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Harper Talks Show 9 — Jacob Sadoff - MP3
Jacob Sadoff is co-owner of Restore Hair and an active coach of Harper College's Speech Team. His time at Northern Illinois University was spent learning and opening a toy distributor with his twin brother Jordan. Over time the pair would found even more companies such as Goldmax and Restore. Tune in as Jacob and Assistant Professor of Communication Arts Brian Shelton discuss philanthropy, the communities we are from, and serial entrepreneurship in this episode of Harper Talks.
Harper Talks: The Harper Alumni Podcast
Show 9: Jacob Sadoff — Transcript
[00:00:01.520] - Brian Shelton
If you've driven on the tollway in Chicagoland, you've certainly seen the clever billboards
for Restore Hair, have you ever thought, who's the creative mind behind this? Then
this episode is for you. I'm Brian Shelton and you're listening to Harper Talks, a
co-production of Harper College Alumni Relations and Harper Radio today on Harper
Talks. I'm excited to speak with Jacob Sadoff co-owner of Restore Hair and Harper
College alumni. Jake is an active coach for the Harper College speech and debate team,
which is where we met. And I've been looking forward to talking with him about serial
entrepreneurship and his continuing desire to give back to Harper College. Jake joined
me for the Harper Talks podcast over Zoom. All right. Hey, Jake, thanks for being
here today. I appreciate it. How are you?
[00:00:48.230] - Jake Sadoff
I'm great. Thank you, Brian.
[00:00:50.720] - Brian Shelton
I'm doing very, very well. It's nice and warm today. The first half talks podcast
that I've recorded where it's been warm, it's been freezing cold and everyone that
I've done. So this is fun.
[00:01:00.320] - Jake Sadoff
Thankfully, the weather is changing here.
[00:01:02.040] - Brian Shelton
That's right. So tell me how you got to Harper College. You grew up in the area?
[00:01:06.440] - Jake Sadoff
I did. I grew up in Hoffman Estates and I went to Harper in nineteen ninety six in
ninety seven. And I was always kind of like understood in my family. That's where
we're going to go. And we go to Harper College and the parents were big believers
in it. And so it was there was always something that we were excited and interested
to do. And because we we we we knew of it and we knew people that went through and
so on.
[00:01:34.070] - Jake Sadoff
And actually for a short period of time, my dad taught some classes at Harper College
when I was a little kid. I remember running around his class. He brought it to class
one time when we were probably about five or six years old. So yeah. So we knew Harper
really well and we always were going to see I went to ninety six, ninety seven and
then went on the Northern.
[00:01:58.790] - Brian Shelton
Great. That's great. So what were things like at Harper in 96-97. Obviously I wasn't
there then. What was the campus like. What was the atmosphere like.
[00:02:06.320] - Jake Sadoff
You know I'll tell you about my first day in Harper. I'll never forget it was a very
foggy day and there was no signage anywhere. That's what I remember my first impression
of the school and I was like, where is building L? How do you get the building L?
You can't see the letters on any of these buildings. And then so I don't know how
I figured it out and something. And maybe somebody told me the big, mirrored building
in front.
[00:02:30.620] - Jake Sadoff
And finally after this, the fog cleared a little bit. I saw L, OK. So I think in my
impression of Harper at that point was it was sort of an aging campus again. So there
was there we didn't we didn't have the beautiful signage that we have on campus now
kind of directing people where to go in and buildings were a little bit older. And
it was it's always sort of transition point. I think that the campus was probably,
what, maybe twenty five to thirty years old at that point. So it was with aging. It
was such a great place. We loved it. It was, it was it was still a good layout and
everything else. And once you got the lay of the land there, you can you can figure
out how to get from one building to the next. And I think it was at that point when
when they were just starting to put computer labs in campuses and high schools. So
I remember having access to to the cool new computer labs and the Internet. Wow. Maybe
you didn't have Internet at home, but you could certainly go and get Internet on campus.
So but it was great with the student center, of course, and and there was still a
lot of good programs on campus. And I was involved with a couple of things. So, yeah,
I really I really like the campus back then. But definitely a lot's changed.
[00:03:47.390] - Jake Sadoff
There's there wasn't, you know, all the newer buildings that we have now, there wasn't
a parking garage, so it wasn't, you know, Avante in front of campus. So the gymnasium
hadn't been redesigned yet. So there was a little bit aging and stuff, but it was
still a really good place to take classes.
[00:04:08.510] - Brian Shelton
Yeah, since I've been at Harper, the amount of construction that's gone on there has
just been fascinating. I always tell people that Harper never stops building and it
seems like only just now during COVID that we've actually stopped construction, but
we're getting ready to start again. So that's really exciting. And it's also interesting
that you mentioned the student center because my colleague Shannon Hynes and the alumni
office always says they like to have alumni events in the student center because it's
the only building that hasn't changed in 50 years.
