From Barber to Business Owner: Scaling a Mobile Brand

Yeah, the cold is something different I'm in Syracuse. Oh He's been like 14 degrees all week and when Oh Yeah, right I'll go to the beach for you today. Please do Yeah, yeah, all right, um All right, so I'm gonna catch you up Malta a little bit so John has been our most consistent person so far. He is a barber in San Diego. That's how we met, actually. I think he cut me hair right before my wedding. Is that right? I don't remember if it was before your wedding, but it was definitely like two years ago. You were one of my first ones in San Diego, and I started at Red. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then for the last couple weeks, we've been working on... um helping him brand a company to go out on his own uh we've come up with concierge cuts and working on his logo he got his llc going um and his uh business model that he really wants to work on is having like a mobile barber shop like in a van and then going to get clients like corporate offices and so like go and showing up do like 10 haircuts piecing out to the next clients nice that's cool yeah And then John Malta, he's been basically an international entrepreneur for like the last at least 10 years, maybe 15 plus. He created a company called Shore Buddies. They were one of the first companies to make stuffed animals from recycled plastic bottles. And he did work on educating children on the importance of renewable. Recycling and taking care of the planet and now I know he's working on some big things in Europe He's been traveling around a lot. Just networking meeting everybody trying to piece everything together I think you could say better. You know although we haven't talked to him. I don't think a couple months actually. It's been a while You know, it's been a minute yeah that's pretty accurate correct um so what i've been like i've been pretty much in the toy industry children's toys and currently transitioning from a brand perspective more towards manufacturing i want to revolutionize manufacturing more towards the circular economy approach and my big belief is that circular economy only works when you keep the circle kind of very small meaning using regional sources rather than having everything manufactured in china and then use it somewhere else and then getting it back to china reproducing it all of that so using local resources increasing recycling um quotas and then taking that material and making new toys out of already existing materials so reducing waste and bringing the economy locally hell yeah that is great sustainability is a huge issue and outsourcing it creates a different set of problems okay so i know john has to take off a little early today um what were we wanting to talk about today john um yeah oh uh so far i'm just getting everything ready uh i got the site all made up and everything i just need to buy the upgrade so i can purchase connect my domain. I got the domain. Um, but now today I'm just like worrying what my next step is for a loan. And I don't really know how to go forward with that. Like I don't have like tax returns for the last couple of years. I was like coming out of living in my car. So I was like getting my life together. So like I need to do that and then get, I don't know how to qualify for a loan other than a personal one through like credit karma. Yeah. So, uh, um touch on the website did you end up building on wix yeah yeah let me see if i can flip this camera but yeah yeah i don't think i can there you go got some vlogs going i edited them up connected my instagram a lot of keywords and then i got to go through the seo on wix that was like really convenient that it's all in that one thing nice yeah um that's good that's a good start you've come a long way just in the last three weeks uh it's taking the push honestly i could i mean i could have done it but i don't know something about being in the group really pushes me and compels me to like try harder and more it's it's one of the most important things to do as an entrepreneur is to surround yourself with people that just say that you can do it you know like It's so hard sometimes to convince yourself that you're doing the right steps Because it's so much easier to be like well. There's a thousand options Why don't I I don't know which one I should take and when really you just need to take one option and go with it, but I think that's what Having people around you for for accountability accountability buddies. It's one of my favorite made-up words Malta and I went through the ringer, especially during like 2020. We ended up basically in my living room for the whole year filming a children's TV show for his show or for his brand because he was like a storefront product and nobody was going to stores anymore. I mean, how many sales were canceled? Like $300,000 or something like that just overnight? Yeah, pretty much lost half a mil. Yeah. And then, so, you know, it's just like, we just pushed each other through 2020, basically. I don't even know if we really had any too much positive effect on the company, but you just kept moving because it's either move or die. That's exactly what it was, you know, like, and was such a big lesson to learn. And I'm now seeing that really in retro perspective, right? Like if you cannot work. Then go and educate yourself or learn a new skill. And that's exactly what we did. We had no idea what we were doing when we first started out. But we had no other options. Everything was locked down and going online was the only option. And you have to produce content. And then it was like, okay, we have a kid's product. How do we sell now? We have an online store. Everything is ready and set up. So what can we do? let's go and start and then do the show and it kind of like really really went viral you know and not only that was really helpful for the brand uh that we stayed present that we engaged others you know at the end we really had so many kids and then ambassadors standing on their their content um and quite nicely what happened