In this episode recorded in January of 2019, we interview Jan and Mark Mansfield, the Area Developers of North Texas and New Mexico, as well as Team Leaders of 5 stores in the Dallas and Lubbock area. The Mansfields started their Sport Clips journey in 1999. In this episode of the podcast, we discuss how they have balanced a healthy marriage and raising a family with their Sport Clips career, as well as topics such overcoming challenges, creating fun and memorable experiences for Team Members and more.
| Episode Air Date |
Guest Name |
Guest Title |
Topic(s) |
| January 11, 2019 |
Jan and Mark Mansfield |
Team Leaders and Area Developers |
Balancing family and Sport Clips |
Each episode of the Podcast is also available on iTunes and the Google Play store.
Transcription:
- Alright hey everybody, this is Chad Jordan from Sport Clips. I am the director of marketing for digital services and this is another edition of the Sport Clips Hall of Fame Podcast. I promise we're gonna have a good time on this episode. And I have two reasons why. I'm gonna have the first reason why introduce herself, who she is, and what she does.
- I'm Jan Mansfield. And I am head of operations I guess you could say and marketing for it--
- I think you're the--
- That's how you introduce yourself?
- For our area developer team.
- Okay.
- Okay and team leader as well.
- I am a team leader. We have five stores.
- Okay, thank you. And with us as well...
- My name is Mark Mansfield. I am the president of Nexquest, Inc. and a partner of Total Methex.
- Well can you--in English please? What does that mean?
- I really, actually I can't say. I really can't say. On a public--
- Okay. So you're involved with Sport Clips in some way shape or form?
- Yeah.
- So this is the disclaimer that I need to say up front. I'll probably ask one of them a question and the other one will at least answer half of it, if not interrupt and jump in and answer the whole thing before the other person gets a chance to explain himself or herself.
- You said we're area developers, right?
- I did.
- Okay.
- So now everybody knows what I'm dealing with for the next little bit of time that we're gonna be doing this podcast. So, you guys are-- do we say where we're based, where we're at?
- We're in Dallas, Texas.
- Actually Plano, Texas.
- We live in Plano.
- Alright. To be exact. In the Dallas area. And there are how many stores under your--
- 77 stores in the DFW area but we oversee 110 in the north Texas region including east, west Texas, central, several in New Mexico and one in Oklahoma.
- So and we got--it's Jan Mansfield and Mark Mansfield and I know off air we were talking about kind of brothers and sisters and all that. You're not--
- No--
- That's not how you're related. So no one can be mistaken, you are married for how many years?
- 30 years in March. I should have let him answer first--
- That's exactly--
- No, no, I was gonna say 29.
- Yeah, he would've gotten it wrong.
- Okay, I was trying to set it up.
- You're correct. But 30 in March.
- So one of the things we're gonna dive into quite a bit, in fact it's gonna be the core that we focus the rest of the questions around, is this dynamic of you as a married couple being involved with Sport Clips for in fact-- I can't even do the math. It's over 20 years?
- 1997, December 199--
- 90--no. You did that on purpose I'm sure. We signed December of '98.
- Oh that's right, that's right.
- We opened our first store in May of '99.
- Okay so this will be the 20th year-- Of you guys being involved with Sport Clips. So you've been around and you were married at that time?
- Yes.
- And you're still married?
- Still.
- Still married.
- Maybe I'll put this under the success stories episodes of the podcast. I want to focus in a lot on how you guys have made it 20 years or going on 20 years as a married couple in Sport Clips. The fact that, there's some team leaders out there they're newer team leaders or they're a couple, husband and wife that are operating right now and wondering, "how can we make it work with a business, "with a family, with kids?" At the time, I believe you had, you've got two--
- I had a five, four, and a baby when we first started.
- First store, yeah.
- And they've all been to college or one's finishing college. So it is a success story. Certainly a success story. I want to get to a lot of that stuff today. Or tonight, as we're recording this at night. But give me the abridged version of, you're doing what in your life in 1997-98 and how does this Sport Clips, or probably what you thought of at the time, the Sports Clips opportunity how does that arise? What's happening?
- Well actually, in my past life I was in sales in the oil and gas business. So I traveled to Houston a lot. And I had an overnight stay in Houston. And I just was trying to kill some time and so I was in a department store and I saw this cute girl behind the jewelry counter.
- Oh boy.
- Well I just said, hey I need to get a haircut. Do you have a place I can go? Know a place? She goes, "Oh I got this place called Sport Clips. "It's right across the street. "My boyfriend goes there, it's the coolest place, "you gotta go there." And I'm thinking, this is crazy. This girl's like all excited about--
- A haircut place.
- A haircut place that her boyfriend goes to. And so I go and I see it, I have my haircut. A great experience. This is probably 1996, that this happened.
- So this is one of the first Sport Clips--
- Oh yeah, it was in Houston off of Highway five I think. And I had a great experience. I came back and I thought, "Man I love that idea. "I love that concept. "I'd love to do something like that." And so I never did anything with it. I kinda thought well, I'd copycat it. Like everybody thinks they'll copycat the concept. Just put a bunch of TVs, hire a bunch of people and cut hair.
- Serve beer.
- Serve beer. Yeah. Never did it. But I was always looking for something else. And so I was looking in the newspaper and I saw the classified ad that they were looking for franchisees in the Dallas, Texas market. So I just answered an ad. And contacted with Jean Booth. Still with the company. And Jean was based in Houston. I literally was flying to Houston every day from Dallas, between Dallas and Houston. And I met up with her and fell in love with the concept. And then brought Jan in for a lot of due diligence.
- Are you--you were a teacher--
- I was a stay-at-home mom. I did teach for five years. I quit the day my first child was born.
- Alright so you're home with, at this time, two or three--
- My five year old, my four year old, and a baby, under one.
- And Mark tells you this idea and you think, or you say--what happens?
- Well, it was gonna be his business for sure. And I was probably taken aback but I kinda grew to okay. But it was gonna be his business and I was just gonna raise the kids.
- Yeah. Pretty much the way it's always been.
- Yeah, still that way, right?
- Correct
- You're at home all the time while he's off doing all the hard stuff.
