The Code To Winning - BARBER TO BOSS: Crafting a Barbershop Legacy || MARCUS VIGIL || EPISODE 012

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

BARBER TO BOSS: Crafting a Barbershop Legacy #012   In this inspiring episode of "The Code To Winning," we sit down with Marcus Vigil, a visionary entrepreneur and the powerhouse behind Savant Barber, crowned Best Barbershop in Utah two years running (2022 & 2023). With over $1M in sales in 2023, Marcus isn’t just cutting hair—he’s cutting a path for others to follow. 💼✂️ From humble beginnings behind the barber chair to scaling his vision into three thriving barbershop locations, Marcus shares the raw, unfiltered truth about entrepreneurship, leadership, and the relentless hustle it takes to turn passion into profit. 🏆🔥 But Marcus isn’t just about business—he’s about impact. Whether it’s mentoring young barbers, giving back to the local community, or building a brand that stands for excellence, his story is packed with golden insights for anyone with a dream and the drive to chase it. 🌟 Tune in as Marcus breaks down: ✅ His journey from barber to multi-location owner ✅ The strategies behind his $1M+ year ✅ How he built an award-winning brand ✅ Why community and giving back matter   Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a barber with big dreams, or someone who loves a great success story, this episode is a masterclass in turning passion into a thriving empire. 🚀 🎧 Hit play, take notes, and get ready to level up with Marcus Vigil.

I started learning how to cut hair. I started mastering the skill. You know, they say you don't master a skill until about 10,000 hours. And so, you know, I really wanted to get 10,000 hours, not knowing that's going to be five years from now, 10 years from now. As I started cutting, I started realizing like, hey, Instagram is a valuable tool. It's a very valuable tool. And I need to utilize it. It's free.

It's time. And so I got a credit card and I started swiping on it. And I opened up my first barbershop, three-chair shop appointment only. And it was me, my friend, Ethan, and another business owner at the time. And while that was in Utah, right? That was in Utah, yeah. It's not necessarily how much you know, but it's definitely who you know as well. And so not only is your network, your net worth, but you literally one handshake away from a completely different lifestyle.

Absolutely. And that's one of the things I've realized. I think it's more like working smart than it is actually working out. Of course, working hard is there. But like doing all these different stuff that people would not be doing, getting out your comfort zone, which in your case seems like you more comfort. I like it. I always like to say, you know, get used to get. comfortable in your uncomfortable situation.

Get comfortable with just being uncomfortable. Have those tough talks. Welcome to another episode of the Code to Winning. Insights you will need today to seize the world tomorrow. Today we actually have a very special guest. One of the best, if not the best, Barbara, in the entire state of Utah. We'll go into depth of that regarding his awards and accolades as well.

His name is Marcus Vihal. Right. Born and raised here, recently won two in, 2023 barbershop of the year as well. The owner or co-owner of Savant Barbershop. It is a great honor, privilege to have him in the studio today. So welcome Marcus. I appreciate you, Kajie. Thank you. Thank you.

Awesome. The nice thing about this is actually the first time I met and meet Marcus as well. So we had a quick get to know you, awesome guy. Genuine, very authentic, super excited to have him in the point. podcast today. So I want to know, before we even start, there's a saying people like talking about saying a man will never cheat on two things. Their football team and their barber. That's right, baby. That's right. I know he was coming. That's right. So I love it. So the reason I'm saying this, my barber, and since I came to America about eight years ago, he's actually an arm. So what happens

is like I have not like in eight years been here. I have like Richard has been doing like my hair. Like you know, he knows out of trim it. He knows because it's very like in Utah or in Idaho specifically, there's about a population of 0.1% black people. And you know with black folks, so we have a specific form of like hair, how it's supposed to be cut and so forth.

Absolutely. And so that's why I had to say like I've heard a saying and I'm sure you know very well. A man will never shoot on two things. They're a football team. and their barber. I like it. So before we start, how did you start in the barbering industry? So I started back in about 2015, fresh out of high school. I was going to college, and my uncles actually owned a barbershop together at the time, Jay's barbershop, Joseph and Jay. And I would go in there

and get haircuts weekly every two weeks. You know, if I'm skipping school, skipping class, quick lunch break, I would go in there and get haircuts. And one day he asked me, he's like, hey man, would you consider barbering? I'm like, look, bro, like, this stuff's not for me. I'm just, I got to get my education. I got to make sure I dial in. And he says, you know, what if I get my instructor's license and take you under my wing? And I said, look, man, that's a big step for me.

You know, I don't know if I can do such. And, you know, after about two or three haircuts, he kept on jabbing at me, hey, you should be my apprentice. You should be my apprentice. And so next thing you know, you know, he got me some clippers. And the rest was history. I went under him as an as an instructor. So no college, no, no barber college, no Paul Mitchell, no, nothing like that.

I just learned strictly in the barbershop and exactly what the barbershop entails. So at a really, really young age, you know, I got to actually see firsthand business. It wasn't just cutting hair. He would take me around the block. He would show me how to, you know, drop the till, add the till, take the money to the bank. He would make me run to the shop around the corner to give him some palmates. take the money in, you know, and return it. And before you know, I started learning managerial tasks,

cleaning the shop, sweeping up the hair, nothing to do with hair cutting. And then 250 hours went up and he's like, okay, go and cut that guy's hair. And I said, whoa, bro, I need to learn how to cut hair before I can just cut the hair. He says, nope, grab the clippers and just start cutting. And I said, dude, I only learned how to take money in, give money back. I only learned, you know, how to sweep up. how to clean tools, how to greet people, how to answer the phones, how to book an appointment,

how to de-escalating situations, how to talk people off the pedestal when they want to fight somebody because their haircut got messed up. Before you know, I was a manager before I was a barber. Wow. And then I started cutting hair. So I learned all the manager stuff in a shop way before touching the clippers. When I started touching the clippers, that's when things kind of like, you know, I'm cutting hair and I hear the phone. Oh, hello, Joseph Barbershop.