at the same time is i got really comfortable at speaking in front of a camera um so that really helped me you know to become a podcast host later on to do online presentations to do all kind of things uh public speaking a friend of mine he's a public speaking coach and he always starts when he is like in a new audience he always says this one thing that's like um the first thing the number one thing people are scared of is dying the second one is public speaking So everyone who kind of like learns how to do public speaking is really so much ahead of the curve. And I think it's something that you really have to master as an entrepreneur, right? Because people don't really care what your product is, what you sell and all of that. It's really the story you have to tell, you know, people buy into your why. And if you cannot communicate your why, I think that's really what matters the most. Yeah, Gregor just sent me a good video on that, and it broke it down really well on the why and how to project that to people. It's like a light bulb clicked, and you don't realize how important until you do realize it. Yeah, it's amazing how that whole light bulb thing works. It's like you're just in the dark. You don't even realize you're in the dark every day, and then all of a sudden it just comes together. It makes sense. you know what direction you have your purpose and once you have your purpose you're unstoppable you know um it's like anthony with his book it's like you know that's one of the things i coach anthony on is like because he came to me when i was holding the torch of leadership you know i had the company i had a big team um i was able to support him and now like i'm like man you got the torch now like you got the fire you are prometheus like people are following you not me like you and it's just realizing that when you have this thing when you have this purpose like you are the only person that can stop yourself uh i mean there's so many examples throughout history of that i mean obviously there's extreme ones you know like alexander the great you know a great example of an unstoppable force of nature but all he did was believe and he believed in people around him more than he believed in himself i think um but i mean you got the torch now for yourself john you know i see it in your eyes i see every week that you're showing up here you're more and more decisive about what next steps are what your vision is for yourself and having that belief in yourself is how you get money. People don't invest in people that don't believe in their vision because the people that can't repay money are the people that waver on themselves. Like I've seen Malta go and find like 20, $30,000 in like a day to get his shit out of lockup. Like there was one day, he had uh shipping containers coming from china and for whatever reason they were held up and then they were stuck at uh the port and then at the port they play a dirty game like uh yeah you gotta pay us this money but also we're gonna charge you a ton of money every day that you can't pay us the money as a like a stocking fee a holding fee and so every day just gets more and more expensive to the point where it costs more than what your product is worth and then what the fuck is the point of even doing it but when you have a product company and every product companies go in cycles like you buy product you sell it you buy a little bit more product you sell it if you're lucky enough you get an investment you buy a lot of products get more margin but then you got to pay back those people and buy product like it's just a dirty game doing product but malta basically had to in like a day or two figure out how to get tens of thousands of dollars from nowhere in order to get the product out. And I saw him on the phone basically, not yelling at people, but being fucking German as shit. And being like, I need this money, otherwise I am dead in the fucking water. And he got the money. And he got the product. And he probably didn't make any money on that shipment, but it was better than losing the whole order and then losing all of his customers and everything. um that would have followed with not being able to follow through on the orders that came from but himself and in his business is the only reason why he was able to get that money i mean how many people do you think you call up malta it was probably in the three digits that's for sure yeah yeah but you think asking that's really that's really the thing you know like what i what i learned is um you just cannot get up give up you know like it it it's easy as that like you have to be the first and last believer and that that's what happens you know like and sometimes it's the second or the third or the fourth call um and the more established you become the more established your network becomes um the more reliable you are and the more history you have in business um i want to say it gets easier but sometimes the the ball moves a little bit faster you know in your advantage um but in general it's really like you have to be there and like the bigger you grow as a company like just the bigger the problems get you know like it's they they will never stop they will just shift into something new but um i always say it's kind of like a spiritual journey as well to become an entrepreneur right so like you don't get anything you cannot handle right it's just like everything is another task and you will get through that and sometimes it's just like all right john how much do you really want that right so like let's show us what you can do and if you really want that and um one other point i've also learned the the thing it's it's usually not a money situation right like and then revenue and then profit and all of that it doesn't really matter for most companies it's a cash flow game right like it's how do you stay liquid um how do you stay above the water without drowning and that's cash flow Yeah, I had that issue once when I had my marketing company. It was, I think it was right at the beginning of 2020. I've