💬 This isn’t just another podcast...we’re releasing our 01/06/26 Community Conversation from Instagram Live with Will Stamm, Entrepreneur, Master Barber, Educator, & Author.

What does it really take to build a lasting career in the hair industry? In this Community Conversation, Will Stamm shares the mindset shifts that separate short-term wins from long-term careers behind the chair. From financial intelligence and mentorship to leadership and sacrifice, he explains why mastering your craft isn’t enough if you don’t also master your habits.

This conversation challenges stylists and barbers to think bigger, lead better, and treat their career like the business it already is.

Follow/subscribe to be the first to know when new episodes are released. Like what you hear? Leave us a review!

Key Takeaways:

🔅Short-term wins don’t equal long-term careers – The professionals who last focus on consistent habits, not quick momentum.

🔅Master your habits, not just your craft – Technical skill opens doors, but discipline, structure, and routine create sustainability.

🔅Financial intelligence is non-negotiable – Understanding revenue, expenses, and reinvestment turns a stylist into an entrepreneur.

🔅Ownership mindset starts before ownership papers – Even as an employee, thinking like a business owner changes your decisions and growth path.

🔅Leadership is built through example, not title – How you show up daily determines your influence in the room.

🔅Mentorship accelerates maturity – Learning from those ahead of you prevents costly mistakes and sharpens perspective.

🔅Sacrifice is part of scale – Growth requires giving up comfort, distractions, and sometimes ego.

🔅Character compounds over time – Reputation, consistency, and integrity create opportunities you can’t manufacture overnight.

RELATED LINKS

👉Follow Will on Instagram

👉Follow ProFRESH Barber Academy on Instagram

👉Follow ProFRESHional Cuts on Instagram

👉Follow ProFRESH Foundation on Instagram

👉Check out Will’s Linktr.ee for trainings, business consultations, and more - https://linktr.ee/willstamm_

The Hairdresser Strong Show is all about Salon Owners, Rising Stylists, and Seasoned Stylists sharing their experiences, successes, failures, and advice to inform, educate, and empower their Fellow Hairdresser. We won’t stop until we are all: Hairdresser Strong.

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The views and opinions of our guests are theirs and important to hear. Each guest's views and opinions are their own and we aim to bring you diverse perspectives, career paths and thoughts about the craft and industry so you can become Hairdresser Strong! They do not necessarily reflect the positions of HairdresserStrong.com

yes thank you very much i was just introducing you to the audience

Happy New Year!

Yes, thank you very much. I was just kind of introducing you to the audience. Okay. Master barber educator, author, entrepreneur. And today we're talking career and entrepreneur advice for the hair industry.

Okay, sounds good to me.

So Will, for the audience members that may not know you, would you just give us like a quick intro?

Yeah, so I've been a barber for 19 years, built three barber shops, and then decided to open up my own barber academy, which were hit three years on February 1st. I've been an author, wrote my first book, done very well. I think we are closing in on our first thousand copies. And I'm just a man committed to personal development, leadership, committed father, husband, and I just try to...

lead people the right way to the best of my ability. And I just want to see people grow, develop, and fulfill their fullest potential.

Nice, love that, love that. Well, like we've talked beforehand and I've been noticing your content and your content, you're talking a lot about like what it takes to be successful and I like how you talk a lot about how, you know, there's a lot of like ideas that are going around about like narratives and stuff and advice that people are getting that maybe is missing some information or some of the steps. And so I'm excited to have this conversation with you today.

Yeah, I think I think that that's very good assessment. Now I just think, you know, being 19 years in going on 20 years, I've seen a lot. I've done a lot. I've seen trends come and go. And there are couple key things I think that people just miss because social media makes everything look great. And in order to succeed, I think long term, you have to be willing to go through the process and the work that it actually takes to get that stuff done.

and it takes work. And I just want to remind people that, you know, you're not losing. just, you haven't worked long enough yet. Right.

All right, well, I have some questions I have sent you. So I'm gonna be using my questions today while we walk through this. I find it like a best practice for me to stay organized. for people who may not know you yet, how do you describe what you do and who you do it for? I know you kind of already gave us some of that information.

Yeah, so what I do is I help barbers build careers. my vision at my school is to ultimately lay a foundational system for success for entry level barbers to learn, develop, enter into ownership and retire financially free. So that's what I do in a nutshell, is I just take beginner barbers, help them develop not just the technical skills, the people skills, right? I help them grow and actually...

you know, develop the mindset that it takes to be a flourishing entrepreneur with a servant leadership type of mentality. And then I help them not only get good at cutting skills and get their license, go on and build businesses and help other people do the same thing so they can ultimately know what to do as far as financially so they can grow their revenue while they grow their clientele.

and get their self to a point where they can become financially free. Because I ultimately think that's where people truly can make a difference in the world when they get the money monster out the way. I think so many people in our industry, because of lack of financial intelligence, lack of know-how, lack of leadership in our industry, everybody's just winging it. And I think what that causes is a bunch of individualism and just people trying to compete against each other.

when we could just be helping each other and all of us grow long term. And then I help them, you know, learn what to do with their money and their resources. So they see that once a person sees the process, then they know all it takes is some discipline for a certain level of years and some consistency to have that compound effect kind of take over in their life. And I think once they get there, they can truly serve and live out their dreams and goals and not have to be bounded by lack of resource.