[00:04:36.680] - Jake Sadoff
Yeah, that's true. Right? Well, you know, it's got a classic feel on there and it's
got like a nice feel that I know that they are they're doing work there as well. But
but yeah, it's it's a big campus and everything, but there's. Yeah, right. There's
always construction going on the last several years. But again, when I was on campus,
I don't think it was anything that would be built at that time. It was, it was at
that stage kind of between things when it was starting to age, but it wasn't too bad
at that point. But it's amazing the development that's gone on in the last several
years.
[00:05:11.080] - Brian Shelton
Yeah, it's pretty amazing. You were heavily involved with the speech and debate team
while you were at Harper, right?
[00:05:16.870] - Jake Sadoff
I was. I joined the team as a competitor when they started at Harper in 96. And I
did this a couple of years. I was there and we had to really have a really good competitive
team with great coaches. Coaching staff has changed a little bit, but long, really
long standing coaches. One one in particular, Jeff Pryzbylo for example, Jeff was
the the head coach when I was there. And he's still the head coach and director I'm
friends with now. I really enjoyed being on the speech and debate team. It was a great,
great way to meet new people and travel and sort to learn new skills and and to kind
of break out of your out of your door a little bit and get out there to talking a
little bit.
[00:06:04.900] - Brian Shelton
That's great. I want to you know, I'm going to kind of jump ahead on the questions
I was going to ask you, because we are talking about the speech team and I see you're
still involved with the speech team is as a coach. And I also know that you and your
brother Jordan started a scholarship for the speech and debate team. And I just curious,
what is it that drives you to continue being involved with that and also to be so
involved with Harper as an alumni? Because, you know, so often when people leave the
community college, they go on, they get their four year degree, and that's the school
that they identify with. Right. But you really heavily identify with Harper and are
very actively involved to talk to you about why you choose to continue to be involved
at Harper.
[00:06:46.720] - Jake Sadoff
Yeah, well, that you know, I think a couple things happened. One was that and I'll
tell you the first thing actually that happened in terms of all of the coming back
and helping out and being involved in campuses, I did go on and I competed in speech
and debate after I left to Northern Illinois and I competed. And I moved back to the
area and I stayed close with the coaches, Jeff Pryzbylo at the time, and Marcia Litrenta.
And they really fostered a program that allowed and asked for alumni to come back
and help volunteer coach.
[00:07:27.700] - Jake Sadoff
And I think it was really that program that really interested me. And I think that
I benefited from that when I was a student. I I certainly liked the peer coaching
and the sort of recent graduate coaching. So I was really intrigued by that. And I
think any time somebody said to you, like, hey, we value you, we value your knowledge
and your abilities and your skills, and we would like you to help somebody else and
help a student. And there's something that's really compelling about that and rewarding.
And it's hard to say no when somebody says we value and we want to hear, we want to
hear you. We want to hear from you. We want your help. And I think that's really what
we're doing in the end. And I guess that the pay it forward mentality. So I really
enjoyed coming back and coaching was a volunteer position. But I mean, that's what
I was looking for at that point. I was looking to to stay involved. I really like
the activity. I like what it did for me and on a personal level and and I really believed
in that program. And I also knew that a lot of the kids that are on campus, there's
sort of sometimes greater disconnection. It's not like high school where people are
a little bit more connected. So people are looking for these kids are looking for
something to do.
[00:08:52.210] - Jake Sadoff
And I know the value of programs like speech and debate. And so I really wanted to
participate and, and to be involved in. So I started coaching and we go to tournaments
and and coach and judge the tournaments and really enjoyed it. It was a great extracurricular
activity for me, a great creative outlet. And so I know I got as much out of it as
I put into it and as much as it helped other, it helped me more. And so I did that
and have done it for several years.
[00:09:21.910] - Jake Sadoff
I've slowed down a bit and I should say in the last handful of years and I started
a family. My job has changed a little bit, but I still stay involved a little bit.
But in terms of the the scholarship, I actually received a scholarship when I was
a student for the speech and debate team. And it was a time where, you know, it's
kind of I actually like tell the story of the cost of credit hour. And it was, I think,
forty, forty one dollars a credit hour. You know, as much of a bit of a great value
as it was then. It's it's still a great value now. It's one hundred and something.
But it was money was a little tough back then and I got, I'll never forget, I got
three hundred dollar scholarship and by today's standards, maybe that's not a lot,
but that's what was available. I was thrilled that I received absolutely thrilled.
The money is coming at a good time. There was three of us, three kids in my family.
They're all going to college at the same time as my parents had a hard time trying
to pay for all of us to go to college at the same time. So 300 bucks, was great.
And I never, I never forgot that. And so, again, that's kind of on that pay it forward
mentality as well, where I've done well and fortunate. I think I've gotten so lucky
and stuff.
[00:10:39.170] - Jake Sadoff
But I, I know how that three hundred dollars impacted me and I enjoy sort of paying
it forward and allowing somebody else to benefit from a scholarship. So yes, I so
I started along with my twin brother who started a scholarship about 10 or 11 years
ago. And it's I know it'd be helpful. It's usually one or two students a year pay
their tuition or have even a few classes depending on how the money is split up. But
it's something we enjoy doing and it's very rewarding.
