September 1, 2025 • 66 mins
Successful scalp micropigmentation (SMP) artist @taylorperry was tired of the grind of $10 barber cuts and used his experience as a tattoo artist to transition to SMP. He shares how he built a new clientele and went from $10 hair services to $3000 SMP sessions.
This Week's Topics:
• Understanding Scalp Micropigmentation (SMP)
• The Artistry Behind SMP
• The Journey to Discovering SMP
• Technical Aspects of SMP Application
• Location and Clientele
• Cost Comparison: SMP vs. Hair Transplants
• SMP as a Foundation: Complementing Other Treatments
• Client Acquisition: Engaging with Potential Clients
• The Power of Networking
• Transitioning to Education
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
What's going on, Taylor?
How are you?
Great man, great yourself.
I'm doing great.
for those who are watching, well, for those who are listening, we have a YouTube channel.
And I mentioned it now and then, probably not enough, but on the YouTube channel, you canwatch this interview.
And I was just telling Taylor, as we were dialing in the audio, Donovan typically comes onand helps the guest dial in the audio.
(00:24):
So it's a good listening experience.
I'm watching Taylor and Donovan kind of get everything dialed in.
And I'm thinking, that's a pretty cool filter that Taylor's got.
background and then and then we're almost gonna record and he Stands up out of his chairand like flips a light switch and his background changes and I'm like, whoa, that's not a
(00:45):
filter That's how good a background that is.
That's how I've never seen that before.
That was awesome.
All right Well, you can see it on the YouTube channel.
So what's going on man?
How are you?
doing great man.
Just staying busy, enjoying my career and the industry and um man, I'm just loving everyminute of it.
(01:07):
We haven't done an episode on scalp micropigmentation.
And by the way, I practiced that scalp micropigmentation because there's a lot, there's alot of my moving parts of my mouth that have to all fire at the same time in order to get
that all out properly.
And so I practiced it before we did this.
(01:28):
We've never done an episode on this.
So this is super cool.
I've known that this is a thing in the industry.
and super excited to be talking about this, kind of a different kind of episode for us.
And so um I'm going to, instead of asking your background and all that kind of stuff, Ijust, I want to get into what this is.
I think I know what it is, but I'm not sure.
(01:51):
I don't know if the listeners know what it is.
So let's just begin with a very fundamental question of what is scalp micropigmentation?
Okay, so the best way I can explain this is take a barber or a hairstylist, take a tattooartist, and you kind of mix them together, and then you got scalp micropigmentation.
(02:18):
So, yeah, without tongue twisters, SMP is the easiest way to remember this.
So basically, it is a cosmetic tattoo.
that we use to replicate hair follicles.
So it's a lot different than cosmetic tattooing on the body.
Totally different technique.
(02:40):
And it's just, what I saw is absolutely genius, because we're taking mainly bald, youknow, people that are fully bald.
It looks like they have a full head of hair and they just keep a shave because they wantto.
So you you get your hairline back, reframe your face.
If...
uh
men or women are suffering from hair loss or maybe women with thinning hair.
(03:01):
You know, we do the SMP and it's like similar concept as when you dye your hair dark.
It's that the hair dye stains the skin.
So for like three, four days, your hair looks crazy thick.
um So it is absolutely mind blowing when you see the results.
And that's it.
(03:22):
is the only
permanent hair loss solution that is 100 % guaranteed and it is the cheapest solutionalso.
Interesting.
Okay, that makes sense.
the look, I may ask them dumb questions, but that's my job as I'm here and I want thelisteners to learn what this is well.
(03:48):
And so I'm gonna use my natural stupidity to ask you questions.
So if I heard you correctly, you are essentially tattooing small,
uh small dots onto wherever your client wants it to look like the hair follicles are stillproducing hair.
(04:12):
Okay.
And they, but of course hair is not going to grow out of the tattoo mark, if you will,right?
It just looks like, I think you said somebody who is bald, who wants to look like theystill have hair follicles that are firing, but they just choose to shave it.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
(04:33):
in the world of dudes, that's badass.
Like, you know, if you shave your head, I don't know, that's just bad ass.
It's just a thing that, you know, it's a guy thing.
So what you get at the end of one of your sessions, and we're gonna talk about details oflike what a session is and stuff.
What you get is a dude with a hairline all of a sudden.
(04:57):
Yes.
And that's where the artistry comes in, right?
You were a barber.
I think that's gonna be important to say, you're still a barber, sure.
not were.
I just focus on the highest paying ticket item I could possibly offer.
Love that.
So do you actually, do you have clients that you cut still?
(05:19):
My 11 year old son is the only person who gets a haircut from me.
He's the lowest paying client that you've ever had in your life.
it just costs $3,000.
Hahaha
Okay, that makes sense.
So your clients, so you're 100 % SMP now, but you use your experience as a barber behindthe chair for how many years, by the way?
(05:45):
How many years did you cut hair?
So as of right now, I've a barber for 25 years.
my God, so you have tremendous experience.
How long have you been doing SMP?
Okay.
So for, you still had a lot of years uh just cutting hair as a barber before you starteddoing SMP.
So you know a lot about hairlines.
(06:06):
You know a lot about, you know, and, and, know, heads, all heads are different, right?
Some guys have different shaped heads than other dudes.
And, and that's important when it comes to
you making the judgment of where the hairline should be on what head.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
It's um, you know when I saw this You know so we could say I'm a lifelong I've been life alifelong barber.
(06:33):
I went to cosmetology school at 15 at 16 years old later on went to get my barber licenseas well and been cutting hair professionally since 15 in the barbershop, so this is all
I've done and Obviously, I love cutting hair
But I kind of got to a point where I was like, man, I wasn't just born to sit in this boxand just do haircuts all day long.
(06:54):
Like this feels like prison.
And I went my whole life with ever getting a raise.
Never got a raise.
I just cut hair.
So, you know.
like, give us an idea of what kind of barber shop, there's lots of different kind ofbarber shops these days, you know, some guys have kind of uh carved out a niche of very
(07:15):
expensive cuts.
You may not be able to tell, but I pay, you know, well over a hundred bucks for myhaircut.
But I know a lot of dudes don't want to pay more than, you know, so like what were youcharging?
So, man, my in my during my career, I've done it all.
I've worked in high end shops.
(07:36):
I've worked in low end shops.
The last nine years of my barbering doing haircuts.
I was in a $10 barber shop.
We're talking.
Yeah, bro.
And we're talking.
With my years and years of experience and my skill set, I'm in a low skill set barber shopdoing $10 haircuts.
(07:59):
Granted, I still made at least $500 every single day.
I made stupid money, but I'm also killing myself.
I'm working 10 hours a day.
so many clients.
mean, Jesus Christ.
If you figure, guess 10 bucks plus a tip, hopefully guys are tipping you a few bucks.
Yeah.
(08:19):
But still low price.
a day, even more.
I've all, it's insane.
Yeah, that's cool when you're starting out, but not when you're in the game for so long.
Right.
these, you know, $10 barber cut, this is like the level where you're like the dude,they're all like lined up against the back of the wall and they're like, give me a one and
(08:44):
a two and stuff, that kind of thing.
For the most part, honestly, it was a group of eight guys and we cut hair extremely good.
So you're getting a really, really good haircut.
And the shop was always slam packed from sun up to sun down.
(09:06):
know, everybody would throw you like 20 bucks.
ah You know, throw me 50 on the side, you're kind of skip the line a little bit.
But like...
So we made good money, but man, it is high volume.
is brutal.
Long days, long days.
Okay, so how did you find SMP?
(09:29):
So, right, so I told you, you know, I really, really wanted a career change, right?
I was completely lost.
I only cut hair my entire life.
So for me to get a career change, you know, I was 29, 30 years old.
It was, you know, it's very hard to do, you know?
(09:50):
And I was sitting down, eating dinner at my brother-in-law's house.
He's a real spiritual dude.
And I'm asking him about career changes and just different ideas I have in my head.
And he was like, listen, God's sending you a career change, but you don't know it exists.
So stop asking me.
(10:11):
And I'm like, bullshit, man.
That's impossible.
Like, that's impossible.
And I started naming all these things.
And he's like, stop.
He's like, I told you, you don't know it exists.
So just stop asking.
And I'm like, whatever, man.
What does that mean?
exactly, exactly.
So about eight months later, one of my clients comes into the shop and giving him ahaircut.
(10:35):
He's not fully bald, just kind of thin on top.
And he's like, yo T, how do you like my hairline?
And I'm like, it looks great.
What'd you do?
Put Just For Men in it at home?
And did you paint it on?
And he's like, no bro, this is a tattoo.
And I'm like, son of a bitch.
I was like, give me that guy's phone number right now.
(10:57):
He gave me the dude's number and then it just hit me.
I was like, oh my God.
I was like, thank you so much.
This is what I'm doing.
I never knew this existed.
It's freaking genius.
And I'm doing it.
That's all I knew.
I didn't know what it cost.
I didn't know anything.
I just knew it was better than this damn barber shop and better than these cheap haircuts.
(11:21):
Now, a typical ghetto love story, right?
I tell my baby mom,
Let me get your income tax check because I'm going to buy all new tattoo equipment and I'mgoing to blow up with this new service I'm going to offer.
And she's like, she's like, all right, take my check.
She gave me her income tax check.
I bought so, you know, I started tattooing when I was 18 years old.
(11:44):
My older my oldest brother is a tattoo artist.
So I have many years in tattooing.
But barbering is my profession.
I bought all new tattoo equipment.
I just ordered every size of needle you could possibly think of.
And when I'm doing the research on this, it's actually a thing.
Scout micro pigmentation.
These guys are tattooing hairlines.
(12:05):
And I was so impressed, but I would never let none of those guys do my hair.
just, their work was missing something, was missing a touch.
And when I started calling all these guys and I'm asking them questions and I've been abarber my whole life, I've done tattoos forever.
I'm covered in tattoos.
They didn't know much about tattooing.
(12:26):
it's like their experience level was so low at that time that I just started tattooingboth of my legs.
Both of my legs are covered in dots.
Ordered every size needle you could think of.
Doing melons, doing synthetic skins, and about three weeks of practicing every single daywhen I got home from the barber shop, I felt like I was ready.
(12:50):
And then I told my brother-in-law, a different brother-in-law,
I was like, man, let me do your hairline.
I got you.
He was bald.
he, yeah.
And I was like, you know, I got you, man.
Like, I will not mess this up, you know?
(13:10):
And he was like, he trusted me.
So I did it.
I did him in the barbershop after hours, about 10.30 at night.
We were both shitting bricks.
were.
Scared I was I'm shaking We did the first session of S &P came out awesome.
We were so excited so happy with those pictures and videos I was able to book uh Twothree.
(13:35):
I'm sorry three more of my friends the next day as soon as they saw the videos so firstweek I had four clients videos and pictures of everybody and Man, that was it.
I've never ever stopped ever since then
Eight years.
Amazing.
So self-taught.
mean, it's tattooing and you knew how to tattoo.
(13:57):
And you had the perfect background for this, right?
It was just the perfect mix.
have years of cutting hair.
I've done more tattoos than these S &P artists have ever done S &P.
And I'm a very creative person.
I can watch something.
can pick it up very quickly.
(14:18):
So I won't quite say self-taught, but I had the tools and the skills to do it.
And you practiced until it got good.
So, and you're lucky enough to have some relatives who were willing to sit there and letyou practice.
(14:39):
Not really practice.
I mean, you practice on yourself, but at least try as the first client.
They trusted you, which is, which is a big deal because this is how they look.
That's a big deal.
and so you did your, uh, brothers in law.
And then what you you you change your Instagram put up some videos and and rocket it was arocket ship
(15:04):
My Instagram now is, was my barber page.
Nothing has ever been deleted.
You can go all the way to the bottom and you can see back when I'd never even knew SMPexisted.
You can see my whole journey on there.
And I just used what I had.
um know, when I'm doing classes and they think I have some type of crazy marketingstrategy and stuff like that, I'm like, listen,
(15:32):
been a barber my whole life.
I keep things very very simple.
This is solid fundamentals.
There's nothing spectacular here.
