In this episode, we continue our "Secrets of My Success" series. Marty Jo Endres is a Multi-Unit Team Leader who began her Sport Clips career as a stylist at the first ever location in Minnesota. At the time, she was a single mother looking for a job but still struggling with believing in herself. In this interview, she explains how she turned her life around while at Sport Clips and the instrumental role the people, values and culture at Sport Clips had in shaping her future.
| Episode Air Date |
Guest Name |
Guest Title |
Topic(s) |
| March 22, 2019 |
Marty Jo Endres |
Team Leader and Stylist |
How Sport Clips' people, culture and values changed her life |
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Transcription:
Chad Jordan: Hey everybody this is Chad Jordan from Sport Clips and this is another addition of our Sport Clips Hall of Fame podcast. And we're continuing our series called Success Stories or Secrets of my Success, and I have another fitting person that fits that profile. So I'm gonna have her quickly introduce herself and then we'll get into a little bit of her story. Who do I have with us today?
Marty Jo Endres: So I am Marty Jo Endres. I am in Minnesota. So I do recruiting and training in development for 16 locations, and I am also a team leader.
Chad Jordan: And you might be able to tell for those listening, she's originally from Minnesota and you're gonna probably hear that throughout the podcast here so I love when I go to different parts of the country, the South, or North East, we can tell where you're from just by listening to you.
Marty Jo Endres: Well you sound strange to us too.
Chad Jordan: I'm sure I do. I sound strange, I look strange, I can't react to sub zero temperatures like you guys can. I turn hyper color and all that stuff but I'm having a great time here in Minnesota. And we wanna dive into your story because you have a unique background. Obviously what you're doing in Sports Clips now is amazing, but you're a stylist by trade?
Marty Jo Endres: That's correct.
Chad Jordan: So tell me a little bit about your story because I definitely want to use it as an example of how to be successful at Sport Clips. Can you give me a little backdrop, or back story of how you got here, what you've been doing, all that fun stuff?
Marty Jo Endres: Sure. So I have actually been a licensed cosmetologist for 16 years.
Chad Jordan: Okay, so you got your license, you're 10 years old, okay you got your license, all right, okay, and?
Marty Jo Endres: You're so sweet. So it was actually a second career for me. I went to cosmetology school when I was 30, which is a little older for most.
Chad Jordan: You were with a bunch of teenagers and you were in cosmetology school.
Marty Jo Endres: Yes I was the mother of the group for certain.
Chad Jordan: At 30, you're the mother. That's amazing.
Marty Jo Endres: Yes. So second career for me. I was at that time going through some different things in my life and needed a change. Actually used cosmetology school at that time to make other people feel better about themselves actually made me feel better. So I was using it at first to replace the fact that I was really missing something in my life.
Chad Jordan: How did you discover cosmetology? Had it been a secret ambition that you had wanted to do but just never went to schooling to do it, or you just woke up one day and said, "I'll give this a try."
Marty Jo Endres: Well I think it really paired nicely with the fact that I really liked being with people and being that day maker and mood changer, but it also was creative. Also the schooling was a short period of time so I thought it would be a much lesser route than going back to college.
Chad Jordan: And you're a mom of how many at that time?
Marty Jo Endres: So I was a single mom at that time with two children.
Chad Jordan: Okay, and so that seemed like a good career to shift into?
Marty Jo Endres: Definitely.
Chad Jordan: Were they school aged at that time?
Marty Jo Endres: Yes, my youngest was just starting kindergarten that year.
Chad Jordan: So you shift into it, you go to cosmetology school, is it an instant things clicked and "Yes this is what I can see myself doing for the next however many years"?
Marty Jo Endres: Absolutely.
Chad Jordan: And you get out, you go where? You find a salon. Are you doing women's hair or what?
