In this episode recorded in October of 2018, we interview Frankie Delgado. Frankie is an Area Coach at Sport Clips in Southern California and an Artistic Team Member. In this podcast, we follow her journey from Barber School to the big stage at events like Caper, BarberCon and Huddle. On Instagram @frankie_d_fadez
| Episode Air Date |
Guest Name |
Guest Title |
Topic(s) |
| October 17, 2018 |
Frankie Delgado |
Coach and Artistic Team Member |
Career from barber school to Sport Clips Artistic Team |
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Transcription:
Chad Jordan: All right. Hey everybody. This is Chad Jordan. I'm the Director of Marketing for Digital Services at Sport Clips Haircuts. This is another edition of our Hall of Fame podcast. Super stoked today. I'm in beautiful Southern California and I'm with one of my favorite people, and I'm going to let her go and introduce herself.
Frankie Delgado: Good afternoon. This is Frankie Delgado. I am from Southern California, born and raised. I am currently in San Diego, California. I am an area coach and I am also part of the Sport Clips National Artistic Team.
Chad Jordan: She's not just part of, she's one of the baddest members of it. So, everybody knows who Frankie is. She is super popular, and like I already said, she's one of my favorites. And last year I was at the coaches’ hurdle, just randomly. I think it was also TLTC 2 or something.
And I was there the day that they announced the new artistic team members and I feel like I … because I think I was presenting at the time in the room next door so that whatever insanity was going on with you guys and I can still feel the earth shake when you guys all found out who was going to be on the artistic team and the celebration and just the energy in that room.
Can you describe, kind of take me back to when you got named to the artistic team and what emotions were going through your head at the time?
Frankie Delgado: They actually made us wait till the very last minute. So right before we were going to take off, nobody knew when they were going to announce it. So nobody knew who tried out. So right when they announced it I was really, really nervous and they pretty much just put our pictures up there and then-
Chad Jordan: That's how they announced it?
Frankie Delgado: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Frankie Delgado: Then they announced our names afterwards so I got …
Chad Jordan: What, did they put all the candidates’ pictures up there or just the people that had gotten added?
Frankie Delgado: The put all three of us that got added at that time, our pictures up.
Chad Jordan: Okay. Who else was added when you got in?
Frankie Delgado: We had Brittany, Baden and then we also had Tiffany Allen.
Chad Jordan: Okay, yeah. Then what? It's just a massive party?
Frankie Delgado: So then we get to go up there.
Chad Jordan: Do you have to cut hair in front of everybody?
Frankie Delgado: No.
Chad Jordan: You have that little routine that you had practiced just in case or?
Frankie Delgado: No. You know I didn't even know what to do. I actually looked back on it because my team, they recorded it. It was basically just hugs to the senior members of the team and a lot of them I've already known, so it was really cool to be up there with them. But I went back and I looked at it and it was funny because I passed up Julie Vargas and she's like one of my mentors, one of my favorites and if I think back I'm like, “Man, I should have hugged her first.”
Chad Jordan: Yeah, she probably deserved.
Frankie Delgado: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: But in the euphoria of it all maybe you kind of blacked out, right?
Frankie Delgado: Exactly.
Chad Jordan: It was just an outer body experience for you.
Frankie Delgado: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: So now you're on the artistic team, tell me what are … give me some highlights? What are the best parts of it?
Frankie Delgado: So my first show ever, probably a month after in January after I get on the team, we had one training, we go to Caper, Paul Mitchell Caper.
Chad Jordan: Okay, that's Florida or where was it?
Frankie Delgado: It was actually at Disneyland.
Chad Jordan: Okay, here?
Frankie Delgado: Yeah. So it was in Anaheim, California. It was my first show and just interacting with all those students and seeing how hyped up they are to meet you. I'm a regular person, I get up every day and just do regular stuff.
Chad Jordan: Right, yeah.
Frankie Delgado: I'm not anybody, you know? But just seeing how pumped up they were to meet me and talk to me and pick my brain that fills me. I would say that's the highlight is the students and watching them get that aha moment or just you talking to them for five minutes how it just brightens up their day. It was that.
Caper was most definitely and it was with the whole team. So it was one of the times I got to perform with the senior artistic team members.
Chad Jordan: Okay, so everybody was there, okay.
Frankie Delgado: Everybody was there.
Chad Jordan: Cool.
Frankie Delgado: It was awesome. Then we did the Dallas Gala for the Mansfield's and that was cool.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, right before Hurdle, right?
