Hey everyone, Daniel Contreras (@dlucs_) here founder of The New Era Of Barbering. Honestly I wanted to do, I guess the typical three things I wish I knew when I was charging 30, but I couldn't come up with three things to be quite honest. I could only come up with two and I spent like the last 30 minutes trying to figure out what the third one could be. And I just said, it, because I didn't want to force it for one. And it would have been like really weird. Um, it wouldn't have been like value pack. Like I really think these just these tour are more than enough. Um, and the whole idea of this too, was, um, kind of just thinking back to that time in my life when I was, you know, of course charging $30 for a haircut. And obviously right now, I, I I'm retired from cutting hair.I run the new era of barbering new era of barbering and that's the company. Um, and I work with barbers, um, inside of the program, under the company, uh, called elevated mentorship, uh, where I work with barbers to help them not only like raise their prices up, but also understand the business aspect of barbering to really again, to not to continue cutting hair, not to improve your fade, but in a five-year time span, like, look, let's make the most out of barbering. Let's raise the prices up as much as we potentially can. Um, and when I say that, I don't mean like to, if you're charging 20 to get to up to 30, uh, I'm talking about like a hundred, a hundred petite, 200, 250, $300 per haircut. How can we do that in the location that you are at? That is my sole focus with that company and really allowing barbers to be able to save up anywhere between a hundred to 300 K in their bank.And then in five-year span, like, look, go off, do whatever you need to do. If you want to start a brand at that point in time, what if you want to do YouTube, be my guests, but until then we keep the main thing, the main thing, because so many people are running around with their heads cut off. So for me, I thought this would be really, really good topic to topic. Talk to topic Jesus' topic to talk about. Um, and again, to the two things is, is more of just like me looking back now, helping barbers. Um, I believe we have about a hundred barbers inside of the program currently at this time. Um, and kind of relating to it to, you know, I, I always see myself in them at that point in their career to where I'm at right now. And it's kind of like this weird bird's eye view and I can really see like, wow, okay.Yeah. I remember what I thought that, and this is, you know, I went like dad like learn so many different things and like understand, implement, fail plenty of times. And then just to be able to give them that like quick answer of the problem that they're having to get them back and having a good result, again, their business PR progress. Um, but you know, really, I guess like the overall aspect, there's not that much good information to be quite honest. I talked to barbers all day. There's just so much again, too. If you look back on like maybe their most recent podcasts, I mean most, most information in business aspect is just, Hey look, no your worth hustle harder. No, your work cut under 30 minutes. Good luck. And that's not a good, that's not good at all. So to really like get some progress in this thing and to actually, um, run this like an actual business and not like the hustle that was run out of your backyard when you first started this thing of, we, we have to at least understand something different.So let's just go ahead and dive right in. So at least the first thing I honestly wish I knew when I was charging 30 bucks, the first thing I have on my notes right here is really that the time and space is required to be able to start any new business. And what I mean by this is early on, and this was before I even was charging 30. This was like when I was charging 16, 20 bucks, um, I knew I didn't want to cut here forever. This was like two years in and I was charging 16, 20 bucks. And I was like, Holy. There was no way in hell. You're going to catch me doing this like five, six, seven years from now. Like I have to find something else. And it was at that moment, like two things happen. One, I kind of set my eyes on like a bigger goal overall.And also too, I kind of myself because then I, and I think a lot of barbers come to this realization when they see, you know, barbering is fun when you start out, you're making money, but at some point in time, you come to realization, Holy. This is not going to do it for me. Right. I don't want to live the life of like, I'm cutting 20, 40 heads a day, um, just to make the money I want to make. Um, and I, I think, I mean, for myself, at least I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna talk about my experience because I, I don't know what the hell everybody has their own experience, but just from my experience, I started like taking, taking like unreasonable amounts of time out of my day to just think about, and like try to come up with a different business model and like really spend time on like trying to figure out a different business that I was going to build in the side.And when you're in that period, when I was in that period, I thought it was the best thing to do. It was like, Oh man, I got this thing right here. I don't want to do it forever. So I'm going to work on something else. And I guess logically, somehow I connect the dots and I was like, this makes sense. Looking back on that, it's like the worst thing possible. So going back to the main point, time and space is required to be able to start any new business as a barber. You have no time in space, right? Let's just be honest. I had an I as a booked out Barbara charging, 20, 30 bucks at the time, there, there