#95: How to land Celebrity & Pro-Athlete Clients without Cutting Corners; Mark Baysinger, Celebrity & Pro-Athlete Barber

Speaker 1 How did it happen? I'd say, uh, you know, hard work. Uh,

Speaker 1 I think opportunity looks a lot like hard work, right?

Speaker 1 But also, being smart about how you go about that hard work when it comes to learning to make mistakes and actually going through the fire to be able to, when you get to that moment of being able to have that opportunity, I think

Speaker 1 you're ready for it because you've been practicing every day with the championship mindset. And

Speaker 1 I believe a championship mindset is really genuinely every day trying to show up and live in your purpose and impact just one life

Speaker 1 every day. I think

Speaker 1 you're living your mission, and that's what it's all about to me.

Speaker 2 What's up, guys? Welcome to another episode of the Founder Podcast.

Speaker 1 Today,

Speaker 2 I am, we are doing a special episode. We got Mr.
Mark Basinger here on the podcast. Welcome, my man.

Speaker 1 Appreciate you for having me.

Speaker 2 So, it's going to be a little bit different of a look. Mark is a celebrity barber.
This guy knows all the people. He's been in the NFL, MLB, NHL.
We're talking all the big leagues.

Speaker 2 He's been working down on sets down in LA, right-hand man of Russell Wilson for a long time.

Speaker 1 For a long time.

Speaker 2 I mean, this guy turned Russell Wilson into ugly, into GQ.

Speaker 1 I wouldn't say that. I didn't say that.

Speaker 1 I said it. I said it.
I said it.

Speaker 2 So super excited to have you on the set today.

Speaker 2 Mark is also a native to here in eastern Washington.

Speaker 2 Grew up in Sunnyside.

Speaker 1 Sunnyside. Woo! Sunnyside.

Speaker 1 Man,

Speaker 2 so I come from a door-to-door background. That's actually where I got my start selling products door-to-door.
Really? Yeah, and did a lot of work out in Sunnyside.

Speaker 1 What kind of door-to-door?

Speaker 2 We did pest control, home security, automation.

Speaker 2 I'll tell you what, Sunnyside for home security, you know, we knock on people's doors and it was like, it wasn't, hey, have you ever been broken into?

Speaker 2 It was like, when was the last time you got broken into?

Speaker 1 I tried to talk to to people that in seattle where i'm from i'm like you have no idea the where i come from so oh man oh man some of my favorite memories yeah so made it made a lot of money out in the valley i i could see i could see the market would be hot that's for sure yeah but that's amazing that's amazing so um when it comes to getting into what you're doing now like how did you make that evolution to becoming what you're becoming and as successful as you're doing it yeah man i think uh the background to any successful job, business, hustle, whatever you're doing is sales, right?

Speaker 2 Like you got to know how to go and present yourself, be able to get somebody else to view life from your standpoint. That's essentially what sales is, right?

Speaker 2 Like you have something and you look at it, you're like, I either got this great product, service, solution, you got a problem.

Speaker 2 Let me help you identify how this will actually help solve your problems.

Speaker 1 Finding the white space.

Speaker 2 Yeah, finding the white space.

Speaker 2 And so, you know, anybody that can go out and knock on doors for a living, they can go and do anything that they want.

Speaker 1 It's funny. I don't tell many people this, but right out of high school, I saw an ad.
It said $2,500 a month, guaranteed. They didn't tell me what the job was.
Zacucko?

Speaker 1 Well, a week's long worth of sales training. They pull out the vacuum day six.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 I said, whoa, Kirby? And guess what? I was killing them for a minute. And at the end of the day, I'll never forget it.
People buy from

Speaker 1 who they like, right? That's right. And at the end of the day, I let the vacuum do the talking.
And I just made their house look really dirty by pulling more dirt pads. And guess what?

Speaker 1 About 100 dirt pads in, they're asking you, so how much does that cost?

Speaker 1 And yeah,

Speaker 1 you know, you follow a recipe, but really when you're passionate now to build rapport and in an authentic, genuine way, and you really care, I think the sales game is good to people that actually live by that.

Speaker 2 I love it. I love it.
And like I said, anybody that knows how to go door-to-door, sell some sort of product, I mean, they usually make something of themselves.

Speaker 1 Right, right, right. Now, I always say that gave me a firm

Speaker 1 grip of when if you can sell a $2,000 vacuum to people that don't want it and they end up buying it just because you end up building that rapport and you end up, you know, and the vacuum speaks for itself.

Speaker 1 And next thing you know, they want to support you. Yeah, yeah.
And then it taught me a lot about just like, if you could do that, you could do anything.

Speaker 1 I love it well sweet man.

Speaker 2 So I know we got the we got the clips here.

Speaker 1 We do

Speaker 2 We want to see a little bit of your work while we have a little barbershop talk.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 you ready to do that?

Speaker 2 Let's jump on in.

Speaker 1 All right, let's get it. Let's go

Speaker 2 Are you a home service business owner struggling to get your time back?

Speaker 2 Maybe you're feeling like you have to do everything yourself, or maybe you aren't able to break through that certain revenue plateau.

Speaker 2 You feel like owning your business isn't quite what you thought it would be. Am I right? I understand you you more than you know.

Speaker 2 I've launched many businesses throughout my life and I was lucky enough to have built multiple businesses that scaled to two nine-figure exits.

Speaker 2 But more importantly, I have had even more businesses fail. Why would that be more important?

Speaker 2 I learned a ton from each venture that I was a part of, each teaching me lessons about how to hire the right people, how to price my product, how to build out proper SOPs, and even building the right culture.

Speaker 2 These lessons are what led me to being able to sell my most recent business for nearly 200 million dollars. Why am I sharing all this with you?

Speaker 2 Because I've been in your shoes, feeling the same exact feelings that you are. And if I knew back then what I know now, life might have been a lot easier for me.

Speaker 2 Unfortunately, I can't travel back in time, but I can help you so that you don't have to. How?

Speaker 2 I package everything that I learned into over 150 videos all about my wins and mistakes that I've made in business over the years. And I want to give you access to these videos.

Speaker 2 But it's so so much more than just a bunch of videos. I've created a community of home professionals just like you where people interact and share ideas with each other.

Speaker 2 Plus, we host live calls every single week where you get direct access to people like myself and my business partners that were a part of these different ventures who are experts in marketing, operations, software, and even more.

Speaker 2 All you have to do is book a free call with one of our team members to see if this would be a good fit for you.

Speaker 2 That way, I can help you take your business to the next level, making you a next-level home pro.

Speaker 1 Here we go. Let's go.

Speaker 1 Thanks for letting me grace you with

Speaker 1 my skill set of trying to make you look better than what you already are. That's going to be hard to do, right?

Speaker 2 I mean, dude, with how good you made Russell look, you know, I'm excited to see what you can do with it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's funny.

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 2 dude, tell me a little bit more about your story. So, you're from a small town, Sunnyside, Right?

Speaker 2 How does a kid go from Sunnyside to, I mean, basically hanging with, you know, professional athletes everywhere? You know, you're traveling with Russell, you're cutting Julio

Speaker 2 Rodriguez's hair. You got a shop in T-Mobile Park, is that right?

Speaker 1 It's no longer called T-Mobile Park. Yeah, yeah, no, it's T-Mobile, but it's a barbershop for the players.

Speaker 1 That is,

Speaker 1 yeah, it's a really dope barbershop that that they've allowed me to be in there for the last eight years, which I'm very, very, very grateful for. But yeah, to have those type of opportunities with,

Speaker 1 if you would have told me that as a kid when I first started, that I'd be cutting in a major league ballpark on game day with some of the best or the greatest ball players in the world, but more importantly, some of the greatest people I've ever met is,

Speaker 1 I would have said, you're crazy, you know, but it's happened and I'm very grateful for it.

Speaker 2 So bridge the gap for us.

Speaker 1 How does that happen?

Speaker 2 I mean, there's a lot of small town kids out there that just don't realize that they can even get outside of their hometown, you know?

Speaker 1 Right, right, right, right. How did it happen? I say, you know, I think hard work,

Speaker 1 I think opportunity looks a lot like hard work, right?

Speaker 1 But also being smart about how you go about that hard work when it comes to learning from your mistakes and actually going through the fire to be able to, when you get to that moment of

Speaker 1 being able to have that opportunity, I think

Speaker 1 you're ready for it because you've been practicing every day with the championship mindset.

Speaker 1 And I believe a championship mindset is really genuinely every day trying to show up and living your purpose and impact this one life

Speaker 1 every day. I think

Speaker 1 you're living your mission, and that's what it's all about to me.

Speaker 2 So, who instilled that in you?

Speaker 1 My mom, my, I would say, my mother, my grandparents, my grandparents were, um, you know, amazing, amazing people, pioneers. Uh, my father also, he was a,

Speaker 1 he was really, really bigot when it comes to just how to speak to people and just how to respect everyone.