Nice, I love that. So what is your book on this, in this realm? I'm assuming...

So basically my book is called What's in Your Hand. And it's basically my life story as an entrepreneur, things that I thought worked well, things I realized that didn't work well, and things that I had to do character wise to change the way I view things, the way I did things, the way I handled a lot of relationships that helped me ultimately grow. And what I try to get across throughout the entire book is

You already have what you need in your hand. Right? For me, it was a pair of clippers my grandmother bought me at 15 years old. And so I had to learn how to clean up if I was going to go to the store with her. And every time I thought I needed something else, I didn't. I already had it. That all of my problems that I was facing were internal, not external. And when I fixed me, every time it allowed me to grow to another level. Right? There were people who

probably did things to me that I felt like were wrong. But when I grew and matured, I realized I put myself in that predicament. I chose that person for that position. They didn't let me down. I let myself down time and time again. And once I figured out what I was doing wrong and then started to do those things correctly, that's when everything changed for me and I was able to build things.

Nice, nice, I love that. So what is your, know, I know I'm very curious to know, you're talking about financial, like helping people figure out the money stuff. Can you tell me a little bit about how do you do that? How did you develop or design or how do you think about?

that space because I feel like that's a huge space. feel like we're one of the big underserved, underrepresented population in the world of financial services and financial literacy.

Yeah, so what I do just to keep it simple, right, because finance can go all over the place. Yeah. What I have all of my barber students do is when I go into finance, because there's always an additional training that we have to do and money is important, right? So people to act like money is not important. just.

You need it for everyday life. It's got to be important. We got to start there. So what I do is I take them and I say, okay, y'all, we're going to go in here and we're going to talk finance. There's three basic accounts that you need as just a human being as an adult. Number one, you need a high yield savings account, right? And the platform I usually use is Vanguard, but you need a high yield savings account. This is where you can just put your money for emergencies and it grows at 3%. If inflation is at 3%, at least you're not going backwards.

If you save it in a regular bank account, your money is losing its spending power, right? So get you a high yield savings. Don't go get these regular bank accounts. Get you a high yield savings. That's number one, right? You save for a rainy day, right? You have some snow days, cold times, slow weeks, something go wrong with your car. You need emergency money because it will rain at the most inopportune time, right? So that's number one. We got to play defense a little bit. The second thing you're going to need is a retirement account. Once you start making money,

You need to put money away in your retirement account. I'm talking to 19 year olds. Nobody's ever told them that. I didn't even start doing that until 30. Right? Cause I just didn't know what I did. No, right? So I make sure that they, they do that. We get them a Roth IRA account. As long as you're a tax paying individual, you can contribute up to 7,500 a year now. It's $140 a week. Put as much as you can in it. If it's one haircut and you charge 35, 40 bucks for a haircut, do one once a week. Right?

So you do that. And then we have an additional brokerage account, right? Where this is where you can invest in companies that you know and love and use every single day and have them grow your money for you while you're working. So I tell all my guys, I'm like, we need one haircut in each account, right? So if you charge $40, your first three haircuts, one plays defense, one plays offense, and one guarantees your retirement so you ain't stuck behind a chair for 50 years.

that. That's so good.

It's so simple. then they're like, what do I do as far as, you know, index funds or ETFs, right? Because I'm like, we don't buy single stocks because they go up and down. We want something we can set and forget and just grow our client sale and grow our revenue. I don't care if you put $20 in each one every single week, whatever it is, it can be $10. Because once you start it and you see it work, you'll increase it over time because all you need is proof of concept. So I give them that. And then the ETFs, just

I pull up my stock portfolio account and I sit right there with them and say, look, this is where I got my money in. Wow. Okay. And I'm like, here's how it works. Because at end of the day, you know, I want to be authentic and transparent with you. You're in here at the school. I show you what I do. This is what I do recurring every single week. This is how it's been like this. This is where it was five years ago. This is where it was 10 years ago, 15 years ago, whatever the case may be. So they see that the discipline is there.

It started small, it's grew to this. You can do it too. And all the rules teach anybody is a simple formula that you can do too. The earlier and sooner you get it, the better it is.

Totally, and so do you find that this, do you take the similar approach in terms of career and entrepreneurial advice in terms of try to make things, I mean, because basically what you described, I feel like, is building a career. You've got to build it, and it takes a little while, but then all of sudden you're like, snap.

