Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
This is a Ben Frank connection presentation.
(00:30):
Welcome back for five questions with ABJ.
We're at Euphoria for Labor of Love here in Philadelphia, PA
Mania Week 2 are sorry, Mania Day 2 for for both of us.
Unless you've been doing it morethan I have, but it is.
This week. Two days have already been felt
like a week, but I am here todaywith.
(00:52):
I'm Vinny. I'm the owner operator of
Vinny's Barber Shop. You can see the right.
There behind. Us, that's one of many logos,
because I am a logo hound. I I get, I get bored, I make a
new logo and then I put it on stickers, a shirt or apparently
a banner. So yeah.
(01:13):
I I feel you there. So I don't sell any that's only
a. Problem honestly, I would like
to say that I sell any of it Most of the things that I make
is merch immediately just becomelike some more clutter in my
shop. Like I have a brick and mortar
Barber shop that one of my storage shelves is just unsold
(01:33):
merch because people are like, oh, I want to buy merch and I'm
like, I'm going to produce merchand then the and then they.
Don't buy nobody and then no onebuys them, no.
One buys it's it's. Your.
Fault buy merch, people, and maybe I could order a lot less
than I order because I think, yeah, people want Barber shop
merch. Side to the name of a podcast.
Nobody wants a podcaster. So what is your current goal
(01:58):
like? So I've got a few, but there's
always there's one that's popping into my mind right now
because it's, it's relatively recent.
I'm a competitive power lifter. It's a thing that I, I got into
within the last few years. It's actually why that logo
looks that way is because it's aa RIP off of a notable
(02:22):
powerlifting brand for years past.
But so currently my goal with with my sport, I'll say is to up
my totals in in my in my sport and you know, just get probably
(02:42):
to get stronger. Yeah, yeah, I think is is my my
current goal in life. OK.
Yeah, it's kind of self-explanatory the next
question, but what are you doingto achieve your goal?
So it's, I could nerd out about weightlifting and powerlifting
day in day out, but I've someoneactually today described my
approach to fitness and weightlifting as holistic
(03:08):
because I think of it as a very fluid and nonlinear thing, which
I think a lot of trainers would agree with.
Progress is nonlinear, right? So the short answer is I'm in
the gym 6 out of seven days a week, but I am.
I follow a a methodology with with regards to my training
(03:33):
where I tailor what I'm doing onthe day-to-day to better
whatever lift I'm working on or help achieve those goals.
So for example, I'm trying to total my my weird current goal
is I'm trying to total £1000 with just my lower body, just
(03:56):
squat and deadlift. I'm about 40 lbs away from it.
So I have to up both of those lifts about 20 lbs.
And then overall, I'd love to get better at my bench.
If anyone's got tips, I'm sitting pretty stagnantly around
265 and I would like to get back.
(04:19):
Yeah, but. That was like, that was like a
thing I never like went back in the day playing football.
They had like the 1000 LB club. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. What is holding you back or
distraction from your goal? So a lot of people, I think
would say often times that they hit plateaus in fitness and I
(04:41):
think that they find that plateaus are physical or at
least they'll feel that way. And I, I personally find that
any plateau or any time I plateaued, it's been a mental
component. I guess there are physical
things that I can do that's thatare holding me back, like subtle
(05:01):
tweaks, maybe things I can do with my diet that are different.
But it's funny how interlocked alot of things that I do are
where I could say this about my business.
I could say this about my lifting, I could say this about
my relationships. Is that honestly, I need to take
things more seriously. I, I have a very laissez faire
(05:25):
nature about a lot that I do like, you know, que sera sera,
whatever will be will be. And that's well and good until
you start to see things not change for the better.
And that goes with my lifting. That goes with my business.
If you just let things be until they will be, then you're never
going to get there. So what I'm trying to do is not
(05:50):
be so casual about about things.Sometimes lifting needs
intensity, sometimes my businessneeds direction, sometimes my
relationships need more attention than I'm affording
them the ability to do so. So I think that's kind of where
I'm at. It's like I'm trying to get over
that somewhat narcissistic hump.Oh, I could just do this.
(06:11):
I could just be carefree and sometimes you have to care.
Or possibly ADHD where you're trying to take off too much at
one time. Yeah.
All right. So yeah, also.
That I'm just saying most like most people think of
narcissists. They think negativity, but also
like you sound similar to me where you're like, oh, I could
do 100 things and then people are like, yo, you stop talking
to me. You're like, oh, I didn't even
realize I did that. Right.
