Pioneering the Barber Industry and Promoting Financial Literacy: A Journey with OBS Founders, Steven Jackson and Carl Littles
Vegas CircleSeptember 22, 202300:33:1622.9 MB

Pioneering the Barber Industry and Promoting Financial Literacy: A Journey with OBS Founders, Steven Jackson and Carl Littles

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Ever wondered about the future of the barber industry and the role financial literacy plays in its growth? Join us on this intriguing journey with Steven Jackson and Carl Littles, the pioneering founders of the Original Barber School (OBS). In the midst of a pandemic, these two visionaries decided to build a barber school, making it not just a business but a platform to bridge the literacy gap and mentor young men. 

From the traditional art of hair cutting to the latest trends in nail grooming and skincare, discover how the barber industry has evolved. Steven and Carl share their insights on the importance of practical, in-person education and the irreplaceable energy of a bustling barbershop. You're sure to appreciate their experiences of starting their own clothing company and the hurdles they faced, especially in garnering respect for their venture from friends and family.

As we navigate through this episode, we delve into their strategic advertising approach of the Dean Nation Collective and the effects of the Super Bowl being held in Las Vegas on local businesses. Steven and Carl further share useful financial advice on budgeting, planning for unexpected expenses, and the crucial role of financial literacy in running a business. Not only this, but they also open up about their future plans, including the launch of their lifestyle brand and the opening of Carl's barber school. This conversation is packed with enlightening insights from two entrepreneurs making waves in the barber industry and beyond. Don't miss out!

Paki:

Welcome to Vegas Circle podcast with your host Pockey and Chris. We are people who are passionate about business, success and culture, and this is our platform that showcases people in our city who made it happen. On today's podcast, we're going to be discussing what it takes to build a barber school in a clothing company with the founders of original barber school in OBS, which is the original brand style. We're welcoming back Mr Steven Jackson and Carl Liddell's man, so great to have you all back, man.

Steven Jackson:

I appreciate how you guys been Good stuff.

Paki:

Styling man. We've been grinding man. We've been talking about everything offline man. So we got a since the time we've had you guys on. I think it was three years ago, I think it was in 2020, right there in the middle of the pandemic. Y'all been doing a lot since then, man. So let's first just jump into how you guys came up with this idea of the original barber school, this kind of like a story off of Martin.

Steven Jackson:

We got our. Both got our versions.

Carl Little:

Okay, okay.

Steven Jackson:

Yeah, See you dropping dropping.

Carl Little:

I had to figure out a way how I was going to get behind the chair. That was my one of my main concerns. Okay, being a barber, you know, you see the barbers get old and then slowly, you know, they start losing their clientele. Just do a change phase of life yeah, you know, styles change, whatever the case may be. So I thought about education. I was inspired by a couple of international educators in the country. I went back to barber school, became a licensed instructor, came back and I talked to Steven about potentially, you know, partnering up and putting a barber school in the state of Nevada.

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Okay.

Carl Little:

And businesses. You know Steve's very business oriented so you know he said let me see what you got, let me see. So I was looking at everything, lay everything out. He's seen it, he liked what he's seen. He already has multiple businesses. So this is a venture not only just, you know, helping a friend out, but also a good business venture for him. Yeah, and so we started moving forward as far as looking for buildings and so forth. We wanted to make sure that we built a culture around barbering and then now I'm going to let Steve go in there.

Steven Jackson:

Yeah, and actually he's pretty spot on. But I'll give a little bit more meat to that. Carl and I have been friends since high school and Carl have been cutting my hair for a very long time. And I would say me going to a vocational high school. I was kind of. I had exposure to the trades right. I went to school for drafting, I wanted to be an architect, but at that same vocational high school I had people doing Cosmo and my sisters. I had two sisters but one of my sisters actually is a beautician and she went to Cosmetology School.

