The Second Coming...The Building of the Supreme TEAM

If you've been following "The Supreme Experience", you've been able to envision the journey thus far, from how the idea materialized on through "The Mutany", where the dream almost died. Now, i bring you to present day Supreme Clientele with....THE SECOND COMING...The building of the Supreme TEAM.

If you recall, only the Tough Two survived the mutany, the devastating and abrupt departure of 4 of my crew at one time. I'll admit, for the first week after the mutany i was sick. Strate up sick to my stomach. I didn't want to show it, because i still had two people who looked to me for direction and stability. but on the inside...when i was at home, i was floored. there was no way i could have seen that coming. not like this. i know people eventually move on..but dayum. im thinking, who did i screw over to deserve this? was this karma or just business? i really didn't know what to do, i just knew that i couldn't quit. i'm just not built like that to be giving up. i always go back to a jay z verse when i need inspiration. he says, "i started from nothing, zero, ziltch. i made my money hustlin, i don't own @iggas shyt". im tellin you, that gets me pumped up even now. and even though i didn't hustle in his sense of the word, i can feel that line in my bones. then he has another line where he says, " I'll tighten up my belt before i ask for help". ARE YOU SERIOUS??? that's all i need to hear. that basically says i'm a self made man and i'll be damned if anybody else or any circumstance gets in my way. it took me a few days of self pitty and asking "why me" and going through all my piss n moan moments. but by the end of the week, i was like EFF THEM. i'm a beast! i'm a champion and more importantly, i believe in myself more than anyone's doubt. So now i'm back on my grind...and my head is back on the swivel. Yeah right...all that sounds good, but hell, rent still needed to get paid and i only had 2 people. SHYT...i wish it was that easy. LOL. So, now i'm really strugglin. i don't mean strugglin where u still get to go shoppin every now and then, i'm talkin bout strugglin where i'm like, "i guess these braces gone stay on an extra 6 months". oh what...you thought i kept em on that long cuz i wanted to? man, hell naw. i couldn't wait for them joints to come off. but anyway...
i still had a great facility, a great idea and a great concept, but i was so new to the game, i didn't know how to get more people. i didn't know if i needed to advertise, go to schools or what. i knew one thing, i wasn't about to start stealing people. that was out of the question. i hate that crap. aint no way i'm goin into someone else's salon or barbershop, tryna steal employees. that's some low down isht and i don't care if its commonly done. i'm never doing it. cuz if i can steal you from someone else, i'll never trust you with my dream. if you are unhappy and want to come over...that's another thing. that's the american way. we are all free agents in this business. The great thing i had on my side was the Tough Two. Mike and Felicia. They were both consistent, they both had clientele and they both were happy where they were. So that was the blueprint to building the Supreme Team. The ideas was to build a team around them as the centerpieces. Like any good management does, you build around your star player(s) and compliment them to become well balanced. I had no clue how i was gonna do it, but i knew what i wanted to do. The GEM...Felicia was so crucial at this phase cuz she knows every body. and i dont mean like she knows a handful of people and may be able to answer a question or two. naw, i'm talkin bout, she can put a hit out on somebody. she knows every damn body in austin. i'd never needed to used that ace in the hole, but now its crunch time. so i asked her to put the word out and see if she knew some quality peole who were looking for a change...not just any change, but a movement! yeah, i was real cocky, talkin bout a movement and i was stuck in reverse my damn self. but i believed and i wasn't about to comprimise.
At the same time i was asking Fe about the word on the street, Alanna's stylist was tellin her how unhappy she was. Ok, so i had a link to to one stylist...and i'm waitin on word from the grapevine. BAM! Fe tells me that she knows of a salon about to close and they are all lookin to go somewhere. so now, i got phone calls to make and interviews to have. that's all i needed. once i get atchu, its a wrap. So, after a few phone calls, a few interviews and a lot of being at the right place at the right time, I WAS BACK IN BUSINESS! i hired 4 stylist at one time. Alanna's stylist and her friend and 2 of the ladies Fe talked about closing the salon. So now, Supreme Cleintele was undergoing a makeover of tremendous proportions. I started off with 4 barbers and 2 stylist. Now i have 2 barbers and 4 stylists. HUGE difference. I had no clue how big the difference would later become. but hey...i had money coming in and i had some talented stylist coming on board. that's what i needed. some people with clientele, names that people knew and reputations that held weight. NOW i went from an unknown salon to a well k nown salon with one move! Fe did her damn job!

Oh, you know what...i forgot about De-bo. De-bo came over the same day that Crispus, Brutus and crew were leaving. in fact, Crispus got De-bo to come over....then of course he bailed. So, i had De-bo, Mike and Fe...all barbers.
So, within one month, i had lost 4 and gained 5. who's laughin now potna! I'm Baaaaack. Not only am i back, but i'm stronger than ever because i offer more services..better quality AND the luxury of word of mouth is on my side. The business is still in a helluva hole and i'm still broke as a joke...but now there's a greater sence of TEAM in the salon. Everybody lookin at everbody else like, "damn...there's some talent in here". and that's what it was. we had some strate up talent on our roster! don't get me wrong... there was definately a transition to be made. hell, u got an owner, who still dont' know shyt...but knows what he don't want. you got two people who just survived the mutany, wondering how much would change...and you have 5 new people who are looking for something better. its a huge challenge to bring on 5 new people at one time. but i knew i could do it, i had to do it. i was gettin a crash MBA degree on the streets within a few months. and the success of the business was dependent upon how well i applied the lessons i just learned. people want a leader. they want to feel apart of something moving and they want to feel like they are the reason that its moving. well dammit, i'm a leaddog...that's what i do. so that's what i did.
I got a TEAM now....we aren't perfect..but we are a TEAM. now we got something to build on. So, with the talent in the shop and the quality services walking out of the shop....we buzzing again. people talkin about Supreme Clientele again.
Its funny how i gained so much by losing. That first week after the mutany, i was distraught...wondering if i really knew what the hell i was doing. and now i realize that you don't know if know what you are doing until you are tested. when things are going easy, we all can be business owners and trailblazers. but when thing go wrong...when you team leaves you in the huddle staring at the defense with no play to run, you find out what you are made of. You see where the cream starts to rise. The foundation of the Supreme TEAM had been established. Mike, Felicia, Carl, Missy, Shonda, Bettina and Cynthia. Now we're cookin with grease!

Remember on Menace to Society, when cake stomped old boy? When dude came back strate dumpin at the end, Cane said, "i knew i would have to see him again one day. but damn....i didn't know he would come back like this".


As always, thanks for following my journey. I want to know what you think.
Keep comments clean. Stay tuned for "The Grand Opening" and "The Learning Curve...working with all these damn women".