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ITV #221 | Inside The Vault · Inside The Vault with Ash Cash

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: If you a barber, you a hustler, you're trying to build, you're trying to make money with a company you want to be with.
• 0:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: For me, entrepreneurship was freedom.
• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like I see to me was not so much about my name per se, but it was more about having a lasting impact on the people's lives.
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: What is this space right here?
• 0:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: What is this space?
• 0:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, what is this doing?
• 0:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: The barbershop is also the place where we go and sit.
• 0:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: So imagine what you can do with that 30 minutes in a barbershop if you had things from us in there.
• 0:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Barbershop is usually employing people who are entrepreneurial, or
• 0:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: people who can't get out of the trees elsewhere for whatever reason.
• 0:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I was using it and because it was an excellent act, my barber's trusted, it was excellent first.
• 0:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: The bonus is that it's black off.
• 0:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: We've built a hundred million appointing.
• 0:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like my brain is just kind of spinning because I didn't want to tell you this.
• 0:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I did not want ash cash on the itinerary today to just do an interview.
• 0:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know you want to watch this next video, but listen, if you are an entrepreneur, business coach, business consultant, or a small business owner who has a story and wants to learn how to create multiple streams of income from your story, I need you to text me right now, my book.
• 1:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: to six, four, six, six, six, eight, seven, four, one, five, two.
• 1:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: That is my personal number.
• 1:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: I have been an author for over 12 years, I've written 10 books, four of them have been best sellers, and I've sold over 100,000 books.
• 1:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I've also helped a lot of my clients, take their expertise and put it into a story, then create multiple streams of income from that.
• 1:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I wanna help you do the same thing.
• 1:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: So text my book to six, four, six, six, eight, seven, four, one, five, two.
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: I, let's go back to the video.
• 2:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: So welcome to another awesome episode of Inside the Vault with Ashcast, the greatest money mindset show on the planet.
• 2:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now let me ask you a real question, what if one of the most powerful business ecosystems in America wasn't built in the boardrooms, venture capital meetings, or Silicon Valley, but inside the Barbershop chair,
• 2:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because long before podcasts, long before social media, long before streaming platforms, the barber shop has always been the place where culture is debated, confidence is restored and ideas that shape communities are born.
• 2:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: And today's guests didn't just respect that culture,
• 2:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: They built platforms to scale it.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: First, we have OB, Omile, Junior, technologist, entrepreneur, and CEO, a co-founder of the cut, the nation's leading barbershop platform that powers millions of appointments every month helping thousands of barbers run their businesses like true entrepreneurs,
• 3:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: while preserving the barbershop as a cornerstone of community and culture, and joining him is my brother, Frantitive Volk, Ray Daniels, one of the most respected executives in the music industry, and media, and music strategists whose career spans Warner.
• 3:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: in the scope.
• 3:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Epic A-Vex USA, where he helped develop artist responsible for over 200 million albums sold globally today as a founder of Radar and Radanue presents and now creative director at the cut.
• 3:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: He specializes in turning culture into content and content into capital, together they're building something powerful, merging technology, music, entrepreneurship, barbershop culture to create new opportunities for creators, artists, and entrepreneurs because when you really understand what's happening in this conversation,
• 4:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: You'll realize that the barbershop isn't just where people get lined up.
• 4:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: It might be with the next generation of culture, media, and business is being built.
• 4:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ladies and gentlemen, round of applause for Obi and Ray.
• 4:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Dang you.
• 4:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's go.
• 4:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: What are you so good.
• 4:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yo, bro.
• 4:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: You could tell you to stop the camera.
• 4:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, that's it.
• 4:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's all we got.
• 4:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, let's take him everywhere.
• 4:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: We go hype manity.
• 4:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I'm gonna put my head down like who the fuck is he talking about?
• 4:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're doing that good
• 4:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: That was amazing.
• 4:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for telling you bro.
• 4:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like it's such an honor to have your here I mean first of all, most of where you know how I feel about you every time so so like we know the energy everything All be like I appreciate you because wave of five and knew you like I was like I got the cut I use a mother for you.
• 4:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's just it like I literally like so my soul
• 4:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: I used the cup for my barber, my son has a barber, and I'm using the cup for him as well.
• 4:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's so every two weeks, my son, my son get an haircut, every week I get an haircut, and we use the cup at, and I love what you've done with the app.
• 5:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: I love what you're doing with the app right now, and the reason for it, because like the intro said, is like really the culture, right?
• 5:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like I got a ball head.
• 5:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right, and so people laugh and when I say I go to a barber every week and I'm not even a barber You're gonna be served beer got to be shot, but also it's my therapy.
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, right?
• 5:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: I go I go there for third.
• 5:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's a cheapest therapy.
• 5:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: I can get so soon.
• 5:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: 30 bucks.
• 5:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm so I'd say died inflation baby I'm very bored in that but before like we I got a lot that unpack but for those who don't know who is Obey who is rigged Daniel's y'all take it away
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, well, let me go first cuz I've been here before.
• 5:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, I'm well, right down here.
• 5:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm a music, exactly.
• 5:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: Obviously But I then watch my industry kind of pass away a little no at least window away.
• 5:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and you know when I left My last gig at Warner.
• 5:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: I was looking at the scope, right?
• 5:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's like I'm a curator.
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, like and when do you with a curator's go, right?
• 6:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like if you have taste, right?
• 6:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: So, Obi and Obi and I shout out to Eddie Mogu, one of Obi's employees, he came to me and was like, yo, we should do this freestyle thing.
• 6:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: So we did a freestyle contest, we gave away 10 grand shout out to the cash flow Harlem, and I'm like, when I broke, I thought it was over.
• 6:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was like, all right, man, we did a good business.
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: Everybody got something out of it, and let's keep it moving.
• 6:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then Eddie and then was like, nah, absolutely not it.
• 6:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 6:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, I didn't even know, I had a title of Creative Director until they told me in person.
• 6:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, yeah.
• 6:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: because my thing is, I'm here, like, OB is a great brother, like you a great person.
• 6:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: I want to see you win, like when I see a great brother, it's my responsibility to help him, because if you help a great brother, you can create a great family, and that's what we need as black people.
• 6:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: So, OB came to me and they said, let's do this to cut music out.
• 6:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: They made me create the director, gave me equity, right?
• 7:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: I never have no label.
• 7:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: I out of made labels hundreds of millions of dollars.
• 7:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: They have never got equity, a royalty, gave me equity and gave me a real voice at the table.
• 7:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: And we had this platform that we created, cut out music and it's going crazy.
• 7:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I come from the world and we talk about this all the time of leading from the front.
• 7:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: Sure.
• 7:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: So it's funny because this is probably, I'm gonna keep adding to the list.
• 7:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: You're probably like the 30th person.
• 7:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 7:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: I've introduced OBS.
• 7:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 7:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's it.
• 7:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: I know you're just adding.
• 7:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's the fact.
