222 | Generate More Exposure in the African American Community with Wil Shelton
Image of Wil Shelton, founder of Wil Power Integrated Marketing
Our guest on the pod this week is Wil Shelton. Wil is the founder of Wil Power Integrated Marketing founded in 1996. It is a full-service consumer engagement company specializing in African American Beauty Salon/Barber Shop Marketing. The company has built a network of 100,000+ shops that it leverages to help get the word out about movies, TV shows, products and services focused on the African American community.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Wil Shelton Interview Transcript: Generate More Exposure in the African American Community
Transcription by Otter.ai
SPEAKERS
Wil Shelton, Paul Zelizer
Paul Zelizer 00:02
Hi, this is Paul Zelizer, and welcome to another episode of The Awarepreneurs podcast. This podcast is all about the intersection of
Paul Zelizer 00:10
conscious business, social impact, and awareness practice. Each episode, I do a deep dive interview with a thought leader in this intersection. Someone who has market tested experience and is already transforming.
Paul Zelizer 00:24
Before I introduce our guests and our topic, I have one request. If you could go over to Apple podcasts or whatever app you're listening to the show on, hit the subscribe button, do a rating and review. It helps tremendously. Thanks so much for considering it!
Paul Zelizer 00:39
Today, I'm thrilled to introduce you to Wil Shelton. And our topic today is Generate More Exposure in the African American Community. Wil is the founder of Wil Power Integrated Marketing, founded in 1996, it's a full service consumer engagement companies specializing in African American Beauty Salon and barbershop marketing. Wil, welcome to the show. Hey there, thank you so much for having me today. I'm so glad that you had me on as a guest and just ready to share some great information and inspiration with the audience. You are an inspiring guy, we were just talking before we hit record, something pretty exciting happened in your life, which we're going to talk about in a little bit. But before we get that in, we are called the Awarepreneurs. And one of the ways we like to get to know somebody has to ask you about a wellness or resiliency practice that you personally use to resource yourself for this really important work.
Wil Shelton 01:39
Yeah, for me, I've always been a spiritual person, I've always been a Christian. And I'll just always put God first. And I've always tried to when I wake up in the morning, I think about what can I do to make somebody else's life better, whether that's my wife, or kids, or whoever I run into, or speak to, or the audience I'm speaking to, I think, having a mindset of being grateful. And understanding that really, your your life is not about you. It's about everybody else. The testimonies that you have in your life can be a survival guide for someone else, what you've been through what you overcame, just about being resilient, and being able to have the mindset to overcome adversity, because adversity introduces the person to themselves. And I think usually when you overcome adversity, what you you become what you overcome.
Paul Zelizer 02:42
Like that, you become what you overcome, what a beautiful way to language that. Thanks. So this whole topic of creating more engagement, and more exposure for businesses and for organizations in the African American community, started with you becoming a hairstylist. And I know listeners Hold on, they're like, why not? Hold that thought for a second. Talk to us about like, how did you find that career path? And then how did that start to lead into a Wait, there's something in addition to people getting, you know, looking great, and being prepared to go out into their lives looking and feeling great, you recognize another opportunity. But first of all, how did you get into the world of hair salons and barber shops? And when did you start to see that there was an opportunity here that maybe most people weren't seeing? Yeah, man. It's a very unique story. So basically, it started out where I was just got married in my early early 20s. I was working at this job and then they started having layoffs. So I was taking some college courses here and there, but I really wasn't finished it. So I said, Oh, man, I need to figure out
Wil Shelton 04:00
a way to get into another career that I knew I was gonna love in it. And I had the ownership of it. And I was I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I just didn't know what it was at the time. So I went to the hair salon with my wife to get her hair done. And her style is asked me Have you ever thought about getting into hair becoming a hairstylist? And I was like, wow, I never thought about that before. That was never anything on my radar. So about three months went by me and my wife talked about it and and we were like, oh, man, maybe you should do it. So I just signed up and enrolled in hair school. You know, and, and I took it on, like, my life depended on it because the life that I wanted did depend on it. So that's the way I looked at it at the time and I knew that it was my own business, I could grow my clientele, I can scale the business up. So I decided at that point that you know,
Wil Shelton 05:00
I'm going to completely take advantage of this. So that's how not only got in, I got into it, but it got into me.
