046 Just Keep Show’n Up (ft. Ladrae Bailey & JosAnne Sampson)

Derrick Williams: Hey, what's going on, everybody? I'd like to welcome you to the Just Keep Showing Up Podcast. This is your man Derrick and today I'm getting my hair did at Two Strand Salon in Parkville. The lady that you see behind me is Jo Sampson. And then we have the lovely Drea Bailey in the house. Yes, can y'all say hi to people? Hi to you. So I like to always start off the show with the guests telling the people a little bit about themselves. There's no wrong answers. just a little bit, just so they know who's talking to I just go get some people off the street to be on the show. Hi, I'm Jo My name is JosAnne One of the founders, co-owners of Two Strand Salons. My business partner, Ledrea. We don't have runners back. No, you're good. This is great. hi, I'm the Drea. I go by Drea. And I'm also one of the co-founders. Two Strand Salons Yeah, that's it. Keep it pimping. Yeah. Okay. We we we do this. We we love this. And she's my best friend. So it's like working with your best friend every day. It's the best thing in the world. That kind of leads into my first question. So how did two strands come to be? And what made you guys decide to become business partners? How did Two Strand's come to be? That's a good question. Long story is a short story. Long story is we both we met at a hair salon in Baltimore. worked together for eight years at that salon. wow. And then after that, you know, decided that since we're here doing this, we were running the salon prior to this, we just decided to branch out and do it on our own and here we are. Okay. Since two thousand nine. That's good. That's two thousand nine. That's is that math carried it once? Seventeen years. Seventeen years later. That's amazing. I know. Like to have a business for seventeen years. Well we haven't had the business for seventeen years. We've just known each other for seventeen meter in two thousand nine. Okay but we branched out and started Two Strand in two thousand seventeen. Okay. That's still good. That's nine years. My quick math Carry the one. Yep, nine years. And you guys don't just have this salon. You have two locations. Two locations. Our first location, this one's in Parkville, and our second location is in Baltimore City. Northwood Shopping Center. Northwood Commons on the Morgan campus. Okay. So this question is next question is I really like this one. What does doing hair mean to you more than just a service? And I ask that because I just think about Uh-uh. Just to just sometimes we've had conversations. we're moving too fast? Okay. Come on, let's talk a little bit more about the first question. Okay, keep going, yes indeed. Yeah. Well, I mean we can she can chime in a little bit. You can chime in. Hold on, you can't move. I'm like, dang, you move right in. They didn't loosen up, y'all, which I like. Yeah. Like we got the flow now. Yes, okay. A little bit more to Two Strand Salon than us just meeting That's good. Seventeen years ago. You know. That's it. That's all I got for now. I mean, but what we just backed up? I thought you was about to Well, I LaDrea has some feedback on that. So I'm gonna bring on in feedback, feedback. So I can tell you the the back side. The back side. The fun the fun side of it. so Jo and I, we actually were not friends when we first started. working at the other salon. we both were party girls and so before cell phones and texting was a whole big big deal. We kinda be like, we're gonna meet here at this spot and then we link up, party hard, and then come back to work and that was it. We didn't really have one another's phone number. So it was kinda like, I hope she gonna be there, but if she not, it's still okay 'cause this party's gonna be dope. And we did that for many years before we finally decided, hey, we probably should have one another's phone number. 'Cause that would be cool. Yeah. That's how the friendship began. But people used to say to us all the time, How long have you guys been best friends? We were not friends at all. So we used to crack up over there. We're like, we're not friends. We just hang out. We just hang out. Let's hang out. Just hang out. She's fun and I'm fun. So let's have fun together. Exactly. we both come from entrepreneurship backgrounds. That's interesting. This is something that we're very familiar with. Okay. So opening up a business was something that we have seen numerous of times. Okay, that's it. That was that was the little fun fun part. That that's a part that for me it's interesting to know that y'all come from that kind of background because I often say, people people say, Well, you work in nine to five, this person's entrepreneur. I think entrepreneurship is much harder, you know, 'cause you Just think about COVID. You guys had your salon during COVID. Yes. and you're dependent on people to come into the shop. Yes. And and you know, you serve those people. So it can be very scary, I imagine. It was so it was absolutely scary. Terrifying. Mm-hmm. But y'all made it through that. Probably one of the most challenging things I know the three of us have faced in our lifetime. I mean, just far as like coming close to well, for me, I could say about death. You you know what I mean? Like with death or just uncertainty. with the pandemic. I could just say that that part. When it comes to a business combined with it. yeah, it was absolutely very scary times. I mean, they're scary for everyone, just the unknown. But running a business during COVID was not for the weak. Yeah. At all. We had, you know, just still resources, just trying to figure it out. And then well. And then we actually became well, technically we act Governor Hogan made us essential. He did. Which a lot of people don't know. we do don't know that. Let me I'm gonna grab my laptop to make sure we made you guys essential. Well that's we didn't know that. Well that's good. Good information. So going back to the the the question, the second question, and thank you for adding the extra. context because that's really good. so what does doing hair mean to you beyond the actual service? And like I was saying before, I know me Jo and I have talked many a times. I often share, now people can actually see who Jo is. I often tell a story about I never met my biological father. And I remember talking to Jo one day and we were in a sauna and we were just talking about that and she mentioned