“ALWAYS STAY PUSHING” | SE. 3 EP. 6 FT. TERUAN DAVIS

On Season 3, Episode 6 of Mayor Morrell Speaks, Mayor Ronald Morrell, Jr. sits down with a true hometown visionary: Teruan Davis, the driving force behind The Shop Marion District.

In this episode, Teruan takes listeners behind the scenes of his remarkable entrepreneurial journey. The conversation dives deep into his humble beginnings, starting out with nothing but a pair of clippers and a passion, cutting hair right out of a garage. Through sheer grit, dedication, and a relentless work ethic, he broke barriers to become the very first barber in the history of Marion to successfully scale his business and open multiple locations.

What is discussed in this episode: 💈 The mindset required to transition from a solo barber in a garage to a multi-location business owner and executive. 💈 Overcoming the unique challenges of scaling a service-based business while maintaining quality and culture. 💈 The importance of mentorship, building a strong team, and pouring back into the economic growth of the City of Marion.

Whether you are an aspiring entrepreneur, a local business owner, or someone looking for a powerful story of perseverance, Teruan’s journey provides the ultimate blueprint for turning a side hustle into a thriving enterprise.

🎧 Listen now: Mayor Morrell Speaks is available on all major streaming platforms. Hit that follow button and download the episode to support local stories of impact!

The "MAYOR MORRELL SPEAKS" podcast is produced by Frequency Canvas, LLC. All Audio Production (Recording, Editing, Mixing, & Mastering) is done by: Kyren Monteiro of Frequency Canvas, LLC.

Contact Frequency Canvas at: Office@FrequencyCanvas.com | https://www.FrequencyCanvas.com/ | 765-506-3380

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to season three, episode six of the Memoral Speaks Podcast. I'm very honored today to have a lifelong friend, an entrepreneur, a businessman. I mean, so many amazing things for the City of Marion, this community. I'll let him tell the story by himself more later on, but introducing Sharon Davis. Give it up for it. So, man, first of all, I always like to give everybody their flowers, man. What you've been able to do in your industry for the city of Marion is very impressive, man. So I just I think that you are a motivation for people, a um uh, you know, some people for someone to look up to, a mentor, or somebody that can really take, you know, uh the barbering industry to the next level in cities like Marion, Indiana. So so tell us about Tyron Davis.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Uh man, like I said, appreciate you for uh bringing me on here. Yeah. First off, but yeah, just a local, local guy that's born and raised in Marion, moved away for a few years, and then uh really decided to come back to Marion because I just wanted to be a part of the growth. Whatever growth that was at that moment, it was just like, let me I know everybody here. Um I'm used to being around everybody here, so it's like, man, I got a little a business idea. I got a gift that I could give away, and then and that's being a barber. So it was just where else to start beside your hometown. Yeah. So that's really why I decided to come back here and just uh start my business here, start my brand here, and just yeah, really start my career here.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

So, what was it like um being in the community that you're from, trying to start a business there?

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Uh for me it was easy. It really was. Me being a barber, I'm a people person, so being a barber, you gotta uh be tapped into the people. So I'm like, shoot, this probably gonna be the best, the best place to start. Yeah, and then it wasn't too many uh pushbacks. Of course, you got the little small things, family, like ah, you might be doing too much, or friends, like, ah, you might be shooting too too far for the uh stars, but I just had to keep on pushing and just but it was actually easier for me. I see other people going through their little go-through, and it's it's a little more difficult for that. But just me being in this space of uh haircutting and just people need me, it's like this was easy.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Yeah. So what's really what's really cool about you, I want the listeners to get so um we'll keep talking about it more as we go along, but Terran is um not only a barber, but he's been able to turn his barber into barbering um skill into multiple locations. So tell us about um what that experience was like. So like like that transition of from just being just a barber to now you're like a multi-site owner.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Uh at first I was just wanting to be a one-man shop. And then I just started thinking about like dang, I got my cousin, he cut hair, and it's like, let me just put other people in position. And it just started from my cousin, me and my cousin to multiple other barbers, and then now I'm like, man, I want to have a brand of barber shops. And it is a headache for sure. Having multiple locations. That ain't, yeah, it sounds sweet, but it is a headache. But it was just started off by just wanting to help people put people in position where they didn't have to go through the groundwork that I had to go through, and just like you see, I started in the kitchen to the garage to the first location to the second location, and now we just open up two locations.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Yeah. Yeah, you gotta give it up for that. But that's I mean, listen, man, that's very impressive. I know how hard it is to, you know, start a business, but then having multiple locations is, I mean, it's is tremendous, right? So, I mean, and I'm thinking about it, I don't think I've seen anybody in this area do that before. So, like, what made you okay? So, there's a lot of limiting factors and limiting beliefs that people have about themselves, specifically in Marion as entrepreneurs and young people. So, me and Toronto are the same age. I think we're only like, you know, a few weeks apart or something like that. Um, so as a young man, um young black man in Marion, what gave you the motivation? What made what gave you the idea that you actually could do something like this?

