The B Team Podcast
Talking all things Business, Bentonville, and Bourbon. Hosted by Josh Saffran, Matt Marrs, and Rob Nelson. New episodes every Thursday!
The B Team Podcast
Ep. 50 - Inside Razorback Game Day with Jon Williams - Part 1
What makes a city like Bentonville buzz with energy and promise? Our latest episode explores this question over a glass of Maker's Mark Wood Finishing Series, a bourbon so smooth it had us all in agreement—a rarity! We toast to the vibrant business scene that has us predicting Bentonville's rise to become the Times Square of Northwest Arkansas by 2025. Join us for spirited discussions about the interplay of humor, sports mishaps, and the art of engaging an audience, whether it's on the court or in front of a microphone.
Sharing the spotlight with us is Jon, whose personality is as big as his heart. Our friendship began at a charity event involving plastic forks and steak, blossoming into shared moments at everything from barbershop recruitment to Razorback games. In a world where the muscle memory of sports meets the unpredictability of live events, we laugh through stories of air balls and missed shots, reliving the thrill and occasional embarrassment that come with being under the spotlight. These anecdotes are a testament to the fun of live engagements and the community that rallies behind lesser-known sports, where talent like Izzy Higginbottom shines.
Our conversation shifts to family success stories and career paths in entertainment, as we reflect on personal journeys and the small world of professional connections that support young talent like my son Jack in filmmaking. From radio partnerships that have thrived for nearly two decades to the dynamic hairstyling scene in Fayetteville, we unravel tales of hustle, dedication, and support systems that make pursuing passions possible. Listen in for a blend of humor, camaraderie, and a genuine celebration of the people and stories that shape our lives.
Welcome to the B-Team Podcast. I am your host, josh Safran, with my co-host, pat Morris and our permanent guest, rob Nelson. We're here every week to talk to you about all things Bentonville, bourbon and business the B-Team Podcast. Be here. Welcome to the B-Team Podcast. I'm your host, josh Safran, with our co-host.
Speaker 2:Matt Mars and our permanent guest. Rob Nelson, I'm still here 2025. Here we go.
Speaker 1:Wow you on something today? No, sir.
Speaker 2:Yeah, see how quick he said all that, super quick. That's right, it's going to be year-again stuff done.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:I think it's because he was talking we should go to the casino tonight, so he's wanting to get out of here.
Speaker 1:He wants to film and get out.
Speaker 3:We're here every Thursday, Bobby.
Speaker 1:Every.
Speaker 2:Thursday.
Speaker 1:Bentonville Business and Bourbon. And what are we drinking today? Matthew, I brought it in Good bottle today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is Wood Finishing Series Maker's Mark. I'm ready, I'm excited to try it. It was in chapter two or something like that. He was really talking it up, but then I was reading the side and it said it's the second release of 2024. We didn't make the first, but it's like the B-Team, we're number two. We didn't make the first, but it's like the B team. Yeah, we're number two.
Speaker 1:We are off to a fantastic start today.
Speaker 2:Will you pour for our guests first? Yeah, I'm going to pour for our guests. Oh, you hear that little pop. It's fresh. I mean, look at this. Where'd you find that bottle, Josh?
Speaker 1:I found it at a liquor store down in Springdale.
Speaker 2:Oh, shout out to Springdale.
Speaker 3:Are we saying names?
Speaker 2:Are we saying brands? Are we saying anybody? It was Cheers.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay, jim. Good Shout out to Jim Phillips. So the owner of Cheers Shout out to Jim.
Speaker 1:I knew you had value right out of the gate. We haven't even introduced you yet You're adding value.
Speaker 2:Maybe we get him on the podcast my. Maybe we get him on the podcast my permanent guest.
Speaker 3:Hey, I'm fine with that. You don't need me to muck this up. Oh, it's already mucked up. Yeah that was my first question Cheers, you can't drink it before we cheers Josh, you're off your game here in 2025.
Speaker 2:Let's be in the doghouse or something.
Speaker 3:Makers nice.
Speaker 1:That's good, that's solid, that's solid.
Speaker 2:That's really really good. That's really good.
Speaker 1:How much was that? $70. And look, we always struggle with the tasting notes. This is a shout out to Russ. It's got caramel, chocolate and maple. See that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, who didn't know it? Yeah, is that white chocolate or dark chocolate? Chocolate bits, chocolate bits.
Speaker 1:Got it. Chocolate, bits Chocolate bits.
Speaker 2:I'm making this up as we go. This is good, it's really good, right it is?
Speaker 1:really good.
