Mikey Moran - Fearless Beauty: Fearless Beauty: The Hair Business Blueprint

Transcript

[0:00:40] DA: Mikey Moran had only a single advantage when he started his hair and beauty business: his idea was different from anything he’d seen in the industry. Seven years later, Mikey has expanded his original idea into 10 different brands, five retail locations, and one partnership with global e-commerce giant, Shopify. In his new book Fearless Beauty, Mikey provides you with a roadmap to achieve success easier, faster, and more efficiently than you ever thought possible. He shows you how to think like an entrepreneur by introducing you to practical theories that should guide every decision, and then presents a step-by-step plan for taking action and getting started. You’ll learn core marketing techniques that yield the biggest impact, how to select the best web platform for your business and why consistency - or a lack of it - can make or break you. No matter your industry or where you are in the process of becoming an entrepreneur, you’ll get insightful strategies for maximizing returns and enjoying every step of the journey of your business. Hey Listeners, my name is Drew Applebaum and I’m excited to be here today with Mikey Moran, author of Fearless Beauty: The Hair Business Blueprint. Mikey, thank you for joining, welcome to the Author Hour podcast.

[0:01:45] MM: Thank you, I’m obviously very excited to be here.

[0:01:47] DA: Let’s kick this off, can you give us a rundown of your professional background?

[0:01:51] MM: Yeah, it’s been filled with failure until recently, with some things just happen to work out. In my earlier years, I started out doing the normal entrepreneurship of lemonade stands to mowing lawns, to shoveling snow and sportscard collecting, and all that, and then I had a dry period for probably over a decade trying to find that ‘big idea’, which everybody is looking for, that ‘big idea’. I actually found something that was pretty big, it was called Curry Simple. It was the first packaged Thai Curry sauce ever to be sold in the US and it was mildly successful. And then, like many businesses, I got absolutely crushed by the economic issues we had in 2009 going into 2010. And then, I tried a bunch of other things in the middle and then got into the hair industry, kind of came up with the idea in 2013 and launched in 2014. And we’ve been pushing hard ever since.

[0:02:44] DA: Now, why was now the time to share the stories in the book? You just mentioned you’ve been successful recently, was it that? Or was there an “Aha!” moment or something else inspiring out there that you said, “Hey, I want to put this writing down right now?”

[0:02:58] MM: Yeah, I’ve really wanted to reach a certain level of success where I felt very comfortable sharing my story. I think in the social media world, there’s too many times we see the highlight reel of people’s lives on Instagram and you really wonder, what have they really accomplished? I wanted to get to the point where I’ve reached a certain level of success, plenty of failure, so I can give that type of experiences on paper, so hopefully, it guides people through the journey a little bit easier. And, let them know it’s okay to fail forward, make mistakes and that’s really how you learn, and then get to the point where you can reach a certain level of success and be pretty happy.

[0:03:41] DA: Now, a lot of authors have the idea of a book rattling around in their head and you might even outline that idea, but during the writing process and just by digging deeper into some of the subjects you wrote about, there will be major breakthroughs and learnings. Did you have any of these major breakthroughs or learnings during your writing journey?

[0:03:58] MM: It’s interesting because the writing process and going through all the chapters, and everything else, it was way more rewarding that I thought it actually was going to be. Because I feel like, over the last eight years since I’ve been doing my business, I’ve just been pushing morning, day, and night, every single day. So, it was more of a reflection of how far we’ve actually come in such a short period of time. It made me learn that it’s good sometimes to hit the pause button for a minute and really think about how you made this journey, focus on what has made this journey great, and how to continue this journey being great.

[0:04:39] DA: Now, when you were writing the book, who in your mind were you writing this book for? Is it people thinking of starting a business now? Or, can established business owners read the book and have takeaways as well?

