 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go! On today's vlog, I got that bow and eyes. Yep. We're doing Q&A and I have more questions than I've ever answered on one show before. So many. Here we go. Alright guys, so welcome to the Matt Beck show. This is the Q&A portion of our week. Sorry, it's been a couple of weeks since we've done this, but... We're not like a hiatus, but not really because you're just editing a lot of videos. There's just a lot of stuff going on, but I really enjoy the Q&A portion. So thank you guys to everyone that submits questions to the show, using hashtag the Matt Beck show on Instagram or Twitter. That's how you can get the question out there so that we see it. Today, I'm really excited because all of the questions come from one beauty school in a town called Olien, New York. Cool. I want to say Olien, Illinois for some reason. I have no idea why. I was actually waiting for that. I grew up near Olien, Illinois. Okay, so Olien, New York, Jaina is the teacher there. She ended up... She got our students hooked on the vlog and the videos and everything, so she asked the students to submit questions, so we have a ton of them. So I'm just going to get started right away, so I don't want to waste any time and I want to try to get through every single one of them. I'm just excited about this. These are questions coming from new minds in the industry. We have a lot of questions that resurface, but I'm really excited to see where these questions go. What they're asking? Exactly. Yeah, because that has no idea. So here we go. All right, Becky Peck says or asks, do you use Donald Scott Prepare on all your cuts or just razor cuts? So this is Donald Scott Prepare. It's something that I definitely use on every razor cut. But the cool thing about Prepare is that it's basically a liquid tool glide. So it's great for cutting any type of situation. It's going to help you with your sectioning. It's going to help comb through the hair. It's got a ton of proteins in it, different things. Everything about this is beneficial to the hair and it does not have a hold. So you can use as much as you want of it and it's not going to weigh the hair down or anything like that. So it's really good for razor cutting because it gives a nice slip to the hair but also great for sectioning and cutting hair in general. So definitely a cool product. This is available on Freestyle On Education. So if you want to check it out, get more information. Go to freestyleoneducation.com and you can get that info there. I concur with everything you just said. Okay, cool. So here's a carving comb question. Is there any certain carving comb you find works better than another or are the blades better? So that can quickly be answered. The only difference in the carving combs is there's two different types of carving comb. There's carving comb fine and carving comb wide. This is actually a question that's come up quite often. It has 100% carve side, a 50% carve side. Both of these tools are identical when it comes to the cutting portion of it. The only difference is the comb. So if you're looking for finer teeth with more tension, you would go with the carving comb fine. If you're looking for a wider teeth, a little bit more coarse thick hair. I like to use this, bigger sections. As far as the one that would have the sharper blade, I would imagine that would be the side that you use less. Right. Yes, exactly. Otherwise, they're the same blade. You can change them in and out. So a lot of people ask about the carving comb. A lot of people order the carving comb, so I appreciate all those orders. Now, here's the deal with this. The carving comb, I've talked about it before, but back about 10 years ago was when I was first introduced to the carving comb. It was made by Donald Scott, but through Paul Mitchell. But it was made of full-on plastic. It was completely different material, a different feel. You couldn't heat it up. It didn't have the metal top to it. The T-top that holds the blades in would break, or there was at one point this would open up. What were you doing with yours? What's that? So what were you doing with yours? I know. Every day life. So the carving comb has definitely stepped up its game. That's why I'm really excited to have it on the shop on freesoneducation.com. Now, here's the deal with this, though. A lot of people ask, can you get the wide teeth in black? You can't. But I would get both of them, to be honest, because they're about $35 a piece. So $70 is how much you'd pay for one razor. And this way you get two, you get both teeth, and you're good to go on that. Now, I would like to just expand on that question, just in case if it wasn't necessarily the thought that the carving comb came with two different types of blades. But what about the different razors in the line? Do you find that the chopstick blade is sharper than the carving comb's blade or the DSX4? Okay, so that's a good call for that. So here's the chopstick pro. I compare the chopstick pro to a feather razor. So this one, the thing I like most about it is you can see how thick the head is on a carving comb. So the reason I have all three of these ready to go in my kit is because this is for more my precision cutting. If I'm trying to get in nice and close to the head or nice and close to my fingers, I use the chopstick pro. You can also section with it and section it away. So if you had a couple of them, it's kind of cool because you can section it and cut each section. Not necessary, but it's cool if you have it. And then with the carving comb, you