Sam Nolan is a six year industry veteran.

He's an artist, a barber, a shop manager and an educator.

Today we're going to hear all about his story, how he got to where he is and what he's thinking for next.

Welcome back to the Hairdresser Strong show.

My name is Robert Hughes and I am your host.

And today I'm with Sam Nolan.

How you doing today, Sam?

Hey, how's it going, everybody?

Pleasure to be here.

It's a pleasure to have you.

Get to give the audience some context.

I met Sam at Beauty Gives Back and shout out to Marea for making this magic happen.

We're still having conversations months later, which is awesome.

And if you don't know about Beauty Gives Back, please check it out.

It's in Chicago.

Maria is amazing and you definitely should go next year.

So I had the privilege of doing little mini interviews, exit interviews, if you will, of the people, the panelists who are on stage.

And Sam was one of them.

And we had a pre conversation.

You.

You.

I got a little peek inside into your story, but I didn't want to hear too much because I like hearing it for the first time on camera for, you know, really awesome and excitement to be truthful and authentic.

So why don't we start off with how did you get started?

Did you, did you go to school?

Did you do an apprenticeship program?

Tell us about, tell us how you got into it.

For sure, for sure.

So it's actually kind of a crazy story on how I got into barbering.

Honestly, I was fresh out of high school.

I didn't know what I wanted to do.

So I was just working, you know, normal jobs like everybody else does, like going to like, whatever Farm and Flea, McDonald's, whatever, whatever it was.

I was working at the time at a bowling alley and I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life.

So I was getting my haircut with my barber at the time, and I was asking him, like, how did you get into the industry?

Like, what did you, like, find so interesting about it?

And he said something along the lines of, like, well, I didn't really know what I wanted to do.

And it was something that kind of fell into my lap.

So I jumped with it.

And I took that as kind of inspiration because I was sick of being in the factories.

I was working at the time.

I was working at the bowling alley and I was working part time at a plastic injection molding place.

And anybody that's ever worked in a warehouse or a factory knows that they're not.

They're not ideal.

So I was kind of sick of it.

And I took that as inspiration.

So I looked up barber schools that were in the area, and there was one about 30 minutes away from my house at the time when I lived with my parents.

So I called them up.

I didn't know if I wanted to do it yet, so I called them at like, I don't know, 11, 11:30 at night.

And I was expecting just to leave my name and my number and have them call me back in the morning.

And I called and somebody answered.

And she goes, what the hell do you want now, Brian?

Sorry for my language.

And I'm like, whoa, what the heck?

Is this the barber school?

I was like, what's going on here?

And she starts apologiz, like, crazy story within the story.

Just really quick, just a little bit of context.

She was the director of the school, and for whatever reason, her personal number was online instead of the school's number.

And she was going through a divorce at the time, so she thought I was her husband calling her.

So she just answered the phone call, then was going to yell at him.

So I became kind of close with her, and she was really cool.

She helped me out through school.

But anyway, so I'm like, whoa, what the heck is going on?

Is this the barber school?

And she apologizes.

We talked for like 30, 45 minutes because she just wanted somebody to talk to at the time.

And at the end of the conversation, she basically convinced me to come in for a tour of the school the next day.

So I called my.

My boss, who was at the bowling alley at the time.

Like, I said, I was flipping between both of the jobs, and that day was at the bowling alley.

And I was like, hey, I got somewhere important.

I gotta go tomorrow.

Like, sorry, I'll come in late.

So I go to the school in the morning, and there's like a group of like 8 people.

Ish for the tour.

We're all kind of huddled together going through the school.

And at the end of the tour, everybody kind of leaves and I'm there.

She recognizes that I'm probably the one that she talked to, pulls me into her office, and she's like, what'd you think?

And I'm like, oh, you know, it's.

It's not that bad.

She's like, okay, cool, you should join.

And I'm like, okay.

So I went in with no experience.

I never cut hair before.

Didn't know what I wanted to do with my life.

And barbering kind of, in a way, found Me instead of me finding barbering.

So it sounds cliche, but that's.

That's the story.

That's how it happened.

I love that.

So.

So no.

Nadia, did you ever cut your own hair?

I mean, no experience at all.

The only experience I ever had in high school, I couldn't grow a beard.

I got an okay beard now, and all I could grow is a neck beard just on the bottom.

So I had this sideburn area that went into my jawline and I had a chin strap because that's what every baseball player does in high school.

So that's what I did.

And that was the only barbering experience that I had, was cleaning up my own facial hair.

That's it.

That's funny.

Okay, awesome.

Well, I look.

You have a pretty awesome beard, by the way.

It's not too bad, right?

It's okay.

It's pretty epic, actually.

It's pretty good.

I appreciate that.

It's like four years in the making now, so I hope it's okay.

Okay, so anybody watching wants to know how long that takes?

4 years right there.

I didn't even know.

I didn't know how long.

I think I'm just unlucky, honestly.

I don't think it grows anymore because you know how you lose hair every day?

You shed like, like 100 strands.

Ish.

I think I'm just losing hair at the same, same rate that it grows, so I don't notice it getting any longer.

I think I'm stuck.

So it's been like this now for like a year and a half?

Well, the problem with the big beards, in my opinion, is like when you get ZZ Top, like, and it gets real stringy on the bottom, you know, so like, yours is still full as long as it is.

And I feel like if you're gonna get stringy on it, you gotta like go for it, you know what I mean?

Oh, yeah, for sure, for sure.

Okay, so back to your story.

So you, you go to school, you get this, you get this support and you build in relationships and, and you've never been.