Yeah, I'm a firm believer in simplicity is genius. People make things complicated, right? People, because of the way we try to be so deep with stuff, we make things harder than they actually are. We make cutting hair harder than it actually is. We make building clientele harder than it actually is. Content creation, we make it harder than it actually is. Because a lot of times we're running from something. We're just trying to do things that we think like,

It's some secret sauce that we're missing. And what that is is just consistency. I tell all my students, I'm like, you want to be great? Be good for a very long time. That'll make you great. You know what I'm People will call you great. If you're just good for a very long time, they'll call you great. And what I try to tell them is if you focus on the simple things, the simple things, it will make you look like a genius. I tell people all time, like,

They're like, well, Stan, I want to learn how to fade. I'm like, OK, cool. We got to space it out. You want to learn how to cut straight hair? OK, cool. It's all about sectioning. And I'm like, just do that right now. And get on this man again, let's section here. We're doing four files, nine sections. We're doing vertical, we're doing the square, box, graduate, whatever you want to do. Cutting the top, profile, section, this, that, whatever you want to do. I need you to just do it even when you don't want to. Right? I got a lot of young guys. I talk to them about athletes all the time.

I'm like, go shoot the thousand free throws. You know that? That Steph Curry doesn't tell you that he shoots every day, but that's why he can make those shots in his sleep. I'm like, that's what it's about. So anything we can do that is simplified, we just have to wreck it over and over and over again. And that's how you become a People want to be great right away. And it's just not a real thing. It's just not a real thing.

That's good. Awesome, man. This is so good. You know, I was I was talking to a client not that long ago and she was talking about her son and he was like an athlete and He was like just had all this natural talent But the younger brother had to like bust his butt to be good And she was saying how she's worried that the older older son Is gonna have a rude awakening when he gets like college or something?

because he doesn't have to like really work that hard and try that hard. But the other son who has to work really hard, well that kid is, turns out now this is like years ago. Now years later, the younger brother is killing it. He's like so good at the sport that he plays and his brother doesn't play the sport. But he did get to college, but he didn't like continue on into like to your point. Okay, so let's go straight into a short conversation.

reality discipline and responsibility when seeing people talk about making it in this industry what are they usually overlooking

how much being in a growth environment helps them. I think in today's times, everybody wants to be the boss. Everybody wants to be the number one. But if you can get under quality leadership, it will take you much further than you can go by yourself. I was gonna make a video about the power of number two.

Absolutely.

Okay.

wants the number one seat, but the number two seat is so valuable, we skip right over it. But it's the best thing to prepare you to be a number one is learning how to be a number two. You know, so I think a lot of times when people, they, everybody wants to be the number one, they want to be their own boss. It's like, yo, if you can just go get next to the man, you'll become the man by default.

Totally.

Because if he's really the man, he's going to want you to become the man and he'll give you everything he's got.

Absolutely

What growth happens through like duplication? If you're going to be a top tier leader, you have to develop other leaders.

So yeah.

I was literally about to say we should definitely talk about leadership because yeah, because I think like without leadership and I don't know about you, but like I feel like the world could use like incubation and focus on leadership and our industry isn't any different.

I think it's one of the biggest challenges for our industry, right? Because we have such competitive culture. Everything's a barber battle. I'm better than you, this and that. But it's like leadership is about developing others. That's what leadership is. It's like, leadership is influence, but it's at end of the day, it's about serving other people. That's what entrepreneurship was designed for. Rafe turned entrepreneurship into a solo show.

That's not what it was designed for. It was designed to serve other people, which is what a leader does. Right? So it's like, tell people before you want to your own business, just make sure you're signing up for the sacrifice it takes to be the one to eat last and everybody else has to eat before you.

Yeah, so that I think that that part right there is great another great point to talk about is like how what do you like when you're thinking about When you're thinking about like communicating with other folks. Do you take into consideration? Do you talk to like the realities of

the influence on do you try to like not like a plate public okay i mean this i think it's important i put a context out there i have this thesis that we are large consumers at least people who are large consumers of short form video and utilize social media and in generate like generate like people that they follow they really get attracted to and they hear more of the conversation that they

are get excited about which it tends to be in my experience that it's always business owners that are out there out whether it's a solo business owner or a business owner that runs like a space where they have employees and what we're missing in this conversation online is other successful employees talking about how what the benefits are of working under somebody else to like i know that personally

Like if I'm working for somebody and I have like minimal burden of the business, then I can go off and pursue things like education and podcasting and hosting events. like, you know, if I had to run a salon all by myself and I had a team to manage and all this stuff, like would I be able to do all that? And so I think that we're lacking in general is advice on how to be anything other than

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think, I think that's very key. I'm going to do an interview with my guy, my top guy at my school, right? He's like, I call him like the GM. He's an educator at my school. He's really good. He's very detailed. He's tremendously valuable to me, but he feels the same way about me because he says, I've never met nobody like you and I've never been under a leader like this.

