SPEAKER_03 0:00

This is your dream. This is your passion. This is what you want to do. I said, you're going it's gonna have some rough patches. It's gonna be some days gonna be slow. As what we call slow. I said, but you gotta make use of that time. Okay, if you're slow in nobody, come in, go to Hardy's, go to Bojangles, go somewhere, hand somebody out uh a card or free a pass, whatever you want, whatever you got going on. Hey, come by come by and see me. It's a free cut on me.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Welcome back to the Brotherhood Beyond Business Podcast. Today I am sitting with, well, Melvin London, right? Now say that. But we call him June. And uh I met June, I don't know why I'm yelling, I got a microphone on. I met June through this barbershop right here. Cause uh one day I opened my business right next door to him. And I'm I'm actually proud to say that my oldest son partially grew up in this barbershop. And uh and I can I appreciate the probably some of the male influences that he had in here because I know y'all kept it clean when he was here and he got to play PlayStation. That was yeah, you got to read a room, right? And that was one thing that I've always appreciated about you is I could tell that we aligned as far as values go when it comes to kids. I learned a lot from you from coach, like working under you as a football coach in the league that you ran. So June owns JR's barber shop. June also ran a local rec football league for a long time. Uh, you were the varsity high school basketball coach. I think you probably coached JV for a little bit before that. And then you coached JV football here at Topswell High School.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

JV basketball for three and um football for three, if I ain't mistaken. And then I coached over at the middle school for football and basketball for several years. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Yeah, man. Got pretty much got me into coaching football. So today I just want to learn what's what I find about these podcasts is really fun, is I talk to people I've known for a long time, but I didn't learn stuff I didn't know about them. So I kind of expect that to happen today because I'm gonna like ask you like how things got started and and all that. Well, I mean, before, I mean, we talked about it a little bit before, but before there was JR's barbershop, what were you doing? I mean, you're from here, right? You're a local guy.

SPEAKER_03 2:34

Been here all my life. Before I opened up Junior's with uh a partner, which was Roland Dixon, we opened up uh, we was it's called Junior's Total Cuts in Salon at the time. Before all of this, I was uh the manager at a distribution center right down the street, actually. It's in that red building, right down the road, right? Stone is supplier was a drywall company. We sold uh drywall, Kutzka ceiling, metal studs, a lot of commercial stuff. Actually, uh sold Mr. Jack, the material for this building. Actually. Um but that's what I was doing before I opened up Junior's. Uh I was there for about 15 years before it shut down once all of the building and stuff. Yeah, that went bad. Did it? Yeah. Started slowing up and uh they closed down. So I was like, well, what now? I'm getting older. Uh huh. So I was like, what am I gonna do now? I wanted to stay in the field, but I didn't want to stay in that field, um, you know, selling material and and stuff like that. And I said, if I'm I've been cutting hair since I was 12 years.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Okay, all right, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 3:37

Yeah, I've been cutting hair since you were 12.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

What were you doing cutting hair when you were 12? You just wanted to cut hair?

SPEAKER_03 3:43

And a bunch of kids was out clowning around on a summer, summer day, storming, and we, you know, back then you couldn't run all about in everybody's house. You could stay outside.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Kick them out, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:53

Out on my cousin's porch, and um, he actually pulled out his dad clip and was cutting his brother's hair. And um and he messed it up. And um, I was like, man, come in, let me fix that. Nah, we just out there messing around, and I'd done a pretty good job, and then that day I cut everybody on the porch. That's a cool story. I didn't know that. That's isn't that wild how things start? That's how I started. Kind of just talking trash. Playing around. And then just after that, man, I I went and got a pair of cheap clippers. Ironically, I used to have to cut with them and line up with them. Okay. So I'd have to take them, adjust the blade to line up to be able to put the hard line on them. Uh-huh. All one clipper, I cut out with one pair of clippers.

unknown 4:37

Man.

SPEAKER_03 4:38

One pair, and they get so hot, then I I put them in the freezer. Well yeah. Because you could cut them off, right? And I was charging the started out charging a I was gonna say, I'm sure you weren't charging enough. Dollar. Then I charged two dollars later on. Couldn't even buy the new clippers. Uh-huh. Man, and then I had a cousin of mine that which was uh older gentleman, was a barber uh Theodore Reed. And he gave me my first professional pair of clippers. He was like, hey, I got some old clippers, you use these, and he's actually the one that showed me the blade concept without the guards, the little plastic thing that everybody uses now. So he shot taught me the blade concept and been moving every sense.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:19

So I cut hair every Thursday, night after work, Thursday, Friday, and I do it all day, Saturday, and some Sundays.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

So you did that while you're working at the other place, too. I've done that my entire But not here, not in this, not in that place.

SPEAKER_03 5:34

No, no, no, no, no. I was doing I had a uh cutting at my grandmother's house when I was a teenager. So I was doing that there. Uh then have the the barber chair. They had a stool and a chair, used towels, sources thing that most people uh before you get in this industry, that's basically what you do. Because I don't go out getting get a barber chair, you know, they go they ain't cheap. But yeah, man, I kept doing that and uh I've done that all through high school, through college, back here working, I still done Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Still done it right on up until I was at Edgemont. I had actually had my brother build me a shop uh at my house in my backyard. So I had a shop pretty much the same concept, color scheme, everything that's in here. Uh and I used that for a while and then till I got laid off. And then I was like, uh, going to barber school at 40?

