Description
In this inspiring episode of The Daymakers Podcast, host Larry Foster sits down with Edwin Veguilla, owner of Razor Roar Barber Lounge and a dedicated mentor in the barbering industry. Edwin’s journey began with a childhood health battle and turned into a powerful mission to empower others through the craft of barbering. Now a successful shop owner, Edwin shares why he actively hires Tricoci University graduates and how he’s creating a space where skill, service, and heart come together to make a lasting impact.
Show Notes
- – How Edwin’s health challenges as a child shaped his purpose and passion.
- – The moment a favor for a friend lit a spark that became a calling.
- – The story behind his shop’s success and its commitment to quality and community.
- – Edwin shares his experience working with Tricoci University alumni and why they’re his top picks.
- – Edwin dives into the emotional and personal power behind the barber’s chair.
Links
YouTube: https://youtu.be/aEj-lXwjpys
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1WHfkiHfY7hrRLD2ich6Hr?si=1QIbSujKT2C1UgPuYu2kfA
Transcript
We are here to make people feel good about themselves.
We really have to feel like we are a day maker for the guest.
You’ve made my day.
How great is that when you hear those words from your guest?
Hi welcome to Daymakers Podcast.
Today we have Edwin DeGia with us and it’s kind of one of those special moments in life where things come full circle.
Edwin a hundred years ago was one of my students and so it’s great to have you here Edwin.
It’s great to be with you.
I’ve had the privilege of watching you grow over the years but I want to hear your kind of Marvel origin story.
I want to know how you got to where you are today.
yeah so i actually started cutting hair when i was 11 years old.
at 11 years i had a liver transplant and i had cancer right after that and my father was a teacher and he used to cut all the kids hair in the neighborhood.
they were essentially of low means and he would do that as kind of giving back.
So after my transplant I found myself with a lot of time in my hands and I was hanging out with one of my buddies one time and he came over the house and needed a haircut and he could not afford one.
So essentially I was like I’ll grab my dad’s clippers and
went to town and cut his hair and jacked him up
And after seeing how he looked and seeing how he felt after the haircut I was kind of hooked.
So that’s kind of where my journey started and kind of where I fell in love with it.
Some of my fondest memories were actually in barbershops and in the salons just seeing how happy people were and how impactful what we actually do to people is.
By the time I was in high school I actually had my garage was full of kids getting haircuts and my prom and stuff.
it was absolutely nuts.
I knew I kind of had to go this direction with everything
But started at the age of 18 got licensed and then fast forward.
I’ve been able to do platform artistry.
I’ve been multiple high salons
I’ve been able to have the opportunity to teach to run schools and now I own Razor Roar Marble Lounge which is in Scienceville Indiana.
it’s been a long journey and you’ve been a huge part of that journey because you were one of my first mentors in the business and you were one of my first teachers also in the business.
so yeah it’s a little bit about me.
oh and i love razor war.
it’s an amazing aesthetic to that barber shop.
it’s probably one of the coolest barber shops i’ve ever been in.
yeah so tell me your inspiration behind that and the whole wellness aspect.
yes i actually i hired a designer from puerto rico that i flew in and
Him and I collaborated in design.
It took a long time to build.
It took a year to build it alone.
We worked on it during the middle of COVID.
It was insane to build.
The price of lumber skyrocketed.
It became a huge huge project way bigger than even I expected at that point.
But going back to me being a sick child and having cancer and all that I wanted to build something that really helped people and gave back to everybody that kind of walked in
At the core.
Be The Best You is kind of like essentially when I looked at myself what are the things that I like to do?
And it’s helped people become better versions of themselves.
And that’s where the Be The Best You kind of comes from.
one of our slogans
that was the inspiration for wellness was me being sick kid wanted to do something for people that was better to provide it not just good for mental health but also for physical health too.
so so tell me as an employer how do you evaluate if someone’s ready to come work at razor war?
So we look for 3 things
And so far we’ve been very fortunate with Chai Coaches students that have had these traits.
And the 3 things is: are they coachable?
Are they hardworking?
And are they servant-like?
Do they have a servant heart which I do?
At the end of the day we are all serving and we are servants of our customers and of each other as team members.
so if they’re going through the interview process- and i kind of see that that’s the traits that they have- we can teach everything else.
they may not be like up to speed with their technical skills or they might be lacking something.
and uh we can we can teach all that.
what i can’t teach is: i can’t teach you to be a hard worker i can’t teach you to want to serve people and i can’t teach you to be cultured or moldable and be like water right like water when you look at it.
it can freeze and become hard it can turn into gas it can it can be whatever it needs to be.
so i look for that in my in my team members.
so as you’ve gone around to our schools and talked to our students what kind of financial advice do you give them?
as far as that financial aspect to career and beauty?
yeah so
I usually give them the same advice that I was given when I had the same question.