Paul Zelizer 05:09
And this is a while ago, this wasn't yesterday, right? Yeah, this was
Wil Shelton 05:13
like near like 30 years ago, you know, early 90s, round 92 or so. And, you know, I always had these principles of dedication and devotion and commitment and discipline in my life. So I just applied those same principles to hairstyling. And so I ended up assisting at some top hair shops in Beverly Hills area. And then I opened up my own shop, and I had my own shop for 10 years. But this is what happens when you're in the shop, especially when you're in black, beauty salons and barber shops. They're like the ecosystem that makes the community flourish, you know, you can get more out of your client in 15 minutes than a therapist and 15 years. So there's always like a conveyor belt of conversations that closes going on about entertainment, about politics, it's always been known as like a safe space. For the black community is like the coronary artery of the community that is a trusted environment. It's not just about like the hair cut in the shave. It's almost like they can help, you know, shave away your problems, comb through the obstacles that stand between you and your destiny. It's like the ecosystem that makes the black community flourish. So it's, that's how it is. So in the shop, I'm doing hair every day, and clients are asking me what music is that playing in the background, I tell them the name of the album, I said, hey, that's Whitney Houston, or that's Beyonce. And they would tell me, I'm gonna go buy that album when I leave, or I would recommend a movie, a movie for them, and they would go see it, or they would call me when they didn't even have an appointment, and asked me for movie recommendations. So that's when I had the Epiphany right there. And I just want the audience to think about this. For me, I mean, I'm standing in the shop, I'm listening, we're talking all the time. And no one's really thought about this. But the shops are like the incubators of the culture in the stylist are like the cultivators of the culture. So I sent the proposal out to all the movie studios I can think of, and all the record labels, and I let them know that this is a captive audience, for the black audience, and they really have an insatiable appetite for entertainment. Now, mind you, I had no relationships didn't know anybody in the industries. But I want to say that I thought about it this way, if I have nothing, I have nothing to lose. And I wasn't gonna let fear keeps me from my destiny fear, because fear is only false evidence appearing real.
Paul Zelizer 08:07
And it took off like now, fast forward a number of years. This is like a network of 100,000. stylists and shops, you know, across the US, if I understand correctly, is that right? Well,
Wil Shelton 08:23
that's correct. Yeah, I just what I did at that point, I got responses in about 30 days after I started, started sending out these proposals to these companies. And about 30 days, they started sending me free CDs to play in advanced screening passes to go to the movies and give to my clients. So that's what I knew I had something and I was like, oh, man, this is I thought it was just so cool, because I was getting free CDs. And I was getting movie back then. But then the bigger picture came where I said, Wait a minute, there's 1000s of shops all over the country. So I started networking with different representatives, different people that I knew that were on the ground that have relationships with shops, and fast forward to today, over 2526 years later, I've built this network of over 100,000 shops, and I work with global brands from at&t to Universal Pictures. I just did a big campaign with Fox television for their their new show that came out. ABC has a new show called one two years that we just worked on, worked on coming to America, Aretha Franklin's respect movie and we also did something that's different. But because you know, the the black culture is so strong and we had a lot of, I would say COVID kind of grabbed the black community by the collar. We we set up the shops as pillars of health. So we spread the word about vaccine awareness. New COVID treatments to build trust because a lot of blacks, they trust the science, but they don't trust the scientists. So we're trying to help them overcome those barriers, to really focus on their health and, and get the vaccine information and education and overcome all those conspiracy theories.
Paul Zelizer 10:22
We be here for weeks unpacking where you just let me wind it back a little and, and one of the reasons our listeners listen to our show, is they're trying to get a sense of how do I find some innovative way to have impact at scale, while still living a good quality life? So you said something here, and I want to unpack it a little bit for a listener who's in this space? Maybe you don't yet have 100,000 shops in your network or your equivalent. Yeah, listeners. So let's wind it back just a little bit. Well, what would you say to somebody who's you, you know, you're 10 years into your shop, you're like, wait a second here, like, sounds like the shop is going pretty well. People are coming to you. It's the center of your local African American community. Suddenly, you're like seeing this opportunity, music and movie and culture, etc. Somebody who's in that space, you did certain things like you reached out to studios and to music companies. What would you say to somebody who's in that space or starting, you know, they kind of have their basic craft, they're paying their bills, but they're starting to see something like, who I think there's something here, but I've never seen anybody do anything like this before? And I'm not quite sure if I can trust it. I'm not quite sure if it's for real, like what would you say to somebody who's at that point in the journey?
