Justin: 0:13

Welcome to the amplified whole health podcast. We're personal and organizational health meat. I'm your host, Justin Collier. And my goal is to bring you insightful interviews with business owners and leaders from a variety of different industries. We'll be talking about employee development. Leadership company culture and quality products and services and how they drive success in business. Thanks for joining me. And let's get started well today, here at amplified whole health. We're going to be talking to Marvin and Marvin is the owner of

Marvin: 0:46

what? Prem time barbershop,

Justin: 0:48

prime time barbershop. Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. How long have you been the owner of primetime barbershop?

Marvin: 0:54

We opened our doors in 2015. And, I don't even, I don't even know the exact date because I just started cutting. I just graduated barber school and I just went all in. I quit my job full-time job. and, yeah. So you

Justin: 1:12

had a full-time job. You became a bar, like you went to barber school.

Marvin: 1:17

Yes, sir. That's it. Yes.

Justin: 1:20

two fingers. Now I'm going to go

Marvin: 1:23

cut hair. Yes. I knew the, I knew I was going to graduate in October. Okay. And I'm a 15 and, I gave him, I worked there for eight years at Simmons foods and, I gave them, plenty of time for them to replace me and all of that. And I just. I took the deuces. I was like, yeah, I'm done. I'm done. And I went straight to cutting hair there was no start date on it was just around Thanksgiving. So it's going to be about six years this month around Thanksgiving that I've been prime time has been open and yeah, it's pretty exciting to see that. Yeah.

Justin: 2:06

That's awesome. All right. So you got started it's about six years ago. You start just cutting hair. You're like, Hey, I'm done. And then at that stage, it's just

Marvin: 2:15

you. Yes,

Justin: 2:17

but primetime isn't just you today.

Marvin: 2:19

No. Now with it is, it's total of, 15 barbers. Wow. And, we have three locations. We have the Rogers Chaffee and, printout, South running. it's pretty exciting to see that, and I didn't think we would be able to do anything like that. just, just the bar where,

Justin: 2:43

I

Marvin: 2:44

just cut hair. now we have few locations and it's taken care of all of our families.

Justin: 2:48

Wow. and so I want to talk about this today, as far as like how important is employee development and how important

Marvin: 2:58

is.

Justin: 3:00

having a strategic vision for your business and how important is it to build a quality culture and how does, how do those things begin to drive success? And so that's what I want us to be, having a conversation about today. So as you think about that, you start off with just you. Now you're up to three locations, you've got 15 barbers and. Now it's not just you're not the only one that you're thinking about. You talked about the fact that now you've got a bunch of families. It is a family. It sounds,

Marvin: 3:30

it is. That's the way that's our culture. that, we treat everybody who do care about each other. We want each other to be successful. we watch out for each other. It's just a family, and, and we do have our fights and all that, but every family does that and we talk it out and we fix it and we keep it going. But I'll touch on employee development. It's a. There with the art, with my business model. they're not really my employees. They're, um, I guess Connie, you call them they're classified as contractors. Sure. Okay. And, I feel like that's one of the hardest. I got a person to work with you because they have to buy in your vision. They have to believe you that you can do you have goals that you have standards or stuff that you're going to provide and, and do so when, uh, for training, there's always. For development for a barber or stylist, there's always has to be training and some of them are gifted and are talented and they can already cut. The technique is already there. You don't really have to spend time on that.

Justin: 4:48

That would not be me. I would not be that guy.

Marvin: 4:52

Yeah. you know, there's, there's everything. So then again, some, somebody might be a little rough around the edges and they might not know how to communicate. Good with someone brand new. So you can work on trying to get them out of their shell. Like what, what do they do that makes them make some, a unique that makes them different from another barber? Like one Barbara might not be so good at cutting hair, but he can have a conversation with anybody. Okay. And I, he just, it just flows and also. That's very important because he puts his clan at ease right away. Okay. You you feel comfortable with that person, and it's like, man, go ahead and cut my hair. So that takes some pressure off a barber. When the client is comfortable. And now you're having a conversation and it just flows easier. The haircut is better and all of that and might not be the best haircut ever, but the conversation was there and it was a great experience. And that's one of the things that the, that we provide a prime time is a great experience,

Justin: 5:59

yeah. So in preparation for today, I went to prime time. Okay. Yesterday. Oh,

Marvin: 6:06

no, my

Justin: 6:06

son went over there with me now. He's been to primetime several times. And so this was my first time at prime time being honest, I have always cut my own hair, like 99% of the time. And so it was really interesting for me because I'm coming in. I don't ever go, so I'm used to just cutting my own hair, it's like I get out the Clippers and I just buzz it. And then I do my own beard. However, And you know, I'm thinking, all right, it usually takes me, like 25 minutes and I can get a haircut and boom, I'm done. And I show up at prime time and first off I'm booking online and it tells you how long you're going to be or whatever. I'm like.

Marvin: 6:44

Okay,

Justin: 6:45

cool. So I go in, and now it's a process and it's a process. Where you can tell that there's a skill and there's a, it's not like me just hacking up my hair.

