Transcript of From Cutting Hair at 13 to Building an Empire: Adrian “Apex” Morales’ Story

I started cutting hair at the age of 13. Having strict parents, I had to go to college. No matter if I wanted to or not, finished that and right off the bit went straight to cutting hair. That's when I wanted to have my finances in a better way. I thought I was just collecting cash and it wasn't really going anywhere. I got real solidified in that, hired a mentor.

How much did you invest in a mentor?

Ten thousand. He was just like, Man, you have so much potential. I was just like, What do you mean? He's like, You cut off all your friends, put your head down, and work hard for one year. That's exactly what I did. We have a lot of recognition throughout the Tampa Bay area for helping the community. We went out every Sunday to give free haircuts to those in need. We built a huge community-based barber shop, and it got even on Bayes 9, one of the top-rated TV shows.

Hey, guys, and welcome back to the Live-Up podcast. Guys, we have another phenomenal guest here. You know, every single Saturday, I bring the best of the best in different industries, guys.

He is not only a Latino that has built multiple businesses, guys, but surprisingly, you guys are going to be surprised on the actual niche and industry we're going to be talking about today. It's going to be an industry that a lot of people are like, No, you can't make that much money off of it.

Or, I don't know, you got to build multiple locations or go ahead and get investors.

But my guess, APEX.

And I actually call him APEX, the barber, guys, is a multi-passionate entrepreneur who has built an empire from the chair to the office, guys.

He's the owner behind Fadeaway Barbershop and the go-to number one rated barber, guys, in Plant City, Florida.

But he's more than just Clippers and Fades, guys.

He also runs APEX Tax Pros, LLC, empowering clients with financial clarity and strategy.

So today we're going to dive into how he balances elite barbering with small business consulting and how you can take your own hustle to the apex level.

Apex, welcome to the show.

Thank you. Thank you, Alex.

Happy to be here. He's just like, damn, That was a long intro, bro. That's a good intro. I got to give them the intro, bro. They got to know who you are. So with that being said, man, close mouths, don't get fed. Welcome to Level Up. This is where we help inspiring entrepreneurs, but then everyday people, dude, just like us, man, go ahead and make it happen, right? Yeah. So with that being said, go ahead and tell them a little bit about yourself, who you are, where you're from, and anything else you want them to know, and then we'll dive into your story.

Hey, guys. I go by Apex. Adrian Morales is my real name, real short for a Hispanic. Yeah, I just grew up in a small town in Plant City, Florida. Had really strict parents, came from immigrants. They came from Mexico when they were young, young, young, possibly five to six years old. They crossed over. Grew up in Plant City. Always knew that there was more to life and more to just growing. So that's basically-Oh, it's good.

Short and sweet, dude.

Short and sweet.

Short and sweet, man.

Nothing really crazy.

You're going to leave it open for me to ask you questions now? Yeah. I love it. Currently, how old are you right now? I'm 28. You're 28. Okay. And then when did you start your career in Burberry?

I was 13. No way. Yeah. I started cutting hair at 13 years old. I just needed some money for some lunches at middle school.

Yeah. You were making it happen?

Yeah, I was making it happen.

You were like, Man, I don't want to ask mom and dad, so let me go ahead and learn a skill, which is a remarkable skill. You can make so much money in that industry, be it becoming a barber, owning shops and all that jazz, which you're currently doing right now. You've been in the game for what? 14 years? 14 years. Wow. 14 years since the age of 13, guys. Then what was the shift that moved you from becoming just a barber to now a multi-unit owner and operator?

I've always enjoyed barbering. It's something that my uncle, rest in peace, Lorenzo Savala. He was cutting my hair ever since I was probably 10. It's just being outside with my uncle, always chopping it up with him. He was very smart, but he just wasn't business-minded. He always wanted to hustle. It's just something that stuck with me. So I got that inspiration from my uncle. After that, I picked up the clippers. Picked up the clippers, and I never stopped. I've always wanted to be a barber as well. I thought it was a cool thing. Once I started cutting hair, I just knew that I could help more. I could do more and help more Hispanic Especially people my age, grow. I've seen my uncle die at such a young age, and also, too, I feel like he had more to offer. So I want to push that into people before. I don't want to say before anything tragically happens, but life's short. Purpose, man. Life's short.

Fulfillment. Make it happen because, no, you're absolutely right. You're a realist, dude. Life is short. At the end of the day, you're 21. Before you know it, you're in your 30s. Before you know it, you're in your 40s. You got kids. And now you're like, Man, I got kids, so I can't live out my dreams.

That 25-year mark hit me.

That's what I'm saying, man. I think it hits me every single year. I'm like, damn, I'm already 37.

I'm exiting my 30s, bro.

And I remember becoming 30. I'm like, oh, cool. I'm about to be 30. I'm about to get in my prime.

I know what I'm doing. I'm an adult. I got a little bit of money.