Wil Shelton 11:47
Well, first, I would say, the first thing, like I said before, don't let fear hold you back. Um, you know, it's, it's those conversations that we have with ourselves, like, I don't have a degree or too young, or it's, I call those false confessions that we tell ourselves. So first, you have to overcome that hurdle of the imposter syndrome, or the the just, I would say the possibility blindness that people have. It's, it's not what you don't have is what you think you need that holds you back from reaching your potential, you think you need something else, but you really can win with what you have, you have to believe that you're enough that you have enough and start from there, and then try to figure out what what is the real DNA of your company? What's your niche? What do you have there that somebody else doesn't have? How do you stand out instead of fitting in, so you can become the choice instead of just a choice? You know, you want to start looking at ways that, you know, you can connect with maybe other companies how to expand your business? And that just takes a deep dive into really, what is the infrastructure of your shop? What do you guys special in? Are you scattering your shots, instead of aiming a rifle, you have to really just look at how what what makes you unique, instead of just being better, because unique is even better than better.
Paul Zelizer 13:27
Thanks so much for allowing another like, point in the journey that I would appreciate if you might speak to for our listeners benefit. Suddenly, people start sending you movie passes and CDs, right? Like I can think about here on the podcast, people like who want to be on the show, let us send you a box of these vegan soups, or these special shoes that have certain benefits and are constructed in a very sustainable way, etc, etc. Right? So that's all cool. How does somebody who's starting to experience that kind of not get lost in the you were like, these CDs and these movie passes? That's great. But there's something bigger than here, you kept going right? Like what would you say to somebody who is like in that space, how not to get lost when somebody is like showing up in your door. here's, here's a small thing that might be cool, but isn't necessarily the full, fully baked version of something that you've created. Now that has a much larger scale, then we'll in his team get some cool CD.
Wil Shelton 14:29
Yeah, I think you have to keep the main thing, the main thing, I think you have to look at what the original purpose was, when you developed this, this vision for yourself. Um, like, for me, my original thought was, Hey, this is something where it's a captive audience and it's culturally relevant and that I knew that they could connect with that with the African American Can consumer in a trusted environment. So I think keeping the main thing, the main thing with the original focus on developing that part of the business helps you not to get lost or capsized or caught up in, like the nuances of the excitement of maybe what first took place. And then you start to take a deeper dive into how do I scale this? Maybe you may have to get because I, you know, I had no mentors, I didn't know anybody. So what I did is I started getting books about how to become how to be a good consultant. How does Hollywood work? How does the entertainment industry work? So I mean, this was like, almost 30 years ago, so it wasn't, you couldn't just google things, you had to go to the library, you had to go to the bookstore. So I would just do my do your due diligence research on your, your target consumer, your target audience, your target clients, figure out, what I will say figure out, make sure you you have the solution for their problem. If you're the answer, they're going to hire you. So let's try to figure out what's going to help elevate their company. So it's it goes back to it's not really about you, it's about how you can figure out what their problems are, become the practitioner where you can prognosis, and diagnose those issues and go to them as a consultant and start with the conversation that you know is going to be in their mind when you speak to them.
Paul Zelizer 16:41
And in your case, that would be let's say it's a movie, you know, company and they have a movie, like you just used an example like the recent Aretha Franklin movie. So I'm a movie company or movie company leader, I've got this movie. And I want to have as much exposure as I can in the African American community. So talk to us a little bit like, how did you learn to speak to them in a way that they understood there was value here had like, tips for that? Yeah, what
Wil Shelton 17:13
I would say what we like, for instance, the black culture is different from other cultures. So a lot of times you look at black communities in the black culture has an outsized influence on the rest of the culture, we redefine cultural norms. And I knew that. And so a lot of companies actually use the African American consumer as priority consumers. So I understood that they not only want to find African Americans, but when I speak to them, they want to not only know where are these African Americans, not just traditional marketing, but non traditional, like grassroots out of home, like, where are they, in one of the places they were at. And I knew that because I was there was in the shop. So talking to them about I can, I told them, I can help you take you from the balcony from the mezzanine section to orchestra section where I can get you a front row seat, which are targeted consumer. So I explained it that way. And I said, these are the cultivators of the culture, that's who you want. And I can connect you straight to them in a culturally relevant way. Because now you can't just market to African Americans the same way you market to the general market. So that's something that they didn't understand. So I helped them understand, look, this is how you do it, this is how you invest. And you can't just gain their loyalty, like without gaining their respect, and gaining their trust
Paul Zelizer 18:56
first. So notice, listeners will had a real understanding of both the community that he's operating in and living with, but also somebody who wanted to access that community and was willing to pay for it. So wonderful job there. Well, and one of the follow up questions I have, how do you do that without losing respect? Or is there some time some feeling of like, well, we'll sold out? Or, you know, do you get any pushback when you're saying I'm going to help these large companies and large companies haven't always had the best interest or maybe don't have a lot of representation of the black community in those organizations? How do you navigate those kinds of issues where there's historically sometimes some tension between corporate America and the black community?