- Yes, yes.
- And is the opportunity--the one you were answering the paper, was it just as team leader? So there wasn't any AD--
- Oh no, no, no, that wasn't even the thing. We bought in, bought our three pack, then became team leaders and we were able to open our store about five or six months after we signed the agreements.
- Are you the first ones in Dallas or had there been other team leaders?
- There was another group that actually bought in the Dallas market right before us but we all kind of opened within a month of each other. Our three stores got opened within a month of each other.
- Does it go gangbuster right out of the gate?
- Oh god, no.
- No? Good, because that would not have been as good of a story.
- We opened the 26th store in the company. Had a dynamite location. And cried the first year. Easily.
- Yeah a struggle.
- Went through three managers.
- Had you been working full time and doing this?
- Oh yeah, no. I quit full time--I was working for six years with it before we got into Sport Clip-- I mean, I didn't-- I was working the whole time.
- We opened in May, like I said, and by summer I was like, "Move over. "I got this." And I went in and was the teacher. Create the fun and let's have fun. But I still cried for about nine months.
- Yeah I mean, we couldn't hire people. It was really hard to hire people because they didn't know the concept. They knew what Sport Clips was, clients didn't know who we were. They thought we were a video store that sold sports videos. You know, sports clips.
- Right, yeah, that makes sense.
- Yeah, nobody knew. So it was really tough to hire people and it just took a while to make any money. Like a long time.
- How did you--what changed?
- The manager. We got a great manager in place and she just killed it. We were able to hire great team members after that.
- Trish.
- Yeah.
- Trish went on to be a coach for our corporate offices. Moved to Austin.
- And still in Austin. Otherwise I'd make her work for us again.
- So if there is no Trish and she doesn't step in at that time, who knows? Who knows what could have happened? So really having the right manager made all the difference for y'all. And it turned into--so you have that one store, it finally turns around.
- Yeah and then we open our second store in Frisco, Texas.
- Population about 300 when we signed the lease on the paper.
- Because Frisco had not grown yet and matter of fact, SCI actually turned down the property and said there's only 300 people population. And we're like, "No, you don't understand. "This place is gonna be crazy."
- Infrastructure for
- Crazy.
- The mall was out there and it was gonna be-- we just felt that--
- Two years into it, became the number one store in the country. For five years. It was one of the first--
- Even as it was growing as a city, it wasn't--
- Oh yeah. The city improved tremendously.
- And it's still a great store. But yeah that was our first store that blew it out of the water.
- When does the light bulb go off for you guys that this is really something that we should put all of our eggs, or many of our eggs in this basket and kinda just go for it? When did it dawn on y'all?
- Well when you get a $10,000 a week store it really kinda helps. The financials and everything really starts helping. Actually at that particular time, I was actually on a flight with Gordon. Just by circumstance. And Gordon was doing a connecting flight--
- Gordon Logan, CEO, founder of Sport Clips.
- He was doing a connecting flight through Tulsa.
- Oh so this wasn't arranged. You just bumped into one another.
- Yeah I was in--
- Did you see the cowboy--well you probably saw a lot of cowboy hats back in the day on planes.
- So we just got on this connecting flight between Tulsa, Oklahoma and Dallas and he was on his way to Austin. And we started talking. I was like, "You know Gordon, if there's anything "that comes up--bigger opportunity, I'd like to "have an opportunity for that. "I'd like to be the King of Hair "for the Dallas Fort Worth market." And he started talking about the AD concept. About how he was thinking about getting that started.
- Okay so they're developing that AD plan and you pretty much threw your hat in the ring--
- Yeah, I didn't know anything about it. I didn't know anything about the AD plan but I kinda threw my hat in there. And when they came up with the plan and started bringing it out to everybody I was like, "Yeah I'm very interested in it."
- What did that entail? What was the idea?
- So the idea was that-- What?
- The idea of what the AD was back then
- Well the job was completely different than what it is now I can tell you that.
- Just tell me the nuts and bolts.
- Yeah so the main thing is, Sport Clips was starting to grow and so they were getting pretty thin in their support staff. And so Jean was franchising and also doing real estate.
- Beth was marketing.
- Beth was marketing and... But they were doing it for the whole-- they were doing it for Houston, they were all over the place. And we thought, well it'd be locally we could really focus on it and really kinda get our feet in the ground and really build it. And build it faster. And so we loved that concept, we loved that idea. And we were really blessed because Jean had already done a lot of legwork and got a lot of stuff going. And so we were able to just kinda jump right in and just continue onto a minimum she had already started.
- All Jean had to do was hand over her legal-sized yellow pieces of paper with all the leads on it.
- Yeah, nothing on a computer file. It was all on a yellow pad.
- Right, this was the late 90s or early--
- Probably last--same thing. Probably hasn't changed.
- 2002-03.
- But yeah, it's this legal pad. And it's like hand--
- She's like, "Here it is!" Are those in alphabetical order, or what?
- No, there's no sort feature on a legal yellow pad.
- It worked. It was great.
- We had more leads than-- Mark does franchising and construction.
- Yeah--
- These are what, these are potential team leaders, potential places to put stores?
- Both. Both, it's all that. And so that's where we kinda had to define what each one of us was responsible for.
- Each one. You and--
- Me and her.
- Jan, okay.
- And we knew we had to draw a line.
- Did something in you say, "I would be better at this, or he would be better at that?" or vice-versa? Or would you just grab a--
- He needed the business side of things and I was the fun.
- Yeah, you're--
- I'm fun.
- Well you're fun but--
- I'm fun.
- You're--yes. You're fun.
- Yeah you are, but you're the people person, right? You're the numbers--
- No, I'm fun.
- No? Okay. Alright.
- We don't know what he does--
- We'll argue about that off-air.
- So anyway. So I did the sales because I'm pretty fun and stuff like that.
- I was operations and marketing.
- And she was operations. She was a good teacher, and that was the teacher part of everything. Really the marketing side we really both kinda jumped that because we both kinda liked that.
- In the beginning we didn't, but then I made you. Because neither one of us really like it. Sorry, no offense. But we are not marketing people.