It's fundamentals, it's customer service.
I truly care about my customers.
I truly care about their concerns and that's how I'm able to do amazing work and to keepon booking clients for this many years.
(16:00):
Yeah.
Well, I think that's a pretty darn good summary.
So I'm not done asking questions about the like specifics of it.
I'm on your Instagram page.
So you kind of, you, you outline where the hairline is going to be.
You probably get the client's approval.
Like, does that look good?
Right.
(16:20):
Okay.
And, then you just start going, uh, with the tattooing small dots and
Do most of these clients that you're doing these days, do they have a little, I mean like,how bald are they?
100 % bald or not always?
(16:41):
This all, like everybody.
I've done plenty of clients that have a full head of hair like you.
I've done guys that are maybe just losing the corners or they're just thin on top.
And then obviously we got those big old Homer Simpson heads that are totally bald and it'slike, oh, it's going be a long day.
Yeah, that's a big deal.
Okay, so somebody like me, I got fraggle hair, it's going everywhere.
(17:04):
And, you know, I've been on Propecia and Rogaine for probably eight or nine years, verysuccessfully, as you can tell, because I have a lot of hair.
And I was thinning for a period of time.
So I'm the positive use case for those two things.
But somebody like me, how would I benefit from such a thing as SMP?
(17:25):
So, the typical for your situation is say maybe when their hair is wet or their hair iskind of thin where they can kind of see through it and they want it to look thicker and
fuller.
So we would just do the whole top of your head and basically, you know, when you part it,there are going to be the impressions everywhere which is going to make it look darker and
(17:45):
fuller.
Got it.
All right, so instead of seeing a white scalp, like in my case, they're seeing darkness inthere and probably not even be able to tell uh what they're actually seeing.
it makes it look denser, know, fuller, you know.
(18:06):
very interesting.
So when you're doing a dude who's mostly bald, mean, there's something coming out, butit's like not enough, so they're probably shaving it, right?
And they've, the follicles that are around the hairline have been dormant for a number ofyears.
So those, so there's no pigment there.
(18:28):
um So when you go in there with the little dots to give pigment to,
uh follicles, are you, is there like a technical nature to that?
Like are you doing fewer at the hairline and then more as you go up onto the scalp?
(18:49):
yeah, so that's like one of the biggest mistakes newer artists make or just artists ingeneral is they typically go too dense with the impressions at the hairline.
So for like the most realistic results, the actual hairline itself, the impressions needto be a little bit more spaced out and just like a quarter inch, a half an inch back.
(19:15):
they'll get a little bit closer together and that's going to make it look, you know, themost natural.
Whether they want a little edged up hairline like they came from the barber shop or a justnice sprinkle like they got a buzz cut.
The front should always be a little bit less dense, you know.
that seems to be the natural way that our follicles are spread around the scalp.
(19:40):
I know that I have a friend who's a, uh I guess, implant doctor, right?
And so he takes the tracks out of the back of the head and then he has this team ofpeople.
They separate the follicles in terms of the gauge of the hair, the thickness of the hair,the texture of the hair.
(20:03):
the color of the hair and maybe a couple other things.
And then they, around the hairline, they put the thinnest, lightest uh hair, follicles.
at the hairline and then when they get back farther in then they'll put like clusters oftwo and three.
Right, okay.
So this is the same kind of thing that you're doing.
(20:23):
I imagine, like you already said, those who aren't doing as good a job are just doing thesame density of dots.
Yeah, you know, to the naked eye, when you look at the procedure being done, it's like, Ijust doing dots on the head.
That's easy.
And there's a lot of a lot more moving parts than somebody might think.
(20:46):
It is this is precision tattooing at its finest.
It has to be extremely precise.
Yeah, that's a good description.
Okay, what other parts of the body do you have have you done?
Do you have people asking for?
I do beards all the time.
(21:08):
I used to do eyebrows.
I have later on, because that only costs like $700 and I don't want to waste my time.
Okay.
SMP is the highest service I can offer in the beauty industry.
uh
enough people wanting it on the scalp that it's not worth doing the...
(21:34):
in during my eight-year career so far I have over 10,000 clients completed globally Yeah
Okay, so let's get into the nitty gritty of the of the service uh sessions.
I think you call them uh To do your typical scalp, know, not not a big linebacker scalpBut you know or not not a little kid scalp, but like a normal dude scalp How many is it
(22:04):
multiple sessions and how many hours per session?
so over the years I've got it down to two sessions.
In the beginning stages we're doing three sessions, even four sessions.
But as uh the technique, as I evolved my technique and just understood how the skin healsand how the skin regenerates, I'm able to get them done with two sessions.
(22:27):
I book each session for three hours.
So they come in, they get the SMP as soon as I'm done.
I never exceed three hours, it looks amazing.
We wait four weeks, let the skin fully regenerate.
They come back in, we do a second session and then they're complete.
So we're talking, know, pretty much my mindset to this is if I was doing $50 haircuts andthat was say an hour long appointment.
(22:57):
So I'm averaging 150 every three hours.
with tip maybe 200 bucks and that's giving these guys that's giving like justice right.
um And then three hours I'm getting 2500 to $3,000.
So pretty much every time I do a client in my mind I just got a $2,300 raise.
Amazing.
(23:18):
Absolutely amazing.
Okay.
So two sets of six hours for your typical scalp.
And I'm curious, uh, is it simply the reason that you need six hours and not, or, or Ishould say it this way, the reason you need two sessions and not one session is just the
sheer, you know, um, the sheer area that you need to do, or is it, you do the whole scalparea the first time and then the healing takes place?
(23:46):
Like you said,
and then they come back and you and what happened.
Okay, so we make the impressions, but we keep them a little bit spaced out.
So we want a good amount of skin in between.
So like when you're looking on Instagram and YouTube and all my social media, that'spretty much all finished work, two sessions.
So we keep the dots spaced out, we let that heal.
(24:10):
When they come back, we put more in between those, which will make it look darker, morefull, and pretty much that's it.
The finishing touches, nice little blend.
Now the reason why we can't go so close at the very beginning is because we got pigment,which is not ink.
Like they get it twisted.
This is pigment, which is different.
(24:32):
So it's like sand floating in a carrier, which is like distilled water.
This is call it.
So now we deposit that in the scalp that has to cure, meaning the carrier, the water needsto evaporate, leaves the sand behind.
If you put it too close,
It can just merge together and now we just painted somebody's head and completely stainedthe skin.
(24:57):
because somebody's pissed off so
might not be pissed off, but it's gonna look, I'm not gonna want to, it's not gonna lookgood.
I'm not gonna like that.
Okay, so did you just describe what a tattoo is?
Is that the pigment, the same pigment used for a tattoo?
It's like sand or it's like a very, very small grain and that's what happens?
(25:19):
Okay, I didn't know that.
I'm gonna learn something new every day.
This is when the listeners are like, Eric, there's no shit.
Why am I even listening to this podcast?
people know it's, mean, a lot of people call it ink, but it's pigment.
right.
Okay, so uh I'm scrolling your gram right now.
I noticed that you have a guy with a full head of very natural looking, pretty cool hair,and he's got kind of a mid-fade.
(25:47):
uh And then, so you're not doing his scalp, you're doing his beard.
And I'm like, whoa.
Yeah.
Is it your favorite thing because you get to shape?
Yeah, it's more fun.
And then honestly, myself, just myself in general, all I care about is my beard.
(26:11):
Like, I'd shave my head, whatever.
But like, if my beard's messed up, I'm not leaving my house.
that's all I got is my beard.
So like, yeah, yeah.
to accentuate the good and hide the bad shapes of our face.
So, uh, I can see you're definitely, you're into doing this dude's beard and you've got itkind of outlined in a, in a, you know, good masculine way that the guy happens to have,
(26:42):
you know, really well-shaped face.
I hate him.
because I have an oval face like you do.
I got big cheeks.
uh So he's got a really cool looking beard.
so you're essentially uh from a visual standpoint, you're filling it in.
Is that right?
(27:03):
And then it looks like he has natural hair growing on the beard.
Yeah, yeah, you still have, I mean, most people, have my beard done.
I have a really good beard.
It's pretty thick, but I like it dark.
So, shave my whole face, do my whole beard, and then I would grow right back.
Yeah.
(27:25):
Exactly.
dark, well at least it's darkened underneath.
So it looks more filled.
Like mine is kind of, eh, it's not great.
I could do your beard.
It will look absolutely amazing.
And it's going to match your hair color.
The tone is going to look good on your skin color.
And it'll be nice and natural looking.
(27:46):
It's just going to look more filled in.
No one's even going to know.
It's a...
So this is a bit of a trick example here, because as you can see, and I'm sure thelisteners know, that my beard is graying.
I mean, I am almost 50.
So my hair is gray.
(28:08):
Well, you can maybe see if I get the light shining right.
Yeah, my hair is gray.
See this?
Well, that's because of my chubby cheeks.
It makes me look younger.
But my facial hair is graying.
And it's been gray right here at my chin, symmetrically, thank God, for years.
(28:30):
And then over here, hard to see in the camera, but it's graying there too.
if you were sitting here right now, we were doing this on film, what color would youchoose?
Because I got gray, I got reddish tones, I got brown.
make like an ashy brown that will match this portion of your beard best.
(28:52):
And when we go across the front, all we're doing is adding more pepper, salt and pepper.
It's gonna look awesome.
I'm not gonna match the white hair, but the color of the pigment with the white hair isgonna be salt and pepper.
It's gonna look awesome.
That is fascinating.
Okay, so.
(29:15):
Yeah, you're good at selling this too.
You're good at selling this.
I could see where this story's going.
I could see why you've been doing well at this.
um Well, where are you by the way, geographically?
I am located in downtown Miami.
In Brickell.
Yeah.
(29:36):
a great area.
And that's a great town for the service, right?
Because people care about the way they look in Miami, same way they do in LA.
fun fact, I do like 10 people from Miami a month.
oh We can go 99 % of my clientele flies in from all over the
(29:56):
You're kidding me.
I think the whole Miami is like some leverage, like, all right, Miami for two days, whynot?
I could see that.
I can see that.
So, fun fact.
Maybe you don't want me talking about this because it's almost a competitor, but anyonewho knows, knows.
(30:19):
uh I was in Turkey for a vacation and this is like, I don't know if it's the home of theimplant thing, but all these people, this is the Mecca, right?
Yes.
Yeah.
uh
So they had bandages all over on the plane on the way back.
(30:42):
There were half, half of the passengers were girls with bandages on their faces.
And the other half were dudes with all sorts of marks all over their heads.
I went back to my seat and I'm like, babe, what the hell is going on?
It was there like a, you know, was there a war or whatever in Turkey?
And she's like,
(31:03):
No, you idiots.
This is the plastic surgery.
They do the hair thing.
so there's like a uh tourism element to it.
So I could see Miami being that for you.
Now you're cheaper than that, I'm assuming.
You said it's the cheapest way to get a filled in look.
(31:23):
So am I doing the math right?
So it's six grand for a scalp?
uh
No, it'll be three.
That's included in both sessions.
Yeah.
Yeah.
it.
So three grand for the scalp.
I know that the implanting can run, mean, it can get into the 50, 60,000 neighborhood.
Yeah, the states, absolutely.
(31:44):
The cheapest you're gonna find in the states, probably a crappy job, is 10k.
So, you want some good work, it's 20,000 and up in the United States.
Now, Turkey is doing, if you go to the right people, absolutely mind-blowing work.
But it's still about $5,000, but you gotta take two weeks off of work, full-blown surgery,flights, hotels, etc.
(32:07):
So, yeah, you're getting it cheaper, but I mean, two weeks off of work is...
It's a big swing.
for the most part, you're paying the same money if you would have stayed here.
But they do great work.
follicles don't all take either.
It's it's permanent, but it's not guaranteed.
And being in the hair industry, my entire life, my entire working life, I have seen by farmore bad than good.
(32:38):
Now, recently, I'm starting to see great work that I am very impressed by.
But again, it's still not fully guaranteed.
It might not work for everybody.
It's surgery, and you're taking...
a living organism, is your hair follicle, and you're re-putting it somewhere else.
