020. ULTRAFADE [VIDEO]

Rich Tran is not your typical barber. He’s the founder of Ultrafade by Rich, a booming hair empire that grew from one small salon in Sefton to multiple thriving locations across Sydney—including the first-ever barbershop inside Bankstown Sports Club.

But behind the fades is a story of hardship, family breakdown, and fierce resilience. In this episode, Rich opens up like never before—sharing how he went from losing his family home due to gambling, to turning his last $100,000 into a powerful brand known across Australia. He reveals how his sister’s life-changing act of trust sparked the creation of a legacy, the toll it’s taken on his relationship with his mother, and the reality of building a business when no one believes in you.

We talk entrepreneurship, mental health, fatherhood, social media, and the emotional weight of being the one who broke the cycle. Whether you’re a creative, a business owner, or someone who's ever been underestimated—this conversation will hit home.

HOSTED BY @georgejohnphotography
PRODUCED BY @danieljohnmedia

Episode Transcript

(00:11):
Man, all of a sudden I just feellike gassy.
Can I feel the start of each other?
Oh. Yeah, seriously.
All of a sudden I'm like man, shit.
Are you all right? Yeah, I feel good.
Just you're. Not nervous.
A little bit. Yeah, you're a little bit
nervous, Yeah. Shake it off.
Yeah. All right, let's go.
All right, guys, I have Rich with us, the owner and the

(00:34):
founder of Ultra Fade. Very, very talented, successful
start off as a Barber. I guess I'll call you a
hairdresser now. Yeah.
Barber slash hairdresser I wouldsay.
Kind of both. Yeah, both.
Yeah. He's, if you don't know who he
is, he's opened up or currently he's running two massive salons
in Sydney, one in Guildford and one in Bankstown.

(00:55):
And he has this incredible storythat I just can't wait to dive
into. I've anticipated this moment.
But you know, like from first phone call, Rich was like so
down and I was so excited because his story is pretty
impressive. He's, you know, someone that you
need to keep your eye on if you don't already have your eye on
him, 'cause it's quite popular and successful, I guess you can
say online and in the community.Yeah, that's that's the biggest

(01:19):
compliment ever. No, I'm sure.
Thank you. Thank you.
You deserve it. You're you're you're so humble
that like, it's like you deservethe recognition for it because
he had that, you know, the drive, but no desire for
recognition. I find I've sat in your chair,
which is interesting because it's awesome to be on this this

(01:39):
side because usually I'm in an ugly Cape with those stupid yeah
neck tape. And it makes you look so dog
shit when you're like sitting inthe mirror.
But Rich has hustled his way through a lot of things in life.
So he's he's you're in, you've lived in Western Sydney your
whole life, right? Yeah.
And you come from a Vietnamese background.

(02:00):
Yeah, Vietnamese. And yeah, somehow now we'll get
there. But he's now has this monstrous
business with like 15 staff, booming chairs and revolving
doors that just never end. I guess his availability is 0 to
none. I've had this beef with him 100
times because I can never reallyget in touch with him because
he's so booked and busy. But today's really just about

(02:23):
getting to know you and your story.
Your history in life has a lot to share with people that they
they wouldn't know of and I justcan't wait to dive into it.
But I guess I want to start fromyour upbringing and how life was
like living like in Western Sydney and from the empire beat

(02:46):
you built. Now, what was life like growing
up out West? Well, well, first of all, I just
want to say like thank you for having me here.
Oh, it's my honour, really. It's I feel honoured like this
is getting out of my comfort zone 100%.
But yeah, yeah. Where do I even start?
Well, I grew up in a family of six kids, six siblings, I would

(03:11):
say parents who migrate from Vietnam.
And I think my childhood, I mean, talking about it, it's
like bringing up the child trauma to be honest with you.
Yeah, a lot of trauma. But I forgot the question to be
honest with you. I just want to understand from
like where you started a little bit about the pre journey prior

(03:32):
to becoming a Barber and a hairdresser.
Yeah, because I, I can't recall from our discussion what age you
were actually. When I started, when I.
Started to become a Barber or a hairdresser.
So it was a Barber first, right?Yeah, it was Barber first.
It started when I was 14 years old.
Growing up my mum cut all my siblings here so she wasn't a
trained hairdresser. It was bad.

(03:53):
Like I had a bowl cut throughoutmy whole primary school to
almost to year 7 and that's whenI started cutting my own hair
because I just got bullied quitea lot actually in school.
It's like just. Like winged it and you just grab
scissors and looked in a mirror.Well, my sister is the one who
actually cut my hair first because she was like, she wanted

(04:14):
to be a hairdresser, to be honest.
And then she dabbled into like fashion.
And so when she cut my hair, I was like, wow, this is this is
what a cool haircut looks like. And she, it wasn't that great.
If I show you a picture, it's kind of bad.
It's kind of bad. But like, after that, I decided
to cut my own hair. And my friends in school were
like, oh shit, rich who cut yourhair?

(04:36):
And so I was like, yeah, I did. And they that's when I kind of
dabbled into being a Barber in school.
That's where the interests kind of came into, yeah. 1414 and
then I decided to leave high school when I was 15 I didn't
really know how to tell my parents it was my parents wasn't
really strict. They were like full time
hustlers working sewing. Dad was a handyman.

(04:58):
And so they weren't really focused on our education to be
honest with They was just tryingto put money not for money put
food on the table yeah. And so that's so I grew up with
my brothers actually mentoring me.
I had two brothers, two sisters and a younger brother.
So I was the second youngest. The second youngest of.
And yeah, I dropped out as year 11 because my sister helped me

(05:19):
out to apply for a job and that's how I kind of started.
It was 2000 and 9 when I started.
Is this your sister? That's the mogul that has the
fashion brand? Yes, that's right.
OK. She's one.
She's one of my mentors that I had in my life that kind of.
Can we give a little bit of a plug?
Your sister? Yeah.
She needs it from, like, from us.
But, you know, it's a bit of a flex.
When I learned to, yeah. It's by Amika.

(05:42):
So how is she doing now with business?
Man, to be honest, she recently just built a mezzanine in her
factory. So she's taken her company to a
whole new level far out. And now I can finally say she's
like a because she has all thoselike, machineries that carry,
you know, stockings. Awesome.
I was like. Damn, so guys, if if you don't
know, buy, make and I'm sure youcan kind of do your research as

(06:04):
a as a fashion brand. Yeah, and she's like completely
killing it in the game. So.
Crazy, crazy. It's actually awesome to me and
I bring it up because like, you know, having sibling, a sibling
that's like with such a booming business has to be the most
ultimate like form of admirationor inspiration when you kind of
like it's it's within within touching point.
Yeah, she can teach you so much and and vice versa.

(06:25):
I'm sure there's so much you canteach her.
Yeah, about business and you know how it rolls even though
it's in two different. Fields Yeah, it's really funny
because like she was like the middle child.
She she like, you know that middle child.
Yeah, she was like the forgottenchild.
It's so funny. But she end up being one of the
most successful one in our in our family.
That's awesome, So. Yeah, it's very inspiring.
We've spoken a lot about understanding a story through a

(06:47):
pre recording and your life and journey.
And I know you're happy to shareyour journey and your story,
which is why I'll ask this question, really bring it
forward. But your parents kind of went
through a big financial tipping point, which kind of shifted who
you are. Could you take us back to that

(07:09):
moment and if you're comfortableenough still now, and it's OK if
you're not, but just give peoplea little bit of insight about
your life's journey kind of leading into where you are now?
I think growing up with all my siblings we had so much.
It was just very chaotic, a group of a lot of violence in

(07:31):
the family. Mum and dad weren't the best
like mentor in my life, but I felt like they did their best
that they can. They divorced at a very young
age, so that was quite tough forus already.
So we, our families had to pick and choose who we had to move
with. But yeah, Mum and dad got into
gambling. And so when I grew up in high

(07:52):
school, that's when they went through divorce.
And it was just to be honest, I was like type of guy in school
where I kind of go with the flow.
I had my older brothers that I looked up to quite a lot.
They were like, they had nice cars, nice phone, a lot of
friends, a lot of girlfriends. I was like, man, that's cool,

(08:12):
man. That's the life I want to live.
And so, yeah, growing up, my second oldest brother was like
such a, like a mentor to me. And I was just living week by
week. I, I, I really enjoyed just
cutting hair at that time when Iwas 14.
And then I didn't really want togo to school because I was just
hanging with my friends. Yeah.