Frankie Delgado: Right, right before Hurdle.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: But while I was in Dallas, Julie informs me that Barber Con has invited us to come over and for the first time ever we have a classroom.
Chad Jordan: This is what, New York City?
Frankie Delgado: It's New York City.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: We're in New York City, we're in Queens and it's a big deal for us to be invited to something like that.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: I remember getting up once-
Chad Jordan: But those are your peeps. I mean?
Frankie Delgado: Those are my peeps.
Chad Jordan: Yeah exactly.
Frankie Delgado: But sometimes the view of Sports Clips, because people are not aware of what we do and who we are, is a little different. So my goal was to change the perception of people.
Chad Jordan: Nice.
Frankie Delgado: So I remember we had one spot … We had several spots on stage throughout the weekend, but the first spot we had was when we were able to go out there and introduce ourselves. I remember the first thing that I said was that I really wanted to see us uplifting each other and supporting each other and I wanted to bridge that gap between stylist and barbers, and I really wanted to see us supporting each other as an industry because if we can do that, we can grow and we can just do so many cool things.
Chad Jordan: Yeah. How did that go over when you said it?
Frankie Delgado: You know what? We were actually welcomed with arms wide open from DL the Barber, from just … A lot of people didn't know what we did. So that was our chance to show them. We had a classroom and I remember us, it was me, Erin, Krystal and Julian, the famous Julian.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: So we were up there presenting with him and we were thinking, “Is anybody going to come to our classroom? Who cares? Even if they don't, at least we're here.”
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: We had a great showing. People were coming to our booth, taking pictures, people showed up to our classroom. So for me that was not only one of the highlights of being part of the artistic team, but one of the highlights of my career as a whole. It was just a great experience and there's nothing like it.
Chad Jordan: You know that one of the things that I'm obsessed with is finding out someone's journey, the beginning, middle, not the end but the now of their story. So take me back, if you don't mind, take me back. Let's just get to the beginning, where did you get your start, how did all that start to happen for you?
Frankie Delgado: Well I was a teenager in the late 90s. So there was a lot of-
Chad Jordan: Right when I graduating college, thank you so much for reminding that.
Frankie Delgado: Sorry.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Frankie Delgado: There were just a lot of people cutting their own hair, a lot of people experimenting with haircuts and just … I started off with my brothers first, kind of giving them that step cut, no blend. I remember my parents taking them to get flattops, early days barber shops. So I've been around the barber shop for most of my life.
I was going from job to job. It was meaningless work. It wasn't really fulfilling for me and I just started cutting hair. I started cutting my own hair. So my hair went short when I was about 18. My mom flipped out but she got over it. So I started off cutting my own hair and like I said, I was going from job to job, wasn't really fulfilled and one day it kind of clicked for me like, “Hey I can do this naturally, I have a passion for it, I can get paid for it.”
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: So it literally one day-
Chad Jordan: Everything clicked.
Frankie Delgado: It just clicked for me.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: So I went to the barber college in Anaheim, California. I applied. I was waiting for my financial aid to go through and from there it just kind of …
Chad Jordan: So because of your experience you had been cutting mostly guy's hair.
Frankie Delgado: Right.
Chad Jordan: So the barber route, that's kind of where you were heading. You did full service.
Frankie Delgado: I dabbled with my mom and they'll probably laugh if they hear this, and my grandma. I grew up dying their hair but with the bottle, so it was always a thing for me. Mom would always-
Chad Jordan: Don't be giving away their secrets now for everybody listening to it.
Frankie Delgado: You know my mom would always-
Chad Jordan: That's their natural hair color, come on Frankie.
Frankie Delgado: My mom and my grandma would always have me dye their hair so it was just like something that we did as a family naturally. It was pretty cool.
Chad Jordan: Yeah. So this is now … So we're still in the late 90s when you finished … When did you finish school?
Frankie Delgado: I think it was 2010.
Chad Jordan: Okay, all right. So you just kind of did side stuff all the while?
Frankie Delgado: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: So it clicked for you.
Frankie Delgado: Actually right out of high school, well I got my GD and then I got into a scholarship program. I went to EMT school.
Chad Jordan: What?
Frankie Delgado: Yeah. I went to EMT school.
Chad Jordan: Life saver.
Frankie Delgado: I got halfway through. Once I started realizing what the job was, meaning like one day we went from being where babies were born and then the next moment we were downstairs in the morgue. And for me I'm a very sensitive, emotional person.
Chad Jordan: There are a lot of highs and lows in that job, yeah.