Speaker 1 But just be a people person at the highest level is something that he always, always ingrained in me.

Speaker 1 And so as a small, you know, as a small kid, we'd go to Seattle and no life, my mom, she'd be like, you know, where's Marky?

Speaker 1 And all of a sudden, she'd look across the street and I'm talking to some homeless guy sitting on the bench with them, You know, and I think I was doing that at like three or four or five years old.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean? So it's always been somewhere out of love with people and I love just to get to know people. You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 So you always had that gift of gab, the ability just to go and get to know pretty much anybody?

Speaker 1 Oh, for sure. For sure.
I always pride myself when it comes to barbershops, right? There's a lot of like Latin barbershops or hipster barbershops.

Speaker 1 And I call myself the Anthony Bourdain from the barber industry because all walks of life, I think food and hair are two commonalities that,

Speaker 1 you know, most people eat, most people get haircuts, right? And so you're able to use that as

Speaker 1 a bridge to be able to get to know all cultures, all walks of life. And it's something that I genuinely love about what I do is being able to connect with all walks of life.

Speaker 2 So at what age did you start cutting hair?

Speaker 1 I started cutting my own hair when I was 12 years old. Okay.

Speaker 1 Picked up the clippers, went to a three-way mirror, and the rest is history is what I like to say.

Speaker 1 Were you able to perform a fade on yourself? Yes.

Speaker 2 Wow, that's pretty impressive.

Speaker 1 Yes, yes, yes, yes. No, it was

Speaker 1 really my dad used to cut my hair. And they had a contemporary Christian music ministry, and they were always practicing.

Speaker 1 And I got to the age, about 12 years old, where, you know, at basketball games, you know, you want to look good for the game tomorrow. My dad didn't have time to cut it every week.

Speaker 1 And so I grabbed clippers and I was like, man, let me see how I can do.

Speaker 1 And honestly, the first haircut I ever did on myself, I was, I was like, man, I can do this. And so I kind of just took it on from there.

Speaker 1 And, but I never really thought I'd ever do it as for a living. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It wasn't something that when barbers weren't very, not to say they weren't cool, but there was a lot of old barbers that were kind of dying off. And a lot of people were going to salons at the time.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And so.
you know, you tell your dad you're going to beauty school. He about had a heart attack.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 yeah, it was really cool to one day.

Speaker 2 is that what they call it beauty school it wasn't like barber school

Speaker 1 at the time it was beauty school because there wasn't a lot of people going to barber school so yeah i never forget i was i told him i'm going to beauty school and uh he was like what he's like you don't want to do that son i was like oh yeah but now he's so he's like he's like you're gonna be hanging with a bunch of women and probably guys that want to be women right right right right at the end of the day he uh

Speaker 1 Yeah, he's proud. I never forget when I started cutting the Seahawks.
It was our family. We grew up a Seahawks family, right? Okay.
And so, you know, it wasn't when I didn't get on right away.

Speaker 1 I was working in the industry for 10 years.

Speaker 1 And finally, the year they won the Super Bowl,

Speaker 1 by the grace of God, I was the team barber in New York for the Super Bowl, right?

Speaker 2 So that

Speaker 2 you got to bridge that gap. Like, how do you just become the team barber in 2013?

Speaker 2 Tell us about how that all went down.

Speaker 1 Like, well, like, there was obviously some point, some like big shifting moment where you got the intro or the connection how did how did that all come to be yeah um great question honestly again by the grace of god but really to tell you in a short story um instagram came out right and uh brandon browner just got signed by the seattle sea arts played in the cfl and they have the tri-city fever here right so i'm cutting some of the tri-city fever player hair and i'll never forget the day it was the day my grandmother passed and I'm walking in to go basically, you know, they're raving Rosary and she's probably two hours away from passing away.

Speaker 1 And I get this notification on my Instagram where it's like, Brandon Brown leaves it where he's talking about a picture of me and a Vander Holefield that I just took in Vegas.

Speaker 1 I don't know him like that. I just took a picture of him.
Yeah. And he was like, this is my favorite fighter.

Speaker 1 But it didn't really mean much to me at the time because my grandma was passing away and I just kind of forgot about it. And then fast forward two weeks later, I'm cutting hair for the Tri-City Fever.

Speaker 1 And he comments again and he's basically saying hello to one of his teammates that he had in the CFO. And so I'm like, wow, this guy's actually watching my page like this.
Like, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 Like, entire social media was just being kind of introduced to the world. You know what I mean? Right.

Speaker 1 And so then they come on a 12-man tour.

Speaker 1 He hits me up on Instagram and says, hey, man, I want a haircut. And pretty much the rest is history.
By the grace of God, Earl Thomas was actually cutting the dreadlocks off at that time.

Speaker 1 And I came up here to cut Brandon. Up here, I mean, Seattle.
And the same day I cut Brandon, he's like, yo, Earl wants a barber. You mind if I give him your number?

Speaker 1 And I will never forget that day like it was like it was yesterday.

Speaker 2 So you telling me you're the guy that cut off his dreads?

Speaker 1 I'm not. I did not cut off the dreads.
He cut off his dreads right before he got the camp, but I'm the one that gave him his first real taper.

Speaker 1 I shouldn't say his first. He had it when he was in high school, of course, but

Speaker 1 post-dreadlock. And he almost won the defensive MVP, which he should have won a defensive MVP that year.
Oh, yeah. By the way.
But they won the Super Bowl. I was in New York.

Speaker 1 Actually, Earl moved me to New York to basically cut him for the Super Bowl. And yeah, Constance's history.

Speaker 1 I was at the team hotel the night before the game, and I was cutting Percy Harve and Bobby Wagner.

Speaker 1 It was just, it was surreal because I grew up as a little boy, honestly like loving the team. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 So it's not quite like Jeter loving the Yankees and then being the greatest Yankee, but like,

Speaker 1 you know, as for like kids from the small town, kids from Saints like Washington, it was something that to this day I've ever grateful for.

Speaker 1 That's, that's awesome.

Speaker 2 And so then you parlay that in, so you become, you end up being the, the team barber. How do you go from there to opening up up a shop in Team Mobile? Is it just one connection after another?

Speaker 1 Well, to be, so

Speaker 1 I would say that, you know, Felix Hernandez was a huge, huge, huge part in bringing me into the MLB as far as being the team barber.

Speaker 1 And once I became, you know, the CRX barber, Russell's kind of full-time year-round barber,

Speaker 1 you get to know a lot of great people. You know what I mean? Yeah.
And

Speaker 1 by the grace of God, you know, and

Speaker 1 thank you, Felix, for the end of time. And he knows this.
I mean, I love that guy forever for the way he stuck his neck out for me, and he believed in me.

Speaker 1 And I feel the same way, guys like Sam Chancellor, Earl Thomas for sure, the whole Thomas family. They let me live with them.

Speaker 1 When I was living in Tri-Cities here, I was traveling back and forth, ending up

Speaker 1 cutting about 35, 40 players to 53.

Speaker 1 And Earl was basically...

Speaker 1 Basically, Earl said, man, you can just stay here, bro, and like cut all week to guys. So I was cutting cutting at the Seahawks facility pretty much three or four days a week.

Speaker 1 And Earl gave me a place to live and treated me like family. And like, they treated my whole entire family like family.

Speaker 1 And without him giving me that opportunity, I can't really say I would have been able to like worse the way I did.

Speaker 1 And so, you know, if somebody opens up their home like that and actually trusts you and love you like that, that it forever, forever means the world to me. So,

Speaker 2 you know, so, I mean, obviously there's a lot of people out there that cut their

Speaker 2 You got, you know, sports clips, you got, you know, cheap end

Speaker 1 to

Speaker 2 being a celebrity barber.

Speaker 1 What would you say that, like, has set you apart and really made it memorable for these guys where they want to keep using you and referring them, referring you to their friends?

Speaker 2 Like, what about the experience or what about your mentality has really led to that?

Speaker 1 I would say, honest to God, Iron Sharp and Dean, right? And so being around the guys like the Russells and the Earls and the Trams and the Julios, like

Speaker 1 they show you what it looks like to be a pro and actually push, not to compete against any other barber.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 my prayer is I don't want to leave anything on the table. And what I mean by that is what separates me, I feel,

Speaker 1 is simply just genuinely connecting with them first and foremost. But I believe my superpower truly, like, I'm good, but, but, but, but, but he really good.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And what I mean by that is, like, the gifts of the Holy Spirit and just being able to fellowship with people whom a genuine plate, some people don't want to be talked to except for it.

Speaker 1 It doesn't offend me either. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.
And I think it's like my prayer every day when I wake up is like, Lord, I don't know what you need.

Speaker 1 I don't know what Chris needs today, but like, flow through me and be a, you know, be, let me be a vessel of you in a way that I could never do on my own.