I mentioned like man I wonder how things would have been. And she said, well would you be the person you are today had you met him and I so like at peace with who I am, I'm like, God, that gave me such a sense of peace of knowing that okay, the life I have today is based on my life experiences. So I can rest in that. So this is the Jo that I talk about y'all. So hi y'all. But yeah, so back to that question, what does what does it mean beyond just, you know, doing hair? so for me s being in the service industry actually means that to me. I tend to lean more into serving. Mm-hmm Being in the service industry means I'm here to serve the people, serve the public, serve the community. So I actually tap into that more than, you know, the other sides of service, which can mean different things for different people. But I truly believe being in a service based industry, like doing hair I'm here to serve the people, whatever that means. So my duty, my purpose is to show up for people, my clients, and serve them. And that can mean so many different things. So however how however I can serve my clients, that's what I'm here for. That's my purpose. So that's what it means to me beyond the hair. It's actually serving. Okay. So mine definitely aligns. Okay. I know it's crazy, but it's that off the go. Very much so. love serving the community, love meeting new people. and just Well, changing lives because they come here for peace, they come here for happiness, they come here for serenity, like all the things you know, we can provide that for them in this environment. That's dope. Love it. Yeah, I I can s I can speak on my locks journey of I I people will say like growing your hair is like a spiritual experience, like a spiritual journey. I was like, Man, what y'all talking about? That was when I was just growing my hair, cutting it, getting fades. But my locks have like such a a pivoting point in my life that I truly can see how hair can be something that means so much. And I definitely know within the black community how important it is. Definitely spiritual. would you would you would you guys say that y'all show up as like with a servant heart in just your personal life outside of the salon? Like with your family, do you find yourself showing up that way for them? absolutely. I think it's natural. So it's just who you are. That's what I'm getting at. I think it's who you are. But tapping more into that, our parents, mm-hmm, luckily for both of us, have that same they've embedded the same morals and values into us. our moms specifically are both community based, service kind humans. Hi. So I think watching them, learning from them, growing from them, you know. They're that's literally who they've raised us to be. Both of our moms are literally the same person as well. so I think our values come from our parents and that kind of has has allowed us to serve through family, through the community, through business naturally because of the morals and values and just upbringing, just watching our parents continue to continually serve it, you know, the community and poor into people, and it's like, Yeah. It's second nature. It is second nature. Yeah. So with that is like almost sounding like a like identifying it as like a purpose, like it's your purpose, one of your one of your purposes in life. so going to the next question, what is what is something that people may not know that's like been one of the hardest things with two strand in you guys' business? That's you know, just the normal everyday person that comes in and they sit down and don't realize all the behind the scenes that go on. You really want to know that? You want a personal or business side of it? Whatever you whatever you wanna see. Well, the personal side is we both lost our dad. So we that's one of the things that we weirdly enough are able to bond over. So our friendship and then our other best friend, Kia as well. She lost her dad. So our friendship is kind of not centered around grief, but it's an understanding in our friendship that a lot of people don't aren't aware of is our strength comes from each other because you know, once you lost a parent, the only people that can understand how that feels is someone who's lost a parent. So that's one of the strengths and I'd say In our relationship, which is really deep by the way. And nobody knows this. So now you're tapping into personal, personal, personal. but it's actually one of the things that's been able to carry us through our friendship is being able to be there for each other, on a personal level, outside of you know, business woes and you know, all the things that comes with entrepreneurship is actual support. so there you have that piece. Yeah. Dre, anything to add? I don't want to just skip over you. I I just think that I mean I think that's beautiful to see y'all have so much in common. You find yourselves as business partners, you know, and and best friends and you know, just really close. Mm-hmm. the stuff to keep you keep you going. Drill, you kinda touched on this this next one, but do you think clients sometimes come to the salon for more than just their hair? I mean, I'm here today getting my hair done and doing a podcast. yes. So it's great. absolutely. the energy that we provide in this space is so welcoming and just warm and we call this location grandma's house is you know like your favorite grandma. So what usually on the mama's side but you know and we call this grandma's house and we got the other location. house and so both of those both of those places you love like you love being there the energy that's provided like grandma's gonna give you that home cooked meal and then Rich Auntie gonna take you to that barn restaurant where you know you're gonna get the good good so that's what you're gonna provide. our team is amazing and so it's just it's fun like just to come here. Jo and I when days that we are off we'll come and just hang out for a little bit because it's just a great place to be. Like we love it. Makes us feel good. Even on a down days like let me just go in here and see what the girl is up to. Yeah. which is why we're here too. And we're not gonna skip over the one word. she said the rich auntie. There's all kind of aunties, but she the rich auntie, you better recognize some of Okay, that was intentional. Yes. Don't forget to go visit Rich Auntie after you visit visit grandma. We got folks who vacation y'all today. They actually are on vacation right now doing hair. That is true. Thank you for coming in town to do my hair. you're welcome anytime anything for my clients. So, what has entrepreneurship taught you about yourself that you think you may not have learned if you worked the standard nine to five? What you don't know, you don't know. That's a good that's a good answer. Yeah. And you're gonna have to figure it out. