June 2, 2025 • 39 mins
A glass artist's son from Uruguay transforms into a rent-to-own industry leader—Leonard Alonso's journey captures the essence of entrepreneurial spirit and American opportunity.
At just 13 years old, Leonard was crafting glass Disney characters on Main Street after Walt Disney himself discovered his father's artistry at the 1965 World's Fair. This early training in craftsmanship and customer service laid the foundation for an extraordinary career path that would take him from Disneyland to the highest levels of the rent-to-own industry.
When Leonard transitioned to Champion TV (later becoming a 100+ store powerhouse), he started in the warehouse refurbishing scratched console televisions. His breakthrough came during a closed-door sale when his product knowledge and natural sales ability caught management's attention. This moment launched his ascent through operations—from store manager to regional director overseeing 54 locations—his secret weapon being a meticulous approach to product handling that dramatically reduced costs.
After decades in operational leadership across Champion, Color Time, Aaron's and more, Leonard identified a critical gap in the rent-to-own supply chain. Drawing on this insight, he founded JLR America, creating a streamlined supply solution specifically tailored to what rent-to-own operators actually need. What sets JLR America apart? A leadership team with over 50 years of combined in-store experience, competitive pricing, lower shipping thresholds, and the agility to make decisions "within a minute"—now serving over 500 rent-to-own stores nationwide.
Leonard's advice for aspiring entrepreneurs reflects his own success formula: "Hone your skill and don't be afraid. Take the plunge." Want to learn more about transforming industry expertise into entrepreneurial success? Explore JLR America at jlramerica.com or call 727-395-9121 to discover how their rent-to-own knowledge can support your business needs.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello and welcome to the RTO Show.
I'm your host, pete Chow, andtoday we're going into some
history on a new company thatyou might have heard of but you
might not know why they're here,and this is a great way that I
can introduce you to my nextguest Now.
Leonard's been doing this for along time, a really long time
now, but let me introduce youthe right way Leonard Javier
(00:29):
Alonso, now president and ownerof JLR.
And before we go into all thegood stuff, how are you doing?
I'm doing great.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
And that's JLR America.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
JLR America.
That's right.
Excuse me, make sure we getthat all in there Now.
Jlr America came from somerent-to-own roots and,
truthfully, when we're talkingabout roots, your roots stretch
from outside the US.
So I love to hear these storieswhere people come in and they
really take advantage of what wehave available to us and kind
of like the American dream right, I mean, that's what you were
(01:00):
able to do and kind of just takeit both hands and just make it
happen.
So walk me through this.
Uruguay, south America.
How did you end up in America?
From all the way down there,what got in your family and said
hey, you know what, we're goingto try?
The USA.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
My father was a glass artist in Uruguay, South
America, and he came to the 65World's Fair and had a booth
where he was showing off his art.
World's Fair and had a boothwhere he was showing off his art
and Walt Disney came by hisbooth and said I would like that
on Main Street in Disneyland,wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
So I just want to back that up for just one second
Now back in 65, we're talkingabout the Walt Disney, not just
somebody else.
No, the real Walt Disney, yes,wow.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Okay, and so they talked terms.
There was another companycalled the Erebus Brothers that
helped bring my father to theUnited States, and my father
became one of the glassengravers at Disneyland.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
So he's an entrepreneur.
He gets taken all the way tothe US.
He brings the family with him.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Is this where you got the idea.
Like you know what.
This is what I need to do.
I need to fund my Americandream by just getting out there
and getting it done, causeyou've had several glass jobs
since then.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, I actually learned the family business
started young, working as aglassblower at Disney.
I was 13 years old at 14.
I was already on main street,uh, making custom orders for
people, Wow.
And I did that for severalyears.
And then one day I decided Ididn't want a job where I just
(02:30):
sat in one place the whole timeand when you're in manufacturing
you're stuck to that one area.
So I went and interviewed withWestgate TV, which was Champion
TV At that time.
They had six stores, but theyeventually had over 100 stores
when they sold.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Champion really grew.
Yeah, they had some grassrootsgrowth there that really just
kind of took off.
Yes, I want to ask them realquick what did you make?
When you say glass, what didyou make?
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I made all the Disney characters.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Okay, so these were little minis, little Mickeys.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Correct, wow, okay, so these were little minis,
little mickeys.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Correct, wow, correct .
So I'm going to be honest, man,that sounds like that's not
something that a little kid goesout and does, right, I mean,
this takes talent, this takesdrive, this takes dedication On
top of that.
You know, in some cases youknow, like the blue collar
worker that takes anapprenticeship you have to learn
.
Did you learn from dad?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I did, my father taught me, and my brother and my
mom and we learned how to allmake glass at the house at first
, Wow.
And then other members of thefamily learned it.
My uncle, my cousin and weliterally had a small little
factory in our garage where wewere blowing glass.
It sounds like Apple andMicrosoft.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
You start in the garage and you just go on from
there.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
And then somebody called in at Disney and said hey
, we need a glass blower on MainStreet.
And what's your son doing?
He was like, well, my son'sonly 14 years old, but I still
went there and blew glass infront of everybody.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Wow, I mean, the reason I ask, Leonard, is
because rent-to-own back thenwas a new business.
Right, it was sprouting, it wasgrowing, but you had to be a
worker, I mean, you had to beable to put in some time.
Now you go back to how hardthat was to get things for your
family to just kind of like, hey, we're going to make this
happen.
Now you're following in dad'sfootsteps, you're doing
(04:20):
something that's difficult.
How great was that transitionto be able to pull all that
knowledge, all that work, effortand all that grit to the RTO
industry.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Oh, it really helped Because at that time in 1981,
when you worked for arental-owned company, you were
working seven days a week.
Yeah, it was a full-time joband it was 60, 70 hours a week
and we enjoyed every minute ofit.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
I can't imagine the seven-day-a-week.
I enjoyed every minute of it.
I can't imagine the seven day aweek.
I did come on, at least when itwas six days.
I mean I've had seven days.
They had the Santa Saturdaysand stuff like that to go on to
the weekends and stuff.
So we'd had seven days a weekbut that was like probably 48
weeks out of the year.
I at least had the six days.
But back then it was justblossoming.
I mean there was so much thathappened at Rent to Own from the
early tallies and you know wehad talked about before, you
(05:05):
know, the Ken Butlers and thepeople you know, really
blossoming into this industryand it's good to hear that you
were a part of that back then.
So you, I mean you kind ofstarted on a whole bottom level
with Champion.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yes, I started.
I ran a warehouse and worked arefurbishing center where all
the consoles that would getscratched up they would come
into my area and I would touchthem up with Mohawk kits.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Oh, the Mohawk kits, and I'd gotten pretty good at it
.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
And what moved me out of the warehouse was they were
having a closed door sale onenight and they invited me to go
in there and said we need yourhelp.
You don't really know ouragreement, but you can at least
help us with customers.
And I went and started helpingcustomers buy things and I kept
moving them over to the customerservice reps so they could do
(05:56):
the agreement.
And at the end of the nightthey called me in there and said
what were you telling thesepeople, these people?
We've never had anybody sell somany items.
What were you saying people,these people we've never had
anybody sell so many items.
What were you saying?
And I said nothing.
I was just telling them aboutmy product knowledge.
And the next day I met with aregional manager and he said
we're moving you out of thewarehouse.
You need to be in sales.
(06:16):
And that's how rental reallystarted blossoming there.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So for me, I guess the biggest question is not only
being able to move up.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
That's great Refurbishment center.
We never had one of those.
What?
What exactly is a refurbishmentcenter?
Yeah, well, uh, at that time wehad um Westgate TV which became
champion.
Uh, they had six um Westgate TVstores which carried console
TVs.
They were made out of wood, oh,the consoles, yeah, and so they
(06:51):
would get nicked.
They would get nicked and theywould bring them into the
refreshment center and we wouldtouch them up.
How many stores did that cover?
It was six stores and, believeit or not, they would bring in
between four and 10 of thosethings a day.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Well, you know, the worst thing I got, to be honest,
the worst thing was the drivers.
They'd get in homes but it wasthe manipulation of the movement
from one place to the nextbecause they were cumbersome,
they were big, they were heavyand on top of that TVs.