SPEAKER_00 6:33

That's that's yeah, you'd have to do that to like do this publicly, right?

SPEAKER_03 6:37

Uh to do this out in public and then then be licensed, you have you have to normally take you uh some programs uh was 12 months. Some of the private, some of the private schools was 12 months. Like K3 CFCC, they have theirs, I think it's uh sixteen months, if I'm not mistaken. You can go to the barber school there. But you go to school and um you have to have fifteen hundred and twenty-eight hours. Fifteen hundred and twenty hours. And once you have obtained that, then you go up before the board and uh you do a written test and a practical exam. You get that, you'll get your apprentice license from there. If you pass all of that, then you have to hold your apprentice license for a year under a registered barber for a year, and then then you go back again and you take the uh practical again, and then you pass the practical. What I mean by now what's the practical? Are you cutting somebody's hair? Yeah, they just bring in some random person who agrees to it or you used to, um, because uh back in the day you used to you'd get some homeless folks and stuff because they would always had a beard, it was spragly, because you need to have a beard and uh at least three inches of hair when you go up there, uh, and uh model, have a model, excuse me. You had to have, could do that uh 14-stroke shave, and then you had you had to do a uh tapered haircut. So that's what you had to do up there. But you had to get you had to find the person to to take up there. And then after that, they cut that out because of health issues and uh safety issues. Because you're coming in there, you know, you're talking lies and all that.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Yeah, especially if they're bringing in some homeless folks.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

Nah. Yeah. So they cut all of that out, and um so you had to have a clean model. So they stopped, you just couldn't bring anybody. So you they would then they had it in there, you had the your model had to be dressed a certain way.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

Oh, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:32

Yeah, you had to be clean. You got graded on all that stuff. So going to school, man, going to barber school at 40, that was that was different. But I had uh That's a life change at 40.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

I mean, I guess you were doing it some, but so when you went to barber school, you knew you wanted to do it as a business. Or as like a business not from home or however it was.

SPEAKER_03 8:51

Exactly. I wanted to be out and then so I can serve all the community, everybody. So um in order to do so, you got to be licensed. So I uh went and um enrolled at um TNI Barber College or Barber School and got up there, man. I I I was geared up and pumped up. And you know, the lady, uh the instructor was uh we call Miss Hill. Man, oh man, got there and she was like, okay, yeah, Mr. Lumner, we can do this, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, okay, and then you thinking, I'm thinking anyway, is we just gonna be cutting hair. Oh boy, when she handed me the ke hand me them three books, I was like, oh no. I I got to study now as we cut hair. And she showed me the classroom part of it. You're like, I've been doing this my whole lot. Yeah, but it was uh it was a lot different than just cutting hair. You got to learn a lot of stuff, the anatomy, uh everything.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Well, barbers were doctors at one point, right? Or something like that. Or dentists, or was it we uh assisted in um dentistry and all that? That's what it was, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

So we used to call we we used to be called barber surgery.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

All right. So you went to school. How long after school was it until you opened this? Because it's the only one you've had, right?

SPEAKER_03 10:02

Actually, this I actually we opened this before I finished school.

SPEAKER_02 10:07

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 10:07

I had we had uh just enrolled, I think, uh November. You and your partner, yeah, you enrolling up, yeah. I enrolled in November. We opened this in March.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Now with a business partner. With a business partner. Was he in He was already he always uh registered bar. So you could like you could have been like apprentice under him if you had to, or No, not while you're in school. Oh, okay, okay. So you gotta be out of school before you do that.

SPEAKER_03 10:30

I didn't cut not one head a year until after I got out of school. I basically was paying paying my half of everything throughout the entire time. I was in school. You paid your dues. Oh, yeah, yeah. You did what you had to do. Yeah, man. I had money saved up and I talked with the family before I made that move. You know, if I was like, oh I said, we all right, we're fine. I said, I'm gonna do this. This is my passion. This is something I've been wanting to do. I said, who knows? I might get another job somewhere else and work five years and then they didn't want to lay us off. So I said I just want to took control. It's all about doing what what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Yeah, well, you mean you get to if you do it right at a certain point, then you get to set your own schedule to an extent. I mean, we gotta make money when you make money, but it's like you gotta make a live. That's the if if you do well, so if you, man, if you had to let's say you got some kid you're mentoring or something, maybe a kid on a basketball team, it could be, or just a kid in the area, and they tell you they want to cut hair, but also open a barber shop. Like what's the first what's the first lesson you learned, or a lesson you learned that you'd want them to know before they even consider doing it? Like, is there anything that you would say like might not be what you think it is, like because X, Y, and Z?

SPEAKER_03 11:50

Well, basically, what I tell them all, hey man, don't don't get in this because of the money. Money'll get you here, but it won't keep you.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 11:59

Because you can get burned out in this business. I say you've got to have a strong, you're worried about what's going on on Friday nights. That's that's a barber night. What's going on all day Saturday?

