How To Create A Profitable Business From Nothing: Johnny Slicks - Johnny Slicks

This is the Beyond the Story podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now Sebastian Frost. Johnny, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. Great to have you here, man. I know that you and I connected a couple months back in a very chilly North Carolina yes, sir, and that was a great event that a good friend, quinn West, put on, and you and I had a chance to have a few conversations while we were there, and one of the things that really stuck in my mind was that you donated blood platelets for a check to invest into your company. That is now a wildly successful company and continuing to be so. I thought wait a second, we need to get you on the show. I want to hear more about this story, so I'm stoked to have you here, man. Thanks for taking the time out of your day to hang out with me for just a few minutes to share your story. So let's back up a little bit. Let's go back to the beginning of the story and really unpack this, because it's quite an interesting story and I love the. I don't know if it's a rags to riches per se I guess that's subjective to you but in my eyes, based on the success Johnny Slick has had to date. So I'm excited to hear the story and how it's kind of unfolded.

Yeah, we put it a bunch of different ways In the story. My car got repowed, building the business. So we say limo or repowed a limo selling blood. Obviously rags to riches is great, grit and glory works as well pretty much any of those things but essentially what it is, it's the American dream. You know, in a nutshell, this is just the American dream. So while back 2000, let's flash back I was in the Marine Corps from 2012 to 2016,. Around 2015,. Late 2015 to early 2016. Buddy of mine jokingly said well, what I thought was jokingly said hey, is your hair thinning? I jumped down off of a loading dock and he saw the top of my skull and he said is your thin, your thinning hair? And I thought he was joking. I played it off and at the time I took my hair very seriously. In the Marine Corps I wanted to look very dapper. I had a very nice pompadour. Old school we used to have hair competitions who can style their hair the coolest, who can style it the best? So when he said that, I hurt my ego, it hurt dramatically. So I went home that evening I looked in the mirror and I could see the crown of my scalp poking out through my hair. So my whole world went through just massive. Am I going bald at 21 years old, 20 years old? Am I going bald Like what is going on here? Did all the stuff. I went through all my genetics, I did all this stuff. I called every family member. I did all of that and I was born with my mother's hairline so I should not be going bald. And the next thing I just woke up one morning I'm putting my grooming products on my hair and then all of a sudden I look at the label and I'm like Wait, wait, is this a thing? I can't pronounce any of these ingredients. Is this what's causing my hair loss? So I started to do a little bit of research on methylchlorazine, six, red, seven, all of these things that are synthetic and man-made. Go and find out it's leading to my hair loss. So I decided to ditch all of those products to the side, and at the time I was just getting out of the Marine Corps. They don't give you a big fat check for leaving, so I didn't really have any things set up afterwards other than I knew I was passionate about hair. I wanted to do barbering out of everything. I wanted to cut hair. In barber school, I found myself actually sitting in the classroom, not on the cutting floor, actively cutting hair. I found myself just reading the books, reading the textbooks. Dive into that. I was like, okay, I'm ditching all of these chemical-filled products that are causing my hair loss. What's the other option? I'm still really passionate about my hair styling. I'm passionate about hair in general. What do I do? And then, like everybody else, organic. I'll just go to use organic things, right? Unfortunately at the time, like I said, they don't give you a big fat check for leaving the Marine Corps. So I had no money. And then I had the wild idea of well, what did they do 4,000 years ago? Well, how did they style their hair? How did they wash their bodies? How did they forge these ingredients to do it? So I was like, well, what if I just try to do that? What if I go, hypothetically, go in my backyard, get some beeswax, get some coconut oil, throw it in a pot and bingo, bingo. I'm making myself a product. Not as easy as it sounds. I ended up looking at every single product that I used at the time and every single ingredient that I could pronounce I bought went like I had no money in the bank account at all. I spent tons of money on things I didn't need. Finally, I ended up just going to barber school spending money on ingredients, blah, blah, blah, blah, cooking up all of these ingredients in a big pot, and literally I didn't know anything about anything at all, other than I needed beeswax. And I'm not a scientist, I'm consider myself kind of smart, I'm just a normal dude. So I'm just like dumping beeswax and oils into this big pot on my stove. It's catching fire. It was wild. That thing happened for a while. But unfortunately when you start to experiment with things like that, your bank account kind of hits hard. My wife's working double shifts at Chuck E Cheese as a manager, trying to just pay rent, just trying to make these dues. Meanwhile I'm going to barber school coming up with brilliant ideas on what ingredients to burn up on the stove, next coming home doing that and there's just this cyclic cycle we were in trying to find the solution. But then finally, one day it happened. I decided to cut my entire list of all the things I was burning up on the stove to just five. I said I'm doing too much. I'm on tendency. I don't like simple, I try to overcomplicate. I think most of us