Today I sit down with the Midwest Hairstyling Awards Hairstylist of the Year, NAHA Educator of the Year and Director of the Hair Labs Detroit Barber School, Mr Rodrick Samuels.
Rodrick shares some great nuggets of wisdom this week including his top 3 list for students – you have to show up, you have to work hard and you have to listen.
He shares how education has changed so much from when he was in school, how teaching is 1000% different now.
Hear about the importance of failure and how this has always pushed Rodrick in his lifetime.
Complete Transcript
Chris Baran 0:00
How great would it be to get up close and personal with the beauty industry heroes? We love and admire and to ask them how did you learn to do what you do? I’m Chris Baran, a hairstylist and educator for 40 plus years. And I’m inviting all our heroes to chat and share the secrets of their success
Well, I have to tell you that today’s session that we’re having with encases is really special to me. And the reason why is because he’s one of my new besties. And I have to tell you, he is one of the most positive people that I think I’ve ever met. He is the Midwest hairstyling awards hairstylist of the year. He’s been a finalist in the international visionary Awards, Best men’s finalist at the aipp Awards. NAHA Educator of the Year probably big hint right there. He is the director of the Hair Labs Detroit barber school. So let’s get into this week’s headcase Mr. Rodrick Samuels. Rodrick, it is an absolute pleasure and honor to have you on here. I’ve, I’ve watched you for years. And you know what, like, when we do these podcasts, sometimes I know that people sometimes at the first time, and I had a good friend of mine, James Alba, who talked to me one time and he says you’re gonna be my best friend whether you want to or not. And I’m saying that to you. I’m stealing his line. But you’re gonna be my best friend at the end of this whether you want to or not you and Lauren. Well, listen,
Rodrick Samuels 1:38
well listen, James is a good friend of mine too.
Chris Baran 1:41
There we go. We get the three of us together that nobody else will be able to talk. Sorry, go ahead. You know, it’s been a pleasure here and I want I want people I don’t know who might not know you. But I, I know I did my introduction to you. That gives a little bit of that away. But just first of all, I think what’s more important is family. To me, family is always super important. Now, as we say in English, muy importante. Everybody says my Spanish it sounds more Portuguese. But there you go. You You and your wife have together. I mean, you do amazing photography, etc. So, but I want to go back way back before that. How did you and Lauren meet?
Rodrick Samuels 2:28
You know what? So first and foremost, good afternoon, or good morning or good evening to whoever is looking or listening? Roderick Samuels in the building with the episode lovely. Mr. Chris Baran. My wife do it do it. Yeah, for sure. She que okay. You know what, that’s a that’s a really, really crazy story. And of course, my version will not be her version. So memory is well, happy, happy house happy spouse. So there you go. Version. So a couple years ago, namely, about 12 years ago, this young lady was online searching for a barber education for her salon at the time. And she reached out to me via Facebook Messenger. And we started talking and you know, to make a long story short, it’s funny how, you know, nowadays they have like Tinder and, and Bumble and whatever the case may be, but we actually met through hair, we met through her passion for providing additional education for the salon she owned at the time. And for me, it was it was a work thing. And who would have ever guessed that after a couple of conversations and a few trips that this young lady that I dated for so long would now be my wife of six years. We just celebrated our anniversary, our six year anniversary. Yeah, thank you, man. You know, it’s been a ride, you know, I can honestly say that. I could not imagine my successes today without her. Yeah. For sure.
Chris Baran 4:08
I remember. And I don’t know if you would have known her but I’m Canadian, by heritage and in the end, there was an amazing lady that I was wished was still alive. She did so much for our industry. Her name was Joan Harrison, and she had Canadian hairdresser magazine. And she was just a great influence in my life as well and pushed me hard. But she always just talked about she said she wanted to do an article, not on the people that that were whose faces were on there, the men whose faces up there and she said she wanted to do an article on the women. You know, the the women that were behind them, you know, the ones that really, you know, they had to give up a lot of stuff, you know, in order for us to do what we needed to do. Now I know Lauren was a bit different than that because she’s she’s an educator and, and an amazing artist and and Ward winner all on her own. So, but that it is amazing I, you know how these, the women just really helped us along and and I don’t mean that from a contemporary standpoint or anything other than I know people who have lost their marriages because of traveling all the time and the work that they have had to put into it. So I always take my hat off to my lovely lady Rita, who just really allowed me to be able to do what I want, in order for us to have the things that we want for our family. So I think to all the women, whether they’re on stage or whether they’re off stage supporting somebody, I certainly take my hat off to them, Well, I’m not gonna take it off literally right now, because my hair not good.
Rodrick Samuels 5:42
Longer than look like mine.
Chris Baran 5:43
Well listen, one day I’m gonna have I’m gonna have the Moxie to try it. But I’m not as good looking as you so I don’t need it. We’ve got the hands underneath the chin and doing it.
Rodrick Samuels 5:57
If I could just add to that, just real quick. There’s tons and tons of women at our industry that are working super, super tough behind the scenes, and they honestly don’t get enough credit. You know, you’ll see the men, you know, at the front of the products and companies and stuff like that. But behind and I know it sounds cliche, but behind every great man is even a greater woman. And I’m telling you, man, my wife is just she just super dope. You know, she’s my best friend. We traveled together, we teach together, we raise a family together, we have two children. My son is going to be graduating from college next month and my daughter is going to be a senior in high school. So yeah, you know what? I’ve been around the world one seen everything twice. But she is definitely my ace, my ace, boom, cool, man.
Chris Baran 6:52
Yeah, well, good on you. I know, we just read an I just celebrated our 53rd anniversary. I was three when I got married. If you’re doing math 53 years together. And, and everybody when they asked me what what it is I just say look at just marry your best friend, you know, for sure that if your best friends, you know, there’s a lot of stuff, other stuff that you want to do at the beginning that is going to go away somewhat. But you know, if you got your best friend, you’re always there. And I remember one story. I remember sitting in a coffee shop with a young kid that was I’m guessing at my age, they could add another 10 years on to and I would I would be right. But I’m guessing it was around 2020 21. And, and I remember him looking at me and said I just don’t understand old people. And now for those of you listening, I’m using air quotes right now. Old people I said, Well, why don’t you understand old people? And he said well, because they get married and then they just sit there beside one another. And they don’t talk. And and I went okay, well, man, you have no idea what you have no idea what true love and relationship is, is that if you if you don’t know that you can just sit there and be with just one another and be happy and in love. You know. So
Speaker 2 8:13
I know less, less is more, you know, you know when you when you first start date and then you coordinate you know you’re doing whatever you can do to impress that person that, you know, my dad always tells me said the way you start. You got to keep that up. Right. Right. And he also said romance with no finance is a new thing. What was that? What was ready? Yep. Romance. With no finance is a nuisance.
Chris Baran 8:47
In which you have no chance. Is your dad still with us?
Speaker 2 8:55
He is you know, I actually was in South Carolina this past weekend to visit with him. And you know, I’m originally from Summerville, South Carolina, which is right outside of Charleston. Beautiful place. But yeah, my old man he’s he’s still still making it happen. He is. He is a minister. Oh, yeah. So I use this quote often but you know, before he gets up to preach, he always said, Well, I don’t want to make you happy twice. Right. Happy to see me get up and happy to sit down. So keep it short. You know what I mean?
