Jeff Smith: From Recovery To RTO Leadership

One video on a birthday night was enough to force an honest mirror. Jeff Smith tells us how that moment helped him choose sobriety on April 16, 2022, and why everything accelerated after he stopped drinking, not just his health, but his leadership, focus, and ability to build. Jeff is now part-owner of Hometown Rent To Own with five locations, and he brings a rare perspective on what growth looks like when you are rebuilding yourself at the same time you are building a company.

We talk about the rent-to-own business as a relationship business, the hard parts of ownership that nobody posts about, and the behind-the-scenes work that keeps stores stable: culture, training, compliance, numbers, and the right people in the right seats. Jeff shares how therapy helped him understand resentment and self-esteem, how AA helped him get traction early, and how faith became a lasting anchor. We also dig into the reality of staying sober while working in an industry where conference culture often includes heavy drinking.

From there, the conversation turns outward. Jeff explains why he created RTORecovery.com, including an anonymous chat option for anyone who needs help, whether they work in RTO or not. We also cover industry advocacy and community through APRO, NYRDA, and networking at events like LedgeCon and Meeting of the Minds, plus new ventures like Mr. Appliance and plans connected to RNR Tire Express. If you care about rent-to-own leadership, addiction recovery, mental health, and building a business that actually gives back, this one stays with you.

Subscribe to the show, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find these stories.

Transcript

Welcome And Subscribe Request

Pete Shau 0:07

Hello and welcome to the RTO show. I'm your host, Pete Chow. Today, got a special guest in the studio. Before we get to that, before we get to Jeff Smith, listen, I need you guys to understand we are here for you, but we can only be there for you if you subscribe. Make sure you hit that notification bell so you know what's going on and hit up the website at my uh at the rtoshow podcast.com and check out my newsletter. You want to be a part of that because it's everything that we talk about on there is not covered on the podcast. So it's something new to you. So now, today, Jeff Smith's in the studio, which we don't have many studio guests. Usually you guys are, you know, I'm I'm talking to somebody online in the studio today to talk about an amazing career. Jeff, we met a couple years ago on a couple of things, and and I think I think it was in DC, right? On one of the Legconnection. I believe so, or one of the shows. One of the many shows that we do. And uh listen, Jeff Smith's been on the the show once before with Matt. We were talking about things that were happening in New York. As much as is going on in New York, Jeff's got going on in his life. Let me tell you, business entrepreneur, way, way concerned with what's going on in New York, guys. If you don't know, we'll talk about that later. Opening up businesses, hometown rent to own, now up to five locations. Congratulations on that. I know that you guys just had a recent one. I think every time that I turn on the newsletter, I see Jeff's name in the A

Meeting Jeff And The Five Stores

Pete Shau 1:30

Pro newsletter. It was actually gonna be in our newsletter as well. So you're gonna have another newsletter you're gonna be in. Well, that's but I mean he's doing a great job. So let's get into it really quick as we go through. Let's let's let's talk about a couple things real quick. Number one, five stores. Yes, sir. So you were working in the same well, you were working for House Television under Randy O'Tander in the same town that you opened up a hometown rent to own.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Correct.

Pete Shau 1:58

How did that feel?

SPEAKER_01 1:59

This last acquisition actually was probably uh the most special one to me just because I ran a store in Warren, Pennsylvania for four years for Randy and Maury Otender, you know, who Matt and I will reference to anybody we talked to about uh the impact it had on our lives and our careers. Yeah, uh from like 2002, I believe the 2006, I was a store manager there before I uh left to go to uh a place called Blockbuster Video that maybe some some of the younger folks may not uh be familiar with, but I can I can get into that later on if you'd like. But but yeah, this one's got a got a sentimental place for me especially.

Pete Shau 2:31

I I can only imagine what it's like. So last night we're out, we're going to the game, we're actually at a suite, and we're watching the Rays game, and I hear about Randyisms and all this stuff came out earlier today, and we're talking about a little bit. As you're going through and you're growing, right? You you've got this experience, you're kind of learning, taking in, sponging it up. What made you decide, number one, to start you know, the business with with hometown, rent to own with Matt? And then how much did Randy play in that role of yours?

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Man, I would say he d 100%. Uh and Matt Matt would Matt would concur. I actually didn't help f found uh hometown. That was that was Matt and Chris. There's a there's a long story behind that. Um back in 2014, as Randy and Mo were kind of exiting the business to uh uh someone that they had sold to, they kind of f funded Matt and uh an ex-partner that's no longer with us to open a store. Uh and that was the case from 2014 to 2021. Um fast forward to 2021, I had left House of Television in 2019 just with some, I would say, disagreement with philosophies of the new regime at House of Television. It just wasn't the same once Randy and Mo uh, you know, went faded off into the distance.

Pete Shau 3:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Um so I I had left in 2019. I was actually assistance administrator for a pharmacy. Six they had six pharmacies nationwide. It was a pretty pretty cool gig, actually, because my background's in IT. Um so I was overseeing like 150 computers, uh servers, you know, VoIP, just tons of tons of cool stuff. And I was doing it all from a little office in Jamestown. So uh 2022 fast forward from 2019 to 2021, uh Matt up Matt and Chris approached me. Not Chris, that's our district manager, but a different Chris that's no longer with us, uh, approached me about uh they said, hey, we're looking to grow, we want to open a store in Jamestown. Uh we'd like you to come on board. And I was like, nah, I got out of the game a long time ago. And I I hadn't actually run a store since 2006. Uh started in the business in 2000 as an account manager doing deliveries. Uh came in from the uh hospitality industry, actually. I was uh rooms division manager for Holiday Inn in Jamestown. So I was in charge of like the front desk and stuff. So I I went from wearing a three-piece suit to uh lugging furniture up you know three flights of stairs, which was quite a quite a change. That'll change it. That'll change it. Yeah, but uh I I just I got tired of the hours of the if anybody's worked hospitality or restaurant, and Matt comes from the restaurant background too. So I think I think a lot of people in RTO kind of have that. And Randy Moe even said, like, they like to hire fast food people because they knew they knew how to like hustle and how to work and get get things done. But uh I I ended up uh starting uh eight dollars an hour in uh 2000 and worked my way up to store manager very quickly in uh 2006. I had a district manager that was not so great to work for, which is uh part of the reason I think we focus so heavily on culture now. Um, you know, it's it's nobody we all have to kind of one of my philosophies, and one of the things I'm famous for saying is like we we all gotta work, we all gotta have a job, like let's

From Hospitality Hustle To IT

SPEAKER_01 5:20

just try to make the most of it and make make the best of it.

Pete Shau 5:22

Well, culture is so huge. Culture is huge. You know, guys, uh talking about a couple things, there were there was two things that you mentioned. The first thing is Michael Bennett is known for talking with the guys of buddies and always started on a truck, right? It started on a truck. That was the that if you didn't know how to be and rent to own, you had to start on a truck, and it creates this vibe, it creates the understanding, it creates the knowledge of understanding the customer, the relationships, and how things get done from the bottom end to the top end. The other thing that you said was the hospitality business, and uh part of what conversations last night, you were talking to Tracy, Matt's point apart of it. The hospitality business is hard, but it's based on two things a lot of work and the reality that you have in between you and your customer. And at that point in time, when you're when you're having that and that culture, that relationship of they keep coming back, that repeat business is what we live on. That is literally what we live on. So it's it's great that you say that because we were just talking about that last night. And so as this comes on, you're reaching, you know, they say, Hey, you want to come on, you want to try this. This was the beginning of your entrepreneurial phase.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Uh so to speak, I actually turned them down because they wanted me to run a store, and that's like I said, 2006 was the last time uh I went to work for Blockbuster, and at that time is when my uh IT career kind of began, so to speak. I was able to go to school during the day because that Blockbuster video, you had to work what were called peak shifts. Uh, because everybody's in your store on Friday and Saturday nights. So they want they want you pushing the popcorn and you know, pedaling candy and uh all the things that they had probably like a 400% margin on, you know, like the eight dollar buckets of popcorn that you know were just conveniently located in a bucket.

Pete Shau 7:00

Anthony, be kind and rewind.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

Make sure you oh God, do you remember that?

Pete Shau 7:04

They were always gonna hit us up with that. It was always one of those things I probably got charged way too much.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

Oh, yeah, I did too. I probably still have some.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Kind of like Columbia House.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

Yeah, yeah, right? You know what you get it for a penny. And then you end up owing like 35 bucks. Yeah, it was my fault.

unknown 7:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

But uh, yeah, so that led me to my IT career, and uh I just I'd been IT for Randy and Mo, which gave me a great uh foundation for uh being an owner, honestly. I had no idea at the time. Uh from I went back to uh 2006-2008 was my short time with Blockbuster. Went back to House of TV 2008 to 2019. That gives me about 20 years in the industry. But I just I didn't I'm not uh I have a I'm self-aware, I'll say that. I have I don't have a backbone. I can't tell people like, pay me now, or I'm kicking your door in. I'm just too I I'm gullible, I'm naive. You know, people tell me like three times that grandma died now. Oh, sorry, you can pay me next week.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

You know, you know, it's funny, out of everybody that I've talked to, I've never had anybody admit that on their show. But you know what that speaks to who you are, because that that's not easy to say, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:00

I just I'm not that guy, and I'm not I'm not a and my my staff is and Matt's probably gonna kill me for saying this too, but uh you know, I just when when when people push me for sales, I'm just like it turns me off, so I can't like how can I, you know, like ask my employees like, hey hound, hound, hound, you know, it's like just people respond differently, and I I just I'm I'm not a pushy salesperson, so I just I didn't I didn't thrive in that environment, we'll say. So IT was my my thing. And then when they approached me about buying the, I know I'm taking a long way to get to this answer, but uh they they wanted me to run a store and I said no. And then they called Randy and said that I declined, and Randy said, You guys gotta do whatever you need to do to get job in the business. And then a week later, Matt and our ex-partner and I sat down and they talked to me about buying into the business, and then they had my attention. So that's kind of a long way to getting to the answer of that.