This is cool.

Now, going into my 40s, I'm like, damn. I'm like, I'm that old dude.

But at the end of the day, I'm embracing it.

So it's cool, right? I'm about to become a father. As you guys know, you guys have been listening the past couple of weeks now. I got one in the way. Congrats for that. Little Maverick. Maverick.

I like that name. It's going to be dope, bro. Man, Top Gun was one of my favorite movies, bro. I know. I'll call him Maverick. And then we're getting a new puppy. I'm going to go pick up the puppy when I go back to Puerto Rico a couple of days, pick him up, probably name him like there's what was it? Maverick and Goose, right? So Maverick and Goose. Maverick and Goose. They were both partners in that movie, bro. And then make them wear little pilot jackets.

I like that. First Halloween, that's how it's going to go down.

That's how it's going to go down. You guys heard it here first. All right, dude. So let's get back to it. So your barbershop, okay? Right away Barbershop, when did you actually open that up?

I opened that up four years ago, exactly.

Okay, so four years ago, from the time that you opened it up, what was your aspirations? What was your vision for that shop?

So in the beginning, it came as an opportunity. I was I went down a really dark path around that time. I got really soaked up into drugs, being around people, like gang affiliated. So I really didn't have a purpose for it. I just had the opportunity. So I took it. Me being a hustler at that age, I took the opportunity either way because I thought it was a good source of income. Once I got that opportunity, I think just life changed there. Before the shop, two years prior, I bought my house. So I Out in my house at a very young age. I believe I was 22.

Wow. That's amazing, dude. 22 is a good age.

It was a good accomplishment for me.

No, it's a great accomplishment, especially nowadays in the area of social media, dude. One thing is just like, My heart goes out to a lot of the younger folks in their 20s going into 18. Why? Because now they're comparing themselves to people around the world, dude, number one. Number two, they're seeing that there's other people their age that are going ahead and accomplishing things that literally it's like one in a billion can accomplish. But then now they're literally comparing themselves to that one %, one out of the billion. And they're like, well, bro, I don't got my house by the age of 22. You're going to get some people listening to this. There's probably somebody that's 25 that doesn't have a house that's probably living with their parents or they're sharing an apartment with some friends, right? Yeah. And then be like, damn, how do you do it?

That's a lot of people around my age. I have a pretty strong following on Instagram. So I try to really push that, really try to push the financial stability and financial literacy. It's important, bro. It's important.

It's very important. And then, like you said, life is short. So at the end of the day, you might be 21 now having fun, going to the club, going ahead and spending your money. But, hey, you'd be 25.

Don't go to the club. You'd be 30? You know what I'm saying? Yeah. All these tattoos happen in one year. Bad decisions. Hanging around with the worst people.

That's the way it goes down. I mean, for me, bro, it was a transition of my entire life. I think I had my first tattoo at the age of 15. It's young. It is young, bro. I was going down the wrong path in high school, bro.

I was smoking weed and all that.

And trust me, all that came to light when I was trying to be the police because my background investigator is, How many times you smoke weed? And I was just like, three times a week. Okay, and how old are you now? And then he broke it down. So you smoked weed over 10,000 times. He made it look even worse. I was just like, bro. He broke it down to the numbers. Yeah, to the numbers. He's like, so are you telling me you smoked weed 10,000 times? And some people will be like, no, just out of fear, right? But I knew it was psychological. If I was to say, no, I'm done.

I would never beat the police.

So I was just like-It's one of those tests, right? It's a test. It's a test.

It's a psychological test, bro. So I was like, yes, I smoked weed 10,000 times. They just want you to come out and just be honest, bro. So it's crazy. No, no. I mean, that's powerful, dude. The fact that you're able to own up to it at the end of the day. There's a lot of people, they're not willing to tell their story. There's not a lot of people that are willing to be as real as you. But that's what makes you different, bro. That's what makes you a leader. And I tell people, you got to be real with people because that's what people buy into. That's why you're a successful barbershop owner now. You got another business going on, man. You're about to grow another business. We're about to talk about at the end of this. So it's fire, bro. So four years ago, you started Fadeaway Barbershop. So now it's an award-winning barbershop in Miami and Plant City. So how did you build a team for that and the culture that stands out in such a saturated market?

Because, man, there's barbershops left to right, bro.

Why do people pick you? Why do people pick Fadeaway Barbershop?

From one thing, I had plenty of mentors before I opened up the shop, and they were really trying to help me get away from the friends and the influences I had because they saw potential. So they would always tell me, this is the one quote that got me. He was like, If you want to change your life, you can do it in a year. And that's the one quote that just stuck with me forever. Around that time, my mentor, he was just talking to me, and he was just like, Man, you have so much potential, and you can grow so big. How come you just don't start now? I was just like, What do you mean? He's like, You can change it in one year. And I was just like, There's no way. And he was like, Tell me right now, you'll cut off all your friends and put your head down and work hard for one year. And that's exactly what I did. And literally, right before that, I told you I was messing up for two years. One year was pretty trouble. The other year, I locked in, got the shop, and I always wanted to build a community-based barbershop.

