 Hey what's happening ladies and gentlemen welcome to the fourth episode of king pennies podcast man we got a special guest here today hey i want to remind you guys on august 13th at the weight pile on the rocky 1610 main street we're doing free back to school hair cuts this week man hey you guys check us out we got breakfast for the kids man hey you come work out man and why your kids get a haircut and get it in really good man at 1610 main street sunday from 8 a.m. to noon all haircuts will be done man hey make sure you shout out those barbers we're gonna put them up here again man for giving up their skill and their time man we really appreciate it so with no further ado hey we got a special guest from far away man we're gonna go ahead and bring her in how you doing today i'm doing good how are you i'm doing well i appreciate that so let's get your name and where you're from um so i'm mickey i'm 22 years old and i'm from uh robert colorado okay the big a all right now i appreciate you driving down and stuff like that what's uh what's the family look like um so it's just me and my mom and yeah that's basically it single married yeah i'm just me by myself i'm married to myself you feel like i said me myself and i heard that that's the best way to be sometimes hey look here so what is it that you do um so i'm a student barber at Emily Griffith down in downtown Denver and i'm just basically like doing door-dash you know anything to make some money while i can while i'm in school and stuff hey i respect the hustle that's how you gotta be sometimes hey so how long have you been doing uh the school thing so i started school in april okay and how long is the program for like it's nine months and uh so i graduate in march okay exciting time it's getting close this year it's flying by it is it's moving really fast because every time i turn around this rent is due like hold on is this supposed to be moving like this uh which so i came across you right because i interviewed Caesar the barber uh out of uh out of Denver and stuff like that and i caught you on his instagram at a winning wednesday event you know i mean cutting hair for the unhoused community how did you get involved in that um so Caesar came to our school and he basically told us hey i'm doing haircuts for you know the homeless if you guys want to come down just send me a message and we'll get you set so i sent him a message and he was like yep i have a chair table just come on down and the rest is history man that's great no it's really good so how did you get involved in just cutting hair period before school like before you actually decided to go to school for how did you get involved in cutting hair um so about a year ago a little over a year ago i was working at 7-11 and you know i got into some trouble and i really just wanted to find my purpose and like what i wanted to do with my life so um i went to a tattoo shop and a barber shop for like a job interview and the barber shop hired me so i'm like okay let's see you know how their everyday lives are let me see you know what it looks like see if i want to commit and once i started working there i fell in love and that's when i signed up for school and got everything going so you can draw i take it like an artist's like type you know i was thinking more like piercing oh okay i'm like all right i'm not much of an artist but some but a lot of barbers are though yeah that's like the crazy thing about it like they can draw draw and i was like oh okay so piercing all right but no so do you remember your first haircut um well my first haircut was my friend Kai and it took like five hours just to do like a buzz on the sides and back but um it was real cool and i was like yep i think i can do this i think like this is gonna make me happy you know nah that's super legit so right now i'm sure it doesn't take you five hours now you zoom in through probably now aren't you it takes me a while i'm still learning and stuff you know i didn't grow up cutting hair and i don't have like a lot of males in my life that i'm like hey you know come through get a cut so it probably takes me like 45 to an hour that's hey that's legit you know i mean that's super cool so because i brought you up here right because i just want to highlight you know what i mean like mainly your community service and what you're doing in the community and whatnot like that how long have you been doing Wednesday Wednesdays like how long have you been actually participating um it's probably been since like june for uh winning wednesdays but for mutual aid monday i've been doing that since april oh so you do so you do that one as well see learn something new every day i thought you just did like the win-win that mutual aid mondays as well that's super cool man i'm trying to tell you like i'm like i say i'm sure you heard on the intro we're doing an event down here courtesy of like you know seeing everybody giving back up there i was just like tapped in with a couple barbers here and i'm like hey man look here what these guys are doing how can we pull something together and all the local barbers i was just surprised at how they just yeah i'm down man like you know what i mean like so barbers say right now they look they're trending upwards in my book man so i just want to thank you that thank you for all that you do thank you so you had mentioned right so you're working at 7-eleven and you had had some problems let's can we go ahead and touch on that just for a little bit like what kind of problems or yeah um so i i got arrested um in regards to some things like with a past relationship and when that happened it honestly scared me you know like i got a felony charge and it was just like you know this is what my life has come to like it was definitely really scary um and working at 7-eleven didn't help you know there's a lot of people doing drugs and you know just not a lot of good energy there so when that all happened you know i just wanted to end it there and figure out something new you know um what was what was what was rock bottom like what was like you know laying the oh they arrested for the felony was like the rock the lowest of the low or was there another like just oh man things got to change like when was that moment um yeah i think getting arrested and you know losing people i loved and things like that it made me realize like maybe i'm not as like awesome as i think i am and i need to you know start putting in some work um and you know in the past i've been through a lot of different things but that was the final straw where i was like yeah i don't want to be this way because i grew up kind of thinking like okay you know i'm gonna do drugs i might go to jail and then you know die or something so and i don't want to think like that because once you think like that that's what manifests so and like i feel like i have a lot of potential and a lot of things that you know i can add to if that makes sense so i didn't want to just be defined by every crappy thing i've done or been through you know no you shouldn't i mean 22 you got a