Pete Shau 8:43

Well, no, well, listen, it's it's backstory onto how you actually got there because it's it's important a lot of times that people join the business, they don't know where they're going, right? They don't know if it's a career, they know it's a job, they know they're gonna get paid at the end of the week, and that's the most important thing. We're feeding the family. And then as people stay longer in rent to own, they figure out it's a relationship business. And I I'm not gonna say that it's even half. There is a percentage, and it might be more than half, it might be 60, 70 percent that fall off, they just don't get it. But when rent to own clicks, it's in your blood. So they come to you with this idea because you you've done things now. IT is starting to make a lot more sense because you got a lot of stuff going on in the background. If you guys don't know, there's a lot of stuff going on in just background, and we'll talk about it. So from there, they give you this opportunity. So so is it like and and I I don't need to know the the the exact numbers, but usually when it comes with you know with those opportunities, they'll say, hey, you need some type of investment. Most people aren't ready for that.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Uh and I and I wasn't. Our initial conversation was uh, you know, a small buy-in at 10%, but some some extenuating circumstances came up and and we had to kind of fast forward the payment plan, so to speak. Uh so it was like we need them kind of money the money all at once instead of over time, which which I was okay with. I refinanced my house and made some other arrangements, uh, but I kind of countered to that and said if I'm gonna be risking everything, because they only had the one store, mind you, you know, so there was no guarantees of

Buying In And Betting On Himself

SPEAKER_01 10:05

any success for any of us. But if but if I'm gonna buy in and be a you know a a big part of this and I need to be a third, um so it went from 45, 45, 10 to you know 33 and a third times three and they're gonna be able to do that.

Pete Shau 10:15

You know what you do you hear that, Anthony? I don't really know how to tell people that you know they gotta pay me and I don't know how to push resales, but I know how to ask for 33%.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

That's that's where that's where the businessman comes from, right?

Pete Shau 10:25

And and and that's where but listen, you gotta know your role, right? And if that's what you have to offer, and if that's what's on the table, that's what you take. So I I I commend that. Now, here's the other side of the story because we'll get into a lot of of other things. There's a there's a big reason why you're here. Probably one of the biggest reasons that we've had on the show. I'm gonna talk about this a little bit later, but as you're going through this, you went from an IT position to part owner. You took an advantage, you saw it, and and you, and you made it happen. But that's not all. So, in the last four years, you've been extremely busy. So, talk to me first, because we're gonna talk about NYRDA, we're gonna talk about P A R D, we're gonna talk about you know some of the uh external businesses that you that you're you're now in, we're gonna talk about being all over the place as far as you know, DC and all the shows, which you were telling me one of your first shows was in San Antonio a few years ago. So when we're not going back that far. And you have accomplished quite a bit in the last four seasons, man. The four last four years, you have made a name for yourself. If you didn't know Jeff Smith before, you know him now. So, what's the driving factor? After that happened, and you start going to this, what made Jeff like, we're gonna open another store, we're gonna open another store, I'm gonna be a part of a business, another business. I have Matt as who's a killer. If you guys don't know Matt Rodeki, listen, first off, I gotta look at Matt like this. And the second thing is, he's dude, he is a worker. I mean, he will get stuff done. So you start with Matt, you have these two partners now, and I know that it's it's gone down to just Matt. You get these opening stores. You bought the last store from Magic, right? Or was it Blue Ocean? Blue Ocean, Bill Short. We'll say Blue Ocean. Okay, so you got it from Bill Short. So you're expanding that way. You've opened two more stores. I know that there was a a little bit that we'll talk about getting into the second store is kind of like you know, eye-opening. But what pushed you to go to be able to do it, what you're doing? So you I mean you've got let's just say the four years before that, Jeff was living the IT life. Four years after that, Jeff is like he's trying to change it from Jeff Smith to Jeff Bezos. What's going on?

SPEAKER_01 12:27

A huge thing happened. Uh you know, a lot of folks know about. I'm not shy of talking about it and and proud kind of you know, but it's part of who I am, so I'm not gonna run from it or hide from it. Uh uh April 16th of uh 2022, I decided to get sober. Jeff Smith, the IT guy, was happy just to live in, let me take that back. Jeff Smith was not happy. That's why Jeff Smith was drinking heavily for 30 years. Here I go talking to my about myself and the third person. Uh, but just uh miserable, quite honestly, drinking just to uh to get through the days. Uh, you know, functioning alcoholic is a word that people uh throw around pretty pretty regularly and it's a thing. Uh that was me. I was uh you know a heavy drinker for 30 years. It started, you know, I started drinking when I was 16. Uh a lot of it had to do with just low self-esteem, I think. I never was very confident. My parents were, I was, you know, latchkey kids, people that are around my age kind of know what that's like. You know, mom and dad are out making a living and uh just being providers, and I I resented that. Uh my one of my best friends growing up, I played heavily involved in sports, basketball, soccer, merit roll, honor roll, great, great kid by all by all accounts. But as soon as I got my driver's license at 16, uh found some mad dog 2020 and uh a backfield up in the park and uh with some friends and a bonfire. And uh that was the beginning of my my drinking time. So then uh, you know, I just I I I found it was a a place I could be not myself or just kind of at ease or just I I I wasn't me. I all the inhibitions, which alcohol does because of what you know what it the effects that it has, and that's why most people consume and and overuse, you know, it it it it it was an escape. And the signs were there early on, you know, there was I went from well, one of the things was you know, the first time I had intercourse. It's supposed to be one of the most memorable things of your life, right? The only the the only way I knew I had sex the first time was I I went to a party one night, sixteen years old, and woke up the next morning and there was an empty condom wrapper on the on the side of the bed. And I was like, I think I just had sex for the first time in my life. And then this is supposed to be memorable, you know. Uh so that should have been, you know, kind of uh uh you know, an alarm sounding or something, you know. But uh it didn't, and I just continued because I was like, I was able to have sex because I was drinking, so that it's like you know, this this this gateway and this is like a tool to give me all the things that I want. And shortly after that, I started skipping school, quit playing quit playing sports, barely graduated high school after being merit and honor roll. I think I I I think I counted I skipped 52 days of my senior year first first period. But I so to my defense, I had uh physics first period, second, third, and fourth uh study hall, and then lunch. So it's like to go to school for physics and then sit through three study halls and then a lunch.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

I am not gonna condone that, Jeff.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Okay. Well, I'm so see, this is here here I go. I'm justifying it, you know. A good a good good uh student would have gone to class, studied those three study halls, which is what they're for.

Pete Shau 15:10

Let me ask you something. Are you getting everything out of your rent-to-owned business? If you're not an APRO member, then the answer is probably no. Look, advocacy is APRO's bread and butter. This is why they were created and what they do best. But here's the thing April membership is about way more than advocacy. April connects you to the movers and the shakers of the industry, people who've been there, done that, and they can help you do it even better. APRO's monthly webinars give you expert insights and actionable takeaways. It's like having a masterclass for your business every single month. Got questions about complex regulations or sticky situations? No problem. April's Legal Hotline gives you direct access to experts who have got the answers. That's a peace of mind that you can't put a price on.

APRO Membership And Industry Support

Pete Shau 15:53

And let's not forget the resources, news, updates, and tools that keep you ahead of the curb. Scholarships for your team? Check. Disaster relief when you need it most? Double check. APRO is your ultimate support system in the rent-to-own world. So stop settling for less. With APRO members, get more. More support, more connections, more success. Head over to rtoh.org and join the APRO family today. Because in this business, more isn't just better. It's essential. See you at the top with APRO. Let me ask you a question. And and you know, we'll go into this as deep as far as you want to. What was it about the Jeff that was drinking that was different from the Jeff that was sober that made you feel like that person was somebody that you continually wanted to be? Was it was it being more outgoing? Was it being less afraid? What what what what was it that you know said like, you know, hey, uh who I am doesn't feel as maybe right or as socially acceptable as the guy who can?