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Shh, at first I didn't, I thought I had to move away, honestly. I'm like, man, I gotta get up out of Marion, it's a trap, blah, blah, blah, but we all say. But then I started to change my mentor, change my little mindset, and it's like, dang, there. And we always complain about there ain't no opportunities. But then it's like, boy, if there ain't no opportunities, create an opportunity. Yeah. And it's that's really what I that's where I put my mindset to where it's like I'm about to create an opportunity. And now, as we can see, it's more opportunities for barbers, it's more opportunities for black entrepreneurs, it's more opportunities for just young men that can actually start something in their hometown and stay here.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

And you know, it's interesting, that's a common mentality, a common thing that people say, especially in our age group, right? There's no opportunities, there's no jobs, no this, all the stuff that people say, nothing to do. Uh we'll run on down the list. So, what how did you change that mindset for yourself? How did you get there this kind of renewed mindset of instead of like waiting on an opportunity to create your own and become successful that way?

SPEAKER_00 5:14

I would say being by myself for a little minute, you know what I'm saying, in self-thought, reading, you know what I'm saying, talking to God for sure, and just uh putting myself uh challenging myself. Where it's like if you move away and you're not on the right uh on the right frequency, you're gonna fail. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And sometimes you just gotta change your, you gotta change yourself.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Yeah, you know, that's good because right, I I was I was talking to somebody about this, like, you know, if you if you lame here, you're gonna be lame wherever you go. Wherever you go. You have to deal with your same self, whether you're in Marion or Atlanta or Indianapolis or Charlotte, right? You still gonna be the same person. So for sure. Yeah, so if you can if you can win here, then you can you be the same person winning other places. So then for um, what's it like having multiple people working underneath you? Like, what advice? Because like the reason I'm asking the question that way, is because everybody I talk to, they always say the most complicated thing are are people. But also we always need people to be able to win and be successful. So what's your advice to people, uh, to the listeners on how to handle and deal with people?

SPEAKER_00 6:23

I would say uh put my uh expectations, of course we got expectations being the head of the chain, but I was putting too much expect uh expectations on some of my barbers. Yeah. Where it's like, hey, I want to do this, I want to do that, blah, blah, blah. And it's like some of them was comfortable with just uh doing what they wanted to do. And it was I was a headache for them, and it was ultimately a headache for me. So I had to really shift that perspective. Like, I'm not putting my perspective on you. Or not my perspective, but my uh, I just can't expect you to do what I want. Yeah. And that was a hard thing because I'm thinking we all wanted to be bosses. I think we all wanted to be not even bosses, but just the best version of ourselves, which my version of myself might not be the same version of yourself and so on and so on. So I had to take that away from just my expectations of people. And just learning to uh coach different different styles. Some of them you might gotta get on, some of them you might gotta, and it's like with just coaching, I guess your kids. Yeah. Um, you got multiple children, I got one on the way, two, I got two, but one on the way, and it's like, I'm sure I'm gonna have one that I got mighty, I might gotta be more sensitive with. Yeah. So it's just that little aspect, just that was a learning lesson for me because I lead by, I feel like I lead by example. And sometimes you might have a uh you might have to have a conversation with one of the barbers, and you might have to talk to him a little, not even crazy, but just sit them down and just be, hey player, I need you to step your game up.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Yeah. And uh I want to go back. I think I I skipped to the success part too quickly because people like to they like to look at that and talk about that. But I remember, like you, like you said, you when I when I had hair, right? You were cutting my hair in the in the garage with a fan, but keeping us from sweating, right? So from that and to then the first shop location where we come in and lay all the all the floor, you in there painting, moving stuff in yourself. A lot of people, I I was talking about um at another conference I was speaking at. A lot of people love to see the success side of it, but they don't like the preparation. Um, so how did you stay motivated through that? You know, I'm my barber, I'm supposed to be cutting here, but I'm I'm painting, I'm putting in floors, I'm carrying stuff and moving stuff. How did you push through that preparation to get to the success you are today?

SPEAKER_00 8:40

And you helped me put the floor in. Everybody say Ron don't get dirty, but I was getting it in that day, man. Yeah. Yeah, so we we put in the floors, we painted, we did all the groundwork. But before that, I was starting from the kitchen. It was from 2018, the football team. I was giving out free haircuts. You know what I'm saying? To the whole football squad. And I didn't know that was gonna go undefeated that year, but every game, I told him every game y'all win, I give y'all free haircuts. There's a lot of cuts. It's 15. Thursday nights, these young fellas is coming to the garage. And like he said, it was hot in there. We had a fan, it was horrible. And I was paying Boofriend in there.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

I know Jimbo. Shout out to Jimbo, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Jimbo wanted his money, so I was giving out free haircuts and still paying Boofriend in a hot, uh, not even the best environment for sure. But it was still, I had a I had a goal, I had a mission. It's like, dang, you gotta go through them rough times.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