Marty Jo Endres: So I actually started my career at a children's salon believe it or not. I know most people are like, "Oh my gosh, how could you do that?" But it was really cool. One side of the salon I had an adult chair, and then we also had a side where I could do kids, and it really took my career I think on a really good path to start because I got to do a lot of everything. And whenever you're working I think with people's children you develop such a great relationship with those parents, they trust you, so it really was a really good fit for me the first four years that I did hair.
Chad Jordan: Then you shift, you get to Sport Clips at some point. How long have you been here? And did you start as a stylist? Can you walk me through that journey?
Marty Jo Endres: Yeah so I actually originally, I've been with Sport Clips now coming up on nine years, but I really would've been with Sport Clips almost 10. When I first originally started I was hired on as a stylist at our pilot store actually here in Minnesota.
Chad Jordan: So 101. Where is that?
Marty Jo Endres: 101, Coon Rapids.
Chad Jordan: Okay. Well that's just fun to say. Coon Rapids.
Marty Jo Endres: Coon Rapids, yep.
Chad Jordan: All right. Okay.
Marty Jo Endres: So as I said earlier, I was in a lot of transition in my life and trying to figure out where I fit in and was going through some different emotional things at that time, and started with Sport Clips, got hired on as a stylist, worked for four days, and on my very first Saturday did a no call no show.
Chad Jordan: What is that for the non Sport Clipper that are listening to this? That means you didn't show up for work and you didn't let anybody know you weren't coming in?
Marty Jo Endres: That is absolutely correct.
Chad Jordan: Okay. Are you allowed to say why you did that or is that not suitable for this podcast?
Marty Jo Endres: I think at that time, and even really early on, I saw that Sport Clips after all those years of being in the industry was something very different than what I was used to. The values are very clear right from the beginning, do your best, do what's right, treat others the way they want to be treated, I don't think at that point I was in an emotional place that I would have been successful with Sport Clips at that time in my life because I didn't feel those things inside myself. So I ran from it, I think is now looking back the way I think about it.
Chad Jordan: Did you feel like you were gonna have to live a lie then? You didn't see in yourself those values, you didn't have the self worth, or whatever, and so you didn't wanna put up a charade, is that essentially what you're saying?
Marty Jo Endres: Yeah, I think so. I don't know if at that time in that place in my life that I really felt like Sport Clips would've been the right fit for me even though it would have been, I didn't feel that emotionally and inner personally that I would have fit into that culture because of the fact that they had standards and I wasn't feeling that way about myself at that time.
Chad Jordan: And after that no call no show you quit right away or what happens?
Marty Jo Endres: So I literally left all of my cutting tools there, I left my license there, I just never went back. One of things unfortunately growing up the way I did, I did grow up in foster care so I didn't have a relationship with my parents from age 12 until I was 22, and then even after that it was strange. So that whole fight or flight thing I never really quite got the fight part yet, it was more the flight part. So I was ashamed and didn't want to go back to even pick my stuff up because I felt guilty. And life took me for a turn over the next year and literally one day out of the blue I was leaving a styling job that I really did not like, and I got a phone call out of the blue from Bob [inaudible 00:08:27] my franchise owner and partner in crime now.
Chad Jordan: And he's the team leader of 101. And then 101 that you had no called no showed for. Had you spoken to him since that Saturday?
Marty Jo Endres: No.
Chad Jordan: Okay. And you didn't even speak to him that Saturday 'cause you didn't call in. So when that shows up on caller ID or however you knew it was him, what starts going through your mind.
Marty Jo Endres: Well I didn't even know who it was to be honest with you, and he said, "Hey, this is Bob [inaudible 00:09:00] with Sport Clips Haircuts, and I know I only met you a brief time, but I really felt there was something special about you and I'm just wondering where you're at in life and would like to see if you wanna meet for coffee." And I really felt because my life was in such a better place now at this point that God was giving me an opportunity. Everything else had fallen into place. I had met my boyfriend at the time, which is now my husband and this was one of the pieces that was missing. So it felt good.