Speaker 2:I like this and very rarely do we all agree, yeah, and I think this is the first time Josh has brought something that's really good, worthwhile.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what do you normally bring?
Speaker 1:Nothing. No, that's not true. No, that's not true. We brought in the 1792.
Speaker 2:You're a big fan of A bottle and bond.
Speaker 1:I like that one. Then we did the 12-year. I brought the 1792 12-year.
Speaker 2:That was nice, I brought a nice 12-year. No, you didn't. No you haven't brought anything out.
Speaker 3:I thought I brought that Yellowstone.
Speaker 1:Was I supposed to bring in some sort of whiskey? You're just supposed to bring your amazing talent to help. That remains to be seen.
Speaker 3:That goes the rest of this. But that's delicious, isn't it good? Yeah, no, it really is. My brother's a big. He's brand specific and he is a huge Makers fan of all the whiskeys. He's more brand loyal to Makers than any of them and that's great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not a huge makers guy. I mean, I like my old fashions, I like it. But this was really good.
Speaker 2:This isn't an old fashioned one.
Speaker 1:No, this is a drinker, this is a sipper.
Speaker 2:I might even trade you for some Dragonfly. It's smooth, it doesn't burn and it's great.
Speaker 1:And to your point, it's very rare that the three of us like the same thing. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that that was what I said. Well, it's trying to help you have some talent.
Speaker 3:You guys don't have the same opinions. Normally we have different palettes.
Speaker 2:Oh okay, usually these two, but we all had lunch together, so our palettes were probably aligned, as Russ would say.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what did you guys lunch Torches? Oh, okay, are you?
Speaker 1:a torches guy.
Speaker 3:No, torches is great, and I know that it's like 200 feet from this very room.
Speaker 2:So that's tough to lose.
Speaker 3:But we didn't yeah.
Speaker 2:No, no, no. Rob was disappointed that he thought we could stay a little bit longer. I was trying to finish my beer and we got here and we had to wait for three minutes, so he was like we could have still been there you guys, the great thing about this location the Cameron rest his soul.
Speaker 3:Cameron Smith told me 10, 15 years ago he goes. You wait, that whole area is going to turn out to be like the Times Square of Benton County in northwest Arkansas and now, as we enter 2025, there's nothing it doesn't have and it's got everything. It's got every kind of restaurant. It's got every kind of restaurant. It's got every kind of business. I mean, obviously, it's not just you know suppliers and things like that. It's really accessible to the people that live in you know Southern Rogers and over on into Bentonville, and it's a great area.
Speaker 1:It's really cool. I have to drag these guys. You know these guys are Bentonville. They're a Bentonville, a little snooty, so I have to drag him down to Rogers every once in a while we get him here and then we want to go back to Bentonville.
Speaker 3:Is Rogers that sort of a foreign land to people from Bentonville, because I think most people perceive him to be sort of like Dallas, Fort Worth.
Speaker 2:I live right off the square, so for us it's easy just to walk out the front door and be somewhere.
Speaker 3:You live off the Bentonville square Congratulations. Just doing this podcast, your property's gone up $11 a square foot. I think I'll take it, I know.
Speaker 2:And you will take it at some point. You will absolutely take it. Congratulations. I've grabbed my ankle a few times on that property. No, longer.
Speaker 3:It's a great area, this whole area's great, there's nothing bad. I mean, this is a great area. Yeah, this whole area is great, nothing bad. Benton County, specifically, is just popping.
Speaker 1:Well, let's formally introduce you before we get into all of the amazing content you're going to deliver for us.
Speaker 2:I mean, Northwest Arkansas knows us, but we don't know if they know you. They don't know who you are. I mean, everybody knows the B team.
Speaker 1:I mean we're going to introduce you to the world today. I mean we're going to introduce you to the world today, john. This is a big day.
Speaker 2:We're releasing you. You're groomsed up and you're groomsed up and you're groomsed up World.
Speaker 1:This is John Williams, half of John and Deke yes, the emcee of pretty much every charity event in the region that is worth right.
Speaker 3:I believe I have emceed quite literally every nonprofit event in northwest Arkansas the last 30 years.
Speaker 1:And the voice of the Razorbacks.
Speaker 3:Yes, I still can't believe it every day that I get to do what I get to do with the Razorbacks. It's an absolute blessing and I love it. And I have to give credit where credit's due, because Hunter Juracek is the one who wanted to really implement having fan engagement with emces on the court and on the field, and when he took over from the previous regime, that was something he implemented. And so I've been the on-court MC for men's basketball and for football. This will be going on my eighth year.
Speaker 1:Did you have to interview for this?