been doubling revenue every quarter and we were crushing, but we had a little bit of a slow month and my expenses overtook my income just by a little bit. And you know how banks work, blah, blah, blah. I was at Chase Bank, by the way. and within a week all of a sudden we were under a couple thousand dollars like before i even knew how to stop the flow because you know we have so many automated monthly payments for different programs and all sorts of stuff and then um it uh and the bank with me and i did the math and it would have taken us like two months to dig ourselves out of the hole with the charges coming in and the overdraft fees and all that, even though we were doing as best we'd ever done. The solution ended up being stop using that bank. And I just went and started a new bank account at another bank. Now the fucked up thing is that it was a great bank. It's called First Republic and La Jolla is a small bank. Like if I was going to have something that overdraft my account, they would call me and be like, do you want us to push this through or not? Like it was that bank. But they actually ended up going under a couple years ago and fucking Chase Bank bottom and I ended up with a Chase Bank account again. I was so mad. I was so mad. What's up, Anthony? Welcome. What's up? Good morning. What up, dude? What's cracking, brother? Long time no speak. Hitting the grind, baby. in the grind i love it yeah um so yeah john so there's a thousand ways to get money and it's literally however you can get it um because you're looking at a van right now right that's like already kind of built out yeah i'm still waiting on a response from that guy and uh it's not messaging back yet but hopefully something comes through with that so then i'm already looking into like bus options like on facebook marketplace and everything like that and uh some bus dealers online all of them like most expensive is probably around 30 for like the bus itself and then online through facebook markets place it's like from five to like 15 for the whip so it's exploring options nice what's your uh personal credit look like it's recovered pretty a lot so we're about like 6 6 39 right now for all my scores okay uh you need to get that up to like i think like a 670 or 680 and open up a lot of doors for um people doing small business loans um also uh credit unions are usually a lot friendlier um small business loans or personal loans um and if you're buying it as a vehicle Um, auto loans, they'll give those out for free. Basically you might pay a high interest rate. Um, but if it's what you need to get started, you know, knowing that you're just going to be able to make that work. Okay. So, I mean, do you know like what the build out cost would be on like a bus on top of it? Oh, like building it out. No, I haven't like done the quote. uh for like like supplies and wood yet i know that i'd have to get like a chair that's like roughly five i'd probably spend like a couple more thousand just on the equipment like at least three thousand because i'm trying to have like solar power and battery banks so i don't burn out my my whip battery so let me let me throw this at you so you have your your like your peak goal like make a van or a bus built out with chairs everything inside a vibe what is your i can get started here goal because like in my mind it's like you could get a cheap ass truck who cares what it looks like and and bring like a chair into people's offices and maybe you just have like a tent that you can pop up around it with like a like a flooring that you can roll out and sweep up and so you could do all of that for like under five grand probably you have to do the whole build out maybe that's like your long-term goal but like what's an attainable first step because like yeah it'd be great to just be like yeah give me a hundred grand i'm gonna do this perfect it's really hard to get money these days money isn't free anymore they used to give it away like candy to businesses but um especially like if you're just getting going like what is the lowest barrier to entry just to start building your client base like even if you're just going to people's houses um or doing like one at a time like it's like it's not how much business can i do this month it's like if i just start adding like one client a week what am i going to look like in one year two years three years because in two years one client a week is 200 people that you're doing a month you know or every two months like that's a lot of regular clients if you're adding one person just every week or if you're doing you know 100 200 people a month on the regular like that's a lot of monthly recurring revenue and that's when banks are like yeah we'll give you money because we see a history of transactions reliably coming in and they have no problem giving you money then to do your perfect build out It's all about just starting. It's okay to just be starting. You don't have to be the perfect vision in your head. Also, it just gives you something to work for. Anthony's been working on his book for 10 years, and we're still maybe releasing it in the next month. All right. that makes it a little more feasible it feels like not such a big task when you think of it like that too yeah like you know just do it in manageable bites and that'll help teach you everything you need to know about your sales process and what people really want and all of that because like you take out a hundred thousand dollar loan or even a thirty to fifty thousand dollar loan and then you decide like this model doesn't really work the way i thought it was now you're on the hook for fucking 30 50k you're just like well now i got this barber van that i don't really use that i got to get rid of or do something well because you didn't prove your concepts before you went and did it and like we all know it's a good concept but a thousand things always have to line up no matter what you're doing cool cool i don't know if anybody else has any input on that thought process yeah i like that it's usually