Chad Jordan: And the cup of coffee, was he re-interviewing you, or literally he was just checking in? What's that conversation like?
Marty Jo Endres: It was like two friends talking. I didn't go into deep details about the struggles that I'd been having at that time in my life, but I shared enough to let him know that I was sorry for what happened, and it was totally my doing, but that I was in a much better place in my life, and he just did such a good job of reiterating the core values of the company too. It wasn't in a shameful like, "I can't believe you did that" or what not, he really was putting it more on me like, "This is what we have to offer. Are you ready for it?"
Chad Jordan: It had been a year, or almost a year?
Marty Jo Endres: A little over a year.
Chad Jordan: Did it ever feel like, "Man, he must be desperate for stylists if he's going through his Rolodex calling people that didn't even show up." Or did it feel like there was something genuine and he really was just checking in on your best interest?
Marty Jo Endres: Well it felt really genuine. Now that I do full time recruiting, I'm like, "I see, I see." But also just to have somebody acknowledge that they saw something in you that you didn't even see in themselves was a really huge step for me.
Chad Jordan: And so you guys have that conversation and what happens?
Marty Jo Endres: So he offered me a stylist position back in Coon Rapids with the understanding that I would go in and of course talk with the store manager who I had left high and dry.
Chad Jordan: Okay so it was the same manager.
Marty Jo Endres: Same manager. So I did. And I went in by myself, I didn't have Bob on my side, and I really apologized and said, "I know I don't deserve a second chance, but I would like one. And this is why." And Kelly, the manager at that time, which is literally still with us at our pilot store, almost 12 years, just an amazing person, and she's like, "I don't trust you. But I'm willing to give you a chance."
Chad Jordan: I love that.
Marty Jo Endres: And I though that was cool.
Chad Jordan: And this is for the parents out there, it's something I tell my kids all the time is, forgiveness doesn't equal trust, you do have to forgive, but you don't have to just blanket that statement that back. That can be earned over time. And so she forgives you, hires you back, but now you gotta show up, you gotta call on days that you're not gonna come in. How long do you feel like that trust process took to really work itself back?
Marty Jo Endres: Oh gosh, it was quick. I'm a super hard worker, she could see that right from the beginning, I picked up on the five point play really quick, she saw I was committed, I have obviously a great personality.
Chad Jordan: Of course, yes.
Marty Jo Endres: So I was building great relationships with the clients as well. My number were great. Even that first year I won multiple awards for take home per client, and paid back bar, and those types of things are regional huddle.
Chad Jordan: Are you now believing the Sport Clips values about yourself? Is that the big change that's happened in your life over that year plus?
Marty Jo Endres: Oh yeah. I had been with Sport Clips at the Coon Rapids store for about four months, and Bob was opening up a store in Highland Park Saint Paul, and then 112, and he said, "I want you to manage it. I want you to hire the people, I want you to manage it."
Chad Jordan: Were you assistant manager at 101 or anything? Key holder or anything?
Marty Jo Endres: No nothing. Well key holder.
Chad Jordan: But you hadn't been through any management training yet, or proven yourself other than those four months of working your tail off. Was that a phone call, did he stop in person, and what are you thinking when you hear this offer?
Marty Jo Endres: He stopped and said, "Hey I'm opening this new store. I think you have the leadership abilities, and I think this would just be a phenomenal opportunity for you." And I'm like, "Wow." Well needless to say, at that time that was a 45 minute drive, 50 minute drive each way for me, which was a lot.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, especially your kids are still small. First, second, third fourth, grade around that time right?
Marty Jo Endres: Right.
Chad Jordan: Unrealistic almost it feels like.
Marty Jo Endres: It felt like it. But there was a part of me that liked the feeling of being needed and wanted, but in a good way. In a different way other than a way that I felt that before.
Chad Jordan: And so are you married at that time?
Marty Jo Endres: No I'm not.