Wil Shelton 19:49
Whoa, what I've been telling them lately is that the black community wants you to put a ring on it. You know, the black community Looking under the hood, they're doing 150 point inspection on these global brands. Because remember, especially when the George Floyd, murder happened, and all in you had the Black Lives Matter, and all the stuff that went on in 2020, that just really gave an unvarnished look at things. And then really corporate america started to stand up and say, Hey, we're standing in solidarity with you. But the first question I would ask them was, hey, when I spoke up and say, Hey, is your solidarity solid, or this symbolic? Did Black Lives Matter before the Black Lives Matter movement? And, and when I position those questions, then that forced them to look inside, like, hey, look, you know, you guys have a broken culture. And blacks want a full commitment. They don't just want the cohabitation. And when you show up during Black History Month, and then you just show up on Martin Luther King's birthday, and then you're out again, black America has been waiting for that rain, and a firm date, and they're no longer gonna be having a relationship with you, until you really put that ring on it and stop just courting us. And you really build that trust, and gain our respect. So the black community saying now that we're not going to no longer be swept off our feet, by the PR that you have. So when I speak to the black community, what they're saying is, if you don't have the good representation, and depiction in your commercials in your advertisements, if you don't have those products that are accessible in our community, we're going to vote with our $1.4 trillion spending power, those corporate global brands understand that. So when I'm talking to them, I said, Look, this is what's going on, you must invest in this community, not just show up with some signage during certain months of the year, that's how you're going to have one of those relationships that's sustainable. And then they'll see the commitment from how you invest in them. So I talked to both sides. And that's where it's going now. And it's really almost about, I call it a truancy of transparency, and really how corporations, confessions can help heal cultural damage that's been done in the communities.
Paul Zelizer 22:36
Beautiful. So, listeners, if you've been around for a while, you've heard about my spiritual highlighter. So I'm on a circle where you were saying, well, in terms of like, how you're framing it to some folks, you're first helping them understand the benefit ball. One point, however, many trillion was a 1.4. I love Five, four, yeah, well, yeah, $1.4 trillion. But then also the outsized effect in terms of what that means for other demographics. And they're spending it's way more than that. And you're helping these brands understand what this means for them in terms of their goals and their products and their sales. But while you're doing that you're having, you're using that to have some of these harder, longer term conversations, like you can't just come in with one movie or one CD and expect to sell a bunch and then by z later, next time we have a CD will soccer back around doesn't work that way. So I just want to circle that for our listeners and hear that long term commitment for the well being of the community, even as you're brokering these kinds of arrangement. Just want to highlight what you're doing there well, and just say, Yeah, I think that's a fabulous job. And I love that long term perspective. Yeah.
Wil Shelton 23:55
Yeah, thank thank you so much, because it's, the other part of it is and we'll probably get into that later, I've actually kind of wrote a book on these types of things, too. And there's, there's like this psychological contract that's made by corporations that's unfulfilled by black high achievers. And you're almost dealing with the breach of contract to, but we'll get into that more. Well, totally
Paul Zelizer 24:17
more. So before we get that, let's let's give our listeners a sense, okay. So this is a long journey. And it's a beautiful journey. And there's a lot of lessons. The evolution of well, from hairstylist to shop owner to stepping into willpower integrated marketing, like many of us have had some growth that we needed to do and I can only imagine like, there were some internal and just some skill, up leveling that needed to happen along the way when you went from like doing this with 5% of your time to sending out some letters and you start to get somewhere responses, and then maybe it went to 10% of your time. And I don't know how much hair you cut these days, but I don't think it's as much as what he used to cut, right? Like, give us a sense of that journey. And what have been some of the key moments where you needed to evolve as a leader.