Steven Jackson:

So in the midst of me having that exposure in high school and in fact for NFL happens, I started a nonprofit after the next family Jackson's and it was for children of literacy and it ties back to all of us being, if you're part of the school district or you live here. Now we all know the, the terror, the struggles that it has. And in the midst of knowing that and us being very proud of where we come from, we wanted to problem solve and it was just me living around the country. You know there's some of these areas like Boston and St Louis. Academics is just very high at Chivy, excellent, right, and for me to see that and see these kids like eight, nine years old, doing these wizard things. You know I'm like, oh so it's not just, it's not an age thing, you know, it's about the resources and putting into that. So, just like he said, you know he's thinking about excellent this being behind the chair. I'm thinking about excellent, the game of football.

Steven Jackson:

But I always knew that our bond was going to be something. Back home we give back to the community, with us both having a interest in educating and wanting to put the next generation ahead of us where we were at their age. We always want to give back and look back that today, whenever you know our casket drops the city, you know the city be like. Those two brothers did what they did. They did it and it's up to us to continue it. But you know we felt that our generation, that we're more than capable and more than willing to step up and be some of the guys up front. You know we're not everybody, but we know we were up front.

Paki:

That's awesome.

Chris :

That's fantastic. Both of you have business backgrounds right. You guys built businesses, done things in business.

Chris :

Once you transition to education, that seems like a very different type of field to be in, because now it's how can I give you the most? How can I also grow a business and make it profitable? But how am I really gonna teach you a skill? What kind of challenges do you run into when you move from that business, which is just cutting numbers, but now you're dealing with people and education and trying to develop, which seems to be a little bit different.

Steven Jackson:

Well, that's where he stands up, yeah.

Carl Little:

Yeah, I mean, you know, when you get so many different ages that are interested in the art of barbering, you know it challenges you as an educator. You gotta see so many different types of learning styles and you gotta make sure that you not only show them or educate them on what they should expect with the Nevada State Barber Exam, but also life skills. You know you got a lot of young men that they really need mentors 1000%, yeah. So, and I know that's one of the areas that we really wanna touch on, you know, dealing with the kids, not just dealing with the kids, but just building this relationship with the kids in the community in the state of Las Vegas. What is it in Las Vegas?

Paki:

That's the one thing that I love about the barber. Like, I'm originally from Chicago but I lived, like you said, in Boston, new England. The barber shop was like the hospital, especially in the black community. Right, you learn so much mentorship, you talk about everything, marriage, but not only that. It's becoming extremely profitable, right, like I was reading last year, I mean, the revenue for barber shops was well over $5 billion, which is gonna continue to keep going up. But I know it's tough, it's tough on your body and it's tough on that. But to be able to get that knowledge, you've been a master barber for over 20 years, right?

Carl Little:

You understand.

Paki:

Yes, sir, okay, so where do you see the barber industry going, like, where do you see that actual, because it's not hit a ceiling yet, it's continuing to keep getting better, but where do you see it going?

Carl Little:

Well, you know, now a lot of barbers wanted to touch on different services. What's now is nail grooming, right? So now they're tapping in on facials and skin care. You know they're touching on color and chemical texture services, so they're really working with their sheer mechanics, not just clipper mechanics now. So it's growing and you're seeing more demonstrators, you're seeing more educators, you're seeing more influencers. I mean, the barber industry is just growing tremendously and I love it. I love to see it, because we wanna see the industry evolve, right. Yeah, we just wanna make sure we're a part of it. Yeah, you know.

Paki:

And Vegas needs that. I mean, like you were saying, I mean you guys grew up here. I've been here for what? 15, 16 years and I love it and that's why you know Vegas, vegas Circle. I mean we're trying to show business owners and get people the platform to be able to share what they're doing, but you guys are helping them build the trade to make money and actually make a career for themselves, which is absolutely awesome. I mean I really applaud y'all for doing that, because that's extremely hard to do. Man. Like a chance to lighten, harder it is, you know you're just thinking about the stress that people are under 100% yeah.

Steven Jackson:

You know a majority of us are first generation only if you're able to make the wealth right. So now you've got, you're showering. You know your older generation and your younger generation. You're part of the sandwich. You know they call you the sandwich generation because you're trying to make sure that you're providing for the older and you feel the indeed they took care of you.