• 7:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm like, and when I tell OBS, I'm like,
• 7:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: and our culture needs heroes, we need hero companies, we need full boo, we need those companies like that show us was possible if we put our mind to it, excellence then black.
• 7:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely.
• 7:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's makes black, excellent.
• 7:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: So Obi, Obi, they brought me on and I was like, Obi, you know, obviously I could do this, I could talk on my Obi, people got to know you, actually.
• 7:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because
• 7:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: people got to know that.
• 7:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: There are so many people use your app that don't know that they're a black man.
• 7:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely.
• 7:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know what I'm trying to say?
• 7:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: It just doesn't seem like our wheelhouse is engineer and all those things.
• 8:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I told them I said bro, would you do some press?
• 8:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 8:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's really important friends that you just want to talk to that audience will appreciate the learn from your story.
• 8:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: And we hear.
• 8:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: Sure.
• 8:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: And this is Obe Omele, Jr. Don't think it's a joke, you man, it's like my thoughts are pop, said to that.
• 8:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I keep the legacy strong, but yeah, I mean, everything really said is true.
• 8:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: And to this point around like great brothers, like rage has been such a great person and our friend over the last couple years, like not only has he won a bit of a studio and virus to help build our shop in the studio, but
• 8:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: whether it's the introduction just being a great person to talk to and think through about how we want to approach things, it's just been a pleasure and shout out to again Eddie Franchiducin as well.
• 8:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Myself, co-founder of the company about 10 years ago, we wanted to see did it right out of school.
• 8:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I worked for maybe a year in professional setting before it's done to company, really just trying to solve my own problems, trying to find a great barber and you know.
• 8:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Luckily, I had the skills to be able to build the first prototype, then which we've grown over the last 10 years, but I mean, like you said, the top of the call, like for a conversation, I should say.
• 9:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: The barbershop is like, you know, he always own coffers going in money.
• 9:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's like, no, he's money, right?
• 9:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's getting money.
• 9:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: That part.
• 9:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: The barbershop has always been the cornerstone of a culture and community.
• 9:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's what we want to do with the cut.
• 9:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's how to be amplified and scaled that impact in this modern world.
• 9:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: And through the cut music, we think that we have a great opportunity to compound upon the equity we've built so far.
• 9:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we're really excited about everything that's ahead of us.
• 9:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Nah, I love that.
• 9:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: I love that.
• 9:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Talk a little bit about your background, right?
• 9:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like when I when I see it and to to be honest with you, we use all these apps.
• 9:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: We I never really think about who owns the app because I mean, they I've been condition to believe that it's some white boy.
• 9:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so that you die there.
• 9:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's a white boy from Silicon Valley, and so I'm like, all right, let me just use this.
• 9:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: So whatever, because it's helping build the economy for barbers, and I want to talk about that later on.
• 10:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
• 10:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because I think that's for me, especially here inside the vault, that's the thing that I love the most.
• 10:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: is because a lot of times, barbers don't have organization, right?
• 10:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hands on entrepreneurship, you know, I understand, like, I've been a hustler all my life.
• 10:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: But in order to build a seven figure, a figure business, I needed to be able to learn systems, systems do that, and so I created the systems.
• 10:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I want to get there, but, but, but, but, but, but like,
• 10:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Tell me about your background.
• 10:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Where'd you grow up?
• 10:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: What made you get into engineering?
• 10:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, what, how'd you get this idea?
• 10:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: And where'd you get the money?
• 10:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I have all the information.
• 10:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the information, I have all the
• 10:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, definitely like very strong Atlanta roots, moved up to the Dean Vierre, probably like middle school and I've been there ever since.
• 10:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: From the, from a child I always knew I wanted to start a business.
• 11:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've always been entrepreneurial, seem to sell like that newspaper with a train station, came down my backpack.
• 11:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like for me like entrepreneurship was freedom.
• 11:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was a way to control your destiny without being beholden to any single person, right?
• 11:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: By the same time I also wanted to build a legacy for myself and a legacy to me was not so much about my name per se But it was more about having a lasting impact on the people's lot because if you do something to change People's lots of the better that's how you be that's how you really remembered and you're more alive And so that was kind of like my earliest kind of like view on life
• 11:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so, graduated college with my degree in economics, that following summer I learned how to write code.
• 11:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because I wanted to get into the tech space, I had to intern for a startup while in college.
• 11:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I saw that's where the world was going.
• 11:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, I took the summer to learn how to learn how to write code.
• 11:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: That got in my first job in Charlotte where I had went.
• 11:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: three, four months later here cut as I'm sure, even you all today, you still know that's crazy.
• 12:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're asking you.
• 12:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm not going to the most shade on Charlotte, because Charlotte has a bunch of talented barbers.
• 12:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: But the issue was that at that point, the only way to discover a great barber was through like a Google, which has really given me the barber shop, not the individual barber that I'm really more concerned about.
• 12:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: And at the same time, I'm seeing Uber, Airbnb, lift all these apps being born that is connecting one side to another.
• 12:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: And said, this probably happens here.
• 12:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: You do something like this in the barber shop space.
• 12:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: That like a couple months later, start working on a prototype for the cut.
• 12:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: And here we are, 10 years later.
• 12:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Man.
• 12:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: powerful, and I love that because I think people need to understand what they say, like don't reinvent the wheel, right?
• 12:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so, and, and, and so, two, two quotes I'm going to actually put together, don't reinvent the wheel and success leaves clues, right?
• 12:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so, you're able to, to, to, to find the issue, the problem, be able to see someone who's solving that problem in another area, if you will, take that expertise, put it together,
• 13:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: $200 million.
• 13:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have the same business.
• 13:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're a mouth of guys.
• 13:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're 100%.
• 13:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: 100%.
• 13:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: 100%.
• 13:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: 100%.
• 13:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: 100%.
• 13:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ray talks to me a little bit though.
• 13:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: You worked at at at one epic in a scope.
• 13:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: You helped save careers.
• 13:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: You sold over 200 million albums globally.
• 13:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: What did the barbershop teach you about culture that music industry did?
• 13:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: the barbershop is probably the most important place a man goes to outside of home and maybe church because the church, right?
• 13:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like the barbershop is where you go to enact what people that are not you, right?
• 13:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like if families in the house, your neighbor has different, we know each other, but the barbershop is where he's cutting someone hair from over there and he's cutting.
• 13:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: So it's the place where we all come the community, the whole community.
• 13:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: So
• 13:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: when when when I saw this like I'm in my best friend owns a bob shop.
• 13:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: So like I'm at the bob shop and I pay my him the for the year.
• 13:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I'll go get a haircut three times a week.
• 13:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, Monday, Wednesday and Monday Thursday and then like that's how you're getting money.
• 14:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: I pay I pay my bob up monthly and I just started doing it.
• 14:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I do monthly.
• 14:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: I pay I pay you here.
• 14:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm gonna have to see how it feels for you, or about 100 a month for you.