(08:32):
And so growing up like we did all that, you know, party phase
and how I started party phase, living week by week, drinking,
going out and I didn't save a dollar.
And so how I got into you opening up my own business.
To be honest, to this day, I still can't believe that I'm a
business owner because it wasn't, it was just by chance,

(08:54):
like it was a like something that happened that was really
bad in my life and it was a blessing at the same time.
So my mum lost all the money from from the house, from
gambling. And so she passed on like a
little bit of money to my sisterto hold it because she knew she
can't control her gambling. But.
After debts were paid. Yeah, after all the debts were

(09:16):
paid, we had like guys knocking on our door.
I remember I had to answer the door and they were like, oh,
where's your mum? And I Mum used to tell me like,
hey, don't answer these guys. And I was just like, what's
going on? I was so lost.
I thought that was like, like, Ithought it was normal.
I thought it was a friend that'sjust trying to avoid.
Yeah. And so when I realised that that
was shark loan, she bought off people that probably weren't,

(09:39):
weren't really like good, I guess then we had to somehow
decide to sell the house and then basically find a place to
live. And at that point, my mum gave
my sister that large lump sum. She gambled majority of it
because she was like telling my sister, hey, when can I grab
more money? I need this money, let me just

(10:00):
use it. It's my money.
And my sister was very tough. She's a very tough girl.
And then even even she had enough and she was like, OK, I'm
going to give the money to you rich, because mum keeps hassling
me and she's been like threatening me and she's like,
it's getting to her. So I was like, man, I don't want
to hold this money. I just, I've been living my
life, just hanging out with the boys, having fun.

(10:22):
How old were you? How old you at this stage?
At that stage I was 22. 22 How hard that would have been, man.
Yeah, and this was ongoing. Like, mum has been gambling from
like, a long time ago and it built.
And then obviously her house waspaid.
I mean, Mum, dad's house was paid off.
And we were pretty much living pretty comfortably at that point

(10:42):
after all the years of like, hustling.
And yeah, pretty much my sister then gave that money to me.
And then my mum found out, right?
And so she was like, rich, we don't have a house, go find, go
use this money to deposit it to a house.
And I was like, man, I don't really want to do it because
there's a lot of pressure on me.Is that your sister saying this
or your? Mum, my mum was telling me this

(11:03):
OK. And then I remember I was like,
you know what I'll do for her just to make her happy.
So I signed the paperwork to geta loan it it almost got
approved. And then my sister came up to me
one time and she was like, rich,honestly, you should do
something with this money beforeit's going to go to waste.
Like mum is going to withdraw this money and gamble and lose
everything because she has in the past.

(11:24):
Wow. And so I, it was just like a
moment where it just clicked, honestly.
It was by chance. And then, yeah.
And that's how I started my. Business.
So you took the money? Yeah, I was left.
Your sister handed it to you andpretty much said start the
business. When she transferred to me I was
like 800 grand. Shall I buy a car?
How much was it A. 100 grand. 100 grand. 100 grand.

(11:46):
Yeah, Molly. And that's that's where Ultra
Fade was born. Yep, that's right.
Yeah, OK. And so when I used that that
amount of money, I looked at a place I didn't really know how
to start business or anything that I had no experience
whatsoever. I was the type of guy that was
drinking on the weekend, hangingout the boys playing games or
just like a normal early 20s, you know, like and then.

(12:09):
Push into the deep end. Yeah, just straight into the
deep end. And yeah, my sister, at that
point, she opened up her business for one year.
And so she was like, Rich, there's so much potential for
you to actually do something. At that time, I was still, I was
qualified hairdresser. I was booked out for like a
couple of months. And so she's like, why not do
it? And I was.
So you took the 100 grand? Yep.
On another full history. Yeah.

(12:30):
Yeah, I'm very, very intrigued. You took the 100 grand.
And first of all, like I said before, I can't imagine how
difficult that situation would be.
Like it hearing it is almost like mind boggling to me.
The how you know you're playing it off so cool, but it would
have been so difficult. I'm sure it would.
Have it was. It was, yeah.
Just like the everyday runnings,it's just like in every detail

(12:51):
in between of what you're sayingwould have been so tough, but
you, you took what your sister gave you and you opened up in
Sefton. Right and man Sefton like the
place that opened up had no foottraffic.
My left hand joint was a funeraljoint and on the right hand side
was a massage parlour. You can imagine like the whole
street was dead man. Like when I say Sefton was dead,

(13:15):
it's a dead St. Western Sydney to Sefton.
Yeah. Why Sefton?
That's the only place I could. Afford at that time, man, OK, I
couldn't afford anything else, but I'm I was very lucky that I
started social media already started Instagram, so I had a
following, like following base. I was just posting pictures at
that point. Yeah, yeah, like nine years ago.
Eight years ago. Was Sefton running good?

(13:36):
Man, I was so lucky. When I first started.
I had a wait list. And yeah, I had a wait list of
people who wanted to go into my shop when I opened up.
So as soon as we opened up, I was busy from day one.
Wow, it was amazing. Then from Sefton you went to,
you sold that and then it's Guilford.

(13:56):
Yeah, so, so from Sefton, I, so I borrowed my mum's 100 grand,
right? I, I opened the shop at Septon.
And then I told, because at thattime my mum didn't really know,
like I used 100 grand. She's like, where's my money?
And so I was like to mum, mum, I'm going to pay you back plus
interest. So I gave her 20% interest.
I gave her 120 K within like sixmonths.

(14:19):
Yeah. And I was like, take mum, I'm,
I'm, I'm going to repay you. And then I gave her back to her
within a couple months. She lost everything.
I've kind of till now I still regret like should have used
that to something else. But yeah, I, I kind of gave it
to her. She lost everything, man.
Now I don't have a relationship with my mum.
It's it's crazy. That's wild.

(14:40):
Yeah, and, and now it's like I'mnot really, I always say this to
myself. I'm not mad at her because I
know she's mentally sick. So I've been trying to help her
for the longest time. When I had Sefton shop, I had a
a room at the back. I was taking care of her at the
back because my room had like a miniature Granny Flatt there
too. Well.
So she was there for like years,four years at least.

(15:02):
So you currently have that relationship with her.
Not at the moment, yeah, not at the moment, but we'll see how
she is in future. She hasn't even seen my kid and
my kid is like seven months. Got her out, is that your
choice? No, it's not my choice to be
honest with you. She doesn't really.
My mum's very, very bitter. She's a very bitter person.

(15:22):
She's not very forgiving. I would say that in a nicer way.
She's kind of very toxic. OK.
Yeah, she doesn't have a relationship with all my
siblings, OK. Oh, besides my brother, my
second oldest brother. And he's probably no good too,
to be honest with you. OK, well, yeah, listen, I guess
it's a it's a testament to you to kind of turn that situation

(15:43):
around because situations like this usually can really crumble
someone. And it's not just gambling, it's
addiction, it's mental health, it's there's a lot of factors
and like traumas that kind of get presented to people when
they're like when they're born into a family of circumstances,
you know, like, you know, housing Commission, all of these
kind of stuff. And for you to make that choice

(16:04):
to attract, well, I guess I could say your sister almost
made that choice for you, but you still carried it through.
It's very impressive, man. It's like something you should
be very proud of, and I'm sure you already are, but you know,
I'm telling you now, it's, it's the most inspiring thing, one of
the most inspiring stories I know today is, is is your
journey and your story. It's really, I don't know,
revolutionary. I, I feel like for me growing

(16:27):
up, it was just all that life through violence, a lot of like,
like all that gangs and drugs and etcetera.
It was just so normal for me. So going through these hardship,
it was like, it was hard, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't the
end of the world. That's how I felt.
Yeah, you always felt like therewas going to be an out.