[0:04:52] MM: A little bit of both. I would say, really, the target is people in the hair industry. I feel like educating over the years, I’ve really realized, especially in the hair industry that is a really creative group of people, so that the business side is something that is not really taught as much in the hair industry. It’s really to those people. Now, pretty much any entrepreneur that wants to get started in any industry, I think the first four chapters of the book, where it’s more mindset-based, it is phenomenal. I think the story is really good and some of the pieces where a lot of other entrepreneurs that have been in business for a while would really appreciate and really kind of connect with it. Then the last four chapters are really about getting it started and getting it going, that’s why it’s called The Hair Business Blueprint. You could really put about any business just starting out, put that into the blueprint, and get started that way but really, I feel like for the book is really for my client base, for my industry, and when you’re talking about hair and beauty, it’s a lot easier for people to relate and learn what exactly you’re saying. If it was about widget X, Y, Z that somebody doesn’t have any idea about this product, it makes it a lot more difficult for them to learn. I really wanted to have my focus on the hair and beauty industry to make it easier for me to guide them through the process of getting their mindset right and then the business started.

[0:06:20] DA: Now, as a forewarning, do you want to tell listeners/readers, what’s not in the book?

[0:06:27] MM: What’s not in the book? It’s just a book. There’s probably tons that are not in the book, to be honest. But I try to- I really opened up about personal experiences and the mindset. I even have a portion that my long-time girlfriend and partner has in the book that I think is really special, because it’s not always about you, the entrepreneur, it’s the people that you’re affecting around you, right? It’s like your friends and family are going to go through this with you and then also a loved one or partner. And it’s sometimes not easy because, you know, I talk in the book about how you really need to put the business first for it to reach a certain level of success. There’s going to be- Everyone’s going to have their own journey and their own way, but it’s really for the beginning portion of getting started in an industry, whatever that industry may be. You never know, there could be a second book one day down the line about the experiences over the next five years about everything else we’re doing to grow and expand our business.

[0:07:30] DA: Now, you mentioned it a few minutes earlier in our conversation, but I’d love to dive back in: You had started a few businesses before you got into the hair business. Can you talk about those and what lessons they imparted on you?

[0:07:41] MM: Sure, getting started with the food business is a highly competitive industry. My product was pretty revolutionary because it was the first of its kind. People in America love Thai food, they love sauces, so it made sense. I would have to say I was probably a little bit early with that. I mean, I was selling Thai food online in 2006! I was making YouTube videos on how to make a Thai ice tea with my product in 2006! It was pretty much unheard of at the time. If I wanted to do that now, I could probably make it much more successful. I think there is a lot that I learned during that time about really being prepared and the things that aren’t always going to be so wonderful every single day and how to really plan for that. After the food business, I got into food trucks and I got into music in the cloud, and some other pretty exciting stuff, and honestly, a lot of those failed because I didn’t really have the right partnerships. I learned a lot about partnerships and making sure that when you’re getting into a business, make sure you have pretty clear definitions about what everyone’s doing, making sure that all your paperwork is – it’s all together. I was just having lunch with one of my best friends just this weekend and he was telling me about a new business he’s getting into, and he’s talking about a couple of different partners and what they kind of maybe do. And I said, “Hey, look. You really need to button down. Friendships aside, you really need to make sure that this is very clear, you have a partnership agreement, the legal structure’s all good, you have to do all this stuff even if they are your friends and say, ‘you worry about it later’. No, no, no, you need to worry about it now!” It’s just one of those things, I just pretty much made every mistake in the book and learned from it. And I would have to say, I’ve been pretty resilient in entrepreneurship over the last 15 years, that’s really got me to where I am today.

[0:09:33] DA: What does the mindset need to be for folks who really have a great idea or they just have a lot of knowledge on a subject and they want to make the leap to business owner?

[0:09:45] MM: Well, I think we all have great ideas. I mean, I find myself saying I have a great idea about every day. It’s really about the execution. It’s really about the speed of execution, meaning, if you have this idea and you’re really going to do it and you really want to go for it, how fast can you get everything done? Because a lot of times, once this business starts, the clock starts ticking, you have expenses, you have competition, you have everything else. It’s highly, highly crucial that as soon as you start doing this, that you really put in your all and you’re really sure you’re going to do this, and, you know what? If it doesn’t work out, don’t worry, just take it as a life lesson and I promise you, the second time you do a business, it’s going to be way easier. Think about that really, the clock starts ticking as soon as you get it started and expenses build up, and everything else. It’s just really important to move really quick in entrepreneurship.

