I enjoyed my appearance with hosts Ted Jenkin of Oxygen Financial and Lee Heisman of Savant CTS. Unlike all the virtual podcasts I’ve been appearing on during Covid, we recorded this one in the studio in Woodstock. I appear on a lot of podcasts, and I always enjoy the experience, but I have to say this was a really good one – tackling topics a little different than you will hear in your average business show! Titled “Should I Marry An Entrepreneur?” we do a deep dive into the entrepreneur’s life!
Also of note, my appearance on this show was a day before my book FEARLESS BEAUTY was released (and we talk about that on air, too.)
The show starts with the hosts giving an overview of some of the economic news of the day and some advice – and then they introduce me to their audience and mention that my book is coming out the very next day and tell the audience that Private Label is not only a hair extensions company with an international footprint, but that as a company we have also developed more websites than anyone else in the city of Atlanta, where we are based! One of the hosts mentions that he has a little familiarity with the hair extension industry from previous investments. .
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Before we get into the interview, the hosts go into the importance of knowing your customer – with one of the hosts referencing a story about a client who reached out to them from the world of Instagram models and OnlyFans (and how one 18 years old made one million dollars in a day on Only Fans.) We discuss how the developers of Only Fans make 20 percent of everything.
They tease me that I should get my own Only Fans!
Then we get into the nitty-gritty and they ask me about my book Fearless Beauty coming out the next day, and I tell them I have always wanted to do a book talking about my successes and failures in business. I talk about how it’s the book I wish someone had handed me when I was just starting out. I make the analogy of being on a gravel path, but the information I provide here helps put you on a smooth, nice running path and puts you on the right direction, because when I first started my businesses back in 2006 I didn’t have that mentorship to help me through my failures. One of the hosts picks up on that and asks me about failure, and how I share those stories. I talk about how that is something I talk about in the book, creating the mindset to prepare for those failures, so you can get those failures out of the way and move towards success. The host points out that no one is really prepared for it and asks me for advice I would give entrepreneurs when things go crashing down around them. I tell people to learn to laugh at their failures, to tell themselves to realize that as the business grows, failures are only going to get bigger.
Ted starts talking about some personal things – about how it feels sometimes as an entrepreneur that feels like you are dealing with big problems, and asks me how I react to or deal with things in my personal life when people whether family or a partner are worried about what seems like a less significant problem. Short answer – with a deep breath! When I see people freaking out about little things sometimes I just think, wow they are so lucky!
He then asks what value I see in conversations with other entrepreneurs, relating it to superheroes in the Hall of Justice commiserating with each other! Then he asks me what I recommend – should entrepreneurs make an effort to surround themselves with others
I respond that they should for sure – whether it’s social media groups like the Facebook group we created that helped inform my book, that has helped my clients – find an industry-specific FB group that has good content.
“Speaking of Superpowers,” he says, go back to 2006…
So I start telling him about my first business, the first fast-food curry thai sauce that got into stores in the US, it was really great til 2009 or so – I explain how the business crashed after margins failed and it crashed. I thought it was my big idea, my first business – this is it – so when it all failed and I lost my house and had to borrow money from my grandmother after being in Entrepreneur Magazine and in Whole Foods – I just wasn’t prepared. I talk about how after a few other businesses didn’t fly even after getting some great press for them, including a music site that had got media in Rolling Stone magazine – my developer ghosted on me and after 30 days of no responding to tell me he didn’t want to do it anymore – so I had wasted 8 months of my life!
The host asked me how I was able to transition to the hair extension business and we talk about how I had taken a job between successes to get the bills paid, and when my partner told me how much his girlfriend spends on hair and I started researching the market and how products were sourced we jumped in and launched in January 2014 and we were successful the very first year. It wasn’t for another 2 years where I told my business partner that I felt I could leave my job and come and work for the company full time. We talk about how a lot of people see the glory of the entrepreneur’s life, but they don’t see the hard part, the difficulty in balancing things. I talk about how I essentially threw work/life balance out of the window. I talk about how my girlfriend of nearly 10 years wrote a part of the book that talks about what it is like to date an entrepreneur. It’s really special – like I tell the hosts, it’s one of my favorite parts of the book! It’s something you can give your partner so they have some kind of an understanding of what might be to come – those late nights when you just have to get things done.
