Welcome back to the show—my fellow extraordinary Americans. Today’s guest is Kelly Gustovich. Kelly is the founder and lead designer of clothing and merchandise for the Hi Post label with its website officialhipost.com, which was started in the Lower East Side of New York City in 1993. 

Born in Santa Monica, CA, and raised in the New York City area, Kelly is an entrepreneur, a graphic designer, and an expert Barber with 35 years of experience and an educator. He has owned and operated multiple Barber locations, such as the High Post in New York, from 1993 to 1990. Live as well as the High Life Lounge from 1996 to 2000, High Life Barbershop in Los Angeles from 2009 to Crescent, the 11th and B barbering in Glendale from 2016 to present, and the Playroom in downtown Los Angeles from 2019 to present. 

His clientele ranges from entertainment and fashion to publishing industry talent and executives to everyday business professionals; he also exercises his passion for building and giving back to the community as a full-time public high school special education teacher. He teaches humanities, art, and barbering. He developed posters for high school-age learners, and his most recent endeavor is a creative flex space called CLLCTV.NYC, a partnership, and a return to LES NYC, where the love of the business started for him. 

I’m here, cosmos. How are you?

I’m. I’m doing good. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this podcast with me. I’m honored to have you on the show.

The honor is mine. Thank you for having me.

Yeah. So, Kelly, I know that you are like an entrepreneur. You’ve been a Barber for about 35 years, a lead graphic designer, and you’re into clothing and merchandise. Can you tell me and the audience more about yourself, your background, and how you got started?

Well, I’m a graphic designer by trade. That’s what I studied at Pratt in Brooklyn many years ago. I’m a visual learner. And I didn’t realize that until many years later, but that’s why I see things the way I do. I do what I do graphically, so my studies at Pratt helped me be a better communicator, not just in the written word. But with visuals.

So, Kelly, what was your vision and career regarding starting the barbershop locations and eventually the Hypos label?

The brand came by accident; I was just assembling a store. I wanted to put together what I thought was the trifecta of flavor items or things that a person my age was into. It was a shop where you could buy music, you could buy some T-shirts and you. I could get a haircut and those three things. That’s a Friday; that’s a Saturday night. You know, and if you’re growing, it’s a Thursday night. It would be best if you had those things before you go out. 

Starting that shop brought me many contacts and, you know, friends that I still have today. One such person approached me about assembling something more organized as a line or a collection. So, I put three of these together as a line sheet, like a flat drawing indicating what the garment would look like. 

So, I gave him three collections. One was called official, big time, and one was called. They were Japanese buyers and decided to go with the hustler’s name. This is like 93 at this point, and that was my entrance into understanding what a brand is, not just the name of a store or the name of a business, but a brand and what goes behind it in marketing. All that you do with that brand being cohesive.

Collection of moves and things to push that brand forward. And I returned to the high post, which was the name of the store, kind of the umbrella. The concept for all that I did for Chloe.

So, Kelly, my question is from when you were in your late teens to the early 20s. Right. What was the motivating factor that made you start these Barber Locations? What is that point where you’re thinking… OK, I want to do this and do it; I know you mentioned it was an accident, but I’m curious whether you had plans for doing something else. And then life took a turn, and that’s how it ended.

Life is a bunch of turns, especially in my case. Again, it was not a plan. I went to school for graphic design. I was on a block in the Lower East Side, where I was becoming friendlier with the folks in that neighborhood. I ended up having my first child, my first three children, there on that block, not necessarily on the block, but in that neighborhood, I met my who would become my wife there.  I had Hair brain idea of opening a business now because the spot was for rent. It looked attractive to me. I’m already employed as a graphic designer and had an idea about maybe opening my own business. Having no business background, I have no clue what I would do. 

Again, I go back to… what would be a saleable thing or group of things? And that’s how I came up with, you know, the idea to do those three things in one shop. And the inspiration comes from. When you’re growing up in New York or LA, and I use those two cities, though, they’re very far from each other. The thread that runs through is. They’re big metropolitan situations where young men and women grow up looking at all the. You have to navigate these trappings and the city landscape and decide who you’re going to. Be in that. Are you going to be a consumer or a producer? I decided I wanted to produce some things, you know, things that were in my lane of liking.

