Eleven Twenty Six Elite Training Academy

Go ahead and introduce yourself and let everybody know about the services that you provide.

Hi guys, my name is Nyema Thomas. I am the proud owner of Eleven Twenty Six Elite Training Academy, and I offer a wide variety of services. Everything from concealed carry licenses; I offer pistol, rifle, shotgun shooting classes, hunter safety. You can get your hunting license through me as well. I’m an officer with Florida Fish and Wildlife, in addition to being a licensed firearms dealer holding a Federal firearm license.

Tell us about the pro side of owning firearms and knowing the proper way of using them and being completely licensed. The benefit of owning firearms and exercising your right to bear arms, in general, is that you could be able to protect your family, your property, and your loved ones. Nobody plans to be in a situation where they have to use a firearm, but we definitely want to make sure that we are prepared in the event that we have to exercise these rights by equipping ourselves with the necessary tools to be able to defend ourselves and our family if need be.

How do you take a newbie or someone who’s unfamiliar and get them to where they’re comfortable enough to be around guns and actually get licensed?

I always start my classes with the fundamentals, whether you’re a beginner or an advanced student. I educate when it comes to the fundamentals of safe gun handling; I go over the different parts and components of a firearm, just because you have to understand the firearm itself in order to be able to use it safely. So I go over different techniques when it comes to holding and safe gun handling. I teach my students how to travel with a firearm; I promote safety and responsible gun ownership versus just, you know, going somewhere and getting a gun. You have to be educated. In addition to that, I teach about the different types of ammo just because there are a lot of things that can happen when it comes to accidents if you don’t have the correct type of ammo in your pistol. I also teach my students how to actually perform firearm maintenance, meaning taking the gun apart, cleaning it, and all those things, because firearm maintenance plays a big part in eliminating or preventing accidents as well.

How did you get into that line of work?

It has always been a passion of mine. My dad, who’s no longer with us, was ex-military. He actually fought in Vietnam. So I’ve been shooting since I was probably five or six years old. I was a daddy’s girl, so he taught me the ropes when it comes to shooting, hunting, fishing, you know, I was outdoors type. So I’ve always wanted to start my own business. But after my mom passed, I decided to do something that I have a passion for, and because my mom and I were supposed to start a catering business because my mom loved to cook, so I was gonna kind of be a silent partner. But then, we never got around to doing it because she passed away. So in order to honor both my parents, I wanted to do something. I was able to use the knowledge that I gained from my dad, but I started my business in memory of my mom, which is how I came up with the name for the business

ElevenTwentySix Elite Training Academy. November 26th was my mom’s birthday.

What is the number one rule you would suggest to your students in regard to owning firearms in the home where there are children?

Firearms safety is a very big deal. And so that’s one of the main things that I teach my students; not to carry a bullet in the chamber, just because that’s the number one cause of death when it comes to accidental shootings involving kids. What happens is, these kids find these guns, and there’s a bullet in the chamber, and they pull that trigger, you know, and that’s how that happens. And it could be avoided by just being a responsible gun owner. And that’s why I really promote responsible gun ownership.

What type of laws do you feel are needed to maintain that balance between still being able to have the right to bear arms and also keeping our schools, our churches or our, or people safe?

That’s always a sensitive or touchy subject. And it’s a huge topic that needs to be discussed, and not a lot of people like to discuss that because it is a major problem. In my opinion, I think that the background checks and all that, all those things are there, but I think that a lot of times, we have individuals who will go and purchase a gun for someone that’s not supposed to have the gun. So the problem is there are too many illegal guns out in the streets because, and these are the things that are not being reported. Majority of these mass shootings and things like that, they’re not being committed by people who went and legally bought a gun the legal way. So with the shootings, they try to use those situations to push the narrative. But in actuality, it’s not the responsible gun owners; it’s not the licensed gun owners. It’s these people that are buying the guns off the streets or the hot guns and things like that. And they use those guns in order to commit these crimes. So it’s not fair to penalize the people who are doing things the right way.

As a teacher, have you ever come across someone where you refused them service?

I’ve had a situation where, a couple of young ladies came and they were attempting to attend my class, and I had a conversation with them, and I spoke to them from the heart, just because, my heart and soul is into this business. So it’s not just me trying to make a couple of dollars or whatever. This is my community. This is the community that I grew up in. So I want to actually make a difference in my community, so I’m not going to block my blessings for a couple of dollars.

