ep06 – Sam Villa

Whether teaching face-to-face in hands-on classes, on the main stage, or reaching his millions of social media followers, Sam Villa changes people. He won the 2020 International Hair Influencer of the Year and was recognized with the NAHA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. He is known for doing things differently to challenge, inspire, and motivate change.

Today we dig deeper into Sam Villa the human being, talking beauty school, becoming a father, and the movement that is hairdressers supporting hairdressers.

• Sam talks about his upbringing in New Mexico
• ‘Time is more valuable than money’ Sam discusses the transition to becoming a father
• Quitting college for beauty school.
• ‘You’re overqualified’ Sam talks feedback after cutting a model’s hair on stage at the start of his education career
• A tough pregnancy. Sam discusses being on the road while his wife was dealing with problems during her pregnancy prep.
• ‘pretty amazing team’. Chris and Sam talk about the people around Sam Villa and the work they do.
• The story of the movement about hairdressers supporting hairdressers
• Chris asks Sam ‘who are the people that have really changed your life?’

Complete Transcript

Chris Baran 1:43
Samuel, no, I’m going to start with that right away, you know, because it’s being one of my very best friends and we went through hell together on the road, et cetera. But I first of all, just want to raise a glass, you know, and it is later in the evening, even if you’re watching or listening to this in the daytime. But each of us have a little drink. Because as we have a we have a saying that we say beer here. And it doesn’t matter if you’re drinking beer or not. So I invite you guys all to join us with your beer here. And we’re gonna have a little sip while we’re going through this. So Samuel to one of my best friends, teachers, mentors, inspiration. Cheers, buddy, here’s to you.

Sam Villa 2:19
Here’s to you, brother. Yeah, and you notice you notice I don’t have a beer, I have a vodka tonic, like good vodka tonic, because I thought I gotta keep up with him. So I better have a vodka tonic.

Chris Baran 2:36
Well, yeah, that means I’m gonna have two glasses for every one of yours. But I want to say I’m, I want to, I want to take this first of all, just to say, thank you. You know, like, just to repeat this, because it’s so important. We’ve been friends for years. And we’ve got some amazing stories together. But we also you know, I know that, Sam. And I know you’re going to blush and know that’s harder for you. But the, the point is, people love you, they, they hang on your every word, mean, in the introductions, we talked about the Educator of the Year and blah, blah, blah, but you’re just a really great soul. And then you’re always wanting to help people on everything they do. And but there’s lots that I mean, that people know your professional side, I want to go and dig into a little bit more of Sam via the human being. And, and I know you’ve talked a little bit about it, but just to give some everybody some history on where you came from. So your your family and you know, God rest, they both passed recently, and all my respect and love for that. And that. Tell me a little bit about you came from Carlsbad. And it was at Carlsbad or someplace. Because I know there’s some question on there when I’ve did a little research on the stuff that I needed to know on this. And so is it was it really Carlsbad or was it another city? Well, I

Sam Villa 4:02
Well I was born in Artesia New Mexico, which was probably 3040 minutes from the house bad. But we pretty much all my life, you know, well, I shouldn’t say all my life but up to the eighth grade, seventh grade, actually, I was lived in Carlsbad, New Mexico. I was there my dad it was all it was a mining town, Chris is what it actually was. And dad had his barber shops there and I shined the shoes and swept the hair and hated every minute.

Chris Baran 4:31
Yeah, I just can’t imagine you looking down at people’s shoes and shining them that just doesn’t seem doesn’t seem to fit real well from when they’re sambia that I know.

Sam Villa 4:41
But 25 senses shine 25 senses

Chris Baran 4:44
shine. Did you get to keep it or you had to split it with pops or what? Oh,

Sam Villa 4:48
I got to keep it but that’s I had to sweep up the hair.

Chris Baran 4:51
Oh, gotcha. You got to keep the coin. Later on. I want to we’ll talk if we get into it about whenever we say 25 cents. I think of the Your dad making you eat. If you wanted to go out for the evening you had to eat a jalapeno pepper. What was the story behind that?

Sam Villa 5:09
Well as a child, obviously, you know being Mexican is Scott You have to like spices you got to eat spicy Yes, that’s right the way he got us to do it I will never forget was for every how Opinio I would eat it. I would get 25 cents. 25 cents could go a long way. You know, 10 cents and ice cream. Yeah, cuz

Chris Baran 5:28
yeah, that was like, that was like 15 years ago. Yeah. Yeah,

Sam Villa 5:33
just like gas. But that was what I did to develop my, my spice buds, if you will was modified sets a jalapeno. My mom was like, couldn’t believe that. My dad would make you do that. But 25 It meant something.

Chris Baran 5:52
So what was the most you ever got out of one evening?

Sam Villa 5:54
Just one buddy. What do you think? One one whole opinion was enough. And that 25 cents, I was able to buy two ice creams.

Chris Baran 6:05
So tell me about what so then you move to Cali. Right. You move to California. Tell me a little bit. Is that like?

Sam Villa 6:13
I you know what, Chris? I have to say. And I mean this really in with all good intention. I’m glad that did. New Mexico was great. You know, it was an old type town Carlsbad Caverns. If anybody’s familiar with it Carlsbad area, the Carlsbad Caverns. I was actually not very far away. I was there in a Cub Scout. I was one of the cub scouts that would escort and guide the people with the original with the guide. And then I would turn the lights off at the end and we walk through the cavern. I grew up doing that. I love doing that. I learned a lot about Carlsbad. Carmen’s but my dad picked us up. Probably seventh grade. I’ll never forget. He picked us up from schools our last day of school and we were moving to California. That was after going to Catholic school for seven years. I’ll never forget going to a public school for the very first time. Pa her Oh, junior high school, riding the bus there. God, they were sniffing glue in the back of the bus and I was a kid and I didn’t know what was going on. And you know, Mom and Dad said sit in the front of the bus and don’t hang out in the back. And then I got to school. Well, I’ll never forget this. Chris. I was in the class. The teacher asked a question. I raised my hand like I was taught. I got called on. I stood up and everybody started laughing. Oh, that’s you because public school you just kind of raise your hand maybe. But you didn’t have to stand up. So it was quite different moving from New Mexico to California. And that was Watsonville California, which was a year later we moved back to Yeah, eighth grade ninth grade. So I’ve completed seventh with completed eighth and borough and Watsonville and then moved to Santa Cruz, California. Oh,

Chris Baran 7:59
nice guy, Chris,

Sam Villa 8:00
you talk about life changing. That was pretty cool. Because it was all beach

Chris Baran 8:04
surfing. It was all so you were you became a surfer. I served

Sam Villa 8:09
a little bit but not much, but I loved it. But I played more volleyball on the test and that did anything. Volleyball became my my game too. You know, my go to game was volleyball.

Chris Baran 8:20
Yeah, was that in high school?

Sam Villa 8:21
I was in high school as I was going to high school and in college. And then that’s when college when I decide I’m going to beauty school all because of a movie shampoo.

Chris Baran 8:31
Yeah. I hit on that just a second. But I I’m interested. I want to go back a second. What did you What did you you know, everybody goes to college? Because that’s what they say you have to do. But you What did what were you taking what were the you know, because I’m assuming we were had a direction where you were going to go? Well, I was planning direction you were going to do?

Sam Villa 8:52
I was playing volleyball and a PE major. So as major physical education, and I enjoyed sports. I love sports. I loved coaching.

Chris Baran 9:01
Not not that you have a competitive bone in your body,

Sam Villa 9:04
but Right. Yeah, you remember that training diving? The volleyball?

Chris Baran 9:09
Yeah. Tell, tell, tell everybody about that. So that was with Blair singer.

