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Hey Reader,

This newsletter marks a huge shift in my career. Friday March 7th was my last day working a full time job as the Director of Sales for a software company.

I quit for barbering.

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my reel but here's the full story.

Getting my barber license

I got my barber license in June 2019 and started working in the shop. In January, my wife and I found out we were expecting our first child to be born in September 2020.

And then March 2020 happens.

Looking for a backup plan

I wasn't sure what to do. I took a Strengths Finder workshop to help brainstorm. (I highly recommend Strengths Finder by the way). I had another remote part-time job that was keeping us afloat but I knew a bigger decision was on the horizon.

With the shop shut down, I looked for problems in the barber industry that I might be able to help solve. After some research, I discovered that the barber exam pass rates were pretty bad. Like 40% pass rate bad. That means on average, 4 out of 10 barbers passed the exam in California.

Becoming an educator

So I started teaching barber exam workshops. No one was really focusing on this topic and I was genuinely passionate about it. I started teaching classes to barber schools across the state and created an account with Kit to easily deliver free barber exam study resources.

*Kit is the company I use to send this newsletter and manage my creator business. If you're interested in learning more, happy to set up a call to share more about why I love Kit.

Working for Squire

Then my son was born in September 2020. After some thought, I decided it was best to find a remote job with benefits so I could be close to my son. I kept cutting hair on the side but it wasn't going to be my main job.

​Squire hired me onto their sales team. They're one of the most popular barber management platforms in the community.

I quickly became a top sales rep and was promoted 2 times in less than 6 months. As the only licensed barber at Squire, I was able to understand the problems many barbers faced within their business which helped me find success fast.

Learning from industry leaders

They started sending me to barber expos across the US where I worked the Squire booth. I took advantage of the opportunity and started networking to soak up as much wisdom as possible. Jay Majors, Anthony Giannotti, Marcus Harvey, Diego Elizarraras, Chris Bossio, the founders of Illuzien, Pat Regan, Vince Garcia to name a few.

After 1 year of working for Squire, I learned so much. It truly opened my eyes to embrace barber culture and to see the opportunities within the industry.

Becoming a sales manager

From there, I was recruited by another company to be a Sales Manager. Mariana Tek is a similar product but serves boutique fitness studios. I got a significant salary increase and was able to buy a condo. The task was to build an outbound sales team from scratch. I was hyped.

Staying connected to barbering

Even though I was working full time in a different industry, I continued cutting hair and nurturing my relationships in the barber community. I started a podcast, started this newsletter, launched an online course, started guest writing and even started Big Day Barbers (on-site mobile barbering for weddings).

Learning biz from the best in fitness

While working for Mariana Tek, I quickly realized that barbers can learn a lot about business from boutique fitness studios. I got to attend fitness expos where I learned even more about business strategies and best practices. These expos were on a different level than barber expos.

From New York to Miami to Los Angeles, I had a front row seat to witness how the biggest brands in boutique fitness were running their business. I took barre classes, spin classes and even a pilates class to experience the premium level of service that make these studios so successful.

Getting promoted 3 times

During my 3 years with Mariana Tek, I was promoted 3 times. My team sold over $1 million dollars in monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and we hit our goal 8 quarters in a row.

But despite my success, I felt like it was time to return to the barber community. My barber dreams were put on pause in March 2020 and after 5 years I felt like it was time to resume the pursuit.

Quitting for barbering

I bought a barbershop that's a 40 minute drive from my house. (You can read more about that here). It's a fully functioning shop that doesn't necessarily need me but does if I want to grow it. I plan to cut 2 days a week on Sundays and Mondays for now. The shop was open Tuesday to Saturday and so I'll now upgrade the shop to being open everyday.

On the other days, I'll continue writing, creating content and consulting various businesses in and out of the barber industry. With all my sales strategy and leadership experience, some businesses have reached out for consulting and it'd be silly for me not to take advantage. Plus I genuinely love talking strategy.

Looking forward

I'm not positive how this will all shake out, but here's the thing. My greatest fear is to get to the end of my life and look back wondering 'what could have been?'

I don't wanna say 'Shoulda, coulda, woulda.'

I would much rather take the risk and fail, than not take the risk at all.

Expect a lot more content

As I look to build my clientele in a brand new city and manage the shop, I'll now have real experiences to pair with all the business strategies I love to write about. For example, this week I experimented with the 'free haircuts' strategy. Next week I'll share more about what worked well and what I would do differently.

Whether you're a barber student, newly licensed barber, shop owner or not a barber but in the industry...I'm confident there will be something interesting for you.

Cheers to pursuing our dreams.

P.S. If you read this far, appreciate it. Future newsletters won't be this long.

Written by: Matthew Mendoza​​
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