe than I havebeen, absolutely you better stop
.
Stop and find out what's goingon with that customer.
Let's solve that problem whileyou're out there.
My five up and five downs havethere been times where I messed
it up?
Sure, have there been timeswhere I'm like I'm going to be
late for my next delivery andI've decided, you know what in
my head, if I do a five up, fivedown, I'm not going to get
there on time.
And then did I have somebodycome behind me and go?

(27:06):
But how long would it reallyhave taken?
And so, doing all that, I cantell my guys now.
I've been there, I've done that.
I know what you're goingthrough now.
Are there differences betweenthe 25 years that it started and
it did now Absolutely.
But I can tell you that theweight of bedroom sets is still
the same.
Unboxing is still the same.
Five up, five downs, they'repretty much the same.
How you get to where they are,you step on a gas pedal, you

(27:29):
step on a brake pedal, it's allthe same.
You might look at your phone.
I might've read a map, but therelationships are still the same
.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
So it sounds like starting on the truck, for you
gave you the leadership skill tobe able to advise your new
drivers, as you said, hey,advise your new drivers, you
know.
As you said, you know, hey,I've done that, I've been there,
so you know you're.
It made you a better leaderwhen it comes to that portion of
of the business and knowledge.
So it gave me the knowledge justlike when they call you and go
I Pete, you know we couldn't getthe couch in that door and

(27:56):
you're going.
I know you can get that couchin the door.
Don't get me started with thosestories.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
I mean, how many times do you hear that now?
And you're like listen, man,I've gotten twice big accounts
in a half size.
You know.
And.
But you know you also have toremember sometimes is this the
first time that you're therebeing shown how to get it done,
right, because there were timeswhen I said that somebody had to
come out here and listen, letme take off my tie and let me
show you how to get it.
I'm not coming out here againand you're like I never saw that

(28:24):
before, but now I know.
You know, I actually learned onthe truck that a blanket is not
just for doors.
I mean, I've learned to stackstuff on blankets and slide it
in a way that I've never be ableto slide it without.
And I didn't learn that fromsitting behind a desk.
I learned that from being outin the field.
Do they have carpets?
Do they have tile?

(28:44):
Is it easier to slide?
You know how do you take it.
Taking the cushions out andtaking the feet off make a huge
difference.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
So, to feed off of Paul's question then, is how?
What's your feelings?
Do you think everybody shouldstart in the truck?
Absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
Even if there are people out there that have an
astounding amount of, they'rejust clear, they understand how
to manage, they understandbusiness.
You need to put them on a truck.
I'm not saying that they aren'tabove it or not above it.
I'm saying that to understandthis rent-to-own business, you
have to do this rent-to-ownbusiness and to stand there and

(29:19):
say to somebody, hey, you shouldhave done this side by side
refrigerator a lot faster.
It's okay.
But if you don't know how to doit and you don't understand
what's behind it, I might havehad to take it off both doors.
Now this side-by-side had awater and ice.
That water had to be snakedthrough that little hole that I
never knew it had, because we'venever taken one apart before.
So wait a minute, I didn't havethe right tools because there

(29:41):
wasn't a screwdriver, it was hexhead.
So then I had to find that Igot it off and then I finally
had to snake out this six inchwater pipe that I didn't even
know belonged to it.
Now I got to put it backtogether.
I've never leveled out thedoors before.
I didn't even know there was away to level the doors.
It's easy to say.
It's a lot harder to do?
Put everybody on the truck.

Speaker 3 (29:59):
I'll just say, too, you can read a book on time
management or take a course at ajunior college on time
management.
Until you've been on the truckyou don't really know
rent-to-own time management.
I think there's a big gap.
Sometimes from coworkers in thefield that have been doing it
for a while they listen to theacademic, the person that's
never been on there.

(30:19):
There's a big differencebetween academic and practical
in terms of rent-to-own.
I agree with you on somesentiment.
I don't know that everyone hasto start on the truck, but they
do need to get into the truckand I think it's twofold.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yes, you're right, yes.

Speaker 3 (30:30):
Yeah, and I think it's twofold.
Number one there is from theperspective of you're not asking
anyone to do something thatyou're not willing to do, so
you're willing to go to thethird story.
You're willing to get out therein the heat, you're willing to
mess up your khaki pants orwhatever it is, and and and,
potentially sometimes even workthrough the, the dings.
You get slight injuries thataren't like enough to keep you

(30:52):
out, but your bruises, the cuts,and just being hurt and
physically worn out at the endof the day your team will
believe in you so much more whenthey've seen you bleed and
sweat with them.
You know that's one thing.
So that's kind of like the Joanof Arc.
You know I'm the general thatsound patent, I'm at the front
of the line, I'm not at the backof the line.

(31:12):
Like I say, it removes theconsultant or the politician
from the job.
And those of us that work for aliving, we don't like
politicians and we don't likeconsultants.
Unless that politician andconsultant has walked a mile in
our shoes, then I'll listen tothem.
I'll listen to them.
If I see that in the person,then okay, if they understand

(31:33):
the grind, I can be with them.
But the other part of it, thatnot being in the truck I think
really hurts store managers thatascend quickly because they're
smart and likable, absolutelydeserving of the position,
they've earned the position, butthey've never really managed a
route or been on the truck.
The other part of that is theyget taken advantage of so often

(31:55):
by the individuals that realizethat they don't know how long
things take, that they've neverhad those conversations with
customers or had to overcomethose objections.
Therefore they always have thebuilt-in excuse because they can
take advantage of what shouldbe a very effective leader that
doesn't have the practicalknowledge of the job.
So I do agree with you Time inthe truck is important.

(32:17):
We used to do that with MITsback in the old Renner Center
days.
The MIT had to manage a routeat some point.
If they couldn't hit the closeand open and they couldn't
handle the road duties done.
See ya, you had a month.
You had to be consistent inhitting those numbers for a full
month.
If you couldn't get past that,guess what?
You didn't graduate fromelementary school.
So there is no middle schoolfor you.

(32:39):
Thank you for your time.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
Have a good day.
We appreciate you, but there isa way to fast track people.

Speaker 3 (32:44):
And I think when you do fast track people, they do
have to have the buy-in from theteam beneath them, the men and
women that are in the truck.
They have to believe in thatperson, that they're also
willing to do the job, and theyalso have to know that that
person does understand how longthings take for both reasons not
being taken advantage of andalso just being there for that
person.
When, when they have heavythings plus a person that

(33:06):
doesn't go on the truck, theylove to load the dab.
Yes, they love to stock thatthing full and then be overly
critical of a team member thatisn't maybe meeting the time
criteria that Google maps saidit should have taken.
Right, yeah.
So again, I do agree with that.

(33:27):
You just brought it up twice,so I wanted to get there.
This podcast is about gettingto know.
Pete.
I made you do an assignment,josh.
I made you do an assignment too.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
We had homework, we had homework.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
But you did it as well.
What a great leader you are,Paul Thank you, josh, and I
concur.
Hey, I have to recognize, youknow when it's, when it's there,
so you know you delegated verywell.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
So you took the the 16 personality test right, and,
and and this is another tool Ithink we should leave listeners
or watchers of of thisparticular podcast is going to
that site.
It's free, right.
You just put in your emailaccount.
They'll email your resultsafter you, but it's called 16
personalities.
It gives you a short.
How long did it take you tocomplete it?
Not?

Speaker 1 (34:15):
long, I mean, I didn't 10 minutes.
Yeah, 10 minutes.

Speaker 3 (34:18):
So you did it and then you got your results.
So my first question for yourelated to that what did you
learn about yourself?
Did you take the time to readabout yourself and your
personality?

Speaker 1 (34:28):
I did.
I didn't study it as much as Iprobably should have, but I did
read it and I thought.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
You probably didn't know you were going to be
quizzed.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
Well, you know, it's one of those things like I
looked at it and sometimes inthe back of your mind you're
like is that really me at it?
And sometimes in the back ofyour mind you're like is that
really me?
Is that?
Because I think, when you lookin the mirror we see the 20 year
old that we used to be in highschool behind the shadow of our
face.
Today, when we're on the phoneand we hear ourselves, I've had
to really get used to my podcastvoice.

(34:57):
I never knew that I soundedlike this.
As I've listened to myself moreand more through podcasts, I've
gotten used to it.
But when I first started, that'snot who I hear in my head, and
sometimes when you read it, youhave to read it again and again
because who I see myself as andwho is relatable on that paper
to me didn't seem like the sameperson.

(35:18):
It seemed like I had a littlebit more of leadership traits in
there.
When I want to take control ofthings, and I never saw that To
me, I feel like I'm a guy, weget along, we have a purpose,
we're driven, let's get there.
And so I saw a little bit moreof a spearheaded approach in

(35:39):
that and I had to really thinkabout that.
It made me kind of more look atmyself more than read it again
and go is that really me?
And then what do you do?
You go back and you startplaying scenarios, right, and
you're like, well, in thatsituation, did I do it there?
I might have, you know, I sawit one way, but then I watched a
movie again and what did I see?
Something I never saw before.
I saw, you know, a littlesnippet here, or I remember a
phrase there.

(35:59):
I remember you know what thatwas actually driving me
absolutely batty.
And maybe they actually didallow me to take control of that
situation, because either I wasannoying the hell out of them
or I had a really good idea andI portrayed that, hopefully, in
a light that they allowed me todo that, and it really made me
think.
It did.
It made me really think aboutit.
So I didn't want to go into ittoo much, but yeah, it made me

(36:22):
like after I read that, I kindof sat there and just go.
Is that what I look like on theother side of this, of this
coin?
You know it's funny, you'dmentioned consultants.
I'll throw this in real quick.
Is that?
I don't know if you guys evernoticed the amount of people who
have worked in the rental ownedindustry.
That are our vendors.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
Yeah, I have, I have.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
I don't know if it's like that in any other industry,
because I've never gone to theconventions of any other
industry, but I've noticed thatwhen you say it's it's greater
to take advice from somebody whounderstands the business.
There are people out there whohave done this business and now
they're, they're vending to us,they're selling to us, or
whatever you want to call it,and they have a better insight.
That's one of the things Iappreciate sight, that's one of

(37:02):
the things I appreciate.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
Yeah, it's like they get out of the business but they
don't fully get out of it.
But to kind of bring it back tothe personality thing, real
quick, pete, so I can understandwhat I did the same thing.
I don't know if Paul did aswell, but I kind of read it and
I was like, oh wow, you know,that thing's a lot nicer than I
am.
About myself, so, but about you, I'm curious to know who the

(37:23):
people were in your life thathelped contribute to that
personality that you do have.
So what were your?
You know, who were your rolemodels and what made you become
Pete?
Wow, that's a God.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
You see, now you start going to those questions.
That's usually what I'm askingother people.
It feels kind of like on thisside of the seat.
Well, so you know small storywhen I was growing up in New
York my dad was a bigger part ofmy life then, but my dad stayed
in New York and so when I camedown to Florida, our
relationship was differentbecause there was just a lot of

(37:58):
distance and so I saw him on thesummertime.
But I mean, is that really, youknow, is that really being a
part?
It's not.
I'm not blaming anybody, it wasjust the way it happened.
I saw my dad on the summers, Iwas with my mom throughout the
most of the year, and so youknow, of course I'd have to say
my mom, in a way, was was a bigpart of how I saw things.
But as I got older, I did lookfor some some male role models

(38:23):
unbeknownst to myself until Igot older, and one of the guys
that I got to say really made melook at the way I did business
and it's going to be crazybecause we never got along was
Rafael Torres.
He had a very unique approach toRentoni.
He had a very unique approachto a lot of things.

(38:44):
He had a very unique approachto rent-owning.
He had a very unique approachto a lot of things, but he had a
very direct way of looking atthings.
He was very like.
He knew what he wanted waybefore the conversation started.
How he got there, though,didn't feel directional, but he
got there, and so it was justone of those things.

(39:08):
Like, he was my DM at the timeas my division manager at RAC,
and when I first started, he wasmy division manager for RAC a
long time, and so he was able tocome from Venezuela.
He knew what he wanted, he camein, he worked hard and he was
great at making relationships.
But the truth was there wasalways a purpose, whether it was

(39:29):
to pay, whether it was to sell,whether it was.
He was very purpose-driven, andI think that actually played a
big part in the first part of mycareer and my life as to why I
see myself a certain way and whyI might actually do things more
directional and try to playmore of a leadership role in
that, or take charge, orwhatever you want to call it.
But that was one of them, andit's crazy that I have to say

(39:52):
that Rack did that, but it did.
As I got older, there's been acouple of people that have
really made a difference in mylife.
My wife's father, my currentwife's father, is one of them.
I love the way he is.
What's his name?
Ken Ken.
He's a very family guy.
He's got.
They're just traditional in thesense that he's been married

(40:15):
for 40 years and they have afamily business and they stay
with their family and so for thecurrent part of the last 10
years of my life he's been a bigpart of that.
You know, part of the you knowunfortunate sins.
I came from a broken home.
It was mom and her two kids andwe came out here and I didn't
know anybody.
So it was a big difference.
When I came to Florida, I knewnobody, my brother didn't know

(40:38):
anybody, so it was just me andhim and it felt like me and him
kind of against the world.
You know, mom was at work, wedidn't know anybody.
So everywhere I went, my brotherwas there, my brother's eight
years younger than me.
So it was like really odd,because I'm like this teenager
and my brother was with we do itanywhere.
My brother was with me and sowe kind of learned to the
relationships that we had withour friends and our friends,
family and the people that wemet.
You know, and, and over timeyou know Raphael, in a sense,

(41:07):
ken, in a sense even my firstmanager at Burger King when I
was in high school man, she waslike no freaking joke man.
She'd be like nice to you andthen turn around and be like man
, you got time to lean, brother,you got time to clean?
She would just, I was scrapingbubble gum off the bottom of
tables, but I guess I took itfrom the people that I work with
, maybe, maybe kind of, and I'venever had to look at myself
that way.
Josh, I appreciate that.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
No, that's all right.
So for younger Pete, from whatI got out of all that for
younger Pete it was mainly momand brother yeah, that were some
big parts of your life thatkind of pointed you in the
direction you wanted to go, andthen obviously it sounded like
you had some really greatmanagers as you came up, I did
luck out.
You know through your career.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
Well, I got to say maybe part of it too is that
because my brother was youngeralways felt like I had to set an
example.
So I was trying to learn fromthe people that I had in front
of me to be able to show himwhat I thought was the right way
to do things.
Because at the time when wecame to Florida and there's a
whole lot of reasons behind thisbut both fathers were kind of
out of the situation at thatpoint in time Not my father
because of distance, but hisfather for a whole different
reason, and so we didn't havethat father figure.

