January 27, 2025 • 44 mins
Unlock the potential of artificial intelligence in the retail and rent-to-own furniture industries with insights from our special guest, Daniel Hajduk from Vox Populi. Discover how industry leaders like Home Depot and Ikea are transforming customer experiences through AI innovations like weather-based inventory forecasting and room planning tools. Together, we explore how these advancements are not just enhancing efficiency in retail but also paving new paths in the rent-to-own sector, offering tailored solutions for customers based on their preferences and home decor.
Throughout our conversation, we reveal the game-changing role AI plays in simplifying operations and boosting productivity. From predictive sales strategies that anticipate seasonal trends, to cloud-based collaborations that streamline store operations, AI is becoming a cornerstone of modern retail. We delve into practical applications, such as transitioning from paper to digital processes for seamless rental agreements, and discuss how tools like Zoom and VersaRent are revolutionizing daily business practices by reducing repetitive tasks and optimizing workflows.
The future of retail and rent-to-own businesses is here, and it's intertwined with AI. As we navigate these technological advancements, discover how committing to AI integration can lead to more informed decision-making and improved business outcomes. We also touch on the importance of maintaining a strong digital presence and leveraging social media for success. Join us as we explore these transformative technologies, emphasizing the need for leadership to prioritize AI in their strategic vision for staying competitive in an ever-evolving market.
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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 your host, pete Hsiao.
Today we're covering our AIseries, part two, about AI in
the world today and what'salready working.
Again, my guest here is DanielHajduk from Vox Populi, and the
reason that I have them here isbecause they have a great
understanding, from beginning towhere we are now, of how it
started, what we're doing andhow RTO can benefit from it.
(00:31):
Now, some of the things thatwe're going to talk about are
not RTO inclusive, in the sensethat they are not just from RTO,
but we are talking about thingsthat eventually will be in RTO
and how it's going to affect ourindustry, especially in the
future.
Now, daniel, going forward, Imean right now, that's the hot
topic.
Nothing is more important rightnow, or nothing is hotter than
(00:52):
AI.
I think everybody's talkingabout it.
It's coming out everywhere.
Nothing that we do doesn't havesome type of use of AI stuck in
it, at least anythingelectronic, right?
I mean, if I go in my backyardand I start doing exercise,
that's probably the only thingthat AI is going to pop up, or
at least my watch is going totell me that my heart rate is up
.
But as far as the furnitureindustry goes the rental-owned
(01:12):
industry.
Part of what we wanted to dowas educate everybody as to how
AI is already starting to becomeintegrated, what's already
working in the retail furniturespace.
So what are some stories fromlike a retail side, from a
retail furniture side that yousay you know what.
You might not even know this,but it's already started before
(01:33):
you even know that it's there.
It's already been a part of thesituation.
Not only is it only there, it'sgetting better.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
There's many different ways out there and
again, one you probably don'tnotice but, like Home Depot, for
example, they're using it topredict certain things.
So they'll use it to help themorganize and use their inventory
for when we might have a warmerspring in Atlanta and they're
going to start saying all thegardening stuff out quicker than
normal.
But if it's a colder spring orcolder winter, longer winter,
you might not see that stuffcome up as soon as stuff.
(02:01):
But they're able to get outthere and be the first ones and
all those things that you seeout the front of home depot when
you walk in yeah and like, oh,I actually need that.
Then you know they're on saleor whatever and they're just not
really on sale, but it's, itlooks like a good price and you
need it.
I'm gonna grab one.
That's how they're using it.
Another really cool one ikea.
Um, they have a whole aipowered like room setter, so
(02:22):
they're doing these roomplannings and I didn't realize
this.
But my neighbor, um, they redidtheir entire kitchen with Ikea.
So everything is from Ikea andit's all planned out and the
they can take your whole roomand laid out with an AI tool.
Wow so they're planningeverything from the cabinets,
the furniture that's in there,and they're able to show you
exactly what you want to buybefore you buy it, which is
(02:44):
really cool, because, again,it's not.
Well, I think this couch isgoing to look good and hold up
in our house and look right.
Well, now you can go put it inthere with their tools that
they're doing.
So, again, there's so manydifferent ways that companies
are using it to speed up theprocess with things, to make
their life easier, to gain thatextra sale because they're
putting the thing out there, noone's able to tell them to get
(03:04):
it.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Could you imagine in the rent-to-own space somebody
walking in and going.
You know what I like, that I'mnot sure if my wife or my
husband or whoever likes that.
I don't know if it's reallygoing to fit.
I don't know if it's going tofit the decor and you're like,
hold on a minute, let me show upthat model number, let me you
know.
What are your colors thatyou're dealing with.
I, you know, I got a mauve, Igot a blue, I got a gray.
(03:26):
Yeah, don't worry about that.
You contemporary, notcontemporary, and be able to
throw that together and you'resaying this room builder is
already active.
This is something that I can goand do today.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, I believe that there you can sit down with
their consultants at Ikea.
I don't know what you can do onyour own, what they use to do
it, but I think you want to goin and you want to remodel your
whole family room and you wantto get new furniture because
you're going to buy a new house,you're going to paint it and
everything.
They literally go in there withyou and can build it out for
you.
Now I don't know what thetechnology or what what's
(03:57):
required to get that into into arental company.
I don't know what theinvestment is.
I would be happy to hear whatdifferent people pull up, if
there's certain vendors alreadyin this space that are looking
to do that.
But again, it kind of does.
One thing we run into in ourbusiness with apparel is we're
selling a lot of it online frombox and shipping it to you.
Biggest thing with people hateis stuff doesn't fit because you
(04:20):
can't try it on.
It's kind of that same scenario.
How can we use it so that wedon't have to worry about
someone wanting to returnsomething or not like something
because it's not how theythought it would be?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Well, my thought process is, every time that I
think of rent to own, I alwaysthink, okay, rent to own is a
little bit different in some ofthe other spaces.
Right, because even thoughwe're talking about furniture
industry, specific furnitureindustry has a lot of people
involved in it, not just one,right?
So, Ikea is a big big company.
So they're around the world andthey have the ability to say,
(04:53):
hey, we're going to do our ownsituation where we're going to
be able to put rooms togetherunder our programs, under our
power, and say the idea that Ialways thought that Rent to Own
would do is say, okay, in aservice that I put out let's say
, daniel has its own service andVox has this idea where you
know what, I'm going to make aroom builder myself and instead
of using it just for myself, I'mgoing to lease out this
technology to whomever decideswants to use it.
(05:15):
And the way I always thought isrent to own would be like it
would be great to have a roombuilder, but we probably
wouldn't do it ourselves, right,because there's a lot of stores
that are.
There are a lot of owners thathave like three stores, two
stores one store.
Oh yeah, there's no way thatthey're going to be able to put
that technology together, and ifthey did, they would spend the
entire store's budget on it forthree years and it just wouldn't
work.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
It's not something to plan right now.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Right.
But as we go into the futureand If there is a situation
where you can get a chat GPT ora cloud or something that's
already starting to be built,right, I'm getting into it.
I know how to use it now and,like you said, one of the
versions of this AI could be aroom builder.
Now I can possibly startgetting into that, and the idea
(05:58):
to me in Rent2Own is we mightall be using a version of a room
builder, not necessarily one orthe other, but more like I
think that's the evolution of it.
Right, that's something thatnobody in rent to own has right
now, where somebody can walkinto the front door and say, hey
, I want this, but I'm notreally sure.
Well, why don't you getsomebody at home to take a
couple of pictures or a baselinepicture?
(06:18):
far enough away where we caneliminate the sofa you have now.
Add this in and take a look atit.
Or you know what?
Just give me the dimensions ofyour room.
We'll build it, because youjust moved in and you can have a
whole selection.
And before you know it, Ipackaged you out with coffin end
tables and lamps and a rug anda picture and probably a pretty
good package that's going to bebeneficial for both of us and I
(06:38):
really see that as a way toenhance rent-to-own that it's
never had before and you know, Ilook forward to stuff like that
.
When you were telling me thatIKEA could definitely God, isn't
that where it belongs?
Like, how do you use AI in oureveryday?
Well, that's it.
I mean, how is the washroom jargoing to look?
You know, do I have?
(06:59):
Will it fit?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Will it fit to the door Right?
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Will it fit?
You know, and I have this hugeuh you know side by side fridge
and it's 26 cubic feet, and thenI take it to the front door and
I'm like, okay, this isn'tgonna work no but being able to
use an ai in that sense, Ididn't know, I would have never
guessed pete a couple of yearsago, like there's look dude, no
way like I could do it myself.
But you know, requires me to getin a truck, it requires me to
(07:23):
go to.
But it requires me to get in atruck, it requires me to go to
the home, it requires me to takea look at everything you have
and get some measurements, andthis way it's so much easier to
kind of relay message overcomputer and say here it goes,
here it works.
I mean, what are some of theother uses that you're seeing
that you think can really workin our situation?
I mean, right now you mentionedpredictive sales, which is
(07:44):
killer to me because I don'tthink, you know, as Rent to Own
Works.
We always say we have thewinter season, we have the
summer season, we have taxseason.
I don't even think there's aspring, it's always tax, right.
So we have winter, you know,and basically it's fourth
quarter with the Black, you knowBlack Friday and everything and
then you've got.
You know, you got tax season,you got summer season.
It's slow and then we startcoming into the wrapping back up
(08:05):
.
But to really say there's apredictability as to what sells
more, what might be catchier tothe eye, what I mean, that's
something that can really gamechange how rent-to-own is
efficient In your mindset.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
How beneficial do you think that would be to any
company, especially arental-owned company?
I think it can be a benefit toanyone.
How much of a benefit varies,but I think it's a starting
point.
If you want to look at thatdata stuff, you want to analyze
what can I do better to enhancesales for next quarter?
Well, if you have data whichI'm assuming most stores do put
(08:52):
in your previous year's data,your previous quarter's data,
and tell, tell me what's soldthe best.
You look at it that way and allright, let's do that this year
instead of just guessing.
It eliminates the guessing, soyou don't need a whole room
builder, but you can.
Hey, what is your suggestedlayout for this space I have,
with a couch and a love seat,with a coffee table of this size
(09:14):
, it can give you, if it cangive you, a simple chatbot can
give you that.
You don't need whatever.
Ikea uses the thousands ofdollars it probably costs to
have that.
To give you an idea to startsomewhere instead of, well,
we're all just sitting heredrawing a blank.
