From Geordie Shore to Building a Barbering Business Empire | Sam Rascals | Ep 67

0:00Sam Rascals. How are you doing? Welcome to the podcast. Thank you. For the people that may not know who you are, would you just be able to explain a little bit about yourself? Yeah, so my name's Sam Rascals, also known as Samuel Bentham, that's my actual name. I am a barber and content creator. I've been cutting hair for like 15 years, probably been posting on social media coming up to like close to 10 years. um the social media stuff's very much like surpassed the barbering and that now and um yeah i'm just like building businesses and posts on social media pretty much yeah it's pretty mad because i've i've watched you cut hair from afar forever and i i don't really even have an interest in barbering yeah yeah i was just obsessed with like obviously your content now but like when you first started like it exploded because no one was doing that no no yeah that's kind of where I've like really capitalized really from like I think a lot of barbers struggle now to like grow on socials but it's because like now everyone's trying to do it but like 10 years ago like there wasn't many people doing it so like yeah I've managed to grow kind of big following off the back of that and when did you realize that you actually had a talent for barbering and do people like because i've spoke to the barbers that obviously know of you and like they they kind of worship you it sounds funny but like they worship you do you like yeah yeah do you know what i don't think there's anything like i've just been doing it that i think personally i've just been doing it that long like i've been doing it 15 years and it's just like you can't teach someone 15 years experience i've been doing it since i left school pretty much i left school did one year of like aerospace engineering and then I started doing like women's hairdressing so like when I was when I first started like barbering wasn't even a thing like no one was becoming a barber um and if you were interested in hair you you went into women's hairdressing this was like the era of like Tony and Guy do you know what I mean um so I went into hairdressing did that for like three or four years so my kind of like core skill is like long hair and like styling and like removing weight and like all these things that I'm like known for comes from like hairdressing.

2:19So now all these people are like learning barbering, but my kind of like, I've started off doing kind of the harder things first and then learn barbering. Whereas now everyone's like learning barbering, but like really it's like the long hair, like dry cutting. Is that the harder stuff? That's the kind of harder stuff, yeah. Well, I can't say harder, but it's the stuff that like barbers are like kind of, it's not as, the information's not as accessible, like learning it's not as accessible as it is like learning how to do a skin fade um it's a there's a little bit more to it i would say yeah what made you actually want to get into hairdressing at the start um and did you want to cut men's hair or women's hair i just knew that i wanted to do hair i didn't really think that deeply about it i was just a kid at the end of day but like what led you away from aerospace engineering um so my dad was an engineer is an engineer software engineer so he kind of like i was like good at maths in school and like i was all right in school all right science and that's terrible english and he was like going aerospace engineering kind of following his footsteps did that for like a year and i was just like this is just not for me and i always used to remember like when i used to finish school and i used to go and meet my mom when she used to work in her hairdressers i used to always love like the sound of hair being cut and i used to love getting my hair cut and i used to love doing my hair but like yeah i always thought it was really therapeutic like listening to hair being cut so i was just like do you know what i think i would enjoy doing hairdressing and obviously all the boys are like taking the piss out of us because they're all like plumbers and sparkies and they're all just like blokes and like i'm good in hairdressing and i was just like i'm not arse just like it's what i want to do so yeah that's kind of what did they say yeah what did they say the lads um i don't know i just call this a bit of a girl you know what i mean just being like as well being like a lad and a hairdresser's is like a bit of a funny like environment of being when you want the lads yourself you know what i mean so yeah people just say pissovers is there like as well like when you're obviously learning what do women want to get their hair cut by women or do they want to get their hair cut by men or is it like is it not like because i feel like if it's the opposite way around a lad would want to get the hair cut by a male yeah yeah most of the time which is funny you say that though because like girls do well in barbering now yeah yeah if you're like a half pretty girl and you're like soft barbering yeah because yeah but is that just because men are perverts yeah but like that's because like they'll like get a lad client in and then the lad because there's girls being nice to them the thing that like oh she fancies this i'm gonna keep going back and get me hair cut made all girl barbers like i'm always fully booked on that they do well they do well that's crazy yeah does it happen the other way around yeah i think because like the hairdressers i used to work in was a lot of like middle-aged women and like old ladies they loved having like a like a young lad like doing hair and I used to always tell them they were pretty and I was going to take them on dates and that he used to love it I used to get loads of tips to be fair did you yeah did you flirt with them yeah all the time yeah I loved it and then how did that kind of like transfer into building your own like barbering business yeah so I'd went I'd worked there for a bit for like maybe three maybe four years and at the time I was like a nightclub promoter as well so I used to work for do you know Chris Williamson he used to have an events company called Voodoo Project so I used to work for Voodoo Project so I would do that on like a Wednesday no sorry I'd do that on a Saturday so like that's when I started getting all like lad clients into the hair salon because I'd meet people at work on a Saturday be like oh by the way I cut hair so like if you want a haircut through the week I work at these hairdressers so I started getting lads in for haircuts and that's when I kind of realised like that's what I actually enjoyed doing because now I'm like when I used to do women's hair it was kind of hard to like have like common ground with like a middle aged woman like she would like be going on about like I'm trying to think of an example like what was on Coronation Street or like what like Angelina Jolie's hair was like and I like literally couldn't give a shit do you know what I mean but then when I've got a lad in and he's like oh I want me hair like Brad Pitt I was like yeah I know exactly what you're on about like it looks sick like I had so much more common ground we'd talk about birds we'd talk about nights out so the hairdressers I was at they started to like not like it because I was in a hairdresser's and all of a sudden I'm like a 20 year old lad and I've got all these lads coming in we're just having like lad banter all the time so I went from there into a barbershop and then I was there for a couple years and then I went on geordie shaw and then uh started my own barbershop after that how was geordie shaw yeah i was experienced like yeah i liked it but uh i did like only i was only on for like six episodes it was just like a massive piss up um did you apply for it like or did they reach out to you or yeah so like you could get like the cast so because i was like a nightclub promoter I like already knew pretty much everyone on there so like they used to say at the cast members like who would be good for the show so I got recommended the first time didn't get on and then I got recommended again and I had to do all the interviews again and then I just got on yeah it's funny and your experience on there like you said just a massive piss up yeah massive piss up why didn't it only last like say six episodes I don't think because I think when you're on there you've kind of got to like have a bit of a storyline and you've kind of got to like get with someone or like do you know what I mean there's got to be like a story to follow it's like Love Island if you kind of the people who like only last two minutes are the ones who like aren't getting with someone and they're just kind of not really doing anything it's like yeah you're just there like what's the point and like I suppose I didn't like think deeply enough about it that when I went on I kind of need to actually like get with someone properly you gotta like play the game you gotta play the game and i was like probably a bit naive to it all um so like yeah i didn't last two minutes i was like getting one of them in there but i didn't fancy i couldn't like do it for the camera do you know what i mean it would have been so obvious i'd be watching it back and you could just you could just tell that i didn't i weren't feeling it so yeah i did like six episodes and i ended up getting kicked off i'm just intrigued was it like well paid no nah nah not for your first series nah you get paid peanuts but like it's the opportunity yeah do you know what i mean and did it open other doors in the future yeah that's just to go back on but like basically when they like kicked me off i said to them like if i'm not coming back on i'm gonna go and start my own business and like and then that'll be it like i won't be coming back and they were like no no you're definitely like you're gone i was like right sound that's all i needed to know so i left and then i was like trying to figure out how to start my own business you know i was getting the ball rolling i think i'd signed the lease and i'd had a unit and then the rang is and we're like um oh we want you to come to rome and i was like i'm not going and they're like oh why it's a good opportunity to get back on the show i was like well i did ask is like and i understand that they can't tell us either like they're not allowed to be like oh yeah we might bring you back like they're not allowed to do that so uh that's just to go back a few times to be fair four or five times i think that's just to go back that's just go australia one series um and then i remember one of the producers rang us and was like trying to get us back on and i was like i remember just plucking a number out the air just something daft and was just like if you want to come back on this is what's going to cost you and he's like you're never going to get that and i was like yeah but you're coming to me i'm not coming to you begging to get back on the show you want me to come back on that's how much it's going to cost years and then that was the last time they were rangers is it still going i think so i think it's like um i think it's a bit more like you know everyone who was on it and now they grew up and they've got kids and it's a bit more of like a family thing now so like if you used to watch it it'd be quite nostalgic like watching and kind of them all grown up yeah but i think because like when i went on it was a different kind of geordie shaw by the time i went on like i wanted it to be that geordie show from series one two and three where you just do whatever you want just get hammered like just obviously everyone is mad when you look back at it like what went on but honestly you want to go on because you just want to go and chat girls really in this like anyone who wants to go on geordie show that's what you're going on for in it but like by the time i went on they're kind of like it was a bit more like everything was like calculated everything was like storylines storylines well we'll let you if you like if you're getting with someone and then you just have an argument we'll let you go and you know what I mean yeah but like if you haven't got a storyline they're just like nah you're not doing it because I thought you were just gonna I thought I was just gonna go on there and they were just gonna let us loose but nah it weren't like that so an absolute let down I yeah Yeah, and you know what, mate?