• 14:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: A lot of Barbies do that though, that's like a big thing though, like, yeah.
• 14:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: And my Barbies do that because he's like, you give, I think I take care of something major in his life.
• 14:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: So he's like, I count on you at the end of the year to give me that money.
• 14:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I pay him like that, yeah, and I got you, yeah, yeah.
• 14:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, yeah, the Barbies shop is the place where we all come to, you know, to communion and have a fellowship.
• 14:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: So when I saw, and I feel like it's been losing that.
• 14:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right, it's like I should hang out at the barber shop a lot more, right, and it was because there was a community There was something that kept us together, so when I saw what Obi was doing I'm like the barber shop the most important place Sometimes what someone come near about a business is like, okay I don't know how I'm gonna get people to buy purple tacos, right?
• 14:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's like you've got to figure it out, but when you say barber shop, I'm like every person in my phone
• 15:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: Man, my phone gets there haircut.
• 15:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: One thousand years ago, it becomes like you are touching the world so that's what made me really interested in it because it's like, the barber experience hasn't really been highlighted.
• 15:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, except for the movie, barber shop, which was great.
• 15:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, it showed nobody on the board.
• 15:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's like, it's just everything, but it's like, I feel like that's what this is.
• 15:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: So the excitement for that, and like I said, it was like performances.
• 15:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: Every time I go to the barbershop, somebody wants to rap for me.
• 15:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right, right, right.
• 15:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: By the way, the only place that people try to rap for me is the barbershop, because I know you bought this set out for 25 to 30 minutes.
• 15:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm going for forms.
• 15:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: So you're no work.
• 15:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 15:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I can't move.
• 15:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: I got to still.
• 15:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, I was like, man, I love the concept of the barbershop and the cut being the centerpiece of that conversation.
• 15:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: So we're in the middle of a lot of things, like coming to the podcast, we've got go cards, we're giving to our, our, our,
• 15:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: friends and you know we just built in this man but like we are this is not a company yes this is like this is culture and family like I hang with Obi we go into the club tonight yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I wouldn't want to go to the club I don't right none of my CEOs and we'll come to you work with I don't want to go to club with none of the catcher john jannick is my
• 16:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: my guy, but I don't want to go to the club with John, right?
• 16:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: But you know, I hang with Obi's, you know, I just, like, I believe in him.
• 16:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: And, and when you ask the question about money, the thing I like about him is that, you know, he's a, he's a first generation, his family's first generation, first generation Nigerians.
• 16:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: So he's a first generation American button.
• 16:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: I got, like, my friend, two days from LBRN, all my friends that are like children of immigrants, are like the shit.
• 16:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: because mom and mom and dad don't play.
• 16:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: So you know, when he tells the story of how he was, I just love the whole thing like he, that's how it will be.
• 16:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: Your mom said, boy, we don't know nobody could write code, you better learn this, just sell for it.
• 16:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's a fact.
• 16:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, he learned it, right?
• 16:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's like, we don't have that.
• 16:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: You learn it to sell, but he learned it.
• 16:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: So.
• 16:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: Just the I like the back superhero.
• 17:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I don't see Obi no different than I've seen working with like a future For sure.
• 17:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh working with like another star.
• 17:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's like yeah, if you should make a song that a million people listen to you made That means a YouTube so it's like how do we
• 17:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: bring that together and that's the challenge and that's what we are and that's what I'm doing.
• 17:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I love it.
• 17:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Love it, love it, love it.
• 17:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, we told to me as a first generation American, right?
• 17:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, did you grow up with money?
• 17:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Did you have money?
• 17:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, absolutely.
• 17:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right.
• 17:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, how much did you raise and would you get the money from?
• 17:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Straight, straight up, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight straight, straight straight, straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight straight
• 18:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: of like all my models and alumni to invest.
• 18:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so that was the first place that we went to to get capital.
• 18:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did piss competitions and all of that was just leading up and we kept lathering to eventually raising money.
• 18:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And one of the things that we did like in our first few years we got to like a couple hundred thousand users.
• 18:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: And instead of going out and raising capital from it to this one of investors, we went to our, we went to our users and said, look, there's a couple hundred thousand you guys.
• 18:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: We need money to continue to grow and build this business.
• 18:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And once you know it, a bunch of these barbers and clients invested in our business.
• 18:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, still to this day, we have a bunch of investors who are actually operating its users.
• 18:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, like, we're still excited because that eventually gave that was a proof point for when we did, but she'll get, like, invite a capitalist there.
• 18:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: The customers believe so much that they put their own dollars in.
• 18:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 18:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, we should, we should too.
• 18:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 18:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, like,
• 18:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: incredibly we still are incredibly grateful to all those barbers and customers who invested in us and we excited because our success is their success and to your point earlier is the community and like that's all we're all about is empowering and I've lived in the community and you know I think that's just one of the like the small way that we've done so thus far.
• 19:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Nah, I love it.
• 19:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: I love it.
• 19:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: When you think about like, you know, the app and the, like, some people might just look at it like a booking system, right?
• 19:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: But on the back end, I look at it as like really a business in a box and live, right?
• 19:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so like literally when you talk about, you know, how the barbers, you know, when you go to Google, you're seeing the barbershop, but you don't get to know the individual barbers,
• 19:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, you know, you know, you've actually given barbers.
• 19:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: So now it's a talk a little bit about that ecosystem.
• 19:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
• 19:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: What people, you know, what people see when they go into the app.
• 19:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And what was the, um, was that intentional?
• 19:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: 100% creating creating that ecosystem for, for barbers.
• 19:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely so.
• 19:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you hit the nail in the head.
• 19:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have built business and a box for barbers.
• 19:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, when we first started, we built it from the customers perspective.
• 20:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like I as a person want to go out and find a great barber.
• 20:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so in doing so, we designed to have to do just that.
• 20:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: We showed us a bunch of barber.
• 20:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: They got excited and said, hey, this can help me run my business.
• 20:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: as you alluded to.
• 20:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: So many barbers when they first download the apps that thank you so much.
• 20:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is maybe so organized.
• 20:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is maybe so professional.
• 20:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is helped me elevate my business.
• 20:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: And everything that we've done since then is to continue to compound upon that again.
• 20:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've essentially built a box like, you know, business in the box for barbers.
• 20:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: They can sign up and not only can they manage a book of business, but we will help them run lead gen.
• 20:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: we will help them create, we create reports for them so they can better run their accounting and keep the books and get prepared for taxing.
• 20:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
• 20:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: We just introduced like, at the end of last year, a new capital program, which is a tool for barbers to get access to additional funds to help them grow their business.
• 20:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: 24 hours after that launch, we'd given out a million dollars in capital to barbers.
• 20:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Crazy, honestly, that was so, we weren't even expecting that and it just, it was spoke to the appetite and the lack of access to capital that barbers traditionally have and so we were helping fill in that need and that's all we try to do every day is find a problem, find an area where these barbers and the more broader space has like a gap and how do we build like the systems and the processes to help scale that and serve them on a day-to-day basis.