- There's gotta be people that like marketing and love doing it.
- Yeah, there's those people.
- So thank god there's people that don't like it or those of us that do wouldn't have a job. There would be no space for us.
- So I kinda did all the franchising. I did the construction, the real estate. And then once we got stores open we turned it over to Jan and her team. And they kinda, they grow with it.
- How did you balance-- there really was no shift, you still were team leaders. You still had your stores and you have opened additional ones since you've become ADs, right? I mean, you didn't stop opening stores...
- No we sold some stores. We actually had some stores that we opened. And we sold one to one of our team leaders and sold the other two to my sister who was also a coach for us. And at the same time, we opened up some additional stores after that. And then recently we've acquired some stores out--
- So do you guys-- how is that balance of being an AD, being a team leader? It can't be a 50/50 sort of--I mean you gotta pay attention to this, that, you're spinning plates.
- Where we are today-- In the early days, Jan had a lot of hands-on with everything. But we've got people that have been with us for so long that they really kinda take care of really the day to day activities of the store. Where it gives us a lot of time to focus on the developer side of it and supporting our team leaders. I don't know, we've got 18 team leaders? 18 or 20 team leaders that we support?
- 24.
- Out of 110 stores? 24 that doesn't--
- To, to be exact.
- I thought--okay.
- She's closer-- she's sitting closer to me
- I'll give it to her I don't think that's right.
- I'm gonna trust her.
- 18 to 24, somewhere in the middle.
-I'd hate to be the guy that free forgot.
- That's due to your age.
- 24.
- Let's just not list them all by name--
-I can do that too. I can do that and alphabetical order. For sure.
- Well Jan I want to ask you. So while all this is happening, you guys are growing Sport Clips. Talk about the home life and the kids and-- can you describe-- do you feel like you're giving them enough time? Was there ever seasons where you thought man, they've grown, we just had a number of birthdays go by and I haven't been there. How are you--what's up with that?
- In the beginning it was hard because they were all so little. But I had a great support group with family. Mark's family, my family, I had best friends who would take them any time I needed them to. One of my stories I always tell is, I'm throwing them in the car, buckling them all in car seats because they were that little, and they're like, "Why did we ever buy Sport Clips?" And I was like, "So we can spend more time with you! "Get in the car! Put your shoes on!" And like I'd drop them off at Tammy's house. But really, being in charge of our own schedule, it's not that you have to do everything between nine and eight p.m. We were able to do things. We're night owls, so we did a lot of things at night. After the kids went to bed.
- That's why we're recording the podcast at night.
- So it just allowed us to actually be there for them at all their events. Soccer, gymnastics, cheerleading, football, baseball, volleyball.
- I coached all their teams. I had time to do everything.
- So we were able to be very involved. And our house has an open door and we had all their teams over here for dinner and all sorts of things.
- This is the Mansfield Motel. Every time I come here, you guys are gracious enough to host me. And now there's additional people here as well. Your son's roommate and all these-- And the joke that you were telling me earlier, Mark. It's not really a joke but, somebody wanted you involved-- I think it was a missions trip or something and said well, your schedule's flexible!
- Yeah we're very flexible. Take a week.
- We don't work.
- Yeah, take a week.
- And you're always available by phone, whether it's an email or a text. We can always answer questions wherever we are. So it's worked real well.
- Now that you're here, looking back, what would you have done differently through all of this stuff? Through the early years of getting to where you're at right now.
- I don't know that I would do anything different. I think that the successes and the failures that we did have grew us to be better at what we do. We're rule-followers. Mostly. So everything Karen Haney and Nancy taught us and then Julie and everyone else at corporate, we just followed and did what they told us to do. We might venture a little bit or think we need to do something different. But we really have always tried to be true to the values.
- You would even come-- In the early days you would go to the company and say, hey, here's a suggestion for NTC or something, land your training camp, or something like that. So you were giving as much as you were getting, especially early on. But, staying true to the Sport Clips values and the system and the process, and all of that stuff. So for your perspective, it sounds like what you're saying is, you might have hit some bumps along the way but you stayed within the lines, drove the speed limit, and got where you wanted to go. What about you, anything for you, Mark?
- Yeah not exactly. Nothing major. I think probably, we probably should have cut ties with some managers earlier than we wanted to.
- Was that a hiring mistake from the get-go? Or was it, you gave them a shot, you weren't sure but you were willing to take a risk and then you got into it and went ugh, this isn't gonna work out.
- Well, maybe. I think maybe we just hired the wrong person at the very beginning and we tried to make them that person. And they were just never gonna get there.
- But they all taught us good things and they were still good at what they did. They may have been great stylists but not necessarily great managers.
- Right, maybe shouldn't have gone the manager route.
- I mean I can't think of any train wrecks, really.
- No, no train wrecks.
- I hope they're not watching.
- Can you... Well let's stay on the marriage theme for a second just 'cause I think it is such an important dynamic and what makes y'all successful. Were you doing this venture alone, you wouldn't have done it first of all. And it certainly wouldn't have been as successful. My question that I think about is, now that you've done this for 20 years, is it Sport Clips all the time, in your mind, at home, in the car. Are you able to separate work from home, or vice-versa, or is it just who you are?
- It depends on who we're with. There was a time period where our children didn't want to hear about Sport Clips because that's all-- even though they--the girls worked there since they were 14.
- Coordinators?
- Coordinators, yes. So it was hard too. I mean, they just kinda got tired of hearing it. But when we're--we go to lunch every day and we do talk outside, but it always is about-- if it's not about our kids, it's about Sport Clips.
- It is blurred to be honest. For so long. I'd like to say I can separate this and that. But it's who we are. It's our lives. But we love it.
- That's the important part. It could be your life and you're miserable. And that's all you think about.
- No we love it. And our people are our family. Our family's our family and our workers are our family. And it's hard to separate, honestly. Love our work family better than our own family sometimes.
-That's not true, we love our kids.
- This is being recorded, Mark. So Jan, there she goes again, has your back.
- Now we spend more time with our work family than we do our kids because they are gone. They aren't in the house anymore. Other than the one that's upstairs right now.