You never really, you know, have no experience.

You go through barber school.

Just out of curiosity, was this something that just, like was super easy?

Did you have to, like, put in a lot of extra work effort or did it come naturally?

I'm curious.

For sure.

So, I mean, nothing's easy, you know, you got to make sacrifices some way or another.

And with barber school for me, I had to make a lot of sacrifices with my time especially.

I committed and was full time student Right away, full time student is 1500 hours.

And if you're not missing a single day, you can graduate in like nine to 10 months.

I graduated in about 11, so a little bit shorter than I wanted or a little bit longer than I wanted to.

But my school was a cosmetology school that had a barber program.

So it wasn't a barber school.

And kind of a hot take.

But I know everybody that talks about their school, they say, oh, I never learned anything.

I feel like that's more or less your perspective on whether or not you take in information from the school.

My school didn't have a barber teacher for eight months that I was in the program.

The barber teacher that was there was a cosmetologist that got her barber's license later and she quit.

Only like two months of me being in school.

And then the way my school worked was it was four months in the classroom learning men's hair, women's hair, spas, like facials, and then it was color.

So I learned how to do everything.

I can do everything.

I'm certified and know how to do everything.

But right before I got on the floor to actually start taking clients, my teacher actually quit.

And I didn't get a teacher for.

So that was four months.

And I didn't get a teacher for four months while I was on the floor.

So eight months in total.

So when people say they didn't learn anything, I literally didn't learn anything.

I had to learn everything off of my phone or I had to learn everything off of the other girls that were doing color or the other guys that were in the barber program before me.

So I didn't learn anything from the school, but I still took in the information that I could to learn what I could.

Wow.

So definitely school.

I mean, it's.

It's a pain anyways, you know what I mean?

Nobody wants to go through it, but yeah, my time, I was working two different jobs, actually three.

I was working three different jobs.

I was cutting hair on the side.

I was going to school full time.

I mean, I was doing, I mean, no joke, probably like 80, 90 hours a week just with school, cutting, hair work.

I mean, literally all I would do, sometimes I wouldn't even go to sleep, and I would go to school, clock in and take a nap in my car.

Wow.

So everybody has sacrifices that they got to make.

It's whether or not you really want it.

And this is one of those industries that kind of you can tell if you want it or not pretty quick.

Totally, totally.

Okay, cool.

I mean, this is.

All right.

So this is good.

What?

Okay, so you're going to school, you're working, you're doing hair.

So you get out of school and then what?

Oh, geez.

So backtrack.

I was still in school, so I didn't have a teacher for eight months.

Finally I get a barber teacher that's an actual barber.

And I was very close to dropping out of school because I was at that point where I'm like, I'm not learning nothing and I'm sick of it.

This barber comes in and he's an actual barber that works at a shop.

He's a six figure barber, so he knows what he's talking about.

And he was kind of quizzing me and seeing what I was kind of up to, because he could tell that I was kind of one of those kids that kind of like stood in the back or didn't pay attention because I was over it.

I was done.

And he kind of picked on me a little bit.

And it got me thinking, like, okay, maybe this guy cares.

So I started getting to know him a little bit more.

And he actually lined me up with a position in a shop that was 40 minutes from my house at the time.

And he was talking to the owner there who was really close with, and he was like, hey, I got a guy that's coming out of barber school.

He knows what he's doing if you want to give him a chance.

So right out of barber school, I was still working in my hometown, but I was talking to that friend of his that he was mentioning.

And that's how I had a little bit of an outlet making that connection with my barber teacher that finally, my finally barber teacher to be able to have some sort of job outside of the.

Outside of school once I freshly got out.

Nice.

Nice.

That's awesome.

So you had some relationships early on that kind of stayed with you.

I mean, you're still talking like the, the woman from the school and this educator turned, you know, that turned into a job.

So how long were you.

Was.

So something that the audience may or may not know is how is commission work for a barber?

Is that common or is that uncommon?

Are they.

Are most barbers booth rent?

Booth rental?

Yeah, I'd say like probably a good 75 to 80, probably, maybe even more are booth rent.

So how do you do that straight out of school?

You don't.

That's.

That's the problem.

You got to figure it out.

So I was working at a shop in my hometown right out of school while I Was still in school.

I was working at a shop in my hometown.

And that wasn't really a barber shop.

It was more of like a chop shop.

My dad actually was co workers with the investor of the shop.

So it was kind of just a random whatever.

My dad was talking about me going to school and he was like, oh, I might have a job for him.

So that's how I got into my first, very first shop.

And it was a chop shop.

It wasn't a good location when it came to quality, but we got people in and out.

I would cut like before I quit and I started getting busier.

I would cut like four people in an hour.

But they weren't good quality haircuts.

You know, I'm only charging like 15, 20 bucks.

So I mean, if you get four people in an hour, you're making like 60, 80 bucks an hour.

But you got to put in the work.

So how I paid for rent, that place was actually commissioned.

My first shop that I worked at was actually commissioned.

So that helped me out in the beginning because I didn't have to come up with 300 bucks a week.

I would cut three people in a week and he would take 30%.

So it was really good.

For commission based shops, when you're in the beginning or salons, it doesn't, you know, they're relatively.

It all translates.

You know, commission in the beginning is really good because you're not busy.

Once you start making more money, you don't want to be on commission.

Because if you're cutting 50 people a week, you know, making 50 bucks an hour, now you're losing, you know, 40% of your income.

That's a lot of money compared to only doing four people a week.

So to piggyback off of what you said, how I did it, when I went to Elgin, that was the shop that I was working at.