• 21:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Man, I love that.
• 21:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ray, talk to me a little bit about what you're doing on a creative side, music side, and I'm loving it.
• 21:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: But then also, when you think about what the act is doing for our community, right?
• 21:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because you're a culture, the cultural referee, right?
• 21:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: When I think about our culture, when I think about the barbershop, the barbershop is usually employing people who are entrepreneurial
• 21:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: people who can't get opportunities elsewhere for whatever reason, right?
• 22:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: So talk about that dynamic.
• 22:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: What are you doing musically?
• 22:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: But then also that energy or that ability to provide for the community, as such a high level.
• 22:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, again, an example, to La Russo, we just did a promo with La Russo, for example, we gave away a hundred haircuts, and a hundred of his album in his neighborhood, right?
• 22:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, I want to use music, for example, ASAP Rocky had his biggest week ever, a few weeks ago, right?
• 22:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: And people are like, how did ASAP Rocky, where everybody else is selling 21sts, did a 60?
• 22:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 22:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: ASAP Rocky did a 132,000 or something like that.
• 22:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: and people don't, he sold out, I'm not mistaken, 115 or 120,000 of that was points.
• 22:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like this company called Built, B-I-L-T, and you have built points.
• 22:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: And if you just have free points, it's like by ASAP Rockies album, but points, and 100,000 people butt out from the points.
• 22:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 22:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: So let's bring that to the cut, right?
• 22:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: We booked a hundred million appointments, right?
• 23:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: Which means that we are a distribution company, how I see it, right?
• 23:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: We're helping people connect.
• 23:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: So look at it through this last.
• 23:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: If you are a rapper, right?
• 23:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: And you're trying to drop, you got an album coming out like the baby or one of these guys, why wouldn't you do a promo or work with us?
• 23:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, for sure.
• 23:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: push notifications in their phone.
• 23:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: We can send you a notification letter.
• 23:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: Baby, that's time to see Hulk on his bracelet.
• 23:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: So when we see so for me as a guy who is like the leader of speaking about music business, I think it's my job to go out and explore what company see value and what we do.
• 23:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the cut, so a value of what I do and what I want to do is I want to be at it.
• 23:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: I want to be at it show everybody the how to be smarter about approaching talking to an audience.
• 23:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah.
• 23:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, yeah, you got to be a team.
• 23:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: I want to say some part to get.
• 23:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: to get seen by 400,000 audience, right?
• 23:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: But we have 10 million users.
• 24:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right.
• 24:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right.
• 24:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: So you want to talk to 10 million people.
• 24:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's not counting up 300,000 boxes.
• 24:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's sure.
• 24:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: So we have 10 million plus that we can press a button and tell them what you're doing 1,000 percent.
• 24:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: So to me, and you got the real estate, though, I just folded up, I'm like, wait, oh, log in in here.
• 24:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's a little bit different.
• 24:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: I just pulled the app up and I said, hold on.
• 24:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: because when I think about, you know, I study business models, right?
• 24:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so,
• 24:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stay tuned.
• 24:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: What is this space like what is this doing?
• 24:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, this is real estate.
• 24:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is digital real estate right here Row when I tell you oh And let me tell you nobody realizes.
• 24:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, yeah the barbershop is also the place where we go and sit 1000%.
• 24:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: Mm-hmm.
• 24:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: Barbershop.
• 24:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: You're gonna probably sit at least 30 minutes to wait
• 24:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: So imagine what you can do with that 30 minutes in a barbershop if you had things from us in there, right?
• 25:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: I want to bring I want to make the barbershop a universe Like when he made black entertainment television and he's like, what is that?
• 25:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's for black people
• 25:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: I want to, I want to, I want the cut to be with, with BET was to our community.
• 25:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: I want you to see that, like, though, we are not just a haircut at, this is the beginning.
• 25:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: We are Amazon for distribution and talking to black people.
• 25:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: What is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the world, what is the
• 25:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm sorry, I just disrespected y'all saying it 200 million.
• 25:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is a billion dollar business, right?
• 26:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: We don't we take it to a billion.
• 26:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, because and I mean, that's sincerely because when you think about like you said Amazon, right?
• 26:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: You think about Amazon people think Amazon is
• 26:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: A place where you sell, but Amazon is just logistics, right?
• 26:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's a logistics company and when you think about how Jeff Basel started, he started with one product with books, right?
• 26:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: He said, hey, I want to, I want to place, right, Obey, I want to place where we can sell books.
• 26:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right?
• 26:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so now you perfect that you bring all those people in there and what happens and when that system works for one, it could work for others.
• 26:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: So Amazon ships houses now.
• 26:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right.
• 26:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, the the the the most difficult thing in any business are two things.
• 26:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's distribution and building up that audience for sure.
• 26:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Once you have those two things, you can do anything like I said Amazon
• 26:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: every one of us who has their Amazon account.
• 26:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 27:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now they can sell you anything.
• 27:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 27:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Houses, medicine.
• 27:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 27:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because of the food.
• 27:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: Even.
• 27:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: And medicine coming out.
• 27:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 27:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: Don't make it.
• 27:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: They bought whole foods.
• 27:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 27:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I'm looking at this.
• 27:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, I look at it like this.
• 27:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, the black.
• 27:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: hair, the universe ecosystem, it has to be a trillion dollar.
• 27:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that's what's going on.
• 27:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: So my mind, it's like merch, products, distribution of products, all this things.
• 27:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: So like for me, I'm good at making noise.
• 27:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 27:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: He's good at building.
• 27:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 27:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm making noise.
• 27:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: They look at what we build in.
• 27:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right.
• 27:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: And we'll be worth $10 billion in no time.
• 27:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Wow.
• 27:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's the goal.
• 27:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
• 27:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, again, the beauty of this is that, again,
• 27:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: is is helping the company and building the company.
• 27:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: But this is the first time.
• 27:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not the first time because Uber kind of did it if you will.
• 27:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Where it empowered the taxi drivers.
• 27:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 27:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Airbnb empowered the homeowners.
• 27:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, no, home, right?
• 27:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 27:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're empowering the barbers.
• 28:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Talk a little bit about life.
• 28:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: If I'm a barber on the app, how can I like, what are the benefits of I want to tell you, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I
• 28:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: And they was like, he always has a chair book.
• 28:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's coming to find out he was the only barber that he was in the cut at the time.
• 28:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: And he was the only one that had his own business.
• 28:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because you got to remember the barbershop walk-in.
• 28:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right.
• 28:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: Were you walking?
• 28:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm looking for Ashcast.
• 28:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right.
• 28:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: Right.
• 28:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right.
• 28:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right.
• 28:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: You just got to hear how he felt.
• 28:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: I was looking for him.
• 28:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: Look at for you.
• 28:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: The app was the driver.
• 28:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: So what I'm telling is a two-way system.