was no time in space and the time and space is just so you can one get out of the chaos, get out of like the tornado that you are in of cutting hair.The like literally non-stop hamster wheel of like wake up, cut hair, go to sleep, wake up, cut hair, and go to sleep, maybe eat something on the third day. Right. And kind of get yourself out of that, like redundancy and just that chaos. Take a step out, really look at what you're doing. And then also, um, take some time because to be able to build a business, you need the time and to be able to start a new business, you need space to time and space, to think space away from the chaos time to just think on and really think things through thoroughly. Right? Because any new business is going to, it's not just like all of a sudden you have an idea and then boom, you're off to the races. It doesn't happen that way. Right. You have to be able to give it time. You have to think through what you're going to go through. Different mistakes. Think about how long it took you just to, um, start like learning how to cut hair. Right. And like finally get to the point where you're at right now. It'll probably take the same time if not longer, starting a new business. Right. And that's just point blank. And that's, it's very unreasonable at first. And I think most barbers, I mean likeIt, it took,It took a lot just to get there. I mean like looking back on your Brian thing, it wasn't that hard, but honestly look, look at the timeframe and then you're like, I gotta go do something.It's, it's, it'sNot possible at that point in time, unless you want to take off the time and you want to have this space right now. But I mean, for most people you're going to have bills. You're going to want to have an income. And I mean, if, I mean, I'm assuming everybody's living in the United States. I mean, if you're in Canada, United Kingdom about, I mean, even it's the same principle that you need money at the end of the day, right? You need money to live. You're going to, you're going to have to eat. You're going to have to, um, at least flush the toilet or something. You're going to have to, you're going to have to use money, um, throughout your, that time and space that you take off. And you have to generate that money from, let's say cutting hair or a job, which does not give you the time and space to then think and build a new business. You see what I'm kind of getting at with this at least. SoI wish, I wish I wish it would've stopped. Honestly. I wish like I continue doing this. Like every different point I would do it for a little while and now I'd be like, what the hell am I doing? Right. There was always like this it's the shiny object syndrome. Right. You get to a new level. Oh man. Okay. Okay. I'm doing this. And then you kind of build it up to, to where it needs to be at. And you're like, Aw, you know what I could you feel like you could do? I felt like I could do anything. Right. I felt like you like be present or whatever. Like, you know, I probably could start the new Tesla or like come up with new Apple. Right? Like you just come up with like really like irrational thinking. Um, and it, it doesn't really work like that. Right. You kind of just need to, like, I wish I would've just told myself, look, stop, sit down, stop what you're doing, cut all this out. You got some type of progress here. Just keep doing this thing and like take this to its max limit. Because obviouslyYou want to have the peaceOf mind in that time and space that you take off. Right? Nobody wants to have time in space and being stressed out because they they're broke. That's that's not going to help you build a business. You want to have time-space and like peace of mind, peace of mind comes from at least, you know, being good with your money saving up again. Well, I said prior a hundred to 300 K in the bank. So where it's like, look, nothing can touch you at that. You've built a moat around yourself. You can take as much time and space uni as well as look at that point. One more time. You have the funds and the capital to be able to invest in next business move. And that's just not something I thought about. Honestly, I just thought it was going to come so easy.I was what, um, maybe 22 at the time. Um, I'm 27 now. So I'm trying to think back 22, 23 maybe. Um, yeah, I think, I think more close to 23.So I had a lot of like testosterone in my system. Right. There's just going all over the place. And I was like, I got to do it. Um, that's number that's like, that's like point a of the number one thing, right? I mean, the second thing of, of just, you know, time and space required to start a new business is just focused on the. Long-term not on the short-term price raise or the next price raise, I should say. Right. And I think I got caught. I got caught up in this very early on. Uh, when I was at 16, all I cared about was getting up to 20 and then I was at 20. All I cared about was getting up to 30 instead of like stretching out. And it's it's it's I think it's more of like that again too. When you don't have time to like, think longer-term where you're in that survival mode, when you're in survival mode, you don't have time to think about the longterm.You might have like three minutes in the month to think long-term, and then you're like back on the bills things. Right. Which is not good. Um, you need, like, I wish I would just very early on again, stop trying to build something else to try and get myself out of that situation. And then also to focus on that long-term and not the next short-term price raise because that's going to come and then I'm going to be right back in the same place, worrying about how the hell do I get up the next thing instead of I, if I just like stretch