This is Mike (@madd_cutts), and he just broke the $4k a week mark recently with only 2 services as a barber in the EM program.
Here's how we did it:
Hey everyone, Daniel Contreras (@dlucs_) here founder of The New Era Of Barbering. I have a customer interview of with Geordann @g.stallworth on Instagram. Jordan is a customer of the elevate mentorship program. Um, and you are in Smyrna, Tennessee, correct?Speaker 2 (00:00:12):Yeah. That's where I cut it. I cut in Smyrna, Tennessee. It's about 20 miles outside of Nashville.Speaker 1 (00:00:17):I had a boy. Yeah. So like I know, I mean, I think you were the first Barbara in Tennessee to join the program. I know you've been, go ahead.Speaker 2 (00:00:26):I think I, I think I am. Yeah.Speaker 1 (00:00:28):I think there's a, well, I know Serge is from Tennessee as well too, but I remember, um, because you joined the program. I think we were talking just before, uh, last October. Um, so about 11, 10 months ago. Um, and I kinda just wanted to bring you on con highlight your journey. I know when we started working together, you were in like, kind of like the neighborhood barbershop, you were charging 25 bucks. I mean, you were overworked as hell, honestly. I, I think also to your first call we had with each other, you actually had to miss because you have the birth of your you're a kid. So we had to like postpone it.Speaker 2 (00:01:03):Yeah. My wife went into labor the night before we were supposed to do my interview. So the day we were supposed to do my interview with the data, my daughter was actually born. SoSpeaker 1 (00:01:12):Yeah. Yeah. And typically honestly, like typically for like people who miss those calls, I'm just like, ah, them. Like, you know, like, we'll, we'll kind of like, whenever they're ready, they'll come back. But I remember seeing your stuff and I was like, this dude is so talented. Um, and also too, like you can't like predict like, uh, your child being born and they're like, cool, let's go and reschedule. Um, I definitely wanted to like, kind of like highlight your journey from like again to you're charging 25. Now we're up to 60 and like, you just want it to 60. What was it last weekSpeaker 2 (00:01:39):Know? And ISpeaker 1 (00:01:40):Know like, again, a big thing for you was like, dude, he didn't even think he could probably go up probably pass it. I mean, I don't know if it was like past 25, but you had like a really low limit set on yourself before prior, correct?Speaker 2 (00:01:52):Yeah. I really thought like to me, anything beyond 50 with like pushing the limit, like I thought 50 was probably the max that I could go.Speaker 1 (00:02:03):Got it. Well, let's go ahead and start with at least like, um, for people who don't know, you get a little more familiar with who you are, how you got into barbering, how you got into the shop and kind of like the journey prior, like to at least discovering the elevate dementia program.Speaker 2 (00:02:16):Yeah. So I started cutting hair in high school when I was probably like 14 years old. Um, I'm the oldest of six kids and five of us were boys, um, around my sophomore year in high school. Things got really tough for us, with my mom being sick or whatever. So I was working Boston Clippers, started cutting on myself and my, my siblings. Um, it was something I was naturally drawn to and I just continued throughout high school. Um, I initially wanted to go to barber school right out of high school, but like my uncles and aunts and stuff around me, like they, everybody really wanted me to go to college. So they were like, you're smart. You're really good at math and science. Um, my uncle even tried to get me to go to the air force. So I kind of put Barbara on the back burner.Speaker 2 (00:03:04):It was something that I always had in the back of my mind that I wanted to do. Um, so I still cut hair, uh, out of my dorm room in college. I did two years in college and then was like, this, this isn't for me. So even then I didn't start my Barbara and career. Um, I was still in Cincinnati, which is where I'm from, uh, born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. Um, so I was still in Cincinnati until I was about 21. Um, a friend of mine, my closest friend, he transferred to Tennessee state university in Nashville and he reached out to me and asked me, would I be willing to move? So moved to Nashville in 2010? Um, and I was just working. Um, I had a call center job. I eventually worked my way up to, um, be like a trainer, um, in the learning and development.Speaker 2 (00:03:50):And then something weird happened. I think I left there to take another job or something where it didn't work out with the job within like 30 days or so. That's when I made the decision that I was going to go ahead and go to barber school. So that was in, um, 2013. I started barber school, um, while I was working, uh, nights at a hotel. So I've worked in third shift at a hotel. I would drive, parked my car in the parking lot when I got off at six in the morning and I will let my seat back and take a nap and then whatever instructor would get there first, they would knock on my window. I led me into school. Um, so I ended up finished finishing. I was going part-time. So I finished barber school in 2015, um, may of April of 2015? Uh, no, may, may of 2015. I got my license in June, 2015 and then I started working in, um, a barbershop. They, one of the instructors on, he recruited me straight out of school. So, um, that's kind of how I started. So I've been a professional since 2015.Speaker 1 (00:04:49):You, you didn't like, you really got like, I guess swayed off of the Barbara route. Cause it sounded like you actually wanted to cut hair like full-time, but like people kind of swayed you to go to college. And then also once you moved to Tennessee, you didn't go right into back cutting hair where you like still, was it still like a part-time thing and like where you just like move Tennessee and then kind of like at this job, people kind of slowly found out about you how'd you build up there.Speaker 2 (00:05:12):So, um, I kind of still was putting Barbara on the back burner. Um, I was contemplating going back to college because once I got promoted at the job that I was at, I kind of liked teaching and training. So I was like, well maybe, maybe that's maybe I just went to college for the wrong thing. So I kind of looked by that, going back to school to be a teacher. Um, it just never, it just never ended up working out. When I applied to go back to school, it was a bunch of, there was a bunch of hangups, but all the while I was still cutting my own hair. And, um, I was cutting people at the job because they would ask me who cut my hair because honestly, when I first got here, do like no disrespect to anybody in Tennessee or any barbers, but it's hard to, it was hard to find like good barbers here.Speaker 2 (00:05:59):Like they cut to the same, like I cumin has guys in Ohio. So I just started, I just kept cutting my own hair. Um, and you know, I would cut people at work and um, people just kept telling me, he kept telling me, like, you need to go to school, you need to go to school, you need to do this for a living. Uh, and it wasn't really until like that little hangup happened with in-between jobs where I was like, my back was against the wall and I was like, you know what, I need to stop playing around and I'm gonna just, I'm gonna start taking my own future into my own hands. And so it was really kind of a thing where honestly, like you hear people talk about when they get out of college and they start working and it's hard for them to go back because you're making money. So that's, that's kinda what it was.Speaker 1 (00:06:40):Um, yeah, I was about to say like, why, why? I mean, it sounded like you really enjoyed cutting hair. Was it? I was going to say, is it more of like that safety net or is it because you were just like, had you had a safe amount of money and then Barbara was, or something like you had to do more times in school for, and build it up even more. It was like that you don't want to trade that time for like money right now.Speaker 2 (00:06:58):Yeah. That's, that's kinda what it was. And then me not having a, um, me not having a set schedule as a trainer, because there would be times where there'd be times where I would be at work from eight in the morning to like midnight one o'clock, um, because of the workload that I was handling. So it was kind of that. Um, and, and again, it was honestly, it was a lot of other, a lot of immaturity and a lot of extra curricular stuff that I was doing that I probably shouldn't have been that took my mind off of track of what I was supposed to be doing, because that was, that was supposed to be the goal. The goal was for me to get to Nashville, maybe work a little bit and then figure out a way to get into school. Um, because at the time there wasn't a lot of barber schools where you could use your financial, like assistance financial assistance from the department of education. So like where I was in Cincinnati, there was one barber school at the time and you have to pay out of pocket. So that's what deterred me from going to school in Ohio. And then when I got to Nashville, the goal was for me to work, build up cash so that I could pay my way through barber school.Speaker 1 (00:08:05):Okay. Well, what, what was it like your idea of Barbara even like, did you think, like, because I know you said you wanted to be the go back and be a teacher was like money and money ever, like, like a, a worry, like of like, oh, I don't think you could make enough money as a