Speaker 1 And I think that type of connection and that brotherhood is really what it's all about. It's first other than Christ.
You know what I'm saying? And that's really what I think separates me from,

Speaker 1 I think there's a lot of barbers out there like that, but that's really my true, I think, superpower and why I've been able to do what I do.

Speaker 2 And so I know offset before we started recording, you talked a little bit about how you really helped with the mentality of some of these players. Like you were almost like a

Speaker 2 coach or somebody that actually helped get the best out of them.

Speaker 1 Can you dive into that a little little bit more? I wouldn't say that. I got to be very careful, right? Because like at the end of the day, these guys are great on their own, right?

Speaker 1 But I think just having a small opportunity, I don't, it's not just players, honestly. It's everyday people that come and sit in my chair.

Speaker 1 I say, what I can leave with you from a mindful and purposeful conversation and connection can last way longer than any haircut I could ever do. Absolutely.
And I think that at the end of the day,

Speaker 1 it might be the smallest of things when it comes to, you you know, watching a guy like Cam and Earl every time what it looks like to be a true professional to me oftentimes is like those guys, every time I was either done with the haircut or starting it, they had the massage table being broken down.

Speaker 1 They had the iPad in their hands studying film.

Speaker 1 And it's just like small stories like that that I think sometimes are dope to see how it impacts young players of like, you know, because people look up to guys like that, right? Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 I think like being a true professional on that level, bobby wagner is a client of mine for 12 plus years even when he was in la this last year i still flew down there once a week to cut his hair because guys like him have truly appreciated what i do for them as well and when it comes to like a connection that a true brotherhood um it's something that honestly means more to me than um you know anything that I've ever been able to be a part of because the process of seeing them go from like not babies but rookie year to all of that that

Speaker 1 is pretty special

Speaker 2 so i mean yeah to to your point you've seen these guys emerge and you know the thing that separates professional athletes they have like

Speaker 2 crazy mindset work ethic uh some

Speaker 2 a lot of natural talent or whatnot what what would you say like some of the best lessons that you've learned hanging around these type of guys um I would say rhythm and routine.

Speaker 1 I think the best in the world ain't nothing you chance.

Speaker 1 what i mean by that is if you're gonna diet you're gonna work out you're gonna drill they also care about their appearance they care about looking sharp and they're checking every box and i think when you manifest at the highest level is whenever you feel um you know the best self right and so

Speaker 1 looking good and feeling good to me is a mental health thing it's not a vanity thing right and i think at the end of the day the greatest in the world that i've worked around they're getting their haircut consistently same time every week it's not midnight one a week, they skip two weeks.

Speaker 1 Like, so they do it, they're doing it once a week, not everybody, but what I'm saying is the greatest in the world, they have a rhythm routine where it's a if they get a haircut every Thursday, it's going to be the same time every Thursday, unless they have treatment or something comes up.

Speaker 1 So, like, their schedule is so regimented. Does that make sense? Where yeah, um,

Speaker 1 it inspires me, you know what I mean, at a very high level to like want to emulate that and be the Michael Jordan of Minecraft as well. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 You know, that kind of goes along the principle that I've always believed is like

Speaker 2 you, one, you got to make the choice. Nobody likes to be forced into anything, right? Like you got to create the schedule, but then you've got to choose to enslave yourself to your regimen.

Speaker 1 Right, right.

Speaker 2 And so, and it's, and it's never like you never deviate from that no matter how much you feel like not doing it, right?

Speaker 2 Whether it's the workout or the haircut or the pregame routine or whatever it may be, right? Like you create that and then you just figure out how to be your own, be a slave to yourself, right?

Speaker 2 You're your own master.

Speaker 1 Right, right, right. I think like

Speaker 1 I pay very close attention to what hat I'm wearing

Speaker 1 in any particular setting I'm in because I love production and I love but also when I'm here to barber, I'm here to barber, right? And I think like at the end of the day,

Speaker 1 I feel like keeping these clippers in my hand and still staying sharp. I couldn't just pick up the clippers every once in a while, same with celebrity barbers, only do a couple cuts.

Speaker 1 I wouldn't be as sharp as I need to be, right?

Speaker 1 So getting in that shop and still grinding it out when I feel like I would have been retired from barber long ago is something that

Speaker 1 you have to check in every day. Yeah, yeah.
And I think when you check in every day and you don't try to pick and choose when it's going to benefit and when it's not, but you just keep showing up.

Speaker 1 And that compound interest that happens over years of doing that is where you see people start to rise when it comes to who the Michael Jordans of each industry are because there's a Michael Jordan of every industry right and who are the linchpins of each industry right I think we all can learn things from each other and I think it's cool that through podcasts like this like whether it be just you know a morning routine or a small hack that's changed your life.

Speaker 1 I think it's cool that other people can be impacted like that and be able to adapt that to their life to make a change to, you know, where they're trying to go in life. Love it.
Love it.

Speaker 2 So, over the years, obviously, you've cut a lot of different people's hair. Who would you say is like

Speaker 2 the most memorable or like,

Speaker 1 I don't know,

Speaker 2 somebody that you just truly enjoy being around every time that he's in your seat or she's in your seat?

Speaker 1 Oh, man, there's a lot, man. I don't want to disrespect anyone.

Speaker 1 There's too many, but, you know, Reggie Jackson's somebody that when he would come into town, right, the yankees would come into town about four years in a row he would come in and just his energy you know he's iconic right and to be able to sit there and you know trade even just like have him telling your story just even his energy alone of being around him is something that i will forever cherish um there's tons of guys that um i will forever ever ever ever cherish but one thing i will say is this i can be in any locker room i think championship locker rooms are infectious right and and no wins like my win right but the locker room i was able to come into when it comes to the seahawks and the lob and the years they were winning super bowls when i tell you if you can be in that locker room everything else is candyland oh because it was the dope imagination i could imagine

Speaker 1 mal like looking back on it is like

Speaker 1 i i'm so grateful that i got to witness just a small piece of it man because it is so special and it will never be recreated ever again And it was something that will live on for history forever, you know?

Speaker 2 You know, it's interesting.

Speaker 2 The culture is really the way that you would describe the. So you mentioned the LOB.
For those that don't know what that is, that's the Legion of Boom.

Speaker 1 The greatest secondary part of the greatest defense ever. That's right.
That's right.

Speaker 2 They got the Cam Chancellor, the Earl Thomas, Brandon Browner. Right.

Speaker 1 Bobby Wagner.

Speaker 1 Cliff Averill and Michael Bennett were coming off the bench. Let's just put that real.

Speaker 1 Like

Speaker 1 that defense 2012.

Speaker 2 That was solid.

Speaker 1 Anyhow, I'm sorry. Keep going.
No, you're good, man. I get potential.

Speaker 1 Those are my guys.

Speaker 2 Those are some exciting years to be a Seahawks fan after so many years of just pounding your head against bricks.

Speaker 2 But yeah, it actually, I think it speaks a lot. Did you get to know Pete Carroll very much?

Speaker 1 You know what's funny that you say that is I always tell people like, you know, I've cut i cut the cracking head coach dave i cut you know mr service but pete i've heard his wife cut his service first off you don't they even try to touch that but at the end of the day pete was like such an iconic i was like a little like when i say i cut my teeth in the league it was with the seahawks so pete to me was like this

Speaker 1 i didn't even look his way because i was so almost intimidated by his aura and I respected him so much that I just wanted to like stay out the way.

Speaker 1 But the crazy part is I didn't get a chance to meet him in that way, but I had Michael Gervais come on on the Mark Talks and some of the things he said to me, man, meant the world to me because he said, you weren't just a barber like that just was cutting on the side.

Speaker 1 Like you brought like an energy and it meant the world to me because when you're in it, you don't know, you know?

Speaker 2 Well, the cool thing is, obviously, you were a contributor to some of that culture, right? Like you were helping these guys feel good. You know, when guys feel good, they play good.

Speaker 2 But yeah, just speaking of Pete, you know, I think Pete is like one of the greatest coaches of all time from a standpoint of just being able to create incredible culture, right?

Speaker 2 In the locker room, on the sideline,

Speaker 2 on the game field.

Speaker 2 And, you know, definitely everything on purpose and by design. It wasn't just happening because it was.
And, you know, he's the

Speaker 2 coached championship teams across various leagues, right? Like

Speaker 2 down at USC and

Speaker 2 then for the Seahawks and doing doing it with a multitude and plethora of different types of talents.

Speaker 1 He knows how to get the best out of people. And he knows how to put them in

Speaker 1 their strengths as far as he knows how to identify their strengths and then put them in position so that

Speaker 1 they play to their strengths, I think.

Speaker 1 But the coolest part of Pete that I witnessed was watching guys like Eric Spolstra come to the building to come like just follow him around or Steve Kerr or and I remember seeing these coaches as I'm cutting hair there and I'm like, man, the way way that he's mentoring all these guys, he was the first one with music on that practice.