Marvin: 6:57

It

Justin: 6:58

is so intentional. And it is such a focus on detail. I was shocked at the quality. Of the service and just the attention to detail and how, I mean, there was, he was standing back looking at me, I don't know what he was doing

Marvin: 7:16

this thumbs,

Justin: 7:18

but like checking to make sure everything is square and level. And

Marvin: 7:21

man, it was.

Justin: 7:23

It was really awesome. It was really, it was like such a cool experience. And so now I'm thinking, all right, I don't, why have I been cutting my own hair? Because that was amazing.

Marvin: 7:31

Yeah. What was it? It was probably Alex.

Justin: 7:34

It was,

Marvin: 7:34

yeah. He, so he's probably the only one that will do that I guy is, is extremely like I get OCD. He's he needs to, if this plant was supposed to be there. And he came the next day and is moved. He moved back that's how, yeah, he's on it.

Justin: 7:50

Yeah. And he was, he took care of it, so it was really awesome. And so I can tell when you talk about how important it is to build a culture and to make your client comfortable sitting in the chair, and it was like, that's how I felt. I felt comfortable and. oddly enough, though, I felt I was, I felt extremely comfortable, but I was tense the whole time.

Marvin: 8:13

I don't know why.

Justin: 8:14

And then I was talking to my son afterwards and he was like, he said, yeah, I'm tense all the time too. And then I'd relax and then I'd find myself tense again. And I don't, it's not because of what y'all are doing. It's just this weird, like I get into the chair and I'm like,

Marvin: 8:26

yeah, just tense up. I, you'll get a few frequent more and you'll just, you'll be at home. Yeah. just like the first time. And you're just like, Oh man. I don't know what to expect, cause it's either good or bad.

Justin: 8:41

Good for me.

Marvin: 8:43

So that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool to hear that, that's exciting. I was like, man, it's another location. I'm not even over there. And it's there. The culture is being is continued. it's like, this is what we do kind of thing. And that's exciting. That'd be, makes me happy, the Nikki Navistar or the ones that they decided to branch out and they're keeping it rolling,

Justin: 9:05

it's, I mean, it was really awesome. And so I'm curious, what do you build,

Marvin: 9:11

how

Justin: 9:12

did you create the vision and the purpose for prime time PR prior to bringing people on? Like, how did you get to this. This phase or stage?

Marvin: 9:23

well, I had I had to take, I had, so when we started the shop, it was two other guys there. They started the shop with me. It was three of us. And, we were, we were pretty open about criticizing each other and, uh, so they, I was probably like, I would cut hair well, but I wasn't that good at, I keep an, a schedule because I was always so busy that, uh, it wouldn't really like I can come in whenever I wanted, but, and Man, this is hard. Isn't so long,

Justin: 10:09

but you have a purpose and a vision for it today.

Marvin: 10:11

So, yeah.

Justin: 10:12

So you're able to clearly articulate what that vision is. Cause like you just said, they have to buy in. Yeah. Envision. So what's your vision then? Wow. Do you mind

Marvin: 10:21

sharing your vision? I do my anomaly. I don't mind at all. I don't mind. wow. This one is tough cause it's always changing, uh, it's always some different, the first thing is you, you have to find. A mentor, someone that, especially in bar Barbin is one of the oldest professions. Okay. and then there's, there's Barbara's if done everything that you want to do already. So finding someone that you kind have the same, the same goals, the same, uh, well, how was the shop owner? How do I become a better shop owner? And it's contacting other shop owners around the area and it doesn't even have to be in the state of Arkansas. It can be a shop owner from Chicago, from anywhere like that's already doing it and see what kind of problems they had and what I'm going through and how can I move forward? And I won't have that issue or, tackle that if I do, uh, encounter it. my, my, so my, My problem was, or I guess it has to do with the experiences that I had when I first moved to Arkansas. I went into a barbershop. I was brand new in the area. I'll check that the hours and it was nine or eight in the morning to like five or something that afternoon. So I'm like Saturday morning and I'll be the first one there. I'm gonna get a haircut and I'm gonna look good for school. No brand new school and everything. So I go in there, I show up and I didn't get greeted. I just, I walked in and I was like, I need a haircut. have a seat in. And I was pretty much ignored until about three or four. And then I was sitting there so long and they finally know someone took care of me, but that made me not want to go back to that barbershop. And I was like, why don't they want to cut my hair? Yeah, I was 13 and I was like, I want, I need a haircut. I want, I'm gonna go to school brand new school. So I was like, that made me want to come out here. Okay. Yeah. So that kinda, and then when I did open the shop, I was like, I don't want to, I don't want to have anybody experienced that. I don't want to take care of them that we don't want to. We don't want to greet them and just, we want to greet them and make them feel comfortable when they come to our house. and, um, that was one of the key things is I guess customer service was to make sure that whenever someone walks in, we communicate what's going on. And if we have a full day booked out, we can schedule them for the next day or let them know what time we're going to take care of them if we can or not. And that was probably something that changed. Like some of the culture that people didn't, they didn't have to just come in and wait around and say, okay, these guys have appointments, it's a little more here. So yeah. Let me schedule an appointment for tomorrow at five. Yeah. And so now we're offering that, now you don't have to wait for hours in the shop.