Let's start here with the base.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Give me an idea for a room layout of this size with
these pieces of furniture, youcan start there so
geographically, because, let'ssay we're in tampa right now,
right so, tampa, we have a lotmore apartments, you know, I
would love to say thatapartments are great and large
geographically, because let'ssay we're in Tampa right now,
right so, tampa, we have a lotmore apartments.
I would love to say thatapartments are great and large
(09:54):
and huge and we're getting taxedto death by small apartments.
It's 900 to 1,500 square feetand 1,500 is pretty darn big.
On there it's usually about 12to 1,300 square feet,
(10:31):
no-transcript.
Say some premier guys who theygenerally have one, you know,
let's say one to four stores.
I'm not saying that they allhave, I'm just saying I know
guys who have one to four stores.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I'm not saying that they all have, I'm just saying I
know guys who have one to fourstores and a set location Chad.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Fosick has one.
I know a couple people thathave three, and so it probably
wouldn't be as beneficial.
But when you said in our first,in our first podcast, there's
an ability to get kind of agroup in there, right, you can,
you can have a subscription foreverybody, is that something
that would be beneficial in thatsense, when I have stores in a
lot of different areas?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, I mean think about it as hey, you have a
regional with an account andthen you have all your store
managers with their account thatyou start having them use it
for certain things and you canhave shared projects.
So the cool thing about cloudis we can have private or public
projects.
So you've got something.
You're a sales projecteveryone's working on.
You can have a viewable.
Everyone can go in there andput their thing in or see what
(11:29):
other people are working on.
Um.
You can have your own projectstoo on there.
Um, it's kind of cool.
So, however you really want todo it, everyone can have their
own account.
End of the day, that's not a,not a.
Your boss isn't paying for anaccount.
It's no reason to not startusing it.
If you want to enhance whatyou're doing, start using a free
version or even pay out of yourpocket.
It's not that much.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Now we're talking about it at a level of a store,
but then not only at the storelevel.
I would imagine that vendorscan do that as well.
Then, right, so we have apredictability and say these are
probably going to sell more.
I can call you and say this isprobably going to be the hotter
item right now, based on whatwe've seen, what we saw, because
I know that they're alwayspushing the latest and greatest,
right, just like the cars,right, we want to push the
(12:11):
latest and greatest, but thereare staples that don't go away.
Right, rent home Furnituredoesn't go away.
Yeah, some of them might, butat the same time, we all sit
down.
Right, we all sit down.
We all have, you know, forpeople who don't have the brand
new and they like thecontemporary.
They went from contemporary,now they're going to more
traditional.
You know, I'm a little bitolder.
I don't want to have the USBports in there.
(12:33):
I just want something torecline.
I mean the thought that thiscan all be manufactured in a way
to have a calendar that saysyou know, this probably would be
the best time to do what.
What do you think theefficiency is based on what we
have in AI versus what we don'thave.
What do you think the gainscould be from saying let's
switch over to this.
Let's figure this out together.
(12:53):
Daniel, you got a store in Ohio, I got a store here.
We're going to have a jointaccount in a sense.
And then, how much do you thinkthat it could change the role
of somebody on their day-to-day?
Let me ask you something.
Are you getting everything outof your rent-to-own business?
If you're not an APRO member,then the answer is probably no.
(13:17):
Look, advocacy is APRO's breadand butter.
This is why they were createdand what they do best.
But here's the thing APROmembership is about way more
than advocacy.
Apro connects you to the moversand the shakers of the industry.
People have been there, donethat and they can help you do it
even better.
Apro's monthly webinars giveyou expert insights and
actionable takeaways.
It's like having a masterclassfor your business every single
month.
Got questions about complexregulations or sticky situations
(13:39):
?
No problem.
Apro's legal hotline gives youdirect access to experts who
have got the answers.
That no problem.
Apro's legal hotline gives youdirect access to experts who
have got the answers.
That's a peace of mind that youcan't put a price on.
And let's not forget theresources, news updates and
tools that keep you ahead of thecurve Scholarships for your
team Check.
Disaster relief when you need itmost Double check.
Apro is your ultimate supportsystem in the rent-to-own world.
(14:00):
So stop settling for less WithAPRO members.
Get more, more own world.
So stop settling for less WithAPRO members.
Get more, more support, moreconnections, more success.
Head over to rtohqorg and jointhe APRO family today, because
in this business, more isn'tjust better, it's essential.
See you at the top with APROhowever, you want to use it.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
If you want to say, hey, pete, we are going to start
using this to help us plan outall of our scheduling, let's
start doing that.
We can both go back and forward.
You can try things out, you cangive it scenarios and it'll do
that for you.
Or, like we'll go into themarketing stuff.
Pete, we need to lay out amarketing plan for our
individual store on top of theentire company Because, again,
(14:45):
like you mentioned, stuff isdifferent wherever you are,
whether you have a bunch ofapartment customers, or whether
you have a bunch of people wholive in houses, the weather.
It's all going to help puttingthat into chat and it can give
you a different answer and itgives you what you need, not
just let's just throw a bandaidon it and give it all the same
(15:06):
effect.
That's what it's supposed toprevent Just doing the same
thing over and over again anddoing something that's not
effective.
It can help because it'spulling that data from where
it's getting information.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
I mean talking about things that are already working.
The other day I was drivingaround, and the reason that it
meant so much to me is because Isaw the relation to the rental
industry as it could be.
I drove up to a Checkers.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
And I just you know you get used to the first person
that talks is usually like justa recording, right?
You know, welcome to Checkersand we'll be right with you,
okay.
And then usually you getsomebody else that doesn't sound
anything like that back onthere and they just ask you know
what's going on, and so it waslike you know, welcome to
checkers, you know speak whenyou're ready.
I was like, okay, you know, Iwant to.
I remember what it was somekind of double cheeseburger with
(15:52):
bacon that I shouldn't havebeen eating.
I hope my wife's not listeningto this, and so you know.
But it continued.
Yeah, it was this automatedsystem that I wanted number
three, and I wanted cheese andbacon and I wanted no pickles.
Okay, you want this and thisand this.
With none of this, can I offeryou.
(16:13):
Would you like this, a largesize?
Oh, yeah, sure.
What kind of drink did you want?
Oh, I want a Coke.
Would Pepsi be okay?
Okay, yeah, you know.
Is there anything else that Ican get for you today?
No, would you like you know?
And it's supersized.
It asked me everything, it readit back to me and then, the
(16:33):
very end, it was like we havethese Apple turnovers or
whatever it is.
They have these small versions.
And I was like oh my God, Ithink I just completed my entire
order with something like AI,and so I'm thinking how great
would it be to have somebody beable to walk in right and be
(16:53):
able to handle that situation,because sometimes we get
short-staffed and we have thingsgoing on, but somebody would
(17:17):
come in and say you know, hi,rto show bot, I need this, this
and this and be able to handlehalfway through before I even
have to talk to the customer.
And I'm not saying that I wouldlike to get so something that's
already in there, it's alreadyset up.
You know, there's things thatare happening in podcasting
right now.
Now podcasting is blowing upand I don't know if you notice,
but, man, there's podcasterseverywhere now.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, I know, I see it all over.
You see it on social mediapodcast clips and you're like,
oh, this person has a podcast.
What in the world are theytalking about?
Now, some people have greatpodcasts and it's definitely an
oversaturated market right now.
It's getting there and you cantell the difference between good
and not good and theconsistency in an impactful
podcast.
You found a podcast somewherewhere a podcast is needed.
(17:58):
Now, me doing a podcast ontalking about a certain sport
probably is probably not goingto be needed because, first off,
I don't provide anything extrato it and there's a million out
there already.
That's the difference.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Yeah, yeah, but I see the reason I say that is
because I see it taking overcertain aspects of the job that
I didn't I wasn't able tounderstand before.
So, as I'm going in andsomething's taking my order,
there's also this feedback thatI've noticed that AI is giving.
So you give it information andit will extrapolate what it is
that you preset to say I want touse.
(18:33):
So I want video clips of thisone hour long podcast and it
will give me 60 second chunks ofwhat it thought was probably
the best.
And it doesn't mean, like yousaid before and you've said it
in best.
And it doesn't mean, like yousaid before and you've said it
in the other, in in part one.
It doesn't always mean thatit's right, you have to tailor
it in or you can dial it in, butit has the ability to take out
and say, okay, you want three 60second bites, let's do that.
(18:56):
So you know being able to makea educational video or a
training video, and you knowwhat.
I might not need everything inthat video, but I can tell AI,
you know, if you can extrapolateX, y and Z and then put that
together in something, in thesebite-sized chunks for somebody
to learn how, could that not beworthwhile?
Or if I take a five-minute videoand say you know what?
(19:17):
This five-minute video where I'munboxing something or I'm doing
something different, I'mintroducing somebody or today's
my boss's birthday, and we'regoing to do something coming in,
that might not work for thealgorithms, it might be a little
bit too long or I don't knowhow to do it right, but then I
can go back to my AI and go okay, you know what I'm trying to do
, an RTO commercial.
In this particular light, canyou extrapolate this type of
(19:39):
information from what I'm givingyou?
All these things that I seeevery day, give me this how are
we not using it right now atRent to Own like we should?
And why aren't we?
And I think that when I see theday-to-day and already what's
going on, I'm almost dumbfounded, because the other day you
(20:01):
mentioned Zoom and you mentionedsomething about Zoom that I had
no idea about, you know what,and it kind of dumbfounded me
because I didn't even know itwas a possibility and yet you
were telling me you're doingstuff on Zoom that like it was
kind of taking care of the wholesituation.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
How did that work?
Speaker 2 (20:27):
situation.
Yeah, how did that work?
So zoom, as everyone's used insome sort of form since covid,
whether it's permanent or youjust use it back then everyone's
used it and everyone thoughtabout it just being a
professional facetime or skypekind of thing.
Right, company oriented skypeit's more than that now and it's
making your life a lot easierwith whatever using it from a.
From a sales perspective, it isspeeding up the whole sales
(20:50):
process of getting on a zoomcall and going through a demo or
going through something how AI.
We use it every on all of ourmeetings now.
So our company zoom account hasthe paid version, obviously,
and has something called an AIcompanion and it's able to give
us full feedback on the entiremeeting we just had.
So, for example, we have ourdaily morning meeting at Vox at
(21:13):
845, the whole company.
Whether you're in person, you'reworking remote, you're
traveling, like I did today, youcan be on the meeting and we
have a Zoom up.
We have it on the TV and wehave a zoom up.
We have it on the tv.
So we have a speaker, we haveeverything.
So, again, no matter where youare, you can be on it and
meeting ends, it'll take backand it'll send you a full
(21:35):
meeting summary the key points,the next steps and everything
you need to know about themeeting now.