Chris Baran 9:30
Let me . I’m going to give you a one of my dad’s stories and this is one of my favorite that he I mean when he was live he they were in Kelowna, British Columbia and my wife we’re not when we’re out visiting and and they’re radon on the lake Okanagan and oh, it’s stunning. And I the dad says to me, I’m gonna buy a boat and I just saw this big rate read I think it was whatever it was 2021 foot in board and went Oh, you want to go see it? And what a hell yeah. So we go to see it. Now you have to imagine my my dad had What if you talk to him it was a, it was a used furniture store. If you talk to his wife, he said it was a junk shop. But so we he had one of those big old van, oh, you know, the big old square vans that used to put all your stuff in and haul back and forth. We jumped in there. And we went out to this place. And we’re walking around and we’re looking at this boat and it’s nice boat, I’ll tell you. And so this guy comes out of the house and he says, Are You the people that were looking at the boat that says yes. And they go about back and forth. And then I’ll cut to the chase where he says to the gentleman, how much did you want for the boat? And he said, Well, I want I’m gonna have to make up the numbers here because I don’t remember them. But he said like I want I want 21,000. And Dad said, Oh, well, that’s a fair price. But he said, You know, I had two independent appraisers that came around and they said it’s only worth 10. And he went Oh, really? Oh, okay. Well, then 10 It is? Well, I’ll take the 10. So dad pays on the 10 we loaded up he’s got a hitch on that thing. We started pulling away and I looked at I looked over my dad, I said dad, you know, when did you were the two independent appraisers that thought it was only worth 10. And he looked at well, you and me you don’t think I should pay the 21,000? Do
Rodrick Samuels 11:30
they have so much wisdom and just just savvy you know, I can I can honestly say that. I get my people skills from my dad and my grandma, my dad’s mom, little short lady. I think my grandma might have been like 411. But in our industry, and people talk about, you know, their value and their worth, and what she was probably the most selfless person I have ever met in my entire life. My grandma used to go around to the local bread store in South Carolina. And whatever money she had, she would just buy up all the bread that they have, whether it be it could be loaves of bread, it could be cinnamon, whatever the case may be. Before she made it back to her house, she had stopped by 1015 other people’s houses just dropping off bread. No, my grandma, God rest her soul. She didn’t have a lot of money. You know, she, she she worked very, very hard, single single parents raise two sons. But when you think about education, and when you think about the things that you and I do on a daily basis, it’s literally about giving from our heart. Yeah, people want to get into education for the for the theme, or, you know, for what it looks like. But real teachers teach from the heart, right? Not the books, not we teach from our lives, not from what stereotypical people, you know, are looking for. And that sense, you know, so it’s just good to have good family around and you know, bless bless God for your dad, man, he has raised an amazing young man. And also his legacy lived through you. So
Chris Baran 13:17
I think that we always all homage to our, to our, to our parents and those that gave us what we have. But I think it’s just I love what you said about your grandma, and how is to be that servant and I, I was just about to say the same thing with you. Because what she did as selfless as that was, was part what is still with you today. And consequently, that’s part of who you are, as well. And I even though this is our first time being best friends, that the that I know from you know, I did some research and I watched some of the videos and I saw, I saw how you’re the students at your school. I mean, anybody can make up a testimonial. Anybody can can say stuff. That’s not true. And even if it’s not, because I know that one girl, she took the time to actually write it out and read it. And you can tell when somebody even if they’re reading it, you can tell that it’s made up. But I’m gonna invite anybody just to go online and look up. Look up, look up his stuff. And then just to look at the the testimonial that they gave you when you and I can’t remember if that was after you got the nomination? I mean after you want it or when you got the nomination. Yeah, so yeah. So I mean, tell me a little bit about what got you into education. What was the catalyst?
Rodrick Samuels 14:45
The catalyst for me going into education was my mother actually. My mom passed away. My mom passed away back in 2006. But she was an educator in the public school system for 33 years and Um, you know, at the time I was young, you know, making the effort to find my way through life. And, you know, I just really, really kind of liked the way that my mom had her life setup. You know, for nine months out of the year, she was off three months out of the year, she was paid for those three months. And I was like, You know what, this will probably be a pretty dope job for someone. You know, at the time, I was single, and, you know, I was like, Man, I could just travel for three months. The impact that my mom had on people that she taught over the years, and I kind of spoke about this a little bit during my speech, for, for now, just how, again, a great woman being around great women, her selflessness and what she was willing to give her students and, you know, I mean, I remember ride home, my mom, she’d be like, I gotta make a couple of stops. And I’m like, okay, that’s what’s up. She was stopped by students houses, that, you know, and you know, at the time, these were these people’s parents were people she went to school with, right, you grew up in a small communities and stuff like that. And you didn’t want no smoke from Marjorie St. Samuels, you did not want. You did not want to bend those tree branches at all. But I think that sometimes even today, we don’t understand tough love. Right. So, you know, holding someone accountable is not retaliation.
Chris Baran 16:26
Right? Right.
Rodrick Samuels 16:28
A lot of our younger students, people coming into the industry, we have a standard that we have been held to from for several years, as licensed professionals, and we went through, so our younger barbers and stylists don’t have to, unfortunately, sometimes with social media, people don’t realize that social media is social, it’s so that people can talk about what’s going on. It’s not necessarily reality. So in that tough love, I’m watching my mom and how she interacted with students. These people have the utmost respect for her, you know, at the end of the day, you know, they may have been mad at her, they would have been pissed and OMA Samuels and miss, but then they get along in life. And they always come back and explain to her how important and intricate her being in their lives was. Yeah, I think it’s the same thing kind of with me, education and even working with manufacturers or companies or wet lines. It’s not a lot of money. People don’t realize that a lot of money, you’re literally doing it because you feel indebted to our industry, because the industry has been so great. It has literally saved so many people’s lives. Especially mine, you know, I went to college for two years, and I parted my way right back home. I went to school in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. So you know, I’m you know, I’m the cool guy. I mean, I’m heading to the beach. I didn’t have time for class. But my parents growing up, never told me what I couldn’t do. They always told me what I could. And that in itself was just the flame that I needed to keep on keeping on when things got rough when, when my grades made it home before I did my mom still give me an opportunity to be something and when I had an idea to become a barber, she was like, You know what, I think that’s a good idea. And I’m like, worried. She was like now you know, you like working with your hands you like people you’d like to talk, obviously. And, you know, I came into the industry Eyes Wide Shut. I didn’t know what I didn’t know, me tons and tons of mistake. I screwed up so many haircuts, Chris, I mean, from where I started to where I am now, I mean eons and eons and stuff. So I just think it’s important, you know, for for people like you like myself, that really have a finger on the pulse to really have some, some state and more extreme. We got to continue to set those standards and hold those young barbers and stylists accountable. Because not everybody gets a participation trophy in the Beauty and Barber industry or life. Showing up, it happens. I live by this and I tell my students this when they first come into our program and when they leave. If you can do these three things will be fine. If you can’t do these three things. There’s other schools who appreciate mediocre people. Number one, you got to show up. Showing up just doesn’t mean being present or coming to school. I mean, you have to be here in mind, body and spirit. I tell my students every morning be responsible for the energy you bring into our building. Super, super important, right? So number one is showing up. Number one Again, work hard. You’ve got to work hard. You have to push yourself to some limits that you don’t even know that you have you have, be comfortable and being uncomfortable. I know it’s cliche, but it is the truest thing that you can ever say about working in the personal appearance industry. You got to be uncomfortable. You gotta lean into the things that you don’t like to do. My students learn perms, relaxers, long hair dressing, solid form square form graduated form, we know we use pivot point curriculum. The next number one is listen to ears, one mouth, you gotta listen more than you speak. That’s the south node. That’s the south coming out me you don’t disrespect people. Right. I know. You. You don’t disrespect your elders. You know, I think that sometimes that those messages have noticed I named everything number one.
