The WAY to WOW Shows
Adapting and Thriving During Hugh Economic Change
March 23, 2021
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[0:00] so i wanted to have you both come in because you're you're in the same business but you've taken different paths to success you've both survived lauren you know you were saying you're actually doing better than before jesse you're you're a survivor who are you and where are you going [Music] what do you want together we'll find the ideal path on the way to wow show with your host kevin bemel welcome to the way to wow show while

[0:37] learning how airlines and large retailers have overcome their travails i don't know that that's really so helpful for most of us we don't have the kind of scale and resources so this week on the way to wow show we're going to get two perspectives on how small businesses have survived the kind of tectonic shifts the economy has been facing for the for over a year lauren price is a native los angelino who's been a woman's hair stylist for seven years prior to going out on her own she worked

[1:14] at one of the most prestigious salons in beverly hills omberto after hair salons were shut down in california well you know what i'm going to let lauren tell you her story jesse cantillo is a native new yorker who's been cutting hair since he was 13 years old he learned the business the old-fashioned way apprenticing for master barbers honing his skills along the way until he could cut hair of any style and kind jesse worked in barber shops throughout

[1:49] the five boroughs including 10 years in manhattan in 2015 jesse moved to los angeles and starting from scratch built a substantial clientele in just two years in 2017 he opened barber lab beverly hills he's going to talk about how he survived the shutdown but now i'm going to turn things over to lord blaine adams and he's going to make a cocktail

[2:24] thanks kevin so as you can tell today i have an apron on which means we're making some serious cocktails not really now they say that all great art is theft so i think the same thing applies to cocktails there's only so many really classic drinks out there that we can really enjoy so today's drink is going to be a riff on an old school classic called a fancy free so i'm going to start off with two ounces of the whistle pig piggy back rye i'm choosing this rye because it is a hundred percent rye in the mash bill so it's big and bold and has a

[2:59] wonderfully strong backbone that'll make this drink stand out now you might ask yourself he said two ounces well i'm making drinks for three so if you're making creams for one you can build this in your cocktail glass but if you're like me and serving some friends you can build it in a nice mixing glass like this next i'm going to do half an ounce of luxardo maraschino liqueur and fill that to my proper line and add that to our glass and finally this is where my own little flair comes in we're going to add some amaretto yes

[3:34] that thing you might have been drinking when you shouldn't have in high school but not telling anybody about we're going to add a bar spoon per cocktail a bar spoon's a really fun measurement that not a lot of people use because it's just a subtle you're adding the essence of the things you need it is just adding a little lipstick to the whistle pig if you will so we're gonna put that lid back on and then i'm gonna add bitters two dashes of angus stir aromatic bitters and two dashes of the angostura orange bitters

[4:09] friends go in pears and now that we have all that in our mixing glass here i'm going to add some ice so if you remember from last time i made a riff on the classic drink the manhattan now you might start seeing a trend in the drinks i've brought to serve my friends here and i like boozy stirred cocktails because i harken them kind of like driving an automatic car versus a manual it takes a little more skill a little more precision if you're off by one little fraction of something the drink just might be off so i like to think well i can show off a little bit more when i'm just using boozy stuff so next up then we're gonna

[4:46] go back to the ice and put ice in all of our glasses so one two and three little pigs and with just like that and if you're making drinks for multiple people you don't wanna pour it all at once so if you notice here i'm gonna pour a little bit in one and i'm gonna move on to the next one pour a little bit in that one move on to the third and do it again why are you doing this that looks like a lot of extra work well by doing this you're adding the

[5:21] different dilution layers of the drink so different parts of the drink in this glass have diluted differently so by adding it to the glasses in this way everybody will get a consistent drink as they sip it almost done to the very very end don't want to waste a drop perfect now for garnish we're going to do two steps one you're gonna peel an orange peel just as such i'm peeling three if you're using a wide peeler at home please be careful these things are maybe

[5:56] one of the most underrated dangerous kitchen tools in your house if someone broke into my house i might as tack them with this you can cut the fingertip off very quickly so next you're going to take your peel and you're going to express and then wipe the edge of your glass and then discard it we're not actually going to use it in the drink this time do it again and we'll do it a third time all right and now that we have expressed the oils we're gonna add our final garnish here we're going to take some maraschino cherries and we're going