11:41I couldn't deal with anxiety. You know, when I got out, and obviously, like, there was some of the nights that we went out, because, like, they do get you hammered. Like, it's not like other TV shows where they might let you have one or two drinks. Like, they get you, like, blackout drunk to the point where, like, you'd wake up in the morning and you, like, couldn't remember the night out. So they'd let you, like, go and get dressed. And then they'd have someone come over here and be like, what do you want to drink? And I'd be like, you know, like, vodka, coke. They go get your vodka Coke while you're getting dressed.

12:11You drink it. They come back and go, what do you want now? They get you another drink. And then they're like, right, everyone meet in the kitchen in like an hour. So by the time you've, that hour's gone, you've already had three or four drinks. And then they've got you playing drinking games and all this. And then you go to the club and then you go to the club and they've got like massive bottles of Belvedere. And they're just, they're tanking you up. And then they take you back to the house and they start antagonizing you, everyone. so they'll come up to you and they'll be like do you remember what thing he said to you before when he was in the club that was a bit rude wasn't it and you'd be like obviously you're pissed you'd be like actually yeah I'm pretty pissed off about that because you're just blackout drunk and then you'd like you'd wake up in the morning and like some of the crew would come up and be like you were a crease last night and you'd just be like but that's what they want right but that's exactly what they want yeah so that's where the good TV to be fair like I think I came off quite well on it because I'm just like I do just get out I am just getting blackout drunk and just being a bit of a clown yeah you're a good drunk not like aggressive nah nah nah nah nah I was being sound I was just like running around in me was there anyone like do you remember anyone that was a fucking nightmare when they were drunk on the series I mean Chloe was like yeah just like yeah just a mess when she was on the drink I'm trying to think who else was a mess yeah like Nathan was a mess and when I went in there was a few people who were like I remember like Nathan used to like run around with his cock out just like would get back after night out and he'd just literally be completely bollock naked walking around with his knob out mental but there'd be like a few other cast members who would like be new on it like me and they'd just be like they're obviously not used to just getting hammered do you know what I mean so they'd just be like mortal drunk they're like you better not be putting any of this on the telly like mad and then did you like you said you came up quite well did you get any hate at all no when you came off did you have like any sort of following or anything like that like i think when i got off i had like uh i think i had about 50 60k on insta um but it was all like 13 year olds from brazil so like no one that can like monetize or anything like i mean it was still it was still good it definitely gave like when i opened my first barbershop it definitely gave that like a bit of a boost like yeah 100 so you obviously like you say you signed your first lease and then that was that for the barber shop yeah yeah yeah and then how'd it go was it just you at the start or did you have a couple of people yeah it was it was just it was just me me i remember when like i and i didn't have a clue how to even like start a business like at all i remember i came out with geordie shore and was like because the whole plan was was like obviously i was working in a barbershop i was like right go on jordie shore come out open a barbershop that was the plan um so then when i got kicked off and i came out i was like right how do i actually start a business didn't have a clue went to job center when the job center had to ask out because i didn't know what to do i went to job center i was like uh yeah i want to start my own business and she was like yeah so do you think you'd be uh are you good at talking would you be good in a call center i'm like no no as in like i actually want to like start my own business like doing this she's like you think you'd be like good in like an admin role i'm like you're like you don't even listen to what i'm saying it was mad like talking to a robot i remember i left and i like end up just speaking with me a friend who had his own business and i was just like mate how do i start a business and then i kind of went down in the process of like taking out a loan like doing a business plan and all this kind of stuff and yeah end up getting a lease and yeah fitting out a barbershop on a proper budget small budget and then just kind of work there by myself for a bit until i kind of couldn't book anyone else in with us and then i yeah sort of getting stuff in yeah when did uh like the social media aspects of it uh come in and like when did you see like value in that um because i feel like no one no one did barber in on social media before you know i think no one and uh i remember uh a company sent us like a it must have just been like a wholesaler or whatever but they sent us like a box of products and it just had like loads of different products in from different brands and i remember it had um like a styling powder in and this was like when styling powders were like new to the market like no one had really seen styling powders before um so I started using them on my clients and the reason I used to like record clients was because where my barbershop was there wasn't any like footfall so like if you wanted eyes on you you had to be posting on social media and this was off the back of like when I used to work in a barbershop we weren't in like a high footfall area and I always used to like this is when you could only post photos on Instagram so like my boss was always posting photos on Instagram and that was bringing clients in so I was like all right okay so when I look for a barbershop I'm not going to worry about footfall I'm just going to post on social media um so yeah anyways got this like styling powder and then I would like style someone's hair post on social media did that a few times and like I started getting like just like crazy views I suppose no one was really like posting videos then um so yeah I started posting styling videos and then that brand reached out and were like, can we pay you to do videos?

17:37So this was like eight years ago or something. So they, I didn't even know what a retainer was. So they ended up sticking us on like a small retainer and I just like made them styling videos. So it's, the social, making money from social started like quite a while ago to be fair. Yeah. And then the ones that I remember was like you dyeing people's hair and stuff like that. Yeah, they blew up. Like, that's how many TikTok, that's how many TikTok really like blew up. Was like doing it on other people and doing it on myself. Yeah, I think I went from like, from zero to 300k followers on TikTok was like a couple of weeks.

18:14Yeah, it was rad because it was lockdown as well. That's crazy. So everyone was what? Do you think that helped because people were trying to cut their own hair and shit like that? 100%. Yeah, 100%. I think I had like probably 100, at that point, I think I had about 100 and something K on Instagram. I didn't have anything on TikTok and then lockdown came and I started just hammering TikTok because well for one TikToks just came around so like it's the best time ever to go viral but also it's COVID and everyone's just sat in the house on the phone so like that like blew me TikTok up like I say like got a throw in decay in the space for a couple of weeks but then that also like was me Instagram was flying because if you find someone on TikTok and you think they're cool or you like them you go on their Instagram don't you it doesn't go like vice versa like you see someone cool on instagram you never go i'll have a look at tiktok yeah but if you're blown up on tiktok everyone's like i'll have a look on instagram so even my instagram started gaining followers did you use tiktok before this did you have tiktok as an app like i didn't scroll on it but like i remember this guy commenting on my instagram video and he was like bro you need to start posting on tiktok because Instagram was still very like, everyone was still just posting photos.

19:31Not everyone was like doing video. But this is when TikTok first came around and obviously it's an only video platform. And he just messaged us saying like, everything you post on Instagram, just start a TikTok and just post the same content on there. And I did. And that's how it blew up. Yeah, that's mad. And then did other brands come to you? Yeah, I'm trying to think. Yeah, I think - Who were the main first brands as well? Slick Gorilla. Yeah, I remember them. Yeah, and then another brand, another hair brand came about and they asked us to kind of work exclusively for them. So they offered us whatever.

20:08It wasn't enough. And in the meeting, I was just like, you'll have to offer us more than that. They gave us another offer. I took that to Slick Gorilla and was like, this is what these are offering us. And then they doubled it. So they ended up putting us on like a good retainer. that's your first bit of management by yourself yeah yeah I loved it just gotta not be scared just ask for more money I love it I find it so awkward oh nah I love it mate nah I love the openness I'm not arsed nah you've just gotta not be arsed which is at the end of the day you're just trying to look after yourself the same way that person's trying to look after themselves do you know what I mean yeah because if they wanted you to do something for less they would ask you do you know what I mean so like yeah I'm not bothered about I kind of love it to be fair yeah yeah the awkward situations yeah because then i just like deadlock eye contact see i can't do it i'm gonna look away yeah like you just gotta do what's best for you innit yeah no that's class i think what brand came after that the next and then it was chris and sons and i started working with chris and sons and that was when i had like then i had like two retainers at the same time and i was like i'm gonna have to cut hair less and that's when i like that's when that then started that's when I started like going down to four days a week yeah instead of like five days a week so you're cutting hair all the time you then had to create more content and stuff like that yeah went down to four days was you did you hire a couple other people this time and how many people do you have in your barber shop at this point that the barber shop was like I think I'd refitted it twice by the time I got to this point so like now it had like five chairs in it and all the chairs were full and then i'm like did you do the like diy shit or did you get some people in well i can't put a shelf up myself but like yeah i was definitely just getting exactly so bad i'm so bad i brought a drill off it bought me first drill like two months ago and i hung a mirror in me my bedroom and it's one class it's one mate you know what you know i was petrified about drilling through a pipe or something.