Nowadays they probably weigh 20pounds.
But even though back then youhad a 20-inch, 24-inch TV, those
things were like 20, 30 poundson top of the basket that they
(07:20):
were in.
So you had this wooden consolething that were inside of us.
You're talking about 120 poundthing and you get a couple of
guys and, unfortunately, justmoving it back and forth or
whatever you're doing around toown it.
You know it gets.
It gets to the point where itneeds a little love.
And if you guys don't know this, the Mohawk kids are famous for
being able to.
They got great markers, theyhave great crayons and stuff
like that.
So you start there but it says54 stores.
(07:44):
How did you get to be from theguy who's in the warehouse to
over 54 locations?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So I moved into a store manager's position.
I got promoted, and when I gotpromoted to a store manager I
had learned from the experienceof what not to do when you
handle product, and so we werevery strict on how we handled
our product and our rentalreturns and consequently my cost
of goods was always 5% to 10%lower than the rest of the
(08:10):
company.
And one day they came in andsaid why are you so much lower
than everybody?
And it's because of the way wehandled product.
I handled product like a mover.
Every item always got wrappedwith a blanket.
Back then we used tape, wedidn't have rubber bands and
nothing got handled unless itwas properly padded before it
went to the truck.
I mean that drastically, reducesit drastically because the
(08:32):
customers rarely did any of thedamage.
It was always the drivers.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
It's 80%, if not more .
It's our fault, unfortunately.
Then we take it out there andwe want them to hold onto it and
do some good with it.
But sometimes they seem likeman, if you're not going to
treat it good, then whatdifference does it make for me?
And that that's a bad way tobuild a relationship.
So you take care of some stuff,you have some good
refurbishment that piles on thework for you Now.
Now you've got stores andstores and stores.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
No, what happened is I went from a store than
everybody else, which wentdirectly to the bottom line, and
they wanted the rest of thecompany to be that successful,
and that's how I got promoted toa regional director.
When I left Champion, we had108 stores and I was in charge
of 54 of them.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
That's a story, but then you keep on going.
Where does Color Time come intoall this?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I left Champion and went to Color Time as a VP of
operations.
I had 30 stores and I was therefor three years.
Color Time was not a growingentity at that time either, and
I ended up with Aaron's and Iworked there for three years and
(09:46):
there I used some of my skillsin refurbishment to help create
the certification zone.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
It was actually a dream child of Ken Butler's, but
my region was the one that setit up Now Ken Butler, a friend
of the show, and I can tell youright now I'm a fan.
Oh, big time but you'vementioned some other people that
you've met along the way.
Now, if you guys don't remember, ken Butler was on a couple
weeks ago and he was the COO ofAaron's for many, many a year
and helped him achieve greatheights.
(10:14):
But then there were some otherpeople that you met with,
including Larry Sutton, which Iam a huge fan of Larry's.
He has, you know, the R&R andlet me tell you every time that
he has something to say, I justgot to stop and listen.
I really enjoy listening tospeak.
I enjoy what he's brought tothe table over the years.
How do you know Larry?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Larry was a champion franchise, an affiliate of ours,
and he had at one time had 30plus stores and I ran, of course
, the corporate side, and himand I would always speak back
and forth on what was workingfor us and new techniques,
because we were in the firststages of Rent to Own, so we
(10:55):
were making stuff up as we wentalong, literally, and we had a
great comradeship.
I ended up working for Larrywhen I went back to Rentway.
Rentway eventually boughtChampion and eventually I went
back to that company and endedup working with all the guys I
had worked with before and Larryended up being my boss.
(11:16):
Oh, wow yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Well, you know, I've always said and this is the God
honest truth, there are peoplethat have worked for me, that
I've worked for, and there arepeople that I've worked for that
work for me.
And it's one of thoserelationships of rent to own.
Don't burn your bridges,correct?
Remember to respect your people.
I do, because it can alwaysturn around to where one day you
never know.
I mean, this is just the ebbsand flow of the business.
(11:39):
You know, one day you could besomething and then they get
bought out, or you buy outsomething that you were a part
of, and then it just goes backand forth.
There's a time when you know,aaron's had over 22, almost 2300
stores, now they're down,rent-a-center the same.
They had almost 3000 stores,now they're down.
And it's like you never knowwhere you're going to end up and
(12:01):
where you're going to be.
Of my most favorite people, Imean, I met Paul in the early
two thousands when he wasrunning a location.
I was running a location, wewere under the same district
manager and then years later heis the VP of of you know impact
holdings.
Oh, the president.
I'm sorry.
You're absolutely right.
He's recently a president,which April great shout out to
Paul.
(12:21):
He did a great job of that Forsure.
I mean just to highlight someof the great things that he's
done and it's like it's great toknow that there's still that
there.
So, coming into this, you haveall this knowledge.
You've been in the operationsside.
Now you're bringing all thistogether and then you actually
go and make a different turnfrom rent-to-own and you start
(12:43):
kind of supplying rent-to-own.
But you did that for a while.
Yeah, talk to me about that.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
So I left rent-to-own and, especially my last few
years, I was traveling a lot, Iwas working in Miami, west Palm,
opening new stores, and I wason the road a lot.
I decided to really stay moreat home and I decided to go work
for a vendor that was supplyingthe rent to own side with
accessories, and I reallyenjoyed it.
(13:10):
I was there for 21 years astheir VP of sales and it was
something that I always dreamedof having my own business doing
the same thing.
Because there was such a needto have a one-stop shop that
would carry all these things,because I remember as a manager,
all the time I would not waste,but all the time it took and
spent finding items that Ineeded to buy, or sometimes you
(13:34):
would get low quality items,thinking you were getting this
but you got something else, andso I wanted to be that person
that supplied the rent-to-ownindustry with everything they
need to run their business.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
So we're talking about other vendors that have
done this.
And then you decide to say youknow what?
I think there's a better way todo this, as Ken Butler would
say, I think there's a bettermousetrap right.
And so you put this togetherand here out of that comes JLR
America.
That's correct.
So, leonard, help me out.
We have places like RES, wehave places like Petro.
(14:06):
What stands out about JLR?
Why come into it when you havetwo big companies like that and
say you know what?
Here I am, I've done this.
I kind of know what's going on.
What sets you apart, what madeyou decide to go down this road?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
sets you apart.
What made you decide to go downthis road?
Well, what really did?
It was because I had thein-store experience that none of
my competitors had.
It gave me the leg up at mylast job because I understood
where rent-to-own was comingfrom.
I knew what they needed, andthat's what drives us apart.
Currently, jlr America, we haveover 50 years in combined
(14:43):
rent-to-own in-store experienceworking for us.
So we're talking aboutfrontline operations Frontline
operations I'm talking aboutfrom the store level all the way
to multi-unit.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
So how far do you reach?
Is this all over America?
This is nationwide Okay, so wehave no problem getting product
anywhere, correct?
So if I'm somebody that's beenusing your competitor, what is
it that Leonard says to me?
Hey, you know what?
This is a better deal.
Is it the pricing?
Is it the customer service?
What exactly sets?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
it off.
Well, it's the pricing we'revery competitive or lower.
It's also our free shippingguidelines are lower and we
carry really only the goods thata store would need
Understanding rent-to-own.
I don't bring in items thatrent-to-own has no use for or
(15:35):
flashy items that they might buyonce or twice, but I carry the
staple items that all rent toown needs to buy.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
So is that how you keep the pricing down?
We don't indulge in all theother things have a lot of
overhead and then sit on it forforever and ever, and ever.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
No, no, we don't do that.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
So, you know, I've got to ask, with everything
that's going on, how is thetariffs, how is the things going
on, you know on, currently inthe landscape of shipping
between one country to another,the manufacturers to the
purchasers, how is thataffecting JLR?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Well, this did take us by surprise.
The tariff was not somethingthat we even expected, but we've
really buy from many vendorsvendors that manufacture in the
Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand,Taiwan and we've always bought
(16:27):
from several of them.
We didn't put all our eggs inone basket on one China source,
Although we do buy from a Chinasource that currently is sort of
on hold because the othercountries are coming to us even
though they have a tariff.