So this is an organ transplant ultimately, right?
(33:01):
So there is a risk rate of it not being successful.
But regardless of the matter, I'm not biased to any hair enhancement.
I'm lifelong in the beauty industry.
I love it all.
know?
So SMP, the way I like to explain SMP is let's just talk about like food, right?
Pizza.
So we got the dough.
(33:22):
You cannot bake pizza without the dough.
That's SMP.
It always needs to be done first.
Then you put your toppings on.
your recipe, make whatever recipe you want.
Whether you want to add minoxidil, whether you want to do a finished dried, whether youwant to do a hair transplant, whether you like hair fibers, it all looks great together.
They all complement each other extremely well.
(33:44):
So whatever the best fit is for each person, you know, but SMP is 100 % guaranteed.
It looks absolutely amazing.
And within three hours, you're going to look amazing.
That's it.
Completely changed.
uh That is another benefit is right away you get the benefits of the appearance.
(34:08):
With the hair transplant, I've had some friends who they had it done and then for many,many, many months they're in a situation where they have to be very careful about what's
going on up there, hoping that the follicles are accepted by that new part of your bodyand the hair starts growing again.
uh
Yeah, and it doesn't always work.
(34:31):
So big advantage there.
I've actually done two hair transplants.
I've got trained and certified to do hair transplants.
Yeah.
How can train with you, You need a medical technician.
There's loopholes around all that stuff.
The people who do it in the United States, they're not doctors.
The doctor just looks at you, takes your money, and then his technicians do it that hepays $20 an hour.
(34:57):
But yeah, I did two hair transplants.
And the people who do really good transplants, hats off, because you guys are extremelytalented.
That shit is hard to do.
It is hard.
Yeah, I bet.
I mean, when it was explained to me, it was like, wow.
And this friend of mine, you know, he's up in the 50,000 neighborhood.
(35:19):
does celebrities and stuff and it's all very hush hush.
There's no sign on the thing.
It's all very secretive.
And he explained the process and I'm like, holy crap.
You know, he uses all these people like I described before in order to try to get asnatural of a look as possible.
Yeah.
Wow.
So um you did them as a technician, you did the transplants.
(35:43):
Wow, that's crazy.
Yeah, because I was thinking about possibly, you know, maybe teaming up with a doctor,providing transplants in the United States or North America, just because honestly, I
personally I don't think no one could do it better.
If I wanted to do it.
I know what it's supposed to look like, you know, but it's a lot of work.
And honestly, I'd rather just do SMP.
(36:05):
I make I actually make more money doing SMP than I would doing transplants.
The amount of time that it takes.
less liability to and I'm sure lots of other things.
Yeah, that's full-blown surgery.
What about maintenance appointments?
Do they come in a year later?
Is there anything like that?
no, they go back to their regular routine cut their hair however they like um If theystill have hair and it's just thin Then it's not gonna dictate their haircut They could do
(36:33):
any haircut they like if they're bald They're still gonna need to shave but like grantedif you're totally bald on top and in two days You have this like ring going around your
head and that's like it makes everybody look so much older, right?
So now instead of two days, maybe you can go four or five days before you got to shave it
You know?
um So for the most part, you're gonna cut your hair as usual, except it's gonna look a lotbetter.
(37:01):
Okay.
Have you ever had comb over patients?
Like a Donald Trump?
Would Donald Trump benefit from this?
Taylor Perry does all humans.
If you're a human, I could take great care of
Donald Trump, Biden, I will take care of all of you guys.
Okay, so how do you find clients?
(37:22):
It sounds like you're doing great, you're booked out.
I mean, how are these people finding you?
Alright, so I'm gonna blow you guys mind with this.
alright, when I tell you, for last eight years, I've completed over 10,000 clientsglobally.
Of course, I got word of mouth.
Clients always refer me clients.
(37:43):
But my entire income comes from social media platforms.
When I had, when I had, I'm sorry?
Instagram mostly?
Yeah, Instagram.
I used to get a lot from YouTube.
just kind of started.
I stopped getting being so active on YouTube because I'm so busy.
But definitely Instagram and Facebook.
(38:04):
Now, when I had the first.
So listen to this.
So I started doing this in the barbershop after hours, like I told you.
It quickly grew to me doing this after hours.
My free time got taken up very quickly and I was forced to open up my my own location.
So I opened up a storefront.
Nice.
that year, I'm talking maybe 8 10,000 followers on Instagram.
(38:27):
So it wasn't like a crazy big account or anything like that.
I made $1.4 million that year through Instagram.
Whoa, hold the fuck up.
Hold out a second.
Wait, in year one?
Of course you have expenses, know, listeners don't go nuts.
He didn't pocket that.
You know, you got expense, got rent, you got insurance, you got shit like that.
(38:50):
But like...
For a year.
For a year.
For, well, okay, you got rent.
This is the only business, and if you know one, let me know.
This is the only business I know that within like five square feet, because all I need ismy massage bed, I can make a million dollars.
(39:11):
I need nothing else.
I could do it in a freaking field as long as they lay down.
And I have my tattoo machine, my needles, and my pigment.
it was one of those things is when I found the price point, you know, 2500, 3000, 25 beinga very competitive price globally, no matter the currency.
And I was like, okay, my original plan was let me do two, three heads a week and just livean amazing life, spend time with my kids and my family.
(39:40):
You know, go to the gym.
And I did that within the first couple months.
And then I'm like, man, I literally killed my body my entire life for freaking 10 and $20haircuts.
Working 12 hours a day.
I got a torn hip from cutting hair.
So I said, you know what?
Standing up all day, I'm a heavyweight.
I was like, used to walk around 250, 260.
(40:01):
So, yeah.
So I said, listen, I'm gonna kill myself now.
Except now I'm gonna get paid.
Right.
I had an assistant at the time.
I told her, listen, I want at least a minimum of three clients a day.
And I'm doing three clients.
I'm doing four clients, five, even six days a week.
During COVID, I was working 30 days, nonstop, four clients a day, $3,000 a pop for sixyears straight.
(40:34):
That's crazy.
And I get everybody the original question.
I totally veered off.
But the original question was how do I get all these clients the same way I was taught atthe beginning of the podcast.
I told you it's all basic solid customer service.
Right.
So if you walked in my barbershop, I'm going to greet you.
Hey, how's it going?
(40:55):
Are you waiting for first available?
I'll take good care of you.
Perfect.
If you walk by my shop and popped your head in and looked and then left, I'm going to comerun in the door.
Hey, come back.
Come back.
how can I take care of you?
So it's exactly the same.
Nothing changes except now I'm on social media.
So if you follow my page, guess what?
(41:16):
You just walked in my barbershop.
I'm going to DM you.
Hey, thanks for the follow.
I really appreciate the support.
Any questions about SMP or my training class, I'm going to take great care of you.
I'm here.
And then I'll follow up with a voice note so they know I'm not a bot.
It's really me.
that kind of diligence when it comes to engaging.
(41:37):
Everybody could benefit from this.
If the listener is a hairdresser who is perfectly happy with her career, she's not goingto start doing this, but now she's informed about it.
If somebody follows you, you don't know who they are, they're a potential client, DM them.
I love that.
And not only are they a potential client they're a potential client that's gonna pay youwhat you want your locals That are always in your shop ain't gonna pay you what you want.
(42:03):
They've been there for years They want the cheap price or they're they want you know whatI mean new clients pay you what you want um Another thing if you comment on my post That's
the same thing as if you walked by the barbershop and said something to me and keptwalking I'm gonna grab you and talk to you.
I'm gonna message you.
I'm gonna respond to the comments
(42:24):
That's how I made this money.
Another thing what I would do and I still do this to this day and everything I'm saying Istill do this to the day is I would make myself very very well known locally and
eventually nationwide and then eventually worldwide grew and grew and grew.
But what I would so example is I would go to the LA fitness hashtag because remember Istarted with a smaller page I had to grow it just like anybody else.
(42:53):
So I didn't have tons of people following me or messaging me.
I had to create that.
So I would do the opposite.
I would go to LA Fitness in Hollywood where I used to work out at.
And I would literally look at everybody who tagged that they were there.
I would like all their pictures.
I will comment on their stuff.
I will uh comment on their story.
(43:15):
So it goes straight into their inbox.
And I would just support everybody in the areas that I personally go.
So I'm not selling to nobody, but you gotta know what I do.
networking is what that is.
That's power networking.
It's just being like if I'm a barber and I'm walking around my neighborhood, hey, goodmorning, how you doing?
(43:36):
I buy a coffee, hey, yeah, see ya.
Everybody knows that's the guy at the barbershop.
It's the same thing.
call it power because you can do 10X, you know, laying on your couch at night uh versuswalking around the gym and, know, hey, Billy, yeah, right.
(43:57):
Love it.
So in other words, you're making yourself known because people hit on your profile andthey're like, oh, this guy, Taylor Perry, that's interesting.
What does he do?
Yes.
And you're like, holy shit, maybe I could benefit from that.
You know, one out of 10 or whatever.
Or like, maybe I can benefit from that.
And then maybe a second person out of 10 might say, I really don't like the fact that myboyfriend's bald.
(44:24):
Maybe he can benefit from it.
Right?
Or maybe my brother can benefit.
Yeah.
They just gotta know what it is that you do.
They just have to be aware that you, who you are and what you do.
I was not I know a lot about marketing now.
I've studied it over the years, but back then I did not I just had like just I Want to saycommon sense?
(44:46):
I just would like understand certain things, you know and I made Over a million dollars onInstagram with eight to ten thousand followers and all I did I did no paid ads I boosted a
lot But I would boost locally and then I started boosting nationwide meaning like I wouldtake
my best performing content and I would just put like a hundred bucks, 200 bucks on it forlike maybe eight days, 10 days and let it circulate through Instagram.
(45:15):
And then that's how I would start getting followers.
Then I would DM them, start conversations.
And that's how I made the money.
And when I'm in the DMs and I'm getting them on the phone, it's a conversation the sameway me and you are having.
I'm not selling to nobody.
I'm just educating them of what I do.
I'm just guiding them.
(45:35):
If I can guide them, I can definitely get you on my calendar.
You know what I mean?
And that was it.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
I love it.
So simple when we talk about it like this, right?
And then hopefully the listeners are like, geez, yeah, I really should spend more timekind of power networking within Instagram instead of scrolling everybody else's content.
(46:02):
you're going to be on there anyway, so you might as do something good with it.
Yeah, absolutely.
extremely powerful, a change in my life.
Absolutely, holy shit.
Okay, so I think we have the lay of the land with Taylor Perry and SMP.
So my understanding is that you educate people, you teach people how to do this now.
(46:25):
Yeah, it's something my whole career is so organic, man.
And I never ever thought to be an educator, never even thought I could teach.
I was actually very scared to teach.
And when I started making a little bit of noise and other people were reaching out to melike, yo, you got, I have to learn this.
(46:47):
This is incredible.
And they just kept begging me to teach.
And I was like, yo, I'm not, I don't know how to teach.
No, I don't know.
And they just wouldn't stop.
They're like, no, like they want to learn.
And, you know, I was just them very not long ago at all.
So I know exactly what they're going through.
(47:08):
I know how they feel.
And I had two girls from Puerto Rico call me and they're like, you're going to teach us.
And I told them, said, honestly, I've never taught nobody.
I don't think I don't know if I could do it.
And they're like, no, you can do it.
We believe in you.
They flew in from Puerto Rico to Miami.
We spent four days together.
(47:28):
I taught them and they are extremely successful to this day.
I taught them, yeah, in Puerto Rico, yeah.
I probably taught them almost seven years ago.
And then after that, had a girl call me, a barber, female barber from Vancouver, Canada,she called me.
And I had one of my clients who I've been cutting his hair since he was 13 years old.
(47:52):
They were like, yo, we were learning this.
She flew in from Vancouver.
He came down from Orlando and taught them, both of them to this day, extremely successful.
And that's how this all evolved.
You know, during COVID, I ended up rewriting a whole curriculum of everything I do.
I made an online course of just all in-depth video content.
(48:16):
um you know, teaching is very, very hard.
It's not easy.