Now, like I said, it's notperfect and it only gives you
what it can take, but from asales side of having a meeting
where you need to know let's getthis meeting in.
What were the key points?
What can I review?
What do I need to send in afollow-up email at the end of
(21:56):
the day to the person I had themeeting with.
It'll literally give youeverything you need.
Whether or from a kind of likea boss perspective, I can go
back and review what was said.
There's another really coolthing that I learned before we
started using it at the FLDCconference this year in Atlanta
the Franchise LeadershipDevelopment Conference.
(22:19):
And this is one way I got out ofmy comfort zone with AI is they
do a roundtable session wherethe vendors can host a
roundtable on different topics.
Obviously my first choice wasto host one on print marketing,
as that's our business, butsince we were getting into ai
and more comfortable with it,they had a couple ai topics.
I was like, hey, we can getinto this talking about ai and
(22:40):
franchise sales and so on, and Iended up with that because the
other one got taken by anothersponsor.
So I did that.
I said all right, let's figureit out, and I sat at a table.
I had no idea what to expectreally.
I walked in, sat at the tableand people were coming and it
was a table of different people.
There was one guy fromWhataburger, another guy from a
(23:03):
home services brand company,another one that owns multiple
brands of the likes of likesinorama and a couple other just
different things and anotherguy I can't remember what he did
and it was crazy to seeeveryone's different opinions.
But I learned the zoom thingfrom the home services company
and their ai tool on their zoomwhen they're selling franchise
(23:25):
for their franchise sales guys,as they're able to go in and
pull up certain questions thatare asked on a call and it'll
bring you to that point and youcan watch the call so you can
literally see what that person'sreaction was when Wait wait,
wait.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
You're saying that you can dial into a specific
question in the video by typingit in.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
So yeah, kind of like I don't know if you you have an
iPhone, right?
Yes, so you can go in yourcamera roll.
You can go see, you can kind ofsearch your camera roll and
it'll pull up a certain photo.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
It's kind of like that on a zoom.
So how helpful is that tofigure out what's working in
your sales and what's notworking on your sale demos?
Again, it's a Zoom thing.
If you're ever doing that,though, it's just showing you.
Hey, when sale person Bob askedso what do you think about the
numbers, or whatever, you canlook back and then if you're
(24:13):
looking to see what thecustomer's expressions were,
what they said, you can go rightto that.
You don't have to sit there andwatch the whole thing.
It can pull up the differentfeedback when times are good,
when times are bad, and it'shelping them analyze everything
to a certain level.
They weren't able to before and,like I said, they have those
meetings.
It sends the meeting, it sendsa full recording, a summary, to
(24:33):
your email, literally withinminutes.
I think today our morningmeeting was like four minutes
long.
I had the Zoom recording by9.01 and the summary at 8.56.
So our meeting today it gave usa quick recap, next steps, a
long summary, but then it saysAI generated content may be
(24:58):
inaccurate or misleading.
Always check for accuracy.
So it's giving you thedisclaimer.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Yeah, and I'm grateful that it does.
But so in your opinion, you'reusing this AI tool directly,
right?
You sound pretty hyped about it.
Do you see a difference whenyou used it before versus how
you're using it now?
In other words, ai less versusAI full?
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Yeah, I mean everything.
You're using it now.
In other words, ai less versusai full.
Yeah, I mean everything, andit's.
It's awesome when I like find anew way to use or try something
out, because, again, every dayit's a learning experience.
Every day it's like learninghow to walk.
Every day, again, um, and it'slike, oh wait, I didn't realize
I could use it for this.
Yeah, um, one way.
That was like this soundsreally stupid, but I had a
customer send in an order and itwas kind of jumbled up in an
(25:45):
email with different kinds ofitems, different colors,
different sizes, differentcounts, different item numbers,
and I'm like, oh gosh, that'swhat we try to avoid with what
we do for our normal orders.
But first, I'm customer, I'mnot going to say no, how can I
make this easier on myself?
All right, I copied all theinformation, information I put
(26:06):
it into the chat.
I said can you tell me, breakdown all the different items for
me so I can know what I need toorder and get set into this
order so we can do it right, soI don't have to waste probably
would have taken me 30 minutesto go through of having to.
All right, they wanted two ofthese, but this color, two of
these in this side but thiscolor.
Just a lot of variances that Ididn't want to deal with.
(26:26):
I copied and pasted, just askedwhat I was trying to do.
It said what my goal was.
Five minutes later, less thanfive minutes later, it was ready
to submit.
Wow, so it's just things likethat.
And I was like, oh, this isfreaking awesome and that's why
I'm like there's just no reasonwhy we can complain about time
with tasks that are just there'sbetter ways to do things.
(26:47):
Again, it's like someonecomplaining about cars are going
to take all the horses jobswhen we invented cars and you
don't have to ride a horse to goeverywhere.
No, no one complained aboutthat, because you realize how
fast you can get someone with acar, just like AI.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Well, you know the way I look at it and the way I'm
thinking about it because, asyou're speaking, I'm trying to
put myself in a situation ofwhat would I do with it?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
In rent to own.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
How would I affect it ?
And it's crazy because Mondaysare a big office day for us.
There's a lot of meetings.
We're talking about whathappened last week, we're
talking about what's coming downthe pipe and we're talking
about what our goals are forthis week.
So we're talking about what'scoming down the pipe.
As far as the month, where doesthe calendar end?
How much money are we going toget this month?
As far as revenues, what are weprojecting?
Where are our collections at?
(27:32):
What are our sales at?
What's coming up?
Does this month have anyparticular dates in it that we
want to celebrate Black Friday,christmas, whatever the case is?
And then, as we go on, there'sa lot that happens in these
meetings, right?
So I have an RM meeting andthen I go down and I have a GM
meeting because I want to relayall the information that I had
on the first meeting and thesecond meeting, make sure that
(27:53):
it's going down, and then theyhave that obligation to let
everybody know, right.
So instead of having everysingle store stop what they're
doing so that everybody can hearthis.
At one time.
It's tier level, right.
It goes probably from the brasshaving their conversation with
four or five people.
Those four or five people haveit with another four or five, 10
, 20 people, and then, as itgoes on, we have meetings every
(28:15):
single Monday and every singleFriday, so it's a setup meeting.
Usually it's a review and setupmeeting on Monday, which I
don't know if it doesn't happenin all rent-to-own, but every
rent-to-own that I've everworked for, we absolutely have a
Monday morning meeting and wehave a Friday sales meeting, and
it doesn't necessarily have tobe a sales meeting but an
updated meeting.
Okay, this is what happenedduring the week.
We still have two days tochange it.
(28:36):
This is where we want to go.
I could definitely see.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
How are you doing those meetings now.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Well, the first meeting.
Well, actually, they're both ona Zoom type and they're on
Teams right now.
Okay, but my thought is, if Iwas to have that, if I was to
utilize that and if I was to beable to as a rent-to-own, as
somebody in operations andsomebody who's looking future
down the road, I would love toown my own rent-to-home and
somebody who's?
looking future down the road.
I would love to own my ownrental home.
(29:03):
That is a goal of mine is oneday to say I have my own brand
out there and I have my own way.
This is something as you'rediscussing it.
This is something I wouldtotally use Because, as
something's being said, let'ssay in that RM meeting or a
leadership meeting, and it comeson down, you want to remember
everything, you want to doeverything, you want to be
engaged with everything.
For me to be able to say myphone never goes off, I never
(29:29):
get an email.
Nothing distracts me duringthis.
I didn't mean to miss it, butI'd be lying right, it's the
truth.
We're human, Things happen andthen it's almost like a game of
telephone right and we had apodcast about that.
It starts one way and it endsanother, and the best thing to
do about the flow through atraffic is to do your best to
make sure it's as accurate aspossible.
How accurate would it be if ourMonday and Friday sales
meetings were listed anddetailed out in reference and
(29:52):
you can even go back tosomething that was said or not
said and go?
You know what?
That was a question I forgotabout.
Somebody asked me this question.
I said you know what, I'll getback to you.
And now I got somebodylingering out there who said you
know what?
I don't even know what we'reselling.
What's the sales this way?
I'll get right back to you onthat.
Or what's the difference betweenthe winter and the summer and
why are we expected to bestagnant in the summertime
(30:13):
versus the wintertime?
Now, that might not necessarilyhappen in all the stores.
I know that Florida is that way, especially because the way
things go in our economy, itjust flows that way.
We have really slow summersbecause everybody's vacationing
and nobody's doing it.
Kids are at home and in thewinter we get more visitors.
And to be able to have an AItool like that that can help me
stay organized and help me getevery bit of information from
(30:34):
the top to the people who are onthe front lines and operations
would be amazing.
And that's technology that'salready in the world today.
It's already here.
I think it's an awesomesituation that I love.
I love to hear what are somecommon challenges that come,
along with the AI, into whatyou're doing every day, Because
(31:05):
we say it's there but you reallyhave to.
No tool is worth it if youdon't use it Right.
So we were talking in the firstpart about simple integration.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
How do I?
Speaker 1 (31:17):
train myself to say I need AI more.
Let me.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Use it Commitment from the top.
If the person making decisionsdoesn't make it a priority, it
won't be.
That's with anything thathappens in a business or
organization.
If the people at the end of theday that are responsible for
others don't care aboutsomething, it's probably not
going to get done or taken careof.
But if you walk in and say, hey, we are going to start using
(31:40):
this for this, or at leasthaving it on hand and thinking
about it, it becomes a thing.
Make it a part of your routine.
So, like you said, you had thosemeetings.
I don't know what Teams has,but I'm sure they have something
where it can record.
But if you had it on Zoom, forexample, you're going to say
well, the next steps are theseare what we're looking out for
this week.
That's going to tell you inthat meeting.
(32:06):
So now you can start knowingwhat you need to watch out for
this week.
You can do the same thingwithin your store at a level of
store manager down.
It just can start using it.
It's just starting to use itand once people start using it,
like I said, I only got moreexcited about it the more I used
it, because then I realized youcould do certain things,
whether it's just fun orrelieving, it's better and
better because you're like ohwow, I can really use it.
(32:26):
Something is only so good untilyou realize how good it is.
You're not going to know, doyou?
Speaker 1 (32:31):
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Speaker 2 (33:28):
Those people that live in those communities that
are cut off from the rest of theworld.
I forget what they're called,but there's that one in Brazil.
Yes, we're like, oh my gosh,how do they live their lives?
Well, they don't know about it,and they're not going to
complain about it because theydon't know about it In our world
.