Sam Villa 9:13
That was a great little training. We were doing the I remember that. That was the first time Christine Schuster at the time gathered everybody put us in this hotel locked us up literally for a week with Blair singer. And we were doing these exercises. And one of them was we were divided up in teams, and volleyball. And we would play points and we would he would stop us and talk to us about the context of what was happening, why that could be happening, etc. And then me.

Chris Baran 9:39
Let me let me let me tie on top of that for a second. We weren’t playing on a volleyball court. We were playing on tennis courts that were cement. So I just wanted to make sure that we got that in there before you went on with the conversation.

Sam Villa 9:52
Right and what I did was I got into my you put me on the court you get me in the game. I remember I was diving for the ball and everybody I’m gonna dive in for the ball, get out. And he paused it. He goes, What’s going on right now? And I guess everybody’s like, well, Sam’s crazy. He’s died on the summit. He’s doing this. He’s keeping the ball up, blah, blah, blah. And the whole idea of with Blair was, well, what’s that mean? What does that tell you about a person etc? Yeah, but I was I was just taught, I don’t know. I just love sports. I loved how you learn to play what you were playing. It wasn’t so much about winning. It was about how do you learn to do that? It’s like right now with Matteo. Chris, I’m having a good time with him. Because I’ve discovered he really loves soccer. So we’re out there out in the backyard.

Chris Baran 10:41
And just so everybody knows, Matteo is your son. Yes.

Sam Villa 10:45
Thank you. He’s five years old. He’s going to be six coming up in February. But we were playing soccer, and we come inside because getting dark. He goes, Daddy, I want to play soccer. And so I said, we can’t. He goes, Well, what about it with a balloon? And I thought, Oh, yeah. So I blow a balloon. And we start playing with a balloon. Now with a balloon. Imagine you got to be patient, you got to wait for drip. Controlling, it’s not as easy with ball has more weight to it. Then I set up a box. I said, Alright, kick it into the box. And he kick it in. He goes, Daddy, it doesn’t go anywhere. It’s a balloon. I go, you gotta kick it, kick it. So then he started pounded it, Chris, we did that for about a week. He went outside. And he all of a sudden had some really finesse skills with a ball. Because he was a real ball, he could control it. And not only that, when he kicked the ball, he discovered how hard and how far he kicked. But he’s doing great the last game he played he scored five goals. They call him a little messy. He’s doing just fantastic. Yeah.

Chris Baran 11:50
Yeah. You know, the you know, I can remember this, I remember you and I chatting. Because it for those of you who know that way before, when Redken was going, just got started going in New York, everybody had to bunk together. And Sam and I all we were roommates was staying at the at the Plaza fifth Plaza. 50 Wasn’t it plus 50. But as a 50. And, but I always remembered us talking about family, etc. And at that time, you were, you know, it was very Sam via single guy, career driven, and so on. And we’re talking about family and we talked about how I remember kept saying to you, you know, listen, your life is going to change when you have children. I mean, it’s you know, you your, your you shift from what your needs are, from what you want to get out of life to when you have children. So, you know, how, tell us a little bit about that. Is it you’ve How has your perspective changed? About from your needs? wants? family’s needs? wants? I mean, I’m not trying to put words in my in your mouth. But what of course, what what, what, how is it? How is being a dad now changed, if any, if changed your perception?

Sam Villa 13:14
Wow. In a number of ways, Chris, it’s amazing. I’ve discovered pretty much now that time is more valuable than money. Number. Wow. I really think that there’s only so much time, especially at my age and having someone as young as Mateo time is very valuable

Chris Baran 13:32
when you’re tough when you’re 40

Sam Villa 13:35
Oh, yeah. Yeah, exactly that Add to add? Well, nevermind. Don’t add the number yourself people. Anyway. I really find it more precious things around me are so much more precious. It’s like kind of like, I’m working here in the studio right now. I’ve been shooting all day. And then I had some podcasts and he came home from school. The first thing he’s kind of like, he looks at the On Air sign. If it’s on he’s quiet until he gets there. If it’s off, he’s like Daddy, can I come in? Kind of thing. But it’s it’s like when he says Daddy, can you play? One time I said Daddy’s got to finish his work. And Chris, when I saw him turn around and walk with his shoulder so down, I’m like, wow, it hurt me more than him. And I thought you know what, I can’t say no, you know, I need to this can’t wait. This can wait, whatever I’m doing. I’ll come back to it. If I have to stay up an hour later, I will kind of brings me back to those days first and social. When I got into social they told me okay, you got to put to block out time to do it. So you need to be up by 5am and put at least two hours into it before you head out the door to go do what you need to do. And that was you know, the people that were coaching me on the social saying you need to do this. You don’t do it. It’s not gonna work. It’s called consistency. So the same thing now I find with Matteo it’s like I have to be consistent as much as I can. And my answer being yes As for the right reason, anytime I can spend with him, I find that much more valuable right now than a thing. Yeah. Now, is that affecting me? As a person? Yes, it’s I find more important. So in other things now, is it affecting me as a teacher? I find myself at times now, struggling a little bit, but I also have high expectations, you know, that we What do you mean, when you when you say, I find myself i Okay, it’s like, I gotta Okay, Sam, sit down and do your homework research. Right? Yeah, stay up, sit down and walk through your class, you know, you know, those kinds of things, the things that sometimes we might take for granted are more valuable now. So I find myself, you know, discovering that, but I wouldn’t change anything, you know, in terms of where my life sat and what I’m doing with Matteo? And why my wife, Lisa,

Chris Baran 15:57
it’s interesting, you know, I’m, you’re making me go back into my youth. And I think that might be what some of the difference comes from is, we had our kids really very young. And, and that was at the beginning of my career when I was building everything. And I had to go on the road. And I’ve told my kids the story before, and I but I still bear guilt. From that, you know, when, you know, my going away every weekend, and doing all those things that you know, and then, you know, you don’t go part but you there’s that feeling. And I know there’s many people out there, they’re doing right now, a lot of people whether you might not be going on the road, but you’ve gone to work, even if that’s just across the street versus across the country. And you’ve got to put in that time, because you’re you’re, you’re you’re making a living to survive, you know, and, and if it’s not to survive, it’s to grow. And sometimes you got to make choices like that. And I, I know, I still bear a lot of guilt from for not being because you always hear about oh, my, you know, everybody was there for the family. And everybody, you know, went to all the school meetings, and we’re there for all the soccer games and right, yeah, and so I take my hat off to you, but so and maybe, you know, had that happen to me when I was maybe more mature, more mature farther along the road, you know, I would have saw the merit in that. But yeah, it’s, it’s It’s tough when you when you have family and a life that keeps you going all the time, too. So

Sam Villa 17:26
Right. Yeah. Interesting. You just got to figure out, you know, where’s what’s valuable right now? And I think with the past few years, what’s been going on? I think the whole concept of mental wealth and mental health is so valuable, right? So many people go into so many things. So for me right now, it’s about it’s about putting this whole family thing first right now is critical. Today, we carved a pumpkin you carved pumpkins. Yeah, it wasn’t it was It wasn’t on the schedule, but Oh, and said Daddy, Let’s carve a pumpkin I’m like, Okay, let’s put aside let’s go carve the pumpkin. So good. All YouTube’s saves us. Let’s look at one on YouTube and see what we could do. So yeah,

Chris Baran 18:11
that’s awesome. So and obviously you went that’s amazing. When when Matteo finished his his carving who timed out first who said I’m done first?