From my.

My educator's connection, my educator's friend.

I was working there for about a year and that was booth rent.

And right away it was.

I can't remember how much it was.

Off the top of my head, I think it was 250 a week, ish, give or take.

And it was right away.

So I had to go to a place where I didn't have clientele.

I was restarting my clientele cause I was 45 minutes away from my hometown.

So I had people coming to the shop from my hometown, but not as much as I thought would.

So what I had to do was I had to be part time.

I had to slowly develop my clientele over there while I'm still working over here, maintaining at least a steady ish stream of income until I could start kind of like transitioning and pivoting.

Everybody be like, hey, I'm gonna go over here.

You know, maybe I'd be like two days in Elgin, five days in my hometown, and it would start to, you know, switch over.

Then I'd be like, maybe, you know, three days here, three days here, two days here.

Now it's four days here.

You know what I mean?

So that's what I had to do.

I wasn't able to afford it in the beginning.

And sometimes you get lucky and you have a shop that has a lot of walk in clientele and that's when it's really nice for booth rent because you're able to get instant money and you can pay for it.

But the problem with that location is they weren't my clients, they were the shop's clients.

So I had to build my name out there.

So I couldn't afford it in the beginning.

I had, you know, this income would pay for this location until I had enough money to fully transition over there.

Like guaranteed, more or less guaranteed income.

That's.

I like, that's a smart way to do it.

It sounds like a lot more work, but it also sounds seamless, lower risk.

I'm like, when it comes to money and cash flow, I like, I don't know if you've ever heard, like, have it had a conversation like, what would you do if you won the lottery?

And.

And people, like, I think people think very much, like, I want like a.

This large sum of money.

I don't want a large sum of money.

I just want consistent, positive cash flow, you know.

And so for me to think of like stopping and starting somewh else, I'm like, oh my gosh.

Like that sounds.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

I did it twice, actually.

That was the first time I did it.

So.

So what was the time?

So, okay, so tell us about that.

So, so from the time you, you made the switch, one, first question, how long did that take to do that, that, that transition?

And then two, how long were you at this barber shop before you went on to the next one?

For sure, for sure.

So it wasn't really a choice to move.

So I'm gonna kind of get into there.

And I have no grudges whatsoever.

If he ever watches this, the owner of the shop, I'm still very cool with him.

He's a, he's a wonderful person.

So I don't have any Gripes with him whatsoever.

Just to clarify.

So it took me about, I'd say, eight months to a year to fully start getting noticeably booked and consistent money.

So I went from, you know, like I said, I'd be there maybe like two days a week and like four days a week over in my hometown.

And then it would.

Slowly I'd start to get to the point where I only have, like, two days here, four days here, and then I had no days here, and now I'm only in Elgin.

So it took me about.

I'd say on to speed, be safe.

About a year.

Took me about a year to do that.

But like you said, it's.

It's also safer.

It's less risk instead of just jumping ship and going.

I did that for about 4ish months, and then I got hurt.

So this is where it made me kind of.

I had to switch.

I actually was giving this guy a hot towel shave.

I was shaving the bottom of his neck, and I dropped my razor, and out of reaction, I tried to catch it.

So when I did that, I snapped a tendon in my finger and I had to have emergency surgery.

That's a whole nother story on how crazy that whole situation was.

Hold on, Wait.

Okay, but how long did.

Wait.

How long were you out of commission for?

And which hand.

Was it your cutting hand?

Like, yeah, of course it is.

Oh, no.

How long did you.

Were you out of work?

So I was out of work for six months because I had to have surgery twice.

You can.

Yeah, you can actually see if I, like, hold my hand up here, I can't really bend that ring finger.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah.

And that's, of course, the finger that you hold your shears with, too.

So that was a little bit of an adjustment.

So.

Oh, my gosh.

So what did you do for six months?

So.

Oh, man.

This is where, like, you know, when I was talking about in school, like, sacrificing.

This is where, like, I thought I became a barber when I was out of school.

This is the story that really made me become a barber.

Like, really made me become a barber.

Because when I hurt myself when I was out in Elgin, basically, I went through this fight with my insurance to be able to get my surgery and to, like, not, like, bore it and make it too long.

I got the surgery, like, a day before.

It's like, the critical, like, cutoff point between getting your tendon repaired because they only have a certain amount of time.

The.

The tendons and ligaments, they start rotting away, like, instantly.

As soon as they're severed.

Because your body will try to, like, basically throw the energy elsewhere.

Wow.

Yeah.

It considers it, like, if it's severed, your body thinks it's basically amputated, basically.

So it's like, screw it.

I'll just go.

I'll just go help something else.

Okay.

So you have, like, a week.

And I got my surgery, like, last minute.

So I'm stressed, I'm anxious.

I finally get the surgery.

I'm in recovery for about three months, and I'm starting to do physical therapy.

And I'm in this, like, calf sling where my hands like, kind of like this.

So that way I couldn't move my fingers at all because they don't want you to stress it at all.

And I must have had a nightmare or something in my sleep, and I made a fist, and I snapped it again.

Oh, my God.

So I needed to have surgery again.

And this was all during COVID Okay.

So everybody knows that everybody got all depressed and money was tight and everything.

During COVID It was.

It was a terrible time.

So I went from thinking I landed my dream job in a barbershop to potentially losing my entire career all within, you know, overnight.

Overnight, pretty much.

That's rough, man.

So, no, don't be sorry.

It was actually, I.

I almost look forward to talking about this story because it definitely made me the person that I am.

I'm way more appreciative of things that I have, especially within my career now.