(16:48):
Yeah, I I don't know. I just wanted to be, I guess I
just want to be better personally.
Yeah, I just want to prove to myself that I can, I can get out
of this the legitimate way. That's incredible.
Bro yeah and it's ongoing journey.
I still feel like I I I need to improve in multiple like
different ways. And Fast forward now you're
like, you have Guildford, which is like a monster of a salon,

(17:11):
and then Bankstown Sports, whichis a funny story that I feel
like we should touch on. That, that's actually really
funny, yeah. Yeah, I'll let you know.
I'll let you say it because I know the story.
But you, you opened up Guildford.
Yeah, and there's how many chairs there now?
So there's 17 chairs. And you opened up because Sefton
didn't have enough. Like it was booming too much.
Right. We outgrew that place within.
To be honest, we outgrew that place in two years.
But I was just trying to stay comfortable.

(17:32):
But then I was like, I need to do something.
So move on to Guildford, 17 shares and now we have
Bankstown, which is 6 shares. Yeah, that's awesome.
How did Bankstown come about? You know, it's like, it's really
funny though, 'cause when we, I was talking to you yesterday
about it, but the guy that actually DM me was the CEO,
right? And yeah, when I looked at his

(17:53):
DPI was like, man, this looks sosad.
Some white, like some white guy just messaged me like, hey, you
know, I'm the CEO of Bankstown Sports Club, we would love to
have a meeting with you, etc, etc.
And I was like, man, this must be the biggest scam.
Yeah, but then I just tried my life.
I was like, yeah, why not just talk to him And then he end up
being legit. I end up meeting had the meeting

(18:14):
with him in his office, which islike Tony Starks office.
Dude. It was crazy.
I was like, whoa, it's a nice place, man.
Tony Stark's office. I love that right it.
Was so. Crazy, I had a reference.
Yeah. And I was like, shit, OK, this
is real deal. And that was before COVID.
So before COVID, he wanted us toopen a salon there.
It had a bar, everything. Yeah.

(18:35):
And then obviously COVID happened.
And then somehow he actually, heleft, he resigned, he worked, he
got, he got a bigger job in thisnew CEO in.
Stocksburg. Yeah, yeah, he got a big job.
He's an awesome guy. But I got this new CEO and he's
been taking care of us, and he'salso great too.
Yeah, and it's booming there. It's cranking.
It's it's always like busy with the barbers there too man.
Man, I'm not even from that areaand I drove there to, like, get

(18:57):
my haircut at once. Yeah.
That's crazy. And then appreciate it and they
they kill her. You have the best culture.
Oh, thanks, man. The best environment of staff.
Like they're all like it's you just have a really good dynamic
there. Like we just yeah, these are
funny. You talk shit.
There's like food available. Like it's just great.
Like it's just good vibes everywhere.
Likewise, man. Thank you man.

(19:17):
It's a like 2 salons. It's crazy, but I want to just
ask before we move, move on because I've got a lot of
questions to kind of pick, like pick your brain apart, but.
I see your eyes looking at the time again.
I've got all the time in the world, people.
I am not in any rush. You're not.
You're not even subtle about it.I know I told you I was trying
to be subtle about it when your sister handed you the 100K.

(19:39):
Yeah, in that moment, like, whatwas going through your head?
Was it a moment of like fear or fire?
It was a lot of responsibility. Yeah, I was definitely stressed
out about it. I felt like back then, how I
deal with stress was very similar to my my parents.
They weren't. They weren't problem solvers.

(20:02):
OK. Yeah, so I was like, man, why
don't I do this? I don't want to hold this.
I didn't want to take responsibility.
Like I said, I was a carefree child.
All I did was play games and hang out with boys.
So that responsibility was heavy.
I felt like I needed to do something that I think that's
when I my perspective has changed.
That was your life. Shifting.
That was my life shifting moment, man.

(20:23):
Yeah. So you.
Would you say you took it as a fear, a moment of fear, or a
moment of drive? It was a bit of both.
OK. Yeah, it was a bit of both all.
Right. I don't blame you.
It's very interesting. Obviously, the first thing that
you did with it was purchase Sefton.
Actually, the first thing that came to my mind, I wanted to buy
a car, Toyota 86. That was the one.

(20:44):
Think like you didn't pray. Imagine.
I know and not. Like sis, yeah, no one give this
car. No one taught me like I didn't
know how to use money like giving a 2022 year old kid like
100K what do you expect? I'm just curious.
I don't think that there should be any deviated answer, but
yeah, if you were to look back, would you have done anything
different with it? Nah, I'm, I'm so glad I didn't

(21:04):
like I, I'm so glad that I went into business.
I'm glad. I'm glad that's the case, bro.
I don't. I don't think the answer should
have shipped that. I was just always curious.
Like, because you went through that experience.
Yeah. Did you ever like Bitcoin?
I'm just kidding. It's yeah, it's life changing
for the better. You have five siblings, not six
siblings. You want five siblings.

(21:25):
Yeah, five siblings. And you have a very tight
relationship with your sisters. How has your relationship with
your sisters shaped you today? They have been such a positive,
like a positive light to my life.
I think growing up with my my second oldest brother, he was

(21:45):
like going down the wrong path. Just like the bad crowd.
You can imagine those bad crowd,what they get up to on the
weekend or etcetera. He's been in that in and out for
quite a while now. So recently he just came out.
But my sisters, they're just my,my sister's very positive
people. Like one, she's very
intelligent. My young, my sister above me,

(22:07):
she's super intelligent. Like I feel like she was like
the, the brains in the family, you know, I don't know how she
got her, but she was like very intelligent, really high marks
in her ETA uni she got she's in HR, office work, etcetera.
My sister was like, on the otherhand, she was like the forgotten
child. And so I got every time I came

(22:28):
back to hanging out with like myolder brother or like with life,
I was, I was weird because I wasthe type of guy that liked to
hang around with my sisters because and surprisingly, I got
along with my mum really well. I was the closest one to my mum
because I like to like talk and like open up about this
conversation, like emotionally. And so they've guided me quite a

(22:50):
lot through that young, my younglife.
OK, Yeah. So they kind of.
It's beautiful to hear they heard that.
Like beautiful relationship withthem and your other brothers.
You still have a good relationship with them.
My oldest brother, he's like a dad to me, to be honest.
He's like a dad. Yeah, he's honestly like a dad,
like crazy dad. Because he's always telling.
He's always got his way. And I'm like, come on, man, Are
you serious? But anyways, I love him.

(23:12):
But my second oldest brother? Not really.
Yeah, my relationship is slim tonone.
Yeah. Do you think that people truly
understand how trauma like what you've experienced, whether it
be like family addiction or, youknow, any family financial
problems, has an effect on like a long term effect on a person's
life or does it? I'm just curious to ask you

(23:33):
about your take on it. I think it built, yeah,
definitely. I feel like it built like mental
toughness, all those struggles that I've went through when I
was younger from like family kind of really shaped me into.
And I and I always like to reflect back then to what I have

(23:57):
then into what I have now. So I'm super grateful in that
sense. Yeah, but.
I love how that you're taking this with such a positive spin.
I, I don't know actually, I mean, sometimes I try to see in
that. I don't know if you're realising
what you're doing here, but likeevery time I ask you a question
about your experience, you've always found the positive.
Like you're very half the last half full kind of guy.

(24:18):
It's it's really crazy because Idon't, I don't know.
That's how I was built. I knew when I was younger, like
my brother used to do all this bad stuff going out.
Yeah. And he wouldn't tell me to like
do do with him, try it out. I just felt like it wasn't
right. I I never like, I've tried all
this stuff. Yeah.
And it just was never me. I tried smoking in school, like,
man, it's like it's different. Yeah.