Frankie Delgado: Yeah, and we started going on ride-alongs with the Compton Fire Department and it was really hard for me to separate myself. When you would see older people I would think of my grandmother.
Chad Jordan: Right.
Frankie Delgado: Young guys I would think of my brothers. So for me it was really hard for me to separate myself. So I realized that that probably wasn't the job for me.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: I'm still like, “Okay no, this is not for me either.”
Chad Jordan: So was, and struggle is probably not the right word, but I mean you were kind of navigating your way through those early years of your career trying to find your purpose, right, trying to find your center, what is going to make you feel fulfilled, trying to find your passion, I guess. So it all clicks and then after the massage stuff, is that when barber school starts or?
Frankie Delgado: No, it was still probably another five, six years.
Chad Jordan: And as if somebody finally just says, “Hey, maybe you should do this,” or did it just?
Frankie Delgado: It was actually my mom.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Frankie Delgado: Me and my mom are really, really close. I grew up in Buena Park, California. I had a really good life. We lived in a pretty suburban neighborhood. But I just grew up really close to my mom. So my mom has always encouraged me to do whatever I wanted regardless of what it was and she saw that I had a passion for it and she was like, “You can get paid for it.”
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: So at that time I went back home and I was living back with my mom. So my mom really encouraged me to get out there and do something and just try it out. I mean you never … She was like, “You never know, it could be the best choice of your life,” and she ended up being right.
Chad Jordan: Was there a comfort level for you, because you had already for years been cutting hair, when you walked into barber school like I can do this or were there still some butterflies and some nerves thinking, “What if I don't like this?”
Frankie Delgado: No, I felt at home.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Frankie Delgado: When I walked in there, I was like, “Okay this-“
Chad Jordan: This is where I belong.
Frankie Delgado: This feels good.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: I feel like I belong here and yeah, as soon as I went in there, I went to The Real Barbers College of Anaheim. The owner, Mr. Augie, rest in peace, he died several years ago, he was actually in the Navy and he cut hair on a navy ship for many, many years.
Chad Jordan: Wow.
Frankie Delgado: So I happened to walk into the right place.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: And immediately it clicked for me.
Chad Jordan: Then how do you transition? Let's introduce Sport Clips into this. Where does that start to come into the picture?
Frankie Delgado: At this point I had bills to pay. So my partner was like, “Hey, there's Sport Clips.” And I was like, “Sport Clips, ey?”
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Frankie Delgado: In school they talk about franchises, they talk about booth rental, they talk about this, and being a barber it really wasn't an option that they put out there for us. Barbering is a pretty traditional craft and they have not rules but there's a culture to it. So the way that they explained it to us it was like, “You don't want to go to Sport Clips.”
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: But I saw my partner and her being able to be a single mom and make money and provide for her family and have a flexible schedule and what not, it took a little bit of convincing. Well it was more like you're going to do this.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, right. It made too much sense not to give it a try.
Frankie Delgado: Right, because I struggled. I went back and forth, worked at the barber shop, it wasn't working out. So she got me an interview. She came home one day and she was like, “I got you an interview for Cypress 505.” So I said okay. Got to the interview, I was hired on the spot.
Chad Jordan: When can you start, kind of thing, yeah.
Frankie Delgado: I pretty much started the next day, yeah.
Chad Jordan: Yeah. As a what? Team member, assistant manager, key holder?
Frankie Delgado: I started as a team member but what really clicked for me at Sport Clips was the assistant manager at the time was on maternity leave, so they asked me to be acting assistant manager.
Chad Jordan: Had you ever managed at any of those shops you'd been to?
Frankie Delgado: No.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Frankie Delgado: So I got to go to a leadership. So it was my first leadership ever.
Chad Jordan: What year are we looking at here? What year is this?
Frankie Delgado: Say 2012, I think.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Frankie Delgado: 2012, I'm pretty sure.
Chad Jordan: Is this one of the Dave & Buster's Leadership?
Frankie Delgado: Yes.
Chad Jordan: Really, okay, that was cool.
Frankie Delgado: It was one of the Dave & Buster's Leaderships in Irvine.
Chad Jordan: Cool, all right. Yeah, the spectrum.
Frankie Delgado: So my manager at the time invited me to go to leadership. I had no idea what was in store for me or what I was even going to. I get there and right away I fall in love with the culture of Sport Clips. My operations coach at the time, Sara Sandelovic, she's no longer with us, she's with North Carolina now.