How can I help you? Right? And I'm still cutting hair. And then next thing you know, I'm like taking out the trash, but then my appointment's coming in. And then I'm greeting people welcome. How are you? Do you have a walk in or are you an appointment? Before you know it, he taught me how to run a barbershop 250 hours into my apprenticeship. I had to gain 1,250 hours before I can go and test. And I had a test just like, you know, just like the barber school would or just like any other college would. I would have to, you know, do a theory test and a practical test. And so pass those first try. And then next thing you know, I was a licensed barber within and his shop.

Oh gosh, man. I love that. And so I think you also did mention, obviously, you didn't go to barber school. And do you feel like having that sort of experience being thrown directly into the wolves makes far of a bigger difference rather than going directly to like just school? Absolutely. 100%. You know, I like to, I see a lot of new barbers come out of barber school.

And, you know, their skill sets and what they learn and everything. And I'm just glad that I got thrown to the wolves to return. the pack as a wolf. You know, I really do think that was beneficial, like, teaching my daughter how to swim and I'm just going to throw her in the pool. Have you seen those videos on Instagram? Yes, man. And it actually does work.

Dude, they have a natural instinct to just try and, like, float and just like swim, you know? That's it. That's it. Yes. So speaking of that, like, now your journey from starting barbering in around, like, 2015 to right now eventually co-owning, like, you know, savant barbershop.

Can you explain, like, the journey in between owning your specific shop from when you started as well. Absolutely. You know, the journey was, was long while. I, you know, I started learning how to cut hair. I started mastering the skill. You know, they say you don't master a skill until about 10,000 hours. And so, you know, I really wanted to get 10,000 hours, not knowing that's going to be five years from now, 10 years from now. And so as I started cutting, I started realizing like, hey, Instagram is a valuable tool. It's a very valuable tool. And I need to utilize it. It's free. It's free. And so I started networking on Instagram, started following people commenting on stuff. And next thing you know, they're like, hey, you want to come out to this convention? And I'm like, oh, yeah, I do. Let's do

this. Like, hey, get your plane ticket. Come out. We'll get you a booth and you can come cut right here. So, you know, I traveled around the world, Modesto, California, Colorado, Vegas, Connecticut, Miami, New York, all around the world, just networking with the big guys, the big dogs and just just trying to understand what they do to get better. And then next thing you know, there was a point in where I kind of had to branch off from my uncle's barbershop just because I knew too much. I knew what was going on. I watched my uncle teach me do it. And then, you know, when I go and get third party insights, it all relates. And I said, you know what? Maybe it's time. And so I got a credit card and I started swiping on it. And I opened up my first barbershop three-chair shop appointment only.

And it was me, my friend, Ethan, and another business owner at the time. And why, that was in Utah, right? That was in Utah, yes. Was it Mill Creekside or was where was it was? It was in Mill Creek. Yep, it was in Mill Creek, and it's not by, it wasn't, it's not by the original Mill Creek location right now. It's actually, um, uh, like a street over, just literally street over right there. And it was an office space. Similar to this, we just ripped out the carpet, put tile and popped up stations, put up mirrors, um, blocked out the windows, put on the thing, appointment only. Um, and then we had three guys in there, me, my friend Ethan, which is the other owner of Savant Barbershops, and, uh, another business owner of mine. Um, and, uh, another business owner of mine. We were in there just doing just appointment only. And then, you know, things started like, we're like, should we renew this contract or should we stay? And next thing you know, the state came and was like, hey, we're actually going to tear this down.

You cannot renew your contract. We're like, hmm. So then we went right across the street where Mill Creek Commons is. Yeah. It's the city hall right there. Big old building blasted up right there. And now that's where we stay. And, you know, it's just me and Ethan now.

Okay. From three partners to now two. And now we're running with it. Awesome. And I think when you mentioned early on with the Mill Creek location, which other locations do you guys have across like Utah? So we have the Mill Creek location that's been there for six years. We just renewed our contract there for another, you know, we got another 10 years there. And then about three years ago, I branched out to my hometown, Magna, Utah, really, really small city.

It's now, it was a township, but now it's growing and now it's becoming a city. You know, I born and raised, and I lived there for about 22 years and then moved out. So I was there for my whole life. And I was like, you know what? Looking around here, great clips, you know, the little mom and pop shop, I was like, you know what? It really needs some spice to it. And so I took my talents over there, opened up Savant Magna. And then two years after that, my business partner, Ethan, he opened up Savant Bountiful Barbershop.

And so that's kind of where we're at right now. Okay. I actually love the fact that you mentioned, you know, you're traveling from Modesto, California, New York, and across America as well. There's a saying I love like talking about, especially on the specific podcast, which is, you know, your network eventually is your net worth as well. 100%. And so I feel like I've seen a lot of your videos and I've seen how, you know, you've immersed yourself in the public faces and so forth as well. How important would you say that networking is in a little try and escalate yourself to the next level and then to the, to the, the next level because right now the vision is great right and right now the business is actually

booming as well but i know from what i've seen you're not actually complacent what are like how important is networking to take you to the next step man i i honestly networking is everything you know you can have no education and be able to network with somebody that can actually help you and that's that's what that is is is a lot of just talking face to face to people um you know social media is such a valuable asset to the game now reels and tic talks um They actually push your work to get better insights. And so as soon as you can break that code of like just popping up the phone and be like, yo, I'm Mark with savant barbershops, right?