(24:40):
Not not normal smoking, but like.
OK, yeah, I don't know if like the, the, the, what's it called?
Like the cops are going to come for me on this podcast.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, he's talking about vapes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. Vapes, Vapes.
Got to keep this safe here. Yeah, sure, sure.
Change of topic, man. I'm getting nervous here.
I'm going to. Yeah, I'm going to get into
trouble. The feds are going.

(25:00):
To come. That's true.
That's true. Funny story that I found out you
met your wife. She was in your chair.
She was a client. I made fun of you about this
yesterday because I'm like, comeon, man, what is the work ethic?
And yesterday in salon, it's like you're just going to start
hooking up with your clients. Like what's the go here?
I was like, where's the oh? Man.
Can I just and then we cut the conversation because I wanted to

(25:21):
know the story. Like, you know, with real
reaction. Take me back.
So it was a fair food. It was not too far from here.
But my my boss did have like friends here.
Yeah. And so her friend recommended me
because at that time I was like one of the busy hairstylist
there, like a hairdresser. And yeah, when I met her, like

(25:42):
we got on really well. It was a cool vibe.
Conversation was like, like flowed.
I actually told my workmate thatday because I went to the back
and I was like, man, my client was really cute.
Hey, yeah. And then it was funny though,
because I didn't want to make a move because I want to keep
professional. I didn't want to creep her out
or anything like that. But at the end of the service,

(26:02):
it was like a six 5-6 hour service.
She end up buying me lunch. And so I was had to gain all
that courage and I was like, man, you better say something.
You better do something rich or else you're going to like, you
better do something. So I didn't gain the courage to
be like, hey, I guess I owe you dinner.
And then ask ask for. A Snapchat smooth.

(26:23):
Yeah, and that's. You asked her for a Snapchat.
Ask for a Snapchat. Come on man, I.
Didn't want to be too creepy like I thought.
You were so smooth and you said ask for a Snapchat.
You sound like a bad selfie. Like what are you doing here?
But would you like, isn't it kind of creepy when you first
met someone and you asked for a number?
I don't know, I kind of wanted to be a bit more low key, right?
Like this is nothing yes, all myclients for their Snapchat, yes.

(26:47):
And so, yeah, that's what. Happened so she made the first
move? Or was she just doing it out of
like? She's a very kind person.
Yeah, she was just, she, she claimed that she made the first
move and I think she did. OK.
So it was intentional. Yeah, I think so.
That's awesome. Yeah.
I hope she watches this and she doesn't disagree.
It's just like, that's a lie. You know what's really funny?
I was doing her hair right and she was sitting down the whole
time. And so when she gave me food,

(27:08):
she's like, wow, this guy's so short.
She was like, wait a second, hello.
She was like, oh shit, OK, I messed up.
All right, That's so funny. She's like, it was kind of an
advantage that she was standing.Yeah, just kidding.
I was like, man, just kidding. But yeah, thanks, I'm not.
Going to roll out with the shortJake Siebert.
It's we love a short king man. You're now Fast forward,

(27:29):
married. Yeah, we're fun and.
You have a beautiful baby boy. Yeah, who is 6-7 months?
Almost seven months. That's awesome.
Yeah. How is dad life?
Oh, man, I am loving it. He's he's actually changed the
way I see life. It's crazy, but he's changed my
a little bit, a lot of my purpose in life.

(27:49):
He definitely made me a better person, more patient.
It's been fun. Yeah.
The best thing that's ever happened.
That's besides Jenny, but like, the best.
Yeah, that's awesome. Has your like the way you
adapted with work and you like you and Jenny's lifestyle been
seamless or? Oh no, definitely not OK.
He's been he's been waking up atnight like.

(28:12):
But Jenny, luckily I have Jenny,she does the night shift so I
can work on it during the day. Yeah.
I try to be involved in in Levi's life as a much as much as
I can. That's why I.
Sick name bro. But yeah.
What's the name? It's from it's from my anime,
actually. No way.
Yeah, Attack Titan, Yeah. So I loved it and and so, yeah,

(28:34):
it's. Been nice, meaningful, deep, you
know. We actually, yeah.
OK, so my father in He gave a Vietnamese name to Levite and it
end up being the same meaning asLevite.
Oh, no, that's meant to be. That's meant to be.
Yeah, it's. I was like, dude.
Anyway, so that's pretty much how we named.
Him now it is meaning. Yeah, there you go.
OK. I'll correct myself.
I'll take him back, right. That's awesome.

(28:57):
But like you didn't feel like there's a major disruption or
like any kind of. Yeah, no, look, I felt like
we've because we went through like a whole miscarriage, like,
oh. Sorry to hear man.
Oh. Man, no, it's all it's all good.
I feel like it's just part of life, right?
But I went through a miscarriagea couple years ago, and so I
felt like at that point when we had our first baby, we were

(29:21):
already mentally ready. So when I had like, Levi, I felt
like it was such a blessing. So I was mentally yearning.
Yeah, I get it, bro. So it was.
Yeah, it was just really fun. And I know that that's going
through that stuff is not alwayseasy.
Jenny went through it pretty hard and I had to kind of be
there for her and stuff like that.

(29:42):
But yeah, it was. I felt like I was mentally
ready, so it wasn't hard for me.That's awesome.
I get you, bro. It's in the same boat.
Yeah, yeah, same boat. One.
No, multiple. Yeah.
My poor wife. I'm sorry to hear man.
Yeah, no, that's right. It's it's part of life.
Yeah. I just, I feel like I I can't
even take any pain away. Like it's all her journey.
But I'll never forget. I was at a wedding.

(30:03):
I'll never forget that wedding. And I came home and I found out,
like, after that, she hit it while I was at work.
And she knew that she knows me. I'm crazy.
I would have left the wedding like I would have.
That's one thing. It's like anything's wrong with
my wife. Like, you know, my parents might
come out like, it's like they'remy priority.
Love that I respect. It's, it's crazy what people go
through, especially in private when it comes to it, But I feel

(30:25):
like I'm, I'm in the same boat as you.
Like when we had our daughter, Iwas like, I'm ready for this.
Like I was waiting. It's like the glory.
Of yeah, straight out like that yeah, so give.
Me all the challenges straight out.
Man, give me all the nappy changes, let me do it.
I'm safe, just not the night shifts.
Yeah, that's kind of cross the line.
Every time I leave my cries at lamp open up my eyes and like

(30:46):
I'm going back to sleep man. Like good babe, God bless our
lives. Guilty man Guilty.
This is like not on skip right now, but it just like it's
really hit my head. So if anyone hasn't seen you on
socials, everyone who has would know what I'm talking about.
But it doesn't take long for youto realise that you're very,
very good on social media. Like proper good dude.
That's not just like 1/2 ass comment.

(31:09):
Thank you. You're on.
You've got like you've racked upmillions of years on YouTube,
which is wild. Your shorts are going through it
and I was going through it like your second YouTube short was
like over 6 million views. It was you've got like thousands
and thousands of YouTube subscribers.
TikTok. You pop off almost every TikTok.
I feel like you post is viral and like your socials on

(31:31):
Instagram and like even your team socials.
I don't know what you're doing that is just hitting it.
Oh man. Like, I need you to be
completely open and honest and walk people through it and give
them that knowledge. And I'm not even going to ask
you to, I'm going to force you to because you've got it, man.
And there's like people that do well on social media

(31:51):
sporadically and you know, there's no fluffing around that.
It is a massive game changer in the trajectory of a business.
Clearly you're like a living example of it.
Yeah, I mean, it sounds cliche as to be honest, like, oh,
consistency and discipline, right?
Yeah, but it really is that. But my content that I create is

(32:11):
super. It's just like it's it adapts
with my lifestyle. So I go to work sometimes I do
like consultation videos before and afters.
All that stuff, hair related stuff, I just record anyway.
And then I just add my own flairto editing.
Just making it funny. Yeah, making it relatable.
All the memes I create is super like relatable to hairdressing

(32:34):
or like non hairdressers too. I just enjoy it man.
To be able you just. You do it all yourself.
I do it all myself. Well, to be honest, I didn't
start Instagram by myself. I got my sister that was
involved. She helped me out because she
was working for us. Dotty.
Have you had a Dotty fashion? Yeah, dude.