Yeah, You know, and it's funny, you know, I've, I've only
(06:35):
recently been diagnosed. If we're going to get into that,
if we're going to get into it, I've only recently been
diagnosed actually with ADHD within the last few years.
And it still blows my mind to find out what actually is like a
hard line symptom of ADHD. And it's like, no, no, you're
going to take on a lot of things.
You're going to fixate, you're going to hyper fixate on little
(06:57):
things. Like I got really into reading
this year after not reading fiction for I don't know how
long. I read 4 books within a couple
of weeks and I can't stand booksagain.
I did it. I murdered.
I murdered the written word for myself.
(07:17):
Who are What motivates or inspires you?
All right, pokey, corny thing onon on the top because it's the
first first name that came to mind is my partner cat.
They are a real solid shining light in a way that I strive to
(07:39):
be as supportive of a person as they are every day.
And it boggles my mind that theythat that they do.
So like I, I don't, I don't get.And I find I find myself to be
an optimist, but there are timeswhere they're just like they
(08:01):
know exactly what to say and howto be present for a person.
It's so hard to live with ADHD, but it's even harder to be in a
relationship with someone ADHD. Yeah.
They'll see they'll see my downward spirals when like I'm
sure, I'm sure, you know, like the frustration you get when you
(08:22):
can't meet a goal before you just completely forget that that
goal existed. Like there's this there's this
tangible sense of frustration and all straight up at times say
like, I'm such an idiot and gold.
Correct me, Cap will be like, you're not you're not an idiot
for that. Maybe dingus and words, but not
an idiot. I'm like, yeah, I'm a dingus.
(08:44):
What? Are you?
I'm sorry, what are you gratefulfor and what are you currently
happy? I'm, I don't, I don't give
myself the grace enough to thinkabout what I'm grateful for.
So this one is hard for me. Not that I don't have things
(09:06):
that I'm grateful for, but I'm actually like, I can feel my
brain telling me to not say whatI'm grateful for.
I we're the. We're the same human.
I want to. I want to like brush this off so
much but it's hard to. Give yourself oculations, yeah.
I'm, I'm, I'm grateful for a lotof things in my life in a way
(09:27):
that I don't know that I properly express.
Like for example, my partner cat, I'm so grateful for.
I'm grateful for the opportunities that they that
their existence affords me and the wide brush that they let me
paint with. I'm grateful for my Barber Eric,
(09:49):
who is holding down the shop right now while I'm at A
wrestling show taping a logo to a window and doing, I don't
know, maybe 7 haircuts in a 16 haircut day.
I'm, I'm grateful for, you know,to go back to the original
question, I'm grateful for my body being able to show me that
(10:14):
I have the capacity for physicalstrength.
And then the work that I've put in on emotional strength and,
and strength over the last few years with hitting a lot of dips
and, and alters here and there. And then, like, like I said
before, progress being non linear.
(10:35):
I'm, I'm super grateful for the like realization of that and,
and also like really grateful for toys.
I have a lot of toys and sometimes it's nice to just go
into my office where I where I hide all of my toys just.
Look at them and just look. At them, yeah.
(10:56):
Some things are still in boxes. Those just get looked at.
And then there are some things where I'm just like, all right,
Doctor Peter Bankman. Yeah.
You're literally holding a mirror up to me right now.
Yeah. Where can people find and
support you? So if you're local to the
Philadelphia area, I own a Barber shop.
It's Vinnie's Barber Shop. It's my name.
(11:16):
We're on Instagram at vinnysbarber.shopourwebsiteiswww.vinnysbarber.shopyoucanbookanappointmentdirectlywithus@vinnysbarbershop.reserva.com.
Awesome. That's.
Five questions with ABJ. We'll catch you on the next one.
We're outta here. Thank you.
(12:02):
OK, thanks for watching this presentation.
Like, share and subscribe for more.
We are back post credit scene, still here at Attic Brewing for
labor of love now. Weightlifting, relationships,
(12:24):
Barber shops, everything. Like everything on everything
you're piling on. How and why are you in the
wrestling scene? I seen you at at at cheeseburger
school. I've seen you here.
What connects you to this world of why you're bringing the
barbershop world into it? Because like I've I've heard you
like you're looking at other podcasters you help support
(12:45):
wrestling shows. Is it a passion of love?
Is it a love labor of love? No pun intended.