Stuff like that. That really is what pushes the drive. And the next thing you know, you get a cold DM and or you get, you get the guy that's, you know, have the barber, barbers, the Super Bowl barber expos. And he's like, look, man, I need you out here. Can you come and attend? Oh, yes, absolutely. No questions ask.

I'm there because I know that the $1,000. plane ticket is actually a million dollar gem piece that I'm getting to. I wish I was a dropping bomb thing when I was. Ding, ding, ding. That's right, baby. That's right. So, like, you know, you look at a thousand dollar plane ticket and it's like you get a million dollars worth the info, but you got to get out there.

You got to network. You got to get into the, into the network of people that your industry's in, you know. I absolutely love that. The reason I love that as well is it's not necessarily how much you know, but it's definitely who you know as well. And so not only is your network, your net worth, but you literally one handshake away from a completely different lifestyle. Absolutely. And that's one of the things I've realized because, I mean, when I first came here, if you just think about Instagram, like just starting like in 2010, it was just like, hey, that's my lunch today. That's,

that's my friend and that's my family. It's now become one of the biggest business tools, not only in America, but throughout the entire world because you literally can get a connection through a DM, we can change your life as well. 100%. I love that. So now I want to talk about, although we spoke about loyalty and how just men love their barbers, how do you like maintain customer loyalty and satisfaction, especially within such a competitive industry like barbering? Absolutely. You know, to remain loyalty is just to be available.

I always preach this to my barbers, especially the new guys like, you know, if you're getting that text message and it's 7 p.m. at night and the doors are closing. and the dudes like, hey, man, like, I really enjoyed how your haircut was last time. Do you think you get me in? I won't be able to make it at like seven when the door's closed, but I can get there. You know, I customer loyalty runs deep when you're like, you know what, bro, I can stay to 7.30 to get you. That's no big deal. And then that guy kind of sits there and he realizes like, wow, this guy worked, you know, 10 to 7,

but he's willing to cut my hair at 7.30 at night because I don't get off until 7. I got to get over there. And he's willing to cut my hair after a long day, even though he's having a long day. So the loyalty runs deep. I think, you know, being able to give back to the community and showing that, doing events at the shop and each community going to the parades, throwing out footballs to the kids, interacting with people like that in your community is building that loyalty before you know it. Not including, you know, the loyalty programs that we do offer, you know, booking five haircuts receives $10 off. Oh, wow. Kind of stuff like that when the system recognizes that, you know, this guy has been with you for 10 haircuts. that on that 10th haircut, it's free. Well, yeah, it should be free. You know, nine times 35, $40,

you're at $500. You can give that guy a free haircut. He'll come right back, you know, stuff like that working and not necessarily trying to be the celebrity barber, but being the celebrity in your community. That's powerful. I love that a lot. And I think, you know, now that you mentioned that, you just, you were thinking out the box. You were like, I think it's more like working smart than it is actually working out. Of course, working hard is there, but like doing all these different stuff that people would not be doing, getting out your comfort zone, which in your case seems like you're more comfort.

I like it. I always like to say, you know, get used to getting comfortable in your uncomfortable situation. Get comfortable with just being uncomfortable. Have those tough talks, you know. A lot of times that will open up the door for the next opportunity. You've had to have those tough talks. 100%. Now, I mean, barbering, what would be the best measure of like metric to try and like determine a successful like barber?

Like what can measure that? I think what measures a successful barber is, you know, having that schedule pre-printed, opening up your phone and looking at your schedule and understanding that you have 10 haircuts on the day and that you're printing your own money. You know, you just got to show up and execute yourself. I feel like measuring yourself as a barber as, you know, being clean, sanitary, punctual, on time, you know, leaving late, showing up early, you know, taking that last haircut in, you know, in the pecking order of the shop. He goes up and he goes up and he goes up. And then you know you're the next one, but it's like 7 p.m. Instead of being like, at 7 p.m., I got to get out of here.

It's like, yeah, I'm about to get 11. I'm about to get 12 today. You stay right there. I'll be right with you one second. know, that's what measures you as a successful barber, looking at your schedule and being a week to two weeks booked out. You know, not necessarily having to post your schedule on your story. Hey, I got openings at, you know, 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. 12, come hit me up. When when you can just measure yourself with just knowing that people are booking and people are booking your time slots that are available, even with price raises and whatnot. You build it, they'll come.

And then which actually kind of leads to the same question, very similar, then what would set, because there's always good in every specific industry, but then there's always a small percentage of great and elite, you know. So what are those specific components that would actually define or set apart a good and a great barber? Because I mean, actually, if you've won and the people that you've cut hair, you're at the level where I would consider you were great and elite. bar, but what would determine or set apart between the two? What are those specific things? I think, you know, having a routine, waking up at 5 a.m., ready to go, making sure that your morning routine is ready, you know, maybe you hit your workout, you're pumped, and then you get into the workspace and your attitude and your vibe is there. You know, they definitely can feel, you know, if you woke up at 930 and you got to be to work at 10, you know, the booggers in your eyes and stuff.

You can get groginess, like slow pace, people can feel that. I think what's separates yourself is being able to be ready to go right when, right when shops open. Separating yourself from the average is, you know, carrying a high price point. You know, on Saturdays, I only do $100 haircuts. I cannot do anything less than that. The reason being is because I have, I have $100 worth of stuff at home. I need to be with my family, my kids. And if I can't make a sacrifice, I can't make a sacrifice for $35.