Chris Baran 20:54
I have that. And believe me, I’m writing this stuff down because it’s good stuff. And I have number one, especially when we said the other number one. Yeah, correct. Yeah,
Rodrick Samuels 21:05
there’s a method to the madness. A lot of times when people think about how things have ordered, or number one, number two, number three, right? They kind of fall in its levels of importance, and how important they are. Each one of these three things are just as important as the next you got to show up. You got to work hard, you got to listen. I’m not going to tell you anything wrong. And if I don’t know what I’ll say, You know what? Hey, Chris, you know what? That’s a great question. Let’s figure it out together. Yeah, I need my students to understand that I’m still learning to the way that I taught 10 years ago was not the way that I teach today, things are completely 1,000% different. But think about some of the people that are leading our students now, right? These are people must like you, we’ve had to grind blood, sweat and tears met with temporary defeat several times, right. You know, if you can look up, you can get up. If you want to fall, fall on your back, no falling, falling back in and look up, you can get up. So the things that we’re instilling in our students here at hair Lab is a little bit different than your traditional barber school, we teach soft skills, like if our business, they are cutting stuff like that will come. But we live in a microwave generation, everybody wants to be this YouTube star or this Instagram star and things like that, but they don’t realize the work that we had to put in as professionals. Right, get to that level. So for all of us listening out there right now, show up work hard and listen. And that goes for someone licensed professionals, too. You know, we just got to do better as an industry. That’s this, this barely get by as a new perfect. Yeah, yeah. Nobody wins. Nobody wins. You know? So
Chris Baran 22:50
you know what I love about what you’ve just said there, Roderick was that it’s all about values, isn’t it? Is that sometimes I mean, they I’m sure they all have values they got from home. But there’s values you have outside. But there’s also values in your worth that worth that your work ethic. And I think if you don’t have those, and they’re not instilled in you, if you don’t have them yet, you need to be groomed to them. Correct. And I think that’s that that was just brilliant what you do it because I think that we live in such a time now. I mean, I’m not gonna go down that that what happened in the last couple of years? Already did that for us. Yeah, yeah. What I do know is that that people are having some a lot of mental worry upset mental issues that they’re calling on right now. And what I loved when I was doing a little bit of research, yes, I do a little bit of research on you. But is is I loved when you on your boards, that you have your morning motivations with the students. And so tell us a little bit about what the what and the why behind your morning motivations.
Rodrick Samuels 24:01
So morning motivation, we actually call it huddle. And normally what I like to do is I like to get the day started off, right. I think it’s important that when you are building, not just the team, but a community, you know, our students that are coming on our program, there’s only four barber schools in entire state of Michigan. Real Yes, sir. So for us, it’s really about what I personally don’t feel. We have competition, right? People are competing with us, and this is what I have to give my students it’s shaping heads and shaping lives. Right. So I don’t know our mode of motivation is for conditioning. I need to condition our students minds to get ready for the toil of the day. Sometimes everyday is not going to go as smooth right? But if you are so psychologically sound to where when you do meet the temporary defeat it’s hard for you to be broken down. Those are the things that are going to make you successful not just ended in just in this industry, but in life too. There’s so many times that where you know, every little small thing is disruptive to a lot of people. Oh my gosh, I spilled my coffee. Right? Listen, you can get another coffee. This show up, work hard and listen. Oh, you know, I, you know, I don’t like my car. Well, you know, sometimes you have people who don’t have legs. Yeah, but the blessing is that you you have a car. So morning motivation for us is to set the tone for the day, it is not an option for us, it is a must. Because I need our students to go in every day with the proper mental attitude to be the best they can be every single day, I use a hashtag, Chris, every student every day, whatever it takes. Sometimes I don’t like my students. In Ireland, yeah, you might go to like all your students. I mean, you you’ve taught classes in the person in the back knows more than you. And they challenge you on everything. Well, I deal with that every day. Right off my shoulders, right? I know that as an educator, I have a job. And as it is to do that is to bring things from within our students that they don’t even know that they have. So it’s purpose, you got to have purpose for your life, you have to have purpose for what you do in our industry. And with the morning motivation, it helps our students to find that purpose, and to find that footing. And I explained to them, whatever is outside of those doors, lead that outside is not safe space. And I kind of end up every morning with wood telling our students if nobody else told you today, I love you. So many people don’t hear that enough. And my love for my students is almost equivalent to the love I have for my children. They’re, you know, I give them just enough space to disappoint me. You know, I know that there’s gonna be things that I want to ask of my students much like my children. Hey, did you do the dishes today? Oh, you know, I? I didn’t mess it. Okay, no worries. It comes Friday night, my kids want to go out my, you know, Hey, um, you know, do you mind if I go out? I said, Actually, I do. Well, why I said, you know, you didn’t feel like washing the dishes. So I don’t feel like letting you go home. I don’t feel like letting you go out. We have to create Win Win situations, whether it’s for homes, with our own kids, or our own students,
Chris Baran 27:41
and a consequence, and they have to no consequence comes along with everything.
Rodrick Samuels 27:47
I made a lot of good decisions that very bad times. Yeah. But what what the difference is, when my students make a mistake, it’s important for us to stop and reflect on that. And what did we can do better my wife is, my wife is a Zen master for sure. There’s never heard her quote, there’s never a problem without a solution. Sometimes our students, they’re not good at problem solving the you know, their parents or whoever raised them have been solving their problems and stepping in and being the gap for them all the time. When you come into this industry, and you get your license, there’s no one to save you. Nobody’s going to be throwing your life raft, if you and your client. So if you don’t learn those hard lessons in school, if you don’t, if you don’t, if you’re not privy to that tough love, and you know, everybody’s about given a participation trophy. We can’t do that. Do we? Do we show empathy? Absolutely. Are we understanding 1,000% I think my biggest thing is we do have a lot of students, like you said are people that dealing with, you know, challenges mentally. Sometimes schools aren’t built for that we don’t have the staff or the resources to deal with that. So we do the best we can every day and give it space. Luckily, our our academy director, she is very well versed in counseling, she used to be a counselor. So we just blessed to have an amazing staff and amazing team that can give the resources and fulfill the needs of today’s students. You don’t see that in a lot of schools, whether it be cars or barber but being a 21st century educator, and understanding people, right? People in the needs of today’s people, we tailor our curriculum and the way we do business on a daily basis to really really take care of those needs for our students.