lot of life ahead of you you know but it sounds like you've had a rough go you know i mean but the giving back part man you you can only grow from that you know i'm saying that and i'm sure you probably work with other people like that you come across with these events that kind of you can see them and you know i mean like oh i could have been hitting that way or you know i'm saying and stuff like that but the main thing i want to focus on is where are you at now like mentally like where are you um i i feel like i'm doing a lot better there are times where i doubt myself you know and i'm like i'm doing all this stuff and it's not like there's no results but i i feel really proud of who i am today and what i've accomplished in the past year i didn't even have a car last year you know so having a car you know i lost some weight things like that i'm like okay i'm i'm on the way up so i feel good no i'm not guarantee that's a great feeling man because you're seeing the progress you're seeing the you know i mean the fruits of your your labor and stuff like that so are you in any classes or anything like that regarding this felony are you past all that or um so i'm on probation and for like a year i got charged in may 2022 and i'm on probation for two years okay but um what was the question again i'm sorry no i'm saying like are you you have are you required to do any classes or anything like with that probation are you yeah so i did like um and as much as you can talk about i don't want to really like i said just press into it but i'm just i like to see people like you know i mean being successful in probation and different things like that because it shows other people that hey look here for two years i'll just do my classes i'll get my life together and you can complete it because a lot of people don't complete it to be and i want to be completely honest with you you know i mean i don't want to like or say manifest that or anything like that but i just i like for people to see that you can complete it and do what's required and still get other stuff done to better your life at the same time is what i'm kind of trying to highlight for sure to to like people watching or anything like that but i really whatever you feel comfortable talking about is like the main thing um well i did like domestic violence therapy um so just like working on my anger you know and how i respond you know to certain things you know when i'm in an argument with somebody or a situation um and i've done individual therapy so those were like the main like classes i did um but i completed those and all that um how are you doing nowadays with like drugs and alcohol and things of that sort are you i'm doing good i everything that happened it like scared me so now i can't even think about doing drugs or anything like that so what do you do for fun now outside of cutting hair because i do as look let's go to i i fade somebody up i'm good like what do you do for fun like what is what is what what does fun look like um i mean i'd like to i'm kind of a boring person i will say that but i like to drive around you know listen to music before like my knee stuff i used to work out a lot that always made me feel good i always had a fun time doing that um what happened to the knee i was longboarding and i was going down the hill and um i fell off and the bone connected to my acl kind of like detached a little bit yeah not the best thing and i don't skate like that i was just like oh let me go out you know have some fun and i ended like that so yeah so now you're nervous about the knee right i know for sure because you know my with barbering you have to stand for hours on end so i definitely try to be cautious you know yeah so what's the plans after school like what is your like what in an ideal world right you graduate in uh march you said of next year what would you like to do like what would in a perfect world like would you like to work in a shop would you like to have your own shop would you like to you know what i mean like do something else or um well within a year i would want to be in a shop and just try to like build up all my skills and clientele things like that yeah yeah that's cool but just cutting hair right or do you want to do like other like cosmetology things or just mainly just barbering mainly just barbering um i definitely want to look into like owning my own business and things like that but um that's you know foreign yeah no down the line but i'm glad your mind is like you know what i mean thinking in a long long term down the line but no that's good so what's your favorite haircut to do anything anything that anybody who has hair i will do it you know whatever you want but i mean i like things that are different you know mullets mohawks things like that but at this point you know i'm so new to it i will do whatever you know i think people are gonna be surprised when they see this because they're gonna see your hair down yeah yeah i think normally like it's up and it's like all like lined up and stuff like that but like seeing what your hair down is definitely a different look but i mean it's like i said it's a great look but it's like definitely like a different like side of you yeah i feel like i'm pretty versatile in how i look and it gives off different vibes you know each time yeah so are you excited about this week uh you guys have an event on at um manual high school how are you feeling about that i feel really good about it i'm excited um i'm excited for Caesar you know i think it's a great opportunity to be helping people and also for all the students and barbers that are helping out there i think it's a great opportunity i think anybody you know who does hair should at least once you know help somebody or a community you know because you guys have a a few like that you go to school with going as well too don't you yeah yeah yeah are you close with the other barbers like uh there yeah i'm cool with them uh we're not like best friends you know but my whole class they're i can tell they're just like driven people and that's what i love to be around and the school is a good school yeah it is and it's it's a good price you know they teach you what you need to know and you know i'm getting extra opportunities from going there meeting you know barbers that own shops and things like that uh like dain vickers he has an event for the love um and that's what that's like that's like uh is that uh sunday yeah sunday after the day so the day after yours is his right no or is it the day before so for the love it already happened but it's like every sunday in a month they at a shop like a bunch of barbers will come in do each other's hair uh promote yourself things like that oh man that's super cool i gotta look into that man like no that's super dope man barbers be given giving back a lot i gotta try to figure out what you guys got going on now like that so like i said i didn't want to stay too far in the past about what you have going on and stuff like that but i do like where your mind is and so i don't know you seem kind of