They have lowered pricing tosidestep the tariff per se, so
(16:51):
pricing should remain relativelyeven to what it is now.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
So, as far as the capability of JLR America,
sometimes we have companies thathave 19 stores, 20 stores, some
companies that have five, butthen you have some companies
that are sitting on quite a few.
You've got Rent One that havequite a few, you know.
You've got Mike Tissett up inOhio.
That's got 44, 42, 44 stores.
You've got some of the guys inthe Northeast that are sitting.
You know Blue Ocean I thinkit's Blue Ocean, I'm trying to
(17:20):
say that right, but you knowthey're acquiring more and more
now you know.
So you've got guys that havegot a lot of decent amount of
stores.
How is the supply chain workingfor those large vendors?
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Well, we currently supply over 500 stores.
Okay, and you know, we justcelebrated a one-year
anniversary At the same time.
We don't just supply rent toown, we supply the appliance
retailer and the installationcompanies with all their
appliance installation supplies.
We're also a StereoFab vendor,a StereoFab distributor, an
(17:51):
authorized distributor.
So we sell thrift stores likeGoodwill, salvation Army and
many other chains.
When I say 500, I'm talkingabout just rent to own.
There's probably severalhundred other in the thrift area
and there's a couple hundred inthe appliance side.
So JLR America is growing.
(18:12):
Oh yeah, we've grown literallyevery month.
I've always thought that I dida great job of growing on the
rent-to-own side, but I, youknow this business is right up
my alley.
I've done pretty well at mycompetitors, for I was there for
21 years and we grew 18 out of21 years.
Okay, well, that's great.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
First off, that's great.
The other thing, you mentionedMike Tissot, and he is a
supporter of my business, whichyou know.
He's a great guy and a greatcustomer and great company.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Well, you know I think we said it, we said in the
green room before and I'll sayit again, listen when everything
was going and you know thepodcast was changing.
We're trying to figure out howwe're going to do it and what
was going to be the status quogoing on from there.
You know he was one of thefirst interviewees that came on
and actually was on the show andhelped us kind of figure out
where we were going.
(19:04):
Great interview.
I mean we love him to death.
He's always so busy I'll neverget a chance.
I don't know if I'll ever get achance to get him back on again
, but I mean he had a great, itwas great to see him and I've
talked to him several timessince then.
He just stays constantly busy.
But we owe it to Mike forgiving us that opportunity and
we haven't looked back.
I thank God for Mike all thetime.
But as you're going into this,you're growing, you're moving.
(19:25):
What challenges have you had toovercome as, coming into this,
you've got a couple of peoplealready set up, I mean
rent-a-home guys.
They're historical.
You kind of know what they'regoing to do.
They have this ability to justkind of stay on the status quo
If nothing's broken, don't fixit, and I'm not saying that's a
bad thing.
So how do you break into that?
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, Well, I think it's through relationships Over
the last 40 years that I wasinvolved in Rent to Own.
I took my relationships veryseriously and I nurtured them,
and I've made some very goodfriends in the industry that are
, you know, some of the bigdoers in the industry today.
I've always looked at thisindustry as an industry where
(20:05):
the entry level guy delivery guycould start today and within a
year could be a store manager ifthat's what he wants to do.
All he has to do is set hissights on it and he'll be that
person If he wants to be amulti-unit guy that is within
his reach.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
That's always important, right?
We always want somebody to beable to move up, especially in
rent-to-own business.
The rent-to-own business is oneof those that you know.
I don't think we ever mentionedit enough and I know that we've
mentioned it on a podcastbefore.
But you know, you don't have tobe a rocket scientist, you
don't have to have a six-yeardegree.
You have to be a hard worker tobe able to come in, build
(20:43):
relationships, do your job in atimely manner and make sure that
you take care of the peoplethat take care of you, and that
is a success recipe.
I don't care who you are, Idon't care how far you go.
You can take that all the wayto the top, and you know that.
I mean you know, when youmentioned 50 years, you
mentioned 50 years of operating,and I know that you're almost
(21:06):
there, but is there anybody else?
That kind of helps you makethis flow, that you can say we
do this together.
And this is where thistimeframe comes from.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Yeah, absolutely.
So you know I've got 21in-storeown years and plus 20
more years of servicing theindustry, but I also have a VP
of sales, larry Oller, which hasover 30 years in rent-to-own
all in-store experience, whichhas really helped our
rent-to-own side of the business.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
So when you're looking for somebody, where did
Larry come from?
How did that come up?
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Larry, uh worked well .
Larry had worked at RES for awhile, that's true.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
I do remember that.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, he was talking about there was a lapse in in in
his career, where he went towork for rent to own as a
salesperson and him and I gotalong very well, Okay and um,
that's how our relationshipstarted and we've always talked
about the possibility of, uh, medoing something and him coming
to work for me, and so when itbecame true, I called.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
You reached out, I called yes, all right, I've
noticed and we've talked aboutthis too again in the green room
.
We've talked about certainthings that some of your
competitors might get that arekind of falling off.
They're not important, theydon't stay on the books or
whatever the case is, parts thatwe don't need, parts that sit
in their warehouse.
You're saying that you're verystreamlined.
How did you come up with theidea that we should be more
(22:26):
streamlined, and is it juststreamlined to the rent-to-own
process versus the furnitureworld?
Does the furniture carrydifferent things than the
rent-to-own carries?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Well, if you carry basic staple items that
rent-to-own buys, you know howmuch inventory to keep.
If you carry 15 different typesof HDMI cables, like we carry
five but if you carry 15different sizes, it becomes a
lot harder for you to keep thestock.
And now you're going to bebackordering items.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Is that like a four-letter word?
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Just a lot longer right Backorder.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Sure, I mean the problems that are coming up and
I've noticed.
So one thing that I did noticeright is that a few months ago
they had a lot of people buy alot of things and they're saying
you know, in the fourth quartersome people might've reached
out, bought a lot of thingsbecause they knew that this was
coming.
In this situation you're notthat way because you're not
selling TVs and furniture andstuff like that.
But I also hear and again, I'mnot an economist, I don't know
(23:19):
but that there's a possibilitythat because there's so much
overflow that's sitting there inChina and they're trying to get
out, they might actually haveundercut prices just to move.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
It Is that something that you take advantage of.
I've heard that.
No, we have not, our vendorshave not told me that, but we've
heard that that could behappening up the pike because
there's so many containers beingcanceled because of the
uncertainty of the tariff and alot of people are switching over
to friendlier places to gettheir goods.
(23:51):
Or also, the United Statescarries a lot of the goods we
carry.
Stereofab is an Americanproduct.
It is made in the United States, in New York.
Well, let's push that.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
We do, let's make that happen, besides the fact
that New York's already goingthrough its rent-to-own issues,
as is.
But as far as JLR, I see you ata lot of places that I don't
see your competitors at.
That is probably one of the bigdifferences that I've noticed
is that when I go to Meeting ofthe Minds, when I go to a Trib
event, just like when I go to anAPRO event or the combination
(24:24):
of the two, I see you guys therewhere I don't see a lot of your
competitors, or if I do,they're in a different capacity.
Does that help you out?
I mean, being a part of Trib,being a part of APRO, being at
these events, yeah, no doubt Oneof the biggest kicks or help
that we've gotten was from Trib.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Going to Trib just totally moved us in the proper
direction and I've always feltlike we need to support the
people that support us, and alot of these association shows
are made up of the same peoplewe're selling, so we support
their show, they support us.
It works very well so it.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
I mean, I know that you've seen these, probably a
lot.
You've seen these shows timeand time again, from the from
the beginning to now, right, andthere's these big changeovers
now, I mean it's just from 1981to, yeah, I mean you, you see a
lot of things that come and go.
As a matter of fact, two of thegreatest people that I've
talked to and I'm going to missvery dearly, although we're
going to try to reach out tothem very, very soon Ed Wynn,
(25:25):
ceo of Council for April 40years and Gary Ferryman, who was
recently, is going to be on theshow.
He's on the show.
He's going to be releasedpretty soon.
Forty four years in the rentalhome business.
So you know.
My question is you started JLRAmerica.
You've hit that 40 year mark.
Where do we go from here?
How long are we going to be inJLR?
Are you going to pass thehandoff?