can get in close to your fingers, but there is a certain point when the carving comb just isn't quite close enough. That's when I go to the chopstick pro. The other thing is I'll do different texturizing techniques, running the carving comb back and forth in my fingers. There's a lot of different cool techniques that you can do with the carving comb that you can't do with the typical razor. So the same reason why we have three or four different types of scissors in here. Exactly, yeah. I'm a tool geek. I love anything that has to do with technology. This to me is care technology. You just bought a new overlay for your keyboard. Right, exactly. So every day I'm trying to get something new that makes my life easier and makes my work cooler. So whether it's a computer or scissors or combs, everything that you get makes your job easier. So hopefully that answers your question. We're only two questions in. What is your worst hair mistake and what did you do to overcome it? I'm going to send this to you for one second. Worst hair mistake you've ever made. Worst hair mistake I've ever made. Yeah. I mean I've made several. Okay. I'm trying to think of which one I would classify as. Well let's just say you've made several hair mistakes. How did you overcome all of them? I think just like you would, I want to answer this very philosophically. Okay. Just like in life, if you focus too much on the mistake that you made, you're just going to dig your hole deeper. You got to look at other options. You got to look at the outcomes. Like be like okay well this is kind of like a potential dead end. Let's see some other solutions as far as what we can do. Yeah. Like for instance, I foresaw a potential mistake with my client who came in who had been boxed color in her hair and she's like I want to go blonde. My first guidance thing being a new status was alright let's get you blonde. And then I stopped myself and I was like wait a minute. If we take you blonde today, I can get you blonde. It might take us a while. I also can't guarantee how much hair you're going to have left. You might be a platinum blonde pixie. Right. Outside of that, well that's not a mistake. My mistake. It's happening. I'm taking my own advice. I'm stepping outside the box to look at it. I was overly cautious. Like getting to where I am right now may have taken me a little bit longer because I didn't take the risk that some stylists have made in getting there, trying to break their comfort zone. So I would say that. Overcoming it. I've gone to classes with you. I've learned. I've gone down that path. Pretty much anywhere I go you'll see that and that's how we met. You were at hair shows and anytime you were at a hair show you were right there. I got to know you. We started creating videos together. My biggest hair mistake was I think you were dead on in the fact that you could pinpoint specific things and how did you overcome them. My big thing has always been that it's just hair. No matter what you can really mess somebody's hair up but it is hair and it does grow back. If I was a tattoo artist I would be really nervous about my job. I would never get into tattoo industry. But the fact that the hair does grow back you don't have to experiment, practice, and learn and understand the whys behind whatever you can and you're going to make mistakes and as you make those mistakes every day I make a mistake in something that I'm doing and it's how you twist that mistake and come out of it that makes you the best. It makes you better. Keep working through your mistakes because it's going to happen that's how you grow. If you're not making mistakes you're being too comfortable and if you're being too comfortable you're not growing. You just got to be keep pushing yourself make mistakes it's the best thing you can do because it's the only way you're going to learn. Alright. What do you recommend for students getting ready to graduate when they make a mistake? Okay. There we go. Same question. There we go. We're doing better at this. That was easy. Do you prefer one product line over others? This is from Jesse. So here's what I can tell you is pretty much the honest truth. We use Paul Mitchell here. I use Bercato because I've really gotten into that product and I'm working very closely with that company. What I've found is that most product lines have similar products. So you don't really it's not necessarily do I love this line more than that line. I think you look at what is the hair product line doing for your business or for you personally. Does it make your work better than go with that product line? I think everybody has different smells that they like. Everybody has different holds that they like and different styles of products. So I'm currently experimenting a lot with Bercato because I really am enjoying the time I've spent working and consulting with that company. And that's pretty much it. I mean, I don't know I don't think you should get stuck thinking I should only use one product line. I would say that's a big mistake that I made. Not a mistake that I made but I was very focused on Paul Mitchell for 10 years and didn't pay attention to any other parts of the industry. So I get a little bit bummed out about that because people mention different hairstylists and different things and I was so sucked into the Paul Mitchell world that I didn't learn about the other parts of the industry until I left Paul Mitchell. That would be my big thing is you can love one product line but definitely keep your research keep an open mind so that you're not getting stuck in that one