(42:12):
I didn't know what to give him,and so I was trying to suck up
every bit of knowledge that Ican find to at least give him a
direction, Because, being eightyears behind me, when I was 16,
he was eight.
That's when he started kind ofrealizing life.
Right, you start realizing lifebetween like eight, seven,
eight.
And so it was like hey, you gotto go to school, hey, you got
to do this.
You know, thank God, my brotherwent to the military.
He did four years in the Navyand he graduated from USF.

(42:34):
So he's doing all right.
But you know, I thought that itwas necessary.
So I think I just learned fromeverybody who was willing to
teach me anything.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
Well, as he was pointing you to become a better
man by trying to learn all thesethings, you obviously, in turn,
were pointing him to become abetter man as well, as he went
into the military and graduated.
I mean, it sounds like you bothreally held each other up and
did great things for each other.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Well, it's a circle.
It's a cool thing to know aboutyou.
So, yeah, well, I appreciatethat you guys are making me look
inside here.
It's definitely a differentside of the podcast.

Speaker 3 (43:06):
Influence goes both ways, you know, and that's
something I want to talk to youabout a little bit later.
You know kind of have a generalstructure.
You influence others, but youshould always be influenced by
people beneath you as well,whether it's a younger brother
or it's your coworkers as well.
So I'm going to ask a questiona little bit later about that
Sure Getting.
So I'm going to ask a questiona little bit later about that
Sure Getting.
Back to a real quick on this, onthe personality test, it's a
great practice for everyone thatlistens to this to do this and

(43:29):
do this with your family membersas well.
You brought up is that reallyme?
I had a reaction to some of thecriticisms in my personality
test and I was like, no, no way.
Then I asked my wife, my kids Ihave twin boys and I said is
this me?
And they said, dad, that's,that's you.
And I went oh my God, yeah, Idon't want to be known that way.

(43:53):
Um, but I would say, do withyour family, do it with your
coworkers, your supervisor andyour direct subordinates,
because it changes the way youmight talk to each other or at
least have a betterunderstanding of where they're
coming from.
There is no bad personality.
There are 16 personalities.
They're all good.
Like that's the thing too.

(44:14):
I've had coworkers.
I tell them to take the test.
Then they take it because theyanswer the questions how they
think I want them to answer it.
And then we start going throughit.
I'm like this is not you.
Do it again.
Be honest and understand whenyou go into this.
There are no bad personalities.
This is so you and I can talkbetter.

(44:35):
This is how we can communicateand fix those gaps where we
might not see things the sameway.
I might even promote somebodywith a different personality for
myself, so I don't getpigeonholed into a mindset of
what I am, or.
It's just what I like and how Ithink my own paradigm and we're
going to get to paradigm in aminute as well.
I would strongly suggest thateveryone take that personality
test, evaluate themselves, do itwith their loved ones and also

(44:57):
their coworkers that, again, aredirectly above them and below
them, and then have aconversation about it.
You might learn a lot abouteach other.
That helps to plug in thosegaps as to why are they acting
that way.
Now you have a betterunderstanding.
Or, more importantly from thisexercise is why am I acting this
way?
Your personality, guys, doesnot change too much.

(45:17):
It doesn't From the time you'rea young adult to the time you
die.
Your personality is yourpersonality.
Your behaviors, however, canchange, and I would stress that
your paradigm can change, andI'll explain a little bit about
that in a minute.
Kudos to your mom.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
I agree with that.
By the way, Paul, that wasgreat.
Yeah, I agree with that ahundred percent A hundred
percent Kudos to your mom.

Speaker 3 (45:41):
She didn't raise a victim.
Yes, you know you had.
Everyone has a story to tell.
You know the old Chick-fil-A adwhere you watch that video.
Everyone's got a story to tellso don't pretend to know
anything, man, I had one ofthose.
But uh, your mother had anopportunity to cave in, be a
victim herself and raise we, youknow her children to to be
victims.
And your personality, your,your, your optimism oozes out of

(46:04):
you, pete.
It oozed out of you the firsttime I saw you in Huachula, when
a hurricane literally wentthrough Hurricane Charlie
destroyed your store and you'reworking out of a trailer.
That was the minute I realizedI liked you.
I just saw something.
It was like this light ofpositivity and I said I like him
.
I like him a lot.
So I'm glad you're havingsuccess in what you're doing and

(46:29):
I hope more success finds you.
So that brings me to to youknow.
So, outside of that, you knowthe listeners should consider
taking the 16 personality test.
It is free.
Learn about yourself, learnabout your coworkers, learn
about your spouse, your children, everyone in your life.
That's important to you andit's great conversation.
If nothing else, what you justdid in this exercise is you
don't just have the boring.
How was your day?
What'd you eat for lunch?
No, you actually talk aboutsomething that could lead to a

(46:52):
future conversation and moreconversations down the road as
you learn to build thatrelationship even deeper with
individuals that you care deeplyfor.
So my next question for youinvolves paradigm.
Stephen Covey, to me, is one ofmy gurus.
I talk about him all the timewith my team.
He is one of the people evenlong after he died.
His books and his YouTubevideos still resonate in my head

(47:16):
when I'm stuck, I go to Covey,stephen Covey, my father.
And then not to get tooreligious, I would say it would
be Jesus Christ.
Those would be the three.
Then not to get too religious,I would say it would be Jesus
Christ.
Those would be the threeindividuals that when I need
them, I know where to find themand then they help to bring me
back you know what I'm saying towhere I need to be.
And all of them are dead, youknow, but it doesn't matter

(47:38):
because I still hear theirvoices all the time.
Stephen Covey talks about theseven habits highly effective
people paradigm.
Yes, if you haven't read thebook, I recommend you.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
It's great.
It's a great book.

Speaker 3 (47:57):
So do you remember the story where he is on the
train and he's reading anewspaper and he's talking about
I'm not going to do thisjustice, but I'll try to do it
for the listeners.
So it's a late night and he'son the train on a Sunday morning
and it's Saturday night's overand he's trying to get back to
his home and he's just wants tolook at the papers.
This is the time there were nophones, but she had a newspaper,
so you can immerse yourself inthe comics or sports section or
see what's going on.
And at this point in time it'sNew York city.

(48:18):
Then, all of a sudden, on thetrain comes this rambunctious
family.
On the train comes thisrambunctious family, these three
young kids and this dad comestumbling onto the train and the
kids are making a ruckus.
They are running up and downthe train, they are bothering

(48:39):
everyone else on the trains oreveryone else is on this train,
like what the heck?
It's early, people haven't evenhad their first cup of coffee
yet.
These kids are going nuts andthe dad sits there and he's
doing nothing, nothing to stopthe behavior of these kids
running around like crazy.

(48:59):
So Covey says he puts his paperdown.
He's had enough, his paradigm,I've had enough.
And he goes to the dad and tapshim on the shoulder and he said
the dad looks up at him withthis odd gaze in his eyes, like
maybe you've been drinking or ondrugs, and he says hey man,
there's an entire train car herefull of people that are just

(49:23):
trying to get to where they'regoing, minding their own
business.
Your kids are creating quite ascene.
They are really causingproblems here.
Can you please get control ofthis situation of your kids?
And then he says the fatherlooks up at him and goes oh, oh,
my God, I I'm so sorry, I know,I know, I know we need to do a

(49:45):
better job of of getting my kidsunder control.
The thing is we just left thehospital and their mom just
passed away and I don't know howto act and I don't know what to
do.
I'm totally lost.
Stephen Covey in that momenthis paradigm.
Paradigm is just the lens inwhich you see the world, or it

(50:06):
could be a lens in which you seea situation.
Right, this person says thisyou kind of brought it before
this call.
This kid's name was this so ourparadigm, our lens, is going to
train us to see something forin our bias and everything, our
thoughts and our experiences.
That point views what'shappening and it becomes our
reality when, in essence, thistrain story tells you there

(50:28):
could be a completely differentreality, a real story, the real
root cause that we don't oftenask enough questions or get to
the bottom of and eliminate ourown bias to see what's really
going on.
Stephen Covey went fromchastising this man to the next
thing out of his mouth was oh myGod, I am so sorry.

(50:49):
Is there anything I can do tohelp?
That story?
When I read that in that bookfound me at a right moment in my
life.
I'll tell you that I've neverforgotten that story and I share
it with as many people as longas I can live.
So if you're not into readingbooks or you like audio books,
you just want a YouTube paradigmfrom Stephen Covey, do it.

(51:12):
But my question for you is canyou remember back as a child the
first major paradigm shift thatyou had?
And it doesn't have to be as achild, pete Now, I know this is
hard.
You may need a minute to thinkabout it.
We can always come back to thislater because you might be
reminded of yourself as we gothrough the rest of this, but

(51:36):
can you think of a time whereyou thought you knew the reality
of a situation and then yourentire mind shifted when the
smoke cleared?

Speaker 1 (51:43):
When the veil came off.
Oh, when you say people, youdon't know, it's really we don't
know what's going on.
Until you know what's going on,Something that you said this
morning, josh, and I said I wasgoing to tell you and we're
going to just say it now.
So Josh is on his way into thestudio and he says that you know
, hey, man, I needed to stopbecause I saw the situation Go

(52:05):
ahead and describe it that way,that way, you, I don't, I don't
mess it up.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
So I'll I'll do my best not to get emotional about
it, because it really touched me.
Obviously, you probably heardthat when we were talking.
But so, yeah, so I live out inthe, in the boondocks, you know.
It's not a very big city, sothey're just starting to build
up and they're building up thisone road.

(52:29):
It's five, six lanes, but it'sstill very rural and they're
building housing developmentsout there.
There's no businesses, there'sno gas stations, there's no
nothing.
It's literally just a road andthey're starting to build
housing developments.
So, on my way here which is whyI was late, why I called you I'm
driving down the road andthere's this little girl with

(52:49):
her backpack standing at thecorner of this new housing
development and then this newmajor road that they just built,
and not a parent in sightcouldn't have been more than
five or six years old.
Not a parent in sight Couldn'thave been more than five or six
years old, and it just it killedme because I'm like why is this

(53:13):
little girl standing here byherself?
People are getting and I'm notjust talking about children
Adults are being taken daily,you know, and so I was on the
phone with my daughter at thetime, my oldest daughter and
maybe it was because I was onthe phone with her and I'm
realizing that.
So I'm like I said, allie, Isaid I got to turn around, I
have to go sit, I have to gowait to make sure that this

(53:35):
little girl's okay.
You know I can't, I was probablygoing to call the police, I
don't know what I was going todo, but I was going to make sure
that this child was okay,because there's no reason that
she should have ever beenstanding where she was.
But anyway, so I did, I turnedaround after, after a few
minutes, some more parents andtheir children came out.
Never, her parent, her motheror dad never showed up, but a
few other parents did, withtheir children waiting on the

(53:56):
bus.
And so I left and called youand let you know I was running
late.
But and then you were going toshare something with me because
of that story it brought amemory.

Speaker 1 (54:05):
So it's it's funny that you mentioned that because,
number one, I love the goodhearted nature that you have.
You know you're on your way andyou know that you have
someplace to be, and it was moreimportant to make sure her
safety.
Especially nowadays, what'sgoing on with everybody and
everything?
You always hear kids beingtaken advantage of or they're or
they're missing, and I thinkthat you know our most precious
is our most vulnerable, and soyou know I love that and I'm

(54:29):
going to say this to you guys,and I never intended to say it
and I've actually never talkedabout this to anybody except my
wife in my life.
When I was five, I was kidnapped, at least attempted, and so you
know he I don't know what hisintentions were, we never had a
real good conversation.
You know, I went somewhere fora short time.

(54:50):
I cannot remember a lot of it.
I don't know if it's young orthere's just a blocking out that
I.
I just don't remember a lot ofdetails.
I remember small details.
I remember the guy.
I couldn't remember his face.
I can remember his body, hisstyle, his type.
He's almost my height, foreign.
We went somewhere and you know,in that time frame my mother was

(55:11):
able to get ahold of the policeand they were able to find him.
And as we were leaving thebuilding and you might imagine,
in New York, you know the 17, 20story buildings and, depending
on the building, they usuallyhave only two exits.
This particular one that I knowof and of course I was five, so
I don't know had one main exit.
As he's walking out, it wasalmost a scenario of a movie.

(55:34):
There was like five cop cars, Imean.
They pulled in and like he'sliterally holding me as we're
walking through this thing andlike this whole convergence of
what seemed like a police forceat my age, came in and, uh, he
didn't put up a fight.
I mean it wasn't, you know, itwasn't like a gunfight or
anything.
He put me down and and and thenthe next thing I remember is
being in the police station.

(55:55):
So my mom was there and I wasthere, and at that particular
point in time this was an olderpolice station.
Now, mind you, this was 40years ago.
The holding cells were insidethe police station, so it wasn't
like somewhere where it waslike away, it was like literally
inside where the offices were,and so I was sitting there and I
remember that the officer whowas talking to my mom I mean

(56:19):
they didn't have anything at theoffice and he offered me like
jelly toast or something likethat, just so he'd call me, like
I had no idea what was going on.
And I just remember it wasjelly toast and I was eating it
and he was looking at me fromthe cell the entire time I'm
eating this.
He's like eyeballing me throughthe cell and eventually my mom

(56:40):
noticed and she was, like youknow, closed the door or
whatever, fast forward.
I couldn't tell you whathappened after that, I couldn't
tell you what was going on, butwhen you said that it made me
think wow, you know, I'm gladthat there are people out there
who care, because there arescenarios in this life where
somebody will try to take themost precious thing from you,
regardless of your situation.

(57:02):
You mentioned moments.
It wasn't exactly that momentand it didn't mean as much to me
then as it does now.
But, holy cow, I had no ideathat this guy had any intent at
all and, as a matter of fact, Iremember at that point in time
in my life thinking before theevents of even seeing police.
I didn't think anything of it.
I really don't remember who hewas as in.

(57:25):
I don't know his name, I don'tknow what role his life, in our
lives that he played.
I did not see him as a threat,but when the veil was pulled
back, I completely lived adifferent life after that.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
So I would like to thank you, pete, obviously, for
sharing that.
I know, as men, it's hard forus to share things in our lives
that you know, um, I don't know.
It's just hard for us to toshare things like you know,
situations like that.
So I appreciate you, you know,for that.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
Yeah, absolutely it was.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
it was uh, it's, and I'm sorry that that happened to
you Like that's, you know,horrible.
It's something that shouldnever happen, and but again,
thank you.