[0:10:43] DA: Is that something that you could really teach? Can you really prepare someone to become - and for everything that’s going to come with - becoming a small business owner?

[0:10:53] MM: I think it’s something that it’s more of being really focused. I think a lot of us get unfocused by social media and shiny objects. People start- I see people in my industry, they started a hair brand and the next thing you know, they’re like, “Oh next week I’m going to start this clothing line too.” And I said, “Woah-Woah-Woah, you haven’t even made this successful yet!” So, I think people just have to really focus on what’s important. I think a to-do list, as simple as it sounds, I think it’s absolutely crucial and the beginning of the day, you have to focus on getting those, the most important or hard-to-do items done first and then start working your way down the list. Every time I get a small thing that I need to do, I always put it on my phone. I use a program called Todoist, I’m absolutely in love with it, it syncs in with my Google Chrome browser. When I click a new tab, it has my to-do list right there. That time that I think I’m going to be playing around on Facebook for 10 or 15 minutes, I’m like, “Yeah, let’s get back on this to-do list”. It really zones you into focusing on what’s important and then it also will help clear your head of, “I have to do this, this, that,” and forgetting items. I think just really focusing on how to focus and learning what that means for you is really important.

[0:12:09] DA: Yeah, I like that you said, “what it means for you,” because I think a lot of folks who start a business, they have this really big reason why, or they have this really big goal, why are they going to work so hard, why are they going to build this business, whether it’s “Hey, I’m going to take care of my family," “I want to take care of myself,” “I want to move here,” “I want to own this.” But, can a small business owner survive without that burning “why?” Without thinking that they’re almost not allowed to fail?

[0:12:37] MM: Yeah, it’s tough, you know? I think everyone has their own journey, right? The way they approach things. Really, you have to think of it this way: if you have two businesses and you have kind of like-minded people, and one person is just not going to be as serious and die-hard about it as the other, it’s really going to come down to your skillsets and then also finances, right? Some small– When I started, I had no money. I basically borrowed the money from my mom, I eventually paid her back to get this business started. I always like to tell people that there is a few things that you have to take into consideration when starting your business. You can either do all the work yourself, or you can hire great people to do it for you. I think it also depends on the stage at where you are in your life. If you have a bunch of money in the bank, you know what? You can probably get a lot of things done, and get people hyped up, and pay them well to get these things done to move the business forward quickly. If you don’t have that advantage, then you’re going to have to put in a lot of hard work. If you’re not really excited and don’t really have a ‘why’ behind your business, that hard work is not going to be fun. I put in a lot of hard work every single day but I love what I do. I honestly feel like I haven’t worked in years. When people see me, they say, “Okay, this guy works all the time,” that’s fine but I love what I do so much that it doesn’t feel like work, which makes it a lot easier. It’s definitely helpful to be passionate and have a “why” behind it, otherwise, you better have a lot of money! But, most people I know, they just don’t necessarily have all of that money just to throw at an idea and just hope it works and piece it together that way.

[0:14:10] DA: Now, while you’re reading the book, there are certain stopping points where you offer a lot of ‘pro-tips’, you call them. Can you talk about what sort of wisdom do they offer, the ‘pro-tips’?

[0:14:21] MM: Yeah, I thought it was a good way to break up the book. I was thinking about how I read specific books like this, and then there’s kind of like a more call-to-action kind of a pause that allows you to think about the ‘pro-tips’, whatever it may be in the book. You’re going to have to read the book to see the pro-tips. You know, it’s just kind of like a break, a pause, with some real clear concise actionable information that you can either do or put in your mindset to really think about. I thought it was just something that could be really helpful for a lot of people, and it is really from my personal experiences or really from my heart.

[0:15:02] DA: Now, when you’re reading the book, do the chapters build off of one another, or can you pop in and just have a deep dive on one subject in one chapter?