Chris Baran 29:46
You know, I I love this because, you know, I can’t speak to any of those kids, because I’m not them. Sure I can only relate to what I was like when I went to school. And I know for myself, I was probably immature. To wet in when life struggles come up challenges come up in life. The biggest probably the biggest challenge that I had is what or what? What did I want on my pizza, or when I went to when I left challenge hits you and you don’t know how to deal with it, it can be devastating when let I’ll put it this way when I didn’t have the level of maturity in order to do what I do, because I know even now, I mean, at that time, there was no way I could even talk to somebody who was having a life challenge. But now from I’m gonna say being a husband, which two, that didn’t necessarily help me. Because it took me 40 years of marriage to figure out whether I should when something was going on was, and I finally said, honey, am I supposed to listen? Or am I supposed to do something? And she said, No, I just want you to listen. And that again, that’s maturity. And then because of what we do, as we do as educators, we learn how to solve problems by questioning rather than solving the problem. And I love the fact that that’s what you and Lauren and your team do at your schools as well. And I think that’s that’s absolutely brilliant. And next time I’m in Detroit, I want to tour
Rodrick Samuels 31:22
lets you have a tour we’re gonna go out to we’ll go out to dinner. I’m gonna go to Motown you know what I’m saying? Oh,
Chris Baran 31:28
that’s my that’s my music. That’s my music. And listen, I want to I want to jump into I want to jump in because both you and Lauren have been involved with nah ha. Winners of nah ha. Finalists says as we are I mean, I always say to me, I always tell people that I’m the Susan Lucci of, of nah ha. You know, I’ve been finalists many times, but one of these days I’m gonna win that little sucker. But know what got you into what gave you was it a competitive spirit was a chance that came up what got you into doing photography in the first place? You know,
Rodrick Samuels 32:13
we were just the artists we have an amazing photographer. Funny story. I was a really really big wrestler. state champ. Wow. Close to high school.
Chris Baran 32:30
Daniel, we got DC Daniel Cormier is coming on here.
Rodrick Samuels 32:35
Listen, top bottom standard, what are we gonna do? You know? Yeah, I’m kind of relentless when it comes to that. But one of my one of our one of my good friends, the guy used to wrestle with his his wrestling coach and my wrestling coach or brothers. So we would bring our high schools together, and we would just wrestle each other. And we were the top two teams in the state, which was kind of awesome, too. But this guy, his name is Travis T. He wrestled at 145 pounds, and I bumped up a weight class to wrestle him. He’ll probably tell them a little different story, but, but I beat him. And you know, 10 years down the line. I’m looking and I was like, I noticed guy from somewhere. It was Travis. He’s, he’s a photographer. He was shooting for Vogue Italia, a couple of other top magazines as well. And during the time, Lauren and I were dating, and I wanted to impress her. So she kept talking about this. Oh, you know, there’s this photograph competition that I really want to get into. And it’s called North American hairstyling awards. And I’m like, What do you have to do for it? And she was like, Well, you know, you have to shoot a collection. And it’s three images, blah, blah, blah. And I’m like, Girl, I got that. And she was like, for real? I was like, yeah, so I call traveling like, hey, is this young lady that I’m dating? She wants to do a photo shoot. When can I wait? Can you set up a time? And when can we do that? So the first time Lauren shot for nah, ha, she was a finalist. Yeah,
Chris Baran 34:01
well, I’m sure with some shooting and her talent.
Rodrick Samuels 34:05
Yeah, well, you know what, and I’m a very structured person. So I’m like, mood board, fashion. And she’s like, this doesn’t, this doesn’t feel good to me. So we’re just going to just work our way through it. Her and Travis have such a synergy when they work on set together where it’s just amazing. She wants to do the work. She doesn’t want to do the photos. All she wants to do is do the hair and he makes it look good. So I kind of had to kind of take a step back and release some of my structure and be the same thing. So that’s how we kind of got into shooting and not just because she’s my wife, but listen, man. This woman is She’s a visionary. I mean, she. She pushes boundaries. Can I give you a fun back?
Chris Baran 34:56
Yeah, please.
Rodrick Samuels 34:59
Lauren’s photo and it was when she got nominated and 2013 was the first photo for nah Ha, were a model had full tattoos. One of her friends at the time was a tattoo artists. And she came to do the makeup. But our model didn’t show up. So she had to model Oh, wow. And that crazy. But, but yeah, we that’s that’s kind of how we got into it. And she is very competitive and I’m competitive too. So for us, you know, at the time we were working behind the chair. This is when we had our salon we were working behind the chair every day, but every year we will we will shoot for Nah, that was our last week group lesson set. Let’s challenge ourselves. And if you throw enough stuff against the wall, something’s gonna stick. Well. Yeah. With a little bit more than mine.
Chris Baran 35:52
Excuse me. I’m getting my dad’s voice i Whenever this happens, we have to go dad go away. But what what was what that was that was her what sparked you?
Rodrick Samuels 36:04
She did? No, really? She does. So you
Chris Baran 36:07
stepped up to that point. You didn’t you didn’t you didn’t really care if you shot her photograph or whatever.
Rodrick Samuels 36:11
At that time. You know, I was I was traveling, traveling, teaching clipper cutting teaching methodology. I did train the trainer. You know, while I was teaching other instructors on methodology to teach, so that was my jam. The photography arena wasn’t my thing. It was it was all her so you know, I can’t be the one just like, oh, no, that’s your thing. I’m like, Yeah, you know, I got this. Much like yourself. I’m thinking to myself, like, shoot, I got the best photo in the world right here. Nobody’s gonna beat me, you know. And I didn’t get nominated. And she did.
Chris Baran 36:46
So we all have a whole lot to go through that one.
Rodrick Samuels 36:51
Listen. It’s a it’s a tough pill to swallow, you know? Yeah. Do you know what it does? For us, though, Chris, that teaches us a level of humility. You know, sometimes, you know, we’re in certain spaces, we are the cat’s meow. And in other spaces, you know, maybe not so much. But I’d like that balance. I like that shift because it continues to inspire me to be better. Even with all the accolades and awards and all of that stuff. I still go hard when it comes down to training myself and learning new things. I just, you know, I can’t put my car in park just because I’ve made it here. When it you know how especially educated a year being in the likes of Sam via and my brother John Mosley, right. Yeah. Guys wanted first. That’s some pretty big shoes to fill. You know what I mean? If I can say this man, the thing that this has done for me is it made me want to go hard on myself and my strategy so much right now to where? I don’t know, you know, it kind of takes me back to when I wanted to win this award, how I used to work and now that I want it is like, do I really want this like this is this, this can be a very high pressure situation, you know, there’s a level of expectation now. Not, not that people didn’t think that I was a great educator before. But now I have the stamps right? Now, right? So now, at least until 2024, I have to be the change that we need to see in our industry. So yes, like a lot of educators, right, I started sharing tips and tricks from my classroom, whether it be Jenga, putting together a puzzle, how I teach the practical portion of the industry. So many cosmetology and barber educators all across the country are not inspired these, these students give them their butts to kiss all the time. And my hope is that I can give them just a little bit of inspiration. I know I can’t reach everybody the key. I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. Yeah. But if I give that one teacher an idea to spark something, they can change their classroom and change the way that they look at education, especially in the 21st century. Man, you know what? Good for you, Roderick. You know what I mean? Yeah. But yeah, man, you know, I’ve kind of taken a different approach to the content that I share on social it needs to be content from an education. You know, I think that besides myself, you know, John is John is one of the directors at Paul Mitchell. Of course, Sam has his own education thing, but nobody’s really given a look inside the classroom and the theory behind what’s being done. You know, I like to pose the question, What can a barber student learn from Jenga, right? hand eye coordination, you have to work as a team. The biggest lesson that I teach when I’m sharing this with other educators across the country is even if everything falls apart. Yeah, you can put it back together and start all over again. Yeah.