[6:31] to put them on a fun little umbrella because who doesn't love umbrellas they keep you out of the sun they keep you out of the rain they remind you of that wonderful oasis that you're gonna hang out with while you're having this drink one as we dig down deep drop it in and just like that we have a riff on the fancy free which i like to call the business casual cheers

[7:07] so this is a business casual made for you by lord blaine thank you sir i'm gonna try this oh yeah that is lots and lots of layers of flavor it's it's it's wrong well so you know a lot of people have been struggling for for a while now and so i wanted to have you both come in

[7:43] because you're you're in the same business but you've taken different paths to success and and and i think it's interesting for people to hear you know what you've gone through and and and why you made the decisions that you made so why don't we just let's just start right there we'll go we'll go ladies first i know because jesse is a consummate gentleman so lauren um you know where were you you know about a year ago and and how did you know how did it

[8:18] change how quickly and and then where did you you know what were your pivots or or your changes that allowed you to survive so a year ago i was working at umberto beverly hills and the pandemic kind of happened overnight it was like on the news that it was like in china maybe in italy and then one day our manager texted all of us like in a group chat at 6 30 in the morning that said come collect all your stuff the government is shutting us down and i came in that day i collected all my stuff and a lot of people were very very scared to

[8:54] have me near them just it was this like it was a disease it was like if you touch them they would die it was very very alarming to everybody and there was a serious lull for like the first month and a half after the shutdown happened and eventually all my clients thank god are very vain and they like my ladies would not let their husbands see them what they actually looked like with their gray hair and it was like will you please come to my house will you please do my hair outside and it kind of all happened at once and

[9:29] it just made more sense to me to like go to clients homes as protected and safe as possible everybody in masks you know haircuts color outside and it's almost been slightly better for me with there's no overhead um i ended up actually doing a lot better during the pandemic than i did in the salon before so wow yeah so and and it's it sounds like it just sort of happened that way it wasn't a you know you didn't sit down one day and say okay

[10:04] i'm gonna you know go to my clients houses it was really much more organic yeah i was very i was very afraid to like reach out to my clients just because i didn't know who was gonna get me in trouble for doing this and who wasn't going to it was like in a way i was afraid i was gonna get like ratted out to the government in a way for like doing this so i had some clients who are very offended that i never reached out to them but i was kind of just like trying to cover my butt a little bit and just let them all come to me um and reach out to me first to make the initial hey will you come take care of me and word of mouth started kind of like getting around the community in the area that i live in that like i'm working

[10:40] i'll go to people's homes and eventually got back to all my clients who i had not reached out to that i was going to people's homes so it kind of was just like a really lovely chain of events where like all my clients ended up reaching out to me eventually and then on top of that i um i gained a much larger clientele also just from people in the neighborhood and and jesse it was i know because you know you you're my barber right you're you're the the hairstylist for the show as well so i mean it was very different i mean i remember when it hit because i i think i sent you a text message that

[11:15] day saying you know hey you know what what's going on so tell us tell us about your experience um as soon as it happened i mean it was what march 16th or something and it just like every everybody stopped and i i didn't know what to do i you know i started texting everyone that i would be taking clients on the side um but not at the barber shop so as to not i don't know jeopardize the space um but it didn't happen right away like

[11:53] she said it was it was at least a month a month and a half i actually had moved to arizona for like a month and a half and i stayed there just to like get away from l.a for a little while and like figure things out and then once i got a little more courage i actually was like you know what i'm gonna go back and i'm gonna figure it figure this out and see how i can turn this around basically so um a few ideas came to head i thought about selling packages of haircuts for a little bit cheaper than i would

[12:29] charge for a single haircut and um that worked out a little bit and it was i mean it was just still disheartening to this day right now i'm still suffering a little bit um i lost a lot of clients um a lot of people moved away and right now i'm just you know focused on keeping keeping the core that i have right now you know and uh building on that um but so but you made the decision at some point that uh you were going to when you were