Chad Jordan: Yeah I know. Sara was in California and in Texas? She's from Texas, right?
Frankie Delgado: She's from Georgetown.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: She went to school with Edward.
Chad Jordan: Oh Sara, my goodness.
Frankie Delgado: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: I didn't know she was in California too, that's cool.
Frankie Delgado: Yeah, so she was the operations coach, she doesn't cut hair. But I fell in love with her energy and just the culture. They sat us down with other managers and just the way that people talk to you was uplifting. And from there I was just like yeah.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, this is what you wanted.
Frankie Delgado: I like it.
Chad Jordan: Yeah. It probably didn't … So did you ever relinquish assistant manager? How did that … Because once she came back from maternity leave what …?
Frankie Delgado: She came back and she kept on coming back and forth and it was funny because I was there for two years and she had two babies in the course of me being there. They never really made me assistant manager but I was acting assistant manager and just …
Chad Jordan: Yeah, and everybody viewed you as that.
Frankie Delgado: Just the way that I am I'm going to do 110% regardless of the title or not. I met Tara Crawford who was our area coach, operational coach for Southern California now.
Chad Jordan: What was she then?
Frankie Delgado: She was a technical coach then.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Frankie Delgado: She was me.
Chad Jordan: Okay, yeah.
Frankie Delgado: She was running the San Diego area, teaching classes in Irvine. I remember she came for a success check and it was really slow, so she was like we're going to role play the 5-point play and I was like, “Okay, I got this. No big deal, I do it every day.”
So we're role playing and the girl that I was role playing with, she wasn't too good on her 5-point play. So I was kind of giving her …
Chad Jordan: Yeah trying to, yeah.
Frankie Delgado: Pointers out of my breath, trying to help her out. Tara took me in the back and she was like, “Hey, I remember you from class. You stuck out to me.” She's like, “Are you looking to move up?” And I'm like … I kind of joked around with her and I was like, “Well what are the positions opened?” She's like, “Well I'm in San Diego.” And I was like, “Yeah.”
The store that I was at, it was Sport Clips but I knew there was something more. I knew there was something more to the company, I knew there was other things, I knew the culture was bigger and I knew that I wasn't really experiencing it 110%. So I reached out to her and I'm like, “Hey, I want something more.” Got home that night, talked to my partner, who is now my wife, and I was like, “What about San Diego?” It was just …
Chad Jordan: Because you're living … Where are you?
Frankie Delgado: We're in Cypress, California still.
Chad Jordan: Cypress, okay yeah.
Frankie Delgado: And I'm telling her like …
Chad Jordan: This is going to take … You're going to have to completely move to go to San Diego.
Frankie Delgado: Right.
Chad Jordan: This is not a commute.
Frankie Delgado: I just threw it out there. I was just joking around, literally joking around, and I was like, “What about San Diego?” And she was like, “Okay.” I was like, “What?” She was like-
Chad Jordan: There are worse cities to live than San Diego, California.
Frankie Delgado: Right.
Chad Jordan: Let me tell you. That's got to be the top five in the country, so.
Frankie Delgado: So I threw it out there and she was like, “Yeah.” And I was like, “Well I got a job already.” And she was like, “You do?” I was like, “Yeah with Sport Clips.” She was still working for Sport Clips at the time as well.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Frankie Delgado: I said, “You know I think we both got jobs out there. I'm not sure what we'll be doing but we'll be set up.” So I hit Tara up and she's like, “Yeah, come on down.” She's team leader of two stores now, by this time. So she's team leader of CA 405, Del Mar.
Chad Jordan: Who is?
Frankie Delgado: Tara Crawford.
Chad Jordan: She's a team leader too?
Frankie Delgado: Yes she is.
Chad Jordan: What?
Frankie Delgado: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: Oh my mind just blew all over the wall here.
Frankie Delgado: Yes.
Chad Jordan: So we're going to have to clean that up later. I didn't realize that, okay.
Frankie Delgado: Yes, and then she's also team leader of CA 402. So she was like, “I want to bring you in to Clairemont. She's like it's pretty similar to Cypress.” And it was going to be a change for me because you got to realize that I grew up in Cypress so every person that walked into that Sport Clips I literally knew or I went to school with or I'm now cutting their kid's hair. So it was a lot different for me but we went for it and we literally packed up our son once my son finishes fifth grade year and we moved to San Diego.
Chad Jordan: Did he get a vote?
Frankie Delgado: He did not.
Chad Jordan: Okay, all right.
Frankie Delgado: He did not.