[0:15:11] MM: You can- The first four chapters are really focused on mindset and I really wanted that part first because I feel like you have to really be prepared mentally to get into entrepreneurship. I mean it’s a real battle! You know, I look at other people in the beauty space and it’s highly competitive, and guess what? All great industries are highly competitive. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t get into it but you just have to realize that. The mindset part I think it’s best if you start with chapter one and go through those four chapters and then the actual doing it part, the blueprint of getting started, I think it is definitely best to start at chapter five and then go through chapter eight. It is kind of a two-part section there, split up at the book, but I would definitely kind of keep in sync. It’s not like Tim Ferriss has some books that I love that you can kind of just open up anywhere and just say, “Hey look, I’m just going to learn something new here today!” It’s not really like that. It’s kind of you either start in the front or the middle and then keep going from there.

[0:16:12] DA: Speaking of that second half of the book, you call that half where it contains ‘doing it’ tasks. What exactly are the tasks that you’re asking readers to do?

[0:16:22] MM: You know, it starts off pretty simple and it’s really worded so it’s more of the idea. It’s not necessarily, “Hey, do this, this, this.” The book is not long enough to be able to do something like that, and things change so often. Really, it focuses on getting the legal structure right, making sure you have the right people, getting into the technology and the website, and how important it is to get on the platform, the email system, starting to get into Facebook and Instagram ads, the importance of customer service, and then how all- And then really building your brand. And how all of these really come full circle together. A lot of people think- they say, “Hey Mikey-” You know, I’ll post sometimes just to get people hyped up, I post some of my results for Facebook or Instagram advertising - and I have some pretty amazing results on some of these - and people are like, “Oh, I want you to teach me how to do Facebook ads.” And really, it’s not about learning just how to do Facebook ads. That’s really five or 10% of the success that I show people. It’s really all the other parts of really building the brand, the customer service, and making sure everything is running smooth that makes these results look so phenomenal. You could be the greatest Facebook/Instagram ad person in the world but if you’re doing it for a business and a brand that is not set up to succeed, it’s going to fail.

[0:17:46] DA: Someone reads the book, they are going through the steps, and they’re in the second half, and they’re doing it, they’ve started their business, how long before someone can expect to have a moment when they can actually breathe after everything’s started? Maybe even take a vacation?

[0:18:02] MM: Wow, that’s a good one. I would say a minimum of two years. The first two years are absolutely crucial for getting your business started. I really talk about in the book about reinvesting and the importance of doing so to grow your business, right? Your business is like a baby, you just have to keep feeding it, you know? If you just start taking out profits, your baby is going to starve. It’s really that simple. The longer that you can go without the gratification of buying fancy stuff and everything else in growing your business, it will be better. You know, to be honest with you, my first business failed and I really, really was wiped out in the early 2010-2011 period. Starting this beauty business, I really wanted to make sure that things were solid before I jumped in fully. To get started, I was working a full-time job, 50 hours a week, full-time plus, and I would do the work on that beauty business from 5 AM to 8 AM, and then I would work all day, and then I would work on it late until late at night. What that did was it allowed me to build up the business. I had employee number one, and employee number two, employee number three, two and a half years later, I came on as employee number four. I actually paid myself for the first time and it was great. You know, so I really wanted to have that strong business. And that’s not something I necessarily recommend everyone to do, it’s just something that I failed so bad and I was so wiped out after my first business that I really had to go a different path and the path actually worked out really well for me.

[0:19:38] DA: What’s your goal for people reading the book? What do you really hope they’ll accomplish after reading it?

[0:19:45] MM: I think it’s a clear path to success in the beauty industry. It’s really something that I think is needed. I run the largest Facebook group for somebody wanting to get started in the hair extension industry, my starter hair extension business group. I’ve posted in there every single day since 2014 and I have about, at this time, about 36, 37,000 members, and people are posting and ask questions and I answer questions all the time in there and I get a ton of feedback. Really, this book was written because of I get feedback from new business owners every single day about where they struggle, where they’re getting lost, what they need help with and that’s why I really created this book was to help people. Because, I think about it, I said, “Wow, if someone sat me down and said, “Mikey, you read this book, you follow this book, it’s going to make you – there is a much better chance of your success, right? There is no guarantees in life especially in business, but I guarantee you, you will be more successful if you do that”. I wanted to create something that will help people and businesses, let them understand that, you know, “Hey, at this point, yeah, things for Mikey look really great," but what did I go through to get here? And let people have a real expectation of what it takes to run a successful business. Going back to the social media highlight reel and Instagram, where people they’re on their laptop on the beach and they’re like, “Oh, I only work a couple of hours a day and my business is going great, and all this stuff,” and they make it look so amazing. You know, I have some of those photos too where it’s my laptop and I’m in Greece - well, pre-COVID obviously - and I’m like, “Look, I worked an eight-hour day, now I can go explore the city.” I try to make things more realistic because I just think over the last 10 years since I’ve been in, you know, watch business owners grow and see where they struggle, they just get kind of too wrapped into, “things are so easy and it’s just, you know, it’s not going to be a challenge, and you just set-up this Shopify website and the sales come roaring in!” That’s not realistic. This is a realistic expectation of what it’s going to take for your mindset and then really to get the business going and move forward for the future.