So that was the foundation after that. We have a lot of recognition throughout the Tampa Bay area for helping the community. So we went out every Sunday to give out free haircuts to those in need. It sparked as something that we wanted to do in the beginning, especially me, because, again, my uncle Every time we went out somewhere, he would always just give his back, his shirt off his back for somebody. I remember one time going to a park, he saw a homeless man, and we literally just bought her sandwiches food. He literally just gave it to him. Yeah. Gave it to him right then and there. And I wanted to bring that into my shop. Right. So we built a huge family-based, community-based barber shop, and it got even on Bayes 9, one of the top-rated TV shows, weather channels. That's one of the stories. And picking the people, a lot of my friends saw the path that I was going to, and they were on the same path as I was. And I guess they just wanted that change as well. So they just wanted to hop on board. And that was probably the easiest part.

The shop was running literally the first day.

Bro, you know what's crazy? See, and this is just some deeper thought and to give you some reflection, because I always tell people I'm a visionary guy, I'm a startup guy, and then I hire smarter people to implement my ideas. And a lot of business owners, they take a lot of pride in what they do because it's a craft, right? Like yours, it's a craft. But one thing you got to be really proud of is that you literally changed the bloodline for all your friends.

You got to think about that, bro. That's deep.

We're getting deep Yeah, that's pretty deep.

Yeah, that's pretty deep, bro.

I didn't see it like that. When you're in that chair, you don't see it like that. You love to see all the changes in your friends. But in reality, it's like how you said, you're changing.

Bro, you are changing lives. You're even going to change lives with this pod. There's going to be a lot of inspiring barbers. There's going to be people that are looking for transitioning out of what they're currently doing. And they're going to be like, wait a minute. Apex is cool. I think I want to try that. And they're going to go ahead and try getting into the This industry now.

You might get some people reaching out to you, trying to network with you off of this. But at the end of the day, that's the impact that you're doing here, dude. You're doing here to not only level up yourself, but also level up the community, which is awesome.

And I always see this, guys, you guys want to be ultra-successful in life. You guys want to have an abundance of wealth. Guess what? Take care of people.

That's it. It's simple as that. Any industry that you're in, just as long as you're not doing it for just the money, obviously, the money has to be there.

Yes, you guys have to go ahead and work for money. But at the At the end of the day, look at it like this. Any job that you do, the more value you give to people, the more you're going to get back, dude. That's just the name of the game. So you go ahead, you give an opportunity to all your friends. You change their blow line. Now it's a ripple effect, dude. Not only did you change your friend's life, but you changed their family's lives. You changed their bloodline's lives because now their kids, guess what? They're going to be like, oh, well, I remember my dad had a good friend named Apex, and he changed my dad's life. Now I'm going to go that route. Dude, that's powerful. It's huge.

It's huge.

It's huge, bro. It's about environment.

Okay, cool. So now you dominated the barbed industry. You helped a lot of people. You helped your community, dude. You completely transformed your life. And just in a matter of a few years, because the inspiration of your uncle, which is extremely powerful. I love that type of story. It has to do a lot with your why. Has your why changed since you launched to the barbershop?

I knew that I wanted to help people, but I'm super connected with my mom and my dad and my family in general. I've seen buying my house at 22. I've seen the type of money can bring good, but I can also see that it brings bad. Because that's one of the main problems that started my addiction and everything. I had to really step back and see. There's plenty of nights where I would just sit in my car or my house alone and just be like, Why am I doing this? Why did God give me a strong-minded like this to think different? I thought just life was just going to work, coming home, and that's it, doing what everybody does. But I was just, I don't know. It's something that just clicks in me, and I always have to double-think of everything I did as a younger child. For me, my why definitely shifted to helping my parents out. Good. Right before coming even here, my mom wanted to talk to me. She always gets worried. She was like, You're going to go to Miami by yourself? And I'm just like, Yeah. And she was just like, Well, let me go with you.

She's always worried because she's seen how I get. But now she notices my changes and differences. And I showed her your podcast, and she was just like, You know what? I feel good about you going out here.

No, it's definitely going to inspire so many people, you being on this episode. And also it's going to inspire your parents. They're We're going to see the transformation, especially after this episode, dude.

We're going to extract a lot of information that's going to show people the real you, and it's going to be awesome.

Okay, now that you dominated that, man, in a true entrepreneurial spirit, I love it. You decided, Hey, you know what? I've been able to dominate in being a owner now in the barbers industry.

Let me try and educate people in finance with EPIXxTaxPro.

So you decided to launch APEX Tax Pros in addition to your barbershops. So let me ask you this question. What inspired you to move into tax advising and consulting?