(32:54):
Yeah. So she was working for that
company. She did the social media stuff.
So she got me into she's the onewho created my Instagram.
Oh, that's awesome. And then my sister, not my
sister, my wife, she's the one who got me onto the platform and
started to post OK. And so I'm the type of guy
that's just kind of like, oh, OK, sweet, I'm just gonna do it.
You let me tell me. Do it, I'm gonna do it.

(33:15):
And then I'm just figuring out how to so do.
You like, are you like strict and rigid about it?
Do you schedule time after work?Yeah, yeah, I used to do in the
morning when I'm doing my cardio.
So while I'm at the gym, wake upin the morning, I'm doing like
my 30-40 minute cardio. You're a robot.
No, it's just like. Inclined walk.
It's like AI or something. So I, I do that recently I've

(33:35):
been having a more few days off,so I edit during my day off, OK,
just so I can spend more time with Levi and stuff.
Yeah, yeah. But it's just no secret, man.
I'll. Just tell you posting.
Before I used to post every single day.
I still post every single day here and there, yeah.
But now I have my team because like my team, they they do like

(33:57):
the whole collaboration. And I try to come up with
strategies to motivate the team to get their books filled and
and get on comfortable on camerabecause it's such a awesome
skill. And so yeah, just I try to do
every day, but sometimes every second day, every 3rd day.
Douche reshare the same content on multiple platforms.

(34:18):
Yes, I do. Yes, so like whatever you're
posting on short YouTube Shorts,Tiktok or Instagram is going to
be just roll it at the same time.
Same time, I feel like sometimesone video does well on
Instagram, it doesn't do well onTiktok, one video does well on
YouTube, it doesn't do well on Instagram.
It's weird do. You have any rules about like
timings or like, you know, captions and shit like that?
I used to post where like there was the most people on like you

(34:42):
know they how you go into the algorithm.
Like 7:00 PM. Yeah, like 7:00 PM six AMI don't
know why, but everyone's like 6:00 AM in my my following
always 6:00 AM. Because you're a gym junkie and
they're all doing cardio. So I used to do that but now I
just post random times I I feel like if your content is good it.
Will pop off. I agree man.
Yeah, there's no time Like man. You can try it out, see what

(35:04):
works. It's like, whatever's going to
go, well, whatever, yeah, it's better to just roll out than
just care about a time. Yeah.
And with editing those videos, the ones that I edit less man
goes more viral. The for the ones that I edit
like I put more time into. Wow, man, that's awesome.
Yeah, Hope that inspires some people because man, when you're
running a business, yeah, get inyour head.
It really does, man. Straight out, you can actually

(35:24):
get like it can, it can, it can cripple you.
Yeah, and you just got to honestly just just got to like,
do it. Yeah.
Don't have to overthink things. I'm not overthinking.
I just like, oh this works well,boom, let's go.
You once said before in the pastthat here is a surface, but
connection is the currency. Oh, very well said.
I don't know if you remember saying that, but.
Oh man, shit. How have you built such a

(35:45):
loyalty or loyal relationship with your clients?
I pretty much, and this is like my philosophy.
I treat people the way I wanted to be treated.
I just, I love, I, I truly like to be treated nicely.
Yeah. So I just do that to people and
being genuine about it. It's just no secret formal.

(36:06):
Man, that's awesome. Yeah.
So I, I remember going to Vietnam, and when I went to
Vietnam, I I went to this hair salon and it was like, man, they
treat you like royalty. So I was like, you know what?
I want to bring this back here. I want to bring this back here.
And that inspired me. Yeah.
What did you learn from there? I've learnt that the haircuts in

(36:29):
Vietnam comes with a happy ending.
Surprised. Hey sis, nice to be serious.
Yeah, for you're. Testing me man.
Let's cut that out. We're not cutting it out there.
That's a that's a hook, guys, stop.
The haircuts are all haircuts are ultra fade by the way, this

(36:51):
part is. Special.
This is when I was 18. But no, I just felt like I've
travelled around like Asia, Japan and the work ethic is
amazing. So we're going.
To suck the Vietnam talk. I'm starting the microphone.

(37:12):
I can't get these words I. Was it was serious too.
I was full. Serious, I'm like my head was in
the game. Fuck is a kid you know?
No, but like it's actually so common in there, man.
Like legit. But obviously, obviously I
didn't go go there, You know what I mean?
But all right, it's like it's socommon, but I don't know where.

(37:33):
It's so hard to find the place. My second oldest brother was a
bad and freaking he was bad OK and so oh God.
Oh man, I don't even know what we're thinking about.
I don't even know the question. Oh man, treating people nice.
You learnt a lot from Vienna. No, no going back, going back to
that. Yeah.
Just really treating people the way I want to be treated.
And I can't look at you in the eye.

(37:55):
Yeah. Please don't burn my haircut was
shit all too bad. Brave, I got ripped off.
That's how we get those clients coming back.
You know what I'm saying? Seriously.
But yeah. OK.
A lot of people like when they talk about humble beginnings and
stuff like that and the ones that you lived.

(38:16):
There's a difference of people that like talk about coming from
a humble beginning and hustling and then those are actually
hustled. I find your story is hard to to
know about publicly, to be honest, like specifically a
parent's gambling issue and like, you know how you started
the business. What has the hustle truly been

(38:36):
like? Because if you have sorry for
your answer and I want to just paint the picture for you and
these answers is you have 15 staff.
Yep. I don't know if people realise
how hard it is to have attain 15staff, retain 15 staff and pay
15 staff 2 salons. Starting a family.

(38:59):
Like the hustle is real whether you know it's provided to you or
not. Like what is the true reflection
of what what that means to you? Man, see I got this problem like
sometimes when the question goesfor too long, I can't remember.
Your. Real hustle.
Yeah. Yeah, the real hustle, man.
So I I feel like the hustle tillnow hasn't stopped.

(39:21):
It's an ongoing journey. Was it easy?
Hell, Nah. It was definitely not easy.
But I'm the type of guy that really, like, I really try to
always learn from my mistakes. I'm not scared of trying new
things. And as a business owner, I feel
like trying to manage people is already hard.

(39:43):
How do you encourage them and motivate them to be busy or to
do something like that? So I have to learn.
I've learnt a lot of like leadership skills from It's
Crazy, but it's from my parents.OK.
What not to be? OK, yeah.
What's the hardest lesson you'velearnt from running your
business? I've learnt that my purpose has

(40:10):
always been the same in that sense was to pretty much help
people, so it's always been my ongoing journey.
What do you mean by that? Can you give me an example?
Helping people, I feel like, youknow, helping people feel good
about themselves, helping my team build confidence, help.
I just, I really enjoyed that because helping people, the

(40:30):
reason why I say helping people,that's my purpose is because I
felt like I've I, I've been through like the struggles and
growing up in high school and stuff, I never had that the full
mentor that that I kind of wished for and my parents wasn't
like the best mentor. So now that I've achieved what

(40:52):
I've achieved today, which is tobe honest with you, I still feel
like it's, it's OK. But but yeah, I just wanted to
be the the mentor I never had and is.
That why you've stepped into like educating at TAFE NSW and
stuff like that. Yeah, so I was working with
like, schools, high schools. You went back to your school.
I went back to Beron Boys. Yeah, Beron Boys.

(41:13):
I did A10 week course there and it was the most the craziest
class I've done to be honest with you dude.
The kids, the kids were like fighting in this class sounds
bad but like and they got suspended.
It was pretty one of the kids got sent to hospital.
It was funnier, not funny. I can teacher bro.