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Uh huh.

SPEAKER_03 12:10

That's that's when you're cutting hair. Those are most everyone's busy days, those Fridays, those Saturdays, those are your two of your key days there. It's from Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Those are your biggest days. And so you if you're the party type, if you're not disciplined, um, it it can it can really You're not gonna make any money. It it's gonna take. And then you you have to be disciplined when you especially if you handling cash, you have to have a system. So you don't just go spend it. You do. I mean, you you sit down there like you just throwing your money away, you don't know what's going on. No man, I'm I'm working, I'm doing all this, yeah, but I'm not making money. And that's what happened to a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:49

Yeah. You don't have the discipline.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

You got to have you 'cause you're probably dealing in cash a lot in this business.

SPEAKER_03 12:54

Yeah, you do. You know, you got the cash up there, but now people starting to run away from those all those paying methods as well because all everybody's fees. Fee well, not just fees, you know, all the hacking going on and all of this stuff and getting your information. And some people don't feel too comfortable giving you the information and then some do. Oh well, just tap, just tap, just tap. You're leaving the trail, you're leaving the stuff out there to be had. Yeah. So yeah, but it's a predominantly run uh cash run bids in here anyway.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Nothing wrong with that. I think that's great. So how long you been open now?

SPEAKER_03 13:27

March 12th. It'll be 14 years out of the year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

So you were here about two years, uh, just about just over two years before I opened that. And I opened on the other side of you. Do you remember that? I don't know if you remember I opened over there. Uh yeah, you opened there first because one unit right there before you came over here. It was a grocery store in there or something.

SPEAKER_03 13:46

The food store was there.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Yeah. And then they had the uh Glass Place. He was a glass place, and the other side was a gambling place. The virtual gambling place. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Boy, this place has come a long way in a long time. Changed a lot. At least now, at least we hadn't uh knocked any mirrors off your wall recently.

SPEAKER_03 14:06

No, you're not.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

From people making noise. Was that for me doing work over there?

SPEAKER_03 14:11

Was that it was you um the day when you all work with the kids. Whatever time it is when you work with the kids.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

We gotta tell them kids quit hitting the wall. They be jumping around like crazy. Right on. Alright, so been a while. You've been doing this a while. How long you what's something you ever had anything happen that's that's just crazy or just been tough? Like you don't have a business partner anymore.

SPEAKER_03 14:31

No.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Like, I mean, what what was tough there? Like what what what'd you learn from that?

SPEAKER_03 14:36

Well, I mean, you you choose your business partner. Um, wisely if you're gonna be that. And nothing happened with us. Family. My partner, he had um family stuff going on, you know, passing. This his dad got sick and stuff like that. He just had a lot on him, man, and he had to step away. After that, pretty much like being, you know, doing it myself on half the act.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Yeah, run running it your way.

SPEAKER_03 15:01

Yeah, body and um stuff like that, man. And um everything, you know, everything happened for a reason. And we've grown. Well, uh, the business has grown since then, uh, as you can see. Hey, and well, and your other part, what's his name again?

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Nate. Nate, that's it. I I knew that. I just hardly ever talk. I don't say his name a lot, but he's been here a while now.

SPEAKER_03 15:20

Yeah, Nate's been here four, I almost said four years almost.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Oh, has it been that long? Yeah, he's been here a minute, yeah. I like him.

unknown 15:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

He seems like he's cool to work with.

SPEAKER_03 15:31

I had a couple, I mean, I had a couple of good guys. Good folk, good barbers that came in. But they was they was mostly doing part-time, uh, because they had other jobs that they were doing. But those were my good good barbers that showed up. Mostly some they was weekend most.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

You ever had a bad barber? I've had some doozies. So you don't have to name names, but like what's something what's something you learned? Like what's the or what's something had that happened? Because I mean that's a whole other renting chairs is like another business within this business. It is, it is.

SPEAKER_03 16:03

And uh, it's it's something once again, you got to choose it very careful who you bring in your business.

unknown 16:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

It's like hiring, it's kind of like hiring somebody.

SPEAKER_03 16:11

Yeah, because it it can hurt you. It can hurt you. I mean it can help you too. You have a good thing, but it can it can hurt your business as well. Uh people not showing up. Yeah. That was the biggest thing, you know. Most folks, they weren't showing up and stuff like that. Then you have clients waiting, and I've already got I'm booked. You're already full, yeah. Then I've got to pick up them because at the end of the day, my name is on the door.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

So when you got somebody, do they rent a chair from you or do you hire them? They rent, right? So if they're renting, but they're not showing up on time, I mean that technically that hurts your reputation as a business, but it's also them because they're renting a chair, like it hurts them. But are you able to just let them go or are they under some sort of signed document because they're paying you rent? Like what if they just paid you rent yesterday or let's say four days ago for the whole month or however they do it, but then it's like there's they're sixth time coming in late and they got clients sitting here and waiting.

SPEAKER_03 17:03

You knew some man changed. It's not if they paid for it like that, I I would I would give them the money back for that.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Yeah, you just do that. You just return the money and be like, it's not working out.