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And that's okay. Yeah. That's that's it. What you don't know, you don't know. And you didn't have to know this until you needed to know it. And you know, we learn as we grow. We fail forward every single day. and that's literally our life. We have no clue what we're doing. And we're okay with that. Every single day we learn something new about ourselves, about our business, how to evolve within this space, together with our team. of amazing women. It's absolutely phenomenal. And we learn from them every day. So I think that's it. Being open minded. to learning to growing every day. That's like nonstop. I think that was for me for us. It's like we have we have no clue what we're doing and we're okay with that. We learn every single day how to get up and show up for the business and for our clients and for each other. And you know, we choose every day that you know this is what we want. And that's basically a foundation of our of T Shrine Salon is you know, and then we gonna tap into that because that's actually a cool backstory. You ready for that backstory? I'm gonna lay the lajrett. We have time, yes. We do have time. How was Thrand Salon like founded? The actual name? You just said it for me. How was it how was the name founded? The name and the logo. For me, when I when I saw when I saw two strand, I I immediately just thought locks. Nope. Because you get the two-strand twist. That was my misconception for a very long time. Everybody told me a little bit about it. But yes. So two strand salon. I'm going let Lydrea tell you how the name was developed and how the logo follows. I'm gonna make sure the people get a chance to see the logo. Absolutely. Thank you. So it all started on a gloomy winter day. For real, downtown Baltimore. We were looking for parking because we wanted to go to Cheesecake Back. And we could not find parking anywhere. So we are driving around in circles and we're like, do we want to park in the garage? Because it's cold. And so we're we want to chop that across the street real quick in our boats. And we also were trying to figure out like what's gonna be the next step of of Jo and Drea or our business. And so we're like, we definitely need to come up with a name. And we were going through names like crazy. And every time we would Google something, it's taken. What was the first We do not remember. No. We don't remember. But we kinda wanted to tie in our names. We thought about tying in our initials. Like, you know, JD salon, keep you know, keeping it super simple. We had so many options. but most of them were already taken. so that's every time we Googled something, it was unavailable. So we just kept looking. Kept looking, kept looking, kept kept looking. So it's like, well, what about strand? So we put that in and strand came up and we're like, my goodness. And it was like, wait, maybe two strands. Put it in. Nothing, nothing, nothing. We were like, my goodness. This is it. This is it. This is it. This is for real. This is for real. So we were so excited. And then it kind of was just like, it came from Well what does it mean? What does Strain mean? How can we tie that in? And we were like, okay, our friends, we're us. The two of us. Two people. We're two strands. So we're two strands of one entity. And then we were like, my God, that's it. We're two strands of one salon. And then we came up with it. And then that's how we ended up with two strand salon. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Okay. Now that the hair is on there. So that's the logo. If you look at the logo, at the time we both had curly bushes. So that's the curly hair on the outside. And in the middle is the two strand twists. And the T S S, which is two strand salon, the Very middle of that is a braid. So the entire logo is also designed around how we wore our hair, the name of the salon, and how most of our clients that come to us typically wear their hair. It's either in a braid, a twist, or in curls. Yeah. So which locks aren't technically on there, but technically it is, but it isn't. But it's like, yeah, you can technically locks fall into, you know, all textures of hair, all versions of hair. So that's how we came up with the logo for T Strand Salon. Trademark by the way. Yes, remember that one. A hard R. yeah. wait, we need to turn around. yeah. He said a hard R. A hard R you have it on our baby. Just keep showing up as trademark too, y'all. Don't be don't be what do you think people misunderstand about the relationship between a stylist and a client? What do you think people maybe misunderstand? Like for me, I know like with the person that's it's it's something like very intimate, I think, with someone working in your hair. When I say intimate, I'm not talking like sexual, but just intimate in a sense of like closeness, I think, you know, with with someone. It's almost like you feel like you can You can probably tell that person something that's vulnerable. Mm-hmm. Okay. Because they're doing something, I think. Like hair can be vulnerable. It is. I think. You know, because a lot of us we spend a lot of money to get our hair taken care of. Right. I mean I feel like if you spend the money, that means you care about it. Right. Yeah. misinterpret. I'm not sure. I think people misinterpret a lot of things all the time. I'm not sure if that's the word I would use. Okay. about stylist client relationships. I do think there is a level of respect yes that there needs to be between clients and relations clients and stylists, stylists and clients is sometimes isn't there. Yeah. I mean people can misinterpret clients I mean long term clients you build relationships you build friendships I think Within our salon, I would say we've created a culture which I think is a little bit different in the industry where our clients don't belong to us. I think that would be one of the I guess misinterpretations of the industry is when you go to a stylist or a client comes to you that somehow they