We all know about AI, so we'regoing to want to use it if we
start using it.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
And again, it's a balance of using it too much and
using it too little.
But you have to start somewhere.
I mean already in use.
You know, when you say stufflike Ikea is already building
this, when we're talking aboutthere's already orders being
taken by a checkers bot for lackof a better term you have
something like Zoom that'salready integrated in what you
have and how you use that tool.
Zoom, to me, stands out themost because that's not only
something that I know I woulduse, it's already really
available, right, something thatI would actually use on a
(34:21):
day-to-day basis.
I can't go to Ikea and say, heyguys, let me borrow your
computer, while I set up one ofmy rooms and my people come over
.
What are some other toolsbesides Zoom that somebody
already has access to that wouldhelp them out in that
particular way?
Speaker 2 (34:35):
What do you use?
What kind of systems are youusing for your management?
Speaker 1 (34:41):
OS right now is VersaRent.
So I would say that VersaRenthas a big chunk of what's going
on in the rental space right now.
I think it's about 80% orsomething like that, and don't
quote me on that.
I know that there's a large useof it.
There is other people that useother things, like RTO, rto Pro
and versions of high touch andstuff like that.
(35:02):
But I think VersaRent has beennow almost accepted as the
universal OS software.
The good thing about that is,if you know a version of it, you
know most versions of it.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
It's kind of like you said earlier like having an
iPhone.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
If you know iPhone version 10, you know iPhone
version 14.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
It's just a little bit better, right.
So, yeah, that's more like whatit is.
What have you seen anydifference this past year?
Have they come out withanything?
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Well, most recently and I know that there are people
in different steps as far ashow far they've gone right,
because you're using Claude 4.5or 3.5, and I'd probably be
using Claude 1.0.
So there are different versionsout there available.
We started using the tablets,and the tablet allows you to be
anywhere and do itelectronically, so you can fill
out your rental agreementelectronically, you sign
electronically, and it gives youthe opportunity to not be stuck
on paper, because once you fillit on a tablet, it will
(35:56):
transfer the information intoyour system seamlessly, so that
I can't go past certain thingsthat I need to fill out.
It just won't let me.
And once I get it all filledout, instead of having to take
that information again, which isusually the paper way you fill
it out.
Now you're going to give it tome and now I'm going to input
into the system and then I'mgoing to put it in this file.
Well, it does it allelectronically.
So somebody puts it in and nowit's going to store it in a file
(36:17):
sense and it's also going toinput it into the account.
That was something that Ithought was great.
Now I hear that it's either nowor it's going to be very soon
where they're going to be doingit in a tablet or a type of
tablet out into the field.
It's going to connectwirelessly, whether it be
through cellular or Wi-Fi, andso if somebody signs it out in
the field, it will also do thesame thing, versus being just
(36:40):
unstuck on the Wi-Fi that'sdedicated to the store.
That alone seems like a gamechanger.
But then I thought why haven'twe done that yet?
Why isn't it here yet?
Then the integration again.
Like I said, you know we have alot of small stores.
How do we get them all together?
And that's why I wanted to know, like Zoom is something that's
already there and accessible toeverybody.
(37:01):
Yeah, zoom is something that Ican.
You know, I can go to zoomcomor whatever it is and I can pull
it up and, depending on how farI want to spend on the budget,
I can create this and use thisfor the RTO system already.
And that's kind of what I feellike would be a room builder,
like it's something that'salready out there that I would
end up utilizing and taking in.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
We don't need to invent new things.
I don't think there's a singlething that anyone needs to
invent to start usingsuccessfully or do anything
that's real game changing.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Right.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
What's a common problem you see, or that you
hear, that people have in theRTO space with doing certain
tasks or handling certain thingsMultitasking, okay.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
I think one thing that rent-to-own has always had
is it's a relationship businessand being a relationship
business, we don't have a ton ofpeople there, right?
We create relationships withthe people we have and the
people that come into ourlocations, because as much as we
would love for our locations tohave 20 people, some of them
have seven or eight, some ofthem have three and four.
It just really depends on whereyou are, how big your business
(38:02):
is and where you've scaled it to, but generally it's about five
or six, right?
Smaller stores are generallyfive or six.
You might have bigger storesthat are eight, nine, but you
don't have a lot of people,right?
So, depending on the tasks thatyou have, you're doing a lot.
You know what I mean.
I can be working on a rentalagreement and answering the
phone and somebody's coming inthe back door with some
furniture and I have somebodywalking in who's looking at
(38:22):
something, and so the idea ishow well can you keep those
relationships going as you'remultitasking, because you know
everything that you do and thetimeframe if I'm reading
something and I'm listening,it's 50-50.
I've already cut it in half.
I already cut my dedication towhatever this is and whatever
this is in half If you throw atelephone call into there that's
(38:44):
it.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
It's out the window, it's out the window.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
So you really almost happen to start to select.
Okay, I'm going to have to dothis in order to do this, and
then in order to do this, andthe way I see AI is like that
extra helper.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
That's what exactly it is.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
And I need you to do this.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
So something like that, if you are struggling with
multitasking that's why I askwhat tasks things people
commonly deal with.
Go find something I'm going toask my handy-dandy chatbot what
are its suggestions?
Not Clot itself multitasking,which it'll do.
Let's ask what are some tools?
(39:23):
Rto store managers.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Just so you guys know right now, if you're listening
to the audio, he's actuallytyping it in right now.
We need some real-time answersas to what we can use Multitask
better he's actually typing itin right now.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
We need some real-time answers as to what we
can use Multitask better.
I'm curious Because, if I learnsomething here.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
I'm going to be shocked.
I love learning new things.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
All right, it's got tools because it's confident.
That's the one thing you noticewith AI versus humans.
It's always got something.
It's going to tell you it's notgoing to be well, I don't
really know.
I shouldn't tell you this it'sa straight shooter, honestly,
and it's going to tell you againit's either yes or no, it's not
opinionated.
I mean it's opinionated butit's not going to as far as now.
(40:02):
It's not going to try to messwith it.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
You know one thing that I doesn't have feelings,
right.
So if you get back somethingthat you don't necessarily think
is going to work the way youwant it to work, or maybe you
didn't input the things that youthought would give you the
answer, or at least a generalanswer of what you're looking
for, you're like you know what Ido like the answer.
It is informative, it's givingme something, but that's just
(40:26):
not what I want.
You can literally go in thereand go no, that's not what I
want.
I want to do this, this andthis, Get a response, and you
don't have to worry aboutinsulting the computer and
saying you know what?
I worked, enslaved, over thelast 0.5 seconds to give you all
these answers and this is whatyou tell me.
I quit, that's it, I'm out.
It's a whole different ballgame, right?
So what do we have?
What is it they're saying thatwe can use to multitask better.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
All right.
So, like I said, it's got toolsfor it to share with us.
Yeah, digital tools.
There's task manager apps andI've heard about some of these,
uh, like trello or asana.
It tracks multiple projects anddelegate responsibilities.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Okay and that's all again, ai powered.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Uh, there's digital scheduling softwares for
employees, shifting timemanagement, inventory management
systems that send automaticalerts, restocking communication
platforms like slack ormicrosoft teams or quick team
updates.
And again, I don't know howmany people use slack.
I know it's a lot of companiesuse slack and yeah, okay, um,
their, their stuff is changed alot and it's ai powered um.
(41:26):
But, like I said, the asanathing is um one company we work
with.
They use it for everythingbecause they're having three
different reps assigned to acompany account and they're all
working on different thingssimultaneously.
Their notes are all sharedtogether.
They're not missing something.
Or if you're talking to a highlevel person there, they can put
those notes they had in thatconversation.
(41:47):
It goes back into it correctlyand it's not just sitting in
someone's phone or notebookbecause, oh, I forgot about it.
No it's not like that and in adifferent perspective, I'm just
going to type in my GoogleChrome search bar AI-powered
multitasking tools.
This is why it's accessible toeveryone.
You don't have to be a genius.
I don't proclaim to be a geniusor expert on any of this stuff
(42:10):
but we use it.
We use it because we go lookfor it.
You have to go look for it.
So, again, like that's why Iasked what is something people
struggle with?
Just go look for it.
Right now you're going to seethe sponsored stuff and
everything, but look through it.
I mean, the first thing is asponsored ad from mondaycom.
Smart operations managementsystems all in one solution.
There are so many things outthere.
(42:31):
Here's one the best AIproductivity tools in 2025.
Chatbots, search engines,content creation, grammar
checkers and wording tools,video creation and editing,
image generation, social mediamanagement.
I mean all these things thattake people time or take effort.
Again, not all these things aregonna be great, but it's out
(42:53):
Not all of these things aregoing to be great, but it's out
there.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
You know it's glad you mentioned that social media
management is something that wecould probably all do better,
and I know that you know, as youpull up Facebook, it has its
own meta right and you can, youcan kind of get in there and
resched right.
You can have something forTikTok, you can have something
for Facebook, you can havesomething for Instagram, you can
(43:16):
have something for LinkedIncoming from one spot.
I'm glad you mentioned thatbecause I forgot all about it.
But the AI reminded me thatthere is a tool out there to
literally manage all of yourcontent, so I could take,
instead of posting it to everysingle one every single time,
hoping that it fits.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
There's no reason to do that now.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Now that it fits.
The program of this one allows30 seconds, this one allows 60
seconds.
This one has to be framed in a16 by 9.
This one's got to be framed ina 4 by 3.
And you put all your content onthere and it rearranges it or
sets it up in a way that it candeliver at times that people are
active when they need to bedone.
So I need it done on Friday, Ineed it done on Thursday.
Well, it's going to tell meThursday at 7.03 is when I'm
(43:57):
usually more active than I'm not, and that's a great
recommendation from AI.
And these tools that are alreadyset here are something that we
can use all the time to getrent-to-own set up and kind of
utilize this on our day-to-day,from Zoom calls to making sure
that our information that we'reputting down is being reviewed
(44:18):
and taken care of on a regularbasis, or social media content
management.
That is literally somethingthat we need to be doing all the
time, and if you're not doingyour social media content
management, you need to.
Let me tell you now.
There is where it's going,especially from what's going on
in today's world, whereeverybody is connected to what's
on their phone.
It doesn't get any better thanthat.
(44:39):
What I want to tell you guys iswe appreciate you being here,
as always.
I want you guys to know I amwearing something from Vox
Populi.
This is the red shirts.
The red shirts are here, sowe're going to donate to our
veterans that are deployed, or Ishould say veterans or people
who are deployed Right now.
There's a $1 million goal.