I'm not discriminating on the $35 haircut, but being. able to build from 35 to 50 to 60 to 70 and still keeping those high-end clients rolling, I definitely think that that separates you because that person has paid you from $20 to your next jump to $40 to your next jump to $60 and the guy won't leave. You know, why? Why won't he leave? You're trying to shoe out the turds and the, you know, you're trying to weed out the turds. They don't go.

They don't leave. So I think what separates it is just being. punctual, available, and having good energy will really separate when someone comes in stinks, someone has bad breath, you know, maybe smells like marijuana, whatever it may be, people can feel that. And then they're like, are you really worth that? Are you, like, health is wealth. Are you take, are you healthy?

Are you, are you, you know, are you ready to do this full time, 100%? Because if you're not, we can tell by, you know, showing up at 955, maybe showing up at 1015, you know, I'm, you know, My first cut starts at 8 a.m. I'm there at 7.30 a.m. You know, cleaning the shop, you know, taking on tasks that, like, you would think that I would delegate to barbers, hey, I need you to mop and I need, I'll do it. I'm the owner. Leading from the front. I'll do it. Because when I leave, the expectation is, well, Mark would have done it. So I need to do it. Exactly. Right. And so I don't ever like to have that, um, delegation where I'm like, hey, you got to do this, you got to do that. You got to do this. I'll do it to lead by example. And then when,

I asked them to do it, it happens because they know that I'll do it, right? But when I'm not there, I need them to do it because that's what the team is about. I love that. You know, that's what the team's about. I don't want to be that, that guy that's like, oh, Mark always wants me to do this and that, but he's never in the shop. Exactly. And he's never around or I can never get insight from Mark because he's not here.

I'm on the floor. I execute haircuts. I critique haircuts. I help people get better at haircuts. You know, that's what separates that, I believe. Oh, man, I love that so much. So I'm actually in a, I'm currently, I've been doing door to door sales for a while. I did pests from like 2019, 2020, 2021.

I switched from there to doing solar. But at the time I was doing my internship in New York, but we decided to kind of like just go like for the solar field as well. And so I notice as well, especially in the specific field, what people want to quickly do is get to this next level of management. Because at that point, it's easy to delegate and stuff because you're like, you don't want to do the scruffy kind of work as well. Right. And now in solar, it's a little different because usually if you're in management,

you just end up closing deals, which means like the door to door isn't as common. It's a rare occurrence as well, which can sometimes create themes of animosity to those that are, you know, setting the leads for you. Absolutely. It's just like, like he thinks he's like, you know, above and beyond. And I notice as well, like some of the greatest leaders are the ones that are actually in the trenches with those that they're high. it as well. And that makes a massive difference. Because if you see somebody like just sweating, you're like, man, I can do the extra mile. Yes. Mark's doing it. Yes. So I can do it. Absolutely. Mark's been doing this thing for 10 years. So I can definitely do that as well.

100%. So which leads to my next question, when you look for, um, hiring people, like to, you know, to do barbering within your, your, your shops as well, what are the specific criteria that you look for and you see in those that are potentially prospects to work with you. Absolutely. I love it. I definitely think, you know, in our industry, we definitely have a niche so we can't just hire anyone. Unfortunately, you have to have a state of Utah license. So I'm already limited to people. Oh, you have to drive us license from Utah? Sorry, a state Utah barber license. So I can't hire anybody that can't present that license. And then I have to go and verify it. So that already niches me down to a select group of people. And so I tend to work with a lot of

new barbers fresh out of school. And I like that because I can I could groom them to what I expect them to be and the expectations in the barbershop. It's really hard to hire someone that's been shop to shop because they have the shop to shop tendencies. Not only that, but they also come with ego, right? And so I like to say, I'm looking for a grinder, not a hitter. A hitter is someone that can do the most flawless fade enhancements, designs, you know, the works, the beard enhancement, the haircuts on fire as he's cutting it. And he walks around like, I can show up when I want. I take lunch when I want. I book the care cuts that I want. I'm a $50 barber, no less. those people drive me insane, right?

I love the person that's coming out of Barber School that says, Mark, let's do this. I need help. Let's do this, man. Let's see your haircuts. Wow, you need some work. Are you okay with taking some constructive criticism? Are you willing to be coachable?

Can you show up on time? Can you leave late? Can you perform great customer service? Because, you know, at the end of the day, if someone has great customer service, they might get away with a mediocre haircut. because the guy or the girl comes into the shop and they're feeling vulnerable. They're talking with their therapist.

Barbers are therapists. We just don't know it. That's my next question. We just don't know it. So like a lot of times, you know, like having good convos, having a good service, you know, throwing the hot towel on the neck and shaving the neck and be like, look, man, I would love to see you next time. Just book with me. You know, people that are willing to grow and not like shut down into a shell.

Those are the people I'm looking for, you know. that's who I want to hire. And not only that, but then they also come with a lot of like, they need the info. So when they see me doing things, I can literally rub shoulders and they'll start taking on what I do instead of like trying to rub shoulders with another 10 year old barber that I hired. And they're like, look, man, I ain't answering no phones today.

I'm like, bro, they're asking for your name. They want to know if you're in the barbershop. Can you talk to them? instead of me talking to them for them, you know, someone that's, that's who I like to work with. You know, that's it right there. And I like that you mentioned that, which, you know, when you spoke about a therapist, it was going to be like my next question as well. So I want to kind of like go into that.

It's known that barbers are some of the best listeners and some of the greatest therapist because usually when you go there, you find just sometimes a group of men that just want to talk. And it's a place where people usually open up as well. Now, why I'm speaking about this is, has there been a story of a client that maybe you've come across that has positively impacted like you, like you heard from? Can you share any of them if you want to? Absolutely. Absolutely. I have one mentor that he probably doesn't even think I'm a, he's my mentor.

