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Best of B Team: Serving the Streets: Turning the Barber Chair Into a Sanctuary · The B Team Podcast

• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the B Team Podcast.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: I am your host, Jock Stafford, with my co-host, Pat Morris, and our permanent guest, Robin Nelson.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: And we're here every week to talk to you about all things Bentonville, urban, and business.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: The B Team Podcast, be here.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: When I first moved here, I actually drove back and forth from Fort Smith to Bentonville.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: I actually started working at a barber shop in Fort Smith with my brother Jesse because he was a manager down there.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then what ended up happening was I had a friend who had a space, a chair, only rented the chair maybe twice a week and was like, hey, if you want to use this chair, just throw me a little something and I'll let you, I'll let you, you can start to build your clientele.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I actually started in the back of a house.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then we went to the back of a yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people don't even know that.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like we started in the back of a house.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, everything that's big always starts small.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and so I always, when I talk about the story, I like to encourage people, like when you have a vision, you know, you're not going to start off as the Taj Mahal or this big, beautiful thing.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: You got to start somewhere and don't despise a small beginning.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we started in the back of a house, went to the back of a salon, then we moved over there on A Street.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that's about where me and you connected when I was over there on A Street.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so everything didn't start off the way that it is, just like, you know, anything.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm sure everything that you guys have ever built didn't start off where you're at now because you got a successful and killing.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_03: Like the picture of Apple always shows that old garage.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, everyone probably thought that guy was crazy.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing with the guy at Amazon.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's in his garage as well.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: He just has a banner that said Amazon.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the the secret to success is starting in a garage.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: I think so.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's how I that's that's how I started.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So me and Josh linked up during a crazy time too, though.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: That that's whenever me and Josh really got close because it was around 20 2020.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: March 2020.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 2020.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know what happened?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: March 2020?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was my birthday.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: The vid.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: The whole world just shut down.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And um Josh was doing a lot of cool stuff at the gents place with um really just trying to um serve the community.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because it was it was such a time that nobody knew what to do.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you didn't know what you could do with that.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we were still trying to figure out ways to serve the community, but still like keep our business names out there because we couldn't even go to work.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like they shut the barbershop industry down because we wasn't essential, I think, the work.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: You were either essential or not essential.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And if you wasn't essential, which in our industry is the barber industry, they just shut us down.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: We went to work one day, turned on the news that night, and uh, I never forget it, Asa Hutchinson that was the governor at the time, says, Hey, you're done.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Shut down until we say you can go back.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: It was a great time.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it was a scary time, but the whole unity thing with that, because again, like in our industry, as far as like the hair industry, um, a lot of people don't come together because they feel like, well, you're my enemy, or you know, we're against each other.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, why?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, like I think people that are looking at other people in their industry as competition and they're worried about what they're doing or what they're not doing.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of times that's a broke mentality.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, just like at the end of the day, like God has so much for us, like, and what he has for you is for you, what he has for me is for me, and you can't take what God has for me, and I can't take what God has for you.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: So there was a shop that opened up like three blocks down the road.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I had some barbers that at the time they're no longer with us right now were like, man, I can't believe this, and they're all upset about it, and all this and that.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, man, listen, bro, like at the end of the day, like, it's fine.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: There's more people to cut out here than we can handle, you know.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, if you're worried about that, you're you're in the wrong industry.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Just take control of what you can control.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_03: Like I'm really an internal problem, like you said.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like you don't feel it's like people are like our I have friends that get into building and like you know, and and you're I want to help them.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_03: Like, there's more houses than we can ever man, we can ever think about doing, and it and it does nothing but helps the industry the more that you have.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_03: But that's not the normal mentality.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_03: And you know it's not you, right?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_03: So you know that's right.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing about again, I think if you worry about the stuff that you can't control, then you really can't live in the moment and and receive and do what you really be needing to do to stay focused on the things that you need to focus on anyway.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would say I hope Josh opens up 10 of them in Benville.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: The barber does not choose a customer, the customer chooses the barber.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can have you can be coming to me for 30 years, and if Josh opens up a spot and that vibe fits where you're at right now in your life, and and and you like the personal, and you went over, he's like, you know what, man, this is kind of where I'm at, right?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: I like this.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is man, I can't be mad at Josh that you chose to go over there because at the end of the day, like you want what you want, you like what you like, and the barber does not choose the customer, the customer chooses the barber.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I can't get in my feelings.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I don't feel like, and it's gonna sound crazy.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of my barber people will probably disagree with me.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's gonna probably listen to this, is that you can't, you there's nothing you can do to keep a customer other than what control you control.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: If they want to leave you, they're gonna leave you.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: The cool thing about a barber shop is that it's it's it's a it's the greatest, like, like neutral spot.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and I can be Christian, you can be Muslim, we can still talk.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know what I mean?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: I can be white, you can be black, we can still talk.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: We, you know, you can do this, but uh whereas in some some places you might not never talk to me because we may not be, I don't know, like from the same place, we may not look like, you know, you you may feel like there's a wallet, which that's crazy to me.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's no balls of beef.