But, yeah, so I went through recovery for a total of six months, and I had nothing to do.

And I had hope that I was going to still be able to cut hair.

I haven't cut hair in six months.

So I turned my parents basement into a studio.

I bought a pool table, and I bought a nice barber chair.

I ripped out the kitchen because we had, like, basically the.

The setup, the layout of the house was everything on the upstairs was on the downstairs.

So there was like, two living rooms, two kitchens, two bathrooms, two sets of bedrooms.

So I got rid of the kitchen on the basement, and I turned it into a studio.

Like, I got a barber chair, got the mirrors, got the lights.

I turned the living room into a waiting area.

And this was me hoping that I could cut hair again.

I was like, I'm just.

I'm just, you know, gonna hope that it is.

And I got.

I got super scared that I wasn't gonna be able to.

And actually, my first, like, four haircuts after I was out of recovery took me like, three hours because I had to learn how to like hold clippers again, how to hold shears again.

Wow.

How to, how to use the razor again.

I say that this is the story that really made me become a barber because I learned that people appreciate or you gotta, you gotta learn what people value.

And I value, be able to use my hands.

So it taught me like, oh, these are like, these are super important.

You know what I mean?

And some people value silence in their haircut.

They want to just relax.

Some people value having a good conversation because you're like a therapist to them.

Some people value you taking an extra five minutes to detail a haircut.

And some people just want to get in and out as quick as possible.

So when I learned that I was able to appreciate what I had and give them what they wanted.

And that's what really made me become a barber because I was able to appreciate still being able to do the craft and I was able to even more appreciate people still coming to me because of that.

Yeah, it was a, it was a rough, a rough patch there.

I was a lot of, a lot of soul finding and self discovery there.

But it worked out.

I'm very grateful.

Yeah.

So first of all, excuse my reaction.

I'm squeamish.

So like, you're good, you're good.

That's why I feel all weird and stuff.

That's why I spared the details.

Well, I'm glad you, I'm so happy that you sharing this.

So.

All right, so what I'm, what I'm thinking is about like and I, I mean a number of things.

One, this is a con, this is a whole, is like an incredible reason to like have an emergency fund, have short term disability, have health insurance, like all these things.

And it sounds like you had health insurance, so thank goodness.

Yeah, I had, I had government aid at the time because us being self employed, you don't have insurance.

So I went through, it was free at the time because I was still living with my parents and I was young enough.

But now it's, I gotta, I gotta do it, you know, a little bit more differently.

It's a little bit more intricate and expensive.

Adulting is fun.

Adulting.

I just gotta, I, we just like, we qualify for some income based health insurance here in D.C.

i mean it's not, it's not like, it's not like the lowest, it's just a discount because of our income.

And my wife, she's full time for hairdresser strong.

So like we're on one income and they said the full price was a thousand dollars a Month.

I was like, yo, what?

That's insane.

Oh, my gosh.

So anyway, we don't have to go down that rabbit hole, but.

But yeah, so insurance, life and health insurance, short term disability insurance.

Start building up that emergency fund.

That's the.

That's the hairdresser.

Strong message plugged into your story right there.

Because, man.

Wow.

Okay, so the mental health aspect of it, though, you didn't really talk.

I mean, you met, you brought, you touched on it.

But, like, like you said you were worried you might not be able to do hair.

A hair again.

And it was during COVID So, like, I mean, I guess the recovery of the surgery and Covid, like, tell us, like, how did that line up?

Like in a pot at least.

Is there some positive thing there, like, where you were like, oh, no one was getting their hair done anyway while I was recovering, like, what is the timeline of that, of this surgery?

And.

And Covid, timing wise, it actually sucked because during COVID I was actually, financially, I was doing very good because I was the only barber in my hometown cutting hair.

Everybody was scared to do it.

And I just.

I took the extra precautions.

I booked everybody out for an extra 30 minutes.

I wore a mask, I wore a glove, or I wore a mask, I wore gloves.

And I told all my customers that, hey, I'm going to keep doing this.

If you don't feel comfortable, I understand.

But I need to make money because at the time, we weren't deemed essential.

So I didn't get unemployment, so I still needed to make money to pay my bills.

I had, you know, I had a car payment, I had insurance, I had credit card bills.

I had, you know, I had to pay my.

My rent.

I.

You know, all that.

So I had to take care of everything.

So I didn't stop cutting hair.

And fortunately, I was able to take advantage of COVID because new customers, I would charge them like, 150 bucks a haircut because I didn't know whether or not it would be safe for me to even bring somebody new into my home to be able to cut hair in that studio.

You know what I mean?

So it was actually pretty fortunate for me financially.

So when that injury happened, it was.

I mean, I had.

Like you said, I had an emergency fund.

I had a safety net.

So it wasn't terribly financially.

I basically broke even after all that.

So I made a lot of money during the epidemic, but then I lost it all because of my recovery, because I had six months where I had to pay for everything that I wasn't working For.

Okay.

All right.

So, yeah, it was.

It was.

It was definitely a scary time, but it ended up working out pretty well.

Like, I got pretty lucky, like, timing wise.

Yeah.

I mean, thank goodness you were smart enough to not just blow all that money that you were making, you know?

Oh, man.

So.

Okay.

All right.

That's intense.

Like, I had.

I had neck surgery, double neck surgery.

And it was like, right after, like, a year after my wife and I got married, and it was 20, 21.

And so, like, right.

Like, right after COVID lockdowns let up, and all I could think of is, like, I don't have to get this surgery now.

But it was, like, bad.