You're going to be this for thenext 10 years.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
You know, as long as I'm healthy, I'm going to run
the show, you know, and there'llbe today.
What I do see is, um, there,it's becoming a lot more
technical.
Uh, things are a lot moreadvanced.
Uh, now we got AI into the mixand we've got to stay in touch
and keep up with that.
If not, we're going to be leftbehind, and that is what we're
doing.
I mean, I'm I'm bringing inpeople that understand, um,
technology, and that's whatwe're doing.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I mean I'm bringing in people that understand
technology, and that's howyou're going to create the
better workflow.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
So what do you see?
I mean, you've been doingrent-to-own a long time.
Not only have you been inrent-to-own, you've been
servicing rent-to-own, you havepeople that have been in the
business for a long time.
No-transcript, because I thinkeverybody I've asked said AI,
(26:40):
and I'm with you 100%.
I think AI is here to stay andI don't care what you do.
Some form, some way, somehow AIis permeating into everything
that we do.
So, besides the changeover tosome of the AI events, is there
something coming down the pipethe way?
Maybe you help them, or whatyou've seen?
Speaker 2 (27:01):
You know I'm selling a lot more of this.
That's changing in the way therent-to-own world works.
Yes, in fact we've done thatfor years, long before
technology came in here.
I remember when the mattressencasement hit the market and
that was a game changer becausein the rent-to-own industry we
were discarding mattresses.
They'd be on rent for a coupleof months, come back and you'd
have to get rid of them.
And the mattress encasement,which is one of our top items,
(27:23):
that was the game changer and weimmediately started telling
everybody in the industry aboutit.
I mean there was other vendorsout there like Protect-A-Bed in
the industry about it.
I mean there was other vendorsout there like Protect-A-Bed,
but when the wholesaledistributor that I had worked
for started carrying it, that'sreally when it became
streamlined with rent-to-own,because we were already
(27:47):
supplying the majority ofrent-to-own companies with their
other goods.
It was much easier just tothrow a couple of encasements in
with a dryer and range cordthan it was buying an entire
case or however much you had tobuy from the other company.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Tell me about it.
Yeah, I mean you always have tomatch what's good with what's
coming.
Yeah, so if I wanted to be acustomer of JLR America, right,
I've already got these otherguys' information.
How do I get a hold of JLRAmerica and how do I change from
what I'm doing to what might bebetter for my company?
Speaker 2 (28:19):
We custom make just about everyone's programs, and
that program has to do withapprovals through a regional,
approvals through an owner, orjust sending order
acknowledgements that your storejust placed an order with us,
and so we also provide reportingthat will show you what your
stores have bought, and you knowwe're pretty strict on that and
(28:44):
that, I think, also sets usapart from our competition.
So how do I reach out to JLR?
Jlramericacom, or you can callme on my cell today and I'll
answer it.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
JLRAmericacom.
Man, you couldn't make it mucheasier.
What's the phone numbers thatthey can reach out to you guys?
Speaker 2 (29:01):
It's 727-395-9121 or cell phone is 813-230-7656.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
It doesn't get much better than that, guys.
You guys can reach out to theactual owner of JLR America and
talk the talk Right, and thenJLR America can walk the walk.
Yes, sir.
And it's great to hear that youguys have been able to
transition, that you have beenable to transition from being in
the business to supporting thebusiness, to owning a part of
the business.
Yes, sir.
I mean, isn't that the Americandream, absolutely dream, kind of
(29:36):
making it full circle.
So if you could say anything tosomebody who is looking to kind
of go down that road, either tobe an entrepreneur themselves,
or maybe they're a little bitnewer to the country and they
want to keep on pushing forward,what do you say to them,
leonard?
Speaker 2 (29:44):
I say hone your skill and don't be afraid.
Take the plunge.
The worst thing that can happenis it doesn't work and you'll
be doing something else.
But hone the skill, which meansperfect what you do and then go
do it.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
And I was listening to Deion Sanders the other day
because I find him veryfascinating.
Whether you like him or hatehim, I find him extremely
fascinating and he was sayingsomething about that.
You don't chase the grandness,you don't chase the money.
If you hone your skill, if youget better at what you do and
then you become the best at whatyou do, it will come to you.
(30:24):
All the benefits, all thebusiness, all the financial
stability will come to you.
Just be good at what you do andit will find you.
I agree with that 100%.
I enjoy listening to thatbecause he's very confident and
I don't find it off-putting Somepeople might but I find that if
you know what you're doing andyou know what you're worth, it
(30:45):
will get back.
It will give back.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Right as we were talking to Trib about becoming
Trib vendors, dennis from Tribgave me very good advice, which
was, he said, perfect whatyou're doing, first Make sure
you're working out the kinks.
You want to make a statementwhen you come out and everyone
knows about your company?
Yes, and we did.
(31:08):
We took his advice.
We worked out the kinks withsoftware, with website, with
personnel, with warehousedistribution, and it is working
very well.
That's good.
Best advice I was ever given,and so we held back for one trip
show.
We could have gone to the firsttrip show, but we didn't.
We waited till the next tripshow, and when we went, we made
(31:32):
a huge impact Made an impact.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
So from all the way to coming from Uruguay working
with dad, becoming likeliterally one-on-one with you
know Walt Disney doing that, andthen transitioning and taking
all that knowledge, all thatdedication, all that skill to
rent, to own, doing that for 20something years and then kind of
being supportive of thebusiness for 20 something years
Now doing JLR America, I got tosay I appreciate the grit.
(31:57):
It's nice to see somebody herewho's gone that far.
You know you mentioned a coupleother names.
It was Joe Fedorchek, is itMike Gerwe?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Yeah, so I had worked for.
These are a couple guys that Idid work for and they were
mentors of mine.
One was Joe Fedorchik.
He was, uh, the guy in chargeof the state of florida for
errands and he's the guy thatreally showed me how to take
rent to own to a different level.
Uh, then what?
Because you know I had worked abig store and rent to own back
(32:25):
then was maybe 90 grand and thenyou come work for errands where
the average store's doing 150plus and it was really because
of Ken Butler had a message andhe had people like Joe Fedorchik
that took it out into the fieldexactly the way.
It was told to him and it wasamazing working for him.
(32:46):
It was tough, he was a toughguy but he was probably one of
the best bosses I had.
The other one was Mike Gerwig Sr.
Mike Gerwig Sr was the founderof RES Accessories and Mike
Gerwig Sr was a showman.
He also valued therelationships more than anyone
I've ever known.
It is no different.
(33:07):
We treated wholesaledistribution no different than
rent-to-own treats theircustomers.
You build that relationshipwith the customer so you can
continue selling goods to thatcustomer, and that's what
wholesale distribution is.
Same thing Every chance you get, you stop and you make sure
that you build the relationshipwith that customer and you know
(33:30):
who that customer is, you knowwho his kids are, you know where
he lives.
You know who his kids are.
You know where he lives, youknow what he likes.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Oh, I mean, building a relationship is a part of a
couple things being dependableand being able to be depended on
, and making sure that, as yougo through things, you have that
open relationship, that openconversation.
This is what I can do.
This is what I can do, and Iwant to get you to ownership.
How does that work?
And I know that builds in JLR.
I got one question, though whendid JLR come?
Speaker 2 (33:57):
from.
Well, there's actually me andtwo other partners.
I'm the L.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Okay, all right.
So who are the other partners?
Speaker 2 (34:07):
They're silent partners.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
They're silent.
Okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
The other one is JNR.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
JNR.
Yeah, okay, gotcha All allright.
The other one is j and r.
J and r.
Yeah, okay, gotcha all right.
So j and r.
So j l r comes from thepartnership partner ownership,
correct, of jlr america.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Yes, okay, so, and everything is available online
everything's available onlineand we'll I mean setting up an
account with us very easy.
One of one of the another thingthat sets us apart is how
flexible we are.
We can move on a dime, we makedecisions right there in the
office, and we can make themwithin a minute.
Well, good.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
I mean, making it happen is so important.
Nowadays, we really do have tomove at the drop of a hat and
making sure that our customersare getting what they need,
whether you are prepared and yougot things taken care of on
time, or whether you got to getthat order in right away.
I mean we just got to move.