- Is there a second generation possibility where any of the kids do want to step into the family business?
- Yes our son, Boone. He's a senior at Texas Tech right now. And he's working on a masters in accounting. He has aspirations of taking my job. I'm like, I'm doing this for a long time. Aspirations, we'll just need to find a place for him. Yeah, he definitely wants to get involved. Obviously he needs to go out in the real world and work and kinda see what's going on there. We have two daughters. Gable in Chicago and Djibril is in New York. They're kinda doing their own thing even though they were coordinators. They love Sport Clips and they were coordinators, and they know everything about it. But they're kinda-- one's doing marketing and the other one's doing graphic design, art direction.
- I love it. And especially the marketing angle. So see?
- I know. Actually she's doing event planning right now but she does have a marketing degree.
- It falls together.
- You mentioned at this point, so many of your team members are family, whether coaches or stylists or whatever. What have been, over the last 20 years, some of the more rewarding either relationships or stories or payoffs that you guys have kind of gotten from team members and relationships? The dynamic that you have with them.
- I think just taking--when we've met some of these girls they've been 19, 20, 22, and to watch them grow to almost 40, which is crazy.
- Kids grew, they have kids graduating from high school--
- And just to watch them grow and be successful. It's been fun.
- Do you have any that stand out? That you want to give a shout out to or--
- Of course Jenny. Jenny Favors.
- Jenny Favors. Jenny Favors Smith.
- She got married. But Jenny Smith obviously is one of our first coaches, she's awesome. She's still with us, great.
- So she's been here since--
- I think 2003.
- Okay. So she was a kid--
- She's family.
- She was 18, 19.
- We were at her wedding. Went to her wedding and--
- About to go to Brittany's wedding. She was our other--she was one of our coaches.
- We've seen them all born. And to have her family over and all of our coaches and managers in Dallas come over for a Christmas party. And have their kids all come over. That was really, really special.
- That was fun.
- You guys do something that kind of stands out. Is it your own huddle? What do you do every year? I think it's before the huddle. Some big celebration. It's a gala, I mean you guys--
- We have a gala.
- It's a gala.
- We have a gala. I think we're on our fifth year?
- Yeah, fifth year.
- And what does it entail? I've seen some photos and some social media stuff.
- Well we started it because when there's a big thing about having fun within Sport Clips, we want to have some fun. Let's make something. And we started thinking, I bet there's a lot of team members that have never gone to prom. So can we do something that--
- Actually Mark and I dated forever but we didn't go to prom together so it's kind of a sore spot.
- Oh, oh that's great. That'll be the bonus material that we'll cover only in the You Tube version of the podcast. We'll cover that after we stop the audio.
- We wanted prom to be great for everyone else.
- So we kind of were thinking maybe a second chance prom type thing. Where we give an opportunity for our team members to dress up, bring a date. And we actually had a band. We had Emerald City which is the number one cover band in Dallas, Fort Worth area. They been around forever. So we did a huge event.
- This is just your five stores?
- No this is for all the--
- DFW.
- Just the Dallas, Fort Worth stores.
- Out of the DFW ad fund.
- And is it just managers or is it all the team members?
- Everybody. So we have the potential to have over a thousand people with dates come to this event. And so we started it, we have a band, we give awards, our annual awards that we give.
- We have a top stylist...
- Yeah we have the top stylist from every store. We have a top stylist parade where they get to march up on parade and announce themselves.
- They all get sashes.
- Sashes with top stylist on them. It's awesome. And we have different type of entertainment, whether it's a hair show-- last year we had the artistic team come out. The year before that we had David Wilkes. He came out and hosted, did a whole game show theme.
- Yeah, yeah, D-Dub. I don't know him by David Wilkes, but. Yeah so he hosts--
- If we could get Greg out there that would probably top--
- Which Greg?
- Cosocia.
- Oh, for sure.
- Zodia. I always say it wrong. Sorry, Greg.
- That's the Texas way, Zocian.
- Yes, yeah Zocian. Like ocean?
- So this year it's in February.
- March 2nd.
- In March. Like I said.
- This is why this is such a great team.
- This is really cool, we're actually doing dueling pianos.
- Yeah, it's gonna be different this year.
- So you've hired-- it's not at a piano bar.
- No, no, no we're at Irving Convention Center. It's a huge ballroom.
- We're spilling the beans.
- Was I not supposed to say?
- That's okay. It's gonna be a black and white party.
- Breaking news.
- If they don't know they do now.
- Yeah, any other details you need to keep close to the-- I can try to get it out of you.
- We're hoping Gordon's gonna be there. He's been at one or two. And Edward, sorry, and Edward of course. Both of 'em. They've been there before and they're great.
- And Sexy Hair does a great job. Sexy Hair has been a sponsor for us.
- Gibs has been there two years.
- Does Gib himself come out?
- Yeah. He's been there the past two years. It's a great event. They have a ton of fun. Whether it's--last year we did karaoke.
- Yeah, that was great.
- Dancing and karaoke. Who didn't love that?
- What are some of the fun things that you guys do around-- I mean that's probably enough for a year. Are there any other local things or interactions with sports stars that the affiliation with Sport Clips has provided?
- Well we actually got sponsorships with Dallas Stars, Dallas Mavericks--
- Hockey team and basketball team, okay.
- Texas Rangers.
- What comes with that? You sponsor them so--
- Yeah we do sponsorship. We have in-game video boards type stuff. But we also have activation nights. So that gives us the opportunity to go out there at the games. We'll get stylists, team members that will come out. They'll go out there and we hand out koozies and lip balm and coupons, and greeting people at the doors. And that's a great, fun event. And they get to enjoy the game afterwards.
- It's been good. We've been doing that for a long time, actually.
- So yeah this keeps us busy and we end up giving away about 60,000 koozies through each season. And lip balms.
- I'm doing the math in my head. Eight times eight, 64,000 yeah.
- You're there for--you're the auto-correct.
- Yes.
- And lip balm too.
- And lip balm yes, we do that.
- So let's see. What are some challenges that you face now that are different than when you started back in the day?
- Hmm.
- There's gotta be...
- Challenges?
- Yeah exactly. I mean this is a real-world podcast.