[00:11:20.870] - Brian Shelton
Yeah, that's great. And we appreciate that you do that and the students do as well.
I remember years ago when I graduated from college, I had won a communication award
and it was a five hundred dollar cash prize and back in nineteen ninety seven, a five
hundred dollar cash prize paid my rent, you know, so it made a huge difference back
then. So we appreciate you doing that. Talk about the speech team. You were talking
about your involvement.
[00:11:44.470] - Brian Shelton
I don't think a lot of people realize because I travel with the speech team on occasion,
I don't think a lot of people realize the amount of practice and work that goes into
that. I mean, the students are involved in that are practicing four or five days a
week. They're giving up their weekends almost every weekend to go out and do tournaments.
And the coaches are doing the same and the volunteer coaches as well. And it's just
as competitive and just as much work as any athletic events that you would be involved
then.
[00:12:08.690] - Jake Sadoff
You know, that's so true. It's very competitive and it's as competitive as you want
to get with it. Some some kids are sort of touch and go with it and don't put lots
of time into it. And they they enjoy going to a couple of tournaments and other kids
get very, very competitive. And as you said, Brian, they will go to tournaments. I
don't want to say every weekend, but many, many weekends and there are four or five
days a week. There are at the highest collegiate level. There are students that are
practicing seven days a week and going to tournaments every single weekend throughout
a given semester. I think with our program where we're not maybe we're not that intense,
but certainly very competitive. And, you know, you get you get out of it what you
put into it, it can be very rewarding. You get some really great successes when you
win at a tournament and you compete at the highest level in and then certainly at
the end of the year, there's this culmination event, this national tournament where
you get to travel to not this year, because a typical year you get to travel and you
know, and and Harper has traveled as far away as Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
and in Florida and New York.
[00:13:29.930] - Jake Sadoff
So you get to travel to really cool places that these kids probably have never been
to. And I know that sometimes when I travel in with them, you've traveled as well
with them, sometimes these kids have never been on an airplane before and and they're
flying to California, to Los Angeles to compete in a national speech competition.
I mean, that's that's pretty remarkable. And that's what it does for kids confidence
and for something they can put on their resume, is just incredible. I know it helped
me when I was right out of college. I was I was a big, big item on my resume. And
I landed a really decent job right out of college and paid well. And I know that that
was a big thing that helped me get that job that was impressive to the company when
I was twenty one or twenty two year old young man or woman. So but yeah, it's a lot,
a lot of, to get to your point. A lot of competition, a lot of preparation. Sometimes
there is two or three hours a day of practicing and it's like I think it's like any
sport you can't get good at football or baseball or if you just have natural talent,
but you don't practice that. You've got to practice. You've got to rehearse your speech
several times over. You've got to polish it. You've got to get it ready. You know,
and I think when when you watch any other politician or anybody who's giving a speech,
it's not the first time they've read it. They, they have to read. Over and over again,
and to get ready for it and I think back to several times in my life and given speeches
and or done a presentation and everything that I learned back on speaking and everything
that I teach, my coach comes back to what we teach on what is taught on speech and
debate about how to practice the speech and rehearse it and how how to how to write
the speech, how to make it not too long, not too short, including the right points
and the right arguments that you're trying to make and using your voice the right
way, adapting to your audience. It's all those things that that you that you learn
on by giving a speech is something that I certainly have carried with me my whole
professional career.
[00:15:46.730] - Jake Sadoff
And I don't know if I knew that at the time that this was something that was my life,
but it really, really has been. So, yeah. Get back to your point. A lot of competition
and a lot of preparation, but really, really well worth it.
[00:16:00.290] - Brian Shelton
So I read in your bio, right, that while you were going to school at Harper, you were
in the Army National Guard or Reserve.
[00:16:08.870] - Jake Sadoff
Yeah, I was. I was in the Army National Guard and which is a state funded branch of
the military. And it was good experience. It allowed me to go to college and get my
degree at the same time while I was serving and helped pay for my schooling, which
again, getting back to getting back to the three hundred dollar scholarship certainly
was part of the overall plan with again, it was tough for my parents to pay for college.
So it was great.
[00:16:46.910] - Jake Sadoff
I enjoyed it. I learned alot, it built character, woke up, woke up many early mornings
and the push ups and the running and sit ups and stuff like that, you know, but yeah,
I was it was good I to being on campus and during the week and then there were weekends
where it's Friday, Friday afternoon, and I had to get ready to go for a weekend, drill
weekend as they would call it. So that was good. It was something I would definitely
recommend to people if they're thinking about joining the military.
[00:17:20.390] - Brian Shelton
So you are what I would call and you and your brother, don't want to leave Jordan
out, but you're what I would call a serial entrepreneur.
[00:17:29.860] - Jake Sadoff
OK.
[00:17:30.260] - Brian Shelton
I love talking to entrepreneurs. And when I first met you, Jeff Przybylo introduced
us and he said that you were the Beanie Baby King. Now, tell me about that.
[00:17:43.520] - Jake Sadoff
Well, when you said I was when you started selling the cereal, I was like, oh, this
can only go bad from here on. When you're a cereal, something, you're a you know,
usually the next word, probably cereal is not good.