22:16I must have been like, you're knocking your head. Like, oh bro, like horrendous. Yeah, no, I kind of do nothing like that myself. Like I'm bad for stuff like that. But yeah, I remember like the first time I did the shop and then after a while just being like, there's so many things I've did wrong here. And then doing it again. And then even then again, I was like, yeah, loads of stuff wrong here. And then I suppose it's just been like progressively just refining the business. And then back then, what was your business plan? Like, what did you think was going to happen? Like, did you want to open up more shops?

22:50And like, because I always ask like barbers. Yeah. Because I'm really interested in like how they want to scale. Yeah. Because sometimes you can create like, you know, a chain of barbershops or you could do barbershops and it's just not worth a headache. Nah. Because you've got to have like, you've definitely got to have like a solid foundation. I wouldn't have like opened a second shop if it didn't make sense. Like you've got to have like people who like really want to work with you and are like loyal to the brand. Do you know what I mean? But I think like my kind of plan was, I didn't really know what my plan was.

23:27And like when I was like cutting hair and I was obviously making money doing socials, I kind of didn't know where the socials could take us. I was just kind of, let's just keep pushing this. Just see what happens. I don't think you can really make a plan for the socials. Yeah. Can you? not really you just keep pushing the bigger you get the more opportunities you're gonna get like and i think you've also got to have the the mentality that like it could all like with socials especially like it could all it could all be taken away tomorrow could all disappear tomorrow like i've always said that you could become irrelevant like that your content could just not slap anymore yeah so like yeah there was never really planned with socials just grow as much as i can anything that i do off the back of that socials is gonna help um so i'll open the second shop but to be honest before that like even when um like when covid hit that's and i shut my shop that's when i was like i need to start making money online me like because like everyone who i knew who had barber shops were making no money everyone i know who had like an online brand or like a hair product brand or a clothing brand were making the most money they've ever made in their lives and i was just like right this is this is i need to figure out how to make money online um so like yeah i still opened a second shop but like i was like right how can like you know what can i do um obviously i'd worked with like slick gorilla for so long and they're driving around in ferraris and j-wagons like making millions and i'm just and not all off the back of me but like i was there like main ambassador and i'm like why am i not doing this for myself um so that's when i kind of got the ball rolling doing the hair products and and how how do you even go about that?

25:04Like the hair products? Because it seems like such a, from the outside, like quite a saturated market. I don't know. I would actually say the complete opposite. Would you? Yeah, because like, other than the big brands, who you're competing with, I suppose it's like saying like, when Rep first came about, right, who they're competing with? They're competing with the big brands, but that makes you like, quite unique. Because like, when Rep is then sort of blown up, you know, you've got all your big brands, your Nike, your Adidas, your like, your Gucci's, your whatever. I feel like Wreck came about in that era where like, there wasn't really like a big, like independent brand.

25:42So I kind of feel like that's what it's like with hair products. It's like now is the time to get on it because like, there's other than like your VO5s and like your big brands, how many can you name? Like you've got like Uppercut, which is like being around forever, but like there's not a load of like independent hair product brands. Yeah, true. do you think do you think your name will carry it as well like having the it's the biggest thing yeah i find that like with having you know a face to the founder because there's these big brands and like you just feel disconnected yeah yeah yeah because well that's why slick that's why i worked for slick gorilla really because like the guys who own it like they don't want to be like the face of the brand yeah i was the face of the brand so like they were doing that back then like they you know what i mean they're all very they're switched on um but yeah the most important thing for the hair products is is me do you know what i mean like it's all about like the the founder and how we've developed the products and like that's an an angle we use all the time i say we because dan runs a lot of the e-com side of things um you know we lean on that a lot like these products have been developed by someone who's been in the industry for 15 years it's not just like a soulless product it's like i've developed it from scratch through my experience so that's kind of like if you were to buy a not saying i'm like a doctor but you know if you're to buy a supplement if that supplement is like owned and backed by a doctor who talks about the product you're way more inclined to buy it do you know what i mean yeah no definitely yeah what's been the biggest struggles in creating that business of the product business?

27:23All the admin. It's so boring. It pulls us away from me creative self, but it also makes us realize that's how you grow the business. It's just you've got to do all the shit stuff you don't want to do, all the compliance and all the compliance. Have you had any problems getting the product right or anything like that, revisions of the product? Yeah, I mean, we've had a few hurdles, to be fair. At the minute, we're just trying to get used to like, because Ecom's like a whole new world to me, just owning a brand like this. The kind of the logistics involved with like shipping into Europe and like all of your like responsible person stuff and like all your compliance for all your packaging and all your ingredients and like all that kind of stuff, mind-numbingly boring stuff.

28:16Like doing all that stuff is probably like the hardest. You're trying to motivate yourself to do it. It's like the worst bit. And then in terms of the actual like products, like the styling products and stuff like that, like, is there anything that you think differs in your products than the products that are already out there on the shelf? Yeah, I mean, especially with like things like the styling cream, that was like, I mean, when we launched the styling cream, it went like absolutely nuts. Because that was like a bit of a gap in the market, really, where like people wanted, especially because I was like always trying to, give myself this like i feel like i'm reading an ad now um because i always wanted to give myself this like slick back look but when you use things like brill cream and like gels when you'd wash the gels out your hair that honestly makes your hair feel so brittle and horrible like it's just stripped your hair so i've like was trying to develop a product that like would give us that but then would just kind of wash out nicely um so we made the styling cream developed the styling cream do you do that by yourselves or have you got like some scientists behind it all i mean yeah like the the um factory we use they have their like a what's the word not a cosmetologist what's it called yeah like we've got our own um chemist yeah so the factory we use like we've got our own chemist and it's just a lot of like back and forth with me and them um i've got a business partner as well but like he's not really involved in the the actual product itself the development of the formula that's like all on me because i'm the one who's obviously always using it and testing it um whereas he does the kind of like actual like packaging um but yeah that whole side of thing is just kind of a bit of a back and forth with uh me and the chemist it's interesting i like it and uh have you learned anything along the way loads yeah it makes us like excited for like the future and like you know if i do see a gap market for another product i would start i feel like i would have a three-year head start in comparison at the hair products because like as well bringing dan and i work with dan and a lad called alex because they've had so much experience with e-com they've now got like an e-com agency like bringing them in made like a massive difference because i didn't know anything about e-com i didn't understand anything but this is like what do you say Dan it's really your kind of it's his forte like he's just got such a good understanding of like like customer behaviours and like you know building a website out and his experience with ads and yeah I've learned so much from Dan Alex just being crazy yeah over the years like what how have you found like managing people because I think it's one of the hardest things like actually just yeah I mean I've got another business partner a lad called carl christie and like he's amazing for that i think he's a lot better at that than me because he's a very um he's just like the nicest guy in the world and he he is he's just such a good people person no one dislikes him and he's just great at like managing people so like he takes a lot of that like load off me for like certain businesses um but i don't know yeah i'm just i think i'm just pretty good at like um reading people and understanding people and kind of knowing like you've also got to bear in mind that like they like people who work for you want the best for themselves and you've got to remember that in the way you treat them and like you know you've got to make sure like they're paid well otherwise they're just going to bounce like we've always had like a very good like retention of staff we've always helped barbershops are like notorious for like people just coming and going all the time like we've not even had a member of staff leave in like three years you know what i mean so like you're obviously doing something right yeah and even the last guy who left didn't even really want to leave you know what i mean so like we've done well with like just looking after stuff yeah and do you think is there anything that you'd recommend to do that obviously you can pay them more but is there anything else that like because people listening to this that will like be starting a business or w yeah um don't be greedy and don't try and be like a boss i think like try and be like try and be the mate obviously there is still a line and as long as you kind of like you know they have respect for you they understand that that there's a line and also like if you need to put them in the place do it but like just try and have like a good like relationship with them I suppose what if someone's just not matching expectations you just get rid of them just suck them yeah the first one's hard but you get used to it yeah do you give them chances oh yeah yeah if I like them yeah you get a few chances like how many chances with Sam Rascals oh well I had one kid who worked for us called L like and he had about a million chances but yeah to be fair you do get a few chances like I get rid of a few kids now but like I think one of them I got rid of them pretty quick the other one the next one stayed with us a while but he had like he was working in a barbershop mate he had like really poor hygiene and I I gave him a lot of like leeway with that for a while and then I was getting too many complaints and I'd can you imagine like speaking to a member of staff and being like bro I need you to put deodorant on bro I need you to brush your teeth when you come to work can you imagine I need you to wash your clothes can you imagine saying that to an adult right you know what I mean yeah and then after a while I was just like bro sorry like it sucks yeah some people just don't get it do they nah you know what I mean with me I was getting complaints all the time these are people who like aren't going to come back to my shop because I've got to go I've got to go in with stinky do you know what I mean

34:01so obviously you seem like the busiest person in the world yeah how would you fit in your life when I mean life life, training, all that kind of stuff because you're in shape yeah I mean I don't really have a personal life all I do is like work and go to the gym so yeah it's plenty of time class when did your interest in kind of like fitness start have you always been into fitness always mate I started training when I was like 13 I like started going the school I went to had a gym so I used to go to the gym before school and then as I got older and was this just to like get big for the girls yeah yeah it used to be a mixture of everything I'd go and do with a bench press used to hang off the bar and get me mate like smash a medicine ball in my abs thinking that was treating my abs and then I'd go and do a bit of skipping outside for a bit just a complete mashup of training um and then when i got a bit older i used to just live with me dad and me and my dad used to like just do workouts in the conservatory we had a multi-gym in the kitchen it was a proper man house yeah and then like yeah just training's just like always always been a part of my life yeah yeah you use it for kind of like stress relief or anything like that mental health or is it just just a way just a way of life it was just a way of life yeah just i I couldn't imagine it any other way.