Chad Jordan: Okay. So you weren't married. Did you consult, your husbands name is Chad, so do you and Chad talk about this, or you make your mind up that this is what I'm gonna do?
Marty Jo Endres: We did talk about it. We'd been dating about a year and a half, and we both saw that it was a good opportunity for me.
Chad Jordan: So you take the job, you're now commuting 45 minutes each way.
Marty Jo Endres: Each way.
Chad Jordan: I was gonna say five days a week, but that probably unrealistic right?
Marty Jo Endres: Very unrealistic.
Chad Jordan: Okay. So eight days a week. Beatles song. And what is that experience as you begin to manage your first ever location?
Marty Jo Endres: It was so exciting. Just being able to build my own team.
Chad Jordan: Yeah it was a GO right? A grand opening.
Marty Jo Endres: Oh yeah.
Chad Jordan: So you got to go hire everybody, interview everyone.
Marty Jo Endres: Yeah, and I'm just a small town girl. I grew up in Braynard Minnesota, which is two hours North, and I live in the North Metro, so I'm driving down to Saint Paul, which is not spectacular, but it's a city compared to what I was used to. So I'm like, "I'm living in the big city."
Chad Jordan: City slicker.
Marty Jo Endres: Yeah city slicker. And it was exciting. It's amazing how feeling passionate about something and really loving what you do can get you through those really exhausting times. Because I will say it was exhausting. Opening a new store in a new location, you are the face of that place. So I worked a lot. I did. And I'm proud of it. It's not that I'm saying, "Oh, it took this or that." But it was a lot.
Chad Jordan: So now you are stylist who walked out, walked away, got called back a year later, became a manager of a brand new location, at what point does the light bulb go off in your head and that you're beginning to think, "I'd like to have some stores, be part of an ownership group. This is a concept, this is a culture that I want for the rest of my life to be involved with." Where does the switch go on?
Marty Jo Endres: So I stayed at that store for about a year and then I managed a couple other locations. Rebuilding, helping rebuild the culture, and I did that for a couple years, and then I actually worked as a certified area coach in our market for three years. So when I came on as a coach I was the only coach in our market for Minnesota and North Dakota.
Chad Jordan: So you literally went everywhere.
Marty Jo Endres: I did.
Chad Jordan: Minnesota's not a small state.
Marty Jo Endres: I opened 23 brand new Sport Clips stores in our market as a coach.
Chad Jordan: In three years? Is that what it was?
Marty Jo Endres: Yep, and hired and trained two additional coaches. So it was really fun and very busy, and what I loved is that I could see not just the bigger picture as far as the culture and this and that, but I was involved in something so outside myself of the mentorship with not just new team members, but new franchise owners that are literally investing their retirement accounts and still working another job, and I'm the go between of helping that be successful for them. It was really cool.
Chad Jordan: And are you recognizing in all your interacting with team members across now 23 or how many stores that you're helping open, maybe some of the traits that were in you as a younger stylist and you're identifying, "I can speak into his or her life in this way." Can you tell me about the impact now that you had been on the other side, and then now that you're doing the coaching thing?
Marty Jo Endres: Yeah, I think for a long time you don't necessarily look at things necessarily as an opportunity, or why something is placed in your life, but I really knew that what I was doing for Sport Clips and mentoring these new team members was something I was being called to do.
Chad Jordan: You're feeling this destiny pulling you in this direction.
Marty Jo Endres: And not just as a hair stylist. Really mentoring people inner personally, and helping them emotionally, and showing them first of all, "You're not alone. I've been there, I've felt that way too." Its powerful and it still is.
Chad Jordan: So now you're a stylist, manager, coach, and what's the next transition?
Marty Jo Endres: So Bob and Marlo had approached me and we really in our market, 'cause Bob was working as our area developer at that time, and we had a really strong growth period, he literally just said to me, "I want to continue to grow this market and I know that you are already emotionally invested, but I think if you were also financially invested I know I won't lose you." And I'm like, "Really?"