Sam Villa 18:24
Well he actually I made him draw it so he had to draw it and then once he draw it I got I would get the carving started and then he would do it well, I don’t know if number of kids Okay, daddy, I had enough time to move on. Yeah, that is the attention span. So I ended up completing it but it was just fun to do it brought back some great memories. Yeah,

Chris Baran 18:48
I want to I want to I want to go back I’m gonna rewind a little bit and take you back to your your volleyball. And now you said, and I think this is an interesting story. That there was a movie that changed your life. So you were you were in there to be physical education teacher going to college. Went to a movie with the girl with the guys.

Sam Villa 19:10
I can’t even recall. I think it’s my girlfriend at the time. Yeah, my God at the time. Yeah,

Chris Baran 19:16
Patti. Interesting. So you went to the movie? What was the movie and what happened and

Sam Villa 19:24
devil you That movie was shampoo. And obviously we all I think if you don’t know the movie shampoo, you really need to see it. It’s about a hairdresser.

Chris Baran 19:34
But actually, it was loosely based on ginger Cove, wasn’t it?

Sam Villa 19:38
Yes, that’s you right. And a lot of people don’t know that good call Chris. Yeah, that’s easy. What was he out of Chicago LA or? No, it was La la la. Yeah,

Chris Baran 19:50
actually was when was the when epic if anybody remembers from history of read can read can was a looking at bringing in Vidal Sassoon, and they were up in air who do we bring in? Do we bring in somebody who want to want an influential an influencer would wait before then but it was Fidel Sassoon and also if I have the story right and I’m sure anybody from the read can days of your will correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that the other person was Jean she Cove. And I don’t.

Sam Villa 20:24
Yeah, but

Chris Baran 20:25
you watch the movie Jean tecovas in it and Warren Beatty is playing the part obviously based on jeans Cove.

Sam Villa 20:33
Yeah, matter of fact, Charles spin zone. I was talking to him a couple of weeks and he mentioned gene should go he goes it was on gene shoe Cove not that one hairdresser in Beverly Hills that people tend to think who it might be. Anyway, the I went to see that movie and that movie kind of said, oh, wait a minute. I’m going to college. I’m playing volleyball. I’m a P major. There’s not much in that. Ooh, and dad’s a barber. But I could go home and I could say I want to be a beautician at that time. Be a beautician. Yeah, it looks like it’s a lot of fun. I’m gonna try it. So off I went home after that movie, it was shot while I was in college. A week later, I go home and I’m like, I want to go to beauty school. Can you imagine my mom would are dropping, and my dad was kind of like clapping underneath the table. That’s great story.

Chris Baran 21:26
So yeah. So when you went to school, so you went to school,

Sam Villa 21:31
I was going to school. I was going to college at the time. And I went to St. Louis. I think I was a junior in college. And I have one year left. My mom’s like, are you crazy? You got one year left? I mean, if you quit, then you’re responsible for paying your your last year. If beauty school doesn’t work off, work out. And off. You know, I? My dad was like, Yeah, I think it’s a good idea. Give him a chance, you know, as long as you’re willing to pay for the last year if it doesn’t work out. And I agreed I went to Beauty School. And what was that guy’s sanity? Good Old San Mateo, California from Santa Cruz to San Mateo, which was pretty much middle between Santa Cruz and San Francisco. So it wasn’t too far from home. But yet far enough. It was a great school, I went to college of the Ponce College of beauty. Now for those of those you that don’t know out there was Sally Ponce, who was married to Peter Hans. But she kept her name because she was very famous in the industry. Sally Ponce. Great for comb outs, Chris and all that kind of thing. At that time. She was the Olympic women’s coach for the Olympics and hair, you know, wow, they would have that at the time. And then there was Peter Hans. And Peter. Hans was the guy who invented the rod transfer, he wouldn’t process in a blue rod, but transfer during before he would neutralize to a purple rod. So he believed in really breaking the bonds down and doing the rod transfer. Then he became out with a product. I can’t remember what the product was. But I want everybody to know something. What’s so cool about there’s two stories I’d love to share. Number one, twist cutting. Everybody thinks I invented this twist cut, no, false. I haven’t invented anything. What it was, it was from Peter Hans. Chris, he would take imagine this, he take a whole kind of section angled like this. He would pull it off or twist at once, and then cut it and he get the most beautiful angle. And then he would do it here in the French too. So it’s nothing I’ve invented is something I just learned in beauty school and just brought it back out and works in today’s world. But I’ll never forget one incident that happened. Chris thing was about three months into the school, and really focusing focusing on rollers. And I’ll never forget the teacher coming up to me and said, Sam, your rollers. I want you to go over to your client. I want you to apologize, lift up the hood, apologize to her and put the rollers back on her head. They have fallen out. And I kind of look like yes, mislead. Okay, okay, off I go. So Chris, as I’m walking away the teachers like and you might want to think about possibly doing something else. As I walked away, yes. Also there I go, I go do that. I put it back in, I come back. I’m like, you know, after hearing that, you’re like, shit, did I make the wrong decision here? What? But my dad called me up about that weekend, maybe a week later and said, Let’s go to hair short. I said, What’s that? He said that those are things you need to know what they are because you should go to them all the time. There’s something learned that’s where you’re going to further your education, or as that these hair shows. So he said I’m gonna pick you up Sunday early. We’re gonna get there early. Get a good seat. On the way there. I said who we’re going to see said we’re going to see Vidal Sassoon. So imagine going to his hair show in San Francisco and seeing Vidal Sassoon Christopher bro ocher Roger Thompson and Alan Vin, Phil bush for the Great’s they all had Asian models, and were cutting these Asian hair, just melting it to the structures, I was on the edge of my seat. And that’s when I told my dad, I want to do that. I want to be up there someday. And he said, That’s all ego, no money. If you choose to do that, you need to do it with no ego and proof, you can make some money doing it. And you know, it’s like, it’s, it’s tough to make money doing it. It takes a long, long time for the youth that’s out there. But if you put you know what you I always believe what you put out is what you get back. You have what you put out in this industry. It was all of a sudden, Chris, I went back to school, I really believe I had purpose. And things just started to happen, man. I mean, I could cut a straight line, those rollers were glued in, they weren’t going anywhere. And things just started to happen.

Chris Baran 25:50
Yeah, I want to first of all, what an amazing thing to have a father that were most fathers would say, No, you’re not doing there’s no way in the world, you’ve been a hairdresser. But the point that he had the foresight to put the bug in your ear to say, look, there’s not a lot of money in that, unless you’re gonna do it really well. And, and so I mean, I knew your parents and loved them. But it’s so refreshing to know that your parents are oftentimes people get into our business, and they, they, their parents aren’t all for it. And it’s not until you get out and they see them earning a lot more money than they could have before. But to have the fourth night to be able to tell the kids that, stick it out, go go deep, and make sure you get your going after it was not only to get what you want in life, but to be able to make money out of it as well, because I think that’s really an important part of our business.

Sam Villa 26:50
Think about that for a moment there, Chris. Here he was. He was at the towards the end of his career. But where do you think he got a lot of his education? After we moved to California, it was redkin. I think read can instill that mindset in him. Yeah. You know, the idea of you know, you stay humble behind the chair, you go to shows you learn you do all that. I think he that came from Redken. And it was in his blood.

Chris Baran 27:23
So the I know that that’s everybody knows you as the global artistic ambassador for Redken. But you know, and the owner, you obviously own Sam via the tool outline of tools, and we’ll go down that road a little bit later. But you you started your education career other than that. So I’d love to talk a little bit about that. Where Where did that started your educational career? You were, I believe the artistic director for another company at that time. And how did that all come about? What was that? Where did that all come about, etcetera?