my thinking out. All right, cool. I want to charge one 50, 200. How the do I build that? Because if I build that business, every single price raise that comes in between that it will come. No, no, D like it's just automatic. I mean, that's the kind of thinking that we have in terms of new era of barbering, right? Like if we can build that business out, if we know exactly what we want, we kind of build it out with that in mind, everything else is going to come effortlessly and it should happen too, byThe way. Right. And I thinkEven talking to barbers is even working with barbers. I think everybody has this short-term mindset. It's always, it's just fidgety. Everybody's fidgety. I was so fidgety as hell. I don't know if it was because I was so hyped up off pre-workout I don't know if it was because I was drinking too much caffeine or what something was wrong with me though. God it seriously. It was like, really, really, um, I mean, it's just kind of like the ignorance. You don't know what you don't know. Um, but I really wish I would have had that more, like take a breath once in awhile and calm. Just think long-term like, not just a year, a year is not long-term maybe 10, 15, 20 years, 30 years now you're starting to get more long-term. And for me, that is when I kind of came to the realization when I started thinking more long-term I was like, I definitely don't want to be doing this at all. Meaning cutting hair. Right. That's when I kind of started really coming to my senses of like, Oh yeah, that. I need to start working on something now. Right. And that really lit a fire under my.NowIt is, you know, just because I didn't know, uh, I guess what to do in the moment in time meeting business wise, or like what I was, what was going to come next for me? I think everybody has this feeling. I, you know, I got to go to goat, gotta know what's next. I got, I know what my next move is. I felt that way all the time. Right? Until like, it was like the analysis paralysis thing until I was like, dude, who gives a? That thing is never going to come. Unless I like be like the best at what I'm doing right now. Honestly like it D I for me, and I did this for a while, again, to maybe like three, four years. And then it just dawned on me. I'm like, dude, I I'm worrying about this other thing that is not even in anywhere in my realm or grasp.And yet I've stayed in the same place, but I don't just do something with where I'm at right now and improve my situation. Now, it just, because I don't know what, what to do next doesn't mean I can't improve my now or I can't prove the situation I'm in currently. Right. I could well improve that. And now it helps, but I don't think everybody knows. I don't even know what the hell I'm going to do next to be quite honest. Right? Like I'm just, I kind of take the same principle. I am building the new era of barbering to be the best company in the barber industry to really revolutionize this thing. I could give a what comes next? Something an X will come at some point in time. I'm sure of it. Right. But this is like everything I'm pouring my heart and soul into.And at the same thing I did with my barber barbering business, when I kind of came to this realization and that's when I started getting the, um, the results that I actually wanted, because I just didn't give a about anything else. Um, I just didn't waste time again, to try and build something else. Um, and focusing only on short-term things is going to when I was in that $30 price range or even lower than that. Holy. I can't even think I, I couldn't even fathom like charging. I really honestly couldn't even fathom charging 40 bucks to be quite honest with you. Like I just really didn't think that that was possible. And I was like. If I could just get to 40, this thing would be great.And so you reallyGot to stretch. I mean, I really had to stretch myself in that thinking and just keep on focusing on what I'm doing right now, improve it, improve it, improve it, and then look up and be like, Holy. I'm farther than I was. Okay, cool. What do I need to do now? Like what should I do? Should I focus on now?Right. And really like it,I mean, probably the big, the biggest thing to wrap up this point. I mean, if I just took care of it,All of that, um, I can give themFull attention and focus really to, again, to building a new business, which I'm doing right now. Right. Building that, that company or something that will like then take me outside of barbering. And I think, I mean, if you've listened to anything I've done, I mean, you have to have a hundred percent focus because if, I mean thinking about like this, I tell barbers all the time when I'm on the phone, especially people who are doing like, let's say just even two things at one time, let's say they're trying to start up some other business. Then they're also trying to like cut hair really well and run that up. I'm like, dude, look, honestly, you're doing two things. You're really good at barbering. Like you're really, really good at barbering. Let's say, and let's say you have somebody who is only half as good as you at skill-wise with cutting hair, because, and let's say that that person was half as good as you is.That's their only thing they do is just barbering. I mean, theoretically speaking, they're just as good as you, they're getting the same amount of output that you are. And if you just kind of sit with that for like, just even a quick second, you'd be like, cause you could, I mean, I knew people who were like half as good as me. Right. Let's say people starting, I wasn't really at gut charting 30 bucks too, by the way. Right. But it's a great principle just to kind of practice and, and like, I was like, all right, cool. Somebody who is like