Katrina Stevenson 18:37
it was amazing to hear that it’s
Greg Owens 18:40
inspirational. It was there any moment that you was like, this lifestyle isn’t for me anymore and
Rocky Singh Kandola 18:46
I can’t do this. Yeah, so I was like stuck with that entity. I’m a dope boy. I’m a playboy and party animal This is what I do. This is who I am eventually grow and I’ll get better and better I didn’t know anything else. I didn’t think about anything else. I was always entrepreneur like thought mindset. So I was always like kind of thinking business wise this business just to me seemed like the most lucrative one and so I went to prison and saw everything firsthand you know, what the concrete consequences and punishments and what it’s doing to people and stuff like that as well. So when I got out of prison, I actually go back in the same lifestyle I started selling you know more I started kind of doing it in a better way using different phones and etc. Until one day my dad would send me around and I butted heads with my entire life after prison came to me after prison after I got my teeth back and my surgery after the assault and he was like hey Rocky, no things are done for you. Now you’re not living at home you’re asking us for money you know what’s going on? I’m not sure if you want to leave the country and I’ll pay you out try something new and the way you said it, you know, kind of like made me open to it and then from there you know, it took a night and I truly believe like outside energy a higher power of mine was like rocking tribals, you know, because I was definitely I didn’t know I was gonna do I was leaving behind my girlfriend’s time my friends, my circles are solid wood. I played with my cars my home everything I even took a pill bottle full of like oxycodone pills Oh sound and gave it to my dad was like done with this and I let you know the next six months I lived on a village in India until I kind of you know then The business plan that made in prison came back my ends and I made a Facebook post and all the girls went to high school with like old man rock you have here like hit us up with this love to work with you and I haven’t looked back since then.
Greg Owens 20:10
How long ago was that you started the day I
Rocky Singh Kandola 20:12
left was November 7 my mom’s birthday 2013
Greg Owens 20:16
my dad asked me on like the fifth I left two days later and hair extensions were big bigger I think back then they probably still are in LA and I haven’t been out in 10 months so I haven’t seen any but
Rocky Singh Kandola 20:29
there are like they were saying like you know while you’re on a good time this is just getting popular since I’ve started and now it’s just like boom like it’s it’s gone crazy.
Greg Owens 20:38
That’s awesome. That’s such a great story. What town in India Um,
Rocky Singh Kandola 20:41
so well I have family in Punjab in North India from and that’s where most my family and friends are. I do business all over and I have now friends all over as well.
Greg Owens 20:49
Right and it was at Punjab that you went you went and started living in back then when I first
Rocky Singh Kandola 20:54
went to India I was in Delhi for a night or two actually partied a little bit and then I went to a village job and just no no alcohol not really no drugs on a farm farming on a daily basis working out on a daily basis.
Greg Owens 21:05
Now I haven’t been in the twice I have been to Punjab. I have friends there. And I mean, I think I think I’m getting right city.Is it like an hour to two hours from New Delhi and job?
Rocky Singh Kandola 21:15
Yes, it’s going from the patient. I am in Punjab to get to New Delhi. It’s about six hours. But after you leave Delhi on the main road going south, going north, sorry, about two and a half, three hours you’re gonna get into like the farmlands and like you’ll see like the air goes from polluted. farmland can breathe wide open grass about two, two and a half hours from the border.