[13:05] allowed to you know have your salon open right so well as soon as so the first lockdown ended and i mean i was already i was already here i was you know ready to go back to work and um it was good for a little while and then we got locked down again and then it was just oh man i just didn't know luckily i i started to apply for the uh government loans and that's really what helped me out um the sba ppp loan and the and the eidl loan

[13:41] which is an economic injury disaster loan two different loans is very important i wanted to touch down on that too is to have your business set up properly so that you can file for those kinds of loans and everything and that's basically what saved me still to right now to this day is still with saving me so so was able to take advantage of the various um i think it's called care act program cares act programs yeah that they uh they started i mean it was i guess at the end of march i applied and by april the end of april literally on april 30th

[14:18] was when they funded but um you know it's it's not it's not like i wanted this i would rather just have my business the way it was before the pandemic started i mean i was i was up 30 to 40 percent from the previous years and then two just completely dropped down to about 30 of the previous years um yeah i mean it's yeah it's a huge reversal right so but you you made a much more of a conscious decision about

[14:53] you know you sat down thought it through and this is what i'm gonna do well yeah i decided i was i was on the cusp of signing a new lease and it was supposed to be for a five-year deal and i didn't sign i didn't sign where i was supposed to and you know i kept pushing it off and it was actually i was supposed to sign in january and it you know march happened and i i immediately hit the landlord up and i was like um there's no way that i can sign this five-year deal i mean we have to we have to talk about this and he

[15:28] they're pretty good people that you know i i actually really really like them they have taken care of me every every step of the way so they gave me a good deal to stay in the in the spot instead of leaving they were like look if you you know do x you can stay here and you know i said you know what that's that's a good deal and i'll take care of that so i was very fortunate because of that and and the business loans otherwise i don't know i probably would be just cutting hair at and and and people's homes or you know yeah so so lauren

[16:03] what are your plan i mean eventually whether it's vaccines or whatever it is eventually things are going to be i think get back to much more like they were you know before all of this so as as as we look to that time whenever it is what are your plans you know for the for the future yeah so i um as soon as the vaccine is distributed to pretty much everybody i would love to get my own studio i'd like to have my own independent work space um i have a feeling rather than my thing

[16:38] is a lot of people are saying they're still gonna be nervous to go around groups of people once even once the vaccine is out so i do want my own private location just so my clients can at least feel safe but with that being said i want to wait till the vaccine gets distributed to everybody just because those who are working in these private studios they still have to pay rent on these studios even while the government has them shut down and i wish i had like you know that extra like 500 bucks a week to spend on a workspace that i'm not allowed inside but like that's just not how my life is rolling at the moment

[17:13] so once like the world opens up again and i don't have this fear that there will be a shutdown of like my workspace i would like to get a studio of my own um with that being said there are still going to be people who are afraid to go into places i think the fear of like what the world has kind of gone through will still linger for some people for those people i'm i think out of a very very close relationship with my clients and they're all like family to me and it would still be like my honor to come to their homes and take care of them if like they are too you know scared to go into like a public workspace um so i plan on doing a little bit of both whether it be like my own work

[17:48] studio or still taking care of my clients in their home just for their own security and just i mean we you've told me about some of your ideas for the future but share some of those with us if you would i'm always trying to think of something to better my business and and and the and i need to be adverse right because of what's happening right now so i'm thinking of different ways and how i can get people more people to get haircuts for me right that's really what i want i just need more clientele so why are they coming to the barber shop one of the questions that i asked and i said well you know

[18:24] they're afraid of going out so maybe i can go to them but i find when i just go and obviously it's not the same for everyone but i find when i go to someone's house to cut their hair it's a lot more difficult for me than it would be if i had my station and my mirror and my chair that rises and drops and like all my tools in the right place um so i was thinking about maybe i should maybe get like a mobile thing going and like add it to my my barbershop experience that i have right now you can either come to me

[18:59] or i can come to you and and have the same exact experience you can have the same exact experience in either place the reason why i was thinking that is because when i opened my shop i bought two stations i have two chairs i have two stations and i never use the other one so i'm thinking why not make some money out of that and put it in a in a van you know like one of the big ones or they have you know um the one that i've been looking at is like a pro master they're pretty big and extended they if if you think about it's like an amazon van sort of