a great strategy right to build out like an mvp minimum viable product what you need really to get started before you like do all the big investment and and stuff like that um and i really like the like the concept um of it all john um i have to say i don't think i've ever seen that and i think if you really start out with a couple of corporate clients you know to offer that There are some in San Diego that really love that and a lot of times they actually have kind of like their employee relationship officers, right? You go through the HR department, not the ones that kind of like is protecting the company from their employees, but the ones that are actually engaging with their community and helping out with those services because they do a lot. They do like, you know, sport fitness programs and stuff like that. And I bet if you like, you know, reach the right people at Qualcomm, at one of the company called that does all the techs. But there are a couple of corporate clients, you know, like or even like the big institute that we got to UCSD, Scripps, La Jolla, all of that is going to be like, hey, you know, I'm going to be on site this and that, blah, blah, blah. Have them, you know, post out flyers and you go to one location a day. And I think you're set. Yeah, that's the idea behind it. I've already started talking with a few people who are pitching it to some of their friends with like larger office structures. So I'm really feeling motivated to get it going. Anthony looking good. Hey, dude, I can tell you right now, John, that the fear, fear your feeling and never going to stop and never going nowhere. But one fucking client, one client to change everything. I know every one of us in this chat has hit that moment where you get that one client and all of a sudden 10 grand a month's coming in and you're just like, holy shit. I did it. Now, it doesn't last forever. But one client. All it takes is one. And look, bro, and the path is the way, right? The path is the fucking journey or some shit, right? Because, yes, I did start writing a book 10 years ago, and now I have a fucking video game, a board game, and I have four books. So, you know, you kind of, you fall into it. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Oh, man. Oh, it's so cold. it's so cold here it's like 65 oh god hello man i don't know how we're surviving 15 degrees here i think we're talking talking whatever oh man oh yeah all right do you have any other questions at the moment john no i'm good i was just wondering like my next path because i was feeling overwhelmed about that loan process but i can do more of those feasible steps actually move on like that yeah because do you already have like your own chair or anything like that no i still need the chair but i have like all like the little things towels warmers uh i got an eyeball and a very cheap affordable sink option so that's all lined up pretty good nice yeah so you think Probably like a grand or two and you can get everything you need to be like hey We're just gonna set up and sue's office today. Do you want a haircut come by bring 50 bucks? Yeah, I'm probably I'd say for like five but yeah Okay five grand or 500. Oh five grand. Sorry. Okay. Nice. Yeah, cuz like you could probably go to like just like shared office space type of places and Just be like hey, I'm here You want a haircut? I'm doing it on the cheap today. 20 bucks. Come on down. Like just get your name out there. You just get the practice out. Never be afraid to give something away for free. Never discount though. Something we all learn. Discounting lowers the perceived value of who you are and what you're doing. Always like take away or add services depending on how much value you want to include. Be like yeah, I know $50 might seem like a lot. I'll tell you what what do I throw in a free beard trim up? And then you're not being like, okay, I'll do it for 30 because then they're like alright 30 is your real price But yeah, man, you got this you're almost there Are you working in the shop right now still you still reds? Yeah, no, I'm still I'm in a little Italy now working at Vince's barber shop. Okay, nice Yeah, it's a great spot. You need to be in the business side. That side of town is too... Nobody's going to barbers in Little Italy, right? Am I wrong? You know what I mean? I'm down here in Chula and I see a line out the door at this place over here. Yeah. so yeah i think i i second that i think your blaze should be sorenta valley you know like you need to be in the business area like right at the corporate offices right in the parking lot okay yeah that's exactly where i want to go like that's where i'm thinking of taking the bus you go so like where was henich's company greg he needs to walk into henich's real estate company and be like who wants a haircut right like those those industrial but sales anybody who's selling anything on any level gets haircuts once a week most likely they're like me look at my hair ask me the last time i got a haircut you can't go too far you can't you can't go too far um otherwise they don't they don't care about their hair right that's where i'm at only one in the family with it and they're all pissed and i leave it like this it's hilarious but i don't know we gotta i can help you we could go around i'll go around with you and scream at people who want the heck i'll do it thanks you gotta come with me to comic-con and scream about my book i'll absolutely scream about your book hey there we go we got one sold deals deals deals deals done i went with him we wore a costume people loved it hell yeah put me in a costume we did our best give me my face paint dude my mom my mom was the one who was the crate she was the one who was like let's go to all the hotels in the surrounding area in the bars because that's where all the rich people are and i'm like holy shit i didn't even think of that and we walked in and she was hawking millionaires at the bar like she was freaking doing her job at work again and i was just like oh my god Who is this? It's pretty