Like, they were like, it's debatable.

Like, I've had people tell me I didn't need to get surgery, but based on all the information I had in the eight doctors that I talked to, they all said yes and get the surgery now.

But let's.

So let's just say I had to get it right, but I didn't have to get it right now.

I could have waited.

And it's like, how long?

It's like, well, you'll know because you're like, just start peeing yourself or pooping yourself or, like, won't be able to walk, you know, and it's like, what?

No.

You know, and so I was thinking, like, I'm not going to let my wife, like, I'm not going to wait and then I have kids and then end up getting the surgery, and then you not be able to help my wife with the kids.

You know what I mean?

I was like, let.

Let.

Let her be able to decide whether or not she wants to have kids with me after I get this surgery and see what's going to happen.

I was like, legit.

Like, I don't know what I'm going to do with my life, you know?

So I can't imagine, like, that was.

You know, that was my neck, and that made sense.

But like, like, your hand, like you said, like, I can't cut hair with.

I need.

I need.

I need my right hand more than anything.

You know what I mean?

Well, I'd argue you almost can't cut hair without your neck and back.

That's more vital than your hand.

You can learn to cut hair with the other hand, if anything.

True.

Was it like a.

Like a herniated disc type of thing or was it bulging discs?

Yeah, there were.

I think.

I guess the word is hernia.

I think that was herniated.

I had two disc, two replacements, and one Fusion.

Okay.

Okay.

So I'm actually kind of going through the same thing right now.

And I would say that it's more beneficial to take care of your body.

That's.

That's probably a good topic too, taking care of your body, because that is your money maker.

My bottom two bottom three vertebrae, bottom two discs, my L4, L5, I'm pretty sure are actually herniated.

They're hitting.

They're hitting the nerve.

And every so often I'll throw my back out like once a year, and it's like, okay, guys, sorry.

I'll be back in like two months.

I'll be back in like a month, you know, whatever it is.

So I completely understand that.

And they were offering me surgery for the same thing.

They, they wanted to do a fusion because it's like, pretty much a guaranteed, like, fix, but you have no mobility.

And then they were offering doing.

I forgot what it's called.

It's something.

Something sectomy, where it's like they cut away the bulging part and they stitch it back up so that way you still have your disc instead of replacing the disc.

Oh, I didn't know.

Hear about that.

Either way, I'm good.

It's.

I don't want to.

Not yet.

Not yet.

I'm 26.

I want to have back surgery yet.

Well, I think you know David and Jenny from Industry Aligned.

If you don't know who they are, you should check them out.

And you're in Illinois, right?

Are you.

How far from Chicago are you?

I'm like 30ish minutes from this.

From the city.

I can see the skyline just from like five minutes away from me.

So they actually, I think they just moved from Illinois.

But regardless, you should check out Industry Alliance.

I'll.

I'll.

I'll shoot you that information.

And everybody on the show, like, yes, we're talking about.

You probably didn't expect this.

I didn't either.

But this is such a valuable conversation.

We're gonna back to Sam's story in just a second.

But Industry Aligned, everybody check it out.

Because you.

They teach you.

The story that I got was Jenny had a herniated disc and she un.

Herniated it.

I didn't even know was a thing.

Like, naturally.

Oh.

Huh.

Like naturally through, like a lot of.

With David, he worked with her and through movement.

It's like healing through movement in motion.

And.

And he was able to unhernate it.

Like, I.

I don't remember what the number was, but it was high.

It was like.

I forget what the percentage was before but it was like over 80 of the disc had kind of, like, gone back in to where it's supposed to be.

I didn't even know that was a thing, but it makes sense.

It's like it herniated because of something you did.

So if you can recreate and reverse it, you able to get it back.

This is not medical advice.

Do not go see a doctor.

That's fair.

That's fair.

Anybody listening and talking?

We are not doctors, but these are just our.

I mean, I'm doctor fades, you know, that was one of my Halloween.

That's about it.

Okay, so let's kind of pick back up.

All right, so you.

You go through all of this.

Your story leads you up to where now you're.

You're doing hair out of your studio and.

And then from there.

Tell us your story from there to where you're at now.

Okay, for sure.

So right after recovery, and I started cutting hair in my studio again.

I only was cutting, like, my really good friends at the time, because I knew that I was probably gonna butcher them because I was not used to my hand whatsoever after the recovery.

I mean, I'm just being honest.

I messed up a lot of haircuts.

Right.

When I was done, I felt like I was just getting out of barber school because I had to relearn how to use my hand, especially my shears.

You know, people that, like, use their shears and they, like, flip it, you know, like, I think they call it, like, European style.

When I would do that, I would throw them because my.

My finger that I hold the shears, and I'm so used to, you know, grabbing it, and I couldn't.

I would just.

Just throw it.

And I'm like, okay.

So I had to learn how to do that again, like a kind of a different way.

Ish.

Anyways, to piggyback off of the story that I had with school where I didn't have a teacher, this is where that kind of picks up from this.

That relationship that I developed with my educator at the time.

I got really close with him.

He's a really good man.

And he actually was opening up a shop around the same time that I got hurt.

And I was talking to him about what was going on, and I was like, hey, what do you think?

I got a little bit of ahead of myself.

My apologies.

He was actually working at a shop that I was trying to work with him, and he offered me a job.

Everything was fine.

And then he called me up, and he's like, hey, I'm actually Opening up a location, like how do you feel about coming over here?

You're going to have to basically restart your clientele anyways because I was going to be now going to.

It's called Carol Stream is the town that I'm in.