overcomplicate Most things in our life. I'm no different. I had this massive list. I threw it out. I said let me just start over. I'm just going to do five, just five ingredients. I chose beeswax, coconut oil, argan jojoba and tea tree oil. I put them in the pot and they didn't catch fire. They actually turned into a working palmade, something that I actually could use now in my hair. Not, but three weeks later, after doing that, my hair stopped thinning. I had no more dry skin, no more irritation, no more ingrown hairs, and my hair was actually coming back. I no longer saw my scalp anymore and it felt like a whole new person reemerged from this thing. And in barbering I realized that this wasn't I'm not the only one that has thinning hair. This is a very common problem, especially nowadays, with all of our hormones being affected by food and plastics and all of this stuff going on. A lot of people have scalp issues, skin issues or just body issues in general, external hair issues. So I said what if I make two more and I give them to the guys at the barber shop that have thinning hair and see if it works for them and it did for two people, just like that. So I was like, well, shit man, is it possible that I could make money doing this? It solved my issue. It solved their issue. I know there's eight billion people in the world. I wonder if I can solve more issues. So I started just doing more of that and at the time I was cooking maybe like three or four of these little products at a time. That's the most I could afford, and it was. I'm not a salesman by any means. I'm a visionary. So all I do is just talk. You know what I mean. I tell my story. But I would go to the barber shop and it's hard to convince people to get off Dove and to get off J and J products, you know, cause that's what they're used to. So I would just literally go and give people products. I would spend $20 making four products and then just give them out. That can only work for so long. I don't. I didn't have an infrastructure for my business. I joke. I say I had a, not for structure. I didn't do anything when it came to business. I literally just bought products, gave them away, bought ingredients, cook products, gave them away and my bank account suffered dramatically. So it got to a point now where we had no money and this was my passion. I discovered that making grooming products and cosmetics is my passion and then helping people is my calling. So I'm like I can't give this up now. I'm not going. I'm not going back to whatever I was doing before. I'm not going back to work. I was working at a gas station at the time, at a grave shift. I would go throughout the parking lot pick up change to put gas in my car to then drive my ass down to the plasma center to sell plasma twice a week to get $35 a pop. They give you a little ATM card. I went online and bought ingredients with those and I specifically remember when I finally had the Palmade put together. I couldn't afford lids to put on top of the jar, so I drove my ass down to the plasma center, got $35 and bought $35 worth of lids. They ended up coming in, put it on and I had my final we call the million dollar product. That was my first million dollar product right then and there. And we ended up having garage sales every weekend. My car got repo charged off credit cards. My wife and I we didn't see each other for probably a year. She was working days, I was working nights trying to figure this stuff out and right when it was about to get really, really dark, it seemed like this was just a never ending cycle of just me going to donate plasma and then me come back home, buy ingredients, give away the products that I used the money to buy, and it just seemed like it was never ending. And if not, it was taken more. So I actually, at the age of 22, I Googled how to file bankruptcy. I didn't. This is how naive and ignorant I was to it. I didn't understand what was going on in my life. So I Googled how do I file bankruptcy? In that thought, I actually had this weird idea what if I reach out to the biggest beard championships, like the guys they perform beard championships? I didn't know this was a thing they have what? Yeah, dude, every year, multiple times a year, a bunch of dudes with massive beards get together and they judge each other's beards. It's wild and it's getting big. You know beards are big. So I reached out to first, second and third place. First and second didn't really help me out, but the third place winner said look man, you're making these little tiny products. My beard is the size of Texas Like there's no way you're gonna be able to support me with how much oil I need and stuff. But I know a Marine who lives right down the road from you and he might be able to help you out. His name is Nick Kumalazos and I was like, oh, no way. Okay, I'll reach out to him. I messaged Nick like 40 times on the Instagram. It took like seven weeks for him to get back to me. But he finally got back to me and said come on down and give me your product, let me try it out. He tried it out and two weeks later we met at Chipotle and partnered Not but two weeks later, and that was like where it all took off. After that, him and Ali took care of marketing and all that stuff and all my job was was to just cook and at that point we started. The most money I ever made in a month was $364. And that's gross. That's not even net. My take home was like negative, you know, because I wasn't an infrastructure. This year we'll be hitting eight figures and we're going on year six. So we've been doing this for six years and we're finally hitting eight figures. After that $300 a month goal. So yeah, donating plasma rags to riches, repo to limo, however you want to put it, but it really is the American dream. And it all started with just me having this personal issue of my thinning hair. Tanks my confidence, I found a solution and now I'm here to offer the solution to everybody. Wow.