SPEAKER_03 17:11

Some and some folks it didn't work out before then. Well, some of them it was too far of a drive for them and stuff. Like I was trying to help mostly the folks just coming out of barber school, trying to give them the shot and get his feet wet and stuff like that. Because it's a lot of them I didn't even charge, I didn't charge them for six months.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

Coming in because you didn't have a clientele. So I let them stay in, stay, stay around here, you know, and see how you see how you like it and see if you could build on it, and then um, and we went from there. But some made it and some didn't.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

Yeah. What would you say to you, like because I got my own ideas, what's the biggest difference between coming to a barbershop and get your hair cut and going to like a outside of quality and stuff, but what's the difference in a barber shop and like a super cuts or quick cuts, whatever they're called?

SPEAKER_03 17:57

Well, we're we're more engaged here in the barbershop. You're not just the number. You know, I know some of those, some places treat you like a number. And here I I want clients, I don't want customers. I want clients.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:08

I want when you come in here, I want to be able to call you by your name. You want to know my name, you're gonna know the other barber's name, you're gonna know some of the other clients that's sitting in here, sitting around. I've met several people just through coming here, man. Yeah, you can make connections in the barber shop. And you know, a what better place to go to find your plumber, electrician? You know, I got cars from everybody up there. Clients just come in, hey man. Yeah. It's a perfect place. The DJ? Yeah, the DJ. Contractor, the construction contractor, man. You got a you know, we got a whole bunch of folks to come in from all walks of life. And this is like a neutral place where, man, everybody can talk and have a discussion.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

You can disagree with people here too.

SPEAKER_03 18:48

This doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

And it's all good, man.

SPEAKER_03 18:50

That's what the barbershop is for, man. Just communication, man. Getting to know the community, getting to know everybody around, getting to know a little bit about this person, about you. They might know nothing about this race of folk, that race. Oh, wow, man. You're sitting in here like, oh, okay, man, I didn't know that. Really? That's yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Yeah. Yeah. It's different. I've talked to people I've never, I've random people who come in and been sitting right there when I've been right here getting my hair cut. And we just start talking as I'm getting my hair cut.

SPEAKER_03 19:17

Walked around people to come here, hey, oh, you can't go to this daycare. How can you go to this? And and then, man, I've seen you before. Yeah. Stuff like that. Like, you know, we talk about we I'll use homiclaws at for instance. Who don't know? You know what I'm saying? So uh, you know, a lovable guy.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Yeah, he gives the best. He gives the best. Like, what's up? Like every time I see him, he's always got a nice car out there. Love everybody. He does, he does. He said what's up to me before I even knew who he was, really.

SPEAKER_03 19:44

He comes around, I don't care who's in here. He boom, boom, daps everybody up. Shave even boss, man. How you doing? It's a good person to know. Yeah, man. So uh it's it's it's good, man. It's a good barbershop feel. I mean, that's what you get in a barbershop versus, hey, we're on a time limit, we're on a time limit for these other folks, other places. Turn and burn. Yeah, yeah, man. So it's like turn and I actually had a client come in before and um felt a type of way about another situation he ran into at the other place, another facility. Like I said, I've been going there for uh three years, and it's just a little small thing. He said, I've been going there for three years and paying this guy, he don't know my name. Oh, that's a long time. He said he couldn't call my name. And he said, I don't know whether I was in my feelings that day or what, but he said, man, I mean I just told you, you know what? No, thank you, man. Uh I appreciate you. He said that he said I walked out. He said.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Well, he didn't even get his hair haircut that day.

SPEAKER_03 20:38

He said, I might have been in my feelings a little bit. He said, I'll probably go back. It was a good haircut and stuff. I was like, hey, man, I'm just saying. But I could go back to what I was saying. You want clients, not customers. I want to be able to call your name. I want to know, I know everybody coming that door by name. You've been in here before, I know your name.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:57

And that makes the clients feel good. Oh, it definitely does. Mr. John, how you doing? So, hey, do you know? I'm doing good. Blah, blah, blah. You know, so that that's that's that's number one with me, man. That's number one with me. You're greeting and greeting them when as soon as they hit the door, some people come in here be a little brass. And you want to break ties with the folks. Hey, man, yeah. We talk around here. We talk. Hey, set yourself free, you know, bro. And um, and then we move on, you know, because sometimes some folks, you know, curse a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:29