learning that one style in that one way. Going off of what you said I grew up in a Paul Mitchell school like the Paul Mitchell products inside and out but every product line has similar things but I've always favored Paul Mitchell and I've always wondered if the fact that I favored it is because of my knowledge of it I know exactly what to use on which hair type for that particular we have a ton of cream gels I wouldn't interchangeably use each of them on the same person I mean I can but I'm going to be getting a slightly different result so if I'm going I might throw up something that's kind of controversial no I'm just kidding but Paul Mitchell and Aveda might have exactly the same products they might do exactly the same things but I might favor Paul Mitchell only because I know which ones I'm going to favor in that line for a particular hair whereas somebody who's more familiar with Aveda is going to have the same experience because they know that product line so knowledge go out and learn and the more you learn about it the more you'll like it maybe we shouldn't plug the phone what do you think should we do that alright this question I'm not quite sure what it means but it says what's the best way to a new color line I mean the best way so I think your question is probably like how to learn a new color line the best way to a new color line is definitely go get it but to learn a new color line this is another thing most color lines are very similar they just speak different languages it's a big challenge in this industry because everybody's trying to one up and out do everyone but I think it confuses everyone with the terminology and the knowledge so you have like the European based number system of color you have then you have some people that just talk about their own so but they all are based on the color wheel the color map so just if you know that if you understand how to neutralize, how to cancel, how to intensify you'll be fine look at the bases match them up to a color wheel and you'll be fine learn the color wheel learn how to do all that stuff you can add in any color line you want and that will then once you have that color line then as you start using it you're going to find well this one has a little bit more ammonia than the last one I had so it does a little bit more lifting so there's going to be different ways that you'll tweak it but for the most part the color wheel is pretty standard how do you get paid for the videos you make so it's a good question I think it's a great question actually a lot of people have been asking this lately it was one thing when I was doing one video a week now that I'm doing a video pretty much every day they seem to be very concerned with like why would you do it well I'm sure that they probably think that it's along the lines of that if you get paid $10 to put out one video in a week and now you're putting out 20 videos in a week that you're now getting $10 for each one of those videos and like duh I'm going to do more videos but that's not how it works so and that would probably be like an older mentality of how so the way that social media works nowadays and I talked about this in my class in Philadelphia a couple days ago the way that so my goal was always to provide free education for hairstylists that was when the company started I mean before the company started me and you made a video on how to cut a bob you filmed it we put it out on YouTube it got a lot of attention and then the idea kind of grew from that of alright well maybe I could just put out free videos for stylists that's what I was doing I was educating for 10 years but I wanted to reach bigger audiences and I wanted to kind of do it on my terms I wanted to have my own business so how does free salon education become a business based on awesome companies that support free salon education like Minerva Beauty was a company that I met with right at the beginning and they've been supporting free salon education for a long time so they do it in a sponsor format but they do it in like ways where they send me cool stuff and I get to talk about it like that's the kind of relationships I'm building with companies because I find companies that I really like their stuff it's easy to talk about and then there's another type of company like Donald Scott and Mizzatani and all these great companies PivotPoint that have reached out and I've reached out to them and I sell their products on freestyleneducation.com so if you like the videos and you like the technique that I'm doing then you go buy a carving comb or whatever and that's how money happens in freestyleneducation.com so it's not something that comes quick. I mean this has been about three years now of a lot of work and our YouTube channel gets a million views a month but YouTube doesn't pay very much at all like YouTube just pays enough to at the beginning just it made it worth it and then we were doing the podcast and so we were all taking a cut of money so YouTube doesn't really pay very much. YouTube is the worst at paying which is fine because it's a cool platform and it allows for other business opportunities so if you're a young person and you're thinking about how do I get into that kind of thing you just have to build the audience. Everyone's looking for the person that has the following but it needs to be a quality following and this is something I would spend a little extra time talking about and probably make a separate video sometime but a lot of people try to get a big following the big following doesn't really matter and hair companies do look and