barber, or like, I don't really want to charge that, but like, what was your perception like back then of like barbering as a career, just being a full-time barber.Speaker 2 (00:08:24):So I never really knew like how much money Barbara has made. I honestly didn't even know like how, like the structure of the way Barbara's got paid. Um, the Barbara, I went to growing up from like the fifth grade all the way until I left Cincinnati. Um, his, it was a family barbershop, the eight round. So it was like passed down. Um, and I never really thought to ask him like how barbers got paid. And they liked that. I really felt like they made a lot of money because their, the, the was always packed that I went like, always, like, I will go and like six o'clock in the morning and on Saturday and be there to like two, three in the afternoon. So I just was very intrigued by like the, the, the actual like action of cutting hair. Like, I was very intrigued by it.Speaker 2 (00:09:16):It was something that I naturally like was good at. Um, I took an acumen too, so I wasn't really sure how Barbara got paid, but I never thought that like, oh, they don't get paid enough money. But what did deter me was like, when I was in high school and my senior year in high school, when I was telling people that I wanted to be a barber or people were kind of like, uh, um, that I think that determined more so than anything else. Cause I felt like if I, if I went to be a barber, I felt like I would be letting people down because they thought I had so much more potential. So that was always in the back of my head, like Barbara and did like something that you kind of, unless he's like a family business, it's just something you kind of fall back on.Speaker 1 (00:09:55):Yeah. It's not like a first choice. It's like a I up. Like, or like I messed up, let me go cut some hair and get some money and then I'll go do something else. Type of deal. Yeah. Interesting. Well, so you got, of course you, you went to barber school, graduated, you've gotten this shop that you said the school owner either owned or like, how did it hook up with like, how did you, what year was this by the way?Speaker 2 (00:10:17):Well, this was 2015. Um, and it was one of the instructors that worked at the school. He was actually, he had just fired everybody that worked at his shop. He like made everybody, all the guys that he had in there leave because he was trying to change the perception of the shop. So I was like one of the first guys he recruited because like of the way I kind of carry myself in school. Um, you know, even though I was working on a third shift job, I was working a part-time job up until like my last three months in school. And then I quit work and I just put all of my focus into finishing school. But like even when we work in a parts out like third shift, uh, I'd be falling asleep in class. Sometimes I never failed any of my tests. I think the lowest grade I got on any of the tests was like a 90. I always turned in my work assignments, my homework assignments. And like, there were people who didn't have jobs at all and like, they wouldn't turn in their assignments or anything like that. So I showed a different level of work ethic and like commitment to it. Um, and just a different, a different attitude. And he wanted that for the next phase of his barbershop.Speaker 1 (00:11:19):Yeah. You basically, you just weren't sloppy or a dumb, like you just were like taking it, you're taking it seriously. Like how it shouldn't be taken, not like, you know, like, oh, let me just cut this hair. You give me this money type of deal and like hustle it out. You already had like thatSpeaker 2 (00:11:31):On lunch breaks. I'm like studying YouTube videos or cutting hair or I'm studying any of my book or like even our, like other breaks, like I'm, I'm in my book, whereas everybody else is like going out around the side of the building, smoking weed, you know what I'm saying? Type of thing.Speaker 1 (00:11:45):It's like every barber school, like the like on break or in between, because you go, I remember like, even like with the instructor to the instructor to be smoke weed, I'm just like, what the is this? Um, all right. So it was a rebrand. So like how how'd you build up clientele then? I mean, I'm assuming you had some type of clientele, but it would probably wasn't booked out. Like what, what, what were you doing at first in this shop?Speaker 2 (00:12:05):Yeah. So for me it was tough because you know, me being, not from Nashville, a lot of people relied on like, just reaching out to people. They went to school with friends, close friends and family and stuff like that. Um, I didn't really have that option, you know? Um, my dad is from Nashville, so he's got some family here, but we're not really close, so I didn't have that side of family to rely on. So I really just relied on reaching out to people who I used to work with that knew that I could have hair. Um, and outside of that, like I picked up a few clients from the barber school. Um, and then it was really just doing it on my own. Um, the barbershop I went to, uh, the guy that owned his Shaun, he had built up a pretty decent reputation for the shop.Speaker 2 (00:12:47):So there was a lot of people, a lot of walk-in traffic. Um, they kind of had discipline dissipated because he was the only one there. And so he was like booked out. So when I came in there was, you know, people started realizing that there was somebody else there. Um, they would come there because of the atmosphere. Like it was, it was in the hood, like, but it, it didn't feel like the hood in the barbershop. So like they'd rather come there because it was safe for their kids, you know, a good environment for kids and, uh, women and stuff like that, where some of the other barbershops around us weren't so a lot of my clientele building initially came from walking in.Speaker 1 (00:13:25):Got it. And just carrying yourself like B again to good environment, like making sure, like, you guys are dumb asses that place doesn't smell like weed and like, yeah. I mean, I remember the first shop I worked in, dude, there was like cockroaches, you'd walk in, in the morning, there's cockroaches, you got to sweep up, like, you know, like just sloppiness. Um, so how long did it take you to build up? Like, cause again too, you only had some family, some clients like from, um, past, how long did it take you to build out to be, I guess, to where you were booked and like, what were you charging at that point in time?Speaker 2 (00:13:54):So when I first started, uh, I was charging 15 for haircut. Well, for, for anybody that was under 13, it was 12 bucks. Um, and then we also had days, like Tuesday was like, um, kids was $9. Wednesday was like 15% off for senior citizens. I think it was all kinds of crazy stuff. Um, but yeah, so it was 15 for a haircut 25 for haircut and beard is what I started off at. Um, it probably took me to build up a decent clientele. It probably took me about until like that following January. So probably like 7, 7, 8 months. Really. I was at, I was probably making about 800, I think, a home about $800 a week before booth rent. Um, so at 15, $15 a haircut, like that'sSpeaker 1 (00:14:49):A lot of volume.Speaker 2 (00:14:54):Um, so yeah, so probably I would say probably like the beginning of February is when I realized that I was making it. I was, you know, pretty, pretty busy, um, especially on the weekends Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Um, so that's when I started kind of getting to the point where like I was kind of being full. Um, shortly after that, I'll probably say that following April, um, I made a price raise from 15 to 23 and, um, I started taking appointments and I didn't think 15 to 23 was a big jump, but there were some people who like, literally like pull me to the side and was like, dude, I can't do 23 bucks. I had some people pull me to side and we're like, you can't charge $23 on BlizzCon the row we were on as Dickerson road, east Nashville though. You can't charge $23 on Dickerson road. Um, but I, you know, the shop owner encouraged me. He was going up to like 30. Um, I wasn't, I didn't feel that I was good enough to go to where he was. So I went to, I was like 23,000 and he tossed about a number two largest go to 23 sound good. Like no market research, no, nothing likeSpeaker 1 (00:16:10):That was it just pick a random number.Speaker 2 (00:16:15):It was weird. And then he said something like, yeah, if you go to 23, instead of 25, people would probably pay you 25. Anyway, he's a change. Yeah,Speaker 1 (00:16:24):We did. We did that same, same thing to where it's like, man, if we charge, if we charged 16, you know, people, people will feel guilty cause they don't want four to extra dollars. They don't want a dollar bills. They'll just give us a 20. And like still you'd have those people that were like, no, can I have to change? And I'm just like, dude, this isn't working. All right. So like what was that? 15 to 23. That's like what? Eight bucks? Eight bucks. Um, well what happened after that? Cause again too, you had people eight bucks and you had a upwards by the sounds of it's like what, like what happened? Like, was it actually a major shift where people just kinda like getting like their, their and a bunch? Like what, what was kinda going on?Speaker 2 (00:17:04):Uh, at that point I probably was overbooked. Like I was turning people away. It got to a point where I decided, because it was another, it was also a shift in the way that I operated. Um, that was around the time that I had first met my wife. So we