all in right now, who's just starting out. Or maybe like just getting out of barber school, we're probably getting the same amount of output and that did not sit well with me because I'm very competitive at my core. So how was like, Oh hell no, this is not going this way at all.So again, a hundred percent focus in that one thing, just because I didn't know what I wanted to do next doesn't mean I can prove I can't improve my now and I shouldn't improve my a hundred percent means I should have done that, which I did. Thankfully finally woke up and again, to focus on, long-term not short-term next price raise and really just stopped trying to build something new because God it. I was just trying to, I hate to say it. I was just trying to sell some t-shirts or some, some. It was like, Oh my t-shirt is going to be the best in the game. And they're like some Walmart t-shirts with like a screen printing on them. Right. Like a silk screen printing.I mean, it's just,And I, I see the same patterns pop up all the time. So that's why I that's why just talk about it too, honestly, because I did the same thing and I'm like, once I cut that out, like, and I figured out what the hell they actually do? Holy. I got everything I actually wanted to get. Right. So that's point number one, time and space is required. We will start any new business. The second thing, um, see, I told you it was like more jam packed than just like two quick things. Right? The second thing, um, that I wish I would have told myself when I was charging 30 bucks is like literally most barbers just have no clue what they were doing. So don't follow it. Right. Even myself at the time, I had no clue what I was trying to do. And I think when you kind of get, get that, um, humility in yourself and you just kinda like, I mean, Joel J fade even said it when he was doing like one 50 a cut, he had no clue what he was doing. I was like, all right, dude, come on, we gotta, we gotta, we gotta start working together again again. Right. Um,But IThink a lot of people like try to,Um,I mean, I did it too. I tried to, like, I thought the barber industry, like all of these people I saw on, on whether it was like social media or at shows or just anywhere, like I thought they were better than me for a plethora of, and, and it was just the facade of things. Honestly, it was the makeup. It was the looks, um, rap is, I mean, I've rap. Rap is that was completely off often. I mean, it's come some topic. I barbering, I think a lot of barbers try to relate barbering to like hip hop and rap, which is I get it. I thought of the same thing until I was like, okay, hold on. Especially in today's game, rap and hip hop is entertainment. So what you're telling me is most barbers are entertainers. that. Alright. At the end of the day, barbers are independent or should be, at least they should. I mean, unless depending on the barber, on the barbershop structure, wherever they work at structure wise, they should be independent contractors. Maybe they are employees. That's a different situation. If that's what you chose, there's some other things that you need to figure out. But if you are an independent contractor, I kind of put that under the same thing as, um,I mean,You're, you're a business at the end of the day, right? You, you can determine how much you make, you run your own hours, all this stuff, nobody can kind of have this say, so you just kind of come in and do your work and you dip out, you have to pay your taxes, all this great stuff. Right.ButWhen we look out the most of the industry, you just see people who just want to entertain and it's this facade and it's very fake. And I, and I thought like, I couldn't step on those toes because that's where I thought it was real. But honestly, a lot of people would have no clue what what's going on. So what I mean by this is, is the first point of this major point is really, I wish I just did not set a limit on like I, on myself of what I thought I could charge in the city I was in, based off of what everybody else was, either charging people I had looked up to and what they had taughtOrJust even listening to other people's like how you're supposed to run the business.Okay.I think a lot of barbers do that all the time. I think most barbers do that. Because again, it's not like this is a bad thing. This is why I think like, uh, this why I actually kind of like really do enjoy the idea of like getting more on podcasts because it does at least allow other individuals to get a different, like, I guess, I mean, it's like a breath of fresh air at times. Right. Um, it's definitely something that's like,Oh,Like you can see that. And you're like, Oh, see, I thought that same thing. I just don't want to say it, but you know what he's right, right. At some point in time, like you could see this thing all day, you know, barbers will, I mean, it's more of an ego. Like you see barbers that are like what they'd been ch they they'll, they'll always start off with how long they've been cutting for. I've been cutting for 12 years, 20 years. That is how it's supposed to do. It's always supposed to do it. It's always been done this way. No, your worth like, dude, seriously, people will say that. And, and, and then it like sets you in the, in the paradigm of, Oh man, I better not step over the line. Um, because I better respect this guy because he's been doing this thing.But if you're doing that for 12 years and you're charging no more than like, if you, if you are not charging 60, 80 bucks and you were, you've been working for 12, 20 years, Holy. There needs to be some wake up call seriously. Um, and like, I think I hear a lot of barbers on these calls. They're very, very nervous because of what the other barbers that they