Speaker 3:Oh no, they came and they pretty much told me that this is what you're going to do. You're going to go down there, we're going to be cue cards and you're going to do stuff where not only are you interacting with the fans, we're going to have a tour. It's all sponsored with our partners, like Whataburger and all that. It's a blast.
Speaker 1:I have a great time Whataburger too.
Speaker 3:That's the Razorback side. It's funny because with what I do with the Razorbacks, it's all. There's all partners and everything they do, whether it's Zips, Car Wash, Whataburger, whatever I'm doing.
Speaker 1:And all the plugs into them. But that's for the Razorbacks.
Speaker 3:I don't see a dime of any of that, but I've got my own show and what I do with Deke, where we have our own partners, and so, yeah, it's like parallel lives I have with like different genres and different partners and things like that.
Speaker 1:So let's stay on the Razorbacks for a little bit. Do you script out your own stuff? How do you decide what you're going to do during each game?
Speaker 3:Well, the games I emcee where I'm on the court and on the field, it's very scripted, everything is done through elements, whether it's the Coca-Cola t-shirt toss or, like the horror We'll get into Whataburger tic-tac-toe. I'm going to tell you no-transcript. I don't know where the disconnect or the cognitive dissonance is, but it just absolutely goes haywire.
Speaker 1:There's nothing better than when somebody's supposed to block that and they're not paying attention.
Speaker 3:First of all, let's start with, why do people not immediately go to the middle square? That's just 101. And they don't. They never do. They always go to one of the sides or the corners and immediately go. Here we go. This is where it screws up, and so that's all I mean. Obviously, that is ad-libbed within the confines of the prepared bit where they tell you that you've got 60 to 90 seconds to get these two people out there to play tic-tac-toe or half-court shot or guess what the fries are hiding in which box or whatever that stuff is ad-libbed. But for the most part it's all within the columns of making sure the partners are taken care of.
Speaker 1:And when you pick the people to come out again, do you do that? Oh, absolutely not, Okay.
Speaker 3:They try to find younger people for the easier games so they'll never get in. No, no, no, no. When I mean younger people, I'm talking grade school and stuff like that, and that's the unpredictable part of it. You'll think that these games are easy like Tic-Tac-Toe Once. Like you'll think that these games are easy like tic-tac-toe once you're doing them in front of about 20 000 people, you'll find they are not easy and then you have to basically roll with it, and that's that's. I think that's why they hired me is because that's all I've done for 32 years is ad lib and do stuff uh, off the top of my head with deke and things like that, and it's a blast. I can't again. I'm so blessed to be able to do it.
Speaker 1:I love it I got called down when I was probably 22, 23. I called on madison square garden to go shoot. And madison square garden I mean it's like celebrity rolling all around. What year was this? Oh, it had to be 99 was it nicks or rangers? New york nicks okay, they called me down to do some shooting contest and I was a decent basketball player and I looked around and I'm like my legs were so.
Speaker 3:You forget everything you ever learned about basketball. I shot up an air ball.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they booed me and I went back to my seats and my friends were laughing at me so bad, Like I thought you were good at basketball. It's nerve wracking. You forget all your mechanics. You forget all your mechanics.
Speaker 3:You forget everything you ever knew. Your elbow doesn't stay in. Nothing happens. That's supposed to happen. I did the same thing in high school. I was really good at basketball and we pooled our money and they had raffles and then they would pull a ticket and then if you made the shot you get all the money, and if you don't, then they keep the money and they know you're not going to make the shot because you're gonna joke, uh. And so I told all my friends I'm like, guys, let's do, I'll do this, and if any of you get the ticket, I'll shoot the free throw, because, man, I'm like 90, I'm a lock. And sure enough, one of my friends got the ticket. They go, john, get out there. And I mean, I didn't airball it, but I completely missed the rim, I hit like the gray the gray.
Speaker 3:Oh, it was a little rubber bumper underneath. 35 years later I hear about it and uh, exactly, hit the rubber bumper underneath 35 years later I hear about it. Exactly, I hit the rubber bumper on the bottom of the Is there a video of this somewhere we can get?
Speaker 1:Thank God, no.
Speaker 2:I was in the Civil War era.
Speaker 3:There is nothing, Thank God. And so then about a month later I begged him. I go let's do it again, I'll make it and I didn't make it. No one ever talks about that. It's always the absolute disaster class of a free throw ice shot.
Speaker 1:Because there's no proof that you made it either.