Steven Jackson:

But then you're younger, you're trying to create a path for it and I think so many people get stuck in this rut and they feel like you know, life is unfair or they just can't get their break. But a lot of times, you know, even if you don't choose to be a barber for 20, 30 years, you just need to be able to be able to provide for yourself till you find out what's next. And you know when me and Carl always talk about you know he's gonna teach them the process and how he wants them to go about. You know cutting a hair, servicing a client, you know. And then we also give them some backbone knowledge of just like day to day, how to run a business right.

Steven Jackson:

This is how you show up. This is how you should conduct yourself. If you know if this happened. You know check X, y and Z first, right? Or you know if you need to promote, are you coming in early and you leaving late, right? You can't just show up and thinking that because a guy's been in the shop for 10 years, you're gonna have the same clientele and demand that he or she does. There's no way that's gonna happen. You gotta put in the time and the hours, and that happens when no one's around, right? So coming from an athletics background, I could talk to that, and coming from the background of where he is, he could speak to that. I'd appreciate that, cause he's done it and I think you know. When you blend our two formulas, it just makes a lot of sense.

Paki:

Yeah, are you speaking to them about the financial literacy?

Steven Jackson:

I know we tapped them to that a little bit before, but it's hard to be able to budget it is. Lacarro does a great job of bringing guest speakers in.

Paki:

Okay, oh, that's all in the program Absolutely.

Chris :

Oh, that's what's up. Just to understand, when you're a barber, you are your own business, right? They rent the chair, or is it? They're an employee, like an hourly paid employee?

Steven Jackson:

It depends on how you run your shop, gotcha.

Chris :

Everybody's different. So when you're, if you are, an independent contract, that's where that personal business acumen comes in, where you know really, if I don't get nobody coming in to see me, I'm making no money, my hourly's gone. Yeah, gotcha, that makes sense.

Paki:

What would you say that separates you guys? That makes you more special than other barber schools out there being that you guys are kind of the up and coming for like the last year or two. What would you say separates you guys? I?

Steven Jackson:

would say me. This is what me observing my friend out there and maybe he gets you know paid me the compliment back. Yeah, I think Carl is so hands on. I think any entrepreneur right, anybody who's watching this any entrepreneur people watch you and the way you treat your business that's how they're going to treat it and the fact that they see Carl and I pushing it.

Steven Jackson:

They see us every day. They see Carl every day in the school. They see me online. They see me pushing. I could be on an interview in the NFL in some kind of way. I'm going to figure out how to say OBS. I'm going to figure out how to say original Barbershop right, and that's promotion, that's pubbing, that's just pushing and drumming the beat to what we want to do and that's ultimately help people find themselves.

Paki:

Yeah, talk a little bit about too, just backing that up and I want to cut you off Original, just in general, what that name means I know. Can you share that a little bit about?

Carl Little:

Well, it's not a duplicate of anything. You're your own individual and we want to make sure everybody shows their individuality when they're leaving our program. Everybody can have the same system, they can have the same work ethic, but you want to make sure that you stand out from the rest.

Paki:

Makes a lot of sense. Man and I never tap onto that, but I know he was sharing a little bit Anything that you wanted to add on there.

Carl Little:

No, he was dead and I know he realizes it. But at the same time, a lot of people don't realize how many times I get man. Steve is pushing that thing, he's pushing that thing. I said, man, he's like y'all pushing that thing. And really I say, man, you know what? We look at each other. I want to say four or five times a month and say let's keep going. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Paki:

Keep going, yeah, and you love this too, both of you. I can see a passion about it because of the fact that you're really trying to help people and really push the culture forward, which is awesome.

Carl Little:

It's awesome. Yeah, I'll tell you what it takes more than just one person. We're trying to build our team and we've got a good team around us, but we've got to make sure we just keep our hair straight. Yeah, that's the main thing.