Chris Baran 40:07
Yeah. This episode is sponsored by the salon associate accelerator from trainers playbook.com. Are you struggling with the time and cost of associate training? Do you feel like your salon is running, you will get your associates on the floor, all with 90% Less time from you. So you can get back to building your business. Get them world class design, finishing color, and client care skills they’ll use every day for the rest of their career. While you focus on realizing your vision, go to trainers playbook.com and get the salon associate accelerator. And now back to the show. As you know, I wish more people would would bring in games etc. I know that my evolution has always taken me into like training the trainer programs as well as it has you. But what I what I’ve found is like my teacher, and that was Blair singer, he taught me about about training the trainer etc. And, and I remember he said that you can learn something from if you take people and you just do a three legged race. And you know, just say tie their two legs together, tell everybody to walk around the block come back in the room. And if you debrief that with them properly, you’ll find they’ll get more learning lessons out of that than will that you will ever get by trying to tell them what their lessons should be.
Rodrick Samuels 41:41
Absolutely. Ya know, what’s so funny? This thing right here? Yeah. Our students, today’s students, any type of information they need to learn to get from here. So now we have to take a different approach. If YouTube and Instagram and Tiktok are teaching our students, like you’d like us air quotes and how to cut hair. What they aren’t teaching is that you can’t learn shit from a 32nd clip.
Chris Baran 42:09
Right? And you can’t get your questions answered.
Rodrick Samuels 42:11
Not at all right. So now we have to take a different approach. Because 21st Century learners, it has to make sense. It needs to go from point A to point B,
Chris Baran 42:23
right? Yep.
Rodrick Samuels 42:25
What teach teaching about developer color, right? Most barber schools don’t teach color because they don’t most barbers most real down hardcore barbers. They don’t use color. They don’t understand formulation. One of the things that I used to show about how developer works is Alka Seltzer. One Alka Seltzer is 10 volume to outsource is 23 3040. Right. But when they get to see the Alka Seltzer and contingent upon how many are use, they can see how much power it has. That’s how I make the correlation between what a 20 volume developer does and what a 40 developer volume developer does, right? It needs to make sense to our students, all the information that they need to learn or things that they are interested about. They ask good old Google right. But how we make the connection, how we build the relationship, because remember when I’m here, because when the people business, everything that we do is about relationships, getting that connection with the students, we have to start using really positive activities to bridge the gap between what we know to be true as 2829 year old that 29 year veterans, but what the new today learner has an understanding for nobody’s working to research, how to bridge that gap and to find ways to reach our students, nine times out of 10 It’s, well, here’s the lesson, you read it, recite it back to me, and we will take a test on it. Yeah, I probably going to be one of the first people to say it is actually on a live podcast. But I don’t use grades to determine what my student’s level of success is going to be. I’m sorry. What it shows me is that if a student makes a 75% on our weekly tests, I tell my students not to beat them up, not to beat themselves up so much. I said, this week, you’ve retained 75% of the information, you know, right? Let’s say to the student, you get a student and they make a failing grade. For us failing is below 80. Again, setting the standard, right? I said, Well, if you make below 80 That’s not necessarily a bad thing. That just means that there’s 20 More points that you could have gotten now how do we get back to those 20 points to change the way you look at things to think Juba cattle change. If you tell a student they fail, it beats them up mentally. And of course, we’re today’s students, because, you know, they have a lot of other things going on and things to think about the we didn’t have that beats them down psychologically. But if I tell you that you made a 75% and that means that you know, 75% of the information, which is a positive, that gives them more room to keep going, that gives them the opportunity to do better on site. Okay, so listen, what’s going on, Mr. Sam, what do you mean? 75 for today? Well, you know what, you know, I got this going on in life or whatever. So we’ll go check this out. 75 is not bad. It’s not the standard, but it’s not bad. So now, we have some room for improvement for next week, right? Yes, sir. That’s all I need. efforts, not excuses. We don’t do excuses here at hairless my wife don’t do excuses. She don’t like liars. Know what, and to bring the point back home, excuses don’t explain. And explanations don’t excuse, right.
Chris Baran 46:05
I love that. We can
Rodrick Samuels 46:06
chew on that one. Yeah,
Chris Baran 46:08
that’s because that’s a mouthful. You know, you know, I think that are in our world, we just need to if we could just take away some of the judgment that goes on and everything and bring in gratitudes into life celebrations more, you know, I mean, even if, like you said, it’s you still you got 75%. So you still, that’s higher than I ever got in school, because I was in I was in the half of the grade that made the top half possible. But the reality is, excuse me, they that needs celebrating, and then just celebrate what I need to learn to pass them on. We can. Our world is so built on, on tearing people down, and that, that you’re judged, and because you’d made one, one or two mistakes, and if we could just get over that stuff, because that’s not the way we learn. People make mistakes, we gotta move, we gotta we gotta be able to do that. I want to I want to make sure that I want to know, because you guys had had some remarkable responsibility and opportunity. Because was was 22, I think wasn’t 22. You guys, were you and Lauren hosted? Yes, you and I want to but now I want to go back to when they propose that to you. I mean, I my drawers would have been full, you know, I would have had you know, a little bit of pee that would have came up for sure somebody would ask me that. Because, you know, you got all the all of the top of the line, the top the peers that are in the room, and now you have to go on stage, what was that like for you?
Rodrick Samuels 47:46
So, you know, Lauren, and I were asked to speak at the PBA executive summit in Scottsdale that year. And we sat on a panel and we were kind of talking about diversity and inclusivity as it pertains to the school industry, and what some of the industry leaders in manufacturing and liquid products, whatever the case may be, how can they use some of our information to help to bridge those gaps. Needless to say, my wife is very vocal, and she is definitely not a baker. She didn’t she didn’t vote for anybody. I think the the way, you know, she and I have been teaching together for 10 years now. And so we know each other, you know, she’s, you know, I’m the entertainment. I’m the charisma, she’s the fat person, you know, I do men’s grooming and styling in the business development. She does curls about, you know, the the artistic side. But when we get together, we talk about business because she’s been so successful salon owner in the, in our paths. And me dealing with students for so long. We literally cover the gamut when it comes down to what professionals are looking for when it comes down to a student, but also what the needs of the students are when it comes down to an undergrad program. Right. So we’re kind of going back and forth. And you know, there are some top level execs out there and we just, you know, a little little happy couple from from Detroit and to say the least we made an impact. Some of the things that we spoke about were very, very candid. We kind of talked about some of the racial divide that was that comes kind of comes in our industry. We kind of talked about how, you know, for a couple of months after, you know a lot of the stuff were like George Floyd happened. A lot of the companies were really really making a big push to have faces of color on magazines and stuff like that. And then of course, much like anything else, it dies out. My wife was very vocal about that and make no mistake, she is super, super passionate about how people view our industry and how she as a woman is also pressing ignite institution Hello slowly Chris, I’m telling you that you said earlier someone asked you what the key to having a successful marriage is and you kind of gave your spill. Mine is keep your head down and watch your tone.
Chris Baran 50:15
And say yes here. Yeah.