This and that. Hey, you know what we got? Hey, gentlemen. You know, just make nod or say, I'll kids getting his hair cut. You know, we got, oh, my big, you know, and they apologize, whatever. We keep it clean, you know, with the kids running around here and uh female as well.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Yeah, man. I mean, I hadn't really So I've thought about the barbershop. Businesses that provide an experience are really interesting to me. Like, think about, I mean, even think about like a even a like a boutique uh hotel, like a small hotel where they can do things differently because they're not owned by a larger company. But I hadn't really thought about till just now the similarities between what you do and what I do, especially as the owners of the business and like putting in FaceTime with people, getting to know their names. And I knew that you provided, I always just call it you provide an experience here. Like you're not just getting your hair cut, right? Like you're providing an experience. And that's a big part of the reason people come. And it was interesting for me and my business coming up. You know, I went to school for it and all that stuff. And they don't teach you, they talk about they call it the science and the art of personal training. And the science was usually what they went real heavy on. And the art was kind of taught to us about psychological readiness and all this other stuff. But the art is really like what I learned later. And you probably get this in a barber chair sometimes too, depending on whose hair you're cutting. But it's like somebody just starts unloading everything to you. And you're like, in your head, you're like, wait a minute, like, at least when you're newer, you're like, I didn't know this was a part of this. I didn't know I was not only your personal trainer, but now I'm your therapist. Yeah. And for some of them, I'm your mentor. So it's been interesting, and I'm sure you've experienced this too with renting chairs, but I have to teach these guys and gals that come into work for me. First of all, we hire very slow now. I was just having a discussion with another guy I used to own a gym earlier today. And the term is like hire slow, fire fast. It can be hard to fire fast, but if it's like I've learned that even if you have a gut feeling, usually if the con you have a conversation, but they're probably getting fired because that gut feeling is usually right. But hiring, I've I've slowed way down and it's paid off immensely. But the biggest thing I always have to teach them before because I can teach them how to teach a squat and all that stuff, but it's like we're providing an experience. Like they need to feel better when they leave here than when they got here. They gotta feel better. There's no like even if they come in, nobody should come in that door feeling worse. They should technically be lighter. They should be lighter in it. Because here they get to come in and talk, too.

SPEAKER_03 23:54

And I get it all the time. Like, man, God, I could tell, you know, some people they that's normally talkative, not really saying what. I say, man, go let me go ahead and get that off your bat. Just just clowning around with him and stuff like that. And a few jokes, make them laugh. Then hey, man, you know what, man? I needed this today. Didn't get all in his business. No, but just just to not think for a little bit. So you guys are hilarious, man. I really needed that. I need a laugh today. I'm going through some stuff, you know, and he just left it like that. But it happens. It happens with every day, really.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you can I didn't even really think about until we were just talking about how much of a a connection, a networking place this could be almost too. Like I don't I don't use it that way, but just the people you're meeting here.

SPEAKER_03 24:37

Yeah. There's a lot of things. When you're waiting, when you're getting your hair cut and like I said, it was uh one of my clients came in as their husband is a plumber. And he said he's about to, you know, want to branch out on his own and stuff like that. I was like, would you put any cards up there? No. I said, well, you've been going to the wrong place. You've been coming in here and you ain't dropped no card, drop some cards. I'm gonna get him out there. There's people coming here and need this stuff every day. I said, people need it every day. I said, so we put you out there. You know, all I want you to do is be who you say you are. Yeah. That that's all. And if you're gonna tell a person you're gonna be there a certain time, just be there, just stand on your word. Yep. Just be be about your word. I said, because when I put my name in front of it, and then say, hey, so and so and so, they're good people, this and that, I need to be able to stand on that. Yeah. Because they're going by what I say because of my reputation.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

So I said, that's all I have. That's valuable for other business owners too. When you've been a business owner for a long time and you're willing to recommend somebody, that's that's valuable for that business. Because you'll have that because of the reputation you build. Like they get a piggyback off of it. So what about as a business owner? You got two kids. How old are you? If you have three, it's three. Is it two daughters and one son?

SPEAKER_03 25:50

Well, and I have one grandson. I have one grandbaby.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

Yeah, I think I knew that. How old is a grandbaby?

SPEAKER_03 25:56

Twenty months.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

Yeah, I knew that grandbaby was new because I think we talked about it not long ago.

SPEAKER_03 26:02

Yeah. April. It'd be two years old.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

Yeah. All right. So I'm curious. We've talked about this in private. You talk about this as much as you want when I'm like recording this. But you coached varsity football, JV football, varsity basketball. And I know how tops will I know how school sports can be in general, politics and parents and people trying to buy their kids starting starting time and stuff. But you're also a business owner. So, you know, you're leading here, and then as a coach, you were leading there, and you're and you're imprinting and impacting kids' lives and trying to bring up men that are going to be good men, right? Not going to be a w a waste on society or not going to contribute to society, right? You're trying to instill the right values in them. But what what's a good, I don't know, a good story or a lesson, something you can share from being in those two roles, like that you had to learn to deal with and how did you deal with it? Learn to do been doing it so long.

SPEAKER_03 26:58

I've been doing that for over 30 years. I remember when I first started out, um, when you're trying to, like I said, mentor and coach kids. And when you're a kid, technically I was in my house 20. I think somewhere around then before I actually, when I actually first started coaching, and then you're talking about coaching teenagers at that age. Still can, when you still I was pretty active myself and still pretty athletic at the time, so it's kind of it's just tough. It's tough because you still can do a lot of things and you expect in these kids to be able to do what you're doing. Like, you know, oh well, you can't do this. And then so throughout the years, I've learned, okay, at first of all, everybody learns different. That just that's the same in here. You know, you and barbering, just that same as the training. Everybody got a different method. They're getting to the same, they're getting to the same place. Get to the same place, but everybody's got a different method to get there. And that's what when you're dealing with kids, anybody, you know, you got to see what that person needs, that what that individual, what it's gonna take to get to that individual.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

That's coaching, yeah. That's the art. That's the art behind it, right? That's not just the science.