were in a relationship I, before when I was single, I would be in the shop. So 8, 9, 10, 10 30 on Friday and Saturday I have anything to do. Um, they didn't have anybody to like, you know, they wanted my time. So like I would cut hair to like ten, ten thirty and then like call my homeboys and go like, hang out and blow like a quarter of the money I made then. Um, so, um, a shift happened right before I kind of met my wife where I decided that I was ready to start dating. And so, um, you know, stopped letting people like I stopped letting people come in last minute, people would show up at like eight o'clock and I started turning people away.Speaker 2 (00:17:57):Um, like cutting, cutting things off at like 7 30, 8 o'clock. And I started turning people away. I started being real strict with like making sure I took a lunch break. Um, we changed our hours on Saturdays, so I wouldn't be in, you know, I didn't want to be in the shop on Saturdays all day either. So we moved up to doing starting at 6:00 AM and being done by three. So it was a few changes that were made. Um, and it actually made it to where I didn't really see a drop off in the heads. And I was cutting, even though I saw a drop off in people that I cut because it gave people, the people who really respected me and gave them the opportunity to be able to get in without the hassle. Uh, and it really just cut out a lot of the riffraff. You know, people were trying to show up at nine o'clock at night to get me to cut their hair or people trying to get me to, um, cut them on my lunch break and like not take a lunch and stuff like that.Speaker 1 (00:18:51):Got it. Okay. So how old were you when you, I mean like your, it sounded just sounded like you were like ready to start dating and like find somebody to settle down with how old were you when that happened?Speaker 2 (00:19:00):So it was 2016, so I was like 27 going on 28.Speaker 1 (00:19:07):Yeah. Okay. Um, and then you met your wife, I'm assuming, I mean, did that have any effect of just like, of course now you have somebody to give that, you know, you're building relationship with, you know, you, you have to allocate time towards that too, and you have a business and you're charging 2320. It's kind of shifting, we had take lower volume. What, I mean, like what was going through that? Because I'm single never like definitely not married or have any kids. Like, what was that like for you?Speaker 2 (00:19:34):Um, it was tough because, uh, before I met my wife, I wasn't very time conscious. So, and again, when you're single, you don't really have to be, um, like I would keep up, I would stay on time with, with my appointments and stuff, but as far as like keeping track of what time I get off of work, how long I take once I'm done with my last heads from the time that I leave. So that was all stuff that I had to start being conscious of. Um, and then that was, that was when I really started paying attention to like how much money I was actually making, like in like putting a system in place to like come my money because I remember she asked me and I was like, ah, I don't know about like, I don't know, somewhere between like eight, $900 a week.Speaker 2 (00:20:18):I don't know. She's like what I'm like. Yeah. I'm like, I just take my money at the end of the night. Um, I was banking with Centra. There was one across the street and like, I get done kind of like done work and I would just go and deposit my money into the, um, into my bank account. Um, and so like, I wasn't really keeping track of how much money I was making. I just had like roundabout numbers. Um, and so like when you meet somebody who like, y'all feel like there's a future, it could be built like that stuff matters. It's like, huh, how much money you make? Or at least knowing how much money you make, uh, matters. You know what I mean, for planning, things like of that nature. So, um, that kind of shifted my perspective on that. Cause it made me realize like, do you need to start being an adult and like, know how much money you make and not just taking your cash in your pocket and leaving and being like, oh, I think I made this today.Speaker 1 (00:21:10):What was that like? Uh, because of course you went from you're at 23, did that also prompt you to go up another $2 and 25? Or like how, what else did you change in the business obviously? Like, did you clean up with this, I guess new relationship and like understanding this is building for the long-term now.Speaker 2 (00:21:26):So the way I ended up getting a 25 from 23, I actually have had to go back and price. And the, what happened was, um, where, where I lived when I met my wife was probably like 25 minutes from where I was working at. And then where she lived was even further. Um, so fast forward where we got married in 2017, I was still charging 23. Um, but my clientele had gotten much stronger. I started really handling my business and I saw, I shifted my clientele. Like I wasn't cutting like, you know, misfits and like dope boys anymore. Like I started attracting like professional, like high-end like professional type clientele. Um, so fast forward to 2017, um, we get married and I just moved because I had an apartment. Um, my dad, me and my dad had a two bedroom apartment. My dad took a job in Orlando the same month that we got married.Speaker 2 (00:22:33):So it just made sense for us to move in. My wife had a condo that she had bought. It just made sense for us to move into the condo. So that's how I ended up in Smyrna. So it was like a 35, 40 minute drive from home to work. Uh, and then Nashville traffic is horrible. So my hours had to be like 10 to seven because if I tried to go in and like nine, eight or nine I'm in rush hour traffic, if I try to leave at like five or six I'm in rush hour traffic. And so, um, somebody told me about this barbershop in smarter, uh, is actually a client of mine, a guy who went to school with, had a barbershop on in Smyrna. I finally reached out to him. So when I went to that shop, their pricing was $21 for a haircut.Speaker 2 (00:23:21):And I let the owner know like, well, right now I'm charging 23. And I kind of was thinking about possibly going up to 25. And he was like, well, you know, that's what you charge your clients, they book with you fine. But if you think walking is, I want you to charge the walking at the prices on the board. I didn't feel like that was fair to my clients. So I made a decision to just, everybody would pay 21. So 23 back to 21 when I changed location. Um, and then shortly after once I got my clientele built at the new location, then I went back up to 25.Speaker 1 (00:23:54):Got it. That's an interesting, I didn't, I didn't know that that was like the jump. All right. So now you're at 25, um, wife, did family start coming to play? Cause I know like 25 that's when we started talking or like at least we had our first call. I know when we had our first call, you were, I think you were only working like three days out of the week, correct?Speaker 2 (00:24:13):Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'm working three days out the week I went to that schedule because early in 2020, I got an offer to, um, come and be an instructor. Uh, I got recruited to be an instructor at a school from a guy who's like a mentor of mine. He's still kind of a mentor of mine. Um, uh, he started, he opened his own school, uh, about a year prior and he got to the point where he needed, he had enough students, he needed help. So he recruited me to come. And so Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I would go and instructed the school. And then Thursday, Friday, Saturday I, where it goes into the shop after COVID, um, one of the partners of, cause he opened the school, there's a partnership so that he could, um, like work under their, uh, financial aid, my Derrick, uh, credibility, uh, or their accreditation so that he could take financial aid. Well, about three months after we had, we were able to open back up from COVID the partner pulled out. Um, so the school had to close.Speaker 1 (00:25:18):Interesting. Okay. Well why, why did you go in that direction? Cause that like, was it more just like, again, it's like you weren't happy doing like the haircutting you were trying to like maybe transition to maybe full-time teaching into something like what, what was that decision or just like kind of bored overall.Speaker 2 (00:25:33):So at that, at that time, my thinking was, and I had thought about it prior. Um, I think it was, you know, going back to like when I was a trainer or whatever, I always did like teaching people, you know, the things that I know. Um, so for me that was an opportunity for me to combine the, the craft that I love, which is barbering and then, you know, teaching. Um, and I also thought that I had kind of reached a peak as far as like barbering. Like I thought that I was getting close to being pretty much tapped out. As far as my potential, uh, of clients. I saw, I looked at him like I have a choice either I can start expanding my hours and trying to cook more hair. I can try to get faster and cut more heads in the time that I'm here. Or I can look at another avenue that's still within the industry. Um, and so my, my thought was my thinking then was that I'll go into instructing and kind of work my way into becoming like a platform educator. Got it.Speaker 1 (00:26:35):Why didn't you, I mean, it was kind of like go everywhere except like where we're going right now, but like why, why didn't, why didn't you think like you charging more? I mean, it wasn't just because the city was it because I