Justin: 13:23

Yeah. Actually the appointment system, it was, it was great because I knew, all right, I'm going to show up and this is what time my appointment is. And then I was like, all I kind of knew what to expect to be able to block off my calendar. And that was really nice actually.

Marvin: 13:37

And everybody now has something to do. Everybody's on the goal. So I haven't, why not have an appointment, you know that, or you can block that time off and just go into, get to get your haircut taken care of and move on with your day. not, not as just, I'm gonna go see if I can get in and just guess and waste. I don't say waste, but just, you could be doing other productive things during that time. Sure. so since we opened the shop, I was the first employee, so I needed to be number one. I needed to be the best at everything I needed to be the one that could cut the best. I needed to be the one to talk to everybody, greeted everybody. I needed to be the demand, I need, I need, so I had to, to become the ideal employee say, so whenever someone new does come in. There's no question about what the standard is.

Justin: 14:35

Yeah. Leading from the front, right?

Marvin: 14:38

Yes. Yes. yeah, exactly. So I know I'm not a, I'm not an owner. I'm not a, I was a leader. Yeah. I had to turn into a leader to, for my father, new guys coming in. No, this is the standard is what we do and that's how we're gonna, that's how we're gonna operate. And, By being, staying true to the hours, the business hours, as Barbara, sometimes we have such a flexible schedule. it's real easy to leave when you don't have anything to do. Okay. So even the very beginning, you might not have a couple of haircuts for hours and staying in the barbershop for that time is extremely hard because you can go out and you don't go home or whatever, and then come back. Yeah. But having that discipline where you. You respect the barbershops hours. that was a tough one for a lot of people say, yeah, I know I don't have anything for five hours. Like, why do I need to be here? He said, but that's just part of it. it was part of respecting your schedule. Yeah. yeah, that that was probably, you just have to lead by example and stuff like that. and take criticism on your haircuts. Cause you always have to get better at that. At a cutting hair, there's always new styles coming out. and you have to learn how to do them, so you can teach the new, you have to learn how to do so you can keep, and, and, being, uh, being the man, all that pressure's on you, you have to know how to do it and then to fix the haircut. Yeah. Okay. So your, your business's reputation is on you, you want to. You want to give an above and beyond service?

Justin: 16:25

Have you ever had to fix a haircut?

Marvin: 16:27

Yes. Yes, we still do. uh, some of my barbers probably fixed on my haircut. man, like you just can't, can't get them all, you try to, you slow down and take your time. But at the end of the day, it's a, the person's opinion. Sure. So you go through your steps, your process on how to cut. But if you go too short, that's automatic, the person doesn't like it. If you leave it too long, it's automatic. The person doesn't like it. Nah, but when you go too short, you can't fix it because you already cut too much.

Justin: 17:02

I think, I think Alex found mine pretty easy

Marvin: 17:06

is just to take it off.

Justin: 17:07

It's just one guard. Yeah. Go get

Marvin: 17:09

going.

Justin: 17:11

Nice. were you always, do you think that you were a natural born leader or do you feel like you had to learn a lot along the way?

Marvin: 17:19

I, when I was in the Simmons foods, I had a, I guess my jobs gave me a lot of experience in that what not to do, how not to treat people, because I was always the one, I was always the one that, uh, I'm not afraid to take responsibility and especially, take pride in what I do. I feel like taking pride in your job. anything you do. You have to take pride in it to be come the best at it. So for example, I've been a dishwasher, it's, it's an entry level job. Anybody can do it, but. I did it really well. And when I wasn't there everybody, the next day would tell me, Oh, you weren't here yesterday. Everybody was going crazy. Cause this just couldn't be kept up. So that made me feel good, even though I was easily replaceable or whatever, but I took pride in it and I made sure that we stay cut up with dishes. But

Justin: 18:15

I did it, really, everything works around that.

Marvin: 18:17

Yeah. And, and, uh, so I probably didn't make any sense.

Justin: 18:22

Absolutely. Does the idea is that you have to take ownership? Yes, I, and there's a, there's an interesting book by a Navy seal and one of his things is extreme ownership. Yeah. And it's this element that like, you have to own it. It's always your responsibility. And so in part of that is taking pride. And what it is you're doing. And I think one of the stories that he told him, the book is like normally Navy seals show up and do whatever they want on base. But he kept a very strict code of look, you're going to dress the way everybody else on base dresses. And you're going to, because we're here serving these folks. And so we're going to take pride in our appearance. We're going to take pride because it's a reflection of this base as a whole. And I'm probably getting some of that story wrong, but I think that's the general idea behind it. you have to own it and you have to take pride in it

Marvin: 19:11

and just going, I had horrible bosses. Okay. just, uh, you're already going 150 to do an above and beyond job and just, being, not being, I guess, nah, like feeling taken advantage of, or I'm not, uh, I won't say ungrateful, but, Not not, uh,

Justin: 19:37

you're a cog in the wheel.