[00:17:54.170] - Brian Shelton
Not Killer. Not serial killer. Serial entrepreneur.
[00:17:57.230] - Jake Sadoff
Yeah. So so thankfully, it all got better. I guess that I guess that could be worse
things. I use that term for serial entrepreneur and yeah, I guess I do sort of consider
myself a serial entrepreneur. I've always been and as much my brother where we are
business partners and we have been our entire career. Yeah. We've always sort of been
into something, into some sort of business, and when we were in college and I don't
think I was at Harper at the time, I think it was once I went to Northern. And I'll
tell you, this is it's a I guess it's an endearing or cute story, but it's one that
I maybe I try to a part of the business that I maybe I try to forget about because,
you know, it's hard maybe it's hard to get taken seriously when you tell people you
were in the Beanie Baby business.
[00:18:40.270] - Jake Sadoff
But it's part of me and the people who know me well know that it's it's kind of where
I got my start. So I guess I should be humble about it. But, yeah, you know, I used
to sell Beanie Babies and other stuff, plush stuffed animals so we would sell other
stuffed animals. And Beanie Babies was was our main product. And I know you'd probably
like how did you get into that? But in the late 90s, Beanie Babies were all the rage.
And I don't know why. They just they were a trend and they got really hot. And I think
that it was we were sort of opportunistic and we saw the ability to get involved in
buying and selling them. I was in my living in my my dorm room in Northern at the
time, and I saw these things on campus being sold for, you know, at the bookstore.
And they were five dollars each. And I bought a few of them just because I thought
they were cute and whatever. And, you know, they're kind of fun. And so I did. But
then I realized that there was like a value to these things. Right? People were buying
and selling them. And I couldn't believe that some of them are worth five hundred
dollars or a thousand dollars. And I was like, how how can I find those? So we started
sort of looking for them, putting ads out in papers and newspapers at the time, kind
of before the Internet was really big.
[00:20:03.610] - Jake Sadoff
And we found, you know, kids or parents who had these old Beanie Babies sitting around
and that we could buy for three hundred dollars and sell for three hundred and fifty
dollars or four hundred dollars, make a little profit. And then we kind of know. And
so it started as a hobby, but then it turned into a real business and we ran that
business, believe it or not, for nine or 10 years. And we had an office, we had employees,
we had and we were. On our best year we sold close to a million pieces. So it really
whereas it started out as a kind of a fun little hobby or a goofy little thing on
the side or whatever it really turned into, it turned into a real business for for
four years. And and it was I was able my brother and I were both able to make a real
income when we were in our 20s. It was great. And, you know, the fun thing about it
is it was a business that you never had to take too seriously because we were selling
kids stuffed plush. You know, we weren't solving the world's problems. We weren't
dealing with any crisis, we were dealing with stuffed animals and, you know, people
usually there was and there wasn't a lot of stress or tension in that job because,
again, the nature of what we were doing. So it was it was certainly a lot of fun.
And I look I would look back and smile at those at those times, but that was a lot
of fun.
[00:21:24.570] - Jake Sadoff
So, yeah, I guess I guess it was sort of my my entree into the entrepreneurial world.
And we're really giving my start there.
[00:21:34.380] - Brian Shelton
And you guys went on from there to start a gold buying business, right?
[00:21:39.090] - Jake Sadoff
Yeah, kind of like right after that. It was it was kind of interesting, the kind of
the timing there. The Beanie Baby business was kind of getting hit hard or our business
because a few of our big customers were going out of business filing for bankruptcy,
KB Toys. And and at that point, the Toys R US and a couple other big retailers that
we would sell to were having problems and fjling bankruptcy. And so that really kind
of took us out of the game. And that was, I think, 2008. And at the same time, the
gold business kind of was dropped on our lap. So it was a great transition for us.
But we, we found out that and I had no idea that gold jewelry, gold in general was
worth so much money. I didn't know anything about gold. I didn't own any gold. I didn't
I wasn't an investor in gold or silver. I just didn't know the first thing. But we
heard that or we learned that the price of gold, the commodity sort of tripled overnight
or almost virtually in a very short period time. And it was creating sort of this
opportunity to sort of buy and sell old, sort of unwanted gold jewelry and coins and
and other scrap metal that that consumers, with consumer gold. And we realized that
there is there was this sort of dislocation in the market, if you will, or sort of
an opportunity to buy from the consumer and then to have the gold melted, which is
what we would do, and then sell it on the commodities market. And there wasn't a lot
of people doing it at the time. And we we figured, let's give it a shot. And we tried
it and um. We got a slow start. We weren't we didn't we didn't have it all figured
out. There was a lot we didn't know yet how to do it. And then all of a sudden one
day it just clicked. And we we really kind of found the big, some big opportunity
there. And we started opening up stores. Retail brick and mortar stores throughout
Chicagoland. And we opened our first one. And I think it was December of 2008. And
within a few months we had three or four stores open. And then before you knew it,
we had 50 stores open in Chicago. And eventually at our peak we had 90 stores, retail
brick and mortar stores opened in Chicago and then we expanded to other markets. We
took on a couple partners in Atlanta and then we moved to Los Angeles. We took out
some other partners in Dallas and in Kansas City, Indianapolis. And at our peak, we
had two hundred and twenty five total retail stores open nationwide. So it was a great,
it was a great business. It lasted for five or six years, slowed down when the when
the economy picked up and when the price of gold dropped, gold spiked and then it
dropped, came back down again. But for about five or six years it was a great business,
we learned a lot.