I got chills with the story man. That is just yeah, you're right, the American dream, the rags to riches, you'd be all of the above, whatever the catchy phrase is on there. But it all started with you and going wait a second, I have a problem with me that I don't like, and I think there's a solution out there. And then, once you found that solution, you're like wait a second, how do I bring this to the world? And you refuse to give up. And I mean to be able to donate blood and not be able to pay your bills or have gas money and wife's work in double shifts, but still, I mean it just goes to show you had that, that it was ingrained in you. It was like this you know this mission that you knew that you were, you were put on to accomplish, to make significant change for not only yourself and the world. So that's just incredible and, by the way, thank you for your service as well too. And you know that you you're able to really extract something out of that experience Not always, I've never been in the military, but I can only imagine it's not the most exhilarating. Yay, this was awesome experience. At times I'm sure it was, but it was on the other side of this, had the Marines not happened when this have happened right, yeah, yeah, honestly, I don't even travel down those roads anymore.

I don't think about if that, if, then you know it happens and I'm very grateful for everything that happened. Highs, lows, whatever they're labeled, I'm grateful for it. Or because I'm standing right here talking to you, sure, sure, this is what I want.

Yeah, that's fantastic and encouraging, to say the least. So now we fast forward to the current day. Right now, you guys are doing eight figures a year, which is remarkable. I mean seven figures six figures in a business, right when you're bootstrapped it off the ground is absolutely remarkable. What are you guys primarily focused on right now? What are the core line of products that you sell? How do people find them?

Yeah, yeah, and we start. We stand on our culture, our culture. I believe in people over policy, day in and day out. I will forever choose people over some sort of written word. This year we're really focusing, diving into our culture. Like I said, we're on year six. It's just wild how much we're growing and just so everybody knows as well, everything we do is American made, and I mean literally everything. When we order supplies, I order raw beeswax from a farm right down the road here, so I get containers right from New York. I get literally every single thing is right here, american source between these borders. I order all of the supplies, all of them. I have over 500 little, tiny little ingredients that I have to maintain inventory for. I bring them all right here to Holly Ridge, north Carolina. There are nine cooks. They're actively cooking right in this room right over here, every single product that's available, and then they're driven down the road, five miles down the road to our fulfillment center, which is then packaged and shipped out where customer services. So when you deal with Johnny Slicks, whenever you talk to Johnny Slicks reps or you are engaged with the business, you are dealing with actual living Americans that are coming here and working, and that's now my passion. Also hiring American people, bringing them out from corporate America, where they're being treated as numbers and sheep, to here where they can actually pursue their passions, and I encourage them to be themselves. This is just the dream. Now we have 21 individuals here, 21 team members, and we're looking to expand that to another maybe 30 by the end of this year. Honestly, I didn't know. Like I said, I came out of my kitchen doing this stuff, so I was making like two or three product products a week, not really doing anything. These guys last year cooked 750,000 SKUs of products. This year, like, we're hitting the ceiling where we only have 2,500 square feet of manufacturing facility and to cook that much product in this a little amount of space is just absolutely impossible. So we're trying to figure that out. We're not getting any more space, so we're trying to manipulate time a little bit, seeing if we can manipulate time and personnel. But we're just trying to overcome this next threshold for the business to keep growing Because, like you said, like people, this is a worldwide issue, right? And all these people, they're going to want products. We need to keep things in stock and we're not getting more space. So it's just another challenge, another problem. I don't believe in problems. I believe all problems are just opportunities to learn and try and experiment. So all of these things that are happening here are literally just opportunities for us to keep growing, keep busting through the glass ceilings. And this year also, we'll be doubling our marketing. So we'll be spending a ton more on marketing on every single platform, if you can think of it. We'll be on there and then creating all the content for them, which is really fun because we do all the content. Our media team is right here in-house as well, so we do everything literally in-house, which is amazing to me, and apparently other companies don't do that, which I don't like at all. I don't understand it. I want all everything made right here in America.

Yeah, I mean it did make sense. There's you know we don't to be able to. You know we take pride in being American and American made, and we know that it's happening here in the good old United States. You know of America versus, you know other alternatives, just because you can save a buck or two on doing it. Plus, like you mentioned, it is really empowering and providing opportunities to people to come and capitalize on a new opportunity with you guys. I had a curiosity how come no more space like no new?