Marvin: 19:39

Yeah. You're just like, I know, I forgot how to say it or that's all right, man. take it for granted. Yeah. Alright. you know, you're there every day and you're there every day. You're you take responsibility for something that needs to be done, but you're still like, this is whatever do it, and I, and some. And that's not how you treat your key players. some people are just, you have to make sure that you're taking care of your you're taking care of your squad, your team.

Justin: 20:10

Yeah. How'd you find a sense of pride, even in those moments where you didn't feel like you were, as valued as you are. How did you find a sense of pride in that work, despite that? And what would you tell someone else who was feeling and who was in your

Marvin: 20:27

shoes? that feeling when you go home. And you could have done better, but you didn't. And that's probably what would get to me or still does man, I could have done that better. I could have no, but at the end of the day, knowing that I did my absolute best and I gave it everything. that's what, that's what kept me going. Like now it doesn't matter what he says, I, I know at the end of the day I did everything I was supposed to and I went and 150, so it doesn't matter if he's unhappy or not. I did my best. So that's probably the thing that I was like, no, you, at the end of the day, you did, you gave it everything you had, so that's all right. Win or lose, whatever. At the end of the day, you did everything you had. So that's, that's a win right there. And, So just watching, watching bosses like that just horrible management skills and then having some really great ones. It's man, I want to be like that guy. whenever I move up, whenever I'm in this position, that's how I'm going to treat people. and just, and because I was working at entry level jobs, People always talk and be like, Oh, that boss is he's really good. He's really good. So you can see how people's work ethic would change when S when the different supervisor was there, it's they will take care of little details at night. they, they cared more. They wanted to make sure that, uh, they checked dates on, on bags. They were, the quality was a lot better because. of the, the leader they had,

Justin: 22:00

they took pride.

Marvin: 22:01

Yeah. They were like, no, but with other guys it was like, whatever, and let this guy get in trouble, yeah. So that, that's what, uh, you know, working with everybody with the, working with the village, you can say, and you hear the word when everybody's saying, and I was like, so working in that environment kinda gave, played a role in, okay. Whenever I was in a barber. No, then I became a shop owner. I was like, how do I want to lead these people? I want them to be, I want them to go 150 for me. Just like I would for them.

Justin: 22:35

Yeah. So does culture start at the bottom or does culture start at the top?

Marvin: 22:43

I think. Wow. Yeah, it starts at, it has to start with at the top because. Because when, uh, the BA well, yeah, it has to start at the top if you want, if, there's a

Justin: 23:02

couple of different ways. I think you could slice here, take it and say, as an individual, I have a sense of ownership and pride in what I'm doing. So culture starts with me. Yeah. Or you could look at it from the standpoint of quality leadership dictates what the culture is going to look like, because at the end of the day, you can have a rotten culture. And I might be doing well as an individual and be able to shrug that off, but your culture could be

Marvin: 23:28

terrible.

Justin: 23:29

Yeah. So I think it does, it is a mix, but I don't know I'm in the camp of it starts with the leaders.

Marvin: 23:35

Yeah, I think so too. It starts, yeah. It has to start at the ones they have the, I guess the power. Yeah. the, um, responsibility. Yeah. They sponsor, there's the ones that are in charge of, uh, Of communicating what needs to be done and following it and say, what do, what you say? Kind of thing that's important being, being transparent, being transparent is I think is one of the biggest things that when you communicate, when you have, when you want to sell somebody an idea, a vision, you really have to, even when there's, when everything, you can say, everything, all the good stuff in the world. But includes some, everything, it put everything on the table and then this is what we have, and this is how we can make it better. and we go from there we go from there together and I think, yeah. Wow.

Justin: 24:28

so here's an interesting, I guess question is, you know, you talked about being really open with criticizing each other. early on in your career, right? So working with, with two other guys, and you would just be honest with one another and say, Hey, these are the things that you could change and do different.

Marvin: 24:45

How do

Justin: 24:45

you do that now as an owner and share that feedback in such a way that people walk away not feeling defeated, right? what's your technique or secret there?

Marvin: 25:00

I don't have one. I genuinely care to help someone grow. So I think that's one of my gifts that I have that I really want to help. and, and, I see what, what they like, and I, I can talk about all my guys in and, know what they like, know what they don't like and stuff like that. It's just, I genuinely take the time to know them, to see how I can help them. or they can help me. Sure. some of them they're helping me, so, and I guess being a leader is, is knowing when to follow is another is a big one. so, well, I forgot the question already, but. I really did forget

Justin: 25:50

that. We'll move on. I

Marvin: 25:53

want to go there. we're

Justin: 25:54

just, if you think about your, your culture and communicating to an individual, the challenges that they have, right? so how do you articulate that? But I think what really, what you're telling me. Or what I think you're saying is that you've developed trust in these relationships because you've gotten to know people. So that way, when you do come to somebody with a critique, it doesn't come across as negative and attacking, but rather, Hey, I'm coming alongside you and we're partners in this, and this is how we can get better.

