The RTO Show: "Let's talk Rent to Own"

Send us Fan Mail

  After nearly 12 years in rent-to-own and 27 episodes of the show, Danny is leaving the industry. He's heading to a pool manufacturing and distribution company — a complete career pivot — driven by the need for a better work-life balance. With three kids, a teenager about to get her license, and a schedule that demanded he be available essentially all the time, the math finally caught up. He calculated that guaranteed weekends off alone would give him 52 extra Saturdays a year with his family — almost a third more time at home.

Pete doesn't frame it as a failure. He points back to their "realizing your sweet spot" episode and their earlier "RTO family effect" episode, both of which touched on what this business demands of people who do it at a high level. Danny had been a self-starter and self-motivator for over a decade, but the industry's pace eventually outweighed what he could give it right now. He leaves the door open — he's been in rent-to-own long enough to know people leave and come back, and he won't rule anything out in five years.

The two reflect on what the show became: 27 episodes, listeners across the country and even in Germany, merchandise people are actually wearing to industry events, and a format that neither of them had any idea how to build when Danny pushed to just hit record on that very first pilot. Pete credits the show with changing him personally — helping him see the industry not as competing brands divided by walls, but as one community of people doing the same work differently.

Going forward, the show continues as Pete's project. Season 3 will lean heavily into interviews and guest voices from across the rent-to-own world — owners, franchise operators, veterans with 30 and 40 years in the business, and people from every level of the org chart. Danny will return as a guest. Pete is looking to take the show to RTO World and continue building what they started together.

As Danny puts it on the way out: they built something that had never been done before, and he wouldn't have wanted to start it with anyone else

Support the show

Join The RTO Newsletter: https://bit.ly/RTOPODnewsletter

Subscribe on Apple: https://apple.co/4wpbUqF

Subscribe on Spotify: https://bit.ly/RTOPODspotify

Learn More About Sponsorship: https://bit.ly/RTOPODsponsor

Send us Fan Mail

  Pete makes the case for something he thinks rent-to-own has underutilized: the stay interview, or what he prefers to call the retention interview. The numbers frame the problem. In 2022, 75.8% of hourly retail positions turned over — up from 68% the year before. Even store managers and assistant managers saw significant jumps. In stores that typically run four to six people, that kind of churn means you could be replacing your entire staff more than once in a single year.

A retention interview is a one-on-one conversation with a current employee, not a performance review. The goal is to find out what's keeping them there, what they'd change, whether they've thought about leaving, and what you as a manager could do differently to support them. Pete offers six starter questions: what do you enjoy about your job, what are you learning, what else do you want to learn, have you ever thought about leaving, do you feel valued, and is there anything more I can do to support you. He also highlights a question from a book he's been reading — The Ten Leadership Virtues for Disruptive Times by Tom Ziglar — that he found particularly powerful: "How are you handling your current workload?" Simple, direct, and heavy with meaning when asked sincerely and twice.

On format, Pete is clear: these are individual conversations, not group sessions. Pull the employee somewhere private, away from the floor where coworkers can watch. Come with an open mind and no defensiveness, because they might say something that's hard to hear. Don't promise that every suggestion will be acted on, but do commit to listening earnestly. Don't do them when the store is struggling, right after a promotion, or in the middle of a personal hardship — timing matters.

The distinction between a retention interview and an exit interview is the whole point. Exit interviews tell you why someone left. Retention interviews catch the warning signs before it gets that far. One is proactive, one is reactive. Pete's view is that if you're only doing exit interviews, you've already lost.




Support the show

Join The RTO Newsletter: https://bit.ly/RTOPODnewsletter

Subscribe on Apple: https://apple.co/4wpbUqF

Subscribe on Spotify: https://bit.ly/RTOPODspotify

Learn More About Sponsorship: https://bit.ly/RTOPODsponsor

Send us Fan Mail

Danny and Pete break down how they each approach Monday — the day they both agree is the longest and most important of the work week. The episode covers the GM level, the DM level, and what each position on the store floor should be doing to set the week up right.