Then there’s a little segue about the future of the movie theatre after Covid – and whether people will be going back. The hosts express some pretty strong opinions – and then we get back to the relationship issue, and they point out that of all their interviews or books they have read its the first time they have heard of someone including a chapter from the significant other of an entrepreneur and what a valuable perspective that is.
Then we go into the complementary brands we have developed from our Instagram influencer stuff, to hosting websites for others, our branding and wholesale and dropshipping divisions.
I’m asked a little bit about the branding and my advice on SEO, Google, what people should be thinking about the tech and website side. I explain not to fall for those companies that tell you if you pay them, you’ll turn up on the first page of Google. I talk about what people need to know about using Facebook ads, and how they won’t work if your website sucks, and how it all comes together is the branding that will make you successful. They point out that with a thousand websites, I am also a true expert in marketing!
And then they point out that in the last 15 minutes of this 50-minute show, we should talk a little about the hair extensions that Private Label is known for. I talk about how I just dove into the hair business, about how I traveled to the countryside in China to build relationships, about trying to learn Mandarin, about competitive advantage – when I go to China, if I understand a little bit about what people are saying around me, that gives me a competitive advantage.
We go into how the pandemic affected our business, but the great supply relationships we have built helped a lot., I was reaching out to vendors because I have thousands of businesses relying on me, so while a lot of people had shortages we did OK and we ship everything by air so the issues with the Suez didn’t affect us.
Because we’re in Atlanta, the host asks if I think the Real Housewives of Atlanta are wearing wigs…. I talk about how the white, Hispanic, and Asian communities have become much more accepting of wigs and hair extensions as a result of Kylie Jenner and other media celebrities and influencers who have been very open about it. I tell the hosts how Atlanta really is the epicenter of hair – and they are a little surprised.
They ask me about TV, but I can’t really contribute to that – I barely get a chance to watch unless I see something on a plane!
Before signing off, they ask me if I have an opinion on whether cold calling for sales can still be an effective method of lead generation for business. I think time is much better spent learning how to do lead generation the new way, online. But if you do some cold calling, you will learn how brutal that is and it might motivate you to do it in a new way!
We close off with details on the book, and how people can win a free consultation!
What they said :
Mikey Moran / Founder & CEO of Private Label Extensions, Author of Fearless Beauty
Mikey Moran had only a single advantage when he started his hair and beauty business: his idea was different from anything he’d seen in the industry. Seven years later, Mikey has expanded his original idea into ten different brands, five retail locations, and one partnership with global e-commerce giant Shopify. Now Mikey wants to share what he’s learned so burgeoning entrepreneurs have a bigger advantage than he had. In Fearless Beauty, Mikey provides you with a roadmap to achieve success easier, faster, and more efficiently than you ever thought possible. He shows you how to think like an entrepreneur by introducing you to practical theories that should guide every decision, then presents a step-by-step plan for taking action and getting started. You’ll learn core marketing techniques that yield the biggest impact, how to select the best web platform for your business, and why consistency—or a lack of it—can make or break you. No matter your industry or where you are in the process of becoming an entrepreneur, you’ll gain insightful strategies for maximizing returns and enjoying every step in the journey of your business.
Mikey Moran is a serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Private Label Extensions, a hair extension, and technology company helping entrepreneurs launch and manage their brands, ranked number 278 of the Inc. 5000 and the number one fastest-growing beauty business in the country by Cosmetic Business. Mikey has been featured on ABC, Fox, CBS, and CNBC, and in Forbes and Entrepreneur, among others. He is also the co-host of the podcast Hair Biz Radio and the founder of the influencer platform Beauty Clout.
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