35:27Yeah, I would say it would like help with me mental health, but I'm still checking emails and just doing everything else that I would normally do in between sets. So it's just a, yeah. What type of training do you find the most interesting?

35:46I mean, I would say like lifting weights is just not interesting at all. Have you just lost your love for that? I feel like we all start like that. Yeah, I like being in, obviously I love being in shape and it makes you feel amazing. I love the ache, you know, over the next couple of days, it feels good being a bit achy and pumped. But like, I haven't really loved lifting weights for a while. I'm just doing it because I'm just so used to it. I would love to go back to boxing because I was like obsessed with boxing for a while. But with my job, it's like quite hard because I started like spraining my wrist and I was like, you know, hurting my hands.

36:19And then everything, my hands were getting quite stiff. And I was trying to film content and I was like kind of struggling. um i don't really know like something i've never enjoyed doing is like obviously like what you do which is like a mixture of cardio and lifting weights like i've i've always found that really difficult like i'm a proper pussy with it i love running and i love lifting weights but i love them in their own in their own form i hate mixing cardio with lifting stuff i think the first time the first couple of times you do it it's hard mate well you're used to lifting certain weights and then you're used to running a certain speed.

36:56Yeah. And you can't do them both together. Yeah. You cannot, like you're running slower. Yeah. And you're lifting lighter weights because you can't, or you're not lifting them as fast or as efficient or whatever. So it is pretty shit the first time you do it. Like, why wouldn't you just separate them? Yeah. I'd love to train with you and just see how bad I am at a side of things. Whenever you want, we can train. Well, I suppose you must've done some form of kind of like hit training within the boxing, like preparation and stuff like that. A little bit, but like not really. I used to do, I don't know if I did it for like six months, but like a bit of boxing training.

37:28Yeah. Like with a gym. And the sessions used to be two hours long. And for 90 minutes of that session, it was fitness. Yeah. And then you'd do like 30 minutes, either sparring or bag work or something like that. Yeah, I think we, well, where I was training, that was called Elite. I think it's in Bolton, to be fair. I can't remember now. And we used to do like, maybe like a bit of HIIT for like 10 minutes and I would so half-arset. And then like, I just wanted to punch, pads how often were you shadow boxing every day still every day still i love it yeah every time i get in my lift right every time i get in my lift right this is a small lift and there's never anyone in it so whenever i get in my lift i've got a good 20 30 seconds of shadow boxing yeah there's a camera right there i'm not even gonna lie my hook has got so much better from just shadow boxing all the time in the lift i bet the security guy's just fucking laughing at Yeah, he's like on my helmet.

38:18But he might be scared of you though. Not arsed. Yeah, man. Look how good my hook is now. Me as well. Like my apartment is like all glass, right? And like everyone can see and I'm sure if my blinds aren't done, which they never are when I'm like cooking my tea on the night time. But like while I'm waiting for my air fryer, I'm just like, yeah, for like 10 minutes in my living room. Yeah. I love it. Blasting the tunes. Yeah, I love that. I mean, sweet potato in the air fryer. I love it. Sweet potato. Obviously, you was Newcastle based for a long time. you moved to manchester right yeah why um well i i was i used to be seeing a girl and she lived like quite near manchester so we were like long distance for like a few years so i would like sometimes she'd come to newcastle sometimes i'd come to her and we'd pretty much spend all the weekend in manchester and i just like loved the city so it was always going to be a toss-up of like is she going to move to newcastle where it's kind of like dying out a bit not really much going on oh my god move to manchester and it's like thriving city um so i just moved to manchester yeah loved it and then may end up breaking up after like a year but i've just stayed yeah so yeah i love it it's a sick place what's different between newcastle and manchester i mean manchester is a much bigger city um and i just think like since covid i don't really think newcastle's like rebounded you know what i mean i just feel like it's kind of like if anything it kind of went backwards.

39:42Like 10 years ago, mate, Newcastle, even like 10, 15, like 10, 15 years ago, mate, like Newcastle was bouncing. Like, and I mean like every night of the week, you could go out any day of the week and town would be busy. Cause it was, it's like, there's a few unis there. Newcastle uni, Northumbria uni, like Durham uni used to come to Newcastle, like Sun and uni. It was a proper uni city. So like there was events on like every night. It was like, such a sick era and I'm so grateful that I was actually like a promoter in that era as well but yeah like I think now with like you know everyone like everyone's drinking less like people don't really go to like bars as much anymore that was kind of like what Newcastle was all about and now you're like if you went out on a weekend in Newcastle it's just not the same people don't go out in the week anymore so is it dead in the week?

40:33yeah it's just not it's just not the same bro just not like nothing compared to like to Manchester there's so much going on in Manchester yeah to be fair I've never been on a night out in Newcastle. I've only been for the great North run, which is actually today. It's today, yeah. It's today, yeah. But yeah, that's a great run, by the way. Is it? Yeah, it's the maddest thing ever. Like you're running and I don't know what the weather was like today, but I did it last year and you have sideways rain for the entire run. Oh, really? Yeah. And it's hilly as fuck, but the amount of people that are out supporting, it's like nothing else.

41:09it's the biggest half marathon in like it's definitely in the UK I want to say like Europe or something I've actually never done like a marathon or anything like that before what's furthest you've run

41:2220k 20k yeah what's that no no that's almost a half marathon yeah yeah yeah 21.1k and that was like I was in London and some of the boys were just like do you want to go on a run tomorrow and I was like yeah let's do it so I borrowed some of me it's like running shoes and running stuff and I was like what we're doing today? And they were like oh yeah we're doing like 20k. I was like sound. Did that bro. My feet. I'm not even joking for like a week. I couldn't mate I actually thought I broke my feet. They weren't that bad. I'm sure I didn't have like long distance running shoes on or something but from like getting off the sofa I like hadn't ran in months and I just went and did like 20 odd k.

42:00Yeah. Mate my feet. It will fuck you. Oh mate my feet were fucked. It was so bad. And I'm a diva as well. So I was just like for a week I think I've actually brought my feet. I was going to actually ask, obviously with barbering, and like you say, you do it a little bit less now, you're not doing it full-time, fucking six, seven days a week or whatever, when you first started out. But how would you find just being stood up all the time? Well, cutting hair and shit like that. Did you ache and stuff like that? I mean, you get used to it like you would anything. I mean, when you first start getting into it, it takes a toll on you.

42:34It's hard. It is hard graft. but obviously then you get very used to it but i think like the main thing is is like yes it's draining but it's also like your social battery as well like yeah you don't want to talk to no one after work like you don't want to go out like if you work on a saturday and you got a and you've got an engagement party or something after work oh mate you can't be asked to talk like but it's um i wouldn't i don't think i'd be able to train the way i train if i was still like cutting hair five days a week because you're just so knackered after work you just don't have the energy yeah it's so taxing like you don't think it's a taxing job but it is it is mate it's like mentally and physically like it is you're talking to people all day I find it quite hard now to like I don't think I could go back to like working five days a week I think like not like I'm exactly the same as well bro like if I did like three haircuts I could like do no haircuts right all week and I could have one day where I did three haircuts off the bounce and I'd be like I'm knackered yeah i'm exactly the same with coaching yeah i spent to coach three classes back to back and like i'm fucked like emily emily sometimes has to take over yeah like you know yeah i've turned into a right pussy now yeah as well it's like you've got to be in like a good mood as well like you know for every client that comes in yeah well what's the small talk like like well like it depends because like 80 your clients are like they've been coming for years yeah and then you get like the odd new client but like i'm terrible for like um if you're late i mean i'm in a bad mood i'm in a bad mood like you come in it's like 45 minute appointment you come in 10 minutes late and they're like sorry it's like that's all right it's 10 minutes of your appointment mate i'm just gonna rush now you know what i mean yeah yeah it was mental that puts in a bad mood what about if you overrun no it would never happen no it doesn't never happen no not with me i feel like most barbers do most barbers do i never did why just you just the best of it just the best i'm just the best at time keeping mate and then like you mentioned before you you're better at um cutting long hair would you say you're better at cutting long hair at the minute or scissor cutting yeah scissor cutting i definitely am at the minute because that's like all i ever do yeah i'm sure if i went do any like skin fades no one no one comes in and asks for them yeah and as well like it's not the content that performs like the content that performs now is like everyone wants long hair now is that is that what's in at the moment yeah like well based off my content and the feed but yeah like in my algorithm everyone's like growing the hair out yeah it's a lot of these like long shaggy mullets mod cuts flow like flow back hairstyles like you very rarely see like someone getting like a full-blown skin fade anymore do you know what i mean do you think that'll stay for quite a while for a while yeah probably I think so it'll come back round skin feeds will come back round they always do you get a skin feed so I'm trying to push onto the mullets yeah yeah get a mullet I think it's my ears I've got my ears are too big I like your ears do you know what I mean oh why thank you but like if I if I got a mullet it like nah I think it would help your ears blend in nah it would help your ears nah because there'd be a bit of something else there to like you know a bit of camouflage bit of camouflage I love that I love that should I should I dye my hair as well have you seen Al Fimantorpe you would see yeah yeah yeah he's started dyeing his hair like a slim shady yeah yeah well your hair's like quite light anyways you're like a dark blonde aren't you yeah you're a dark blonde dark blonde would you say that's dark blonde yeah same hair colour as him dark blonde it's not brown that mate dark blonde in it what do you say wow there we go yeah yeah that would dye easy one bleach done easy do you think I should do it though or do you think Might as well.