Speaker 3:Yeah, whatever is going to actually do it better is going to be the thing. The better bit for them is to mock me and how I did. No, it's more fun.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I mean, we don't do any of that. No, no, no. We have a friend that's a golfer and he's excellent, but he said the same thing, oh yeah, like he played in college, but he goes. The difference between me and pros is they can do that with 20,000 people standing there. And he's like when I go out there, I forget how to golf.
Speaker 3:Yeah, when it's goons like me, the muscle memory just goes away, and I will never forget that. I've had it with hole-in-one contests where I'm like I'm really cocky and I'm like, what is this 138? Ah, it's a knockdown wedge and you got the mid-toe. Just blade it right over the green in front of everybody.
Speaker 1:You can stand in front of 20,000 people or 50,000 people and you're great.
Speaker 3:Well, the muscle memory of me speaking into a microphone is far more honed than my awful free throw shooting and my nine iron that I can do all day long.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but a lot of people can't stand up and talk in front of an audience. People would say shooting a free throw is a lot easier than standing there talking in front of 20,000 people.
Speaker 3:Well, shooting a free throw is easy. Making the free throw is not as easy, and anyone can do that. I prove that. I mean it was, oh God, if there was video of that, I I would be awfully embarrassed. But uh, yeah, I I Madison square gardens. A lot of it was spike there.
Speaker 1:Uh yeah. Spike was right there, yeah, front row, I mean it was. You're walking, you're on the court and it's bad enough and it's the music and the people and everything else. And you look around at who's sitting in Celebrity Road, new York, the Rangers and the Knicks games. I mean everybody's there. I mean it was so bad, I mean, and then 20,000 people are booing you.
Speaker 3:Oh, New York fans, I mean it was terrible They'd have found a way to. You could have hit the rim and it could have went in.
Speaker 1:I started therapy the week after that. It was terrible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, how'd it go? Not good, no, not good. Here we are here we are.
Speaker 2:Do you?
Speaker 1:guys ever get to the race. I know you went to the game last year.
Speaker 2:Do you ever get to the games? I've been to a few. A few basketball, one or two football.
Speaker 3:I'm excited. I mean, I think, with Calipari I'm a little perplexed as to why we've been having the attendance problems. We've been having the first few games of the John Calipari era, which has been a little bit weird, but now that the SEC schedule's here, I mean there's not a dud in that whole thing. This is a terrifying conference as far as the strength of schedule.
Speaker 1:He's an Ole Miss fan, so you're going to have to give him some grief.
Speaker 2:Next week my daughter goes there. Oh, congrats, and so that was the. That's the first game I've been to here in probably three or four years Football game. Yeah, and you did an excellent job.
Speaker 3:I was like there's John out there. You know, I love it.
Speaker 2:I love doing that. We moved here in 95. Okay, and I think you were on the keg.
Speaker 3:I had just started on the keg in 94.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, yeah. So I was like I know he's been doing this, I mean forever. I mean Northwest Arkansas is lucky to have had you this long.
Speaker 3:Well, I love it here and I'm not originally from here.
Speaker 1:I think most people that either listen to my show or know me I don't make a secret of the fact that I'm from colorado and I from matthew.
Speaker 2:Yeah, neighbors, are you really? Yeah, whereabouts southeast of denver, like arvada? So no, so I'm, I'm out by parker oh, my best friend is. He lives, uh, right next to castle pines, but everyone from there that comes here is like I know know why you moved Like it's pretty special.
Speaker 3:Parker's amazing. That's a great area. I mean you're so far south that you're almost halfway to Colorado Springs down there and that's an incredible area, literally. My best friend since I was in kindergarten lives in Parker and he's lived in the same neighborhood for 20 years, loves it. But what I love about Fayetteville and the U of A and you're not going to say it's in the mountains because it's in the hills and the Ozarks and things like that and Boulder is in the literal flat irons and the mountains of the Rockies it does remind me a little bit of Boulder Fayetteville does. Not only is it, you know, a little bluer, it's also the university lifestyle and it's all on one drag and it reminds me a lot of Boulder, which I grew up next to, which is great. But I came here in 91 to go to school and play baseball and I just fell in love with it and I haven't left.
Speaker 1:Were you there when Crossit was there, or was he after you? Scott Crossit, he was after me, scott was after me.
Speaker 3:And he was also talented and good. As opposed to me who was not. I tried to walk on the Arkansas team and I had an invited walk on from Coach DeBryan. And then I got here and guys like Scott Brocale and all these dudes whose arms just go down to their knees and they're 6'4" and they throw 90 as they wake up out of bed. And I couldn't throw 90 out of a moving car and I was like, what am I doing? Were you after clint?