SPEAKER_01 16:52

100%. It was it was uh just that what you said. I was once I hit a couple beers, I mean I was okay to like just kind of let the guard down a little and and actually maybe approach people instead of waiting to be approached to have a conversation. Um but but to be fair, I I kind of got the reputation as being a party guy, so I became

The Drinking Years And The Why

SPEAKER_01 17:10

popular. Like I had and and you know, I still beat myself up for this day. Like my friend that I grew up with that I played basketball with, I was starting to start to allude to this before. His dad was at every practice, every game. My parents weren't there because they were providing. So there was that resentment, and uh the I I can talk about that later when I went to therapy. I was kind of able to resolve that because I once I got sober, I was like, well, there's a reason I drank for 30 years, and that's kind of kind of getting to what you said now. There was there was a lot of resentment. One of the things that my therapist told me that really helped me uh get by was You know, he he he asked me about my dad because I said, Hey, you know, my dad never, you know, like they they they they were there, but they weren't like the I didn't have the loving, cuddling I love you. Like I I don't think I until recently ever heard I love you from my mom. You know, like older ages, we were young, they definitely not got that. But uh so I I resented them for that, uh, because I didn't necessarily feel loved, but my my therapist told me and helped me overcome by saying, you know, was your dad a good dad or was your dad's dad a good dad? And I said, No, he was kind of an SOB, he was an old school, you know, depression era. If my dad didn't mow the lawn, he he got a butt whooping for it, just like I got, you know, many a belt spanking. And I was telling Tracy last night, there wasn't one of those that I didn't deserve. I I earned every single one of those. So, you know, um I resented that and he said, you know, was your dad's dad a good dad? And I said, no. And he said, so I look at it this way. When you're born, you're born with an empty tool belt. As you go through life, you acquire tools, hammer uh hammers, saws, wrenches, you know, you name screwdrivers, rulers, whatever. Sometimes you get to the job, you got all the tools you need. Other times you don't even have nearly what you need. He said, Your dad just didn't have the tools he needed to be a good dad to you. And when he kind of put it in that perspective, it was the I can't even describe to this day the amount of weight that was lifted off my shoulders because I was able to forgive my dad and my mom, you know, for that matter. Uh I was always very close with my mom. Uh and and my dad. We never had any like, you know, major family blowouts or anything like that. There was just not a it was just uh very cold and just uh not showing emotion, and my wife will attest to this too. I'm a I'm a very not touchy, you know, like I just it's just because that's the way I was uh raised, you know. I just show emotion was was to be soft, I guess, so to speak. But but you know, that and that's well I know I'm kind of going off on a tangent here, but that's kind of like we you know, mental health is so important and the stigma that men are weak or soft because they have feelings is just absolutely ludicrous to me because we all carry something, you know, and that's that's one thing that sobriety has helped me kind of, you know, the uh the getting into the rooms of AA and I can kind of speak to that uh how I got there if you Well what I what I'm curious of is because you know you're describing two Jeffs, right?

Pete Shau 19:39

I've never met the other guy. I've met you. I appreciate you for who you are, I appreciate your the what the mind that you bring, the entrepreneurial spirit, the RTO guy, but I've never met the other guy, right? Now, it sounds like in your life you've had to go through some trials and tribulations to get to where you are now, right? You you've had therapy, you've gotten married, you've gone through a few things. So the question I have is at what point did one Jeff look at the other Jeff and go, that's not who I want to be anymore? I mean, there's got to be a point where it was like, you know what, this is this is you know the hulk to the you know to the David Banner, like like you are not gonna beat me. When did that point come out and when did you look at yourself and go, that's not who I want to be?

SPEAKER_01 20:21

So I I was I'm kind of touched on being a functioning alcoholic for about 30 years. I always knew I had a problem, going back to, like I said, the the first time I had sexual intercourse. There there was other times in my life where I kind of went out of my way to get alcohol when I shouldn't have. You know, a friend of mine walked through a snowstorm because we couldn't drink it. This is like 19 years old. You know, we walked three miles in the snow because our buddy threw us out because he didn't want us partying because he had college the next day. You know, this is my mindset at 19. I walk a mile in the snow to a Rite Aid store, use my fake ID, go to my grandparents' house, which was vacant and abandoned at the time, no heat, no nothing. You know, it's middle of January in western New York, and I'm drinking a uh, you know, a case of beer with my buddy, you know, huddled under blankets. And it's like, you know, obviously at 50, I can look back at that 31 years ago and be like, what were you thinking? You know. But but but when you're in it, that's a that's and that's that's the problem with alcohol, too, is it's such a selfish disease. That's that's all you that's all you focus on. You're just where's my next drink? Where's my next drink? Where's my next drink? And and to to Naomi's credit, she stuck with me for we just had our 24-year wedding anniversary in May, and we've been together almost.

Pete Shau 21:18

First congratulations. 24 years, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

24 years married, and oh, probably close to 30. We met at the holiday end back when we both worked. And there were other signs throughout the year, but you know, to to talk more about the selfishness of alcoholism, we'd be on vacation, and it could be the world-class diner, and I love food, obviously, by my stat my stature now. We could be on vacation, and it could be the five, you know, five-star diner, you know, highly recommended Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Oh, this but I I look, they didn't have beer, we weren't going. Because guess what? I'm on vacation. I'm gonna have a beer with my lunch. And then where we're gonna go after that, it's gonna be alcohol somewhere nearby in the near future. It may not be, you know, we might go to a museum for twenty minutes or half hour, but somewhere outside of that, there's gonna be an escape for me to go find that drink, and that's gonna be all that's on my mind. Because That is the mind of an alcoholic. That's that's literally 24-7. You obsess about it. So to get to your question, and then I apologize that I go off in tangents here. Uh 2021, I was uh I bought in the hometown. So that 30-year hard drinking, you know, structure of nine to five left when I became an owner. We only had one store. We were just opening a second. Had Matt and our ex-partner, Chris, and myself, one store. Each store had a store manager. You know, Matt and Chris are like, hey, you know, just gotta show up on a couple days a week, you know, just you know, not yeah, I was still kind of working behind the scenes, doing my IT stuff, because that's what they brought me on for, too, is my IT. I've got some I'm pretty good with numbers, pretty good with spreadsheets, pretty good with insurance, pretty good, yeah, a little, you know, dabbling a little bit of everything, I guess. And so when I didn't have that nine to five, now we'd go to bed at nine, I'd stay up till midnight drinking, wake up in the morning, feel like crap, a little BV in the coffee, take care of the hair of the dog. Anybody that's out there that's that that drinks heavily knows how good the hair of the dog can feel. And it's unfortunate, but it it does work for a little while. But then, you know, that one BV turned into two, and then I'm drinking three cups of coffee and then I'm switching to beer at noon because I don't want to get too messed up because the hard stuff really, you know, does it to you. Two, three o'clock, now we call me and say, you know, what are you doing? Oh, I'm napping. But I was really just passed out drunk. And uh that went on for probably a good portion of 2021, March 2022, sin in that same cycle. And I I'd gotten I I I'd seen the signs, but was too far gone to really even didn't care. You know, just I was you know, I had had a house house over my head, a wife that loved me, like, you know, I was I thought I was living a good life. Started drinking and driving. There was I remember actually I think it was that day of my birthday. Um, I got a $70,000 truck and I got an open beer in it. I'm sitting at the bar drinking at 4 o'clock in the afternoon on my birthday. We go home and you know, decide to go to dinner, and at 5 30 we go to dinner at an Italian restaurant, and it's you know, she she takes out her, I can barely keep my eyes open. I'm drinking, of course I ordered a pint of I2X IPA, you know, the strongest, stronger, the stronger the better, baby. Bring it. And uh next day she shows me a video, because I don't really remember the dinner. Uh she shows me a video of myself at 5 15, 5 30 in a hometown rent-owned t-shirt, barely able to h hold a pint of beer up to my up to my face. And uh I I I kind of decided then that that's uh my birthday was March 8th. I quit drinking April sixteenth, so you can kind of do the math. It didn't take me long from there to uh decide that that's not who I wanted to be.

Pete Shau 24:17

So it it was your wife with the recording that showed one Jeff to the other. Ultimately, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

Yeah. Uh so then I I decided to uh seek some help uh kicking and screaming. I went. I uh did some research, and there's some drugs out there that you can take. Because I I it was it was like it was my identity. I was I was always Schmidty. It was a badge of honor, was a big drinker, you know, senior skip day. I think I funneled twenty beers, drank the last four, and passed out.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

Everybody's like, Schmidty, you remember that time when you when you drank, you know, da da da.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

So it was just like part of who I was, you know. Uh and and that's a sad. You know, to to kind of go off a little bit, that's a sad state of our society, that it's that people celebrate the fact that I could funnel twenty beers and drink four and then pass out, and that was like celebrated, right? Like that just tells you the status and the stigma or the you know how how much of a pedestal we as a society put alcohol on. And anybody that wants to do it, but you know, by all means go go for it as long as you can do it responsibly. But you know, and that's that's I kinda I kind of make the point about you know, on the commercials they show you uh, you know, beaches and bikinis and good times and great times, but what they don't show you is Christmas Eve when the guy, you know, the father's drank, you know, a handle of vodka and the kids don't have any Christmas the next day because dad passed out. You know, they don't they don't show you that stuff on the TV ton of TV shows. But anyway, I and I'm not getting up on a pedestal and trying to No, it's reality.

Pete Shau 25:30

I mean it's it's part of the reality that comes with it, you know, and and sometimes I think that's what we don't see, you know. And I and I know that there are people out there, and we're not gonna call any names or any situations, but I know that there are people out there who are facing the same problem because it it it is a disease, and it's it's hard to sh you know to shake off. Not everybody has a naomia at home going, hey, this is what you look like, you know, when you're out with me and we're trying to celebrate, and you know, and it's just as equally hard because somebody might be getting a uh that video, but it's also equally hard to look at it and go, I need to make a change. So, you know, at the end of that, you make the change.

Therapy Lessons And Forgiving Family

SPEAKER_01 26:05

Kicking and screaming, as I said, uh there's some medications out there that you know allow you to kind of still drink a little bit because I want to drink socially because it's who I was. And uh I went to my nurse practitioner and told her, I said, Hey Tammy, you know, I've been struggling with alcohol a little bit. And she says, Yeah, I know you have. I've seen your liver enzymes, I've known for a long time, and I thought I was fooling her. Because I always told her, Oh, I drink, you know, how she's like, How much do you drink? Every doctor, you right? You go in for a physical, how much do you drink? Uh, you know, six to eight on the weekends, but I drink IPAs, so it might, you know. She's like, I've known she goes, I'm not an idiot, you know. So she's like, and I'm not gonna prescribe you that. And she took out a piece of paper and wrote some stuff down and slid it across the table to me, and it was uh an AA meeting date and time. And uh that really kind of turns out she was a 12-year recovering alcoholic, and you know, you want to talk about divine intervention, that that put me into the rooms of AA on on April 16th, and I haven't had a drink since.