But what brings you to the wrestling world?
All right. So all I'll work backwards
starting with like today, starting with an accruing labor
of love. Sean Henderson, the the crew
that you see here that wrestled that are like, you know, area
(13:08):
mainstays, the the general 40 Millers, even though I don't
think anyone here is actually 40Miller.
I know everyone travels. Please do not quote me on that.
I sponsor through my shop wrestling shows because of my
labor of love for wrestling. I have known Billy Avery for I
(13:33):
think going on 10 years now. By sheer happenstance, our
connection of wrestling came waylater.
Where his band and my band played together a few times in
like 2013, now you're. Throwing music at me?
Yeah. So, so there's also that that's
sheer happenstance, but that that's kind of part of why I'm
(13:55):
here today is like I like, I like to make sure that the art
form of wrestling is benefiting,has a benefactor.
My ability to open up a businessand then funnel money into this
art form that I love and appreciate has been delightful
for me. Granted, because I'm a sponsor,
(14:16):
that means that my ticket price is a little bit higher just by
the sheer nature. So I can't say I'm getting into
wrestling shows for free, but it's cool that like I just kind
of saunter in and I walk around.All of the performers are often
friends of mine, people that, and now we're working backwards.
I trained with When I was training to be a professional
wrestler starting in 2016, I trained with the Jakara Wrestle
(14:37):
Factory alongside Travis Huckabee, Dr. Ethan Wilde, Edith
Surreal Hermit Crab. I I interacted regularly with
people like Orange Cassidy and Wheeler Yuda and Chuck Taylor.
The, you know, name drop, name drop, name drop.
(15:01):
How about? Trent kicking orange in the face
last night Not. Super stoked on that not.
Not happy about that at all. Super stoked.
But you know, for what it's worth, I've, I've been around
all of these now like notables in professional wrestling for
going on 10 years now and I couldn't cut it.
(15:22):
Like I'll full stop. I'll say that the mental stress
of training for wrestling was far too much for what I was
going through at the time. I was in what would become a, A
divorced marriage that I wasn't happy and, and it wasn't, it
wasn't well, I wasn't well. I was not admittedly like a good
(15:46):
person. I've done a lot of therapy and
honestly, part of the part of that process of bettering myself
was how do I stay connected to one thing that I know that I
love. So eventually I found my way
into sponsoring pro wrestling, years after I had given it up.
(16:09):
I watched with this this longingwhen Camp Leapfrog sprung up and
all of my friends were there, and as it turned into things
like high tension and labor of love popped out of it.
LLV Elvac an. Elvac rearing and it's like
(16:31):
it's, it's, it's been nice to reconnect to this.
Like I, I cannot tell you the sheer amount of joy that I get
from connecting this art form, which like, I think I was afraid
of many years ago. Even when I was a fan in in
(16:52):
2007, I looked into the Ohio Valley wrestling school after
watching Beyond the Match. I emailed him.
I talked to that Roland guy via e-mail for like a few weeks
being like, yeah, I, I don't know, I'm a small guy.
I don't know if I can do this. But like, he's like, oh, we'll
find a spot for you. And I backburned it, went to
college, became a Barber, not related.
(17:14):
Those are separate instances. And then eventually it was like,
I think I'm going to try that pro wrestling thing again.
Found it, loved it, started to hate it, got out, found it,
loved it again. Now I'm now I'm like a
benefactor. And now it's like ingrained in
my branding. Hang on, like, like I have a
(17:45):
sticker. Oh boy, I have a sticker that's
a luchador doing orange Cassidy's entire gimmick in a.
Barber. Suit, right?
That's my actual uniform. People insisted that this was a
drawing of me because apparentlyI stand like that.
It might be. We never know.
We don't, we don't know who's under that mask.
(18:07):
That's a. Good point.
I do actually have. I.
Do actually have that mask at myshop.
I had I had I had a a fellow wrestler make that for me one of
those ants. No, no, was not an although a
familiar snake to some people. So gotcha, gotcha.
(18:28):
So yeah, I I legitimately I loveit.
I there's, there's this this immense amount of love that I
just have for this world and anyway that I can be involved and
help it thrive, I think is just where I'm at.
(18:49):
Long story longer, yeah. That'll do it. 5 questions, ABJ.
Make sure you check the links below.
Support them. Follow.
Go get a haircut. You're building a bum.
We'll see you next time. Thanks.
We're out here.