In high school, I've always had trouble with math, and that's just something I guess a lot of Hispanics or a lot of hispanics are either good at math, and I don't want to do stereotypes, but either good at math or bad at reading.

Let me stop you right there, bro. Look, guys, I 100 % agree with APEX, and check this out. In the past couple of years, obviously, social media has blown up more than ever. But when there is media coverage on saying, Where Latinos get their finance literacy from is TikTok.

Come on, bro.

Come on, man. 70 % is just like, that's not good.

That's an insane number on TikTok.

That's not good, bro. That's not good. That's not a flex. So for all my Latinos over there, we all got to level up. But at the end of the day, just educate yourself. That's it. If you If you want to get anything out of this, just educate yourself.

Definitely educate yourself because it can bring you as far as way. It brought me to places I've never thought, especially Miami. I never thought to drive to Miami and be on a podcast with such a successful person as yourself. I appreciate that, man. It definitely brings out a lot of good things once you start really sitting down, looking at your finances, starting from the bottom, and then working yourself up.

No, absolutely, man.

So what inspired you with going ahead and moving now into tax advising and consulting?

Was it an experience that you might have experienced during owning a barber shop? Because I know once you become an entrepreneur, you're moving, dude. It's a lot of moving parts being an entrepreneur, right? Yes. So one thing that I'm weak in is finances as well. That's why I have a CFO. That's why I have tax lawyers. That's why I have a great CPA now. I paid millions of dollars to the IRS. Hey, I'm here to pay my taxes. But at the end of the day, man, please don't take advantage of business owners.

Come on, man.

Really? But at the end of the day, dude, was there a bad experience that you had with taxes that you were like, Hey, dude, I'm going to hone in on this?

Just like I was saying before, I was really bad at math, and it's just something that I've always wanted to get better at. So saying again, I had very strict parents. I started cutting hair at the age of 13. So that was middle school, high school. Obviously, having strict parents, I had to go to college. No matter if I wanted to or not, I always tell my mom, Let me just go cut hair. I'm making money off here. I don't need to go to college. But my mom,. Just means stubborn in Spanish. She was like, No, you're going to go to university and you're going to get your degree, and that's going to be it. After that, you can do whatever you want. So went to finance, went to do a degree in finance at USF, finished that, and right off the bit, went straight to cutting hair. And then right when I got into In the barbering scheme, that's when I wanted to have my finances in a better way. I thought I was just collecting cash, and it wasn't really going anywhere, just putting underneath the mattress. The mattress, the worst way.

So that's what kicked off the APEX Tax Bros. I got real solidified in that, hired a mentor, invested X amount of money in that, learned how to file-And for the people, man, sorry to cut you off.

How much did you invest to get a mentor?

Ten There you go.

Ten thousand.

I'll say it with your chest, bro. You'll be like, Ten thousand.

Ten thousand.

I invested 10,000 in actually learning digital marketing back in April of 2020, dude. Okay? Back in April of 2020. And I We had a successful business as a cop, okay? But the only reason why I did it, because I jumped back on Facebook after not being on Facebook for like, eight years since MySpace, I made you myself. And I was like, hey, dude, I got to learn this. There's a lot of successful entrepreneurs out there. So let me invest some money into this.

So I read this book, and I recommend that you read it, dude. I know I gave you a copy of my book, but read this book because you're going to love it, dude. It's going to change your life. It's called Digital Millionaire by Dan Henry, okay? I actually ended up buying his program, dude. Ended up jumping on a call with one of his consultants. And I remember his consultant told me this. He's like, What are you good at? I'm like, Being a cop? And ATMs at the time. And he He's like, All right, well, no one likes the police. So you're going to teach people the ATM business.

I was just like, You think I can actually launch a successful business online, teaching people that?

He's like, Yeah, bro. You could do it.

Just like that? Yeah.

Yeah, just like that. Smooth, right? And I'm in my car, bro, and I'm like, All right, how much?

He goes, If you pay now, it's $10,000. But the minute you hang up and you don't pay, it's going to be $15,000. $15,000, yeah. And I'm like, oh, snap.

And at that time, man, I didn't know about high ticket selling. I didn't know a massive urgency. And he's just like, yeah, bro, we ain't playing around.

Creating that FOMO.

Yeah, FOMO, fear of missing out. Fear of missing out, guys. And I'm like, okay, you know what? I'm going to do it. So I put on two credit cards, and I remember walking to my house that day.

I just worked 18 hours, bro, shift. And I walked to my house. He sent me everything. I didn't even look at it for three days. And I remember going and just laying there and saying, What did I spend my money on, bro? What did I just buy?

And then I go to work. At the end of my shift, I was like, You know what? I like my desk. It keeps me focused because I don't have distractions like TV in my house. So let me go ahead and start the program. So I start the program. And I remember one of my colleagues at the time, he just got done doing his masters.