(41:35):
But like the, the what are you talking about?
So no, the the the school that Iwas, the class I was teaching
was the disengaged kids. Oh OK, so they gave you the hard
kids? They gave me the hard kids, but
you know what? By the end of the whole 10 week
thing, ten week course, they actually gave me a speech.
Man, that actually gave me a speech.
Really, really care. Like open up my eyes to see that
these guys. Are I'm sure I can, I'm just

(41:56):
like, I can imagine the inspiration you would find
teaching like a younger generation and you know, from
like watching this school grow and potentially leading into a
path of success and out of trouble and stuff like that.
Yeah. What's the importance of
educating like a younger generation or like what's any
like kind of findings that you found over the years?
I realised that the kids who aredisengaged just need mentorship

(42:20):
because I feel like I can relateto where they're going or the
position they're in. Most of the time it starts from
a dysfunctional family actually.Yeah, like how?
Like most of the time it's like dysfunctional family.
I think majority of the time it is to be honest with you, but
just to be there and telling them that hey, it's possible you

(42:40):
can achieve all this stuff if you try it out and and try to
put in the work, etcetera. It's like making that choice.
Yes, it's up to you, you know, you have or you have like a
choice in your life. It's up to you.
You want to go this way or that way, you know and.
Do you see the success in some of these students or have you
like to? Not so, not quite yet.

(43:01):
I'll be honest with you, I have interviewed the kids because
they wanted a job with me. I interviewed them knowing that
they wouldn't get the job, I'll be honest with you, because they
lack in a lot of things. And I actually interviewed them
just to help them understand what an interview feels like,
what I expect from them and theyappreciate it.
And so I've seen a few kids actually like taking it to the

(43:24):
next level and doing it as a as a job.
So I'm very. Would you ever be open minded to
potentially hire a student if you see like?
Full potential 100%. I just rehired a a girl that's
17 years old, which is at half my age.
Yeah, obviously that's. Awesome.
It's crazy. It's so good.
And so, yeah, just. Definitely, yeah.
Talking about the skill of barbering, not hairdressing.

(43:45):
What's 1 mistake do you feel like barbers constantly make
across the board can be improved?
Oh. A lot of barbers don't
understand sizzle work. Amen.
Keep talking. Oh, and yeah, I feel like, you
know, being good at Clipper workis is great, but combining the
whole hairdressing aspect to barbering would elevate your

(44:08):
your skills. So if.
Barbara's listening to this now go small.
How would they learn? Like how would they up that
skill? Man, in future I will be doing
some online classes. That's fine.
That's my next venture. But yeah, look, just try to see,
follow other barbers that, you know, show their work online
nowadays on social media, man, they have so many like barbers

(44:31):
influences that actually show their craft.
You can definitely learn from just watching the videos.
Trial and error put into practise.
Yeah and yeah. Do you believe this like so just
came to my head swinging up barbers.
What what what works better Because I don't know if you've
tried out both because right nowyou're appointment based.
You can only eat. There's like no walk ins.
Yeah, yeah. Business wise, what works better

(44:54):
monetarily? Like talking about money?
Getting profit? Yeah, yeah.
Walk ins or bookings only. I feel like for bookings for me,
I don't want to be biassed because I do bookings.
Yeah, but I've seen barbers do. Have you done walk ins?
Previously. In the past when I was working
for companies, it was majority of time was walking for me.
It's not sustainable for business because it's quite

(45:16):
stressful for the staff. It's just, yeah, it's quite
stressful. It's tiring.
Sometimes you don't have time toeat.
You feel guilty. And I hate putting pressure and
like going back to treating people the way I want to be
treated. I wouldn't want people to feel
that way. So that's why I did like
appointment base. Financially, I feel like
appointment base is like stable.It's it creates a consistency

(45:39):
and it's less stressful. Yeah, yeah.
And yeah, I reckon if you have like a price for your service,
it's obviously going to be a lotmore smoother.
It makes more sense financially.So yeah, I feel like
appointments 100%. Is definitely the way to go a.
100% I know, I know some barberslike do walk insurance too,

(45:59):
right? And their clients wait for like
2 hours men. Yeah, two hours for a haircut.
I'm like, you can go to, you candrive to can Canberra or
something, you know what I mean?I remember back when I used to
go to a barbell that you have tolike wait to get your hair cut.
Yeah dying dude. I used to take my laptop and
have to do work there and I'm like, this is brutal man.
It was so hard. It's there's no way I'd see

(46:19):
anyone without an appointment only because of time.
Like you're going to waste it anyways waiting for like 3 guys
to get their haircut. 100% you're just sitting there like
staring at a wall. And depends.
Depends on your barbell. If you're close, you might be
getting a haircut next. But if you're not close, man,
you're just getting a. 100%. The other guy comes in.
Yeah, no worries man. Come through.
Let's talk honesty here. Drake and Barbers these days
have a more about their ego, actually about the craft.

(46:44):
I I've I've worked with some barbers that have a lot of ego
hairdressers too, and I I workedwith, I can't say it's all
individual thing men to be honest.
You I've like in saying that I've worked with a lot of
inspiring barbers slash hairdressers too and ego.
I feel like the whole industry is changing.

(47:04):
Everyone's trying to lift each other up.
That's from my eyes. I've always trying to lift
people up too so. Half glass, half full, man.
Yeah, man, that's hard. That's a hard question.
All right, well, you've employeda lot of stuff over the years.
What's the biggest red flag whenhiring someone?
The biggest red flag fire up man.
You know, you know what I'm I'm so bad at?

(47:27):
I'm so bad at reading people because when when someone sweets
talks to me, I fully believe it.I'm like oh God, man, this is
the one man, this is the one. And the people that actually
sweet talk me most of the time avery like mentally weak.
I would say, OK, sounds bad, notmentally weak.
Is that bad? Not bad.
They just don't have. It I know what you're saying

(47:48):
though. Yeah, so.
Before talk, no walk. Yes, Yeah, yeah, that's the.
Thought that's where you're going with.
That, yeah, that's, I wouldn't say mentally weak, I'll take
that back, but it's. Right now, who said it?
You're thinking of someone. You know you're thinking of
someone. No, no, I say anything.
But like my, my team, they're great, you know, and.
Your team are actually really good.

(48:09):
They're great. They're great people.
They really are great individuals and I feel like, you
know, a team is never going to be perfect.
Especially Tui. Tui is a gunman.
It's best. You know what's really crazy is
that I see these team, I see my team mates from like not having
any clientele, no confidence like till now.
And you can see all my team, they're very like skilful, yeah.

(48:31):
Like I showcase their work everyonline.
I share with them, collaborate with them.
Do you have a fee because your staff have their own separate
pages? Yeah, I encourage that.
Even though it's like that. Like prints their own name and
then Ultrafade. Yep.
Do you have a fee? The repercussions of like.
Never, man. Yeah, good.
Never. I'm glad I I encourage them from
day one to start because it's personal building, personal

(48:55):
branding. I encourage them to like do
their own socials because it benefits not just themself with
the company too. And so I, I like going back to
my purpose, helping people. This is part of the process.
Yeah. So I never feel like a certain
way do. You cross monitor to be like hey
man, like you're posting wrong or like do you ever like?

