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The Adam Feuerstein Podcast
Growth, AI, and wealth insights to fuel your rise to success.
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The Adam Feuerstein Podcast
From Prison to Purpose: How James Canody Became Denver’s Most Inspirational Barber
Can second chances lead to success? In this powerful episode, we dive into the inspiring journey of James Canody, a man who turned his life around after 18.5 years of incarceration—finding purpose, redemption, and a career in an innovative barbershop that exclusively hires formerly incarcerated individuals.
🏆 What You’ll Discover:
✔️ How Jamie, the barbershop owner, is giving formerly incarcerated individuals
a real career
✔️ The hidden advantage of prison-trained barbers in the commercial world
✔️ The human connection behind every haircut
✔️ How structure, discipline, and mentorship transform lives after incarceration
✔️ The power of second chances in small business
🔗 Support This Mission:
• rrheadlabs.com
• https://www.instagram.com/rrheadlabs/
• https://www.facebook.com/rrheadlabs
• https://www.tiktok.com/@rrheadlabs
🔗 More From James Canody:
• https://www.instagram.com/jamescanody/
• https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555920887769
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Sometimes extraordinary people do things and nobody hears about it, and sometimes extraordinary people do things and we get the opportunity to experience it, and that's where James and the guy who runs his barbershop, jamie, and our lives meet. It's a very, very unique experience there. Jamie only hires previously incarcerated individuals to work in his barbershop, and it's incredible the backstory. I'd like James to give us kind of an idea of the things that Jamie's had to do to make this possible.
Speaker 1:There were some problems, I think, right with the way the rules and the laws were written around barber apprenticeships, and there's also an incredible advantage which I was completely ignorant to until Jamie explained it to me at lunch one day to having people who have been previously incarcerated cut hair in a commercial barbershop. When these guys and women come out of I'm trying so hard to say prison, I want to say jailhouse when they come out of prison, you don't get to decide right, like when you're in there. Whoever comes into your chair is who's there, and so, by virtue of sheer practice, you've mastered that craft across every spectrum. Is that true?
Speaker 2:I appreciate that. You know if mastered, that's kind of a word that gives me a little pause, but I would hope that people who I cut their hair, they feel like this is one of the better experiences that they've had. But in a lot of ways you're right. You don't have a choice in there. You know it's the next man up, whoever's sitting in your chair. Either you're going to get them in there and get them done correctly or you're going to be finding yourself another assignment, because it's a little bit different when it comes to those kinds of things.
Speaker 2:It is an interesting story of how I found my way to R&R, a guy who I was incarcerated with. He did about 24 years in prison. Him and I got to know each other pretty well while we were incarcerated and he happened to get out, change his life around and one of the things that he does is he's part of R&R as an advisory member. He sits on the advisory board there. So he reached out to me while I was incarcerated and told me about this place, r&r. So he suggested that I start corresponding with R&R before I was released.
Speaker 2:I reached out and to my surprise, they reached back out to me, because you don't see a lot of that while you're incarcerated. When you're incarcerated, it's not that you're dead, it's just that you're kind of last on the priority list of things that's going on. So when they reached back out to me, I mean everything to me. So I told myself that this works out. I'm going to be the best I can be for this business because they're taking a chance on me. So I got out and everything worked out and I was hired that day that I was released. It wasn't the day I was released, but a couple days after I was released.
Speaker 1:So you got released. I imagine there's a process to that, of course.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And then, just within a few days, you met with Jamie and his team Right and they placed you.
Speaker 2:Right, exactly, yep.
Speaker 1:So what experience did you have inside prison that qualified you so well that Jamie was willing to hire you immediately?
Speaker 2:that qualified you so well that Jamie was willing to hire you immediately. I think obviously Jamie's a big vibe. That component to him is very important. The people he brings around His I don't know how you would describe it, but what he's trying to put together here, I think the vibe connected. I think that the skill set. Obviously we had to see what that was like, but once he seen that that match, he felt like I'd be a good addition to the team.
Speaker 2:There's no schooling or nothing like that while you're incarcerated. It's more of the trial and error type of learning. So I had a few years to get some things figured out and that's how I learned. I was in prison, jamie, and I tell him this sometimes. I'm like you probably do realize this, jamie, but just in case you don't, I'm going to let you know what you're doing right now is genius. You know it may not be, you know it's not something that may be noticed right now, but in due time it's going to come back and you're going to see the fruits from what you're doing, because most people that are in there cannot pick it. If you're a barber, you cannot pick and choose whose hair you're going to be good with and who's that you're not going to? You know whether you're black, hispanic, white, asian, other, you're going to have to have a skillset for everyone, yeah.