He was like, I'm getting more from being under you than I did when I owned my own shop. You know what saying? When I was living in the military, he was like, because of your leadership, he's like, you're teaching me so much without even saying anything. You know, and he was like, I love being a number two as long as you're the number one. Because he was like, there's so much room for me to grow here. He was like, and I get to see it from you every day. You know what saying?

as far as like how you teach in the classroom, how you operate as a business, right? I've given him multiple raises in two years, right? Just because I'm like, you're incredibly valuable to me. Let me find ways to give you more money, right? And he's always trying to find ways to produce. And it's not that he wants a bribe or anything, but it's like, I understand his value. And I try to value everybody on my team by just constantly trying to pour into them, help them grow. And I think once you

As this is where I tell people like this is where the leadership changes. I talked to people that I want to own own shop one day. I'm like, why? And they're like, because I want people working for me. It's the biggest lie there is because when you become an entrepreneur, you become the shop owner or the school owner or whatever type of owner you work for everybody else. And you have to bear the burden. I use the Facebook analogy a lot where I'm like,

Mark Zuckerberg is the face of Facebook, but he's not the only billionaire part of the Facebook operation. If you ask me, the number two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 guys have the best life. They don't face the criticism and they're billionaires anyway. You know what saying? It's like, that's what, that's how it can be in quality barbershops. Like somebody takes all of the risk away from you and you're profitable. was.

Yeah.

Right?

About a week and a half ago, was back home visiting with some of my friends and family. And I was talking to one of my childhood best friend. And I'm talking to him and he's asking me about stuff that I'm sharing. He's like, dude, I'm so proud of you. And he was like, and I was like, man, and he was telling me about him and the family and stuff and the kids. And I was like, that's so dope. And he said, yo man, he said, I love that you're a number one and you love that. He said, but I love what I do at my company. He's like, I make well over six figures.

and I don't have to deal with the shit you have to deal with. You know what I'm saying? He's like, you tell me there's times where you work 24 seven. And I know you do, because I see all the stuff you do. He said, when I get off at five o'clock, I go home and spend time with my family. He said, my phone went out and I to answer that fast. You have to deal with yours all day. I got students calling me. I got barbers calling me. got everything.

my wife and kids, got everybody. So it's like, I'm never really, it's like, yes, I have moments where life is luxurious, but I also have moments where it's like, oh my God, can they do anything by themselves? You know what saying? And he's like, I don't have to deal with that, man. And he does very well for him and his family and stuff. he was just like, yo man, he's like, and I was like, I'm so happy that you say that because most people think that they're not number one, they're not number one. That's so far from the truth. So far from the truth.

So.

Right, I have one thing I have we have question from the audience, but and real real quick I just want to throw something out there I know I have a friend who worked let's say over a 20 year work span he didn't work He never owned his own business. He was an employee. I think for the first 10 years he made between 50 and 60 thousand the second 10 years he made just over a hundred thousand and

he had a million he became a millionaire before he was forty and and you know why it's because he was put not his money in index funds and index fund was investing in those companies and guess what there are people working for you like needed the way i see it is when i best my money into a business all the people that work in that business including the c e o is working for me because i'm the shareholder and so therefore my money can grow without the headache

Yep. I'll share this with you. I didn't learn about that till I was 30. I already had three shops at that time. If I could do it over again, I would have been a bar ready shop making six figures and investing, maxing out a Roth IRA at 20 years old to 40. And I'd probably be in a better position than I am right now. Although it's great. Don't get me wrong. Right? I, you know, I would have just did it early because the power of compounding you can't beat. That's why I teach all of my students. I'm like,

No, you can't.

This is what you're going to do here. Like, yes, I'm going to teach you how to cut hair. And we teach you how to do all hair textures. We do 150 clients a week on average. We did 64 yesterday, our first day back. At barber school, there's people who go to barber school who do 10 haircuts a week as a school. We do 150. And I just tell them, I'm like, your tip money, you can put up. Do whatever you've got to do to start the habit. So I make sure everybody who graduates from our school starts with those three accounts.

I don't care if they put $10 in every Tuesday. I don't care. I need to see for you, started for you, show you what ETFs and index funds about all my stuff is index funds. And it's just autopilot. It comes out every Tuesday. I don't care. You know what mean? I just look up like, oh, that's good. All right. I'm like, I'm 39. I'm gonna keep on going until I'm, you know, I mean, 45, 50. I don't have to work if I don't want to, but I'm young, healthy, and I enjoy what I do. And I think that's a part for

people too, like successful people. Here's the play. It's doing what you love to do at a pace you're comfortable with. I hate this narrative where everybody's like, gotta get out your comfort zone, nothing grows there. That is true to a certain degree, but like anything, extremism is bad. I want you to challenge yourself, yes, and get a little uncomfortable, but I want you to do it at a pace you are comfortable at.