Danny's GM routine started before anyone else arrived. Driving to work he was already mentally setting goals for the week — sales targets, credit close numbers, revenue for the week. First thing in the store: check time cards from the prior week, review the daily activity planner for scheduled deliveries, and walk the showroom floor with a to-do list forming in his head. By 9:15 his whole staff was in a Monday morning meeting, usually 30 minutes, covering last week's numbers, what needs to improve, and any tension that needed to be aired out. He also used the meeting to give his assistant something meaningful to say in front of the team — not as performance theater, but as genuine development for the day the assistant has to run the ship alone.

Pete's version was built around what he called the 50-50 mindset: half the day looking back at last week, half planning the week ahead. He ran off a printed meeting sheet covering sales, credit, customer growth, and what was coming up on the calendar. His biggest reminder to himself and to the room was balance — too much defense, meaning collections, without enough offense, meaning sales and marketing, will grind a store down. He made it a point not to do letters on Mondays because too many payments came in that day anyway.

At the DM level, Danny's Monday became almost entirely administrative — pulling overs reports from every store with detailed notes, balancing inventory across the division, reviewing vehicle maintenance checklists, and going through each store's prior week marketing activity. The vehicle maintenance piece gets a particular callout: without working trucks, nothing else matters.

For the credit team, Monday is broken commitments first, then one-to-sevens, with selective field runs kept to first payment defaults and priority accounts. For sales, it's the planning day — mapping out where flyering and door-tagging will happen, when business-to-business visits are scheduled, and setting up as many Friday commitments as possible so the weekend has a foundation. Assistants should be reviewing files from the prior week's sales so the GM has them by Tuesday and they can be filed by Wednesday.

Support the show

Join The RTO Newsletter: https://bit.ly/RTOPODnewsletter

Subscribe on Apple: https://apple.co/4wpbUqF

Subscribe on Spotify: https://bit.ly/RTOPODspotify

Learn More About Sponsorship: https://bit.ly/RTOPODsponsor

Send us Fan Mail

This is Pete's first solo episode, and he dedicates it to role play — one of the most underused training tools in rent-to-own. The premise is simple: there's always a gap between knowing what to say and actually saying it when a real customer is standing in front of you. Role play closes that gap in a safe environment where mistakes are expected and learning is the point.

Pete walks through several selling styles worth practicing. Transactional selling is the rush scenario — a customer who knows what they want and needs it now. The training goal is making sure employees still slow it down enough to get a complete rental order without losing the customer. Solutional selling focuses on solving the customer's specific problem rather than pushing features. Consultative selling adds features and benefits back into the conversation, helping customers understand why one product fits their situation better than another.

For format, Pete outlines a few options. One-on-one role play between manager and employee is the most common starting point. The fishbowl format puts two employees through a scenario while the rest of the team watches and then critiques — everyone sees what works and what doesn't, and roles can rotate so each person gets a turn on both sides. The audience format keeps one person steady on one side while cycling different employees through the other role, exposing the team to a range of scenarios from the same vantage point. Full simulations walk through the entire customer interaction from greeting to signed agreement to scheduled delivery, and Pete recommends saving those for training rooms rather than live stores where the day-to-day will always compete for attention.

He also makes the case for using role play on the collections side, not just sales. When an account manager has to knock on a door or look someone in the eye to ask for a payment, that face-to-face pressure is different from a phone call. Practicing it matters.

Pete closes with a personal note — early in his career, a manager put him through role plays that embarrassed him in the best way possible, showing him what he actually sounded like and where he needed to grow. That experience is part of why he believes in it so strongly.

Support the show

Join The RTO Newsletter: https://bit.ly/RTOPODnewsletter

Subscribe on Apple: https://apple.co/4wpbUqF

Subscribe on Spotify: https://bit.ly/RTOPODspotify

Learn More About Sponsorship: https://bit.ly/RTOPODsponsor

Send us Fan Mail

     Pete recaps his trip to the Trib Group's Meeting of the Minds expo in Atlanta, Georgia — Danny held down the fort back home. The show covered products, classes, industry networking, and a mechanical bull at PBR that Pete held on to for a respectable 45 seconds before getting tossed.