driven now is it is there like a role model or a you know i mean like something that really drives you or someone um you know i i really look up to my mom she's the hardest worker i know at the end of the day but there's different people on social media like david goggins joe rogan you know people like that that talk about just you know giving it you're all you know pushing through any obstacle you know things like that so i i take inspiration from them for sure motivation david goggins is definitely a little extreme look here hey man but the guy goes hard man like i his message like especially where he came from you know it means to where he's at now and how he sees things and how he pushes through like just different adversity man i just think the videos and the books and stuff like that is amazing man like i really do and the fact that you're you know i mean tapped into that it says a lot about where you're headed right now that's all that's all i really want to touch on man so you do a lot of volunteer work right what is what has been like i'm sure it has to be trying at times like dealing with you know the unhoused community or just different people who are allowed to show up at these events and stuff like that what has been like the worst like or has there been i don't think there's really been like a too bad experience i think just seeing people you know high and things like that and it's not all the time you know it's just a few but it's sad you know and for me i've kind of been through those things so to see someone in that situation it's a little triggering you know but i don't know i i feel like everyone has potential so to see that it's just like kind of crappy you know yeah and so what has been the most gratifying like what's been the most satisfying of what about volunteering um i think just seeing like the same faces over and over again you know you just like people will walk up to me and i see how happy they are um just from like me cutting the hair you know the week prior this guy the other week he gave me a photo that someone took of us while i was doing his hair and i don't know that just like warms my heart you know and he looks so happy handing me this photo i'm like okay like i'm meant to do this for real yeah you know what would you what would you tell any up-and-coming barber female male about getting in this field what what skills said or what do they need to know um i think the most important thing is just dedication and consistency um because i feel like there's at any job or any you know type of trade there's people who get lazy or whatever but if you just like keep pushing you know work hard i feel like you can't go wrong with that you know and with barbering it's not about talent it's about how much you educate yourself and how much time you put into it so just like go hard you know they go hard with the david that hard hard yeah that so what about art and this the last thing so so you're 22 like say you got the got the world ahead of you right you had some bumps or whatnot like that what would you tell a 22 year old female you know that was kind of lost or that is lost like what would you what advice would you give her to kind of pull this thing together before she would make a decision or get in a situation like you um it's a tough question i know it's got a lot of moving parts and things like that and like i said i mean put you on the spot about it but i think it's a growing moment and you've shown a lot of growth how you got through this and how you've you know i'm saying kind of springboarded off that hardship into a new trajectory into a upward like you know what i mean like headed on your way what would you tell a younger you i would say just like find something you love and do it you know because for a long time i didn't love anything you know not even myself so just like take the chance you know even if it's just small like working at a barber shop you know like as a receptionist just try something new and find your passion and you'll be good because if you don't have anything to look forward to it's just like oh you know i i could do this it doesn't really matter because it's not going to affect you know my feet or like i don't know it's not going to like i think about my barbering in the future um and like it makes me not do certain things today does that make sense yeah so it's definitely like you have goals and dreams and you don't want the decisions you make now to kind of you know i mean throw those off right for sure and so yeah it makes like complete sense like more sense than you know because i think like i said no matter the age we all you know i mean make poor decisions or we all get ourselves in situations that aren't like you know i mean reflective of who we are now but also too i think a lot of people don't understand like you said those decisions may affect down the line what you can and can't do what you you know i mean what what's possible for stuff like that the main thing is i appreciate you coming down i want to commend you for all that you're doing all that you're giving back to the community and like i said you just coming and opening up and talking and letting us in you know i mean to you know what you've been through where you're at and stuff like that because that right there's bravery within itself so i want to thank you for that um i want to wish you all the best of luck and don't forget oh and don't forget about uh her event at manual high school on uh what was that on august 12 on august 12 this week she'll be there and they're going to be doing free hair because they'll be vendors every bouncy house they're doing way bigger than what i got going on on the day after you know i'm saying but they're doing great things man from uh 12 to 8 so all day so all day uh from 12 to 8 and i'll put the flyer up here man shout out to caesar the barber also to uh shout out to the winning wednesday crew uh natasha and arena uh and the mutual aid monday's i don't know who runs this but they seem to be doing something right uh give them the instagram handle my instagram is mickey jane xx mickey jane xx so i'll put that at the bottom also too so if you're up in a roar or a denver you need a haircut man a holler at her and also too i think down the line hey future shops you know i mean you might want to you know think about her she's going to be coming up for graduation here in the next few months man hey give her a shout out man give her a try and stuff like that and matter of fact look let her interview you to see if she want to work at your shop nah hey but nah man hey thank you guys again like i said hey uh the white pile in the rocky so we got back to school haircuts like i said sunday uh at 16 10 main street we do we do ours early in the morning so 8 a.m to 12 you know what i mean breakfast is on us come get a workout get your kids haircuts man hey give back to the community that's what we do hey thank you long month i got mickey here hey the barber the future right here hey shaboy king penny man hey thank you guys for joining us man we're out of here