So from my hometown to Carol Stream, it's about an hour and a half.

And from the shop that I was going to work on, it was like an hour and 25 minutes.

So it's like a five minute more drive.

If I'm already driving that far, I figured I might as well work with somebody that I like.

So my mentor, I consider my mentor, he offered me a job at the location that he was opening up at.

And I just started out as just a walk in barber cut there now for four years.

We were four years November, so four years anniversary now very recently and took me about by the way.

Thank you, thank you, appreciate that.

So, yeah, so that's basically how I got the location, I got the job.

The gig that I'm at now was I was just talking to him, I kept that relationship going.

And he was like, actually, do you want a job?

And I'm like, yeah, I don't got anywhere else to go.

So I was like, dang.

Yeah, you're dang right.

I want a job.

So then I started working for him and I, I'm not gonna lie, I busted my ass off to be able to get to the point where I'm at with my clientele advertising every day, offering constant, constant incentives.

I was offering free haircuts if they brought in a friend, if they did a review, if they posted me on their Instagram.

You were talking about how social media is a big change with, with the industry.

I would, I would always take a photo of them and I'd post it and I'd be like, hey, repost me.

And I got you on half off.

I would do constant incentives, like hey, bring me three people and you know, I'll give one of them for free.

And like I'll just, I'll just balance out the.

Or I'll, I'll average out the difference.

So that way they get a discount, you give some free haircuts.

So I was constantly giving people these, these incentives to be able to come back.

And on top of that, the shop I think was charging $30 at the time.

When we first opened up, I was charging 20.

And then when they went up to 40, I was at 30.

And now I, then I got booked, it went to 40, now I'm at 50.

So I was constantly, you Know that revolving door just trying to get in people constantly.

And I busted my ass off to be able to get to where I'm at.

But that's something that a lot of people don't do within the industry.

They don't realize that they, it's.

It's a lot of work to get, you know, to get busy.

They see like their favorite co worker or their owner or whatever, and they see that they're killing it.

They're making a lot of money, but they don't see the sacrifice that they made to get.

Get there.

They think that it was just handed to them.

Totally.

So how long did that take actually for you to build that clientele with the putting in that grind, incentivizing rich repeat visits?

Like, how long?

Like how long from then to now are we talk?

Or.

Or from then to the point where you were like, raising your prices because you were busy.

Raise your prices.

So it took me a solid six to eight months.

It didn't take me a long time.

Oh, wow.

No.

So you were really pushing it.

Yeah, I was.

Every time that I wasn't cutting hair, I'm fortunate enough that we have like a liquor store right next to the shop.

So I would just stand outside of the shop.

Even if it was snowing, I didn't care.

And everybody that pulled up, I'd make a conversation with them, make a, give them a business card.

And every time they hit me with, I have a barber, I'd be like, okay, cool.

If he's ever busy, let me know.

Or if they'd be like, oh, like, I don't get my haircut, like they're bald or something.

I'd be like, oh, I could do your beard.

Or they, they'd be clean shaven and they'd be like, oh, like, you know, I'm not really into that.

I go to Great Clips, I'm like, all right, maybe your son is interested.

Like, I would always follow it up with something.

I would, I would give them that business card.

I didn't care.

I'd give them that business card.

So, yeah, it took me about six to eight months to get completely booked.

And I mean, not booked as in the.

Where like, people think I'm booked out like months in advance, but I'm booked out like, probably like a week or two in advance.

Every week though.

Like all my guys, I book them in after their, after their haircut.

That was another strategy that I did.

I would be like, hey, people like what they don't have.

So I would, I would lie not Encourage you guys to lie, but maybe maybe fib a little bit in the industry.

I would be like, hey, my sponsors filling up.

You want me to.

You want me to book you in for your next appointment so that way we can lock it in.

You have a routine.

I see my schedule.

It's a win, win.

And people would be like, oh, wow, you're already getting booked up.

Yeah, yeah, I'll book a book.

And it's like, you do that for everybody and eventually you have a booked out schedule.

So it's just your clientele's built up one walk in at a time, and eventually you get, you know, the walk ins that stay.

And those are your reoccurring guys.

And those reoccurring guys will bring in their brothers.

I don't know, maybe they go to church, they'll bring all of them, they'll bring their friends, whatever.

You know what I mean?

There's every client.

If you're able to get one person from that client, I mean, it's just a compound, you know, compound factor.

Just you're constantly building and yeah, it takes a while.

It takes a lot of hard work, but if you're on it, you can get it done pretty quick.

Yo, this is, this is awesome.

Your story is so good and inspirational and so.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Yeah, I mean, and you're doing it, you know, and you're, you've been through it and you're doing it and you did it and you're doing it.

So that brings us all the way up to today, but we left a piece out, so I want to hear about, like, I think that brings us up to today, right?

Does that.

Yeah, pretty much.

Pretty much.

I just, I've been, I've been booked now for better part of like two and a half, three years, like, pretty consistently, like, raising my prices.

You know, once I got to like 70, 80, I'd raise my price.

I'd lose probably an okay percent, but I'd be making the same amount of money doing less work.

And I just.

It's a cycle I just kept, you know, once I got to that point, I'd raise.

So that's.

That's where we're at now.

Nice.

And so tell us about education.

Like, tell us about, like, when did that start?

How did you get into it?

And.

Yeah, let's start with that for sure.

I started doing education because I do a lot of designs, and I was fortunate enough to kind of go back in time a little bit.

I was fortunate enough to have a lot of friends that would kind of shave their head.