belong to you. Yeah. and we've created an environment where clients have power. Within our space. Yes. we have an amazing team. Once again, I'm always gonna pump our team up, of amazing stylists who all do amazing work. Yes. So we always give our clients the power to choose. Choose who you feel comfortable with, who does your hair to your level of excellence. you don't ha you can sit in any chair that you want to at any given time at any location. So I think giving the clients the power to choose who they want to serve who won they want to service them. how they feel, how they want to maneuver, getting their services done. I feel that's something that's not often in the industry where you feel like if you go to stylist, you have to go to them forever. And it's almost like if you choose not to go to that stylus anymore, it's like a breakup. It's like this this, you know, this energy of how they say it, you're cheating on me. so I think that was one of the things that we were very intentional about breaking within the industry is understanding that we don't own our clients. Yeah. and you have the power or the ability to go to any stylus at any given time, with again within our salon or even outside of our salon, you know, where again we are amazing, but there are just things we can't do. So we've also built a community outside of our salon where we can refer our clients to if there are services that we can't perform. Yeah. So I think building that community and giving again the clients the power to choose who they want to service them, and, you know, how they want to maneuver 'cause it is their money. Yeah. That they're spending and they should be able to sit in any chair and get the service because in at two strands salon, the client is always right. Yes. Yes. So I like that. Very well said. when you look at what you've built with two strands, what part of it feels most meaningful to you personally? When you look at what you've built with two strands, what part of it feels most meaningful to you personally? I can answer this in a fun way and then maybe she can be serious. I get to play in here all day. You know, part of my my job, when I get to make people feel good. And that sometimes is like when you really think of how powerful that is, our job, we get to wake up every day and make people feel good. Yeah. Because again, coming to the salon, it is a spiritual experience. But It's also it's a home away from home. It's a place where clients get to relax. You get to take the veil off. Yes. Relax. This is your moment away from everything outside of these doors, away from life, away from kids, away from family, away from your job, away from the world. And you just get to relax. Like I we get to provide that space for you. Like how amazing is that? Like my the where I work is a place for you to get your self care. Mm-hmm. It's to me that's probably the most meaningful part is that I get to provide that to my clients. A safe space for people. Absolutely. Yes. So I think it's just to me well, it's I get to work with my best friend. So that's one. Like I l I love that. I love like I could I could have walked away from this industry a long time ago to continue to work with my parents in their business. And I was like the only reason why I would ever come back is to work with Jo. And so the fact that I get to have the opportunity and we have fun, big, big fun. Like I get to have fun at work and we get to s create our own rules and our standards and all those things, like that is so much fun. Like We are so on seriousness in this way. And I love that we get to be that way. And no person that can tell me what to do is her. So, you know, it kind of really works out for both of us, you know. So Yeah. So that's that's really it. Just having another just another family so family oriented. So it's cool that we got to create a new family, like our own family. So that's it. Is there anything y'all would like to share that maybe I didn't touch on before we close this out? They're not like the typical salon. So I'll say that it's a lot going on. It's a lot of great stuff going on. So honored to be here. And I just said, God, surround me with the best. Surround me with the winning team. Yeah. I didn't even know this would be a little bit Yeah, I was gonna yeah, how'd you end up here? Yeah. Cause I drive I used to drive past here all the time, going to where I started with my locks. I met Jo. She was like, Yeah, we on is this Parkville? Like what's this Harford Road? We're on Harford Road. Like I drive down Harford Road every like six weeks. I don't I don't know where your place is at. Then if she finally explained I slowed down, I was like, okay. We would like to consider ourselves Baltimore's best kept secret. Baltimore's best kept secret. If you know, you know. Yes. We actually have a secret society. It's actually called the Best Kept Secret Society. Okay. and that's just for fun. But no, we're we like to consider ourselves, you know, Baltimore's best kept secret. If you know, you know. we are y'all need to come find out. Come find out. Yes. Come find out. Well, because we're also very shy. If you guys can't tell, we are shy. We also don't like attention. and I'm gonna t tap into that. I appreciate y'all allowing me to come in here. yeah. You know, welcome, welcome to grandma's house. we don't like attention at all. And one of the things we when we created Two Strand Salon, we wanted to make sure that No one knew who the boss was. That makes sense. Because we never like we still don't like that title. because we're a team, we operate as a team. And for us, you should never know who we should all be at a level of excellence that nobody knows who runs this place. Yeah. And that was something we always wanted to create. I mean, as the years go on, you know, people eventually knew, but for a long time they thought our manager, Shia, who runs our second location, a lot of people thought she owned it. And we were perfectly okay with that because It just s you know speaks into the level of excellence that everyone creates when they come into the space. and everyone is actually amazing. Like you can sit in anyone's chair and get phenomenal service. So that was one of the reasons why we weren't we didn't we don't desire the title of owner or founder. That that does absolutely nothing for us. We do not need to, you know, brag. It's if our team is showing up, that makes us