Let everybody know where they can take your classes or where they can check you out. We’re located at 4100 Evans Avenue, suite four. That’s in Fort Myers, Florida, 33901. The concealed carry class is actually also available virtually, and you can access that class on my website. You can also find us on Facebook as well as Instagram. We have a lot of amazing things that I’m hoping to kind of be able to launch and bring to you guys in the future. I am starting an all-women’s shooting club. It’s called Girls With Guns. The hope is to bring likeminded women together in order to, for us to be able to network and get some shooting, get some practice in. It’s a way to de-stress, actually. And then eventually with the hopes of being able to compete in competitions against other shooting clubs at some point. I also plan on bringing a youth program. I am an instructor with Florida Fish and Wildlife, and they have a lot of youth programs when it comes to the kids as far as firearm safety and education and things like that. So I was recently just approved to be able to teach the curriculum that we teach with Florida Fish and Wildlife at 1126. So I’m excited about that.

Let everyone know who you are and what do you do?

My name is Sean Casey, most people know me in the city as Twin and I am the owner and founder of Twin Cutz Barbershop. Which I established in 2010.

And I remember, you were on the scene a lot, your networking grind was always on point. I was reading an interview you did before and that was a key point of your growth, it was the networking. Let’s dig into that a little more how you went from that to now owning 7 shops. I moved here from New York in 2006, I had a relationship in Ft Myers because I went to high school here. I moved to Ft Myers, back in the mid 90s, to go to high school from New York and while I was in High School, my girlfriend at the time got pregnant. So I always had a relationship coming back and forth to Ft Myers, and my grandparents lived here as well. So I went back to New York at the time to get my Barber license, and just kind of get focused and get my head straight. And in 2006 I made a major move to come to Ft Myers, one being I wanted a bit of a closer relationship with my son, it was always going back and forth, long distance, I felt like I just needed to settle down and get a little bit focused, but it was such a change from living in such a populated urban community and growing up with millions of things to do and coming to a town like Ft Myers that’s a little bit slower paced, especially in 2006, compared to what we see today. So that being said, when I moved, I worked at a Barbershop called Platinum Creation, a buddy of mine who owned the shop, his name was Rodney Jackson, I went to high school with him at Cypress Lake High School. He had a shop open and was like “yeah, come work for me.” So I started working at his location and unfortunately he passed away a year later, he always had a heart condition, so it was unfortunate to see because he had so much drive and inspiration at the time. He was actually a true innovator himself because he passed he was the one already starting to scale his business. Unfortunately if he didn’t pass, I would have loved to see his growth. And I wasn’t even on that at that time. I was just, moving here, I want to open up a shop myself one day, maybe in New York, I gotta work at a place, build up the clientele and work, and get my shop. What I needed to do to build up my clientele while I was paying my bills and taking care of my son was, how can I make money behind the chair, cover my cost and make a little bit extra? While I lived in New York, I worked for a record company called “lyricist lounge” as an intern. I used to stand on the corners, in Time Square, pass out flyers, all around the city, I was always networking and club promotion. This allowed me to really learn and understand Guerrilla Marketing, handing out flyers and business cards and most importantly building relationships. So I took that same type of structure and brought it to Ft Myers and had the ambition of opening up my shop the same way you would run a record label. One of my first early clientele, he as a DJ in the city, his name was DJ Spiff. We would know him as DJ Ditto back at that time, and he was from New York as well so we shared that common interest, and we said “you know what’s missing in this area? Stage for performances. I learned from working with Lyricist Lounge which was a show on MTV and before that, was always a platform for a lot of artist that made huge names for themselves, as far as Biggie, Mobb Deep, and whatever, Bid Daddy Kane and everything. So being in the city, I was like man there’s a lot of talent and I started doing these open mics that featured graffiti, Hip Hop, Battles, Spoken Word, Comedy and I started with my clientele and was like alright, I can make money behind my chair as well as charge like a $5 cover at the time to make a little bit of extra, so now I’m making money through club promotions as well as making money at the barbershop, and that transitioned into me turning it into a nice big stage event which led me to start doing night clubs in downtown Ft Myers, such as club Level, and everything else. So there was a time in my life where I was “Twin the Promoter”. But at the same time, while I was making that money as a promoter, I never stopped working behind my Barber chair. So I was still cutting hair and keeping that relationship and as soon as I made enough money coz I couldn’t get a loan, I didn’t have the credit at the time, but I knew I had a dream of opening up my own Barbershop. As soon as I started saving enough money by combining 2 incomes, I was able to invest into my first barbershop.

I love that you brought that creativity, the graffiti, the Hip hop to the your shop. Was that strategic?