He wanted to also be a lawyer. And he walked in, he's like, hey, what are you studying? And I was just Dude, I just bought this program. I'm going to learn how to sell information online based on my expertise in the ATM business.

And what do you think of that?

Bro, he talked so much shit to me. He was like, You got a scam, bro. He's like, Are you stupid? You're hella dumb, bro. He's just like, You're good at policing, but you're dumb at everything else. I was just like, What? And then everything skyrocket, bro. Like, literally, it was like a straight movie. I call it six months of the Hell because I had to learn everything. It takes time. Go through the mud, bro. You got to go through trenches. And then it takes time. And I was able to figure it out, build multiple eight-figure online businesses, help a whole lot of people. And it's great. My biggest why, transition to not only helping my family, but my family is good, dude. They're going to be good forever, no matter if I'm here or if I'm not here. What my why now is just helping people become multimillionaires. And the way I'm doing that now, dude, is I find people just like yourself that go- That's why I'm here? Exactly, bro. God put us here, right? So that have the passion, that have that it factor, dude.

It's just like it's going to work or it's going to work. There are no excuses, right?

That's how I definitely view it, too. I say it's either going to work or it's going to work even more. Well, that's it.

That's the only way I view things. Because once you view where you have an option to opt out or to say, Hey, I'm just going to quit. That's where you mess up. You're going to quit. You're already talking about quitting. Think about that.

It's psychology here, right? But if you tell yourself, Okay, I'm not going to quit. I have no choice. Guess what? You're going to make it work. You're going to think outside the box to make it work.

So with your situation, dude, I love the fact that you launched And we're doing that not only to help people educate them on taxes and also finances. But how do your experience as a service business owner, service-based business owner, inform the financial financial advice you give to clients?

Are you doing it based off your experience?

Did you hire more people on your team that are experts in finances, and you're just the founder and the visionary? How did you combine that, your experiences as a service-based business owner to inform about financial advice to your clients?

Basically, the way I give out my advice or help to other clients is through the chair. There's a lot of power in being a barber. There's a lot of power in having that one person listen to you or you listen to them in the chair. So for me, I give out... They see everything. They see the progress. They see me building. And that's always going to ask the client, Well, how are you doing this? So I definitely break it down how I did everything. For me, the business, I run the APEX Tax Pros by myself. I just launched it not too long ago. So I'm working myself up to have more employees. But I'm definitely trying to look for good talent, and especially for driven individuals as well as myself. And just like how you said, there's probably going to be somebody that does it more efficiently than myself. So I definitely want to look out for those people.

That's what I'm saying as well. And that's a great saying you just did, man. It just shows me what type of entrepreneur you are.

You're very smart. You're very smart. And the reason why I could say that is because some of the best entrepreneurs that I know that are true operators, okay? Because that's who we are. We're operators, dude.

We We got to be the visionary. We got to work on the business, not in the business. So you are humble enough to say, Hey, you know what?

I'm good. But if there's someone better, I'll put them in my place.

And that's what you want to do.

You want to delegate your business, dude, because you don't want to create another You're not doing a job, right? No, no. Exactly. That's entrepreneurship, guys. I love it.

Okay, so let's go into basically time management and what you're doing to optimize your day, because I think it's very important. Me in 2024, I was running two eight-figure companies.

I had a little bit over 200 employees. I was running a startup six-figure company for consulting business owners at the time. I was 40 pounds overweight. I was going through the depression. It sucked, bro. There were some episodes here where if you ask Emilio, our producer, dude, I was sitting here like, Don't be an entrepreneur.

Don't do it. Briefing hard into the mic.

I breathe hard regardless. I got Emilio on the cue. He's just like, Hey, bro, quit breathing so hard. But he's just like, But I was like, Bro, just be number two.

Don't find the other one of these guys. Don't be number one. It's liability.

But anyway, you got to go through the mud, dude. You got to go through the mud. Sometimes there's going to be different seasons, but that's what makes you an entrepreneur. It's your level of experience, and then you're able to dominate later on. So you managed two high demand businesses. How do you optimize your day, delegate, and maintain quality across both? It's very important.

Yes, it's very important. First of all, I like to start off my day at the gym. I like to gather all my thoughts. I just started the gym. I was already working out, but I'm taking a lot more seriously after seeing Alex, after seeing Vince, and everybody in this office. Everybody's in this office looking pretty healthy.

Guys, so you guys know, Apex and I, we have a very close friend named Vince. He goes by Vince Conquer on Instagram. Look him up. He's a rock star. But he's recently just joined one of the companies called CashWipe. And he helps entrepreneurs go ahead and start their own credit card processing business. He is a master of his craft. Talk to him Really good guy. Very knowledgeable, very smart. But he went through the same journey as me. Dude, he was a little plump, like myself. And dude, he is a shredded, shredded.

