Episode 114 of The Rental Roundtable was a little different. This time, I wasn’t the host. I was the guest. I sat down with Leo Gestetner on A Founder’s Life podcast to talk about something we don’t cover much on this show: how I try to balance running Quipli with family, health, and a life I’m proud of.
At first, this might not sound like a rental topic. But if you own an independent rental company, you’re a founder too. You built something from the ground up. You wear too many hats. You lie awake wondering if you’re growing the business the right way, and whether you’re still showing up for the people at home. I feel all of that. So I wanted to share what’s helped me, in case it helps you.
Balance Isn’t a Trade-Off. It’s Choosing Your Big Rocks.
For years, I thought I had to choose. Build a company or have a family. Chase growth or stay healthy. I don’t believe that anymore. If you’re patient, you can build these things at the same time. You don’t have to pick one and give up the rest.
The real trick is focus. I pick a few things that matter most and cut the rest. Ten years ago, I played a lot of golf and watched every game on TV. I’ve let most of that go. I even got off social media a year ago. Not because those things are bad, but because they were pulling me away from what matters more.
“Balance is really around choosing the most important things in your life. For me, it’s my family, it’s my work, it’s my health. And if I have time around that, I’ll watch Arsenal and play some golf.” (12:18)
That’s the whole idea. When you name your big rocks, everything else gets easier to say no to. And saying no is a superpower. Most founders don’t fail because they can’t do things. They fail because they try to do too many things at once. You’re lucky if you can do one thing well.
For a rental operator, your big rocks might be your team, your customers, and your fleet. When you’re clear on those, you stop chasing every shiny new tactic and start building something that lasts.
Health Is the Foundation, Not the Reward
Here’s something that surprised me to admit. In a weird way, my health might be even more important than my family. Not because I love it more, but because it comes first. If my cup is empty, I can’t pour into anyone else. You take care of yourself, then your family, then your team, then your community. It cascades in that order.
So I protect it. I sleep eight hours every night. You won’t hear me bragging about four hours of sleep. That’s not toughness, it’s a slow-motion mistake. I run six days a week, usually 45 minutes to an hour, with no phone and no headphones. That time is mine. The world can’t reach me. I get the physical benefit, but the mental side is the real prize.
“My doctor told me, if you weren’t running every day, you’d be on 10 different medicines for anxiety and depression. Exercise to me really is the miracle drug.” (6:26)
I start every day this way. Exercise, then about ten minutes of meditation, before I ever open my laptop. Jeff Bezos says he doesn’t take meetings before 10am. I’ve taken the same approach. Not to copy him, but because once work starts, you’re slaying dragons all day. If you’re not at your best, you’ll pay for it later.
Rental owners know this feeling. You show up before the yard opens, and the fires start the second the phones ring. If you run on empty, your team feels it. Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish. It’s how you take care of everyone who counts on you.
Why Letting Go Is the Only Way to Scale
This is the hardest one for founders, and it’s where a lot of rental owners get stuck. I’m hands-off. I build a team, I trust them, and I expect them to make mistakes. A founder friend of mine asked how I handle it when my team messes up. My answer was easy. If they’re not making mistakes, they’re not pushing hard enough.
He runs his company the opposite way. He does every job himself, his way. He told me he’s white-knuckling it, with another six to twelve months of this left. That worried me, because that’s not a plan. That’s a countdown to burnout.
“The size of the company is directly limited to how many hours you can work. If I was going to do every single sale and every single engineering line, your company is going to be very small compared to what it could be if you build the team. And part of building that team is letting them fail.” (14:12)
I think about it like running. When you settle into an easy pace, you can go for hours because your body keeps up with the effort. Sprint too hard, and you’ve got a shelf life before you blow up.
“Balance is staying in that zone 2 heart rate where you could effectively go forever. If you start sprinting in zone 3, 4, or 5, there’s a shelf life to how long you can run.” (15:04)
My friend is running in zone 5. It works for now, but it can’t last. The same is true for your rental business. If you’re the only one who can write a contract, check availability, or dispatch a truck, the company can only ever be as big as your calendar.
This is where good tools matter. Part of letting go is trusting your people. The other part is giving them software that handles the busywork, so they’re free for the work only humans can do. That’s the whole reason we built Quipli the way we did. When your inventory is visible across every location, when booking and scheduling runs without phone calls between stores, and when invoices generate on their own, your team stops fighting the system and starts serving customers.
Chris Graeler put it well in episode 106: do what you do best, and hire out the rest. Software should help you hire out the rest.
That same idea drives Quinn, our AI agent. Quinn answers after-hours calls, captures missed rentals, and flags customers who might be slipping away. It handles the follow-up that never gets done when your team is stretched thin. It’s not about replacing your people. It’s about freeing them to build relationships and make decisions, which is the same reason I share so much about where rental software is headed.
The Hard Season That Started It All
I don’t think most pivotal moments are fun. Mine wasn’t. In a twelve-month stretch around 2019 and 2020, I got married, moved across the country, and ran an Iron Man. In that same window, my mom was diagnosed with stage four brain cancer at 56. She had less than a year. Then the pandemic hit, my whole team at Uber was laid off, and my mom passed away.
That season broke something open in me. There was a period of real depression and a lot of hard days. But it also gave me a clear-eyed truth I couldn’t unsee.
“I got to this perspective that life is going really fast and life is short. And if you have dreams in life, you’ve got to go for it.” (16:11)
Around that time, I tried to rent a piece of equipment online from a big national company. The experience was terrible. And I thought, if these guys can’t get it right, what are the independents dealing with? That question became Quipli. A hard season turned into the reason I took the leap. Looking back, I’m proud I turned that pain into something that helps people run their businesses better.
Keep Building
If there’s one thread through all of this, it’s a lesson my dad gave me. I told my daughters the same thing this morning before swim practice.
“There are three things. Do your best, do what’s right, and treat others the way you want to be treated.” (17:02)
That’s how I try to run my life, my family, and my company. It’s not fancy business advice, but after everything, it holds up. Starting a company isn’t so different from a kid jumping in the water for the first time. It’s scary, it’s the unknown, and you’ve got to be brave enough to go anyway.
You built your rental business the same way. So take care of yourself, trust your team, lean on tools that carry the load, and keep your eyes on the few things that matter most. That’s how you build something that can go the distance. If you want to see how we help operators like you take work off their plate, come take a look at Quipli.