know we talked a little bit before, like you even had like, even when you first joined, you're like, I don't know if I could do one 50, but like what, what was it that just didn't even think about like going up and charging more for yourself?Speaker 2 (00:26:58):So at that time, you know, based off of what I had, the education that I had been given in the barber industry, it's like I had gone to shows and I would go to classes, every opportunity that I got, I would go to brighter brothers. We had a couple of hair shows here and I will go to the education. There was only one person that I saw that spoke on methods to raise your pricing. And that was Ivan. And his method was basically the get booked out, raise your price, get booked out method. So it was like, you need to, but that involves first, like being able to get yourself to where you could cut three heads and our genius book, and this isn't even slipped and you get booked out, you get to where you can cut three heads an hour, you get 80% book at that rate.Speaker 2 (00:27:53):Then you go up, then you go, the, you drop your timing down to two heads an hour. Um, and I think that at that point you can charge you. He said, you charged 40, right? You charged $40, a haircut, two heads an hour, you get 80% booked out at that. Then you go up to where you do one head an hour at $60. Um, and then you get booked out at that and then you can raise up to 80 and a hundred dollars. So that was the only method that I had come across, which you could raise your prices beyond 30, 36.Speaker 1 (00:28:26):Got it. Like it's very basic. And in theory it makes a lot of sense. Like in theory, it's like, oh, okay, this seems easy. But like, I mean, I'm a big, I'm very, I think I'd say near every community called theory and practice are two different things. So like for you, like, was the practice very different than what the theory of that was? Or like, why didn't you do that? Like, was it again to like conscious?Speaker 2 (00:28:47):I tried. So I was at, I got myself to where I could do a haircut and beer in 30 minutes. So once I got there, I was like, okay, let's go ahead and put the work in and try to get down to where I can finish any client or any haircut in 20 minutes. I couldn't do it. Like it was possible for me to finish the haircut in 20 minutes, but I wasn't satisfied with the quality that I was able to put out in 20 minutes. And that's where, that's where I hit the snack. And I was like, I can't do this because I'm not willing to allow myself to experience the drop off in quality to achieve this. You know, this first part is planning. So the plan fell apart at the beginning of the first plan failed. Uh, and so after that, like that was when I, that was when I thought about, okay, there was instructing and then I was like, well, and then I can use instructing in the platform that I have for instructing about, about creating a product, a productSpeaker 1 (00:29:52):Line. I'm like, are you going to own the place?Speaker 2 (00:29:54):So I was looking at Nia seriously. I got, my closest friend has a clothing brand. I talked to him about doing a collaboration on like a t-shirt. So I was looking at all these different things, like all over the place, as far as like ways to be able to increase my income without having that.Speaker 1 (00:30:12):Yeah. You were looking everywhere except the one business that you already had up and running, you were like trying to like, Nope. Like you were trying to take the path of least resistance where like the thing they actually gives you the most resistance actually will probably give you the most profit in the long run, if you can figure it out. All right. Well, I'm pretty sure. Maybe like, I mean, how long I, like, did you come across? Cause I think you came across an ad. It was probably like on Instagram or Facebook at that point in time. Was this like around that timeframe? Was it more time in between or?Speaker 2 (00:30:42):Um, so the school was shut down. It was shortly after, so school was shut down and August. Um, so school shut down in August. At that point, we still hadn't really bounced back from like we were, we were bouncing back from my clientele was bouncing back a little bit from like the whole COVID scare and like the shutdown. Cause we had to shut down from like the whole month of April and like the first two weeks of may before we could open back up, um, the school was closed even longer. So during this shutdown, like I'm looking into that's when I started looking into stuff outside of Barbara and like not even products I'm looking into like doing real estate investing, I'm looking at, I try to Sue or a blessing loom or whatever thing I learned on that, like three times, what was it? Uh, it's like this thing it's like, they call them like,Speaker 1 (00:31:35):Oh, you talking about the little circle things, huh? Yeah. I call them like circle scamsSpeaker 2 (00:31:40):And the guy that I've worked with in the shop, he like, he had a client, told him about it. He was convinced, he talked to everybody in the shop. We all got in talking to my wife, my wife got it. We all got burned.Speaker 1 (00:31:53):All right. Those things are like the pyramid scheme Mecca is right there. Like legit, like it's legit, like showing you it's a pyramid almost. Um,Speaker 2 (00:31:59):Yeah. They might just change it from a pyramid. It's like this, our diet, water orSpeaker 1 (00:32:06):Fire. It was cute.Speaker 2 (00:32:08):Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm trying all kinds of stuff I like started looking into, I mean, it wasn't all bad because like I got, I started learning a little bit about like investing, like stock and stocks and stuff like that. Um, I started learning about like, um, take like financial education, like credit and stuff like that. So it wasn't all bad. Um, and I think that's probably how I ended. I started, I came across a lot of stuff at that point in time that I still, I got a couple of podcasts, business podcasts that I learned about that I got into during that time. Um, and then I came across an ad of yours and I got on an email list of yours and there was another person I think, is Andy authentic, Andy authentic? No, it wasn't Andy authentic. It was another guy whose name starts with an a, but I would get an email from both of you guys because, um, I came across both of you.Speaker 2 (00:33:00):And though those were the only two people that were talking about like raising prices of the haircut without like adding in a bunch of stuff without like being fully booked out. I can't remember the name of the other guy. Um, but yeah. So in August when the school shut down, I had, you know, have some free time. My wife hadn't had our second child yet. So one day I'm at Chipotle a, you know, just having, uh, some time to myself and I clicked on one of your emails, I'm going to watch, I'm going to watch one of the case studies. Um, and I think it was about south bay, Chris. Um, I watched the case study. It was like probably like 20, 25 minutes long. I think it may have been longer than that, but I remember watching it and I remember being like scared because I'm like, there's no way I'm going to get to a hundred bucks.Speaker 2 (00:33:55):But if I can get just somewhere, if I could get to 50, if he could help me get to 50, like I'll be good. Um, so I didn't even tell my wife about it. I just went ahead and like signed up for a call. Um, I think that back, I didn't initially sign up for a call. I watched the case study and then I waited a little bit, but I was still on your email list. So I'm steady getting emails. And then, um, and then I was like, F it, man, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna see at least like it. Let me at least see, um, what's going to be required. What he's talking about, how we can go about doing, let me just at least see, because I've tried everything else. Like I've looked into starting a product line.Speaker 2 (00:34:41):I've thought about doing t-shirts. I thought about doing the instructor, like all of this other stuff, like led me at least see, cause at this point, like I feel like I'm tapped out and I already knew that I didn't want to be the guy that cut more hair because like that previous Thanksgiving, I cut like 30 heads in a day, the day of the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, that night, like I pulled up some, my driveway at like midnight. And I was like, I can't be that dude. I can't be this guy. So I knew that that wasn't going to be me. Like I knew I wasn't going to be the person that cut a bunch of heads on the days that I worked. So I went ahead and signed up for the call and um, and then like a day before the call, my wife went into labor. Um, she was in like preliminary labor. I already knew that she, this was probably, if I went ahead and message you and let you know that I needed to reschedule.Speaker 1 (00:35:37):Got it. And then I think we may, we might, might've booked another call like a month out. Um, and thenSpeaker 2 (00:35:45):Like two weeks, it's like, we got past like that first window we kind of got out of all of the, the Dustin smoke of like her first being born. It was something that I knew I didn't want to wait on. I wanted to at least find out like what, what it was about, what the program was about.Speaker 1 (00:36:01):Yeah. And I know on the call, like I knew you were like super, I don't want to say skeptical, but like there was like some like, um, doubt of like, could I even do this in Tennessee? Obviously? Like I didn't have a student. I was like very honest with him. Like, I don't have