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: What's cool is like you're cutting hair and the guy in your chair is C exec C suite executive so so that makes 8.5 in a year.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: You got an even playing field in that chair for 40 minutes.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's right, right?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Or you have it.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love it.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's about how you treat people, it's about how you serve people.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I feel like with me as a barber.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a servant.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm serving you, like I'm taking care of you.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not only am I giving you a haircut or a beard trim, man.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: In that moment, you might need a comedian because you've had a down day.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna You're a funny dude.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna make you laugh.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, or you might you might need some wisdom, you might need some words of affirmation, you might need just, I've sat in the shop and I've prayed with people.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: I've sat in the shop where I've literally cried with grown men.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just it's such a sanctuary, as weird as that sounds, you know, when you're in there and it's just it's beautiful just because, again, you get to meet people and you develop relationships with people whom you never would.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've gone to some of my clients' kids' games, they've came to my son's games.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And bro, if it wasn't for this barbershop, we would never even know each other.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: I used to I actually did music.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and I didn't play an instrument, I was a rapper.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: I toured the United States for 15 years old.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Nope.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: I did I toured with Paul Wall, Mike Jones, Nappy Roots, um, man, Soldier Boy.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, man, you could just man, I can name a lot of different groups that we toured with back in the open acts, you know, but we made good money being open and act.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And we sold CDs.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: You said we was it you and your brother?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: My brother Jesse would never do that.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: But long story short, I realized that I was starting to get old.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't be this old, bald-headed, white, white beard, white rapper anymore.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's not it's not gonna take care of the beat.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I would think the same.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't Eminem, I wasn't Jay-Z.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I wasn't over on that level.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I had a buddy of mine, Eric, he was in car sales.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'll never forget it, man.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: I had this aha moment where he he sold cars, and I made 90% of my income off CDs.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: So every time I sold a CD at a show, we might sell 400 CDs at$15 a piece times the the money that they paid us to beat us.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: We was making good money, but he said, hey man, we got these new trucks coming out, bro, they're crazy.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't even know what he said to me, but it blew my mind.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: He said, These trucks don't even come with CD players.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, whoa, like I can't sell music then.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, bro, there goes my business.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Right, no, 100%.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so I started thinking, I was like, what am I gonna do?
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't, I don't, I didn't go to college.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so, man, I just remembered as I was driving down 485 in Charlotte, I had this moment.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, Man, God, I don't know what I'm gonna do.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: I need I need you to speak to me.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I literally like felt the Holy Spirit tell me, go to barber school.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and I said, Whoa.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, God, if Heather goes with it, I'm down.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: She's gonna say no.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: I know she is.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, his wife's got a huge big personality.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all need Heather.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, she's gonna set this thing off.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you should have brought her.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all know y'all, she's gonna need her own show with y'all.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: She's wild, but but I said, okay, I said, God, if if if you'll speak it to my wife, I'll know that's what you want me to do.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I I was on, I was getting on 485.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: I can tell you where I was at on 485.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: I called Heather.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: I said, hey, I feel like I was supposed to go to barber school.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't know why.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: I just felt like God spoke that to my spirit.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: I said, what you think about that?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: She said, babe, I think you'd be a great barber.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: She said, I think you should look into it.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: I said, What?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, How can I help you, sir?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Yeah, I'm looking, and now listen, again, I need it to be Monday through Friday.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: I need to be done by five.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Da-da-da-boom-boom.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Man, I'm looking about, I'm looking to come to barber college.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, I got one spot left for you, man.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, and the only time it is is Monday through Friday, eight to five.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, bro, I'm just looking at the camera right now.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we know it's not hot in this room.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like, like, I mean, it's hot in this room, it's not cold.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I'm telling you, like, like I knew right then and there, and he said, Listen, go do this, this, that.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you can do all this by the end of today, I will, oh, you can start Monday.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: This was on a Thursday.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, man, I went home and just got rolled and rolled.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even know what to do.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: I went, I didn't even know how to dress or nothing because I got in there so fast.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: And bro, it just everything aligned.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Buffed it.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: They taught me business, they taught me how to cut hair, they taught me people skills, they taught me um how to continue to grow myself through books.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I still, to this day, they're like, I tell people all the time, Jesus saved my soul, but no grease saved my life.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because they really did.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like, they did.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Man, man, it was tough, bro.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, no, because at the end of the day, like I if leaving the music industry and not being able to provide for my family, I was actually like getting a job making 12 bucks an hour.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how's that how am I how am I gonna do that?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: God opened the door, and and it's just man, I've been walking through this, and then when God led me here to Arkansas, it's just everything, he just had his hand on everything that we've done.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just and that's why the reason why for me, I don't get caught up in the I don't like you because you own a shop or I'm not with you.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: I root for everybody.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.