• 28:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: You get your hair coming up.
• 28:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: You a barber.
• 28:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 28:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is building your business now.
• 28:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: So for me, I when I'm in a barber shop, and I see guys cutting hair, and I'm like, bro, you can double your business with the cut out.
• 28:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 28:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 28:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because this guy right here has all the business, and he's only on a cut out.
• 29:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you know me so like yeah, I just it's it's great for Bobbers up and coming Bobbers hairdressers if you're trying to connect with the audience then here with us guys Yeah, I know what else we got here.
• 29:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: And here's the here's the beauty of that so Bobbers if you know a barber Make sure you are sharing this with them because he's the beauty of that, right?
• 29:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: And again right success leaves clues now is that's how I found my barber
• 29:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right, is so during, so right before COVID, you know, my barber used to come to my house, right, he used to come to my house, he had a mobile barber or whatever, he was a mobile barber, pull up, give him a haircut, good, good money.
• 29:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: um, right when Kobe had, or even during Kobe, he was doing the same thing or whatever.
• 29:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: But right around 2021, he decided that, you know, he wasn't going to cut any more.
• 29:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so now I was in search for a new one.
• 29:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I tried it.
• 29:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: So tragic.
• 29:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because I got a new wife.
• 29:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: You said you had a tragedy.
• 29:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: I felt it.
• 29:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: I felt it.
• 29:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: I felt it.
• 29:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Fam, right?
• 30:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: So now I'm, but I got a lot to think about, right, because, um, you know, I have a popular face, right, so I have, you know, so I'm like, I can't tell you go.
• 30:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, he's putting so much emphasis in his barber.
• 30:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: I want people to understand this.
• 30:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: But this is how it really goes for men.
• 30:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, I got to find someone else.
• 30:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Find somebody else.
• 30:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was what it was.
• 30:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: You got to think about it.
• 30:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: The barber half.
• 30:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: First of all, the way I got the the barber that I had.
• 30:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: I had the scottom right because I can't have anybody going to my crib.
• 30:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 30:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I had the extra furrows like mine.
• 30:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: So once I got him, I might owe you a good eat for my top two.
• 30:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it was good.
• 30:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: So now I'm looking for new barber.
• 30:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't know it, I didn't know where to go.
• 30:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so for me, what I usually do, I'll ask around, I'm from New York, I don't know it lands here.
• 30:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to be in a wrong table there.
• 30:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: I remember, I mean, it's a true story.
• 30:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: I remember, and this was the Cater, the Caterware is greater, salute to the Catera.
• 31:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ayo, no, no lot.
• 31:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: I went to this bottle shopping decade.
• 31:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: I could say where it is.
• 31:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it was nice to stay to the art.
• 31:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm thinking I'm lit.
• 31:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going there, I walk out, and there's a bank.
• 31:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I see a little young y'ing with a, with a, with a all 15 just sitting outside.
• 31:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I stopped for a second because in my mind, I forget that this open carry.
• 31:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: This ain't a New York scene and good.
• 31:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we talk about the go-round road.
• 31:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: So for me, I stopped like, oh, I'm about to go down.
• 31:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: So in my mind, I'm like, first of all, for him to be just sitting out there with a, I said, oh, no, this is not the neighborhood I need to be.
• 31:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I went to the cut at, and I just started going, I started looking, but his, the lesson, his was successfully exclusive is that I don't got to take, I don't have to guess because you're all have created a five star system where I could actually look and I could look at the reviews and say, oh, no, this is the popular barber.
• 32:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's not, he ain't going, he ain't going mess up my feet.
• 32:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: First hand accounts.
• 32:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's embedded in a good review.
• 32:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know what I'm saying?
• 32:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so, and so I love the job done that because it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, and now I felt my barber or sat fight fashion to, to, to, to Eric Green and team at good news water shop.
• 32:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's our shows are going to name to us like good new news.
• 32:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 32:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: go hit the app and go, but, but, but, but, but, but also, so talk about that right so, so, so, so like like you said, it was, uh, the fact that that, that it helped them build the business, um, talk a little bit also about like, is there plans?
• 32:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: And this is just me being a financial education person, like, audience plans of helping, you know, like, can you run classes?
• 32:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Can you do courses?
• 32:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Can you do things that will help, you know, the barbershop go from, you know, cash, heavy handed hand?
• 33:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, get your LLC.
• 33:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Here's how you pay your taxes.
• 33:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Here's how you invest, right?
• 33:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we could talk.
• 33:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Look at that.
• 33:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Look at that.
• 33:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm a financial education guy.
• 33:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, I need some content.
• 33:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: We could, we could, but that's really a content at the chair.
• 33:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: In the chair, we got, I'm sorry, I'm not an audience, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
• 33:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, okay, what was going to take to get that set up hmm.
• 33:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: I want to like to set up.
• 33:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: You got to show how I show office Sure, can I get that at the studio?
• 33:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm like I got I got to see if they wanted they want they want our stuff there now I would because remember if you at that video was getting 10 million views
• 33:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: a month and you see someone with the same chair, you're not sure you think you would them.
• 33:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's just easy marketing.
• 34:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: Some people want to talk to people.
• 34:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: We got barbers asses, can they make their barbershop the cut barbershop?
• 34:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
• 34:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: Crazy bro.
• 34:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then that becomes another.
• 34:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: grandchild, lysis and fee.
• 34:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: We got a long list of things that we got planned for next summer year.
• 34:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: But at the end of the year, I think education courses is part of this 100% part of our roadmap.
• 34:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: We started today providing them tools around tax prep, even like financial planning to a degree.
• 34:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, even part of what other companies to even help them like save for their future.
• 34:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so yeah, I mean,
• 34:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Everything that we do is how do we empower them?
• 34:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: How do we fill the gaps?
• 34:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: How do we democratize the access to the information or the technology?
• 34:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: They didn't necessarily have the access to before.
• 34:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 34:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And like every day it's fun because it's a new challenge in opportunity for us.
• 34:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I love that.
• 34:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: The off top freestyle series turned into the cut music, right?
• 34:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because it merged barbershop culture with the music industry.
• 34:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's the vision for that though?
• 34:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right, so now we're mixing that, we're bringing that in.
• 35:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: When you think from a music standpoint, he's knowing that you are the music guy, five years from now, I'll tell you something.
• 35:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Two years from now.
• 35:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Two years.
• 35:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, one or six in part.
• 35:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: You want to be able to come, get interviewed in a chair.
• 35:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 35:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: Actually, some questions about yourself.
• 35:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 35:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: And get out the way and give you the flow to perform.
• 35:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's going to be all over our app.
• 35:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's going to be all over TV.
• 35:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's going to be everywhere.
• 35:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that's the goal.
• 35:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: The goal is to the goal is to my industry is dying.
• 35:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: this is opening up a new door for my industry.
• 35:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: I have every artist, every label in America hitting me, asking me how can I come get on the cut platform.