We got to move and make ithappen.
I'm so happy that you're here.
I mean, leonard, we couldprobably sit here and talk rent
(35:04):
to own all day, but I think thatthe focus is JLR America is
here to kind of rival what'sgoing on.
Make sure they take care of thecustomers and make sure they do
it with the rent-to-own mindset.
All right, yes, sir.
Well, listen, leonard, alonzo,we really appreciate you being
here.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for beingwith us.
Listen, if you have anyquestions for Alonzo, please hit
(35:25):
up the show.
You can reach us at Pete, atTheRTOShowPodcastcom.
You can hit us on the DMs.
We have Facebook, instagram,linkedin and now YouTube.
Don't forget to subscribe and Iwill tell you.
Guys, as always, thank you forbeing here.
Get your collections low to getyour sales high.
Have a great one, thank you.
Hello and welcome to the RTO Show.
I'm your host, pete Chow, andtoday we're going into some
history on a new company thatyou might have heard of but you
might not know why they're here,and this is a great way that I
can introduce you to my nextguest Now.
Leonard's been doing this for along time, a really long time
now, but let me introduce youthe right way Leonard Javier
(00:29):
Alonso, now president and ownerof JLR.
And before we go into all thegood stuff, how are you doing?
I'm doing great.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
And that's JLR America.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
JLR America.
That's right.
Excuse me, make sure we getthat all in there Now.
Jlr America came from somerent-to-own roots and,
truthfully, when we're talkingabout roots, your roots stretch
from outside the US.
So I love to hear these storieswhere people come in and they
really take advantage of what wehave available to us and kind
of like the American dream right, I mean, that's what you were
(01:00):
able to do and kind of just takeit both hands and just make it
happen.
So walk me through this.
Uruguay, south America.
How did you end up in America?
From all the way down there,what got in your family and said
hey, you know what, we're goingto try?
The USA.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
My father was a glass artist in Uruguay, South
America, and he came to the 65World's Fair and had a booth
where he was showing off his art.
World's Fair and had a boothwhere he was showing off his art
and Walt Disney came by hisbooth and said I would like that
on Main Street in Disneyland,wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
So I just want to back that up for just one second
Now back in 65, we're talkingabout the Walt Disney, not just
somebody else.
No, the real Walt Disney, yes,wow.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Okay, and so they talked terms.
There was another companycalled the Erebus Brothers that
helped bring my father to theUnited States, and my father
became one of the glassengravers at Disneyland.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
So he's an entrepreneur.
He gets taken all the way tothe US.
He brings the family with him.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Is this where you got the idea.
Like you know what.
This is what I need to do.
I need to fund my Americandream by just getting out there
and getting it done, causeyou've had several glass jobs
since then.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, I actually learned the family business
started young, working as aglassblower at Disney.
I was 13 years old at 14.
I was already on main street,uh, making custom orders for
people, Wow.
And I did that for severalyears.
And then one day I decided Ididn't want a job where I just
(02:30):
sat in one place the whole timeand when you're in manufacturing
you're stuck to that one area.
So I went and interviewed withWestgate TV, which was Champion
TV At that time.
They had six stores, but theyeventually had over 100 stores
when they sold.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Champion really grew.
Yeah, they had some grassrootsgrowth there that really just
kind of took off.
Yes, I want to ask them realquick what did you make?
When you say glass, what didyou make?
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I made all the Disney characters.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Okay, so these were little minis, little Mickeys.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Correct, wow, okay, so these were little minis,
little mickeys.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Correct, wow, correct .
So I'm going to be honest, man,that sounds like that's not
something that a little kid goesout and does, right, I mean,
this takes talent, this takesdrive, this takes dedication On
top of that.
You know, in some cases youknow, like the blue collar
worker that takes anapprenticeship you have to learn
.
Did you learn from dad?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I did, my father taught me, and my brother and my
mom and we learned how to allmake glass at the house at first
, Wow.
And then other members of thefamily learned it.
My uncle, my cousin and weliterally had a small little
factory in our garage where wewere blowing glass.
It sounds like Apple andMicrosoft.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
You start in the garage and you just go on from
there.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
And then somebody called in at Disney and said hey
, we need a glass blower on MainStreet.
And what's your son doing?
He was like, well, my son'sonly 14 years old, but I still
went there and blew glass infront of everybody.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Wow, I mean, the reason I ask, Leonard, is
because rent-to-own back thenwas a new business.
Right, it was sprouting, it wasgrowing, but you had to be a
worker, I mean, you had to beable to put in some time.
Now you go back to how hardthat was to get things for your
family to just kind of like, hey, we're going to make this
happen.
Now you're following in dad'sfootsteps, you're doing
(04:20):
something that's difficult.
How great was that transitionto be able to pull all that
knowledge, all that work, effortand all that grit to the RTO
industry.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Oh, it really helped Because at that time in 1981,
when you worked for arental-owned company, you were
working seven days a week.
Yeah, it was a full-time joband it was 60, 70 hours a week
and we enjoyed every minute ofit.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
I can't imagine the seven-day-a-week.
I enjoyed every minute of it.
I can't imagine the seven day aweek.
I did come on, at least when itwas six days.
I mean I've had seven days.
They had the Santa Saturdaysand stuff like that to go on to
the weekends and stuff.
So we'd had seven days a weekbut that was like probably 48
weeks out of the year.
I at least had the six days.
But back then it was justblossoming.
I mean there was so much thathappened at Rent to Own from the
early tallies and you know wehad talked about before, you
(05:05):
know, the Ken Butlers and thepeople you know, really
blossoming into this industryand it's good to hear that you
were a part of that back then.
So you, I mean you kind ofstarted on a whole bottom level
with Champion.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yes, I started.
I ran a warehouse and worked arefurbishing center where all
the consoles that would getscratched up they would come
into my area and I would touchthem up with Mohawk kits.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Oh, the Mohawk kits, and I'd gotten pretty good at it
.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
And what moved me out of the warehouse was they were
having a closed door sale onenight and they invited me to go
in there and said we need yourhelp.
You don't really know ouragreement, but you can at least
help us with customers.
And I went and started helpingcustomers buy things and I kept
moving them over to the customerservice reps so they could do
(05:56):
the agreement.
And at the end of the nightthey called me in there and said
what were you telling thesepeople, these people?
We've never had anybody sell somany items.
What were you saying people,these people we've never had
anybody sell so many items.
What were you saying?
And I said nothing.
I was just telling them aboutmy product knowledge.
And the next day I met with aregional manager and he said
we're moving you out of thewarehouse.
You need to be in sales.
(06:16):
And that's how rental reallystarted blossoming there.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So for me, I guess the biggest question is not only
being able to move up.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
That's great Refurbishment center.
We never had one of those.
What?
What exactly is a refurbishmentcenter?
Yeah, well, uh, at that time wehad um Westgate TV which became
champion.
Uh, they had six um Westgate TVstores which carried console
TVs.
They were made out of wood, oh,the consoles, yeah, and so they
(06:51):
would get nicked.
They would get nicked and theywould bring them into the
refreshment center and we wouldtouch them up.
How many stores did that cover?
It was six stores and, believeit or not, they would bring in
between four and 10 of thosethings a day.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Well, you know, the worst thing I got, to be honest,
the worst thing was the drivers.
They'd get in homes but it wasthe manipulation of the movement
from one place to the nextbecause they were cumbersome,
they were big, they were heavyand on top of that TVs.
Nowadays they probably weigh 20pounds.
But even though back then youhad a 20-inch, 24-inch TV, those
things were like 20, 30 poundson top of the basket that they
(07:20):
were in.
So you had this wooden consolething that were inside of us.
You're talking about 120 poundthing and you get a couple of
guys and, unfortunately, justmoving it back and forth or
whatever you're doing around toown it.
You know it gets.
It gets to the point where itneeds a little love.
And if you guys don't know this, the Mohawk kids are famous for
being able to.
They got great markers, theyhave great crayons and stuff
like that.
So you start there but it says54 stores.
(07:44):
How did you get to be from theguy who's in the warehouse to
over 54 locations?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So I moved into a store manager's position.