anybody in Tennessee, like to give you a case study of, but like, I'm very confident. Like it's just a bit more about running the business, not just where you're located at. Um, I guess for you, what was kind of going through your head, like seeing this and like, again too, you didn't really want to go to one 50. You're like, ah, 60 80. That is what it is. Um, why did you make the decision to join? And I know we had a call. You had to sit on it for like a night and then you decided like, all right, let's go ahead and like pull the trigger. What was kind of going through your head and what was that decision process like for you?Speaker 2 (00:36:42):The, honestly the biggest, the biggest drawback for me would be the amount of the investment. That was the doubles. The only reason why we had to wait 24 hours, because at that point, my wife wasn't working. She had stopped working like right before COVID it was weird because I was making just enough for us to, for me to cover all our bills. And I hadn't even started getting paid by the school yet because I was, um, I was considered an instructor's assistant. So I was working on getting my license and be an instructor. And then I was started getting paid. So I'm like, well, just in the three days, I'm covering our bills. Once I get my instructor's license, I will be good. She wanted to stay home. She wanted to stop working. So February she stopped working and I was like two weeks before COVID hit us real hard.Speaker 2 (00:37:28):So after COVID like, we were bleeding, you know what I mean? We had a good savings, but we were bleeding and I needed to, I had to figure out a way for us to reverse course. So that's the only thing that made me hesitant was I wasn't sure that we would be able to handle dipping into our savings that much. I just didn't want to get scammed. Cause I felt like I got, I lost a lot of money in the, in the Susu thing. Like I didn't want to get scammed again, but after we got on the call and like, you assured me like, no, there's going to be me working with you. Cause I had got off some calls like for other programs. And like it wasn't the person that you see in the app. And it was like, oh, well, if you want to work with them personally, he has, they have a team.Speaker 2 (00:38:10):And I'm like, ah, nah. So when you assure me that like I'm going to be working with you, it's not like, you know, it's not some get rich quick thing. Like it's going to require work, um, is not going to require paying for a bunch of ads. Like, so the call, like talking to you personally, like settled my life. I don't want to get scammed thing. I was like, okay, this doesn't seem like a stamp. Um, I was unsure of maybe it could work because you know, some of the guys that I saw you use as examples prior to me joining or taking the call were guys that were in my California. You being from California, yourself, um, tough in Vegas. Um, you know, guys that were in like a little bit bigger cities, I'm like, I don't know. I'm wondering if it can work here. Yeah. So it was just wondering, am I just not sure if it can work where I'm at and then just making the investment, got it. Where we were financially.Speaker 1 (00:39:15):And I think, I mean, like I know once you got on, um, cause we were talking about this too. Now you're in the program. Cool. Of course it's not a get rich quick thing because there has to be a lot of work done. And I noticed like early on there was like some initial success. And then there was like, there was a period where I just didn't even hear from you. I had to reach out like, yo, where you at? Like what's going on? Um, yeah, I guess, I mean like struggles you had in the program because of course right now success, you're 60. You're also moved into your own studio looking to go up to 80, like hopefully the next couple of months. But like what was that like the biggest struggle for you early on? What was that? I mean, especially with family, also your wife owns a business now, too. She wasn't working at the time. Like, was that just a mixture of things? And if so, like what, how did you get yourself out of that?Speaker 2 (00:39:59):Yeah, so like one of the biggest struggles is dealing with, you know, having two small kids and like family life and not having the time that like, if I were single or even if it was just me and my wife, the amount of time that I would have been able to dedicate to it, I probably could have taken off a lot faster. Um, so dealing with a newborn, um, getting the hang of also like I had never created content before. Right. Like I, I would take pictures and stuff like that, but I had never created content before. So, you know, just, just taking on the mindset of like understanding how to create content, but then once I got the hang of like creating it, um, it was just taking the time to actually and learning how to edit it the right way. That was really a big struggle of mine in the beginning was like the time that it took to edit, because I didn't, I didn't understand the difference between cutting hair and creating content.Speaker 2 (00:41:02):Absolutely. So that's where, that's what caused the, and I'm thinking the whole time, it's like, I just need to get faster at editing. And then, you know, a couple of months later I ended up realizing that it's not, it wasn't the editing phase that I was struggling with. It was in creation phase that was causing the editing phase to be so much more longer. So it was not understanding that. And then just finding the time and the energy to dedicate to the program when you have a newborn. Um, I think my son, yeah, my son hadn't even turned two yet. So we had two kids under two. My wife is going through post postpartum. Um, so it was just really finding the pockets of time and the Mo and honestly the motivation to like, fit, like, be like, okay, this is, this is something that I'm going to dedicate to.Speaker 1 (00:41:51):Well, what did you do that found that worked for that, like to get you the motivation to also find the time? Was it just more being, again, being more strict on your time? Making sure like everything's tightened up stepping up to the next level. And then how did you sustain that over a period of time to,Speaker 2 (00:42:06):Uh, it was just about being intentional. It was being very intentional about setting out work, work windows. Uh, and my wife helped a lot too because she needed her own work window. So we had to be very intentional about, um, scheduling work windows and holding to those work windows as much as we could. Um, and then also for me, it was, and I had to learn this, even though we had work windows, I had to learn the discipline to Mike focusing on the time that I had to work. That's when I'm working and when I'm not, not trying to, because it, it made me scatterbrained because like I would have my work windows and they like when I wasn't working, if I'm like sitting on the couch and my son by playing by herself, um, let me try to do some editing real quick. Or, and it made me scatterbrain because I wasn't focusing in on whatever it was that I was doing. And, um, there's, there's a point in the module where you talk about this, where, like you said, like you even took the point where like, if you were just sitting down eating, like you may ensure that you focused on just, if you were just eating a sandwich, like you focused on eating that sandwich and not thinking about or doing anything else and not multitasking. So, um, that was something that I had to create real discipline in doing is whatever I'm focusing on. That's what I'm focusing on and not trying to multitask.Speaker 1 (00:43:30):Got it. Okay. And then I guess for you, cause again, you're at 25, we went to, when do we go to 40? Like I know we went to, we made a jump to 40. Was that like in January of this year? Or was that in February? This yearSpeaker 2 (00:43:44):In March. March, March.Speaker 1 (00:43:46):Okay. AndSpeaker 2 (00:43:47):I know we went up.Speaker 1 (00:43:48):Got it. Okay. What was the hardest thing about that for you? Cause I'd like, again, to, before that you had only done should dude, the biggest price raise you did was eight bucks. So going from like again, $8 price raising to me, like 15, like again, like it's like, it was kinda like a mini boost for us. How did you take that? What was I going through your head? What happened with clientele? How did you take that?Speaker 2 (00:44:11):I was nervous. I was nervous. I was nervous as hell. My wife would like rooting for me. Like she was sitting next to me when you told me, like, it was time for us to go up and I probably could have been went up. But like at that point, like you, you even mentioned it. I was so stuck on like the technical parts of the program and I felt like everything had go a certain way. And he, and that was something that I struggled within a program as well as like understanding that like, this is really like catered to each person's individual business and the way it's going. But for me, like, I'm so technical that like, I felt like I had to check these things off. And so that probably delayed my, I probably could've went up a month, a month and a half, two months prior to that.Speaker 2 (00:44:55):But, um, so I was just nervous, man, because I'm like, what are people going to think? Um, I was at Barbara who like thought that you had to be over it by these super strong bonds and relationships with everybody. So I'm like, these people are gonna look at me. Like they're going to look at me differently where people are going to say, I didn't even announce it on that, that price. Right. I didn't even