Yea, it was definitely strategic, there’s was a couple of things, I used name brand recognition, all my events had always (shows arm) this was my logo on my arm. I had those on flyers, and in the clubs I would put business cards into the bathrooms, when you walked into the club, everybody saw Twin Cutz and there was a time, downtown where we were booking the city at capacity, week after week after week so the recognition made sense. So when I was able to create enough income to start my own Barbershop, I took the same name, people say where do the name come from, well people call me Twin and I cut hair, or Twin the promoter because I cut records, so it was like Twin Cutz, so I grabbed that name and I put it on the shop. I never thought I was gonna scale and get more shops. My goal at that time was just to have one shop. So strategically, using brand recognition, putting it on the barbershop, people drive by and say “oh that’s the same guy with the promotion,” people recognize it and gears traffic. As far as the asthetics of the shop at the time, I was always a lover of art. Being from New York, I love pop art, everywhere you go in the city, there’s grafitti and all types, from the trash can to the poles and there’s always some type of stencil art, paper art, I was a big fan of Basciat, he’s one of my favorite all time artists, Andy Warhal, Keith Hearing, these were all big artists from the 80s, 90s, that had big statement pieces that I always was a fan of. So opening up my shop, I’m always incorporating touches of pop art and creating a cleaning atmosphere to invite all people, it’s very important for me.

How do you carry brand recognition throughout your shops, and still allowing them their individuality?

It’s kind of like the structure of still maintaining a small, local mom and pop feel but incorporating that franchise Sportsclips type of structure. So they had that organization there’s an atmosphere, there’s a system that’s very important for those businesses to keep moving forward but I also like the individualism and I also like the art. So I want my shops to carry that system, and that’s the only way that I’m able to kind of copy and paste each shop. But as you go to each shop, each shop has its own identity as well. They may have all the apoxie style floors, but each shop might be little bit different color, there might be pop art on the wall, but each shop has a little bit of different variation of pop art as well. You’ll see things that kind of connect everything, but at the same time, it creates a difference and it’s kind of how I hire for the businesses as well. Geographically, where shops are located, I look for Barbers that are going to fit best, that is going to make them the most successful, as well as create the right atmosphere for each location.

How do you go about choosing who to put in your shops?

At the beginning stages when I just had one shop, it was a little bit different with the relationships that I had with Barbers, to now where the brand has grown so much that I get people that reach out to me, that I’ve never seen before, or students that know of me, or even me as a teacher, I’m able to build relationships and provide that opportunity as well. What I’ve learned within my business structure is to try to give everyone the opportunity to have a little skin in the game. You can come in as a Barber, and you can develop into a manager, which you can also become an operating business partner. I do have a small team of people that are constantly growing as I expand my business, so it’s not just me at this stage. There’s a Barber who’s got a percentage in 3-4 of my locations and when he came, he came from a shop in Cape Coral, said “hey Twin, I work at a shop, I don’t see a lot of growth, I’ve heard a lot about your business.” He started working as a Barber, turned into a manager at my McGregor location, now he’s a part owner of that location and he’s also an investment partner in a few of my other locations. So I try to create that opportunity because, in reality freedom and time is very important for me. So if I do 5 shops by myself, I don’t have time to do all the other things that inspire me and I’m too business and I still like to be an artist. So I look at is as, can I one day have 50 locations and even have a smaller percentage of the business but make a small percentage of 50, or try to have complete control of 100 % of 5-7 locations and have no time for anything else.

In following your purpose, how do you handle it when life still comes at you with the challenges?

I try to tell myself daily, because I’m human and I’d lie to say emotions didn’t bother me at times. But as I’ve grown, the concept of being better not bitter and also telling myself that, do not get angry over things you have no control over. And if it’s not health challenges at times, if it’s not relationships with people, within the business that sometimes doesn’t work out in the way that you want and there’s seperation amongts people. There’s always something to even mechanical issues to even pandemic issues, to hurricane issues, there’s always things being thrown at me so I have to tell myself there’s always a solution. And by me telling myself there’s always a solution and bringing myself to the now. And not avoiding those things, and not forgetting about those things but taking a second to digest those things and accept it. And look at it all angles, and even how I can maneuver differently and giving it time then I’m able to say ok what is next. And I think that’s what’s helped me time and time again, through this constant journey of growth.

Let’s talk briefly about your teaching and what took you to that lane.