Chad Jordan: How did that conversation go, do you remember?
Frankie Delgado: It was difficult because he had gone to the same school his whole life.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, I can imagine.
Frankie Delgado: But we wanted to make him realize that we grew up in the same area, my wife grew up in Hawaiian Gardens, California, which is not one of the places to grow up.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: We didn't want him-
Chad Jordan: Misleading name, yeah.
Frankie Delgado: Right, very misleading name. One of the smallest cities in California but we wanted something better for him. We wanted him to grow up in a different environment than we did because we just wanted better for him.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: So to explain to a fifth grader that we wanted to better his life it was hard but he’s a good kid so he went with it. He went with it and we just came to San Diego.
Chad Jordan: He's now a junior in high school.
Frankie Delgado: He's a sophomore.
Chad Jordan: Sophomore.
Frankie Delgado: He just turned 16 a couple of weeks ago.
Chad Jordan: Football player?
Frankie Delgado: Football player, yeah. Football player, athlete, he’s a good kid.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, about 50% of your Facebook or social media posts are your son related.
Frankie Delgado: He's my pride and joy.
Chad Jordan: So I kind of keep track of how things are going at home with him.
Frankie Delgado: Yeah, he’s my pride and joy.
Chad Jordan: So that's cool. Okay, you make it down. You're now at, what's the store number that you're managing?
Frankie Delgado: CA 402.
Chad Jordan: So you're at CA 402. You're the manager.
Frankie Delgado: I'm the assistant manager.
Chad Jordan: Assistant manager.
Frankie Delgado: They bring me in as an assistant manager, nobody knows who I am. So I walk in there.
Chad Jordan: Oh man.
Frankie Delgado: I'm getting looks.
Chad Jordan: Right.
Frankie Delgado: Like who's this person.
Chad Jordan: Who does she think she is?
Frankie Delgado: Yes. Took them a couple of weeks to warm up to me. But after that just treating people with kindness and just being genuine with your intentions and just showing them that you do want them to grow and you want them to be successful as well. That's what worked for me. A lot of people always ask me how did you get to where you're at and it was really that simple. It was just being myself and just wanting everybody to succeed.
Chad Jordan: There's a trick to being yourself. That works when you're cool, nice, whatever.
Frankie Delgado: Right.
Chad Jordan: So yeah, you were yourself but yourself you had good stuff to work with in terms of I've seen how you handle your people and your business, and that certainly has paid off. So, you're at the store, you're still not a coach, right? I mean you're still a …
Frankie Delgado: No.
Chad Jordan: So walk me through you're assistant manager for how long and?
Frankie Delgado: I'm assistant manager for about a month and we had three coaches. Yeah, we had three coaches, three full time coaches and we right then and there we were doing a lot with Help a Hero. We were working with Marinello, the school. We had an internship program where their students were coming in and playing coordinators. So our receptionist with us, for those of you that don't know what that is.
And they asked me one day to come to an event, and it was a Help a Hero event, and what we were doing is we were matching up with Marinello and our company, the San Diego area, and we were giving free manicures and free haircuts to veterans. They said, “Francine, Frankie, do you want to be a part of it?” And I said, “Yeah.”
I remember getting there to Carlsbad. It was the event and my manager had asked Sara, I don't know if Sara remembers this, “I'm just curious is Frankie going to get paid for this?” And Sara looked at me dead in the eye and said, “Do you want to be here?” I said, “Yeah. My stepfather was in the army. I have several family members that are veterans and that serve in this service, absolutely I want to be here.” She said, “Well this is voluntary.”
Chad Jordan: Right.
Frankie Delgado: I said, “Cool, awesome. What are we going to do? Let's cut some hair.” I did that event, a week later they asked me to be a hair model for a, what we call an ambassador now, there wasn't ambassador then, it was just a school visit. So they said, “Hey Frankie, we like your hair. Will you be a hair model?” I said, “Yeah, cool.”
So we show up to the team and we wanted to show them the whole layout. So we had Ron there, our team leader, we had Sara there, we had Tara there, we had a manager there, we had an assistant manager and team members there. We had a full team there.
Chad Jordan: So Spencer sent Ron but he wouldn't come?
Frankie Delgado: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: Okay. I don't want anybody touching this, okay.
Frankie Delgado: We'll talk about that later.
Chad Jordan: Okay, all fair.