Wil Shelton 25:16
Yeah, well, for me, it was, you know, at one time I was, I was in the salon doing hair, and I had my marketing company on the side. So I was growing and scaling it up. And I knew my end goal was to transition out of the salon retire from that, and just full time, do my marketing and consulting for global brands. So that was accomplished few years back. So I'm no longer cutting here, only my grandson or my son, family when they requested, but so I had to figure out like, you know, I knew things like, you know, you don't get out of life, what you want you get out of life, which you are, you know, I had to figure out, and I tell people all the time, that's, you know, it's about your accountability and your account, your accountability is even more important than your ability in life, you know, so you had to hold yourself accountable. You have to, it's, it's a mindset, it's a belief that sometimes we undermine, like, sometimes if you don't have the belief in yourself, you may have to rely on somebody else's belief in you until your own belief kicks in, you know. So just realizing that you have to set goals, set a vision for yourself, open up the aperture of your mind, don't be reactive, but be proactive. So I had to be proactive in what I wanted, out of life out of my business, and the lifestyle that I wanted, and the things I wanted for my family. So I just think, you know, I just kind of leaned into what how I'm wired, I'm always been a communicator, I've always loved marshaling the English language, always was like that person. Even when I was 12 years old, I was like, the special advisor to my friends, right? So I, when I looked at how I was wired, I always was solving problems, whether it was personal problems, or now its business problems. So now not only before, I was a consultant, and Special Advisor for friends, and clients and people I knew, but now I'm doing the same thing for businesses, and helping them to overcome their problems, their hurdles, their barriers, and what they want to accomplish in their companies. pitfall,
Paul Zelizer 27:39
when we come back the money here, what that looks like now, about your book, and all the other great things you're doing well, before we do that, just want to take a short break and hear a word from our sponsor. Do you have a business that's about making the world a better place? And you want it to grow in terms of both impacting more people? And in terms of your income and quality of life? If so, I imagine you know that there's some specific issues that are kinds of businesses face. For instance, how do you find a web designer who understands what the heck you're talking about, or a lawyer or somebody to design your logo? aware printers has a community that's called the aware printers community, we're about 280 plus strong people all over the world. And what we do is you can take your latest sales page and share it in our community and say, Can I get some feedback, and we talk about pricing, as well as just the emotional and well being of how do you take care of yourself and have some quality of life, as you're building out this kind of business, the people will refer you to and the people you're in community with, understand your kind of business. If you'd like to find out more, you can go to aware printers.com forward slash community. And a big thanks to everybody in the aware printers community who sponsors this podcast. So while you were talking about your book, let's start there. We like to get granular in the second part of the show. And so let's get into you have this fabulous book called The Silent agreement. Tell us a little bit about that book and why you wrote it.
Wil Shelton 29:18
Yeah, basically, this book is called the silent agreement and illusion of inclusion in black corporate America, how to fight with conviction, and avoid the broken promises. So it was written, because, you know, there's just been a lot of broken promises in a huge broken culture within within corporate America. And I started out writing articles about it. I mean, I wrote this, actually, during the pandemic, when a lot of the problems were happening with corporate america and they were asking me, the my clients were even asking me, how do we deal with this? What do we do? How do we stand up and say Solidarity authentically, you know, and they were afraid to because then they didn't want to get called to the carpet. So I started writing articles about it. And one of the articles that I wrote was called the silent agreement. And it starts, like, it's based on Boxing analogies, and I'll give you how it started out. Basically, a lot of people know who mike tyson is, and his prime, most of the time, he'd been knock on most of his sparring partners. But every once in a while, he would get one that he couldn't knock out. So he would resort to holding and clenching and trying to take a break. And his coast, Teddy Atlas told him, Mike, you got to stop doing that, because you're making a silent agreement. And one day, you're going to get a guy who's not going to sign the contract. And what happens is a lot of black executives get into corporate America. And they usually find out the hard way that the other other side hasn't signed the contract. But they don't stop fighting for those top C suite positions. What happens is they start to falter. And they start to what are called throw, don't hit me punches, and they start to fight, not to lose instead of fighting to win. And they're just just trying to survive waiting for the conflict to be over. And usually, a lot of times what happens is they turn into psychological contortion is twisting themselves in knots for the illusion of inclusion.
Paul Zelizer 31:30
So that's the book and that came out and was a 2020. Right?