But, you know, I met him, met him about seven, eight years ago. And we were, so car dealership, right? car dealership and a group of guys I grew up with in Cyprus high school, same graduating class. And, you know, some dropped out, some graduated. Some ended up getting their GED. And, you know, I'm just trying to get through school, making sure I graduate and impress my mom. And, you know, I didn't know what I was doing. And next thing, you know, these guys started selling cars. And they're like, look, man, can you get me in? I'm like, yes, sir, I can get you in. And then I got my first $100 haircut. And I was like, whoa, this guy literally paid me $100.

I'm like a year in, right? I'm not even. even maybe two and a half years in, he's like, look, man, if you can always just cut my hair, I always have this $100 for you. I said, you got it, bro. Every time you got it. And then next thing you know, he's got too busy. You got too busy. And so he's like, hey, do you think you can come to my house?

I said, yeah, man, you always treat me. Okay, he's like, do you think $100 is all right? I said, yeah, I'm not too good for $100. I'll come to your house. Like, we're graduating class. You know, I love what you're doing. You're killing it. And he ends up getting into a higher stake in the business that he's working at.

at the car dealership. And so, you know, he started asking me, this is when I was single. And, you know, he's like, yo, we should hit the clubs after. We should go and get after. And I was like, you know, let's do it. So he's like, I have the limo pulling up. And I'm like, the limo. You have the limo pulling up.

What's going on? Like, he's like, yeah, we're just going to hop in the limo. We're going to mob out to the bars. I said, cool, let's do it. So, you know, me and him get in the car and we mob out to the bars. We get out of this. I'm like, man, this guy is doing the thing, you know. And next thing you know, he calls me back out for the haircut again about a week later.

It's every week, $100, you know, $400 a month. Wow. Of one client? One guy, right? When was this? Which year was this? Probably about 2016. Okay.

About 2016, 2017, 2017. You, even today, 100 bucks for my client. Yeah, I'm not too good for 100 bucks, ever. I'll take a dollar out of your pocket, right? I do not care. And so, you know, I'm cutting in these days. Like, one second, bro. My boss is calling.

I said, pause. This is why we're at the house. Your time, bro. This is your time. If we're at the barbershop, I kicked the phone out of your hand. You pay me the price? We're here. Boss walks in, and he's like, what's going on here? And I'm like, just, I'm not saying anything. He's like, oh, this is my barber. He's like, this is your barber? He's like, yeah, he don't miss a hair.

He's like, what? Comes in, gives him paperwork. He's like, my name is Casey Waterbury. And I said, nice to meet you, Casey Waterbury. He's like, you know, I've been having some tough times with the hair and, you know, I would love for you to cut my hair. I said, you know it. Here's my number. It hit me up when you need it, right? Week goes by. I go back over to the guy and he's like, hey, we're going to go out again. You down and go out. I said, as long as I can crash here. If I can crash here, I can go out. He says, cool. Once again, little did I know. This limo wasn't coming from the barber. It was coming from his boss. We get in the car and, you know, we're talking with the driver and the driver's like, hey, what do you guys do?

like, oh, we're car salesman, and I'm just quiet. He's like, so what about you? What do you do? And I'm like, oh, I'm a barber. You know, I cut hair. And, you know, and he's like, you're a barber. And I was like, yeah. He's like, wow, that's nice to know.

Like, where do you cut hair? I was like, you know, Savant barbershops. You should come check me out, you know, start advertising myself a little bit. And then right after that, the next day, Casey Waterbury texts me and says, hey, can you come over to get my, cut my hair? I said, absolutely. Well, that's the boss and that's the coworker. And so I go over there and I cut his hair.

and he's like, wow, I've never had a haircut like this. Like, you grab my ears, you grab my eyebrows, you were doing the nose, you did the straight razor, a skin fade. This is all in the house. You know, I don't get this where I was going. Boom, $300. And I said, off one job? Off just one haircut, 45 minutes.

And I'm like, wow, like, what are we doing here? Like, what are we doing here, right? And so, you know, I'm like, look, man, like, whenever you need the haircut, just, Just holler at me. I would love to service you, you know. And so he's like, I'll see you at the shop. I said, absolutely, you know where to go. Here's the website. And if you have troubles, I can put you into the VIP slot. So I created my own VIP slot, which was 7 to 8 p.m. We closed that 7. So, but I opened that on my, on my calendar because I knew that one, either the co-worker or the owner was going to book that VIP spot. So if I couldn't get to the house and they had to get into the barbershop, 7 to 8 p.m. was there for the $100 guy or the $300 guy.

That's amazing. So then next thing you know, he's like, hey, can you come, can you come to the shop? Can you come to the shop? Boom, got him in the shop, got him into the shop. Now it's been probably about five years where I just cut his hair at home. But I opened up that slot to the VIP pricing so I can start tracking those high-end clientele. And then, you know, it was his boss's boss. And then the Toyota owner.

And then, you know, it just kept on going. and kept on going. And now, you know, we kind of honed into the higher ups where these guys don't care what they pay as long as I show up on time. I get it done in a timely manner. And it's exactly what they want. And they'll pay me. That's so powerful.

And speaking of that, I'm glad you shared that story. I wasn't expecting that form of answer, but that was perfect. And speaking of these high clients that pay so high, from the story that you mentioned, seems like they come up with the price. You never ever, like, come up with the price. It's like they just end up, like, giving what they feel was worth the specific barber, right? Absolutely. And what's funny about that is you're 100% right.