On the product side, the PS5 remained the hottest item, with pricing getting more aggressive throughout the show — Pete watched the price drop $5, then $10, then $20 below the hot show price over just a couple of days. A five-in-one convection/air fryer oven also caught attention as a new item to test. A vendor demoed the Woojer haptic vest, which pairs with headphones to let gamers physically feel game audio — explosions, directional sound, bullet impacts. Pete thought it was a cool experience but not something he'd use every time. Danny's immediate thought was to pair it with the upcoming PS5 VR headset, which Pete agreed would make a genuinely compelling bundle.

The classes were a highlight. Chris Kale Jr. ran a session on Sales 2.0 focused on online leads and CRM response speed, reinforcing what Pete and Danny have long argued: a dedicated person handling nothing but web leads across multiple stores would pay for itself. An operator from Missouri shared credit numbers that floored the room — a 3.1% average close rate and one annual charge-off day on December 31st. Pete found it impressive if unconventional. Magic Rentals' HR team presented on employee retention, which sparked the episode's sharpest takeaway: beyond onboarding and exit interviews, the industry needs to be doing existing interviews — structured, regular check-ins with current employees to find out how they're actually feeling about training, compensation, and workload before they decide to leave. Danny suggested pairing it with 90-day evaluations, flipping the table so employees can evaluate the company's onboarding just like the company evaluates them. Magic's data also revealed that the sales position, not delivery drivers, is actually their highest-turnover role.

Support the show

Join The RTO Newsletter: https://bit.ly/RTOPODnewsletter

Subscribe on Apple: https://apple.co/4wpbUqF

Subscribe on Spotify: https://bit.ly/RTOPODspotify

Learn More About Sponsorship: https://bit.ly/RTOPODsponsor

Send us Fan Mail

Pete and Danny kick things off with a reminder that tax refunds don't all arrive at once — the IRS opened filing on January 23rd, with Earned Income Tax Credit refunds arriving around February 28th and the filing deadline falling on April 18th. That means stores need to be ready and ramped up now, not waiting for the rush.

On the collections and retention side, the guys share a lineup of practical strategies: always get delinquent accounts caught up before discussing payouts, consider offering customers two months paid ahead instead of paying out entirely, and don't be afraid to make creative deals to keep customers in the door. As Pete puts it, "a little lost now could be a lot gained later." Danny adds that tax season is also the perfect time to evaluate your account managers — if they can't collect now, how will they perform in the slower summer months?

The conversation shifts to maximizing revenue through retail cash sales, accessories, and counter add-ons. Stream boxes, robot vacuums, air fryers, gaming computers, and the upcoming PS5 VR system all get the spotlight as high-potential items to push this season. The hosts also weigh in on e-bikes and e-scooters — a product both stores have largely stepped away from due to service and return issues — and invite listeners to share their own experiences.

The episode wraps with a preview of the TRIB Group's Meeting of the Minds 40th Anniversary show in Atlanta, Georgia, where Pete will be representing the RTO Show. Danny won't be able to make it, but encourages the RTO community to attend, network, and share what they learn.

Support the show

Join The RTO Newsletter: https://bit.ly/RTOPODnewsletter

Subscribe on Apple: https://apple.co/4wpbUqF

Subscribe on Spotify: https://bit.ly/RTOPODspotify

Learn More About Sponsorship: https://bit.ly/RTOPODsponsor

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of The RTO Show, Pete and Danny interview George Jaramillo, a longtime Rent-to-Own industry veteran who began his career in 2003 with Rent King before moving to Great Rooms in Tampa. George shares his journey from salesperson to district manager and “store fixer,” explaining how he built a reputation for turning around struggling locations by improving collections, training, morale, customer service, and profitability.

George discusses how he transformed stores with high delinquency rates and poor morale into profitable operations through leadership, accountability, and teamwork. He emphasizes that successful leadership means working alongside employees rather than simply directing them. He explains that when employees see managers helping with deliveries, collections, cleaning, and customer interactions, it creates a stronger culture and improves performance. 

A major theme of the interview is customer experience. George explains that successful Rent-to-Own operations rely heavily on atmosphere and relationship-building. He focuses on making stores smell clean and inviting, keeping showrooms visually appealing, and ensuring employees provide upbeat, personable service. He believes the sale begins the moment a customer walks through the door and that long-term success comes from maintaining positive relationships during both sales and collections. 