So the better I can make it before they come in person, the better it is for me and thebetter it is for them.
So I kind of just sat down and said, let me, any way somebody can like retain information,I have to provide it in order to make this course like so well-rounded, right?
(48:39):
I personally learned by hands-on, I got to watch you and then I'm going to do it myself.
But not everybody's like that.
I had one of them, maybe my third or fourth guy come in was a high school teacher and abarber on the side.
And when I had him and he was all about notes, he needs literature to read and that he'she's a textbook, he's a teacher.
(49:00):
And I was like, oh, shit, this guy learns totally different than I do.
So that's why I end up writing a whole curriculum.
So whether it's reading and writing, whether it's video and audio, um hands on kind ofstatic learning and then ongoing support, I combine everything to just make a complete
course.
(49:21):
Okay, so this is business number two.
Obviously, it's the same thing, SMP, but you do an SMP, you're a service provider, you'regetting paid directly.
You being SMP educator is a totally different thing.
So how do you split your time?
I would say my income is about 50-50, about even.
(49:43):
okay, so you're making that much money on education.
That's great, okay, so, and uh you sell access to the videos that you're talking about, toall the materials?
Full curriculum.
It's an ecosystem.
It's an online course.
(50:04):
all video content that goes along with the written curriculum, that goes along with livegroup Zoom coaching, private WhatsApp group, and then of course, hands-on training where
we work on real models together.
They get to do models.
I go over social media.
Over the years, I've learned how to make content.
(50:26):
how to take pictures and videos of the clients.
And then also, it's a framework, right?
I've been extremely busy my whole career, but it's because I have framework.
And again, like it's not rocket science, but I have a step-by-step routine that I do.
I don't break it, and it keeps my calendar full.
oh When I talk to people on the phone, it keeps them trusting me, you know?
(50:50):
And it's just framework, so that's what I teach.
I teach everything how to be successful.
Amazing.
All right, so you became the shy potential service provider became a great educator, amaster, I guess they would call it, master educator.
You've mastered this skill and now you're helping other people be successful at it, whichI'm sure is a side benefit to you.
(51:15):
You feel that, don't you?
Yeah, I love it.
It's because there's a lot of passion involved.
And when I'm having these classes, everybody is so excited to be there.
And I take it very personal because these people, a lot of them are coming in with theirlast dollar.
(51:35):
Betting on their self when 85 percent of the world does not bet on doesn't even believe intheir self, let alone bet on it.
So these guys are these guys and girls are coming in betting on them.
Believe in them.
Most of them, a lot of them, it's their last freaking penny to get here.
So it's like, I got to give you everything.
Like I have to give it all.
(51:55):
But the energy is insane.
And we keep it small.
We keep intimate groups.
I used to teach classes of 40, but now I stick it to groups no bigger than 10.
It just intimate.
to give attention to each person when there's 40.
No, believe it or not, those classes were the best classes I ever had.
(52:17):
Well, why aren't you doing those things anymore?
It's moving parts.
for every five students, I would fly another artist in to help me teach.
So I gotta buy hotels, I gotta buy flights.
It's a lot of moving parts.
So that's a full blown event, you know?
I made great money doing it, but it's a lot of work and it's a lot of energy on myself.
(52:40):
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, so you have like, as part of the education, you're doing classes like you justdescribed, you're still doing those.
Do you have any coming up?
Yeah, my next class is September 22nd and 23rd in my home office in Miami, Florida.
(53:01):
Okay, okay.
So I would guess that that's probably a month from now when this is coming out, thatSeptember would be about a month from now.
It's about two months from now, but you know, we record these in advance, everybody knowsthat.
Okay, and how much does the class, or I should ask it this way, if somebody listening outthere wants to learn how to do this, supplement their income or potentially make this all
(53:29):
of their income,
How much does it cost to learn?
uh Normal price is $5,000 but you know periodically here and there I do some type of dealsyou know depending but a normal price is $5,000.
So DM for deals.
Yeah, just DM me if you are actually watching this podcast and you enjoy this show, I'llmore than happy to give you a great deal.
(53:53):
And another thing to just reach out, just reach out because if you want to learn this, nomatter financial status or travel or any, we'll just we talk about it, we put on a table,
we figure it out.
Yeah, that's awesome.
And then I'm just thinking through the questions that a listener might have if they'reconsidering doing this.
uh What is upstart investment?
(54:16):
So it would be the tattoo device machinery.
I don't have any tattoos.
I'm like the only person in our industry has no tattoos.
But like how, what is upstart investment?
I'm like give them everything when they when they sign up for the program They get themachine they get all the supplies.
They all the equipment from me It's enough so yeah, it's enough supplies and equipment ifyou're charging a full price to make at least $15,000, you know, so it's a good amount to
(54:44):
get started and then honestly I started in my barber chair So if you have a salon chairbarber chair, you could start right right there, you know
I like to tell everybody, use what you got.
You know, I started with a TV dinner table.
And my baby mom's income tax check.
That's how I started.
(55:07):
Yeah, so every state is different, but for the most part, normal tattoo license, whichunlike barbering or cosmetology, it's extremely easy to get.
It's usually like a hundred bucks and you just pay.
There's no test involved.
It's crazy.
They, they, they drag us through the
(55:28):
ringer to get a cosmetology license.
just how stupid, right?
um Well, it's not stupid to spend that, you know, but it's just the number of hours.
It's just the, yeah, it doesn't make any sense, but anyway, that's a whole differentpodcast.
Okay.
uh Yeah.
(55:53):
Okay, so normally in our hair game podcast episodes, when I'm talking to a hairdresserwho's,
you know, super high profile and doing cool things in the industry and a lot to teach.
I ask a hair horror story.
So now I'll ask an S and P horror story.
I don't know if you've got any, but have you, have you heard about any?
(56:14):
Okay.
So, yeah, I actually had one.
And it's really like when we're talking, put your customer service to the test.
Holy shit.
All right.
So in the barbershop, we got good and bad clients, right?
In the beauty salon, good and bad clients.
But you can cut their hair.
You can get them out of here and just try to avoid them for the rest of whatever.
(56:39):
your time at that shop.
SMP is a little different, this is a permanent procedure, right?
So I like to call there is red flag clients, clients that you just don't wanna do.
Now, when I'm at this point in my career, I'm not handling my own closings.
I have an assistant, she fills my calendar, she does my sales for me for the most part.
(57:00):
And if there's a crazy guy on the phone, I don't wanna do him, I don't want him here.
and somehow he slipped through the cracks and he gets here.
Cool, cool dude, but not somebody you wanna deal with.
So he comes in to my studio, he drove from Jacksonville, Florida, which is a long drive,gets here early in the morning, it like a 10 o'clock appointment, and this guy is smashed
(57:30):
on, for sure, Xanax bars or something, just oblivious, like, slurring, drunk.
And I'm just like.
So, right, whatever, he's here, you know, he paid and I'm just pissed.
So, nice guy though.
So, I'm doing, I cut his hair, I'm trying to draw the line, he's moving all over theplace, lays in my chair, and it took me like, probably like an hour just to get him to sit
(57:57):
down in my chair, he just keeps walking around, lays in the chair, the whole fucking chairtips over, he's laying, now he's laying on the ground, and I gotta pick, I gotta help pick
him up because he can't get up.
Oh no.
bad.
He was there for the whole day.
had to get out, curse my assistant out for that.
And then the mess-up part is that he got to come back for a second session.
(58:19):
all right.
So it took all day to do session one.
Did he come back?
Hell yeah, came back, guys.
He loves me.
I'm just like, it's bad, uh
we wish that are so cringy that we wish, you know, would go to somebody else.
(58:40):
So he came back and was it better the second time or the same?
Well, maybe, do you think maybe that was just his cocktail?
Like his meds?
It's just, that's the state of being.
Prescription drugs for sure.
Definitely meds.
Yeah, it was pretty rough.
(59:00):
He loves it, man.
He loves it.
He's posting pictures on Google.
He loves it.
He's a happy guy.
It was rough.
Other than that, yeah, other than that, it's pretty good for the most part.
I get cool people, man.
I get really cool people.
That's good, all right.
Well this was awesome, Taylor.
(59:21):
Anything else you want to tell the audience?
Yeah, you know, so just me and life, right?
This is something that, so I was recently in Thailand for one month.
And from just my career, right?
I got to a point where I had a beautiful, beautiful, nice studio, every car you couldthink of, like you name it.
(59:46):
And there was like, you know, sometimes you get to a point where you feel like you're toogood to do some things, you know?
And you kind of forget.
oh
where you start at.
And I was in Thailand.
I've gotten a detachment of like worldly items over the last couple of years where I justkind of like, it just evolved in as a person, right?
(01:00:07):
So I go to Thailand to visit two of my friends.
I bring my machine, needles and ink, that's all I brought.
And I get there, and this is another thing when I tell you like the framework that I do.
I get to Thailand and within like a couple of days I'm like,
I can't be sitting around.
I was gonna say, I'm just gonna film a bunch of videos and content for the business.
(01:00:28):
I'm like, I gotta do, I gotta leave my mark wherever I go.
And I'm like, I'm gonna do a client.
So, exactly what I told you earlier, I put 200 bucks on one of my good performing organicvideos.
I put it in the surrounding areas like Bangkok, Phuket, and Kosovo, another island.
Only those street places I played this video.
(01:00:50):
48 hours, I got a guy from my DM.
on FaceTime, WhatsApp, talk to him, get a complete stranger on the other side of the globeto trust me and pay a $1,500 Stripe invoice, believing that I'm gonna jump on a plane and
actually go fly.
I'm in Kosovo, fly to Bangkok, do his SMP, and this is what I'm telling you, it's like theframework of the closing and how I built this whole career.
(01:01:19):
I still do it and it works wherever I go.
Wow.
I get to Bangkok, I jump off the plane, all I have is my machine, I stop at the fleamarket there to buy a light, and then I get to his house, mind you, I want a scooter,
because the traffic is so bad, you gotta ride scooters.
So I'm on the back of scooter, it's an Uber, it picks you up, the Grab, and go to thisguy's apartment, little apartment in Bangkok, and I'm like, listen, bro, I'm missing some
(01:01:48):
supplies, I don't even have gloves.
I'm like, if you don't got gloves, like, I cannot.
do S &P on you.
Like I at least need gloves.
I need Saran wrap, I need tape, I need a couple things.
So we're literally just storming his house, going to his kitchen, found gloves.
They're like to dye your hair.
The ones that are like plastic bags that they put in the box.
Found a pair of a little bag of those.
(01:02:09):
So no bed.
He lays on his couch.
I Saran wrap his head cushion on the couch.
And I have videos.
I'm gonna actually post this soon.
By the time this is out, it will be on my page.
I'm sitting Indian style in his living room doing SMP with his head on the back of thecouch in a little apartment in Bangkok.
(01:02:30):
And the old me would have been like, I can't do this.
I can't work in these circumstances.
I need this and I need that.
And it just got to the point where it's like, I don't need anything, man.
I have the skill.
I need nothing.
I have the skill.
It's more than enough.
And oh I just was like laughing.
I was laughing.
I put my phone in a tripod.
(01:02:51):
I'm like,
This is the best.
I need nothing.
was like, thank you God.
I can go anywhere on this planet.
And with my skill set, I will make a living.
yeah, after him, I booked two more clients.
I made $7,000.
And just like that, through the DM and just talking to people.
(01:03:13):
And then I got hit by the car, so I couldn't work no more.
Yeah, it's okay.
I like the adventure.
But best time ever.
That's so cool though.
just absolutely love the essence of that and how ah you keep your feet on the ground andrecognize the simplicity of it and how valuable it is across borders, across the world.
(01:03:38):
What you do has value to guys, uh maybe some girls on uh the other side of the world.
And all you need is your knowledge and your skill and your tool that you can carry withyou.
and you can make a living anywhere in the world.
How amazing is that?
Yeah, it's really, it's just such a blessing.
(01:03:58):
Like even us as hairstylists and barbers, we can go anywhere on planet earth and make agreat living.
You know, we need nothing.
We could cut hair on the porch, we cut hair in the jungle, in the desert.