Sam Villa 27:58
Well, I was let’s see, I was the artistic director for a company called Hayashi, which was a wet line out of LA that were much more known on the international market. Strong and like this, the East Coast and southeast. But I it was it was uh, let me say it this way. How can I say? Well, I’m just gonna say it was a circus. It was a circus. Those were the days I was tossing loose balls back and forth on stage and we were quick cutting hair. Just you know, Penny, Benihana like and I just got tired of that said, You know what I want to teach. I want to be a teacher. I’m done with this, the circus act. You know, there’s a time and place for that. I can hold on to it. But I really want to focus on teaching. And lo and behold, I got a call from Redken, the great Terry Donnelly call and said, Hey, I’m putting together this team would love to have you audition. I’ve heard about you. And that’s where my journey started. It was it was amazing. And the audition, Terry and I were talking about it. Most recently, a couple of weeks ago at dinner coiffure. She said, I’ll never forget your audition. And that was the time where I showed up a day late because he had switched it. And I didn’t know it. I didn’t receive that mail to like return back from Europe. And I show up at the hotel here for an audition hotels like Sir, that was yesterday. You missed it. I’m like, No, I’m on it. So they said, well, the lady that conducted the audition, she hasn’t checked out because I asked him as she checked out. They said no. So I don’t try to chase her down. Chris. I wrote a letter please slide this underneath the door. And sure enough, the guy comes running out. He’s like, just as I was getting ready. He’s like that lady you want to talk to she’s on the phone. So I spoke to her. I said, Terry, I sent my model away. I’ve been trying she goes well, you’re a show man of experience. I got the room back. I’ll meet you there in 30 minutes, get a model. And I’m like, okay, okay. I hung up the house phone in here I am Chris. Can you see it? Just imagine you’re in the hotel lobby and at that time I was into avant garde. So my book for folio was primarily at that time you had a portfolio, showing it to these customers around the hotel. And people were like, and the concierge guy who had been helping me out, he was watching. He’s like, come here, what are you doing? You can’t be doing that. And I explained the story, he knew it already. And I said, he said, Hold on, he goes back, he comes back. He goes, Okay, here’s what’s going to happen. The girl is coming on next, because he or she is going to be your model. She said, she needs a haircut, you can cut her. And I’m like, wow, my lucky day. She comes out. She has coils, all coils and I thought, oh my, what am I going to do here? And immediately I reached back to the Nefertiti. I took her in in that model when I knew where to go.

Chris Baran 30:42
In terms of service Nefertiti

Sam Villa 30:44
Yes. And I took that and I went into the room, cut it really half head right away. I’ll never forget Terry Donnelly walks in she goes, holy shit, you know, Terry, holy shit. You got a model. Not only that you cut off her head. Are you? She goes, Are you ready to go? I’m ready. So she sits down behind this table. She gotten a little riser back and the whole thing. And then she says that okay, go ahead and begin. I ran off the stage and she’s watching me go off. She looks the mind goes. Where’s he going? Does he have to go take a pee? Where’s he going? I open up the door. Chris. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome from Red can Sam via and she said the table go? What? What bad? What does he do with his only me? And she goes, Oh, he’s given me the whole act here. You know? So I got into my demo, did it. She’s taking notes furiously. You know my little, I’m talking to myself saying oh, man, she’s ripping me apart, just ripping me apart, taking all these notes. So when I was done, she came up check the hair cut, said Okay, great. Sent the model home sat me down. She goes well, I hate to tell you this. I’m like, oh, and I didn’t make it. She goes you’re overqualified. And I go What do you mean? She goes, Sam, I could have used a national performing arts, I can’t do that. I really feel you need to earn the right to go up. But if you just come in and do what you do, and teach like this, she goes, don’t push you up and you’ll earn the right and I don’t want people in the mailroom stabbing you because you’re walking through all these hoops. You need to integrate with smart. Yeah, go What about? Yes. I said, Well, what about all the notes? And she goes, Are you kidding me? I’m stealing all your shit. Because it was it was right on with the way Terry talked, you know, the whole elevation, the overall direction, the whole at that time, you know, the way we were elevating the hair. So that’s how my journey started. And from there, you know, I’m so glad I’m so blessed. It was it’s you know, I mean, I’m when I say read, I am the person I am today as a teacher. It’s because the record is true. It really is. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Baran 32:53
So the I want to go I want to go back. Because speaking of Redken, and we, there was a way to talk to him about a fact about your family, you know, because I know how important that is to you right now. And I remember I remember when, you know, I remember you You came out you said look at we’re gonna have a family. And I couldn’t that’s when I kind of went back and I went okay, good. Now I’m gonna see how your life is gonna change. Right? And, and I remember being at the symposium and you, you know, being friends, you can find it to me. Some of this, you had some not had what the right word is. But you had some very interesting news. I just have to leave it at that it came out about Lisa and, and. And you didn’t know his name at the time. But but the pregnancy. And I can you tell us a little bit about that.

Sam Villa 33:56
Yeah, it’s a pretty emotional time. I mean, you know, having a child this is something that was last that I wanted to do, but it happened. It was a miracle baby, it happened. But the process that Lisa went through in terms of her prep during her pregnancy, especially after the third, fourth month, every time she was going back in, she was told something’s wrong. And you know, me being on the road, I wasn’t there for her. And I didn’t know this until she shared with me. But every time after going in and getting her scans done, she was always on the way home crying because there was something she was told it was either his kidneys, his liver, his heart. And I remember one time going in and going through the scan process. And I could see the nurse looking kind of strange, but I thought this doesn’t look right. She’s not luckily really comfortable what she sees in the screen. So she excused herself. She brought the doctor back in and they were talking and then the doctor said what do you Have any little people in your family? And I’m like, not that I know of at least it’s like no, not no. I said, Well, I can do some research. But doctor, no. And he goes, Well, he seems that we have a case of skeletal dysplasia. Skeletal dysplasia is where the bones are growing, you know, and there’s things that happened. There was a scan where his hand was attached to his elbow. So there was issues that were happening there. I mean, anything and everything that you could think of, we were in with his heart, his lungs are collapsing. That was the last one they said was his lungs are collapsing. We have to take him now. And that was like, what was that? Almost eight months in? I believe it was. And I’ll never forget, you know, he said, You need to come tomorrow. We’re going to take him tomorrow. So we both were like, obviously, okay, you know, let’s go. So we’re there. But we when he arrived, they put us in this room. And he called me out a couple times. He said, I’m waiting for some more medications and stuff. And he was talking just reminded me how what we’ve been through. And he basically, there was one time in a visit, I couldn’t believe that even said this, he goes, I don’t know what to tell you. He goes, but I think he’s going to make a good horse jockey this foot to talk, I was ready to punch him. Just my mother in law held on to my hand. I was like, How could you say this? You know? And he said, Well, I’ve known your wife for quite some time. And because number one, this was unexpected. Number two is now we’re going through all these things. So he goes, we need to get on with this. So when I walked in there, there was something like 2425 people in there. And he had every trauma unit you could possibly think of was there the heart, the lungs, the kidneys brain. And then he said the two lady in the ladies in the corner, psychiatrists, because you we may need them. So I’ll never forget, you know, him going through of delivering Matteo. And he pulls Matteo out. He’s He’s even got a tear in his eye. And he says, um, we’re very blessed. We have a healthy baby boy. And to this day, you know, Matteo is a miracle baby. The Medical Society even says he’s, you know, you saw it, Sam, you saw these things, the machine is correct. We don’t know what to tell, you just need to celebrate the fact that you have a little miracle baby boy, he’s healthy. He does have growth issues, but he’s not going to be a small person. He’s I think he’s in the smaller percentile for class in terms of growth. But he’s probably going to be maybe smaller than I am. Maybe five, seven, you know, that’s normal. 57556, you know, so, but he I can see him now. You know, in soccer, when I watch him, and I watch all the he said, What is he up to? He’s playing with five and six years old. Yeah. And he’s the littlest guy on the team. But he’s the fastest guy on the team. And he gets knocked over a lot. I notice but he gets right back up. So I, you know, it’s it. But that was, the person that I really admire is Lisa, what she went through, and how she endured all of that, and kept it a lot to herself, because I was busy, and she didn’t want to disrupt what I was doing when you share 100% of it all with me until it was all done. And he was about a year old. And we sat down and she got to you know, her and her mom took me through the whole story about that. And I said, Oh, Mike, you know, I knew a lot of it, but the pain is what she shared. Yeah, but to this day, we’re very blessed. And you know, that’s why I think family is so critical. Yeah,