So it's kinda like half and half, right? Like iced tea and lemonade, you mix it together, it still tastes good. But you need to be on go all the time. And that's why so many people burn out. Because they're not moving at their pace, they're moving at somebody else's

Okay, so a question from the audience. Dorian Jeremiah says, what helps determine haircut price? Is it your experience level, shop rent, personal preference?

I think it's a combination, but it's never personal preference. Right? I think it's a combination. You do have overhead, so numbers have to make sense. But what drives price is demand. If there is a demand for your product, then you can charge more money. If there is not, then you can't. Right? So it's like, it's almost like real estate, right? It's like if there's 10 bidders on this house, you're gonna pay more.

If nobody wants it, you can ask for a discount. Right? It's just, it's very simple supply and demand principle. It doesn't matter which business you're in. This is why I tell people you go where people already have. I tell a lot of barbers, you go find a shop where clients are already going. Don't try to start nothing brand new. You have to go build a market for something before you launch anything. I think we do this a lot of times with beauty products, all product.

Did the market ask for your own product line? If it didn't, now you're trying to convince people to buy it that they don't want it. I'd rather just take what they want, get that wholesale and sell it to them. They already want it anyway. But the margin, they don't have to deal with it. People ask me all the time, Sam, why you ain't come up with your own product line? I'm like, if I can get good margins on this product and have a great relationship with the owner and I believe...

Yeah, I knew it.

Give me that. People already want it. It already sells.

You know, I think a lot of times the, and then here's what I do too. I use, I go to, I use a formula, right? When I'm determining price, when I'm just starting out, I go to the annual household income for that zip code that the shop is in. let's just say if I go in the zip code I'm currently in and the annual household income is 80,000, $80,000. I take the 80 from the 80,000, right? Cause it's annual.

And then I usually do 40 % of that, which is like 35 bucks. So that range, I'm cool. If the income household range is 120, right? 40 % of that is about 50 bucks. If the income range is 200, I could build a luxury salon in that space and get about 65 to 80. Right? So that's the formula I always use. It works. Right? So it's just,

When I say 120,000, I'm not saying 40 % of 120. It's saying of 120. You know what saying? So people are like, Oh, this is bad math. I'm like, all right now. I left out a hundred thousand. I'm taking the hundred. Then I'm sending me 40 % of that, which is $40. Yeah.

right right right right

Right.

the book of Aaron. Yeah, no, I like that. I like that. I love that equation because like there aren't a lot of folks that give give people an exact math. Book of Aaron says your location matters where I live is rural and very low income area. So to your point, you know,

that because imagine this right say the income is $30,000 in that area if you go over there asking them people to pay you $60 they're gonna think you're a crook I think you're scamming them they're gonna think you're getting over but if you go in parts of California where it's the poverty line is 150 right they're gonna think $25 is a joke yeah so the income area matters right it matters so I always tell people just check this zip code

and then take the first number. If it's 150,000, we're doing 150, not 150K. 150 and then do 40 % of that. And I think you can start there. Then if you build demand, demand allows you to dictate, right? You can't make dominions until you're in demand. Once you get there, then you do what's necessary.

That's good. like that math for the starter. Book of Aaron continues to say, when I moved to this town five years ago, haircuts were $14. And then he says, thank you. Thanks for talking and contributing. We got Grim, Sosa, really wish I had the opportunity to go to your school.

Yeah, where are you? Where are you at? Graham Sosa? Okay, so while we're waiting on that, let's go through and do a couple more questions here. Let's see. All right, focus, mentorship, and the long game. Let's see. How does mentorship and community actually help when someone is serious about improving and not just networking? I think that question in general is kind of like a general question about mentorship

and community, like what role does that play in success?

So I believe mentorship is key, but you have to pick the right mentor. Everybody that says they're a mentor is not, right? But also everybody who thinks they want a mentor isn't ready, right? So I've ran into this issue and I put it in three things, right? So people think they want a mentor, right? But some people need a counselor. If you have problems that you're trying to heal from, you don't need a mentor.

You need a counselor, right? If you want somebody who's going to just support you and kind of walk alongside you and maybe give advice here and there, that's a mentor, right? But then you also, if you are ready for results and you really want to be a high performer, what you need is a coach, right? Coaches are high performance people, but you have to be ready for that because they're going to listen to your excuses. Your mentor might, right?

because he just want to support you. want to, you know, just be a little like service guy. But most people, what they really want is a high performance coach or they want a counselor. Mentor is just the in-between. But I do recommend getting some form of leadership to help hold you accountable. Right? And if that's in the form of a mentor or if that's in the form of a coach, you do need them people because they can see things that you can't see.

And they'll also help you stay out of your own head. Sometimes the worst thing we can do is listen to ourselves, especially if we have defeated dialogue or we talk to people we shouldn't be talking to about our ideas and our commitments and stuff. So you want to find somebody who's further along in the journey than you are. Now, if you're on step two, you don't need a mentor who's on step 10. You can find somebody on step three or four and they can help get you to that level.