Frankie Delgado: So we're doing the presentation and not knowing that they're looking for a new coach because one of the coaches are going to phase themselves out, they had a girl lined up to come and speak to the barber students. So I'm thinking I'm just there to get my hair cut.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: Never talked in front of a crowd. I've never even thought about education.
Chad Jordan: What? Are you serious? Okay. All right.
Frankie Delgado: Didn't even know that that was where I was going. Well the girl didn't show up and it was her turn to speak. Tara and Sara looked at me and they were like, “You're up.” And I was like, “What?”
Chad Jordan: Say that again? Come again? Record scratch.
Frankie Delgado: Yeah and keep in mind we're in a room full of barbers. Not just stylists but barbers, my peers.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: So I already knew what kind of questions were going to come up. Well you don't use a straight razor, you're being timed, this and this. So I look at Tara and I'm like, “Well what do you want me to say?” She's like, “Tell them about your experience. You're a barber. You can relate to them.” So they pushed me up there.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, they threw the baby into the pool and they made you swim.
Frankie Delgado: Yeah, they pushed me up there and I … I mean it went by really fast. I don't really even remember. I do remember there was one guy in there that was giving me a hard time. He had his headphones in and he was just throwing all these questions at me and I was just spitting them back out to him and that was it. I was like, “Oh, don't ever do that to me again.” You know? Got through it, didn't think anything of it. The girl ended up showing up afterwards. Yeah.
Chad Jordan: Did you get the time wrong or?
Frankie Delgado: I guess.
Chad Jordan: Or maybe it was fake, you know that?
Frankie Delgado: I'm thinking that, you know? I'm thinking that. A week later I get a message from Tara and Sara on email and they're like, “We need to speak to you immediately.” I'm like, “Oh man.”
Chad Jordan: Busted.
Frankie Delgado: ”What did I do?” You know?
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: I'm used to being the troublemaker. I don't remember doing anything wrong. So they sat me down and they were, “I don't know if you know this but we're looking for a coach and you killed it. You killed it. We love your energy. We love the way you handled the crowd and we want to offer you this position.” I was like, “Me?”
Chad Jordan: Right, you're looking around, “Hey wait, who you're talking to?”
Frankie Delgado: Literally.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: I was like, “Me? Are you sure?” They were like, “Yeah.” That's one of the things that I remember the most is really Sara, she believed in me in that … Every time I see her, I just give her a hug. I remember when I got announced to be on part of the artistic team, she was really emotional.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: It was kind of one of those things where you're like you don't want to look at your mom because you know your mom is crying and then you're going to cry.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, you're going to lose it.
Frankie Delgado: Yes. It was really emotional for us. She really believed in me. She really pushed me to just be out of my comfort zone and being a barber I wasn't really taught the way that most of our stylists were. So my expertise was in fading and tapering and they didn't really teach us how to use scissors and …
Chad Jordan: Right.
Frankie Delgado: So I'm thinking like you guys want me to teach people how to do these things and I'm not even sure that I know them myself.
Chad Jordan: You're not as comfortable with it, yeah.
Frankie Delgado: But just the training program, just the way that the coaches are trained and the way that we're trained technically I would say it's brought me on a whole other level in my career and that's just Sport Clips. It has nothing to do with any other education that I've gotten. It's literally Sport Clips. Obviously my wife is a cosmetologist, so she had a big influence as well in me … showing me the ropes as well.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: But it was really … I remember my first month of coaching, they literally sat me down with a doll head and I was just sectioning it and parting it, sectioning it and parting it, holding my sheers, trying to build up my dexterity. So I didn't really jump on the floor for a while. It took me some time to get used to the fact that I was going to be teaching people.
But once I got comfortable with it, it was like, “Man, not only am I barbering, but now I'm teaching? Now I'm on cloud nine.” I can't even explain to you the feeling that I got from that. It was just like, I felt like, and I don't want to get religious, but I felt like God showed me my path.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: Even though it was later in my life, and I always talk to my mom about it. I was apologizing to my mom, I wish that I would have pushed to do this earlier. And she's like, “No, everything happens for a reason. Maybe you weren't mature enough to handle all this at that time.”
Chad Jordan: For sure, yeah.
Frankie Delgado: So it's kind of how I got to where I'm at now.
Chad Jordan: Yeah. That's the crazy thing. What a journey. It wasn't a straight line.
Frankie Delgado: No, it wasn't. It wasn't at all.
Chad Jordan: There were a lot of circles and loops and jagged edges and dips and so now you've been a coach then for how long?
Frankie Delgado: Actually October 1st is my four year anniversary of being a coach.
