Episode: #40 Eric Bandholz (@ericbandholz) on Beards, brands and building your own beardbrand Who: Today’s guest is entrepreneur and founder of Beardbrand, Eric Bandholz. He has built a very successful business in teaching and providing men with amazing grooming products and advice on how to build your facial hair into your style. In this interview, we discuss beards, business, grooming hacks and how to make your facial hair represent the true you. Affiliate highlight: Before we get into that, a quick word about our affiliates. I’ve managed to build up some great relationships with some awesome companies. This allows me to obtain special discount codes, deals, and listener exclusive. Please go to www.nextlevelguy.com/affiliates for further info. I am particularly loving the Gainz Box and it’s awesome fitness goodies straight to your door, the delicious protein from ‘The Protein Works’, Alpha Brain the cognitive enhancer from Onnit and some awesome steaks from MuscleFood, which are amazing with fried veg! For these and so much more, check out www.nextlevelguy.com/affiliates.

What we cover

• Who he is and why he is well known
• What got him interested in the grooming world and why he started to grow his beard
• How interest in facial hair has changed over the years – does having a beard = being a man?
• What defines masculinity for him and what makes a good man?
• The story behind Beardbrand and where the inspiration for the name came from
• How he combined masculinity and feminity into his business
• Tips on working with partners on a project
• Can anyone build a business or a better question: should anyone try to build a business of their passion?
• How he made it OK for men to start showing their beards some much needed TLC!
• How the media affects our style and has changes in the medias portrayal of beards changed his business and clients
• Who are ‘Beard Role Models’ and who does Eric consider as his role models
• How do you know if your facial hair suits your face, your style and look?
• Can we do anything to help grow more facial hair and how do you pick the facial hairstyle that suits you?
• His tips for product creation and his experience on ‘The Shark Tank’
• How you should start grooming your facial hair and the philosophy you should approach this with
• The grooming products and accessories that Eric loves (and not all are his!)
• How you should build your new facial hairstyle into the rest of your evolved life
• How has fatherhood changed him and his style and bsiness approach
• What the future of Beardbrand is
• What Eric wants everyone listening to take from the interview
• What is an unusual fact about Eric that few know
• How can you keep in touch with Eric and the evolution of Beardbrand?
• And so much more

Some things to reflect on

• “I always felt pressure not to have a beard … I felt that pressure again to be someone I wasn’t” – are you acting a way for someone else or being true to who you are?
• “A guy should be free to grow or shave off his facial hair” as he pleases – Your look and appearance should be about who you want to represent to the world, not for anyone else
• “Being aware of yourself and being the person you want to be is masculinity”
• “If things are running smoothly then you probably aren’t pushing the comfort level of your business enough”
• “It’s a passion project for me … something I love” – it’s a cliche but if you work on something you love, it will never feel like work and it’ll keep your interest
• Business is not just about fixing the problem of the day, it is also about preparing for potential future problems and figuring out how to resolve them
• “The majority of the population is OK with facial hair”
• “You’re the person who spends 100% of their time with you” – live your life for you, not for others, be who you want to be!
• Your facial hair is linked in with your DNA so “the sooner you learn to love the person who looks back at you from the mirror, the better experience you are going to have”
• “Do what you say you are going to do” … provide a top service and story, people will come back
• “There is no one path”, you need to follow the path that closely aligns with who you are
• “Be the person that you want the world to be”

Connect with the Guest

• Visit Eric’s site here
• Eric is on Instagram channel here
• Eric is on Twitter here
• Beardbrand’s Youtube Channel
• Beyond the beard

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