Speaker 1 (58:05):
Well, I think all the you know God blessed the broken
road.
Right, we're here now.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
Well, you know, so everybody knows me, but maybe
that's why that happened today.
Maybe God needed you to talkabout that today.
So, and and and I'm glad yougot that out Maybe that's the
answer to Paul's paradigmquestion is maybe you don't see
that, but that was a moment inyour life that something changed
in you, that you still rememberthat to this day and it makes
you who you are.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
It definitely, you know, always in the back.
You never think about it everyday, but if there's a moment
that happens, a moment, asituation, a comment, a concern,
it becomes a forefront thoughtprocess in what you do, just
like the experiences that we gothrough every day.
You know picking up somebodythat we shouldn't pick up,
having the conversations withsomebody we should have and

(58:55):
didn't not saying goodbye whenwe should have, or not having
that last conversation when weshould have.
I've had customers in the pastthat you know.
I had a customer once inHuachula and her name was Pat
Gibson.
I used to call her Miss Patbecause we're in the South, but
Miss Pat, when she first saw meat a rent-a-center I had come

(59:17):
from Sebring, this is a littlebit bigger going to Huachula and
, man, I was going to get mylate fees.
She was just one of themcustomers that she just did not
like late fees and she wasalways coming in on Monday or
Tuesday and no matter what youdid, she was coming in on Monday
or Tuesday.
First thing she said to me isson, you got an attitude problem
and we need to fix that.

(59:38):
I was shocked Like look, lady,tell me that you're the one
who's past due right Fastforward two years.
She was actually like a secondmom to me.
She taught me some of thethings that I should do and some
of the things I should say, andshe would call me hey, my car
is something's going on in mycar, I need help.
She would call me and say, hey,my husband needs this, can you

(59:58):
help him?
It became a relationship.
The worst thing that I can saythat ever came out of it was I
didn't know she was sick.
I didn't know anything wasgoing on.
One day she was working and inmy opinion because I don't
remember how old she was she wasprobably mid-60s, later 60s.
She worked as a waitress at oneof our local restaurants and I

(01:00:21):
used to eat there all the time.
I hadn't seen her in about aweek and I got a call from her
husband, who I wasn't as closewith.
We were close, but it was justme and Miss Pat usually and he
told me that his wife passedwith an aneurysm and I did not
get to see her before that and Icould have.
I could have, I had everyability, but I did not and I did
not understand the situationthat she was in and I didn't

(01:00:43):
know where she was at physicallyor health-wise.
She never put that in theforefront.
We had a great relationship andI miss her.
I wish I would have.
Yeah, and here we are.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
We're all going to be in tears after Paul.
You know he mentioned the.

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
Chick-fil-A video.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
I'll tell you this and I want to back up his
sentiment, which is thank you somuch for trusting us and
everyone else that might listenor see this enough to share that
with us.
You know I would say that therecould have been a lot of
different outcomes with that.
I know.
You know that.
I know you've seen enough andyou've read enough articles, or
maybe seen different movies andexposés, in terms of what

(01:01:24):
happens to a lot of kids thatare abducted.
You're very, very fortunate.
You were obviously chosen to berescued and that comes a great
responsibility and what youcould do for the rest of your
life.
I'm not telling you what youshould do when you retire, but I
think everyone should have agoal from what am I going to do,
what purpose will I have once Iretire from my working career

(01:01:46):
and what am I going to pourmyself into next?
To me, that would almost be asign that you should do
something along the lines ofprotection of children or
working with kids that have gonethrough some very difficult
situations just like that.
I don't know.
I think, like Josh just said,sometimes you just got to read
the tea leaves right and saythat's going to be a greater
purpose of where I would like toput some additional resources,

(01:02:09):
assets or me towards.
Again, I'm not.
I'm not telling you what to do.

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
Well, I appreciate the conversation because I've
I've actually, you know,sometimes through conversation
you find out more about yourself.
Yeah, just like going throughthat 16 personality test and you
find out something aboutyourself that you didn't know.
You know, I never reallythought about it until you said
that and maybe that might besomething in the future.
Listen, everybody has theirbeliefs, but I definitely

(01:02:34):
believe God puts people on yourpath for a reason Good, bad or
indifferent.
It's about how you interpret itor your paradigm.
So you know, maybe that is adirection at reason good, bad or
indifferent.
It's about how you interpret itor your paradigm.
And so you know, maybe that isa direction at some point in
time.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
I'm a huge believer in self-awareness and you know
all those little things likethat.
Again, paul uses the wordparadigm, covey used the word
paradigm.
For me it's self-awareness, youknow, it just sounds like

(01:03:07):
that's a moment in your life.
You've had a couple moments youjust spoke about Ms Pat and
that you became self-aware andyou and you've and it's probably
changed you and you may not seethat, but those moments they
build us into who we are andit's, it's cool to see who, what
makes Pete Pete, and that thatthat's probably a great thing
that builds.
That is a reason that you haveempathy because you've went
through something like that.
So it's created that into inyou to be able to empathize.

(01:03:29):
You know, empathize for others.

Speaker 1 (01:03:32):
We're open all kinds of doors.
Now today, guys, we're open,we're we're opening things.
I don't know.
This is.

Speaker 2 (01:03:36):
I wanted to be.
I wanted to be a psychologistin another life, just so
everybody knows.

Speaker 1 (01:03:40):
It's good.
It's good, it's real good.

Speaker 3 (01:03:45):
What do you think is your greatest strength?
Lightening the mood a littlebit.
What do you think is yourgreatest strength?

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
Oh, in terms of what you bring to the table in your
career or with coworkers.
When I first started in the DMrole, I had no idea what my goal
, what my purpose was, besidesgetting people to do what they
wanted to do Right.
So you need to get these otherpeople to a certain point and
although at that point in timeand I always, we always used to
equate it to being MichaelJordan in the team versus being

(01:04:18):
the coach of the team, and thatwas a big transition when I
transitioned over I had no idea.
And now that I get to look backand I go okay, I've taken some
leadership courses and I've donesome.
You know, I did a Dale Carnegiecourse and I've kind of read
more and I've done some stuff.
If I was to say that is theresomething that you do well, pete
, that you think bringssomething to the table that you

(01:04:39):
could probably put on, the first, one of the first marks of your
resume is a culture leadershipteam.
I believe in my team.
I believe that they have to bebelieved in, I believe that they
have to be nourished, I believethat they have to be trained
and I believe that they have themindset and I also believe that
capable.
People without the rightmindset are still going to be
susceptible to the losses thatthey had before until they

(01:05:01):
understand.
In my mind, I can think you'rea superhero, but you need to
believe that too, and the daythat you believe as much as I
believe in you, for some peoplewho don't have that
self-confidence, it will notwork.
So if I was to say, if I walkedinto with a group of people,
what is the first thing that Iwould establish?
Well, you're going to put outall the fires, but at the same

(01:05:22):
time, we are doing this.
It's funny you said, you know,talking about a truck, about
three months ago we had acustomer who was about to skip
on us, not on purpose, but theykind of let us know like late in
the game, hey, we're gettingevicted, like this is a last
minute thing.
It's a Saturday night and uh,the door, the hammer's coming
down and we need you to come getthis Cause, otherwise we're

(01:05:42):
going to have to leave it.
We don't know what happens.
You know, always know whathappens when you leave something
in a department complex.
It's never there.
When you get there and, uh, youknow, my, my GM called me and
he was like I don't know what todo because everybody's gone.
Well, let me tell you what todo.
You're going to get the truckand I'll meet you there and he's
like you're going to be there,absolutely.
It was a third floor pickup ofa bedroom set, a living room set

(01:06:04):
and I can't remember tables orsomething like that man.
That was rough, because Ihaven't done that in a long time
, those third floor deliveries,man oh.
God, it was so hot.
Anyways, to go back to it, Ibelieve that that culture leans
into a team and I would neverask you to do something.

(01:06:25):
I'm not going to ask you on myway home, as I go see my family,
that you need to be away fromyour family doing something very
terribly difficult because youknow what happens to the product
and what happens to the store.
Should you not get that?

Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
Yep, they Jeff it up happens to the store, should you
not get?

Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
that, yep, they Jeff it up.
You don't have the backup?
Well, listen, then we will justfigure it out.
Of course, on my way there, Imade some phone calls and I had
some very convincingconversations with some other
people and somebody showed up.
So there was the three of us.
Was it hard?
Oh my God, it was hard.
Was it difficult?
Yeah, but I would like to think, not that I would just do it,

(01:06:59):
but the fact that we're in thistogether and our culture needs
to be all the way around.
So if I was to say one thing aculture, team type of leadership
where everybody's involved.
Now, is there going to be astar player?
Yeah, is there somebody goingto be leading the shots?
You bet, but believe, at theend of the day, if you're the
one sweeping the floor and youneed help if everybody's gone,

(01:07:20):
we'll do that together too.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
So your biggest strength would be your optimism
for other people.

Speaker 1 (01:07:27):
Maybe that's a better way to put it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
Yeah, have you ever lost that for someone that you
you know?
Because, like you said, you'rebringing a culture to the table
and you have to believe in theseemployees and you mentioned you
know, if you don't have, if youlose that in them, that that's
a situation.
Have you ever had that you knowexperience where you had to
lose the belief you had in amanager, and how'd you handle it

(01:07:52):
?

Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
I'm pretty optimistic In certain regards.
It might be a downfall.
I don't believe that I lost theoptimism, but I do believe that
there's a time to cut it short,right?
So optimism will take you sofar, team will take you so far,
but I cannot do the position foryou.
If I find myself doing aposition for you, then we have
an issue.
So are there going to be timeswhere I need to show you

(01:08:14):
Absolutely?
Are there times where I need totake charge so that you can
follow me and see how it's doneAbsolutely?
But there is a time cutoff andI won't lose the optimism, but I
will believe that we need tohave a conversation and maybe
you're just a better seat on adifferent bus.
That I can do, and I wish youall the best.
And I've had people thatprobably haven't done the best
to me and I probably wished themhappier thoughts than I should,

(01:08:35):
but at the end of the day, Idon't know what their resolve is
.
I don't always know whathappens when they go home.
I don't always know their needsand their situations when they
go home and sometimes maybepeople feel like they have to do
something because they justdon't have another way out and
maybe they haven't had aconversation with somebody and
said hey, man, this is not youronly option, or there are other
things and other ways you canget this done.

(01:08:56):
I don't eat dinner with them, Idon't wake up with them, so I
don't know their motivations andtheir machinations, but I can
tell you that I try not to losethat optimism, but I will
separate myself from a situationif I feel like it's necessary,
Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:09:11):
Well, and that goes back to paradigm.
You know you have to get to theroot causes.
You have to seek first tounderstand, right.

Speaker 1 (01:09:18):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:09:21):
And if we go back to paradigm, one of the biggest
lessons I would say to anyonethat's trying to apply it to
their businesses no matter whatyou think in your experiences
taught you, you need to be sure,Um.
So ask more questions, observea little longer before you make
that comment or you do.
That thing can totally saltaway a relationship that you
never intended to have happen.
They say the worst thing youcould do to someone is accuse

(01:09:43):
them of something they didn't do.
That's way worse than being asucker and letting somebody take
advantage of you.
They're both bad, Right, and uh, it kind of sounds like you
know, you?
I wrote down a culture of we.
You know you're not going toask somebody to do something you
wouldn't do.
You're willing to jump in anddo it, but you don't want to do
people's jobs for them, Right,you know?

(01:10:04):
Johnny Rockefeller says thateveryone acts in their own, in
their own self-interest.
First, that might be the reasonyou had to get on another
coworker to get them out there,you know, because their
self-interest.
Where they just didn't want todo it, they didn't see why.
When people evolve from theirown self-interest usually when
somebody nurtures an individualand they understand that, you

(01:10:26):
also believe in theirself-interest and you're going
to help them meet their goalsand you're going to be there for
them, Then they evolve pasttheir self-interest to the
interests of the team.
Um, and the interests of theteam.
When you have those teams we cansee it in some stores that we
have, and then we totally see itwrong in other stores we have
the only real solution is youeither have to inspire or change

(01:10:47):
the leader in the store thatdoesn't have it to be that, or
you have to change the leader,and if you're the problem, then
you either need to fix it inyourself or step aside for
someone to take your seat right,Because we all could, Peter
principal, get to a positionthat's that's, that's beyond our
capabilities, Right.
So I thought that was kind ofinteresting that you brought

(01:11:07):
that up.
So I think I know the answer tothe next question, cause I
think you just answered it withyour greatest strength.
Tell me what you feel issomething you'd like to change
about yourself, or maybe yourbiggest I hate saying weakness,
but opportunity.

Speaker 1 (01:11:20):
I love the word opportunity.
You know kind of change it upfor a second Every time we're in
an interview.
I like to use the wordopportunity, because sometimes
you use the word weakness andkind of like man, I don't want
to tell you what I do wrong man,this is an interview.
That's right.
Wow, what is something that Ithink could probably be one of
the number one checkpoints thatI could do better?

Speaker 3 (01:11:40):
Well, the personality tests that you took will tell
you that your greatest strengths.
When you read your biggeststrengths four or five of them
then you look at your weaknesses.
Isn't that weird?
They're my strengths again, butworded differently.
You did mention a minute agoand I'm not trying to lead you
that this is the answer thatsometimes maybe you believe too
much in people.
So it's your greatest strength,but can you elaborate?

(01:12:00):
I'm not trying to put theanswer in your mouth, it's your
double-edged sword.

Speaker 1 (01:12:03):
It can be Always.
Seeing the best in peoplesometimes will give you the
appearance you want to believethe betterment right.
You want to believe that everydecision made that you make is
for a great reason.
So you would like to believethat everybody else is doing the
same thing, and the reality inlife is that's not always the
case.
Am I trying to blame everybody?
No, and that might be it rightthere.

(01:12:25):
I am quick to to to sit down andmake it a weak culture, but
some people aren't on that level.
Some people don't want that,and it's an upfront thing.
Yeah, it can be a double-edgedsword.
You know, really kind oftackling some situations and
learning from it up front andgoing this is a.
This is part of the tree that Ineed to prune pretty quick and

(01:12:45):
and I have I have had a tendencyof holding onto people and
really trying to push thembeyond their, their scope of
their own abilities.
You know, and like I know, youcan do better.
I know you can do this, but,man, I can't want this more than
you do and I think sometimes Idon't recognize that fast enough
upfront, that I'm believing inyou and I'm looking at what you

(01:13:07):
have to offer and I'm seeingthat these, there are sparks,
there's these ambers, but, man,you just you're not setting that
fire on it.
I can't figure out why, and itshould have been.
I've given you more than enoughopportunity to be the person
that I need you to be to, whereI know you can get, and now
we've gone beyond that, and sothat relationship needs to
change, and that is definitely apart that I could probably be

(01:13:30):
better at, because I am that guy.