It don't matter.
We don't need anything.
All that stuff is luxury and I love it and I always want to work in that environment, butwe really don't need anything.
(01:04:18):
Awesome.
All right, Taylor, this was phenomenal.
And listeners, you heard him.
If you have questions, DM him.
He's on his DMs all the time.
Love it.
All right.
Thanks, brother.
Thanks for sharing.
What's going on, Taylor?
How are you?
Great man, great yourself.
I'm doing great.
for those who are watching, well, for those who are listening, we have a YouTube channel.
And I mentioned it now and then, probably not enough, but on the YouTube channel, you canwatch this interview.
And I was just telling Taylor, as we were dialing in the audio, Donovan typically comes onand helps the guest dial in the audio.
(00:24):
So it's a good listening experience.
I'm watching Taylor and Donovan kind of get everything dialed in.
And I'm thinking, that's a pretty cool filter that Taylor's got.
background and then and then we're almost gonna record and he Stands up out of his chairand like flips a light switch and his background changes and I'm like, whoa, that's not a
(00:45):
filter That's how good a background that is.
That's how I've never seen that before.
That was awesome.
All right Well, you can see it on the YouTube channel.
So what's going on man?
How are you?
doing great man.
Just staying busy, enjoying my career and the industry and um man, I'm just loving everyminute of it.
(01:07):
We haven't done an episode on scalp micropigmentation.
And by the way, I practiced that scalp micropigmentation because there's a lot, there's alot of my moving parts of my mouth that have to all fire at the same time in order to get
that all out properly.
And so I practiced it before we did this.
(01:28):
We've never done an episode on this.
So this is super cool.
I've known that this is a thing in the industry.
and super excited to be talking about this, kind of a different kind of episode for us.
And so um I'm going to, instead of asking your background and all that kind of stuff, Ijust, I want to get into what this is.
I think I know what it is, but I'm not sure.
(01:51):
I don't know if the listeners know what it is.
So let's just begin with a very fundamental question of what is scalp micropigmentation?
Okay, so the best way I can explain this is take a barber or a hairstylist, take a tattooartist, and you kind of mix them together, and then you got scalp micropigmentation.
(02:18):
So, yeah, without tongue twisters, SMP is the easiest way to remember this.
So basically, it is a cosmetic tattoo.
that we use to replicate hair follicles.
So it's a lot different than cosmetic tattooing on the body.
Totally different technique.
(02:40):
And it's just, what I saw is absolutely genius, because we're taking mainly bald, youknow, people that are fully bald.
It looks like they have a full head of hair and they just keep a shave because they wantto.
So you you get your hairline back, reframe your face.
If...
uh
men or women are suffering from hair loss or maybe women with thinning hair.
(03:01):
You know, we do the SMP and it's like similar concept as when you dye your hair dark.
It's that the hair dye stains the skin.
So for like three, four days, your hair looks crazy thick.
um So it is absolutely mind blowing when you see the results.
And that's it.
(03:22):
is the only
permanent hair loss solution that is 100 % guaranteed and it is the cheapest solutionalso.
Interesting.
Okay, that makes sense.
the look, I may ask them dumb questions, but that's my job as I'm here and I want thelisteners to learn what this is well.
(03:48):
And so I'm gonna use my natural stupidity to ask you questions.
So if I heard you correctly, you are essentially tattooing small,
uh small dots onto wherever your client wants it to look like the hair follicles are stillproducing hair.
(04:12):
Okay.
And they, but of course hair is not going to grow out of the tattoo mark, if you will,right?
It just looks like, I think you said somebody who is bald, who wants to look like theystill have hair follicles that are firing, but they just choose to shave it.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
(04:33):
in the world of dudes, that's badass.
Like, you know, if you shave your head, I don't know, that's just bad ass.
It's just a thing that, you know, it's a guy thing.
So what you get at the end of one of your sessions, and we're gonna talk about details oflike what a session is and stuff.
What you get is a dude with a hairline all of a sudden.
(04:57):
Yes.
And that's where the artistry comes in, right?
You were a barber.
I think that's gonna be important to say, you're still a barber, sure.
not were.
I just focus on the highest paying ticket item I could possibly offer.
Love that.
So do you actually, do you have clients that you cut still?
(05:19):
My 11 year old son is the only person who gets a haircut from me.
He's the lowest paying client that you've ever had in your life.
it just costs $3,000.
Hahaha
Okay, that makes sense.
So your clients, so you're 100 % SMP now, but you use your experience as a barber behindthe chair for how many years, by the way?
(05:45):
How many years did you cut hair?
So as of right now, I've a barber for 25 years.
my God, so you have tremendous experience.
How long have you been doing SMP?
Okay.
So for, you still had a lot of years uh just cutting hair as a barber before you starteddoing SMP.
So you know a lot about hairlines.
(06:06):
You know a lot about, you know, and, and, know, heads, all heads are different, right?
Some guys have different shaped heads than other dudes.
And, and that's important when it comes to
you making the judgment of where the hairline should be on what head.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
It's um, you know when I saw this You know so we could say I'm a lifelong I've been life alifelong barber.
(06:33):
I went to cosmetology school at 15 at 16 years old later on went to get my barber licenseas well and been cutting hair professionally since 15 in the barbershop, so this is all
I've done and Obviously, I love cutting hair
But I kind of got to a point where I was like, man, I wasn't just born to sit in this boxand just do haircuts all day long.
(06:54):
Like this feels like prison.
And I went my whole life with ever getting a raise.
Never got a raise.
I just cut hair.
So, you know.
like, give us an idea of what kind of barber shop, there's lots of different kind ofbarber shops these days, you know, some guys have kind of uh carved out a niche of very
(07:15):
expensive cuts.
You may not be able to tell, but I pay, you know, well over a hundred bucks for myhaircut.
But I know a lot of dudes don't want to pay more than, you know, so like what were youcharging?
So, man, my in my during my career, I've done it all.
I've worked in high end shops.
(07:36):
I've worked in low end shops.
The last nine years of my barbering doing haircuts.
I was in a $10 barber shop.
We're talking.
Yeah, bro.
And we're talking.
With my years and years of experience and my skill set, I'm in a low skill set barber shopdoing $10 haircuts.
(07:59):
Granted, I still made at least $500 every single day.
I made stupid money, but I'm also killing myself.
I'm working 10 hours a day.
so many clients.
mean, Jesus Christ.
If you figure, guess 10 bucks plus a tip, hopefully guys are tipping you a few bucks.
Yeah.
(08:19):
But still low price.
a day, even more.
I've all, it's insane.
Yeah, that's cool when you're starting out, but not when you're in the game for so long.
Right.
these, you know, $10 barber cut, this is like the level where you're like the dude,they're all like lined up against the back of the wall and they're like, give me a one and
(08:44):
a two and stuff, that kind of thing.
For the most part, honestly, it was a group of eight guys and we cut hair extremely good.
So you're getting a really, really good haircut.
And the shop was always slam packed from sun up to sun down.
(09:06):
know, everybody would throw you like 20 bucks.
ah You know, throw me 50 on the side, you're kind of skip the line a little bit.
But like...
So we made good money, but man, it is high volume.
is brutal.
Long days, long days.
Okay, so how did you find SMP?
(09:29):
So, right, so I told you, you know, I really, really wanted a career change, right?
I was completely lost.
I only cut hair my entire life.
So for me to get a career change, you know, I was 29, 30 years old.
It was, you know, it's very hard to do, you know?
(09:50):
And I was sitting down, eating dinner at my brother-in-law's house.
He's a real spiritual dude.
And I'm asking him about career changes and just different ideas I have in my head.
And he was like, listen, God's sending you a career change, but you don't know it exists.
So stop asking me.
(10:11):
And I'm like, bullshit, man.
That's impossible.
Like, that's impossible.
And I started naming all these things.
And he's like, stop.
He's like, I told you, you don't know it exists.
So just stop asking.
And I'm like, whatever, man.
What does that mean?
exactly, exactly.
So about eight months later, one of my clients comes into the shop and giving him ahaircut.
(10:35):
He's not fully bald, just kind of thin on top.
And he's like, yo T, how do you like my hairline?
And I'm like, it looks great.
What'd you do?
Put Just For Men in it at home?
And did you paint it on?
And he's like, no bro, this is a tattoo.
And I'm like, son of a bitch.
I was like, give me that guy's phone number right now.
(10:57):
He gave me the dude's number and then it just hit me.
I was like, oh my God.
I was like, thank you so much.
This is what I'm doing.
I never knew this existed.
It's freaking genius.
And I'm doing it.
That's all I knew.
I didn't know what it cost.
I didn't know anything.
I just knew it was better than this damn barber shop and better than these cheap haircuts.
(11:21):
Now, a typical ghetto love story, right?
I tell my baby mom,
Let me get your income tax check because I'm going to buy all new tattoo equipment and I'mgoing to blow up with this new service I'm going to offer.
And she's like, she's like, all right, take my check.
She gave me her income tax check.
I bought so, you know, I started tattooing when I was 18 years old.
(11:44):
My older my oldest brother is a tattoo artist.
So I have many years in tattooing.
But barbering is my profession.
I bought all new tattoo equipment.
I just ordered every size of needle you could possibly think of.
And when I'm doing the research on this, it's actually a thing.
Scout micro pigmentation.
These guys are tattooing hairlines.
(12:05):
And I was so impressed, but I would never let none of those guys do my hair.
just, their work was missing something, was missing a touch.
And when I started calling all these guys and I'm asking them questions and I've been abarber my whole life, I've done tattoos forever.
I'm covered in tattoos.
They didn't know much about tattooing.
(12:26):
it's like their experience level was so low at that time that I just started tattooingboth of my legs.
Both of my legs are covered in dots.
Ordered every size needle you could think of.
Doing melons, doing synthetic skins, and about three weeks of practicing every single daywhen I got home from the barber shop, I felt like I was ready.
(12:50):
And then I told my brother-in-law, a different brother-in-law,
I was like, man, let me do your hairline.
I got you.
He was bald.
he, yeah.
And I was like, you know, I got you, man.
Like, I will not mess this up, you know?
(13:10):
And he was like, he trusted me.
So I did it.
I did him in the barbershop after hours, about 10.30 at night.
We were both shitting bricks.
were.
Scared I was I'm shaking We did the first session of S &P came out awesome.
We were so excited so happy with those pictures and videos I was able to book uh Twothree.
(13:35):
I'm sorry three more of my friends the next day as soon as they saw the videos so firstweek I had four clients videos and pictures of everybody and Man, that was it.
I've never ever stopped ever since then
Eight years.
Amazing.
So self-taught.
mean, it's tattooing and you knew how to tattoo.
(13:57):
And you had the perfect background for this, right?
It was just the perfect mix.
have years of cutting hair.
I've done more tattoos than these S &P artists have ever done S &P.
And I'm a very creative person.
I can watch something.
can pick it up very quickly.
(14:18):
So I won't quite say self-taught, but I had the tools and the skills to do it.
And you practiced until it got good.
So, and you're lucky enough to have some relatives who were willing to sit there and letyou practice.
(14:39):
Not really practice.
I mean, you practice on yourself, but at least try as the first client.
They trusted you, which is, which is a big deal because this is how they look.
That's a big deal.
and so you did your, uh, brothers in law.
And then what you you you change your Instagram put up some videos and and rocket it was arocket ship
(15:04):
My Instagram now is, was my barber page.
Nothing has ever been deleted.
You can go all the way to the bottom and you can see back when I'd never even knew SMPexisted.
You can see my whole journey on there.
And I just used what I had.
um know, when I'm doing classes and they think I have some type of crazy marketingstrategy and stuff like that, I'm like, listen,
(15:32):
been a barber my whole life.
I keep things very very simple.
This is solid fundamentals.
There's nothing spectacular here.
It's fundamentals, it's customer service.
I truly care about my customers.
I truly care about their concerns and that's how I'm able to do amazing work and to keepon booking clients for this many years.
(16:00):
Yeah.
Well, I think that's a pretty darn good summary.
So I'm not done asking questions about the like specifics of it.
I'm on your Instagram page.
So you kind of, you, you outline where the hairline is going to be.