[00:24:43.170] - Jake Sadoff
We really learned a whole lot about business. And and and we just get we got a lot
along the way there, got some really great employees that that then we used, stayed
with us and we've kept them on for our for next business after that. But, yeah, it
was it was really great. It was a great business. There's a lot of fun. There's a
lot of fun. And it was intense. It was because it was kind of you know, we were doing
some bigger volumes. And so it was intense. But it was yeah. It's really interesting.
I learned a lot from it.
[00:25:17.820] - Brian Shelton
That sounds really interesting. It's a lot of employees to be dealing with in a lot
of different locations. That would stress me out.
[00:25:24.570] - Jake Sadoff
It was, yeah. At one point we had probably three or four hundred employees at one
time and it was it was quite a bit
[00:25:32.520] - Brian Shelton
So, all right, you can't drive through Chicago land without seeing a billboard for
Restore Hair, they're everywhere. In fact, it's even become a joke on social media.
I'll see them every once in a while. And I'm like, oh, look, there's somebody making
fun of Restore Hair because there's so many billboards everywhere. How did you guys
come to own Restore Hair is that I like the product so much I bought the company kind
of thing. You know, the old razor ad or what's the story there?
[00:26:00.640] - Jake Sadoff
I first of all, I will say we love when when people on social media or just people
kind of take jabs at the billboards and make fun of it or make comments because it's
it means I guess we've kind of made it or we're we're notable enough that people talk
about it. Yeah.
[00:26:21.400] - Brian Shelton
You're part of the zeitgeist now.
[00:26:22.810] - Jake Sadoff
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So we like it when hear things abou that. And yeah, the billboard
thing, really, it's become sort of a fun, the fun part of it, the real fun part of
it. But how do we get into it? Gosh, you know, so so Jordan and I both had a hair
procedure done hair restoration procedure, which you might call it a hair transplant.
That's what we kind of used to call it. And we had it done with a doctor in Oakbrook.
And for years after that, we stayed sort of friendly with him because we would go
in and we would get a checkup or whatever, would get, you know, get a prescription
for medication or whatever it was. And he saw what we were doing in the gold business.
And he asked us on a few occasions if we'd be interested in partnering up with them
and starting, he wanted to be in his own, have his own practice.
[00:27:17.770] - Jake Sadoff
He was at the time he was working for a bigger clinic, bigger company. And so he wanted
to start his own and he asked us if we'd be interested in partnering up with him.
And, you know, the gold business was going well. Goldmax was going well at the time.
So there was really no we could we didn't have the time and so on. But then finally
he asked us in 2013, I believe, and at that point we were, you know, we were winding
down the gold business we saw that is coming to an end.
[00:27:43.330] - Jake Sadoff
And we said, you know what, maybe the time would be right now. Maybe this would maybe
this would work for us. And so we started talking about it and we said, let's give
this a shot. So we we did that. We partnered up with him, branched out on his own.
And we started with just a small clinic in Oak Brook. And it was about late 2013 or
early 2014 and just a real small office. And we were getting a couple leads, a couple
of people here and there and you get a patient once, you know, a couple of a couple
of patients a week.
[00:28:18.700] - Jake Sadoff
And we thought this would be something that maybe would take us some years to grow.
And then we, Jordan and I, had the idea, probably his idea, to to get a spokesperson.
And we were like how could that work and who could we get in Chicago that could be
somebody notable that people would listen to and respect and trust, because this business
was sort of like stigmatic, there's a stigma of getting your hair. That's something
your your dad or your grandpa did. And so we wanted to break the stigma. And we're
like, who are some bald Chicago guys? Chicago guys and those of your listeners who
know you know, with who are spokesperson is, you know how the story ends. But we came
up with a list of kind of Chicagoans who are balding or whatever. And I think the
top of our list was Brian Urlacher. We sort of joked about it like because it seemed
so absurd. There's no way. First of all, how can we even get a phone call with Brian
Urlacher, how would that even work? What do we just look them up in the Yellow Pages?
Do we do we, like, send them an email and how how you can possibly get a phone call
scheduled with Brian Urlancher. He was still playing at that time. Or maybe it just
retired this year. We just needed that year he had retired. But how on earth would
would that happen? And so it would seem like it was really out of reach. And then
what would we offer him? I mean, to be a spokesperson for us?
[00:29:50.590] - Jake Sadoff
You know, we're just starting up. And so long story short, we we kind of got lucky.