Speaker 3 (01:13:33):
You just spoke to my gardening heart.
It's not like gardening, that'sbrutal.
No, you just said sometimes youhave to trim to, and what I
interpret as you have to trimsometimes to sponsor new growth
and anyone that's into gardeningof any sort, whether it's
vegetables or it could beflowers or it could be you have
to always.
If you're growing roses, forexample, you have to deadhead

(01:13:53):
the dead roses and that's theonly way that sponsors new
growth.
I like to believe it or not, inthis story for another time.
We we like to believe it or notin this story for another time
we like to.
We farm butterflies, my wife andI.
So we've taken this greatinterest in butterflies and the
way you have to do it.
They need milkweed to eat whenthey're in the.
You know the caterpillar stageand what you do with milkweed.
The best way to get it to growis you cut it down to almost

(01:14:15):
nothing and it always regrowswithin weeks back to this big
beautiful bush again, and then,if you don't have anything to
eat it or to remove the deadlimbs, it dies again and you
have to cut it down, oh wow.
But you have to do the samething if you're growing kale or
lettuce you harvest.
Harvesting and taking out issome of the best way to sponsor
new growth, because if youharvest properly, you cut it

(01:14:37):
correctly or you pull from itcorrectly without killing it,
new growth always will happenand the new growth is always
more robust and bigger andtastier than the first harvest.
Every subsequent harvest isbetter.

Speaker 1 (01:14:49):
You're giving your plants experience.
Yeah, how do I make it better?

Speaker 3 (01:14:52):
I love gardening man, and what you just talked about
was a big part of what you needto do.
So you do have to trim the deadbranches, you have to trim the
dead leaves, and if there's acoworker that's not bought into
your team environment or whatyou consider to be a healthy
environment, even they have togo.
They have to go.
You know, I thought about thisand a lot of coworkers, somebody

(01:15:13):
um, we had a conversation aboutlabor day, right.
So I was talking to a friendabout labor day and uh, and, and
I said you know, the peoplethat actually go to work, those
of us that go to work or did goto work and fueled and grew
something beautiful, are thetrue heroes of our country.
I don't care what politicalparty you're with.

(01:15:34):
You're a hero if you go to workevery day and you enrich
somebody's life, provide foryourself and your family, and
then, of course, you yourselfand your family, and then, of
course, you're paying your taxesright, and different people get
to varying levels of the career, but the way to truly be free
in life is to provide foryourself and your family and
then, hopefully, someday you canachieve financial independence.
Labor Day doesn't get its dueand we don't spend enough time

(01:15:57):
talking about it, but it's trulyabout the American coworker.
It's about the American worker,and we are given a day off
every year to celebrateourselves, and we know who we
are, and a lot of people listento this.
They know.
I just want them to knowthey're heroes.
I don't care what stage oftheir career they're in.
They could be at the top, thepresident of their company or

(01:16:17):
chairman of their company, orthey could be a new customer
account representative, gettingin the truck for the first time
and learning what it is that wedo.
You guys are heroes.
You know the men and women thatdo that.
You provide for your familiesin a very big way, trust me.
Your kids may not tell you, butthey truly, truly respect and
they thank you for nothing else.
Let me thank you for all ofthem, because you truly are a

(01:16:39):
hero.
He's so insightful.

Speaker 2 (01:16:43):
He is, isn't he?

Speaker 1 (01:16:44):
We kind of see the different side of Paul right now
.

Speaker 2 (01:16:46):
I know I'm trying to be the hype man, but I can't
hype him up.

Speaker 1 (01:16:48):
He's always on the serious note.
He's on that point.
I'm not always serious.
Josh, I believe in you, you cando it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:54):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (01:16:56):
Uncle Sam's sitting right here, you know, there you
go baby, you need to pat him onthe back.

Speaker 1 (01:16:59):
I'm running for president, all right, all right.

Speaker 3 (01:17:01):
You got my vote, you got my vote when did you realize
that you were good at businessand you liked money.

Speaker 1 (01:17:11):
Oh, I don't know about good at business.
I know I liked money early on,as soon as I started working for
RTO.
Actually, I realized that whenI saw the change in incomes.
It was great.

Speaker 3 (01:17:26):
What about you?
I'm curious, I like asking thatquestion to people.
I know exactly when.

Speaker 2 (01:17:28):
I first started.
Are you asking me?
Yeah, you're not going to likemy answer.

Speaker 1 (01:17:32):
Oh, I may or may not, you are not going to like my
answer.

Speaker 2 (01:17:35):
So I am not a money-motivated person.
Yeah, yeah, it doesn't.
And I don't want to get on mebecause this is a podcast about
Pete, but I've had nothing andslept on doorsteps and I've
lived in big houses.
It just doesn't mean anything.

Speaker 1 (01:18:00):
Yeah, josh, that might be a superpower though.

Speaker 2 (01:18:03):
I don't, I don't look at it that way.

Speaker 1 (01:18:05):
You know you need you need to take that test again.

Speaker 3 (01:18:08):
But, no no, it makes sense because you're a
protagonist, which is the commonI think I text you back is the
common personality type of most,most multi-unit leaders.
Is that one, that personalitytype that you have, and it's one
that's strongly peopleorientated, over things
orientated.
So it's not too surprising tohear me hear that answer.

(01:18:29):
I know you maybe not as and I'dlike to get to know you a lot
better.

Speaker 1 (01:18:37):
I'm not trying to make this again.

Speaker 3 (01:18:39):
You are.
You have one of the mostcompelling stories I've ever
heard, and you know being to goout with you at different times,
spend a little time with you.
I'm way better, by the way, inthese environments one-on-one.
I don't not that I don't likeconferences, but I don't see how
you can have a meaningfulconversation screaming over one
during a rock concert.
The music is so loud, peopleare just yelling everywhere and

(01:19:02):
I feel like it's like you couldbuild acquaintances that way.
I don't know if you couldreally build relationships, but,
but your story is so good.
I just want to tell yousomething that I have so much
respect for you and someday Iwould like you to meet my kids
and I want them to hear yourstory from you and not from me.
I've talked to my childrenabout you and I started telling
them the story.
I said you know what?

(01:19:22):
Someday I want you to meet JoshSeizicki and I want you to hear
his story.
I think you're, I think you'rean American dream man.
I really do Appreciate that andI think you are as close to, as
a purpose driven person that Iknow.
So it does not surprise mewhatsoever about your answer,
but I just wanted you to hearthat from me, because I think

(01:19:43):
this sometimes I'll be in a longcar ride or a plane ride.
Now I think about you and then Idon't always send the message,
and I know a couple of timesI've texted you about things,
like when I listened to yourpodcast with Pete but I just
wanted you to hear directly fromfrom me what I really think
about you.
I think you're an admirableperson, somebody that should be
followed.
So, anyway, when, well for me,I realized I loved money Number

(01:20:08):
one, I also grew up without it,so when you don't have it, it
was kind of like I didn't wantto be in the same position that
I was in as a child.
I didn't want my kids to havethat, so it was very motivating
for me.
So for me, though, it wastrading baseball cards at a very
young age.
I was always a hustler.
I used to sell blow pops atschool.
I was that kid that would sellblow pops at school.
I did pencil fighting for money.

(01:20:29):
I mean you name it.

Speaker 1 (01:20:30):
Oh God, that's a memory.
I was terrible at that.

Speaker 3 (01:20:36):
You know I was the one that was.
If money was involved, I wasvery motivated to be good at it.
But I built up a lot of moneywith baseball cards.
I had every Beckett magazine tolook at the values of them and
that's when I realized I knew Iwanted to go into business.
But do you still have them?
That's the question.

Speaker 2 (01:20:49):
Yeah, I do.
When I was younger, I hadbaseball cards.
Because I don't know how oldyou are, I'm assuming we'll just
say mid forties.
Yeah, I was 77 for me, so youknow 77 here.
All right, so yeah, and then 78, 78, but um so when I was a kid
I had man boxes.
I mean, that's what we did.

(01:21:09):
You collected baseball cardsand, uh, our house burnt down,
lost every single one of them.

Speaker 1 (01:21:16):
That's why I asked you if you still have yours.
So I have some of them.
Uh, some of them.
That's rough Every one of them.

Speaker 2 (01:21:20):
That's rough, so that's why I asked you if you
still have yours.

Speaker 3 (01:21:23):
I have some of them.
Some of them were stolen.
My house got broken into andsomebody stole.
I mean they even stole some ofmy dad's Marine Corps stuff,
which is just brutal, like whywould you take something?

Speaker 1 (01:21:34):
What purpose would you do that?
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:21:35):
I don't know what they thought, but they, they
took the money, stereo equipment, they took my baseball cards.
I still had some Um, but yeah,that that was that was kind of
when I knew.
But yeah, I mean, a lot oftimes there's something in your
childhood that you remember andyou're like shoot, I was.
I was always doing this backthen.
I've always been kind ofhustling or trying to outwork
everyone.
Uh, even with my baseball cardcollection and Beckett.

Speaker 2 (01:22:01):
You know it's funny.
You guys say that mine wasbasketball cards and comic books
.
Yeah, okay, here we go.
I was garbage kids and makingbaseball cards.

Speaker 3 (01:22:05):
When did this start?
Well, I started young.

Speaker 1 (01:22:07):
So I mean I was reading like well, marvel
started with the x-men, uh, andthen, and then you know x factor
and and everything that camealong with that early.
Um, how old were you?

Speaker 3 (01:22:20):
I was probably along with that early um how old were
you?
I was probably eight, but youhaven't thought about it till
now, right?
No, not talking about it now,but your business sense may have
come from that it might have.

Speaker 1 (01:22:30):
I mean, I was.
I was always trying to get into.
Like you know, it started outwith the 25 cent comics that
weren't that expensive, right,because that's what I could
afford at that time.
And then how do you build up?
And why is this one more?
And then they would send themin to get looked at and somebody
would grade them somewhere andsay this is a worthy comic book
of this much and a 9.5 and a 9.9.

(01:22:53):
And oh, it's got a littlecorner, it's marked an eight.

Speaker 2 (01:22:55):
Oh, you did it, that's so funny that you brought
that up because I didn't even.
You just said, pete, you did it.
That's so funny that youbrought that up because I didn't
even.
You just said Pete.
That's where you might've gotyour business sense from Cause
you're right, because back inthe day with our baseball cards,
we had the price guides andwe're looking them up.

Speaker 3 (01:23:07):
How much is that worth?
What can I?

Speaker 2 (01:23:08):
what can I trade that for?
What can I sell that for?

Speaker 1 (01:23:11):
So hey, same thing with your comic books.

Speaker 2 (01:23:13):
So you too?

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
Yeah, we forgot about the price guides and all that.
It was something I neverthought of until you guys
mentioned that.
Yeah because, I would go forfirst of.
So it wasn't just the numberones, but it was also when did
this first character come out?
When did Hulk first come out?
When did Superman first comeout?
When was this characterintroduced?
And then that comic book wouldbe like $40.
And you're like $40?
.

Speaker 3 (01:23:42):
Like Hulk.
How did I?
Was asked when I was a juniorin college at USF here in Tampa
and I tried to get an internshipwith Morgan Stanley Dean Witter
at the time and theyinterviewed me and one of the
questions they asked was thequestion I just asked you both,
which was when did you know youliked money and when you wanted

(01:24:02):
to go into business?
And my answer was when I had myfirst baseball card collection.
They told me and this was DanCarnival and Bruce Baird.
Bruce Baird is still one of themost successful financial
advisors in Sarasota, florida.
He has a building named afterhim, or at least a floor of a
building named after him indowntown Sarasota.
So you know this guy is a bigdeal.

(01:24:25):
They both told me that theanswer to that question was the
reason that they hired me forthe internship.
They said they had neverthought about it.
It also solicited them and thenmade them think back like yeah,
like I never.

Speaker 1 (01:24:35):
I would have never really thought about it, because
when you said baseball cards, Iwas thinking NBA basketball
cards.
I was like I never liked those.

Speaker 2 (01:24:41):
You were trading your you know your basketball cards.
You're trying to trade withyour friends to get the ones you
want and I'm going to give youthese three for that one.

Speaker 1 (01:24:49):
I would go to the comic book store and I was that
kid that would be there for likefive hours and spend like 25
cents.
But I would just go through andjust you know, page after page
and so.

Speaker 3 (01:24:58):
So think of it.
Now I have a nephew that's intovintage records.
He goes and he looks in oldrecord stores.
Even when we went to Londontogether cause a big, uh, epl
fan, so I went to you knowManchester city game and he went
.
He went with me and my boys andhe wanted to hit every record
store when we were in Manchesterand when we went to London
cause he was looking for certainrecords that he knew were of

(01:25:18):
value.
I don't know anything about himbut he did.
You know other people.
It's a sneakers, their sneakerheads, you've.
You've got a whole generation.
Some people say I don't get that.
You know some people.
It's fashion and clothing orbelts or designer stuff.
It's like, hey, when youunderstand the value of
something and it's just a hobbyyou have, that hobby is probably
paved the way for you to getinto your business.

(01:25:41):
It taught you a lot and youself-taught yourself a lot.
You had the guides or you go onthe websites and you understand
the value.
You make trading wins.
I'm trading you with that, butI know I'm taking this guy the
cleaners.
I'll get a card that's twice asvaluable as one, and then
sometimes it's just out ofscarcity I might let you take
advantage of me in a trade.
Hey, this is part of whathappens too when you buy, sell

(01:26:02):
stores right, when you talkabout it.
Sometimes you win, sometimesyou lose, but sometimes the loss
is because you don't have whatthey have.
You need that location right.
You need to tie up a loose endin between where you have two
stores that are too far apart.
So it's more valuable to you.
You're willing to overpay forit.
Other times you get the goodend of the deal.
The best trade partners are theone where you win sometimes and

(01:26:25):
you let them win Sometimes.
Those are also the bestrelationships you'll have in
your life.
When one party always has towin and this goes back to
relationships with coworkers andcustomers you got to know when
to let the other team win andyou have to know when you have
to win.
You got to know when to let theother team win and you have to
know when you have to win.

Speaker 1 (01:26:42):
You got to know when to hold them.
You got to know when to foldthem.

Speaker 2 (01:26:45):
That's so fun, you know.
Speaking of the records, though, put your, put your.
You said it was your brother.

Speaker 3 (01:26:49):
My nephew, your nephew, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:26:51):
I've got some old Neil Diamond records and a Kenny
Rogers one, if you know he'sinterested.

Speaker 1 (01:26:55):
What's crazy is that before even New Country existed,
I actually used to listen toKenny Rogers.
Yeah, it's crazy how the worldworks.
And you know, what's funny iswe have this conversation and
we're talking about things andhe's kind of like eliciting
these memories and theseresponses and then he has
introverted Would have never inmy life seen that as a Paul

(01:27:15):
Metivier trait, I would havenever seen that that's the
logistician versus the executiveand this is my personality type
.