One of my mentors earlier on actually told me: if you love something so much that you will do it for free you will actually make more money at that one thing than you will at anything else in life.
And that’s been proven time and time and time again in my career at least
When I was actually debating what direction to go with my career I actually had friends who were like: do not go to beauty school
You’re not going to make any money-
Or for some people barber school or esthetician school- whatever you choose to go.
And ironically over the course of my life and even within the first year after school I was making more money
than not just them but even their parents.
So it became kind of weird
And I would have done it for free.
so it never felt like I was working.
So when you love something so much that you’re just willing to do it all day long.
it’s so much more rewarding.
You’re going to make way more money at that.
So if you love it if you’re passionate about it just pursue it.
Well most of our students they all say the same thing when they’re coming into school which is they want to open up their own shop.
So if they’re wanting to open up their own business what kind of advice do you give them for that?
Yeah
So I will also give the same advice that I was given when I was asking that question because I was trying to figure out what direction to go.
one of my other mentors tom porter from albuci.
i asked him about the same question and he actually said: do it but just understand that it’s going to be way harder than you think it’s going to be and it’s going to cost way more money than you think it’s going to cost and it’s going to cost more things that you realize that we’re going to cost.
right but if you have a strong enough why?
and you have a strong enough mission within yourself for people
that itself will push you through the hard times.
and that’s been.
that’s been my story.
like everything costs way more money it took way longer- the concept itself for razor- or it took 3 years for us for me to come up with that.
it took a year for building in the middle of covid
And then we’re going on our fourth and fifth year
And we’ve been working on refining our business concepts to make sure that we maximize everything for the team
And we’re still working on wrapping up some ends with that.
So it’s going to take time right.
And also understand that
Don’t go in there foolishly not understanding who you’re competing against and who you are as a person
When you’re in business.
it shows every weakness that you have every skill gap every area of your life in mind that you’re lacking.
You can’t hide anywhere because everything relies on you.
So once you figure out what those pieces are- and you will as you go through it just make sure that go back to your why because you’re going to hit bumps and continue to go back to your why.
And why are you serving people?
Why do you want to do this?
And you’ll make it through.
We teach a lot about
going back to your why and finding your why in our school but you also hire a lot of our graduates so tell us how you feel trocochi stands out in our curriculum and why you hire so many of our grads?
yeah so our 2 stud barbers michael and kayla they are incredible.
they came out the box with
just great interpersonal skills.
they were hard working they had a servant heart.
they had all the qualities that we look for in team members and they have outperformed year after year that we’ve been in business and i owe a ton to them.
honestly they- they are razor roar like those guys- are so incredible.
uh so we we always look for
those great qualities that they have.
And it seems that in the curriculum and in the path even when I go to the schools- I was just in the Wilmington campus not that long ago teaching
And it’s just so different-
All the students seem to have that same mindset.
It’s just the culture is different.
So clearly you’re doing something right with that.
to answer your question:
Yeah absolutely
So.
one of the things about your trip to Bloomington School is: you know my daughter has known you since she was a baby
And so now that she’s a student there she was so excited because she didn’t realize exactly what you did.
So the fact you were there teaching you spent so much time with the students and it was so hands-on and so amazing.
She came back with tons of pictures and stories and things like that.
I mean I think that
it’s really great that you give back not only to our school but other schools as well.
you just really give back to those future students.
yeah that school had such great culture and energy.
the the students were so engaged.
the team there is doing a great job.
yeah like if it wasn’t for people giving back when we were students right and going into the schools and inspiring us and
telling us the reality of what we’re getting ready to venture up
We wouldn’t be here having this conversation.
We wouldn’t be talking to our audience
We wouldn’t be able to spread the message.
So it’s really important that we give back and continue.
Look where you are
And you started just like a student just like everybody else does
0.
Now you’re a CEO.
I started the same way.
I started as a student
And now I’m building a dream that a lot of people are going to be a part of hopefully and that we can give back and make people better.
So yeah we have to continue to do that.
What technical skills or soft skills either one do you think contribute to someone’s success?
I really can.
Really good haircut.
But that’s actually not my strength.
Neither is the strength of my team.
They give fire haircuts.
My team’s very good.
Our expertise is in customer service.
We take such good care of our customers and we’re so warm and inviting from the moment they walk in.
And we’re so professional and everything’s about them.
Everything goes back to the customer.
That separates us.
That itself separates us from everyone.
And that’s again what we’re looking for in new hires and in students.
And you can tell off the gate.
If I walk into a school like in Bloomington when I walked in
Every single student that you could tell are going to be really hyper successful like they took their time to come shake my hand to Walk me through the school and answer my questions like you can just tell when somebody has that inside of them Right.