You probably get the client's approval.
Like, does that look good?
Right.
(16:20):
Okay.
And, then you just start going, uh, with the tattooing small dots and
Do most of these clients that you're doing these days, do they have a little, I mean like,how bald are they?
100 % bald or not always?
(16:41):
This all, like everybody.
I've done plenty of clients that have a full head of hair like you.
I've done guys that are maybe just losing the corners or they're just thin on top.
And then obviously we got those big old Homer Simpson heads that are totally bald and it'slike, oh, it's going be a long day.
Yeah, that's a big deal.
Okay, so somebody like me, I got fraggle hair, it's going everywhere.
(17:04):
And, you know, I've been on Propecia and Rogaine for probably eight or nine years, verysuccessfully, as you can tell, because I have a lot of hair.
And I was thinning for a period of time.
So I'm the positive use case for those two things.
But somebody like me, how would I benefit from such a thing as SMP?
(17:25):
So, the typical for your situation is say maybe when their hair is wet or their hair iskind of thin where they can kind of see through it and they want it to look thicker and
fuller.
So we would just do the whole top of your head and basically, you know, when you part it,there are going to be the impressions everywhere which is going to make it look darker and
(17:45):
fuller.
Got it.
All right, so instead of seeing a white scalp, like in my case, they're seeing darkness inthere and probably not even be able to tell uh what they're actually seeing.
it makes it look denser, know, fuller, you know.
(18:06):
very interesting.
So when you're doing a dude who's mostly bald, mean, there's something coming out, butit's like not enough, so they're probably shaving it, right?
And they've, the follicles that are around the hairline have been dormant for a number ofyears.
So those, so there's no pigment there.
(18:28):
um So when you go in there with the little dots to give pigment to,
uh follicles, are you, is there like a technical nature to that?
Like are you doing fewer at the hairline and then more as you go up onto the scalp?
(18:49):
yeah, so that's like one of the biggest mistakes newer artists make or just artists ingeneral is they typically go too dense with the impressions at the hairline.
So for like the most realistic results, the actual hairline itself, the impressions needto be a little bit more spaced out and just like a quarter inch, a half an inch back.
(19:15):
they'll get a little bit closer together and that's going to make it look, you know, themost natural.
Whether they want a little edged up hairline like they came from the barber shop or a justnice sprinkle like they got a buzz cut.
The front should always be a little bit less dense, you know.
that seems to be the natural way that our follicles are spread around the scalp.
(19:40):
I know that I have a friend who's a, uh I guess, implant doctor, right?
And so he takes the tracks out of the back of the head and then he has this team ofpeople.
They separate the follicles in terms of the gauge of the hair, the thickness of the hair,the texture of the hair.
(20:03):
the color of the hair and maybe a couple other things.
And then they, around the hairline, they put the thinnest, lightest uh hair, follicles.
at the hairline and then when they get back farther in then they'll put like clusters oftwo and three.
Right, okay.
So this is the same kind of thing that you're doing.
(20:23):
I imagine, like you already said, those who aren't doing as good a job are just doing thesame density of dots.
Yeah, you know, to the naked eye, when you look at the procedure being done, it's like, Ijust doing dots on the head.
That's easy.
And there's a lot of a lot more moving parts than somebody might think.
(20:46):
It is this is precision tattooing at its finest.
It has to be extremely precise.
Yeah, that's a good description.
Okay, what other parts of the body do you have have you done?
Do you have people asking for?
I do beards all the time.
(21:08):
I used to do eyebrows.
I have later on, because that only costs like $700 and I don't want to waste my time.
Okay.
SMP is the highest service I can offer in the beauty industry.
uh
enough people wanting it on the scalp that it's not worth doing the...
(21:34):
in during my eight-year career so far I have over 10,000 clients completed globally Yeah
Okay, so let's get into the nitty gritty of the of the service uh sessions.
I think you call them uh To do your typical scalp, know, not not a big linebacker scalpBut you know or not not a little kid scalp, but like a normal dude scalp How many is it
(22:04):
multiple sessions and how many hours per session?
so over the years I've got it down to two sessions.
In the beginning stages we're doing three sessions, even four sessions.
But as uh the technique, as I evolved my technique and just understood how the skin healsand how the skin regenerates, I'm able to get them done with two sessions.
(22:27):
I book each session for three hours.
So they come in, they get the SMP as soon as I'm done.
I never exceed three hours, it looks amazing.
We wait four weeks, let the skin fully regenerate.
They come back in, we do a second session and then they're complete.
So we're talking, know, pretty much my mindset to this is if I was doing $50 haircuts andthat was say an hour long appointment.
(22:57):
So I'm averaging 150 every three hours.
with tip maybe 200 bucks and that's giving these guys that's giving like justice right.
um And then three hours I'm getting 2500 to $3,000.
So pretty much every time I do a client in my mind I just got a $2,300 raise.
Amazing.
(23:18):
Absolutely amazing.
Okay.
So two sets of six hours for your typical scalp.
And I'm curious, uh, is it simply the reason that you need six hours and not, or, or Ishould say it this way, the reason you need two sessions and not one session is just the
sheer, you know, um, the sheer area that you need to do, or is it, you do the whole scalparea the first time and then the healing takes place?
(23:46):
Like you said,
and then they come back and you and what happened.
Okay, so we make the impressions, but we keep them a little bit spaced out.
So we want a good amount of skin in between.
So like when you're looking on Instagram and YouTube and all my social media, that'spretty much all finished work, two sessions.
So we keep the dots spaced out, we let that heal.
(24:10):
When they come back, we put more in between those, which will make it look darker, morefull, and pretty much that's it.
The finishing touches, nice little blend.
Now the reason why we can't go so close at the very beginning is because we got pigment,which is not ink.
Like they get it twisted.
This is pigment, which is different.
(24:32):
So it's like sand floating in a carrier, which is like distilled water.
This is call it.
So now we deposit that in the scalp that has to cure, meaning the carrier, the water needsto evaporate, leaves the sand behind.
If you put it too close,
It can just merge together and now we just painted somebody's head and completely stainedthe skin.
(24:57):
because somebody's pissed off so
might not be pissed off, but it's gonna look, I'm not gonna want to, it's not gonna lookgood.
I'm not gonna like that.
Okay, so did you just describe what a tattoo is?
Is that the pigment, the same pigment used for a tattoo?
It's like sand or it's like a very, very small grain and that's what happens?
(25:19):
Okay, I didn't know that.
I'm gonna learn something new every day.
This is when the listeners are like, Eric, there's no shit.
Why am I even listening to this podcast?
people know it's, mean, a lot of people call it ink, but it's pigment.
right.
Okay, so uh I'm scrolling your gram right now.
I noticed that you have a guy with a full head of very natural looking, pretty cool hair,and he's got kind of a mid-fade.
(25:47):
uh And then, so you're not doing his scalp, you're doing his beard.
And I'm like, whoa.
Yeah.
Is it your favorite thing because you get to shape?
Yeah, it's more fun.
And then honestly, myself, just myself in general, all I care about is my beard.
(26:11):
Like, I'd shave my head, whatever.
But like, if my beard's messed up, I'm not leaving my house.
that's all I got is my beard.
So like, yeah, yeah.
to accentuate the good and hide the bad shapes of our face.
So, uh, I can see you're definitely, you're into doing this dude's beard and you've got itkind of outlined in a, in a, you know, good masculine way that the guy happens to have,
(26:42):
you know, really well-shaped face.
I hate him.
because I have an oval face like you do.
I got big cheeks.
uh So he's got a really cool looking beard.
so you're essentially uh from a visual standpoint, you're filling it in.
Is that right?
(27:03):
And then it looks like he has natural hair growing on the beard.
Yeah, yeah, you still have, I mean, most people, have my beard done.
I have a really good beard.
It's pretty thick, but I like it dark.
So, shave my whole face, do my whole beard, and then I would grow right back.
Yeah.
(27:25):
Exactly.
dark, well at least it's darkened underneath.
So it looks more filled.
Like mine is kind of, eh, it's not great.
I could do your beard.
It will look absolutely amazing.
And it's going to match your hair color.
The tone is going to look good on your skin color.
And it'll be nice and natural looking.
(27:46):
It's just going to look more filled in.
No one's even going to know.
It's a...
So this is a bit of a trick example here, because as you can see, and I'm sure thelisteners know, that my beard is graying.
I mean, I am almost 50.
So my hair is gray.
(28:08):
Well, you can maybe see if I get the light shining right.
Yeah, my hair is gray.
See this?
Well, that's because of my chubby cheeks.
It makes me look younger.
But my facial hair is graying.
And it's been gray right here at my chin, symmetrically, thank God, for years.
(28:30):
And then over here, hard to see in the camera, but it's graying there too.
if you were sitting here right now, we were doing this on film, what color would youchoose?
Because I got gray, I got reddish tones, I got brown.
make like an ashy brown that will match this portion of your beard best.
(28:52):
And when we go across the front, all we're doing is adding more pepper, salt and pepper.
It's gonna look awesome.
I'm not gonna match the white hair, but the color of the pigment with the white hair isgonna be salt and pepper.
It's gonna look awesome.
That is fascinating.
Okay, so.
(29:15):
Yeah, you're good at selling this too.
You're good at selling this.
I could see where this story's going.
I could see why you've been doing well at this.
um Well, where are you by the way, geographically?
I am located in downtown Miami.
In Brickell.
Yeah.
(29:36):
a great area.
And that's a great town for the service, right?
Because people care about the way they look in Miami, same way they do in LA.
fun fact, I do like 10 people from Miami a month.
oh We can go 99 % of my clientele flies in from all over the
(29:56):
You're kidding me.
I think the whole Miami is like some leverage, like, all right, Miami for two days, whynot?
I could see that.
I can see that.
So, fun fact.
Maybe you don't want me talking about this because it's almost a competitor, but anyonewho knows, knows.
(30:19):
uh I was in Turkey for a vacation and this is like, I don't know if it's the home of theimplant thing, but all these people, this is the Mecca, right?
Yes.
Yeah.
uh
So they had bandages all over on the plane on the way back.
(30:42):
There were half, half of the passengers were girls with bandages on their faces.
And the other half were dudes with all sorts of marks all over their heads.
I went back to my seat and I'm like, babe, what the hell is going on?
It was there like a, you know, was there a war or whatever in Turkey?
And she's like,
(31:03):
No, you idiots.
This is the plastic surgery.
They do the hair thing.
so there's like a uh tourism element to it.
So I could see Miami being that for you.
Now you're cheaper than that, I'm assuming.
You said it's the cheapest way to get a filled in look.
(31:23):
So am I doing the math right?
So it's six grand for a scalp?
uh
No, it'll be three.
That's included in both sessions.
Yeah.
Yeah.
it.
So three grand for the scalp.
I know that the implanting can run, mean, it can get into the 50, 60,000 neighborhood.
Yeah, the states, absolutely.
(31:44):
The cheapest you're gonna find in the states, probably a crappy job, is 10k.
So, you want some good work, it's 20,000 and up in the United States.
Now, Turkey is doing, if you go to the right people, absolutely mind-blowing work.
But it's still about $5,000, but you gotta take two weeks off of work, full-blown surgery,flights, hotels, etc.
(32:07):
So, yeah, you're getting it cheaper, but I mean, two weeks off of work is...
It's a big swing.
for the most part, you're paying the same money if you would have stayed here.
But they do great work.
follicles don't all take either.
It's it's permanent, but it's not guaranteed.
And being in the hair industry, my entire life, my entire working life, I have seen by farmore bad than good.
(32:38):
Now, recently, I'm starting to see great work that I am very impressed by.
But again, it's still not fully guaranteed.
It might not work for everybody.
It's surgery, and you're taking...
a living organism, is your hair follicle, and you're re-putting it somewhere else.
So this is an organ transplant ultimately, right?
(33:01):
So there is a risk rate of it not being successful.
But regardless of the matter, I'm not biased to any hair enhancement.
I'm lifelong in the beauty industry.
I love it all.
know?
So SMP, the way I like to explain SMP is let's just talk about like food, right?
Pizza.
So we got the dough.