I got promoted, and when I gotpromoted to a store manager I
had learned from the experienceof what not to do when you
handle product, and so we werevery strict on how we handled
our product and our rentalreturns and consequently my cost
of goods was always 5% to 10%lower than the rest of the
(08:10):
company.
And one day they came in andsaid why are you so much lower
than everybody?
And it's because of the way wehandled product.
I handled product like a mover.
Every item always got wrappedwith a blanket.
Back then we used tape, wedidn't have rubber bands and
nothing got handled unless itwas properly padded before it
went to the truck.
I mean that drastically, reducesit drastically because the
(08:32):
customers rarely did any of thedamage.
It was always the drivers.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
It's 80%, if not more .
It's our fault, unfortunately.
Then we take it out there andwe want them to hold onto it and
do some good with it.
But sometimes they seem likeman, if you're not going to
treat it good, then whatdifference does it make for me?
And that that's a bad way tobuild a relationship.
So you take care of some stuff,you have some good
refurbishment that piles on thework for you Now.
Now you've got stores andstores and stores.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
No, what happened is I went from a store than
everybody else, which wentdirectly to the bottom line, and
they wanted the rest of thecompany to be that successful,
and that's how I got promoted toa regional director.
When I left Champion, we had108 stores and I was in charge
of 54 of them.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
That's a story, but then you keep on going.
Where does Color Time come intoall this?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I left Champion and went to Color Time as a VP of
operations.
I had 30 stores and I was therefor three years.
Color Time was not a growingentity at that time either, and
I ended up with Aaron's and Iworked there for three years and
(09:46):
there I used some of my skillsin refurbishment to help create
the certification zone.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
It was actually a dream child of Ken Butler's, but
my region was the one that setit up Now Ken Butler, a friend
of the show, and I can tell youright now I'm a fan.
Oh, big time but you'vementioned some other people that
you've met along the way.
Now, if you guys don't remember, ken Butler was on a couple
weeks ago and he was the COO ofAaron's for many, many a year
and helped him achieve greatheights.
(10:14):
But then there were some otherpeople that you met with,
including Larry Sutton, which Iam a huge fan of Larry's.
He has, you know, the R&R andlet me tell you every time that
he has something to say, I justgot to stop and listen.
I really enjoy listening tospeak.
I enjoy what he's brought tothe table over the years.
How do you know Larry?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Larry was a champion franchise, an affiliate of ours,
and he had at one time had 30plus stores and I ran, of course
, the corporate side, and himand I would always speak back
and forth on what was workingfor us and new techniques,
because we were in the firststages of Rent to Own, so we
(10:55):
were making stuff up as we wentalong, literally, and we had a
great comradeship.
I ended up working for Larrywhen I went back to Rentway.
Rentway eventually boughtChampion and eventually I went
back to that company and endedup working with all the guys I
had worked with before and Larryended up being my boss.
(11:16):
Oh, wow yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Well, you know, I've always said and this is the God
honest truth, there are peoplethat have worked for me, that
I've worked for, and there arepeople that I've worked for that
work for me.
And it's one of thoserelationships of rent to own.
Don't burn your bridges,correct?
Remember to respect your people.
I do, because it can alwaysturn around to where one day you
never know.
I mean, this is just the ebbsand flow of the business.
(11:39):
You know, one day you could besomething and then they get
bought out, or you buy outsomething that you were a part
of, and then it just goes backand forth.
There's a time when you know,aaron's had over 22, almost 2300
stores, now they're down,rent-a-center the same.
They had almost 3000 stores,now they're down.
And it's like you never knowwhere you're going to end up and
(12:01):
where you're going to be.
Of my most favorite people, Imean, I met Paul in the early
two thousands when he wasrunning a location.
I was running a location, wewere under the same district
manager and then years later heis the VP of of you know impact
holdings.
Oh, the president.
I'm sorry.
You're absolutely right.
He's recently a president,which April great shout out to
Paul.
(12:21):
He did a great job of that Forsure.
I mean just to highlight someof the great things that he's
done and it's like it's great toknow that there's still that
there.
So, coming into this, you haveall this knowledge.
You've been in the operationsside.
Now you're bringing all thistogether and then you actually
go and make a different turnfrom rent-to-own and you start
(12:43):
kind of supplying rent-to-own.
But you did that for a while.
Yeah, talk to me about that.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
So I left rent-to-own and, especially my last few
years, I was traveling a lot, Iwas working in Miami, west Palm,
opening new stores, and I wason the road a lot.
I decided to really stay moreat home and I decided to go work
for a vendor that was supplyingthe rent to own side with
accessories, and I reallyenjoyed it.
(13:10):
I was there for 21 years astheir VP of sales and it was
something that I always dreamedof having my own business doing
the same thing.
Because there was such a needto have a one-stop shop that
would carry all these things,because I remember as a manager,
all the time I would not waste,but all the time it took and
spent finding items that Ineeded to buy, or sometimes you
(13:34):
would get low quality items,thinking you were getting this
but you got something else, andso I wanted to be that person
that supplied the rent-to-ownindustry with everything they
need to run their business.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
So we're talking about other vendors that have
done this.
And then you decide to say youknow what?
I think there's a better way todo this, as Ken Butler would
say, I think there's a bettermousetrap right.
And so you put this togetherand here out of that comes JLR
America.
That's correct.
So, leonard, help me out.
We have places like RES, wehave places like Petro.
(14:06):
What stands out about JLR?
Why come into it when you havetwo big companies like that and
say you know what?
Here I am, I've done this.
I kind of know what's going on.
What sets you apart, what madeyou decide to go down this road?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
sets you apart.
What made you decide to go downthis road?
Well, what really did?
It was because I had thein-store experience that none of
my competitors had.
It gave me the leg up at mylast job because I understood
where rent-to-own was comingfrom.
I knew what they needed, andthat's what drives us apart.
Currently, jlr America, we haveover 50 years in combined
(14:43):
rent-to-own in-store experienceworking for us.
So we're talking aboutfrontline operations Frontline
operations I'm talking aboutfrom the store level all the way
to multi-unit.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
So how far do you reach?
Is this all over America?
This is nationwide Okay, so wehave no problem getting product
anywhere, correct?
So if I'm somebody that's beenusing your competitor, what is
it that Leonard says to me?
Hey, you know what?
This is a better deal.
Is it the pricing?
Is it the customer service?
What exactly sets?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
it off.
Well, it's the pricing we'revery competitive or lower.
It's also our free shippingguidelines are lower and we
carry really only the goods thata store would need
Understanding rent-to-own.
I don't bring in items thatrent-to-own has no use for or
(15:35):
flashy items that they might buyonce or twice, but I carry the
staple items that all rent toown needs to buy.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
So is that how you keep the pricing down?
We don't indulge in all theother things have a lot of
overhead and then sit on it forforever and ever, and ever.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
No, no, we don't do that.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
So, you know, I've got to ask, with everything
that's going on, how is thetariffs, how is the things going
on, you know on, currently inthe landscape of shipping
between one country to another,the manufacturers to the
purchasers, how is thataffecting JLR?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Well, this did take us by surprise.
The tariff was not somethingthat we even expected, but we've
really buy from many vendorsvendors that manufacture in the
Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand,Taiwan and we've always bought
(16:27):
from several of them.
We didn't put all our eggs inone basket on one China source,
Although we do buy from a Chinasource that currently is sort of
on hold because the othercountries are coming to us even
though they have a tariff.
They have lowered pricing tosidestep the tariff per se, so
(16:51):
pricing should remain relativelyeven to what it is now.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
So, as far as the capability of JLR America,
sometimes we have companies thathave 19 stores, 20 stores, some
companies that have five, butthen you have some companies
that are sitting on quite a few.
You've got Rent One that havequite a few, you know.
You've got Mike Tissett up inOhio.
That's got 44, 42, 44 stores.
You've got some of the guys inthe Northeast that are sitting.
You know Blue Ocean I thinkit's Blue Ocean, I'm trying to
(17:20):
say that right, but you knowthey're acquiring more and more
now you know.
So you've got guys that havegot a lot of decent amount of
stores.
How is the supply chain workingfor those large vendors?
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Well, we currently supply over 500 stores.
Okay, and you know, we justcelebrated a one-year
anniversary At the same time.