Greg Owens 21:35
Yeah, yeah. And Punjab is probably I know, I visited a bunch of different cities in India and my friends are like, yeah, you’re going to like I’ve been to indoor India and rycor and right, and they’re like, oh, there’s small cities and like 2 million people or 3 million people or 6 million people. Punjab is probably like 6 million people or something right? Small still as well. Like Yeah, compared to New Delhi and ny right. Like it’s off the chart. And I love India. It is one of my favorite countries by far because it’s so different. Everything is so different than my everyday life here. What am I, the first time I went my brain was just scrambled It was so hard to like, even just crossing the road was a challenge for me, right? Because, you know, there’s like the traffic pattern doesn’t have a pattern. Brain is trying to like figure out how to cross the road and you’re like, I can’t figure this out. And literally, they’re like taxi drivers sees me struggling. And I’m with my partner at the time. And she and I are like we can’t you know, figure it out. He just gets on his phone. He’s like, he’s doing something on his phone. He walks right across the street. And I was like, Oh my God, he’s like the rock and all the cars are like water just going around him. And he just trust that they won’t hit them. It was mind boggling, right? The second time I go, I’m there and I was speaking indoor India. And I go there and I didn’t mind talk to an entrepreneurial group, I’ll introduce you to it’s called eo entrepreneurs organization. It’s a wonderful organization, I think you’d fit right in and really enjoy it. It’s a worldwide organization of 15,000 entrepreneurs, right? There’s chapters all over as there’s three down in the LA area. There’s one here in San Francisco, there’s one in Mumbai, New Delhi indoor, so indoor India that I asked the entrepreneurs and like, Hey, I really want to like rent a motorcycle and drive here. And they’re like, what, like, nobody does that. We have all had drivers, you know, random motorcycles like, no, I really want to see it because like, when I have a driver, I feel like I’m on safari, right? Like, I’m not really participating in India, and somebody just takes me and I was bored, right? It wasn’t enough stimulus. And so these guys, the Indians are like, Okay, the next morning, they picked me up and they brought me to a Harley Davidson dealer. And I just saw these pictures yesterday. So that’s why this story is so fresh. They bring me to this Harley Davidson dealer, and they’re like, pick any motorcycle you want. And I’m like, No, there’s no way I want like a 10,000 pound big Harley Davidson in India, right. I want one of those like Indian made bikes that I see everybody driving so they found one for me. They gave it to me, they gave me a couple of helmets and my partner and I got on this motorcycle and drove and you know, like we got to the first roundabout and I was like that wasn’t too bad. It was a small roundabout though. The next one was the major ones where all the traffic comes in multiple different directions, right? utter chaos. There’s cows, there’s dogs, there’s chickens, there’s carts there’s really fast cars, there’s big trucks
Rocky Singh Kandola 24:24
everything on the road.
Greg Owens 24:26
Oh, yeah, and the thing and the thing that almost the two things that really almost killed me on a motorcycle in India with speed bumps because they would come up unexpectedly right like on the freeway here. They would like tell you a speed bumps coming up. But in India, it’s just like nope, they just decided to put a speed bump there. And it wasn’t around speed bump, they were square and on a motorcycle that’s that’s like insane, right? Like you would just be flying along and all of a sudden, like what the hell and slamming on the brakes, right. And then the other thing was the packs of dogs. Yeah. So I went down an alleyway and my my partner t she’s on the plane. She sees a bunch of dogs in front of us in this alleyway and she’s like no no no Turn around, turn around turn around and I see them in my mind I’m like, I think I should bolt it through them right and make them all scatter but I listened I was like spun the motorcycle around and then they took off chasing after her heels and everything and it was like six or eight dogs and when you see those dogs it’s a scary thing to see. Sorry I mean it’s just a fun story I love India so much it’s such a great and so you started You’re so you are the hair extensions Maiden India then.
Rocky Singh Kandola 25:32
So India is like one of the only cultures in the world actually now history of hair which means that women that men down there actually go to temples and as part of their traditions and their their offerings to their respective Gods they cut their hair and give it to you know, the temple they do other traditions and rituals during it as well but but a major part of the temples and auctions Oh wow. So
Greg Owens 25:51
you buy it from the temples and
Rocky Singh Kandola 25:53
take it to our facility in our factory and process it and get it ready to be you know, basically turn people out in the world.
Greg Owens 25:58
Oh man, that is so great. That’s great. And then what’s your primary marketing is it Facebook, Instagram, those kinds of things.