George credits much of his early development to industry mentor Chris Mueller, who taught him how to evaluate customers during collections by reviewing payment history, account value, and overall customer behavior before making decisions. George says those lessons shaped his management and collections philosophy and continue to influence how he trains employees today. 

The conversation also covers hiring and training challenges before and after COVID-19. George explains that prior to 2019, hiring was easier because more qualified candidates applied and were motivated to work. Post-pandemic, he says employers face major staffing challenges, including candidates failing to show up for interviews or leaving shortly after being hired. Today, he prioritizes attitude, curiosity, and willingness to learn over experience when evaluating new hires. 

George and the hosts spend considerable time discussing the evolution of sales in Rent-to-Own. George notes that foot traffic has declined dramatically while web leads, texting, and digital communication have become dominant. Sales that once relied heavily on in-person relationships are now often completed entirely online through texts, websites, and electronic documentation. While he believes digital communication makes relationship-building more difficult, he acknowledges that younger customers increasingly prefer fast, transactional communication over lengthy face-to-face conversations. 

The interview also touches on how technology has changed the products sold in Rent-to-Own. George reflects on older projection televisions that required multiple delivery personnel compared to today’s lightweight flat-screen TVs. He also discusses the rise of high-tech furniture, adjustable beds, and connected home products. However, he warns that the industry now faces more competition than ever because financing and lease-style payment options are available almost everywhere, including for roofing, tires, appliances, and automotive repairs. 

Finally, George talks about adapting to modern marketing and social media, particularly TikTok. Though initially hesitant about new platforms, he explains that embracing digital marketing has become necessary to remain competitive and relevant in today’s marketplace. Throughout the interview, his core message remains consistent: success in Rent-to-Own comes from leadership, adaptability, customer relationships, teamwork, and maintaining a positive culture inside the store.

www.TheRTOshowPodcast.com
George Jaramillo
Chris Mueller

Support the show

Join The RTO Newsletter: https://bit.ly/RTOPODnewsletter

Subscribe on Apple: https://apple.co/4wpbUqF

Subscribe on Spotify: https://bit.ly/RTOPODspotify

Learn More About Sponsorship: https://bit.ly/RTOPODsponsor

Send us Fan Mail

Danny and Pete recap their three-day trip to the Las Vegas Winter Furniture Market — and both agree it was one of the most overwhelming and worthwhile industry experiences they've had. Three buildings, 16 to 18 floors each, wall-to-wall vendors covering everything from sectionals and bedrooms to accessories, ceramics, and 30 mattress vendors alone. Pete compares it to being a kid in Toys R Us. Danny's biggest takeaway wasn't furniture — it was accessories. Since most RTO stores carry similar core products, the accessories floor is where you can actually differentiate your showroom from the competition.

For anyone thinking about attending, both hosts offer practical tips. Send at least six to eight people and split into tag teams by building — they covered maybe one full building between the two of them in three days. Set your appointments in advance, stick to a tight schedule with known vendors so you have time to discover new ones, and don't jump on the first deal you see. Watch out for crate ordering — a product priced at a third of your usual cost can look great until you factor in the freight, customs, and minimum order quantities that come with importing directly.

One practical warning Pete throws in: cell service inside the buildings is unreliable with that many people competing for signal, so set a physical meeting spot with your group as a backup. And wear comfortable shoes — he averaged eight miles of walking per day.

On the vendor side, Pete gives a genuine shoutout to Eric Mays and Yon at Biscayne Bedding, calling them among the best in the business for actually listening to RTO operators and building product accordingly.

The Vegas side of the trip also made an appearance — dinner at Bouchon at the Venetian, STK for steaks and a great DJ, the Chandelier Bar at the Cosmo (complete with a tongue-numbing flower), dinner with the Biscayne team, and Pete capping the trip with a solo zip line down Fremont Street in 42-degree weather while Danny watched with a Long Island iced tea.