see if you have a big following but that there's two different things. There's a big following with not much return and then there's this smaller following that you've grown organically that you didn't pay for that people just follow you because they like your stuff that's the most powerful thing you can have. So you could have 100,000 Instagram followers but who cares if you paid for all of them because you're going to put up a picture of a product or you're going to make a post about a video and no one cares about it because none of them are even hairdressers anyways like the way that you grow a successful business is aiming for like putting out good stuff like putting out a video every day that's why I started putting out a video every day it wasn't because I get paid more to do that it's because if I put out a video every day then I get to kind of keep teaching you guys keep building my relationship with you guys because that's the strongest thing I can have is helping you guys if I help you guys do a haircut and you buy a $35 carving comb our relationship is great you know like that's the whole purpose of this whole thing if you don't buy a carving comb that's great too if you just watch the video it's awesome I don't buy a pair of scissors that's really great I have a list of those people but that's what it's all about guys so when you start making videos it's not about tagging like hashtagging celebrities it's not about doing all that stuff because you're building the wrong audience you're building people that I don't want people that are researching Kim Kardashian I've done a couple videos that I put celebrity names in and obviously you get a big return on the viewership the quality of that viewership is not there and that's why I don't do it very often because why would I want 100,000 300,000 a million followers because I was putting Kim Kardashian's name in my videos like that's not the quality people that you're looking for so if you want to make videos and you want to make it a business it's all about the quality it's about the content it's about consistency and constantly putting out content and connecting with your audience doing things like this how would you start working and building a relationship with a product company you ask I mean it's as simple as that the easiest relationship you'll ever work together they're always looking for people as product companies and that's what's cool if you think about like I'm talking to thousands of hairdressers a day through social media and so I've been able to build relationships with many product companies and that was always my goal product companies have money I'm not there to take money from hairdressers so it was always in my business model how do I build an audience and then ask the product companies to support it and when you want to work for a product company all you have to do is reach out to a rep or find a product company that you really love and just show up at a hair show and see what you can do to help when you're volunteering when you first start out you gotta get your foot in the door product companies are run very corporately which isn't a bad thing it just means that you gotta work your way up that ladder and the way you do that is by dedicating a lot of time to that company alright Kyle says which products do you actually use I actually use a lot of products like I actually use quite a few different ones you're seeing using a product in the video you're using that product behind the chain of salon too and I even said in Philly because I didn't have my brocado cream wax but I did a bob and I was like oh my gosh I really wish I had cream wax and then Josh gave me a rojo cream wax worked great all these products are similar it's what does the company stand for and that's kind of goes back to what I said before I am currently working with brocado a company that has been really supportive of what I'm doing and that's that's the deal and like that said the more knowledge you have now I'm helping brocado kind of come up with different products because I saw things lacking with what they had so I said to them I really wish we had this this and this they're listening to that and it's a small company so it's fun to grow companies I've never been a person that wants to go work for the people that are already there what's the fun in going to work for a company that's already made it you're just going to be this little person in a company that's already made it but if you start with a company that hasn't made it and you help build that company you look a lot better in the end it's a much more gratifying thing than any other thing you become Instagram famous you have to hashtag insta fame a lot right now here's the deal so Instagram famous we talked about it it's two different things so you could either pay for an audience which spend a thousand bucks two thousand bucks you can get a lot of followers or you can work really hard the problem is Instagram has kind of shifted its people that are Instagram famous are the ones that are pretty much going to be Instagram famous very hard at this point to start posting photos and gaining a huge like million follower followings right the way that you do it is I've made a shift because I missed the boat I was so focused on YouTube missed the Instagram boat so I didn't have a lot of followers on Instagram but no no wait but then I made a shift right so I didn't have a lot of followers on Instagram made a shift video I great at video that's what I do so I started making 15 second how to do a haircut in 15 second videos and