Chad Jordan: No call no show. No worries anymore. Okay.
Marty Jo Endres: Yeah. So he sat down and talked with my husband, because I knew what I was doing for Sport Clips as a coach was super important to me, and I didn't want there to be any ambiguity between my support with the market and my personal investment in our group.
Chad Jordan: Had you ever expressed a desire to him or Marlo that ...
Marty Jo Endres: No.
Chad Jordan: Okay so he just recognized there might be a great opportunity to have a little more skin in the game, but for you to realize additional success opportunities in your life if he brought this to the table for you. All right.
Marty Jo Endres: And I think it was a reward in a way for me too because everybody that I worked with in our group already saw that I looked at it like I owned it. I worked it every day like I owned it whether I had that investment or not. The financial investment.
Chad Jordan: So at this point you and Chad are married.
Marty Jo Endres: Yes.
Chad Jordan: Okay. I'm sure this wasn't a 30 second conversation you guys had about doing this.
Marty Jo Endres: No definitely not.
Chad Jordan: So you come around, I'm assuming you make the decision then to go this route, since you already felt or acted like you owned it was there anything that changed in either emotionally or intrinsically when you began this new venture, or this new relationship, or was it just business as usual?
Marty Jo Endres: So quite honestly because I do the recruiting and the training and development, I very seldom tell anybody that I'm an actual franchise owner. I still cut hair behind the chair a couple days a week.
Chad Jordan: Really? At any store or certain stores?
Marty Jo Endres: The stores that we have. We have 16 locations.
Chad Jordan: And you just rotate.
Marty Jo Endres: If they need help I'm there. So I think that I am able to build a very personal relationship with new team members especially, and existing team members, 'cause when I'm in that store I'm working side by side with them. I am not Marty Jo the team leader, I am not checking every retail shelf, I am not saying, "Why aren't you going on break? Why are you on break?" Things like that. So I have a different repoir I think. And some of that I think is just built out of respect because I still work hard in the stores.
Chad Jordan: What's next? What do you see on the horizon?
Marty Jo Endres: Well retirement someday. I don't know. Honestly I think that I wanna continue to keep growing our stores. I am on our ambassador team here in Minnesota and I love where that's going.
Chad Jordan: So you're going into the beauty schools and talking about Sport Clips as an option an doing some things. What are some other things you're doing as an ambassador?
Marty Jo Endres: Mostly that. Obviously I see a lot of potential in some of our team members that I would love to show them that they have an opportunity to be on the ambassador team too. I think it's so important right now to recognize the fact that a lot of our trades are down, which we know. Our industry is the same. So I like being able to go in and what's cool with the ambassador team is that we aren't just plugging Sport Clips even though I personally think it's the best place to work, we're really being hones with them about what this industry really is, and I think that's important. So even if they don't choose to come to us right away, I think putting that foundation of who we are and the respect that we have when we're in the schools, if they really want what we have we'll get them. Someday they'll come. They'll come.
Chad Jordan: One of the things that I think is fascinating about your story is sometimes I'll sit down and interview a team leader that started as a stylist and it feels like more times than not she, it's all been women so far, but she set out, she knew the first time she was at a Sport Clips, "I wanna own these one day." It feels like your story unfolded gradually and it was really Bob and Marlo who saw the potential in you. Can you let me know a little bit, and then we'll get to the wrap up questions here, but can you describe the impact that, it sounds like a family dynamic relationship that you really have with them and a lot of the team member here, but can you help those maybe that are outside of Sport Clips looking in, can you give us a glimpse behind the curtain on what it's like when you're that close to other members of the organization?