think that are better than them. Well, think of them. And I saw the same thing all the time. I like, it was just like crippling to me like, Oh, what if I try to do this? What are they gonna think? Oh, no, I seriously, like I was crippled by this, this, um, idea. I really don't give a anymore. There are some things that still do scare me sometimes like saying some really saying some beliefs that I have gone through.And I'm like, yo, no, this is wrong in the industry. Whereas everybody else says it's right. Sometimes I get a little scared. I'm not gonna lie about that. And I think that's very human and very natural. Um, and typically when something scares me, it's like, I almost have this sense of like, wow, I should do it. Honestly, building the new era of barbering. That kind of scared me because like everything I had in there and like everything that I had believed, like it was kind of going against what a lot of people that I worked with with I've like known in the industry, create great relationships. Like it's kind of going against like that. And that kind of scared because like, you know, it's just like, what are they going to think about me if I just like start saying, Hey, this is.I did this. This is not it. This is actually how you should probably do this thing. Right. It definitely scared the crap out of me. Um, and I kind of see these same principles that like happened when I was cutting hair to now run this business. Um, that still, I can't allow to dictate what I do. And it's the same self limiting beliefs. It's like, well, you're in this city. You can't charge that much. I'm sorry. But, and nobody was charging over 40 bucks prior in Sacramento. Like now, like, like seriously, maybe like 50, 60, but now we're close to a hundred, hundred 50, 200. It was a, you were looked at like, what the are you doing? That's what most people think, right? Like what the are you doing? idiot. And I think a lot of people and a lot of barbers, if you have ever asked or said this, like, you've probably got that same reaction.You've probably heard one of my podcasts seen one of my ads on YouTube. Seeing some of my content on Instagram have maybe sparked a conversation. And then that same person who you sparked up the conversation was like, that he's crazy. He's stupid. Like, seriously, I don't blame them. Cause they they're, they're just under this facade still. And it's not a bad thing. I get it. I'm not going to get everybody to understand what I'm saying, but there is still that like, you should always just kind of like just not follow what, what the, the, the typical, the typical should be. Right. You should really question it. Um, I've even welcome. People questioning me all the time. I think that's good to get, like you got to poke things sometimes and really make sure they're sturdy because I've poked things. And like, I'm like, Holy, that fell over.Like, they're justCrumbled to the ground. Um, so you should always like be questioning and always like, want to find out truth in whatever that is. Or whoever's saying it, I will always say that whether it's me or whether it's just anybody that you talk to. Right. But don't ever follow just because you think that they hold some status at all. I think that's like very, very toxic and like, um, you're kind of rolling. Like some now you're playing Russian roulette with that one. Right? Honestly, I, that it is almost like a form of Russian roulette. Like you're just kind of like hoping that this person I've done that before to get like multiple times given like my full-on trust into somebody only to like whoop got a bullet. I got a bullet this time. So I would definitely, like,I recommend that everybody do that, please. I think I enjoy thisJust talking on this podcast too much. Cause I really don't think anybody listens sometimes. And so I just like to have honest conversations with like myself, we're just tight. I think it's really cool. Um, anyways, even though I can see how many people watch this podcast, so it's always kind of funny. Um, what, what, what appointments are I'm trying to catch? My, I got off topic. I'm on my apologies. Um, Oh, I mean, I kind of covered this in the last one. So basically the second point of this was like, again, to don't listen to others just because they have more years or, or this too, or they're charging 10, 20, more bucks. Like I hear people that are like, Aw man, the guy who's charging 60. Oh man, I'm charging 20 he's. He says, this is limit. I would question him like, I wouldn't even like, even if you're listening to this, I wouldn't even have you questioned me 200.That's it? What about 400, 500? That's the kind of thinking you should always have like, that's it come on now. That's easy money. Right? That's that should be an easy thing. Like you just kind of stopped. You got lazy. Um, that's always my thinking when I see somebody, like, I just don't even, even mentors of mine, they'll say something I'm like, Hmm. I don't know about that one. I'm a question. And I'm a, I'm a put it to the test. Cause that's when you critically think about things like you, you, you start kind of finding. I think a lot of people, especially in the barber industry, it's kind of. It's, it's more people who are on a platform stage just because they're to sell a product or a clipper or whatever, that may be more so than just actually giving out really good information.Right.Um, next point is, cause we already kind of covered that point when he looks down anymore. Um, really don't follow others. What others do, unless you want the same result. Again, most barbers have no clue what they're doing. So you should not follow them unless you are more than happy with the result. Again, some people do just want to own a barbershop. And