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welcome back to the gentleman's gazette! intoday's video, we'll have aaron marino from alpham. he's a youtube celebrity, he has appearedon tv shows like shark tank. he has almost a million subscribers and his videos havebeen watched for almost a hundred million times. aaron, welcome! aaron: raphael, it's wonderful to be here,to actually be on your show. i'm telling you, i've done a lot of interviews but for somereason, i got so nervous coming to talk you and the bar is set high and so hopefully,i do an okay job but it's always great to see you and talk to you! sven: no, i love your energy and you'll bejust fine. so just to start off, you originally

came from the fitness world and you transitionedinto men's style consulting. today, you're a very successful youtube entrepreneur. justwalk us through on how you made it from the fitness world to where you are today. aaron: marino: it actually started with anutrition store. i get out of college and i move to atlanta and i start working as apersonal trainer at a fitness center. i met a guy and he said "hey, i want to start anutrition store" and i said "that sounds great! count me in, let's go do this" and so i didthat for a little while. about 2 years, we expanded to 3 locations and i realized thati didn't want to be in the nutrition industry. specifically, with that one was my businesspartner was selling drugs out at the back

of the store and so our ethics were definitelynot in line and i knew that prison was not a place where i would flourish. i'd be popularbut i definitely would not do well. i left the nutrition store and i met a woman andwe decided to open up a personal training studio. ever since the age of about 12, myonly dream was to own a fitness center, that was it. that was ultimately success in mymind. i met this woman, it should have been an omen because we signed the lease to ourfacility on september 11th, as in the september 11th and so that was a bad day but you know,the future was bright, did that for a little while and i was miserable. i was miserablealmost immediately, my overhead was incredibly high, everybody made more money other thanme. i developed a bleeding ulcer, it was just

incredibly stressful but while i was there,an interesting thing happened. a gentleman actually came up to me, one of my clientsand said "hey, i've got a hot date, i don't know what to wear" and so i said "okay, noproblem. let me come over to your place, we'll check out and see what you have and we'llgo get your haircut, trim your nose hairs because they're ridiculous." sven: (laughs) and you did that because youwere a nice guy. aaron marino: and because i've always beeninterested in style, i've always been interested in grooming and so he asked me to take himshopping, i do, it's amazing and he goes to work the next day and a female coworker says"hey, you look great. what did you do?" and

he said "well there's this guy" and so shesaid, "well, can i have his phone number because i want him to take my husband shopping." sven: traditional word of mouth advertising,right? aaron marino: that was it! and so when i gotthat call, i was like "okay, yeah! i'll be happy to." and then she said those magicallittle words, "what do you charge?" and that's when i realized that there may be a largermarket, there may be an audience for this. i didn't even know what to call it. i ultimatelyfound out that it was image consulting and so when i had the opportunity to get rid ofmy fitness center, ultimately i did some google search, i don't even know if google was outyet but i did some internet searching, this

was back in 2007 and i started looking tosee what resources were out there for everyday regular guys like me, like my dad, like myfriends, just to get simple, basic style advice and i found that there really wasn't anything.i wanted to help my buddies and so, i realized that there really wasn't anything out thereexcept at the time, like gq and esquire but that wasn't my reality. i didn't understandthat level of dress, i didn't understand high fashion and so i decided to create a resourceand a solution and that's how my image consulting business got started. sven: what would you say are the lessons youlearned along the way? aaron marino: failing (laughs). there aremany lessons i learned raphael.

sven: the three most important like you wouldsay "if i were to do it all over again, this is what i would do." aaron marino: alright, do background checksand understand who you're getting into business with. the other tip i would give people is,keep your overhead as low as possible. sven: when you start out, grow organically.the cost can always go up but bringing it down is much more difficult. aaron marino: absolutely! and so many peopleget fixated on wanting a nice office, driving a nice car to meet clients. when i startedmy image consulting business, i always would park a block away before i met a client becausei didn't want them to see that i was a driving

a beat up toyota rav 4. and a third tip, justdo what you absolutely love, if you can figure out a way to monetize your passion, thereis absolutely nothing better. but here, i'm going to give you a bonus tip raphael, understandthat success does not always look like what you expect it will. when i was 12 up untilthe age of 30, success to me was one dimensional, it was a fitness center. if i didn't own achain of 27 fitness centers, i was not successful. well, my view of success actually was andis has changed along the way. so you just have to be open to the possibility of changing. sven: absolutely. so, you started your youtubechannel in 2008 which is roughly when you started the image consulting so, why did youdo that? youtube was very new at the time.