I think that goes to what we always say you know People don’t buy things people buy people so that people connection is incredibly important.
Yeah absolutely so
Now usually we ask about the time when you made someone’s day.
So let’s talk about that.
So when was the time that you realized you had the power to change someone’s day?
So that’s such a good question.
I
I actually that’s that’s the reason why Razor even exists.
You may not remember this was a long time ago but there was a point and one of the schools that we were a part of together that somebody actually came in and got the hair done.
And they left and they called back after they got the hair done and they were actually getting the hair done because they were going to take their own life.
Do you remember that situation?
That impacted me so much.
And the fact that that student at that time was so warm and inviting was so customer service oriented even at that level gave that person such a good experience that it completely turned around
her viewpoint in her day.
And she went back and she gathered the strength from that to continue to live on.
And she come back and told us that.
Ever since that I was like it made me realize the power of what we do and like how close in contact we are with people.
What other industry do you know that can do that?
Instantly like that.
They felt that much better.
So that experience itself was a huge one.
And we see it day in and day out.
Actually the meaning of Roar behind our name is the feeling that you get after you get a
Really good haircut and a good experience.
You feel like you can take on the world.
We’ve had so many situations where people go and get the job after they get a good haircut.
They go and get that significant other.
They go and win the game right?
We have a lot of different players for different sports all because they feel that much better.
And then here’s the other thing not just from the haircut
it’s a time with their barber too right it’s a it’s that interpersonal thing that i keep talking about that connection where they might come in super heavy right and not everyone goes to see therapists not everybody has a support system that we’ll talk to at home right and they can just leave it all at our chair and then we just
talk and listen.
More importantly we listen the chair gets turned around you look a million times better.
So you look like the best version of yourself.
And then on top of that you feel a thousand times lighter right?
So that itself is so powerful.
And I was like this is why we’re going to build what we’re building right now.
I love that story.
I mean we brought on Elizabeth Faye’s Vitality Project for the very reason.
She did a documentary called Hairdressers Can Change the World.
And it really is all about
you know all wellness you know everything like that so we’re the first school to bring on that wellness program and it’s really been beneficial because we don’t know everyone’s struggles yeah you know so and that what we do behind the chair is incredible and and to build on that i think a lot of people don’t realize that like in our industry
as barbers hairdressers estheticians all these different things where we’re literally servicing people we’re servants again.
We are at the most important parts of a person’s life whether it’s a wedding day whether it’s a prom whether it’s a funeral unfortunately right?
Really hard times in someone’s life and great times right?
So like the attachment and the bond is so incredibly strong that like if you don’t understand the power of what we do you don’t take it serious it’s a huge mess.
You’re really
you need to kind of take it back and and really understand what we’re here to do um so yeah go on that yeah that’s amazing so and can you tell me how that translates those times those small moments where we make someone’s day on how that translates to client retention yeah so your clients your clients become literally your family over time
And when they continuously have a good experience I mean think about it.
When you put yourself in the shoes of a client and you try to kind of walk their walk you’re going to look forward to that 30 minutes 45 minutes an hour depending on what you’re getting done time where you’re just relaxing.
It’s all about you.
It’s all about you feeling better and looking better every other week and 2 weeks whatever you decide to come to.
Right.
and what you need but like I said you’re unloading all of your mental things as well and talking to your person and it’s giving you the strength to continue performing really well at your job at your marriages.
We actually have a joke going on in the shop.
Whenever somebody sits down we say do you want it regular handsome or extra handsome?
And then when we’re done we turn the chair around and we say we are not held liable.
We did not have you sign a word.
We are not held liable for if you start getting hit on if your marriage gets stronger
or the other direction because you look that good or if you get promoted we can’t we’re not liable for that or if you win it whatever and people usually laugh and giggle i mean think about the experience that that creates and whenever they come back uh so yeah your family your your clients become family and um over time you get to be part of also all of their key moments and their growth and then they also get to see the other benefit is that they get to see your growth right so it’s like a it’s a simultaneous like thing for me they’ve seen me kind of grow from
like a very beginning entrepreneur and kind of grow into a more seasoned entrepreneur.
They’ve seen me make mistakes.
I’ve seen their mistakes and they’ve seen me correct them learn get better.
I see the same with them.
So the relationship is just so strong and such a strong bond.
So it’s
i wouldn’t be wanting to do anything else i love it i love it i feel fortunate so thank you for being part of the podcast thank you you know i’ve had the benefit of not only seeing you grow from this like awkward teenager very awkward successful entrepreneur who has opened an amazing salon yes and i really appreciate all you do for our students yeah thank you my pleasure yeah absolutely