Speaker 1 Now everybody's doing it. Like, his, PKL is a legend forever when it comes to that.
I think he was the first one at USC before even professional sports had social media.

Speaker 1 I think he might have been one of the first ones that had a program on social media.

Speaker 1 He's just always been revolutionary when it comes to building culture and trying new things in a way that I think is

Speaker 1 a legend forever. He's a Hall of Fame coach, you know so I thank you Pete for all you did for Seattle because we wouldn't have had the trip without without you know you John Mr.

Speaker 1 Snyder like that's that's a special special group and we were spoiled for a long time so

Speaker 1 the new coach came to the barbershop recently I think he's a great dude too so I'm excited right but change is hard because you know Pete was special right so tell us tell us about the new coach you had a chance to to hang with him a little bit yeah he's a really nice guy man really nice guy i think he's excellent knows Like, I don't know, that's above my pay grade, so I won't speak on him like that.

Speaker 1 But as far as the person that he is, I think he's a great dude, solid dude, and yeah, he's just a very, uh, he's just a very, very, uh, just really nice, really, really, his energy was great, it was amazing.

Speaker 1 I was like, man, if uh, I was excited, I'm excited, I'm excited.

Speaker 2 So, you can uh defer on this question, but uh, I think the listeners would be interested to know what uh what do you charge an athlete to get his hair cut?

Speaker 1 See, those are things I can't really talk about because I don't want to... I have

Speaker 1 a day rate, so if you want to fly me out of state, some people would be like, well, that's a haircut. I'm not paying for that asset, but you're paying for me to be away from my shop for the day.

Speaker 1 The experience.

Speaker 1 And the experience.

Speaker 1 But also, you know, like the fees for also that. But at the end of the day, I think what it comes down to is privacy and...
being able to trust somebody in your own and intimate spaces. Got it.

Speaker 1 And I think that's what people really pay for, is the trust and knowing that they feel comfortable.

Speaker 1 You know, you've been in their most intimate spaces for years with them. And to bring a new guy into that

Speaker 1 is, especially with the assets and the type of people I work with,

Speaker 1 it's not something they like to do a lot, you know? Right, right.

Speaker 2 So, outside of that number,

Speaker 2 what's the biggest tip you've ever received from any of these guys?

Speaker 1 Oh, man.

Speaker 1 I've made more money working on set, we could put it that way.

Speaker 2 Okay, what does that mean?

Speaker 1 So I do a lot of commercials and production sets, whether it be like, you know, for Alaska Airlines or for, you know, the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards.

Speaker 1 But I've been blessed to work with the Saudi royal family at one time. Wow.
And

Speaker 1 I shouldn't say with them, I should say for

Speaker 1 the jetliners that we were working on. But

Speaker 1 they flew all their celebrities from Dubai over. Yeah, yeah.
And

Speaker 1 it's a little different, you know?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I just got back from Dubai last week.

Speaker 1 How was that?

Speaker 2 Oh, man, it was sweet.

Speaker 1 Have you made it over there? Never.

Speaker 2 Oh, my goodness. You got to get over there.
Really?

Speaker 1 What did you like most? It's pretty wild.

Speaker 2 You know, it's quickly became my favorite city in the world, and I've done a lot of travel.

Speaker 1 Favorite city in the world?

Speaker 2 In the world.

Speaker 1 How many times have you been there? That was the first time. Wow.
Yeah, I said it.

Speaker 2 I mean, quickly ran right up to the top.

Speaker 1 Wow. So.
That's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 You know,

Speaker 2 it's pretty awesome. I'm a religious person myself.
Definitely don't align with the religion that's practiced over there.

Speaker 2 But the thing I really enjoyed is just being around a people that are so devoted to what they believe.

Speaker 2 I think that was pretty solid.

Speaker 2 And then just super clean. I mean, you got cranes everywhere.
I mean, new buildings popping up every place.

Speaker 1 We were just talking about Bellevue. That's where I'm at.
I'm going to put you off. You're good.

Speaker 1 Do you think Bellevue is going to be like the Dubai of the United States with terms of new tech and rolling out things.

Speaker 2 Dude, I'm telling you, there's no place in the U.S. that is going to be like Dubai.

Speaker 1 What made a difference?

Speaker 2 What do you like about it? I mean, Dubai, Dubai makes Miami and anywhere else look like Little Leagues. You know, it's just like everything is extremely advanced, clean, well-kept,

Speaker 2 you know, cutting edge, brand new. Everything's built within the last 20 years.

Speaker 2 You can go out to the Palm Island and feel like you're in Hawaii and then drive 20 minutes and be downtown next to the Burj Khalifa, you know, with a fountain that's twice the size of the Bellagio fountain, you know, with this amazing, incredible mall that has back patios of four stories of restaurants all backed up into it.

Speaker 1 I'm so

Speaker 2 dude. I mean,

Speaker 2 the mall itself, I think it had like 30 different shoe stores.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 2 I mean, I got new Jordans on drop where they were sold out the same day in the U.S.

Speaker 1 Are you going back there soon? I need to. So when you go out there, go check out Chap's Barbershop.
Okay.

Speaker 2 Chap's Barbershop. Is that a guy you know?

Speaker 1 It's a barbershop that

Speaker 1 as far as the customer experience and just how they,

Speaker 1 you know, not just branding, but overall, just the way that they

Speaker 1 present, I think, the whole customer experience from like the shaves to it's it's next level. Okay.
And honestly, I was inspired by actually some of their shop design. All right.

Speaker 1 and so that's what it caught my eye was the shop design was incredible and you've just seen photos of this place i've only seen photos i've seen videos obviously online but i know like soccer stars that are in dubai different people that they've cut over there so i've known athletes to go in there as well yeah that's really what kept it caught my eye again i was like oh wow they're actually actually in there actually cutting celebrities in there that's dope that's nice that's nice yeah so if you get a chance go check them out i love it yeah if you're uh if you're wanting if you're wanting to head over there and get any introductions to some celebrities I got some good connections there.

Speaker 1 Oh, amazing.

Speaker 2 Yeah, so my buddy, he's like top three developer in Dubai.

Speaker 1 Oh, wow.

Speaker 2 Yeah, they

Speaker 2 do about $25 billion

Speaker 2 in new construction a year.

Speaker 1 So it's pretty wild. Wow.
That's amazing. What's his name?

Speaker 2 His name's Adil Sajan.

Speaker 1 Love it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 So him and I are buddies from a Harvard program that we're a part of.

Speaker 2 And so, yeah,

Speaker 2 I do this thing called OPM. stands for Owner's President Management, where for three years we go and live at Harvard three weeks a year.

Speaker 2 And it's with other business owners and business guys that are doing crazy things in the world. And you live and study and

Speaker 2 do what's called case study, where you study different businesses and kind of debate how you would

Speaker 2 go about different strategy. Really? Yeah, it's pretty fun.

Speaker 1 It's amazing. Yeah.
That's amazing. That's amazing.
I love that. What are some of the, as far as like, do you guys just kind of like cross-pollinate ideas and help each other?

Speaker 1 Or is it more of just like

Speaker 1 a place where you kind of get more knowledge about kind of expanding your work?

Speaker 2 It's a little bit of everything.

Speaker 1 So essentially the way it's structured is

Speaker 2 we do

Speaker 2 three to four case studies a day for three weeks and it's Monday through Saturday.

Speaker 2 And what that is, is you got these 13-page studies written up on businesses with like real world problems that they're facing.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 so then you get together in class with, and they section us off. There's 160 in our group, but we do 80 people at a time.

Speaker 2 And we get together and we discuss the ideas and debate back and forth on how you would handle that particular situation from a marketing standpoint, culture, negotiations.

Speaker 2 And so, and then you got these world-class professors that are kind of leading the discussion.

Speaker 2 Yeah, man, it's...

Speaker 1 how long you're doing that. What's that? How long have you been doing that?

Speaker 2 So I've been doing it two years, and I

Speaker 2 so each fall I go there and I live there for three months. Or sorry, not three months, three weeks.
Three months would be wild.

Speaker 2 Live there for three weeks on campus, and they feed us and take care of us, and it's just kind of a whole executive treatment.

Speaker 1 That's amazing. Do you apply or how does that work? Yeah,

Speaker 2 you got to apply to be in, and they have different qualifications. You know, I think out of our group about 25% of our whole group are billionaires.
Right.

Speaker 2 And so doing crazy things in the world. And got guys like Will IM.

Speaker 2 I don't know if you know who Will is.

Speaker 1 Of course, of course. Yeah.

Speaker 2 He's part of my group.

Speaker 1 Boom, boom, boom. There you go.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 me and Will were actually rooming together this

Speaker 2 next fall.

Speaker 1 That's amazing.