Support the show

Join The RTO Newsletter: https://bit.ly/RTOPODnewsletter

Subscribe on Apple: https://apple.co/4wpbUqF

Subscribe on Spotify: https://bit.ly/RTOPODspotify

Learn More About Sponsorship: https://bit.ly/RTOPODsponsor

Send us Fan Mail

Danny and Pete make the case that the most successful stores aren't run by one great manager — they're run by two people who complement each other's blind spots. They call it the one-two punch: one person leans creative and sales-driven, the other leans structured and efficiency-focused. Think Han Solo and Chewbacca, peanut butter and jelly, or in RTO terms, sales and credit.

The debate gets lively when they disagree on which side of that line each discipline falls on. Pete sees credit as structured — here's the list, make the calls, get the payments. Danny pushes back and argues credit is actually creative, because convincing a past-due customer to pay is essentially a resale. Pete fires back that sales is mostly structured — telemarketing, mailers, tagging, merchandising — with creativity only showing up at the close. Neither is wrong, which is exactly the point. How you see the work depends on your dominant style, and that's why you need both perspectives on the same team.

Danny gives a real example from when he ran a small four-person store. His driver handled operations with more attention to detail than Danny ever would. His credit guy was relentless. His salesperson couldn't close without Danny stepping in, but she kept the paperwork immaculate. Together they grew the store by $13,000 in rental revenues. None of them were his mirror image, and that's what made it work.

The bigger organizational point is about avoiding the echo chamber. When a structured manager hires structured people all the way down, the store gets efficient but stops growing. When a creative manager fills the building with big ideas and no one to execute them, things fall apart. The one-two punch prevents both by design.

The "Who Said What" segment features owners Larry Pivotal and Paul Schaler over lunch. Larry's answer to how you succeed in this business: it comes down to the manager — the person behind the wheel with a can-do attitude defines the store's outcome, regardless of location or circumstance. Paul's take: there's no secret sauce, just keeping your eye on the ball, getting back up when you fall, and never losing sight of why you started.

Support the show

Join The RTO Newsletter: https://bit.ly/RTOPODnewsletter

Subscribe on Apple: https://apple.co/4wpbUqF

Subscribe on Spotify: https://bit.ly/RTOPODspotify

Learn More About Sponsorship: https://bit.ly/RTOPODsponsor

Send us Fan Mail

This episode was requested by GM Radimus Robles of CPL Group, and Danny and Pete deliver a straightforward roadmap for what to do when you've had a rough year and need to get back on track.

Step one is the honest audit. Pete goes analytical — pull your trend reports, find the specific months where things slipped, and identify the root cause. Danny goes inward — look at your leadership, your team, and ask yourself whether you trained and guided people well enough. Both agree it has to be both. You can't fix a store without understanding whether the problem was the numbers, the people, or the person running it.

From there, take real responsibility without drowning in it. Acknowledge your part, involve your team in the reset, and then change your approach — because the definition of insanity, as Danny puts it, is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Track the differences between what you did before and what you're doing now so you can see whether the change is actually working.

Surrounding yourself with the right people is next. Danny is direct about this: if your inner circle of managers and teammates isn't succeeding, you'll fall into that same pattern. Seek out the people who are doing well, ask them what they're doing differently, and don't be intimidated. Pete adds that this applies at every level, not just GMs — a driver or account manager can learn just as much from a top-performing peer.

Don't give up when you get benched or transferred. Pete shares that he's been moved, demoted, and sent an hour and a half in the wrong direction in his career. The difference between those who recover and those who don't is whether they use the setback as fuel or let it define them. Danny closes with the mindset piece: you can read every book, set every goal, and replace every underperformer, but if you have a single ounce of self-doubt, you're already setting yourself up to fail again. Believe you'll get there, and act like it.

The episode wraps with a "Who Said What" segment featuring Max Hernandez of Buddy's Home Furnishings in Tampa — 17 years in the business — who says customer service is going to be the defining factor for getting through 2023 as inflation rises and a possible recession looms. His plan is simple: keep customers happy, stay stocked on core items, and take care of people

Support the show

Join The RTO Newsletter: https://bit.ly/RTOPODnewsletter

Subscribe on Apple: https://apple.co/4wpbUqF

Subscribe on Spotify: https://bit.ly/RTOPODspotify

Learn More About Sponsorship: https://bit.ly/RTOPODsponsor