46:19Might as well. Is that your type of thing? If you want to do it, put my unit and I'll do it because that'll be a good little video. What colors have you dyed your hair? Because I remember there's some mad ones. Do they like stay in for like the entirety or do you like get rid of them? Because I remember you used to - No, I used to keep them. I used to keep them for a while. Like, yeah. I'm too old to do it now. But like, I've had like pink, green, purple, blue.

46:45But they always look like sick. Teal. How come when you did it, like it looks sick but then like you see other people doing it's just scruffy as fuck like it looks a bit like do you know what i mean it's just it's the because you know why mate because you've got to like get the bleaching right and then when you put the color on top it'll like take better the lighter your hair is whereas a lot of people haven't obviously i used to do color all the time when i was a hairdresser so i was just always like i'm just good at color well not i'm not gonna say i'm good at color i'm good at color for a like a barber like hair all like whenever I do like colour content now I'll get a load of hairdressers telling us I'm using the wrong toners and all this shit so in the eyes of a hairdresser I'm bad in the eyes of a barber I'm good do you charge more for someone who's got a fat head for colour for just a haircut for a haircut nah nah nah you gotta do the fat heads for the same price yeah same with the small heads what about obviously like back in the day I assume you don't do many anymore but like I find it baffling that people expect kids' hair to cut I love it to be cheaper yeah when all they're doing is fidgeting around it's the worst being a fucking nightmare and it takes you longer yeah and they expect and then you do the hair and they're like oh just take a little bit more off and then like you've got to do the haircut again it's the worst I hate I hate so like even when I you can't put kids cut to me even when I was like even when I used to cut hair I was the first thing I did was take kids cuts off I keep saying this to my barber and he's just he's just one of them guys too nice no barber when you've got a kids cut in and you look at this is like all barbers think this if you look at your column and that tomorrow you've got like a kids cut in you dread it because it's just horrendous like parents come in be like oh he sits still he's a good he's a good like no they don't because like this even just wobbling your head a little bit is not sitting still they think that sitting still is not getting up and like screaming and all that.

48:42The only person who, can you guess who the only person who's got a kid's cut is? Carl Christie. Carl Christie loves doing kid's cuts. Of course he does. He's got the patience of a saint. I have no patience. But yeah, like now in the shops, now that I've like, kind of. It should be double the price. Well, we've like, you can't put kid's cuts anymore. Like it's just not a service on our shops anymore. I just don't think it should be. I just think if you, you either pay the price or you just like, go somewhere, go somewhere that's cheap. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. What was your opinion on parents cutting their own kids' hair?

49:17Yeah, do it. Yeah. Less stress for barbers. Because, like, you're never going to do a good cut anyways. Like, being realistic, you can take a kid to a good barber shop and, like, we're going to rush it anyways. Because, like, you've only got, like, a small window of time where the kid's going to sit still. They've got about 10, 15 minutes before they get bored. And then it doesn't matter how good they are, they're going to start wriggling. they're going to stop being a nightmare they're going to be complaining so you rush them anyways and does it really matter how good a kid's haircut is? no one cares no one cares about your kid mate and how good his haircut is except you do you know what I mean?

49:56what do you think about people complaining about the price of a haircut? because I find this fucking baffling well it's like it just depends on what you value doesn't it? like obviously I value a good haircut but like I'm trying to think of like an example some people might not want to pay a load of money for a haircut but they love interior design and they'll pay thousands on rugs and thousands on a sofa some people don't care people want to go to a pure gym and spend 20 quid on a pure gym some people want to go to a really nice boozy gym and like spend 100, 200 pound a month just depends on what your priorities are and as well if you've got like a clapped hairline or you've got shit hair like it doesn't make sense for you to go and spend like 50, 60 quid on a good trim because it's unsavable anyways but like if you've got a good head of hair you're gonna want to get it like look after probably it just depends if you care about your hair spend good money if you care about your hair don't go to a turkish barber shop like when people say to me like oh yeah i used to go to turks and used to butcher us and i'll be like but you actually care about your hair don't you like yeah i'm like so why are you like rolling the dice why don't you just go to a good barber shop do you know what i mean yeah it's crazy but what about like when you increase your price and they might be like oh i'm increasing my price by like a fiver and then like everyone fucking complains yeah i mean like when i when my barber says he's increasing the price i'm like about fucking time like that that's great that's great because i don't understand this thing and i don't know if it's a uk thing but like they're like oh well like why would you complain about someone increasing the prices yeah and you know what well i'm kind of like in the uk as well like barbers are actually cheap yeah like even the good barber shops are cheap i don't know as your trim is in the us mate i was just about to touch on this couple hundred i got i got a record for fucking and i i literally went into a walking barbershop on sunset boulevard and it was 160 plus tip yeah plus tip and i found that that crazy and then i went back to to george's and he was like oh yeah if you if you want a call-out fee though it's minimum 300 300 so if you want someone come into your house yeah three hundred dollars plus the haircut yeah and it's just it's wild so like in the uk it's actually like dirt cheap but like the way we see it is like we obviously we're not just going to increase the prices for the sake of it like for instance if you sign a new lease for the the premises and it's went up like you're going to put the prices up if you haven't had an increase for a few years anyways like the price goes up um it's like why would you not want your barber doing well yeah and if the if the shops but these are the cheapskates and as well I want to get rid of you anyways I want to get rid of my cheapskates so I can bring in someone else who wants to pay the price and appreciates the haircut I don't want the cheapskates you know what I mean surely like some I want the ballers who are going to give us a big fat tip but you want your barber driving around in a nice car you want him like living life and wearing nice clothes and fucking doing whatever he wants to do yeah and like it's not going to be doing that if like you've been dead stingy I don't know yeah I know I need a new whip.

53:06Pays more. So in terms of like gym set up in Manchester at the moment, where are you training out of? I'm training at a gym called... Apart from shadow boxing. Yeah. I've trained in a gym called Federation. I wouldn't mind another gym membership though, but there's not that many good gyms in Manchester City. No. Whereabouts are you based? Like Sulfat. Yeah, End. It's like Sulfat, but I'm like right next to End. Yeah. There's an XF is just open, which looks all right, but they don't do they don't do guest passes and I was like right well I'm not joining oh right so you can't even go and try it you can't even go and try it you've got to sign up I'm always a bit they're always shit as well like when you actually do sign up but that's what I mean there's like there isn't any good there's none is there really you've got federation which is like to be fair have you heard of that federation no no the machines in there are like unreal you spend some dough in that gym but like yeah there's I mean like Soho House has just opened but like they've just opened their gym but it's a bit like leisure yeah it's a bit dead in there they've got good equipment I've been in but um yeah it's just dead because and the maddest thing about Soho House I shouldn't really slag them off um but uh they don't do guest passes for the gym yeah you've got to be a member so you've got to be a member yeah so you can so you can't bring your mate in nah you can't bring your mate in but you can obviously bring three people into the into Soho House if you want to use the gym or sauna yeah you should go on your ones yeah which is the sauna's good to be fair the one in Manchester I've been going to Cannybird but Manchester needs some new gyms it needs some new gyms yeah what's next I don't know I'm like my obsession at the minute is like the hair products trying to scale that and the education like we've just been talking about it on the way yeah because he runs all the education stuff as well the education's like flying at the minute we've just done like we've just tested a seven-day free trial for the first time ever.