Wil Shelton 31:34
It came out actually June this July, a few months
Paul Zelizer 31:37
ago. Oh, just a few months ago. Okay, so so you worked on it through 2020. And it just launched? And obviously that came out of your work with corporates, is there anything else you want to say about the book and who it might be useful
Wil Shelton 31:51
for? Yeah, this book is really good. It's really useful for not only black executives, but their allies, people who want to help in that the day to day racism and exchanges that go in it's, um, it gives you ways to execute solutions, and how to how to fight against those tactics. Like I mean, you know, a lot of times executives in corporate America are highly adjusted to the injustice on both sides. Nobody wants to rock the perceived the boat. So you have these silent agreements that go on, you know, sometimes your greatest strengths also become your greatest weaknesses in life. So this book is, is there to help both parties. And it's just I just use a lot of metaphors and insights into the subtle and not so subtle, below the belt tactics of why corporate leaders use to knock out African American executives. And this book is like, think of it this way, I wrote this book to get more out of you than you get out of it. It's not only timely, but it's timeless. And that's the kind of book it is, I didn't write it for the applause. I wrote it for a cause.
Paul Zelizer 33:15
We'll put a link in the show notes, highly recommend our listeners, go check it out. Go by it. Tell your friends, please. So we'll talk to us a little bit about Okay, decades in What does willpower integrated marketing look like? Now, what kinds you gave us a few examples give us like, a little bit more nuance, like, Who are you tending to work with? What are the contracts look like? Is it movie by movie CD by CD or longer term? Like just people listen to get these kinds of details? Right, right.
Wil Shelton 33:48
Yeah. So you go from in the beginning, you know, it was project by project it was a lot of they didn't know who I was. So I always followed this advice. Somebody told me, no one's gonna know who you are, unless you let them know. So that's what I did. I just kept sending out proposals. And then when I got a couple of contracts, and I use those references, then I started to get referrals. And then I started to build my network of clients. And then what I did was, and this is important, I've diversify. So I went from just working with recording MUSIC Studios, I mean, recording studios and movie studios, to working with television and film. And I started working with global brands, like at&t, like Google and those I started to expand because, you know, there's a lot of ups and downs and businesses, so you need to figure out how you know if the revenue slows up in one area, how do I keep it flowing and keep scaling up, so I recognize my type of business where you're targeting African American consumers, there was a desperation for it at this at this point now. So I just started to reach out to different companies now, I'm looking at signing multi year deals, and multi million dollar contracts, not just you know, 100,000 or $70,000 contract so I'm looking at that and really expanding within my network now I'm building a network within the network, we're we're able to do a lot of other things like produce content for these companies produce 30 and 62nd spots that are culturally relevant to the barbershop culture, like the barber shop, and beauty culture is a culture within the culture, um, you know, you have to think of it this way, they're, they're not just stylists, they're innovators, they're creators, they're entertainers, they don't just shape hair, they shape the culture, one style in one cut at a time. So now I'm growing the business front with different revenue streams, that we're offering companies. And because the trends have changed, we've gone from, from brick and mortar to click an order quickly now. So with the consumer changes, with the trends, changing with bottlenecks, and supply chains, problems, and disloyalty, with just brands, because consumers have had to find other brands, because we're they're running out of toilet paper, they're running out of bottled water, and there's a shortage of so many different products now that you have, what they have been dealing with is dis disloyalty. So I'm helping them to overcome a lot of other things. And I want the audience to understand you have to be a forward thinker, you have to think ahead 510 years, develop your brand, your company, also develop the tools also develop the the new offerings and different services that are going to help these companies that are your target clients, always be thinking about them, and how you can take with your company, and connect them with that consumer in a different way, or sustained or just whatever it's going to be. So you have to think about both sides of it. Because the sand is shifting underneath all of us. We're all in kind of a similar valley of suffering. So you have to say, wait a minute, where are the opportunities in the crisis, don't get consumed by it, you have to say, wait a minute, I know there's some opportunities here, and I'm gonna go after them. And I'm going to look at that. And I'm gonna go and let my clients know about what I figured out. So that's where we'll power integrated marketing is now
Paul Zelizer 38:03
things really are changing fast, aren't they? And I, I love your advice about trying not to get too caught up or the way I like to say try not to be reactive, try to be one of those early adaptors for what's new. And how do you do that we keep trying new things and keep learning from people are trying new things like well, so love what you're saying there,
Wil Shelton 38:24
adapt and adopt. Exactly, exactly.
Paul Zelizer 38:27
So if I'm a listener, I'm saying okay, this all makes sense. Thanks so much for sharing it. One thing that might not be as clear to me is all right, so what's in it for the barber shops and the beauty salons? I get what's in it for the companies, I get what's in it. Like, I understand that, like you helped me understand why the African American community it's a just a really big market, but also the outsized influence on different trends. So that makes a lot of sense. But this whole model depends on these now 100,000 shops, what's in it for them to be involved in these campaigns?