That's the type of route I'm taking right now. Yeah, bro. Waking up early as he is. Like today, I saw his Instagram. I was like, oh, yeah, he's up. I got to get up. I got to get up right now. That's motivating. But yeah, I like to get up and start my day with the gym, go straight to work at the Faded Way Barbershop. I like to get the shop nice and ready for the clients to come in. Right now, during the season, it's off-tax season. Obviously, there's extensions. But right now, I like to put a good 70% of my time into the barbershop and then the other 30% with my family. And then once I get a little off-season, once the barbershop takes a little down slope and clients coming in, I like to focus more onto the apex tax roles. But really, I'm always learning. I'm always on You said I've got no TVs at my house. I just got a laptop, podcast room, and I'm there learning every day, every day, something that I can add to the business, something that I can add to the Faded Way barbershop. But right now, it's off-season for tax season.

So until then, I'm fully in the barbershop right now.

Yeah. Fully grind mode, just focused on one business at a time. And that's the smartest way to do it, dude. I give you kudos on that because a lot of people... I've talked to over 10,000 entrepreneurs, inspiring entrepreneurs, people that just looking to invest into themselves. And what I got out of that and talking in all those conversations and throughout the years of entrepreneurship and even being the police is that sometimes we get blinded by what is called the shiny object syndrome.

What is that?

The shiny object syndrome is when you're starting off a business or a new venture or a new investment. And then let's say I start investing into crypto, for example. And then you just got into, let's say, real estate investing.

Well, you tell me, Bro, Paul, man, I just made this much money on real estate investing.

And then I go, Did I mess up investing in crypto?

Okay.

Let me try it. And then what ends up happening is people have a FOMO if you're messing out. So they end up investing into three, four different ventures, bro. And then they can never complete one thing.

And then they're like, entrepreneurship is not for me because they never go all in.

Yeah, I feel like that's what I had to do for the barbershop firsthand. I feel These four years before I even started the Tax Pros, I just wanted to solidify our name in the city we were in, try to navigate all the clientele so my barbers can be well-fed. And sooner or later, I hope to not... I love cutting hair, but I don't want to be there standing up, messing my joints every day. So I definitely want to take a step back once I get the opportunity, which I can right now. But again, Apex TaxPros is still a little off-season. It's my first year. I did great numbers. I passed my investment the first three months, so definitely looking good. That's the round I'm going to take for this year.

That's great ROI, man. Three months, you make your money back and all that. That's the way to do it, brother. Happy as it can be. That's the way to do it, man. But I like how you think about the future, dude. You're very intelligent, especially being in your 20s, man. My wife, she used to be a Mac artist, the company, the makeup company.

The makeup company, yeah.

She did that for 17 years, dude.

She did that for a long time.

That's a long time. As a side hustle, right? Even though she left, she went to go work for the government for a while. She just still did that because the passion of just doing makeup, artistry and all that stuff. So she tells me all the time.

She's like, Oh, yeah, you got to stand for hours and your joints, and it affects you.

I'm talking to clients every day. Sometimes clients, they're going to bring all their problems to you. The drama. When you get home, you don't want to talk to anybody.

That's how it is. Your brain is mush. Just fried.

Yeah, fried, dude. So I get it, man.

All right. So as an investor, You're an investor yourself right now. How does your mindset evolve after managing clippers, appointments, and tax season stress?

So this goes right into what we were just talking about.

As an investor yourself, how does your mindset evolve after managing clippers, appointments, and tax season stress?

It really involves in a way of time management. I feel like a time management is a key part in those roles. I have to really schedule out my days, framework my day, start with a foundation. I have to have plans. That's the top priority. If you go your day without a goal, then you're going to have a goalless day. So I feel like that's one of the key parts of that.

Intention is everything, and time management is everything. Yeah. Some of my best guys, my most successful guys, guys, I have employees I like to call them business partners, but essentially they work for me, that already became millionaires.

And that's just based off of them paying attention to me telling them, Dude, if you can affect your time, your goal is to hit a million within in a few years, not in 30 years.

Everybody can be a millionaire, but it just really depends how fast you want to be a millionaire, right?

And he's not lying when he says that. There's millionaires in here that are just blowing my mind right now. I've seen the high intensity work, but also the calmness that they have in this office. So I've definitely been keeping an eye on that, especially Hugh. Hugh's a savage. He's a beast. At such a young age, he's a beast.

He's a youngster, man. I've been working with Hugh since the age of 20, Really? Yeah, since the age of 20.

He told me his age and my age. I was like, Man, how? Insane, right? Yeah, it's insane.