Speaker 3 (01:27:27):
So the reason for that is because the test I
shared with you all, the surveyI did.
It was 51% introverted, 49%extroverted.
Getting back to that real quick.
Your personality does notchange but there are going to be
elements or traits that youscore closer to 50.
And in those situations, theones where you're closer to 50,
you could, depending on the dayof the week or a major event
happened to you in your lifebirth of a child, lost your job,

(01:27:50):
you know, something like thatcould occur.
That could cause thatpersonality trait to go a little
bit over the other side.
Now, if you're firmly in a 60-40situation, or even 58-42, you
are that trait.
You can only go so far to theleft or even to the right of
that particular personality.
But for me the introverted andextroverted thing comes from.
So, for example, today I've gota series of meetings.

(01:28:12):
I've got this one, I've gotanother one after lunch and then
I meet with Sharin thisafternoon between three and five
.
When I get home tonight I'mgoing to be very introverted.
I would have talked so much thatI'm just drained and I need to
recharge my battery.
Other times when, for example,if I office from home, I need to
be extroverted.

(01:28:32):
I can't wait to get out and dothis or go visit stores because
I need.
I have one of those splitintrovert, extrovert
personalities where I need tofeed the part of it that's, it's
craving in it.
When I have a craving I need tofill it, otherwise it become
unhappy, you know, but you knowso it's.
It's unique and I think a lotof people you had this exact
same thing introverted,extrovert.

(01:28:53):
If I'm not mistaken, it was 51and 49.
Right, exactly so there aregoing to be times you need your
alone time, you need to rechargeyour battery, you need to put
into you or just not talk, youknow, and that's totally cool.

Speaker 1 (01:29:04):
Maybe I don't spend enough time with Paul, cause I
could see that with you.
I can see that.
I've seen you in a group of aroom full of people and you're
just good, just like I'm here.
And then I've seen you ininteract with a lot of people at
the same time, where even we'reall talking business and we're
all talking shop talk and youknow you're a big part of that
conversation.
I seen that with you.
I haven't seen that and I wouldhave not guessed it.
But, then, as I was reading overyour you know your traits is,

(01:29:28):
you know, always learn something.
I love learning new things.
I love, I just love it.
It makes my day to find outabout people or things or
exciting.

Speaker 2 (01:29:35):
Well, again it goes back to and you know what you?
You brought it up and again itbrought that memory back of the
Chick-fil-A video.
I mean that Chick-fil-A video.
I don't care who you are Ifyou've never seen it.
You need to watch it because itdoes.
Let you know that just becauseI'm looking at you, I really

(01:29:57):
don't, you don't, I don't know.
You Do you understand?
And that's why you said, likeI've never seen that in Paul.
That's because, looking at Paul, you see the part of Paul that
Paul wants you to see.
You don't see the part thatPaul doesn't want you to see
You've got a good book cover.

Speaker 1 (01:30:04):
Paul, You've got a good book cover.
It's the story that's different.
Your book cover is great.

Speaker 3 (01:30:10):
And it's not an act.
You know, and Trin knows this,he and I have his and that's
helped our relationshiptremendously over the years.
But when somebody really doestruly know you, they also know,
you know kind of where, whereyou're at on that on that given
day.
But it's, it's not an actnecessarily.

(01:30:33):
There are times where I'mtremendously extroverted my wife
would tell you the exact samething where I'm excited.
Or we will go to a dinner partyand have no problem being the
actor in a dinner party role,where everyone has their
different roles that they haveto play in this net, and I can
pull that off.
Matter of fact, I'm proud tosay at one of those dinner
parties I went to, I got pickedas the actor of the night, you

(01:30:53):
know.
But and then there's othertimes where I'm totally good
Just being in the side of theroom, finding another person.
That's a little bit more chill,a little bit more quiet, and
I'll just engage with thatperson one-on-one and we we
watch as everyone else are thelead actors and I'm totally, I'm
totally comfortable doing thatas well.
I guess it just is, the olderI've got, the more experience
I've gotten, I'm morecomfortable and be in both of

(01:31:13):
those things when I need to bethem, you know.
So I think that's that's morethe situation.

Speaker 2 (01:31:18):
Agreed.
I do have a question, though,for Pete.
I want to bring us back, okay,to comic books and basketball
cards.
All right, so you said some ofthe first comics you read were
X-Men.

Speaker 1 (01:31:29):
X-Men comics.

Speaker 2 (01:31:29):
So who and this is a two-part question, okay.
So who is your favorite X-Men,and do those comic books have
anything to do with why youenjoy dressing up as superheroes
now?

Speaker 1 (01:31:42):
So okay, so it's a two-part thing, right?
So when I first started, Istarted off with Marvel.
I was reading all Marvel comicbooks.
Wolverine was my favorite and Icouldn't tell you why at the
time.
I think I know more now as Igot into DC.
It was always Batman, and so ifanybody knows that loves comic

(01:32:03):
books, in DC you either a Batmanor you're Superman.
Okay, I, I won't get into thereasons why I'm not you have to
tell us why Batman, though?

Speaker 2 (01:32:09):
because Batman has no superpowers, he's just rich.

Speaker 1 (01:32:13):
And that's why.

Speaker 2 (01:32:15):
I think that's that is true.
He has a lot of you know whatGood answer.

Speaker 1 (01:32:23):
That's the reason why I, you know, because everybody,
you know, we always put ittogether and it's like no prep
time.
Superman's going to kill him,period.
Okay.
Is he going to fight him?
Sure, that's like me standingin front of a rhino putting my
head down and going we're goingto knock heads.
You know the answer to thatquestion there's, no, there's

(01:32:46):
nobody's going to go.
I think that guy's going toknock that rhino out.
You know, it's more like I knowthe outcome of this and I'm
brave enough and courageousenough to stand here with people
who have powers that are moreand beyond what I can possibly
think of every day, day to day.
Does the guy have more couragethat will never see a cut or a
bullet wound or a bruise goinginto a fire, or a guy who just
well prepared?

Speaker 2 (01:33:04):
Yeah, so I guess when you think of a hero, he's more
of a hero.

Speaker 1 (01:33:07):
He would be the epitome of what a hero really is
when you talk about a lot ofthe heroes that come out.
The ones that stand out to meare always the guys that he's
not a hero because he has asuperpower.
He's not a hero because he canhear things or he can do things
or he can fly.
He's a hero because he does thebest that he can with what he
has.
He does something.
He does something.

Speaker 3 (01:33:25):
And don't forget also the self-confidence to stand
amongst those exceptional peoplethat are, you know, despite the
fact that he doesn't possessall those skills, but he knows
he belongs.
You know, there's something ofthat in life as well.
I'm more of a Batman over nowthat you're just saying it over
Superman, for exactly thosereasons he's he's human Right

(01:33:45):
and he's introverted.

Speaker 1 (01:33:48):
The biggest thing about Batman is this and they
always say that this issomething that's come out for
years and years and years andthen it's not that Bruce Wayne
is playing Batman, it's thatmost of the time, it's Batman
having to portray Bruce Wayne.
He's not a millionaire orbillionaire or whatever.
He just has to play one to getback to his night job.
And so I believe that who wereally are on the surface, who

(01:34:10):
we really are underneath, wemight have to play tones to
something else because we haveto be, we have to be correct in
our lives, right, but who we areunderneath is always going to
come out.
And so I feel like maybe I am alittle bit too nice in some
situations, that I couldprobably prune the tree a little
bit sooner, because,inadvertently, that's who I feel
.
I feel like I can save you.

(01:34:30):
I want to save you, I want tobring you, I want to be able to
say that you did not succeed notbecause of me, because if I had
a role to play in that, I wantyou to know I will do everything
in my power to train you, toshow you, to give you the tools
and the yellow brick road to getto where you want to go.
If you choose not to go thatway, well, that's your business.
Yeah, but it won't be because Ididn't try, and maybe that's

(01:34:54):
why I feel the way I do aboutBatman and Superman.

Speaker 2 (01:34:56):
Hey, you know, and now that we've talked about it
and you guys obviously have mademe think of it in a different
light not that I think I'llchange, I still think Superman's
the best, but Batman is youknow, he definitely he embodies,
you know, our first responders,our military, because those are
the Batmans of our world.

(01:35:16):
You know so, but now, thatbeing said, you still have to
answer that second part of thequestion.

Speaker 1 (01:35:21):
So what I, what I will say, is when we first got
into making commercials and wefirst got into doing videos and
I was I'm going to say thisagain, I had said it before, but
I'll say this again so it wasme, danny and Amberlee and we're
sitting there and, of course,amberlee's got this mind of
making these things and she hasthis vision.
I'm nowhere on this spectrum.

(01:35:42):
And so Danny and I are the DMsat the time and we're sitting in
front of her and she's like hey, we need to do this.
And I couldn't tell you thespecifics and idea.
It was a commercial orsomething.
And I was like no, no, I wouldseriously upfront.
No, danny was sitting there andhe's like I kind of like that

(01:36:03):
idea, I'll do it wait a minute Istopped.
I dude no, you're not.
He's like no, I'll do it, I'lldo it.
And I'm like no, my sevenagainst your seven.
No, I don't think so, Count mein.
And it was crazy how thathappened because, as that
manifested, as it went along, henever took the secondary role.

(01:36:27):
I did, and so part of that role.
And we, Amber Lee and I we sayit to each other all the time,
If we ever see us in aconvention, you ever see us
doing something, it's whateverit takes.
And my thought process was I'mnot going to get beat, he's not
going to beat me.
And so, even though the rolesweren't competing, it was like,
well, who's going to play thischaracter?

(01:36:48):
Who's going to do that?
Who's going to end up in thelake, Whatever it takes, but I
will not be the guy left behindin history going.
That was you on American Idolfirst season, and you decided to
fall off.
And then, 20 seasons later, youknow Ryan Seacrest is the man
to beat, right?
So I was like no, I'm going todo it.

(01:37:10):
And then somehow it ended up medoing more of the crazier roles
.
So now, when you say that I'llput on spandex, I'll wear it,
because to me it's a means to toan end.
I want to get my my message outthere and it kind of goes back
to the first thing we said Iwill never tell you to do
something that I'm not willingto do myself, and I always.

(01:37:31):
Will Smith had this thing.
He was talking for a while,there was.
I'd listen to Will Smith allthe time until he slapped
somebody, but anyways.
So I was listening to WillSmith and one of the things that
he was saying was is that yourbiggest accomplishment will be
on the other side of yourbiggest fear?
And he mentioned one time thathe was going to go skydiving and

(01:37:53):
he was absolutely terrified ofit, but he didn't want the
experience to beat him.
He wasn't going to get on theplane and go, I'm not going.
He said I'm getting on theplane and somehow somebody's
going to push me off.
We're going to do this.
And he got to the other side ofit and he said it was one of
the most exhilaratingexperiences he had.
Because when you haveeverything, what's the next
thing?
You do Something that you can'tcontrol.

(01:38:13):
Right, and there's that elementof you have your shoot not open
and then that would be prettycrazy.
But you couldn't control it, youcan't buy your way out of it,
you can't act your way out of it, you can't be a good politician
.
It's just life.
And so, on the other side ofthat fear, he saw accomplishment
.
And the other side of that fear, I told myself, if I'm afraid
of it, I'm going to jump into itas far as I could go.

(01:38:37):
That is the beginning of howall this happened.

Speaker 2 (01:38:41):
I was going to say that next is that I think that
kind of opened that changed you.
It did or opened your, orchanged your paradigm, or
whatever it was that that madeyou become more Now you're, now,
you have no issue speaking atour shows and you, you're the
superhero persona you know, justlike that video I showed you

(01:39:01):
when we were at the show, I'mlike look at Pete man, he's
running through the parking lot.
You're not even dressed up atthat point, but it's become who
you are now, and so itdefinitely has opened you up to
bigger and better, pete.

Speaker 1 (01:39:16):
So you know, well, I've also learned that I want to
learn and I had let fear for alittle while drive me.
You know, I'm afraid of that.
I'm afraid of that and I'vealways been a self-taught person
.
I hate to say that I've always,out of my life and all the
experiences that I have, Ibelieve that I learn better on
my own.
Show me and then let me do it.
I'm not saying don't coach me.

(01:39:38):
I'm not saying don't come backand say, hey, this isn't right.
But like I've always been oneof those people that I know for
sure, if you tell me to do it,great, let me do it, let me fail
.
I'm not saying that you knowyou can't guide me.
Guide me and then, when I getit right, coach me and say, hey,
that was a good job, do itagain.

(01:40:01):
I, I got to fail to get betterand I felt at that point in time
I had hit something and then Islowed down and I don't like
that thought.
I don't want to stay in the mud.
I don't want to be complacent,I don't want the future to just
pass me by.
I'm going to have to hold on tothis train and I can either run
along and jump on or I can letit hit me, but one of the two
things that I can do is eitherget on board or not get on board
, and it was like I will not letit defeat me being afraid of it

(01:40:25):
now, and I've used the phrasewhen we first started doing the
podcast.
But you have to be comfortablewith being uncomfortable and
although it's stilluncomfortable, I've gotten
better at being able to tacklethings that I haven't been able
to or been afraid to earlier onin my life.

Speaker 3 (01:40:42):
Are you more comfortable with this podcast
now of being on the other side,or have you gotten to a point
now you feel pretty comfortable?

Speaker 2 (01:40:48):
at this point you know a little bit.
A little bit, I mean, becausenow the real question is now
going to get started.

Speaker 1 (01:40:54):
There's some self-retrospect, going on here
and like finding out.
Like you know, I like doingthese.
I went when, when paul firstmentioned it I I'm a yes guy I
was like yeah, and then I wentback and I was like whoa, that
would be crazy.
And then he said it again.
I was like yes, and then thethought like last week, I was
like what am I gonna say?

Speaker 3 (01:41:13):
you know, I what?

Speaker 1 (01:41:14):
what do I say?
And now, for the first time,when I have people that come on
right, they're like I don't knowwhat I want to say.
I'm like what?

Speaker 3 (01:41:21):
are you talking?

Speaker 1 (01:41:21):
about Like you've got a lot to say, you've got so
much history and so muchknowledge and, trust me, I'm not
going to softball it.
But at the same time, I'm notgoing to ask you about politics.
I'm asking you about what youknow rent to own.
You've done this for years andyou have business.

(01:41:41):
I'm like, yeah, just be on theother end of the phone, this is
just a conversation thatsomebody else might hear.
That's all it is.

Speaker 2 (01:41:44):
And so now, I want to say it's a fear, but it's
something I've been able totackle on this side, so it's
different.
That's awesome.
I just want to say so.
For me, you know, I feel luckyenough to have met you and Paul,
because, you know, I believe Ireally met you when I first went
to DC, right.
I believe I really met you whenI first went to DC, right.
That's when I really first kindof met Paul and sitting in with

(01:42:04):
them and listening to them talk, help me start talking which is
how you started learning aboutme, because I was the guy, that
was man.
I didn't talk to nobody.
I sat in my own little bubbleand then then seeing Pete start
opening up and doing the thingsthat you've done and we've
talked about it in the past,You're like oh, come on, Josh,
when are you going to talk?
Blah, blah, blah.
And because I've met you,you've had that impact on me to

(01:42:28):
help me, man, I'd have never satin this podcast.
Nah, you guys go ahead and doit.
But because I've met you twoand I appreciate that and others
, but I wanted to say that it'sbeen a great experience and
blessing in my life to have metyou guys and to watch you come
out of your fear helps me gowell.