Selling these, they woulddonate $5 to this fund and let
(45:02):
me tell you, every bit helps.
If you guys have anythingthat's going on in your place of
work and you want to do someapparel, please think about
getting the red apparel from VoxPopuli.
You can go onlinevox-pop-ulicom.
Make sure that you go there andlook it up.
You can get this set up withDaniel and his group at Vox
Populi.
No problem, we are set up onFacebook because we make sure
(45:24):
that we manage our Facebook,instagram, linkedin and you can
always find us on YouTube andDaniel, we're going to go into
part three now, soon.
We want to see you back verysoon, but, as always, I'll tell
you get your collections low toget your sales high.
Have a great one.
Hello and welcome to the RTO Show.
I'm your host, pete Hsiao.
Today we're covering our AIseries, part two, about AI in
the world today and what'salready working.
Again, my guest here is DanielHajduk from Vox Populi, and the
reason that I have them here isbecause they have a great
understanding, from beginning towhere we are now, of how it
started, what we're doing andhow RTO can benefit from it.
(00:31):
Now, some of the things thatwe're going to talk about are
not RTO inclusive, in the sensethat they are not just from RTO,
but we are talking about thingsthat eventually will be in RTO
and how it's going to affect ourindustry, especially in the
future.
Now, daniel, going forward, Imean right now, that's the hot
topic.
Nothing is more important rightnow, or nothing is hotter than
(00:52):
AI.
I think everybody's talkingabout it.
It's coming out everywhere.
Nothing that we do doesn't havesome type of use of AI stuck in
it, at least anythingelectronic, right?
I mean, if I go in my backyardand I start doing exercise,
that's probably the only thingthat AI is going to pop up, or
at least my watch is going totell me that my heart rate is up
.
But as far as the furnitureindustry goes the rental-owned
(01:12):
industry.
Part of what we wanted to dowas educate everybody as to how
AI is already starting to becomeintegrated, what's already
working in the retail furniturespace.
So what are some stories fromlike a retail side, from a
retail furniture side that yousay you know what.
You might not even know this,but it's already started before
(01:33):
you even know that it's there.
It's already been a part of thesituation.
Not only is it only there, it'sgetting better.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
There's many different ways out there and
again, one you probably don'tnotice but, like Home Depot, for
example, they're using it topredict certain things.
So they'll use it to help themorganize and use their inventory
for when we might have a warmerspring in Atlanta and they're
going to start saying all thegardening stuff out quicker than
normal.
But if it's a colder spring orcolder winter, longer winter,
you might not see that stuffcome up as soon as stuff.
(02:01):
But they're able to get outthere and be the first ones and
all those things that you seeout the front of home depot when
you walk in yeah and like, oh,I actually need that.
Then you know they're on saleor whatever and they're just not
really on sale, but it's, itlooks like a good price and you
need it.
I'm gonna grab one.
That's how they're using it.
Another really cool one ikea.
Um, they have a whole aipowered like room setter, so
(02:22):
they're doing these roomplannings and I didn't realize
this.
But my neighbor, um, they redidtheir entire kitchen with Ikea.
So everything is from Ikea andit's all planned out and the
they can take your whole roomand laid out with an AI tool.
Wow so they're planningeverything from the cabinets,
the furniture that's in there,and they're able to show you
exactly what you want to buybefore you buy it, which is
(02:44):
really cool, because, again,it's not.
Well, I think this couch isgoing to look good and hold up
in our house and look right.
Well, now you can go put it inthere with their tools that
they're doing.
So, again, there's so manydifferent ways that companies
are using it to speed up theprocess with things, to make
their life easier, to gain thatextra sale because they're
putting the thing out there, noone's able to tell them to get
(03:04):
it.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Could you imagine in the rent-to-own space somebody
walking in and going.
You know what I like, that I'mnot sure if my wife or my
husband or whoever likes that.
I don't know if it's reallygoing to fit.
I don't know if it's going tofit the decor and you're like,
hold on a minute, let me show upthat model number, let me you
know.
What are your colors thatyou're dealing with.
I, you know, I got a mauve, Igot a blue, I got a gray.
(03:26):
Yeah, don't worry about that.
You contemporary, notcontemporary, and be able to
throw that together and you'resaying this room builder is
already active.
This is something that I can goand do today.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, I believe that there you can sit down with
their consultants at Ikea.
I don't know what you can do onyour own, what they use to do
it, but I think you want to goin and you want to remodel your
whole family room and you wantto get new furniture because
you're going to buy a new house,you're going to paint it and
everything.
They literally go in there withyou and can build it out for
you.
Now I don't know what thetechnology or what what's
(03:57):
required to get that into into arental company.
I don't know what theinvestment is.
I would be happy to hear whatdifferent people pull up, if
there's certain vendors alreadyin this space that are looking
to do that.
But again, it kind of does.
One thing we run into in ourbusiness with apparel is we're
selling a lot of it online frombox and shipping it to you.
Biggest thing with people hateis stuff doesn't fit because you
(04:20):
can't try it on.
It's kind of that same scenario.
How can we use it so that wedon't have to worry about
someone wanting to returnsomething or not like something
because it's not how theythought it would be?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Well, my thought process is, every time that I
think of rent to own, I alwaysthink, okay, rent to own is a
little bit different in some ofthe other spaces.
Right, because even thoughwe're talking about furniture
industry, specific furnitureindustry has a lot of people
involved in it, not just one,right?
So, Ikea is a big big company.
So they're around the world andthey have the ability to say,
(04:53):
hey, we're going to do our ownsituation where we're going to
be able to put rooms togetherunder our programs, under our
power, and say the idea that Ialways thought that Rent to Own
would do is say, okay, in aservice that I put out let's say
, daniel has its own service andVox has this idea where you
know what, I'm going to make aroom builder myself and instead
of using it just for myself, I'mgoing to lease out this
technology to whomever decideswants to use it.
(05:15):
And the way I always thought isrent to own would be like it
would be great to have a roombuilder, but we probably
wouldn't do it ourselves, right,because there's a lot of stores
that are.
There are a lot of owners thathave like three stores, two
stores one store.
Oh yeah, there's no way thatthey're going to be able to put
that technology together, and ifthey did, they would spend the
entire store's budget on it forthree years and it just wouldn't
work.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
It's not something to plan right now.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Right.
But as we go into the futureand If there is a situation
where you can get a chat GPT ora cloud or something that's
already starting to be built,right, I'm getting into it.
I know how to use it now and,like you said, one of the
versions of this AI could be aroom builder.
Now I can possibly startgetting into that, and the idea
(05:58):
to me in Rent2Own is we mightall be using a version of a room
builder, not necessarily one orthe other, but more like I
think that's the evolution of it.
Right, that's something thatnobody in rent to own has right
now, where somebody can walkinto the front door and say, hey
, I want this, but I'm notreally sure.
Well, why don't you getsomebody at home to take a
couple of pictures or a baselinepicture?
(06:18):
far enough away where we caneliminate the sofa you have now.
Add this in and take a look atit.
Or you know what?
Just give me the dimensions ofyour room.
We'll build it, because youjust moved in and you can have a
whole selection.
And before you know it, Ipackaged you out with coffin end
tables and lamps and a rug anda picture and probably a pretty
good package that's going to bebeneficial for both of us and I
(06:38):
really see that as a way toenhance rent-to-own that it's
never had before and you know, Ilook forward to stuff like that
.
When you were telling me thatIKEA could definitely God, isn't
that where it belongs?
Like, how do you use AI in oureveryday?
Well, that's it.
I mean, how is the washroom jargoing to look?
You know, do I have?
(06:59):
Will it fit?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Will it fit to the door Right?
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Will it fit?
You know, and I have this hugeuh you know side by side fridge
and it's 26 cubic feet, and thenI take it to the front door and
I'm like, okay, this isn'tgonna work no but being able to
use an ai in that sense, Ididn't know, I would have never
guessed pete a couple of yearsago, like there's look dude, no
way like I could do it myself.
But you know, requires me to getin a truck, it requires me to
(07:23):
go to.
But it requires me to get in atruck, it requires me to go to
the home, it requires me to takea look at everything you have
and get some measurements, andthis way it's so much easier to
kind of relay message overcomputer and say here it goes,
here it works.
I mean, what are some of theother uses that you're seeing
that you think can really workin our situation?
I mean, right now you mentionedpredictive sales, which is
(07:44):
killer to me because I don'tthink, you know, as Rent to Own
Works.
We always say we have thewinter season, we have the
summer season, we have taxseason.
I don't even think there's aspring, it's always tax, right.
So we have winter, you know,and basically it's fourth
quarter with the Black, you knowBlack Friday and everything and
then you've got.
You know, you got tax season,you got summer season.
It's slow and then we startcoming into the wrapping back up
(08:05):
.
But to really say there's apredictability as to what sells
more, what might be catchier tothe eye, what I mean, that's
something that can really gamechange how rent-to-own is
efficient In your mindset.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
How beneficial do you think that would be to any
company, especially arental-owned company?
I think it can be a benefit toanyone.
How much of a benefit varies,but I think it's a starting
point.
If you want to look at thatdata stuff, you want to analyze
what can I do better to enhancesales for next quarter?
Well, if you have data whichI'm assuming most stores do put
(08:52):
in your previous year's data,your previous quarter's data,
and tell, tell me what's soldthe best.
You look at it that way and allright, let's do that this year
instead of just guessing.
It eliminates the guessing, soyou don't need a whole room
builder, but you can.
Hey, what is your suggestedlayout for this space I have,
with a couch and a love seat,with a coffee table of this size
(09:14):
, it can give you, if it cangive you, a simple chatbot can
give you that.
You don't need whatever.
Ikea uses the thousands ofdollars it probably costs to
have that.
To give you an idea to startsomewhere instead of, well,
we're all just sitting heredrawing a blank.
Let's start here with the base.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Give me an idea for a room layout of this size with
these pieces of furniture, youcan start there so
geographically, because, let'ssay we're in tampa right now,
right so, tampa, we have a lotmore apartments, you know, I
would love to say thatapartments are great and large
geographically, because let'ssay we're in Tampa right now,
right so, tampa, we have a lotmore apartments.
I would love to say thatapartments are great and large
(09:54):
and huge and we're getting taxedto death by small apartments.
It's 900 to 1,500 square feetand 1,500 is pretty darn big.
On there it's usually about 12to 1,300 square feet,
(10:31):
no-transcript.
Say some premier guys who theygenerally have one, you know,
let's say one to four stores.
I'm not saying that they allhave, I'm just saying I know
guys who have one to four stores.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I'm not saying that they all have, I'm just saying I
know guys who have one to fourstores and a set location Chad.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Fosick has one.