• 35:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: We already got that.
• 35:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: So it's thought like you said, that's our custom.
• 35:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: Now the people are going to come in.
• 35:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: So for me, I want you to see somebody get their hair cut.
• 35:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 35:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like
• 35:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then after they get their hair cut, I want Loona to get a line up, tell us a little bit about what he's doing, and then get out the way, and Loona gets up there.
• 36:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: Loona, I want that.
• 36:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's the goal.
• 36:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, we're on a six and part.
• 36:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know if I missed this or not, right?
• 36:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: But you talked about ASAP Rocky, built.
• 36:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Is that we are going to watch this we haven't even Rob was system and my ask it to Give it away too much I just want to say one thing nothing will make me happier than one of those major labels calling me saying
• 36:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I need y'all help the sale album.
• 36:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's the place we want to create.
• 36:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like with the cut, everything we've done so far is to help these borrowers create a launch path for them to really grow their business.
• 36:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 36:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: They just make the sense of the same thing for artists.
• 36:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 36:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's what he just described is like, we want to create a space where artists can really jump start their career.
• 36:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 36:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if you already have a career, we want to jump start the sales of your album.
• 36:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: We need it to release.
• 36:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: We think we can build a more culturally relevant place on any artist's press run.
• 37:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: to come here and tell you a story in the authentic way.
• 37:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And to your point of my reward, yeah, I mean, we got a lot of things cooking.
• 37:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: We got the audience now, and we have like the distribution mechanism as so many brands of what access to, like men that have traditionally so hard to reach.
• 37:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like we have them who, especially the ones who are the most,
• 37:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: They cared the most about their way they looked, and they really value their parents.
• 37:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: We think there's a lot of brands that we can help get access to this audience, that provide value to the broader community.
• 37:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm Liz.
• 37:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: I just want to say this again.
• 37:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: Have.
• 37:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: the black population goes to barbershops and then the women sometimes have to take their kids to the mob shop.
• 37:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: The barbershop is the place you can't avoid.
• 37:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: I can't avoid it.
• 37:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: So it's like one of the earliest places you go in one of the last places.
• 37:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: We want to own when you think barbershop.
• 37:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 37:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: I want you to think the cut, if you're a barber and you were trying to think about how to build your business.
• 38:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 38:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: DM me direct the cut, think about us the cut.
• 38:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: If you are trying to figure out a promote your business, if you're a woman trying to give, like, we are not here for anything but to help our culture, our people and put points on the boy for our people.
• 38:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, we are, like I told them, like, I'm from the music industry, you got to change your life.
• 38:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's how I rule in the business.
• 38:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: You can't say you win until you change your life.
• 38:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: The goal with this cut-up,
• 38:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: is a change many lives.
• 38:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, keep coming to people.
• 38:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: How did you get mass adoption like this, though, right?
• 38:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because one of the things that is the toughest thing, right, like you said earlier, you said audience and distribution of the true toughest things.
• 38:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: So building a business and getting mass adoption where most barbers are using this, especially in our community.
• 38:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: How did that happen?
• 38:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: For sure, I'd say the couple of different things, right?
• 38:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: But in the earliest days, we were strong on social.
• 38:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: Even today, we have about 200,000 files on Instagram.
• 38:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that's always been where we built our brain today and how a lot of people will say they discovered us.
• 39:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Word of mouth is strong.
• 39:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: That has been again another way, because if you build the right product that on people love to use and it worked incredibly well, then actually creates value for them.
• 39:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're going to tell somebody, I think about your favorite apps that you use.
• 39:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're really going to tell one of your friends about it and you'll obviously just find this app.
• 39:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's amazing.
• 39:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've been incredibly intentional to make sure that we've built something that everyone loves to use so that they tell others.
• 39:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: When we were building on our instigate to get started, one of the hacks that we did was
• 39:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: As barbers were posting photos of their haircuts on Instagram, we would take one of the best ones we would find and we would repost it to our Instagram.
• 39:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Typically, we would have more followers than like the average barbers.
• 39:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's so we're giving them visibility.
• 39:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: They didn't necessarily have before.
• 39:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: They were incredibly grateful.
• 39:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 39:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: They would be so grateful that all we would have to do is slide in the DM to be like,
• 39:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, check out this app.
• 39:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: There might be a cool way to remember this.
• 39:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right.
• 39:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right.
• 39:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: And they be like, oh my god, thank you so much for the repos.
• 39:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 39:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll check out the app is cool.
• 39:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 39:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: A week later.
• 39:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god, this app is amazing.
• 40:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much.
• 40:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 40:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so in that that repos was a strong strategy for us because they did two things and allowed us to build our brand on social as a haircut app.
• 40:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: because you would then see our social media, you see us as in, know what's for haircuts.
• 40:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: By the same time, it allowed us to interact with two to three barbers every single day that would eventually download the app.
• 40:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it became a source of lead gen on the barberside, but then also on the client side or the end consumer side as well.
• 40:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, what's the, what's the business model?
• 40:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: for the barber, right?
• 40:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I mean, like, I use it, I don't pay anything.
• 40:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I mean, it's traditional sad.
• 40:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: So the barber's pay a monthly fee to use the platform which helped them run their books, but also drive a legion.
• 40:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then as you and I who used the app, we only today pay whenever you're paying for your haircut, even in the app.
• 40:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: So like, traditional processing fee, honestly, we just pass and do the cost of what it cost us to process the payment.
• 40:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but yeah, that's how the model works.
• 40:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Man, so I mean, barber, you got the announcement.
• 41:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like my brain is just kind of spinning because I didn't want to tell you this.
• 41:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I did not, I did not want Ashcash on that 10 or day to just do an interview.
• 41:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I see, I see, I see, I see you.
• 41:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: I see what's going on and I see what he's doing and I see opportunity for sure.
• 41:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like I said, like,
• 41:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like we complain about social media and not letting you see, but 3% of your base, we have 10 million users, right?
• 41:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's like, and we're about to build a relationship with those 10 million users to keep them in the app.
• 41:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: They keep them coming, so we keep them in gate.
• 41:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: So the goal is, is we almost like a little social media network.
• 41:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want there.
• 42:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 42:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: How do you stop competition?
• 42:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: How do you stop people from saying, hey, this is a great idea.
• 42:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let me just create my own cut.
• 42:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
• 42:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think there's a couple things, right?
• 42:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: First, sure you can go and create your cut-up, right?
• 42:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Or you can create a tool to help you manage your book and your business.
• 42:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's a bunch of countering apps out there.
• 42:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: But that's one piece of
• 42:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: it's easy to like manage your schedule to a degree.
• 42:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: But the second piece of this is which more barbers care about which is growing your business.
• 42:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's much harder.
• 42:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if you want to go and do the work to build a social presence and build the technology support all of that discovery sure, but we've built this infrastructure and we've kind of got a head start.