Chris Baran 38:48
it’s interesting how, you know, I know that on the barren plane, it’s, you know, thank God, nothing that tragic or that much of a hardship happened to us, but I do. I do know that the wives often shield the husband from a lot of the pain that’s going on and so I you know, I think hats off. Yes. had a drink in her hand. Let’s toast all the wives and lovely ladies out there that save our Yes, cheers. I’ll tell the ladies out there. So, thank you. So I was trying to do that and wipe away a tear at the same time. It didn’t work. I

Sam Villa 39:35
was back buddy. Yeah.

Chris Baran 39:38
So you know, in the midst of this, you’ve successful on the stage etc. Now, but and what was your you started? All of us and you started the sambia brand. And what was that year?

Sam Villa 39:53
Gosh, well, I was told today it’s been, what 15 years, not today, but this year will be 50 years. Ms. Amazing, Chris, how time has flown by?

Chris Baran 40:03
Do you remember? Do you remember when you when you, you came up to me and said, I’m starting a brand? I want you to call and what did you tell me?

Sam Villa 40:12
It’s all it was it was all of us a llv U S. And the reason why? Because it was all of us, I wanted the brand to be about all of us about all the people, the industry as a whole. It goes on that whole thing that that phrase that I always have hung on to that people buy people and they buy things, you know, that whole concept of that. And that’s what we built the brand on. It’s all of us. It’s about all of us. Matter of fact, there’s times in our emails, when we will say it’s a good day to be all of us.

Chris Baran 40:40
Yeah. What I want to take you back to that. I don’t know if you remember the story. You said to me, what do you think of the name? You remember what I said? Do you

Sam Villa 40:50
know I don’t feel me? That’s when you said should

Chris Baran 40:54
you said should we call the company, all of us? And I said no. Oh,

Sam Villa 41:02
wow. I don’t recall that Chris.

Chris Baran 41:04
And I said it should be called Sam via ha. Yeah. Because I said, you know, all of us is a wonderful name. But if you look at the brands that are out there, then that was you had all the recognition going for you had that that presence up there. And if you they would know who like I think I remember saying to you they won’t it’s a great name, but they won’t remember what all of us is. But they will remember who sent the what Sam via is.

Sam Villa 41:34
You’re absolutely right. Because that is what after we named the company that I wanted to put that name on the tools. Yeah. And people. I mean, you even said no, why? Because the team, the investors and marketing were like, What are you crazy? And they said, who’s all of us? I said, we are the couple whose we were all us? They go? No, you’re going to put your name on it and the reaching and update your name on it because people can identify with that exact and they just said Get over your humble little self.

Chris Baran 42:06
Now I want to talk about your team because you’ve got a pretty amazing team on your on your ALL OF US team.

Sam Villa 42:15
Yes. Tell us a little bit about that. Well, I’m fortunate to have two great co founders I’m surrounded with that’s Beth Carson. She’s the president. And then Kirk, Gert Garr Haim, he is in charge of schools now. But we go way back way as friends and ways. But they have expertise and what they do, Kurt with Memorex, and Beth Carson has been with so many brands, I mean, she goes all the way back to what’s the name of that big brand? tool? There was a toolbar. I didn’t even know I forgot. Yes, I didn’t even know it. But anyway, they these two friends have, you know, we’ve always been, they’ve watched my career. And there came a point where I was thinking, Okay, I can’t be a platform RS forever, I’m really focused on this, I need to have something to fall back on, you know, there’s always someone that’s going to replace you. And as you see, Redken artists, we come and we go, so I thought I need to do something. And one of the things I wanted to do was to, you know, continue the education process, and that was CDs. So I was fortunate. One of my big coaches and mentors is a man by the name of Michael Colossi he happened to be the vice president of the gap. And so I’ll never forget, when he left the gap, he became in those days, the word entrepreneur was becoming very popular people would come in entrepreneurs. And he said, You’re my first case, I’ll never forget that case. I said, What’s that? He goes, Well, you’re my first project, you need to open up a slot. I’m going to help you open up a song. And that was the first thing we did. And then he sits on there. And then one of my accountants Neil Divor, who you’ve met Neil. Yeah. Neil. And Neil was my account from the salon days, all the way up until most recently, a couple of years ago, he retired. But all of these people were the ones that had the mindset, I would say I want to do this. And then they said, Well, how do you want to do it? And then I would say how I wanted to do it and they would get all the things together to make it happen that way. One of them was that Bob ology DVD, right was where it became revolutionary. The fact that we slept shot it in a salon

Chris Baran 44:27
doing a full education. Yes,

Sam Villa 44:30
we want to do there’s a cooking show, Chris. You ever watch it where the guy with the glasses out of San Francisco and he come out of the oven, he goes into the breads just about done? Or you know that guy? He was really funny. I said, He’s talking to the camera and he’s teaching them how to cook but he talks to the camera. And I’ll never forget I went to Charlie Kennedy said Charlie, I want to shoot a DVD. I want it to be a hands on I want to shoot it live but we’re going to edit it into an educational DVD goes gonna do what he goes, Why don’t you just do that in the studio? I go no Oh, that’s the problem. I want to do it when I’m teaching so that they can learn the answers of the coaches that the answers the students are asking and make actually coaching them to the answer. So how many times do you watch a step by step DVD shot in a studio? And what you see is what you get. But you have a question. Well, what if it was curly hair? What if it was fine or what have you took big sections. So that was the DVD Gordon Miller I was on a podcast with him today. He goes Sam, I remember that DVD Baba ology he goes very Rector. We were all over that because it was shot differently. It was like a reality.

Chris Baran 45:38
Train was reality TV, because you had people doing hair and everything that was in it was like a hands on workshop.

Sam Villa 45:44
I’d say Okay, follow me over here. Let’s go to the next station. Let’s find out what’s happening over here. And we’d find out we’d all learn together. So after that, we decided, well, we need to expand on more. What would you like to expand? I said, tools need to be correct for people to hold. And those days, I didn’t know, you know, I was still what’s ergonomics. And they go, Sam, that’s about the ergonomics. So your body looked it up, blah, blah, blah. So okay, yeah, that’s it. Ergonomic tools were blow dryers on heavy, I was having issues with my hand. Doctor said, you know, you need to stop putting this on there. It needs to be here. It’s normal. That’s the normal position of your hand. So those kinds of things, was the reason for expanding to the concept of tools. But education was my, in my genes. That’s just what I’m about. The tools are secondary. But the tools, you know, are something that’s really grown to something that have a strong meaning in the industry in terms of how they’re made, why they’re made.

Chris Baran 46:43
It sounds the because and I know this because I know you we we read each other like a book when we’ve been on stage for those of you who have or haven’t seen us on stage, we know what each other’s thinking when we’re thinking it.