what kind of draw you to it? aaron marino: i got kicked off a reality show.(laughs) i got kicked off of a really bad vh1 reality show and it was funny becausea year before, my wife gave me a video camera for christmas and a year after she gave itto me, i actually opened the box and it was when i got home from this reality show andi was like "you know, i think i can make videos, i think there's a message, i think that there'san audience out there and i'm going to see if there is." i made my first one, it waslike 2 minutes long, the resolution was like 180 p and the rest is history. sven: you said you made over 3000 videos whichis a lot in itself but you also don't shy

away from like sensitive topics such as toget rid of butt hair or shave testicles. how do you come up with these topics? most peoplelaugh or like "omg, you can't do that!" but your viewership numbers tell you this is exactlywhat people want. aaron marino: it's funny! i have always beenincredibly comfortable in my own skin and okay with talking about taboo subjects andtaboo topics and so the way that i see it, if i've got a question about it or if i'mdoing it, i should probably talk about it. that's sort of how i approached my channel,it's honesty and trying to give people the questions that they don't feel comfortableasking their cousin or their uncle stan. sven: you know for these videos, i mean, doyou research them for a lot of time or do

you just go out and look? how does it cometogether? aaron marino: usually, i will just think ofsomething. i am constantly thinking about what would make a good video and so i havea journal that i keep with me pretty much all the time that i write my video scriptsin and i would jot down an ides that i would think would be an interesting video and theni start doing research. just like anything else, i do google searches, wikipedia is amazingand wiki how is also great but yeah, just research and put my own spin on most thingsand you know, it's not all that difficult to come up with answers to some of these things. sven: you have a very broad bandwidth, youcover flirting, men's style, appearances,

hair and grooming but ultimately, when i lookat it as a whole, one can say it boils down to one thing which is confidence. aaron marino: if there is a word that youcould boil my confident down into, it is that big c word. i'm a firm believer that whenyou're confident, everything in your life is better. when i started this, i was tryingto help people through style, through clothing. when you know that you look good, you startto feel good, it's almost helping somebody develop their confidence from the outsidein and if you do that enough times, it does something to your brain and you start to associateyourself with this confident person that everybody, hopefully discovers at some point. and so,everything i do and every video i write and

i film is geared towards helping somebodyfeel better about themselves and that's a very broad topic but since i have a backgroundin fitness, nutrition, relationships, i feel like i can pretty much talk about anything. sven: how would you define style? aaron marino: style is your personal packaging.everything has a brand, everything has packaging and so style is wearing clothing that reallylets the world know what you're all about in an instant, at a glance. people are formingopinions about you on the first three seconds of meeting you, it's not a conscious decision,it's sub-conscious and they are forming opinions. if they don't like the way you're dressed,you're going to have to work harder to convince

them to give you the job, go out on a datewith you, you selling them something and just taking the little bit of time to put togethera package that is consistent with the way that you want to be received by others isthe best time you can ever spend. sven: that's good. that being said, what areyour pet peeves? things that really are so wrong that every man should know about them. aaron marino: it's all about fit, you knowthat. by now, every style blogger from here to taiwan, talks about the importance of fitbut still, it blows my mind when i see somebody and they're wearing pants that are too bigor they're wearing a shirt that is too big. they associate large and roomy with comfortand so for me, the biggest pet peeve is not

wearing clothing that fits you properly. sven: okay, any others? aaron marino: yeah, i don't personally likeshort sleeve dress shirts. sven: i'm a hundred percent with you. obviously,you like to work out and you're a more muscular guy so in your experience, what tips do youhave for muscular guys if they have troubles finding things that fit? aaron marino: great question! the best toolthat you can have as a muscular or this doesn't have to be just muscular but if you're a hardto fit body type, find a tailor. somebody that can alter clothing well. the money youspend on having something altered just to

customize it to your body is a hundred timesworth the expense of the alteration. so finding a good tailor, going in stores and sort ofjust playing around and trying different brands on because all different brands, all the brandsfit and cut clothing differently. so i would say, find a tailor and try experiment withdifferent brands to see if there's anybody who actually makes a cut that's more flatteringto your muscular body. sven: what would you think would your viewers/listeners/readersbe surprised to learn about you? aaron marino: that i like antiquing. i loveart. there's nothing that's more relaxing to me than putting on my headphones, puttingon pandora and walking through antique markets. i love antiquing. (laughs) i'm like a littleold lady.