So I was always interested in designs and art because I would do, like, graphic design when I was in high school, like, doing, like, digital graffiti, portraits, drawing, constantly painting, sculpting.

Didn't care.

I just.

I loved doing cool stuff, honestly.

So I had friends that were fortunately going bald or whatever.

Unfortunate for them, but fortunate for me, and they would let me shave their head.

So I'm like, hey, like, I'll give you a free haircut.

Just let me, like, doodle on your head pretty much, and then when I'm done, I'll shave it off.

So I got pretty good at designs.

Probably, like, two years ago, I started, like, figuring out my shapes that I like to do and everything like that.

And I was thinking, well, how do I teach designs to people?

Because nobody knows how to do a design.

They just feel like it's like, oh, either they have it or they don't.

And that's not true.

Everybody can do a design.

You just got to kind of give a little bit of feedback on it, you know, a little bit of, you know, constructive criticism and tips, Point them in the right direction on how to do something, and then the creativity of you, you can do, you know, that's why I have a little program that I call sculpt your mind.

That's my education program that I'm trying to get a little bit more off the ground, and that's teaching people how to do designs.

They can copy what I do to kind of have a reference, or they can completely do their own afterwards.

It's whatever.

But that was kind of my idea.

I wanted to get people kind of understanding that there is a theory behind creativity instead of just having it or not.

And then that kind of led me down the road of, like, well, if I can teach designs, I can teach everything else that I do.

So I started doing beard classes.

I started teaching how I do fades.

I started teaching, you know, sheer work a little bit.

So me and a couple of the guys at the shop started creating our creations.

That's the name of the shop, our creations curriculum.

And we have, like, a whole, like.

Like, notebook, like, workbook.

I'm sorry.

A workbook of, like, what we're trying to develop for it.

So it's a work in progress.

Same thing with my sculpture mind.

I have a workbook that I'm trying to make as, like, a work in progress to try to hand out like, that as.

As well.

Nice.

Cool.

Awesome.

And so you did.

Were people hitting you up, asking you for classes?

Where did you decide you wanted to host a class, and you just like, how did that.

How.

Tell us about your first getting your first class.

Getting my first class.

Oh, it's a pretty ugly one.

Pretty ugly class.

And that's okay.

You got to learn, right?

You don't learn overnight.

You got to learn by doing it.

So we actually brought in Mr.

Official.

Do you know who that is?

No.

So he's a famous Chicago barber educator.

He's.

He's at a lot of the barber conventions and shows.

He's sponsored by Level 3 Baby Lists.

A Level 3 is pretty awesome.

I'm drawing a blank if there's more, but either way, we had him come to the shop.

He was one of our guest speakers, and he just opened up a school not that long ago.

So after the whole.

You know, after the whole class was done, we were talking to him and kind of just, you know, just.

Just shooting it.

And he was like, hey, you guys should actually, like, come to my school.

Like, I'll hook you up on a price.

You know, we'll figure it out, whatever.

So that way you guys can have an opportunity to do what I do.

And four of us were like, yeah, we're down.

So we did it.

We went to school, and that was in lsip Chicago.

So it's like, right in the south suburbs.

Ish.

We went to school for about a year.

Ish.

And that was where my first class was.

I've never spoken in front of anybody ever before.

Like, if you would ask me to do this, like, a year ago, I'd probably be shaking and stuttering all over my words constantly.

So within, like, a year and a half, I've definitely gotten a lot more confident, comfortable doing this type of stuff.

But, yeah, so they taught us the theory and how people learn and different teaching techniques and seedings and all this type of stuff that kind of flows together.

So I had the theory in my head, but I've never done it before.

And one of our.

One of our assignments was like, okay, go teach a class.

And I was like, oh, what you want me to do what?

They're like, can you at least give me something to read?

And they're like, no, teach a class.

And I'm like, oh, okay.

So I was.

I was pretty comfortable doing designs, you know?

So that was like, my most, like, comfortable, like, okay, I can.

If I can do that, I can.

I can probably just ramble about what I'm doing, and it'll work.

So I stood up in front of everybody.

I got everything ready, and I I turn around, I look at the students, and I'm like.

And I.

I choked so bad.

Like, I couldn't breathe, and I panicked so bad because I had everybody looking at me.

All the attention was on me, and I'm like, oh, this sucks.

So I took like a.

You know, I took a.

I took a little bit of a breather, had some water.

Everybody started clapping.

They're like, all right, you got this.

You got this.

All the students, because it was a barber school that had a teacher program, so I was familiar with all the people because they're all barbers.

Like, I can do this.

So when they started clapping, I was like, okay, this ain't that bad.

Like, they know me.

So then it was smooth after that.

I mean, I wasn't really too good on my delivery, like, articulating how I wanted to, you know, to say everything.

But I got my point across, and that was my first class.

I choked up really bad in front of, like, 30 people.

Dude, that's so cool, though, that you got to go to.

You got to, like, learn how to teach in an environment.

I learned how to teach in.

In a.

In a school, too.

Like, I got IBS my way into a.

The day school, but I thought I BS my way, but it turns out I didn't.

They knew that I didn't know how to do hair, and they made me come in on the weekends and take classes and work with the instructors to learn how to.

To do.

To be a teacher.

So I think that's really awesome because, like, you're going to learn, I'm assuming.

I'm sure you did.

You know, a lot of nuances and a lot of minutia that goes into educating.

Something that if you're just like, a naturally talented stylist and really good at creating content, you got a big following.

And then you say, hey, I'm gonna teach you.

Those teachers might be a little different than somebody who had formal training.