We got an introduction to him. We knew somebody who knew him and we got a phone call
with his agent and his agent said, no, thank you, click. So that was upsetting, I
was like, OK, but the call was how we expected. No thank you. And then and then we
called back again and we said, hey, you know what? Let's we want to talk to you a
bit more. What what if we did this? What if we came up with a few ideas and then we
actually gave his agent a procedure just with no strings attached. We want to give
you a procedure and a chance to show you what it looks like and how it whatever it
is. So the agent was standing as well. So they did a procedure nine months later.
His agents hair, looks great and he went to Brian and went right to Brian. Look, this
whole family, these are those guys who telling you that they want you to partner up
with and advocate for them. So Brian said, let's talk. And so we started talking and
one thing led to another. And we came up with a plan or a proposal that worked for
him to endorse us and to do the procedure. First of all, you have done a procedure
to do the procedure and to promote as an advocate for us and then and then to let
us put him on 50, 60, one hundred billboards throughout Chicago and use his name everywhere,
which I think I'm sure he never dreamed would happen. But, yeah, he did the procedure,
maybe reluctantly, I don't know. But he did it and his results are really good. And
he was like, yeah, this is great. Fast forward six or seven years later. Now he's
got billboards all over the place and he couldn't be happier and he thought he would
just be a retired bald Bear for years to come. And and now he's got hair again and
he loves it.
[00:31:51.570] - Brian Shelton
It's such a great story. And then you've got several Chicago sports figures on on
the different billboards. And I imagine that really helps with the stigma of it, because
you're right. I mean, when you think about a hair procedure, I mean, it sounds kind
of funny and like who wants to be the poster child for a hair procedure? It's like
being the poster child for a hemorrhoid cream or something like, you know, you don't
want to you know.
[00:32:12.390] - Jake Sadoff
We might have had more luck in the beginning with hermorrhoid cream than the hair
procedure. Yet the hair thing is something that was it was like people were just so
quiet about when I had my, I've had two procedures now, and when I had my first one,
I didn't tell anybody about it for years, its kind of private. You just don't really
talk about it. The thing that you want people to just think you have great hair or
whatever. And but then it changed to where after we got Urlacher involved that people
wanted to start talking about it because he was talking about it.
[00:32:42.180] - Jake Sadoff
So it became this domino effect. And it throughout the entire industry, not just with
us, it's always been tough to get guys to speak out about it. And even some of the
many of our competitors and some of the big, bigger national brand names have a hard
time getting spokespeople. And if they only knew if they only knew that the types
of athletes and actors, especially when you think of any older or aging actor, you
know, in Hollywood, they have great hair. Think of the Stallones and the and the Schwarzenegger
and guys like that. They've all, they've all had procedures. That's kind of part of
what goes along with it. So, yeah. But it's hard to get guys to talk about it. So
since then, as you mentioned, you know, I think Urlacher kind of open that door. You
got you got a lot more guys interested in doing it for one and saying, hey, yeah,
if Urlacher can do it and talk about it, I can, too.
[00:33:37.920] - Jake Sadoff
And so our second big sort of person that we got was Ryne Sandberg. And not just do
it, but then endorse us. We want to talk about it. And he came to us. I think he came
to us right after we launched Urlacher. He heard about it and he was like he was just
coming back to Chicago at that point. He moved back here from from Arizona. And he
wanted to he wanted to get back into Chicago sports scene and everything else and
be involved and be notable again and and get his name out there.
[00:34:08.340] - Jake Sadoff
And he's like, this might be a way to do it. And he was really bald. He really wanted
some hair and make you feel younger, look younger. And so he reached out to us and
yeah it was great. And he's so he's had the procedure done and he looks great. I think
he was he had more hair loss than Urlacher did. We gave him a great result. He's really
thrilled about it. We see him all the time and he loves showing off his hair.
[00:34:35.190] - Jake Sadoff
And now he's the guy he works for a Marquee sports, Marquee network. And you can see
him on broadcast and so on Cubs game. So he likes to talk about it. So we know. And
since then, we've got a couple of other guys. We got Eddie Olczyk and Deion Sanders
and recently Ian Happ from the Cubs, for those of you Cubs fans, hes one of the younger
guys on the team. He's become a standout player. But you've got a bunch of notable
Chicago players.
[00:35:07.380] - Jake Sadoff
There's Jason McKee former Chicago Bear who was Brian Urlachers teammate on the on
the Super Bowl team of 07. He's done the procedure and he's promoted us. Jim Cornelissen,
who who had the procedure done, and the announcer for the Blackhawks. And then we
did Brian Bickel from the Blackhawks. And we've done numerous athletes from all the
Chicago sports teams, the ones I just mentioned, a lot of the ones that I can mention.
There's a lot that I can't mention.
[00:35:41.160] - Jake Sadoff
But, yeah, I wish I could. But there was there's there's a lot of guys that have a
lot of big name athletes who have done it. And we're thrilled. We're honored that
they come to us. Kirk Cousins is another one that we can talk about. He's done it.
He's the quarterback for Minnesota for the Vikings, so, yeah, we've gotten a lot of
guys and it's been great.