cool to see your work. But, like, there's always, like, a POV shift, a simple corner peak, a simple fucking, like, step forward that, like, the fog just raises, right? Like, right now, you have stepped away from the light of society towards entrepreneurism, which is straight into the dark. And then you're sitting in the dark now, like, okay, what do we do? And eventually... little sparks and flashes of light start to show and that's where you're at now you've got the idea you've got the direction now you gotta get there how do we get there and you'll get to a point where the lights will turn back on brother you must ride the feet you gotta ride the fear like a fucking stallion towards your dreams sorry i get i get motivational on my morning gregory I'm fucking the only reason I can say this is because I feel the same way I call Greg every day damn near crying in self-doubt like but are you sure are you sure I'm not a loser who just spent ten years of his life again you know diddling in a book I do it every day you know and then I turn back and I go I'm invested five six years of my life into helping you write this book you better not stop and that usually works that usually works the weight leadership it helps push you forward yeah rely on you people that have excellent when i meet people like john who get goosebumps when i tell them the story it's like okay okay i should probably finish this yeah you definitely should it's really good now it's The you know, the beginning is started book one is done the audiobook. I'm almost halfway through Editing it and it's you know, who knows I could be the cool dude who just did that Or I could be the next look at dude getting interviewed and just be like, I don't know what this I don't know what to do with my hands Yeah, you could go viral for that shit though I Goober who wrote a book That's why I'm staying away from the internet. I I know my person. I know who I am The internet every day People will love me, but then I will I will be myself and I will say something mean They will no longer love me Half of them won't love you the other half will be more diehard. That's fair. That's a fair That's fair exactly there's always people who will do business with you yeah that's yeah yeah so john i know you gotta take off in a little bit here i want to make sure to ask uh so what are your uh goals you think for this next week before next meeting what you want to try to get accomplished i'm just gonna i have uh the licensing lined up i went over all that so i'm just gonna be going and getting the licensing really uh pink i'm just uh stacking some cards paying them down stacking paying down so i don't keep my debt low while i get all the licenses and small things out of the way so that's just pretty much the plan right now and then when we find a debt i find a whip and then bam bam and get something done okay anthony john needs a whip you guys anthony's got a couple hooks on whips a whip um shit if i didn't change my plans i'd be able to just loan your mind but i changed my plans yeah the problem is is you're like the third like i've had three people ask me about the vehicles i'm starting to think i mean i can get you now okay if you're trying to buy a cheap now i understand what greg's talking about i have exactly the guy i need to introduce you to to buy a vehicle for very very cheap but it's a risk because they're they're auction vehicles so you don't really know what you're getting yourself into when you're buying and the way that this guy operates is like i mean when i walked in there to buy myself a car a couple months ago all he said all he talked about was trying to get me on his team to be another one of his like car salesman right where it's like you drop the money for uh you drop the money for um for the vehicle clean it up get it nice and then instantly post it and try and sell it on craigslist for like five grand more and he could help i could help and then if the car works and you like it you get to keep driving the car right that's kind of how you know like i almost bought a jeep track hawk the other day just to have something with some testicles and uh but then like i realized like i don't know what i'm going to be dealing with i don't want to deal with this guy that much and you know that's what it was like leaning towards was like the never-ending cycle of buying and selling vehicles until i had a bunch of money or uh i got into something i liked um but like jans all that kind of stuff i can get it's depending on what size man i can get for a better price now the difference is if you go off the lot you're gonna have uh some like recourse like uh warranty and shit uh so that's something to think about something like this yeah something just like a 10-footer special bus yeah i know all about those uh yeah you want something to like pull okay i see where yeah yeah stand pool and then yeah something just cheap that's why there's a lot of options on facebook marketplace for like five grand and up yeah facebook marketplace is gonna be a good spot too i almost bought a there was a a bus being sold old school bus for like five grand and they'd painted they'd painted it like metal black that they got from home depot and it just it looked fucking sick it looked like i was like greg could you imagine me pulling up to the to the comic-con with this thing it was it was pretty cool uh the problem is is i'm a fucking giant and i don't the dream of stuffing myself into a vehicle is maybe just a dream there's an idea uh maybe try to find like a small camper that then you pretty much just have to rip some stuff out of it yeah and you don't have to build anything out it's already got a sink with water storage it's already got a little bathroom it's got like basically just rip out the bed area and make that like where you do the cuts exactly and then you don't have to do the build out because the build out's what's going to kill you but you could probably get a camper and it already has almost everything you need that's a good idea yeah another thing i