(01:42:48):
Hey, pete came out of his fear.
I can do that.
I can get on that plane.
You know how.

Speaker 1 (01:42:53):
I like riding on planes.
Yeah, I know so you know Wellyou know, what's funny is that
in one of the courses that Itook and you know a lot of
people don't always say Ilearned that from that course.
You know I learned it and Iapplied it they were like just
take a snapshot of your life,take yourself out of it.
Who else do you see?

(01:43:13):
That's who you are, in adifferent face, in a different
time, in a different space.
Who you surround yourself withis what you are going to
reiterate.
It's going to be your echochamber.
How is that going to look toyou if you take yourself out of
that picture?
I was shocked and I said youknow what?
There's nothing wrong with thepeople that were in the picture,
but I realized that thosepeople were not going to push me

(01:43:35):
to go anywhere else.
Everybody that I had been withor I had associated with was
complacent with where they hadbeen.
This is where I am.
I'm a soccer dad, I'm a soccermom, I don't have a business,
but I'm okay, working a nine tofive, I'm good, I live a good
life.
And so, slowly but surely, Istarted adding different people
into that, just changing themout and I'm not saying that I

(01:43:57):
like ex-nate anybody and they'reexcommunicado but I changed how
I reference them to the newpeople or to people that I have
known that maybe I did put inthat circle and I added them to
my experience finding hey, youknow what, you have done this,
how do you do this?
And so my picture changed, myPolaroid changed and when I did

(01:44:18):
that, my life changed, changed,and when I did that, my life
changed.
My life really changed to peoplewho were looking for more,
willing to do more.
They were happy with where theywere.
They weren't complacent withwhere they were.
I want more out of this.
Where are you going to be?
And something Paul says is hey,after this is all over, what
are you going to do?

(01:44:38):
I had never asked myself thatand now that you've mentioned
that, now, in that little nugget, that seed is going to grow and
for the next 10 years, I'mgoing to be referring to a
podcast that I did 10 yearsprior about where am I going to
go at 65?
Because I'm not the guy to sitthere at 65 on my porch and just

(01:45:01):
.

Speaker 3 (01:45:01):
You can't go back to being a bank teller.
I can't win, right, I can't doit.

Speaker 1 (01:45:05):
So it's yeah, we'll all be gardening at Paul's house
.

Speaker 2 (01:45:10):
This is how he's going to be inside Cause he
doesn't want to be near us.

Speaker 3 (01:45:14):
Four out of seven days, I'm fine.

Speaker 1 (01:45:18):
So three days alone.
He's like, yeah, dude, you're,yeah, you're good.
But I mean, you know, I lovehaving these situations where
you get challenged, so to speak.
I'm challenging you to think ofthis, I'm challenging you to be
something out of your comfortzone and I, I feel like the crab
or the lobster.

(01:45:38):
I won't grow until I shed thatskin.
And that thought of when I'mwhoever I'm looking at in the
mirror is now that 46 year oldguy.
It's not the 20 year old guytrapped in that body who used to
be able to do everything thathe thought he could do, because
when I wake up in the morning,my back tells me otherwise.
I've got to learn who I amtoday.
I've got to enjoy who I amtoday.
I've got to remember that I'malso a product of a lot of

(01:45:59):
decisions and experiences andgross that that young guy in the
mirror did not get to have.
And so it creates scars andwrinkles and I talk differently
than I used to.

Speaker 3 (01:46:08):
Well, you are what you eat and that goes for not
just your diet, it goes for oror exercise, it goes for the
media.
You put in your head what youdecide to read, what you decide
to look at before you go to bedat night or first thing in the
morning.
But you just quoted Brian Tracyis another social scientist,
kind of like a Stephen Coveytype is that piece, but I

(01:46:29):
believe he's still alive and hetalked about if you want to be
successful, you have to bearound successful people, he
said.
And keep in mind, think aboutevery loser.
You know who do?
They hang out with other losersand if you start hanging out
with losers, you'll start todress like those losers.
You'll develop the behaviors ofthose losers.
And then somebody asked him aquestion and I remember where

(01:46:51):
this was and they said well then, how do you start associating
with, with successful people?
He said well, that's, that's aprocess.
The first thing you start doingis changing your own personal
behaviors to what successfulpeople do.
Then, over time, successfulpeople start noticing and
recognizing other people thatare driven and motivated like
them.
They'll find you and thenyou'll find them and before you

(01:47:12):
know it, you have this cohort ofindividuals that are highly
successful, that you now becomeyour new friends.
Successful that you now becomeyour new friends.
And he said you can't be afraidto fire the old friends, the
ones that are holding you back.
They're either going to have tojoin you on this journey or
they're going to have to be leftbehind.
I want to give you some advice.
Do you mind if I give you someadvice?

Speaker 1 (01:47:30):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:47:31):
And I was very fortunate to have a fantastic
father.
My father was flawed.
The best thing that my fatherdid to me was he shared all of
his success stories, but he alsoshared every mistake he ever
made and he was brutally honest,and I do the same for my kids
right now.
But I want to everything Iheard about you.
When the question was kind ofasked what is your biggest

(01:47:53):
strength?
I hear servant leader.
You know, and I know that'sbecome a phrase and I don't like
phrases that get coined andpeople loosely just toss them
around.
But you're willing to do whatyou ask other people to do.
You're willing to jump in.
You have high belief system inthe individuals that work for
you or around you.
You see the good more than yousee the bad.
You're not as skeptical.

(01:48:13):
You know, when you go intothose relationships.
But I'll tell you something myfather told me, which was um,
you can't fix them all, cause Iwas the exact same way for the
longest.
I thought I could fix everyone.
I thought it was motivatingenough that I can get through to
every single person.
I used to talk to my dad everynight.
I would drive home at the endof the night and we would go

(01:48:35):
through these sorts of things.
I think it's the thing I missmost, honestly, about my
relationship with him.
But, um, but, the thoughtprocess of being able to repair,
because you can repair.
You can't fix, but repair andmake these slight nudges in the
right direction for individualsto help them become successful.
That is admirable of yourself,pete.

(01:49:02):
Anyone listening to this thatis the exact same mindset.
You should give everything ofyourself to train and coach and
guide and motivate individualsaround you, but not all are
going to take it Right.
So my thing is the worst thingyou can do and I've I've had to
terminate people because they'vemade this mistake.
They become the martyr.
They don't take out the badpeople, so then they become the

(01:49:25):
martyr and they think that allthese bad people are going to
look up to him in admirationlong after they're gone.
He took a bullet for me.
He wouldn't fire me or do whatnasty Paul wanted him to do.
So now, look, now they justlook at it as I get a couple
more paychecks until somebodydoes come in and fire me, and I

(01:49:46):
don't know why that person justfired themselves, but they look
at you as a sucker.
So there is a fine line to playbetween being that servant
leader but don't be the martyr.
That's the only advice I giveyou, and I feel like you're
you've gotten there or you'reyou're getting there.

Speaker 1 (01:50:00):
Well, I've had to pay a couple of dues for that, no
doubt.

Speaker 3 (01:50:03):
But but it just if you you start finding that you
suddenly could be the onefalling on the sword.
You better make a decision,cause keep in mind what I said
early on, and JD Rockefellersaid this a long time ago people
need to act.
They need to protect yourfamily.
That's first.

Speaker 1 (01:50:27):
For me to.
I do not have that down.
I am learning.
I'm still learning that that'sa process I'm still going
through.
So very recently we had to letgo of somebody in those
situations and I probably didhold on, probably two weeks too
long, but I have to say thatevery day is a new learning day.
You just got to take everyexperience and what, what can I
pull out of this experience andwhat can I do?
Experiences is about takingwhat you've learned in the past

(01:50:48):
and applying it to what you havein your future, and so that was
a learning curve.

Speaker 3 (01:50:52):
And think about what I said earlier, which was the
worst thing you could do isaccuse somebody of something
that they didn't do Right.
So hanging onto somebody alittle bit longer Pete is they
didn't do Right.
So hanging on to somebody alittle bit longer Pete is is a
better process than cuttingsomebody too quick.
If you cut somebody too soonbefore you've given everything
of yourself and there was, andput it this way, if you've ever
gotten rid of somebody andsomeone else hired them and that

(01:51:12):
person was great under thatperson, you know you move too
quick and we've all done thattoo Right.
But that's kind of thebarometer of how you could
really truly measure.
Measure that I think you'reerring on the side of kind of
what you need to be.

Speaker 1 (01:51:26):
But you know, I would just, I would just say that
Well, I mean I, you know what inthe past and I will say this
because I feel like it'shappened to me in the past I've
had I don't know if I was thebest employee, I don't know if I
exhumed the best, you know, Idon't know if I was the best
choice.
In my own opinion.
If I look back at myself andlike I was rambunctious and I
did some things when I wasyounger and somebody saw

(01:51:47):
something in me and and becausethey saw something in me, they
didn't allow me to fail, theygave me a place to go, they gave
me direction, they gave me thisyou are just dude, left field
man, just bring it in over here.
And because of that I'd like tosay okay, I'm here where I am
now.
And I am here where I am nowbecause somebody reeled me in

(01:52:12):
and I feel like I have to dothat before I now.
Whether it's the right call ornot I mean, it's a case by case
but I feel like I got to do that.
I got to give you the righttools and if you don't want to
build that house, that's up toyou, but I feel like I've got to
do that.

Speaker 2 (01:52:31):
First because you know diamonds in the rough are
in the rough for a reason.
Yeah, you know, truly andhonestly.
You know, from from my heart toyours and I'm sure probably
from Paul, you've done somereally great things and you
inspire quite a few people andyou need to understand that.
So you know, keep going.
You know you inspire me and Iappreciate it.
So, but I do need to know, andI'm pretty sure Paul wants to

(01:52:56):
know as well, at the end of theday, to really get to know who
Pete is.
We need to know are you creditor sales?
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (01:53:09):
Wow, I haven't.
I got off of that questionbecause there was so many God,
it caused so much controversy.
Okay, to be completely andfully open.
To be completely and fully openwhen this podcast first started
, it started with a dichotomyEverything that that my partner
was, I felt like it was in theopposite end, and one of the

(01:53:39):
things that we firmly agreedupon was that I was a sales guy.
That's, that's something thatwe like.
I would be the guy willing tolike just whatever it took the
above and beyond to make surethat you know that you were
loved here and we take care ofyou.
Do I have collection tendencies?
Sure, over the years, though, Istarted as a collections guy.
Like that was, that was mypassion.

(01:54:00):
Like I was the collections guy.
When I got into sales, it washard.
It was hard because, withcollections, I had a list of
people that, if they didn'tanswer the phone, I didn't feel
bad.
Going after Cause, like I waslike, okay, this is, there's a
reason, you know, in sales, Ifind it so.
It was.
So it was this big challenge,because they didn't have, they

(01:54:20):
didn't owe me anything, and so Ihad to become this guy of what
is it that I'm doing.
That is going to convince youthat I am doing the right thing
for you by you giving you thisservice.
And so, as that grew, thatbecame a passion.
And so when you see a guyrunning across a parking lot
with a sign, it's because Igenuinely want to give and

(01:54:43):
change the lives of thecustomers that I have.
So sales is.
Is that answer All right?
I'd say, right now it's like a60, 40.
It's just, you know, it is whatit is.
It's.
It's you know it's part of life, but it is what it is you
satisfied with his answer, Josh.

Speaker 2 (01:54:58):
I guess that's a good answer At the end of the day.
I understand what you're saying, where going into sales was
hard for you, but for me anygood salesman is a great
collector.
Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:55:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:55:12):
I would agree with that.
I wouldn't be as interested insales if I didn't go through
credit first, because that's howyou introduce the other side of
the coin right.
It's always easy to say.

Speaker 3 (01:55:26):
Hey, you pay a week, get a week, or I'm going to give
you something that you don'thave.

Speaker 2 (01:55:27):
How great is that I'm going to furnish your home.
That's absolutely amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:55:30):
But you also have to do it with the sense that it
does come with responsibility.
Here's a whole page of thingsthat you could hold me
accountable to, just like Icould hold you accountable to.
You know, and this is adocument for both of us to sign
right, this is agreement betweenboth of us.
So, yeah, definitely, you haveto be a good collector to be a
good seller.
And then I don't know where Istand anymore.

(01:55:51):
You know, I don't callcollections as much as I used to
, but Industry question.

Speaker 3 (01:55:56):
You've become a spokesperson of the industry.
People listen to you, they knowyour voice, they're starting to
see you at these shows.
So, as a spokesperson, I have aquestion for you, which is you
know, occasionally our industrydoes come under attack, and more
often than not it comes underattack from a few politicians up

(01:56:17):
in the Northeast.
I'm not going to say theirnames right now because I'm not
trying to draw their ire.
My question to you would bewhat would you do to these
particular individuals that havethis thought of what our
industry is?
What would you do to changetheir mind?

Speaker 1 (01:56:33):
I would love to have them on a podcast and the first
thought is if you have thisparticular power, we have powers
in our own way, right?
The podcast has a power ofbeing reached out and listened
to.
It might introduce somebodyinto something, it might sway a
thought.
So the power that I would bebringing is the rent-owned

(01:56:55):
industry is listening to whatyou have to say.
So you have this power overyour constituents and you have
the power over this law that youcan introduce, and you probably
have sway to get it passed.
How about we bring our powerstogether and we sit down and you
explain to me what it isexactly that this law is about,
that this bill is about?

(01:57:16):
What is it that we're doing oris being done by rent to own
that you feel like you need toprotect?
Whoever it is you're protecting?
And I think a lot of the timeswhen we do something, we say
that's bad, that's not good, butwe're looking at it for face
value, right?
I look at a law and I say it'sgoing to hurt rent to own.
I don't like it.
Granted, I feel like maybe Ishould feel that way.