55:06And we're finding that the retention is really good off the back of the free trial. And I think we're just going through a really good spot anyways, aren't we? We just seem to be acquiring a lot of students. I feel like, like you say, people are investing a lot more into themselves, aren't they? People are locking in. It's after the summer. Summer's over. All the bar was thinking, right, I want to get better at cutting hair. We're all signing up. But yeah, I suppose like just kind of scaling the education and scaling the hair products are kind of my priorities and just like focusing on brand deals.

55:38Like the social stuff is like really busy at the minute. Having a good year for that. Would you always stay in the UK? I don't know. Like, I mean, I'd love to do a George Heaton and just live in LA or something. But like, I don't know. Right now, I think it's important for us to be in England. Do you think the barbering standard is better in the UK than it is, say, like the US or somewhere else? Like where are the best barbers in the world? UK is like a very good standard, especially for like, I don't know if I'm just being biased here, but like all round, like they're a good all rounder. Whereas you go to the US, you'd struggle to get a good like scissor haircut.

56:21but they're very much like fade-oriented, but they're kind of like, they're a bit behind with that, I think. Which is harder as well, scissor or fade? There's more to scissor work. Right, okay. There's like more to learn, do you know what I mean? How come every time you ask for a skin fade, it takes, should it take an hour for a haircut, a skin fade haircut? You want a good one. Yeah. You're not getting a good one. Like, to be fair, I could do yours well in about 15, 20 minutes. It's all right. 13, 20 minutes. Yeah, because you've got blonde hair and you just get a buzz cut. Okay. It's an easy one.

56:54Yeah? Yeah. I reckon. Yeah. Every time I go to a bar, like Emily takes a piss out of me all the time because she's like, how the fuck does it take an hour? Yeah, she'll take an hour to do yours. Do you get your beard done as well? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so add 50 minutes on there. Yeah. 50 minutes. To be fair, you should appreciate that your barber spends an hour on a buzz cut. No, no, I do. I do really appreciate it. Yeah, yeah. I do appreciate it, but he's going to listen to this as well. he loves you he absolutely loves you does he yeah well you tell him well I'll just tell him now but he's boxed your fringe in nice he's done a great job of boxing in your fringe thank you there you go Zach there you go Zach but yeah so would you go over to do you think the US would be a place yeah I just I don't even know where I'd want to put myself I could live in New York like I could see myself living in somewhere like New York I don't know I was just speaking to Dan before about like is London on the cards maybe um at the end of next year I'm not really sure what I want to do to be honest I'm just kind of in where do you where do you have like the majority of barbers that sign up to your course and stuff like that US US because they're all about like have you ever messing in themselves and all would you do like a tour like in person that's kind of what we've been talking I'll be fair I'm doing like my first kind of in person master class in like January in Miami with one of my friends who's Miami based so we'll probably gauge on from that what the crack will be about like doing like a US tour I don't even know like what we'd have to do we'd probably have to get a visa I'll probably have to have a look at it but yeah I'd love to do like a US tour like I would love to mate I just want to live in the sun me you know I'm sick of living in the rain I am I'm sick of having like a month's worth of sun in a year I feel like I work too hard and like I'm do you know I just I feel like I deserve to live in the sun like but where do I go?

58:53I started living in Spanish I guess I want to run off to Spain Marbella or something I don't know if that's my vibe I've never actually been to Marbella is it good or is it? I've never been I just couldn't I just don't get the vibe that that's so very calm creative-y like I don't know it's very like go out here yeah I don't know LV handbags yeah polished I'm not a very polished guy I don't think no I'd like to go to be fair it's actually meant to have the best weather in Spain yeah I would like to go for a weekend yeah apparently the fitness is good out there as well yeah see the gyms are good a lot of like open gyms and that yeah yeah that's what I need I need a gym that's where the manosphere though is yeah HS ticky tocky yeah I'm good I didn't get us to do that

59:42that's what I need I need a gym in the sun that can just take my top off that's why that's why Hyrox is so good because you get to run around with your top off can't do that in Federation my gym you know you get beat up yeah would you get beat up just get a couple of dodgy looks so I'll just walk around with my top off yeah I think we'll leave it there yeah thank you nice one oh you mentioned that you had some questions actually did I yeah what do I want to ask you about? What's it like working for Red Bull? Red Bull is the best brand in the world. Yeah, you've been working for them for a while now, haven't you?

1:00:13Yeah, just over two years, best brand ever. Like they're a marketing brand that sells drinks on the side. Yeah. Yeah. Oh no. I think internally, they've got do cool. We sell cans to do cool shit. Yeah. Yeah, because if you look on their Instagram, there's no like, there isn't a can of Coke, a can of Coke? A can of Red Bull. there's definitely not a can of coke there's no cans of Red Bull anywhere there's nothing about energy it's like people falling out of planes and doing flips it's crazy yeah I don't know do you know Kieran Riley from Your Way yeah yeah you haven't cut yourself before have you yeah he's short on it yeah mate he's just one big muscle yeah them whips he does that BMX is just crazy is he still sponsored from yeah he's winning everything at the moment Is it normal for like a fitness guy to be sponsored by Red Bull?

1:01:09So they've, that's, I was the first fitness athlete. That's, that's sick. Yeah, it's pretty cool. But they've invested in a lot of others, like a lot of CrossFitters now. Is it? Nora Olsen, Victor Hoffa. Is CrossFit still as big as it was? Not a couple of years ago, that guy died in the, Oh shit, in the lake? yeah yeah and it's not really recovered since then oh really yeah but it's still like irox is big now isn't it yeah it's blown up they've just um they've just changed hands of who owns it now or they've just got back majority or something like and you know the owners do you i would imagine if you're yeah yeah yeah they're um what they're like yeah they're pretty sound to be fair like very good people one's an ex-olympian he's actually i've actually done a podcast with him and then the other guy christian is just like he's german but like he's just the most charismatic guy you've ever met is he yeah like he's great on an eye out yeah just just so fun to be around yeah like you know the the guy that the attention's on him in the room yeah so it's cool the i feel like genuinely i think it's a great sport i feel like they've just like exploded so fast that they've made mistakes yeah teeth problems and shit that's like normal in it and obviously i've seen like criticism of it like online where like there's been stations where people have had to queue and stuff and like people being like but like yeah it's a new brand it's like like they're gonna have they're gonna have issues i think they've got like i don't want to butcher this but they've got millions of people competing i was gonna say like and it's an indoor event They've actually grown so quick that they're having problems from being so big.

1:02:53Would you ever do one? I don't know. I don't know. Who's your biggest rival within the... I think I'd be good at it. I don't know if I'm maybe being a bit like... I think I'd be good at it. I think I'm the right build for high rocks, I'm going to say. I'm not big enough for something like CrossFit, but I'm an all right runner. Lean jacks. Yeah, do you know what I mean? I'm all right strength-wise. What's your 5K PB? I don't really time myself. Okay. But like, I think the last one I did that I timed was like 22 minutes. That's class. That's good enough. Who's your biggest rival, would you say, within the barbering world?

1:03:29We're talking about you. No, no, no. But this is going to be a future High Rocks competitor. All right. Okay. I don't know. I'm trying to think. I get compared with a guy called like Josh Dermoniker a lot. Okay. He'd probably be good at High Rocks, to be honest. He's just good at everything. I think he should have it. Yeah. He's good at footy. He's just good at everything. and he's got to make coffees. He's just... Where does he live? He's London-based. London-based. But I mean, he's not... We could arrange it. He's not really a rival. It's like a social media thing, but this guy's got like 40 salons.

1:03:59He's like huge. He's like an absolute legend of the industry. The beauty about fitness is it doesn't matter. Yeah. You're just up against him and that's it. That's all that matters. Yeah, I'm stronger than you, bro. Yeah, exactly. What's your bench, bro? What's your max bench, bro? Yeah, he might be better at her and have more shots, but what's your max bench? yeah exactly what matters is there anything that obviously you've got your obsession with barbering but is there anything else in your life that you've got like you're slightly obsessed with every other aspect of my life like everything i'm obsessed with me i would say i'm obsessed with my physique but it's pretty like standard to be fair like i'm obsessed with every business that i have i'm obsessed with my social media i'm obsessed with how my grid looks on social media or have you got like a i'm obsessed with money like i'm i'm just obsessed with them like every aspect of my life i'd say i'm pretty obsessed with and you've just blocked everything else out everything else is just irrelevant everything else is just not important yeah if you if you wasn't in what you're doing right now what would you do i think you could do anything i think i would have been like a uh like a like a gym influencer i think i would have been like a or something because I was like massive when I was like 22, 23.