Marvin: 26:29

And when you do build that trust, you can, what. What, what not to say to someone that they will make a man. for example, if someone, if someone is more sensitive, then you pull them to the side and be like, Hey, I noticed you did this next time. Try something like this or other or another guy. He, you might need to pull them, call them out in front of everybody. Because you want to bring them down a level. Okay. to, to get them to understand, to register the, Hey you're messing up. you got a, you need a crowd for him to realize it. And some people do it better when it's like a little pep talk in the back or something. Yeah.

Justin: 27:14

So which one

Marvin: 27:15

are you, Either. Um, I'm just happy that someone will, I'm glad that somebody will come and tell me, Hey, you're messing up. Or maybe if you do this better, we can, I love that, that. And I'm pretty, I feel like I do well to where every, all of my guys feel comfortable telling me something. Then everybody's just saying it. And I'm the last one at all. I feel like I love it, that they feel like they can come talk to me about anything that's going on in the shop. Someone's not doing something or they'll tell each other, they're like, Hey, you're not sweeping there. Come on, man. Sweet. And to work. Yeah. And so that's the culture we have that we're not afraid to tell each other when we need to step it up. Okay. So that's pretty cool.

Justin: 28:00

Yeah. Usually the bar high. And so everybody that works there has that same bar. Yeah. And. And they have to perform

Marvin: 28:09

and

Justin: 28:10

cause everybody, it sounds like everybody is willing to call everybody else out in such a way that encourages

Marvin: 28:17

growth. Yes. You're like, man, I know I've been messing up and it makes you like, when you, for example, if you're late yeah. You feel like, man, I'm late. I know they're going to start saying something. Ah, it's like, everybody feels that. Or if you miss a day for, you just. This will give everybody heck about it. It's Ooh, you're missing days now. What's going on? And then you're like, Oh, I know whatever.

Justin: 28:42

What's a culture of accountability.

Marvin: 28:44

Yeah. yeah. So just being, especially, at the one on Roger's that ones things for any, in any bar where that goes in there. Yeah. They better be ready to work. Yeah. Those guys in there, they don't play. Yeah.

Justin: 29:00

So how has all of this culture. and the leadership components and, you talked about developing employees and, going to training them and coaching them and, and so on. how has that led to the quality products and services that you provide

Marvin: 29:21

today? Uh, continued education. So I love going to two, classes for hair. there's educators all over the country that they have online academies and they teach classes at wherever they live. there's seminars for barbers and all of that. And, I spent, I spent a lot of money doing that. I want wanna, I want to get better and not just for me, but I want to bring it back to my, to my barbers and my stylist. So that's taking care of the technique. The technique aspect of it is just getting, knowing how to create a better haircut you say, and it's just repetition and. Yeah, the repetition of doing haircuts and just bringing back that education that, uh, we just, we go learn and that's pretty much it with, uh, with haircutting is that you have to have a system in place and just keep the reps, keep cutting and cutting until you perfect it, to get, you I don't know if you've heard it, but to take. To master a craft that takes 10,000 hours. I've heard that's a lot

Justin: 30:36

of hours. I think if you look at a work week, it's 2000, not a workweek, sorry. At work year, if you were just going to work 40 hours a week, I think it's 2080 hours. Yeah. So 10,000

Marvin: 30:47

that's five years of

Justin: 30:49

hand and grinding. Yes. and that's

Marvin: 30:52

just, and that's before we. And you don't even count the years that you're trying to learn how to cut hair. You count as soon as you have your systems developed, you count from there. so like when do you start, when does with Barbara and is that you never stopped learning? you can get decent, pretty good at executing them, but. You're always pushing the bar kind of

Justin: 31:15

thing. So you're six years in so that you've hit your 10,000? no, no, I have not. I'm not counting, I'm always

Marvin: 31:23

learning. I'm always a year one. All right.

Justin: 31:25

That's a good place

Marvin: 31:26

to be. I'm always it. I'm always trying to get better and, Yeah, I'm I'm always trying to get better. I have a class scheduled for March already. Really? yes. And I do my own. Like I had every Tuesday for the last three months, I've been sharing my knowledge and my techniques to anybody that wants to come to the barbershop. And, how has that

Justin: 31:47

been received?

Marvin: 31:48

I get a, I get some, sometimes I'll get one or two people, but then sometimes I get some pretty it's just, yeah. But he was really nice

Justin: 31:57

people. Are they like really engaged and man, I'm learning a lot. Do you have the same people keep showing up again? I have a,

Marvin: 32:07

this is a little bit of everything. Yeah. I have a name for say, we have, uh, some folks that are committed to coming to prime time. I have to get, they get done with barber school. So they're there every Tuesday. Making sure that they get the extra reps in extra, that it just the extra doing a little more to get better because you don't want to come to the shopping and just be like, man, I suck.

Justin: 32:29

It is a craft. it really is. after having been there and going through the experience of the services that you offer and provide at primetime and then talking to Alex and hearing the amount of time that you go to school. From like the costs that you put in, it's not like you just wake up on a Sunday morning and go, you know what, Monday morning I'm going to start cutting hair.