Pete Shau 26:49

So if if you were to say that religion, faith, God helped you on this path, is that a safe is that a safe assumption?

SPEAKER_01 26:57

Yeah, that that's uh 100% accurate statement.

Pete Shau 27:00

I I I love that.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Yeah, and I don't want to be I don't want to, you know, get I know you know religion, politics, and all that stuff you're not supposed to talk about, so I don't want to go too deep into it to to disinterest anyone, but there's no doubt that my life was saved by by Jesus. Uh I mean I there's no absolutely no way I'd be sitting in Tampa, Florida, coming out, you know, I went to uh back-to-back Tampa rays game last night with the R ⁇ R crew in a suite today, I'm you know, sitting behind home plate with one of my best friends from school, you know, driving an hour to Lutes, Florida to do this. Like there, you know, I didn't do that, God did that. You know, there's no way I could have done that by myself. And I was kind of talking to Adam last night actually about the footprints in the sand. That kind of that kind of like my life, you know, like when the guy's like, Well, you know, where were you when there was just the one set? And it's like, God's like, Well, I was carrying you, you know. Right. And that to me, that's that to me is like uh uh you know a perfect picture of my life.

Pete Shau 27:48

A true story. Yeah, that gets us. You know, as we're going through it, one of the reasons why I wanted to start out with the stories of what people do know about Jeff, right? It's not easy to start a business. It's not easy to get to five, it's not easy to open another business, it's not easy to buy a store, it's not easy to have the weight of the world on your shoulders. And and in fact, one would think sometimes in our society, as as things go on, the more pressure you got, the more you would have been inclined. But four years, two months, here you are on on the opposite side of the spectrum. So what I wanted to talk about was that transition of this is where I was 30 years in, my wife, you know, kind of makes this plea like, hey, this is who you are when when you can't see it. Your life starts changing. How much you know now you're at a point where even the doc is is like, hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a hand here and show you something. Was it shocking to find people that actually knew that that you didn't know knew, or was it shocking that people were like, you know what, I want to help you out. I want to give you a helping hand, I want to help you get through this because maybe the other Jeff wouldn't have recognized that, and now you see that you know there's people who really care. And and was that a was that a shock?

SPEAKER_01 29:06

No, and it's a great testimonial to who I surrounded myself with when I was drinking. Um, because all my friends drank. Most most of my friends are close friends, but every one of them supported me 100%. I did have to do a kind of almost like a six-month sabbatical, so to speak, uh, because one of the things AA teaches you is uh sober faces, sober places. It's it's really hard to get sober when you're around alcohol. Uh you know, I gave I I I I missed out on a lot. Um like I remember three weeks in, we my wife and I had Eagles tickets that we had bought several months before I quit drinking, and I knew like if I go to Key Bank Center in Buffalo to an Eagles concert three weeks sober, guess what's gonna happen? Yeah. Um, you know, I trust myself, but I don't trust myself that much, you know. So so there there was a lot of sacrifice and a lot of sacrifices by Naomi too, because she allowed me to stay home when, you know, maybe it was a graduation party or a a wedding and and just like but but people understood too. Like, you know, Naomi would say just Jeff stay at home because he's trying not to drink, and I'd be hey, great, you know, you know, you know, go great. But you know, going back to the to the to the religious thing, uh about six months in uh God removed the urge to drink from me. I don't know what happened, but every day for the first six months I just uh you know, you just uh when it's part of your life, like smoking. I actually I smoked, I used to smoke pack a day at least when I was drinking, but I had to quit I actually quit smoking before I quit drinking, which is kind of counter inner intuitive. Most people, you know, people that smoke and drink will understand. But the uh life insurance is double if you're a smoker. When I bought in the hometown, I had to get life insurance and I didn't want to put that financial strain on the company, so I decided to quit smoking before I quit drinking. But but yeah, it's uh without the support of other and but you gotta want to do it for yourself too. I had tried to quit drinking a few times in the past for Naomi, you know, for my family or whatever the case may be. Uh, but until I really decided to do it for myself, it it wasn't happening.

Pete Shau 30:46

Now I I I can only imagine this walk. And as you get started on this story, you you start turning your life around. There was a part of you that said, Not only do I want to detail this journey, but I want to open a door for anybody else who's going through the same thing that I am right now. Let me invite you to Jeff's world and to get better, to understand. If you know, if you need somebody to talk to, I'm here. And here are some resources. Talk to me a little bit about what you did as far as online and what you created and and what was your plan with that?

SPEAKER_01 31:20

Uh so I created a website, uh, it's called rto recovery.com, and kind of what led me to that was AA. I actually haven't been doing an AA meeting in about two years, maybe even two and a half years. It it was great to help me get sober at the beginning, but I use also used a lot of TikTok therapy, obviously helped keeping busy with keeping busy with businesses, certainly helped. Um you know, idle times is the devil's playground, as they say. So I I think that's probably what drives me uh just more than anything is that that that desire to have to be busy and be kept busy. But but at the same time, I think that's why, you know, as I learned more about you know the brain and how it works, my mind was always working and it still does. And the alcohol helped stop that, you know, constant just that hamster on the wheel, like, you know. So like alcohol calmed that, you know. But now it's I use that

The Moment He Chose Sobriety

SPEAKER_01 32:10

energy to help others or you know, grow help business or grow businesses, excuse me, and help others, but we'll we'll kind of get into that. But uh but yeah, that's uh the RTO recovery was uh an idea because of AA. You know, it's it's kind of like the um the R R, you know, serve uh serve not serve, but serve not service. Serve not service. Serve not service. AA is kind of the same thing. It's all about doing service, and that's what I did the first you know, six months I was getting sober. I was every meet you know, meeting every Monday, Saturday, making coffee, getting there early, you know, going to uh speaker meetings, just just you know, all in. And uh because you gotta you gotta find something else to do, you know, and that's what that's where AA is huge. But there's so many other ways out there, you know, and that and that's what I think. There's a stigma, I think, with AA, or there's a stigma with alcoholics, honestly. And that's what I put on the website, it's just some some some options for people to get to an AAA meeting. There's a meeting guide on there, but there's also some some things that uh educate and inform people what alcohol does. There's there's so much that it does, you know, all the way down to your hair, like alcohol impacts your hair, it's poison. It's literally, it literally is poison. Um and we consume it, and we consume it in bulk sometimes. You know, it's fertility, gray matter, cognitive thinking, sleep. I can like I mentioned fertility, it just has so many things. But that but the the to get to your question, the the concept of it came from AA. Uh I had been about two and a half, three years sober, but if I can give one person what I got from getting sober, then that's more rewarding than any business I could ever open. And I have had a dealer uh reach out to me and a uh one of our vendors has reached out to me and called me and said, Hey, because I shared it in Trib Group Connections when I first started RTOrecovery.com. I did I did post it in the Facebook group on Trib Group Connections. I don't know how many eyes got on it, but I did want to at least get it out there, and every time I kind of have the opportunity to speak about it, I do. And there's a the the best part about it, or the coolest part about it, is there's a a chat box option on there and it's hooked right to so if somebody clicks on there from and it's completely anonymous. Uh somebody clicks on it, says, I need help, it comes, I have a Slack, I have it hooked to Slack through chat bot or something. I don't know if that's the technology eludes me right now. But I I was able to create the website, put the put integrate the chat bot, and then link it to my phone. So if it's 1230 at night and you know it's connectity, New York, and somebody needs some help, it'll ping my phone and I can get on and say, Hey, how can I help you?

Pete Shau 34:16

You know, one of the things I've well, a few of the things I noticed. Jeff today has five hometown stores. You're president of the NYRDA. You are actively helping the RTO industry along with the NYRDA and APRO to work a bill or two bills that are currently in New York trying to stop the activity. You have four stores, it's four stores in New York, right? Uh three. Three stores. Okay, three stores in New York and then two NPA. So to help that, you've got businesses with other people in the RTO industry, but in other areas. You have expanded to three or four different businesses, which we'll get into a little bit later. That's in a span of four years, two months. Right? Has have you ever thought in the back, where could I be if I didn't wait this long to get to this, Jeff?

SPEAKER_01 35:04

I have, but one of the things that AA also teaches you is to remember your, you know, like don't forget your past, but don't dwell on it. And and I I I don't think I'd be as successful as I am at what I'm doing now had I not gone through what I went through. So had I started this journey, that this entrepreneurship that I I don't even know how it kind of came, other than you know, the man above obviously has played a big part in it. Uh because I I I guess my grandfather always had an entrepreneur spirit. He was a he owned his own plumbing and heating business, and then I've heard stories about he had a tropical aquarium in the living room, then like my grandma wanted to start a pottery business. So my grandfather, the one that was kind of the mean SOB to my dad, was kind of an entrepreneur too. So I guess I kind of my mom tells us, she's like, You got your you know, you got your grandpa's you know, kind of entrepreneur spirit. But you can't have one without the other, I don't think. I I don't think I would have had the strength to be a business owner because it is hard. Everybody, oh, it must be nice, it must be nice. I I'll tell you, in the last month, you know, we've been told that we're gonna be sued because we're racist, and uh another employee uh put under two-week notice because we are uh a sexual harassment environment and she didn't feel comfortable coming to work. So, you know, that doesn't it must not be nice, you know. When somebody says it must be nice, I'd like I'd love to just be like, well, let me tell you about my day. Let me tell you what. This is about like 9 a.m.