Sam Villa 46:56
The addicts of our mind that the

Chris Baran 46:58
addicts Oh, my God, that was we should talk about that in just a bit. But I want to go back to what I admire so much about you is your ethics that you have as well. I remember when you first launched your brushes, and you had the dark colored bamboo dark colored bamboo on there bahagian the mahogany that’s obviously was first Yes, it mahogany was first and then it started peeling. And rather than going through that you said pull the line, you made a new line. And, and you but you pulled that line said that’s not going out there. I want my stuff back and get all of the other stuff about that one. Other people would have said, Hell with everybody, they bought it. We’ll just go about working through it. And we’ll get to the other side, and then we’ll launch it again. What what was the what was the thing that went through your brain that said, nope, nope, I want that. We’re gonna pull all this stuff. And I want to start with a new brand. Get that out there as quick as possible. That was a four.

Sam Villa 48:04
Yeah, well, the first thing was, we wanted mahogany. And there was a reason for mahogany, sustainability, etc. But what we got was not pure mahogany, it was hollow. So they were chipping. They were breaking, it was just not the right thing. And unfortunately, once again, being surrounded by the right people, like what do we do? You know, I said, we my personal take was, this can’t be this can’t be happening this week. We need to stop this. It was best that said, we’re pulling everything we’re gonna pull everything back. Pleat, can we? Yes, we’re going to figure that out. So once again, it was something that really upset me, but what can we do the people around me they knew what to do. They made the decision. Okay, we’re pulling it, we’re bringing it back. And that’s what the company was built on. Because they knew that’s what I was about when it came to education. It wasn’t you know, you I might call them tricks. But if they’re effective, they work I mean, I’m not going to teach something out there that’s a trick that doesn’t work. I just don’t believe in doing that. You know, and there’s many ways to do things but that was about the idea of this is wrong number one we got cheated we were lied to number two we’re not going to ride the tail and right right it we’re going to pull them all right now to save the integrity of the name is what that via

Chris Baran 49:26
that’s exactly what it was and that’s what I know you as as as interval and I’m gonna I’m gonna It’s okay if I go a little deeper here because I know you but I know you have an amazing team and I I know that from the SAM via that I know that you and I are a lot of like, where we have two sides to who we are and I’m going to speak more to me first and then you can add you in but I think we’re we’re alike is that I know I’m personally if you’ve ever been through Blair singers ales dogs, which just describes different kinds of dogs as it relates to the kind of people in the way you are with sales. I am I am part and the one major part of me is retriever, which just means need to be liked. And then I have another side of me that is Pitbull, that means when stress and they should hits the fan, that I’ll go for the jugular, or I’ll go for your ankle, and I’ll bite on it, and I won’t let go. Meaning once I get something done, if it’s stress situation, I won’t quit until it gets done. And I’ve seen Sam be in those same situations where I know that you you will go on your coach side like I do. And then but when things don’t go or getting stalled, then you just go into order mode. Tell me about how that is. What’s that like with your team? And, and the reason like what happens when you get into that mode with your teams, etc. I know what happens with me.

Sam Villa 51:03
Oh, wow, it. First of all, I am exactly like that. I mean, it’s interesting, Chris. You get me out in front of those people. And there’s a certain thing that comes over me. It’s the character, it’s the personality. It’s the Okay, I chose this. So therefore I show up. When I fall back around my team, I become a little bit more not so accountable for myself so to speak. I depend on them a lot. I become a little bit more No, rather than allow me to explain. It’s interesting. So there’s this side over here, which is that that side of the the teacher? Okay, yeah. Then there’s this side over here? Yes. And then there’s side over here with my team, where sometimes I need to backup on say, let me say that a different way. That sounds a little bit more on the positive side and not so much on that order side. So this is there’s this passive aggressive personality, I guess, Chris, that sometimes that comes out of me. And I find Chris that as I’m becoming older, it’s starting to come out on that other side, too, it’s a little bit more difficult to control things. You know, it’s it’s important. You know, I just have to be careful with that. I mean, I you know, how we put ourselves in a position. And I don’t mean this in a pat on the back sort of way, but I’ll never forget a story that Lisa shared with me. And she said, This is why you need to be careful. We were at the Orlando premiere show, we had just finished eating breakfast, and we got up paid the bill and got it to leave. And she said, Did you hear that table next to you? I said, No, I go, what happened? Did I say something wrong? Or bla bla, you know, she’s like, Hey, you got up to leave. And the lady said to the other lady, grab his fork. Grab his fork. I’m like what? She said grab is for the ADA that he ate now that fork grab his fork. I go. No, that’s yeah, anyway, my point is this is that I’ve discovered that I just as careful as I need to be outside. I need to be just as careful within my brand. When I’m with my people, it’s just as valuable. That’s my point.

Chris Baran 53:35
Yeah. And I think because I find that same thing. Like with AI, I can coach other people and put on the right words, choose the right word, not get emotional, when I’m coaching someone, but you know what I get around my family, it’s, you know, you revert back, I revert back to bite dad, guess and not not always use it not always using those skills. So, you know, I, the, and I know, Lee is on the other end of the leaves producer, just everybody you know, just so you know, Lee is producing this show in the background, you can probably bleep this out and maybe cover over my mouth. But you know, because our wives know, our stick because we often run it by them. And they know what we’re going through. And I’ll never forget when I was learning how to debrief, you know, which is an art in itself. You go through the steps at the beginning of the steps at the beginning and I can remember even having a I remember talking to a friend out of, you know, contemplating suicide with by using a debrief method with him. And so I went, I’m pretty good at this. And then I went to my wife and I we started the process and she looked at me and said, just they’re gonna bleep this out. But I said she looked at me it’s rate me. I said, Don’t do fucking debrief me, you know. And so you have to be careful. You have to be careful of what the stick that you know and what you do that they they know that and it doesn’t work all the time. So yeah, careful on that. So yeah, so Sam, you that’s been a great part of your team and you’ve always been this, but I hope that because this is not rehearsed, but I just there was there you started this movement? At least I thought you did. I started this movement about hairdressers supporting hairdressers? Yes. Can you tell us the story of where that came from? And what prompted that, etc. Because I know I believe in it, and I support it myself.

Sam Villa 55:48
It came from a conversation that I had with my education at the time wellness ambassador, Now Andrew Carruthers. And he were and I were trying to come up with a hashtag that had a lot of meaning to it. And we he said, you know, Sam, there’s one thing that you do is you support everybody, you know, you allow somebody to come on our platform, so sell their own share, you, you support other brands, you’re sharing with other brands, he goes you’re about, you know, sharing with artists and brands. And that’s where the hashtag came from was the conversations Andrew and I had where we said it’s artists, supporting artists and brands supporting brands. And what that means is that this whole thing, and you would say, he goes, you know, you stand in front of there. And you always say this, you always say, there’s plenty for everybody. There’s plenty for everybody, what we need to do is support each other, understand there’s plenty for everybody, but it’s up to you to go out and get it. And that’s where it comes from this whole thing. And then the culture of the brand. That’s what it’s always been, it’s been built about, you know, supporting the hairdresser. A, what is it? The hairdressers, the hairdressers, hairdresser, the artist supporting our dress, the brand supporting brands, that’s where that came from. And then we got deeper into it, when we got into this whole pandemic thing, it made even more sense. And that’s where it really, really flourished was artists, supporting artists and brands, supporting brands with all the things that we were doing to social zon, the fabric of change, etc, those made, those were things that really brought that hashtag to the forefront.