I think the barbershop owning a barbershop, unless you own multiple, which takes a while and you run it really, really well. And at that point in time, it's very, very, you have to have the right people in there. I don't, I don't see, um, I'm not a big fan of it. That's why I never owned a barbershop. Right. Because it's just one, I don't want to deal with people and like lazy people. And like, there's a lot of barbers who are very lazy people. I'm sure if you're listening to this, you can think of about like five to 10 of those right off the top of your head rightNow, willing to bet like you probably got for yourself, like, he's good.I can think of like a million of them, honestly. Um, I mean, no, there's a million barbers in the United States. That'd be interesting to find out. Um,But yeah, you should not fall unless you want that same result again, if you,I want just to have a barbershop and want that safe life and you just kind of want that byAll means. That's fine. If you just want to wantTo like charge 40 and work a lot, if you want, if you truly want, I can't tell you who's listening what you want, but I can tell you if you want something more than that person honestly is not only wanting, but also is taking the action to only achieve shame on you. All right.You're kind of at fault for that. So just don't follow what others do.The principal don't I don't follow it. Honestly. I would just wouldn't follow what others do. I would just kind of learn from them and then like,Just get my own result. Cause I haveTrust in myself. There'll be 20 million times better than what anybody else can get.Just if I try to follow themNext one and again, to these last two kind of covered lightly, uh, think critically. And I put like in like little, I put like a little asterisk, like this is something that literally nobody does just think critically about things. I mean like the simple fact of like know your worth. If you just critically think about that, like what does know your worth mean? Is that a business strategy you could have easily, anybody could have easily broke that.Yeah. If you just read it,We thought critically about this thing. Um, and I, I just don't see too many people. It's just, again too, you have to boil things down to first principles. You have to have a first principles way of thinking. Meaning you could not reason by analogy, reasoning by analogy means, Hey Todd, over down the street is only charging 40 and he has been cutting for 10 years. Therefore in 10 years I can only be charging 40 bucks. That's reasoning by analogy, reasoning by first principles is boiling it down. What the hell is this guy doing? Who is he about? What has he always done? He's been average his whole life. He doesn't want to do anything else. Congress is comfortable. Yeah, no wonder why he's still there. What am I building myself down to a first principles thinking? Well, ambitious, willing to take risks, willing to work, have a high work ethic and not be lazy. Hmm. Probably should do. But something better than that.Yeah.Like I, I sometimes just take days just to think. I tell a lot of people in the program, like thinking has been my, I think one, one of my strengths, I never did it in high school. So if anybody's listening to this who went to West campus high school, you're probably like, what the? Who is this dude? Because I did not give a about him. I just wanted to play baseball and football and that's about it.But because I justDidn't care about school, but I care about like running. I don't care about winning care and I care about like strategy and that's what businesses winning and strategy. I really like those things. Um, so it's, it's kind of like hand in hand why I'm really passionate and really into business and building businesses for not only myself, but barbers in general. I think it's really, really fun. It's a challenge. Every time I like really, I like people in the program know like, they'll hear me say like, Oh yeah, I get that. I salivate. Right. And it just meaning like, I like, you know, like when a, um, like a predator, like in the wild, like starts salivating and you see like saliva coming out, it's like means they're like ready to kill. Right. Like that's how I get I'm just like ready.Um, but yeah, just,Just, just think critically some, some great mental models, right. Reason from first principles. Um,NowHow I want to blank on some mental models, I probably should have wrote them down here. I probably would have been a smarter idea. I, I mean, that, that, that, one's a good one. I think that if you just do that reason from first principles, that will get you pretty far. Cause it's, it's allowed me to really like again, to not take something, um, by analogy, which again do most people do. And honestly that's by default what the brain does. Imagine if you had to reason by first principles, every thing in your whole entire day, right? Like, let's say if I had a,Well, I mean, I have a doorbell,Right. So imagine that the doorbell went off,Um, reasonablyAnalogy means, Oh, something's that somebody at the door. Cause usually when the doorbell rings and we're in another, uh, doorbell rings somebody's at the door. So I could, should go answer it. Reasoning. My first principles, like has to boil that whole thing down to like, where did that come from? Why would somebody even press that button? What does that mean? Like that would be so hard to do at all.Um, but like, you know,At least important decisions, worldviews, um, and at least like how you run your business should always be broken down to first principles. It's what Elon Musk does really well.Um, I mean, it's how he built. LikeHow, how was he able to build Tesla and like, um, space X, the dude built a rocket ship that