Pete Shau 36:14

Well, you know, Anthony and I quite often talk about what it is to own a business and how difficult it can be. I don't think I'm I'm quite where you are yet. But one of the reasons I wanted to bring that up is because there are people out there, and I know that you guys are listening, and I I really am so uh I'm I'm proud of you to be here, to be able to have the story and share the story that you have because there are people out there who are going through it right now, and they're not sure what's on the other side of that rainbow. They're not sure what's on the other side of that bridge. This is where I'm at now, and what difference is it gonna make? Why am I gonna be that other person? And then, like you said, the wheel starts working, and you know what, my memory is gonna start kicking back in, and I'm gonna start feeling worse. And it's you know what you could be four years later, four businesses later, president uh of the NYRDA later. Uh, I know that you were on a special committee to help the introduction to RTO for for April as well. Did you guys create something?

SPEAKER_01 37:03

Education committee. That was kind of I think that's part of the board being on the board. We have committees that we need to be on, but I also do whatever I can to help April because it's just to further the industry and better the industry and protect the industry, quite honestly. I mean, we're we're constantly not always openly under attack, but there's always there's always you know people that are anti-RTO or anti-you know, just what we do, which is crazy to me.

Pete Shau 37:25

Yeah. And so, you know, talking to those people and saying there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is another life out there, whether you're starting it two years after you're in it or 30 years after you've had the bottle, you can make something of yourself. And I love sitting across from somebody who's not only doing it, but doing it well and handing a handout to somebody else and saying, hey, I can bring you along. I do have a question as far as the RTO recovery. What made you decide to name it RTO recovery?

SPEAKER_01 37:51

I'm for whatever reason, I'm huge on alliteration. Uh and I don't know why. It's just always been something I've liked. Uh, even like my uh one of my businesses is uh Serenity Syndicate, just because the Serenity Prayer from AA, and uh that's a business that I started up with another friend of mine from AA. Uh it's a business we're purchasing from uh a guy that was also in AA that's got 40 years sober. He's uh got a small used car lot and he's uh selling it. And the guy that's gonna be working it for me had 18 years in the car business but lost his job and needed someplace to go, so I kind of put my you know, put my thinking cap on and said, Hey Roger, I'll buy the business from you and then hey Mark, you want to run this business for me? I'll do the behind-the-scenes legal. It's kind of like what I do with hometown. The legal, the financial, the insurance,

AA Support Faith And New Habits

SPEAKER_01 38:30

all the stuff that nobody likes to do, you know, because it's not fun. It's forms, it's it's you know, compliance, it's just it's crap. But for for some reason I find but but now that I've done it so much, it's second hat. But but yeah, the RTO recovery is a just the alliteration, play on words, and you know, the obviously the recovery of recovery of merchandise, a lot of people think, are just you know so it's kind of a play on words and just uh my way of you know maybe somebody accidentally happens on it when they're looking to you know find out how to recover product and they oh my gosh, you know. Yeah, no, for sure. So just uh just a alliteration and a play on words, no really like super deep meaning to it other than you know trying to trying to make it sound cool.

Pete Shau 39:07

Well, I'm I am a big Jeff fan, but I do want to ask you a question because I am curious. With everything that you're going on, you have the last 30 years, you have your recovery point, and then you've you've sprouted. But you sprouted big time. Okay, there's there's been a big sprout point. Have you ever felt like there's a part of Jeff who is, you know, the pendulum is swung, right? It's it went from where you were to where you are now. Is it swinging too far? Are you stretching too thin? Do you have too many, you know, fires out there? Is it how do you feel about that?

SPEAKER_01 39:35

Uh Naomi says yes. I say no. I've I've I've got more in the I've got plenty more in the tank. And it's a testament to the energy that you get and feel getting sober, and also a testament to how much of your life that alcohol actually saps, you know, like you know, the hangovers, like just the the the the I call, you know, anxiety, a lot of people call it. There were there was there was times after I'd go on a three, four-day bender, like I I was afraid to leave the house because I'm just so jittery and you know, you're you and alcohol's supposed alcohol is a depressant. And you know, people and that's the problem with it, is it you know, people drink it to remove the anxiety, but it amplifies it, you know, and it amplifies it big time. So I I I was getting to where I couldn't even go outside and be taking a dog out, and a tree branch would crack and I'd be like, you know, scare me out, scare scare the bejesus out of me. It's like a branch that's broke, you know. It's like no big deal. But uh, but to me it was just like that hang, you know, the the and the guilt, the shame, the remorse, you know. It that's just the way alcohol makes you feel. So so no, I don't think I'm getting too thin. And and a and a part of that is is people. I have great people in place to help me along the way. And I'll probably talk about that more as I continue to make this podcast longer than anybody ever had.

Pete Shau 40:39

No, no, no, it's okay. You know, part of going through this, part of the story is not all the good times, right? I mean, you know, part of Dorothy on her trip on the Yellow Brick Road was that it wasn't just one, you know, one-sided, there was a lot that came to it. So as we get to the Wizard of Oz, we've got to figure out what brought you here, what trials and tribulations did you have to go through, what it taught you, and then how you took that. Because there's another way to look at it. You can say, I've had 30 years of the worst part about my life, and Pete, you never want to do anything about that. And you know what? I'm just glad to come home every night and not be dead. But you've taken that and decided to use that story, that experience, that push and say, you know what, I know so far what it can do. I don't want to do that. Where where can I be because of this? I've cognitively I'm better, healthier. My wife's probably extremely happier that I'm I'm getting into businesses versus anything else. So you've taken that drive and and literally moved it somewhere else. And I think that even if there's one person out there, and it might not be today, it might not be tomorrow, if there's somebody that hears this podcast and says, you know what, not that I'm trying to take away from it, but if Jeff can do it, if if if I can go to a website, if I can talk to somebody, if I can talk to my doctor, if I can talk to my wife, a friend, if I can ping Jeff at two o'clock in the morning and he's not, you know, he's not knocked out from all the jobs that he's working and he hits me back, if that changes something, it's worth it. Oh, 100%. And and I would love to hear from anybody out there who is going through something. There are there are no in in this set, in this conversation, in this podcast, we're not causing blame or or anything. We are all human here. I have made so many mistakes in my life. I can't I mean I'm glad this podcast isn't about me because I I I really have nothing to blame except myself. But you know, at times I think we all forget that we're human. That we are we are human, we make mistakes, and that is one of the things that makes us beautiful, that we have the ability to learn from that and grow from that. Uh, I think part of being you human is you get to share that experience with somebody else who's going through that, right? You know, and and it's one of those things like you're going through it, I'm going through it. Let's sit down and talk. How do we make it better? How do I make you better? How do you make me better? How heck, I I just from one day to the next, one foot in front of the other. And to be able to go from a situation where we're trucking through the snow, we're not remembering certain events in our lives that probably made a difference, to, you know, yesterday, as we're out in R R, as we're out looking on the field from a suite that was an amazing time to be had between all of us, you had somebody there. Now, I'm not just talking about Matt, because you and you, you guys are like tag teaming it, but Dave and Chris were there. And it looked like Dave and Chris now had the opportunity that a four-year younger Jeff had, where let me help you along. How do you become a part of your own story? This is how I can help you get there. Talk to me a little bit about that. Like you you had the opportunity, somebody saw in you, regardless of the fact, because at that point in time you said you were still in it. You were still doing your thing. And they saw Jeff and said, No, it's it's worth that guy is still worth doing this. And and you know, I I I love Matt to death. I mean, he's he he I I I love his or I love his person. I love who he is. I know that he's not stupid, but he saw that it was still worth it. You see Dave, you see Chris, they're they're wanting to come up. They've been in the business. And Jeff now goes, I know what it's like to put a hand out. Let me help you out. Talk to me a little bit about that story and how you got them together to now hopefully open an R very, very soon. Hopefully within six to twelve months, if all goes as planned. We are pushing for that, guys. But I mean, tell me about that story.

SPEAKER_01 44:30

So, yeah, it's this is a great LedgeCon story, I think. Uh, and just a tribute to the importance of networking and going to these events because you never know what's going to come of it. Uh Matt, Chris, Dave and I went. Matt, Chris, and Dave were first times. Uh Dave and Chris were fellows, which is great. Went to went to LedgeCon. And and and Matt and I have been talking R and R for quite a while. And it's a it's a it's a healthy investment. It's not a it's not a cheap, it's not a cheap end. And rightfully so, because it's it's a quality, uh quality brand, a quality, you know, uh franchise quality people. So so it shouldn't be easy. Uh, because if it was easy, everybody would do it. And I say that about owning