SPEAKER_03 28:10

Yeah, it's it's it's it was rough at first, but once once you get and I laid down my foundation on how I'm gonna educate these kids and uh basically the same thing, how I'm gonna run run the business, how a business ran. Once you get that down, you just stay with your system, man. And then hopefully everybody by in, I we'll go back to the coaching thing. You know, when I first started at the school, it was I rubbed a lot of folks uh the wrong way because of my methods. I'm not pushing my thing was to push, I got to push your kid to his potential. They don't know. Kids don't know. They don't know. They they don't know. They sit down and sometimes as a parent, we're both parents, sometimes as a parent, you you you have a you have a wall, you get to a wall, and sometimes somebody else can reach your kid better than you can reach.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:03

So when we get there and we're out there, and then the parents get to the point where I think he's a little rough, I don't like the way he's doing things. Because you here, you've got rich your ceiling and you see pushes. Yeah, there that ceiling, right? They can't ceiling and you can't see past the ceiling. Now I can see more than what you see, but I have to push them. Different perspective. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

I gotta push them to get there. So but it was tough. Accountability is hard. Yeah. For a lot of parents. Maybe, maybe a lot of parents don't hold their kids accountable. Maybe they do, but they have trouble allowing other people to hold their kids accountable, which is which is what sports in a professional life and real life is about. It's it's being able to handle being held accountable to your actions. And especially if you're trying to progress in something or get better at something. Sports is always gonna be that way.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

That's okay. What what you want to do? What is it that you're trying to do? And once they tell me what they're trying to do, okay, well, I can I can tell you the things you need to do to get there because you're not there. Yeah. I said, And you're not gonna get there if you don't do these things. And I would always use this, I said, watch TV. Especially sports. I said, look at those guys on television. Football, basketball, baseball, track and fee, I don't care what it is, hockey, across, look at them. Do you look like them? I said, that's that's one thing. We talk about the visual aspect of it. I said, then I asked him another thing. Okay, I said, you all see the end results.

SPEAKER_02 30:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:34

You all can tell me, y'all all can tell me, oh man, he's the greatest, he's the greatest, but wow. How did he become who he is? I said, that's the part you all are not looking at. I want to shoot like Seth Curry. Okay, that's cool. But did you know Seth Curry shoot a thousand shots? It's something wild, the number, yeah. Shots from here, a thousand shots, from there, a thousand shots. Do you know how many shots he takes before he gets to the three-point line?

SPEAKER_00 31:01

He's even been on the same team for a long time, too.

SPEAKER_03 31:03

Then your mouth dropped. I say, look up the work. I say, you all everybody, you just looking at the outcome. Y'all looking at game night. Game night is easy. That's what I'm trying to tell you. The work is here at practice. The work is here. You work now. The fun part is on game night. So anyway. But yeah, it was it was it was it was different.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

What's up? It doesn't matter. We can edit it, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:29

How's it going, man?

SPEAKER_02 31:31

Can you can you do my cut?

SPEAKER_03 31:34

We close, man. I'm doing an interview right now. Yeah, we close at two o'clock on two news. We closed at two Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

SPEAKER_02 31:42

And for years I've been coming on Mondays, I don't know how many times, and I forget. No, yeah, I ain't good.

SPEAKER_03 31:50

But yeah, Nate'll be here in the morning. Okay. All right. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

Yep. Take care.

SPEAKER_00 31:54

You too. I saw him pull in, I saw him park, and I was like, I think he's gonna come in here. So I kept looking that way.

SPEAKER_03 32:01

But yeah, man. It's uh it was it was rough up there for a little while. Um and I and I my little slogan used to be, you know, I coach the kids, not the parents. And I and nothing, that's true. I coach the kids. Maybe you weren't coaching the parents. So you were trying to. You don't want to, but all I wanted to give give let me do my thing. Give me the respect. Respect what I do. I'm out here spending time with your kid every day. I I've never had my kids out there coaching my kids. I've always I've been coaching for years. My son played basketball in the TBA, and that was it. I never my son never played football. Yeah. And um my daughter never coached her. So I've been running behind other folks' kids for years, for many years.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Why start your own football league when you're a business owner working for the school? Why start a rec football league? Parents called me. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 32:53

Called me up. It was uh at the time Pop Warner couldn't um they wasn't allowing the big bigger kids to.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

Well yeah, because it was, yeah, they did. They changed that, right? Like now but they had to change, but they lose so many kids. Yeah. There was weight specific weight limit. Now it more just pertains to the running back. It's age again, I think, right?

SPEAKER_03 33:11

Then you were pushing the kids that was heavy, you take a kid you need on the football field, too, though.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

Even though he's a big kid, he's still mental. He's he's yeah. And he hasn't played a lot of football.

SPEAKER_03 33:21

He hasn't played football.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

Don't put him up there with a 10-year-old.

