Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Hunter.
Brandon, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Well luckily I was born and raised in the greatest city in the world. Growing up I loved everything that had to do with sports and art. My whole life was baseball and basketball as a kid, when I got to high school it felt like I couldn’t catch a break with injuries. I got tired of it and was ready to just focus on school instead of chasing the MLB dreams every kid has. During senior year baseball season our team decided we would all get playoff Mohawks, you know cause it’s a superstitious sport, and my mom has been a hairstylist for 30+ years so she would cut all the boys hair. We bombarded her with this request and for some reason I just felt like I could help her do it, so I did. After doing an internship at home and still cutting hair for some close friends, which shout out to them cause the haircuts were horrible, I left for LA. I went to college and people kept asking for me to cut their hair. As I progressed I fell in love with this craft. I realized it was deeper than hair, it was the conversations and the blank canvas I felt that was never the same and I loved it. At the time I was helping with social content for the school Instagram and learning some illustrator and was designing clothes as well. I had this moment where it all hit me, I was doing too much, I was good at everything and not great at one and it killed me. I chose hair, I wanted to give that craft the 10,000 hours it deserves so I took a break from every other creative medium and started learning from my mentor, big brother, and friend, Tayari. Tayari is a barber in LA that has cut everyone you could imagine, this dude is one of the smoothest dudes in the game. But hair wasn’t all he taught me, in fact his words didn’t teach me this, but it was his listening. I saw what it meant to be someone’s barber. I fell in love with it. He’s one of many amazing mentors in my life and still to this day, the reason I am who I am is because of the village surrounds me. Mentorship and Listening are the two biggest factors in my growth.
Great, 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?
No, and anyone that says it is playing themselves and the people watching. Man there was one point when I was in school I was working 50 hours a week and going to school for 33 hours. 83 hours for a year, with not a day off. I remember getting in my car sometimes leaving work or school crying just asking myself is it worth it. I kept hearing, “this needs to happen for that to happen.” I love business, thoroughly love entrepreneurship and risk and innovation and I know what it comes with, it comes with some huge sacrifices and for a young 21 year old it’s hard to say no to certain things. Unfortunately, this is the part of the story no one tells and I hate that, I try to be open to people that ask when it comes to the challenges. Life, business, relationships are all seasonal, some are harder than others and the only thing that keeps you going is your “why”. Everything has a shelf life, good ideas, good products, good business models, they all come and go. I think people focus too much on the what and how and not enough on the why. That’s where the heart is found. I’ve come to peace with not ever being satisfied, I don’t know if the mountaintop exists really. If you are a business owner, or a human being, it’s okay to get comfortable running uphill a little bit, growth and development lives in the hard times.
What do you do? What do you specialize in?
I am an owner of Sound Cuts and do some creative direction for an agency on the side. I specialize in building community and brand strategy. Sound Cuts is just an extension of that along with everything I touch. I also am working on a vintage sports brand called Our Era and some media stuff on the side but we can talk about that in 2020. Right now it’s all about Sound Cuts, our barbershops are about people above profit and that’s what makes me most proud. It may be an unorthodox business strategy but I believe that excellence should live in relationships and in craft but relationships before craft. We want to make this place feel like home, while still maintaining a modern elevated experience. We definitely stick out in Del Mar & Encinitas because we aren’t what you expect but that was very intentional. Sometimes, being counter-cultural is actually what people want.
Who have you been inspired by?
A lot of hip-hop, fashion and sports. Growing up the first explicit album I ever got was 808s & Heartbreak by Kanye. I was in 7th grade and I didn’t quite understand what I loved about his music so much but I think it was my love for his story and I understood it. My favorite artist, Brian Donnelly who goes by KAWS, designed the cover for Kanye and everything about that project still to this day inspires me. True Story if I feel creatively stagnant I play that album front to back and it takes me to another place. If you watch the Forbes interview they just did with Ye, it’s incredible, his artistry and process of thinking. It’s dramatized sometimes but from afar I can appreciate how intentional he is. He’s such a misunderstood person and I’ve felt that so strongly in my life. It feels like people need to ask more questions and have more conversation and less assumptions. Like, I mentioned before a huge inspiration of mine is the mentors in my life, the people around me are constantly teaching me and I’m here for it all, teachability is a really humbling quality to carry and I find a ton of inspiration in that. Lastly, I observe other people’s movements so much when it comes to business and art. I look at every billboard, think of the budget of every commercial and what audience they are targeting, I read as much as possible, guess the production costs of clothing and what the margins are, I’m always watching everyone simply because I love how creative this generation is, they don’t get enough credit but I’m thankful in my life I grew up in such an innovative time. Good or bad, innovative nonetheless and that’s inspiring to me.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2710 Via De La Valle suite #49
Del Mar, Ca 92014 - Website: Soundcuts.co BussleCreative.com
- Phone: 7604190843
- Email: bhunt@soundcuts.co
- Instagram: @bhunt.sd @soundcuts
Processed with VSCO with f1 preset
Image Credit:
Taylor Scalise, Carlo Aranda, Brandon Hunter
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