So Kelly, like first of all. Like for most. Barbers like them. Never end up like starting a business, right? Like, you’re in the top 10% or 5% of barbers that are pretty successful in what you do. And on top of that, you’re in Los Angeles and New York. And the cost of living is high. 

And with all the taxes and everything, it’s really hard. It’s even harder to start a business. But you pulled it off. How would? You advise somebody in your line of work to start a business in those two cities, namely Los Angeles and now the New York area.

Starting a business many things have changed since I started a business in ‘93. However, many things are the same regarding your commitment to your vision. Continuing forward, even with the people you love and care for who can become naysayers to your idea. You’re writing your book, so you know my advice is to continue writing. 

Seeking too much advice can be dangerous because you know what you want it to look, smell, and appear like, and that’s your vision. You just have to chase it down and spend time together, sometimes quietly and alone, putting this thing together. But if you frame it the right way. It becomes exciting. And when you see it start to take shape, it becomes mind-blowing. And then you have imposter behavior, imposter syndrome.

I wanted to ask you to elaborate more on the last thing you mentioned about the impostor syndrome—a lot of it. People like when they’re done, when they’re transitioning from, let’s say, the 99 percent to the 1%, and they’re going on their way to becoming successful in business. They have this thing in their head where they think they’re in, imposing like they have the old and new selves, and then they’re struggling to transform into that new person. So, like, how do you think they should? Go about doing that.

Imposter syndrome is something you just have to fight and kind of ignore, and people you know, Become afflicted by imposter syndrome. You have to believe that you. You belong there. You belong in the place you’re at. You belong in that space. You earned your way. There it doesn’t. Do you feel like that when you’re in your mental vacuum, in a sense? You can be in a room full of people. It can still be very lonely; however, give yourself some grace and tap on the back. 

You made it, at least, to that first room, and there are many more rooms behind that one, and it just keeps on going. Success isn’t necessarily that room you arrive in but the intention and understanding that you want to get into the next room and the next room and the next room, and that’s not chasing increments of money. It’s more about enjoying the journey of learning and building relationships.

So Kelly… Many people would think that when you’re starting a business, money is the main motivating factor, according to you. What should be the main motivating factor that pushes people to do something? Because in my experience, I realize that if you put money as a main motivating factor, it’s when things get hard. Then you’re more likely to back out of something, you know, but what do? What do you think about that?

I agree that money is your measurement of achievement. If you’re measuring your success using money as the increment or the unit of measure, that will be problematic early because you’ll have an ebb and flow. Things go up and down. Sometimes you’re flush, and sometimes you’re not. 

Any advice I would give to a Barber, entrepreneur, or anybody with a stake in something they’re trying to achieve: One, Stick with it. And be excellent. Those two words, that’s it in a nutshell. If you’re excellent, the money comes.

If that’s your concentration, it’s it. Yeah, it’s just about being the best you. It can be if you know you gave it your 100%, then this is how my mind works if I give it my 100%, you know, during. The day then. I deserve to, you know, have some free time later that night, maybe. Maybe I can watch or indulge in a brainless show by taking a documentary, but I don’t often give myself that reward if I have. If I don’t feel I’ve earned it, which is a whole other. Possible problem and how I process it, but you know we all have our mechanisms and methods for our madness.

No, Kelly. 

So, Kelly, what do you think, in your opinion, is the biggest lesson you learned during your three decades of doing the Barbershop and the clothing line and design?