Chad Jordan: Okay, all right.
Frankie Delgado: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: So within three years you were named to the artistic team. Had that been the first time you had applied?
Frankie Delgado: Tara was pushing me to apply and apply. I didn't feel like I fit the team or the image that they were looking for at that point, it was just my perception. I didn't really know much about them. I had just seen them at the coaches’ hurdle. I had just seen them when they would perform. I thought they were awesome. Obviously people that I looked up to.
And the first year Tara pushed me I was like, “No.” Second year came along, they asked for applications, I still said no. Well they opened up their applications only to California. We got a message straight to Ron saying that we're looking for Californian coaches.
Chad Jordan: Wow.
Frankie Delgado: Tara looked at me and she was like …
Chad Jordan: This has got to be … You got to apply.
Frankie Delgado: They're trying to get you. I'm like, “Man no.” So Julie Vargas, my lovely Julie Vargas-
Chad Jordan: Whom you passed up when you went to go get a-
Frankie Delgado: Yeah, so I'm sorry Julie. But we've had many hugs in between there.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, since then.
Frankie Delgado: She reached out to me and Tara and she's like, “Hey, we have this video shoot going on in West Lake, California and we're using Ron's store and we want you guys to be a part of it.” I'm like, “What?” They were like, “Yeah, it's a whole video shoot. We're going to do haircuts, kind of a commercial, infomercial, we want you guys to be in it.” And I was like, “All right, cool.” So we get there.
Chad Jordan: Isn't Tara in that one?
Frankie Delgado: Tara is in that one as well.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, okay.
Frankie Delgado: DeLisa Foreman is up in there too. So I do my haircuts and it's funny because my last one I cut myself, I'm so nervous I cut myself and I'm like, “Dude, really? Really?” Like out of all times I'm going to cut myself. But the videos ended up really good. In my opinion, I think that was Julie's kind of my try out for her. I don't know, she could maybe tell me different.
Come to find out, they had already been kind of looking at me because of my social media post, I started doing live posts, I started doing live posts of my classes, tutorials, stuff like that. But they had already-
Chad Jordan: Getting yourself out there.
Frankie Delgado: Trying to get myself out there, exactly.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: Not just myself but my market.
Chad Jordan: Yes.
Frankie Delgado: I mean we're so full of so many talented stylists and we do so many cool things and I was like, “Man, people need to know about this.” So I just started getting out there on social media.
So then finally I got the galls and I just applied and I said, I remember talking to my wife and I remember talking to my mom and I just said, “Man if …” My mom always taught me something that if something is for you, it's already for you. It's already written in the sky for you. Your story is already written.
Chad Jordan: You just got to step into it.
Frankie Delgado: Yeah, it's already written for you. So my mom and my wife they were like, “If it's for you it's going to happen and if it's not, it's not the end of the world. At least you tried, and you know?”
Chad Jordan: It's like when one door is closed another one opens kind of philosophy.
Frankie Delgado: Right.
Chad Jordan: You just got to keep jiggling the handles and see which one opens up for you.
Frankie Delgado: Right, yeah.
Chad Jordan: Then this must have been your first hurdle performing in front of …
Frankie Delgado: Yes.
Chad Jordan: Now you're in front of all your Sport Clips peeps, right? So walk me through, and then I'll get to my 10 questions, I'll wrap it up for you. But walk me through that because you guys rocked it.
Frankie Delgado: It was actually probably one of the most … I was the most nervous out of any time.
Chad Jordan: Really? Because it was Sport Clips related and that was where the eyeballs are on you?
Frankie Delgado: Those were my people, you know?
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Frankie Delgado: And Caper there was almost 4,000 people in the audience when we performed. The performance that we did we had already performed at Caper. We just changed it up a little bit because the stage was different. But I was so excited to show, not only Southern Californian, but to show all of Sport Clips around the nation what we do and how passionate we are to educate them. It was … We talked about it off tape or off the recording.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: And it's almost like a euphoria that you get from performing, like a natural high. And I remember they were showing our videos before we got up there, like, “Hey, I'm Frankie. They were showing our videos and I remember when my video came up they were making fun of me because everybody went wild.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: And that really pumped me up. Afterwards I made sure that I went, not behind the stage, that I went outside because California finally got to be up in the front.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: So I made sure that I went and I gave props and dabs to all my people and they were just so excited for me and they were just so supportive and I'm just so grateful for them. I really, really am.