1:05:15I was like juiced up to bits, like full of test. I was in good shape. So, yeah, I suppose maybe I would have went down that. Would you have been like a controversial one? Nah. Nah? Nah, I would have just, nah. I would have been a Mike Thurston. Oh, yeah. Just like Aura Farming all the time. Have you met Mike? Yeah, yeah. I used to do Mike's hair when he went to uni in Newcastle. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So he used to work in a gym and I used to go to the gym and cut his hair. Yeah, I know Mike. I haven't seen him in years to be fair. Yeah, we met him the other... He's huge, isn't he? Last year. Mate, like you think that it's just Instagram that he's big on and then you see him in person and he's so big.

1:05:55He's always... It's definitely like... He's just a genetic freak. He's looked like that since like, since them uni days. He's always looked the same. Just absolutely jacked a bit. Like crazy. Yeah. So that's what you'd be. You'd be a gym influencer. What about you? What are you obsessed with? are you obsessed with the gym how much time we got am I allowed to keep asking you questions we can talk all day long I don't know if people want to hear about you because this is your podcast they've probably heard it a million times but I've not actually explored you properly before no no a lot of people say that they'd like me to be interviewed yeah but I've always said nah why sorry I don't understand shut up

1:06:36they don't need to hear about me they're here for the guest no mate I bet everyone wants to hear about you nah nah What would you ask? Here we go. I'm under pressure now. I'd like to write a list of... I feel like you'd be great at a podcast, by the way. Doing a podcast. Yeah, doing a podcast. Really? I would like to. It's just like, you know what? Let's just... Because if I was to do it, I would want to do it properly and I wouldn't want to half-arse it. And right now, I don't have the time. But me and Kyle Christie talk about it because Kyle Christie would be so good at doing more of the back end, picking a guest.

1:07:10he would do all his back end research about them. I wouldn't care about none of that. I just want to rock up on the day and just start like firing a load of random questions. But yeah, I think we have spoke about it, but yeah, it's not the right, not the right time. Let's practice now. Let's practice. I actually think it's such a good shout for you doing this though. Oh, thank you, man. Yeah. I actually started this. I think it makes sense. Yeah, I started this as a distraction because I was just obsessed with high rocks and competing and training. So I thought, oh, what can I do to bring me away from like training all the time.

1:07:42Do you know what? I don't think I know anyone who's managed to grow the socials as well as you off posting like six second videos of you running down the street with your top off. I know, it's a secret, isn't it? It's a secret, yeah. It worked. I wish I could get away with doing that. I actually can't take my top off too much on Instagram because I get loads of people unfollowers. Unfollowing? Unfollowers. Well, yeah, you got to think my following's not like, yours is like, we'll just be like, kind of gym, health, fitness. Yeah, yeah. Mine's a lot of like barber, fashion, lifestyle. Yeah, and we've just mentioned as well, like being a barber, like it's fucking hard looking after yourself and like they might just get jealous or whatever.

1:08:22So like, I wouldn't even say that. It's like sometimes people are just followers for like barbering. So if I'm taking my top off too much, people are just a bit like, oh, get a grip. Mate, I posted a story about a month ago and I'd just got me like tattoo done on my back. And I posted a story of it's like, when we top off with me, like me, me latch on with me new tattoo. And it's the most views I've ever had in a story. I got like 600 ,000 views on me story. And I lost a thousand followers that day. Mad. I'm mad. So I've got to be careful when I take my top off. As much as I'd love to just do it all the time.

1:08:57I can't do it. But yeah, like I'm trying to think some questions I can ask you. Like what, what were you doing before you were doing like, before this was your full, before this was your full time job. before like being an athlete was full-time job uh i was a personal trainer before that civil engineering oh really yeah someone told us you were a plumber plumber i don't know who told us i didn't know if it was so yes one was like i was like i don't know why you came up in conversation probably talking about how much of a beast you are mate i'm so i'm like you're so shit at diy like i fucking wouldn't know even where to start like i think emily had a bath like the other month and I don't know where this story's going.

1:09:38Emily had a bath the other month and for some reason it started leaking. Yeah. I didn't have a fucking clue what to do. Oh, I had a meltdown to be fair. It started coming through the roof. Oh, nah. Yeah, I'd be having a meltdown as well. Oh, who do I ring? Who do I ring? Ended up ringing Emily's dad and yeah, he came around and sorted it. Oh, you lost man points there. Yeah. Little bitch. But yeah, I'm not got a fucking clue with any of that stuff. I remember the first time I burst a tyre and I was like stuck at the side of the road for hours and a police officer had to stop and help us change my tie because i didn't know what to do i didn't do you know what i did i ended up getting a you know the jack yeah and i put it on the wrong part of the car and i put it on the splitter and i just like when i put it down mate there was just a massive like hole i remember when i painted i remember i moved in a flat with me mate and i painted the ceiling with gloss paint by accident yeah weren't even my flat i was just renting off me mate and i paint the ceiling gloss paint i remember like fucking painting it and being like it's dead worry there's paint and we're making back the next day and the full ceiling was like shiny and he's like which paint have you painted the ceiling with yeah and i was like that little small tub in the corner i was like it's a nightmare trying to get the brush in there like that's fucking gloss paint you idiot and it's also a nightmare to get off the ceiling so did you have to get it off before repainting it yeah mate we didn't put dust sheets on the floor and nothing so even the floor and just had gloss paint it's the first time i was moving in somewhere by myself i've got no common sense me no common sense yeah let's talk about you again how when did you realize you were um like actually like good at good at running like when did you sort of like blow up on socials and that you seem like a very humble guy and that you wouldn't even know that you were good no i i started off doing like educational pieces for high rocks like how to do a burpee oh because it was so like again timing yeah perfect but um people weren't doing anything educational towards high rocks so like how how to ski how to sled push how to do a sled pull with good good technique and then went to an event people came up to me and they were like ah your videos really help so i carried on doing them um high rocks then kind of like picked me up as like uh like a head coach head trainer yeah i called a master trainer so I went around teaching so I was really out in my comfort zone when I did this because I could never speak to people I'm so shit at speaking for one are you like an introvert?

1:12:08would you say introvert? I don't know just really really bad at like speaking in public yeah like I couldn't speak you were well awkward I couldn't speak to a camera and I couldn't speak to people at all but they kind of like threw me in the deep end they were like yeah we've got 30 gym owners and they all want to know everything about High Rocks you've got to teach them how to do all the correct technique for High Rocks then tell them how to make money from being a High Rocks affiliate yeah and then tell them all the history and shit as well so we do like two hour seminars where we'd go through all that and stuff so it was kind of just sort of growing off yeah snowballing off that and then doing like motivational stuff on Instagram like say the running reels and stuff like that that was a complete accident we did one I put just like a motivational caption and then people were like messaging me saying like this got me out of bed in the morning and oh it got me out for a run or I've just been out for a run because of this and then obviously it went on the explore page as well so I was like well this isn't hurting that's doing well now as well so for you to be doing it that long ago must have been popping off do you know what I love about your videos when you don't put music on them and it's just the sound of your the rubber on the roads the rubber on the roads it is like well it is well satisfying to listen to and you shredded so it's pretty cool oh thank you mate thank you yeah i can't even remember how i started following me i think like i actually think someone was talking about like how good you were at running and i think it must have been it must have been berlin you know i'm sure it was around then when i started when i started following you because did you have a lot of people saying that you wouldn't have been able to do that time yeah yeah so i am first up 230 in berlin and yeah i i said it and my pb at the time was 248 yeah so people were basically doubting me saying there's no chance you can do this yeah uh and then i ended up running 228 that day which is wild because if you look at the build of people who are running those kind of times that's why like when I seen you on socials I was like he must be quite short or something he mustn't weigh much he must just be shredded and that's how he's like good at running because I know some of my mates who are like ridiculously good at running but they're also like tiny you know they don't weigh much and then I met you at that rep event and I was like he's a beast and he's like and he's tall how much do you weigh I don't know how much you weigh about 85 kg 85 kg yeah you're doing like 12 or 15 yeah yeah so but yeah And then after that, I did two hours, 28.

1:14:44And then like the year later, I said, I'm going to go for, I'm going to try and attempt a sub 220. Yeah. So I call it like this project 219 and shit like that. And then I got a lot more hate and then didn't actually do it. So they were all right. But it is what it is. But you know what? The nicest thing was like, people were like, you didn't do it, but fair play because I got 222. I got 222. But you're also like not a runner. Yeah. You're like a higher ox athlete. do you know what I mean is that what you are is that high rocks athlete yeah high rocks athlete yeah like you're not a runner some people dedicate everything to running and still can't run those times what a flex yeah I don't really like to talk about that but yeah yeah why you don't like talking about it why well no no just about what you said there do you know people run all their lives and don't make them times or whatever yeah mugs mugs oh that money's not good but nah so yeah started off going back to yeah so civil engineering was what I did for six years yeah yeah but you know what it is as well though like i actually think like if you're allowed to deal with your day the way you want to deal with it you get way more work done i mean you might have just not liked it regardless and i didn't like it regardless but like even now when i have like admin type jobs to do if i'm just allowed to do it at my own pace at whatever time i want a little bit throughout the day i'd get i get way more done than if i'm just like sat there forced myself to look at the screen i'll probably do it wrong do you know what i mean but if I just like I chip away at work from 8 in the morning until about half 10 at night yeah and just little little bits I feel like that's the way of the world now because of social media like it's basically like 6 second increments that you do your work in throughout the day yeah like reels or like a fucking quick Jake reel and by the way nah but it's mad innit and you're just from from doing it on your phone to your laptop to fucking everything else like it's it's crazy innit like the attention span now I feel like it's going to be the death of us.