(01:57:38):
But what if somebody sat downand gave me this compelling
story about people in their areaand what they're going through
that I never heard of, I neverknew, I didn't, I did not know
that situation.
But I also want that person tobe open enough to be able to sit
down with me, because you'regoing to be on my podcast and
you're going to hear.
You're going to hear the thingsthat I've gone throughout the

(01:57:59):
years.
You're going to hear about myMiss Pat.
You're going to hear about thepeople that I've seen be
ecstatic because they couldn't.
They just didn't have anotheroption and then they owned it.
Do you know about those people?
Because the voice of thepodcast, too, is also to get you
to understand.
I don't intently be aspokesperson, but I will carry

(01:58:22):
the weight if it means that rentto own can cease at the end of
the conversation and it's notsomething I want to do, but it's
definitely something I will doand if that means sitting
somebody down and saying I wantto hear what you have to say, as
long as we can be open enoughthat you can sit there long
enough to hear what I have tosay.
The other thing I would do is Iwould try to gather as many as
allowed without being absolutelycrazy, right, because I

(01:58:44):
guarantee that whoever's goinginto the other side of the
meeting has somebody that'sadvised them, somebody that's
given them situations, somebodythat said, hey, this particular
situation happened in 2022.
This particular situationhappened in 2023.
That's why we brought up thebill, that's why you're the head
spokesperson on this right.
I don't know if they do it allthemselves.
Well, I would never put on thecape of rent to own and say I

(01:59:07):
can do it myself.
I would also come up with themost like-minded people that I
know can stand in the fire withme and go.
Rent to own is nothing of whatyou might think.
We affect more positive homesthan you might hear about the
negative, right?
Because a lot of peoplefluctuate.
They go to that story, right?
Misery loves company.
So when you have that TikTok ofsomebody falling off the pier

(01:59:29):
and everybody likes to seeing it, but the person falling off the
pier probably didn't think itwas that funny, everybody else
did, right?
So that resonates.
But what about the people thatsaved that person?
So that resonates.
But what about the people thatsaved that person?
Did you show them?
How about somebody who dove inafter that guy who has no
recognition and he never got ashot taken, but he went in,

(01:59:50):
dragged that guy out and did CPRfor 15 minutes till somebody
else showed up and saved hislife.
Let's hear both sides of thatstory.
So I would love to surroundmyself with those people so that
if we did have a multi-headpodcast, that I would also have
the ammunition of some otherpeople who have many years of
experience, who can say thingsthat I will never know how to
say to that person, and have agreat conversation and at the

(02:00:14):
end of it I wouldn't wantanybody to say you guys are the
bad guys because of this and I'mgoing to spin it around.
I'm not on my podcast anyways.
I'll play the entirety of thewhole conversation so that
somebody can say but this wasthe rebuttal, and when you had
this situation, how far did yougo into that situation?
Did you just have somebody say,hey, they call me a lot and
they bang on my door?

(02:00:35):
Did they ever tell you thedistance that was gone into?
Did they tell you what theywere allowed and not allowed to
do?
Did they tell you that maybethey're dodging phone calls or
maybe they didn't feel right?
Is there more to it?
I think sometimes thepoliticians, they take the face
value of whatever is put onwhatever social media page and
they go.
That's what everybody'sthinking and it might look that

(02:00:57):
way.
Like I said, paul, you've had agreat cover, but your book says
a whole different story.
You've got layers, you've gotdepth, you're super intelligent.
This guy who I've seen be greaton one side, a speaker on the
other and very quiet with hisfamily.
He takes his family everywhere.
That's super.
That's your thing.
Anyways, I would surroundmyself with people who matter.

Speaker 3 (02:01:20):
That's a great answer .
Wouldn't they be better servedtoo?
Wouldn't a simple way to winthese folks over?
And look, I'm not going to shyaway from the fact that we do
have some wolves amongst ourherd.
We do have some bad actors inour industry that do some bad
things, and I think that's everyindustry right that do some bad

(02:01:43):
things, and I think that'severy industry right.
But imagine if the individualsthat put us under attack, if I
think if they just came andworked in a store for two weeks
to a month with us, they wouldrealize that the same people
they're trying to protect theywould hurt the most.
They would realize that we areprobably the most diverse
industry out there.
I can't think of one that'smore diverse in anything that we
do.
I think they would get it.

Speaker 2 (02:02:07):
I think they would also see that we try to help way
more than we ever try to hinder.

Speaker 1 (02:02:14):
Yeah, you know, I think one of the bigger
explanations would be have youever decided to sit and look at
a training manual?
Have you ever sat down and lookat a rack training manual or
great rooms or buddies orwherever you go, miss or mister,
whoever Take a look in there,it never were in there.
Where you see the word harasssomebody, you will never see

(02:02:36):
that we're here to takeadvantage.
You will never see profit in amanual that's teaching our guys
margins.
You'll never see that we'rehere to take advantage.
You will never see profit in amanual that's teaching our guys
margins.
You'll never see that.
What you'll see is berespectful, solve the problem,
give them solutions to ownership, make sure that you're
courteous, create camaraderieand that rapport, make sure that

(02:02:57):
you stick within the guidelinesof what we're telling you
Because, like you said, thereare people out there who are
going to do something that wetold them not to do and that
happens everywhere.
Right, you see that one Uberdriver that gets the one person
in there and they're like, oh myGod, I'll never be an Uber
driver, but how many is that outof?
How many people who ride aparticular day?
But again, we focus on thenegative.
Right, we look at that and wego, oh my God, this has got to

(02:03:18):
be the entirety of Uber and it'snot.
So then go back to the trainingmanual and take a look at that
and you tell me anywhere inthere where I'm trying to do a
disservice to that customer, orcan you read in there and you
can see I'm trying to get thisperson to be as professional, as
responsible as possible, to getsomebody who doesn't have
something as ownership toownership, as possible to get

(02:03:41):
somebody who doesn't havesomething as ownership to
ownership.

Speaker 2 (02:03:45):
If anything, we're trying to create a better
consumer.

Speaker 3 (02:03:47):
I go on this rant quite a bit and it's something I
feel deeply about.
I ask coworkers sometimes I getthem on one-on-one and I say
you know, I was going to ask youthis question too, but it was
phrased a little bit differentlywhich is why do you do what you
do?
And I tell them why I do what Ido, because we are the people
that say yes when everyone elsesays no.

(02:04:08):
We are the least judgmentalcompany out there that when
somebody comes walking in andmaybe they don't have credit or
they don't have the nicestoutfit on, or they don't have
the best job, or they've gonethrough jobs, or they've gone
through a horrific divorce, orthey've lost a loved one
recently that was thebreadwinner of the family,

(02:04:30):
they've gone through a ton thatput them in the position where
they are now.
And I would say our industry isthe industry that steps up and
says I don't care about any ofthat.
What I care about is that youand I both do what we say we're
going to do for one another.
I do have expectations for you,but I am going to be there for
you.

(02:04:50):
But my answer is yes.
There is no more powerful thingthan the word, yes, where?
Yeah, you might not be goodenough for all of them.
You know the credit industry isoh, you don't have credit, you
don't have this, you don't lookat that, you don't have this
education.
I don't care about any of that.
If I look at you in a good, agood sense, that you're being

(02:05:16):
forthcoming on your order formand that it's legitimate and
it's accurate and it's honest,then the answer is always going
to be yes.
And then from there is the mostbeautiful relationship, is the
most beautiful dance you couldever go on with anyone in any
business, which is they live upto their end of the bargain and
you live up to your end of thebargain.
And yes, sometimes you have tobe a counselor and sometimes you
have to be a motivator, but theoutcomes that are positive,

(02:05:38):
that comes from our relationshipand rent own are so different.

Speaker 2 (02:05:42):
And I think they greatly outweigh the negative.
The positive that we put outand we get in return from our
customers completely outweighsany type of negative.

Speaker 3 (02:05:57):
Can I ask you guys both a question, do you mind?
I want to start with you, pete.
When did you first fall in lovewith Rentone?

Speaker 1 (02:06:06):
It was in the beginning.

Speaker 3 (02:06:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:06:08):
It wasn't a beginning when I first understood it, and
not to the degree I understandit now, but when I first really
started getting into it,probably within the first six
months, it was the mostchallenging thing I've ever done
Because, like you said, it'sall encompassing I had to manage
files, I had to be on the phone, I had to understand account

(02:06:31):
management, I had to make sales,I had to learn how to set up a
showroom.
I had to drive a vehicle.
I had to deliver return andservice.
I had to bring something backand refurbish.
I had to make sure that myinventory was in line, which
meant that I had to check it offand make sure it was tagged.
I had people that I had to tellif I did good and if I didn't do

(02:06:54):
so good, right, my boss wouldcall me or somebody else would
call me and be like, hey, thisis the standards and this is
what it introduced me to.
So many parts of working thatit was like everything.
It was like the office workthat my mom was doing.
It was the hard, laborious workthat my dad was doing.
It was everything, it waseverything, and at that point I

(02:07:17):
was like I'm doing this.

Speaker 3 (02:07:18):
I'm doing this.
You know the movies that NavySEALs and they always look at it
.
It's the hardest job in theworld, right, but they always
look at each other and go bestjob ever had and they dab each
other and then they go on and dosome mission that can literally
when you're talking, I'm justsitting there thinking to myself
best job I ever had, you know.
But, josh, I want to ask youthe same question when did you

(02:07:38):
know?
When did you know you love thisindustry?

Speaker 2 (02:07:41):
My answers are always great.
I guess you guys are going tolove this one.
So I got into this when I was28, 27, 28.
I don't know.
Yeah, somewhere around there Iused to smoke back then.
A lot of people don't know thatabout me.
I used to smoke cigarettes andI got hired.
And my first week I was hiredthe week of Thanksgiving.

(02:08:01):
Okay, so I worked Monday.
I was off Tuesday because I wasan account manager, account
managers were off Tuesdays.
I worked Wednesday.
I was off Tuesday because I wasan account manager and account
managers were off Tuesdays.
I worked Wednesday.
I was off Thursday forThanksgiving.
And then I worked Friday andSaturday.
I was off Sunday.
So that was my first.

(02:08:22):
I was like, hey, this ain't bad.
And then when they told me whatthe job was like hey, you're
going to come in.
And I had a little bit ofcollection experience.
So I knew like I know how tomake phone calls, but you're
going to come in, you're goingto call the people and find out
what's going on.
So I was like, okay, cool, soyou're telling me that I had all

(02:08:46):
these days off.
My first week I get to ridearound in someone else's truck,
smoke cigarettes and knock ondoors and I'm getting paid for
it.
What was there not to love?
I mean, there was nothing notto love, you know.
So obviously I'm assured a lotin the business now, but that's
really what drew me to it, and Ihad no boss on me.

(02:09:08):
You know, as long as you gaveyour results, your boss left you
alone.

Speaker 3 (02:09:17):
You know, as long as you produced the results you
needed you were.

Speaker 1 (02:09:22):
Nobody said nothing.

Speaker 2 (02:09:22):
You write your own ticket.
Yeah, you really do as an ownerright Now.
As an owner, yeah, I mean, hey,I mean that's, you know results
.
I was driven and you know Ididn't need someone to look over
me.
I'm sure you didn't need iteither, because you're driven,
paul, probably the same way, andthat was probably the best
thing too.
You know, as long as you camein, and almost like the

(02:09:45):
transaction you explained withour customer, as long as you
came in and hey, this is what wewant you to do, you follow
through with what you say, I'llfollow through with what I say.
And, man, now here you are.
And here we are 20 years later.
20 years later.

Speaker 3 (02:09:59):
How long have?

Speaker 2 (02:09:59):
you been in it, Paul 23 years.

Speaker 3 (02:10:01):
I was about to say it's about 25 years later.

Speaker 1 (02:10:04):
but yeah, because, well, January is my anniversary
date, so 2000,.
It's going to be 25 years and Imet Paul a long time ago.
Charlie really was crazy.
That was a that was a crazysituation out there.
We actually worked out of likethis office trailer for like
nine months.
Man, it was crazy.

Speaker 3 (02:10:24):
A lot of respect.
I built tons of respect for you.
I only have three morequestions.
I know we've been sitting herefor a while.
We either need to take a, butwhat do you think is the biggest
threat to our industry rightnow?

Speaker 1 (02:10:33):
Number one is not understanding the industry.
Regardless of what happens, Ithink that the knowledge of what
we do and how we represent thatto the world, how do we do our
business and how people takethat business in is always seen
through the eyes of people whodon't.

Speaker 3 (02:10:55):
So we need to change their paradigm.
Is that what you're saying?

Speaker 1 (02:10:57):
Yes, because the way it's always looked at.
I think that every time thatI've looked up rent to own, I
don't get a good Google review,and that's not of one company or
one store, I think.
In general, when I look it up,it's always when you Google rent
to own.
You will always get somethingabsolutely different depending
on where you are and what it is,but it always has a negative

(02:11:20):
connotation.
When I look up Ashley Furniture, I just see the store.
When I look up different placesthat I favor, I don't really
see that story until I check thestars right.
When I Google rent to own rightoff the bat, my YouTube
searches go into a wholedifferent overdrive and I think

(02:11:41):
that our PR is terrible.
I think that's one of ourproblems.
I think one of our problems isour own PR.
I believe after that, our PR isthe actual knowledge.
So you do have certain peoplein certain places who believe
that we might be takingadvantage of our customers
because they don't understandwhat it is that we're saving
them from.
Are we running into the shark'smouth?

(02:12:03):
No, right, credit is one ofthose things where they say a
frog doesn't know it's beingboiled until the water's too hot
.
Credit's like that it's beingboiled until the water's too hot
.
Credit's like that it's easy toswipe the card.
You don't really know you're intoo much debt until you realize
you're in too much debt becauseit just trails With rent-to-own
.
You know if the water's hotright off the bat and you can

(02:12:24):
make that decision off the bat.
The knowledge of that is verycompelling, but I don't think
that they understand that enough.
So our PR and the fact that theknowledge of the exactly how
rent to own works and how it canbenefit and not benefit, you
know somebody who is transientor they're staying someplace two
months, three months, fourmonths, and they don't have to

(02:12:44):
really worry about orderingfurniture, having it delivered
and selling it before they leave.
Or somebody who's in desperateneed and, like you said, we have
the power to say no, and otherpeople are going to say yes If I
I mean I can't, and maybe thisis just me I don't know how many
places are going to get me arefrigerator by the end of the
day.
Like I could go to Home Depot,but it doesn't mean that they're

(02:13:06):
going to give it to me by theend of the day.
Right, it's based on theirdelivery schedule, the pace.
Do they have the model that Ican afford, because it takes an
entire pay?
You know I got to buy it thenand then I have to worry about
who's delivering it, becausethat also costs, and I have to
worry about the timeframe.

Speaker 2 (02:13:21):
Yeah, and do I have the credit to even buy it?
Because if I don't have thecash, then are they going to
approve my credit?

Speaker 1 (02:13:25):
It's always, it's always a ballgame.
So I think it's the PR, I thinkit's the knowledge, and then
I'm going to say the last one ispeople.
I think it's.
I think we always do have thoseunfortunate situations where we
have those people and maybe wedidn't prune them in the right
time and they, they areremembered a little bit more
than they should be.
Yeah, guys who knocked a littlebit too hard or called a little

(02:13:48):
bit too much and, and you know,we got to curtail that to say
hey, these are people.