I think a lot of times, right, because I have people, they'll call me like, well, I want you to mentor me. And I'm like, I'm trying to help shop owners. I can't really help the guy in Texas or Canada who's trying to figure out if barbering is the right way to go or not. You understand what I'm saying? I'm going to somebody local there that can help you figure that out. I need to be helping shop owners develop as leaders.

Yeah.

So these barbers I'm putting out of school have a quality environment to go into. You know what saying? So it's just, it's different levels to it. And I think people, they reach six, seven levels ahead of where they currently are. And then nobody wants to mentor them because when you're level 19, you need to be helping the sevens, eights and nines, not the one, twos and threes. And it's not a disrespectful thing. It's just respect the game enough.

to find somebody further along than you.

and not...

waiting, you know what saying? Waiting for you, you know what mean? So.

that's that's pretty good actually i thought i've ever heard what's that makes sense kinda like there is a there's like a whole like a stepping stone in a lateral kind of thing it's like yet get the advice that is relevant to you and get the mentor is relevant to you and then gradually and and then into another mentor i like that and there's a little mitchell champ says will is a true mentor the game what are you some things that a new shop owner should expect when trying to hire barbers

and also what not to look for.

All right. What not to look for? The first thing I do look for is character. I can train skill, but I can't, if your mama ain't get you no good character, she ain't still good character in you. It ain't really much I can do with you. Right? I got to be able to trust you. We're going to do business. I got to believe in your character before anything else. Now, what are some new things that a new shop owner should expect when trying to hire new barbers? They're all going to come as a project.

This is why we need leaders as shop owners. You are going to have to be a great leader if you're gonna run a successful shop. Most shop owners run into trouble when they think it's all about

You're gonna have to develop your people. That's why I said before you become a shop owner, you need to ask yourself the real question. Am I willing to sacrifice what it takes to help others build? And here's the reality. You may say yes up front, but the first time one of them turned their back on you, you may go back in the dungeon again. You know what saying? So it's it's what I tell people entrepreneurship developed my relationship with Christ more than anything because

That's what real leadership looks like. Knowing people are going to let you down and serving them anyway. So what should you expect? You should expect to invest in barbers. You should expect to serve barbers. And you should expect them to let you down time and time and time. And you need to move with the mindset of, I'm just doing what I'm supposed to do and everything will work out because it will.

the only way you'll be able to really succeed in getting develop you some systems that holds people accountable. Right. But also there's three major things that I think you'll need to be a successful shop owner. You will need a system for generating leads because if you don't have barbers cutting hair, they're gonna be cussing you out. The second thing you need is a recruiting plan. Whether that's getting

active in one of the schools local by you or or or developing some sort of community meetup amongst barbers or something to get into the presence of barbers and build some sort of influence right and then the third thing you're going to need to do is be committed to growing as a leader get involved in some sort of leadership book club read some books on leadership get involved in some capacity and growing as a leader because that is the only thing

Those are the three pillars that will make you a successful shop.

free to drop them. We're I love that. That's so good. Anybody else in the audience have any questions, please feel free to drop them. We're coming up on our time soon. So I'm gonna go give people a chance to ask a question. I'm gonna ask, let's see, let's ask one more of these questions here before we sign off.

So what is one myth, I mean I feel like some of these questions you've already answered. what is, yeah mean this is kind of like what trade-off do people need to be honest about if they want long-term success? I feel like you kind of talked about it a little bit. Yeah, the sacrifice. What is one habit or mindset that consistently pays off over time? I mean the financial stuff.

Yeah.

you got anything better here? Yeah, you gotta give up to go.

Okay.

add. We constantly want to add, add, add. You have to give up your old life if you want your new life. The things that you do now got you to where you are. If you want something different, you're have to give up the way you think about it.

When I went to open up the school, I had to give up a six-figure clientele as a barber for the opportunity to go invest in the next generation of barbers and not know if it would work out or not. People told me, open up a barber school. Go to the beautician side. They make more money over there. Barber schools are trash. Nobody goes to barber school no more. They can learn everything on YouTube.

If I listen to those people, ProFres Barber Academy is in one of the top schools in the world today. Right? So you're gonna have to give up something to get something else. The question always is, is it worth it? It's the law of trade-offs. You're gonna always make trades in life. You're gonna give up this for that. Some people give up family to hump.

to build a career. Some people give up growing in their career to spend more time with family. None of it is wrong, right? It's just you designing your life how you want it. It'll always be criticized. Someone always has something to say. You have to be comfortable with the man in the mirror and make those decisions, but you have to give up if you want to go up.