Building RTORecovery.com For Others

SPEAKER_01 45:05

a business a lot. If it was easy, everybody would do it. But yeah, so we're we're at LedgeCon and Vince is there, and Vince had a former co-worker, uh, our district manager that I spoke of that uh kind of uh led me out of the industry one of the two times I left. And uh they just kind of got to hear a little bit more about RR at LedgeCon. And Matt ended up driving home alone. Matt and then Dave, Chris, and my wife ended up driving back ourselves because we wanted to take in some of the sites of DC. And uh Dave's kind of like, well, tell me about RR, you know, and then what about it? And I was like, Well, you know, Matt and I are you know, we've been thinking about doing one for a while, but it's a pretty pretty hefty investment. And then I started thinking, well, you know, one divided by four is a lot better than one divided by one or one divided by two. So so the uh the the I kind of had an epiphany on the back roads of Pennsylvania on the way from LedgeCon back home, and uh you know, I said, Hey, do you guys think you could come up with you know XYZ to for your one-fourth of a down payment? And they're like, for what? I was like, I want to bring you guys in, like, let's let's do it. You know, uh and and and selfishly I I I kind of did that uh underhandedly to lock them in at hometown for for life for life. Uh Adam calls them golden handcuffs. Uh but but you know, Dave I've known for probably twenty years, Chris I've known for twenty-eight years, Matt I've known you know for quite a while too. The four of us, uh in fact, I named our our corporation name as HOTV OG, which is House of Television, and you know what OG stands for. Yeah, the OGs, guys. The original OGs, that's what it is. So it's the it's so it's the H the House of TV, original gangsters. Uh so it's H O T T V OG Corp is our is our company name. Awesome. So I kind of my play on words, I guess. It's just a little fun. I like to have a little fun with it. Uh so uh you know, it's a it's a good chance to to get them uh the you know, the some sweat equity, some people call it, whatever you want to call it. Those guys, those guys, you know, bust their ass for us day in, day out. Uh we we we try to do what we can for them, but we're still we're still growing, we still have those growing pains, we still got some of those loans, you know, out from when we were growing, which was some very trying times. You know, speaking when we opened Jamestown, there was some scary days there, you know, where the checkbook was negative. Uh so you learn from that too. But but yeah, uh it it it's uh and uh you know I gr I grew up poor pretty much. You know, I started working when I was 14, living paycheck to paycheck. Even when I was, you know, bought into hometown. I was you know, getting by, doing well, living, living good, you know, lower middle class, I would say, whatever. But but but I want for nothing now. You know, God has provided everything for me. I I don't I don't want to say I don't care about money, but that's not my motivating factor. And uh I I can help these guys and kind of vicariously through them help their kids, which I wasn't able to have. Uh we know I had a miscarriage about twenty years ago, or nineteen. We would our kid would be about eighteen now, uh, and we just never had kids, but that was kind of I was always spiritual, but I I kind of left God, and that's where I talk about the footprints in the sand. I didn't want to get the uh science involved, you know, because it if it just wasn't meant to be, it's just and I probably wasn't fit to be a dad, honestly. With you know, you know, 30 years as an alcoholic, you're not probably gonna be a great dad either, like I, you know, a different version of my my dad and my grandpa for different reasons. Uh so vicariously I can I can, you know, Dave's like, man, I you know, I can because if we're talking about open four, five, six of these things, Dave's like, man, I could put my kids through school. Chris is like, Chris's daughter works for us, she's our marketing manager, Chris's son-in-law works for us, he's our Jamestown store manager. So Chris can set up his kids and son and his daughter and his son-in-law Dave can put his kids through college. So in a roundabout way, I know it's kind of a long reach or far-fetched, but me getting sober was like like, you know, changed lives, changing lives, you know. Talk about I mean, you talk about that. That's that's deep. Me getting sober, like potentially may because I would have never been in that car coming back from Bledgecon had I not got sober, right? I mean, you just have to God puts you in these places and you know, we call them goddisms and and AA. So so yeah, just uh getting these guys to have paste it to me means more to me than any amount of profits I can take from from RR or any other any of the other, but you know, even the car dealership that I'm talking about. I want Mark to know what it's like to have his own business in a 10 years, he's 57, I think. Eight years we can sell the place for probably three times what we what we bought it for. So to be able to do that, you know, uh it's just very special to me.

Pete Shau 49:00

Hey everyone, it's Pete Chao here from the RTO Show Podcast, and I want to tell you about a company that's making a real difference in the rent-to-owned space. WoW Brands. I've seen firsthand how they approach marketing. Let me tell you, it's not just about ads. WoW Brands builds complete digital ecosystems designed specifically for the rent-to-owned industry. Their e-commerce and lead generation strategies are built to bring in qualified leads. And did I mention that they are actively working with the rent-owned industry while also being members of APRO and Trib? Listen, these folks are passionate problem solvers. They don't just slap something together, they design, build, and scale the kind of digital retail tools your business needs and your customers actually

Sponsor Break With WoW Brands

Pete Shau 49:41

want. So if you're serious about growing, reach out to WildBrands at WildBrands.com. I trust them, and I think you will too. I am a firm believer that if you use your blessings to bless others, it multiplies. You know, there there was a story about two loaves of bread and some fish. If you take your blessings and you bless others, it will multiply. And so as we move on, and and something that you said is really important to me because you, I mean, and I think everybody knows that we we are we are very APRO positive on this show because I believe that there's a lot that's going on. But there is a part of it that I don't I don't want to say it's selfish, but you know, you have to network. Honestly, Jeff and I met at DC and LedgeCon a couple years ago. It was because of that networking, that talking. When you have a lot of people that come into that space, the professionals that you have, the amount of people, the knowledge, the experience, the entrepreneurial spirit, uh even just guys who know how to have a great

Helping Teammates Become Future Owners

Pete Shau 50:35

relationship with their customers in their store, to get everybody together is amazing. So I it's great to hear that not only did the fellow program help them come, but it also might have inadvertently helped them become RR owners as well. So we're gonna be following that story. But you know, those are the things that I I tell people all the time if you have somebody's on the edge, they don't know if they want to be in rent to own, they're not sure about a career, they have a job, they're not sure about a career. Take them to an event, take them to DC, take them to RTO World, take them to meeting of the minds. And I guarantee you, with the amount of belief that goes in those walls, and you and you say yourself, I mean, culture. You cannot fake culture, you cannot beat it with a stick. It is there. You will have somebody that go from I have a job to I have a career. And you might go from I have a career to I might be a business owner, uh, I'm gonna have to hang out with Jeff a little bit longer. But you know, I mean, and and I I love hearing those things. I love hearing that your blessings have multiplied and that you've been able to help other people along that that way. So, you know, talking about these things and how it affected you, how you have allowed it to change you for the better and and help others. What's something that you would say right now to somebody who's let's say they were in your shoes, they're a function alcoholic, they're having a hard time, but they can get by. They've learned to just stay in the status of get by. What more do you think that they can do? And and and what do you think that they can possibly work on, look at, read, or that might trigger them to get out of that rut?

SPEAKER_01 52:14

I would say just talk to somebody. Anybody. It doesn't have to be a professional. One of the things that's opened my eye, one of the things AA and Sprite opened my eyes to is that we're all going through something. You know, we're all dealing with something. You you don't know what people are going through when you're talking to them, so don't, you know, just be a good person. But uh yeah, just just talk to somebody. There is help out there in a lot of places, and it doesn't have to be AA, that's what kind of mentioned like the AFL, it's an alcohol-free lifestyle, there's podcasts, there's you know, tons of different ways. And and in fact, I have a story, I I belong to the rotary club in Jamestown, and uh I I brought up the the uh uh director of the new of the hospital, uh there's a new director of the hospital in Jamestown, and she was just talking about like the mental health in Jamestown, and that there's a bad academic epidemic of you know heroin and um fentanyl, just like there is all across the country, but it's especially bad in our area. And several months ago at one of the rotary club meetings, a gentleman was from Jamestown Development Company was talking about homelessness, mental health, drug use, you know, and I said, I said to the lady, I said, Uh, you know, you you're talking about it, he's talking about it, but have you two talked? You know, like let you guys are the people that can do something about us. And then I told her, I said, Hey, I, you know, I just hit four years sober in April. I'd love because there's a new committee. I would love to help any way I can with this committee. After the meeting, two people come up to me and one girl said, I'm six days away from being a year sober. The other lady, the director of the rotary, said I'm two and a half years sober. And I talked to him about it and I said, and they didn't use AAA. One one one girl uses podcasts, and another girl, there's there's like uh just like you two, or just you know, whatever. There, there's there's there's resources out there, especially today. There's tons of podcasts out there. So just just talk about it and and don't be afraid to try. If you fail, get back up. You know, there's there's there's a lot of controversy in AA about you know, counting days and stuff like that. If you have 93 days and then you drink, you have to start over. It's like those 93 days didn't just then that's one of the things that's kind of a a downside of AA, I guess. I I don't necessarily agree with those things because you didn't lose those 93 days, you still gained 93 days of sobriety or 120 days of sobriety. Like they're not gone, so why should you start over? Yeah, you yeah, you fell, but how many times have you fallen in life and gotten back up? So um just just just talk to somebody would be my advice. Uh talk to me, you know, uh get on the RTO recovery website or you know, go to an AAA meeting. It that's that's an anonymous for a reason, you know. Yeah, and it's it's a very interesting room and it's a very welcoming room. You don't feel judged, you can feel free to talk. And even if you have questions, just you can do them online. There's a zoom, there's zoom meetings. So even if you don't want to you know physically step into a room of a church or basement of a church, find a zoom meeting online.

Pete Shau 54:35

You know I going into my youth, I I grew up in New York till I was nine, and then I came to Florida and I saw a crazy event. Some lady, and and she she was over the edge as far as drugs were concerned. She lost her life, and uh it scared me to death. Now at that point in time I didn't know anything about drugs, I just knew that at that age something could happen to you there it is, and so it it terrified me. But I've always had and and I don't know if this is the right word, I would say an addictive personality. I there are certain things that I get stuck on, and I am very like repetitive, and I stay away from anything that that's like that because I have a feeling that if I ever did, I I wouldn't be able to come up with an error. And so I always feel like there's a limit that I just I've got to stay away from, you know, and and I can respect that. Uh it I've actually never really said that too much to to anybody, but I you know, it's one of those things like I know for a fact that I dive into a lot of things. Maybe I shouldn't, right? But nothing, nothing crazy, but like I know that there are times when I've dived in, I'm like, I didn't, I don't have to, but I did. And I have a feeling that if I found something that took the edge off, I would be I would be weeks and months into it before I was like, wait a minute, this is I'm I've made a mistake. But in in your experience and what you've gone through, is that the hardest part? Is that the first part? Just talking to somebody else? Because I think internally, sometimes we can say, I have this. This is for me. I know I shouldn't be doing this, but I'm gonna I'm gonna do it. I can't talk myself out of it. I keep saying I will, but I don't. So you have these internal conversations. Is it making it external and including somebody else into your narrative, into your into your thoughts, going, I have a problem? Is that one of the big things that makes a difference?