I’ve learned so many lessons. I’ve learned a big lesson for me. I was very married to my first business, and when I closed it, I was devastated and had a. A friend asked me how it does. Feel to fail. And that question, right, that question hurt. I couldn’t believe he was asking me that. I was injured. I had to tell him. Like, I can’t believe you asked me that. Why would you ask me that? I felt like. You know, it was. It was still fresh to me like I had shut the gates of this business within the last few days. And he quickly said don’t trip. I don’t really. Maybe you don’t know that having faced adversity, you’re in a better state to move forward than many who have never tasted adversity. They may have made millions of dollars, but when they. Do taste that piece of diversity. Sometimes, it makes them. Hop out of a window, you know. Yeah, not to be. Not to be daunted by when things go up and down. Like I’ve almost. I feel like I’ve lost track of your question because. I started reliving that moment, and it was. This is 93. We’re talking 30 years ago.

I opened the business. It was opened for a mere two years. A lot happened in those two years, but. I was just bummed out. I couldn’t go out to clubs anymore. I didn’t go out. I felt I didn’t deserve to go out. You don’t want to go to the club and say, hey, how are things going for you? I didn’t feel I had anything to say. Life is good or, you know, my family’s good. I didn’t seem good enough. I wanted to be able to talk about how my business was doing well. But I was in between businesses.

No, Kelly, sometimes, like, you know, I don’t know if you believe in God, but sometimes, life puts adversity in you. You have a story. If you, let’s say, went to success, have a success that people cannot relate to like now you have a story where I failed. But then I push forward. And I started all these. Businesses. And then I, and then I succeeded.

And then people can see that, and they’re like, OK, you know, adversity is part of the business because many people don’t start or start their own business. After all, they’re afraid of failure. And that’s a big thing that haunts them so. Yeah, like the fact that you push through it and you survive that. And then you and then you continue to do what you’re doing that, that’s an amazing thing. And that’s what makes an entrepreneur successful. Like, that’s what creates entrepreneurs, you know.

Yeah. And you have what I call dark hours and nights. You know, dark days, sometimes dark weeks. You have to power through those you know, and it’s OK to access friends. Do some different stuff if you’re creative and feel like you’ve run dry; maybe it’s time to take a walk on the beach, walk through the hood, or get tacos with a friend you haven’t seen in three months. Do something different and feed your brain different food. I had a design professor at Pratt. He urged me to walk a different way home from class—each day. 

You know what? Whatever your A&B destination, you go to and from different daily to feed your brain different food if you walk the same street and turn the same corner. Every day like. That’s not life, you know. We can do better than that. Maybe take the long way around, maybe stop and get ice cream, you know, and go two blocks out of your way; these are the things that feed us, maybe consciously or subconsciously. We must give our brains different food, so it’s wonderful to go to a museum just taking different visuals. See different things around different people.

No, I agree with that, you know, cause a lot of people like them go through their entire lives doing the same thing repeatedly. And, like, there’s a code I want to spread: after 25, most people are going up to 75, just living the life of a robot. They’re doing the same or not doing this thing repeatedly. And I don’t know if that’s considered living or not, you know, but yeah.

I don’t think so. I won’t judge another person’s journey but know my mechanism. I don’t want to involve myself in it if it doesn’t make me nervous. If it’s not scary, if it’s not, it’s not daunting, then it’s not even worth it. If it’s low-hanging fruit, I’m cool, like, let somebody else do that? I want to do something that makes me nervous. I want to do something that makes me feel like a man if I screw this up. I’m going to. I’m going to look like a fool. 

I’m deathly afraid of playing myself in public or doing, you know, something embarrassing, but I think that’s just. That mechanism many of us have that mechanism. Some view it as stress, but it’s just that governor that has you white-hot with seeing your goal through. 

And one thing about whatever your show is, you know, if you’re a painter, your show is when you put it up on the wall, you know, if you’re an architect, your show is, you know, when they see. That model or they? See that that facade built? Or they cut the ribbon, but you have to visualize it. You have to see it. You have to see and believe in it; some things will go wrong in the process, so don’t let it throw you. You have to keep a straight face because if your team sees you’re nervous, they will be nervous. They might dip. If you look nervous, I did a fashion show showing 13 pieces. Seven of those pieces didn’t arrive. In the city, I was in until a few. Hours before the show. Was that nervous? I was nervous. I didn’t do what I normally do and wasn’t pacing. I wasn’t hanging my head. In my mind, I just said, in terms of what you mentioned, if the Lord doesn’t want me to have the show, I’m not going to have it. Or maybe he wants me to have a short show; maybe I’ll do six pieces. However, it’s going to be it’s going to be. What will be, you know, but for me to stress myself? 