[00:36:02.660] - Brian Shelton
So with that business, I mean, do you carry around a card and every guy you meet,
you look at him and say, you know what, you need our service. Is that something that
you do? Because that's kind of funny, I think.
[00:36:10.790] - Jake Sadoff
But it is funny. And I always like I always run this like this thought, gosh, you
know, if I only could be so bold as to just go right up to guys in an airport or where
ever I see them and give me my card, slip it into their bag or something. Hey, this
is just a hint. Just a little suggestion. But I have friends that come up, come to
me and they are bald or balding and they mention and I'm like, look, I wasn't going
to say anything, but yes, I can help you. I don't want to be pushy. But, you know,
a couple of my really, really close friends are totally bald. And I'm like, you know,
I could help, I can help you, but I try not to push. I think it's very much a personal
choice that I try to be a resource and help to people who are who are thinking about
it. And I really actually like, you know, what I really enjoy is when I get a lot
of younger guys that come to me who are thinning or starting to thin, guys in their
early 20s and they say, hey, what should I do?
[00:37:14.480] - Jake Sadoff
What should I do now? Maybe they're just thinning, receding hairline in the front.
Should they do a procedure. And and I really like giving those guys advice because
I was one of these guys and I had thinning hair and I didn't know what to do about
it. And I didn't really have people give me advice and so on. But I like telling them,
hey putting aside doing a hair surgical procedure. There are nine surgical therapies
and medication that you can take to stop your hair loss or slow it down. And that's
really the thing that most people don't know and that I wish I would have known when
I was twenty five years old and starting to think and that it's not just about adding
more hair and surgically adding hair, that's that's great. But it's about stopping
the hair loss of your of your native or your non transplanted hair. That's equally
or more important than doing the surgical procedure. So a lot of times I'll have friends
that are my age or a little older, that have have kids that are 18, 20, 22 years old
and they're just starting to thin out. What should I do? And I love giving them advice
because I want them to be able to make good decisions on how to preserve their hair
now so that maybe they don't have to come to me in 10 years to do a procedure. Also,
you know, we can't help everyone. Not everybody is a candidate for this procedure.
You have to have the right amount of remaining what we call donor hair in the back
of your head, in the back.
[00:38:46.160] - Jake Sadoff
And you have to have not too much hair loss on the top. There is a lot of guys that
that are have lost too much hair and don't have enough donor hair. We can't help them.
So it's not just as simple as that. We can help everyone. We like to. I really like
to give advice on how to preserve their original hair so that they so that maybe they
don't have to do a procedure or that they just don't need too much.
[00:39:12.560] - Brian Shelton
That's great. So I know that you are heavily involved with the Harper College Foundation.
Can you tell me about your involvement there, what you're doing?
[00:39:19.370] - Jake Sadoff
Yeah, so I'm on the Foundation Board, board of directors. I think this is my this
is my ninth year. And they asked me to to join the committee. At first I did a committee
and then from there they I was asked to to join the the Boundation Board, which I
was extremely honored and, you younger guy, early thirties. And I guess it goes back
to what I said earlier about what you value when somebody asks, you said, hey, we
value you, we want your opinion, we want your feedback. We want we want your knowledge.
We want we want you to help. And it's it's hard to say no and it's very easy to say
yes. And that's what I did. And I was flattered. And so I said I would like to be
involved in this. At the time, I'll admit I didn't know what it meant to be on a Foundation
Board. I was very naive and sort of inexperienced. And I said, what? OK, what does
that mean?
[00:40:20.540] - Jake Sadoff
What does it mean that I'm on a Foundation Board? And I didn't understand, but I obviously
looked into it and they explained it all that. And I said, yeah, this is great, you
know, and at the time I started my my scholarship and that I that I started for other
students and I think the point of being on a foundation board is and again, for those
of you who are like me and didn't know, the Foundation Board helps to get support
for scholarships, for student scholarships, to help raise money.
[00:40:53.330] - Jake Sadoff
And so I at the time, I was kind of afraid. That does mean that I'm just going to
be contributing more money than I am now, feel obligated, and it wasn't it was not
that way at all. But I like being on the Foundation Board is we, our mission is I
said is to is to help get support, raise money for scholarships for students. And
I think that everybody who has the ability to do something philanthropic or to help
others to do it, to try it, whatever it is, and the smallest level or the biggest
level, whatever, whatever one can do is is great. I think it really is very internally
rewarding to know that you can help somebody else. I feel like the time that I spend
and the money, maybe the small, small scholarships I give, I really feel that I get
I get so much out of it sometimes that I get more out it than the students got out
of it, received a scholarship. I feel that I gave a thousand dollars for something.
Five hundred dollars. One hundred dollars.
[00:41:59.810] - Jake Sadoff
I got more internally out of that and then they got from me. But it really is rewarding.