Rodrick Samuels 50:17
I don’t want to smoke for my wife. You don’t? We’re not to and I’m not the one right. Yeah. So after we come off stage, I mean just companies people some of the top level execs from I mean, you name it from from redkin to Bumble it. Oh my god, you guys are amazing. December 3. So Nina weeks at the time she was we cheese daily now who was an executive director for PBS she comes up to Lauren and now she’s like, Hey, I need to talk to you about I’m like, Oh, shit. You know what? We don’t mess around. That some stuff that we weren’t supposed to say on that stage. We supposed to be meek and mealy and professional. And we blew it up, right? She said, Listen, we want you guys to host nah, ha. Oh, what? Lesley Perry is a good friend of mine, a good friend of ours. She actually lives in Michigan, too. She’s from Michigan. She lives in Arizona now. But she was like I said, girlfriend. Are you serious? She was like, You guys work amazingly together. We couldn’t be anybody else better. So that’s how we got that. That’s how we got it. And I’ll tell you right now, Chris are. We had a practice run before the show actually started. T R A S H my man. We were trash, you know, running. And then Lauren’s like, Babe, I kid I was like, Girl, this thing is running real fast. And she was like, I know. So the show manager was like, I don’t know why they chose these two. And I was like, hey, maybe tomorrow will be better. Yeah, we’re organic. Yeah, we talk every day we work together, we raise our children together, we’re married. So the conversation that we had, and the way that we present doesn’t need to be scripted, or any bullet points. And we need to talk on our experiences, because that makes it that makes it very authentic. But I’ll tell you this man, the response that we got from our peers were amazing. Eric fisher man, my man, that guy is right. fiscals me I call him this. I gave him his street name. Of course, of course. Fish. So fish calls me and I’m looking at my phone like, oh my god, Eric, Chris was calling me right. So I’m fanboy the whole thing. I’m like, oh my god, I forgot my number. He said, Hey, man, I just want to let you know like, you guys did such an amazing job. And we are so happy as an industry to see two of our own get up there and present the ways you guys did and we got to know was Eric Fisher it was Chris Benson. You know, a couple of our industry friends and stuff like that. And honestly, man, that was that’s what made us feel really really good. Yeah, a part of this great industry but also being able to you know, have an experience with not hot we award winning media nominated at the time, but being able to give our give of ourselves back to our industry, man. no greater honor than we could ever think of super super.
Chris Baran 53:26
You know, the the interesting find that I find that so many people that do what we do if you put a teleprompter in front of them, or if you have to go to rehearsal and here’s the key, there is no audience. I remember I remember when I first got started in the industry, and we were doing this regional tour. And and I remember a young lady was the makeup artist at the time and she was talking promoting her name is Cheryl Witten. And she got on stage practicing her routine. And and she was flubbing her lines. And I remember I wish I would have been intelligent enough to set it but I didn’t have that at the time. Nor now. But I remember Roy Peters went up to her and said, Honey, stop worrying about what you’re doing. The only thing that’s missing right now that you need is an audience. That will be fine tomorrow. And that’s what I’ve told that to so many people when they’re just practicing, you’re in your head, but when you’re delivering to the audience hear in your heart, and then that’s where that’s where your flow comes from. So good on you.
Rodrick Samuels 54:35
I love that. Can I write that down?
Chris Baran 54:37
You can have that it’s yours now my friend Thanks, man. Listen, I want to I want to what pushes you what pushes you and and what why do you do what you do?
Rodrick Samuels 54:55
What pushes me is
Chris Baran 54:59
failure Uh huh.
Rodrick Samuels 55:02
Well, I don’t want to use failure, let’s say temporary defeat. What pushes me is that there’s been several situations in my lifetime where I’ve lost whether the from high school losing my first wrestling match. After being undefeated since I was six years old, to losing my first business, my first barber school, I had opened up for probably about a year and I lost everything. Having those those experiences to share with other people, knowing that there’s another gear, knowing that there’s another step, knowing that there’s, there’s nothing in this world that we can’t do something about. And sometimes we have to adjust ourselves to unpleasant situations. So it doesn’t seal our spirit. That’s one of the most amazing quotes that I’ve ever heard from Napoleon Hill. And that’s how you can grow rich. Sometimes you got to adjust yourself to unpleasant situation. So when I lived in South Carolina, and I had my school in South Carolina, I always knew there was another gear, my dad would always say, of course, because he’s in ministry, A prophet is not respected in his own home land. And when I had an opportunity to, to come to Detroit, and to come to the metro Detroit area to to share my passions, it just seemed like everything lined up like it was divine intervention, right. So I’ve always been drawn to Michigan, for whatever reason, I was a big, you know, Michigan basketball fan. I wanted to wrestle at the University of Michigan, you know, just you know, I always loved Motown. But if anybody is out there listening to that, know that Detroit was the mecca for more hair. If you think about this hairstyle to do to come out of Detroit, Smokey Robinson miracle. The temptation, they always had the latest and greatest and hair hump, the grinder hair wars, I mean, you name it. I mean, you’re Canadian, right? You’re right across the river, right? Detroit was it. And of course, you know, unfortunately, you know, with GM and Chrysler and them having their challenges that sparking that fire from all artists in Detroit kind of died down. This will distill some really amazing artists in Detroit. And when I would come to visit Lauren, she would take me to these super desolate places, but the art the graffiti, the I remember, my first time coming to Detroit, she took me to this thing called the Heidelberg Project. And what this what this artist did, and I can’t remember, but they took old abandoned houses, and they would decorate the houses. And wait. It’s called the Heidelberg Project, you gotta check it out. I knew I was in the right place when Shepard Fairey came. And he did a whole mural in downtown Detroit on one of the Quicken buildings and it was just so beautiful. And I was like, this is where I need to plant my seed. Now. This is a community that could use my experiences, my influence some of the things that I’m doing in the industry right now that fell on deaf ear, in South Carolina, and by the way, um, 843-803-8642 light dye. But right now, the 313 is really where I kind of my career kind of took off in between, you know, just being around amazing people and amazing artists in Detroit, being mentored by some of the top people in our industry whether that be you know, Ivan zoom, Eric Fisher, Kevin Cameron, Larry Curtis, you know, Willie Williams, one of the original hair gangsters. Big Bad D. I mean, if I missed anybody’s name, I’m sorry. Y’all know, I love y’all, but having they’re having, having a push from them, and getting their blessings about what I was doing was amazing. And then, you know, but other motivation and what drives me is my wife, you know, I’ve never I never thought that I would find so much joy and being able to share my love and my passion for my industry with someone else who does the same thing. Being able to buy help my daughter by her first car as a dad, being able to send my my son to school you know, these are things that I saw my parents did, but I never thought and I never thought by being a barber cutting hair for a living that I could give my family such an amazing life and it’s actually get a little emotional but but yeah, it’s the labor of love man and it’s it’s giving people an opportunity that would never have an opportunity in their lives. You know, I teach my students everyday the art opportunities don’t go away, they go to somebody else. So we live in the opportunity of a lifetime, in the lifetime of that opportunity. So, what drives me is just my family, my daughter, my son, my wife, and my students every day, you know, they have been able to share my passion and give back to people and show them that they can be successful and telling them what they can do versus what they can’t do. No, man, you would be amazed by the energy and the power you can give people by living in the culture of Yes, yeah. You know, yes, before. You gotta live in the culture of Yes. When you know, back in the day, I remember teaching at a hair show in Tunica, Mississippi. And this is when I met Ivan zoom in if you guys don’t know who Ivan’s It is, yeah. In his book, a world record holder has haircuts, most haircuts 24 hours most haircuts in a day. been my mentor for well, not only my mentor, but he’s my brother. You know, he’s he’s, he’s my accountability partner when I’m not doing enough or he don’t see enough of me. I get that text. I get that phone call.