I was just going to make myself sick because I’m so good at stressing myself, like I can make myself physically ill. Because I’m, I invest that much in whatever. I’m doing it whether it’s stress—or art or hair. You know, I do it too much like I internalize it, you? Know it. Becomes a whole event for me. I didn’t do that. I stayed cool, hoped for the best, and prayed for even better. We got our stuff, and we. Did a show. The public doesn’t know what went wrong. The public doesn’t know, you know. That that I had. A button where the thread was hanging, or you know that something didn’t come out—the color I expected it to be. The public doesn’t know that. Stuff so you keep a straight face. And they’re happy if. You’re happy, you know.

Wow. Well, one of the. Things that I found interesting and. Like this is, this is something that I want the audience to know that you were you. You said that you want to do it. Things that make you. Nervous. 

Most people would not want to do things that make them nervous, which makes us successful in entrepreneurship. That’s like that mindset. Right where I want to do this, I want to push through it. Cause if it’s not daunting, then what’s the point? So that’s something that I found interesting about what? You said you know.

I realized this some years ago, but the more biographies I read, the more stories I take in about people. Trials and tribulations are moving toward their goals. They all have the same thing in common. You know, they all wanted to quit. They all felt like maybe I was just packed this up, you know? And they all had naysayers around them. They all had incredible difficulties bringing their idea to market, finding funding, or that sort of thing. 

So it’s just that steadfast, you know, wake up the next morning after you got beat up the day before and you say I’m going to make it happen, and every morning you wake up—more positivity than negativity. You’re going to have a better day? 

I am not in the business of guaranteeing or promising too many things, but I can guarantee that. You know, if you keep your mind at a. Positive level and it’s genuine because. If you can fake your positivity, maybe for someone else to see you looking positive. But if you believe in your positivity, not much can stop you except you.

Kelly, that that’s awesome. Yeah, that mindset, to go through diversity and to do things that make you nervous like that, is exactly what it takes to be successful. It’s not just like in business; it’s like in anything, you know, like I know, when it comes to dating a guy. It has to do with the approach and like. He has the risk of getting rejected. But he has to do it still, even if it makes. He feels nervous.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained right. It all boils down to that. If you’re not willing to venture, you’re not willing to gamble, to risk, then then what? What are you going to achieve, you know? I mean, you get what you get, what you put in. 

There are so many cliche phrases, Cosmos. My God, there are so many, so many things that say the same thing. Yeah, it’s just it’s just sticking with it. You know.

I started my first business a year before Supreme. So, we started a business in the same neighborhood. I think we probably shared a customer base to a degree. This is, again, the Lower East Side of downtown Manhattan. You know, Supreme being a little further West, but I closed up a few years after, you know, just… blighted, like cooked from, you know, the scene and all that can exhaust you. And I was just done. I was. I couldn’t do it anymore. 

So I took a break, and I could kick myself for not sticking with it and say you should have stuck with it. Man, like you could be doing what Supreme is doing. Going down that thought path is dangerous because no one knows what it would have been or could have been. But it’s just interesting to look back. You must smile and say, “Maybe I played myself. I should have stuck with it”. 

So that’s also part of the advice I give any young creative designer or entrepreneur to stick with it. You know, stick with it. Maybe you don’t want to name the business after your name because if it doesn’t go well, that’s your name. That could be all the way. Wrong for you. However, in most cases, it just sticks. With it, you know. Give it that good. That was a good try before you call it quits.

So Kelly.

Not, I’m sorry, not—enough of its own. Too many of us work for somebody else and rent. I will assume because you’re a shade brown like me… as people of color. If we’re not owning, we’re just victims of circumstance. We must push forward and become more powerful in our neighborhoods.