I know a couple people thathave three, and so it probably
wouldn't be as beneficial.
But when you said in our first,in our first podcast, there's
an ability to get kind of agroup in there, right, you can,
you can have a subscription foreverybody, is that something
that would be beneficial in thatsense, when I have stores in a
lot of different areas?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, I mean think about it as hey, you have a
regional with an account andthen you have all your store
managers with their account thatyou start having them use it
for certain things and you canhave shared projects.
So the cool thing about cloudis we can have private or public
projects.
So you've got something.
You're a sales projecteveryone's working on.
You can have a viewable.
Everyone can go in there andput their thing in or see what
(11:29):
other people are working on.
Um.
You can have your own projectstoo on there.
Um, it's kind of cool.
So, however you really want todo it, everyone can have their
own account.
End of the day, that's not a,not a.
Your boss isn't paying for anaccount.
It's no reason to not startusing it.
If you want to enhance whatyou're doing, start using a free
version or even pay out of yourpocket.
It's not that much.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Now we're talking about it at a level of a store,
but then not only at the storelevel.
I would imagine that vendorscan do that as well.
Then, right, so we have apredictability and say these are
probably going to sell more.
I can call you and say this isprobably going to be the hotter
item right now, based on whatwe've seen, what we saw, because
I know that they're alwayspushing the latest and greatest,
right, just like the cars,right, we want to push the
(12:11):
latest and greatest, but thereare staples that don't go away.
Right, rent home Furnituredoesn't go away.
Yeah, some of them might, butat the same time, we all sit
down.
Right, we all sit down.
We all have, you know, forpeople who don't have the brand
new and they like thecontemporary.
They went from contemporary,now they're going to more
traditional.
You know, I'm a little bitolder.
I don't want to have the USBports in there.
(12:33):
I just want something torecline.
I mean the thought that thiscan all be manufactured in a way
to have a calendar that saysyou know, this probably would be
the best time to do what.
What do you think theefficiency is based on what we
have in AI versus what we don'thave.
What do you think the gainscould be from saying let's
switch over to this.
Let's figure this out together.
(12:53):
Daniel, you got a store in Ohio, I got a store here.
We're going to have a jointaccount in a sense.
And then, how much do you thinkthat it could change the role
of somebody on their day-to-day?
Let me ask you something.
Are you getting everything outof your rent-to-own business?
If you're not an APRO member,then the answer is probably no.
(13:17):
Look, advocacy is APRO's breadand butter.
This is why they were createdand what they do best.
But here's the thing APROmembership is about way more
than advocacy.
Apro connects you to the moversand the shakers of the industry.
People have been there, donethat and they can help you do it
even better.
Apro's monthly webinars giveyou expert insights and
actionable takeaways.
It's like having a masterclassfor your business every single
month.
Got questions about complexregulations or sticky situations
(13:39):
?
No problem.
Apro's legal hotline gives youdirect access to experts who
have got the answers.
That no problem.
Apro's legal hotline gives youdirect access to experts who
have got the answers.
That's a peace of mind that youcan't put a price on.
And let's not forget theresources, news updates and
tools that keep you ahead of thecurve Scholarships for your
team Check.
Disaster relief when you need itmost Double check.
Apro is your ultimate supportsystem in the rent-to-own world.
(14:00):
So stop settling for less WithAPRO members.
Get more, more own world.
So stop settling for less WithAPRO members.
Get more, more support, moreconnections, more success.
Head over to rtohqorg and jointhe APRO family today, because
in this business, more isn'tjust better, it's essential.
See you at the top with APROhowever, you want to use it.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
If you want to say, hey, pete, we are going to start
using this to help us plan outall of our scheduling, let's
start doing that.
We can both go back and forward.
You can try things out, you cangive it scenarios and it'll do
that for you.
Or, like we'll go into themarketing stuff.
Pete, we need to lay out amarketing plan for our
individual store on top of theentire company Because, again,
(14:45):
like you mentioned, stuff isdifferent wherever you are,
whether you have a bunch ofapartment customers, or whether
you have a bunch of people wholive in houses, the weather.
It's all going to help puttingthat into chat and it can give
you a different answer and itgives you what you need, not
just let's just throw a bandaidon it and give it all the same
(15:06):
effect.
That's what it's supposed toprevent Just doing the same
thing over and over again anddoing something that's not
effective.
It can help because it'spulling that data from where
it's getting information.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
I mean talking about things that are already working.
The other day I was drivingaround, and the reason that it
meant so much to me is because Isaw the relation to the rental
industry as it could be.
I drove up to a Checkers.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
And I just you know you get used to the first person
that talks is usually like justa recording, right?
You know, welcome to Checkersand we'll be right with you,
okay.
And then usually you getsomebody else that doesn't sound
anything like that back onthere and they just ask you know
what's going on, and so it waslike you know, welcome to
checkers, you know speak whenyou're ready.
I was like, okay, you know, Iwant to.
I remember what it was somekind of double cheeseburger with
(15:52):
bacon that I shouldn't havebeen eating.
I hope my wife's not listeningto this, and so you know.
But it continued.
Yeah, it was this automatedsystem that I wanted number
three, and I wanted cheese andbacon and I wanted no pickles.
Okay, you want this and thisand this.
With none of this, can I offeryou.
(16:13):
Would you like this, a largesize?
Oh, yeah, sure.
What kind of drink did you want?
Oh, I want a Coke.
Would Pepsi be okay?
Okay, yeah, you know.
Is there anything else that Ican get for you today?
No, would you like you know?
And it's supersized.
It asked me everything, it readit back to me and then, the
(16:33):
very end, it was like we havethese Apple turnovers or
whatever it is.
They have these small versions.
And I was like oh my God, Ithink I just completed my entire
order with something like AI,and so I'm thinking how great
would it be to have somebody beable to walk in right and be
(16:53):
able to handle that situation,because sometimes we get
short-staffed and we have thingsgoing on, but somebody would
(17:17):
come in and say you know, hi,rto show bot, I need this, this
and this and be able to handlehalfway through before I even
have to talk to the customer.
And I'm not saying that I wouldlike to get so something that's
already in there, it's alreadyset up.
You know, there's things thatare happening in podcasting
right now.
Now podcasting is blowing upand I don't know if you notice,
but, man, there's podcasterseverywhere now.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, I know, I see it all over.
You see it on social mediapodcast clips and you're like,
oh, this person has a podcast.
What in the world are theytalking about?
Now, some people have greatpodcasts and it's definitely an
oversaturated market right now.
It's getting there and you cantell the difference between good
and not good and theconsistency in an impactful
podcast.
You found a podcast somewherewhere a podcast is needed.
(17:58):
Now, me doing a podcast ontalking about a certain sport
probably is probably not goingto be needed because, first off,
I don't provide anything extrato it and there's a million out
there already.
That's the difference.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Yeah, yeah, but I see the reason I say that is
because I see it taking overcertain aspects of the job that
I didn't I wasn't able tounderstand before.
So, as I'm going in andsomething's taking my order,
there's also this feedback thatI've noticed that AI is giving.
So you give it information andit will extrapolate what it is
that you preset to say I want touse.
(18:33):
So I want video clips of thisone hour long podcast and it
will give me 60 second chunks ofwhat it thought was probably
the best.
And it doesn't mean, like yousaid before and you've said it
in best.
And it doesn't mean, like yousaid before and you've said it
in the other, in in part one.
It doesn't always mean thatit's right, you have to tailor
it in or you can dial it in, butit has the ability to take out
and say, okay, you want three 60second bites, let's do that.
(18:56):
So you know being able to makea educational video or a
training video, and you knowwhat.
I might not need everything inthat video, but I can tell AI,
you know, if you can extrapolateX, y and Z and then put that
together in something, in thesebite-sized chunks for somebody
to learn how, could that not beworthwhile?
Or if I take a five-minute videoand say you know what?
(19:17):
This five-minute video where I'munboxing something or I'm doing
something different, I'mintroducing somebody or today's
my boss's birthday, and we'regoing to do something coming in,
that might not work for thealgorithms, it might be a little
bit too long or I don't knowhow to do it right, but then I
can go back to my AI and go okay, you know what I'm trying to do
, an RTO commercial.
In this particular light, canyou extrapolate this type of
(19:39):
information from what I'm givingyou?
All these things that I seeevery day, give me this how are
we not using it right now atRent to Own like we should?
And why aren't we?
And I think that when I see theday-to-day and already what's
going on, I'm almost dumbfounded, because the other day you
(20:01):
mentioned Zoom and you mentionedsomething about Zoom that I had
no idea about, you know what,and it kind of dumbfounded me
because I didn't even know itwas a possibility and yet you
were telling me you're doingstuff on Zoom that like it was
kind of taking care of the wholesituation.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
How did that work?
Speaker 2 (20:27):
situation.
Yeah, how did that work?
So zoom, as everyone's used insome sort of form since covid,
whether it's permanent or youjust use it back then everyone's
used it and everyone thoughtabout it just being a
professional facetime or skypekind of thing.
Right, company oriented skypeit's more than that now and it's
making your life a lot easierwith whatever using it from a.
From a sales perspective, it isspeeding up the whole sales
(20:50):
process of getting on a zoomcall and going through a demo or
going through something how AI.
We use it every on all of ourmeetings now.
So our company zoom account hasthe paid version, obviously,
and has something called an AIcompanion and it's able to give
us full feedback on the entiremeeting we just had.
So, for example, we have ourdaily morning meeting at Vox at
(21:13):
845, the whole company.
Whether you're in person, you'reworking remote, you're
traveling, like I did today, youcan be on the meeting and we
have a Zoom up.
We have it on the TV and wehave a zoom up.
We have it on the tv.
So we have a speaker, we haveeverything.
So, again, no matter where youare, you can be on it and
meeting ends, it'll take backand it'll send you a full
(21:35):
meeting summary the key points,the next steps and everything
you need to know about themeeting now.
Now, like I said, it's notperfect and it only gives you
what it can take, but from asales side of having a meeting
where you need to know let's getthis meeting in.
What were the key points?
What can I review?
What do I need to send in afollow-up email at the end of
(21:56):
the day to the person I had themeeting with.
It'll literally give youeverything you need.
Whether or from a kind of likea boss perspective, I can go
back and review what was said.
There's another really coolthing that I learned before we
started using it at the FLDCconference this year in Atlanta
the Franchise LeadershipDevelopment Conference.
(22:19):
And this is one way I got out ofmy comfort zone with AI is they
do a roundtable session wherethe vendors can host a
roundtable on different topics.