feel good. If you can sit in any chair. And get an amazing service and leave out here feeling like you sat in the owner's chair, then we've done our job. You know, sitting in our chair, it's fun. Like we're but the salon's fun. Like you should be able to come in here and have a good time and relax and again not feel like, my gosh, you know, the energy is tense or it's a little bit uncomfortable. Or no, we wanted to create an environment for everyone, including all of our stylists to feel comfortable. Like, yeah, this is this is our home. This is your home too. Like you also have life outside of work. And if your place of work can't be somewhere you can escape life from, then we have failed. I love coming to work. I tell people I literally do not work a day in my life. Like it is fun. I have a good old time. We talk about all the things you're probably not supposed to talk about in real life. We say what we want. We do what we want. Yeah. And we love it. But Our clients get to just be free, you know. And even if you don't you decide that you don't want to interact, it's also a place that you can come and be quiet. You can come sit, you can have you know, you can relax, you can have a silent appointment if that's what you need that day. It really depends on what you need. You know, what whatever you need, we're able to create a space. So we would like to create a space where our clients can feel safe, like you said, and you know, initially, just come on. But our team should be able to feel that way as well, you know, it's not just One can't operate without the other. So that was intentional when we created this space where you know, it's like, no, don't don't call us boss. Mm-hmm. My name is Jo. That's it. You know, that's it. This is Drea. That's that's who we are. and yeah, Jo and Drea, DJ, wiki wiki. But outside of that. I can relate to that the boss thing is like I don't like that word at all. Yeah, it's just So it's a little it's too much pressure, you know? Now I have to live up to that. Yeah. You know, what if I fail? You know, now I have to live up to being, you know, somebody's boss. my gosh, you know. So it's easier to just just call me Jo. Who are you? I'm just Jo. You know, it's nothing behind it. I'm just Jo. But I don't know if that answered your last question. Or was there a last question? No, we already answered that that question. We were going into just just talking now. Just freestyling the conversation. another fun fact about how we found this location. yeah. we had someone looking for properties for us for a while. And every time that we went to a location, it just was not the right energy. It was like we were just so accustomed to or not accustomed. Well yeah, where we worked at previously, there was a lot of available parking. It was kind of secluded and so we had like that. And so I think we had that in our mind and moving to a new location. We just wanted to make sure we were able to kind of provide that for our clients. so like I said, all the locations, it just weren't a right fit. And we were a little burnt out. So we even worked at one of the salon suites for a minute just so that we can still yeah we did we operated at it. We did a salon suite for about two weeks while we tried to find this. Yeah. And Way B it was tough. And one day Jo Went on Craigslist. Yes, Craigslist. Craigslist was the day. When we opened up, she went on there and she seen an ad for a rental of a salon stage. No pictures. Like, no pictures, no. No information. So she was like, I'ma drive past it before I even call because, like I said, every location has been a dud up to this point. But she drove past, was like, this is dope. She calls the number and The owner was like, well, I can meet you guys in an hour. So I was home, sleep, and Jo was like, Dre, my goodness, it worked out. wait. and let me, this is really important though. because this is still where we go back into like where we're grounded. Jo prayed about this space before she went on Craig's list. I did. so prayer is something that's really big for us. God did. God, that's our song. That's our theme. That's our theme song. God did. But she called and was like, Dre, you gotta wake up. He can meet us in an hour. let's go. And I was like, okay, I came and we fell in love. Like The owner of the Shout out to Chuck. Yes. He is one of the best landlords on the hall. Yeah, you talked about it. He's phenomenal. Great. And two two days after that, we signed a lease. And it's been on and pop and everything. We had a lease in 24 hours. We signed it in forty eight hours, moved in in two weeks. Yeah. And he did everything for us. He made sure we were good, told us where to go. Yeah. Because again, it was our first time. Well, we don't know, we don't know. We didn't know what permits we needed. He made sure we had every single thing we needed. Still our boy to today. So twenty seventeen, y'all moved in. Yes, yeah. With Chuck. Yeah. That's and that's our boy. And we opened August eight. August eight, eight, eight. Wait, twenty seventeen. Yes. Mm-hmm. You were in time. I was not. okay, all right, all right, okay. She was a contrast out over Salon and she's like, I wonder what I have for lunch today. But yes, that was a blessing. Like it's been on ever since. And Chuck has been one of our biggest supporters. Yeah. even to this day. It's a pretty awesome dude. but this was truly a blessing. He is funny. He's awesome. here we are. And that's another reason why we're so humble because it could have gone any you know, we had no clue how we were gonna figure because everything else we did fell through. But it fell through so that we can be here. So, you know, and we've been here ever since holding it in. For the ninety nines and two thousands. But yeah. Briefly, we talked about I mean we didn't kinda ta we didn't touch on how we acquired that space. my god. but that's a whole other story if you guys wanna know. Yeah. Yeah, there's one job at that point. Yeah. Falls in question. We have been fully booked, fully staffed, and fully booked, and we were unable to take two new clients for two years straight. we our books were closed for two years. We would open it and then have to close it like a month later because everyone was fully booked. So at that point it was, you know, we could stay fully booked. Or we can branch out and open another location so that we can grow and you know support the influx of clients. Everyone, because