That’s something in the last part, which you said is pretty true. If we let even if, let’s say, you’re brown or like you’re black or something, if you have a business and you have, you are seen as a person with money, then it basically like it’s like the great equalizer. And at least that’s what I noticed over the years that I’ve been in America, you know?

Equalizer to a degree. You need some money, and you need your intelligence. It would be best if you also had some allies to know one of those things will get you out of trouble, you know, because, in essence, I speak cryptically but figuratively. When they come for you, they’re coming for you. So, if you don’t have your ducks in a row, you have a problem. Sometimes, it’s nice just to stay low, you know.

Yeah. And so, Kelly, well, I had. I have a question. I know you mentioned branding, right? If you had to give one tip of advice to the audience about how to brand something successfully, how would they go about doing that? Let’s say they wanted to. Brand their business.

Do you feel you have a good, viable, marketable idea? If you’re creative in design, you have some hands and can design your logo; you must start creating your identity. Nothing I can give somebody in the span of like 30 seconds to a minute would be useful. It would just be kind of confusing. My idea is to move with your heart. Move with some guts and take a class or two.

Take classes as often as you can. You don’t have to get a degree. Sometimes, taking a design class is helpful, maybe to help with how your stuff is going. Look, you know. Maybe it’s a graphic thing that you’re doing, maybe it’s something to do with fashion. Maybe it’s something to do with film. You don’t want your product if you don’t know these formats and how to do this professionally. Or your project to look. You want to look professional, lackluster, or like a B or C team. You want to be tight, you know?

So whatever you have to do to make this thing look real, then you have to do that; times have changed, and not a lot of schlock and unplanned or haphazardly planned projects get to market. They’re just they’re just not cool enough. They’re not tight enough. You know, people can smell it, you know. But by the same token, they can also smell the hard work that went into it. And if there’s something there, they’ll help you develop it because they can make Some money on it. Too, but there’s nothing wrong with educating yourself and getting training. Almost everything that you’re not good at. 

Make friends, talk to people. People are more gracious than you would think. They don’t want to. Sharing and answering questions, and if they do, then their ******** step off with there’s plenty of—good people in the world.

No, Kelly. 

So Kelly, if you had to return to the year, like the first, you started a business, right? Like with all the knowledge and experience you have right now, you could go back in a time machine; you could talk to yourself like when you were in your early 20s and were starting a business or anything. What would you say? What would you tell your younger self?

Probably three things. One, write everything down. Record everything like all the experiences, record them. Two is to stick with it. And three is a good organizer, like organizing your stuff, paperwork, and everything in your life. I don’t care if it’s your shirts, underwear, or gas bill. Envelopes like organized things. It just pays to be that person. I didn’t learn to be organized until much later, and I still don’t feel I’m as organized as others. It’s not. It’s not the end all be. Well, it certainly helps your life until you can hire somebody to be your business manager. You have to be your business manager. And so, you know, you can afford that sort of thing. 

So, if you’re not organized … for instance, I will do this podcast with you. I’m nearing, you know, our time frame, and I said, “Well, let me let me check this. Out let me. Check my Zoom link, and you will know that it’s being organized. Let me be ready before the site. It wouldn’t have. It would have been cool if I. I hadn’t let I’m letting you know I’m going to be a few minutes late. I wasn’t coming from one meeting into this one. Being unorganized is not even having the presence of mind to let the host know that I’m going to be late or I’m going to be a couple of minutes late. You know the time we agreed on.

I appreciate that, by the way.

Yeah, I mean, it’s just professional courtesy, so many, so many of these, those little things get overlooked, and those little things not being organized, not being about details and professional courtesies, those things can keep you out of the room you’re trying to get into. Folks don’t realize it’s some of your younger viewers. Don’t think you’re getting taken to dinner or lunch so they can feed you, and they’re being nice. They’re watching how you eat. They’re watching how you order, who you say thank you to, and whether or not you smile when you say that. Thank you. They want to see what kind of person you are and whether or not you can represent their company in the future. Maybe you don’t belong with that team, you know, maybe you’re. You know you’re too rough around the edges, so who are you at the table? They’re checking for who you will be at the boardroom table.