- You know, I probably struggle with wanting to turn things over but then unable to turn things over sometimes.
- I think you're getting more forgetful.
- Well I am, that might be. I am forgetful.
- I think you've corrected him probably 13 times--
- But it's wrong. She's wrong every time so--
- Whatever.
- That's yours, what about anything for you, Mark, any?
- No, I have no challenges.
- You've got no--you're on easy street? This is why you go on a week mission trip because--
- We have great people who pick up where I fail and help Mark be perfect.
- You know the accounting part of it. That's just the challenge. And it's just getting more to be of a challenge. You start growing, you get bigger things. That's it. You got people that do stuff like that for you. But you gotta get them the stuff.
- We are not good at follow-up.
- I am.
- You're not. And we challenge with organization.
- I am very organized, go look at my office now. It's all boxed.
- That's why we didn't record the podcast in that office. Okay so we got some organizational problems. The most rewarding part of being who you are? ADs, team leaders, what would you say at this point looking back? Here you are now, what's the most rewarding part of the whole process, the whole lifestyle that you've created?
- Well it's been a blessing for us. We've been given so much. Just financially self-dependent. Or independent, whatever word is...
- We're independent. Whatever we are.
- We're dependent on Sport Clips, I know that for sure. Also to help others. The number of team leaders that have come through and their success. That we've watched them succeed.
- We've not even talked about the accolades. You guys, yourselves, have been ADs of the year. You've had a number of finalists for The Look.
- I think we've had over nine, or nine-ish. From DFW--I'm sorry from the North Texas area. And winners.
- You've had some Logan Trophy winners, some managers of the year. You have--what did we say the number was, how many million dollar stores? Four of the six that happened in 2018 came from your territory. So you guys clearly know what you're doing. So I want to wind it down 'cause I know you guys are night owls, but I'm not. So it's getting late. So here's a couple questions, then I want to get to the goofball questions. This one, without you guys getting in hot water, I had someone ask me to pick your brain. If there's any never before revealed secrets or behind the scene details about one Gordon Logan that you can share and would like to share. Maybe a favorite memory with him or something that most people wouldn't know. I'll start with Mark while Jan thinks of one.
-There's nothing. I mean Gordon's a saint.
- Yeah, right, yes, okay.
- There's one.
- And we will have a transcript of this posted to our website so I really appreciate you saying that.
- Of course. No, Gordon's been great. He's been so supportive from the very beginning. I remember one time, Gordon and Edward, Edward was probably 12 years old. And I remember them coming all the way up to Dallas. And going to a Dallas Cowboy game with us. And that was just a good time.
- Well that must have been mid-nineties?
- It was a long time ago.
- Was Aikman still the quarterback?
- Probably.
- I would think so. Yeah.
- But Gordon, from-- I'm gonna steal her because I know what she's gonna say. Gordon, from the very first time that we opened a store he was there. It was Karen Haney, Gordon Logan and they were there--
- Jean Boothe.
- And Jean Boothe, and Gordon Logan--
- Like, day one?
- Day minus one, day before. So they're there. He's literally putting together chairs, drilling holes in the wall, putting up gridwall, helping organize memorabilia. Hands-on. I mean, he was there. And he always wore his cowboy hat. It's not something new. It's not a gimmick
- No, it's always been there.
- Yeah, that's who he is.
- There's nothing better than just, whether it's an area developer award or, as a team leader getting awards, but going up there on stage and getting to hug him. Because he's always very genuine and sincere when he congratulates you, you know?
- And I see it. Up close and personal.
- He does like his gin drinks too
- I think that's his secret. I think you guys are actually bringing him more as you come up on stage every time, especially--
- At one time it worked that way, yeah. It was good.
- Okay. A couple other questions. And then we'll get to the ten-- not the lightning round but the goofy questions and we'll do it a little differently today. Do me a favor and answer this for me about the other person. In other words, Mark, the best thing that Jan brings to the Sport Clips family partnership is her what?
- I guess her fun.
- Her fun. I thought you were the fun one?
- Well but she said it so I'm just gonna throw it out there.
- And how so, prove that. What do you--
- She's actually straightforward. I guess that's probably really what it is. Her straightforwardness, that she can-- she doesn't hedge around the bush. She'll go out there, if something needs to be addressed that's what she brings. She goes out there and she lets them-- this needs to be addressed-- let's cut to the chase. This is it, it's plain and white. Plain and white?
- Black and white.
- That too. That's really been her biggest strength honestly. Because I don't like conflict. She looks for conflict.
- Yeah, yeah, she loves it. Like a shark with blood in the water. Okay, now Jan. I'm gonna turn it around. The best thing that Mark brings to this partnership is...
- Well everyone thinks Mark is strong and whatever. But he's very sensitive. And sometimes our teams get to see that. And when he becomes sensitive, the whole room's like, "oh my god." But it really--
- Just don't say to them now.
- I don't. I think it just shows how for me, it just reminds me how important our work family is to us because when he tears up, we all tear up.
- What are y'all doing? This isn't supposed to be emotional.
- I can't help it. I just--
- He's a weenie.
- I'm a crier.
- I cried when Scooby-Doo and Shaggy get back together.
- Oh yeah, that is emotional. Okay. So I'm gonna shift gears here then. So I do these podcast questions at the end of every episode. And I usually ask 10 questions. But what I'm gonna do with some of these is I usually ask the interviewer the question about themselves. I think I'm gonna ask each of you how to answer it for the other person. So in other words, I'll start with--I'm gonna start with Mark. So, which super power would you most like Jan to have?
- Which super power would I most like Jan to have? The power of quiet.
- I don't--I don't, okay. I guess you can invent your own super power.
- She has no...
- Mute. The mute button. You wish she had a mute button.
- And quiet. Or softness? Quiet or softness?
- Okay Jan, which super power would you most like Mark to have?
- The power to get things done.
- Okay, alright.
- I'm a do-er.
- When I tell him to. On my time.
- Well that's everybody. Well that's every couple.
- Okay.
- It gets done when it needs to get done.
- Alright.
- Alright Mark, what do you think is her personal motto? Or words that she lives by.