Speaker 1:bradham, or before him. You know clint, I think before.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, I was early 90s okay and, um, I just had no business trying to play on that team, I just just none. And that was cool. And Coach DeBriain, who, as everyone knows, is the single nicest human being there is, was consoling me when I came to tell him I'm wasting y'all's time. This is ridiculous. And he's like oh, you could still be a manager, you could shag flies, you could come out to batting practice. I mean, he was so nice, like I mattered to this guy. But that's who coach DeBriain is and he's just a cool guy. But that's what I figured out quickly. I had no right or any interest in playing college baseball.
Speaker 1:So were you majoring in journalism broadcasting? Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:This was, this was your dream to get into this type of stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I came to the U of A before Larry Foley and I don't know if anybody who is watching this podcast knows Larry Foley, but he is the.
Speaker 1:Of the three visitors watching the podcast.
Speaker 3:Larry Foley is the department. He is the person who is responsible for how great the broadcast program at the U of A is. I left in 94, 95, and then he arrived the next year.
Speaker 1:He waited for you to finish.
Speaker 3:Yeah, is John gone? Okay, I'm going to go to the U of A now that we got that clown out of there. But he's the reason why that broadcast program is a top national broadcast program in colleges in America and my son just graduated from there a couple of weeks ago and I went there and I loved it, but it wasn't what it is now. I'll put it that way. There was no TV studio, there was no anything. My time at the U of A versus someone who goes there now is vastly different.
Speaker 1:When you graduated, you went right into the radio show.
Speaker 3:I actually quit school to go on radio.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, you didn't graduate.
Speaker 3:No, they came to me Even you, Matt.
Speaker 1:You guys got a lot in common.
Speaker 3:It was my senior year and they came to me I had been doing nights and they didn't like the morning guy. They took me to I don't know what breakfast place was over by the mall that doesn't exist anymore. They go. Would you like to do mornings? And here's what we're going to pay you. I don't even like saying what they offered me that I quit school for because it think it's awful and I said absolutely.
Speaker 3:And so I got my first morning show like nine months after I started in radio and I've been doing it ever since. But I don't recommend quitting school to do something like that. That was a. I got lucky on that one.
Speaker 1:That's a heads up for all the youth watching.
Speaker 3:Well, my kid, two years in. I mean he graduated from Harvard in 2020. Wow, that's a big deal. Not Harvard Harbor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, he graduated from Harvard.
Speaker 1:That's a big deal. I was like I don't belong to Harvard. I didn't even know I was going to Harvard.
Speaker 3:But he graduated from Harbor in 2020 when COVID was happening I know you're drinking and it was awful and then he went to the U of A and we tried to put him during COVID, which is even dumber. And so, two years in, he's like this sucks, like I can't meet people, I don't get to go anywhere, everything's in Zoom meetings. And his first year or two of college was it sucked. And so he wanted to quit and he just wanted to go, do what he wanted to do, and we had to just be like Jack, you're almost, you're so close. And he finally graduated. So what's he doing? Is he doing broadcasting? He's making movies. He has been on the cast and on the Fixer to Fabulous with the Marses. Do you know?
Speaker 1:those people.
Speaker 3:I've never met them. You just met one right here. What?
Speaker 2:Get out of here. Hold on.
Speaker 3:So what's his name? Jack Williams.
Speaker 2:And he was like a runner and he was like PA and he would help. I remember him yeah.
Speaker 3:And he just didn't know if that was the kind of direction he wanted to go into. He thought the world of everyone who worked there. But he's like I just don't think this is Not everyone.
Speaker 1:No, literally he didn't complain about anybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, PA is a tough job. Yeah, because they pretty much get everything thrown on them. Yeah, and he did.
Speaker 3:And then he had opportunities for movies and he was like man.
Speaker 2:If only I could do this, but he was able to put that on his resume?
Speaker 3:Absolutely yeah that's all that counts and he loved his experience with it. But I think there was a project that came open in like El Paso, and he was like I gotta go, and that's kind of the nature of what he wants to do, as you know.
Speaker 2:That's the nature of the whole industry. Yeah, you have to be ready to go and he hated it.
Speaker 3:He was like I got to go and so he took off. Can you ask him?
Speaker 1:quicken him on the phone and see which of the Mars family was the worst to him, because I bet it was probably Matt.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, no, no, no. He had nothing but kind things to say about his experience, but that it is.
Speaker 2:you know, everyone thinks it's all glamorous, but when you get in there it's far from it, especially the you know what he did?