(33:22):
You cannot bake pizza without the dough.
That's SMP.
It always needs to be done first.
Then you put your toppings on.
your recipe, make whatever recipe you want.
Whether you want to add minoxidil, whether you want to do a finished dried, whether youwant to do a hair transplant, whether you like hair fibers, it all looks great together.
They all complement each other extremely well.
(33:44):
So whatever the best fit is for each person, you know, but SMP is 100 % guaranteed.
It looks absolutely amazing.
And within three hours, you're going to look amazing.
That's it.
Completely changed.
uh That is another benefit is right away you get the benefits of the appearance.
(34:08):
With the hair transplant, I've had some friends who they had it done and then for many,many, many months they're in a situation where they have to be very careful about what's
going on up there, hoping that the follicles are accepted by that new part of your bodyand the hair starts growing again.
uh
Yeah, and it doesn't always work.
(34:31):
So big advantage there.
I've actually done two hair transplants.
I've got trained and certified to do hair transplants.
Yeah.
How can train with you, You need a medical technician.
There's loopholes around all that stuff.
The people who do it in the United States, they're not doctors.
The doctor just looks at you, takes your money, and then his technicians do it that hepays $20 an hour.
(34:57):
But yeah, I did two hair transplants.
And the people who do really good transplants, hats off, because you guys are extremelytalented.
That shit is hard to do.
It is hard.
Yeah, I bet.
I mean, when it was explained to me, it was like, wow.
And this friend of mine, you know, he's up in the 50,000 neighborhood.
(35:19):
does celebrities and stuff and it's all very hush hush.
There's no sign on the thing.
It's all very secretive.
And he explained the process and I'm like, holy crap.
You know, he uses all these people like I described before in order to try to get asnatural of a look as possible.
Yeah.
Wow.
So um you did them as a technician, you did the transplants.
(35:43):
Wow, that's crazy.
Yeah, because I was thinking about possibly, you know, maybe teaming up with a doctor,providing transplants in the United States or North America, just because honestly, I
personally I don't think no one could do it better.
If I wanted to do it.
I know what it's supposed to look like, you know, but it's a lot of work.
And honestly, I'd rather just do SMP.
(36:05):
I make I actually make more money doing SMP than I would doing transplants.
The amount of time that it takes.
less liability to and I'm sure lots of other things.
Yeah, that's full-blown surgery.
What about maintenance appointments?
Do they come in a year later?
Is there anything like that?
no, they go back to their regular routine cut their hair however they like um If theystill have hair and it's just thin Then it's not gonna dictate their haircut They could do
(36:33):
any haircut they like if they're bald They're still gonna need to shave but like grantedif you're totally bald on top and in two days You have this like ring going around your
head and that's like it makes everybody look so much older, right?
So now instead of two days, maybe you can go four or five days before you got to shave it
You know?
um So for the most part, you're gonna cut your hair as usual, except it's gonna look a lotbetter.
(37:01):
Okay.
Have you ever had comb over patients?
Like a Donald Trump?
Would Donald Trump benefit from this?
Taylor Perry does all humans.
If you're a human, I could take great care of
Donald Trump, Biden, I will take care of all of you guys.
Okay, so how do you find clients?
(37:22):
It sounds like you're doing great, you're booked out.
I mean, how are these people finding you?
Alright, so I'm gonna blow you guys mind with this.
alright, when I tell you, for last eight years, I've completed over 10,000 clientsglobally.
Of course, I got word of mouth.
Clients always refer me clients.
(37:43):
But my entire income comes from social media platforms.
When I had, when I had, I'm sorry?
Instagram mostly?
Yeah, Instagram.
I used to get a lot from YouTube.
just kind of started.
I stopped getting being so active on YouTube because I'm so busy.
But definitely Instagram and Facebook.
(38:04):
Now, when I had the first.
So listen to this.
So I started doing this in the barbershop after hours, like I told you.
It quickly grew to me doing this after hours.
My free time got taken up very quickly and I was forced to open up my my own location.
So I opened up a storefront.
Nice.
that year, I'm talking maybe 8 10,000 followers on Instagram.
(38:27):
So it wasn't like a crazy big account or anything like that.
I made $1.4 million that year through Instagram.
Whoa, hold the fuck up.
Hold out a second.
Wait, in year one?
Of course you have expenses, know, listeners don't go nuts.
He didn't pocket that.
You know, you got expense, got rent, you got insurance, you got shit like that.
(38:50):
But like...
For a year.
For a year.
For, well, okay, you got rent.
This is the only business, and if you know one, let me know.
This is the only business I know that within like five square feet, because all I need ismy massage bed, I can make a million dollars.
(39:11):
I need nothing else.
I could do it in a freaking field as long as they lay down.
And I have my tattoo machine, my needles, and my pigment.
it was one of those things is when I found the price point, you know, 2500, 3000, 25 beinga very competitive price globally, no matter the currency.
And I was like, okay, my original plan was let me do two, three heads a week and just livean amazing life, spend time with my kids and my family.
(39:40):
You know, go to the gym.
And I did that within the first couple months.
And then I'm like, man, I literally killed my body my entire life for freaking 10 and $20haircuts.
Working 12 hours a day.
I got a torn hip from cutting hair.
So I said, you know what?
Standing up all day, I'm a heavyweight.
I was like, used to walk around 250, 260.
(40:01):
So, yeah.
So I said, listen, I'm gonna kill myself now.
Except now I'm gonna get paid.
Right.
I had an assistant at the time.
I told her, listen, I want at least a minimum of three clients a day.
And I'm doing three clients.
I'm doing four clients, five, even six days a week.
During COVID, I was working 30 days, nonstop, four clients a day, $3,000 a pop for sixyears straight.
(40:34):
That's crazy.
And I get everybody the original question.
I totally veered off.
But the original question was how do I get all these clients the same way I was taught atthe beginning of the podcast.
I told you it's all basic solid customer service.
Right.
So if you walked in my barbershop, I'm going to greet you.
Hey, how's it going?
(40:55):
Are you waiting for first available?
I'll take good care of you.
Perfect.
If you walk by my shop and popped your head in and looked and then left, I'm going to comerun in the door.
Hey, come back.
Come back.
how can I take care of you?
So it's exactly the same.
Nothing changes except now I'm on social media.
So if you follow my page, guess what?
(41:16):
You just walked in my barbershop.
I'm going to DM you.
Hey, thanks for the follow.
I really appreciate the support.
Any questions about SMP or my training class, I'm going to take great care of you.
I'm here.
And then I'll follow up with a voice note so they know I'm not a bot.
It's really me.
that kind of diligence when it comes to engaging.
(41:37):
Everybody could benefit from this.
If the listener is a hairdresser who is perfectly happy with her career, she's not goingto start doing this, but now she's informed about it.
If somebody follows you, you don't know who they are, they're a potential client, DM them.
I love that.
And not only are they a potential client they're a potential client that's gonna pay youwhat you want your locals That are always in your shop ain't gonna pay you what you want.
(42:03):
They've been there for years They want the cheap price or they're they want you know whatI mean new clients pay you what you want um Another thing if you comment on my post That's
the same thing as if you walked by the barbershop and said something to me and keptwalking I'm gonna grab you and talk to you.
I'm gonna message you.
I'm gonna respond to the comments
(42:24):
That's how I made this money.
Another thing what I would do and I still do this to this day and everything I'm saying Istill do this to the day is I would make myself very very well known locally and
eventually nationwide and then eventually worldwide grew and grew and grew.
But what I would so example is I would go to the LA fitness hashtag because remember Istarted with a smaller page I had to grow it just like anybody else.
(42:53):
So I didn't have tons of people following me or messaging me.
I had to create that.
So I would do the opposite.
I would go to LA Fitness in Hollywood where I used to work out at.
And I would literally look at everybody who tagged that they were there.
I would like all their pictures.
I will comment on their stuff.
I will uh comment on their story.
(43:15):
So it goes straight into their inbox.
And I would just support everybody in the areas that I personally go.
So I'm not selling to nobody, but you gotta know what I do.
networking is what that is.
That's power networking.
It's just being like if I'm a barber and I'm walking around my neighborhood, hey, goodmorning, how you doing?
(43:36):
I buy a coffee, hey, yeah, see ya.
Everybody knows that's the guy at the barbershop.
It's the same thing.
call it power because you can do 10X, you know, laying on your couch at night uh versuswalking around the gym and, know, hey, Billy, yeah, right.
(43:57):
Love it.
So in other words, you're making yourself known because people hit on your profile andthey're like, oh, this guy, Taylor Perry, that's interesting.
What does he do?
Yes.
And you're like, holy shit, maybe I could benefit from that.
You know, one out of 10 or whatever.
Or like, maybe I can benefit from that.
And then maybe a second person out of 10 might say, I really don't like the fact that myboyfriend's bald.
(44:24):
Maybe he can benefit from it.
Right?
Or maybe my brother can benefit.
Yeah.
They just gotta know what it is that you do.
They just have to be aware that you, who you are and what you do.
I was not I know a lot about marketing now.
I've studied it over the years, but back then I did not I just had like just I Want to saycommon sense?
(44:46):
I just would like understand certain things, you know and I made Over a million dollars onInstagram with eight to ten thousand followers and all I did I did no paid ads I boosted a
lot But I would boost locally and then I started boosting nationwide meaning like I wouldtake
my best performing content and I would just put like a hundred bucks, 200 bucks on it forlike maybe eight days, 10 days and let it circulate through Instagram.
(45:15):
And then that's how I would start getting followers.
Then I would DM them, start conversations.
And that's how I made the money.
And when I'm in the DMs and I'm getting them on the phone, it's a conversation the sameway me and you are having.
I'm not selling to nobody.
I'm just educating them of what I do.
I'm just guiding them.
(45:35):
If I can guide them, I can definitely get you on my calendar.
You know what I mean?
And that was it.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
I love it.
So simple when we talk about it like this, right?
And then hopefully the listeners are like, geez, yeah, I really should spend more timekind of power networking within Instagram instead of scrolling everybody else's content.
(46:02):
you're going to be on there anyway, so you might as do something good with it.
Yeah, absolutely.
extremely powerful, a change in my life.
Absolutely, holy shit.
Okay, so I think we have the lay of the land with Taylor Perry and SMP.
So my understanding is that you educate people, you teach people how to do this now.
(46:25):
Yeah, it's something my whole career is so organic, man.
And I never ever thought to be an educator, never even thought I could teach.
I was actually very scared to teach.
And when I started making a little bit of noise and other people were reaching out to melike, yo, you got, I have to learn this.
(46:47):
This is incredible.
And they just kept begging me to teach.
And I was like, yo, I'm not, I don't know how to teach.
No, I don't know.
And they just wouldn't stop.
They're like, no, like they want to learn.
And, you know, I was just them very not long ago at all.
So I know exactly what they're going through.
(47:08):
I know how they feel.
And I had two girls from Puerto Rico call me and they're like, you're going to teach us.
And I told them, said, honestly, I've never taught nobody.
I don't think I don't know if I could do it.
And they're like, no, you can do it.
We believe in you.
They flew in from Puerto Rico to Miami.
We spent four days together.
(47:28):
I taught them and they are extremely successful to this day.
I taught them, yeah, in Puerto Rico, yeah.
I probably taught them almost seven years ago.
And then after that, had a girl call me, a barber, female barber from Vancouver, Canada,she called me.
And I had one of my clients who I've been cutting his hair since he was 13 years old.
(47:52):
They were like, yo, we were learning this.
She flew in from Vancouver.
He came down from Orlando and taught them, both of them to this day, extremely successful.
And that's how this all evolved.
You know, during COVID, I ended up rewriting a whole curriculum of everything I do.
I made an online course of just all in-depth video content.
(48:16):
um you know, teaching is very, very hard.
It's not easy.
So the better I can make it before they come in person, the better it is for me and thebetter it is for them.
So I kind of just sat down and said, let me, any way somebody can like retain information,I have to provide it in order to make this course like so well-rounded, right?
(48:39):
I personally learned by hands-on, I got to watch you and then I'm going to do it myself.
But not everybody's like that.
I had one of them, maybe my third or fourth guy come in was a high school teacher and abarber on the side.