Marty Jo Endres: Well sometimes I think it's trying to find your place, but we all wear very different hats but work well together. Bob is more the COO and handles everything. We try to get him to delegate a little more. He doesn't like to give things up, but we try. We also have a couple area managers, which are amazing, and also help with recruiting or training if I need help. Marlo is very involved as well with marketing, advertising, listen 360. So we also have a human resource person. We all know what we're doing, but really know that to get to where we want to be we couldn't do it without each other.
Chad Jordan: That's sweet. Well that's why you're a Secret of my Success series episode. I don't know that anybody else can really follow in the footsteps of exactly what you have been through, gone through, and pulled off, so I'm proud of you. That's an amazing story.
Marty Jo Endres: Thank you.
Chad Jordan: Before you leave can I ask you 10 fun questions and get to pick your brain a little bit? I won't ask follow ups to these. These are just so I can know you a little bit better and the listeners can know you a little bit better. Number one, which super power would you most like to have?
Marty Jo Endres: Oh boy. I'd love to be invisible.
Chad Jordan: Okay. Are you an introvert?
Marty Jo Endres: No, not at all.
Chad Jordan: So maybe that's why. So just when you've had enough of the social stuff-
Marty Jo Endres: I'd like to hear what people say when they don't know I'm there.
Chad Jordan: Okay. All right. Number two, what is your personal motto?
Marty Jo Endres: Oh boy. If you want it go get it.
Chad Jordan: Nice. You've done that. Number three, other than where you live now where else in the world would you most like to live?
Marty Jo Endres: Oh boy. I haven't really been that many places. Probably Florida. Or I'm gonna say California because I have traveled there and the temperature really is always is pretty steady.
Chad Jordan: And no humidity.
Marty Jo Endres: No humidity. I like California.
Chad Jordan: I'll put a plug in for California. We'll take it. Number four, who is the celebrity you'd most like to meet one day?
Marty Jo Endres: Oh boy. Probably Oprah Winfrey.
Chad Jordan: Oh I love Oprah. Which words or phrases do you most over use?
Marty Jo Endres: You betcha.
Chad Jordan: You betcha. Yes. We'll read the transcript to this and you probably said it four or five times.
Marty Jo Endres: And um. I say that a lot.
Chad Jordan: Yeah but that's common. Don't worry about that.
Marty Jo Endres: And I say I'm sorry a lot, which I shouldn't.
Chad Jordan: No of course not. What sound or noise do you love?
Marty Jo Endres: Birds. I love chirping birds.
Chad Jordan: Oh nice. What sound or noise do you hate?
Marty Jo Endres: Screaming children.
Chad Jordan: Okay. I've had a few of those. You mean in the chair?
Marty Jo Endres: Yes.
Chad Jordan: Okay. All right. What profession other than your own would you have been good at or at least had wanted to try?
Marty Jo Endres: I think I would've made a great councilor or therapist.
Chad Jordan: Okay. Yeah. You're kind of doing that right?
Marty Jo Endres: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: When you got a client in the chair. Number nine, what do you consider your greatest achievement.
Marty Jo Endres: My children. I'm very blessed to not only have the two kids I have, my son's 26 my daughter's 19, they're both doing good things. They're good people. And then I have two bonus children, is what I call them, 17 and 14, and I've been in their lives for 10 years so it's a huge accomplishment.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, that's sweet. I love when moms answer that question that way. If Heaven indeed exists, last question, if Heaven indeed exists what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?
Marty Jo Endres: Well first of all, in my opinion Heaven does exist. And I know that when I am there He will look at me and say, "I'm so glad you've never lived your life with regret.
Chad Jordan: Great. And may that be a reminder to all of us, no regrets just go out there and live your life, and do your best until you know better, and when you know better do better. And I wanna thank Marty Jo for being on today. For being a success story for Sport Clips, and for your life, and for your kids, and your family, and for all that you've done to make it successful. We appreciate you and are proud of you.
Marty Jo Endres: Thanks for having me.
Chad Jordan: All right. Good job.
Marty Jo Endres: Thanks.
Chad Jordan: Thanks everybody.