everyone wanted to come to G Sharing. Everyone to come to T Sharing. Keep in mind we did zero marketing. This was all word of mouth. Which is the best marketing. Word of mouth. Yes. We did zero marketing. We were not active on Instagram. We were not active. We everything we did was word of mouth. And LaDrea's mom. Who is a client of ours who again, she's an entrepreneur, she owns L and L Cater catering Selfless Plug. you know, she is one of our biggest supporters and marketed us to her entire community because they did we did Farmers Market on Sundays. So farmers market was also how we met a lot of people and just you know, that's kind of where our community came from. so we were fully booked for two years straight, just couldn't take any new clients. and the Northwood jumping right into that story, Northwood, when they were trying to initially develop Northwood, which was also in 2017, that was a space we talked about. La Dre's parents were considering getting in there with one of their cafes. And we were like, that would be great if we can all get in there. This is in 2017. But that was halted on, you know, the development because of the community, you know, whatever they had going on. So, you know, we came here, life went on, and When was that? That was two five years ago, actually. They broke ground on the space. And when they broke ground, decided to start doing the demolition, one of our clients lived in the area and she shared with us, you know, all and all of that stuff. And we're like, well, let's see. Why not? Let's see. and we reached out and they denied us because we were not Morgan alumni. So at the time they were only allowed in more Morgan alumni into the space because it's Morgan's property. So we stocked them for two years straight. As you should. As we should. We emailed, called, emailed, called, called, emailed, emailed, called. And the only thing we didn't do was pop up because we had nowhere to pop up. for yeah, for about two years straight. And then finally the realtor responded and they didn't have a salon. They had a barber shop, but they didn't have a salon. And of course, they We're like, yeah, we'll reach out to you guys. Still nothing. Stocked them for six more months. And they were like, fine. We'll show you guys the property. And they showed us the property. And then eventually they were like, okay, you guys are actually really cool. We do want to have you in the space. And then they kind of, you know, allowed us to come in, view the space, and then, you know, fine. And then it was a whole other set of issues after that. But that's it's not what this conversation's about. that's you know, a whole other Conversation. But yeah, that's how we ended up in Northward. We literally stalked them until they told us yes. So that was a Northwood little story on how we got there. But yeah, we were fully booked for two years straight. It did not take any new clients. How long did it take to get to that point like when that opened the door? From two so that was twenty twenty one. So twenty seventeen to twenty twenty one. Yeah. Wow. So Yeah, it was growth and God. We got yeah, we got your your books were were book was books were closed within two years of being open. Well, yeah, for the most part, yeah. So we were I mean, but we of always operated under, you know, service serving the clients. So it wasn't too hard. No, it was it was it was Actually no. It was great. It worked out the way it was supposed to actually. You know, it was divinity. That's what I'm gonna call it. but yeah, books were closed and we just kinda laid low for a couple of years and then we were like, Okay, what's next? I think I remember you telling me like you open your books like once a year. Yes, we open our books once a year to new clients. December first. Yes, December first if you want to come to T Strand. If you wanna come to T Strand, books open for the following year. Yeah. every year. So you know it's like the Black Friday of T Strand Salon. It's actually a fun time. The clients go crazy. It's like the books are 12 o'clock. 8 a.m. 12 a.m. on the dot they start booking. It's actually really cool. That is insane. Yes. And then we you know booked up for the whole year. That's really that's takeaway. And when we think that we don't know, it's actually funny to meet bigger corporations or people who have more financial backing than we do. they also don't know. Are you serious? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, they have no clue. Everyone is figuring it out. And that was something we learned even recently. And they are shooking. And everyone's figuring it out. Yeah. It's not everything is figure outable. Yeah. And we are f all figuring it out together. It's not one way. I need some rapture. I know my biggest my biggest thing is like just having the courage to to start a business. Like my my my good friend of mine, Nathan, he just he has a a Korean barbecue shop in Delaware and he just he saw an opportunity just opened and I'm like, man, this it could seem so scary, you know, to to take that step. Scary. We're here every last single day. But having that example of parents who are also entrepreneurs is like they're investing that that thought into your mind that it can be done or you see it. It can be done. You know and you're probably gonna fail. Okay. So what advice would you give somebody that don't have that bad child mind? Because it's a lot of people who've never seen their parents or anybody in their family run of is it actually achievable? It is. I think you should don't be afraid to ask questions. If you see someone, find someone that you admire, that you look up to, that you want to be like, whatever it is, and stalk them. That's what I did. That's what we do. I mean, luckily it was our parents, but even in our industry, you know, even within the industry, we find people every day that's like, okay, this is what I want. And then you But you st when I say stop them, you ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't be afraid to you know, approach anybody. I think one of the things is that a lot of times we're afraid to well, I'll say not everyone is always as open, right? So sometimes there's a level of fear with of being rejected. Don't be afraid of rejection. it's okay. If so, if one door doesn't open, try another one. I think for That is true. That is true. That is true. That is true, whichever way. I think