-Honestly, her motto is probably don't mess with me.
- Don't mess with me? Alright Jan, what is his personal motto?
- I don't know. I can't say don't--I can't say it. I'm gonna say our motto is familia es todo.
- That's true.
- Whether it's work or family.
- Alright and we'll let people Google Translate what that means.
- I thought it was todos a familiara?
- La familia es todo.
- You have a sign or something?
- La familia es todo. Yeah we got that from Breaking Bad.
-Don't say that.
- But we still love the--
- But we love it.
- So other than where you guys live now where else in the world-- I'm gonna ask you this-- where else in the world would y'all most like to live? Is it the same answer or is it different?
- You have an answer?
- The only place where I've always said I'd live is Lubbock, Texas.
- Oh yeah. Love Lubbock, Texas.
- Really? I gotta get there then. Lubbock, Texas.
- Friendliest people in the world. Lubbock, Texas, I'm not kidding.
- So you could pick Figi, you could pick Cancun...
- No we like Lubbock, Texas.
- Lubbock, Texas.
- But we got stores in Lubbock. And we love Lubbock, Texas. And both Jan and I went to Texas Tech University as well as all three of our kids. So we love Lubbock. So that's true. We got a house out there too. So we got a place to stay.
- Let's see. I asked this question. So I'm gonna ask it directly. Mark, who is the celebrity you would most like to meet one day?
- Wow, I'm not really that into-- I'm seriously, I'm not into celebrities. Who would I like, Jan? You usually know who I like.
- And it's not that jewelry clerk. That cute jewelry clerk that--
- Oh, could it be any girl? Oh well that-- well that opens it all up. No, you know what? I tell you just to make things funny is Kevin Hart. I think the guy's hilarious.
- Jumanji.
- Yeah the guy's just hilarious. So I think he'd be fun to talk to. And he's my size.
- Jan?
- Probably Julia Roberts.
- Julia Roberts, Pretty Woman?
- Always been a fan.
- Okay, now I'm gonna ask this about the other person. Mark, no, let's start with Jan, let's start with Jan. For these ones. Jan, which wor--okay. Keep it...
- Clean?
- Which words or phrases does Mark most overuse that are not yeah.
- That's not even fair.
- Ah what is it you say, uh... Where you are. Something where you are. Keep it where you are. What is it?
- Hold it where you are. Oh come on, when we're moving something. Stay where you are. Stay where you are? The other one I can't say.
- Oh yeah don't, please.
- I think it's like stay where you are. Hold what you got. Hold what you got. Hold what you got. Hold what you got.
- That's not--everybody says that.
- Everybody does. Well when he's making me help him move something and then he wants to-- hold what you got. I have to hold it.
- She's a workhorse. I mean I'm telling you.
- I have to hold it while he decides what to do with it.
- Like she won't-- We'll go down to the beach and she carries everything. Like I'm just like--
- In one trip.
- I just kinda walk down with my bathing suit and sungla--yeah she gets everything. It's the best.
- What was the question? What words or phrases does Jan most overuse?
- Mark!
- Okay so she calls your name in some loud--
- Wonderful screech that I'm so used to.
- What was the Friends, that one girlfriend on Friends that was super annoying? Chandler! And she had that laugh or whatever?
- I can't think of her name. I should know it but I don't at this moment.
- Back to Jan. What sound or noise does Mark love?
- Ugh barking. Howling. Dogs. Oh yes, you do.
- Which we've heard and we've had to put them away.
- They're all locked up. Yes he loves...
- Mark, what sound or noise does Jan love?
- Probably my snoring at night.
- Who wouldn't? Yeah, it's like a white noise. It just puts her right to sleep. Okay Jan, what sound or noise does Mark hate?
- My voice?
- Apparently.
- I love your voice.
- Or my snoring at night? I don't snore.
- That's not true.
- He says I do but I know I don't.
- I have recordings of it.
- Yeah I'm not gonna put a microphone in there. Mark, what sound or noise does Jan hate?
- Jan hates? Sound or noise that Jan hates.
-I know.
- What? Then you tell me the answer, you answer for me.
- His whistling.
- Not the whistle that says stop in your tracks. No, the whistling of the song.
- Oh when there's a song on the radio and he--
- I got music that runs through my head all the time. Like, I'm one of those guys.
- Yeah, musically inclined.
- And you whistle, like you're happy.
- He whistles something while he's feeding the dogs, I'm like stop.
- Just nails on a chalkboard.
- Yes.
- Okay, maybe he does it.
- Seriously what kind of person are you? I mean, I'm a happy person.
- I know, I know.
- You're happy, she's miserable. Okay next question. Jan, what profession other than what Mark did and then now at Sport Clips what he's doing now, would you think he would've been good at or at least he should've tried?
- Say it, c'mon you know what it is.
- Oh a professional baseball player.
- Ah!
- Alright, professional baseball player playing for which team?
- Oh I don't think it matters.
- It wouldn't have mattered? No, okay, as long as you made it.
- She knows I'd be perfect at that.
- Pitcher?
- Second base. That's my position.
- Is that what Boone played and girls in softball?
- No, that's... That's my position.
- That was his thing.
- You wouldn't let them. You wanna share that. Alright what profession other than hers, she was a teacher, she was a mom, all that.
- Don't say it. Would she have been good at or at least have wanted to try?
- Please, this is family-friendly.
- Is this the funny part?
- This is whatever. I mean we're still on the audio version of the podcast.
- Oh well, I'm not gonna say it.
- Yeah, don't.
- Now I'm going to. No, okay. She would be a wonderful cheerleader. She was a cheerleader in high school. So if she just took that profession on she would just be wonderful at it.
- Alright, cheerleader.
- And an adult film star.
- Okay, nope, nope. I think that the microphone blurred it out, there. I'm just gonna keep going here with the next question. Jan, what do you consider Mark's greatest achievement?
- Ah greatest achievement. He's a great dad. He loves his kids. He just loves being their dad.
- Okay, I love that answer. Back to Mark, what do you consider Jan's greatest achievement?
- Yeah, the children. The kids. We got the best kids in the world. We love 'em. I mean she--it's because of her.