Speaker 1 When I say I hear, I love what they're VM or Acom for a while. Like, there's people that are out here that are

Speaker 1 really pushing in places that a lot of people don't even know they're pushing. You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 Yeah, Will is a crazy entrepreneur. You know, most people know him as a lyrical genius or, you know, as a musician.

Speaker 2 But a lot of people don't realize that he was actually the founder of Beats.

Speaker 2 And he brought on Dre.

Speaker 2 to come on and will push the software development of Beats that ended up selling to Apple for 3.2 billion.

Speaker 1 No doubt. Yeah.
Come on. Tom.

Speaker 2 And right now he's got a pretty sweet software that he's rolling out. He just did a collab with Mercedes.

Speaker 1 No doubt.

Speaker 2 And his software is on Every New Mercedes built in this whole like musical experience, but he also has a...

Speaker 2 They do, it's a project management software for producers, musicians.

Speaker 1 Builds off AI?

Speaker 2 Yeah, built with AI. Yep.
That's cool.

Speaker 2 It's called FYI.

Speaker 1 It's funny you say that because I often ask, how have we dotted up our greatest athletes? We got sports science, but we've never dotted up our greatest artists other than a masterclass. Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's crazy to me. Yeah.
And the fact that we haven't tracked our movements,

Speaker 1 if Da Vinci or if these greatest artists like Beethoven was alive, we wouldn't be like, so tell us how you thought about doing that.

Speaker 1 We would actually be studying their every movement to make sure we capture it forever. Right.
Why haven't we done that, you think?

Speaker 2 Why haven't we done it?

Speaker 2 I don't know.

Speaker 1 That's a good question. I know I went off the up the side right there.

Speaker 1 I'm a little bit of a nerve. I love it.
I love it.

Speaker 2 You know,

Speaker 2 I think we're going to see a lot of crazy things happen in the next few years with AI and the ability to study and track and

Speaker 2 just

Speaker 2 take big data and process it and be able to do things like what you're talking about, study every single move and really document us. You know,

Speaker 2 right now, you got, you know, of course, Chad GBT.

Speaker 2 Have you messed around with like customized GBTs? Are you kidding?

Speaker 1 Well, I have a startup that I kind of mentioned a little bit, but it really is based around, we're collecting data now.

Speaker 1 And so a part of my booking system, there's questionnaires, but like to really close that loop, like kind of like rider-driver when it comes to Uber, feedback loop, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Being able to have the barber get over to come back and then I bring anecdotes into it, but like really customizing things is really what it's about, I think.

Speaker 2 It's crazy because you know these GBTs that you can train now.

Speaker 2 I have a GBT that I'm training right now with my podcast and the different content that I create.

Speaker 2 And so it learns the way that I think and the way that I write and I enunciate things or whatnot.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 it makes you wonder what will that look like for our future generations. Like, hey, I want to study from grandpa, you know?

Speaker 2 like be able to go in and just know everything like you know actually consult with grandpa long after he's gone 100% well like that it's like cutting hair right okay like doing that for exactly

Speaker 1 I think like even I think in the same way when it comes to like cutting hair and how do we capture how do we capture our movements how do we capture like what makes it on the mark and then like you said and later on in life being able to when we're long gone be able capture our already mortally in a way that I think is going to be really, really cool.

Speaker 1 And it's coming fast. Like the merging of AI and artistry is coming really quick.
Yeah, it's crazy. Yep.

Speaker 2 Future, and I don't think any of us can quite contemplate what that will look like.

Speaker 2 I mean, AI has been rocking and rolling for the last, I mean, just since Chat GBT came out, what, 14 months, 15 months ago?

Speaker 2 You know, hundreds of millions of users and how much it's drastically impacted the landscape.

Speaker 1 I mean, mean what what's three or four or five years from now going to look like it you know well i know all i know is this if you're not on it and it comes to stuff that used to take two years to build in a business takes a week you know yeah and the exponential like if you know how to really prompt it and really get into it and actually like you say build models for your own business right right um

Speaker 1 there's an opportunity right now it's like the infancy of the internet

Speaker 1 and i always tell people that's not on chat gpt i said bro it's like basically telling somebody back in the day that had a Google search bar and the other guy had to walk 10 miles to the library and source everything out of there.

Speaker 1 That's basically how far back you are if you don't like start getting on it now. Right.
Does that make sense?

Speaker 2 Yeah, no, for sure. I always tell people, hey, you're not going to get replaced by AI.
You're going to get replaced by somebody that uses AI. Yeah, right.

Speaker 1 And I think AI, we need to make it like us. Does that make sense? Yeah.
And we need to control it like that, right? And so AI for good is something that's really, really important.

Speaker 1 I think like being able to help people feel their best through their look, whether it be their haircut or their hairstyle.

Speaker 1 But in the metaverse, here soon, man. Like, people are going to be going to meetings that are going to be happening soon that their haircut in the metaverse is going to really matter.

Speaker 1 So, like, hair skin, stuff like that, they're coming quick.

Speaker 1 And I'm excited to see where it goes.

Speaker 2 You messed around with the new Apple Vision Pro?

Speaker 1 I haven't, honestly.

Speaker 1 I was just in the Apple store in Bellevue the other day, and

Speaker 2 did they have one on display?

Speaker 1 Yeah, they have like three of them. Okay.
I didn't get a chance to get over there because I was fixing my son's iPad.

Speaker 1 So, uh, it's interesting.

Speaker 2 I was in Dubai at the Apple Store and they didn't have one. Really? Yeah, so I was.

Speaker 1 See, I told you, Bellevue. Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1 There you go. There you go.
There you go. I love it.
I love it.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I have one upstairs.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we'll have to mess around.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you can mess around with it up to Bellevue.

Speaker 1 That's amazing. Yeah, there's

Speaker 2 it's it's interesting because I have all the the MetaQuest ones. Right.
You know, I got the one, two, I got the Pro,

Speaker 2 and uh there's something different about this, man. Really? Yeah, just the w the way that it augments reality.

Speaker 1 100%.

Speaker 2 You know, because like uh w the way that these other ones are are built is like to go completely virtual.

Speaker 1 Right. Right.

Speaker 2 Like to dive in and not be present and whatnot.

Speaker 2 And uh what the Apple Apple Vision has done an incredible job is like you can still interact with everything that's going on around you and it's just augmenting it.

Speaker 2 Really, and uh, yeah, it's pretty, pretty crazy. And you know, what I believe once they can get that down to either you know, a contact lens or you know, or

Speaker 1 or glasses, you know, even when automation does come and one day clippers are doing their thing, you're still gonna have me walking around talking to me with me to know exactly what you're speaking about, right?

Speaker 1 Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, it's coming, yeah, yeah,

Speaker 1 I love it.

Speaker 1 That's amazing. Apple Vision Pro.

Speaker 1 I I was a part of the first AirPod version one ever when it comes to like on set grooming all the guys

Speaker 1 When I said I thought something illegal was going on I was like this is so top secret like what is what is this about and I didn't even know it was the AirPods until they finally came out but the way they protect you know obviously they're supposed to right but like the way that they protect their their tech when it comes to working on something that I guess like innovative is something that like it's pretty special to witness you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Were you a part of any of that? Like, or do you know anybody at Apple that's worked on that, Christian?

Speaker 2 No, no, I don't. But, you know, I have to imagine that the development of the Apple Vision Pro has been going on for years, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 It's crazy to me that

Speaker 2 how much research and development goes in at these big trillion-dollar businesses that never even makes it to the front lines, you know?

Speaker 2 Apple actually just killed their car project a couple days ago

Speaker 2 that they've been working on, I think, for like five or six years. Really? They were developing out a new electric car that was supposed to be amazing and incredible technology.

Speaker 2 I think they spent several billion dollars on it.

Speaker 1 Really?

Speaker 2 Just killed it the other day.

Speaker 1 Really? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Why do you, was it just something that they were spreading themselves too thin?

Speaker 2 You know,

Speaker 2 I don't think Apple worries about spreading themselves too thin, but I know Apple has created a culture, and this goes back to

Speaker 2 what we've been chatting about, is just like

Speaker 2 a culture of like when they bring something to the market, it's going to be game-changing, right? Like it's going to be so unique, so different.

Speaker 1 I got to say, yeah, with Seth's,

Speaker 1 you know, which is

Speaker 1 Steve Jobs had left, other than the iPad and the, I guess

Speaker 1 this new stuff is coming quickly, I guess I should say.

Speaker 1 They were stagnant for a while.

Speaker 2 They've been stagnant, but the thing is, I think a lot of it is because like they have a culture of of it's got to change the world in order for us to release it.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 the same way that they were stagnant for a long time before the iPod.

Speaker 2 And Steve Jobs obviously came in,

Speaker 2 100 Songs in Your Pocket, which quickly transformed into

Speaker 2 the iPhone,

Speaker 2 which changed the world.