Chris :

I just like to see a lot of these things about the internet and pushing on that end. But how do you prepare for some things that you may feel are going to disrupt you in the future, where you do see the internet and they're moving out of these schools that historically, never we feel like you need to be in person to teach barring, but at some point I feel like there is going to try to transition that online. Do you guys prepare for that, in a sense to try to get ahead of it, or is it?

Steven Jackson:

What do you mean? Online like an AI? It's a robot, no, just like an online education platform.

Chris :

Historically, real estate license. I couldn't go get one. Oh, they already have them already. Yeah, that's true With Zoom and teams.

Steven Jackson:

Yeah, but you could also go, and I'm not knocking anything. I mean, I was an online student, but you could go online and get a degree, but it's a difference.

Chris :

Yeah amazing.

Steven Jackson:

You know these Harvard's and Stanford's of the world right, they are able to charge the curriculum than that, because they provide a service and a premium in the education and the environment that you put your students in. That's how we feel about OBS. Right, we're just not a barber school. Yes, there are other barber schools in the state and in the city. But what we feel that we bring and what we are going to help you do over the 10-month program and as long as you associated with us, you give us a zero, you're going to get our offer much and I bet you you won't regret it.

Chris :

Yeah, I feel like it is one of those things. You do need to have that personal experience right you need somebody to teach you how to have a bedside manner lack of a better term. But somebody's going to teach you how to talk to people and be friendly.

Carl Little:

So one thing I tell my students all the time the only way you can learn how to cut hair is by cutting hair. You've got to be there, you've got to be there. I can't give you my muscle memory.

Carl Little:

I can go like this a million times but I've got to give you the tools and I want to say at least 99% of our students, once some type of license instructor is going to be right there and explain to them the dos and don'ts with a haircut, the dos and don'ts with safety and sanitation, with patron protection, right. So as far as online programs, you most likely can do something like that just for a written exam, but you still need the practical portion of your program.

Chris :

I went to the barbershop for the first time in my life not that long ago, maybe two weeks ago first time in my life.

Steven Jackson:

No, it wasn't ours, it was no, no, no, I see you on the camera.

Paki:

I'm going to say where you going. My hair goes back. Shut up, fuck.

Chris :

He's holding my back up. So originally yeah, fantastic job, really knocked it out of the park, but obviously I never did it before, so it was a new experience for me. But for me I've been doing my own forever Obviously not to your point, probably not doing the best job, doing it myself. So I went there and I picked the brain, Like, what are you doing differently? And I could start to gauge the feedback by you showing me as you're doing it, and that's a very different experience than seeing it online. Yeah, absolutely yeah hands.

Paki:

I don't think you can get the same online, just like when we laugh all the time about online. When we went during Zoom, I hated Zoom. You know doing interviews. I love being able to do this because you feel the energy being in the room and I've seen you do your videos and things like that. It's amazing. You feel the energy and the passion behind it and they need that customer service too, that you teach, and I've seen some of the things you've done. So now you guys do a blend of things, right. So you guys do the hair shows, the barber school and then you actually have the barber shop. What's the difference with the hair shows? Is that more of marketing, to kind of say what your brand is, or is that to bring the community together?

Carl Little:

The show is to provide continuous education for the barber community OK, and allow barbers to showcase their talent OK. We also have competitions as well. Ok, the competitive edge of barbers is there. Some people don't realize it, but in order to win a trophy, money, prizes and so forth product it's there. A lot of men in general have a competitive edge. So we provide different categories. But before we go too far, you forgot about OBS lifestyle closed.

Paki:

Yeah, we're going to get to that. We got you covered, man, we're going to jump into that. No, no, we're going to jump into that.

Carl Little:

But that's basically what it does. It allows barbers to network and then also it brings some of the beauticians, neltecs and so forth a lot of other beauty industry professionals to come together and just kind of hone their skills at a little bit and see what's going on, see where the trend is going. It's something that I was passionate about and it just helps all the way around. Yeah.

Paki:

No, I figured that we could bring all of that to the table, especially with your shirt. Let's start off by OBS with the shirt.

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Paki:

OK, well, what does that shirt?

Carl Little:

mean it's a local map of the city. Ok, and I'll let Steve tap you in, because he actually designed this one.