- And if heaven indeed exists--
- Which it does.
- What would you guys like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? I'll start with Jan.
- Just great job.
- Great job.
- Yeah, well done.
- And well done. Good answers. Fun podcast. I think that even though you guys laughed a bunch and interrupted each other more than I asked you to, I think there's a bunch of good stuff in here for everybody to hear. That's gonna wrap up this edition on the audio version. We're gonna continue with a couple stories on the video version here. But thanks everybody for joining us and tune in next time for another edition of the Sport Clips Hall of Fame Podcast. Thanks guys.
- Thank you.
- Alright so, that's there. That's still going. So you can't startdropping...
- You have to still behave.
- You can't drop the F-bombs.
- You have to behave.
- I haven't dropped one yet.
- I know, behave.
-Alright let's get back to, you guys are 13 years old. You're growing up, what are you in the same hometown?
- I'll go back even farther. Mark and I were born in the same hospital 15 days apart.
- Who's older?
- He is.
- I am. 15 days, of course. Our parents honeymooned in the same place.
- Lake Murray, Oklahoma. Weird, right?
- That's like one in a billion... Honeymoon destination it is not usually--
- Mark's dad was a diver in Highland Park. My dad was a swimmer at SMU, which are right by each other. And they knew each other through his big brother.
- Well your dad knew my uncle. Uncle Bill.
- Go to any schools at the same time?
- Parents didn't, right?
- No. Parents before--parents. The summer before seventh grade I was at Cottonwood Park with my friend, Susan. And we were standing there just kinda hanging out, and all of a sudden this boy comes up on a bike. And he kinda does this little skid-out and a little gravel goes flying. And I looked at him and I looked at Susan and I said, "Wow." I don't know who that is.
- That's all it took, huh?
- Said I'm gonna date him in junior high. And what got me, he had these legs. And they had hair on them.
- Of course.
- Still do.
- They do, they do. But I mean, it was the first kid my age that had-- that was just built.
- That much more mature.
- Yeah, for sure.
- Mmm hmm. Yeah. True story, I remember that. I do remember that.
- Do you go to junior high, is that where you started--
- Seventh grade.
- Yeah that's when we first met.
- Fast forward, he dates three of my friends and then May of seventh grade, 1977. May 27th of 19--
- Whoa you have the date?
- Yeah. He asked me to go steady.
- At Steve Touchstone's house.
- Under the tree.
- Now was it a note that was folded and he passed to you or did he just walk right up?
- He was actually supposed to ask me the weekend before at Six Flags. And we were actually in the
- Spee-Lunker cave.
- Spee-Lunker cave. And he was gonna ask me and he didn't. And I kind of got upset. And I was like whatever.
- And on the ride back on the bus she was like, "oh blah blah blah".
- Because you had known--
- I knew he was going to, yeah.
- Someone had given you the lowdown.
- I chickened out.
- And we actually from seventh grade until 10th grade we were 100%--
- 10th grade?
- I'm gonna get there.
- Okay.
- But we broke up one week in 10th grade.
- Because there were three other friends of yours that he hadn't dated yet--
- No.
- Actually I don't even remember that.
- Yeah. And I went to FCA with Tom Lynn.
- Oh okay, I remember that.
- But Tom, he picked me up. And he--
- What is FCA?
- Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
- Oh oh okay it wasn't a dance or something.
- No, but Tom went through Wendy's and got himself a hamburger. I thought we were going to dinner and then FCA. And he comes and he's like here's a kid's meal for you. And I'm like, really dude? And he had his dog with him. I was like, whatever.
- Jarvis.
- Tom's a great guy but--
- He's one of my best friends.
- But that had to happen or you could've ended up with Tom.
- Well that would've been okay, he was a great guy. But he has a lovely wife and children. Anyway, so we got back together and stayed together til March of our senior year.
- Of high school?
- Of high school.
- A month before senior prom after we've dated all this time, she breaks up with me. And goes to--
- Broke his heart.
- Goes to prom with Ricardo.
- Okay wait, what's--why? What happened?
- I needed a break. He was smothering me.
- And I was deeply in love.
- I know.
- She broke my heart, like really, really bad.
- I'm sure.
- But we both went to prom with different-- with two other people.
- And I did go to prom with--
- So you rebounded?
- Oh yeah and I had the prettiest girl at--
- You mean the second prettiest girl.
- She looks like Cheryl Tiegs. Her name's Cheryl--
- Yeah and--
- What?
- And she's beautiful. And she has three or four beautiful girls.
- Children.
- Yeah. Anyway. So yeah.
- So we did that.
- Ricardo and Cheryl.
- He's pumping gas somewhere.
- Okay. Alright.
- Oh that's your other boyfriend, I'm sorry.
- Oh my gosh.
- What, like Ricardo's gonna watch this?
- Okay.
- And if he does, that's fine.
- Sorry.
- Bring it on, Ricardo. I won.
- Oh my.
- So she followed me at Texas Tech 'cause I was going--
- No, I was going to Texas Tech because my brother went there. And I was always going and Mark followed me, but anyways.
- I was going to try out for the baseball team.
- He pledged a fraternity and I pledged a sorority and we actually because we share a birthday in September. Not the same day, but 15 days apart, yes. We always said we'd go to dinner with each other every year. So freshman year we went to dinner.
- But you're not back dating?
- We're not together.
- Oh I missed that part.
- I actually went to homecoming with him our freshman year and had a miserable time.
- Was it, did he get you Wendy's or--
- No, it was bad.
- It was a football game.
- It was.
- Oh so he was distracted?
- I said to his friend, "Take me home, I'm done." But anyway. Then we had lunch again the next September. And then I was dating someone and broke up with him. And then Mark... I told him I was ready, I called him and we talked and I said I was ready to get back together and he said, "I'm sorry, I'm dating Barbara."
- That's right. Barbara Jean.
- Barbara Jean.
- Was he really or was he--
- No he was, he definitely was. And then, like a week later he broke up with her.
- A week, c'mon.
- Yeah, and then he called me and so we got back together.
- Like six weeks later.
- Six, okay. So in between one and six weeks.