announce it on Instagram. I just think like all my clients messages and stuff. Yeah. I didn't tell any guys in the barbershop that I was going up. And so the day that it is so weird the day to day that it, it was like the second day that my price raised, went into effect. I hadn't told nobody I was going up. I'm cutting a guy who's in the military. And he had his uniform on that day. So when he walked in, everybody saw him in uniform. The guy that was getting his hair cut by the barber next to me, saw him. So when he got ready to get done, he was like, Hey man, how much do you charge? I want to pay for that guy's haircut. And I'm like, oh,Speaker 1 (00:45:57):Oh, you hadn't said nothing at this point.Speaker 2 (00:46:03):Oh. So I like, I took a deep breath. You just got to whatever you do. And you just got to say it with confidence.Speaker 1 (00:46:09):So I might get that.Speaker 2 (00:46:13):I didn't know. Yeah. So initially when you asked, I didn't know that he was trying to pay, like, I thought he was asking them to refer somebody. So I'm like, it's $40 for a haircut, 55 haircut and beard. And um, the barber that was cutting his hair, like looked over at me and $40. And I was like, oh, Cat's out of the bag, man. I'm like,Speaker 1 (00:46:39):Oh, you never said this on a Q and a call before dude. That's hilarious.Speaker 2 (00:46:45):It was a man. When I tell you like all the nerves, I'm sweat. I was, I could feel my hands start to shake. I'm like, oh my gosh, it's out now. It's out.Speaker 1 (00:46:56):Yeah. And um, I mean, did you get calm? Cause again too, I think the biggest thing, a lot of barbers think like coming in and I think you probably had the same thing. We probably went over. This was like, oh, like what's going to happen when I charge more than everybody else in the shop. Like, you know, maybe there might be some of that dynamic, but at the end of the day, you, you built it back up again, like you were able to build a business at 40. And like, after that initial, I guess, turbulence of just that shock, like, whoa, you're doing that. Um, there really was no issue, but like what, what did you have to do to kind of get over like those initial, I mean, we can call them like jabs, people do like kind of jab at you when you, when they first find out that pricing, whether it be clients or the barbers, how did you kind of like get over that? Because of course, like relationships were very big to you. Um, and I know that kind of did affect you a little bit.Speaker 2 (00:47:42):It changed the entire dynamic of how I felt about going to the shop because it wasn't like it just stopped initially. And then it wasn't even just that it was, there were other changes that I were, that I was making to the business. Um, you know, not offering edge ups anymore, uh, or like, not at least not offering a price for edges, right? Like not offering a separate price for edge ups, not offering a separate price for kids because I'm not taking kids under a certain age anymore. Right. So these were all things that I was getting jabbed at about. Um, me taking more time to buy at that time. I also, you know, may my appointments stretch a little bit longer, so me taking more time and cutting less hay. So I'm, I'm hearing my comments about all of this stuff. And, um, it kinda affected me in a sense that like I felt like I thought that there was a mutual risk, like a certain level of respect between all of us.Speaker 2 (00:48:39):And I felt like that mutual respect had kind of dissipated at that point, because I thought that, you know, once you guys found out that like you were kind of cheer me on or at least follow suit, like that's what I was hoping like the guys will follow suit, but really it just, I kind of became an outlier. So it was tough at first. Um, and when you had reached out to me, like, yo, what's going on? That's when I kinda, it wasn't, I didn't even realize how much it was affecting me until you reached out to me. And it kinda made me like audit my, myself and my own thinking. Um, and that was the first time, like I realized that that's what it was like, I didn't enjoy and look forward to going to the barbershop as much as I did.Speaker 1 (00:49:19):Yeah. I think like, I mean, that's a very valid thing too. Like just, just your, I mean, you can't just hate going into the place that you work at and expect to continue to grow it. Like it's going to be like this thing that's always kind of, I guess, nagging at you or bugging bugging you. Um, I mean, how did you kind of get through it though? Like, cause I know, I mean, this was like, dude, like March. So from March until you just got into your own private suite in September. So it was, it just kind of like again to like understanding like, look, this is like, cause I know we had, we had multiple talks about this like, look, this is your business, this is where you want to go. Not everybody's going to be like agreeing with it or like whatever it may be like coming with you. Like, but you can't allow that to like, hold you back. Um, yeah. How did I get into, like, how did you just like kind of get through those months? It was a more of just like, all right, cool. Like pull up my big boy pants and like kind of take these jobs or just understand the longer term vision that you were trying to build.Speaker 2 (00:50:14):It was a combination of things. So it was kind of like you had told me in the DMS, like, you know, you said your dad told you like in baseball, like sometimes you gotta, you gotta play your own game. And it, it took me back to when I played basketball, you know? And like, that's the thing, like you have to play your own game. And so I kinda got into that mentality. So sometimes I will have to go to work with, you know, my headphones on and sometimes I would go to work and get there a little bit early and I was sitting in my car instead of walking right in. I would sit in my car and maybe listen to a podcast or maybe not listen to anything and kinda, you know, get my mind prepared for what I needed to do. Uh, so there was that.Speaker 2 (00:50:53):And then, you know, um, like I said, like figuring out that like I could be a different character when I'm at the barbershop. Right. Which helped me in my business and my content. Um, so just being that different character and being a different, like the guy that didn't care about as highly as much about like the creating the relationships, it was more so about like building the business and, you know, the right relationship will be built from that. Um, I also try, you know, I initially I wasn't even going to leave the shop. Um, there was a room that's often the bag that the owner had built out into a suite for him, but like he's got two locations that he's mostly at the other location. So I remember reaching out to him and being like, Hey, I'll pay more. If you let me have the spot in the back, he didn't, he wasn't willing to let it go.Speaker 2 (00:51:47):I'm like, okay. So, and after that it was just like, okay, well I don't have the option to kind of have my own space. So I put it on myself to like create my own space. So if I got to listen to my headphones while I'm working to create my own space, that's what I do. If I have to, um, become a new character and take my mind somewhere else and detached from the barbershop conversations and stuff like that, then that's what I'll do. And so it was a combination of different things that helped me kind of press forSpeaker 1 (00:52:17):Cool. I guess. I mean, I definitely want to like kinda dive into this a little bit, just real quick, obviously charging 60 in the new space. You've gone through all of these trials tribulations, like over the past year or so. What do you think is the biggest difference? We're going to touch on two things. One the business owner, Jordan, uh, as from 25 bucks being booked out at that space prior to where we met to now, and then also the family man, the husband, the father at right now versus when you were charging 25, what are those two different? I mean, what are the differences between those two things?Speaker 2 (00:52:48):Yeah. So as far as the bar, the, the business owner, um, at 25 prior to me joining the program, I didn't look at myself as a business owner. I looked at myself as just a barber and basically somebody who was self-employed. Um, so versus now, like I actually look at this as like it's a business and, um, less of an employee mentality and more of a business owner mentality that I have a business that depends on me operating it a certain way. Um, and, and the cool thing is, and I shared this with you in the DMS is like the difference between being able to explain to people like when they asked about the price raises this last time and being able to explain to them, Hey, look, the point of a business is to increase profit and you don't increase profit by increasing your labor costs, right?Speaker 2 (00:53:40):And labor cost, not just being, paying somebody out, but like my time being dedicated. So working more hours to make more money doesn't equal higher profit that equals more labor costs, which means I'm making the same profit and people understanding that and being like, well, you know, you're right. Like the goal of the business is to make profit and to increase those profits. Um, whereas at 25 I didn't look at it like that. It was just, I'm a barber, I service people and, you know, I can eventually probably make more money if I make my service better. Um, if I, if I create bonds, if I make people become emotionally attached to me in some kind of way, like they would, you know, eventually I'll be