Wil Shelton 39:03
Well, they love it for multiple reasons. I mean, it makes it puts them on the map, you know, the black barbershops and beauty shops, just the history of them. I mean, they're really the original doordash the original black Twitter, the original Uber Eats because that's where you came with your with, you bring your kids there to get their hair cut or their hairstyle, and it's just that it's a communal feeling. And we've always had people in the community that brung chicken dinners to sell or CDs or whatever. So that's just always been a part of the community. So me coming in willpower integrated marketing, and helping to set them up and set them apart from other shops. They become like trendsetters, and those top shops in their communities where people say, hey, look, they got the latest swag. They're have they're hosting an advanced screening party. We did that last week with the the new show our kind of people for Fox, we literally had exclusive content played. And we free hairstyles, Fox sponsored free hair services for many salons across the nation. So their businesses grew a lot I've heard I got reports back that they increase their businesses with us coming in, in in utilizing their shops as a resource to spread the word about these different projects. Or even even if you think about it, if we work with a company like a financial institution, or or insurance companies, they come in, they offer, I've had them offer scholarships to young black minorities, just distributing literature there. Remember, we talked about the pillars of health that they were, they want to spread the word they the shops want their business health, but they also want that the health or they're, they're thinking about the health of their clients. So whether it's having high blood pressure screenings, diabetes screenings, you know, connecting with healthcare providers, that it's that's what our community does. So I'm raising the awareness of those things. And they help it helps them just to stay really relevant in their communities. And it's just an exciting thing for them to be involved
Paul Zelizer 41:27
in. So notice listeners, how in touch will is with each of these kind of three buckets for this business, at least from where I'm sitting for this business to really thrive, which it is, there's three buckets of groups of humans that will need to understand the actual members who are walking into the barber shop or to the beauty salon to the African American community and what their psychology his needs, his desires and what do they walk into a shop and notice how much he's aware of it's not just to get their haircut. The second is the organization the companies and the organizations that were in a position to hire will and his team whether that's music company now you know, public health company, insurance companies, all these film TV, right, all these companies and what's going on in their psychology, what their problems and what they're trying to do to grow, why they're on the planet, why they exist, and then the barbershops themselves and how men the beauty salons themselves and what their role is and what helps them grow and thrive and so we'll just appreciation of how much you're bringing a lot of attention and awareness to each of those three groups what they need and how you're even together listeners if you can find a way to do that in your space, you're gonna be much more likely to see succeed is my opinion.
Wil Shelton 42:51
Definitely Yeah, yeah, like you know, and this is what I always say to like a day at the black salon or barber shop can empower revive and reconnect black men and women to themselves and who it is they want to be. Because at the end of the day, how they choose to style their hair, sometimes could be as much a political statement as a personal one. And those those barbershops and salons offer like this place of refuge from a culture that relentlessly demands that we be something other than we are there like literally and figuratively. It's a place where you can let your hair down celebrate your own culture. They are like a mirror that shows the true reflection of who we can be and they help us so that when we look into that mirror, we also see ourselves for who we really are
Paul Zelizer 43:50
beautiful, just beautiful. So give us a sense like that. I doubt this is just will Shelton these days I don't you work hard, but my hunch is there's other people involved. Give us a sense of your team these days.
Wil Shelton 44:05
Yeah, I have a team. I have like a couple of editors when I do blogs and articles and deep dives on. I just did like a they used to call it the white paper but I did a black paper on the beauty of marketing in the barbershop and salon last year. So I have a team of editors that I work with. I have a team on the ground I have representatives in the top 40 markets so we can have speed to market immediately if a client said hey, we'll we need boots on the ground and grassroots marketing campaign spearheaded next month. I can have you know, 100 people, representatives for willpower that have relationships for the last 15 and 20 years with all the beauty and barber shops in those communities. So I have those people I work with And then I have like some mentors. Some people who trusted advisors like I call it like a brain trust of a few people, you know, that kind of helped me with different ideas that I like to kick around things that I want to do in the future. So yeah, I just, you know, I have like, and they're pretty much all independent, I don't have like employees, but I have like more independent contractors that are very nimble and agile.
