Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Thompson.
Hi Brandon, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was always the kid that wanted more out of everything I did, except for school. Not the best message, but true for me. I started my radio career at age 16 and stayed in the media industry for 25+ years, which included TV, Digital, Newspaper and more. Radio was the largest part of that time in my career. I loved it, really loved it. Promotions and marketing was my passion, as is anything I apply myself to in life. I worked for many clusters, companies and various stations ranging from Active Rock, Classic Rock, Top 40 and Country. Yes, I said Country… At the time, I had a bunch a lip piercings and my eyebrow as well. During a meet and greet, Toby Keith told me I looked like I fell in a tackle box! It was insanely funny at the time.
During my radio years, I met many musicians and bands and became great friends with a lot of them. One, in particular, became family to me and they really respected the work ethic I had and moved me out to Los Angeles to work with them. Crazy risk, but I jumped all over it. I officially ended my lengthy radio career and started my music industry one. I originally thought I would be working with the label and business side of things, but things took a massive turn and I would find myself on tour for many years tour managing bands all over the globe. Insane stories, experiences and times that money can’t buy!! I’ve seen the world because of this part of my life and I’m very grateful. Experiencing the people overseas and their passion for music is crazy different than here in the states. Russia in particular!! They’re so appreciative to have bands come to their country and I felt the same about being there with them.
However, I realized that I could only do this part of my career for so long. It didn’t provide a 401K, benefits and we lived tour to tour, like many that live paycheck to paycheck. So, I knew I needed to pursue something with a little more stability. I moved back to Florida from Los Angeles and landed a job in St. Pete, FL in TV, the CBS affiliate in marketing. I left for a year but came back to the station and worked there for about ten years combined.
I found myself in middle management as the Operations Supervisor and I really loved it, but I knew I wanted a change in life on a drastic level. During my time there, I developed a passion for Mental Health awareness, suffering from some issues of my own. Anxiety is not to be taken lightly. I found the courage to get help and make myself better and my life changed.
I started a blog site www.aplaceformyhead.com and it was originally a site for me to get out my frustrations via writing and it quickly turned to something much more important and purposeful. I started to get people that wanted to share their stories and be on the site. It was so rewarding to help these individuals have their message heard. This eventually grew so big, one of my old radio buddies approached me about doing a podcast with him. He owns a company called Radio Influence that is all podcast-based content. We teamed up and launced “A Place For My Head” with myself and Jerry Petuck. We use our social handles to provide an outlet for people that want to talk. @brandonpromo and @jerrypetuck. We stress that we’re not professionals, but we listen and our stories always relate. Knowing we were helping people not feel alone just by storytelling was so rewarding. We continue the show to this day, interviewing all walks of life like doctors, pro wrestlers, pro athletes of all kinds, many musicians and much more.
With mental health being such a huge passion of mine, I wanted to do more and I knew that I couldn’t accomplish my goals while still in media and cooperate America. I took the biggest risk of my life and left the 25+ years I put into media and opened up a Barbershop called Machine Shop Barber Company. This was my dream and I’m living it and it’s amazing.
When I knew I was going to open/build a barbershop, I knew it had to be something very different and special. There’s a lot of competition around me and I knew we would have to stand out to be successful. I feel very proud and accomplished to have built the shop with a ton of people to thank, but from the chairs to the business cards, it came out to be everything I wanted it to be. I wanted a talented work family that worked together and watched out for one another. I’m proud to say I have that. We have that. I never wanted to be the best barbershop in St. Pete, I wanted to be the barbershop that everyone felt welcome and accepted at. For example, that’s why we offer women’s cuts. Why do we have to stick to the tradition? It’s about taking care of everyone and why the hell not??? Let’s be that shop that does it differently.
While getting the barbershop up and running, I started a new company with one of my best friends and now business partner, Diego Verduzco. He’s actually one of the guitarists that I toured with over the years. We started a beard product company that fits the shop very well called Fellowship Brand. We spent countless hours, days, weeks, months, years and so many sleepless nights perfecting our products and it’s starting to pay off and people are loving them. We offer them at Machine Shop, but our website is our main focus for purchasing. fellowshipbrand.com is where you can find all of that. We’re supper proud of what we produced, using only the most premium carrier oils for all things fellowship. I could talk about this company for hours, but I’ll save ya the time. As I said before, I’m passionate about everything I do. In fact, take this to the bank… If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to obsessed with what you do and I mean OBSESSED.
I’m tattooed, pierced, bearded and unapproachable. This coming from some people, but I’m really not. I fall into that stereotype where people think I’m just a freak with tattoos and no ambition and that’s ok. I don’t have a college degree and I really wish I had taken that part of my life a little more seriously, but we are our life choices. That being said, everything that I’ve worked so hard for has been an absolute HUSTLE!!! There’s really no other way to put it…
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Smooth road? Absolutely not! For the barbershop, I signed the lease agreement on March 4th and Covid and the quarantine hit immediately after. I was thankful that the shop wasn’t open during the beginning of the pandemic because that would’ve resulted in a horrible situation for my barbers not being able to work, but it still got me in the end. I had a 90-day buildout negotiated in my agreement, but because of Covid, it took me six months to build and finally open. Paying rent without generating revenue is a very difficult thing and set me back. However, I’m blessed to have a very understanding property management team and landlord that all have been super supportive.
As far as Fellowship Brand goes, my business partner resides in California. We spent the entire time developing the company without ever sitting in person. We’re talking hours and hours on the phone, video chats, numerous packages sent back and forth while accepting failure during the process to get it right. But I’m a fan of failing! It is the best way to learn and stay humble. If you don’t have that characteristic or humility in your life, you’ll never make it.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
When it comes to creativity and being an artist, it might be one of my best qualities. I’m a passionate graphic designer and I learned on my own by digging in. I’ve designed everything I do from head to toe graphically. However, just because I designed it, it doesn’t mean that I didn’t have direction from family, collogues and business partners. No one person can take credit for everything.
Machine Shop Barber Company was developed in my brain and no other place. It’s something I’m super proud of. I wanted a certain look, theme, feel, passion, family, community feel and so much more. It’s my life’s biggest project alongside with Fellowship Brand. The beard company is 50/50 myself and my business partner Diego. The company wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for the two minds on a path to success. We work better together than Forrest Gump and peas and carrots!!
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
I’m a firm believer in positive reinforcement and shut down when I’m in the presence of negative reinforcement. I think both have their pros and cons, but I’ve been taken advantage of quite a bit over the years and sometimes people are nasty. That sounds horrible to say, but when you’re in the presence of people that would rather see you fail rather than focus on their own success, can really take a tole on you. Whatever the reason for it, I will never understand, but that has been a major struggle with in my entire career.
What I learned from this. I’m always going to be me and do me, but when I see this in the workplace, get it the f*ck out!
Contact Info:
- Email: brandon@machineshopbarber.com
- Website: machineshopbarber.com | fellowshipbrand.com | aplaceformyhead.com
- Instagram: @brandonpromo @machineshopbarber @fellowship_brand
- Facebook: @brandonpromo @machineshopbarber @fellowship_brand
- Twitter: @brandonpromo
- Youtube: @fellowshipbrand
Image Credits
Evander Lipps