able to go up and they won't mind it because of the value that I presented to them. Uh, whereas now, like I understand that like, I can feel presented value to people, but it doesn't have to be in me giving more of myself or giving more time and, and things like that.Speaker 2 (00:54:36):So that's the difference in the business owner that I, that I look at myself as now versus, you know, before, when I just looked at myself as a barber, um, as far as like the family man, um, um, I'm able to be more present. Um, my kids probably see me more now, especially my son, like my, my, uh, well, I have an older son that lives out of, out of state, but you know, when he comes in, I'm able to be here more. Whereas before, when he would come into town, like through the week, Tuesday through Saturday, he wouldn't really see me probably see me Saturday evening and Sundays, and then Mondays. Whereas now, like when he comes into town, he's like he has more of my presence. Um, and, and even being able to help my wife with building her business from some of the things that I'm learning and like us just having that tandem to where like her business has taken off, because I'm able to provide her as like that business owner mindset versus before I probably wouldn't have been able to do that.Speaker 2 (00:55:40):And she kind of was probably been at this on her own and she would've also being able to be present, um, and being focused in like really being able to have that intentionality of when I'm with my kids, I am with them. Like, I'm not worried about what's going on on Instagram. I'm not taking calls from people and I'm not cutting into their time by going to the shop on days that I don't work or times that I don't work, because I'm just trying to, you know, build relationships and make people feel like I'm here for them. Sure.Speaker 1 (00:56:14):What does your wife do again, kind of want to, once you give her like your wife, a little shout out for her business,Speaker 2 (00:56:19):Courtney Sauer, she's D equipped mama. She has a business called the mama. She is, um, by, by trade or by occupation, she's a maternal newborn specialist, a specialized registered nurse. Um, and also coming soon, she will be a licensed, um, lactation consultant. So she basically helps women with educating them on, um, how they get through their pregnancy and labor. Um, and then after, um, labor, she helps them with breastfeeding. And so she does lactation consulting as well. So,Speaker 1 (00:56:54):And they can kind of like people who are interested, I could obviously reach out to her through Instagram or anything like,Speaker 2 (00:56:59):Yeah, Instagram, D T H E E equipped mama, M a M a, her website is the same thing. And you can probably find her on Facebook as well.Speaker 1 (00:57:07):Nope. Um, I guess for you look, um, I guess this person, w what did you find, like most impactful, most useful to you just in the elevator mentorship program? Like, was it one module one week, or like, what was it specifically that like just had the most impact on you?Speaker 2 (00:57:23):Um, the, the, just the mindset behind everything that we do. Um, and I think you really dive into that in the beginning and week one, and like, just changing your mindset and your worldview and the way that you view things, um, as far as how you view money, uh, how you view making a lot of money, how you view work, how you view business. So just changing my world view on everything. Um, and that, that doesn't just carry over in some, like in my business, but like in regular life to the point, like where me and my wife have conversations and, you know, we talk about like changing the way we talk about stuff. Like, you know, they all say like, oh, that's expensive anymore. Like more. So we think about like, okay, that's a little more than we're willing to pay right now, but how can we figure out a way that we can get that right.Speaker 2 (00:58:18):Um, not, not worried about, um, like saving, saving, saving, saving, but like, what can we use money for to help move businesses forward or help move our life forward? Like, obviously we do save and we still are, um, cognizant of where our money goes. But instead of just trying to save, say, say like the world teaches you, like, what can we do with this money? What can we invest in? That's going to help make our life and our businesses easier and better. And I don't think that I would be able to look at it that way. Had I not joined the program?Speaker 1 (00:58:52):What was your view of like making a lot of money or just money in general prior?Speaker 2 (00:58:58):Uh, so I thought that you, I didn't, I've never come across anybody who personally, uh, except for maybe one person, one or two people who may six figures and they did it. One guy is a close friend of mine. He's a realtor. He was like one of the first people in them. Uh, one of my closest friends that I grew up with, but he's an, so he got his, he has two bachelor's degrees. So my thinking was that you either had to have a degree in something in some fields that pay it a lot, or you had to like, have a talent where, whether they be art or film or music, or be an athlete to make a lot of money. And I thought, I looked at people like that as like, they were different. Like they were a different type of person and they lived in a different world.Speaker 1 (00:59:55):Interesting. So you, you didn't even like, think it was like, you almost created a lot of separation between yourself and somebody who makes a lot of money then.Speaker 2 (01:00:02):Yeah, absolutely. Um, my goal prior to joining a program, like this was like, my ultimate goal for barbering was to be able to get, to make 80,000 a year. You're going toSpeaker 1 (01:00:17):[inaudible].Speaker 2 (01:00:17):Yeah. That's when me and my wife met and we talked about it, I'm like, yeah, eventually, you know, maybe 18 years in, like, I like to be making $80, I mean, $80,000 a year. Right. Cause that's, that was something that I felt was feasible. Even though there were people that said, like, Barbara's may, you know, six figures. I'm like, well, the only bother that I could think of that were like that our guide, like that cut, you know, athletes and celebrities guys like Kenny donkey, um, Curtis Smith and guys like that. So I didn't see myself at that level of, uh, in that type of world.Speaker 1 (01:00:53):Yeah. Because I think a lot of people think in order to make a lot of money as a barber, you have to cut the celebrities or you have to be a celebrity yourself. It's like, civilians will pay that. Like [inaudible] regular life people. It's just, again, to build the right business, like set it up properly, understand how to acquire clients and scale up from that. Um, and you can easily do that. I mean, like, dude, you're doing it in Tennessee, which is again too. Like, I'm like, I'm always hyped again to whenever you have like a win cause. Like, I just always remember Jordan, like when you were at twenty-five bucks, like, I don't know. I don't know. I always see you I'm like did it. Like, you just had to conquer that like little thing you had to then apply everything we had in the program.Speaker 1 (01:01:29):And it just, I mean, the proof is right there and I'm, I'm really, honestly, I'm really proud of you dude, to be quite honest, because you, as you should be, dude, honestly, like, like I said, there was a lot of times where like, I would see you, you would really be on, I guess I could tell your voice on the QA calls, like you were struggling. Right. And you were trying to like, like articulate how to like ask the right questions. And then I saw you go away. I'm like, I need to reach out this dude. Like, all right, let's get you back on, on part. And it was like, literally after that one time you were just like, boom, locked back in. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. I guess for you, like I do, this is like probably the longest interview we've done. So, I mean, it's just, you you're just like did a phenomenal jobs, contacted us through like your journey, I guess, like what's one piece of advice you would have for somebody who was like a similar situation as you, maybe at 25 bucks before we met again, maybe family really bogged down looking to do other things with, you know, because they want to make more money.Speaker 1 (01:02:20):Don't think it's possible. Barbara, what's one piece of advice you would give to them.Speaker 2 (01:02:25):I think the biggest thing for me, the biggest, um, that's helped me the most. Uh, and I'll go back to it as intentionality with everything. So, you know, locking in and being very intentional. And I think that's the biggest difference. Um, even with like track, like doing the tracking and the worksheets and stuff like that, like that after you reached back out to me, like, I really like locked in with that stuff too. Like not just tracking my head for working day and NCA, but like I really tracking, you know, everything like that. NCA, the NCA tracking sheet has been gold for me. Like if it's something that I made sure that I do every day, if not every other day at most, but like just, just being intentional and locking in on everything and carrying that mentality into every facet of life, whether it's with your kids, whether it's with your wife, business yourself.Speaker 2 (01:03:21):Um, I think that's, that's where most people lack the discipline that is being a, because everything in the world is like, it's so much, it's all at you and all the time, everything wants your attention. If you can, if you can establish a discipline to be intentional about