I have this thing where I'm I am not afraid of rejection. I don't care. It's I don't know. And that could be from my parents. It could be me being a Scorpio. I don't know. I feel like I am not afraid of rejection. You can tell me no and that's fine. I'll just ask someone else. It can also be because I was raised with brothers and I've been told no my whole life by them. So I'm never afraid of rejection. It's okay. I'm okay asking. And if someone is not open to sharing, that's okay. I'll ask someone else. I have no problems in, you know, talking to people. I have I'm always asking people how they started their business, how they got to where they are. Most of my friends and the people I interact with, I'm always curious as to how they got where they were. And it's, you know, just open conversation. And then you're like, we're all the same. And that's okay. Everyone started from zero. Yeah. Everyone. So once you recognize that major companies and we're talking built, everyone started from zero. and that to me is is also humbling for us having multiple salons. How'd you guys do it? We just did. We didn't know if it was gonna work. We actually at one point in time really weren't sure if the second location was gonna open because of all of the issues we ran into and it became work. And of course, we never wanted work to be work because we love it so much. And it became work and we're like, yeah, we're not doing this. This is hard. It shouldn't be hard. And then we were like, okay, it is happening. Okay. It can work out. Okay. It's it's coming together. We just need to be patient. We need to pray a little harder. ask more questions. you know, find a mentor. That's You know, find find a mentor. Yes. And you know, be open minded about things you don't know because the world is so grand. The industry is ever evolving. just be open minded. Go to hair shows, go to events, go to networking events, meet people that are like-minded and be open to learning from them. And again, that's why we're always attending stuff. We're always attending events. and we're always open for learning to learn open. To learning from others who can help us evolve within this industry. don't be be do it scared. Isn't that someone said that? I mean Do it scared. I don't know who said that, but you should put it on a shirt. Do it scared. Like if you're not scared, then your dreams aren't big enough. Yeah. We to be terrified. We are like shaking in our boots. Shaking in our boots. Okay. Let's go. We are always on the same page. All right. So y'all want to sometimes y'all not see an eye to eye. I mean, it's just like that's probably only how we can't always see eye to eye. I mean, we're ninety I'm saying ninety eight percent of the time we are in sync, like we are there. Then maybe like my yang. Yeah. Yes, and then we used to say that all the time. But also we talk we talk more than We should, you guys should know that by now. We talk every single morning, every single evening. Yeah. In the middle of the day. It's actually weird. and we talk when it's hard. And we forced ourselves to talk to each other even on days we don't want to. But we're also transparent. So within friendships, we are also do you want to talk today? Are you up for a conversation? And then we kind of lead with, you know. We we have learned to separate business from personal to a degree. I know that's weird, but we do. we'll talk. This is business. Cool. Can you listen? Do you have anything to say? Great. All right, girl, here's what happened yesterday. It's like let's get this. Get it out the way. Let's take care of this. But we also have a system, you know, we have check-ins and this is also growth. We've we had to learn. Each other's personalities, learn what you know, I am very type A, I'm a perfectionist, y'all know this by now. I'm a micromanager. Dre is a little bit more relaxed. So it worked because it helped me relax, but also, you know, with her a little be a little bit more vigilant. Yeah. So we ac actually helped each other out. Yeah, I'm like and if if anybody knows what goes on behind the scenes, I'm like and I do not flow with any ways. Why are you over here? Yep. And here and she's like, Come on, girl, get on this boat. And I'm like, no, where's the sale? Right. So and it's we had to learn that about each other, but we've also had really, really hard conversations a lot, all the time, even when we don't want to. and again, it was just us. choosing that we wanted this to work, right? Both the friendship and the business. Because there were also times where we were like, Are you sure? You are you sure you even want this? And that's, you know, we had to make that decision specifically when we were open in the second location because it was getting hard and it was becoming work. And because we play so much, we're like, man, this is gonna ruin our friendship because we can't play, right? We can't play at work. Like we have to be serious. And we had to sit down, come up with a system, and the system was we need to talk more. And that was really the system. We needed to have more conversations, more hard conversations, even if they were uncomfortable. Yeah. Even if, you know, and then, you know, are you good? Do you have anything to say? Great. And then we moved on. And then we talked about life and we talked about our children. And you know, we try to incorporate real life into our work. So but it's ta we talk and it's very weird how much we talk to most people. It's like, yes, we talked this morning for an hour and a half. We're so good before we came here. I you guys are really good at communicating. Yes. We had to force ourselves to be good at we that was intentional. We made the decision to become excellent communicators. To each other so that because our friendship would suffer. And that was a conversation we had if we didn't improve on how we communicated about our business and our friendship, because stuff happens every single day. We're outing fires every single day. And sometimes those fires piss us off. Right? Because we're human and we also drop the ball sometimes, right? And you're like, So you didn't do what? Yesterday. We had a fire yesterday. And we're all like, you know, and we talk every single day. Seven days a week. This is the longest, healthiest unrelated relationship I've ever had in my life. but even when we don't want to, and that's probably the most powerful part is even when we