★ PRESENTING SPONSORS ★

Premier Sponsor

Associationof Professional Rental Organizations

APRO elevates the rent-to-own industry through advocacy and education to better serve our members.

Vendor Sponsor

Wow Brands

Designed specifically for the rent to own industry with ecommerce and lead generation strategies.

Dealer Sponsor

RNR Tire Express

Get the best value on today’s top brand name tires and wheels.

Brand-name inventory, dependable delivery — the supply partner built to power RTO stores.

Learning Leadership Bookclub (LLB)

Book recommendation - Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy Seals Lead and Win

Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin turns Navy SEAL combat leadership into practical lessons that hit close to home for RTO.

No excuses culture. The core idea — no bad teams, only bad leaders — pushes managers to own missed collections and staff issues instead of blaming customers or the market.

Decentralized command. Front-line managers need to make fast calls on approvals and collections without waiting on a district manager for every decision.

Prioritize and execute. A simple framework for triaging the daily chaos of collections, inventory, and delivery instead of freezing up.

Cover and move. Breaks down the silo friction between sales, collections, and delivery teams that a lot of RTO operators struggle with.

In short: a leadership manual disguised as a war memoir, with lessons on accountability that translate almost one-to-one to running a tight RTO operation.

A word from the host

Adapt or Be Left Behind: A Wake Up Call for the Rent to Own Industry

I'm not going to sugar coat this.

I'm nervous for our industry. Not because rent to own is broken, it isn't, but because too many dealers are waiting for something that isn't coming. Waiting for foot traffic to bounce back on its own. Waiting for the old playbook to work again. Waiting for customers to find you instead of going out and earning them... Read More

Latest Podcast Episodes

How To Make Your Grand Opening Pay Off Big!

8/17/2026

A great grand opening can make or break a new store's first year. Pete Shau talks with RNR Tire Express VP of Franchising Vince Ficarrotta, a 24-year company veteran (and originator of the famous pirate-costume marketing stunt), about soft opening vs. grand opening, the metrics that actually matter (registrations, team performance, week-over-week uplift), ideal timing and hours, budget-friendly marketing mixes, staffing and customer flow, and how to keep momentum going after opening day.

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How Self-Awareness Turns Good Sellers Into Great Ones

8/31/2026

Charisma can outsell product knowledge, and this episode explains why. Pete Shau talks with Australia-based Arky Jones, creator of Personality Peek, about self-awareness as a buildable skill, the 1% improvement principle, and personality as a snapshot rather than a fixed label. They dig into when to retest during periods of change and how neuroplasticity lets people override old habits. Arky also unpacks stoicism as a practical toolbox and names the most damaging blind spot: holding others to standards you won't hold yourself to.

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The RTO Show LIVE at RTO WORLD 2026

8/27/2026

If you don't tell your story, someone else will. Recorded live at RTO World 2026, Pete Shau sits down with Charles Smitherman CEO of APRO and Adam Sutton CEO of RNR Tire Express to talk franchise culture, clear language, and industry advocacy. They cover what earns Culture 100-level results, building value-driven teams in a me-first world, and why competition can actually grow the RTO market. The conversation closes on APRO's GEO toolkits, the four core truths shaping how AI engines describe rent-to-own, and lessons from the New York advocacy fight.

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The RTO Show HOT MIC at RTO WORLD 2026

8/27/2026

RTO World 2026 brings the whole industry onto one show floor, and The RTO Show is right in the middle of it. Recorded live in West Palm Beach, this fast-moving episode covers the gaming and furniture products drawing the most attention, the AI tools vendors are pitching for account management and customer engagement, and strategies for recruiting and retaining staff in a tight labor market. Marketing, financing, and franchise growth round things out, offering a grounded, insider snapshot of where RTO is headed next.Listen to the episode

Watch on YouTube

RTO World 2026 - APRO / TRiB Group + RNR Mid-Year 2026 + DX3 August 2026

From RTO World 2026 and RNR Tire Express Mid-Year 2026 in West Palm Beach, to awards, diner cruises, and one amazing LIVE Show, the podcast has had one amazing August!

RTO Industry: What we're reading over here

APRO Introduces New Consumer Best Practices to Strengthen Trust at RTO World 2026

Rent-to-own's trust makeover: APRO just rolled out new Consumer Best Practices Guidelines at RTO World 2026, pushing for clearer pricing, honest ads, and better-trained staff — basically an industry pinky-swear to stop the fine-print games.

PR Newswire - Aug 25, 2026

How RNR Tire Express Grew to $350 Million by Expanding Access to Affordable Tires

Flat tire, full wallet? Not for these customers. RNR Tire Express turned rent-to-own tires into a $350 million empire — 213 locations strong. Founder's son Adam Sutton ditched flashy custom wheels for a recession-proof bet on pure necessity, betting that everyone with a car eventually needs tires, credit check or not. The real secret sauce: treating tire shops like family reunions, not transactions.

US Chamber.com - August 2026

Katapult (KPLT) Adds 80M Shares, Reshapes Board

Katapult's stock count exploded to 84.8M shares after closing its all-stock buyouts of CCF Holdings and Aaron's Intermediate Holdco. IQV Holdco and its parent KMJ each briefly held a chunky 13.5% stake (~11.4M shares) from the deal — but immediately turned around and distributed nearly all of it out to their own members.

Stock Titan - August 2026

PROG Holdings: Growth Is Outpacing Its Valuation

PROG Holdings is quietly outrunning its stock price. Q2 revenue jumped 22.3% and gross merchandise value surged 60% to $902 million, fueled by a pivot away from old-school lease-to-own furniture deals toward digital, buy-now-pay-later products (Four Technologies volume up 111%) plus the newly acquired Purchasing Power business. Even with a 13.46x P/E, the author argues the market hasn't caught up to the 22.8% EBITDA growth and shrinking debt leverage — but flags a real wrinkle: credit write-offs in the core leasing segment hit 8.4% of revenue, above target, as lower-income customers feel the squeeze. Bottom line from the piece: undervalued growth story, but keep an eye on credit quality.

SeekingAlpha.com - August 13, 2026

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