In fact, I just cut his hair three days ago, and I haven't received the invoice. But the last thing I'm going to do is ask for $100. The last thing I'm going to do is ask him for $100. Because I know it's going to come around. It's going to come around. And it's probably going to come around with some tax on it. Oh man, I totally forgot. 150 or something like that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no big deal. I'm not going to say a word. It's going to come back, you know? I would have seen someone was going to ask in the comment section by the time this released. Did you get your payment? And what was it? Yes.

Now speaking of that, we can see, obviously, you're extremely diligent. You take pride in the work that you do as well. What advice then would you give somebody that's either going to Paul Mitchell or one of these schools or even just wants to start? What advice would you give them from what you know? know now in the experience that you've gained over these years? You know, it's definitely not an overnight success. This stuff happens as you gain hours, as you get your name out there.

It doesn't happen tomorrow. It didn't happen to me tomorrow. But it will. It will come. And you just have to be patient, you know. Jumping to that next step can too fast can hurt you. And in fact, with being an owner of two shops working on my third shop, I can definitely see people like, oh, if Mark can do it, I can do it.

Yes, you can. Yes, you can. But don't speed to it. Don't speed to it. Allow that journey to be there. Take every step into consideration. Look at the overall picture, the liabilities, you know, get into the shop, work hard, you know, accept the walk in, do something that, you know, a lot of barbers don't like cutting long hair. even though they're trained to cut long hair, cut the long hair, you know, take the kids haircut, you know, build relationships with those guys. I have probably about four to five kids right now

that are about 18, 19. And, you know, they're paying me a good price, but it's because I was cutting their hair at age eight, you know. I 10 years, I was watching these kids kind of grow up, and that's the journey I love the most. You know, someone could pay me $100 for a haircut, $300. They can fly me out to Idaho and give me. $2,000 like I have received before. But that's not the overall aspect of things. You know, be able to understand that like you have to have a full schedule to be able to like proceed with things, you know, develop, develop your systems to where you're

booking your clients, rebooking them at checkout. So that way you do have that printing paper. And then you can start being like, you know, I need to go get more education. I need to go and do these classes. Mark, are you teaching a class soon? How can I get more knowledge? You know, it's not an overnight success, and I think that it comes with time, but you definitely have to understand financial situations as a barber. You're a 1099 contractor. You know, maybe go take a financial course to understand what an LLC is or S-Corp or if I'm going to even generate enough money to put it into something like that. You know, try to get away from just the fast cash. I'm going to go spending on McDonald's. I'm going to go do this. I'm going to go do that. You know, really start understanding finances before you start trying to jump so quick where you could fall. 100%. And speaking obviously of that, I had a quick question. I don't even know, like, if somebody were to work for you in your barbershop, do they get paid hourly or do they

get paid per client? Like, how does that like work? Yeah. So in the barbershops nowadays, you know, there's a lot there's like two ways of really kind of yeah there's the hourly rate um that that starts attracting a certain style or a certain barber um we actually uh do commission base okay that's awesome so we do commission base where sky's the limit um you know and everybody starts at a general commission and then after time as the system reports back to us as we see your ethnic and how you present yourself, you know, there's always room for growth. We'll drop your commissions and drop your commissions. In our shop, we're commission-based and we don't touch your tip. So, you know, someone will be like, hey, can I Venmo you for the tip? You know, a lot of times, you know,

when I hear that, I'm like, I'm like hoping the barber says no, because that's just another thing that you have to go and calculate, you know, and take that into consideration. I would rather you charge a transaction, you know, a $35 haircut, maybe do the beard and eyebrows and ends up being a $40- $45 haircut. But as the transaction grows, your tip grows. So I really try to make the barbers understand that. They're a lot of tip you right here. It's going 100% to you.

I don't touch your tips. So that makes the barber work for customer service, you know? That makes them like, okay, I'm going to wipe them down really good. I'm going to shave everything. I'm going to do the works. I'm going to get everything. Hopefully I can get that $10 tip. hopefully I could get that $20 tip because before you know it, when I go back and look at things,

people are tipping just as much as the haircut price. So, you know, when the services are a little bit lower, they tend to tip you a little bit higher. You know, when the services are up high, they're going to tip you a little bit lower. I like to have that happy medium to where I'm not price gouging my barbers, but also the overhead gets taken care of. 100%. The reason I actually even asked that it was going to lead to my follow-up question because I feel it can also bring some form of complacency if people are all like in the same hourly job

because you get other people that may bring clients that are going to be tipping $100 and you get others that are going to do like a mediocre job. So it avoids that form of complacency. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. And there's another way that barbershops run things. It's like a flat rate.

You pay weekly, you know, like $200 a week. Every week. At the end of the week, it's $200 to the owner, $200 to the owner. The reason why I don't like doing that is because I don't like doing that is because I I get to see, if I had a flat rate, I just see the flat rate every month. I don't have any room for growth. So when, you know, the lease hits a year and the lease goes up, my money starts getting tapped. Meaning, okay, so the rent went up $50, $100, but then I renewed my lease and now I agreed to a 2% increase on rent.

And now, you know, I'm paying such and such. And I have to go up. I have to bring that booth rent barbara over and be like, hey, so like your price goes up. price is going up. I got to charge you more to make overhead happen. They're gone. They skedaddle. No, no, no, no.

I'm out. And a lot of times, booth rent barbers typically be, are the hitters, the barbers that have the clientele already generated to where that's a good thing for the barber is to get on a booth rent at a certain point in time. But we don't offer that because our leases escalate.