A lot of 20-year-olds, if you guys are listening to this or if you're under 20, you're in high school, whatnot, you have the massive opportunity to go ahead and network with some business owners that can go ahead and mentor you. You just got to reach out. Number one, you got to invest in yourself. That's the name of the game is invest in yourself. I wish I would have invested in myself a lot sooner. But also, I know that we didn't have the exposure to social media that a lot of people now have. Social media is blowing up everything. It's blowing up, dude. It's It's the connection. You can truly be connected to everyone in the world through the social media. So it's amazing, dude. Okay, so LevelUp podcast, we created our core values around impact. Impact, leveling up people, helping up with their mindset, self-help.

It's everything, dude, right?

So let's talk about one of your standout success stories, dude, okay? Either a barber you coach to success or a business owner you guided through apex tax. What is a really good story that you could tell us?

Actually, I have a business partner for in my fadeaway barbershop. His name is Arlie Blas. He was going down the same path as I was. And it's just something... When I was barely starting out, he was just like, Hey, man, come cut with me at the shop. I'll talk to the owner. I'll get you in. I'm like, All right, cool. Boom. I got in, and once I got the opportunity to start the shop, I was like, Man, since you gave me that opportunity, I have to give it back. You definitely opened my eyes into the barbering career, and I have to give it back. So right now, we're four years strong, and he I got a house recently. He's on his third kid, and he's my ride or die. He definitely follows. I have a lot of things that I go for him for help, but for financial help and set him up. And he trusts me with his taxes. He trusts me with his money to build the shop. And after all that trust, I mean, new truck, new house. It's beautiful. And I'm glad that my best friend got to come with me on the ride, too.

That's amazing. See, guys, the ripple effect is the more value you give out to people, the more you get back.

It definitely is.

And then also you're doing it smart, man, because I'm not saying you're buying loyalty, but essentially you are ingraining loyalty into him to stay with you for the long run, dude. And I always tell people that. I've met so many business owners in the past seven years, dude, that they're like, Bro, it's still business at the end of the day.

But dude, I guess you could say that I'm big on culture. So for me, it's hardly ever that we ever lose anybody that we work with. And the reason why is because they love working here. They love working for the organization, the vision, what we're doing, impacting clients. And we care, dude.

Communication is everything.

Oh, yeah. It's huge. Like, right now, since I'm over here and we have work today, I can trust AB is going to take care of it. Ab is at the shop right now. I already know it's running like a train over there. So that's one of the things about having a partner and also somebody you can trust. Yeah.

Handling business, dude, right? You're over here promoting the business, working on the business, not in the business.

So it's good to have that, man. That's called leverage, guys. Remember that, okay, as a business owner.

All right. So in Barbering, you craft fades and confidence.

In tax advice, you craft financial empowerment. What parallels do you see in these two roles?

As in, can you elaborate?

Yeah, I'll elaborate on this.

So essentially, when you go ahead and you cut hair, you make somebody feel good.

You make them feel confident. When you go ahead and you give somebody tax advice, Now you make them feel confident to make certain moves in their business or in life regarding taxes, right? So what do you think the two have in common?

Oh, man, there's a lot of in common in here. You're helping somebody out with their appearance. You're helping somebody out with their confidence. I get advice from the craziest things to, how can I talk to a girl? How can I talk to this in the shop? But I guess it goes hand in hand as well, too, because in the tax pros business, you're having people with businesses like, how can I do this? How can I save money How can I leverage this to here? You're hand in hand. I have a lot of good customer satisfaction.

Yeah. I think I could touch on what you're saying, Apex. Number one, you're the expert when it comes to these two niches. So I feel like you're really helping them with their level of confidence when it comes to them making their own decisions. I think you, with the level of experience that you have, brother, is now people hear your story and they're like, oh, well, he's been a barber for 14 years. Now, when this episode comes out, you're going to get a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs that want to open their own shop. Currently, right now, I moved to Puerto Rico three months ago. I have a barber named Goco. Goco is phenomenal. He cuts my hair so good. So I told him, I was like, hey, dude, have you ever thought of opening your own barber shop?

And he's just like, yeah, bro, but I'm not business savvy. He's like, I'm going to keep it real with you. I'm not business savvy.

And I was just like, well, what if you open it with me?

And he goes, With you? Oh, I'll quit all day.

You got the confidence in that.

It's the confidence, bro. So I think, based on what you're doing, dude, is you're doing this same thing. You're building the confidence in your clients, but you're just doing it within different industries. That's all you're doing, dude. So at the end of the day, just keep doing what you're doing with going ahead and providing value, because that's what you're good at, dude. What I see when you talk, everything, you're basing it off your values, your core values, what you learn from your uncle, who you are, your family, Family, just being a good person, seeing that someone helped you. Now you help someone else. And guess what? They help you back, right? Yeah. Core values, dude.

It's the exact same thing in business.

It's crazy because coming into the business, I'm not very good at, I guess, talking in front of cameras and everything. And that's okay. But definitely, when I get a phone call or on the chair, I'm talking my head off. You know what I'm saying? It's crazy being in the setting, but I'm slowly working into it.

Dude, trust me.