[19:35] so pretty big and you can i've seen a few uh different conversions where they put a whole barbershop inside one of those vans so i'm thinking about it and i may still do it even after the pandemic and just still have both because i have an extra station but i don't use it at all like so i might as well try to make some money from it yeah right so you know for both of you um for the for the small business people that are that are watching this show what what advice would you you've both survived if

[20:10] i mean lauren you know you were saying you're actually doing better than before jesse you're you're a survivor i mean that's like you know the contentional quality of a new yorker to me is you guys are survivors i'm gonna be fine i'm i feel bad for the other businesses we talk about it all the time right i know i'm gonna be fine because people will always need their haircut and you know if you're good at what you do the money will find you right so what advice do you have for small business owners that i mean there's maybe they're struggling maybe they're you know they're just about ready to you know call it a day

[20:46] stay focused um you know don't give up and if you love something uh if you love what you do if you love what you do it's never it's never gonna be work you know it love what you do you'll never work a day in your life it'll just be something that you love to do yeah i second that and then network accommodation and like the passion when people know that like you love what you do um and you put your heart and soul into it and you have your smile on your face

[21:22] even if you have to you know drive 30 minutes to get to their house or you know if you are still like struggling to like put that plate of food like in front of your client if like the restaurant opens up again like just have so much pride in what you do and it makes the person that you're serving the people that you're working with it makes it just a much more personal relationship that great relationship helps with word of mouth it helps with networking um and positivity like everybody's going through a really hard time right now and good energy puts it just it just comes back last last question where do

[21:58] each of you see yourselves let's say in five years you want to go first i mean this is where ladies first work together honestly if please god the pandemic will be done and like completely under control in five years from now i would like to be like happily in my little studio you know working on my schedule with my same clients and then some you know i think i really do love what i do and it's really a privilege for me to get to work with all of my clients because i don't really look at my clients it's just like

[22:33] clients you know they're like friends of mine who i get to like take care of in a way and it's like a ridiculous social hour for me almost with my clients it's really really fun so i just i really still hope to be doing that with those same people in a space where they feel safe and that's all i really want that's what i want to be in five years five years from now honestly i really just want to be happy that's it i mean i'm working i want my business to thrive and i want everyone else's business to thrive and i just want you know we've been going through a really tough

[23:08] year everyone has and five years from now i just want like a little more peace a little a little more friendship between everyone a little more happiness and smiling for everyone you know smiling we can see i'm smiling under this i know you are yeah i know you are i i don't think i've ever seen you without a smile on your face man it's just amazing yeah um i really would i really just would like that i mean we've got we've all got family younger generations right coming up and that's what i'm i'm afraid of

[23:46] for the most right for them not really what i'm going through i just want to make sure that they're going to be good and uh and everybody else to be good you know that's it's really all i want just everybody to be uh happy and around me happiness and you know no negativity like you were saying before that's that really brings everything down it's so true well i think that's i think that's a great note to to wrap things up on and uh like you said god willing um you know both both of those visions will come true maybe hopefully sooner

[24:21] than five years lauren jesse thank you so much for for coming in and talking to us here on the way to wow show i i think you will have a very very positive impact especially on small business people who who are struggling to see you know two wonderful people who are who are really making a go of it and holding on to what's most important to them thanks so much we appreciate you for having us thank you so much that's our show for this week um first of all want to thank lord blaine for coming up with a brilliant cocktail the

[24:56] business casual i mean so many layers of flavor absolutely delicious thank you thank you thank you to my two guests lauren price and jesse cantillo i i urge you to maybe even look at this episode a second time not to pump my our youtube numbers but to really take in the advice that they gave us both of them you can see the passion they have for their work and i i share a little you know set secret for you here um our director was telling him he

[25:31] couldn't imagine anybody being passionate about something other than you know being in the entertainment business but you know what it's clear that they really love what they're doing and that love for for their work and for the people that they help that they take care of really makes a difference we can all bring that to whatever we're doing our work our families our friends so i i encourage you to adopt their philosophy courage at all times my friends

[26:08] and marie you're my bell darling [Music]

[26:53] you