And if, if it's escalating, then the money gets tapped and then I can't make overhead. So that's kind of like, you know, commission is always good. So when it's a holiday, when it's spring break, when it's graduation, if the barber shop's busy, the barber is busy. If the barber is busy, the barber's shop is busy. But when it's slow, the barber's shop is slow and the barber is slow. So what are we?

Yeah, so what are we going to do to get busier? And it's my responsibility and the barber's responsibility to get it busier. To get it. And then once it's busy, it's like everyone's having a great day, right? But then when it's slow, it's like, okay, so what do we do? You know what I mean? So it's everybody's responsibility when it's on commission. Instead of just, you know, when it's a holiday and you're on booth rent, the barbershop's

busy, but I never see the busyness because I have a flat rate. So if it's Easter, for instance, right, and it gets busy, the barbers are busy, but the barbershop just makes a flat rate income still. Okay. You know what I mean? Yeah, that actually makes sense. Once you can scale it and understand the scale, that's, that's, you know, that's a lot of, that's, what's rewarding. I love being able to scale something and then execute it. You know, it's funny.

I'm glad you explained that because in my mind, I was just thinking it just about like work ethic and just complacency and all these different stuff. But when you start putting in perspective overheads and you start putting perspective like just clients coming in and so forth, it actually means more than what I was actually thinking to us. So the reason I also like the whole commission's thing. So when I got married, my wife and I, we actually, we got married in Idaho. Then we moved straight back to like Georgia because we were doing like sales around there. However, when I was doing pest at that time, she was doing like, she wasn't at olive garden.

But she was so good because she was working both at the bar and also like as a server, but she was making literally like a thousand a week straight off tips because she literally had like clients that were her regulars that would often come. Even if they just get a normal drink, they would tip like 20 to 50 bucks just for a drink. because that relationship was built then. And I just, I wish people understood the value of relationships, you know, how important, like, those are as well. And from the experience that you've mentioned, do you have any other, like, experience you want to, or like, the importance to stress of how important relationships are in any field, especially in your field? Well, yeah, absolutely.

When someone first walks into the barbershop and you can't greet them, you know, that relationship is done. It's kind of like, it's kind of like a first impression. You're going on a date and your first impression with that girl got to be superb. And that's kind of how it is when in the barbershop for us, we take walk-ins and appointments. So people are walking in the door that we have never serviced before. And that's like my duty. My duty is to bring in new clients, new clients, because yeah, there's turnover. Someone's going to get a haircut.

Don't want to go back there, right? It happens, right? And especially when you get the new barber or when you get the apprentice on. And so the goal is to greet the person. person walking into the business that's willing to pay you. That's already setting that relationship up. You can greet someone one-on-one. Hey, yeah, I can take you right here, have a seat. Boom. He's already feeling confident. But when someone is, someone's walking into the door and walking in and you're like, oh, I don't know how to cut that hair. I'm going to the back. That relationship's done. That person's

going to turn around and walk out too. So it's just the confidence. Confidence will build the relationship. Absolutely. Okay. Now I love that. I love that a lot. Looking back from obviously your journey, 2015 coming out of high school with your uncle and so forth. And where you're at right now, what do you think would have helped you had you known what you know now back then as well? Yeah, man, I was definitely that barber where I take my cash and run straight to the store with it. Spent all my money in one spot.

You know, I'd go, I'd love for Terra burrito, some other burrito and blah. Drive to Vegas. Yeah, man. I would go to Wendover, gambled, you know, fast money as a barber, fast money, you know. And my- Because it's cash, right? Yeah, man. Like, you see this?

You're like, whoa, I'm not going to touch this for a week. And next thing you know, you're like, there's a thousand dollars in cash. Where are we going, right? What I wish I knew when I was young in the game is my finances. I wish I, you know, took my taxes seriously. I wish I got into an S-corpor and LSC quicker. I wish I got a business count sooner. So then that way, my finances are all under control.

So when I need to get a house or when I needed to go and get a car, it happened like that. I ran into a lot of problems where, you know, I'd go to the bank and be like, hey, I need to get financed for a car. They're like, okay, show me your bank statements. Show me what you're doing. You're a barber. You're 1099. Yeah, show them everything.

And they're like, but when you show me these bank statements, I see McDonald's. I see Subway. You know, I see it all. You know, you hit the, you got wind over ATM transactions, you know. But there is nothing separating the personal to the business. side of things. So when I gave it to the underwriter, the underwriter is like, dude, you're like negative $100. How do you think you're going to afford this car? And I'm like, dude, I make money. Like I make money. I can pay for this car. They're like, no, according to these bank

statements, you can't afford anything in fact. And I'm like, what? You know, so I started talking and started talking and, you know, where I came from, they didn't have the knowledge to give to me to critique and correct this. But as I learned, you know, talking to certified public accountants, trying to file taxes, you know, they're like, why are you filing taxes, bro? You make cash. And I'm like, yeah, I need to show them that. They're like, you're claiming your tips?

Absolutely. I made $20,000 in tips this year. Put that on top of the total. Bro, tips are non-taxable. Not right now. Put that bad boy on there. I need to show income. They're like, you're a psychopath.

So then, you know, I sat there at the CPA and he's like, dude, you need to get a business account and you get a personal account. You need to put all your money into this business account. And then you could transfer out to your personal account. Use your personal account to take care of stuff. When you go and get applied for things, when you need to get financed for things, give them your business account. And so after about six, seven years, I started understanding like, wow, you know, I have a kid on the way. I need to get a house. live with mom like you know I'm 22 years old I need to get out of mom's house so you know I talked to

the underwriter I asked them exactly what did I needed to do got all my ducks in a row took two years gave them all my paperwork they're like okay you can afford a 250,000 dollar house boom and I'm like wow boom and that was about four or five five years ago so when I was looking at houses they were they were pretty decent so I'm like okay how do I leverage this to to 275,000. She's like, oh, well, maybe, um, do you have any depreciation? Do you have any, what's your assets like? What's depreciation?