Can't be the same person for today and want to be a better person tomorrow. You have to give some things up, right? It's like, look, I want to get in shape. I can't eat like I used to eat, right? I got to wake up earlier tonight than I want to wake up. I got to go to the gym. Anytime you want to grow in a certain area, it's going to require sacrifice and the ability to give up something first before you get it. One of my mentors told me a long time ago, he said, will the price for success

has to be paid upfront in full before you actually get it. It ain't no shortcuts to success and it ain't no discounts. It demands full payment.

Is this how you communicate with your students? mean, I'm assuming your students trend younger and you know, we go to schools a lot in this area and talk to students and this kind of language seems to, know, like certain words seem to like really turn them off from listening to me. So like, do you have like, what do you like, do you have, we have a couple more questions from the audience, but I just was curious.

to know what your thoughts are or how you would respond to that.

So I do talk to my students like this. I do. They just know that I care first. I always ask them what's important to them, right? Because I can't hold people accountable until they know I'm for them, right? You have to be for people. And the way I teach them, pour into them, when I go on like little rants and stuff like this, that's what they love the most. They're like, nobody ever says this type of stuff.

nice.

This is the real, I can tell them, hey, come on, y'all, let's get into chemistry, right? We're gonna get into chemistry today, we're gonna go into chemistry. They're like, ah. I'm like, y'all wanna talk business today? They're like, yes, yeah, they always wanna talk business. Like, that's all they wanna talk about. You know what I mean? Is the mindset stuff and this stuff and that, because they get, like, especially when we're in the information era, They can ask Jack, chat, GPT stats all day long, but they want real, personalized, the rawness I think people enjoy about me, even online.

People are like, yo, you're very transparent. I feel you when you talk, right? And maybe that's a gift from God. I don't think I've developed any of that. It's just, I've really done the work for 19 years. And everything I speak on, I've actually done. I don't speak on things that I don't know about. It just, doesn't serve me in any way to try to act like I'm somebody I'm not. I just, I've done the work, man. And...

They know that, they feel that, they see that. And I think it just, it allows people to respect you before you even open your mouth. I think one of the things I've learned over the years is like when who you are says so much, you don't have to say anything, right? So it's like, even when I do speak, it's like, you know, to them, it's, they love it, man. They enjoy it. And I have an incredible culture at the school, man. And I thank them guys every day and these ladies too.

They allow me to lead them. You know what mean? And they know I'm gonna make sure they're wrong. I'm gonna make sure they're

Okay, so the current owner has owned the shop since 1961 and does nothing but walk-ins and is clashing with doing appointments. Who's the shop owner?

All right, because if they're the shop owner and that's how they run the business out of respect, you have to do it their way. Right. Imagine if I come in your house and put my family picture on the wall, how would you feel? If he's paid the price to be the owner that has to be respected now in your own respect, you don't have to work there.

But to think you're going to make him change when that's what he's had success in is probably not going to be easy enough work and cause unnecessary friction.

Well, I think he said earlier, he said he inherited the shop.

so he owns the shop.

Yeah. Okay. is he still there? Because if the old owner is still there and the complete buyout hasn't taken place yet, that's going to be hard because he still has influence. Right? So you're going to have to just wait that out. And then once he fully retires and moves on, then you implement things your way and you have every right to do so.

But to think you're going to implement things your way when you just took over and he's been there since that long ago, that system is in the fabric and everything in there. You're not going to just watch that overnight and get it out. That's just in the mentality. That's the clientele you bought. And I would even tell you this, when you bought that,

Right? And he has that much influence and that's how those customers expect to be treated. You bought those clients with that expectation. So trying to change it this fast, I don't think is a wise decision. I would exercise patience and over time as you grow the clientele with the new generation, I think you'll be able to implement those things. But trying to get people that are that seasoned to conform, I think is going to cause you more head-to-head than it is actually production.

Is there a friction between walk-ins and appointments? I guess the walk-in customers might be like, what do mean I need to make an appointment? I can't just walk in? How would you handle that transition?

Well, honesty, right? Communication is to say, hey, I know this is how we've done things for the last 40 plus years here, but I have taken over ownership and I'm leading us into a more modern system. And it's very simple, very easy. I'll show you how to use it. I think it benefits you long-term or is that something you're open to? That's I would say to the customer. If they're like, no,

What about like

then I'm like, well, why not? Well, what if you wanted to keep

Sorry, what if you wanted to keep some walk-in appointments available? Would you consider maybe leaving certain times open? Or that might be, I could have a downside of you not being busy.

Guess

Yeah, I do that. I do that now. we always have to walk in. They're always welcome, but appointments will be preferred. So you don't mind waiting, then you can walk in. But appointments do take priority. So I'm not saying you have to do it our way. I'm just saying they are going to be priority if they have an appointment. So I want them to be misled thinking that you've been here waiting and that's what it is. But we'll do our best to service you.

you know, in which you're comfortable with. But we are taking a more modern day approach. But if we still value you, we still want you here, and we'll do our best to make sure you fit in. The blend is always the best side, because I have over like 40 walk-ins come in my shop a week, right? About 25 newbies and 20 returns as far as, you know, just shop clients at all locations. And that's what we do. We do appointments and they take priority.

but we're not gonna turn you away because you walked in. Every generation is different and we have to be conscious of that.

and do our best to service everybody. But I always think being able to communicate clearly and being honest with people up front and don't leave them in the dark and act like you don't see them, walk off and act like you're on the phone. Don't do all that goofiness. Just go straight to them with a courteous approach. Be respectful and make sure you tell them that you value them, but you are evolving as a business. I mean, most of them understand.