Speaker 3:He's been doing heavy lifting since he got into it. He was a camera guy for RSN on the basketball court. In fact, one of my favorite moments is when I'm doing all my stuff on the court and he's the camera guy and he's just doing it. It felt like it was just me and him out there. It was so neat. I loved that. He's been working cameras baseball, football, basketball, gym backs you guys. It's his passion, it's his love. He wants to make movies, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:That's very cool. It's a small world, how this just kind of happened. That is wild, yeah, so.
Speaker 2:Matt is Dave's brother. Okay, and then I'm Dave's brother-in-law. Get out of town and we called Josh along. Yeah, wow, yeah, we brought him along. He dug it.
Speaker 3:I'll say that he had a lot of respect and he goes. Man, what an operation that is. He had no idea. He got there and he's like this is John's got his.
Speaker 2:He talks a lot better than what we do. Wouldn't it be great if we would have played this out a little bit more?
Speaker 1:Be like those Mars guys were a bunch of assholes. No, no, there's one sitting next to you right now.
Speaker 3:I'd love to give some sort of tea on that.
Speaker 1:But there is a tea.
Speaker 3:He loved it and he hated the fact that it didn't work out, but he had to go do what he was doing in El Paso.
Speaker 2:I can't even to be that way. Oh, you have to.
Speaker 3:And he knows, and he knows that's the nature of the business and he's got to just be ready at a moment's notice to get whatever production is doing whatever and he had to go. Yeah, it's a tough deal. Sometimes you just got to go, matt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's his passion, his movie making and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:That's exciting. Yeah, now you need to do a little research and figure out who this kid is. Make sure that he gets taken care of.
Speaker 3:Well, he's a better looking, funnier, more talented kinder version of me.
Speaker 1:But that is all our kids anyway. Right, I can't speak for anyone else's kids but my kid is.
Speaker 3:He's fantastic. We got lucky with him. He's a good dude, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, can we go into the radio show?
Speaker 3:We can go into anything you want. This is your show. No, it's yours really. It's really you.
Speaker 2:We're hoping you're going to share this on social media. I'd be delighted to share this on social media and we get more than 12 viewers.
Speaker 3:Oh, come on now, at least two dozen, two dozen, yeah, yeah yeah, well, rob brings about two or three of them every day.
Speaker 1:At least I saw you had, donnie on as well.
Speaker 2:And I'm not going to lie.
Speaker 3:I saw Donnie on there I go. This is a podcast. I mean, this is because I have a lot of respect for Donnie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's a good dude, we got Donnie on. I'm still trying to get him to fit in my size, but he's working on it.
Speaker 3:No, he's a great, great guy. He's a friend, longtime friend. So I saw Donnie on and I just went. Well, I've got to do that because I mean, he's got his old back room of his place, oh yeah, where I've had many a maker's mark with Donnie and the gang.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've had great guests. I mean, I'm glad that you wanted to come in and join us. I don't know why people want to keep coming in, but we've had a good group in here. Ben Blakeman comes in.
Speaker 2:He's been in, yeah, oh yeah, bobby was looking at you.
Speaker 3:I saw your Tudor. Oh yeah, I love this thing. This is the best watch I've ever had. Shout out, Ben Blakeman. Shout out, love it, yeah, love it.
Speaker 1:The new wing at Blakeman's has been called Bobby Nelson wing. Oh, I wouldn't go that far. He spends a lot of money there.
Speaker 2:They have an actual new Tudor section. Oh, a section.
Speaker 3:They just finished the build out right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's. Right.
Speaker 2:Congratulations, ben, that's amazing, by the way.
Speaker 1:Congratulations to you on having your own private wing.
Speaker 2:That would be Brewer, not Nelson.
Speaker 1:So let's go to the radio. Show how many years together.
Speaker 3:Now It'll be 20 that he and I have been doing a show together. November 3rd 2005 was our first show together on 93.3 the Eagle. He's been my guy 20 years.
Speaker 1:Never an argument, of course, right Nala.
Speaker 3:You know what we don't, and I'll tell you why. We don't argue because we have such diverse skill sets. We have completely different things that we tackle in having our show be what it is. He is in charge of all the imaging. So when you hear the liners and you hear everything, like you know, 94.9 radio john deke, that's all he produces. Those. He is the one who, by and large, picks the music. The music that you hear on there. It is something that we wanted to kind of sound like KBCO in Denver, which is a station that's called World Class Rock, 97.3 KBCO. That's kind of our model for our station, because there's nothing like it around northwest Arkansas. And so he's in charge of the music, the imaging. I am in charge of the sales. I get all the partners, I do all the advertising and that's what I do, and it works out really well.
Speaker 2:It's been something from that standpoint we've been doing for about 14 years, see Josh like Matt and I do what he does and then you do what his partner does. I was going to ask you.