wanted to mention it's also like uh worth looking at is like those public auctions downtown um the thing is there it's really hard to finance it a lot of times it's cash buyers right so and uh like a lot of car dealerships go there and get a vehicle um but it's like cars that got like compounded or whatnot or like old police cars, old public cars, like the old school buses sometimes are in there. But it's really great if you have the cash to get a car cheap, right? But like you have to pay in cash. Yeah, like rental car places will get rid of their inventory every year or two as well. Yeah, and it's like there's a lot of camper like what is the cruise across America, whatever it's called They sell a couple of them. So I like the camper idea. So it's just like looking at the right place. No, that was good Yeah, I remember I saw one guy with like a little build out I don't remember what kind of car was but he was literally parked outside of Shore Club on the beach like just doing haircuts isn't like the all black bus with like the top rack on top i think so yeah i saw that guy when i was living in pb yeah but i really like the idea that that simplifies so many aspects of it it's straight up it's pricey though it's a pricey fun idea and and that was exactly what my parents convinced i had all the money to do exactly what we're talking about right now and i was convinced that Just regarding the size thing that like it's an expensive endeavor and then driving that vehicle around or towing that vehicle around is an expensive endeavor, which completing the full circle is why you need to start with like walking into a business and saying, I'll show up here at this time, whatever day of the week, and I will give whoever's in line haircuts. I just need one of your chairs. bust out one of the office chairs or have some really cool uh you know tactical chair you can set up right there in front of them uh because the the camper method is expensive it is expensive um if you're just yeah there's actually like this uh make of like portable barber chairs this one guy just pushed out so i'm gonna have to look into that nice yeah anthony's got a point you don't necessarily need a barber chair i mean a barber chair would be you know obviously nice but you could just find like a nice office chair for a couple hundred bucks that does it doesn't have like a high headrest and just use that as long as it like locks in a couple of positions like it spins a twist i mean you're going into offices time consolidation mostly yeah so that makes sense yeah and that so again it's like everything you can do to lower your barrier of entry to get customers because like if you went out today and talked something they're like yeah come by we'll cut five people's hair like you're not gonna say no because you don't have a chair you're gonna make it work because you're gonna go there and walk out with a couple hundred bucks right you know so you know it's like that's a good way to think about it actually like if somebody today said come here and cut our hair what would you have to do to make that happen today with what you have when you're under a gun you're creative john do you remember uh uh the friend that i hit up i hit up colin remember greg we were talking last time about him colin's group i hit up colin they they're having some meetings happen uh somewhat soon if you show up there and probably tell him that you're with me and Greg, then you're definitely going to get business. He is a barber who got into money lending and all that kind of stuff. So he has a stock pot for barbers. And if you show up to his event, and I'm sure Malta and Greg can attest to this, when entrepreneurs are building something new together, They need people. Look at this meeting we're on right now. We need people, right? Down the network. The second you show up and you're a local young entrepreneur with a business and they get to all flaunt how much they know about money and they get to be the one to help you, you'll probably get a couple customers or at least a chance to go sell yourself to some gig. just by standing next to these guys. Or absolutely nothing happened. You're right back where we are now. Colin will educate you on money lending because he's been a hard money lender. He can get you money 10 ways to Sunday. So again, it might not be the best to take out a big loan right now, but if you take out a $5,000 loan or take out a $5,000 line of credit just to get your chair and a nice little setup, if everything goes tits up, five grand is easy to pay off in a year you know um 50 grand totally different yeah yeah five grand is no sweat like you can make that in a month of hustling um but yeah i think that'd be a good thing to do connect do you guys are you already connected with this column guy not yet uh but i'm down for some networking events so i would love to talk they should have the instagram i think i sent him the instagram Well, we can do a text connect. Or a text connect, just like a little group text. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I can do that, too. It's easier for everyone so we don't have to meet somewhere, you know? Right. So, yeah. I see you probably got to take off now. Yeah, I got to get the bubs to school. All righty. Good talk. We'll keep chatting. We'll work on getting the intro going. And we'll see you next week. thanks so much malta i got some questions about toys tell me brother got some toy questions who who am i looking for like what's the name of the company or the profession or like if i want my own action figure who do i call to like so like i started playing around with yeah who's the ghostbusters of toy making or like what like even like your plushies even your even all your little uh your your your little animals um you know i i've i've got people like in mexico i could gotta move through and some options in china are starting to open up but i'm terrified that like i'm gonna like open myself up to some international person and they're just gonna steal everything Well, that's the