Many people don’t realize that they’re being tested while being taken to dinner and are being judged. In that that regard, but yeah. That’s pretty true. What you just said? 

So Kelly, on a different note, right, you know the American identity is about pursuing happiness. But these days, many Americans pursue happiness differently, but they’re not finding it. So, from your perspective, how should Americans go about with their regard to the pursuit of happiness and realizing the American dream? Whatever it is for them.

I know what it is for me. Love is what it is to that person in love. You know you can’t tell—a 12-year-old or 14-year-old… You’re not in love. Like, you can’t say that because, for them, it’s love. 

By the same token. Do you know what the American dream is for someone else? It depends on how evolved your thinking is. You know, my American dream is freedom. I think we all want freedom, freedom, time, and finance, but not you. You can just go, you know, blow. Buckets of money and lay back and be fanned while they’re feeding you grapes. I don’t. Know if that’s. Healthy. I want freedom of time so I can go out and do stuff. I want freedom of finance to build things that are, you know, of my nonprofit situation. 

I want to help people. You know, I want to provide experience and opportunity for folks, the way some of that was provided for me; I want to hit some of those places where there’s a void in that area where there is not the opportunity that there should be. 

I’ve coached basketball at, you know, Harriman House off of, you know, Ave A and 10th Street Boys Club days, in Pitt St. in Houston. Like, they’ve closed these places. What are kids going to do? If they don’t have a place to go, they have to leave to their own devices, and they’ll find something to do. You know, I was one of those kids.

The American dream. It is, I think, pursuing ambitions that are fulfilling to you. So that you can arrive at. Your degrees of freedom and those freedoms increase or decrease with your choices. You know you can have a total decrease in freedom. Because you committed a crime, and they. Take your freedom. You know, but then you may try and gain emotional and mental freedom because you started reading in jail when you weren’t doing that before. Then you come out, maybe a new ambition, 

so, you know, the American dream is so different for many people, and what we’re all sort of experiencing, if not through the TV, is vicariously through family members. I mean, there’s this tragedy going on all over the planet. This is not just an American dream just because it’s here in this country, and I know, you know, it’s about extraordinary Americans in the frame. 

But it’s a global deal, like where, where, and where is the freedom? We may have some freedoms here in this state or this country, but some folks across the water suffer immensely, so I’m really. It’s about being humane, but that’s not profitable, and it’s not. It’s not popular, you know. So, I keep my mouth shut on social media these days.

That’s one of the reasons I started extra time in America: I saw a hypocrisy between the American identity of freedom, opportunity, and the pursuit of happiness and then reality. Right? Because you. See that now with inflation and a Bunch of other things. 

People are not having time and financial freedom. They’re having these stagnant wages, and then there’s inflation continuously going, and it’s creating more poverty over the long run, and we’re just free in all but name only. 

I started this podcast because it was part of the brand. I wanted to get the stories of people who fought against the odds to do whatever they were doing because maybe this would give hope to somebody out there. 

Business and entrepreneurship and investing. Those are the more permanent measures to get freedom. Still, there’s also financial education, for instance, knowing that your purchasing power is being inflated, and your wages are stagnant. Then the money keeps inflating like you’re getting poorer and poorer like this. That contributes towards like. Whether are we, are we going? To be free in our actions and our spirit in our being. Or is it just going to be in name only? 

Yeah, I mean, it’s a lot of moving parts. The whole truckload of variables, you know. In finding, do you know what an individual’s freedom is? I feel my perception of freedom is different than even my children. They have an interesting …  as much as I push or pushed for, you know, hard work and all that sort of stuff. My kids have a different view of things. 

They’re more committed to Peace of Mind and sanity, which I’ve arrived at in later years. My main deal is wanting to be an effective provider and, you know, make sure I’m gainfully employed. You know, if I’m chasing dreams, that’s. Fine, but I need to be able to pay these bills. 