Chris :

Oh, that was awesome I like that one.

Carl Little:

That's what's up. Yes, ok.

Steven Jackson:

It's a branch. There's many people in the background.

Steven Jackson:

But we always try to do a little bit. We do things for fonts, and then we also going to give you guys graphics, and in the graphics there always going to be a double meaning behind it. We love hip hop, we're fans of music, we love art, and anytime you can make somebody stand still and think about something we all may have different perspectives it opens up a conversation and you never know where that goes. And it goes right back to entrepreneur Exploring who's in the room, finding out who knows what and then trying to figure out how can we solve this issue together. That's what I'm always about.

Steven Jackson:

So the transit map is a map of Vegas and far too many people that come to Vegas never leave the Las Vegas strip. For one, right, yeah, you're right, for one, they never leave the strip. But if they do leave the strip, most of us stay in our areas. I'm from East Las Vegas and for a long time I only repped to East and I was very proud of that.

Steven Jackson:

And as you get older, right, you start having friends from other, different sides of the city. You just life takes on and you start to realize those guys or those people are just like me, right, and we're just separated by streets and blocks that we choose not to go down for whatever reason, but they still have the same ambitions. They still have the same things that they want to life, that I want in life, and that's what the Vegas transit map is for us. It's pushing ourselves to explore the city, get to know outside, get to know other areas of the city, but also how to rep it in a way that you just don't have. You know, welcome to Las Vegas on your chest, yeah.

Paki:

There's a lot behind, there's a lot of thought behind that's transit maps, yeah, yeah.

Chris :

That's Vegas, that's the whole thing.

Steven Jackson:

But like the, yeah, so we down, we stop right now.

Paki:

Yeah, no that's beautiful I saw when you did a video over it and I saw on the website man, that's awesome, that's a good statement to be able to have man that's powerful. Share a little bit about this. The Dean Nation Collective, you guys.

Steven Jackson:

Damn Nation, damn Nation, I'm sorry, Collective with your alma mater. No, I'm a mother Right right right.

Paki:

How did you guys make that happen?

Steven Jackson:

Yeah. So a year ago, when NIL was a big thing, I reached out to Carl. I said, carl, I think you know there's a play here. And I explained to him. I said, well, these student athletes, what they're looking for is X, y and Z, and we can provide that, you know. And in providing that is, I said hey, I just want to be able to sign off because we only do original in black and white. Can we do original in black and orange?

Steven Jackson:

Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, oregon I got you and you know he was like I'm cool with that. So we made a call down and made a pitch to the football program until I've led the program and said hey, you know, not only do we want to use the student athletes as models, but you know, we believe there's an education that could take place in this. Ok, and with me having, you know, being a student athlete and knowing what most student athletes are looking for, you know, there was some things that I knew in the weeds that we could provide.

Carl Little:

Yeah, we could provide. Yeah, it'd be fresh with it.

Steven Jackson:

It was something that we did a run last year and went really well. We're hoping to continue the partnership again. Unfortunately, right now the university's kind of trying to figure out what's happening because the Pac-12 is literally changing in front of us. Yeah, that's real. So you know it goes back to again being a business. You know you have to have one or two things in the iron and see what's going to catch fire.

Paki:

Yeah, it's real. Yeah, how do you guys advertise as far as you guys use your traditional advertising, social Like, what's your best piece of advertisement?

Steven Jackson:

Say social media word of mouth.

Paki:

Yeah, I say I get in the brand, obviously seeing people rock it too everywhere yeah.

Steven Jackson:

And then wherever you at. Yeah, we got to get more people to tag us when they rock it, though.

Ad:

We know we're selling it oh fuck.

Carl Little:

Now we heard that yeah, you guys tag, yeah, we do, yes, we do. We appreciate that yeah.

Paki:

That's real. No, I like what y'all doing. I mean I'm rocking it now. I like the hoodies and everything y'all did. It's definitely different and it's funny. When I'll be out at certain places people know it. They're like wait a minute, you know, and it's funny, man. So it's bringing y'all, bringing the community together with that service.