Marvin: 32:54

Yeah. You can't. I wish it was that easy if it was that easy. Yeah, man.

Justin: 32:58

Yeah. But then there wouldn't be places like prime time, if that was that. Nah, even if they

Marvin: 33:03

did, even if it was, I think it's just, uh, the work, the work we do, we will always set us apart, always true. Always wanting to set the bar higher.

Justin: 33:15

And yeah. And you've talked a lot about today, just all of the different ways that you have set that bar higher. just from the culture perspective, like constantly training yourself, constantly training your employees. you know, it sounds like there's a number of things that, what other things have you done to set that bar high? well, I, I

Marvin: 33:35

operate in a. Being a professional. as far as, as far as even the image down to, to just greeting somebody at the door and that's a little detail, I like to tell them the five senses. Like whenever someone comes in, they see you, you look nice. Y'all up. Got it. Yeah. You want on the appearance Misha when they see you look nice, you don't have food hanging off your beard, or, they, they. I don't have a haircut right now, but make sure that we stay on top of our grooming game too. they see that the shop is clean, that, they look around and all that. So now we go to the, when you hear, when they walk, we're not trying to cuss anybody out. Our music is pleasant. it's, uh, it's nice. It does. And there's no cussing involved. you know, it's cool music, um, every, everybody will listen to it. it's not, the lyrics are not bad or anything like that. Sure. We try our best to make sure it stays like that. So now we got seen hearing and the smell, make sure that they smell the products. We use the, from the Bureau to the, to how our shop smells and that's the covers, three of them. And then, you can't taste anybody, but, but you you give them a mint. I don't know, little kids, we give them a sucker. Okay. So we already know some of the tastes for kids. They, and then, The last one is hearing there's to here. So when we talked our conversation, they don't, you don't hear us in there, talking, having a conversation and not supposed to be out an open kind of thing. So that's probably one of the things that we make sure that we keep a great environment for folks that come

Justin: 35:22

back. I think there's a lot of wisdom in those five senses that you just said that so many businesses could take advantage of. Yeah. that was.

Marvin: 35:32

That's very important. Yeah.

Justin: 35:33

Did you come up with it on your own?

Marvin: 35:35

No, I've I was like, I'm saying that there's already shop owners all around the country that are shop owners, barbers, people are, that are in the hair industry that are willing to share their knowledge. And just me going to seminars and talking to people, having a conversation, what they're doing, how did they get it? Seven locations. How did the heart are they doing it? Like, how did they keep the culture? How did they, how did you do it? You know what? I am keeping in touch with them, and this is what I'm going through. All, they give me a plan and then stuff like that.

Justin: 36:06

Have you found that people have been really open and inviting as far as giving you advice and working with your giving you thoughts and ideas? I've found, I've had my experience

Marvin: 36:15

with both. Some of them were no, what is this guy trying to do? And other ones are like, Meg. Yeah. Co here's my number. talk to me whenever you have some time, text me and all of that, and then I'll let you, I'll give you whatever you need. And so it's just been, it's been both. you know, he's just move on. if you're

Justin: 36:34

talking to other barbers. Yeah. So there's obviously room enough for everyone.

Marvin: 36:38

Oh, of course. Yeah. There's just think about it. There's so many enforcement Smith when you're coming up. It says a hundred thousand on the population. Sure. There's no way we can cut a hundred thousand. Yeah. And then you get repeat and you get people that come every two weeks, every week. Yeah. A month. So now automatically fills your books. So it, there's no way, there's plenty for everybody. It's just, it falls down to your new customer service, how you're treating people because there's, I don't want to put nobody on blast, but some barbers are not as good at cutting hair, but they have a great conversation and people love that. Or some barbers have terrible customer service, but they do a immaculate haircut. And so it's just, this is whatever you want to do. Yeah. finding your

Justin: 37:31

own way,

Marvin: 37:31

finding your yeah. Finding your niche, I guess you could say. but you know, there's enough for everyone. There's enough for everyone. You just have to. You have to respect the hours and all of that. And as a, well, I guess,

Justin: 37:46

were you nervous when you started this whole process? you, you went to school, you decided to just I'm quitting my job. I'm going to start cutting hair. Where was your like, fear factor on this? I'm, I'm always, uh, not to