• 42:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: The users that we have create to vote for us to a degree and then I think the biggest thing that we're doing right now
• 42:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I say they can, but we know we're going to do much better is the embedding ourselves in the culture.
• 43:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this is how we're different, right?
• 43:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: In a commoditized space, you really got to figure out what makes you different.
• 43:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: And from the jump, we've always been closer to the culture than our counterparts.
• 43:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Anybody who's ever used our app has communicated such to us.
• 43:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the cut music is just the next step in that.
• 43:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the question he was, has anybody from any other haircut cap can't miss out on your couch?
• 43:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: Never.
• 43:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's why we take care of her.
• 43:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: Never.
• 43:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's why we take care of her.
• 43:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because they're not from the culture.
• 43:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: They're just like, put it up like, no, we're coming to see the people.
• 43:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And like again, Barbara's only care about one thing in the days.
• 43:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like keeping my seat feel.
• 43:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 43:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: And how do I get more clients in my shop?
• 43:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 43:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 43:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: The cut music is how we'll do that.
• 43:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 43:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: By the, with the cut music, everyone listen to music.
• 43:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Everyone listens to, um, well, everyone just, everyone likes to discover new music in New Artist.
• 43:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if we can build a platform in which they can discover new music in New Artist, the next thing they're done to discover is a barber because, oh, the cut also has barbers too.
• 43:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 43:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's a wonderful end of doing it.
• 43:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 43:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, you know, one of the things that I love that you're doing is the ability again to help them create their businesses and things of that nature, like what if the borders watch them right now and right now they're usually at to run their business.
• 44:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: I always say it's good to have multiple streams of income.
• 44:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Multiple streams of income though, but vertically integrated.
• 44:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right.
• 44:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: So not, oh, I'm a barber and I do real estate on the side.
• 44:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, I'm a barber and fill in the blank.
• 44:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: What are some other like, you know, you know, money opportunity?
• 44:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 44:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: That barber is probably not thinking about right now that, you know, that you, you must see for them.
• 44:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think.
• 44:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: When you talk about our industry specifically, I wouldn't say that they aren't already thinking about it.
• 44:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, they have the resources and logistics to really scale it.
• 44:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like e-commerce is obviously the next intelligent thing to do for anybody in that space.
• 44:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you are a service provider who is managing someone's look in their parents when it comes to the hair.
• 45:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know better than anybody else, what to suggest in terms of products for them to use.
• 45:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: We think about managing and maintaining your hairstyle and for the barbers who really want to take the next step, think about dermatology, think about skincare.
• 45:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: When we talk to our users, 40% of clients are interested in managing their skincare.
• 45:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so, as barbers increase their income, or it denolids in the space, there's obviously opportunities to grow.
• 45:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Whether it's you providing more skincare services.
• 45:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: whether it's a black mass or any other type of service.
• 45:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Wow, they're cutting here.
• 45:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: So this is way for you to make more not doing much more effort.
• 45:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: whether it's and this is like something that we're talking about that we haven't done yet, which is on a roadmap is again, these barbers are sitting there.
• 45:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Who best else to recommend a product to you?
• 45:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And for them to be able to monetize on that, I think is a big win.
• 45:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 45:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's one thing for us to be able to introduce like an e-commerce kind of infrastructure to sell products to the customers.
• 45:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 45:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 45:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's even better experience.
• 45:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 45:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: The barber has a play in that.
• 46:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Once the barber can not only make the suggestion,
• 46:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean tiktok shop show is showing us that business model right and and I think I think we can take it to a further another level Yeah, like skin care like products.
• 46:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, if you had a if you had a skin care product for black men Yep, what is the better place than to come with your business And with us you know me so the fact that we can connect so many people at one time at a large scale is like really really like
• 46:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's another piece of income that I see barbers can make instantly.
• 46:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: You just start thinking about like Like people don't think about this, but like you have a lot of affiliate marketing, right?
• 46:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, you can go to anybody can go to any website and become affiliate marketer, right?
• 46:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: But imagine if a barber had a deal with you, you had stuff and we go to the barber's like, hey, if you sell these products to your clients And they buy and you know, client you get a Creative right.
• 46:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I mean like there's a lot of opportunities, but you know
• 46:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is if you a barber, you a hustler, you're trying to build, you're trying to make money, we the company you want to be with, because that's who's going to benefit the most.
• 47:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: And how many companies you know let the client invest?
• 47:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right.
• 47:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: Barbers are owner of this company too.
• 47:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is for them by them too.
• 47:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: So it's like, it's one of the things where it's all for them.
• 47:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: So yeah.
• 47:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that's sort of like,
• 47:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: the cutting edge, right?
• 47:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because, I mean, that's not your saying that when I think about the influence and I would love to get your thought on this as well.
• 47:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because I feel like the influencer is dying, right?
• 47:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're like, people don't necessarily care about the influence of the big names and the many followers of things in that nature.
• 47:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think the influencer is dying because the influencer is for sale.
• 47:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's something that I learned from you that I keep in mind, vertical integration.
• 47:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 47:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: If you want an influencer, don't just take money.
• 47:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 47:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: Take money that as you can vertically integrate into what you do a raise.
• 48:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, right.
• 48:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think a lot of the times it's not working because these companies are laying.
• 48:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: So they want to say, they want it to look professional.
• 48:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: We have to say this, it has to like this.
• 48:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: And when that happens, we just keep scrolling because we know you're trying to sell us.
• 48:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right.
• 48:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: People don't want to be sold as a fact.
• 48:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: They want to pick.
• 48:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: So me is like, this is a line with me, right?
• 48:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: My hair cut number one all the time.
• 48:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm in the studio music.
• 48:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is what I do.
• 48:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's like this is,
• 48:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, I'll, me and you will be talking anyway.
• 48:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's what it is.
• 48:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: I have something to talk.
• 48:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is me vertically integrating to things together where it's like, now this is all culture and everything culture.
• 48:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, capital for sure.
• 48:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, so yeah, I hope that is your question.
• 48:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and I'll for sure, let's take the influence.
• 48:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I just think the influencer,
• 48:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think the I think the goal rest is over for the influencer.
• 48:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: I agree.
• 48:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think the only way to win in the new world is to be a smart influence.
• 48:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: Use the influencer that just have followers that you got to make money.
• 48:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: If you use the dancer that's all you did, you might be fucked.
• 48:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right, one thousand.
• 48:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Just unless you, you know, I just got to build it.
• 48:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Got to build it.
• 48:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: I do end to your point.
• 48:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: It is becoming tougher because even if you were to build these mass of audience to the O.A.
• 49:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: social works today, they limiting who can act once he got an audience.
• 49:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, which is why I think there is, it's a new, it'll be a new agent influencing, right?
• 49:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it is.
• 49:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to have the biggest audience.
• 49:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's why these microlyms approaches are so impactful, but you have to do two things.
• 49:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: One, the way the algorithms work, they're throwing any random person in front of you.