SPEAKER_03 33:25

Put him up there with 10-year-olds because of his size.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

Now that could that could hurt a kid worse worse than anything. Well, the coaching's different there, too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:32

The way you talk and coach them and skills and so I um I was pretty much, you know, uh, like say, you know, like you say, working, done, and then a few parents came, like, uh, you know, my kid don't have nowhere, and they these kids, they have to wait until middle school to play. So they're gonna lose kids.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

And they're not gonna get educated, they're not gonna learn how to line up, how to stand, it's all the basic stuff. They're gonna be already behind the behind the eight ball.

SPEAKER_03 33:57

So a few parents came to me and I was like, like, if you just could help us get it started, I said, okay, I'll do that. So we went to meeting uh in Burgall, and um, they took us as an extension of them so we could get started. We're gonna have to go through all that. We've done they've done another insurance and all of that stuff. And they say, you know, could you get it together in a few? Sure, no problem. So that's that's how it came about. I've done it for the kids that was basically overweight. And after getting into it, and then we went to pull in kids from everywhere, and we ended up having uh first year, I think we only had three-h group, then after that we were able to get four-age group after other folks started me because of the uh I don't use the word politics, but for the this the the the way it was structured. Pop warner, kids have that X amount of plays, this yeah. So a lot of people really getting to play a whole lot. And um, so having that freedom, and I just I just kept enough kids so everybody gets to play. Everybody gets to play. Now, and that's and especially coming up from Flag, the seven, eight group, and the nine and ten, and your um uh what is that 11 to 13? 11, 12.

SPEAKER_00 35:10

Well, I mean some of them might have been the third.

SPEAKER_03 35:12

You know, the kids from the kids' birthday was late, but uh But once you know that that's when you got into the structure of actually, you know, coaching and actually uh uh uh being a little bit more what I say real life football. But yeah, so man, we started from there and then those parents left.

SPEAKER_00 35:34

Yeah, I mean they moved, they age out.

SPEAKER_03 35:36

Yeah, a lot of folks that was helping, they moved. Um, and then the the kids were aging out, so the parents moved on with the kids. So I just kept going, kept going. And then that's how I eventually uh uh ran into you when your kid came.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

That is uh, yeah, I credit that to toughening Aiden up because he didn't have an older brother to toughen him up. So played seven years of football to get a beat up.

SPEAKER_03 35:59

I enjoyed it, man. It was it was a lot. It was different because you know, I would have to turn this, uh leave here, get up. I had to come either come early and take care of my uh clients and then leave and go play, uh go out and coach football, come back, and then I I'd work till probably about seven, eight o'clock on a Saturday night to take care of my clients and stuff. So I I gave up a lot, you know, to help, but it was, you know, I love doing it.

SPEAKER_00 36:26

It's rewarding. I mean, just coaching is rewarding. I mean, I loved it. I loved it.

SPEAKER_03 36:30

See the difference I made in some so many kids' life, man. I wouldn't trade down it.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

No, watch them where they start and where they end at the end of the year. I mean, they could win one game all year, but just to watch how each one of them gets better. All sports coach, that's the most rewarding. It's almost I almost feel selfish sometimes because I enjoy watching them get better so much.

SPEAKER_03 36:46

Yeah, man. Well, without question. I'm cutting kids that I've coached kids that I've coached, I'm cutting their kids.

SPEAKER_00 36:53

Uh huh.

SPEAKER_03 36:53

That's how long I've been doing this thing. So yeah, that's that's wild.

SPEAKER_00 36:58

Yeah, it is. And the kids that I coached in that league are all either, unless they're going to college somewhere to play, they're done.

SPEAKER_03 37:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:06

Like those main kids, like, you know, that did you basically introduce me to, like Aiden's done, because remember Aiden moved on to basketball and now he doesn't play sports. But I think about the kids that played this past fall, like Caleb Holland. Maybe he'll go to a school and play or something, you know?

SPEAKER_03 37:20

That's the last group.

SPEAKER_00 37:21

DeMarion was on that team. Zamir would have been a year ago, I think.

SPEAKER_03 37:26

Yeah, Zamir, he was amir went to uh Georgia. Did he? Yeah. Okay. Hey, he's at he's at um uh he's working at Bull Jangers right now. Okay, okay. He went down there. Deverson, he pulled, he he tore a pool something, but they wanted to come back in the fall, so he's going back. Yeah. How about Z, dude? That's good stuff. Yeah, he came in here uh I didn't know that. Came in here last week, and I was like, I'll tell you not to come back here. Uh huh. And he's stay stay out of here, yeah. Stop by, I'm gonna stop by and explain it all to you. So uh he came by the other day and he told me what was going on. I said, okay, man. I say, keep pushing, man. You can always come back home. Keep pushing. Yeah. Man, it's just cool, man, to see all the kids that you can see all just looking back. Everybody on that wall that's grown now, doing their own thing.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:15

Graduated college. Some I think the last group that I coached, they're actually uh seniors this year. For basic for basketball.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

Yeah, because they were Yeah, yeah, that's wild. Yeah, that comes all all back around. So what's the plan now? What's next?

SPEAKER_03 38:34

What's next? I I'm actually studying for my um instructor, barber instructor license. That's next on the agenda and you wanna see where that takes me from.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

Yeah. If you get your barber instructor, does that lead to you teaching in a school or can you do that here?