Speaker 2 And yeah,

Speaker 2 so

Speaker 2 it'll be interesting. It's once again interesting that that they spend billions of dollars on something that's never going to see the light of day.

Speaker 1 Sometimes they like to kill things too, like that. Yeah, yeah.
You know what I mean? Yeah. Like I said, don't buy things just to die them out.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Because they have something greater coming maybe in five years that they don't want.

Speaker 1 But at the end of the day, like you say,

Speaker 1 I think a lot of that's testing too. When you got billions of dollars of bird tooth tests, that kind of helps too.

Speaker 2 That does help.

Speaker 1 Nobody wants to lose billions, but it's a part of the game, right? You don't win them all.

Speaker 2 It's good stuff.

Speaker 2 How's the haircut looking?

Speaker 1 It's coming along. We're almost there.
Woo-wee! We're almost there.

Speaker 2 Excited.

Speaker 1 Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 For an undisclosed price amount. I love it.

Speaker 1 Yep. We don't sell them the price till afterwards.

Speaker 1 Oh, man. So I'd like to try cities.
Talk to me a little bit. I don't want to put a stick, but like, I've thought my mom's from here, the family from here.
I know you move around quite a bit, right?

Speaker 1 So So you're not here all the time. But

Speaker 2 yeah, it's interesting. So

Speaker 2 I've traveled and lived around the world.

Speaker 2 In fact,

Speaker 1 before

Speaker 2 settling in these last eight years into the house that I'm in right now, me and my wife have moved 14 times. 14 times 14.
And so I've lived all over the U.S.

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 2 It's interesting. I would say that there's no place like Tri-Cities.
It's always been a place that I wanted to raise my kids. It did a lot of good for me growing up here.

Speaker 2 And,

Speaker 2 you know, the thing I always tell people is, is I get to travel and go be a part of the crazy business world in these big cities or whatnot. But

Speaker 2 when I step into my house,

Speaker 2 I want to be relaxed and I want to be in a calm area, a place that I can just, you know, see

Speaker 2 the stars at night. And so, yeah, man, I live just north of here on a 23-acre hobby farm.

Speaker 1 That's amazing. Honestly, I can honestly say this.

Speaker 1 When the Seattle College, they went to the Super Bowls the first year. I went to Seattle, fucking all that.
To be able to come back home and still be grounded here with like

Speaker 1 Tri-Cities, my family. But then go into game day and you're there with like Earl and we're at his house having a barbecue after the game.
And then I come back to Tri-Cities.

Speaker 1 To have the ability to live that at that time, it is so special, man. Because a lot of guys that get drafted in certain cities, none of their family's there.

Speaker 1 It's not like, it's not this.

Speaker 1 You're so blessed when actually you have that support system right there because you can actually step into two almost different realms and still enjoy both of them for what they are because they grabbed you and then you're back to working, right?

Speaker 1 It's pretty amazing.

Speaker 2 Yep, and that's why I love the Tri-Cities. Kind of get the best in both worlds.
That's amazing.

Speaker 1 That's amazing.

Speaker 1 Championship culture, I know we talked a little bit about it, but world championship teams, I've been super blessed to be in certain locker rooms, man, whether it be the Seahawks when they won it all or, you know,

Speaker 1 Red Sox or the Cubs. And I say this to say this, like, Coach Cash is somebody that worked, that's just the Tampa Bay Rays head coach.
He was one of the first coaches I cut when I started cutting.

Speaker 1 I identified with him because he's from Tampa Bay and he coaches his hometown team, right? And so I was like, that's amazing.

Speaker 1 But to watch what the Rays have done when it comes to, like, they're like the new moneyball team. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Through data, through just thinking outside the box.

Speaker 1 And I guess what I'm getting at is like championship culture what i found the commonalities that peripherate through those locker rooms are generally

Speaker 1 um you know say that door is open and somebody's walking by the good teams they'll come and almost touch them they'll be a man let me mess up his hair real quick and they'll grab the clippers or they'll just trade some type of rather be teasing them but there's some type of like

Speaker 1 brotherhood above

Speaker 1 yeah the teams that and people say when you're losing it's easy right but no i've seen losing teams still do this and and then they change the culture what i'm saying is the losing teams, they might look in and they might keep walking, right?

Speaker 1 Right. And they don't, I mean, it's hard enough, right, when you're losing.
But I guess what I'm getting at is that championship culture seems like your wins like my win.

Speaker 1 And when you can like really create that, whether it be at the barbershop, whether it be at the, you know, whatever business you run at home, like once you can start creating that like synergy of infectious winning, it's something that like...

Speaker 1 I think is the coolest part of being able to witness what I have. Like, how do you attribute what championship culture when it it comes to that?

Speaker 1 Because obviously you're very successful at what you've done. Like, what was the differentiator for you?

Speaker 2 Yeah, so, you know, I talk a lot about this as far as like designing culture

Speaker 2 on purpose. And a lot of that has to do with like having shared core values, right? And

Speaker 2 hiring, firing, and promoting based off of those core values. And I think when you when you look at championship teams, they get rid of the cancer, right? Like people that don't align with with

Speaker 2 whatever core value that they have been building and creating, no matter how good the talent is.

Speaker 2 And I think that's like one of the hardest things in a winning team, in a winning business, or whatnot, is like when somebody

Speaker 1 has

Speaker 2 is super talented, right?

Speaker 2 And can bring a lot of value, yet they're, you know, they're bringing things down behind the scenes or whatnot, it's really hard to get rid of that because you want to justify like, well, this guy hits home runs

Speaker 2 or this guy sells a ton,

Speaker 2 or you know, he's really good with customers in this particular way, but he's terrible. He's always bringing down the organization in team meetings.

Speaker 2 And so, you know,

Speaker 2 I think a championship culture is created when people rid that immediately and

Speaker 2 they don't let it fester no matter how hard, right?

Speaker 2 And, you know, one of the best advice pieces of advice

Speaker 2 I was given was that you hire slow and fire quickly. And so, when you identify that cancer, you get rid of it quick.
Right. And

Speaker 2 then just having a criteria that you're balancing that off of so that people understand how they measure up. So, like for us, when we build our organization, we had six core values.
Okay. And

Speaker 2 synergy, outside-the-box thinking, love of family, generosity,

Speaker 2 excellence, and no excuses. And so,

Speaker 2 you know, and then each one was clearly defined and able to be measured against.

Speaker 2 And so if we were ever having to sit down with somebody that was struggling with something, we were able to quickly measure them. Like, hey, you know,

Speaker 2 when we talk about,

Speaker 2 when we talk about no excuses, it's taking ownership of everything. Like, this is where you're always coming up with an excuse, right? Or whatever it is.

Speaker 1 Problematic. Right.
A lot of problematic people out there.

Speaker 1 I've had to, and I'll be the first to admit that I have a hard time doing that sometimes that bit me in the butt because I believe in people a lot where I feel like it's almost my job to not give up on them sometimes.

Speaker 1 But when they are tearing the whole team down in the slightest of ways, that ends up eating up your culture

Speaker 1 faster than you really realize it. And then sometimes it's too late.

Speaker 1 So I received that message. I appreciate that because it actually resonated with me more than you understood.

Speaker 2 And then outside of that,

Speaker 2 you have your core values, but there's also ways ways that you have to create your culture.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 for me, it's the three T's.

Speaker 2 You gotta have trust, transparency, and truth.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 a lot of times people try building families and organizations off of loyalty.

Speaker 2 And I actually think loyalty within an organization, family is the only place a loyalty should exist.

Speaker 2 And trust is actually what you have to build off of. And the difference between the two is loyalty is like whether you burn me or not, I'm still going to always have your back.

Speaker 2 Like, you can totally be a complete,

Speaker 2 terrible person to me. And, you know, and for family, right, that's blood.
You got to always have their back. You understand that they don't.

Speaker 2 And so a lot of times people try creating that within an organization.

Speaker 2 And what that is, is just a

Speaker 2 slave type mentality where you have a slave and a master. And then like, and you you shouldn't, like, if

Speaker 1 a

Speaker 2 meaning, like, if an employee is being abused and taken advantage of, meaning that, like, they're not getting paid what they should be, or, you know, they're, they're not being given opportunity that they should be, the employee deserves to leave.

Speaker 2 Right. Right.
And so

Speaker 2 they should run. Right.
As long as once that relationship becomes unequitable,

Speaker 2 untrusting, right? Right.

Speaker 2 And so, like, trust is essentially, as an employer, I got to provide opportunity, not only in money, but in progression, in additional forms of compensation, like helping you become the best version of yourself and that type of thing.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 2 Like, that's the way that I compensate my employee. And in turn, they have to be bringing their best effort, right?

Speaker 2 They got to be bringing their best effort to becoming the best version of themselves, to contributing to the bottom line, to and the minute that that is broken,

Speaker 2 that relationship should be severed. There shouldn't be just this undying loyalty that's created.