And when I had him and he was all about notes, he needs literature to read and that he'she's a textbook, he's a teacher.
(49:00):
And I was like, oh, shit, this guy learns totally different than I do.
So that's why I end up writing a whole curriculum.
So whether it's reading and writing, whether it's video and audio, um hands on kind ofstatic learning and then ongoing support, I combine everything to just make a complete
course.
(49:21):
Okay, so this is business number two.
Obviously, it's the same thing, SMP, but you do an SMP, you're a service provider, you'regetting paid directly.
You being SMP educator is a totally different thing.
So how do you split your time?
I would say my income is about 50-50, about even.
(49:43):
okay, so you're making that much money on education.
That's great, okay, so, and uh you sell access to the videos that you're talking about, toall the materials?
Full curriculum.
It's an ecosystem.
It's an online course.
(50:04):
all video content that goes along with the written curriculum, that goes along with livegroup Zoom coaching, private WhatsApp group, and then of course, hands-on training where
we work on real models together.
They get to do models.
I go over social media.
Over the years, I've learned how to make content.
(50:26):
how to take pictures and videos of the clients.
And then also, it's a framework, right?
I've been extremely busy my whole career, but it's because I have framework.
And again, like it's not rocket science, but I have a step-by-step routine that I do.
I don't break it, and it keeps my calendar full.
oh When I talk to people on the phone, it keeps them trusting me, you know?
(50:50):
And it's just framework, so that's what I teach.
I teach everything how to be successful.
Amazing.
All right, so you became the shy potential service provider became a great educator, amaster, I guess they would call it, master educator.
You've mastered this skill and now you're helping other people be successful at it, whichI'm sure is a side benefit to you.
(51:15):
You feel that, don't you?
Yeah, I love it.
It's because there's a lot of passion involved.
And when I'm having these classes, everybody is so excited to be there.
And I take it very personal because these people, a lot of them are coming in with theirlast dollar.
(51:35):
Betting on their self when 85 percent of the world does not bet on doesn't even believe intheir self, let alone bet on it.
So these guys are these guys and girls are coming in betting on them.
Believe in them.
Most of them, a lot of them, it's their last freaking penny to get here.
So it's like, I got to give you everything.
Like I have to give it all.
(51:55):
But the energy is insane.
And we keep it small.
We keep intimate groups.
I used to teach classes of 40, but now I stick it to groups no bigger than 10.
It just intimate.
to give attention to each person when there's 40.
No, believe it or not, those classes were the best classes I ever had.
(52:17):
Well, why aren't you doing those things anymore?
It's moving parts.
for every five students, I would fly another artist in to help me teach.
So I gotta buy hotels, I gotta buy flights.
It's a lot of moving parts.
So that's a full blown event, you know?
I made great money doing it, but it's a lot of work and it's a lot of energy on myself.
(52:40):
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, so you have like, as part of the education, you're doing classes like you justdescribed, you're still doing those.
Do you have any coming up?
Yeah, my next class is September 22nd and 23rd in my home office in Miami, Florida.
(53:01):
Okay, okay.
So I would guess that that's probably a month from now when this is coming out, thatSeptember would be about a month from now.
It's about two months from now, but you know, we record these in advance, everybody knowsthat.
Okay, and how much does the class, or I should ask it this way, if somebody listening outthere wants to learn how to do this, supplement their income or potentially make this all
(53:29):
of their income,
How much does it cost to learn?
uh Normal price is $5,000 but you know periodically here and there I do some type of dealsyou know depending but a normal price is $5,000.
So DM for deals.
Yeah, just DM me if you are actually watching this podcast and you enjoy this show, I'llmore than happy to give you a great deal.
(53:53):
And another thing to just reach out, just reach out because if you want to learn this, nomatter financial status or travel or any, we'll just we talk about it, we put on a table,
we figure it out.
Yeah, that's awesome.
And then I'm just thinking through the questions that a listener might have if they'reconsidering doing this.
uh What is upstart investment?
(54:16):
So it would be the tattoo device machinery.
I don't have any tattoos.
I'm like the only person in our industry has no tattoos.
But like how, what is upstart investment?
I'm like give them everything when they when they sign up for the program They get themachine they get all the supplies.
They all the equipment from me It's enough so yeah, it's enough supplies and equipment ifyou're charging a full price to make at least $15,000, you know, so it's a good amount to
(54:44):
get started and then honestly I started in my barber chair So if you have a salon chairbarber chair, you could start right right there, you know
I like to tell everybody, use what you got.
You know, I started with a TV dinner table.
And my baby mom's income tax check.
That's how I started.
(55:07):
Yeah, so every state is different, but for the most part, normal tattoo license, whichunlike barbering or cosmetology, it's extremely easy to get.
It's usually like a hundred bucks and you just pay.
There's no test involved.
It's crazy.
They, they, they drag us through the
(55:28):
ringer to get a cosmetology license.
just how stupid, right?
um Well, it's not stupid to spend that, you know, but it's just the number of hours.
It's just the, yeah, it doesn't make any sense, but anyway, that's a whole differentpodcast.
Okay.
uh Yeah.
(55:53):
Okay, so normally in our hair game podcast episodes, when I'm talking to a hairdresserwho's,
you know, super high profile and doing cool things in the industry and a lot to teach.
I ask a hair horror story.
So now I'll ask an S and P horror story.
I don't know if you've got any, but have you, have you heard about any?
(56:14):
Okay.
So, yeah, I actually had one.
And it's really like when we're talking, put your customer service to the test.
Holy shit.
All right.
So in the barbershop, we got good and bad clients, right?
In the beauty salon, good and bad clients.
But you can cut their hair.
You can get them out of here and just try to avoid them for the rest of whatever.
(56:39):
your time at that shop.
SMP is a little different, this is a permanent procedure, right?
So I like to call there is red flag clients, clients that you just don't wanna do.
Now, when I'm at this point in my career, I'm not handling my own closings.
I have an assistant, she fills my calendar, she does my sales for me for the most part.
(57:00):
And if there's a crazy guy on the phone, I don't wanna do him, I don't want him here.
and somehow he slipped through the cracks and he gets here.
Cool, cool dude, but not somebody you wanna deal with.
So he comes in to my studio, he drove from Jacksonville, Florida, which is a long drive,gets here early in the morning, it like a 10 o'clock appointment, and this guy is smashed
(57:30):
on, for sure, Xanax bars or something, just oblivious, like, slurring, drunk.
And I'm just like.
So, right, whatever, he's here, you know, he paid and I'm just pissed.
So, nice guy though.
So, I'm doing, I cut his hair, I'm trying to draw the line, he's moving all over theplace, lays in my chair, and it took me like, probably like an hour just to get him to sit
(57:57):
down in my chair, he just keeps walking around, lays in the chair, the whole fucking chairtips over, he's laying, now he's laying on the ground, and I gotta pick, I gotta help pick
him up because he can't get up.
Oh no.
bad.
He was there for the whole day.
had to get out, curse my assistant out for that.
And then the mess-up part is that he got to come back for a second session.
(58:19):
all right.
So it took all day to do session one.
Did he come back?
Hell yeah, came back, guys.
He loves me.
I'm just like, it's bad, uh
we wish that are so cringy that we wish, you know, would go to somebody else.
(58:40):
So he came back and was it better the second time or the same?
Well, maybe, do you think maybe that was just his cocktail?
Like his meds?
It's just, that's the state of being.
Prescription drugs for sure.
Definitely meds.
Yeah, it was pretty rough.
(59:00):
He loves it, man.
He loves it.
He's posting pictures on Google.
He loves it.
He's a happy guy.
It was rough.
Other than that, yeah, other than that, it's pretty good for the most part.
I get cool people, man.
I get really cool people.
That's good, all right.
Well this was awesome, Taylor.
(59:21):
Anything else you want to tell the audience?
Yeah, you know, so just me and life, right?
This is something that, so I was recently in Thailand for one month.
And from just my career, right?
I got to a point where I had a beautiful, beautiful, nice studio, every car you couldthink of, like you name it.
(59:46):
And there was like, you know, sometimes you get to a point where you feel like you're toogood to do some things, you know?
And you kind of forget.
oh
where you start at.
And I was in Thailand.
I've gotten a detachment of like worldly items over the last couple of years where I justkind of like, it just evolved in as a person, right?
(01:00:07):
So I go to Thailand to visit two of my friends.
I bring my machine, needles and ink, that's all I brought.
And I get there, and this is another thing when I tell you like the framework that I do.
I get to Thailand and within like a couple of days I'm like,
I can't be sitting around.
I was gonna say, I'm just gonna film a bunch of videos and content for the business.
(01:00:28):
I'm like, I gotta do, I gotta leave my mark wherever I go.
And I'm like, I'm gonna do a client.
So, exactly what I told you earlier, I put 200 bucks on one of my good performing organicvideos.
I put it in the surrounding areas like Bangkok, Phuket, and Kosovo, another island.
Only those street places I played this video.
(01:00:50):
48 hours, I got a guy from my DM.
on FaceTime, WhatsApp, talk to him, get a complete stranger on the other side of the globeto trust me and pay a $1,500 Stripe invoice, believing that I'm gonna jump on a plane and
actually go fly.
I'm in Kosovo, fly to Bangkok, do his SMP, and this is what I'm telling you, it's like theframework of the closing and how I built this whole career.
(01:01:19):
I still do it and it works wherever I go.
Wow.
I get to Bangkok, I jump off the plane, all I have is my machine, I stop at the fleamarket there to buy a light, and then I get to his house, mind you, I want a scooter,
because the traffic is so bad, you gotta ride scooters.
So I'm on the back of scooter, it's an Uber, it picks you up, the Grab, and go to thisguy's apartment, little apartment in Bangkok, and I'm like, listen, bro, I'm missing some
(01:01:48):
supplies, I don't even have gloves.
I'm like, if you don't got gloves, like, I cannot.
do S &P on you.
Like I at least need gloves.
I need Saran wrap, I need tape, I need a couple things.
So we're literally just storming his house, going to his kitchen, found gloves.
They're like to dye your hair.
The ones that are like plastic bags that they put in the box.
Found a pair of a little bag of those.
(01:02:09):
So no bed.
He lays on his couch.
I Saran wrap his head cushion on the couch.
And I have videos.
I'm gonna actually post this soon.
By the time this is out, it will be on my page.
I'm sitting Indian style in his living room doing SMP with his head on the back of thecouch in a little apartment in Bangkok.
(01:02:30):
And the old me would have been like, I can't do this.
I can't work in these circumstances.
I need this and I need that.
And it just got to the point where it's like, I don't need anything, man.
I have the skill.
I need nothing.
I have the skill.
It's more than enough.
And oh I just was like laughing.
I was laughing.
I put my phone in a tripod.
(01:02:51):
I'm like,
This is the best.
I need nothing.
was like, thank you God.
I can go anywhere on this planet.
And with my skill set, I will make a living.
yeah, after him, I booked two more clients.
I made $7,000.
And just like that, through the DM and just talking to people.
(01:03:13):
And then I got hit by the car, so I couldn't work no more.
Yeah, it's okay.
I like the adventure.
But best time ever.
That's so cool though.
just absolutely love the essence of that and how ah you keep your feet on the ground andrecognize the simplicity of it and how valuable it is across borders, across the world.
(01:03:38):
What you do has value to guys, uh maybe some girls on uh the other side of the world.
And all you need is your knowledge and your skill and your tool that you can carry withyou.
and you can make a living anywhere in the world.
How amazing is that?
Yeah, it's really, it's just such a blessing.
(01:03:58):
Like even us as hairstylists and barbers, we can go anywhere on planet earth and make agreat living.
You know, we need nothing.
We could cut hair on the porch, we cut hair in the jungle, in the desert.
It don't matter.
We don't need anything.
All that stuff is luxury and I love it and I always want to work in that environment, butwe really don't need anything.
(01:04:18):
Awesome.
All right, Taylor, this was phenomenal.
And listeners, you heard him.
If you have questions, DM him.
He's on his DMs all the time.
Love it.
All right.
Thanks, brother.
Thanks for sharing.
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