Rocky Singh Kandola 26:06
It is now kind of a natural marketer myself so I mean, I started it was just like meeting people talking to people a salon to salon googling of random place and stopping at a hair salon handing out business cards at airports. I mean, I was still marketing online book $1 a day back then I’m close to like, you know 150 $200 a day now sometimes averaging about 5000 a month on marketing even on board on every platform out there I don’t think there’s anything out there that we’re not on we’re on every platform
Greg Owens 26:29
what’s working been working the best for you during these times. I’m curious business
Rocky Singh Kandola 26:36
us Instagram as well awesome. Instagram has a really good our YouTube organically does very well then Google Ads is always going to be a driving factor. For us we usually use a combination of those three very heavily but you know i’d say Instagram and YouTube are very close tie breed our market doing very good on
Greg Owens 26:52
and have you gone down the path of like influencer marketing like Instagram influencers that kind of thing because that urinal area would think you know, almost every day some movie star walks into your store
Rocky Singh Kandola 27:02
Yeah, that’s that I don’t know any better I gotta get better at recognizing oh right our friends and our partners they tell me who’s who and what’s what for me man like when I started this business I wanted like community thing when it aligned people like kind of same background same goals same heart same minds looking working together to a common direction and getting paid for it when it comes to influence I don’t like working with like just a random hot influencer that has 100 K or a million followers I like them to come in store on me to know that like them know what I’m about know my store like know their story I shake hands and take a picture type of thing and then I don’t put restrictions or contracts when really I’m just like you know, you know us you’ve given me a good product you know, you’re gonna love it you know about me talk about a homie or a friend and that’s been that’s been working well obviously we recently had you know, five six good celebrities come in, store that and hang out and it’s just really natural to hang out with us we give them like good product, they love it and then they get to share our names and talk about us you know, as they would like a common friend or something that they like and in my opinion that’s kind of like the way influencer marketing should be done I don’t really unless you’re you know, your volunteer services is different. I don’t like the hands off approach to dealing with you know, marketing or business deals with my clients. I like to be very direct face to face all my team Aquarius, Miranda, Trina, they all know how to kind of deal with clients, how are very direct transparent face to face with them. And in my business, particularly hair extensions, that’s like very, very, very not the case. Most owners in the hair business kind of hide layers, and part of them don’t put their information out there and kind of want to step back from the process. And that’s kind of one of the biggest areas where we kind of have shined and been different than most companies, we really the entire team puts themselves out there both on social media and face to face to kind of like, you know, make our clients comfortable and confident in what they do.
Greg Owens 28:31
And that’s great. Yeah, I think I feel the same way around like influencer marketing and that kind of stuff. If they like the product, they like us and they’re referring us, that’s great. And we help them out. But we haven’t really been seeking them out. Right, as a company. It’s nice to have that happen organically in a lot of ways, right? That they just really just like like dealing with you and then talk about you which is pretty cool. exactly what’s next for you. You mean you’re young, you’re entrepreneurial. You got this you know this business that sounds like it’s doing really well and then you’ve got this you know, unbelievable story of coming from you know, and I think the world not only just America, but the whole world loves sort of rags to riches or challenge people that were challenged and found the way out of that. And so what’s up what’s, what’s
Rocky Singh Kandola 29:13
going on? What’s next? Yeah, so I have tons of things that work. First of all, I am writing a book it’s I’ve been saying it for a while now and I’ve been struggling with it quite a bit. My first time doing it simultaneously one I’m kind of taking my old journals from prison and from boot camps and kind of editing them and putting them out there but the first book and then a book about my story, broken elbow doesn’t I’m almost done with the first one. The second one is about my story is still kind of in the in the in the works. I’ve actually started a new company vacation rental property company I bought my first property out in Florida I’m looking to buy a new investment property this year. So I like managing it’s actually fun for me to manage those properties and I like you know work with real estate and being able to have places to go too far away. I’m also have a CBD company where we do CBD teas.
Greg Owens 29:55
I was curious about that because you know now it’s legal here in California and it’s close. Wondering if you like jumped on the bandwagon into that. I’ve thought about it many times,
Rocky Singh Kandola 30:04
just oh, I first came out here with a penguin still moving and I didn’t have the money to get help from the outside. So I kind of like let it go a little bit all that started that T company that’s I’m still had like a foot in the marketplace, I don’t really pursue it very heavily anymore. But it is something that I have kind of going slowly I have other products may not kind of try. It wasn’t a couple stores in the west side before COVID to do more CBD than anything, I’ll be doing a kind of a local thing. And as I grow more and more and have more time with their main India, I’ll put more time into it, I’ll actually just made it worse. Also, I put a good you know, 30 4050 videos together teaching women and men that are looking to distribute hair products, how exactly I went through the process and everything from sourcing to accounting systems to legal and all day and a large words that my girlfriend actually helped me put together. We’re releasing in a couple of days now.
Greg Owens 30:47
Oh, that’s awesome. Yeah, so so it’s a course this is marketed towards, I guess anybody that’s interested in being a distributor for hair product.
Rocky Singh Kandola 30:57
Exactly. And that’s whether you work with a company in a sourcing and supplier sense or not, this is good information for you. And we’re actually it’s a three part course the rest of them are coming out slowly. But there’s one on marketing and sales that can will be niche for here. But it’ll also be a very good class, like a broad spectrum of what I’ve learned, the courses I’ve taken and the experience I’ve had actually trying these companies and software’s and platforms the last seven years and then how to find a vendor and then Ultimate Guide with one on one mentorship and phone calls as well.