Marvin: 38:02

say nervous, but. There's, there's risks with anything new that you do. There's always a risk. And when I was in, when I was working in a poultry factory, I reached my, the highest level that I could. I was in management. I was supervisor and there was no more moving off of me because I didn't go to school. I didn't keep going. I didn't, I didn't have a degree. I don't have a degree. and, um, moving up was kind of out of the question. They wanted someone that was, they had a degree in, more educated and all of that. So that kind of knocked off my, uh, my chances and I was working second shift and I had, I had just had my son. And man I just needed, I needed to find something else I needed to go to first shift so I could spend more time with the family. And that's where I was at. I was like, what can I do? And I've always cut hair on the side. That's just, I cut my own hair. I cut my friends on my days off. That's what I would do. I would cut their hair. We would have a great conversation, but there was barbers around town. But they didn't give me the, they didn't show me that it could be done to take care of my family. It didn't. It just, wasn't something that I was like, Oh yeah, I can be a barber and, and make and make it there that I could see. at that time, when, uh, I was real materialistic, like I would see cars and, and just stuff like the shoes and all of that. And, Everybody that worked in a poultry fact, you had the best trucks and I wanted a truck. So I went to the poultry factory. Okay. My borrowers, they didn't have the best cars, yeah. So that's, that's what I was seeing was like, man, this car is not that good. So it must not mean that, it must mean something to me because I was, so I went to the poetry and I was like, And when I met my wife, I was already married, but we would go to Chicago. She's from Chicago. And that's where I met one of my first mentors. His name is David Gonzalez up in, up in Chicago. His, he lives in Cicero and I walked into the shop and I didn't get a haircut by him. The first time I went in there. Because he was busy, he was, she was, you know, he was busy and, uh, and I saw the difference of a shop in a bigger city to one here. They were a little more professional. they were taking care of business and then I was like, wow, they're treating it different than just, they just, a hustle than just something to get by. And, uh, I kept, we kept, we keep going to Chicago. That's where my wife's family's from and I'll go see him. And I would ask him questions. I was like, how is it to be about, how has it, how is it like, Oh, and he would give me the whole script. you have to be here on time. You have to work. Sure. You work on your skills and all of that. and I started working. in a garage with, he has a barbershop on sixth street, his name is Julio. And then, I met him through a mutual client. I used to cut him or cut him when, whenever, in between or whatever. And so he linked us up. And we started cutting hair in his garage. Okay. And that was yesterday nine years ago. Wow. Yeah. Those right now, those members are popping up on

Justin: 41:29

Facebook. Oh yeah. Hey look what you did.

Marvin: 41:30

Nine years ago, nine years ago, I was in there cutting hair with him in the garage and he, he had experienced from fees from New York and, he was cutting hair in his garage and I went in there and we started cutting hair in the garage and it turned into like a. It was pretty cool. Cause we had it in there rocking. Like we would have the whole, block filled with cars, just waiting for people to get a haircut by us. And I wasn't even that good.

Justin: 41:59

I was horrible,

Marvin: 42:00

but who would go in and rock with us? I was like, man, I would look outside and I was like, when am I going to be done? But I didn't care. I just like to cut hair, not do it for free, but they would pay us like five bucks, 10 bucks, something like that at that time in, And it was, it was pretty, it was pretty cool. That's how that's okay. Watching Julio open a pitch shop. And I was like, it can be done. Yeah. he would always tell me, men go to barber school. But then again, I was like, I didn't believe I had my, my job. And I was like, this is what's taking care of my family. How am I going to do it? And I'll pull forward two years later, I was like, man, I'm going to barber school. I'm going to go do this. Yeah. And, you know, our visions didn't align anymore. So I started my own thing. Yeah. And so did you know,

Justin: 42:51

it's like you end up in this, that's a pretty incredible story. So I guess what I'm curious about is, do you think what you're saying and the, and the story that you're telling applies to other people that might be in your shoes? let's say 10 years ago, 10 years ago, they're walking in the door and pick a different profession. Do you feel like a lot of the things that you've learned apply to? I think

Marvin: 43:13

folks, yes. I think anything that they offer a service where they have to do the work and really have to be the, not say the face, but have to operate it. It will work. It will like to the five senses with the customer service. And now the game is changing now, it's, it's more social media. This was willingness. So you have to evolve and get better at stuff like that, to make sure that you stay, you create awareness for your business. Yeah, but, I would say, now prime time has made it easier for barbers here in town because we set the standard to be professional, to, to offer a premium service. So now it's like, why not? These guys are being successful at it. Why not? It's okay. To be a copycat, you want a copy of the right cab.

Justin: 44:03

Have you seen that's cool. Yeah. Have you seen some folks out there that are stepping up their game?

Marvin: 44:09

Oh yeah, of course. all over town, it's it's and there's plenty for everybody and that's okay. it's. Hey, we all come from the same place we're trying to we're chasing our dreams.

Justin: 44:20

The product just keeps getting better. Yeah. at the end of the day, I'm, competition's a good thing.

Marvin: 44:24

Yeah. It makes validate your market. Yes. yeah. Uh, yeah. Yeah, it really does. what makes sure that everybody stays on their toes, make sure that you're still, you keep pushing forward and stay on your toes with everything. So that's, you everybody everybody has goals. Everybody has a vision and sometimes even if you do the same service, it can't be, they can do their thing. We can do our thing over here, but it's all love, everybody's chasing their dreams

Justin: 44:57

and that's a good thing.