thing. You cannot really protect much, right? Like the protection is kind of like in your brand, like the product and stuff like that. People are usually not interested in that, especially if it's a manufacturer to go that route. They really want to manufacture your stuff and they want you to sell it. They don't usually go unless it's like a major IP, but a major IP is always protected, right? So like if they see, okay, they can like make a fucking... Mickey Mouse and sell it, they will do that, right? But at the same time, they're calculating their risk. It's like, okay, who is the person who can sell that? It was like some street vendors in fucking Columbia, like no one is checking on. Or is it something like I can actually bring to the beachfront in San Diego, right? Where if there's like not an official Disney tech on it, like you're fucking tits up in court, you know? Yeah. So if you hold the IP and if you have the characters and all of that, you can go with that anywhere. The real thing is really like how big you want to go. If you want to do China first, it's just like usually the minimum that fucking kills you. Right. So like no one in China is like even interested to do business with you unless it's 500 units. Right. Yeah. And that's even super, super small for them. Yeah. OK. China's the end game. yeah maybe for another year or two but yeah oh yeah more if well i mean yeah i just i don't have any budget right and so yeah it's like i'm setting up for i mean the idea is to build this up and either it gets popular enough on its own that we are able to start bringing in money and doing our own things on our own or worst case we have to find somebody who's like in that industry and you know in the hunt for launching the next great story brand and you know i'm sure there's plenty of those people out there well but that's the thing like that's what i learned from from the publishing industry too right and it pretty much applies for toys for for whatever right so it's no one buys the manuscript anymore no one buys the story right it's like literally what i've been told from publishers and the book industry is like okay there's exactly two reasons why we would buy your stuff number one you have a proof of concept meaning you have sales right yeah but the second one is if you have 500 000 followers on instagram i will write the book for you right we're on our way to both we're on our way to both of those options being very viable within the next five years right yeah that's that's why i'm pushing book one out now and not like waiting for a formal editor to do their job like i'm just going to start building hype because if i can get a thousand fans who are interested in it then it makes sense to release book two even though we're going to do it anyway right and then it's like okay book three and now we have two thousand fans and it's like you know sure maybe that's not enough to get any big time investors but two thousand fans is enough for me to do this for the rest of my life with a smile on my face exactly like all you have to do is to build a community is built a fan base you know and once you have the fan base you can sell them anything too right so like you can even go to uh you can go to funko you know like this little bubble hat thing okay you know i have a hundred thousand people like buying my stuff are you interested in a special edition i will say yeah let's go check out his artwork this is how far it's come this is like a scene from the story um So, yeah, we've been working out a bunch of art. Anthony's found, like, I think three different artists that we really like at this point. And so this is from a scene where the main character gets beat up by all the bullies. So we're doing the audiobook right now. And then we're going to put together basically, like, a video graphic novel for, like, YouTube and Spotify where we have, like, just the art that goes. Graphic audiobook. yeah graphic audiobook there we go um so that like there's something to actually see and then eventually this will turn into like full animation nice but yeah i mean it's really coming together nice yeah i'm i'm trying to extend myself to get this uh into like some anime studio before you know i'm trying to do any kind of crazy deals with anybody about like on the money side even though i guess the show is money related but like the you know i'm not worried about i'm worried about building fans and you know what i mean so that i can go sit in netflix and be like hey put you know put a studio behind me and you know put some people who know their behind me and because this is what i was able to do by myself uh so if i have people with me i'll be able to do much better and much faster and you know and just get into the like i've been telling greg if we get into like a tv show scenario where we're just we have to sit in a dark room and grind out a tv show for the next two three years like that's the dream that's that's what we're aiming for malton i've done that that's the dream exactly i can drink your six back before 12 and get stolen and knock out content i'm still doing that baby how much stella did we drink that year stella and uh what's the not enough we drank bags not enough that's the right answer exactly yeah oh man it was literally a 12 pack every day dude yeah so how's everything going with your business coming together malta it's going well it's going well i just had to jump through the um organizational hoops, if you will, here in Germany. And on Friday, I have a meeting with the government, with the officials to tell them, it's like, okay, cool. Now I have worked in this whole, I don't know how you call it, but so that it kind of like applies to healthcare, stuff like that. Sorry. That's funny. Then on Friday, I can be like, okay, cool. Give me the startup funding for that. I'm going to build out my own business. I just literally have to follow the steps. You cannot, for example, write out on an official offer or take on any contract work before you have actually announced it to the authorities