Speaker 1:So there's something I'm fascinated to ask you. You've explained to me kind of your philosophy around the work that you do, around being a barber and helping people feel good about themselves and giving them confidence. This connection you have with the human element of the work that you do Is that different out here in the commercial world versus being incarcerated? Do you have a different connection with your clients there than you do here, or does that human element kind of the same in both places?
Speaker 2:That's a good question. I think in some ways it is the same, but in other ways it's different. I'm going to try my best to explain that. I think that in there it's more of the you know. You have to listen to a lot of people going through struggles, you know, and strife, you know, because that's what the conversation is about, that's what the reality is. So that's more the dialogue.
Speaker 2:And when you're speaking with people in there, you're kind of just listening to things that they're going through and having to help their spirits get lifted a little bit with this haircut or whatever you just being a listener I've always been a good listener and I've always been someone that can really just keep somebody's words sacred. If you will, I'll just try my best just to be someone that that person utilized throughout that part of their day. But out here it's different, because people have regular lives, they have things that they are a part of. You might have a story too, that might be a sad one, but most of the time it's always things about prospering or the pursuit of happiness, what they're trying to do with what they just did. You don't see them every day. You see them probably once every six weeks or, in your case, probably every couple of weeks.
Speaker 1:So it's really about the feedback or the stories that they're telling about the situation that they're in, and obviously that's very different in prison than it is out here. Right Another one of my curiosities and I think a lot of people who have never been to prison have this kind of natural curiosity about people who have been Especially if you've been in there for a long time. I don't know what a long time is in there. To me it seems like a day is a long time. I agree. For you to persevere through 18 and a half years is incredible to me. When you're inside these institutions, your day and I think tell me if I'm wrong it's extremely regimented. Is that a fact? Yes, and do you get almost like used to that? Conform to that kind of regiment like this is how life goes. I go to bed at this time, I get up at this time. I mean right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean you know especially because obviously we already know that there's always a gray area, if you will. I mean, like in every situation, you know there's some people in there that they'll figure out a way to go against the regimen. But as far as the facility goes, most facilities have a regimen and how they operate it. You'll lock down at certain times, you'll feed at certain times, you'll go to recreation at a certain time, so on and so forth. But for me, it just took me having a change of mentality for me to really stick with the things that I believe incarceration helped me with. So, yeah, but it does. I mean it's a strict and if you're really trying to follow it and really trying to take something from it, it's, it can be very.
Speaker 1:You said things that help me. That sounds like there's a part of your experience that you're grateful for.
Speaker 2:Yes, it didn't, it came later. It didn't come right away, but it came later. And I think a lot of it had to do with just because I saw a lot of drugs. You know a lot of my crimes were based off of drugs and things of that nature. You know that led into other things like assaults and you know, and attempt robs and you know stuff like that. But all drug, you know foundation.
Speaker 2:So and I think things really changed for me when I started seeing the fentanyl epidemic and I started really seeing that it's something that really knocks people down. You know, not everybody, but you know the people that it does. They don't have, they don't have a chance it's, it's over, you know. So for me that really helped perk me up. You know to do things differently. Man, you know, just don't want nothing to do with it at all.
Speaker 2:So that was the biggest, you know, change for me. But it did help me. It helped me to focus on the things that DOC provided that could help us in our lives transition and out of there until you know that's out here. How does that lead to gratitude for, like department of corrections? I just feel like it protected me from making more mistakes because I wasn't going anywhere. So as I grew wiser, older, I started to see, like you know, what this is actually okay for me at this particular point in time, because when I come out, you know I'll have something to work with, I'll have a structure, I'll have something to be disciplined about. If you really put your feet down and say, listen, this is what I'm going to do, then it can help.
Speaker 1:When you're going through a duration like yours. Are there ever times where the people who run the facility right Are there ever times where the people who run the facility right? Are there ever acts where you realize those people care about you, you feel human in their presence? Do those people ever relent and show you generosity, show you concern, show you gratitude? Or is that just really that rigid for all that time?