Speaker 1 I love it.

Speaker 2 And so, you know, and that's the thing that we always preach with our people, like, look,

Speaker 2 someday this may not be the right opportunity for you. You may only be able to get progress over and above, you know, by going and working with somebody else or whatnot.

Speaker 2 And I fully expect you to leave in that circumstance.

Speaker 2 And when you're open like that, now you have this trusting relationship that when they have a new offer or a a new opportunity, they're actually going to come and talk to you instead of leaving in the middle of the night.

Speaker 1 I love it. I love it.
I love it. That was great.
That was great.

Speaker 2 Dude, you hungry? You need a little snack?

Speaker 1 No, we're almost done here. All right.

Speaker 1 These are different clips and clips. So I had to basically

Speaker 1 backyard barber a step by step. Usually I'll flip her over the comb when we're done, but this isn't the comb, so we're going to make it happen.

Speaker 2 I gave it, just for the people that are watching this thing, I basically gave him a butter knife for a comb.

Speaker 1 But you know what? It's looking good. You're looking on the mark.

Speaker 1 And I don't know what you got going on this week, but whatever it is, you're about to win. Woo!

Speaker 1 So let's get it.

Speaker 2 I love feeling good.

Speaker 1 Amen.

Speaker 1 Amen. You're talking about one of the most surreal moments ever.
I talked look good, play good, feel good to the players for years.

Speaker 1 And then during the pandemic, Gillette comes to me and says,

Speaker 1 We want you to do

Speaker 1 Look at Play Good Edition with Deion Sanders. And he's the innovator of it.
Right. And And you talk about a humbling moment.

Speaker 2 So have you hung with Dion very much?

Speaker 1 Actually, it was virtually during that time.

Speaker 1 But, you know, to even just trade that energy and to be able to even have that moment with him, it felt like I was there.

Speaker 1 I mean, he brings the, you know, he's authentic and

Speaker 1 himself,

Speaker 1 which is why everybody loves him. Some people don't, but I think at the end of the day, he's moved in the spirit.

Speaker 1 And I really love how he you know wears his faith on his sleeve like that because i know it's changing people's lives you know

Speaker 1 i mean speaking of a guy that just is a culture builder right i mean this guy does it by design he comes in transforms the locker room you know he's got the quotes he's got the he's got the music he's got the vibe the look good feel good play good man see that wasn't accepted that wasn't accept this is a new thing right meaning like they've changed the landscape of what it looks like to actually be accepted like the blue blood conferences forever have owned it right right and so the fact that you got you know what was that other coach that was dancing they're all dancing in the locker room with the guys you got harbaugh dancing in there right and i keep going back to pete pete was the one that started that whole it might not have danced but that whole fun culture of having celebrities in there like pete carroll was the innovator of that so everybody playing copycat i'm glad they finally caught up 10 years later i i agree man that's the thing i've always loved about pete what he's doing in the locker room the sidelines running, chomping his gum, you know.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 1 Right. He's the man.

Speaker 1 I pray that I have his energy when I'm his age.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah, it's crazy to think. Yeah, him and my dad are like the same exact age.
And, you know, my dad, you know, he's in good health, but man,

Speaker 2 Pete can run circles around him.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Pete is special, man. Pete is special.
I hope he's supposed to post career. or if he posts a good whatever he does man he deserves he deserves uh all his flowers he can get, man.

Speaker 1 He is a special, special dude.

Speaker 2 So what's next for you?

Speaker 1 What is next for me? I want to continue to, I just opened a new shop in Bellevue.

Speaker 1 I love doing activations. I love doing hospitality sweeps.
I love making people feel good. I've done everything from ComplexCon to, I was a barber at the Combine, as a Nike barber.

Speaker 1 for about five years before

Speaker 1 actually the last one they had there before the pandemic we actually left early because the pandemic was hitting at the time so it was like the really the last event they had for months but uh yeah no I've uh I've really enjoyed this barbershop talk when it comes to like connecting with people through the chair honestly

Speaker 1 you know telling stories I've had many aha moments where it's just me and the client there and I know some things are intimate that need to stay in the barbershop right but I think there's certain moments that could be really dope to connect with whether it be athletic whether the entrepreneur and share moments that I think, whether it be their philanthropic work to

Speaker 1 just things that are important to them. You know what I mean? It doesn't need to be just athletes.
I think

Speaker 1 TED Talks, right? There's linchpins of industries, and I think being able to tell their stories from the chair is something that I'm deeply passionate about.

Speaker 2 So how are you rolling that out?

Speaker 1 So I have been pushing this when it comes to...

Speaker 1 I can't really say too much about who I've pushed it to and what I've done, but let's just say we're we're very, very close.

Speaker 1 And I think in God's timing, if and when that happens, it's going to be dope because at the end of the day, it's there to change people's lives when it comes to dynamic moments from the chair that actually have so much value that I've had moments where I'm like, man, I wish the world could hear this right now because that was so dope.

Speaker 1 And I think it's important to be able to share that, you know? I love it. I love it.
We are almost done. All right, let me finish this up real quick.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's interesting, you know, like content creation and podcasting

Speaker 2 has really taken off over the last few years, but it's still very much in its infancy. You know,

Speaker 2 I have a buddy out in Atlanta. He's a big, big podcaster.

Speaker 2 He runs a huge podcasting conference and whatnot.

Speaker 2 And they've been really able to change the culture out in Atlanta through podcasting and whatnot. But one of the things that they believe, and I tend to agree with, is that

Speaker 2 most big brands are missing in creating in creating podcast content, right? Like, imagine somebody like Ford, right?

Speaker 1 Who's got well, they're too big to fail. That's the problem.
You got the MTV effect, right? MTV was too big to fail. Yeah, MTV had the awards.
Why would you need to go to social media? We're MTV.

Speaker 1 Guess what happened? Complex Con and Complex came along. That's right.
And guess what happened? They're doing pregnancy shows now, right?

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 1 yeah, at the end of the day,

Speaker 2 But it's crazy, like if these brands, like I'm called Coca-Cola, man, like, why isn't Coca-Cola launching a podcast?

Speaker 2 Like, these guys, these guys could go and literally just have this type of conversation going on. They could bring on any celebrity,

Speaker 2 any big influencer, come in, have a conversation, and really bring a face back to their brand.

Speaker 1 Well, there's a thing is like scripted, non-scripted, but like free-for-one conversations.

Speaker 1 I think I was telling you off camera, I said, I equate scrolling to like a DVR or TiVo back in the day when you knew you could fast forward to commercial. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 People don't want to see Mike in your, you know, like a general interview. People know there's a publicist behind it that they can't really be themselves.

Speaker 1 People want to see that fly on the wall, right? And the barber chair is the holy grail of what that is.

Speaker 1 But there's many other facets. You know, you got the Hot Wing Show, you got the Untold Stories, right? They're over here, they're over here shooting pool, right?

Speaker 1 Gary Vee's eating, like everybody's trying to figure out that, you know, that way to be able to hack the algorithm and I think

Speaker 2 you know we're close we're close yeah it'll be it'll be interesting to see what happens over the next few years with AI content creation podcast you know there's there's

Speaker 1 so much you know the the attention span of today to your point of scrolling is just so low right right so I got a thing I did with JP Crawford bless his heart love him to death he's a client of mine I just opened my shop in Bellevue.

Speaker 1 And I'm trying to show these proof of concepts, like low-hanging fruit, like this in-game content, right? Like original content, right? And I love Jen Mueller. I love the cooking show she has.

Speaker 1 I think it's dope that they're doing different things.

Speaker 1 But like, what makes great content to me is trust and report, right? And at the end of the day, like,

Speaker 1 we're not here for clipbate. We're here to really like like get dope conversations.
And not everybody wants to have these filmed, right? And I understand that part too.

Speaker 1 But I think at the end of the day, if you get a chance, I'll send you the clip. Maybe you can add it into what, you know,

Speaker 1 show the fans what we're talking about or your viewers. But he was going to drive line.
He was putting in the work.

Speaker 1 Watched him this last season go from like, you know, he hit like 20-something bombs.

Speaker 1 And he was just locked in in a way that I think at the end of the day,

Speaker 1 to be able to give him his flowers, he came and brought me a jersey to my new shop. But I want to give him his flowers and be like, man, you did your thing last year, bro.

Speaker 1 And it was in the most critical critical moments that he was shining, right? I was like, man, it felt like he was having an out-of-body experience. But it was just dope.
It was a dope interaction.

Speaker 1 And I think, like, it's weird that that's low-hanging fruit. And it's something that continues to kind of have, it's hard to crack the industry whenever they've been running the same play forever.

Speaker 1 And they almost feel like, basically like, who are you, man? You're a barber. Go cut hair.
And like, just like, chill out. And so it's, I think eventually that shoe's going to drop, right?

