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06 / FIELD NOTES WEEKLY READS · FROM THE CHAIR UPDATED FRI, APR 17

Field notes.

Tactics, teardowns, and the occasional rant — from the team that fills chairs for a living. No fluff. No SEO bait. Things you can actually run on Monday.

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Paid Ads April 14, 2026 9 min read

Why your $2,000 video ad lost to a $40 iPhone clip.

A teardown of three campaigns we ran for a Brooklyn shop in March. The cinematic spot bombed. The shaky behind-the-counter clip pulled $14 cost-per-booking. Here’s exactly why — and the framework we now use for every shoot.

Read the breakdown →
More reading

Recent field notes.

The 14-day rule that doubled rebookings at a Chicago barbershop.

One SMS sequence, three messages, sent at hour 18, day 7, and day 13 after the first cut. We A/B tested it across 220 shops. Here’s the exact copy.

7 minRead →

How a private tattoo studio raised rates 52% without losing a single client.

The script we used. The email we sent. The fear we worked through. A real case study from a Los Angeles artist who was undercharging for a decade.

11 minRead →

Why your booking page is silently bleeding clients.

We audited 38 barbershop booking flows. The average lost 41% of clicks between “Book Now” and confirmation. The seven fixes that take an hour each.

9 minRead →

Stop posting fades. Start posting conversations.

The four content formats that consistently out-perform haircut reels on Instagram — ranked by save rate, share rate, and actual booking attribution.

6 minRead →

The two-question filter for hiring a barber who brings their own book.

Most shop owners hire on technique. The shops winning right now hire on audience. The two questions we ask in every shop-side hiring call.

5 minRead →

The shop name test we run before we touch a single ad.

If your shop name doesn’t pass these four checks, no amount of ad spend will save you. A simple framework, three real examples, and what to do about it.

8 minRead →
The Friday memo

One email. Friday morning.
Things that actually moved the needle.

No promo. No fluff. One tactic, one teardown, one tool we’re using right now. Read by 4,200+ shop owners.

Booking Q2 2026 · 2 slots remaining · Next audit: Tue Apr 21