Chris Baran 1:01:10
Dude. Yeah, that’s all What’s up, bro talk going on when you there
Rodrick Samuels 1:01:20
is big, bro. Talk to one thing that I can honestly say about Ivan is that he’s never told me anything wrong. Right? You know, everything that he’s told me up to this point. And he and I’ve been friends for well over 1516 years now is that when he speaks, I listened. And ever we talked about it or two ears, one mouth, right? I gotta listen just as much as I speak. And, you know, I remember being a Tunica, Mississippi. And he came up to me, and he’s like, hey, you know, I got to shoot a video. And at the time he was working working for another company. He said, Would you mind doing this video for me? I’m like, sure. I did it in one tape. He was like, Okay. He said, Have you ever thought about working for a manufacturer? And I’m like, I don’t even know who this dude isn’t like Nah, not really. He said, Well, I’m gonna call you next week. And we’ll talk about something that I think I have an opportunity to for you. Do you know what my first hair show was? IBS New York. No way through me to the wolves, right. But I stood my own, I did my thing. And welcome to who you see today, you know, opportunities don’t go away to go to somebody else. You have to live in a culture of Yes, I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t know what the opportunity was. And at the time, I didn’t care. It was just a matter of understanding, there’s another gear to what I want to do. And if you want to be one of the best educators, you got to be you got to group yourself around those like minded people. You know, it’s cliche, right? You, you hang around for millionaires, you will be the fifth. You know, if you hang out with losers, you become a loser too. Yeah.
Chris Baran 1:03:00
If you. So I’m not going to. Everybody always says, you know, what advice would you give young people out there right now? And they asked that question, so I’m not going to ask that one. But if you could, if you could write a note to young Roderick that when you were in school what would you tell him?
Rodrick Samuels 1:03:29
Hold on. Help is on the way. Hmm. I love sometimes we don’t we don’t realize how if we if we get in position. We don’t have to fight for position, right. And a lot of our younger barbers and stylists out there, everybody’s fighting for four likes, they want that dopamine effect, right? It’s Oh, so and so like my posts or thoughts or Share my posts? Well, chill, don’t pay no bills. Yeah. Right. So while you chillin and hanging out, or whatever the case may be, and you know, you’ve been a fan of everybody else’s work, but you’re not working on your craft. something to be said about that. But young Roderick would would would feel very, very good to know that. Hold on. Help is on the way.
Chris Baran 1:04:18
Yeah. And sometimes even if that I always see those movies where they they go back and either visit or talk to themselves in real time. So they go back to when they were young in the movies. That’s possible, but obviously not in real life. It’s always if that person I remember the line and what was it from Back to the Future when she goes on? Oh, is it back to the future when she goes back? Kempner which now I’m confusing movies, but I remember she gives the advice to one of her friends when she says remember pantyhose, make pantyhose for women. And and he got and that’s where he becomes later in life the multimillionaire right but for sure Yeah, but my and I’m sure I screwed up the movies in there that probably mixed them all up as I usually do. But I just think that if somebody would have those if we could have that person to talk to ourselves way back when, what would we be like if we hadn’t? So I want to shoot to what I call her rapid fire questions. And I’ll explain in just a second here. Sure, but but in your, in your evolution process that you’ve been through? Was there something that you wish that you wouldn’t have done? And why?
Rodrick Samuels 1:05:40
If there’s something that I wish that I wouldn’t have done, and why, let’s say, I probably wouldn’t have waited so long to I wouldn’t have waited so long to have faith in my abilities and skills. You know, sometimes when you work hard, and you, you accumulate what you think is some success, based on how you were able to attain that success, it leaves you a little gun shy, it leaves you not being who you are, you stop, you stop using your instincts, and you start using your mind. Yeah. I would have stopped thinking a long time ago, and trust my instincts to just do. Especially, you know, sometimes you work with with companies and manufacturers and they have this, this, this, this picture of who you are, and, and who you should be, and, you know, sometimes, you know, when you’re on stage, you will become great actors and actresses and, and you know, the stages are set, right? But sometimes I can honestly say, Chris, that’s not who I really am. You know, a lot of people don’t know that. I like BMX bikes, like I used to be a hardcore skater. I, I like swimming. You know what I mean? Like, I’m probably, you know, I like going to the beach, I don’t mind getting the pan, you know, thing. A lot of people don’t know that. You know, that. I wrestled in high school. And I was actually really, really good. A lot of people don’t know that. You know, I like to color I like Legos. A lot of people I love I still watch cartoons, I’m 45 years old, I still watch cartoons, you know. So I think that if I can leave something for everybody, you know, is in the words of my grandfather got arrested. So be who you are, you know, your your your originality, and your authenticity is what’s going to make you really, really cool. My wife always like to joke that we make all of our business deals on the smoking patio. We’re at Premier Orlando a couple years ago, Robert ChromeOS is out there. And he’s talking to a surgeon who at the time was the head of aesthetic magazine. So we’re just talking surgery and Lauren and I’ve been good friends for a long time, too. I’ve done a lot of work with the Paul Mitchell schools I’ve done, you know, been a guest artists there several times and whatever the case may be. So Robert Comins. You know, he’s he’s talking, he’s doing his thing. And he says, You know what, a lot of people don’t know that. Either. You’ll be remembered, or you’ll be forgotten. He takes his hat off and, you know, show you know, does this thing and I never forgot that. It will be remembered. Or you’ll be forgotten. So always do something that’s going to be memorable, memorable, and the best memory will be of you being your authentic self.
Chris Baran 1:08:53
Yeah, Bingo. Bingo. Listen, I’m gonna jump into this this next segment just rapid fire stuff. So I’m just gonna throw a question out one or two word answers. And and just first stuff that comes to your brain. Gotcha. What turns you on in the creative process? Music What stifles it. Was that what stifles it ruins it was staples my creative process. Drama off? Yeah, let’s say belongs in the hair not in the salon. Yep, event, an event or a show that you loved. That you’ve done. First one that comes to your brain. I’m sure there’s many but an event your show
Rodrick Samuels 1:09:47
showed up. Salon international Oof. 2017 Love it.
Chris Baran 1:09:55
Love it. Love, love, love. And if anybody hasn’t gone to that show, it’s an amazing show. Oh, oh for sure. Yeah thing that lives that you dislike the most
Rodrick Samuels 1:10:05
racism What’s the thing you
Chris Baran 1:10:07
love the most? Living life proudest moment in your life?
Rodrick Samuels 1:10:14
Helping my daughter buy a car thing you hate the most
Chris Baran 1:10:17
about our industry just one
Rodrick Samuels 1:10:27
false prophets. Oh,
Chris Baran 1:10:30
person you admire the most my mom, person you wish you could meet
Rodrick Samuels 1:10:42
Tim Hartley
Chris Baran 1:10:43
Oh yeah. I was gonna ask you things that is something that people don’t know about you but you’ve already told us most of them a month off where would you go? What would you do?
Rodrick Samuels 1:10:54
Man? a month off I would probably go to a probably go man. I don’t know. That’s a good one. A month off. I would probably go to the grand Caymans. What would you do? Celexa chillax.
Chris Baran 1:11:13
Yes. Okay. Favorite curse word?
Rodrick Samuels 1:11:19
My favorite curse word. Do you want me to say it? Yeah. If
Chris Baran 1:11:23
you don’t want to you don’t have to
Rodrick Samuels 1:11:31
sometimes it’s a combo but just by itself. This motherfucker here
Chris Baran 1:11:42
favorite comfort food.