Chris :

And you have a nice spread at the top too, Like a whole little setup over there. Definitely check them out if you want to get some yeah.

Paki:

So you still have the I don't want to call it pop-up, but the actual barber shop. You still have the actual store in there. Yeah, we have a footprint.

Steven Jackson:

OK yeah, we have a footprint in the school, then in the shop. Ok, you know. Hopefully, as you know, we always trying to span, yeah, yeah yeah, Well, the clothing industry is extremely hard right it's very hard.

Paki:

When did you guys put this to play like when you actually launched it?

Steven Jackson:

When did that happen? When did that?

Paki:

happen, cause it's hard to do, man 2020. 2020, okay, so right in the pandemic, really literally.

Carl Little:

Yeah okay, yeah, we just knew that people wanted to still rep the brand but didn't want to wear they're not gonna want to wear the original barber shop or original barber school logo with the address in the back, not all the time, right, they'll probably wear it to the grocery store, you know, if they just moving to grooving, but if they want to have some type of touch with us, if they're going to the movies, if they're going to dinner, right, we figured, if we have a conversation piece, like Steven talked earlier, original. Oh man, you were in the original shirt, you were in the original. What is that?

Paki:

That's exactly what they say.

Carl Little:

yeah, it's funny, you ask because our barber, they got a clothing line OBS, and it would loop and then they'd say, okay, and then the graphic shirt, the rose, the transient map man, that's the cool shirt. Oh, it's funny, you ask, because we got the clothing. We got the clothing and it's all tied in and OBS is more fashionable. Every time I rock the OBS, the transitor of the rose, I'm going out. Yeah, I'm going out. I'm putting on some real dapper when I wear anything that has original on it, not the down play, but I'm moving through the city but I still have my professional look, my upkeep look. So we have a little bit of something for everything. That's what's up.

Paki:

What do you think is your biggest obstacle that you guys have dealt with building this clothing company, because it's extremely hard to be able to reinvent and come up with these new ideas.

Steven Jackson:

I'll keep it real, yeah, yeah, having your friends support you.

Paki:

Strange to support you. Steve, speak up my language, brother Strange, to support you, with no problem.

Steven Jackson:

It's having your friends right and wanting them to respect you and the business, and that's been the toughest challenge. Often, carl and I, we call each other and it's not that we watch to see if somebody's gonna support. It's just like did you see that? And he's like, yeah, I saw it. It's just like, okay, I ain't tripping Right, you know what I'm saying? It's just one of those kind of checkmate things, but we keep it moving. I don't wanna state that because I believe somebody's gonna watch this and going through that same thing and I'll just tell you that's normal. Keep going and eventually they'll get on or they get out the way.

Paki:

You, you speak at our language. You're a real man. I don't get what they're saying. I had a conversation with Glenn. You know International GT shout out to him Good brother man. You are 100% right. People always wanna hand out and they wanna favor, and it's funny, that's what I was telling you. I love that fact that I could pay and go buy y'all stuff, like I should come up there and do it, because that's what you're supposed to do.

Ad:

So we do it all with all the other products. Why not do it for y'all?

Paki:

I love that. You said that honestly of it. I wanna ask you just one question about football. How do you feel about Super Bowl being here? Oh, I'm excited Coming up in February. I'm excited.

Ad:

It's gonna be beautiful.

Steven Jackson:

It's gonna be beautiful being someone that's on the spearhead of, like kicking the door down and saying we have Vegas NFL talent in Vegas. I take really, really great pride and like, even when I see a kid maybe they're at University of Notre Dame or wherever Miami and you see a guy say I'm from Las Vegas, nevada, I feel that that's a part of my roots, that's a part of my tree right, and for a very long time a lot of people just looked at us as a transit city. When they have any talent here and UNLV would go and get you know LA's fourth, fifth pick, where you had guys that were very good football players but they just, for some other reason, didn't feel like they were good enough to play at D1 level. So now they're having the Super Bowl in our backyard. I recall, you know, there were times in NFL they didn't even wanna support. I had a free football camp but there was the stigma of gaming right.