(49:16):
I always put my two cents in, yeah.
What do you say? Are you $0.02?
In like, I put my two cents in. So I'm like, oh man, that's kind
of boring. Yeah.
Like I have one of my staff. She does like the most boringest
content. I don't want to say any name.
I was like, hey guys, good morning and how are you going?
Like I'm just like, laughing. Your whole team knows who this
person is. Not very out of there.
You know what's really funny? Because I always give a shit

(49:37):
too. But like, yeah, she's that's
just a style. Yeah, yeah, it's funny though.
Yeah. I mean you.
Post a lot of like crazy hair transformations, like I'm like
the the colouring and all of that kind of stuff.
Yeah, it's definitely your viralcontent.
I'm sure it's what like majorityof people know you for on
social. They say that most frequently,
especially on TikTok, like once you watch one video, like you

(49:58):
read the comments on it, it justlike that's it for like 2 weeks,
it's flooded, you're hooked, you're hooked.
Like it's there's no choice out.It's like every second or third
video, especially when you're posting daily.
But do you record like every? I'm just curious, do you record
every single client that comes in for like an 8 hour hair
colour transformation or what isthat process like?
Because I always get curious because a lot of business owners

(50:20):
struggle across the board, hairdressers, photographers,
whatever you name it, struggle to place every single client or
like you know, pick and choose. How do you kind of tackle that?
Well, first of all, I have like a game plan in the beginning of
the day. I'm like, OK, I need to create
this content. I need to create this, that
that. Like usually when I have a
client, I think about like multiple contents that I can

(50:41):
create from my client. But before I even start, I've
got to make sure like my clientscomfortable on camera.
So we have a waveform. Sorry, you have a waveform.
I have a waveform. I'm sure it all would be though.
Nah, not always. I have clients that are like
that, are not comfortable on talking, being in front of
camera. Yeah, So majority of the time

(51:01):
the clients who say yes, I always rerecord it and use those
content. But some of the constant, some
of the clients who don't want tobe rerecord, oh man, they've got
banging hairstyles and they're so funny too, but they just
don't want to be on camera. Fuck, I know.
I'm spewing them. I'm like, man, can't.
Convince them. I want to do but it's just.
I just. Want to respect?
The yeah, respect the privacy. Yeah, they don't like being on
socials. Fuck.

(51:22):
Yeah, that would be hard. Yeah, I can't showcase the work.
Yeah, I find. Something has there ever been
like a fail moment where you're doing the transformation?
You're like, oh, so bad. I can't share it but like you
like. Dude I'll be lying if I said no
like. But yeah, still just share.
Yeah. Oh, like all my funniest skits
is from hair horror. Like hair breaking.
I'm like looking at. I'm like shit, like it's

(51:45):
breaking, it's melting. What's the What's the most
Horror Story you've had in your career?
We had this client, she came in for a colour, a bleach service,
right? And this is before I started my
own shop. So I was working for a company
and so I was painting this. I was working with my work mate.
The left hand side was my my section and the right hand side

(52:07):
was my workmates. I was painting it, bleaching it,
it was all good. Put it in the foil.
And then like no joke, 20 minutes later it starts steaming
up the left hand side. And I was like, oh shit, The
client was saying it's really hot.
I opened it and half her head was melted off.
My jaw freaking dropped, man. Yeah, half her head was off.

(52:29):
Stop. And then we had to dissect the
problem. We were like, OK, we're using
the same product. Why is the left hand side melted
off and the right hand side that's still the same.
And so we had to like look at all the tools we're using.
And then we came down to 1 conclusion.
It was freaking one of my apprentice didn't wash the brush
and it had a chemical straightening on it.

(52:50):
So those two chemicals that's mixed together breaks the hair,
melts the hair like. What did?
What happened after that? I didn't charge her.
I told my boss I was like, man, I can't charge.
I can't charge her. We, I, I told her let's give her
free products, free hairdo, giveher all the treatments like come
Telegram and literally. Come out with like shortly.
Man luckily it was only the the bottom left like that part and

(53:12):
so we just left her alone. OK traumatic.
Man, I actually wanted to quit my job that day, I swear.
It's it's tough, but like it happens.
What do you do? I went home.
I was. It's a good learning lesson.
Reflecting on life. Because it wasn't, you know,
bad, bad. Yeah.
It was just say those horror stories on TikTok, man, for a
girl like we'll have her here completely.
Breaks my heart, man. This is like when I was like 21

(53:35):
early, 22 early. Yeah.
So like but it made me better. Yeah, for sure.
I learnt a lot from that day. Was she?
Was she a good sport about? It she was such a like, she was
such a nice client, man. The one of the most nicest
person I've ever met. That's awesome.
Yeah, so very lucky. Speaking about clients, have you
ever have like do you ever struggle with clients saying

(53:56):
that you're you're too expensive?
Dude, 100%. Yeah.
How do you respond or how do youreact to that?
How do you deal with it? Well, I first of all go, oh
that's OK. I have my staff that's that's
emerging artist and she charges like this much.
OK. And so usually.
Work. Usually most of the time it does
work OK. But now in the beginning phase,

(54:17):
a lot of people were saying thatwas too expensive.
But now I feel like people like appreciate my my craft.
Yeah. And so they don't mind paying
for. It takes time.
Yeah. And I got a strong like low like
regular client base. So did you just like persevere
through, now that I'm understanding the people saying
you were expensive, yeah. Did you like Shift and play
around say well it's working? Well, at first I was too like

(54:40):
when we started business at first I was just really nervous
to charge clients that amount because I couldn't justify like
my my work to cost that much. Yeah, for sure.
Yeah. But I realised that over time,
you know, we've got to charge what we're worth.
And I try to tell all my hairdressing friends, business
owners, like, yeah, if you put your work behind it and you

(55:01):
build a demand, you can charge alittle bit more.
Yeah, for sure. And so, yeah, it's been, it's
been. You've done a great job running
a business bro Thank you. What's next for Ultrafate?
Oh man, well the online education, that's awesome.
That's one of my new baby I'm working with.
Like this social media of the marketing company?
That's going to set it apart foreverything else, that's hair

(55:22):
education. I think personally I'm not just
going to teach like hairdressing, I'm I'm going to
encourage like barbers to watch it too.
Bring hairdressing, barbering and bridal on board.
OK. Yeah.
So I'm going to try and bring all that stuff together and then
teaching them about business too, and just like mindset.

(55:46):
What is the sectors of your business that do the do the
best? I feel like it's gonna be salon,
but there's barbering, there's salon.
Yeah, and there's bridal. Yep.
What does the best for you? What do you enjoy the most?
Answer both. So with my with my bridal, I
actually only like partnership. So I don't really like.

(56:08):
You don't specifically. I don't specifically stall,
Yeah. So I've got like three team
mates that do it and they're amazing at it.
So I'm not really that strong instyling.
I was in future when I was doingyouth cannon.
I would like to have one of my team to go on board and stall
with me, showcase the the craft.But I think the most, the one
that has generated the most for our company is colouring Yeah,

(56:29):
100. Percent, yeah, yeah, you
specialised in it. A lot of people do good for
colouring a. 100% colouring but in saying that, barbering is
awesome because there's no cost Yeah, and it's very consistent.
Everyone needs a haircut. All the guys, it's.
True. It's very frequent.
Yeah, every week, man. At least once, sometimes twice.
That's why your hair looks freshas man like well.

(56:50):
Like you, I'm doing a podcast Yeah, with you like I don't like
man. It's fresh bro to barbering has
become trendy. Do you feel like the industry is
starting to become over saturated or evolving?
I feel like a bit of both to be honest here.
OK. Yeah, in what sense?
That there is a lot of barbers, yes.

(57:12):
A lot of young kids starting in school.
It's a can you train, you know, every, every high school,
there's a kid fading with the boys here.
I don't know. I feel like me going back to
when I started barbering, I feellike there was not many like
guys that did hairdressing. Yeah, at my age.
Yeah, yeah, sure. I And now I'm just like going,
'cause I go to school to teach them, man, every kid that has a

(57:33):
Barber in their school. Yeah, man, the people, every
kind of guy's hair were like 50 year old men.
Yeah, back then, like, exactly. I was a kid.
There was no like, cool barbers around.
And they, they don't know how tospeak English properly.
Yeah, I'm like, yeah. Why cut my ear so good when I
was a kid? Share.
Yeah, my mum paid like 5 bucks in Guildford so I can't really
like blame it for it because like some guy who just used to
like butcher us, like there's like one Clipper or there you

(57:55):
feel like we're in the army. Well, you used to miss a rice.
So it's sort of like, that's whyI kind of really pay attention
to my aim. It's like, you know?
Oh, but yeah, definitely saturated.
But in saying that, I can see the growth in this industry like
everyone's like improving in skills fade.
This is a work, marketing, socials, everything.
I'm going to roll this by into my next question.