Speaker 1:it sounds like a 50-50 split and here's like a 95-5 split on workload. So I was going to ask you for some tips on how you can kind of get your partner to do some of the work.
Speaker 3:Well, we both work very hard. We are a two-man, entire staff, I mean it's just us. All the promotions, all the social media, all the on-air. We do two shows a day, we do mornings and afternoons, and then we also host shows on 92 on the Ticket. We do the Resubmit Recap, we also do the Triple Double with Courtney Mims of KNWA.
Speaker 2:It's a lot. What did Josh have to promise you to get you to come in today? How did we get this? I'm kind of curious. Were you just bored? I've got to be honest.
Speaker 3:I try when I see other people doing their own media.
Speaker 2:I felt bad for us.
Speaker 3:You guys may want to talk to Deke a little bit your media and editing.
Speaker 2:He went on our YouTube. He was like oh, four views last week. Okay.
Speaker 3:I literally I've I've kind of taken it to where I mean there's been people who have given me a chance. There's been people who have been like I believe in of taken it to where I mean there's been people who have given me a chance. There's been people who have been like I believe in this guy and what he's doing, and when I find or when I see podcasts or people trying to get their own footprint in media, I try to encourage it, I try to be positive about it and I try to help in any way I can, and so that's something I like doing. I find that the first 10 years of my career I was such a competitive a-hole. I was just or a passion project, I mean I was so bad. But I think you reach a point where you're like you're not helping anyone being that way and you're just alienating people. And so I try to be really positive and encouraging for people to do and try to create their own path, especially in media.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll give you the real story. He's being kind I'll give you the real story so everybody knows who John is because he's just got such a big personality and does so much on the charitable side. Well, I want to cover that as well. And it does so much on the charitable side, I want to cover that as well. And so we're at a charity event down in Springdale at some beer event. I forgot what it was, was it on?
Speaker 3:Emma.
Speaker 1:It was the beer. We had steaks that we couldn't cut really well.
Speaker 3:Oh, wait a minute, you had just gotten married. It was right it was with the Natural State Beer Company.
Speaker 1:Yes, and so I'm sitting at the table, shout out to Mark and Dan, shout out, shout out M and D, absolutely. So we're sitting at the table. I knew John was being pleasant and I was chatting with him. He just got married and we're trying to cut these steaks with plastic forks. My wife's there and we're chit-chatting and so I was talking to him. I was actually trying to recruit his wife to come work at our barbershop. Oh yeah, so we're talking a little bit there. So we became Facebook friends. This is the other thing. Then I ran into him at the Razorback game, so we were just chatting via Facebook. I said you want to come on the podcast? It kind of got cold. Then I saw him the other day at the game.
Speaker 2:By the way, when he says he saw me at the game, he was literally 15 feet behind me. I thought, maybe he was like 15 rows up there yelling like this.
Speaker 3:I thought maybe he was like 15 rows up there yelling like this. So I'm on the row where the officials are and I'm there and the PA guys, and then the play-by-play guys, and I just real quick look at my phone and it's Josh and he goes. Hey, I'm right behind you.
Speaker 3:And I don't know what that means because there's 50 rows and eight sections of right behind me and I don't know where that means. So I look over my left shoulder, I see nothing, and then I'm like, well, he must be over my right shoulder and I mean I turn around and he's right there, is that?
Speaker 2:the night you went with the girls. I took the girls to sit in second row, which, by the way the girls game was.
Speaker 1:I can't believe that they don't get more people to show up.
Speaker 3:It's fun I love it Blast.
Speaker 3:I enjoy it and I just recently. For 19 years I was the PA guy for the gymnastics team and I had to cut something because I do six things for the Razorbacks. I'm just like this is ridiculous. I have to stop something and it broke my heart because I love doing the gym backs, pa-ing, and that's a hell of a program, by the way, that Coach Weaver has going there. But I got to say I think a lot of these sports that are not football, basketball, baseball I really think people should support those programs, especially like soccer and softball and women's basketball I'm obviously biased about and volleyball. There's some really really good squads and programs on that campus that just do not get the juice from fans that they really should do.
Speaker 1:So we went down. I went to the ladies' game on. It was a Sunday and a men's game on Monday.
Speaker 3:It was better. It was better, it was a ladies' game 2,000 people maybe. Maybe You're being generous, around 2,000.