can land back on earth. Not just not like crash land, like completely fine and very usable. If you've never seen that video, I highly recommend you check it out. It's fascinating. Um, and that's what reasoning by first principles allows you to do. It allows you to do things that most people were like, how the did you do that? And it's like, because I just did not follow what the logic you guys were following or like the rationalize, like the irrational thinking that you guys would do.SoThen quickly that's number one. That's uh, the next one excellent. After that. Um,Oh,I mean, it just, most people will not agree with like your point of view and like what you want and that's fine because again, that's what you want. And again, like I touched on this earlier, some people just want to be thinking smaller. Some people just want to be comfortable. And it's really interesting. I mean, I'm 27. I'm not that old, honestly. I think getting, I think maybe I don't want anything. I'll be pretty young, still at 60, 60 years old is really like, if you, if you really want to put it into like an analysis of like timeframe, I mean, that's not that, Oh, think about how like old, some like trees are, that's pretty that's even then, like there's some other organisms that are just much older than that 60 years. That's not that old. Um, maybe to flush, but there's a lot of the things that can like span farther beyond that. ButMost people,They don't want what you want and that's fine. And they will not agree with like again too, if you come here. But I was like, yo, I want to talk to like these people. And like, they didn't want, they didn't, they didn't think like, um, like a hundred bucks ethically. Right? That's fine. Well, what do you want?And that's what,Like, that's kinda like what I always think, like if I say, I honestly don't even talk to people because of that too, because I just like to think critically by myself. But if I ever was to talk to anybody, especially when I was charging $30, I forgot this is about my analysis of myself when I was starting 30, when I was charging $30. Yeah. Most people did. Not. Most people thought like, um, running a business, charging more, I'm doing hour long haircuts. Like they were like, what the? They were like 12, 12 minute haircuts. Let's go all day.Um, and I justDid not agree with that. And they thought I was crazy. I mean, not really, well, I shouldn't say crazy. They just kind of thought like, wow, this that's not how you wereDo it. Right. Um,And that's fine again, right? Some people again, to some people will want to work stupidly hard. Some people want to like be that laborer because it gives them fulfillment. I guess I had a talk with Joel recently, Jfadeit. Cause again, too, he's in the program. And so he was more talking about, obviously he's charging $200 a haircut right now. Obviously that's going to come with a lot volume than what he was doing at one 50 at first. Right. Of course. And Congress told him, Hey look, you know, like, um, he was like, you know what? I can't wait to get up to being that busy, busy moment again of like, man, I w I was, he was telling me, he just really loved, honestly, when he was like working seven days a week. Um, when he first started with the program, we got everything really ramped up to w for him. And he was making a lot of money each month. Um, and he was like, I just want to get back to that. And I said, hold on pause,Please make the separation.Did you, did you truly like working stupidly hardOr did you like the outcome? Right. Cause the two words completely separate identify that first and foremost. And then, then, then make your analysis on what you want. If it was the working hard, you would've loved working hard if it was at 30 bucks. Right. Cause you wouldn't care about what the result was. You would just care about working. If you like the result,Try to figure outLike, why, like don't, don't be so attached to the working hard. Try to figure out another way to like, be able to like, make this, make that amount effortless then. Right. And I could just see it like in his face, like, Oh, you're right. But it's, there are some people who do enjoy working stupidly hard. Right. And that's just like kind of how they've been brought up. That's how they view the world. That's a worldview of how they see success. And that's fine again too. It's not what everybody wants. And I tried, I stopped a long time ago. I shouldn't say tried. I stopped a long time ago trying to convince people. You probably hear it on some like super earlier podcast.Yes. So come on. Here's your new this, ah, now I'm like, I don't give a. Like if he, like, I, I do kind of care if likeThat. If you don't want to do that yet, you're doing that. Then it's kind of like, Hey, shame on you. Let's give you a slap on the hand. Really wake you up. Right.If you want that, I can't be mad. Nobody can be mad if that's what you want.So it's a pretty, it's pretty longPodcast for just two things. Right? Two things I wish I knew when I was charging $30. Again, time is space required to be able start a new business meeting, stop trying to build new things or trying to stop, trying to build anything else right now, focus on. Long-term not short-term next price raise, just because you don't know what to do now or debts because you don't know what you're going to do later on does not mean you cannot. It doesn't mean that you should not improve the, now that's a, like I think I just, I did not type that incorrectly because there was no way in hell. I just read that correctly either. And then finally, if you take care of all of this, you know, at some point in time, you'll be able to give your full attention to that next thing, to build that new business that will