Paul Zelizer 45:31
So you can scale up or scale down any particular market or across the hall as the so I'd be remiss, we'll have like, this is all great. And there's this whole other part of will that like, it would be wrong not to touch. You just set a personal record and and wellness and well being is literally one of our core values. well being is one of our core values as aware printers and, and so many of us who are working to have positive impact at times, you know, it's hard to have a family and scale a business and think about positive impact and all these big issues. And then there's like, how do we take care of ourselves? And so amidst all this other stuff you're doing, you just set a world record in the sport of your choice. Tell us about that.
Wil Shelton 46:25
Wow, yeah, yesterday, I entered a powerlifting contest actually have been a weightlifter power lifter for almost 40 consecutive years training three to five days a week. So I always tell people good enough is not good enough anymore, whether it's in business or your personal endeavors. So I decided, you know, I wanted to go for a record. So yesterday, I set the American record for the benchpress for my age and weight category. And it was just a tremendous goal of mine. And just, you know, in setting out to do that, you know, when you set out to do these things, you always have these things this that come up, like I had some elbow problems, I had like a couple of ear infections and all this stuff starting to crop up while I was training for this. And you know, so I always tell people, you can't get complacent, you know, I lift the weights, and the weights have always lifted me up. And you know, like I was saying before, adversity introduces a person to themselves. And adversity is like, it's it's like a gymnasium for us to work out those problems and deal with discomfort. You know, this is where discomfort merely discloses our real character, and instills that necessary perseverance. I tell people, perseverance, is the hard work that you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did. So discomfort becomes like your currency to carry you through the pain that you have to bear. And you begin to be able to chase the discomfort. And that's when you're going to grow. And that's when you're going to achieve greatness. And you have to understand that you have that greatness in you. And in pursuit of that you have to almost act as if, you know, you don't have any limits. So that's how you position yourself for so for me, waitlist and lifting has always been about, you know, breaking what are called false barriers, false boundaries that people put themselves in.
Paul Zelizer 48:37
And I have been an athlete, I was a football player, lacrosse player in the weight room and until COVID hit you know, in the gym for not quite 40 years, but 35 I know how much you that visual. When I was in college, when weighed 20 pounds more than you competed, I couldn't lift weight, you lift a big bow in your direction and just want to highlight like, listeners, you know, I'm now an ultra marathoner. That's where I push those edges and just want to kind of the highlight and celebrate and and have some, like, if you can find something where you're like, walking up to what you're known edges, and you intentionally walk a little past that, and then a little past that, and then a little past that, something remarkable happens that you're hinting at well, and I just want to co sign it like it's pretty remarkable. And I do think it translates into other areas of life, including but not limited to business.
Wil Shelton 49:44
Exactly. Yeah, it's like, I think I always tell people, the most common way people give their power is by not believing they have any in the first place. So now's the time to exercise that power and exercise that superpower where Whether it's in business, whether it's in athletics, or whatever it is, you know, you just have to go for it and understand that the impossible is possible.
Paul Zelizer 50:13
Well, I could hang out with you all day. And I wouldn't do that to you. And I wouldn't do that to our listeners, we'll certainly put all the links to the book, The Silent agreement to your consulting services, I'll try to track down that black paper that you're talking about, because I think our listeners would love that. So put that all in the show notes. If there was something you were hoping we were going to get to on this topic, and we haven't yet gotten to it, or there was something you want to leave our listeners with. As we start to wind down. What would that be?
Wil Shelton 50:43
Well, it would be I would tell the people live for and die empty. You want to live a life that outlives you heard the old lady say one time, when I die life don't only no change, because I spent it all.
Paul Zelizer 51:02
Thank you so much for being on the show. It's been just fabulous having you here.
Wil Shelton 51:06
Thank you so much for having me. It was great. It was exciting. And I hope the audience got a lot of it and was inspired. So that's that's what my hope is. Thank you so much. I'm grateful for it.
Paul Zelizer 51:20
So again, check out all the links in the show notes, go buy the book, go tell your friends was up to fabulous work. And yeah, I really would appreciate your help getting the word out. Before we go, I just want to let you know that we love listeners suggested topics and guests, if there's something you think would be a great fit, and somebody's doing awesome work, you can go to our website, go to the contact page. And you'll see we have three simple criteria, we try to be really transparent. More and more of our guests come from somebody who's a listener and says, I think it'd be really great to do a show on blank. So that's how you can do that. Go to the website, go to the contact page, take a look and then make your suggestion. For now I just want to say thank you so much for listening. Please take really good care in these turbulent times. And thank you for all the positive impact that you're working for in our world.