Speaker 2:There's people in there that show you, you know, gratitude and you know they respect you as a human being. You know, especially if you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, you know they kind of will, you know treat you appropriately and, you know, in a well-mannered way. You know from my experience I can't speak for every person that's been incarcerated, you know, but from my experience I haven't had much of it go the other way. I've seen it, but just not for me personally. I mean, as long as I'm doing what I'm supposed to do.
Speaker 1:So then you're also dealing with all the other inmates, of course, and, as you've talked about a couple of times, you're seeing the same people over and over and over, because of how things function inside. Is that a fact? Yes, so then there's. So then there's hostility, sometimes between inmates.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Managing that and then coming out here right coming back to society in a way where you don't have those hostilities. I'm curious, how do you keep a mindset when you're engaged, when you're having to manage that? I don't know how often you manage hostilities between you and other people inside the facility, but I mean, how does that shape you during that amount of time that you spent in there?
Speaker 2:Hmm, well, and.
Speaker 1:I ask because it's so incredible this connection that you have with the people that you work with as a barber Right, and so if you hadn't told me that, I would never have guessed in a million years, James, you'd spend a day of your life in a jailhouse.
Speaker 2:Wow, well, thank you Appreciate that. You know my mom and dad were pretty good at giving us manners and just knowing how to talk to people and be respectful. But yeah, hostility and things like that in prisons, and you know it exists, you know, and it does kind of. You know it shapes you to deal with certain situations in a certain kind of way. You know it shapes you to deal with certain situations in a certain kind of way, even if you are well-mannered. You know there's this ways that you have to, that you have to, you have to be a part of while you're in those kind of environments. Obviously, you can't never really be super comfortable, comfortable. You'll get comfortable to an extent. It's not like the same comfort is. It is out here, you know, even though it might be more dangerous out here in a lot, a lot more ways. But it's just doesn't feel the same because the, the quarters are so close with people. So because you asked me, how does it, did you ask me how did?
Speaker 1:it how that shaped you over that much time. You know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it makes you. You know it makes you numb in certain ways. It makes you numb to certain types of things. Your fear factor changes a lot. It's really hard. I mean from my experience, like I said, I can't speak for everyone else, but I don't have a big fear factor, you know so you're confident in carrying yourself.
Speaker 2:I feel like I have a quiet confidence. I mean, I feel like there's nothing that really rattles me too much. I'm not saying that I can't be rattled, but for the most part I feel okay with myself. In that way, a lot of things like birthdays, holidays you're numb to that because you see so many of them come and go and it's just you start to become just another day type of thing. You know just like it is with the people, with the hostility. It's just another situation, it's just another thing. You know, it's just you know.
Speaker 1:So I guess, as you grow, nothing seems to really surprise you so then, how does that set you up to thrive in this environment that you have now, like with your job? And I ask that for a specific reason, because and I this is hard for me to say because I get I kind of melt down when it comes to powerful people doing powerful things. I have a tremendous amount of gratitude for that, and I understand apprenticeship programs and some of the work Jamie had to do to put this together. And, of course, that risk has no chance of ever paying off without men and women with the strength to come in there and say, yeah, you're accepting a job in an environment where every single person that walks in that door knows you've been incarcerated. Like it's all very, very raw, which I personally have huge gratitude for. I love. That about that, to me, is the one thing, that's the one paramount thing, that makes that place different than all the rest. Agreed, like you know, you're walking in here.
Speaker 2:Agreed.
Speaker 1:And the people there know that. You know, like there's no, it's all just right there, like there's no bullshit. You're like, hey, man, I learned how to cut hair in the jailhouse. Sweet, you want to cut mine? Yeah, sweet, high five.
Speaker 1:And there's such a masculinity to that right. And it's masculine because it takes strength to be honest, and masculine strength has to plow the road for honesty for others. We have to set the bar, not just for women, but for other people in our community who don't have your experience, who don't have your confidence, who aren't working with a guy like Jamie, who's willing to plow that road on the hope, on the whim, that powerful men like you will come in behind. And the women there too, I know there's women that work there. They're awesome to talk to, they're always wonderful to be there with. But all the people that come in behind to make something like that work, that just seems to me like that's crazy, that somebody had the courage to do that. And then you guys all have the courage to show up. And I get particularly excited because, like I said, other people will observe that and some people will reject it.