But at the risk of seeming less than academic or ambitious and certain avenues. I’ve watched my kids and folks in their age group, and I’m talking about the late 20s, right? You know, my oldest is 30, my youngest is 22. And I’m still learning from them. 

I think we can all learn from people and places and things all around us, but it’s especially touching to, you know, watch my kids, be as sensitive to what’s going on in their world and our world, and act accordingly. You know, for instance, my eldest daughter. I was really into plants and nature. And like, oh, she. Have I got that? 

I’m a city kid, and she didn’t necessarily spend time at anybody’s summer camp, you know, for any length of time. She’s a city kid like. All of us. But she’s found her way into what is. Peaceful. And that’s her path to freedom. She’s at peace when she’s, you know—sitting in her garden and reading her Bible. You know, so. You have to smile at it. That it’s not my life, but it’s hers. And I’d like to see it.

That put a smile in my on my face for sure. Like. Yeah, that’s.

Yeah, right.

Everybody wants to be at peace, ultimately, right? The greatest gift one can have is having Peace of Mind. Then you can have all the success in the world, but if you’re not mentally at peace, what’s the point?

Right.

But on Kelly, on another note, I wanted to ask you about your company. The High post label is on its website, officialhipost.com. Can you tell me in the audience a little bit more about the premise of how it was Started, what it does, and all of that?

Hi post is a term from the 80s, you know, it’s kind of. I want to say. I learned it as a New York Street term, meaning it’s like a superlative. They can be negative or positive. A hi post means better than.

Oh, she thinks she’s hot stuff, you know, that’s kind of a negative. Look, this is a 40-year. It’s the old phrase, so I’m having trouble contextualizing it. It was enough of a vibe as a phrase for me to be like I would want my store to be hot post-like. That’s what it is. It is like you know. 

Your store was called the ****, but that didn’t play either. I post, so that’s the brand name because many people ask me that. No, it’s not the basketball position, though. I played ball. I post low posts, not all over the play. On words works. You know, the Lower East Side and New York spawned that vibe. 

So you can find us on Instagram. Hi, Post is not spelled with a GH; it’s just HIPOST. So on Instagram, High Post images one word, or we have another page that we just started high post. Under score, the showroom shows all our items with better photography and full color on my page; the first slides are all black and white. That’s the look I chose to be a little. But being urged by people over the years to push the branding to the next level, I had to separate the clothing from my page. As far as I was concerned, I was ready to say. Whatever to you naysayers, and I’ll have barbering, hair, and clothing. And some of my personal life. Stuff and people are … stop it. Stop it; you’ll Just do a regular page for the brand. OK, fine. 

So I’ll do that. Yeah, and there’s that. And our website is officialhipost.com. One day, we’ll get the. Domain for the high post, you know. I’ll get it from somebody who wants to charge me too much. But this is where I started. Before social media, I did brochures. I put ads in magazines and. I got more requests. From people in jail than I did from people. In the streets. At the time, I was asking for a dollar. Please send me a dollar. I’ll send you a catalog. They sent me dollars. Was tripping. This is 93. I’m getting dollars from jail. I’m like, yo! How to get these dollars, you know. 

So they sent me a dollar. I sent them back as a double. I sided three-fold brochure. They ordered some stuff, and honestly, I’m sorry, you all, a lot of that stuff never got sent because I was unorganized. I was unorganized. I must have gotten it. I couldn’t tell you one of those names of six hundred people you know hitting me. I didn’t organize a database. 

This is ‘93. I don’t know what I was doing. I didn’t go to school for business. I’m a graphic designer cutting. Hair hanging out. In the streets. And trying to develop a viable concept because there were people, right? In front of me. I am getting money. Doing stuff that I won’t say on screen, that’s them. It’s not me, but I’m saying, how can I get some of this money off of them? And that’s what spawned the first store. I’m playing off. Their economy, because it’s, it’s built-in, you know.