space. It's just an area. It's just an area where, and so we're actually we're trying to build a warehouse. I have blueprints for a 12,000 square foot warehouse right here, but the problem is there's like nobody's building, nobody's selling, and this even the space we're in right now, like this, is just offices. Like I have a little office here and we have to like make shift manufacturing space, like knock down walls. We have to like build tables, like it's weird. So like imagine literally a 1,250 square foot offices where there's like little eight by nine rooms. We have to put massive 13 foot tables with these big wax melters and hoses and machines and bottles and, like I said, there's like a million. There's gonna be well over a million products that are cooked right here. So we gotta figure something out. You know what I mean. We're boosting now on Amazon. Amazon is like crushing it for us, so we're available on Amazon for anybody interested in that. However, I do say buying an Amazon is good. Buy direct, like buy direct from the website, from the people that we are supporting the company directly. But yeah, that's the space issue. And of course, they're building. We're right on a highway here. They're looking to do construction on the highway here in the next five years to make it like a super highway. So nobody wants to build anywhere near it because it's all up in the air. So all of this is just convenient timing, you know. It's just another opportunity to try something new. All part of the adventure. Yeah, exactly, there's no perfect time, right, it all just happened and it's an obstacle. We have to overcome it or figure it out. That's part of it. Yeah, as is life Fact. Yeah, there's no waiting.

Well, so, johnny, it's been great to learn this story, and so I am ridiculously encouraged. I'm gonna record this episode. It's the beginning of 2024. So I'm encouraged myself from my own business, my own entrepreneur journey that I've been on for 20 plus years now and just excited for what's to come for you guys too, and I just appreciate you spending some time to share the story on here. What's the website people can go by direct from you guys?

Johnnyslickscom. So just Johnny Slicks anywhere and Johnnyslickscom you can go. Also, we're on Public Square. I don't know if you're familiar with Public Square they do. Their culture is everything. It's an app you download, but they have stores on there that are exclusively American only, so, like if people are interested in only buying American made stuff and you wanna switch away from China Public Square, we're on it, and a bunch of other companies that are just like us are on there as well. So you can go. You can Public Square or just JohnnySlickscom.

Thank you very much. I'll include those links in the show notes. That's the description of this podcast episode, in case you're wondering what in the world a show note is on here. So make it easy for you to check out those products, johnny. Any final thoughts for our listeners on the entrepreneur slash, business owner journey, where they may just be getting started and they're probably losing more hope than they are gaining it.

Yeah, I will say, first off, I did not understand how crucial this was into my operations and to people. You are either and I don't want to put people in a box, but you're either a visionary or you're an integrator. There's combos like Elon Musk is both, you know. But me personally, I am a visionary. I all day just come up with plans, visions, new ideas. I got 80D. I'm like, oh, look at this, look at this, look at this. You will never get anything done as a visionary if you don't have an integrator, someone who can keep you aligned with what you're good at. I'm really frigging good at making grooming products right, but for some reason, early in the Johnny Slick's days, I was trying to do candles, I was trying to do t-shirts, I was trying to do everything because everything was open for me. When you start to grow, when you start to pursue something, opportunities just pop up everywhere and if you are a visionary, more than likely you will just grab them all and hope for the best and see what sticks. Find an integrator, find someone who's really good at systems, who's understanding networking, who's good at those type of things, who can keep you on track. Without Nick, I would literally be like running around like a chicken without a head Dude, I'm not even joking. I have hundreds of notebooks behind me just filled with ideas and 99% of them would never take off with me, right? But it's Nick's job, it's the integrator's job to make sure that I'm staying focused in my lane with making grooming products. That is my 1%. No one else can do that but me and same with him. He's really good at it, but I'm the idea guy, he's the integrator. So if you are a visionary or if you're an integrator, I highly encourage you to find somebody that fits in your culture, morals and ethics. That can be the opposite, the opposing duality, if you may, to yourself. A lot of people find business partners or find somebody to work with that's just like them. However, when a problem arises, if two people are the same, you're going to find two solutions that are the same. If you have an opposite, you're going to find this way to solve it and he's going to find the opposite, which gives you way more room to grow. So find out if you're a visionary. There's a really good book called Rocket Fuel Excellent book, right, figure out if you're a visionary or if you're an integrator. I will tell you. I'm going on year six now. If I knew this back in year one, I would be standing in a very different place, just with that knowledge of, oh shit, I'm a visionary. I didn't know I was and that seems ignorant, but I didn't know I was Knowing what I know. Now anybody would say that to me. You come across me. You'd be like yeah, you're a visionary, bro, you got a lot of stuff up there. I'm really bad at executing, and that's where. Find what you're good at and find your flaws and find someone who can help you with those flaws Not master them, but control them. That's my biggest takeaway for anyone trying to pursue a passion, pursue a hobby or start a business.

Love it. Great final thoughts, excuse me. Thanks again for your time, johnny. I really appreciate it, wishing you guys nothing but ongoing success. So encouraged by your story, I and the brand you guys keep rocking, rolling and changing the world, one bottle of beard oil at a time.

Thanks, man. That's the plan. That's all we can do. Amazing Love it.

Thanks again, brother. Thank you, man. Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story podcast. Be sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way, you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Be sure to appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast launchlabcom studios. We'll talk to you next time.