(58:17):
Yo, if Flavo was to come to you one day and say dad, I'm going
to open up a cello. Damn.
That's a good question, man. Jeez, Yeah.
In what retrospect would you like showcase support?
I'm sure you probably would understanding who you are, but
what would you want to warn him about?
I'll be like, yo, it's absolutely fucked now.

(58:38):
I'm joking. No, be honest.
Like if you, if you're like yourown son turns into I don't want
exactly what you're doing today.I'll say man, it, it's a lot of
hard work, but I personally feellike it's so worth it.
Like it sounds going back to sounding like a whole cliche
again. Yeah, it's do the hard things

(59:01):
now. Life will be easier.
And I had this quote. I had this whole quote with me,
like when I was in high school, this whole quote was stuck by
me. I remember in I had it on my PC
back. It was on my wall in my room.
That's awesome. And it was like, and the quote
was like, don't dream your life,live your dreams.
That's awesome bro. And so I try to live by it, man.

(59:23):
That's that's what I try to do so.
So that's your advice to Levi 100% That's cool man 100% Hope
you listen to this when he's older I.
Really hope so too. I'm sure Spotify is going to be
like a Limewire of his day that.Would be so cool.
Imagine showing him this podcast.
Like what's Spotify, dad? I just got that, sorry I'm a bit
slow. I'll email you the document,

(59:44):
I'll email the file just in case.
You know, Spotify ashes kids to months, man didn't know what
it's going to be like when he's 15.
But I want you to reflect back on everything we've discussed,
reflect back on all the memories, the whole journey
right from the beginning. And if you were to answer to me,
what's your biggest fear now since you've made it out of the

(01:00:05):
struggles? Man, man, I'm having way too
much fun. I'm not even thinking straight,
but let me think. This is like having fun this.
Is awesome. I'm having so much fun.
Cher. What's the biggest fear?
What's your current biggest fearin life?
Knowing that you've come out of this struggle and what you've
kind of achieved. I would say the fear of not not

(01:00:30):
trying something new. OK.
Yeah. So now that I'm here talking to
you, this is very new to me. Yeah.
So every time I feel this certain way where my anxiety is
kicking in, I'm stressed, it feels uncomfortable, freaking
feel gassy and you Chuck a shit like.

(01:00:52):
I'm not saying I really feel brave.
Yeah, go home and do all that business.
Sweating, but I know that that'sthe one.
Like I know I need to do it. That's the point of growth.
That's a yeah. So that's my biggest fear.
My biggest fear is to not do things when I feel this certain
way. That's awesome.
Yeah. Clearly you've been tapping
into. You've been fearing your whole
life and the sounds of it. Yeah.

(01:01:13):
Shooting bricks. We had a guest on before you.
Name's Robin. She's a caterer, super talented
woman. And she asked a question for the
next guest. Not knowing.
Not knowing those. You.
Wait, do I get to ask someone? Mix?
Yeah, get out of here. That's cool.
That's so cool. Her question.
Let me know when you're ready. Hit me up, man, Hit me up.

(01:01:35):
Throughout business growth, how do you plan to maintain your
authenticity and what aspects ofyour authenticity differentiate
differentiates you from the yourindustry?
Man, you got to repeat that question again.
Man, I know I was like a long question.
This guy's like attention scans are going to make it.
Dude, I I dropped out of high school, man.
Cut me some slacks. Read Let.
Me slow it down. Read it in Vietnamese like no.

(01:01:58):
I can do a mad Asian accent if you want me to, but people will
come for me. No, Daniel's like everyone that
knows me knows that I can do a really mad if I was to send you
a voice recording, I swear you. Wouldn't I need to hear this,
man? I need to hear this now.
Because it's it's a bit racist. It's fun.
I love my Asian. I love it.
I love it. But throughout your business
growth, yeah, go forward. I'm like listening.

(01:02:19):
I feel like I'm teaching like like your class that you tell
you teach that your school. How do you plan to maintain
authenticity within yourself? How do I plan?
I don't really plan, I just likeI just do maintenance you.
Don't think that they've been towork.
I'm not overthinking to be honest with you.
Because you are authentic online, like you're very your
faces to the camera. Yeah, I feel like when you're

(01:02:41):
watching your stuff, it's like sometimes work, sometimes about
your son, sometimes about like, it's just like not even thought
of. Man, if you look at my content,
it's freaking random as and if you go back to like my high
school content on Facebook, it'srandom as.
So it's always been the same. So I just.
Literally take a day by day. Yeah, I just take a day by day,
man. My content, I'm like overthink.
I'm like, yeah, I'm going to do this.
If it doesn't work, whatever man.

(01:03:04):
Your carefreiness is like literally what created you
success. It's crazy man.
What do you think differentiatesyou from others in your
industry? What makes rich Tran or
ultrafate? Special See, I don't even think
that date to be honest with you.No, I, I, I feel like I just
want to enjoy. I just want to remind people to

(01:03:25):
have fun in what they do. That's truly what it is.
And just enjoy the moment, man. Enjoy the process.
It's awesome, yeah. I think that's.
You're gonna do one last thing to get a crack out.
Yeah, that's it. You're gonna do one of these
cards. Cher, is this one of those?
Oh, is this one of the ones where you predict your future
and shit? This is like card rating, bro.

(01:03:46):
I'm gonna read, I'm gonna read your palm.
I I. Love that stuff.
But this is not card rating is. It Oh, OK.
I'm just like, I love that stuff, man.
No like what? Am I going to so hype?
You're gonna be so disappointed.It's just like a like a mix of
random deep or random questions.Doesn't need to be deep, all
right, Just kind of like lettingyou pick your destiny into what
the answer might be, man. So pick the card.

(01:04:07):
OK, this one here is called. You read it?
Yep, read it out loud for everyone and then answer it.
Do you like to spit or swallow? No.
No, I have to like now detect like check the explicit content
on Spotify for the first time ever.
This is like episode 20. OK, go, go.
Let's go back. What is your proudest

(01:04:29):
accomplishment? Wow, you can't take me seriously
anymore. I'm, I feel like, I'm just proud
that I feel like I, I, I, I'm. So sorry bro I tried so hard.

(01:04:53):
I just want to say spirit. No, no.
I'm. Joking bro, my mum listens to
this. My cars.
I'm so sorry. I'm just talking about chewing
gum. Yeah, we're going to keep this G
rated proudest accomplishment. I think that I've actually

(01:05:13):
became the mentor I never had. Legit that's.
So proud of you bro. No, no, what a beautiful
achievement. Dirty jokes.
But I feel like I've, I've really wanted to be the mentor
that I never had. And I feel like I'm, I'm working
towards that. Yeah, that's become more shaping
that that person becoming that person.

(01:05:34):
Sorry, man. OK, we need to take that again.
No, this is This is one thing about crew table.
It's like raw. Man.
It's like this is it? OK.
Well, thank you for coming on, man, you really left us with a
happy ending. No fun intended.
Yeah, I was waiting to. Say that that was good.
That was good. Oh man, that Nah, thank you for

(01:05:56):
having me here. It's it's.
My honour bro. So much fun guys.
Honestly, it's just like good toknow you and your journey and
stuff and like getting to know your story has been even
crazier, man. Now I'm gonna.
Watch your story. Maybe we're gonna swap the
tables around and I'll ask you all those.
Questions bro just make me piss myself laughing for all your
Viet jokes. We need a we need a vlog of like
your solo trip to Vietnam. Oh man needs.

(01:06:18):
We're not going to man shit. Thanks for coming bro.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
It's great to be here. Thank you.