Obviously my first choice wasto host one on print marketing,
as that's our business, butsince we were getting into ai
and more comfortable with it,they had a couple ai topics.
I was like, hey, we can getinto this talking about ai and
(22:40):
franchise sales and so on, and Iended up with that because the
other one got taken by anothersponsor.
So I did that.
I said all right, let's figureit out, and I sat at a table.
I had no idea what to expectreally.
I walked in, sat at the tableand people were coming and it
was a table of different people.
There was one guy fromWhataburger, another guy from a
(23:03):
home services brand company,another one that owns multiple
brands of the likes of likesinorama and a couple other just
different things and anotherguy I can't remember what he did
and it was crazy to seeeveryone's different opinions.
But I learned the zoom thingfrom the home services company
and their ai tool on their zoomwhen they're selling franchise
(23:25):
for their franchise sales guys,as they're able to go in and
pull up certain questions thatare asked on a call and it'll
bring you to that point and youcan watch the call so you can
literally see what that person'sreaction was when Wait wait,
wait.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
You're saying that you can dial into a specific
question in the video by typingit in.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
So yeah, kind of like I don't know if you you have an
iPhone, right?
Yes, so you can go in yourcamera roll.
You can go see, you can kind ofsearch your camera roll and
it'll pull up a certain photo.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
It's kind of like that on a zoom.
So how helpful is that tofigure out what's working in
your sales and what's notworking on your sale demos?
Again, it's a Zoom thing.
If you're ever doing that,though, it's just showing you.
Hey, when sale person Bob askedso what do you think about the
numbers, or whatever, you canlook back and then if you're
(24:13):
looking to see what thecustomer's expressions were,
what they said, you can go rightto that.
You don't have to sit there andwatch the whole thing.
It can pull up the differentfeedback when times are good,
when times are bad, and it'shelping them analyze everything
to a certain level.
They weren't able to before and,like I said, they have those
meetings.
It sends the meeting, it sendsa full recording, a summary, to
(24:33):
your email, literally withinminutes.
I think today our morningmeeting was like four minutes
long.
I had the Zoom recording by9.01 and the summary at 8.56.
So our meeting today it gave usa quick recap, next steps, a
long summary, but then it saysAI generated content may be
(24:58):
inaccurate or misleading.
Always check for accuracy.
So it's giving you thedisclaimer.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Yeah, and I'm grateful that it does.
But so in your opinion, you'reusing this AI tool directly,
right?
You sound pretty hyped about it.
Do you see a difference whenyou used it before versus how
you're using it now?
In other words, ai less versusAI full?
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Yeah, I mean everything.
You're using it now.
In other words, ai less versusai full.
Yeah, I mean everything, andit's.
It's awesome when I like find anew way to use or try something
out, because, again, every dayit's a learning experience.
Every day it's like learninghow to walk.
Every day, again, um, and it'slike, oh wait, I didn't realize
I could use it for this.
Yeah, um, one way.
That was like this soundsreally stupid, but I had a
customer send in an order and itwas kind of jumbled up in an
(25:45):
email with different kinds ofitems, different colors,
different sizes, differentcounts, different item numbers,
and I'm like, oh gosh, that'swhat we try to avoid with what
we do for our normal orders.
But first, I'm customer, I'mnot going to say no, how can I
make this easier on myself?
All right, I copied all theinformation, information I put
(26:06):
it into the chat.
I said can you tell me, breakdown all the different items for
me so I can know what I need toorder and get set into this
order so we can do it right, soI don't have to waste probably
would have taken me 30 minutesto go through of having to.
All right, they wanted two ofthese, but this color, two of
these in this side but thiscolor.
Just a lot of variances that Ididn't want to deal with.
(26:26):
I copied and pasted, just askedwhat I was trying to do.
It said what my goal was.
Five minutes later, less thanfive minutes later, it was ready
to submit.
Wow, so it's just things likethat.
And I was like, oh, this isfreaking awesome and that's why
I'm like there's just no reasonwhy we can complain about time
with tasks that are just there'sbetter ways to do things.
(26:47):
Again, it's like someonecomplaining about cars are going
to take all the horses jobswhen we invented cars and you
don't have to ride a horse to goeverywhere.
No, no one complained aboutthat, because you realize how
fast you can get someone with acar, just like AI.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Well, you know the way I look at it and the way I'm
thinking about it because, asyou're speaking, I'm trying to
put myself in a situation ofwhat would I do with it?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
In rent to own.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
How would I affect it ?
And it's crazy because Mondaysare a big office day for us.
There's a lot of meetings.
We're talking about whathappened last week, we're
talking about what's coming downthe pipe and we're talking
about what our goals are forthis week.
So we're talking about what'scoming down the pipe.
As far as the month, where doesthe calendar end?
How much money are we going toget this month?
As far as revenues, what are weprojecting?
Where are our collections at?
(27:32):
What are our sales at?
What's coming up?
Does this month have anyparticular dates in it that we
want to celebrate Black Friday,christmas, whatever the case is?
And then, as we go on, there'sa lot that happens in these
meetings, right?
So I have an RM meeting andthen I go down and I have a GM
meeting because I want to relayall the information that I had
on the first meeting and thesecond meeting, make sure that
(27:53):
it's going down, and then theyhave that obligation to let
everybody know, right.
So instead of having everysingle store stop what they're
doing so that everybody can hearthis.
At one time.
It's tier level, right.
It goes probably from the brasshaving their conversation with
four or five people.
Those four or five people haveit with another four or five, 10
, 20 people, and then, as itgoes on, we have meetings every
(28:15):
single Monday and every singleFriday, so it's a setup meeting.
Usually it's a review and setupmeeting on Monday, which I
don't know if it doesn't happenin all rent-to-own, but every
rent-to-own that I've everworked for, we absolutely have a
Monday morning meeting and wehave a Friday sales meeting, and
it doesn't necessarily have tobe a sales meeting but an
updated meeting.
Okay, this is what happenedduring the week.
We still have two days tochange it.
(28:36):
This is where we want to go.
I could definitely see.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
How are you doing those meetings now.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Well, the first meeting.
Well, actually, they're both ona Zoom type and they're on
Teams right now.
Okay, but my thought is, if Iwas to have that, if I was to
utilize that and if I was to beable to as a rent-to-own, as
somebody in operations andsomebody who's looking future
down the road, I would love toown my own rent-to-home and
somebody who's?
looking future down the road.
I would love to own my ownrental home.
(29:03):
That is a goal of mine is oneday to say I have my own brand
out there and I have my own way.
This is something as you'rediscussing it.
This is something I wouldtotally use Because, as
something's being said, let'ssay in that RM meeting or a
leadership meeting, and it comeson down, you want to remember
everything, you want to doeverything, you want to be
engaged with everything.
For me to be able to say myphone never goes off, I never
(29:29):
get an email.
Nothing distracts me duringthis.
I didn't mean to miss it, butI'd be lying right, it's the
truth.
We're human, Things happen andthen it's almost like a game of
telephone right and we had apodcast about that.
It starts one way and it endsanother, and the best thing to
do about the flow through atraffic is to do your best to
make sure it's as accurate aspossible.
How accurate would it be if ourMonday and Friday sales
meetings were listed anddetailed out in reference and
(29:52):
you can even go back tosomething that was said or not
said and go?
You know what?
That was a question I forgotabout.
Somebody asked me this question.
I said you know what, I'll getback to you.
And now I got somebodylingering out there who said you
know what?
I don't even know what we'reselling.
What's the sales this way?
I'll get right back to you onthat.
Or what's the difference betweenthe winter and the summer and
why are we expected to bestagnant in the summertime
(30:13):
versus the wintertime?
Now, that might not necessarilyhappen in all the stores.
I know that Florida is that way, especially because the way
things go in our economy, itjust flows that way.
We have really slow summersbecause everybody's vacationing
and nobody's doing it.
Kids are at home and in thewinter we get more visitors.
And to be able to have an AItool like that that can help me
stay organized and help me getevery bit of information from
(30:34):
the top to the people who are onthe front lines and operations
would be amazing.
And that's technology that'salready in the world today.
It's already here.
I think it's an awesomesituation that I love.
I love to hear what are somecommon challenges that come,
along with the AI, into whatyou're doing every day, Because
(31:05):
we say it's there but you reallyhave to.
No tool is worth it if youdon't use it Right.
So we were talking in the firstpart about simple integration.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
How do I?
Speaker 1 (31:17):
train myself to say I need AI more.
Let me.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Use it Commitment from the top.
If the person making decisionsdoesn't make it a priority, it
won't be.
That's with anything thathappens in a business or
organization.
If the people at the end of theday that are responsible for
others don't care aboutsomething, it's probably not
going to get done or taken careof.
But if you walk in and say, hey, we are going to start using
(31:40):
this for this, or at leasthaving it on hand and thinking
about it, it becomes a thing.
Make it a part of your routine.
So, like you said, you had thosemeetings.
I don't know what Teams has,but I'm sure they have something
where it can record.
But if you had it on Zoom, forexample, you're going to say
well, the next steps are theseare what we're looking out for
this week.
That's going to tell you inthat meeting.
(32:06):
So now you can start knowingwhat you need to watch out for
this week.
You can do the same thingwithin your store at a level of
store manager down.
It just can start using it.
It's just starting to use itand once people start using it,
like I said, I only got moreexcited about it the more I used
it, because then I realized youcould do certain things,
whether it's just fun orrelieving, it's better and
better because you're like ohwow, I can really use it.
(32:26):
Something is only so good untilyou realize how good it is.
You're not going to know, doyou?
Speaker 1 (32:31):
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Speaker 2 (33:28):
Those people that live in those communities that
are cut off from the rest of theworld.
I forget what they're called,but there's that one in Brazil.
Yes, we're like, oh my gosh,how do they live their lives?
Well, they don't know about it,and they're not going to
complain about it because theydon't know about it In our world
.
We all know about AI, so we'regoing to want to use it if we
start using it.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
And again, it's a balance of using it too much and
using it too little.
But you have to start somewhere.
I mean already in use.
You know, when you say stufflike Ikea is already building
this, when we're talking aboutthere's already orders being
taken by a checkers bot for lackof a better term you have
something like Zoom that'salready integrated in what you
have and how you use that tool.
Zoom, to me, stands out themost because that's not only
something that I know I woulduse, it's already really
available, right, something thatI would actually use on a
(34:21):
day-to-day basis.
I can't go to Ikea and say, heyguys, let me borrow your
computer, while I set up one ofmy rooms and my people come over
.