that you're trying to do that. Otherwise, I was like, whoa, you're already an established business, so now you don't get shit. so like but if you like be okay yeah i'm just starting out and i need like six months to do that then we're gonna oh six months you're sure you don't take 12. so uh yeah and then uh securing the public funding and then uh building it out that's awesome so they're the government's on board with what you're doing trying to bring more manufacturing local dude it's fucking socialism like everyone here like i don't even have to tell them the full story i'm gonna be like i want to do my own thing right so they're gonna be like well are you sure it's uh profitable. I'm going to be like, well, it will be eventually. Here's the business plan. I was like, okay, we need to set party to check that up. And I was like, okay, cool. I already have a guy who is actually qualified to do that. So we'll put a stamp on it. And then off we go. Nice. Oh, yeah. Oh, do you still want me to keep your form up on my website? The change for good? Oh, we still have that. I completely forgot about that. That's right. Did anyone sign up ever? One person. I think I sent you the info back in the day. Like, Uriah or something is their name. It's really weird. I'll send you their info. Yeah, that would be good. Do you want me to keep that up still? I have a website now through Lovable, which has a forum that can connect, but I don't know what's going on there. Alright. I mean, if we don't need it, I'll take it down. Yeah. just take it down i haven't really sent anyone there okay all right yeah i don't think anthony's heard your business uh anthony is still with us yeah yeah so you you lucky you lucky you lucky talking about my balls what's the business what are we doing um i want to revolutionize toy production i want to um out of china Yeah, I just want to get things out of China and set up micro toy factories all around the world that smart, humble, and ambitious entrepreneurs all around the world can literally run their own factories and use recycled materials to produce local plushies. I'm in. I'm San Diego. Dibs on all San Diego. Yeah, Anthony, I'm sure he's got some property you can throw. a tank or a uh trailer on what do you mean we've been trying we've been trying to build the factory that's been the goal this whole lot like i've literally been trying to buy like so because i live in my grandpa's you know it's okay but all the parents keep telling me like oh when he dies you're out and you're homeless and i'm like okay i need to solve this now so the whole trailer you know vagabond thing was like my only option and that's what i was gonna do And then my parents were like, no, we're not going to make you homeless. Don't do that. And I'm like, super confused. But what all this is going to end at is with me, my own chunk of land, my little fucking space and little warehouse to build all of my own products. My book, my board game, all that stuff has stuff that I have to do for it. It's not just like, hey, click this thing and get the full board game. Like, no, the game's got to come to me. i have to 3d print stuff i have to cut out cars all these things and so it's like okay i need my own workshop and if it doesn't cost that much to get the things i need to make my own pluggies why would i go to china exactly exactly so what i want to build is literally like a like turnkey factory in a 40-foot shipping container that you can put on your property and you just have to press a button like manufactured right there how much does it cost what's one container to figure that out i don't know i'm trying to get at one container at 100k so but so and damn you're in germany so it's like crazy so it's like so okay

In this week's Small Business Workshop, we dive deep into the "unfiltered" side of entrepreneurship. We’re joined by Jonathan Perez (Founder of Concierge Cuts) and Malte Niebelschuetz (Founder of Shore Buddies) to discuss the transition from working for others to launching a mobile brand.
We cover the practical steps of starting small—using an "MVP" approach to build a client base before dropping $50k on a van—and the mental grit required to survive when the bank accounts hit zero. Plus, Malte shares his vision for a revolution in toy manufacturing through localized "micro-factories" in shipping containers.
If you’re struggling with business funding, navigating personal credit, or just need a push to take the first step, this session is for you.
Key Topics Covered:
The Mobile Business Model: How to serve corporate clients and consolidate time for maximum profit.
Funding Realities: Navigating loans without tax returns and the importance of credit unions.
The MVP Strategy: Why you should start with portable equipment to prove your concept before making big investments.
Grit & Resilience: Lessons from the "2020 Ringer"—surviving $300k+ in losses and building back stronger.
Sustainability & Innovation: Replacing China-based manufacturing with local circular economies and shipping container factories.
Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction: Meet the entrepreneurs 2:30 - Concierge Cuts: The vision for a mobile barber shop 4:45 - The "Accountability Buddy": Why your circle matters 7:15 - Overcoming the Fear of Public Speaking & Sharing Your "Why" 11:00 - Cash Flow vs. Profit: Surviving shipping crises and bank fees 18:30 - Stop Waiting: The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach 26:45 - Pricing Strategy: Why you should never discount your value 35:00 - Creative Sourcing: Buying vans, campers, and auction vehicles 46:00 - Revolutionizing Toy Manufacturing: Micro-factories in containers 55:00 - Localized Circular Economy: The future of sustainable production 
Connect with the Speakers:
Greg Chapman – Host & Business Coach
Jonathan Perez – Concierge Cuts
Malte Niebelschuetz – Sustainable Manufacturing Innovator
#SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #MobileBarber #BusinessFunding #Sustainability #CircularEconomy #StartupAdvice #MVP #SuccessMindset