started posting those almost every single day and I've grown Instagram I think I had 5000 followers when I started I'm about to hit 30,000 in the last two months so you have to find what the new thing is and then go for it so you gotta be on the lookout for what is happening in the industry what's new and start posting about it and that's how you do it and it's been working so I woke up this morning and I I think I had 800 new followers since last night I don't know how it happened people start sharing what you're doing and share your work and that's how you get the followers but what's most important is that you focus on getting great at what you do first so because a lot of these people that are becoming Instagram famous they're getting now thrown up on stages and having to teach they don't know how to teach and there's nothing wrong with it they have great content they have great verbiage when it's able to be ran out back back back back back back but when you're on stage you don't have that opportunity to go hold on that's not what I meant to say back space back space back space which is me a million times when I'm trying to write something but that's why I love that I work for Paul Mitchell for 10 years because I taught 75 classes a year and learn to teach and that's why I can have a YouTube channel and most people don't have YouTube channels because they have to be in front of a camera most people are a lot better at you can hide things very easily I'm not saying Instagram people hide things I'm just saying because you can hide things in video as well but what I'm saying is then you get thrown up on a stage and it's very difficult there's very few people that can get up in front of a bunch of people and teach what they do so definitely get good at what you're doing learn your craft first then start posting as you start to get more comfortable or start a page and just post um and ask for critiques ask for people to look at your stuff and send it direct message it to somebody that you trust or something like that alright what's the best advice you have for a future barber I mean barbering I think you're jumping in if you're a future barber and you're in school I think you're getting into it at a pretty good time barbering two years ago was gigantic and I think it's been growing I think we're I'm not sure in my opinion I think we're starting to hit that kind of like I can feel that we're hitting that peak of what barbering is it for the salon industry not for barbering industry but like from a salon standpoint because I'm starting to feel the clients coming in and saying you know what it's a little bit longer I'm not looking for that type fade anymore so I think that the style is shifting a little bit it's a little more grown in I think if you're in cosmetology school and you're looking to barber the best advice would probably be to get into like a barber shop yeah I think whatever your passion is definitely go for it if you love doing men's hair men's hair is going to be around forever when I say we've hit a peak of success with men's hair do exactly what we've always said research the barber shops just like we would like research the salons find the one that you want to work in because not every barber shop is the same as the other just like every salon isn't the same as the other so find a barber shop that first you like how they run then find out if you like the owner find out if you like the employees go from there what is the easier way to long hair be patient oh no that's not, patience isn't easy forget about it and just pay attention to other things and before you know it the hair is going to be really long so easy I'm not sure if they're talking about how they get long hair or doing long hair either way we don't really know me and that are probably the worst people to ask that there are other people to ask I have a really easy up deal it's called a ponytail it's technically up do you own your own salon yes I do I own it with my beautiful wife Christina who helps me run it these guys have been here for you've been here for 5 years yeah this summer will be 5 years 5 years the other guys have been here for over 3 years so a lot of fun I have a small space that I love I love having a small salon I would never want a huge salon I love having the freedom to make the videos hang with you guys on video hang with these guys and do what we do and teach that was always the goal when you say you like the freedom of having a small salon and like making the videos if you had a larger salon would your employees tell you that you couldn't make the videos no but I would have to pay attention to them a lot more that's fair so are you still an active stylist yes I'm active I do hair one and a half days a week behind the chair but I'm in the salon cutting hair for videos pretty much every single day and I don't think you're inactive in anything to do no except for waking up I'm really bad at waking up I've decided that like I want to be one of those people that's because you're so active that you're really bad at going to sleep so by the time you get to sleep it's time to wake up again I want to be one of those people that gets up at 6 a.m. and has their successful start to the day that's really hard to do when you go to bed at 4 after editing videos well it's true I do go to bed really late and I work really late so really I'm working probably 16 hours a day not really working 16 hours a day but my brain is on work 16 hours a day but also I'm hanging out with Hayden and Christina and doing different things alright what is your