Marvin: 44:58

Yeah. Oh yeah. But it seems to me

Justin: 45:00

like a lot of that chasing of the dream is, a, just having a positive attitude. You're one of the most positive people. I probably ever met. You really are. and then on top of that, it's just like taking action. like you, at the end of the day, you had to make the decision. Am I going to go to school, barber school or mountain that's probably, uh, perspective, a lot of, like, uh,

Marvin: 45:26

one of my old bosses, he was a real good one. He was a perspective as reality. He would always tell me that. And, at first I didn't get it. I was looking at me. You don't know what you're talking about, man. We're now we're having problems and then you're over here. And then I know later on as I got it. And it's you know, if you're having all these problems and you keep kind dwelling on it and not trying to find a solution, then it's going to get worse. So now it's it's, uh, for example, one of my barbers comes in and he only has one cut for the day. It's man, why do I, why should I even come in and only have one cut? And he's well, you can look at it that way. Or you can look at it this way. It's man, I have one haircut Tuesday and I am going to kill it. I am going to do the best one haircut ever. And you're already coming and feeling good. And you're going to, you're about to take care of this person and. And it could be in the middle of the day, but you come in on time, like a regular day and you might catch a walk into it, comes in, somebody might call the shop and be like, Hey, can someone take care of me in a couple hours? Yeah. Like guys here. And then by the end of the day, you have a full schedule

Justin: 46:36

because your attitude

Marvin: 46:37

because you at work. Yes. Because, just pushing through it the bad and, and, yeah, just the perspective on how you see things. I'm really big on that. Is I'm glad I I haven't had a huge, huge problem. not yet, you um, but, but, that's my prime, my ultimate test right there. I haven't had an ultimate test, like that word where I'm in the dark or something, um, but, but every, every problem that I've had, I always, okay, this there's gotta be some good into this, there's gotta be a something that I can make to this, find a solution and let's find a solution for it. Okay. We know what the problem is. We know we've got to identify it now, what are we going to do to solve it? How do we get over this? Yeah. so, and, and I'm about action. So I, Uh, when I feel like when it's something, when it's a people problem, you have to take action right away and you can't let it. You can't let it wait when, but when it's, something like, you have no control over the weather, you can get a wrinkled raincoat. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. The perspective that then you see a problem and make sure you, you get a solution, you find a solution and try everything before you quit. Yeah. Try everything, you know, uh, you know, at the end of the day you did everything you could to try to help it or save it. And then you move on like that. But yeah. Yeah, you lose time and time is something we can't get back. So I try my absolute best not to dwell on negativity. Yeah. Um, yeah,

Justin: 48:28

that's good. That's solid advice. speaking up and we'll we'll wrap up. I guess what I'd like to know is as a small business owner. So if you're talking to another small business owner, what one thing

Marvin: 48:43

would you tell

Justin: 48:44

them?

Marvin: 48:47

Wow. One thing too. Ooh, that's tough.

Justin: 48:57

Can I have two or three, yeah, man. take care take care of your team.

Marvin: 49:04

Take care of your team. Cause that's what makes you grow the team? Is this, what, uh, was going to help you? you can't do everything yourself. You can't, there's no way. especially as you, as you get bigger, you need to have a solid, a solid leaders, train, train, train people to be leaders instead of just to do a job. Yeah. Yeah. You

Justin: 49:30

can't have three locations with just you.

Marvin: 49:32

Yeah. There's no way there's no, yeah. It's chain. Cheerleaders and yeah, community. Come on, man. Be transparent. When you communicate and train leaders, don't train just somebody to do a job to train the next one. The next leader, because that one's going to train the next one and the next one, and then now, and then so on. So it goes on from there

Justin: 49:56

and that's solid advice. I think that's really solid advice. I'm, I'm thrilled that you came on the show and participated, and it's just been a lot of fun. I'll have one final question

Marvin: 50:06

for you. Who

Justin: 50:08

would you challenge to come and sit in the hot seat and they don't have to be here. They don't have to be local. they could be somebody someplace else, but who would you challenge to come sit in the Nazi?

Marvin: 50:18

Wow. Let's see,

Justin: 50:20

they gotta be a business owner or a business leader. You don't have to own a business, but you gotta be a leader.

Marvin: 50:26

I would say. Have you had anybody from activate come over here?

Justin: 50:34

Not yet. They're on my list though. I was on my list, but you're saying them, yeah. That, you get, you

Marvin: 50:39

get four for one shot.

Justin: 50:42

I might break it up though. I'd like to, I've been thinking I'd like to get the lady's perspective.

Marvin: 50:46

Yeah. I, that would be pretty interesting right there. Cause they're the real leaders. Getting it

Justin: 50:52

done. Yeah. We won't say anything to Mark. Yeah. All right. So you're going to, you're going to call out the activate family.

Marvin: 51:02

That's good. Good. thanks again.

Justin: 51:04

I really do appreciate it. it's been great having the opportunity to talk about company culture. Quality leadership, services and products and employee development. I think that those things really do make such a big difference and I'm just really appreciate your perspective. So thanks so much. I really do appreciate it. And, hopefully we get to do this again

Marvin: 51:24

sometime in the future. I'm ready for part two.

Justin: 51:27

Awesome. Thanks.

Marvin: 51:28

Yes, sir.