Entrepreneur Eric Roa aka Pacinos The Barber was hardly born into the life he has curated for himself thus far. His story began in Queens, New York born into a Latino family where you worked hard for what you earned and even then it still wasn’t always enough.

When his mother wasn’t able to afford for him to get a haircut, Roa grabbed a pair of scissors, went into her bathroom and began to mess around with his hair on his own. Just like that, a passion was ignited and a dream was realized.

Roa’s natural aptitude with the profession turned into a small business for him as he walked his high school halls. Charging his friends a meek $5 per haircut not only gave him the pedestal to gain a base level of experience, but it also set the stage for how he would flourish in terms of networking down the road.

When Roa’s girlfriend became pregnant however, all passions and dreams he had were put on pause as he sought to support his family in the best way he could. Roa valiantly served in the U.S. Navy, quietly pursuing a diploma in cosmetology through night courses and when he was finished serving, he knocked on the doors of salons until he was officially hired as a barber.

These humble beginnings were just that – the beginning. Pacinos The Barber’s persistence and conversational eloquence had him weaving through nightclubs handing out cards and connecting with potential clients. Alongside his ambition was his talent at the craft, collectively causing Roa’s line of clients to drastically supersede.

This caused him to gain notable distinction and he shot to fame, touring around the U.S. and Internationally as a Platform Artist & Educator for WAHL Clippers, a leader in the professional and home grooming industry. His tremendous career span included working with thousands of clients including some of the world’s largest household names including, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Sean “Jay Z” Carter, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Kevin Hart, and others.

Throughout his time pursuing such endeavors, Roa couldn’t help but notice a lack of quality men’s grooming products. He began calling manufacturers, directly testing products himself until he could find the right combinations. While taking that leap of faith caused him to run into financial problems once more, Roa continued to persist and pursue his passion.

As success became more and more evident for him, Roa took a step back from barbering by closing down his shop to fully invest in the development of his men’s grooming products, which continued into the venture that became Pacinos Signature Line. Get a glimpse of Pacinos Signature Line at https://pacinosproducts.com/.

With the birth of this line, Roa put the immediate focus on the consumer’s needs and in doing so, started with his own. He carefully considered which products he would most benefit from and pushed forward and onward with that mentality. Prioritizing oneself as the number one customer was not only a basic mentality that contributed to Pacinos highly accoladed success, it also has become an incredibly clever tactic for building one’s business.

Roa’s expanded business model is furthermore accredited to supreme customer service; in anticipating the consumer’s needs before they need to ask for it, an unspoken rapport is built in which Pacinos is able to validate and follow through on the needs of their customers.

Roa’s ingenious method has no doubt directly contributed to his whopping following, resulting in not only a mass presence in some of the largest retail chains in the United States, such as CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens, and Target, but furthermore an international expansion to Brazil, Italy, Netherlands, Iraq, Mexico, Colombia, Australia, Japan and more, helping him close contracts with recognized international retailers such as Superdrug (United Kingdom), Manor (Switzerland), Watsons (UAE), among others.

Pacinos’ success was hardly overnight, however what it can illustrate for anyone seeking to pursue their passion is the importance of expressing one’s own authenticity and putting a heavy dose of value onto the tried-and-true stature of working hard.

While Pacinos The Barber began simply by networking in high school among his friend groups to gain traction he now reaches a 595K following on Instagram and has spearheaded a series of APPs called “Pacinos” available for download in the iTunes & Android Market, in which he and an elite team of barbers teach you step by step how to do some of today’s latest haircuts.

Roa’s story of, quite honestly, starting from the bottom and now sitting where he’s at is one of the most emblematic examples of the underdog story and why we collectively as a society are so mesmerized by it.

Everyone dreams of the success Roa has established for himself and yet through his amiable nature, concise and genuine advice, he has exhibited a platform in which a diverse community on a global scale is able to see and resonate with the concept that what he has achieved is, in fact, simply possible to achieve – something everyone ought to be inspired by.