We don't just supply rent toown, we supply the appliance
retailer and the installationcompanies with all their
appliance installation supplies.
We're also a StereoFab vendor,a StereoFab distributor, an
(17:51):
authorized distributor.
So we sell thrift stores likeGoodwill, salvation Army and
many other chains.
When I say 500, I'm talkingabout just rent to own.
There's probably severalhundred other in the thrift area
and there's a couple hundred inthe appliance side.
So JLR America is growing.
(18:12):
Oh yeah, we've grown literallyevery month.
I've always thought that I dida great job of growing on the
rent-to-own side, but I, youknow this business is right up
my alley.
I've done pretty well at mycompetitors, for I was there for
21 years and we grew 18 out of21 years.
Okay, well, that's great.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
First off, that's great.
The other thing, you mentionedMike Tissot, and he is a
supporter of my business, whichyou know.
He's a great guy and a greatcustomer and great company.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Well, you know I think we said it, we said in the
green room before and I'll sayit again, listen when everything
was going and you know thepodcast was changing.
We're trying to figure out howwe're going to do it and what
was going to be the status quogoing on from there.
You know he was one of thefirst interviewees that came on
and actually was on the show andhelped us kind of figure out
where we were going.
(19:04):
Great interview.
I mean we love him to death.
He's always so busy I'll neverget a chance.
I don't know if I'll ever get achance to get him back on again
, but I mean he had a great, itwas great to see him and I've
talked to him several timessince then.
He just stays constantly busy.
But we owe it to Mike forgiving us that opportunity and
we haven't looked back.
I thank God for Mike all thetime.
But as you're going into this,you're growing, you're moving.
(19:25):
What challenges have you had toovercome as, coming into this,
you've got a couple of peoplealready set up, I mean
rent-a-home guys.
They're historical.
You kind of know what they'regoing to do.
They have this ability to justkind of stay on the status quo
If nothing's broken, don't fixit, and I'm not saying that's a
bad thing.
So how do you break into that?
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, Well, I think it's through relationships Over
the last 40 years that I wasinvolved in Rent to Own.
I took my relationships veryseriously and I nurtured them,
and I've made some very goodfriends in the industry that are
, you know, some of the bigdoers in the industry today.
I've always looked at thisindustry as an industry where
(20:05):
the entry level guy delivery guycould start today and within a
year could be a store manager ifthat's what he wants to do.
All he has to do is set hissights on it and he'll be that
person If he wants to be amulti-unit guy that is within
his reach.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
That's always important, right?
We always want somebody to beable to move up, especially in
rent-to-own business.
The rent-to-own business is oneof those that you know.
I don't think we ever mentionedit enough and I know that we've
mentioned it on a podcastbefore.
But you know, you don't have tobe a rocket scientist, you
don't have to have a six-yeardegree.
You have to be a hard worker tobe able to come in, build
(20:43):
relationships, do your job in atimely manner and make sure that
you take care of the peoplethat take care of you, and that
is a success recipe.
I don't care who you are, Idon't care how far you go.
You can take that all the wayto the top, and you know that.
I mean you know, when youmentioned 50 years, you
mentioned 50 years of operating,and I know that you're almost
(21:06):
there, but is there anybody else?
That kind of helps you makethis flow, that you can say we
do this together.
And this is where thistimeframe comes from.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Yeah, absolutely.
So you know I've got 21in-storeown years and plus 20
more years of servicing theindustry, but I also have a VP
of sales, larry Oller, which hasover 30 years in rent-to-own
all in-store experience, whichhas really helped our
rent-to-own side of the business.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
So when you're looking for somebody, where did
Larry come from?
How did that come up?
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Larry, uh worked well .
Larry had worked at RES for awhile, that's true.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
I do remember that.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, he was talking about there was a lapse in in in
his career, where he went towork for rent to own as a
salesperson and him and I gotalong very well, Okay and um,
that's how our relationshipstarted and we've always talked
about the possibility of, uh, medoing something and him coming
to work for me, and so when itbecame true, I called.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
You reached out, I called yes, all right, I've
noticed and we've talked aboutthis too again in the green room
.
We've talked about certainthings that some of your
competitors might get that arekind of falling off.
They're not important, theydon't stay on the books or
whatever the case is, parts thatwe don't need, parts that sit
in their warehouse.
You're saying that you're verystreamlined.
How did you come up with theidea that we should be more
(22:26):
streamlined, and is it juststreamlined to the rent-to-own
process versus the furnitureworld?
Does the furniture carrydifferent things than the
rent-to-own carries?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Well, if you carry basic staple items that
rent-to-own buys, you know howmuch inventory to keep.
If you carry 15 different typesof HDMI cables, like we carry
five but if you carry 15different sizes, it becomes a
lot harder for you to keep thestock.
And now you're going to bebackordering items.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Is that like a four-letter word?
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Just a lot longer right Backorder.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Sure, I mean the problems that are coming up and
I've noticed.
So one thing that I did noticeright is that a few months ago
they had a lot of people buy alot of things and they're saying
you know, in the fourth quartersome people might've reached
out, bought a lot of thingsbecause they knew that this was
coming.
In this situation you're notthat way because you're not
selling TVs and furniture andstuff like that.
But I also hear and again, I'mnot an economist, I don't know
(23:19):
but that there's a possibilitythat because there's so much
overflow that's sitting there inChina and they're trying to get
out, they might actually haveundercut prices just to move.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
It Is that something that you take advantage of.
I've heard that.
No, we have not, our vendorshave not told me that, but we've
heard that that could behappening up the pike because
there's so many containers beingcanceled because of the
uncertainty of the tariff and alot of people are switching over
to friendlier places to gettheir goods.
(23:51):
Or also, the United Statescarries a lot of the goods we
carry.
Stereofab is an Americanproduct.
It is made in the United States, in New York.
Well, let's push that.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
We do, let's make that happen, besides the fact
that New York's already goingthrough its rent-to-own issues,
as is.
But as far as JLR, I see you ata lot of places that I don't
see your competitors at.
That is probably one of the bigdifferences that I've noticed
is that when I go to Meeting ofthe Minds, when I go to a Trib
event, just like when I go to anAPRO event or the combination
(24:24):
of the two, I see you guys therewhere I don't see a lot of your
competitors, or if I do,they're in a different capacity.
Does that help you out?
I mean, being a part of Trib,being a part of APRO, being at
these events, yeah, no doubt Oneof the biggest kicks or help
that we've gotten was from Trib.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Going to Trib just totally moved us in the proper
direction and I've always feltlike we need to support the
people that support us, and alot of these association shows
are made up of the same peoplewe're selling, so we support
their show, they support us.
It works very well so it.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
I mean, I know that you've seen these, probably a
lot.
You've seen these shows timeand time again, from the from
the beginning to now, right, andthere's these big changeovers
now, I mean it's just from 1981to, yeah, I mean you, you see a
lot of things that come and go.
As a matter of fact, two of thegreatest people that I've
talked to and I'm going to missvery dearly, although we're
going to try to reach out tothem very, very soon Ed Wynn,
(25:25):
ceo of Council for April 40years and Gary Ferryman, who was
recently, is going to be on theshow.
He's on the show.
He's going to be releasedpretty soon.
Forty four years in the rentalhome business.
So you know.
My question is you started JLRAmerica.
You've hit that 40 year mark.
Where do we go from here?
How long are we going to be inJLR?
Are you going to pass thehandoff?
You're going to be this for thenext 10 years.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
You know, as long as I'm healthy, I'm going to run
the show, you know, and there'llbe today.
What I do see is, um, there,it's becoming a lot more
technical.
Uh, things are a lot moreadvanced.
Uh, now we got AI into the mixand we've got to stay in touch
and keep up with that.
If not, we're going to be leftbehind, and that is what we're
doing.
I mean, I'm I'm bringing inpeople that understand, um,
technology, and that's whatwe're doing.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I mean I'm bringing in people that understand
technology, and that's howyou're going to create the
better workflow.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
So what do you see?
I mean, you've been doingrent-to-own a long time.
Not only have you been inrent-to-own, you've been
servicing rent-to-own, you havepeople that have been in the
business for a long time.
No-transcript, because I thinkeverybody I've asked said AI,
(26:40):
and I'm with you 100%.