1:16:41Like the attention is fun thing. Yeah. Dan's got a lock on his phone, aren't you? For like, for socials, which is a brick. Is it a brick? Wow. Save up my socials is like. It's a funny one because it's work for me. Yeah. Well, that's the excuse in it. You're like, oh yeah, it's work. Well, do you know what? Yeah. So I've got to be on it all day. I kind of have to do my scroll though sometimes. For inspiration. For work. Yeah. But for real, like for inspiration, like if I'm like making a reel and I need an audio or I need like, you know, like the caption, the tagline that's going to be in it, or I need like even just like the format, I kind of have to doom scroll because then I like save stuff and I'll be like, oh, I can use that one.

1:17:27So everything gets saved in my phone. Shouldn't even be talking about this. It's in the Rascals Education Academy. It all gets like saved in my phone. And then when I've kind of got a bit of time to edit, I'll look through my saved videos and I'll be like oh yeah I've got the content to be able to edit this one so I kind of have to doom scroll yeah it's worse it's the worst finding audios for stuff isn't it yeah I've got a good catalog of audios now though to be fair I'm in a bit of an era at the minute of kind of like electronic kind of sad electronic music sad electronic music yeah I think that's the genre yeah do they pop off yeah they do to be fair yeah so people are like crying I think it's easy for everyone to like, whereas I used to do loads of like rap music and like grime and stuff like that.

1:18:13Not everyone likes that stuff. But this music's like quite like... Everyone likes it. It's not offensive to anyone. Not exactly. Yeah. It's mad that you've got to do that, isn't it? Yeah. And like people are judged just by the tune that you... Mm-hmm. Yeah. So you can't put your gangster rap on anymore. Can't put any swearing on it or nothing anymore. No? No swearing? Well, I try not to. I feel like you get like... your content will get suppressed if it's got swearing in you know what I mean because it'll not want it to reach a younger audience shit you would think so wouldn't you yeah I need to I didn't even think about that think that you never know could be on a mill by now think every now and again

1:18:52but yeah thank you for today yeah thank you mate it's been fun it's been good it's been really good what's your plans tonight anything work work yeah grand never stops it's a Sunday yeah Sunday evening working it's just another day might have time for what you're doing off this on a Sunday dinner Sunday dinner could do you live in Manchester so Sunday dinner is just like accessible we've got to plan three weeks ahead for a Sunday dinner we've got to get all the stuff buy it all Emily's got to slave away for five hours to make it nah what's it called just fucking turn up it's like fast food the wharf the wharf about 100 quid for a Sunday dinner it actually is or Hawksmore or whatever yeah I do that and then I've got a bit of work to do what's the best restaurants in Manchester don't ask me like I'm so bro I don't go out you don't go out I don't go out for food I go to the same if I go out I go to the same places I always go to if someone was going for food I would tell them I go to like I don't know Sexy Fish Australasia and I don't even go to them places but they're just like if you're going to recommend it to someone just like you know they're easy yeah I never go for food or do anything do you cook your own food yeah what's a typical day Typical day of food.

1:20:04Yeah, Sam Rascal. I love it how he keeps trying to sign off the podcast and then we just keep going. I love it. What do I have? In the morning, I have, at the minute, I'm having two eggs, 0 % fat cottage cheese, chocolate tomatoes. Why is everyone buzzing off cottage cheese at the moment? I've always, I mean, I've been on the cottage cheese for a while, by the way. Have you? Trendsetter. Yeah, well, it's just high protein on it. Yeah. Tastes like shit though. No, it doesn't. No, right, listen. What, are you just going to eat like a fucking bowl of cottage cheese? Listen, right. Right. Sourdough, right?

1:20:34Cottage cheese. Get those little piccolino tomatoes. Chop them up. Olive oil. Salt. And then you put the chopped tomatoes on top of the cottage cheese. Two eggs. Bit of avocado. Chili flakes. Parmesan on the eggs. Naughty. That's posh, that. Yeah. I have that every morning at the minute. Yeah. You got any nice photos? Let's have a look. I don't think so. Because the eggs never look great. They're not. nah because just because that sounds like like you some golden ramsay let's have a look actually do you know what the light was hitting this nice the other day oh that's actually great

1:21:22there we go there we go unreal that's great Sam Rascal part time chef that's not parmesan that's just normal cheese but yeah that and then I don't know what I have for dinner just depends but do you have lunch breakfast and tea is always the same tea at the minute it's like tea for the people that don't know what tea is tea is dinner tea is dinner yeah sorry no no no I'm exactly the same I say tea as well yeah it's an olden thing dinner so dinner is like like ground beef, sweet potato, peppers, sprouts at the minute, to be fair. Sprouts, yeah. Yeah. Bit of cottage cheese, bit of honey. Yeah. Yeah, chilli flakes.

1:22:09Yeah, it's naughty. There we go. Maybe a couple of... You're on the bowls at the moment, aren't you? Yes. Yeah. I love my dinner with like, you know those plates that's a bowl? Yeah, yeah. And a spoon. Pasta bowls. Yeah. Yeah. Just scooping straight in, no knife and fork. That's the great thing about ground beef, just scoop it straight in. Takes us about two minutes to devour a meal. Yeah. Yeah. And then back to work. Mm-hmm. Yeah, then back to grass, no time to eat. No time to eat, yeah. Tell you what, I only got an air fryer like a few months ago and it literally changed my life. It literally changed my life.

1:22:44Mate, they're so good, aren't they? I've never turned the oven on since. Just cook everything in the air fryer? Everything. One pan and that's that's the everything just gets banged in the same tray and what I've been hammered at the minute like a fruit bowl on a night time yeah you know with the Greek yogurt Greek yogurt bowl yeah yeah blueberries every night just put a little bit of protein powder just mix a little bit of protein powder don't do protein powder no not about that nah that's meant to kill your sperm in it oh that's a new one here we go we've just yeah it is sort of nutrition nutrition and science with some rascals I mean, I'm not going to...

1:23:21It's going to kill your sperm. I've seen it on a reel once. So that's my... We're into some like modern wisdom shit. Yeah. Like biohacking. So protein powder kills your sperm. Fuck. What do you watch on an evening? You're a YouTube guy. Do you watch telly or what? I watch a little bit of like podcasts and stuff like that. I'm into modern wisdom, Joe Rogan, stuff like that. We've just watched Gentleman together. Yeah. Yeah, that was good. That looks good. I did used to watch a lot of Modern Wisdom. It says too many words I don't understand now, though. It's like vocabulary is ridiculous. Yeah, it's just gone off the chart.

1:24:00Yeah, it's just learned. To be fair, I'm learning quite a lot, though, because I'll be like, oh, that word, what does that mean? Straight on Chachi BT, what does this word mean? Yeah, yeah, it's mad. I don't know why there's multiple words for the same thing, though. I know that's the English language, but why can't we just be simple? yeah it's just nice to finesse things sometimes though isn't it what's your favorite word favorite word hmm wait there let's think i will have one that's a tough one can i send you a message later yeah there fire e oh yeah i said fire before like in mentis all right i'm 34 year old i said fire what we're doing we're in the car on the way here and i was like oh yeah that's fire to be fair and i was just like hey i've just said fire and meant it like not even like saying it out of like sarcastically i was like god imagine all my friends everyone i know back home all settled down having kids and i'm just flying around get fire dog i don't think i have a favorite word ever the word that is like horrible is moist.

1:25:15I hate the word moist. Fucking horrible. I was not expecting you to say moist there. Yeah. Oh, no. What's, you all say native a lot at the minute, aren't you? Native. Is it you and Alex? And you just talk about like, when you talk about work, you love the word native. Native. It's native. Yeah. Organically. Yeah. Trying to think there'll be something in that, in that Rascals Ecom chat. that's getting hoied about constantly I don't know that is it'll come to us later I'll text you it class well this is it this will be the end this is the end now but I'm sure we'll do it again yeah how long was how long was that ooh 1 hour 26 1 hour 26 not even long it's fine it's not even long he's just trying to get rid of us yeah we should just go go for another 3 hours yeah I could if you let us we could do no no we could we'll do it next time yeah definitely we'll do another one thank you sam thank you jake