everything that you do, the stuff will be easy. It'll get easy. The hardest part is, is focusing on, on being intentional. But once you, once you've created that habit stuff will come easy, you know? And, um, and then like focusing on the right thing. I think one of the biggest things that like, I really heard you talk about recently on your podcast, um, on the YouTube videos and in our Q and a calls is like focusing on perfecting the business. Like don't get caught up on the price point, the price raises don't get caught up on, um, like the views that you get in the video or anything like that.Speaker 2 (01:04:22):But like understanding that all of these things are pieces of and components of you perfecting the business. And if you can focus on that and not, not get so caught up on like the views that you get, because those are gonna go up and down, like you can look at anybody in the program and it's either like their, their views go up and down. Right. And like, I'm sure anybody in the program could speak to like, even your clientele flow at times, it's going to go up and down. So if you can just focus on like staying locked in and like perfecting the business and moving it forward, like that'll take away a lot of distractions. Um, things that'll get you down because like you understand that that's just, that's, there's a part of it. And it'll correct itself. If you just focus on steadily, perfecting the business. Yeah.Speaker 1 (01:05:06):It's again, to not, not looking too much in the short term, but always have the long-term view and be working towards that and not get like, again, maybe just what you said, you're not getting too emotionally caught up in like those sways, because as a business, like, you know, now everything's going to sway, dude, you got something really good. And then it'll sway back to like really bad and really good if you just hang on, just like focus on building the right thing. Like it'll all like the sways will kind of, even themselves out in the average will always be good for you.Speaker 2 (01:05:31):Yeah. That was a tough thing for me because I'm so analytical and technical. So every time that I see that something is off track, I'm automatically trying to solve what I, what is it that went wrong? Sometimes I can get too, like, too caught up in like the loop, the dips in the sways and trying to correct them. And like, so I've had to take a step back and like, okay, let some stuff my ju just wait a little bit and like let stuff correct itself. Um, but yeah, that's something that I'm also changing my mindset as well as like, I try to not trying to correct everything, but like just stuff sometime let it breatheSpeaker 1 (01:06:06):Korea and let it breathe. And then I'd like, again to, I think most people, cause I'll talk to a lot of people and I've been very, like more vocal about like, it's all about problem solution, find the problem, solve it, and you should get the growth. But some people don't try to find any one problem and try to solve it. And it's like, that's where time allocation goes in. Like the best thing to do prior is like, make sure it's the right problem that will get you the right result. Cause you could spend a lot of time solving the wrong problem and nothing's going to happen and you just wasted like three, six months. And then it's just like, all right. Back back to the drawing board again. Um, I guess for you to kind of wrap it up, like, what's one thing you, you might say to somebody like, again too, that might be on the fence. That's like been seeing a lot of the interviews, seeing a lot of like, the program on the ads, maybe seeing it on Instagram, what's one piece of advice or just one thing you would say to somebody who's just sitting on the fence, doesn't know if this is like they should pull the trigger, not in the program.Speaker 2 (01:06:58):Um, if you're not sure if the program works, it does work. Um, it absolutely works it. I told my wife this a couple months ago before I even did my first price where they're like, regardless of like increasing income, like just the, the change in my mindset from being in this program from hearing from you and other guys and like being around other like-minded individuals twice a week. And the change in my worldview as not only made a huge difference in my business, but in my personal life as well. And it's even carried over to my wife's business. So like, if you're, if you're worried about I'm joining, just understand that like the way that you view things will never be the same when she joined. And I think, I think that alone is worth twice, three times the investment that you would make to join a program because you're like, it's like putting on a different pair of glasses is like somebody, like if I drive in with like a smudgy, like a windshield and then somebody comes along and like cleans the windshield. It's like, Y like your eyes are open. So like definitely that and just be willing to put in the work like other, you got a of guys who am, am, and women, you got a bunch of guys and women who are in the program who are supportive, who will push you, who will encourage you. So even if the people that you work around, don't like, we got you. And that's, that's the biggest thing too, is like leaning on people who can pretty simple.Speaker 1 (01:08:33):Yeah. I think also too, it's like really important to touch on. Like again, like I always typically sees the reason why people haven't built the business is typically like those things that always hold the bag, like pulling the trigger on a program, like, oh, it doesn't work. Does it not work that like, doubt, like it shows up everywhere else in the business. Like, you can always kind of pinpoint things like, we'll go through it on a Q and a call. Like somebody is not doing something or something's like breaking and they're not like fixing it will consciously, all right. Where else is this popping up out? Like, let's kind of fix all these other things and you'll always see all these interconnections. So, um, dude, I'm hyped. Cause again to you're at 60 looking to get you to 80. Um, and I think like it's going to be, it's going to be interesting to see like again too, I think you can get to one 50 kind of seeing where you go from here. Um, but it's been fun. It's been nothing but fun and an honor to be working with you so far, dude. And, and, uh, thank you also for trusting me. I know your, your wife had a big, uh, influence on you joining the program. And I just really want to say, thank you guys for trusting me of like, with your business, with your future. Cause it's been nothing but fun to like see you grow, especially in Tennessee and kind of taking everything on so far too.Speaker 2 (01:09:33):Yeah, I can, I can say without like, this is not exaggeration at all that like joining this program has been life-changing for us because like I never, I never, uh, thought that I could be doing some of the things that I'm doing now. Like I didn't even know that they were possible. Um, and just seeing, like, just being able to see the changes in myself, um, and like, yeah, this, this, this program has definitely been life-changing for me. And, um, I'm excited to see like where I can go next. Um, I'm really just excited and this sounds weird, but like I'm excited to see like the next challenge that pops up in the business so that I can figure out how to like how to fix it.Speaker 1 (01:10:21):Yeah. That's what that's, when you make a big shift, you're not even afraid of problems anymore, you know, they're going to come and you know, you have the tools and you're like, bring it on, dude. I'm ready for this thing because it becomes, it's just a fun game at that point in time.Speaker 2 (01:10:32):Yeah. My wife keeps asking me like, like how, how much do you think your clientele is going to slow down? I'm like, I don't know. I don't, I don't care. Cause if it, if it happens, I think like I remember seeing an angel in the, in the group saying that like he broke his business and I, and I keep built it back up and like that wasn't like super encouraging for me cause it's like, okay, bye. He broke. Like somebody actually said they broke their business and like, he fixed it. Like, so I'm like, well that means that I can do it. Like if it breaks, it breaks. Like, but I know that I, I know that I have the tools and, and um, you know, that we can figure it out and I can build it back up. So that's the exciting thing.Speaker 1 (01:11:08):Absolutely. Well, thank you for going ahead and like making this interview, what does it wear an hour already? Probably you definitely, I don't know if anybody else will top this, so you're top dog and end the interview category. Cause this, this also been really insightful for me to have just like, I always find it interesting. Like I learned a lot more about everybody just doing these interviews. Like again, your story kind of what's going on in your head and also what you find. Interesting. So I appreciate your time on here and, and, uh, looking forward to continue working with you for the years to come to for sure.Speaker 3 (01:11:44):[inaudible].
Daniel Contreras is spearheading the industry with his New Era model that helps overworked and undervalued barbers to work less and make more. His students are some of the fastest-growing barbers in the industry and he has helped them gain market dominance in their respected areas of business and online. If you're interested in getting out of the old traditional model of barbering and start your New Era journey, click the "FREE Demo Breakdown" button above to request a strategy session.