Greg Owens 31:23
Oh, man, that’s great. Um, where can people find out more about this course that’s coming out
Rocky Singh Kandola 31:27
So the course is www.hairbusinessguide.com and anything you want for Hair Maiden India, you know, it’s Hair Maiden India, like I said, you can google us or type in any search platform, from YouTube to Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, and all that it’s just they’re Hair Maiden India, and you’ll probably see my face on it somewhere smiling with a little smile and a big one.
Greg Owens 31:45
That’s great. That’s great Wish you you know ultimate success in that that’s really good to put that kind of thing together. That sort of thinking like friend of mine wife sells clothing but it’s one of those like trunk, she does trunk shows at her home. And she’s done like really, really well with it, where they it’s amazing that these little tiny micro businesses can do really, really well she’s you know, she gets piles and closed in and she was doing it in her home. And she converted like one room in the house to a changing room and mirrors and they have wine and cheese. And they talk about the different and it’s still you know, seasonal, so sort of stuff come through and all that kind of thing. And then during COVID right now they’ve had the move outside, right like in you know, the tent, and that kind of thing. When you’re making it work, I could see something young woman entrepreneurial that has this idea and wants to like start a business and headed in that direction, you know, and you could be networking it to her friends out there in Wyoming or somewhere else. That’s
Rocky Singh Kandola 32:37
one beautiful thing about hair extensions, I’ve traveled across the world. And I realized even in America, every city or state, there’s something you can do with hair, whether it’s either by the client or the sale or work with somebody and if possible, like supplying since I went to Bali, this from the beginning of the year and met a girl out there that does garritan tips beautifully with Indonesian hair that is buyer. So it’s just it’s amazing. That’s great. That’s great. And then see you you’re hoping to come up with a book, I
Greg Owens 33:00
understand that that super tough. At some point, I would like to write a book, it might actually happen. But in my next life, I might not get to it this life. But wish you luck with that that’s a hard endeavor, are you out there on the speaking circuit in a way or you get opportunities, mentoring, that
Rocky Singh Kandola 33:15
kind of thing. Speaking wise, I just started actually sharing my story the last six months, so I in the middle of it. Um, so I am reaching out to prisons, schools that have been kind of agencies that I would love to speak. So hopefully that’ll come my way sooner than later. Like, I’m doing a lot of podcasts. So maybe eventually I can kind of show them and say Hey, can I come out to your school and help the kids out or not come to prison and give some motivation to the guys you know, that are going through the struggle right now. Um, so hopefully, I hope that that’s the goal, I would love to be able to just one day hop on a plane and fly different locations and get off and have like three events to go speak and go talk and go help out. So yeah,
Greg Owens 33:49
I’ve done a bit I’ve spoken I’ve got an opportunity to speak on mentorship and getting invited to different organizations around the world. And it’s a it’s a wonderful, very fulfilling thing to do. Because mentorship has meant so much to me, you know, people that have mentored me in my life definitely have helped for some of us that their people can sit and learn and do really well in school environment, right? for some people. For me that was in case my brain always wants proof, not like promises from a teacher, I want to know I want to be able to ask questions and like how did you do it? And how did you do this? And how did you do that next step. Right. And so I found having a mentor that can actually show me sort of that path was so much more valuable. I agree. Yeah, yeah. So this has been great. Really fun spending some time with you Rocky, they can people can find out more about your company HairMaiden.com india.com HairMaidenIndia.com. Hair Maidens probably somebody else.
Rocky Singh Kandola 34:42
I have the LLC and the trademark for them both. So I think there is one store in Orlando. And that’s not me that’s but they don’t do spill sell here. They do here. They do here.
Greg Owens 34:51
Gotcha. Gotcha. All right, and see and they can also find you on rocky kandola.com
Rocky Singh Kandola 34:56
I make a joke. I’m probably like the easiest person in America to find all my information. Direct and public all profiles, public broadcasting Kandola, my name once you find my name, you can find everything from all my businesses to my tenants when I was 12 years old, my criminal cases in Alabama, it’s all it’s
Greg Owens 35:10
all out there at all. It’s all out there. I love it. That’s such a great way to be fully, fully transparent. You know, and I wish you great success. I know you, you know, I know you’re doing well. And it’s gonna just keep going right? Because you’re on this path and such a great story that you have the wonderful to see.
Katrina Stevenson 35:26
Thanks Rocky,
Rocky Singh Kandola 35:27
thank you all so much for having me today. Thank you all.
Greg Owens 35:29
All right. Wonderful talking to you,
Rocky Singh Kandola 35:31
too. Thank you so much. Have a great day.
Outro 35:43
Thanks for listening to the Watching Paint Dry podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.