Chris Baran 57:23
And you know, because it just so if people outside of the education, side of manufacturing, and all of that there was, you know, back in the I call it the the day, when you would go to a show, and while you sort of hang around with other artists or whatever, but it was always, you know, in the 90s, etc, in the early 2000s, you would go around, and it was if you were from another brand, you’d say hi, and you’re somewhat social, and so on, but they were the competitor, as opposed to, we’re all just hairdressers that work in our own gig. And we’re educators and we support the companies that we believe in. But it kind of pulled everybody apart a little bit. And I think that now now is people are just going to look at we’re all doing things together. We’re all helping change lives of people. And it’s really important that we all know one another. And I think it’s when all of a sudden we had brands that were being put together within the PPD movement, you know, it was like, all of a sudden, they made they’ve made announcements that that Redken and Pureology were like sister companies, and we all talk about the the sister companies that go on with brands, etc. But they, you know, all of a sudden, you had a conscious effort that you were going to be mentoring people within there. And I keep thinking, damn, you know, we know so many amazing people that are educators, whether they’re with another manufacturer, a brand on their own or whatever. It’s just always so cool just to get to know those people of like minds. And I always I’ve always had this dream that what happened one day, when you’ve got all of those people together, and you just did a jam together. So you’d learn from one another and just pass on I know this, you know that here’s Oh, I didn’t know you could do it that way. Just think about how we could elevate each and every person that was out there. So that’s always been kind of a dream of mine.

Sam Villa 59:31
You know, Chris, you ever stopped to think that redkin member now I really believe this? But redkin put education on the mat. Yeah. Or let me say it a different read can elevate it education to another level. And if you notice, a lot of brands were saying what are they doing with those flip charts? Right. Or, you know, what’s that all about? Then pretty soon. What do you find people doing? Yeah, later on. They’re starting to use flip charts. What are you typing, seeing these companies become they’re becoming more learner focus. They’re becoming more interactive. So when you think about that, read, Ken started to bring everything together and started to their education process saying, hey, there is a way out there that we all can teach, where we can get what you want to get across. But you need to make yourself a teacher. Not a platform artist,

Chris Baran 1:00:26
right? Do you remember? I’m guessing I’m gonna take a wild stab at this. Nine. T.

Sam Villa 1:00:35
Terry Donnelly, cut your hair. Oh,

Chris Baran 1:00:37
no, no, no, no, this was after that one. I do remember. I remember being in upstate being an upstate New York, a Blair singer. We had that seven day event that we did. Yes. No, no, no. First of all, no, it was it was held at I think the Marriott in New York, we had a weekend retreat. Okay, many, many Toscanini was there. Philip Wilson was there. You and I, and a whole bunch of other amazing people were at that training. And I remember that he did all of this stuff that was so different. And what most people thought was weird when it came to training. And I remember you and I sitting there and say, well, we don’t know what this is. But this seems pretty damn cool. Right? We’ve got to give this a whirl. And you remember, we just said we’re gonna give this a go. We don’t know where it’s gonna go. We don’t know how to do it yet. But I just remember us sitting in the back of the room and said, this is this really is the future of education, even though we didn’t even know what it was at the time.

Sam Villa 1:01:43
Though, I think what we did was we took it and we said, how can we make this more Bonaire? You know, because I could see that working with a lot of Corp in the corporate world, you know, in the office world kind of thing. And that that hope, but I’m thinking how do we do this in terms of teaching, but that was one thing where he opened us up in terms of, you know, learner focus, interactive, that’s what it was about. And that’s where we realize we don’t just stand and deliver and tell them, you know, we get them to learn with us. That was where, and now I’ll never forget that first exchange week that we had. And at the end, we were so excited, Chris, because we figure it out, took us till the end of that class to figure it out. But we thought, okay, we’re onto something

Chris Baran 1:02:21
here. But then don’t you wouldn’t you agree, it also took us another, what? almost 10 years to really figure it out and to really take one piece and evolve it into another and into another as well. So it’s been it’s been a hell of a ride. Now, I want to just because I, there is, you remember, we would go to hang out after beer here. After multiple darts. Well, we won’t go there. Well, I guess now that we have

Sam Villa 1:02:55
we went there in Canada this last week. And we were thinking about you, buddy.

Chris Baran 1:03:02
You remember we would we would tell Road Warrior stories because that you know, way back there was all the times when you would, you would go on the road and there would be all these quirky, crappy things that would happen to us on the road. And while they were devastating at the time, or embarrassing or funny or whatever, we would always go bare here at the end of the night, and we just tell all the road warrior stories that we had. And I’ve been trying to go back and go to mind, but I remembered that in some poziom I don’t know if you remember, I think you remember Frank Sunseri. But when we did, we did the very first regional tours, which is where you would take sort of like mini symposiums but you would take them on tour, you would do a couple of shows, but they would be all across the country and you would travel throughout the year. In the spring in the fall, you would do these redkin regionals and, and we would always play pranks on one another. And and finally an I think it was Doug Kohler that was doing the shows at that time that was before Charlie Kennedy’s time. And he finally had to lay down the law because he said we’re pulling so many pranks that on everybody said you there’s no pranks loud until the last show. And so we would spend the whole year planning pranks that we would do and could do on the last show. So Frank’s and Sarah who is doing amazing man was did amazing barbering, etc. And I for the year I studied him how he would go on stage and those days we never had trolleys we just had the we’d get a hotel. Tray. Yeah. And you put a napkin overtop of it, and you put your tools on it, you’d walk on stage with it, and you’d set it down on the table, a draped table, no fancy pants stuff. And then you would continue to work and you’d go back and forwards with this thing and you put it on this table that was So, literally the the tray that the, you would have to put your dirty dishes on, you know when you’d have that same tray, except it had a little cover on it. And I watched him every time he would take, it would put it down, it would take a drink of water. And then he would turn to the audience, he would deliver his opening remarks. Well, one of my clients told me about alum, and that if you put alum in a drink, and then you put it in your mouth and you take a drink of it, you would it would take all the saliva out of your mouth you go so I told my reader, my readers, my wife, we got the album, but they never told us how much to pull in and read it said to me, Well, how much how much do I how much of this album do I put in the water and and I said, I don’t know make it like liquid. You know, sometimes you have to just keep doing it until it doesn’t dissolve anymore and then put dissolve what doesn’t dissolve put it in the glass. So I’m standing behind the waiting for this to go on stage and he walks on stage. He has this tray. But this time just before he walks on stage, he grabs the water and oh no, don’t No, not right now. And he takes a big swig of this water and he starts to go walks on stage. Well, he’s gagging and putting this thing down because they called his name and he can’t talk to anybody. And it took him like about three or four minutes to get his voice back and oh my god, it was just a wild thing. We the wildest times what things weird weird stuff, weird stories, funny stories, whatever.

Sam Villa 1:06:48
Well, I got to one was there’s really quickly to one quick one and then I’m gonna give you the other one. One was when you guys did the cheeky wiki thing. Oh, right. And it was you and our good buddy now in Arizona. Don Matlock and MATLAB. MATLAB was he like he was there it was dawn. Matt, you Dennis Gephardt was there Gephardt Yes, you guys marked my face up with the wine cork, if you remember that. Oh, God, I was painted black. But what am I?