Speaker 2 (02:13:55):
That was a great answer, Pete.

Speaker 3 (02:13:57):
How do you look so young?
Outside of genetics Pete?
What are?

Speaker 1 (02:14:01):
you doing.

Speaker 3 (02:14:02):
Those of you that have never seen Pete, maybe
you'll.
You'll see him now, like helooks incredibly young.
He you know what are you doingyoung key.

Speaker 1 (02:14:16):
You know what are you doing?
Laughter.
I think laughter is a huge partof that.
I have learned to smile andenjoy life as much as humanly
possible.
As I've gotten older, I've hadto cut out a large amounts of
red meat and processed food.
So there's, there's that.
But uh, I will say, you knowit's a mindset, and I know it
sounds crazy and I don't knowhow else to say that.
But I will say you know it's amindset, and I know it sounds
crazy and I don't know how elseto say that.
There's been a lot of timeswhen my partner and I, when we

(02:14:39):
were doing stuff, you know,danny, they didn't know which
one was the older one.
Right, they would probably beeven more concerned that the
older guy is the one jumping outof things or floating on things
or jumping in there, like what.
That's crazy.
It's the mindset, it's it'sit's.
Number one is the mindset,number two is the care.

Speaker 2 (02:14:59):
So, in other words, you are the Betty White of the
of the podcast world.
I hope so.
I hope so.
If I could live to 99, you know, I would be.

Speaker 1 (02:15:08):
I would be so happy.
I was so afraid she didn't make100.
But you know, if I could liveto 99, yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:15:13):
Well, dick Van Dyke, you know he's next in line he's
still kicking right.

Speaker 3 (02:15:17):
He's still kicking and that man, bob Barker, just
died, like last week.
I couldn't believe it.
He's like forever yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:15:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:15:25):
But I think it's your outlook and it's your ability
to see.
I guess we're going to go overit again, but I try to see the
world.
Half glass, half full.
Yeah, because, man, you guysknow it I didn't grow up with
anything.
We moved to Florida.
I had two things I had myfamily and I had a bag of
clothes.
We didn't have furniture.
We didn't have my mom.

(02:15:48):
Unfortunately she had a wreckin the car.
Like two weeks later we didn'thave a car either, like we just
we didn't have anything.
And you know what?
I was never happier.
I was happy to just be aliveand have my family and we were
okay and we made it out aliveand it was like God.
I don't want the doom and gloomand I feel bad for people who
have those mental health issuesthat they've got to go through
that, because it's not easyseeing every day where you got
to put on a smile and it'sdifficult.

(02:16:09):
So I take that nowhere nearwith a grain of salt.
I try to do my best to to tosmile and enjoy the times that I
do have learned from the timesthat I don't make sure that I
don't feed myself some crazy,ridiculous junk, because what
you get in is what you get out,so I had to cut out, you know,
the McDonald's and all thisstuff.
It's not easy in our position,right Is it?
But I tried to cut out.

Speaker 2 (02:16:28):
It's not easy in our position, right, but I try to
cut out the McDonald's and youknow we slip up sometimes.

Speaker 1 (02:16:31):
Yeah, no, it's true, it's true.

Speaker 3 (02:16:35):
I've been better recently.
I was slipping up.
Yeah, it's true.

Speaker 1 (02:16:40):
But the processed stuff will kill you, the fried
stuff will kill you.
I just found out after years ofeating steaks I am a steak
eating fool.
I stopped.
I had to stop, and it wasactually a personal thing.
I was talking to the doctor andthey're like you know, you
don't really check your diet andI stopped and all the symptoms
of my gut went away.
It completely went away.

(02:17:01):
Now, at one point in time Iused to have eggs Now I can only
have egg whites, I can't haveegg yolk but I used to be able
to eat eggs like nonstop.
One day it changed.
I don't know what happened.
One day I could have the steakand one day I didn't.
But once I cut it out, myentire, like my whole being was
like different.
I was like, oh my God, I can'tbelieve I was really infecting
myself with.
Whatever it was, whether it beyou know, the pesticides they

(02:17:22):
use on the food that they givethem, or whether it be the you
know they give them these allkinds of medicines to not get
sick or whatever.
Whatever it is that bothered me.
My whole life changed.

Speaker 3 (02:17:32):
It's good that you're paying attention to your body
and the foods you're put into it.
I think, I think it's a bigproblem right now.
Uh, in our country, compared tothe diets that they have in
Europe, it's just completelydifferent.

Speaker 2 (02:17:44):
So eating right, laughed and gratefulness is what
I took is what I took out.

Speaker 1 (02:17:50):
I'm grateful to be here with you guys.

Speaker 2 (02:17:51):
Well, you were grateful just—you were happy to
be alive when you were a kid.

Speaker 1 (02:17:54):
So you were grateful.
I made it.

Speaker 2 (02:17:56):
Those were the three answers I took out of that you
know what's crazy?

Speaker 1 (02:18:00):
I had a crazy—every time you say something, josh,
you just make me go back.
When I was about six, I wasdefinitely a knucklehead.
When I was a kid, I wasdefinitely a knucklehead.
When I was a kid, I was at mybabysitter's Back then we were
allowed to go outside.
I thought I was the fastestthing on God's green earth, so I

(02:18:21):
thought I could beat this cardown the street.
I was wrong.
He hit me pretty hard.
I flew over the car, landed onmy head.
I don't know how I didn't die,but, man, I was happy to be
alive.

Speaker 2 (02:18:33):
That's awesome.
So you talk about happy.
I was like, yes, hey, I meanthe answer to you know the
fountain of youth over here, yougot hit by a car.

Speaker 1 (02:18:40):
Go get hit by a car.

Speaker 2 (02:18:41):
Survive and be grateful.

Speaker 1 (02:18:43):
And be grateful, you know, I mean, they almost took
me away, hit me in the car.
Paul, when we Will you run meover?

Speaker 3 (02:18:49):
I'll do it for you.

Speaker 1 (02:18:50):
Appreciate that have a great mindset about it.

Speaker 3 (02:18:53):
What's something about you that outside of work,
outside of Rentone, that youlike doing that people may not
know, or something you're goodat doing outside of work that
people may not know about?
And how do you relax?

Speaker 1 (02:19:06):
I love working with my hands.
That's something I got from myfather.
So my father has been acarpenter his entire life.
His business is carpentry.
He specializes in like.
So in New York you don't builda lot because it costs immense
amount of money.
So he would remodel likeapartments, right.
So you take out the oldapartments and I never knew that
the old apartments had as muchas they did.

(02:19:27):
You know, old radiators and oldsinks and these lead pipes and
all this stuff and I used tolove going with my dad and
working with my hands and it was, it was.
It was really pretty hardbecause I was either going to be
this or an electrician and, uh,something outside of work is I
love working on my house.
It's just something that I lovehome improvement and I love

(02:19:48):
doing it myself If can Like, ifit's one of those things like I
could hire somebody.
I'd rather just learn how to dothis.
And so, if it's just recentlyjust Labor Day we put on new
floors in my wife's office.
So it's whether it's doingfloors or painting or putting up
a wall or changing thingsaround.
I love working with my handsbecause at the end of the day,
you can see the sweat and thefruits of your labor in your

(02:20:12):
face.
It's an immediate payoff onthat.
And what was the question?
How do I?

Speaker 2 (02:20:18):
I mean, you're running how many stores now,
seven, seven stores.
You have a podcast, so you'reobviously a very busy individual
.
You have a family.

Speaker 1 (02:20:27):
Very busy.

Speaker 2 (02:20:27):
So what do you?
How do you relax?
How do you unplug?
What do you do?
You have a family Very busy.
So what do you?
How do you relax?
How do you unplug?

Speaker 1 (02:20:31):
What do you do?
That's a really good question.
So I know it's going to soundcrazy.
I'm going to say this out loud.
There's a couple of things thatI like doing.
I have a problem I realize thisin my life I cannot sit still.
If I sit still, there'ssomething in my brain that goes
me.
You should be doing something.

(02:20:52):
I really hard time.
My wife, like she, wants tokill me.
When we go to the beach.
She's like just sit in thechair and soak it up and my
brain is just like I can't, Ineed to do something.
So I've learned I won't soundcounterintuitive, but if I am
relaxing, if I learning or ifI'm taking something in that I
enjoy, that will calm me down.

(02:21:13):
So I do a couple of things.
The first thing is I listen toother podcasters for two reasons
.
Number one I love to hear whatthey have to talk about and I
want to learn how they're doingit.
How do you get better at it?
How do I say phrases?
How do I get my point across?
How do I do and keep itcompelling?
And then the second thing isthere's this guy called Comics
Explained right, and so he has away of just describing a comic,

(02:21:37):
and so I've never been able toget back to the comic situation
like I've always wanted to.
It's something that I've alwaysloved and I still have all the
comics that I had, and so everyso often if you hear something
that's not telling me or what'sgoing on with today's day, it's
like and then he landed and hedid this and he did that, and
it's unbelievable.
It's because I found a way tobe able to sit down by enjoying

(02:22:01):
the stories that Stanley andeverybody else has been able to
tell us for years and years andyears and explain.
He has this way of explainingcharacters because he
understands the genre the way itis.
This character does this.
So if you pick up a comic book,you might see that this guy's
really like a bonehead.
But when he relays a storythere's so much character behind

(02:22:22):
it and he brings that into hisstories.
It's like putting anotherYouTuber on here.
But you know, I get to learn.

Speaker 3 (02:22:35):
So not necessarily learning about the business, but
learning about these heroesthat I've had in my head back in
a day and I love the Batmanones.
I'm not going to lie.
My last question, so you'realmost off the hot seat here,
Pete.
Uh, and it's it's two part.
You can name, uh, either, uh,you know a person or a book, but
is there a book or a person, oryou can name both, if you want
to.
That changed the way you thinkand act.
Is there a single person or asingle book that has done that

(02:22:58):
for you?
Some good questions and, infairness, we did talk about your
mother and we talked about yourbrother and you brought up
Rafael Torres and you did bringup some individuals.
But is there, is there anyonethat's been that level of, of
inspiring to you that when youwere around that person or saw
that person or you read thatbook, that it truly, it just

(02:23:21):
made you almost different?

Speaker 1 (02:23:24):
I would say two books .
The first book was introducedto me at RAC the one minute
manager.
I didn't know I had amanagement problem the way I did
, until I read that book.
I was man, I was themicromanaging fool and I wanted
everybody to get it right and Iwanted them maybe get it right

(02:23:45):
my way.
You know, instead of empoweringthem, training them and let
them become the leaders or thepeople that they can be, I was
like my picture looks like thisand I'm giving you all the dots
to do it and I'm giving you thewhite brushes and I'm giving you
the.
I mean, it was justmicromanagement to another level
, no-transcript management.

(02:24:19):
So the one minute manager wasyears ago I think it was like
2005 that I had gotten it.
Uh, somewhere on one of theVegas trips or something like
that.
One of the guys had given it tome and it was something that
they were giving everybody.
You know you need to read thisand I've read those Ken books I
forgot his last name, but I meanhe has a couple of new ones,

(02:24:41):
you know new one minute managerand they has another one minute
and I read into those.
But that really kind of startedme on the course of.
There's more to this than whatI know.
When I read the Dale Carnegiebook, it changed my outlook on
management altogether, so onekind of brought me into the
person I am and the person Icould be.
The next one was after I readthat book by Dale Carnegie.

(02:25:02):
It made me go.
I can manage better and that'swhat set me off on my learning.
I can learn how to be better atwhat I am and I can't just
think that it's good enough.
One thing that that course hadtaught me was that search for
knowledge has to be as intenseas your willingness to succeed,

(02:25:27):
because you can succeed todayand not tomorrow.
And something that Chad Fostickhad said is that yesterday's
successes do not pay fortomorrow's, you know.
And so I thought, god, I needto learn how to be better at
what I do.
And in that search I realizedthat I'm never going to be the
guy that I want to be.
I'm just always going to begetting to that guy.

(02:25:47):
I've always want to be to thenext step.
And how do I get to that nextstep?
And that book really opened meup to that, because there was a
lot of passages, a lot ofstories that he had in there a
lot of different ways.
I was like wow, that's when Iread the seven.
You know the seven step that's.
I read that way after sevenhabits.
Seven habits, sorry, I readthat way after because I started

(02:26:09):
going down the I don't knowenough.
I won't say anything, but Ididn't feel like I knew enough
and so now it's a constantsearch.
So when I'm trying to relaxwhich sounds really crazy, if I
can have something in my ear,even if I'm doing something or
doing nothing, and I feel likeI'm being fed something positive
, something that I can pull justone gem out of Good, it settles

(02:26:32):
me.
I'm okay with that.

Speaker 3 (02:26:35):
That's awesome, Great answers.
I don't know if you have anyother questions for Pete Josh.

Speaker 2 (02:26:40):
Nope, you said you like working on your house and
with your hands, and that'sawesome.
So I have some work at my houseif you're that interested in
you know, if you ever need torelax some more and you get
bored.

Speaker 3 (02:26:56):
Are you running out of things to do, pete?
Let me show you what I have.
Thank you guys.
Pete, I appreciate you openingyourself up.
It takes a tremendous amount ofcourage to be on that side.
Probably some of the topics youweren't expecting, and they can
get a little bit personal.
I think you shared a lot ofthings with your audience that
they may not know about you uh,not just on a very deep and
personal and childhood level,much less your philosophy and

(02:27:17):
the way that you look at atcertain things, and I hope they
take something out of this, uh,as well.
But thank you both.

Speaker 2 (02:27:23):
Yeah, thanks so much for coming to the Josh and.
Paul, uh, Paul and Josh, youknow we appreciate that.
Listen, I would tell you thisand I mean this wholeheartedly.

Speaker 1 (02:27:34):
Guys, I appreciate you coming out and doing this.
It's been a blast to be on theother side of this, especially
with two people that I feel Ican actually tell a few things
to and understand how it relatesto rent to own, because some
people don't understand that.
But I will tell you, guys,listen, if you have any
questions for these two guys toask me, make sure you email the
show.
It's at Pete at the RTO showpodcastcom.

(02:27:55):
Reach out to me.
You can follow me on Facebookor Instagram, linkedin.
You'll also see the pictures ofthese guys, cause they're in a
whole bunch of stuff that I do.
If you want to go to thewebsite it's the RTO show
podcastcom Go on there.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Crime Junkie

Ridiculous History

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Flipping the Script: Host Pete Shau's Journey in the Rent-to-Own Industry

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Crime Junkie

Ridiculous History

All Episodes

Flipping the Script: Host Pete Shau's Journey in the Rent-to-Own Industry

On Purpose with Jay Shetty