What, what's this and what's that? And I said, okay, well, I have a barber chair and I have, I have 10 barbers. And I, she's like, okay, that's depreciation. So she threw that on top of my, now I'm looking at $275,000 houses. I was like, okay. So, you know, I looked around and this is when the market started escalating a little bit. And I was like, uh-oh, you know, I got to get out of the city. I can't afford a house.

I don't have $350,000. I only have about $250 to $2.75. So I took myself to Twila County around the mountain. You know, from here, it's probably about 50 minutes, 40 minutes. Stansbury Park. I found my first house and I bought it for, you know. Stansbury Park. Stansbury Park, Utah, yep.

And so I bought my first house over there about six years ago. It's a nice area. Five years ago. And it was about $250,000. And I sold it for about $475,000. So, and then that's when I started seeing quick, fast, money and I'm like I need to be a realtor I need to be a realtor and then I was like no I'm gonna I'm gonna hone into what I know here and so that's that's how that that's what I wish I

knew early on because it wouldn't have took me seven years to understand you know yeah buying the gold chain and in the pinky ring with fast cash was cool until I couldn't prove that income to the underwriters to the lenders you know that's that's what I wish I knew more and do you think there's a lack of financial literacy within the industry because of the fast cash, because it's cash and cash is so tempting. That's why it's much better to just store it somewhere because if you see money, you're like, I wouldn't mind a double-double and style. That's right, baby. That's right. I wouldn't mind raising gains. That's right. I wouldn't mind that going to Vegas.

Hell yeah. That's right. Do you think there's a lack of financial like literacy within like the field? Because sometimes you mentioned all these S-Corp, CPA, account. And those are so important because if you fully can understand that, whoa, I can actually afford a home if I can try and show within my tax return. So is there a lack of it? And how bad is it? There's a big lack of financial literacy in the Barber world. I wish there was more in the Barber schools. There should be at least half of the hours.

They only need a thousand hours there. When I was an apprentice, I had to make 1,250 because I wasn't an actual school. I definitely think 500 of those hours needs to be one-on-one's. with certified public accountants. I definitely think so because on my end, I'm the financial literacy in my building.

Oh, I love that. With 30 barbers, you know, just, I told this one guy, you know, this is how you have to do it, you know, got into it, got into it,

and then he started asking me all these questions. I said, where are you getting this info? Like, this is nothing I've ever heard about. Do you have a CPA? He's like, no,

this is what my homie is saying. Bro, can we not do what the homie is saying? Can we get to, an actual person that has the leverage that actually studies this. And so, you know, within the savant barbershops itself, we have a CPA that we send to as when people start asking those questions. Is that for all the employees and everyone? Yep. And my business partner, Ethan, his grandpa was actually, you know, the first, the youngest CPA in Utah, age like 15. He's like 75, right? So this was with- He's the emeritus, man. This guy was a C-Bronauts.

for Brigham Young. Dude, right? He saw so much stuff. This was before regulations of like, you have to have two years of college and you have to have this in four-year degree and all that. You know, he got into it really quick.

And he's a genius with the 1099s. You know, he really knows how to like leverage it. And so maybe he's not the best commuter person. Yeah. It's because he's dealing with, you know, million-dollar counts all the time. And I always tell the guys, you know, like, here's my CPA, message him 45 times.

He's going to message you back. but don't think that you can't go and message another CPA. Don't think that you can't go to who your friends using because that knowledge is very valuable. I can get you off the road. I can get you a little bit where, you know, you have your business account now. You went to American First and got your business account. I can definitely help you with that. But then now you've got to start learning how to leverage accounts and have, you know, your tools being taken out of your business so you can write it off.

and being able to take care of your gas mileage on your business instead of your personal and giving yourself a salary. You know, I talk with my guys all the time. And speaking of tax season, it's here. And a lot of these guys are like, what do I do? I said, you got to start sectioning your expenses and your write-offs and what you use and what you don't use. And they're like, what? I have to do that?

And I'm like, yeah, this is what you signed up for. They're like, well, do you do that? And I said, yeah, do you have quickbooks? Do you have anything like that that is calculating your ends and your outs and you know people are like, I'm going to go do a house call. I'm going to go make a quick $100 haircut. And then they deposit that into their personal account. And that should be going into their business account.

Right? Yeah. And so then at the end of the season comes they're trying to do their taxes and they're getting hit with personal taxes because they're still taking income in their personal taxes or their personal personal account, they didn't switch it over to their business account. So now they get hit with more taxes and they're like, bro, how is it possible? And I'm like, it's possible. You need the right resources.

So now, you know, four or five guys in the shop are at that point. They're like, let's do this. You know, I need to write estimates. I said, yes, you do. You need to log into the IRS and send your estimate. So then that way at the beginning of the year, you don't have $12,000 in taxes being owed to Uncle Sam, $20,000 in taxes to Uncle Sam. It's all the small details, right, that all just accumulate over time.

time. Yeah, man. They're like, Mark, you're paying that much in taxes. Yeah, I messed up. I didn't pay my estimates last year. Now I got to pay a lump sum, but I know that that's coming. It's different than not knowing and filing your taxes and be like, whoa, I got to pay that much. Yes, you do. It's because services are not taxable in the shop. They're the services. So, 100.