sven: i wouldn't have thought! we like antiquing,there are great flee markets in boston. do you have anything that you travel to particularlyor do you go to paris just for the antiquing? aaron marino: no, my antiquing stays local.i've got enough big antique markets and fairs to actually go to. i' also am a big fan offolk art, i love folk art. i'll go to a lot of art shows and anytime i can get my handson something that really just appeals to me, i will buy and invest in art. sven: so you know, the other day, i watchedone of your videos and i read the description underneath where you list all the businessesyou're involved in and i was like "that's quite a bit!", tell us more about what you'reworking on right now and what's going to happen

in 2016? aaron marino: i am a serial entrepreneur.the biggest fear i have is thinking of an opportunity and not going after it and seeingif it can work. now, one of the downsides to being an entrepreneur is that you can spreadyourself too thin and sort of, right now i am maxed. i am tapped out with businesses.ultimately, the number 1 most important thing that i need to do in the day is create contentbecause without content, nothing else works but because i've built this audience, thisfollowing, i have basically just created all this different vertical businesses as a result. sven: if we look at it you know, on the onehand, you have your youtube channel, do yo

still do the consulting? aaron marino: i don't. that's the thing thati have given up, i don't do one on one consulting anymore. the time is just not worth the commitmentor the time commitment was just not worth the money so i've given that up. sven: you started pete and pedro hairlineproducts, right? aaron marino: yeah, i have a hair productcompany. i'm getting ready to launch a skin care company, tiege henley and i'm workingwith 2 amazing partners and an incredible chemist and that's probably the biggest businessthat i ever embarked on but that's amazing because the first time i really felt likei got incredible people around me that get

*** done. sven: hopefully, you did a background checkon them. aaron marino: (laughs) we'll talk about thatlater but there are things in the legal documents that will take care of anything if anybodygets out of line or has done anything in their past that would come back to haunt us butyes, we're good. sven: so when is this brand going to launch? aaron marino: probably around may, springof 2016. there's a whole lot of logistics around it, the concept is different than justa skin care company that sells products, we've got a unique value proposition and so i'mreal excited about that, we're still sort

of in the hush hush phase of it. sven: that's good to know and it may takelonger and cost more but eventually it will come to but before then, in march you havemen's style con. aaron marino: stylecon baby! that is the eventhat i look forward to all year! it was mind blowing to me. here's the thing, as an entrepreneur,as a content creator, raphael, you know this better than anybody, it's a lonely road andthere aren't people, like when i go to a party, when you go to a party, you meet people, they'revery nice people but you have zero in common with them, at least i do and when i say thingsin common, there's a different level and there's a different persona of somebody who is anentrepreneur that is a creative type person

and so going to stylecon, it was like i foundmy people. all these incredible guys that just get it and it was a wonderful experience,regardless of when you're into style or fashion, it's about community, about being better andbeing around people that will nurture that goal. sven: no and i can agree, you meet people,working with people and you say there's this great brand and then you meet them in personand it's just a very different experience that provides a great return for both partiesand so it's a win win for everybody. i know that last year, you put a lot of time intothis event, with all you side businesses and stuff, will you have the same amount of timeto dedicate to it this year?

aaron marino: it's not about will, it's aboutmaking time. yeah, last year, because it was bigger than the first year that we had kindof in the backroom of a bar, there was a lot of things that i needed to figure out thatantonio and i needed to figure out. so last year was very very labor intensive. this year,a lot of the things we needed to figure out, we figured out last year. sven: you have some experience and it makesit easier. aaron marion: yes but it's still not easyand thus absolutely takes a lot of time. sven: if you have such a crammed schedule,time management is important. what does a regular day in the life of aaron marino lookslike?

aaron marino: i wake up at 5 am, everyday.i'm at starbucks by 5:30, i work until about 7:30 then i go to the gym, exercise. usually,i do my cardio in the morning, come home, eat. get to the office around 10-10:30, startfilming videos or video, i film one video everyday and then i work all day until about7:00 and then sometime i go to the gym again and just do a little bit of something, gohome, eat dinner and then i'm pretty much working until about 9:00 - 9:30 when i shutit down and go to bed. weekends, i take a little bit of time for myself and my wife. sven: very good! so what do you do on theweekends? aaron marino: netflix! we're big homebodies,we go out to eat, we like dining out but my

wife is a fantastic cook and so usually, we'llgo out to eat once a weekend and sometimes we'll go see a movie or go to the park orgo hike the mountain but something active usually is a mandatory must have for the weekendbut then there's a lot of vegging out time where we're just watching netflix in the mediaroom and just not talking. i talk so much it's really nice when i just don't have totalk. sven: i see that but you know if you havestarbucks everyday, maybe there's a potential collaboration down the road. aaron marino: i wish! if you can figure outthat mechanism raphael, we need to do it, that's a new business all on its own.