SPEAKER_03 38:51

There's uh various things you can do uh once you uh obtain that. You can do uh inspector. Yes, you can. You can open up your own school, you can do courses yourself. Um and work in and and teach at a uh teach in barber school or whatever. It's a lot you can do in that field. And I still like my um aficiating as well. Oh yeah, yeah.

unknown 39:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:19

I talked with some of the guys, I went to the game last night. I talked to uh uh man, what you gonna do? I said, man, I'm gonna see after I uh got one more thing I'm trying to do, and then uh gonna see with my time when I have time to do any of that. Um, because I enjoy doing that as well. I just stay with the sport somehow.

SPEAKER_00 39:36

Yeah. Do you feel like as a business owner, because you've been doing this a while, I mean, we've been doing about the same amount of time. You just started at it later than I did. Do you feel like you've accomplished what you wanted to when you set out?

SPEAKER_03 39:48

Yes, yes, man. I'm I'm living my dreams. I don't I don't work anymore.

SPEAKER_02 39:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:54

I don't work. I don't I haven't worked in 14 years. I don't work anymore, because I love coming in here every day, meeting new people. Yeah, talk to people.

SPEAKER_00 40:03

And other people, when other people come here, they look forward to coming here. Yeah. You know what I mean? You have a place where people look forward to coming to.

SPEAKER_03 40:10

Because we had some, you know, some guys just if it's raining like a lot of construction guys, if it's raining, the long guys, all the guys that work outside a lot, if it's raining or whatever, cold. Snowing, uh 12 or ride up here to the barber shop, see what they got going on. And they'll come in here and just like a lot. Sometimes folks go, oh man, you you you got time for a walk in? Yeah. Well. I said, oh man, they're just hanging out. You know, because sometimes they're just sitting in here hanging out. They're shooting the breeze. Yep. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:38

What is one thing? I mean, we can I kind of asked you this already, but like, what's the one thing if you got somebody younger or anybody, maybe they're maybe they're 40, like when you started out, and they come up to you and say, hey, I'm gonna open a barber shop in one year or a year and a half, two years, I'm going to school right now. What's one thing you would want them to understand that you think is probably the most important thing to understand as you're opening a a barbershop?

SPEAKER_03 41:01

It's gonna be rough.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 41:02

When you first start out, but you can't. This is your dream, this is your passion, this is what you want to do. I said, You're gonna it's gonna have some rough patches. It's gonna be some days, gonna be slow, as what we call slow. Yeah. I said, but you gotta make use of that time. Okay, if you're slow in the matter, come here, go to Hardy's, go to Bojangles, go somewhere, pimp hat, hand somebody out, uh a card or free a pass, whatever you want to, whatever you got going on. Hey, come by and see me. It's a free cut on me. I said, that's that's stuff you have to do to get people to know where you are. Word of mouth. Word of mouth, barbing, I don't care how much all this other stuff you do, word of mouth is key. Word of mouth gonna be number one.

SPEAKER_02 41:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:49

That's for me and my book. Now, some people might, you know, say different, but uh where there's a lot of folks coming here, and my friend so-and-so told me about, my neighbor told me about, you know, this is the place to go, y'all get good at it. Then I'm, you know, later on after I've done the online stuff, the app and stuff, you can go up there and see stuff now. But before that, I mean everything was word of mind.

SPEAKER_00 42:09

Who who'd you lean on as you were coming up for mentoring? Who who did you, I mean, who did you I always tell everybody as a business owner, maybe you didn't feel this way because you're very social here. I mean, I guess my business is too, but there's this feeling when you're the owner, for me at least, and a lot of other guys I know, we call it like it's lonely at the top, because you can't have the same conversation that we're having necessarily with somebody who doesn't own a business. So, how did you deal with that, like as you've been coming up over the years and doing all this?

SPEAKER_03 42:37

My the job I had at Edge Bond, being in that position, managing the job, I was pretty much the area manager. Well, basically the manager in North Carolina. I ran all of their um, I was head of all of their stuff here in North Carolina. It was based out of Pennsylvania. And um watching the owner, you know, how he moved and the things he'd done. So I kind of got it from, you know, I was prepared. Well, God was preparing me through that job for this, okay, simply put. Um just watching how he done things and stuff like that, a lot of good things. Some stuff was a little strange and everything kind of collaborated. And he was like, that's a good idea, and he changed some stuff. Yeah, I've I've man, I've always was pretty much never been a following guy. I've always been um somewhat of a leader. Yeah. Oh always, man. So uh it was, I mean, I'm gonna do my own thing. You can come with me. I'm gonna go by myself. Yep, I've always been right on.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

Well, thanks for your time, Jim.

SPEAKER_03 43:35

Appreciate it, man.

SPEAKER_00 43:36

Appreciate it, man. I learned some stuff.

SPEAKER_02 43:38

Subscribe, turn on notifications, and stay locked in. Brotherhood is more than business. It's about leading from the front, leveling up in every domain, and becoming the CEO of your own life.

SPEAKER_00 43:46

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