I think AI is here to stay andI don't care what you do.
Some form, some way, somehow AIis permeating into everything
that we do.
So, besides the changeover tosome of the AI events, is there
something coming down the pipethe way?
Maybe you help them, or whatyou've seen?
Speaker 2 (27:01):
You know I'm selling a lot more of this.
That's changing in the way therent-to-own world works.
Yes, in fact we've done thatfor years, long before
technology came in here.
I remember when the mattressencasement hit the market and
that was a game changer becausein the rent-to-own industry we
were discarding mattresses.
They'd be on rent for a coupleof months, come back and you'd
have to get rid of them.
And the mattress encasement,which is one of our top items,
(27:23):
that was the game changer and weimmediately started telling
everybody in the industry aboutit.
I mean there was other vendorsout there like Protect-A-Bed in
the industry about it.
I mean there was other vendorsout there like Protect-A-Bed,
but when the wholesaledistributor that I had worked
for started carrying it, that'sreally when it became
streamlined with rent-to-own,because we were already
(27:47):
supplying the majority ofrent-to-own companies with their
other goods.
It was much easier just tothrow a couple of encasements in
with a dryer and range cordthan it was buying an entire
case or however much you had tobuy from the other company.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Tell me about it.
Yeah, I mean you always have tomatch what's good with what's
coming.
Yeah, so if I wanted to be acustomer of JLR America, right,
I've already got these otherguys' information.
How do I get a hold of JLRAmerica and how do I change from
what I'm doing to what might bebetter for my company?
Speaker 2 (28:19):
We custom make just about everyone's programs, and
that program has to do withapprovals through a regional,
approvals through an owner, orjust sending order
acknowledgements that your storejust placed an order with us,
and so we also provide reportingthat will show you what your
stores have bought, and you knowwe're pretty strict on that and
(28:44):
that, I think, also sets usapart from our competition.
So how do I reach out to JLR?
Jlramericacom, or you can callme on my cell today and I'll
answer it.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
JLRAmericacom.
Man, you couldn't make it mucheasier.
What's the phone numbers thatthey can reach out to you guys?
Speaker 2 (29:01):
It's 727-395-9121 or cell phone is 813-230-7656.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
It doesn't get much better than that, guys.
You guys can reach out to theactual owner of JLR America and
talk the talk Right, and thenJLR America can walk the walk.
Yes, sir.
And it's great to hear that youguys have been able to
transition, that you have beenable to transition from being in
the business to supporting thebusiness, to owning a part of
the business.
Yes, sir.
I mean, isn't that the Americandream, absolutely dream, kind of
(29:36):
making it full circle.
So if you could say anything tosomebody who is looking to kind
of go down that road, either tobe an entrepreneur themselves,
or maybe they're a little bitnewer to the country and they
want to keep on pushing forward,what do you say to them,
leonard?
Speaker 2 (29:44):
I say hone your skill and don't be afraid.
Take the plunge.
The worst thing that can happenis it doesn't work and you'll
be doing something else.
But hone the skill, which meansperfect what you do and then go
do it.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
And I was listening to Deion Sanders the other day
because I find him veryfascinating.
Whether you like him or hatehim, I find him extremely
fascinating and he was sayingsomething about that.
You don't chase the grandness,you don't chase the money.
If you hone your skill, if youget better at what you do and
then you become the best at whatyou do, it will come to you.
(30:24):
All the benefits, all thebusiness, all the financial
stability will come to you.
Just be good at what you do andit will find you.
I agree with that 100%.
I enjoy listening to thatbecause he's very confident and
I don't find it off-putting Somepeople might but I find that if
you know what you're doing andyou know what you're worth, it
(30:45):
will get back.
It will give back.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Right as we were talking to Trib about becoming
Trib vendors, dennis from Tribgave me very good advice, which
was, he said, perfect whatyou're doing, first Make sure
you're working out the kinks.
You want to make a statementwhen you come out and everyone
knows about your company?
Yes, and we did.
(31:08):
We took his advice.
We worked out the kinks withsoftware, with website, with
personnel, with warehousedistribution, and it is working
very well.
That's good.
Best advice I was ever given,and so we held back for one trip
show.
We could have gone to the firsttrip show, but we didn't.
We waited till the next tripshow, and when we went, we made
(31:32):
a huge impact Made an impact.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
So from all the way to coming from Uruguay working
with dad, becoming likeliterally one-on-one with you
know Walt Disney doing that, andthen transitioning and taking
all that knowledge, all thatdedication, all that skill to
rent, to own, doing that for 20something years and then kind of
being supportive of thebusiness for 20 something years
Now doing JLR America, I got tosay I appreciate the grit.
(31:57):
It's nice to see somebody herewho's gone that far.
You know you mentioned a coupleother names.
It was Joe Fedorchek, is itMike Gerwe?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Yeah, so I had worked for.
These are a couple guys that Idid work for and they were
mentors of mine.
One was Joe Fedorchik.
He was, uh, the guy in chargeof the state of florida for
errands and he's the guy thatreally showed me how to take
rent to own to a different level.
Uh, then what?
Because you know I had worked abig store and rent to own back
(32:25):
then was maybe 90 grand and thenyou come work for errands where
the average store's doing 150plus and it was really because
of Ken Butler had a message andhe had people like Joe Fedorchik
that took it out into the fieldexactly the way.
It was told to him and it wasamazing working for him.
(32:46):
It was tough, he was a toughguy but he was probably one of
the best bosses I had.
The other one was Mike Gerwig Sr.
Mike Gerwig Sr was the founderof RES Accessories and Mike
Gerwig Sr was a showman.
He also valued therelationships more than anyone
I've ever known.
It is no different.
(33:07):
We treated wholesaledistribution no different than
rent-to-own treats theircustomers.
You build that relationshipwith the customer so you can
continue selling goods to thatcustomer, and that's what
wholesale distribution is.
Same thing Every chance you get, you stop and you make sure
that you build the relationshipwith that customer and you know
(33:30):
who that customer is, you knowwho his kids are, you know where
he lives.
You know who his kids are.
You know where he lives, youknow what he likes.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Oh, I mean, building a relationship is a part of a
couple things being dependableand being able to be depended on
, and making sure that, as yougo through things, you have that
open relationship, that openconversation.
This is what I can do.
This is what I can do, and Iwant to get you to ownership.
How does that work?
And I know that builds in JLR.
I got one question, though whendid JLR come?
Speaker 2 (33:57):
from.
Well, there's actually me andtwo other partners.
I'm the L.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Okay, all right.
So who are the other partners?
Speaker 2 (34:07):
They're silent partners.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
They're silent.
Okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
The other one is JNR.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
JNR.
Yeah, okay, gotcha All allright.
The other one is j and r.
J and r.
Yeah, okay, gotcha all right.
So j and r.
So j l r comes from thepartnership partner ownership,
correct, of jlr america.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Yes, okay, so, and everything is available online
everything's available onlineand we'll I mean setting up an
account with us very easy.
One of one of the another thingthat sets us apart is how
flexible we are.
We can move on a dime, we makedecisions right there in the
office, and we can make themwithin a minute.
Well, good.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
I mean, making it happen is so important.
Nowadays, we really do have tomove at the drop of a hat and
making sure that our customersare getting what they need,
whether you are prepared and yougot things taken care of on
time, or whether you got to getthat order in right away.
I mean we just got to move.
We got to move and make ithappen.
I'm so happy that you're here.
I mean, leonard, we couldprobably sit here and talk rent
(35:04):
to own all day, but I think thatthe focus is JLR America is
here to kind of rival what'sgoing on.
Make sure they take care of thecustomers and make sure they do
it with the rent-to-own mindset.
All right, yes, sir.
Well, listen, leonard, alonzo,we really appreciate you being
here.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for beingwith us.
Listen, if you have anyquestions for Alonzo, please hit
(35:25):
up the show.
You can reach us at Pete, atTheRTOShowPodcastcom.
You can hit us on the DMs.
We have Facebook, instagram,linkedin and now YouTube.
Don't forget to subscribe and Iwill tell you.
Guys, as always, thank you forbeing here.
Get your collections low to getyour sales high.
Have a great one, thank you.
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