Chad Jordan: Well obviously California loves you, you're homegrown talent and a rock star and all the Sport Clips loves you, which is why you got that great ovation. What we did talk about off air is how exciting it is to get in front of a crowd.
Frankie Delgado: Right.
Chad Jordan: And people are often wondering are you nervous or whatever. No, I'm ready for this. I want to celebrate being up there with everybody and in front of everybody and I want to return the energy they're giving us, we hope to return to them. And you guys do it as an artistic team every single time.
Frankie Delgado: Thank you.
Chad Jordan: So hats off, kudos there. All right, let me do this because you got a long drive ahead of you. You got to get back but I want to get through the 10 questions that I can't ask a follow-up to. So even if they're a bad answer I got to let you live with it.
Frankie Delgado: Okay.
Chad Jordan: Number one, which super power would you most like to have?
Frankie Delgado: You know what, I knew you were going to ask this because I listen to all your podcasts. So I was thinking about it on my way here and I was trying to figure out how to word it and I was like basically a super power to create peace among people.
Chad Jordan: What? Like a magic wand.
Frankie Delgado: Like a magic wand. Like if you see somebody beefing or just anywhere, be able to just instantly create peace.
Chad Jordan: Okay, I'm going to hashtag peace wand. That's what we're going to call that.
Frankie Delgado: Okay.
Chad Jordan: I like it, that's awesome. What is your personal motto?
Frankie Delgado: My personal motto? Just be who you are and own it.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, and you talked about that earlier, be genuine.
Frankie Delgado: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: So that's something you're obviously living by. Number three, other than where you live now, which we've already said is one of the top five places ever, where else in the world would you most like to live?
Frankie Delgado: I would probably say somewhere and go back to my culture, somewhere in Mexico on the beach.
Chad Jordan: Okay, Cancún or Cabo or?
Frankie Delgado: No, more from where my wife is from. She's from León, Guanajuato and it's one of the last colonial cities in the world. So yeah I would want to live in León or Guanajuato.
Chad Jordan: Who was the celebrity you'd most like to meet one day?
Frankie Delgado: A celebrity that I would most like to meet one day? That's a hard one. I don't know. I would say … Well he’s a celebrity in my eyes but he’s an athlete and I would say-
Chad Jordan: Okay, yeah that counts.
Frankie Delgado: Erin Rodgers.
Chad Jordan: Erin, okay.
Frankie Delgado: The greatest quarterback of all time.
Chad Jordan: Okay, all right. So Green Bay. Okay, that's definitely a celebrity. I mean, yeah, future hall of famer.
Frankie Delgado: Yeah, all right. Shout out Erin Rodgers, we'll get him on the podcast soon. Which words-
Frankie Delgado: He lives in San Diego by the way.
Chad Jordan: What?
Frankie Delgado: Yeah, he has a home there.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, because he went to Cal, right?
Frankie Delgado: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: So he’s from California. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Frankie Delgado: I say um a lot. That's my filler word.
Chad Jordan: You'll see that when you come back and read the transcript for this.
Frankie Delgado: Oh, yeah, that's why we talked about the voice thing.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Frankie Delgado: I would say sweet or cool or dude. Those are my overused phrases.
Chad Jordan: So you have a couple. What sound or noise do you love?
Frankie Delgado: Clippers, clipper over comb. The clipper hitting the … yeah.
Chad Jordan: All right. What sound or noise do you hate?
Frankie Delgado: A door slamming.
Chad Jordan: Okay, that gets you.
Frankie Delgado: Yes.
Chad Jordan: All right. What profession, other than your own, and you tried a few, would you have been good at or at least have wanted to try?
Frankie Delgado: I did a lot of performing, not in front of a lot of people but in high school I did a lot of … I was part of a show choir and then I was also a cheerleader up until eighth grade.
Chad Jordan: What?
Frankie Delgado: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: I got to see those throwback Thursday pictures.
Frankie Delgado: No. I think those are hid away somewhere.
Chad Jordan: Man, no way. I'm going to find those.
Frankie Delgado: So some type of performing of some type.
Chad Jordan: Okay. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Frankie Delgado: Raising a very, very talented, smart, young man.
Chad Jordan: I love it. And if heaven indeed exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?
Frankie Delgado: Welcome Frankie. You did all that you could and you belong here.
Chad Jordan: I love that answer, and love you, love all your energy and your passion for Sport Clips and your job and your people. Thank you so much Frankie and looking forward to all the great things that are going to be coming from you.
Frankie Delgado: Thanks Chad, I enjoyed it.
Chad Jordan: All right.