worst experience in the hair industry we talked about that alright cool what made you decide to do FSE I think we answered that right pretty much how long have you been in the industry 12 years I guess 6 years now I don't know I started in the end of 2009 we'll go with that do you prefer men's cuts or women's cuts I like both same, different reasons how long should it take to do a skin fade as long as it takes to make sure that it's all blended same as any other haircut as long as it takes to make it look like a good haircut if it doesn't look good you're not done yet it definitely takes me longer because it's not something I really do and every hair type is going to be different it's going to blend out easier than others how do you become famous in our industry was it a struggle I still don't that means you're famous man you got that question I'm like one of those people if I'm walking through a hair show and people don't see me and say hello then I feel like I'm still not there I still have to work really hard I'm going to keep making videos every day so you guys come up and give me a high five at every single hair show that's the goal so I don't know how you become famous I'll take a picture with Matt but you can make lots of videos and pretend what motivates you honestly when I say this the comments in every video motivate is dead on true it's attention because it lets you know I don't want to say that sarcastically but thumbs up, comments, shares just knowing that what you're doing not like in an egotistical but just knowing that what you're doing is what people are looking for that's what motivates you when I do a video and it gets a lot of likes it's like you know that you were reaching the people the way you were hoping for me it's caffeine caffeine is definitely a good one too my family all of that the people you surround yourself you know if you surround yourself with negativity if you're like hanging out with people they're just like complaining you're not going to go anywhere because you're going to be in that mindset of complaining and being like brought down this question so who are your mentors this is like the big thing for me that I've said a lot I used to look up to a lot of people and then I realized that all of those people I look up to are just normal people that have either normal problems or even more extreme problems than normal problems I think you should have milestone mentors have your mentors during school have your mentors as you're starting in the industry then have your mentor as you reach your goals get new mentors because you're going to absorb different things from different people and you're going to grow from that and watch everything that's happening and you'll totally come out more successful when you learn from multiple even watch the people that aren't doing it right because then you know why they're not doing it right yeah you'll learn from everybody and surround yourself with people that push you so that's always been like if the staff here did not want to learn didn't want to grow then it would be a really weird environment and if I wasn't as motivated and crazy about doing things to push the levels then I think these guys I don't know what these guys would do would be doing so I think you just got to keep going and keep pushing forward I think that's pretty much it that's all folks what's your weakness? food yep but not during the day only at night I don't eat at all all day long and then at night I eat and I have to stop doing that that's my weakness I love food that's it how long did it take to build what you have now it's going to take forever because I haven't built it yet I think that's a lifetime because it didn't start when you bought the salon from Sam I don't think it started when you worked with Sam it started from how you grew up and I had every job you could possibly think of which taught me different little skills for what kind of became what I'm doing now but I'm nowhere near what I want so keep going and I can't even tell you what that is it's going to be really exciting though it's like that movie with George Clooney what's your goal? I don't know but I haven't hit it yet I have a number in mind but I'm not there yet I hope you guys like this Q&A I think it was intense so shout out to the Continental School of Beauty in Olien, New York thank you guys for submitting the questions this was cool please somebody else do this this was awesome if you want to get your staff together and come up with questions this is way cool I'll dedicate an entire episode to you because this was fun and I like going through an answer we should figure out how to make this like a game we tore this up it was a lot these answers were good for you guys but it was really fun I think what we should do is we should go through and read the questions first write down answers and kind of do it kind of like games of humanity and like make some match them and then be like you guys have to figure it out which answers were with which questions whoa alright thank you guys so much for watching I hope you guys enjoyed it give us love in the comments let us know what you thought if you have a list of questions you can send those to matt at freesaloneducation.com or direct message on instagram you can tag us on instagram tag me on twitter follow us on instagram at freesaloneducation you can follow thad dray is back there what's up dray what is it, hair by hair by dray day she thinks she's a rapper she's unwrapping right now alright guys thank you so much for watching I'll see you on the next video thanks