Steven Jackson:

Yeah, a lot of problems, A lot of the problem was that to now have four to have Vegas Raiders to have a Super Bowl, the biggest game, the biggest sporting event in the year, here in your backyard, it'll show you how far we come as a city, and the athletes here show that not only we can't, we support a Super Bowl, but actually we might have somebody in the Super Bowl that's from here. It's pretty dope.

Paki:

Yeah, that's awesome, are you?

Steven Jackson:

gonna go, I will be in the building. Yeah, yeah, I will be in the building.

Paki:

Hopefully that'll be nice, gonna be fun. No, it's exciting to see that. I mean you've picked on a lot. Is that? Vegas Knights has shown that right? We're just gonna continue to keep getting better. You know about the expansion teams. The NBA is gonna be happening, so I love seeing what's happening with Vegas just to grow over the next, probably seven years or so. But for your perspective, what do you guys see happening with business-wise over the next? You know, five, 10 years in Vegas in general? Do you continue to see us continue to grow or oh, I see small businesses growing.

Carl Little:

Yeah, well, I mean, I think we're the fastest growing city in the country. Yeah, so I think longest we have the same self-driven, motivated young youth and they see entrepreneurs move, like me and Steven. I think they'll continue being inspired and they'll kick down the door right behind us.

Steven Jackson:

Yeah, that's awesome. I'll add to that. I believe he's right. I believe we will have that energy amongst the youth and the young entrepreneurs. But it's gonna take politicians and legislators to get on board. We can't just be a one show and I can't all be about gaming. We have to be able to share the pie and allow and trust that these young, these young small business people, will grow with the city. But at the same time as they diversify, they bring in the Teslas and all these batteries and all these other companies. Allow for the small business owner to do the same thing. Let us find our roots and figure out what people wanna do, and not necessarily be a 95 person.

Chris :

I think budget education is so important. Here we focus on developing that next round of town. It has to be right it's gonna be the leaders in our industries here.

Steven Jackson:

And guys like yourselves and other business, small business owners. That's leading the way we continue to have our success. It changed that conversation in Carson City right. It shows that it's proven.

Paki:

Yeah, true, I love it. Yeah, what would you say, with us being a business podcast? I know we asked you guys this before, but can you bless us? I bless our listeners with one gem of business advice if they're wanting to start their own business or they want to go to your barber school and make a career in barbering. What would you say to them?

Steven Jackson:

You want me to go?

Ad:

first yeah.

Steven Jackson:

Have a reserve, have a reserve ready. I don't think you know. A few people come to us and have been of interest like, hey, you know we really like what you guys are doing and you know you shoot a number and that number is exact number. You always need extra right, yeah, and the reason I say that is you know he alluded to early in the conversation when we started in 2020, we knew, like we knew we wanted to be in fashion, we knew we wouldn't be education. We knew all this thing, but the moment we bought our building, the world closed. Oh, that's right.

Chris :

We had a building empty for a year. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Steven Jackson:

And, fortunately enough for us, we had a reserve. That's scary man, but it's scary, yeah, that's what.

Paki:

I tell.

Steven Jackson:

Right, Because now you not only, not only are you sitting on a commercial building, but you are in the world of like dealing with the public.

Paki:

And at that time right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Steven Jackson:

I didn't even think about it, right, I just thought it was my advice, that's a very good statement.

Paki:

Yeah, what would you say, carl? I'll add to that in a second, but that's crazy.

Carl Little:

Yeah, If I have talking to any entrepreneur, young business person coming in the industry now oh man, build tough skin, Build some tough skin. It's going to be tough, it's you know, people going to turn on you. Drop off a dime.

Paki:

Oh yeah, yeah, they're going to Y'all speakers, y'all taking us to church man. That's the truth.

Carl Little:

Yeah, don't take none personal.

Paki:

Yeah, build tough skin, don't take none personal.

Carl Little:

And just look at every journey as a business journey. Yeah, it's just business, you know. So we, we got to protect what we're doing. We were protecting the OBS by any means, yeah.