Speaker 1:Right, and it's like well, everybody has the right. You don't understand this. You don't like this, no problem, you don't have to come here. But to the people that do, you can't go there and not have it alter your day, not have it influence the way you think about things. Every day, people are coming in and out of that shop and they're thinking differently about people who've been to jail. They're thinking differently about business. They're thinking differently about how their life can relate directly to because a lot of people like to act like that doesn't happen, right Incarceration, but their life now has a specific point that it relates to somebody who's been through that. I just think that's so incredibly powerful and I'm making this very complicated. But knowing that that's the environment that you work in and you've come from this other place this 18 and a half years, where things are so different, like, and then you found your way into this place like almost magically, it sounds like right.
Speaker 1:How does that help that transition? I mean, how does doing what you do in the place that you do it helping with that transition?
Speaker 2:That the people who Jamie assembled helps with that transition. I think that his energy Jamie I'm speaking of it really has. There's a I mean you've met him, I mean you know this guy has something about his presence that I'm sure is his gift, is his biggest gift, is his presence, you know, and that really helps the situation. He just I'm telling you this is my honest opinion about it. You know, between him and his operations manager, deb Ramirez, it's a great balance to help people like me feel like we can do this to the best of our ability and not feel ashamed and not feel like what are we here for? Or this is a waste of time, or I'm just going to go back out here.
Speaker 2:That's not how they make you feel there and that makes a big difference for me. But I tell them all the time. I tell Jamie I'm like Jamie man, I don't know if you realize what you've done here, man, but not just for me, but for everything else to come, for people who are coming out still wanting an opportunity. He may know it, but I've never seen anything in the state like that. I've never seen anyone do anything like this before. So I believe that this model here that he's put together not necessarily with hair, but other types of things should follow suit with how he's doing this.
Speaker 1:And that's one of the things when you see something like what he's doing going on, you realize there's more than balance sheets and profit and losses here. There's somebody here who's been willing to take both the courage to put that first step forward, but then also there's other people with the courage to come in behind him and fill that dream with the work that needs to be done. They're doing it, and so that leads me to my final question here today is like so what's the future like for you? I mean, right now, where are you going?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, you know, right now I'm going to ride the R and R train and see what we can do. I love the fact that I've been here for pretty much the beginning of it all and I want to see this thing really open up the way the plan is for it to open up. I'm excited about that. I love to cut hair. I just I don't know it feels like every time I cut hair it's like the first time I ever done it and I've never felt like that about nothing I've ever done in my whole life. So I'm glad that this thing, that we found each other and that other, and that's just what I want to do right now. That's, that's how I feel about it.
Speaker 1:And you're still, I imagine, having only done started this back in February, you still have some business left to book, right? I mean, you still have some more clients to take on, or are you no longer taking new clients?
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm taking new clients, you know it's. I've seen a lot of regulars and I'm very thankful for that, you know. But I'm I'm the one that I'll stay after hours if I have to. I really enjoy it.
Speaker 1:Well, you do more than that. You stay after hours, but you do. On location and emergency, yes, I will.
Speaker 2:Yes, I will do those things. I really care, and I think one time a therapist told me this about their work and that seeing someone not everyone that they see is going to see the light or is ever going to have that, that that light switch moment. But when the ones that do have it, it's like there's no high better than that. And that's what I feel about helping someone with their confidence. If they feel better about their, whatever they're going to go do throughout their week or their next month, and they feel like this haircut is going to get them there, man, there's nothing better than that feeling, man.
Speaker 1:I want to be a part of it. I tell everybody about you. They appreciate to the point of nauseam probably.
Speaker 2:Gotcha.
Speaker 1:Because I think you're just another gift in my life, another extraordinary person to know, and I really appreciate you coming here and sharing a little bit with us today.
Speaker 2:Most definitely, man. Let me know, my past ain't great, it ain't pretty, but I'm just a person, man that's learned a lot from it. I want to be able to share with people. I've never thought in a million years I would ever say anything like that, but it's helped me. It just has man. So whatever question, whatever thing, I will be right there, man. So I appreciate this.
Speaker 1:Well, you can believe that. Find James Kennedy at R&R Headlabs on East Colfax in Denver, Colorado. If you're in the area or passing through the area, do yourself a favor and come see these guys. And come see what's happening right here in our town and the influence these guys are creating, the positivity that they bring to our community and our beautiful city, and show them a little gratitude and get probably what will be the absolute most amazing haircut you'll ever get in your life next time you get the chance. Thanks for joining us. This is the AF Podcast.