But so I enjoy we have meetings quarterly. We have these events that we do. I'm on
a few different subcommittees and one of the one of which that I'm most passionate
about is the golf committee. But yeah, we do events and we do different, different
things to raise money. And and we know there's a lot of helping to decide who the
scholarships go to and helping to set up scholarships, endowed scholarships, which
is which is a perpetual scholarship that's given out every year from somebody. One
of the things I like the most about it is it's a way to a lot of people use scholarships,
a lot of donors and scholarships is a way to sort of honor a loved one maybe who's
passed. And so they set up a scholarship in memory of somebody so that that person's
has a legacy. So if you set up an endowed scholarship that lasts for or that you set
up with a certain amount of it to start with, that produces money, that creates a
gift of scholarship every year for a different student that never goes away, it generates
interest, interest revenue, that scholarship that never goes away.
[00:43:18.830] - Jake Sadoff
So with one gift, if you're if you're able to give a certain amount of gifts, can
create an eternal indefinite scholarship that every year student is getting in the
name of whoever you want to leave it, memory of create a legacy for. So, yeah, that's
great and again very, very rewarding. It's great work. And I just met great people
on the foundation board. I've met a lot of the guys got to know Dr. Endor very, very
well and with my foundation work and he's a great guy and I've met Dr. Proctor and
she's amazing as well. And it's just been a great experience. And they keep asking
me to come back. And it's hard to say no because because of everything I get out of
it and because I really feel valued.
[00:44:09.320] - Brian Shelton
That's great. We really appreciate you doing that work. I just wanted to ask before
I let you go, what advice would you give to a current or maybe incoming Harper student
how to make the best of things?
I think and this is one thing that I think maybe just in my in my time, I've really become a big proponent of education. I mean, how can you not? And in terms of running my own businesses, I realized, I learned that education can continue, the ongoing education. Higher education is so important to get that edge. A lot of people have associates degrees, alot of people with bachelor's degrees. Not too many people have master's or MFAs or MBA degrees or PhDs.
[00:44:54.590] - Jake Sadoff
And so my message is, is to just continue on. Go as far as you can with it. And it's
something I didn't do. I got my bachelor's degree. I did not go on and get a degree
after that. I didn't get a Masters or an MBA. I really wish I would have. I feel that
there's a lot of knowledge that I'm lacking or could have if I would have gotten an
MBA, for example, in business. And so I really feel that the time to do it is now
when you're when you're young and before you've gotten too far along in your career
and maybe have started a family. I feel like at this point it's probably too maybe
I'm too old or whatever to go back. But do it while you can, while you are young,
go on and get the bachelor's degree after you graduate from Harper, go on to get your
bachelors. And if you can get that Masters MBA, go to law school if you can. If you're
able to. There's a lot of really good programing again, Brian , we talked about scholarships.
There's a lot of good scholarships that are out there, at least four-year university
and even beyond that, to get your to get a college degree. So take it as far as you
can to get you know, once you have that degree, they can't take it away from you.
You always have it. It's something that you've always got. If you get it, if it takes
you two years after your bachelors to get a masters degree or three years, whatever.
[00:46:25.250] - Brian Shelton
That's right.
[00:46:25.850] - Jake Sadoff
You have that on your résumé forever. And it will always help you to get a better
job. Whatever, getting to get a promotion, hopefully earn more money. Certainly that's
important. Do better things, do things that are more rewarding for you. And you have
that opportunity when you're when you're young and you're still in the education minded
mindset to do that. So that that is my very best advice that I can give anybody is
going to take your education as far as you can before going out there and working
with you, not the rest of your life for all sorts of years to be out there working.
Trust me, it's there. They're not going away. Take your education.
[00:47:07.520] - Brian Shelton
Yeah, it's always so hard to do it afterwards, especially after you've started a family
and sort. And I always admire when I have students who, you know, they they have a
job, they have a career, they have a family, and they're going back to school and
taking classes. And it's like, man, that takes a lot of dedication and a lot of work.
[00:47:22.040] - Jake Sadoff
And I've never done it. So I mean, I haven't gone back, but I can only imagine how
hard it is. And I do have a family, so I can only imagine what it would be like to
try to juggle work, family and going back to college to get a degree. So, yeah, do
it. Do it while you can.
[00:47:35.840] - Brian Shelton
Well, Jake, thank you so much for being here today. Really appreciate all the work
that you do with the Harper speech team and with the Harper College Foundation. That
work is very much appreciated and very much needed and your saint for doing so.
[00:47:48.440] - Jake Sadoff
So thank you. That's very nice. I appreciate. Well, thank you for thank you for indulging
me on this. I do you appreciate. Appreciate that and I like talking. Yeah. Thanks
again. Thanks for having me on the program and appreciate you.
[00:48:01.670] - Brian Shelton
Jacob Sadoff is co-owner of Restore Hair and a 2010 recipient of the Harper College
Distinguished Alumni Award. If you're enjoying Harper talks, please subscribe. And
while you're at it, rate and review us so that others might find us. Harper Talks
is a co-production of Harper College Alumni Relations and Harper Radio. Our show is
produced by Shannon Hynes. Our technical producers are Erik Bonilla Sanchez and Mary
Renner. Our theme music was created by Aidan Cashman. I'm Brian Shelton. Thanks for
listening.