Yeah it’s funny, never thought I would get in the teaching lane, especially the type of student I was in school. I was never inspired by school, I always was creative, I always liked art. And I think back in 2010, 2011 I started seeing things on social media, was starting to get a little bit more growth and more movement and more visual and I was seeing they were doing Barber battles in other cities and there was more opportuni- ties and I started investing myself and started going to these places and realizing that there’s a whole circle of people that are very excited to be doing the same thing that you do. And I always looked at that as when you’re around the same circle in life, around the same people everyday, sometimes you get stagnant because people are comfortable with what they’re doing. So, visually seeing this and being around it, sparked some interest. And I did it for about a year, on my own dime, spent money to go to different cities, different hair shows, and again to me going back to the importance of relationships and meeting people and speaking to people and supporting peo ple. I wasn’t just going up and asking what can I get, it was going up to people that I recognized and respected and liked their art. And I would buy their hair combs, or I’d buy their Barber capes, and start building those type of relationships and just by doing that, you run into the right people and the right people gave me the right opportunity and one of those people who gave that opportunity was a clipper company called Andis that’s been around for about 100 years. Like anything else, there was a lot of tests that I had to do, in order to actually get that position. And when I got that position, it changed a lot in my life. It started sending me out to different states, which also brought it back home by having that type of training, getting the opportunity to work with local Barber colleges in the area. And I started finding a second passion that I kind of never thought I’d really have, is to develop a mentorship with new and future professionals and out of every I do, that ahHa! moment with students when you just give them a clipper, and turn it on, and their hand touches some hair and they’re like wow, I can do this. I can achieve it. That’s the best feeling for me. I like that over all the stages I work on and all the places that I visit, I will always love that aspect of teaching. somebody who inspires me pay out of my own pocket, sit with that person. And I come as a student, and I don’t talk about any of the accolades that I do, or anything that I do. And I absorb everything I can learn from that person. And I’m constantly being a student and I always take those investments that I do on myself and bring it back into what I’m building. Because things always change, and things always grow and there’s always going to be able to teach the basics. But there’s always new techniques that if I’m not doing them behind the chair, at least I have the knowledge to speak about them in relate those came the head Barber instructor at Paul Mitchell for 2 1/2 years, I recently left mid January. And I’ve told my students this, that I’m learning from them. The moment anybody, in no matter what industry you’re in, the moment that you’ve closed your mind from learning, and building and being able to learn from other people, you’ve stopped everything. You’ve stopped yourself from growing, you’ve stopped yourself from building, you can never become the best version of yourself, you never will.

In movies, barbershops have always been portrayed as a staple in the community that affects change in the community, do you think they still play that role?

I think the small business barbershops have not. But there’s a lot of barbershops now, because of the age, the change, social media, what people deem as important and priorities they have in their lives, some of them don’t have that family-eske type of environment that you do need to be that neighborhood community center, which is what I like to call it. But the small business you’ll definitely find more community center barbershops, than with franchises or these big brands that are all out there. One of the biggest tools and the keys you can have when owning a business is definitely working with the community. And understand customer service and all that stuff, these are the things that will help a business thrive for years and years and years to come.

Back to you as a professor, what are the top key components that you teach your students? When I’m talking with the Barbers, I tell em, I can help anybody become a Barber. I can teach anybody how to fade. Give me a couple of heads, give me some hours with you, I can definitely help you do a straight line, I can help you fade, I can help you. But what is hard to create is good character, what’s hard to create is taking away bad habits from people. Because while we at the school, I’ll get people from all walks of life. They come from different areas where they’re raised differently, they don’t have good morals maybe or something is going on with them, but they choose to be a Barber so something in them is still great. So what I like to teach them is, one of the biggest components like I said earlier is customer service. If you understand that you had just joined a service industry or we are here to make people feel good. When that moment they walking into that shop, when they sit in that chair, when you offered them a drink, make them feel good and pamper them, you talk about their day, you talk about their business, you make that person feel like they’re the only thing that’s going on in that shop. If it’s a shop that’s lively and building, and we’re watching a basketball game and we’re all together, that’s that community that everybody feels like they’re a part of. And that’s really what matters. So when it comes to these students, teaching them customer service is important, teaching them how to market themselves and become a community partner by themselves, those are some of the things I let the know. You will not build up your clientele if you do not have that customer service; you will not be successful in this game if you don’t know how to give. I’lll teach you how to cut hair, that’s easy. But everything else, if you don’t have it, you could be a great Barber with bad manners, bad attitude, and nobody’s gonna sit in your chair. I’ve seen Barbers that can’t cut, but they have incredible customer service, and their haircuts are all messed up, lines on the side, but clients are still coming to them. And I was like wow, there’s something there. That was the beginning of my career when I figured that out.

Let’s talk about the significance of self-care and mental health.

Since we were kids, if you wanna go to the mall, you go get a haircut first. You wanted to get a haircut for the weekend, you wanted to get a haircut to go to school on Monday, you always got a haircut. Because when you look good, you feel good. 100% and if that Barber behind that chair can make you feel better, it’s beyond words. Because the feeling that you get when you get a haircut, when you get your hair done, when your nails just finished getting done, when you’re finished getting your skin all cleaned up, you glow. You will glow with just a simple haircut, you will glow with a Barber behind that chair explaining to you how to take care of our hair, how to style, how to make yourself look good. Because when you walk out that shop, everyone’s going to look at you different.

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