[0:21:58] DA: I like that you brought up your private Facebook group because you do offer readers entry into that private Facebook group. What can they expect to find there and should they be going in if they’re in other industries and not the beauty industry?

[0:22:12] MM: Yeah, I mean, I welcome everyone, any entrepreneur to come to the group. The group is really focused on helping people answer questions. It is a highly moderated group. I mean this group actually takes a lot of time for the team, but it is really a powerful marketing tool for our business. People just post all sorts of questions, I mean I couldn’t even tell you what, it’s from all ends of the spectrum, all different types of experiences, some backgrounds and that’s why I love it so much. We get questions about e-commerce, how to do this, how to do marketing and you know, “Hey, is my Facebook pixel set-up?” and there’s basic questions to more advanced questions. It’s a really powerful free group for anybody to join. I try to do morning tips and sometimes for the business, we run different specials where I need to clear stuff out, so people are getting deals, and I am helping them resell it to their clients, and people message me, and say, “Mikey, oh my God, I made so much! You know I made a thousand dollars this week because of these deals that you did, or your help with this idea, or marketing,” it’s unbelievably rewarding. I mean, just to get the feedback from our clients that we’re helping so many people be successful in the beauty and hair industry, is just a way for me to stay in touch with them, an easy way, because I am not giving out my phone number to everybody. But within the Facebook group, it’s just a way for us to have conversations and chat about business and the industry.

[0:23:35] DA: Mikey, we just touched on the surface of the book here, but I want to say that writing a book, which is really going to help folks understand how to transition to a successful business owner is no small feat, so congratulations on being published.

[0:23:47] MM: Thank you so much.

[0:23:49] DA: I do have one question left and it is the hot seat question: If readers could take away only one thing from the book, what would you want it to be?

[0:23:57] MM: It is really important to figure out where your dedication is for your business life and understand how much you’re willing to sacrifice to make a business successful. Because to get to a certain level of success - it’s going to vary for different people - but there are a lot of different sacrifices you make, not seeing family enough, friends enough, your girlfriend or wife enough, and just really kind of understand that there are a lot of other people there that are making these sacrifices to create a successful business to help others, whether it’s in your industry or just different groups of people. Really, it’s really something that is just really important for myself and for our brand, for our business. You know, my book is dedicated to my mom who passed away, and this book really was for her, so that was my special person. You know, the real reason for me to write this book is to help others.

[0:24:53] DA: Mikey, this has been a pleasure and I’m really excited for people to check out the book. Everyone, the book is called Fearless Beauty and you could find it on Amazon. Mikey, besides checking out the book, where can people connect with you?

[0:25:04] MM: They can find me on Instagram @moranmikey on Instagram. The book’s page is going to be Hair Business Blueprint on Instagram. Of course, you’re welcome to join to Start a Hair Extension Business Facebook group and that’s probably the best place to find me.

[0:25:18] DA: Mikey, thanks so much for coming on the show today, and best of luck with your new book.

[0:25:22] MM: Thank you so much.

[0:25:23] DA: Thanks for joining us for this episode of Author Hour. You can get Mikey Moran’s new book, Fearless Beauty, on Amazon. Also, you can also find a transcript of this episode and all of our other episodes on our website at authorhour.co. For more Author Hour, subscribe to this podcast on your favorite subscription service. Thank you for joining us, we’ll see you next time: same place, different author.