Yeah, because people think they're gonna wake up, like no matter what they do, right? People think they're gonna wake up and all of a sudden they're gonna have two locations and multiple barbers and all their client lists and stuff like that, and whatever industry that they're in. Like, especially because you know I talked to a lot of young people as I travel around and they they think they can skip the grind portion of it, right? And they think that, I mean, even the you can get that in even some older people in our city, right? They think that they can skip the grind portion of it, and everything's just gonna just fall in their lap. But everybody I talk to on the show who's been successful in their industry, there's always a grind portion. And whereas uh I mean, you know, like they say you went with me shooting in the gym, right? Everybody thinks that the jumper's just gonna fall without having to put that work in. But I mean, again, giving you those flowers on that man is you somebody that I've seen start at that complete bottom level. Yeah, the ground level. Yeah, and been able to grow up to this. So if you were to give someone, so there's somebody gonna be listening, right? So I'm honored, I'm honored and thankful to have listeners from not just locally or statewide, but um or even just nationally, but international listeners from all across the world. So what is some advice you would give? Let's do two ways, right? What is some advice you would give to barbers who wanna um do what you've done?

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Barbers, I say the main way, uh the main reason I am successful is I would say you gotta uh you gotta take the stairs. You know what I'm saying? It's you really gotta go, like I said, giving out free haircuts, you gotta put yourself out there, you gotta miss family events. Yeah. It's unfortunate, you know what I'm saying? I wish I could get those times back, and uh, but now I can look back and like, dang, that that's what it was worth. And now my family, they understand, and just the people that uh, yeah, you just gotta really go all in and cut out all the the fact that you was the negative, I was in a negative little situation, negative mindset. It's like I had to cut all that out, which was hard, but it was worth it now, and I can look back like, dang, that was, but I just really had to stay locked in every day.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Mm-hmm. So then what would you tell young people? Um, you know, my artist I spend a lot of time with somewhere between six to eighteen. What are you telling young people? What what do they need to develop right now to eventually become successful like you? Social skills. Yeah. Yeah. Oh man, okay, let me go on the whole table on this. Okay, social skills, right? So what do you mean when you say social skills?

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Social skills, I go back to just being in school. I when I'm in when I was in school, I was friendly to everybody, kind to everybody, just having respect for everybody. Whether I was the cool guy, whether I was the athlete or not, I still treated everybody the same. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

You gotta be careful how you treat people, man. Like, so that that gets into this this idea of relationships, right? So when you're in customer service, no matter what industry you're in, really, people are coming to you based off relationships. So if you don't know how to talk to people or you're mistreating people, you could be the best barber in the world, but then they like, ah, you know.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Yeah, and I cut a lot of, I cut a lot of people uh kids here. So if they didn't mess with me back in the day, they damn it, heck, you ain't going to that barber. So that was a big, that's a huge deal where everybody was like, nah, I I rock with it, me cool.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Yeah, people often um underestimate how important it is to be able to have a conversation. I mean, especially in like today's day and age, everybody's on social media. So like that that's breaking down that element. So that's one of the that's that's some amazing advice, man. Being able to have social skills and talk to people. So um, man, what's next for uh what's next for you? If you if you can create your dream scenario in five years, what would it be?

SPEAKER_00 13:04

In five years, I plan on it changes every day. It don't change every day, but it's just I'm working on myself first and foremost. That's the main thing where it's like I'm trying to grow, I'm trying to be the best man I can be, best father I could be. But I would say business-wise, I would want to uh create a chain of barber shops. And I don't want to put a number on that because that was a mistake I did on the when I first and another big thing is write down your goals.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

That was huge for me. You know what I'm saying? I wrote down, I put it in my uh little book. I want six barbers. Yeah. Now I look back, it's like, dang, I should have put a little extra, I should have said 25 barbers.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

But I always go back when I am stressed out at just the business side, the uh relationship sides always, and I think it's too much. I always go back to that book where I look and it's like, boy, that's what you prayed for. That's what you asked for. So now that kind of tells me, boy, shut up and keep pushing. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

100%.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

I would say for the young, going back to that question, for the young folks, write down your goals. We can say it, we can think it, we can put it in our phone, but just really writing it down really has a uh, it's critical.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Yeah. So um I always ask this question on every episode. If someone is wanting to move to Mary and start a business, what would you say the reason why they should?

SPEAKER_00 14:24

I would say uh because it's still growing. You know what I'm saying? And it's still it's it's an untapped potential here. It's we don't know how high the ceiling can go. Yeah. And that's the that's a good part of it where it's like it's really scary how high we can really take this thing.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

In any business, in any, yeah, any field you bring here, it's like, man, it's it's untapped.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Yep. So man, yeah. Well, I mean, I appreciate you, man. Thanks for being on this uh this episode. And if you want, if you're watching, you can see you if you want to watch, you can listen on any places. You can see video on Facebook and YouTube. You can catch us on all streaming platforms, and I um really appreciate you for tuning into uh Morel Morel Speaks episode number six of season three. Any final words?

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Hey, nah, everybody keep pushing. If you do got a dream, if you feel like you're working in your purpose, you gotta go for it. Yep. Always remember to go for it and keep on pushing. Have a great evening. For sure.