Speaker 1 But it's an old guard that's having a hard time getting out the way.

Speaker 2 Man, I just love what you're doing as far as like in the industry, taking a creative way to go out and create content, you know, because to your point, no one would expect a barber to go and create and do everything that you're doing right now.

Speaker 2 And so I think there's so many opportunities to be able for the listeners to take whatever industry you're in and get outside of the box and be able to present value in a way that most people wouldn't expect you to right and uh that's that's the day and age that we live in like you can take any industry and create unique value and really become a one-on-one

Speaker 1 the linchpins of the industry that's amazing yes that's amazing that's what you call on the mark

Speaker 1 that's what you call on the mark that's amazing that's the coolest part about my job honestly is i get to meet so many you know celebrities all that that's really cool but like to be able to connect with guys like yourself and there's so many bright minds in Seattle that come through that shop that I'm like, to like crowdsource from all of the greatest minds that are there has been humbling.

Speaker 1 Very, very humbling.

Speaker 1 Have you been to Bellevue lately?

Speaker 2 You know, last time, when was I in Bellevue? I was out there for a Seahawks.

Speaker 1 No, it's been...

Speaker 2 Been over a year since I've been at the Seahawks game.

Speaker 1 We went down to the Dallas Seahawks game. You got to look at Bellevue.
They just put like three three new towers.

Speaker 1 Really? Man, the Intercontinental went in there. And it is gorgeous.
They put like brand new condos that were right there. Here we go.
All right.

Speaker 2 All right, ladies and gentlemen, the haircut, man, she's looking good.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it looks on the mark.

Speaker 2 You dude, on the mark. Yeah, you can't say good.

Speaker 1 It's on the mark. On the mark.

Speaker 2 That's right. We appreciate it, man.
Thanks. First of all, thanks for just being on the show.
And it's been some fun conversation up until this point.

Speaker 1 No, appreciate you for having me. You've definitely inspired me.
And the whole Ivy League thing that you threw at me, I was just like,

Speaker 1 so that's amazing that you're always seeking knowledge and you're always putting yourself around winners.

Speaker 2 You dude, I think it's so important. You know, it's

Speaker 2 I think real winners identify that money does not define them, right? Like once they've achieved that financial success, they don't stop, right?

Speaker 2 They continue to push past and find the next thing. And

Speaker 2 education is definitely part of that, right? Really learning and

Speaker 2 figuring out who knows more than I do and how can I gain a little bit of that action. Right, right, right.

Speaker 1 I always say money doesn't make you happy. It actually buys your time back.
That's right. And I truly believe that, like, if you feel like anything's going to make,

Speaker 1 I have a quote that I always say, God gave me everything I thought I ever wanted. to show me what I truly needed.
I love it. And what I mean by that is like in my career, I have checked every box.

Speaker 1 I was a Seahawks fan as a little boy to go to the Super Bowl and like be there at Team Barber. It's amazing.
You know, these are things that are bigger than me. It's, it's, it's him.

Speaker 1 And at the end of the day, um, having all those things

Speaker 1 really, really, really showed me like, wow, you can have all those things. And, and those are just things.

Speaker 1 Sitting on the couch with your kids and just being still with them and just having, being present with them, that's the greatest gift you're ever going to get. I love it.

Speaker 1 And I truly believe that in my heart because I've experienced the highs, the lows, the in-betweens.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 if I could share with anyone,

Speaker 1 you know, a message that's something that's really, really dear to my heart that I think

Speaker 1 is something I truly believe in. I love it.

Speaker 2 Where's a good place that

Speaker 2 the followers and the viewers can follow you?

Speaker 1 So I am on Instagram, on the mark one, on the mark with the K,

Speaker 1 the number one. I'm also, I have a partnership with Gillette and Parker and Gamble, so I do a lot of content for them.
So you might see me on their page and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 YouTube is something that we're, I started one years ago. Working in the industry, especially with the athletes I do, I think I've gotten to where I have because I don't do too much.

Speaker 1 And I have never wanted to be opportunistic and try to use the guys to launch things in a certain way. So I've had to go about it in a different way, right?

Speaker 1 And what I mean by that is just like partnering with companies that have rosters that I already have natural synergy and connections with.

Speaker 1 And so to be able to work with like the NFL PA and do rookie premiere where Kenneth Walker or you know Jackson Smith and Jigba met these guys in LA before they even touch foot in Seattle.

Speaker 1 And so to be able to connect with like just great kids, men, you know what I mean? Men that are

Speaker 1 becoming and finding themselves.

Speaker 1 I really don't talk a lot of ball, obviously. I just talk about, you know, sometimes not a lot.
Sometimes I talk about what God puts on my heart.

Speaker 1 But at the end of the day, that's the most gratifying thing about my job. And when it comes to finding things and where you can find like canoe content coming,

Speaker 1 I'm super excited because I can't really reveal it where it's going to live. But there's some major projects that we're working on right now.

Speaker 1 We're doing a mini document that's going to be hopefully inspiring to the next generation of kids. I want to inspire kids that are coming up that, yeah, yeah, I wanted to play in the NFL or the NBA.

Speaker 1 And I might not have been able to have the skill set to do it, but to marry my job like Barbary to something that I'm passionate about like sports or like football and to be able to marry those two together are something that everyone can do.

Speaker 1 I love it.

Speaker 1 And so if you're the guy that does the floor for the Lakers or you're the guy that does tech for one of your favorite artists, like there's ways to still live your dream and still do it from a job that people, so to speak, think is an everyday job.

Speaker 1 And I think that's really dope to be able to inspire the next generation because there's a lot of kids that are good at things that don't feel like it's a cool job.

Speaker 1 And so they don't really lean into it. And so if they can find somebody that's like, yo, that's my favorite artist.
And like, I'm really good at doing that.

Speaker 1 And it might not be like the artist, but like I could work with somebody like that, I think can really inspire a lot, a lot of youth of today. I love it.
I love it.

Speaker 2 Well, we're really excited for some of these things that are coming down the road. I know you can't reveal them quite yet, but we'll be on the lookout.

Speaker 1 I appreciate that. And a a lot of my content does live on Instagram.
It's a lot of more micro content. I love barbershop talk.
I have,

Speaker 1 bless Julio's heart. He came in the year.
He won rookie of the year and actually filmed barbershop talk at my shop the morning of his first game ever.

Speaker 1 I tell people all the time, it's like Ken Griffey Jr., bro, coming to your shop. The first game he ever played at the kingdom.
Like,

Speaker 1 this kid's special. When I say special, he's so much bigger than athlete.
He is one of the most genuine, infectious. I would tell him, I'm like, bro, I I don't think he can be mad at you, bro.

Speaker 1 Like, he has this energy that's just, he's a winner. Yeah.
But he's also one of the hardest workers I've ever seen.

Speaker 2 It's interesting.

Speaker 2 You know, the only time I've ever been to spring training was his rookie year.

Speaker 2 And I saw him hit an inside the park home run.

Speaker 1 I think I remember watching that.

Speaker 2 Dude, at spring training, and I'm just like, oh. And the radio announcer at the time, he's like, I think he might have just sealed his position on the team.

Speaker 2 Like, they weren't even sure whether or not he he was going to make the team. And he ends up coming winning the rookie of the year, landing this huge contract.

Speaker 1 It was wild. You know, I was with him the morning he did sign his contract his rookie year.

Speaker 1 And you know what's so special is it's cool when they become who they are, which, you know, the superstar that they are.

Speaker 1 But what I, the most joy I get out of it is, it's like genuinely connecting them when they're 17 and 18. He came in my shop, I think he was 17 or 18 years old.
He was a baby.

Speaker 1 I mean, he was a man, but like compared to where he's at today, and to watch him where he spoke it from day one, he was like, oh,

Speaker 1 I'm going to be there. And

Speaker 1 just wait, bro.

Speaker 1 And it was something that to watch him go from that to he got like, I think, a thumb injury during the pandemic.

Speaker 1 He had to sit out and to watch him still grind. That kid right there.
You get the Michael Jordans, just like the Jersey you see right there,

Speaker 1 when talent meets hard work and discipline. A lot of people just rely on that talent, but you get the great ones whenever they actually work like they have no talent.

Speaker 1 And when you find that guy that works like that, like Julio, he run like a deer. He's 6'4.
This dude is, I mean, I went to the UW game versus Oregon when they beat him.

Speaker 1 And to watch how he moved that stadium where people were just in love with him.

Speaker 1 I bet I worked with a lot of athletes. I ain't never seen nothing like that.
I love that. And that's special because that's genuineness that the fans feel connected to.

Speaker 2 Well, with that, man, we're going to cut out because that was an incredible little piece to end on. So, appreciate your time.

Speaker 1 Man, thank you, my man. Thank you.
All right.

Speaker 2 Until next time.