Paki:

I'm happy you said I'll never forget this. I remember hearing this business man I spoke to back when I was probably 2021 years old and he always just said like welcome to life on planet Earth. And you got to look at human nature and people are crazy, yeah, and you don't know what they're going to be. So you just got to love them, love them from, but this is sometimes but you're right One of the percent, right, yeah, so transitioning a little bit. We always ask about restaurants, man, we got to get one gym from y'all man.

Paki:

So favorite restaurant in Vegas, especially being Las Vegans, give us a gym.

Carl Little:

I'm, I'm a go, I'm a go with. We just had dinner, that.

Paki:

but we can talk about like anything either. Either pop up high, you know holding the wall, whatever whatever's on your mind.

Carl Little:

We need that smoking fire often. Which one smoking fire?

Steven Jackson:

I haven't heard that one. It's a barbie. It's about a barbie school actually.

Ad:

Okay.

Steven Jackson:

Russell and Pekos.

Paki:

Okay.

Carl Little:

They got some blueberry sliders. Okay, that we probably take home. Oh easy, every time we yeah.

Steven Jackson:

My wife's like hey, can you breathe?

Carl Little:

Okay, that's a gym, but we do it, I mean for our birthday. We have a group of friends that we kind of bounce around Some steak houses in the city and we just went to one. Steve actually changed changed the Schedule on us a little bit and I'm glad he did, because we were going to Cleveland there.

Steven Jackson:

Cleaver Other one we just went to in resource world.

Paki:

I can't figure the name yeah okay, two good three, great one, but the first one you said the barbecue spot.

Carl Little:

What was that? One more time smoking fire, fire. I'm into the other two already.

Paki:

But smoke a fire. I'm gonna check out. I never heard of his work going to get the blueberry spot. Okay, that's the gym man. What else for y'all man? 2023? I know y'all been grinding man. What else? Y'all trying to finish up strong with 2023? Or what should we look for for next year?

Steven Jackson:

Well, you know we're gonna have a fall drop on the lifestyle brand stuff. You know we're going to bring that heat in the clothing wise. And then I think, carl, what he's doing with the school is amazing. Right now we don't have any openings, but you know, guys will in 2024 we're hoping that we have some more space available for new students. Okay, right now, you know, I think the the earliest you get a student to get in is November. Oh, that's, that's the. You know, that's the great job that he's doing over there. I'm leading the staff over there and our students are graduating and going on to have their own careers. A different barbershop, so various barbershops around the city. We always gonna continue to show love, but you know, for us, continue growth, man. We know we're not stopping.

Paki:

Yeah, that's what's up, man. Support y'all man. Anything else from a, leave us on car.

Carl Little:

No, just a tuning in OBS. We, yeah, we just gonna keep on going killing it yeah.

Paki:

I'm gonna call y'all the original brothers. Man, I support what y'all doing seriously, man straight. I Do want to say one last thing.

Steven Jackson:

I have this shirt on the rose and it's meeting, really getting to the depths of it. But it's about giving people their flowers while they're alive. And you know, unfortunately I left the shirts running from football practice.

Ad:

You good. I'm volunteering coaching right now high school.

Steven Jackson:

But you know we believe in giving their flowers and you guys are definitely giving our flowers. Over the last four or five years. You guys are up and operating and it's a blessing to be able to Reciprocate that and we just want to tell you we give it your flowers back to you as well.

Steven Jackson:

Not only are you guys giving a platform for us in our businesses, but to the various businesses that's on your show. I listen quite often. You guys do a pretty good job. Thank you, expose me to what's going on in the city as well.

Paki:

Thank you, brother, I mean appreciate that. Yeah, that means a lot man straight up. Yeah, I mean that really means a lot man. We just grinding just like y'all man and trying to figure out what we need to pivot and adapt and make better. So, appreciate y'all man, check us out at VegasRookercom and check these brothers out, man. So, thank you, appreciate it.

Ad:

Thank you, thank you.

Paki:

Yeah, good stuff, guys, really good stuff.