I was horrible. It was incredible when I first got on camera and I didn't have any of these cameras or set up or the nice background or anything like that, dude. It just started in my home office back in California. I was still a cop. And being a cop, I had a level of confidence. But when it's you and the camera, dude, by yourself, you're just like- It's a different beast.

It's a different beast, bro. You don't have somebody telling you, Hey, you messed up.

Hey, you have a booger in your nose.

Hold on. Yeah, it's just like, What do I do? And it's funny because sometimes Amelia will say, Hey, dude, you have a booger.

I was just like, Just run with it, bro.

Just edit it out. Just edit it out.

Come on, bro. Just make it happen.

All right. So let's go ahead and talk about your expansion, dude.

What are your future plans, man? Where do you want to see your legacy when it comes to the barbed industry to go and also with APEX Consulting?

I definitely want to coach. I feel like I would be a good coach. That's why I joined this mentorship with you and your staff. I just feel like I can bring a lot of opportunities community and information to those people that live the same thing through I did. There's a lot of people my age, and there's a lot of people in my hometown that look up to me, so I don't want to let them down or give them this sense like, Man, he did all this, but at the end, he didn't do nothing with it. I definitely want to prove everybody wrong and prove everybody right. Definitely my parents as well, they believe in me and they trust in me. I just don't want to let anybody down. I I have really good intentions. I've been through some dark things, and now seeing the different side of it, I definitely want to push that towards everybody.

Well, it seems like you got a good head on your shoulders.

You have your parents that have belief in you. And typically your family or people that have known you for a very long time.

They won't have that level of belief until you actually prove them wrong.

So you've already proven them wrong multiple times, probably.

They have no choice but to believe what you're going to say, right?

I feel like once you reach that certain level, also, too, you just want to keep on going, keep on going. It never stops. It never stops.

I'll give you guys a great example. I always talk about my mom. I love my mom, but she is literally a chihuahua with a lion's voice. She is Peruvian. She's a tiny little lady. She'll tell you the truth. She won't hurt your feelings. She doesn't care. So whenever I talk to her, she's like, Son, I'm still your mother.

You're still going to respect me. I'm being respectful.

But she goes, Are you sure it's a good idea?

I was like, Mom, I have a great track record. I'm almost never wrong when it comes to business.

She goes, Okay.

Because I saw something on TikTok.

And I was like, You're literally feeding it to the stats, Mom. Please.

You know? Literally, I was having dinner with my mom yesterday, and she was saying, Well, did you see on Facebook? Did you see on TikTok? I'm like, Ma, don't listen to that. Don't listen to that.

Please, Mom. Please. All right, man. Coming to the end of the interview now. I think it was a phenomenal interview. You have an inspired story. You inspired me a lot, dude. I'm glad we met today. It's going to be fire, bro. Hopefully, you can make Vegas in July. It's going to be fire. You're going to meet so many people, bro. You got to bring business cars left to right.

Oh, yeah. I'm going to bring a pocketful.

You got to, bro. You got to. So this is what we do at the Level Up podcast with a very guest, dude. So think back before you launched your barbershops, before you launched APEX, when you were in that dark space, dude.

I want you to talk to that APEX and give them some advice. There you go.

Man, just two things for you, man. Keep your head up, don't look down, and keep moving forward. I think that's what helped me a lot through my dark times. And being in my house or being in an isolated area, I would always tell myself that. So I would definitely tell you to keep going.

Yeah, there you go, guys. That's the level up.

All right, APEX, where can the audience find you?

You all can find me at apex_the_barber or apextaxpros_lLC on Instagram, Facebook. And if you ever want a haircut, just come by Planet City, Florida, or if you're anywhere in Florida, just hit me up and I'll fly over there.

And then any shoutouts you want to give out to anybody?

Shout out to my brother Lalo. Shout out to my boy AB. A shout out to everybody. All the boys at the barbershop, Chris, Miguel, Timmy, Prodigy. Yeah, that's it, guys.

I love that.

I love that. So, guys, for the barbers at Fadeaway Barbershop, you guys have a phenomenal founder and CEO here sitting next to me. He cares a lot about you. Keep hustling, guys. You guys are going to go places. With that being said, guys, that is it. That is the end of this LevelUp podcast with APEX. Guys, if you like this podcast, make sure to share this with somebody who's an aspiring barber or someone who's looking to get into the barber industry or even the tax consulting realm, guys. Apex has a wealth of knowledge to go ahead and help them. Also, we're going to be working on actually going ahead and building him an offer. So you guys are going to see him all over social media here in the next few months, offering consulting services for anyone that wants to go ahead and level up with APEX. With that being said, guys, we are currently ranked number one in business on Apple podcast, and we're currently ranked top 20 in all categories. And I'm going to continue saying this until I'm on the show. Rogan, what is up, dude? All right. With that being said, guys, my name is Paul Alex.

I'll catch you on the next one.