Speaker 1:And two concession stands opened in the whole arena. Tickets were I paid $15. I was sitting in second row, parked next lot over, and I went the next day for the guys and the four tickets I bought for second row were not as expensive as the tickets I got for my son to sit 30 rows up, paid $20, to park Parked a mile and a half away, and it was like, and the girls, it was a fun. I mean I was disappointed in hindsight that I don't go to more games there, yeah, but. But man, I'm telling you, big turnout for the men, I mean Calipari's a big drop, but Higginbottom, I mean she's fantastic.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she transferred in from Arkansas State this past year. There's a lot of turnover on the roster and Izzy is head and shoulders she reminds me of Kaitlyn Clark a little bit, the way she plays.
Speaker 1:She goes to the basket quite a bit. She's very aggressive, she gets the line.
Speaker 3:I think I saw where she leaves the NCAA in free throw attempts and she's also fourth in the country in scoring at like 23 and a half points a game, which is bonkers, and she's great. She plays really hard and she's a distributor. I mean everything goes through her as far as what happens on the offensive end, for sure.
Speaker 1:So that long-winded for me. That's how we got him here. There you go.
Speaker 2:So you texted him and he saw you?
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't have his phone number. It was like from me to you and he was like I can't say no to this guy. Let's be clear, I don't have his phone number. That would be taking the relationship all.
Speaker 3:That's why you were like we're Facebook friends. It was Facebook. I'd be happy to give you my phone number. See that? I mean. Come on, We'll put it in this, yeah.
Speaker 2:But his wife doesn't allow that. That's not at all true, Well he's newly married.
Speaker 1:I am Lovely lady. I was trying to recruit her to come cut hair at the gent's place and she's like Do you know what?
Speaker 3:And she's at a great place. If I'm allowed to talk about, it Please?
Speaker 1:yeah, of course.
Speaker 3:I don't want to come in here and just start talking about a competing business with you guys.
Speaker 3:But I think it's a different vibe entirely. I think the Jen's Place and where she is, which is Bang Salon on College. They used to be on the Square in Fayetteville and then they moved to the AQ Outback building which was vacant for a long time and then got made into a salon, and they for a long time and then got made into a salon and they were able to actually move into it. They're a totally different vibe. But she's at Bang Salon and I'm obviously biased, as can be but she's tremendous, she can do everything.
Speaker 1:She's cut your hair nicely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't normally say that to anybody.
Speaker 1:It's not one of my clients, she's done a nice job.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she's the best and I'm biased again, but she really is and she does from colors to extensions and short cuts and men's cuts and all that stuff. She's fantastic, kendall, look her up.
Speaker 2:Shout out, kendall.
Speaker 3:Her whole salon is great too. I think the reason why she wouldn't consider going anywhere is because she's just got such great camaraderie with those people.
Speaker 1:We have some new news coming out. We may be able to convince her with the new news. I can't share it yet on the podcast, but we've got some exciting stuff about to happen up here.
Speaker 3:It's funny she and I had the conversation. I said, babe, what happens if Josh talks to me about wanting me to promote the Jen's Place and she goes, you've got to do what you've got to do. I mean, business is business. And I said, babe, they're not like Bang Salon. No, very different, very different vibe. Both can be amazing in different lanes. And she's like, well, you got to do what you got to do.
Speaker 1:So I said, okay, you're on the record, I learned in the barbershop industry six years ago because I don't cut hair. I learned there's so many people in this community and so many people to cut hair that like it should not be competitive and Fayetteville is a whole different marketplace anyway, listen, she's fantastic and I would be honored and thrilled to have her, but she's doing a good thing down there with the existing business.
Speaker 3:She's incredible. She is great at what she does, she is great at marketing, she is great with TikTok and Reels and things like that. My mom actually reached out to me. My mom lives in Centerton. She said look, I would love to get my haircut by kendall every time, but that's way down in fayetteville. I'm in centerton and and she's like do you know anybody in bentonville? I put it on my facebook page and I mean I stopped counting at like 50, yeah, different stylists that got tagged in that thread and it just kind of goes to show you the kind of talent that exists in Benton County alone. From a hairstylist standpoint it was impressive, I mean we cut Rob's hair A lot of hair.
Speaker 1:You look good man, you look good I do?
Speaker 3:I was going to say, I mean, there's a lot going on.
Speaker 2:I mean, there was a lot more out there before I started going to John's place.
Speaker 3:It's fine. You should have saw me before I said go to this place.
Speaker 2:It's fine. I mean before John. That's why he got married. I mean his hair used to look like yours.
Speaker 3:I used to. Yeah, I look like Michael Keaton. Just to clarify for the viewers.
Speaker 2:I've been like this for a while, that's okay.
Speaker 3:So I have something to do with the gents place. That's okay, we'll try to help you.