We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joseph Igboeli a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Joseph, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, let’s start with a hypothetical – what would you change about the educational system?

The education system is predicated to make 9 to 5 workers. There is nothing wrong with being a 9-to-5 worker. I feel our education system, if it was based on people being successful in life, they would cater towards more “trade schools within grade school” meaning they would have more cosmetology/barbering classes. Ironic how I started off with those two. I feel they would also have more mechanic, welding, electrician classes. They would also have more life skills classes like money management, classes about credit, classes about basic mechanic skills like something as simple as changing your oil or changing a tire. I also believe they should have more physically fit and health classes where the students work on their physical fitness and their health intake I feel in this country we’re very unhealthy due to not being knowledgeable of the “you are what you eat” moniker.

There are a lot of different variables that I would add to the standard education system if it was up to me. *If I ruled the World* hahaha

Joseph, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

For those who don’t know about me, I started barbering pretty much on myself. I was my first client back in the summer of 2002, I just used my dad‘s clippers that my older brother used to use to cut my hair. I used those same clippers to cut my own hair because my brothers moved away for the summer, that’s pretty much where my journey started. I would later cut my friends hair throughout high school and throughout college playing for different universities on multiple college football teams (Texas Southern University, Kilgore College and North Texas aka UNT) so I always was able to build a easy clientele due to being on so many teams full of multiple players of similar age. After college football I enrolled into Barber School, finished school within a year and opened up my own barbershop. Ever since then I’ve just been trying to grind in this industry, learn in this industry, figure things out in this industry. I kind of had to become a shop owner and a barber all at the same time, so my path was a little different than the path most other barbers faced. A lot of hurdles and obstacles on the way. I am still facing hurdles and obstacles until this day, they really never stop. Being a shop owner of a brick and mortar is very difficult as things break down so fast and easy, and it’s always on you to get it fixed so it is a pretty up-and-down journey. It builds resilience within you so that’s always a good thing. Being a barber you’re almost like a therapist/consultant for your clients and sometimes it could be vice versa your clients can be your therapist and your consultant due to the severity of the conversation and who’s going through the most at the said time. We are all human. Conversation rules the nation, so a lot of gems have been told on both sides to each other which helped both the Customer and us The Barber 💈

I am most proud when I hand my clients/customers the mirror and thier whole demeanor switches to positive due to seeing the result of the haircut service I provided for them!

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The best way to grow clientele is to be as reliable as the stores and places that you frequently rely on. If there was a store that you liked one time and then you went there again and it was closed or understaffed or they weren’t consistent with what they had on their shelves or with what they were selling, then you wouldn’t patronize that store too much longer if they didn’t stay consistent. That is pretty much the mentality you have to have as a service provider for the clientele that you build. Its all about reliability and consistency and also trying to get better with each client each time that you give them a service it is a combination of all of that pretty much. That is how you build clientele, the main thing is consistency and reliability, it sounds simple but many can’t do it!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

If you read my original article you would know that I had a few haters when I first started this barbershop ownership journey. I had I had people doing things to my cards/flyers that I would leave in corner stores and gas stations, ripping them up and leaving the ripped cards all over the parking lot. I had people making Memes about my Barbershop on social media saying not to get their haircut there. I’ve even had to deal with the city, as far as me having my flags placed out in front of my business trying to promote it to cars passing by. I’ve had the city take my flags or tell me that I can’t have them out due to certain code violations. Also, just being a Owner, having multiple different non-haircutting events that randomly interfere with a simple haircut, all these things can build resilience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://joesbarbercide.booksy.com
• Instagram: Haircutjoejudah
• Facebook: Joseph Igboeli
• Other: 3710 S Carrier Pkwy Grand Prairie Texas 75052 #106