• 49:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: But at the same time,
• 49:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: people trust more of this random person because they don't think they're being sold 1,000.
• 49:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I just saw it and he said it.
• 49:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't mean just giving credit because he said it, Gary Vee just said it.
• 49:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: He said, we're not in the social media era anymore.
• 49:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: We're in the interest media era.
• 49:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 49:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: And for me, it's like, and I've been saying it.
• 49:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's not about it's about going wide, not going through.
• 49:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 49:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that, well, I think it's stopped.
• 49:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 49:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I think only the smart ones that know how to horizontally integrate.
• 49:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right.
• 49:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: A bit of wind like it wants to go and look to the left and look to the right and grab bills and put them next to them.
• 49:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that that's what we are.
• 49:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm not gonna lie like it's what I love it.
• 49:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: The influence of business works for me.
• 50:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, for sure.
• 50:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: But that's only because I'm a business man.
• 50:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I understand like I'm not gonna just take money from somebody because it's money.
• 50:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm gonna take, I'm gonna take something that I feel like matches.
• 50:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: So even when we go talking to people like, we had a, we had two meetings yesterday.
• 50:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: One was what a major player in finance.
• 50:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: and one was with a major play in music.
• 50:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: And they both were like, yo, we wanted to do so much together.
• 50:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I want to be the guy that capital currency meets, right?
• 50:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, capital and culture meet, right?
• 50:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because that's where, that's where you have the most, right?
• 50:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: So that's my goal with what we're doing here.
• 50:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: So influencers,
• 50:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: get smarter, right, or go get a job, right, and then even when you think about like the micro-influencer, the micro-influencer is more trusted, right, so I think about the barber, the barber is a micro-influencer, right, like if my barber tells me to do something, or it tells me to go get something, I'm prop nine times and say I'm going to go get it, right, because of that
• 50:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: Any any questions or anything I did not ask about the cut app that you want my audience to know or anything that you're working on Well, Obey has a funny story that I just love when he shares when he talks about when his parents But he basically was working to job and he told his parents was like You know how to get it like he's building the cut but his parents like we don't care about that
• 51:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's if you need to have a job in the early days, like I think this is before we like Regan raise money, so this is I Was the job raise money?
• 51:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so in 2020 We raise about five million dollars.
• 51:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, only about me, and that's all we've raised.
• 51:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I'm gonna say only because
• 51:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Our competition has raised an excess of like 150 million.
• 51:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
• 51:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we still are a leading player in the space.
• 51:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because we saw.
• 51:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we got the culture behind.
• 51:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's not that.
• 51:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: But you build the right product.
• 51:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: You don't need all the rest of that around the noise around you, right?
• 51:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 51:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I mean, like before we got to that point, like I had
• 52:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I had been working for maybe, you know, four, five months.
• 52:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: We had the prototype build, my co-founder was building the new production ready version of the app.
• 52:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so while he was doing that, I had built up a list of maybe 10,000 or so barbers.
• 52:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was on Instagram, scouring, but another database people who were like DM me for appointments, I had this list of people reaching out to him.
• 52:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: when we launch I tell my parents I'll keep working my job obviously because I move that home I'm living with my childhood bedroom you know getting that's why I love that story and so I told them which should make it a job just like a 50-60k so I'm like that never crazy and so I was like yo look um
• 52:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm a keep working, but I'm a quit once we get to a certain point.
• 52:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think it was a thousand users or so.
• 52:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, I'm a quit because at that point, it's real.
• 52:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I got to go into it.
• 52:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: I got to go into it, right?
• 52:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think I had gotten to maybe 250 barbers not quit.
• 52:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so, like, I jumped the gun, but it was like, I just felt so strongly about it.
• 53:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was a set for like, digging day, they love and support me.
• 53:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: So a lot to my mom and dad love that.
• 53:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: I love that.
• 53:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's a great story.
• 53:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's a great story.
• 53:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it's so now when they see,
• 53:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: like the success, like what was, you know, you know, I mean, they still, I mean, they're happy for me.
• 53:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: I saw it in a tunnel early, like they still, they didn't get real for them until maybe a couple of years ago.
• 53:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, even today, my dad is still like, he's asking you paying 30 people's salaries.
• 53:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, yes, yes, yes, dad.
• 53:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're, are more people, yes, well, they were building the company in, but now, they're so supportive of them, yeah, they're not appreciated them every step of the way.
• 53:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: They'd definitely go, they're not.
• 53:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I love it.
• 53:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Listen, if you are not using the cut app, you need to download it ASAP, Rocky, Salute to the Hall and Bridger, make sure you go download the cut app.
• 53:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you want to connect with Shaw, we can answer you.
• 53:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, if I'm here on the cut app, the cut app on Instagram, TikTok, all the major platforms.
• 53:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 53:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: And read down your channel.
• 53:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's it.
• 53:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Just Google and be Google them or catch them going viral somewhere on your socials.
• 54:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I'm sure you have the app in your phone right now.
• 54:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's black.
• 54:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 54:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: And you don't even get your haircut.
• 54:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: Still down low, yeah.
• 54:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is this is hour.
• 54:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and it's honestly to your point if we we are more than just here cuts Like if you need your braids done if you need some retweas we got you all in the app We got barbers we do both yeah and stylish who uses just the same and you know and and one last thing I want to say though, and this is this is really important because a lot of us do this
• 54:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: where we lead with, it's being black owned.
• 54:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we think because it's black owned, the people owe you something, right?
• 54:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is why this is a joyful conversation, because there was excellence in this app.
• 54:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've been using it before.
• 54:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've heard of an artist before I heard it.
• 54:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I was using it.
• 54:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: And because it was an excellent app, it was good to use, my barber's trusted.
• 54:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was excellence first.
• 54:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the bonus,
• 54:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: is black and that's what that was a hundred percent intentional.
• 55:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because I thought that way again started like I feel like I didn't want people to feel like they had to patronize this because we were black.
• 55:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I wanted to lead with let's build something incredible.
• 55:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, and then being black just made that in the additional added on and more more, say more, more pride.
• 55:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, more time.
• 55:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's what we said.
• 55:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I think that's important.
• 55:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that's important.
• 55:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that's important.
• 55:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 55:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: We love Apple because of the quality.
• 55:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: You want us to love us, because if you want you to do that, you'll love us the same.
• 55:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then because our Black is extra bonus.
• 55:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
• 55:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
• 55:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, we are closing out the vault.
• 55:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Another awesome episode of Inside the Vault with Ashcast.
• 55:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Greatest money mindset show on the planet.
• 55:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Make sure you are visited us inside the vaultshow.com.
• 55:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Follow us on all social media platforms at Inside the Vault.
• 55:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Me, I am Ashcast, which you've visited me.
• 55:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: I am Ashcast.com.
• 55:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Follow me on all social media platforms at I am Ashcast.
• 55:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: I will see you next time, same time, same place.
• 55:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe at the barbershop, use it a cut and go as well.
• 55:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Peace.