Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Palmore.
Hi Brandon, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
I originally got into barbering professionally coming out of high school. My mom thought it would be a good way for me to make money while working throughout college, and it was something that I was already getting pretty good at it so going to school seems like a viable option. I went to college at UCF and cut hair at a barbershop all throughout college to pay for expenses, rent and tuition.
I graduated from UCF in 2010 with a degree in business administration and a minor in Health services administration, because I wanted to work as a hospital administrator. The unfortunate part is that during this time there was a major recession in the country and not many new college grads were getting the jobs of their dreams. After searching for quite some time, I decided to continue to cut hair until the right “job“ in my field opened up for me.
It was actually the barbershop owner that I was working with at the time, Terrell Collins, who encouraged me to make a career out of barbering because he had done so well at it for many years and continued to do so. So from then on, I put forth my full effort to grow a clientele base and continue to grow as a full-time barber, eventually, I ended up getting into education and started working at a small hair school in Lakeland Florida in 2012. I was only there a short time because about six months later I got a job working as a learning leader for the barbering program at Paul Mitchell the School Orlando.
Once I got into education with Paul Mitchell, I completely stepped back from working behind the chair and focused 100% on education I was able to work my way up through Paul Mitchell to become the barbering lead for Paul Mitchell schools and a traveling educator for John Paul Mitchell systems, both roles in which I still currently hold.
In 2016 I decided I really wanted to open my own barbershop, and felt it was the right time to do so. So I took every dime I had saved and borrowed money from family to pursue this business venture because I knew if I didn’t do it then I would always regret it. I opened my first location of Mr. B’s Grooming Lounge on March 1, 2017, and the first year was pretty rough, we were shut down at one point for a couple of weeks due to hurricanes and having no electricity.
After some difficulties during that hurricane season, we relocated to our current location on Fairbanks Avenue and have been there since 2018. Our business was growing exponentially, and we were headed in the right direction and boom Covid shut us down for about 10 to 12 weeks. Thankfully, we’ve seen exponential growth since the return from quarantine and we’re so busy to the point where we are now looking to expand into a second location tentatively scheduled to open late summer of 2022.
For me, this business and this industry have always been about providing opportunities for other people. When I first started cutting hair, I had and still have a great mentor named Richard Sams who would pour into me the importance of not only creating a comfortable environment for all people to get haircuts, but to know and understand that in leadership your number one goal is to do your best to lift the people up around you, and help to create opportunities for others.
The Barbershop is one of the three pillars of any community, it’s a place where people regardless of their gender, race, religion, or any other affiliation can not only come to get a new style or gain confidence from a haircut service, but also interact with people who have different viewpoints and different outlooks. This blending together helps to create a more enlightened society by allowing other people to gain new perspectives from people they wouldn’t normally be around.
The barbershop is one of the only places where this type of thing happens and it’s these places and safe spaces that provide color to our world.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There is been a good amount of bumps throughout the five years we’ve been open, with the biggest one being Covid.
Our entire business model had to change once we came back from quarantine but thankfully we were able to not only adapt to survive, but we adapted to thrive and we’ve continuously done so since.
Post quarantine we moved to a primary appointment-only system of booking, and it has paid very large dividends for us in that it allows us to not only keep people safe by limiting the amount of people in the business but has allowed us to work at a much better pace consistently.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Mr. B’s Grooming Lounge?
I think one of the biggest things for anyone to know about our business is going to be The intentionality of creating a comfortable environment.
Over the years, a lot of barbershops have lost business and really good clientele simply for not providing a consistent atmosphere for anyone to be serviced this is one of the main staples of what we try to excel at and I really believe it sets us apart from other places, another thing I believe that sets us apart is our ability to service whoever walks in the door. Doesn’t matter the hair texture, curl pattern, gender, etc. Everyone on our team is a well-versed skill set wise to be able to provide a great service for anyone.
As a person with an educational background in this industry, being able to recognize talent and train newer barbers is pivotal to our success and thankfully, we have a great team that really does a fantastic job. For us, it’s all about the vibes, and it’s all about the hair.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Where I see our industry going is a fluidity of skill sets and styles.
With the accessibility of social media, guests have more access to ideas and different styles that they want to try, and it’s up to the professionals in this industry to be able to change and adapt to newer styles, even if they don’t personally like them.
By being able to do this it allows for a person to not only stay on top of trends but also expand their clientele because they have an expanded skillset
Contact Info:
- Email: Contact@mrbgrooming.com
- Website: Www.mrbgrooming.com
- Instagram: @barber_phd & @mrbgrooming
Image Credits
@Barber_phd, @bengram23, and @wardellthebarber
Jane Adkins
February 22, 2022 at 7:10 pm
Brandon so proud of you! Watching you growing up , I am so proud of the choices you made. Their is not ceiling in your future! Take it one day at a time! You’ve made us Very Proud!!