don't want to. We have this morning call. It used to be seven forty eight. Don't ask us why. Every day we called each other seven forty eight. It's changed a little bit now, just because of school, but seven forty eight and then in the evening and that's kind of it. Communication. That's that's it. Yeah. Just talk it out. Talk it out. Talk it out. Well, I really, really, really, really appreciate y'all allowing me to come in here. And do an episode in two-strand. How cool is This has been great, yes. What advice or what feedback do you guys have for us as owners or as I don't know what you guys see us as. What do you I knew she was gonna say that I knew she was gonna say bosses. What feedback or what I know she know rage bait or we love rage bait. my goodness. That's her thing. That would this is I think this she loves calling us a boss. Yeah the boss Y'all are the ball. I done left out two braids back here talking. What was your first perception of us? Like coming into this phase. Ooh, that was during the peak of Northwind together. We were real serious then. Tell you we have we had to get really serious really quickly. It was it was actually quite fascinating how we went from stylist to owners in six months. Yeah. And what was this? It was during what? The opening of the second location. Well see, I came in like when it hadn't opened yet, but I wasn't about to. But then it was like there were still like final touches being done and everything. So it was right in the in-between scene where everybody was still like planning everything. I just walked through the door and I was like, hey, I'm looking for a job. And I I guess the first impression then was plate and I was just like this little what was I like a sophomore in high school wow. And I just felt I felt like I was in a a big shoe that I didn't really fit into and it was like a lot going on. So I just kinda s tried to stay out of the way. And so like I realized, I do fit perfectly fit. Yeah, no. It was just such a smooth condition. Like as soon as would open, you felt like comfortable it just like everything went Yeah. It was divine as well. Okay. I prayed about it. Cause y'all all know about my story about down the street. We don't talk about the past. We don't talk about people in here. That's also one of our things. Yeah. But coming here, I did pray. Like while I was I was like, Let me pray about this. And it it all worked out. God did. God did big one. Any close out remarks? I don't have any. I just really appreciate y'all allowing me to come and do yeah. Sorry. A woman a few words. But I would like to say I came here in twenty twenty. Okay. just on a whim. Mm-hmm. Like I had just kind of not started my natural journey, but yeah, yeah. I came to Jo. She started them. Okay. She started my locks. had maybe like seven inches of hair, but I had just done a big chalk. I was kind of in like a transition phase. Yeah. We talk about divine in the venture a lot in this. so I will say that they've built a culture. Like it's one thing to just, you know, have an establishment, but to have a place where not only people feel comfortable or welcome, but they want to come back. Yeah. I'm coming from Rockville, Maryland. Like almost an hour and a half away. Okay. And I make it a point to make sure I come here every month if that makes sense. Yeah, yes. I could go to anyone else, you know, there are many boxitians, whatever, but I've never met anyone like these two. And again, it's just a culture of of like love. You can tell they love each other. Like look at my hair. You know, it's long and it's just been my head, you know, the last six years. And the love that they have for each other, it just bleeds into everything that they do. So I'll say I don't have any like no feedback other than I don't know guys. I was just remarkable. It's a very authentic experience. Yeah. Y'all already know what we went through this morning. This helps. No, seriously, that's what I like with Jo just allowing me to come in here. And I and I say this like I talk about like the sauna, but things that I've shared, like I've talked to my mom about things that Jo and I have just spoken about. Certain different things. It's like a lot of different things with with me and my life, like 'Cause I did my twenty twenties when I started my lock. So just this transition in life with school and different ideas I have. And it's always something very wise that she adds and just adds value. And I keep going back to the thing about my biological father, because that's probably all things, like the biggest thing that if I look back and like, man, things could have been different. And that was like such a such a healing thing. And she just said with no no intentions of healing anything. It was just her response, you know. Yeah. closer in age and then you're male, you know. Mm-hmm. I'm a woman and I'm I just turned thirty one. Mm-hmm. So although they don't look at themselves as mentors to me, yeah. Being around them. Yeah. Yeah, she makes me want to get my shit together. Okay. That's very powerful. wow. And that's what life is, right? You meet people in life who are not even say doing better. They're just going through their things in life. Because we all have issues. Don't let the streets tell you anything differently. We all have our challenges. And I think the challenges in life is what should draw everyone together that it may not be the same challenge but we all have them you know so it's just good to meet people in life that's willing to I don't know just share and it kind of gives like this whole podcast for me was about bringing value to a person's story that may have been a difficult story. Okay. And if you're able to share that with someone then now something that was very hard for you that you had to go through now becomes you know a stepping stone for another person right on their journey in life. So and we just don't know how we impact Yes. Exactly. Y'all have changed my life. That's great. Rockbill is like near civil free, right? Yeah, it's really, really close to civil time. So you know, I'll be I don't care if they're on the other side of the globe. I've been ticking every every month on HR Day. No, that was my two cents. my two set I almost cried, but didn't. Yeah, she's one of our one of our girls. It's all over our Instagram. just thank y'all again for letting me do this. Well thank you again. I really appreciate that. Thank you.