What are some other toolsbesides Zoom that somebody
already has access to that wouldhelp them out in that
particular way?
Speaker 2 (34:35):
What do you use?
What kind of systems are youusing for your management?
Speaker 1 (34:41):
OS right now is VersaRent.
So I would say that VersaRenthas a big chunk of what's going
on in the rental space right now.
I think it's about 80% orsomething like that, and don't
quote me on that.
I know that there's a large useof it.
There is other people that useother things, like RTO, rto Pro
and versions of high touch andstuff like that.
(35:02):
But I think VersaRent has beennow almost accepted as the
universal OS software.
The good thing about that is,if you know a version of it, you
know most versions of it.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
It's kind of like you said earlier like having an
iPhone.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
If you know iPhone version 10, you know iPhone
version 14.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
It's just a little bit better, right.
So, yeah, that's more like whatit is.
What have you seen anydifference this past year?
Have they come out withanything?
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Well, most recently and I know that there are people
in different steps as far ashow far they've gone right,
because you're using Claude 4.5or 3.5, and I'd probably be
using Claude 1.0.
So there are different versionsout there available.
We started using the tablets,and the tablet allows you to be
anywhere and do itelectronically, so you can fill
out your rental agreementelectronically, you sign
electronically, and it gives youthe opportunity to not be stuck
on paper, because once you fillit on a tablet, it will
(35:56):
transfer the information intoyour system seamlessly, so that
I can't go past certain thingsthat I need to fill out.
It just won't let me.
And once I get it all filledout, instead of having to take
that information again, which isusually the paper way you fill
it out.
Now you're going to give it tome and now I'm going to input
into the system and then I'mgoing to put it in this file.
Well, it does it allelectronically.
So somebody puts it in and nowit's going to store it in a file
(36:17):
sense and it's also going toinput it into the account.
That was something that Ithought was great.
Now I hear that it's either nowor it's going to be very soon
where they're going to be doingit in a tablet or a type of
tablet out into the field.
It's going to connectwirelessly, whether it be
through cellular or Wi-Fi, andso if somebody signs it out in
the field, it will also do thesame thing, versus being just
(36:40):
unstuck on the Wi-Fi that'sdedicated to the store.
That alone seems like a gamechanger.
But then I thought why haven'twe done that yet?
Why isn't it here yet?
Then the integration again.
Like I said, you know we have alot of small stores.
How do we get them all together?
And that's why I wanted to know, like Zoom is something that's
already there and accessible toeverybody.
(37:01):
Yeah, zoom is something that Ican.
You know, I can go to zoomcomor whatever it is and I can pull
it up and, depending on how farI want to spend on the budget,
I can create this and use thisfor the RTO system already.
And that's kind of what I feellike would be a room builder,
like it's something that'salready out there that I would
end up utilizing and taking in.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
We don't need to invent new things.
I don't think there's a singlething that anyone needs to
invent to start usingsuccessfully or do anything
that's real game changing.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Right.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
What's a common problem you see, or that you
hear, that people have in theRTO space with doing certain
tasks or handling certain thingsMultitasking, okay.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
I think one thing that rent-to-own has always had
is it's a relationship businessand being a relationship
business, we don't have a ton ofpeople there, right?
We create relationships withthe people we have and the
people that come into ourlocations, because as much as we
would love for our locations tohave 20 people, some of them
have seven or eight, some ofthem have three and four.
It just really depends on whereyou are, how big your business
(38:02):
is and where you've scaled it to, but generally it's about five
or six, right?
Smaller stores are generallyfive or six.
You might have bigger storesthat are eight, nine, but you
don't have a lot of people,right?
So, depending on the tasks thatyou have, you're doing a lot.
You know what I mean.
I can be working on a rentalagreement and answering the
phone and somebody's coming inthe back door with some
furniture and I have somebodywalking in who's looking at
(38:22):
something, and so the idea ishow well can you keep those
relationships going as you'remultitasking, because you know
everything that you do and thetimeframe if I'm reading
something and I'm listening,it's 50-50.
I've already cut it in half.
I already cut my dedication towhatever this is and whatever
this is in half If you throw atelephone call into there that's
(38:44):
it.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
It's out the window, it's out the window.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
So you really almost happen to start to select.
Okay, I'm going to have to dothis in order to do this, and
then in order to do this, andthe way I see AI is like that
extra helper.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
That's what exactly it is.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
And I need you to do this.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
So something like that, if you are struggling with
multitasking that's why I askwhat tasks things people
commonly deal with.
Go find something I'm going toask my handy-dandy chatbot what
are its suggestions?
Not Clot itself multitasking,which it'll do.
Let's ask what are some tools?
(39:23):
Rto store managers.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Just so you guys know right now, if you're listening
to the audio, he's actuallytyping it in right now.
We need some real-time answersas to what we can use Multitask
better he's actually typing itin right now.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
We need some real-time answers as to what we
can use Multitask better.
I'm curious Because, if I learnsomething here.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
I'm going to be shocked.
I love learning new things.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
All right, it's got tools because it's confident.
That's the one thing you noticewith AI versus humans.
It's always got something.
It's going to tell you it's notgoing to be well, I don't
really know.
I shouldn't tell you this it'sa straight shooter, honestly,
and it's going to tell you againit's either yes or no, it's not
opinionated.
I mean it's opinionated butit's not going to as far as now.
(40:02):
It's not going to try to messwith it.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
You know one thing that I doesn't have feelings,
right.
So if you get back somethingthat you don't necessarily think
is going to work the way youwant it to work, or maybe you
didn't input the things that youthought would give you the
answer, or at least a generalanswer of what you're looking
for, you're like you know what Ido like the answer.
It is informative, it's givingme something, but that's just
(40:26):
not what I want.
You can literally go in thereand go no, that's not what I
want.
I want to do this, this andthis, Get a response, and you
don't have to worry aboutinsulting the computer and
saying you know what?
I worked, enslaved, over thelast 0.5 seconds to give you all
these answers and this is whatyou tell me.
I quit, that's it, I'm out.
It's a whole different ballgame, right?
So what do we have?
What is it they're saying thatwe can use to multitask better.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
All right.
So, like I said, it's got toolsfor it to share with us.
Yeah, digital tools.
There's task manager apps andI've heard about some of these,
uh, like trello or asana.
It tracks multiple projects anddelegate responsibilities.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Okay and that's all again, ai powered.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Uh, there's digital scheduling softwares for
employees, shifting timemanagement, inventory management
systems that send automaticalerts, restocking communication
platforms like slack ormicrosoft teams or quick team
updates.
And again, I don't know howmany people use slack.
I know it's a lot of companiesuse slack and yeah, okay, um,
their, their stuff is changed alot and it's ai powered um.
(41:26):
But, like I said, the asanathing is um one company we work
with.
They use it for everythingbecause they're having three
different reps assigned to acompany account and they're all
working on different thingssimultaneously.
Their notes are all sharedtogether.
They're not missing something.
Or if you're talking to a highlevel person there, they can put
those notes they had in thatconversation.
(41:47):
It goes back into it correctlyand it's not just sitting in
someone's phone or notebookbecause, oh, I forgot about it.
No it's not like that and in adifferent perspective, I'm just
going to type in my GoogleChrome search bar AI-powered
multitasking tools.
This is why it's accessible toeveryone.
You don't have to be a genius.
I don't proclaim to be a geniusor expert on any of this stuff
(42:10):
but we use it.
We use it because we go lookfor it.
You have to go look for it.
So, again, like that's why Iasked what is something people
struggle with?
Just go look for it.
Right now you're going to seethe sponsored stuff and
everything, but look through it.
I mean, the first thing is asponsored ad from mondaycom.
Smart operations managementsystems all in one solution.
There are so many things outthere.
(42:31):
Here's one the best AIproductivity tools in 2025.
Chatbots, search engines,content creation, grammar
checkers and wording tools,video creation and editing,
image generation, social mediamanagement.
I mean all these things thattake people time or take effort.
Again, not all these things aregonna be great, but it's out
(42:53):
Not all of these things aregoing to be great, but it's out
there.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
You know it's glad you mentioned that social media
management is something that wecould probably all do better,
and I know that you know, as youpull up Facebook, it has its
own meta right and you can, youcan kind of get in there and
resched right.
You can have something forTikTok, you can have something
for Facebook, you can havesomething for Instagram, you can
(43:16):
have something for LinkedIncoming from one spot.
I'm glad you mentioned thatbecause I forgot all about it.
But the AI reminded me thatthere is a tool out there to
literally manage all of yourcontent, so I could take,
instead of posting it to everysingle one every single time,
hoping that it fits.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
There's no reason to do that now.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Now that it fits.
The program of this one allows30 seconds, this one allows 60
seconds.
This one has to be framed in a16 by 9.
This one's got to be framed ina 4 by 3.
And you put all your content onthere and it rearranges it or
sets it up in a way that it candeliver at times that people are
active when they need to bedone.
So I need it done on Friday, Ineed it done on Thursday.
Well, it's going to tell meThursday at 7.03 is when I'm
(43:57):
usually more active than I'm not, and that's a great
recommendation from AI.
And these tools that are alreadyset here are something that we
can use all the time to getrent-to-own set up and kind of
utilize this on our day-to-day,from Zoom calls to making sure
that our information that we'reputting down is being reviewed
(44:18):
and taken care of on a regularbasis, or social media content
management.
That is literally somethingthat we need to be doing all the
time, and if you're not doingyour social media content
management, you need to.
Let me tell you now.
There is where it's going,especially from what's going on
in today's world, whereeverybody is connected to what's
on their phone.
It doesn't get any better thanthat.
(44:39):
What I want to tell you guys iswe appreciate you being here,
as always.
I want you guys to know I amwearing something from Vox
Populi.
This is the red shirts.
The red shirts are here, sowe're going to donate to our
veterans that are deployed, or Ishould say veterans or people
who are deployed Right now.
There's a $1 million goal.
Selling these, they woulddonate $5 to this fund and let
(45:02):
me tell you, every bit helps.
If you guys have anythingthat's going on in your place of
work and you want to do someapparel, please think about
getting the red apparel from VoxPopuli.
You can go onlinevox-pop-ulicom.
Make sure that you go there andlook it up.
You can get this set up withDaniel and his group at Vox
Populi.
No problem, we are set up onFacebook because we make sure
(45:24):
that we manage our Facebook,instagram, linkedin and you can
always find us on YouTube andDaniel, we're going to go into
part three now, soon.
We want to see you back verysoon, but, as always, I'll tell
you get your collections low toget your sales high.
Have a great one.
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