SPEAKER_01 56:24

I would say it's interesting that you say that, because uh step one is of the 12 steps of AA, which I only got to step four, which is kind of strange, but because there are 12 steps, and I only did four of them, but I I the other eight I did my own way or whatever the case may be. But uh step one is uh admitting you are powerless over alcohol and that you have a problem. So I I would say once you can get to that point, then you've at least opened the door for an opportunity at success of getting sober, because i i i i if you don't see it as a you problem and it's you and that's that's the problem with addiction too, right? Is we we have we blame everything. Oh, it's I'm gonna take the edge off. Oh, I'm gonna, you know, I had a bad day at work, I had a good day at work, you know. And that's the problem with alcohol, right? Like, hey, let's go out, you know, you turn twenty-five, let's go, let's go celebrate your birthday. Oh, your mom died, let's have a you know, let's have some shots and get really drunk and forget about it. So you know, uh so there's plenty of excuses to make yourself do it and they're and you know, so it's it's ignite I guess being self-aware and realizing you have a problem, I think, is is is definitely uh step one and then just you know uh taking the actions to to correct it and or do what you need to do to correct it.

Pete Shau 57:31

So last night we're out, and I'm I'm literally looking at the twelve steps right here, and I that you you almost read that verbatim, so that's awesome. I mean, remembered it verbatim, I should say. But so last night we're out, and you know, I forgot. Was it I I just completely forgot. So we're so everybody's you know having a couple drinks, and then I said, Oh my god, like am I am I pushing this narrative on somebody who's really trying to get their act together and here I am, right? Now, mind you, one whole drink is all it takes for me. So I literally had like half a beer, but you know, now that you find yourself in those situations, you hand yourself pretty well. How long did it take to be able to say, you know, because in RTO, we we we know how to party, right? I've been to somebody's events, and then you know, there's some after hours where we know how to have fun, uh in whether it's good or bad. You know, there there are people out there who have I've seen out till three, four, five in the morning and get up and be at the 7:30 breakfast, which I have no idea. I have no idea how you did that. But I know that they're out there. How long did it take you to say, you know what, I can still be in this RTO business, I can still do business with the guys that I know are gonna go out there later on and still be okay.

SPEAKER_01 58:39

That took longer than the six months to you know, the urge to drink left after six months. That doesn't speak to the peer pressure or the feeling to the need to feel to belong, which is what yeah, I think drove, you know, many of us probably started drinking because of that too, right? It's the all the popular kids are doing it, you know, and that's I always wanted to be one of the cool kids, and I never was, but once I started drinking, I got my driver's license, and next thing you know, it's like, hey, you know, Schmidty can get things, you know. Like I was that guy. Uh so that part took a lot longer than the you know, the urge to drink. I we touched on it briefly last night, San Antonio RTL World. My first meeting sober was Meeting of the Mines, which uh I wanted to touch on it kind of helped me get involved in the industry because it was the year that Carl retired. That's right, that's right. I did I didn't even know Carl. That but that was my first show of any kind as an owner. And just the uh outpouring of love and the the whole vibe of Trib and just everybody like donating. I didn't even know the guy and I donated, I think, fifty bucks or whatever. I don't even remember what it was, but I was just like I felt compelled because of the the the love and the the the togetherness and the family feel of Trib to Carl, and that's what really got me involved. And like I said, I gotta go to all these things. Like, this is great, you know. And then I got involved with

Staying Sober At RTO Events

SPEAKER_01 59:50

Apro and stuff like that. So but to answer your question, uh San Antonio was my first show. Matt and Chris, my ex-partner were at Meeting of the Minds in Atlanta with me when Carl retired. I was nine months sober then. Wasn't bad because I was with those guys. I went to RTL World in San Antonio, which I'm thinking was the same year because I remember struggling then too. And in fact, I told you last night I I I got it got so bad that I changed my flight and went home like that day because I was just like it was it was overwhelming. You know, not that it wasn't just not any one particular event or uh the you know uh thing that happened. It was just the overall you know prevalence of of alcohol there, and everybody just and I didn't know anybody at that time either, really. You know, I knew Matt and Chris at the time and and Matt couldn't go, and my wife had uh was working a regular job before I hired her, brought her on to help hometown grow. So it was tough. And then LedgeCon, my first LedgeCon was tough uh because you know we were at the I believe it was the Hilton downtown, and you know, you get your packet, and then there's the welcome reception as soon as you grab your packet. I didn't know what to spec either, and I didn't know anybody then either, especially these guys. These are like you know, the legends like Shannon and you know, just like these guys that you know I've heard about and read about and and seen from afar, but never shook their hand or introduced, you know, talk to, you know, and I'm trying to I'm raw dogging it sober. And the other problem was too, there wasn't a lot of non-alcoholic options. You know, I was I think I was drinking like tonic water, which is absolutely atrocious. You know, so there was no like you know, unsweet tea or bubbly or sparkling water. There was none of that there. April's done a great job of kind of changing that narrative, you know, and getting us some some non-alcoholic options at the at the at the uh at the events. But but after that, I'd say probably you know 18 months or and and and as I kind of got to know more people in the industry and became more comfortable in my own skin around people in the industry, it it got way easier. And now it's I can I can I could sit next to you know anybody, any of the guys at the bar, you know, uh toe-to-toe and not have a problem, you know, smelling it, seeing it, hearing it. It it's it's not a sweat at all.

Pete Shau 1:01:44

Well, it's a challenge. It's a triumph to see that you've been able to do that. So I've got in front of me the 12 steps. Step one, we admitted that we were powerless over alcohol. Step two, came to believe that the power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity, which we kind of hit on a little bit. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to care of God as we understood him, made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. And then that's it. So you got to four out of twelve. What made you decide when you got to four? You're like, I'm I know that not only am I good, I'm good enough to go out on my own and continue this, bring people on to my boat, help them out, open a website, open locations. What was it at step four that made you go, I'm okay? Was it was it was it God? Was it the belief?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:33

Yeah, I was just gonna say step two, three, and four, or whatever, whichever one's mentioned a spiritual, you know, like any of the all the above. Uh and I and I and I don't, you know, I'm not I'm uh AA is a great program. I I love it, and it got me sober, and I still am friends with, you know, I'm obviously going into business with friends from AA, and I encourage anybody to use it. But I I kind of my point is there's other options out there, I think is what more I would try to say. And that's not why I haven't been to a meeting, it is because I don't like it or you know disagree with it. It's just uh because God got me, you know. Like and sometimes there's I will sp I will speak to this, sometimes there's a somberness in those rooms where you kind of feel like you've got to be kind of like feel a certain way. Because like my life is great, man. Like I I I I I'm trying to be humble when I say that, but like I I I couldn't ask for a better life, you know. Uh my my my worst day sober is better than my best day drunk. You know, a lot of a lot of people will say you'll you'll hear that a lot if you deal with people in recovery, those, you know, and that's true. So so so it's hard for me to tone it down when I go in there because I just have so much good things going on in my life. You know, I I don't want to feel like I'm toned down and I don't want to not be myself either, you know. I I and I'm I and AA teaches you too, I think one of the steps is to you know, practice these uh things in all your affairs, I think is one of the steps and to help others. And that's that's I've carried on that tradition. But if you read the twelve steps, I I encourage anybody to read them if you don't drink, you could apply that to your everyday life, right? I mean take a moral inventory and and and you know apologize to those you've wronged. Like you don't have to be an alcoholic to do that. You know, stand be a man, stand up, you know, like apologize. You know you did the people wrong, you know. Be a man about it. You know, like you the relief you'll feel would be I guarantee you you'd feel a lot better. Yeah, it's gonna be one of the hardest things you ever did, but you'll but you'll be glad you did it.

Pete Shau 1:04:13

Well, so you you're what you said earlier was is that if anybody needed to reach out, talk about it, that that would be a message that you would give to somebody who might be going through this functioning alcoholic stage in their life. What would you say to somebody who is now they're kind of on the edge, they're not sure if RTO is a career, they're not sure if they want to stay just as a job or move forward, as somebody who has now been four years on the entrepreneurial boat, completely changed from literally doing IT to owning five locations. What would you say to somebody who's on that fence? You know, coming from Jeff and the Jeff-ism that we're gonna talk about it, right? We talked last night about Randy isms, we talked about different things. What is a Jeff-ism that you would say, you know what, you're on that fence, you haven't picked a career, you're not sure. This is my advice to you.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:05

Stick with it. Put yourself out there because the more you put yourself out there, the more opportunities are gonna open up for you. I I I don't doubt at all that that's true in my case, you know, as and surround yourself with people, you know, surround with your surround yourself with like-minded people. You know, if if you you know, if you wanna what is it, if you want to fly, soar if you want to soar with eagles, you gotta fly or something. I don't remember the exact words, but if you you know, if you want to fly, soar the eagles, or if you want to fly with eagles, you gotta soar. I don't know. But you know, just surround yourself with with like-minded people. And that's that's what uh alcoholics tend to do too, right? They they i i it's the comparison, and I was guilty of it. I always hung out with this guy. I said, Oh, I'm not as bad as that guy. So you you always kind of find that one person that's just a little bit worse than you, but your worst keeps getting worse and worse and worse too. Like you start going down that dangerous road to where like all of a sudden alcohol may not be all you're doing, just because you want to keep that keep telling yourself that you're not that bad. So you start hanging around with people that are doing alcohol and drugs, maybe. So yeah. Put yourself out there. Just just just you know hang with uh you know, don't if you're not the smartest person in the room, find a new room for sure. Uh in the RTO world, there's so many more opportunities than just your store level, which is and hanging there, you know, because that's kind of why uh you know Dave and Chris, like they've been in the business a long time, but that's gonna create, you know, we spoke briefly about the the opportunities and the and the growth that can happen between hometown, R, and we haven't even really touched on Mr. Appliance yet. Um you know, there's there's a lot of lateral movement, there's a lot of upward movement that can now happen. You know, Chris is a district manager, Dave's a corporate trainer. They're gonna now be owners uh in R R Tire Express as they attrition out of hometown as those people. There's some of our strong store managers gonna be able to move in those positions, our strong assistant managers can be able to move into those positions. So uh if you feel stuck, you're not, there's there's there's options out there. Get like like like you said, get to a show, you know, meeting of the minds, tri uh trib, get on the leap sessions. You know, there's there's tons of stuff out there. Um there's IT jobs out there, there's HR jobs out there, there's payroll jobs out there. Just because you're uh a salesperson at an RTO store doesn't mean you can't have a job in HR. Right, right. So find what you like and kind of follow that passion too, I would say.