This

Nice, I love this. is so good. I know we're out of time. Are you cool with one more question from the audience? I got Mitchell Champ says, would you say professionalism is on the decline in the barber world, dress code wise, socially, etc.?

I got a lot of

yes, but I think it's just, it's not hard to change it. We just need our leaders to. People who have influence and people who are the leaders, if they change it, then I think we can change the direction. But if we don't speak to it and we don't value it, then I think it becomes a growing trend where people just don't care, right? But we need our people who are our leaders.

to lead the way. That's why I leadership is the most important. If our leaders lead that way, we'll follow that. Because the game in every industry is always about the influencers. It's always been about them. It always has been. It's like the NFL team, the quarterback, how they operate, how rest of the team operate, the best player on the team. The leaders in our industry, if they dress it up, I think we'll see more people dressing up.

Because people do what they're their with people who influence them do. It's the same in every industry. It's like your kids, right? You dress a certain way, guess what? Your kids gonna dress a certain way. More is when it comes to leadership, more is caught than talk. All right, we have to be the example we want to see. And if we can get more people to take the initiative to just dress it up and respond like a true professional, the more we'll see it. The more we promote it, the more you'll see it.

I love it. love it. This has been such a pleasure, Will. You know, like, to give everybody a context, I just hit you up, Will, and I was like talking to you, and you were so cool to like come on and, you know, do this with us. And it's been such a pleasure. I feel like you brought a lot of value to the audience and like you always do. And so thank you so much for coming on and doing this with me tonight. And I hope to do something again with you in the future.

Short thing, man, I appreciate you having me on. I said, people hit me up and I'm just like, hey, you know.

If I got time, I try to make time. At the end of the day, man, I'm here for the people and, you know, whatever that consists of at the time, whatever I have availability for, I try to make it work. I try not to waste my time. So make sure you, you know, how you address me and reach out and all that. I'm not, I'm not into the goofy business, right? You may, I may tell you get a couple of episodes under your belt, right? Before I hop on. But it's with respect. It's not, you know, it's not, it's not.

You know, I'm ignoring you or nothing like that. It's just, you know, my time is valuable. have a lot going on, but I definitely appreciate you having me on, man. You had great questions when you, when you, when you told me some of the questions you wanted to ask. So that, that made me excited. And I just tell people, man, if you want people to get on with you, man, just be prepared. Do the work on your, on your end. people just winging it sometimes. I'm like, I don't have time for that. So I thank you, man. I hope everybody on the law got value.

And like I said, I'm excited to move forward. If you are in the Atlanta, Georgia marketplace, I want you to check out my school, ProFresh Barber Academy. If you're looking to grow as a barber and become a licensed professional in the state of Georgia. And if you're just trying to come and get some more business insight and things of that nature, I'll be speaking. My first speaking engagement this year is January 25th right here in Atlanta, Georgia at the barber commissioner's event where we'll be going over.

structure systems and how to scale and grow your business effectively because growth comes with trauma, right? And you got to be structured and you got to have systems so you can withstand the trauma that comes with growth. Growth sounds sexy, but oftentimes, right? It comes with some struggle. And if you skip steps and you don't have structure and systems in place.

it could collapse on you. And that's the part that people don't talk about enough. So if you're out here in Atlanta or you're driving distance, come on out January 25th.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. And definitely check out your book. Tell us the name of it. You got it right there. Show us again.

What's in your hand by Will Stam. It's on Amazon. It's 20 bucks. If you ever see me in public, I will sign it. Right. And we sold about 940 copies. And I launched it on January 23rd. So we need 60 more to hit my goal of a thousand. Even if we don't hit it, man. The fact that I'm that close is just a phenomenal accomplishment, man. You know what mean?

The fact that I've been able to sell that many, man, it's really been surreal because I'm a talker, I'm not a writer. But I worked with my team and we put it together and it's a project that I'm super proud that I actually took the time to do the work and actually do it. I challenged myself in that way.

And everybody who's read it said it's been phenomenal. It's really inspired and really helped them. So if you're looking for, you know, little motivation and some inspiration and some guidance on how to actually get it done as a barber, I suggest you pick up what's in your hand.

Awesome. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure and an honor and thank you to our audience and I'll see you hopefully again in the near future.

Short thing, man, just send me a message, man. I'll keep you updated. Awesome. always, man, have a great day.

Thank you too.