Barbering Truth vs. Trends

If you’re a barber who wants a successful barbering career, you need to understand this simple concept that will change how you navigate your career

Truth vs. Trends

For as long as I can remember, I never liked doing what everyone else was doing

In school, everyone started getting skin fades, so I got a ‘V’ haircut, essentially just a burst fade, but back in 2005

When skinny jeans came in, I purposely wore baggy joggers

Trends bored me. Everyone looked the same. Few people had their own thing going on.

It was the same when it came to making money (still in school)

Everyone ate (or smoked) their own supplies

Which didn’t make sense to me

But then I realized they just wanted to fund their habit; I wanted to maximize my profits

I guess some things never change.

It’s the same in Barbering

Barbers get a stiffy for new clippers with the G-3000 digital gapped trimmer with 98,000 RPM’s

But couldn’t create a consistent fade to save their nan’s life

I noticed that Barbers (and most of the population) prefer to buy new things because it feels like progress

It feels like they’re getting better because they’re “investing” in their tools

But there is a big difference between investing and being sold

And social media popped off for Barbering

Overall, I see social media as a net-positive for Barbers who use it correctly

But it’s absolutely a net-negative for every other barber

The real negative impact for most barbers, though, is trying to ride trends to build their business

Because something gets views doesn’t mean it’s good

Because something makes money right now doesn’t mean it’s a sustainable business

Otherwise, you might as well all call yourself Bonnie ‘the Barber’ Blue, spread your legs and take 1,000 men in every hole

Because it makes a f+ck ton of money, in the moment

That’s what you’re doing when you ride trends to grow your business

You’re spreading your legs for Mark Zuck, and he’s f+cking you in every hole, every time you jump on a new trend

Or, auctioning off your kids' name to the highest bidder (another bonnie blue move)

She named her kid “BetBolt” after a cryptocurrency casino and betting company that placed the highest bid for £1.2M

But hey, at least it makes money, right?

What I am trying to say is that riding trends is not a long-term business-building strategy

Speak to any venture capitalist for investment and tell them that your strategy is “going viral on Instagram to grow my following” and see how they look at you — or better, see how much they invest

The best businesses are built on “boring” foundations

Having the courage to stick to the simple fundamentals for longer than anyone else

Having the discipline to stick to the truth even when it’s not cool to do so

The Lindy Effect

I have spoken about the Lindy Effect many times in my mentorship and how I’m using it to build a billion-dollar barber business, yes, billion with a B

I won’t go into what the Lindy Effect is here, you can look it up for yourself, if you want

But trends are the polar opposite to the Lindy Effect

Trends never get to experience the true power of the Lindy Effect because they’re dead within months

On the other hand

The fundamentals are strengthened by the Lindy Effect

They compound over time and outlast every cycle that comes and goes

It’s fascinating to me how everyone understands the importance of the fundamentals in any craft, yet so few people pay them any real attention

Especially Barbers

Barbers are so focused on acquiring fire emojis on their 360 reverse fades, they forget what is truly important to their future

Or, they simply avoid what they know they should be doing, because they know that they will be exposed for who they really are, so they stick to shaving lines in eyebrows and call it “education”

Moving on

Trends look — and feel — great to follow

They give you instant dopamine when your trendy post goes viral

But there is a dark side to it

When barbers post something that is trending, and it pops off, they feel good about it

So they do it again, and it works again

And they keep doing it until the new barbering trend comes around

Then they start creating more content for that trend, because it “works”

The barber's page is growing; they are gaining confidence, then…

The trend switches, again

So what do they do?

Switch trends again…

The issue with this is that nobody truly follows you, for you

You gain followers from trends, and never deepen the relationship with them

You’re a puppet for the algorithm, dancing for Zuck — but you think you’re winning because you’re growing…

But once the trend changes, your growth stops, so you have to switch trends again

Then comes the big moment

You try to cash in on all the followers you accumulated, only to realize

You’re not that influential after all

There are some barbers out there with HUGE accounts, struggling to grow their business, because all they did was grow a following from trends and virality

Meanwhile,

There are a few barbers building quietly

Focused on the truth

But this focus looks slow, it looks like not much is happening

It looks like it doesn’t work

Until one day, the truth starts to overtake the trends

And the truth builds upon itself

It compounds into undeniable outcomes

The truth builds something that trends will never be able to compete with

The difficult part?

The truth takes longer to build

It’s not sexy

It’s not for the tiktok brains who get hard-ons over followers, comments, and views

Think of it like this:

How many bitcoin millionaires are there in this world compared to real estate millionaires?

Bitcoin looked sexy, until it didn’t,

Real estate looks boring, until it isn’t.

One rises and drops every week,

The other compounds slowly over time.

What's interesting is that my follower count has dropped due to a lack of posting, while I was at a wedding in Italy

But my business has grown 28.6% in the last 30 days

My Barbering page doesn’t look like much is happening, in fact, when I track my follower growth, it doesn’t look good at all

But I’m financially better off this month than I was last month, by a wide margin too

So what is the real metric to track?

Followers will be dead in the next 5 years or less (a post for another day) — so don’t bother with that

Revenue sounds like a great metric to track, until you find out what the barbers actually keep

Then the story looks a lot different

Monthly recurring revenue sounds like a better metric to track

But that also doesn’t give you the whole picture

The best metric to track is Cash

The real result of what you have earned and kept after all expenses

Nothing is more important to your business than cash

Cash opens up a lot of opportunity to take risks, enjoy life, free up mental capacity, reduce stress, invest…

So if you’re a barber who wants to grow your business, stop focusing on growing your page with trends that come and go every other month

Because you will soon get tired of having to change your content every other month and realize that you’re not building anything sustainable

Most barbers are building a business akin to a slot machine

Focus on the only real metric that means anything: cash in the bank

To do this long-term, focus on the truth, not trends

Trends reset, truth compounds.

Nathshapes

P.S. If you’d like to go deeper with me and build your career on truths, that's exactly what we do inside Principles, my private mentorship

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