Pete Shau 1:07:09

On a scale of one to ten, how important is it your circle? How important is your circle around you?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:15

Ten, no doubt about it. Yeah. And and I give thanks to to Matt, Chris, and Dave because of how good they are. It allows me to be able to be the president of NYRDA, be on the board of uh of APRO, be on the board of PARD, you know, if if these guys weren't as good at what they do as they are, then I would I would be putting out fires in the business instead of you know helping the business. So I I make a joke that Chris is our firefighter because he's that's what he does. He puts out the fires at 8 a.m. before they get to Matt and I. You know that.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:41

Oh, I've lived that life.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:42

Yeah, I've gotten calls early in the morning. So-and-so called in, so-and-so did that. You know, and that that's what Chris does for us. And by him, you know, that was Matt and I when we had two, three stores, but once we got to four and five, and and we kind of had that in mind when we brought Chris on too. That was, you know, I brought Chris in as an assistant manager with the idea that he was going to be a district manager for me. I brought Dave on as a corporate trainer. We kind of created that position for him, knowing that we were going to be opening an R and need his uh church called him a unicorn, you know, seven years in, I think he's got seven years in RTO and five years as a as a tire manager. Oh yeah. Definitely unicorn. Who who else would you rather have like have start your R franchise than a guy like that?

Pete Shau 1:08:16

So promises made, promises kept so far. So as you sit here now, you have the mic, you have the camera. If you were to sit here now, like you are, who do we need to thank for the Jeff today?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:30

First and foremost, God. You know, uh Naomi, obviously he's been a big part of that, but God put Naomi in my life too, so I'd have to say 100% uh Jesus Christ.

Pete Shau 1:08:40

Is there anybody else that you want to put on there?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:42

You know, Randy, Randy O'Tander taught me things he didn't even know he was teaching me. One of the reasons I was so loyal to him, and one of the things that's helped me become uh a good uh what I think is a good boss, uh I think I'd been four months in the business as an account manager, and I walked into work one day and there was a uh almost brand new set of Callaway Steelhead X14 irons in the back room that he had dropped off on my day off, and uh my manager comes up and I was just an account manager delivered, yeah, account manager we called it at the time. And my store manager comes out, he's like, Hey Randy dropped these off for you yesterday. And I had talked to Randy about golf here and there and told him I didn't have like great clubs or anything like that, but we had some conversations or whatever, and I was ecstatic, of course, because I was making eight dollars an hour. I can't afford a thousand dollars. Oh, so it's just a thousand dollars. Yeah, you're talking about some nice. He's like, Thank you. He says, I I hear you've been doing a really good job for us. You know. Now to him, he was probably very well off, multimillionaire, probably, so a thousand dollar set of irons to him is is nothing but to me that I was gonna say to me. I started working at 14 so I could buy Doritos in Mountain Dew because my parents couldn't afford them, you know. So so so for me to get a gift like that really had impacted my life uh in a in a lot of ways.

Pete Shau 1:09:50

So as we come into the end, we did talk about some other positions that you had. You have now gone into Mr. Appliance. So we've talked about the car dealership, we've talked about your RTO. Mr. Appliance is something else that you've gotten into. Now, I will say it has worked for some and now worked for others. If you if you can have it close enough to have your own store serviced by your other one business, I know that they're aren't close enough right now, but as you open up these businesses and you you have them all together, you keep RTO on what you do. How did how

Mr. Appliance Expansion And Final Advice

Pete Shau 1:10:25

did you manage to open up some Mr. Appliances and what got you into that?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:28

RTO comes back to RTO and God. Uh maybe that's what we'll title this podcast. RTO and God.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:33

RTO and God.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:34

Matt and I struggled to find somebody to fix our appliances. Uh Basker and cost was like an hour away. They were charging us 280, 320, 300 every time they came. It would take like a week, uh, two weeks sometimes for them to get there. Sorry, we got loaners tied up and we didn't have a lot of cash flow at the time to get loaners. Loaners were big, you know, like it was tough. And I I had gone to a seminar actually, so so you know, talking back to the importance of Trib and uh M OTM and Apro and RTO world. And Chad Fosek had put on an entrepreneur thing and talked about Mr. Appliance at one point. Yep. So I thought, well, if I'm gonna pay somebody to do and the tipping point was a conversion, LP conversion, that converted the stove, and the orifices are you know twenty, thirty bucks maybe, and they charged me like three hundred dollars to do it. So eighty bucks for the part and two hours of lay, whatever it was, and it was like three hundred bucks. I'm like, you know what, enough's enough. If I'm gonna write checks to somebody to fix appliances, I'm gonna write them to hometown rent to own. Or I'm gonna write them to Mr. Appliance, excuse me, from hometown rent to own. So Matt and I kind of kind of got to work on getting uh some funding for that. Uh I went to through the through the steps and the hoops, which you and I've kind of discussed uh what that what that looks like. And uh so we opened up Mr. Appliance at Jamestown Warren, and I uh I knew there was some opportunity in Erie, Pennsylvania, and put a down payment, uh 10% down payment to lock that territory up. Opened that in August of 2025, uh and how RTO ties all of this again is uh Greg and I, Greg Skinner from Leopard Mobility and I are uh getting ready to close actually Friday on our uh we're opening two territories in Texas, purchasing two territories in Texas.

Pete Shau 1:11:55

That's amazing. Greg, we love you, man. Just want you to know, Greg, we're thinking about you. I I mean, what a story. What a comeback story, right? To to say 30 years of kind of just head in the sand to I I've got partners, I've got businesses, I'm helping people get out of the rut that they're in. I am taking everything that God has given me and utilizing that to do better in other lives, including my own. Jeff, it's a story. It's it's an amazing story. I'm glad that you were able to tell it on the podcast because listen, I will tell you guys, it is a story of triumph, and this is not only about his, it's about what you can do for you too. Now, if there's anybody listens to the podcast as we speak that needs help, by all means, reach out. Where do they reach out to again? RTORecovery.com. RTORecovery.com. And listen, you don't have to be an RTO. It is a name. He said that. It's just a name. But if you're an RTO and he makes it even better, if you're not, it doesn't matter. Reach out. Your sobriety matters because we need you here, we want you here, and you might be you might be the next Jeff Smith. I don't know if there's gonna be another one, but you might be the next one. So it's a it's an amazing story, Jeff. You you've done a lot, you've done some great work. I am I'm very glad that I met you. I know that you actually did a lot of the talking the first time we met. You said you you came out of that shell and you said hey. And guys, if you guys don't know Jeff, the next time that you're out, please stop by, say hello, shake his hand. There is a story there. If you don't have the opportunity to go to one of those places, where can they meet? Get can they find you online? Where can they go to find you?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:32

Uh yeah, I'm not super big on the socials. I mean, I'm kind of more of a lurker.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:36

Then you have to stock the website at home hometown.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:38

No, I I I mean I have a Facebook, it's just my name. Uh and then LinkedIn, I'm on LinkedIn too. Don't spend a lot of time. I I I do my networking face-to-face, kind of like we're doing right now. You know, I just I feel much more comfortable in that environment, which is kind of uh ironic given that my background's in IT, right? You think you think I'd be hind behind a keyboard? And that's actually my I'm actually quite introverted, but which is why, you know, bringing a little back to the alcohol again. Brought me out of my shell. But you know, the more the more time goes by, the more comfortable I get, the more I just feel like feeling that human connection, which is why I wanted to do this here too. You and I had talked about, you know, doing it remotely, doing whatever, and I said, Hey, there's a chance I might become a No, hey, by all means.

Pete Shau 1:14:14

Listen, guys, if you guys want to talk to Jeff, find him on LinkedIn, go to rto recovery.com, stop by one of his stores in either New York or PA, hometown RTO. You I promise you, you will not be disappointed. I'm gonna tell you guys, please make sure you subscribe because these are the content, these are the kind of things that we're talking about every single day, and we want to get that out to you. Go to the website, therto showpodcast.com, subscribe to the newsletter, take a look on there. If you want to be a sponsor, we still have some spots open, get the newsletter, and I'm gonna tell you guys, you will not be disappointed. Jeff, thank you so much for being on the show. An amazing, amazing story. I I couldn't have said it any better myself on anything that you said, and the story is is is just amazing. Your belief has made me believe. I just want you to know that. I'm gonna tell you guys as always stories like this don't come your way off and you're gonna see it on the RTO show podcast. Get your collections

Where To Find Jeff And Closing

Pete Shau 1:15:05

low to get your sales high. Have a great one.