I mean, ultimately, like you. Know like as a business. A person like you has. To be practical, and it’s like real-world experiences, like schools, they don’t university them. Don’t teach you how to do it. In actual business and entrepreneurship, they just give. Do you like an MBA or whatever? But like a real business, you have to learn it in the street like you have. To have a mentor who can show you. Yeah, but Kelly is there, like any other project? That you’re doing right now that you want the. Audience to get a glimpse into.

I don’t know if I can give you a glimpse, but I’m working hard. Because it’s out here in small doses, that means taking older used fabrics and scraps and milling them into new yarns and things like that. It’s not for the small company; it’s not an excuse for me; an inexpensive process is. It’s not cheap, and it’s hard for a smaller company. Ultimately, I want to be able to take your jacket, and you know you can give it to me for points on the next purchase. Or I can, you know, redesign it, or I can upcycle it for you. You know, that’s the intention to create a community of people who are like-minded and want to not necessarily donate but contribute to what we’re doing. 

So, if I get, you know, a bunch of sweatshirts, then I can turn out several jackets. I want to take the. We no longer love garments and do new ones because we create more waste by weaving and cutting new fabrics. 

So, if we can take what we have and do something with it, then I think we’re cutting down a lot of the problem, but that’s not quite, you know, the whole deal, but that’ll be. You know my entrance into. You know this new thing, new to me. 

Sustainability is not new, but it’s new to me. In my practice, you know, I’m coming out of. I was playing with fast fashion and was like, this is terrible., I can design a shirt and have it in my hands in a week and a half. If I can do this, that means a lot of people. Everybody can do this. And this is just how we made the problem even worse. 

We can’t just blame it on H&M and Zara, you know. Like we can do this from our little apps and just have, you know, things that come out of the direct-to-garment press in a matter of days, you know, and we just have the stuff laying around, and it’s just wasted. Why do we keep doing this? I mean, look back at African-American history in this country. 

Not just exclusively to African Americans. If you look down South, you’ll still find some quilts, and quilting became a thing of necessity and function. You know nothing got wasted. Those scraps were turned into a quilt. If they couldn’t be repaired as the garment they were, and if the scraps didn’t work anymore, they got put in between the in, in the wall for insulation. Nothing got wasted, you know. 

We need more of that state of mind. That’s what America was. Speaking of extraordinary Americans, we would think of all beliefs instead of just opinions when we were more steadfast. We worked hard and cared about each other to an extent. We have more on the ball right now, but we’re so scattered, and there are so many different types of people instead of just remembering we’re all kind of human. Let’s just band together. Get some work done. I don’t have all the answers for all the causes.

No, Kelly, I appreciate your vision and hope to succeed in your endeavors. You know, cause.

Yeah. Thank you.

And oh, so Kelly, how can our audience connect with you? And if they wanted to reach out and talk to you or something like that,

My website has a blog, and we can communicate that way. I encourage people. Touch on the blog because it hasn’t started, but I want to offer this because I’m a little different in how I do things, and I want to give you A phone Number because I Can be reached. It’s 917. 589-9287 again 917, a wonderful New York. Area code 589-9287. You can call that number. I might pick it up. If you leave a message, I might call you back or text you. I don’t know, but I’m trying to be a little more personal than how incredibly impersonal things are. I want to go back to being personal.

This is also why a lot of the garments I am doing which is the more. The ones I’m concentrating on for the future are one of the ones that. Personal, that’s custom. It’s like a warning on your back. 

So there’s the phone number. There’s a website you can use—certainly, Instagram direct message me. I’ll get back to you within half a day or so unless it’s a. Sunday, I usually do. Try not to touch my phone on Sunday except to listen to it. Music while I’m riding the.

That’s awesome. Kelly. Kelly, I’m grateful that you took the time to do this show with us, and your wisdom and experience were invaluable. And I know that the audience has got a lot of a lot out of it. And I would like to have you on the show later.

Thank you. I’m honored to have you know and hang out with you for a while. Thank. Thank you for 

For sure, and I want to conclude this podcast by letting my fellow extraordinary Americans know that, hey, look, there’s an extraordinary within every one of us; it’s our duty to awaken it and unleash it until next time. Bye for now.