And not to say that you can't get a good class from somebody who hasn't had full training, formal training, because I know for a fact that you can.

I'm just saying that's really interesting.

So.

So you went.

So how long was this program, this teaching pro?

You said in year.

A year?

Yeah, it was about a year because it was.

It was part time.

It was only 500 hours because I was already licensed for.

I forgot if it's five years or three years.

I forgot the.

The minimum to be able to get that 500 hours.

But we were only there for two days.

We were there Tuesday, Wednesday, so it took us about a year.

All right.

And then.

And how long ago was that?

I graduated about a year ago in July.

So, yeah, so it'll be coming up on, like, a year and a half that I started.

Nice.

So.

So tell us.

Tell us a little bit about, like, what we should expect to see from Sam Nolan in the near future.

If you have any other ideas that you'd like to share.

I mean, you've already shared, like, you're working on a.

On a workbook and you already teaching classes.

Tell us a little bit about, like, what you're doing now and what you're working on for the future, for sure.

So I'm definitely trying to finish my.

My curriculum.

I'm trying to get that pretty down so that way I don't have to even look at it.

I can just hand out a sheet, hand out my workbook, and just refer to it.

So I would like to be able to get that off the ground a little bit more.

I'm still reaching out to places to do classes.

I've only gotten a couple people that have hit me up to do a class, so I would like to maybe try to, you know, get my name out there, get my brand out there a little bit more.

It takes time.

I mean, that stuff doesn't happen overnight.

I'm very happy with the way that my business has been going, so I'm hoping only up from here and keep putting out content on social media.

I'd like to be able to try to, you know, promote myself as my brand a little bit more effectively.

Learning social media has been ads.

That's been a bum.

I'm not gonna lie.

That's pretty hard.

Social media is one of those things where it's like, you got to sell your soul to that thing, and I'm not committed to it yet.

So I've been trying to.

Trying to get myself ready for something like that.

But other than that, I mean, I would just say you gotta stay determined.

If you want it, you'll do it.

If not, you'll learn really quick.

Well, let's see.

Hold on a second.

I'm.

I'm just pulling up your social media real quick.

Of course.

All right.

I'm just gonna share my screen.

So anybody who is watching, because I know this is a lot of people on.

On podcast.

So those of you are on podcast, you will.

You will.

You can check out sam nolan@nolanthebarber on Instagram, and that's what I'm about to show.

I also Just started my Tick Tock not that long ago.

It's almost the same content.

It's knowing the barber on Tick Tock as well.

So if you guys are interested in that, I'd appreciate it.

Awesome.

So what we're looking at is Sam's work and his, his pictures and a lot of design work, some really cool cars.

And, and, and so it looks like you got, you got a, you got a pretty good social media game going on.

I think it's just about you, you getting that word out.

So what about, what about, are you, have you worked with any brands?

I'm trying to get in with a couple.

I've been getting a little bit of traction and I'm, I'm trying but so far no luck.

I met up with a couple of them on like shows and I put my name out there and I've, I've been tagging them and they repost and they'll comment.

And so far I haven't had any official like paid partnerships or anything like that yet.

But hopefully, you know, soon.

Hopefully that's, hopefully that's something that can happen soon.

Awesome.

Cool.

Well, I, I, I, I, I love your work.

Looks good and your story is awesome and you're really easy to talk to and I look forward to watching your career prosper into the future.

And uh, we should definitely, uh, reconnect and uh, later, you know, sometime maybe next year, maybe later in the year, so, and kind of check in with you.

Also when we get off the call, I'm gonna, I'm gonna talk to you about a couple of people I think I'd like to introduce you to.

But until then, why don't we wrap this up with any like, pieces of advice for anybody who is up and coming or in school and thinking about what they're gonna do and, or somebody who's going through a serious struggle and is doubting if they're ever going to be able to like, be, if they're gonna have to like, figure out something else they're gonna do.

I mean, that's a, that's a real thing that you can speak to so you can wrap it up with something, say something to all of that or pick one.

Whatever, whatever is like burning on your mind and you want to share.

Yeah, for sure.

So thank you.

I'm not gonna lie.

You know, this industry is very, very intimidating.

And I think I saw a statistic where it was like 80 quit within the first five years or something like that of cutting hair.

And it's, honestly, it's completely Understandable.

I'm not gonna lie.

This is definitely not an industry that's made for everybody.

However, I'm a big nerd, so I'm going to use this as a reference.

If anybody that's played, like, video games and you.

You finally play an open world game and you look at the map and you realize that, like, there's like 300 things for me to do, it's really easy to get overwhelmed.

However, if you're taking it one quest at a time, you know, you're taking it one.

One fetch quest, you know, go drop something off over here.

You're taking it one thing at a time is what I'm trying to say.

It becomes a lot easier to manage.

Not only your life, your.

Your mental stability when it comes to dealing with this.

You're.

You're an unpaid therapist.

Everybody's putting their drama on you, and you got to deal with that.

That's definitely something that not everybody can handle.

And I'm not trying to.

I'm not trying to say this is for everybody.

I do know that it's difficult.

However, if you like what you do, there's no reason why you can't make something happen.

If you're determined enough and if you're able to take small steps at a time to reach your goals, instead of looking at the end goal and trying to go after it, it becomes a lot more attainable.

So I'd say just be, you know, be true to yourself.

You know, don't try to put on a mask and do what you got to do.

Just kind of, you know, one step at a time.

It's really not that bad once you break it down that way.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Well, thank you so much again, and I look forward to talking to you soon.

Likewise.

I'd love to be back.

Appreciate it.

All right, see ya.