move you from barbering full-time and a hundred percent focus, always equals good.And I put a smiley face at the end now, and again, the second thing, most barbers have no clue what they're doing. So honestly, don't follow them again. Don't limit yourself to what your city supposedly is supposed to charge. Don't look, don't listen to others. Uh, if they have more years on you cut for longer or charge $10, more completely rational thinking again, don't follow what others do unless you want the same result. Think critically for some time, because nobody does again, most will not agree with you in that. That's honestly just completely fine. Everybody has their wants, needs desires. Do not get caught up on it again too. I got, I got lost in the fact that it's supposed to be about what I was going through. Kind of to hip hop, I guess, uh, jumping back and forth. Cause I do want to get a little more transparent about my experiences, my ups. I think that actually helps a lot of people. I found that very useful on like Q and a calls with a lot of barbers in the program. I was just talking about like my own like vulnerable fuck-ups and like what I've learned and like why I say it's not just, I say these things, um, because like, um, like some, some like, Oh, knowing personI up, I learned a better way. Like seriously,This is kind of like how it boils down to you. up. You learn, hopefully you'll learn a better, I, I just learned a better way to do it. And I got a better result and actually the result that I want to get in the first place. So that's why I, I at least like create a podcast. So it kind of does it for this podcast again. Um, I'm, I'm not going to stick to a schedule. I'm just going to really upload when I like truthfully have something of value to give again, too. I didn't want to make these three things. Cause it was like, I'm going to the third thing. I don't want that. Cause I'm going to, it's not gonna, it might be some, some people might think is value Bumble and be like, what the did I just did that for?I just have a high standard for myself. Okay. Um, if this is your first time listening to podcasts welcome. Um, I, again too, I, I kind of upload when I have something to say that is of value. I don't know when that is going to be. It might be a day, might be a week. It might be three months. I don't know. Um, but there's a ton of other podcasts that you can go ahead and spend your time on as well as other resources on the new era of barbering.com. So feel free to go and check that out again. Um, if you want to get notified when I do upload new podcasts, whenever that may be, go ahead and hit that subscribe. I think you could subscribe to a podcast, right? I deleted the app a long time ago, so I don't really know what you can do anymore.Apologies, but uh, if there's a subscription type thing, of course, go ahead and subscribe. And then, um, I also really honestly really enjoy when somebody actually leaves me a review of the podcast of what you thought and just leave me a note as well, too. And in that note, please go ahead and also, um, leave your Instagram bio, um, because in podcasting, um, I can see who, like, I can see how many people, the volume and that watches. I can't tell how many of those people like who each individual is. Like, that would be impossible, but also like it would just be a headache. Um, but if you didn't generally like, you know, like this podcast, um, of course, you know, leave a review, go ahead and drop your Instagram name there. I always love to, I'll go Snoop around. I probably won't like, you know, uh, I probably won't DM you or anything or do anything like that, but I probably will go ahead and just Snoop around and take a look at things.Um, cause I always like to see just who, who is that audience I'm listening. I'm like attracting at least it was an audience who's who's even listening because again, I have no clue. Um, also if you found this podcast at least enjoyable or at least brought some value, Hey look, it brings me a lot of value too. And I really love seeing like this podcast grow and how it's grown over time, go and share this podcast, send it to somebody can click the little, share button, copy the link, go a message, or send a DM to another barber. If you feel like this will bring them a lot of value interviewers listening to this podcast. And somebody has sent that to you just know that individual actually cares about you, wants to see you succeed. So go, go out there and do something.Okay. Um, with that y'all, I don't know when I'm even speaking to you again, but again too, it's going to be a value. I want to make sure I keep that, um, keep that high standard on this. Um, and again too, I will drop the links, um, to the new air barbering website. If you wanna check out more about what we do inside of LA dementia and the new era of Barbara and company, uh, put a lot of great resources. I have a couple of customer interviews, uh, on there as well too. Uh, there's a lot of game in there. I try to really make it more about like their personal story and struggles and like what they've learned along the way. Um, as well as kind of like the process that we take, uh, it will also be on the website. So if you want to go check that out or check out the free, uh, I don't want to call like a free training. Cause it seems, it sounds so cliche. Uh, but it is like a 47 minute breakdown video, just basically kind of going over what we do that is also on the website. If you just click, I think it's like case study or breakdown or any of the learn more button that's on like any page you can obviously go and check that out as well too. Um, with that, I will talk to you when I talk to you.
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.