Chris Baran 1:07:23
Just Just so everybody knows you would take a wine cork, yes. And then we would go to the bathroom and you would burn it. So it was all burned. And then you would palm it in the palm your hands like this. And then you’d have the cork sitting on the inside. And so then you you’d we do stupid stuff. Like we’d say, okay, and we set somebody Don and I were always great at setting marks are. Yeah. And we would say who’s the mark and we’d say, okay, Samza mark. And so we’d go Don, and I would go, we should have gave him a cheeky wiki. And I’m not, it’s not appropriate here. And so yeah, it’s got to give him a cheeky wiki. And I went, No, no, you have to be really good at it. Sam’s goes, I’m really good at well. So as soon as somebody says, I’m really good. You’re the mark. Yeah. So Sam goes, No, I said, No, you have to be competitive. I’m competitive. And he said, No, no, no, no, I don’t think you could do that. It’s for what I can what kind of stuff that we throw at you. But he kept baiting him. And he goes, No, no, I’m really good. So then you would find out where the marks it. So he said he’s sitting beside me. So we go cheeky wiki. So you would have to do something like cheeky wiki teeny, weeny forehead, he at IC YZ era Z where Z. And we would go around the table and you’d have to you’d have to pass around. So every time that that it would go to somebody else Sam would be cheeky and stuff like this, but every time that I don’t remember who is I got you or dawn scuffed you it was me and so but I had the cork and then I would scuffed them like that, you know, so we had charcoal here and all over your face by the time we were done. That was that was that was those were good times

Sam Villa 1:08:57
those. And if you’re going to do it, make sure you know get marked the right person. That’s important. That’s important. Yeah, we’ve had some great times I’ll never forget one when they said you’re going to go to Marrakech, Morocco and you’re going to do an event for Belgium redkin. At Marrakech, you’re gonna have 300 they taken over Club Med, and you’ll be there for a week. And then they said one day they said, Okay, you’re gonna do a poolside Sam. I said, poolside. They said, Yeah, we have a little canopy for you. And the general manager time younger guy, kind of a really nice cool guy. He said, Sam, were some class sunglasses. It’s gonna be hot. It’s gonna, you know, the sun the glare. And he said, we’ll come and get you and your model when we’re ready. They came and got me. They introduced me I come around to the front. I sit the model down. I start talking Chris. I’m like, well, guess what? They’re all in the pool. They’re all laying down, but they are all topless. Oh, topless. And so that’s why he told me to wear sunglasses because he’s back there in the back crack. Get up, because he needs to see me just like you know, typical American man, he stopped going to be able to handle this. And then what was funny was when they did right there in the pool, Chris, so they’d raise your hand ask a question go. Oh, Sam, you know, it was funny of their forget. Yeah, some great, great road stories. That’s for sure.

Chris Baran 1:10:22
All right. So Sam, I mean, God, we’ve thank you for. Yeah, but listen, I want to just a couple quick tests, and then I want to kind of start wrapping this up, okay. We’ve always had people in our lives that have really changed the path of where you are in success, wired or sometimes even in your life? Who were the people that really changed? You, your life? Put you on the path that you will wear? And? And how did that affect you? So I don’t know if that’s fair, because it gets two or three questions in there.

Sam Villa 1:11:02
Very fair. One is definitely MNC. There’s no doubt you know, the amount of years and the time that I had to spend within Mincy. You know, I, I don’t keep keep in touch with her as much as I probably should. But she really affected my mom my life in so many ways. And it goes back to my dad, because my dad would always attend those Redken events. prior to me getting into hair. He attended those Redken events after I got into hair. He told me her story that she was the receptionist at one time, but admits he was had a lot of impact, making me realize the whole mindset of how this is important. And how you control it, and then how you use it. When you communicate. The other impactful person in my career has to be Christine Schuster. I say that because Christine, is what really started the whole educational side of me rethinking on how do I teach? Number one by giving us the resources, one of them being Blair singer, giving us the resource to understand what it means to be teacher how to teach, but to an audience. In terms of, you know, their first night, you there were so many other things where I had a lot of ups and downs with Christine, you know, where she really would pull me inside and help me understand those ups and downs and lots of good conversations. I mean, there’s so many people, you know, anyone that’s been in that position has been really impactful in my life in that redkin position as VP. I really believe, though, that she woke me up on that education side, look, you think you’re good, I’m gonna make you really, really good. And that was the that whole Blair singer. So the last one is Blair, but that last person is Blair in regards to, you know, what he delivered, and how he delivered. It wasn’t really on the side in the beginning, but then I figured out that there was a why behind all that. But Blair really impacted the content side of me as a teacher and impacted my dad in my life to all of that information. I carry that around in my life. So when I think about my career, those those minds come to my to thought right away. I mean, I think about those, those people. Obviously, you you know, Chris, you don’t know this, but I mean, the years many years that we have spent together and been real special to me. You know, we’ve definitely had our times together. But I mean, we’re there I’ll never forget when you told me when we were building that whole concept of PVD design and redesigning that whole thing together in that beginning process. We you told me Listen, you know, it’s okay, if we disagree, we have to agree to disagree. I’ll never forget that. Because that was difficult times you know, discussing discussing what does this mean? What does that mean? No, it means this No, it means that trying to find that whole process. And then we’re, you’ve taken it now. I mean, you are definitely you know, a tremendous person in terms of the education side and what your, your clarity is, you know, I really think God how can I say this clarity without trust produces fear? Yeah, and you’re one person that can be trusted

Chris Baran 1:14:12
no doubt bless you for that my friend. That wasn’t where I was expecting him to go but thank you. I just want to kind of put a little bit of closure on to this and I like to put the closure on with asking two questions. So I’m gonna deal with the first one first is that I always believe that if you just let me just ask question if you had one wish. For our industry, not you not me, but one just one wish for our industry. What would that be?

Sam Villa 1:14:49
Wow. That the salon owner respects the suite owner Then the sweet owner respects the chair owner, that the distributor respects the hairdresser. And the brands respect the distributor and the brands respect each other. I mean, it goes back to that whole thing where I really believe it’s about, you know, there’s plenty for everybody. The influencer respects the session artist in the session, ours respects the influencer all the way down to the hairdresser at the chair. Yeah, I think you know, that’s one thing that I dream is that the respect level in the industry continues to grow. Yeah, become better. Yeah.

Chris Baran 1:15:39
That’s amazing. Very, very profound. And the last thing is just, it you know, people need to, what if you had to say to somebody that just get off your ass sets, and do something different and let something go? What would that be?

Sam Villa 1:16:02
I would say in this industry, I think we need to learn to listen, so we can listen to learn. Mm hmm. And I’m referring to this industry right now. We need

Chris Baran 1:16:16
to leave out again, say that one more time,

Sam Villa 1:16:17
we need to learn to listen. So we can listen to learn from each other. any class that you’re at? I think it’s a double L right now. Listen, and learn and learn to listen.

Chris Baran 1:16:32
Yeah. Because that takes the ego out of the equation. The situation doesn’t it

Sam Villa 1:16:36
does. Yes. You know, you’d like we’ve always said he goes okay, as long as you know how to manage it, you know, not saying don’t get rid of it, but you got to know how to manage that thing. Or else it will control you. Yeah.

Chris Baran 1:16:48
Sam, I am always glad to be with you. I mean, we always have great conversations. I’m I’m always humbled by the fact that I can even say that I’m, you know that you’re a friend of mine. But I’ve learned so much from you. I’ve you’ve always given me inspiration. I’ve always got somebody that I could bounce an idea off of and you you always come from the hip, you just straight shoot. And you’re not shy about just telling what needs to be said and I really respect you for that. So I can’t thank you on behalf of our listeners and the people watching this. I can’t thank you enough for being on this and and just showing what satin via the human being is like so. Mr. Bia Thank you. And we wish to

Sam Villa 1:17:42
thank you, brother. I’m glad to call you brother.

Chris Baran 1:17:46
Awesome. Thank you, but so for all the groups that are out there. We’ll see you again next week, too. Bye. Good luck.