- So we were apart about two years in college. And then got back together and that was it.
- And got married in college or after?
- No, we came home. Mark is a planner. Mark's a planner. I got a job. He finally... No, you got--he...
- I got a job.
- Yeah you did.
- Actually Mark bought a boat instead of an engagement ring.
- Yeah, who wouldn't?
- In college. Like most boys do.
- Did he fish?
- No a ski boat.
- No, I water skied.
- Oh okay.
- And he bought that instead. In fact, everyone in the family's like what is he doing? Why didn't he buy an engagement ring? And I'm like, "I don't know."
- Well, no I'm not gonna say.
- Actually I had credit card bills and he told me I had to pay 'em off before he'd marry me.
- Oh he didn't want your debt.
- No. No we got engaged-- I was still in school and she graduated because I was five year program in school.
- I was teaching school two years before we got engaged.
- Well I didn't get there. And I graduated. And we needed to make some money before we got married. And we actually bought a house right before we got married. So we'd have a place to move into right away. And so we did. That's what happened. And then we waited to have children.
- We did, two years.
- Two years.
- And then we went bam, bam. And then waited awhile before we had Boone.
- Did you plan to have all the kids while one was in diapers have another kid.
- We were... Yes.
- The first one was so good, so fun, and so easy.
- She was perfect.
- And the second one was like, oh my god. She's beautiful and wonderful now but she was a colic handful.
- Projectile vomit.
- But you wanted a boy. Yes.
- So then I had to obviously have another one. So we had Boone.
- Did you just say you had to ovulate?
- No I didn't, I said obviously.
- Oh
- But that's true, that did need to happen.
- That is true, it does help. Anyway. So then we had Boone. And thank god it was a boy because I would've had to have four.
- Oh really?
- And I probably would've, but I was done.
- So we got Gable, Boone, and Djibril.
- Not in that order. Gable, Djibril, Boone.
- Gable is my mother's maiden name. Djibril is--
- My grandfather's surname. No, middle name and it was a surname before that.
- And the name of a street that we know about. And Boone is just Boone.
- No reason?
- Well.
- T. Boone.
- I was in the oil and gas business so T. Boone Pickens is kind of a--
- We just always liked it and because you, when he was running--
- So I've always had these thoughts that he would be a football player and that he would catch that pass and he would be running down the field and everybody's going, "Boooo". Are they booing him?
- So, ironically he was a part of something in the pep rally in the high school and everyone was yelling booo and then the teacher after was like, "I am so sorry they were booing you!" and he was like, "What do you mean, "they were calling my name!"
- And it was the realization of a dream.
- Yes.
- And there's no way-- well, Boone might have, that they were ever in a class with somebody that had their same name.
- No.
- No.
- None of 'em.
- But one of the teachers named her baby Boone.
- And then we knew a Gable, last name Gable at church. No Djibrils.
- No Djibrils.
- No.
- And none of them are married? No grandkids?
- Living the dream. No grandkids.
- And you are hoping for grandbabies five years from now, 10 years from now?
- Yes.
- Yes.
- All of that?
- Yeah. Married first hopefully.
- Yeah, right. And what do you think that'll change anything for y'all if they're not living here and there's grandbabies in the picture?
- It'll be hard but, we'll just have to go there I guess.
- We kinda made a commitment to to see our kids at least once every month.
- Mark drove somewhere.
- In to Lubbock.
- To Lubbock by himself once and listened to a--
- Audiobook.
- Audiobook, which I didn't think he'd ever do.
- Well you know there's 20-some podcasts if you ever want--
- I know that now.
- But he listened to the one thing and he came home--
- Oh yeah, was that before huddle?
- After. But he came home and he sat me down and I had a revolution, I was like-- revolution, revelation?
- Both.
- Yeah revolutioninside then he had a revelation. And he was like, we are going to do-- what was the other thing?
- I was gonna get more work done but that's--
- Oh he was gonna change his morning routine. Hasn't done that.
- And not check emails before--
- Yeah, that's what I was gonna do, that whole thing.
- I don't have time to go into his morning routine but, then he said we are going to make an effort to see our children, all three of them, once a month.
- If we don't see 'em we need to see 'em once a month. So we'll fly to New York, fly to Chicago--
- And we've been pretty good.
- Lubbock's easy, 'cause Boone's in Lubbock. So we're already there.
- If we see him on like, the tail-end of the month we kinda count it as both months. But we've been pretty good. Our girls would say that we don't come see them.
- 'Cause it's New York City.
- Right, that's rough. Well my--
- Well no, they're happy there.
- Not that it's about me but my parents were living in North Carolina when we were pregnant with our first child. And we had Emily and they came out that week. And on the flight back--we were in California. On the flight back to North Carolina my dad turned to my mom and said, "Nope, we're not "gonna visit these kids "once a year or whatever." And they actually picked up two months later, moved to California and lived two miles away from us and have Grammy and Poppy day with each of the kids.
- That's not gonna happen with us. We're not leaving Texas.
- Can't be your story obviously, so you gotta convince them to all kinda settle around here so you guys can--
- Boone, I'm good with Boone. Boone's gonna do it for sure. He's gonna stay in Texas.
- I think the girls will come back eventually.
- We pray the girls will come back at some point. But we support them-- I'm over it now.
- He was a little bitter. He's gonna cry, see?
- I know, I don't have grown daughters yet. My oldest is 14.
- I say he was bitter just so they can hear that but he really-- He really has been okay with it. We're very supportive of what they do.
- Plus once they really do settle down and the kids are in the picture for them, they start having them, there's gonna be some heartstrings kind of hopefully bringing them back to y'all as well.
- Yes I hope so.
- Alright well this was fun. Thanks for opening up your house and keeping the dogs locked up and--
- I was about to go get the dog scratching on the door.
- They're ready to come in.
- That's Brody.
- So I'll wind this down. We'll put this up on You Tube. And thanks everybody for tuning in. And thanks to the Mansfields, Mark and Jan Mansfield. No, no, Jan and Mark Mansfield for letting us do this.
- You don't separate the woman's name--the man's name from the woman's name.
- That's what that etiquette book says.
- Alright.