sven: probably! now, with all your businessesand experience, with your ups and down in life, what would you say was the best pieceof advice that has ever been given to you? aaron marino: it's actually from a ted talkthat totally changed my view on business. it's by a gentleman named simon sinek andhe's a big leadership expert and the ted talk, it was start with why. basically, showingthe difference in why certain brands are successful , certain companies are more successful thanothers and when you , i don't want to ruin the video but i would just say that if you'relistening or watching this, watch the video. it is incredibly important to let the audienceknow and the customer know, why you're doing something as opposed to what you're doingand if they believe you, if they trust you,

if they know that you intentions are honestand true, you will be successful beyond your wildest dreams. it's when you make money thegoal, money the key and you tell people what you do as opposed to why you do it, if theycan see and feel that passion, they'll follow you to the end of the earth. sven: it shines through and you know it makessense cos you're happy, you exude that positive energy and it's not just making a quick buckselling cellphone cases on amazon or whatever it is. aaron marino: not that there's anything wrongwith cellphone cases on amazon but it's about that passion.

sven: what would you say is your goal forthe next 5 years? aaron marino: the only goal that i have formyself in terms of something that needs to happen is that i need to be as happy as iam right now. if i can maintain this level of fulfillment, if i can maintain this levelof passion and excitement, everyday i jump out of bed and i'm excited to get to workcreating content. if i can be here in 5 years, i will be absolutely thrilled. now, will someof the things change along the way? yes but it's okay and so i just need to stay focused,stay passionate and hopefully i'm in a very happy, emotionally healthy, fulfilled place5 years from now. sven: those are good goals! thank you verymuch aaron and if you want to check out his

youtube channel... aaron marino: wait a second, you're not gettingout of here with me asking you a question. what;s your goal in 5 years? sven: well, i'd like to have grown a nicebusiness that is small enough to be reactive and actionable and active but at the sametime, being able to truly just do what i want to do. for example, when we started, my wifeand i, we're both a team and when we started, she believed in me and said you know, you'regood with this, do this. i'm going to go and get a regular job so we can pay the billsand now, she's on our team so we can do stuff together. just last week we went to pittiuomo trade show in florence for a week and

now we're going to go skiing, we like to travel,antiquing and so my goal is that we can do even more of that, be really independent,be with friends, with people that we really appreciate and of course for the website,grow consistently, have a great youtube channel and so we can kind of you know, help men acrossthe globe but not have something like gq or esquire, when you read it and you're like" i don't like that or agree with that" so i hope that, we'll be in a position wherewe've more influence on the people than we have today. aaron marino: did anybody recognize you inflorence? sven: oh, yes actually. it's funny cos you'venever met those people and you're just on

the street and people come up to you and talkto you and some others were bloggers for example and that was at the conference but then onfriday, we just walk through the city, went through little stores looking for items andso there was a beautiful little glove store and we sell gloves but it doesn't mean wecan't go in there and look. so we walked in there and there was the guy from portugaland he said "oh! you're from gentleman's gazette!" it's great, it's wonderful. aaron marino: well the interesting thing andi've said this to you when i met you in stylecon, it was actually a year ago. i said, when youstarted making videos, that's when everything changed for me, for you and your site. youall of sudden, instead of having just a bunch

of great content, all of a sudden, we gotto know who raphael was and who raphael is, an amazingly charming and engaging and happyperson and so that totally changed, like with your logo even, it's very polished, professionaland it added a level of warmth and depth to your content that was amazing and so you didsomething very very smart y letting people into your life and letting them know who youare. sven: you already did that 8 years ago andi think the video gives people the opportunity to see you as you are. it's less filtered,it's more yourself and in the beginning, if you look at videos of you and of me, it wasweird because we weren't like ourselves in a way, you know it's new, you look into thecamera and stuff like that but once you get

used to it, people can really see who thatperson is rather than just reading the words which can be very ambiguous. aaron marino: absolutely! kudos to you sir,kudos to you! sven: kudos to you and i look forward to seeingyou in person at men's stylecon. aaron marino: absolutely! thank you so muchraphael!