Rodrick Samuels 1:11:46
Mac and cheese.
Chris Baran 1:11:48
Something in history that you haven’t done but you wish you could
Rodrick Samuels 1:11:58
I would love to. Hmm, that’s a good question. Or something that is industry that I would love to do but haven’t Yeah. I will. I think I would love to be a consultant for consultant or business development for for an education company.
Chris Baran 1:12:27
If you could have one thing one do over one thing that you would do differently in life, what would it be?
Rodrick Samuels 1:12:33
I would have won the my second state championship against Sean Vanderpool from Rock Hill, South Carolina.
Chris Baran 1:12:44
Tomorrow, you couldn’t do hair couldn’t have anything to do with hair. What would you do?
Rodrick Samuels 1:12:51
Yeah, I would I’d probably I’d probably be a motivational speaker.
Chris Baran 1:12:57
Love it. Okay, just a couple things. First of all, I want people to get this before we go. So we don’t forget to do this. If people want to get a hold of you want to have you come in and speak or do or whatever. Where would they? What would they? What would they do to get a hold of you?
Rodrick Samuels 1:13:12
You shoot me a quick email at Roderick. samuels@gmail.com. That’s RODRIC que es eight muelf@gmail.com. You can also shoot me messages on my Instagram. I have two actually. One is teaching barbers is my jam. That’s my education page. And of course, I have Roderick Samuels. I’m on Tik Tok, YouTube, Twitter. Facebook. You name it. Anything social Snapchat? Yeah.
Chris Baran 1:13:46
Okay. No, I just want this one is. Is there any weird pranks? Stories? Things that have happened in the salon on the road? That? Yes. Oh, can you share some?
Rodrick Samuels 1:14:04
Yeah, for sure. Lauren and I were booked and scheduled to do the IBS show in New York probably about three or four years ago. You know, normally in March, there’s a big snowstorm. So we get to the airport. Our flights are canceled. My wife because she’s a G she’s like, Babe, you go get you we’ll get the bags. We’ll get the car we’re gonna drive I’m like I bet so I go get our bags. She will rent a car. We’re driving. We’re driving driving Driving driving. We like we’re doing a lot Hey, y’all. Listen, let y’all know. Nothing can stop us from getting to IBS New York. Make sure you come to our classes. I let my baby drive and I’m the co pilot we got to pop in. We get up near New Jersey we get near the Poconos. We see snow started Coming down, we see all these trucks, semis in the ditches in the middle on the side of the road. We lose self service, right? It’s a huge snowstorm. So luckily, we stopped at this gas station. And luckily this one kid that was running the gas station has a wireless. He had Wi Fi, we could connect to his phone. So Lauren’s on the phone, she calls her dad, she’s like, dad calls him on Facebook, because we can’t get him any other way. Right? Calls me on Facebook. And the first thing my father law says, Lauren, how are you calling me from Facebook? She said, Dad, that’s not the point. Right now we stuck. Right? So my father in law, who is also a big supporter of us, he calls he finances a hotel. She’s like, well, we don’t have GPS, you know, our cell phones. Now. The Verizon tower was down. So we had to use old school. So Lauren has like a notepad like this, and she’s writing down the directions to this hotel. We get we finally find a direction as cars all over the place, Chris, like it looked like Armageddon. The hotel is on a hill. It’s snowing, it’s midnight. She was like, as we pull it up with a hotel is there’s a semi truck sliding down. To be at the hotel. As a baby. Listen, I’m gonna say a prayer. But you got to you got to shoot the call to James. She was like, it’s a gospel reference shoot to go to a James. She Florida. And we’re like literally, luckily my wife grew up in Michigan. She understands No, no. I can’t feel anything. I’m numb at this point. I Thursday. I’ve been in Michigan. 10 years. I can’t drive in snow. She’s Ooh.
We finally get up to the top. Chris. I can’t tell you. We were coming together like butt cheeks. My eye was so tight up in that seat. I couldn’t
see it would have been it would be close to my body. You know. We finally get there. Everything’s fine. We rest we get up the next morning like hey, listen, we got to have this car returned. She’s like, Babe, we got to have the car return by I want to say it was like nine o’clock that next day. We’re driving. Obviously you just pay off mass confusion. We get stuck in a ditch. Oh, these people out in Pennsylvania. Come out of nowhere. Chris, I’m black. It was a bunch of white good white guys. You know what? This is it for me. This is glory. I canceled this kiss the baby party over. A John, you got to read out there ashore. New Bob Hold on for a second. These men came from out of nowhere. Like they were part of like, the 18. Car up, pulls us out doesn’t charge us anything. And I guess that’s what they’re good deed is or whatever the case may be. We fought Listen, we made it with five minutes to spare before we had to pay for our next day. We get there. My wife’s all tense. She’s driving all night. When we take road trips, you don’t allow me to drive as a co pilot. We finally get there. And we did the show. So many people didn’t make it to the show flights canceled. didn’t make it. We had a Mainstage and God God bless his soul. Martin Parsons and Marty. Martin Parsons. He made it down. He says I’m just really glad to see you’re committed today. That’s all we needed. Yeah. Right. I mean, Martin Martin horses there he there we there was a party we could. Um, but that was probably one of the when you talk about drive and determination, when we make a commitment to someone or to something. It got to be some real, real heavy circumstances to get us not to show up. But I live that right. The same things I teach our students, it’s the same things that we live in how we get it, right, show up, work hard. And listen, listen. Your best ability is availability. If you had
Chris Baran 1:19:17
one thing, or one wished that you could have for our industry, and we could snap our fingers and it was it was changed right now. What would that wish be?
Rodrick Samuels 1:19:30
I wish that more students or people coming into our industry would look at training as not a program but a process with a wish that they would look at it like wow, I’m volunteering for this. This is an opportunity for me that I get to learn from a North American hairstyling award educator or educators I get to learn from you know, one of the what I mean more Life as a boss, one of the the top texture experts in the country. This is this. I’m volunteering for this. It’s not jail. A lot of students come into the industry, they get jailed because we have rules. Those rules help you with discipline. Most people who don’t have discipline, they don’t do well in life.
Chris Baran 1:20:20
Angle, and without rules. There’s chaos.
Rodrick Samuels 1:20:22
And mass confusion. Yes,
Chris Baran 1:20:25
Roderick. My new best buddy. Sure. I just want to say thank you. It’s been an honor and a pleasure. Thank you so much for time spending your time with us. I know you’re busy. And you took that time away to spend with us. So thank you so much. Well, appreciate
Rodrick Samuels 1:20:41
it, Chris. Man, I appreciate you. I’ve been a big fan of yours for a long time. I’ve been wanting to take your training courses for so long. But you know, opportunities don’t go away to go to somebody else. So thank you for for giving me the opportunity to share my love and passion for your viewers and for your listeners. And we’re not we’re not we’re not best friends anymore. You are now my brother from another.
Chris Baran 1:21:07
Give me some brother. I can’t go to my screen. Otherwise, I’m gonna lose focus. I don’t want to listen. I promise you the next time and then we will have that dinner. I’m buying the first one. And, and I can’t wait to see the place. I want to see your students. I want to see you in action.
Rodrick Samuels 1:21:23
Absolutely, sir. Okay,
Chris Baran 1:21:25
thank you so much for being here.
Thank you
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