#241： Easy Ways to Upgrade Your Style With Aaron Marino
Episode Stats
Summary
Aaron Marino has made a name for himself as a men's style expert with his often zany YouTube videos geared towards helping men look and feel their best. He's also a two-time contestant on Shark Tank, and today on the show, Aaron and I discuss how an early business setback in the fitness industry led him to create an online empire in the realm of men s style, and then we get into the nitty gritty of men's fashion by discussing the common style mistakes that men make, and easy and cheap fixes that will help you look like a million bucks wherever you go.
Transcript
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Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the art of manliness podcast so many of you
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have probably seen today's guest on YouTube his name is Aaron Marino and he's made a name for
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himself as a men's style expert with his often zany videos geared towards helping men look and
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feel their best and also he's got this under his belt he's a two-time contestant on Shark Tank
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anyways today on the show Aaron and I discuss how an early business setback in the fitness industry
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led him to creating an online empire in the realm of men's style and then we get into the nitty-gritty
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of men's style by discussing the common style mistakes that men make and easy and cheap fixes
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that will help you look like a million bucks this podcast is filled with actionable stats you can
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start implementing today to look more stylish and to make a better impression wherever you go
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so after the show's over check out the show notes at aom.is slash marino that's m-a-r-i-n-o
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for links to resources where you can delve deeper into this topic
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all right Aaron Marino welcome to the show you've got an interesting career you are a style consultant
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own some grooming products you are a popular youtube men's lifestyle guy I mean you have like
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1.75 million youtube subscribers uh two-time shark tank contestant um so I'm questions like what's
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your story how did you get to this point where you were creating these you know sometimes zany videos
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on youtube showing guys how to look and feel better about themselves zany is a good word Brett yeah
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uh well it see it all sort of started when I was when I was young um you know there are sort of a
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few different facets to my life that I really can identify as pivotal moments in how I got to where
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I am one of which is I grew up fairly poor we didn't have a lot of money and this is you know the time
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of your life where you're really focused and and fixated on fitting in and so one of the things that
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I learned to do very early on was stretch a dollar all my clothes came from a thrift store and so it
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forced me to get very creative with shopping and style and looking outside of the box and so this
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was something that sort of I still to this day really enjoy doing is going to thrift stores and
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looking around even though financially I can afford you know not to go to thrift stores it's still
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sort of in my dna um combine that with my love of fitness which sort of started at the age of I
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would say 13 um I had uh two stepfathers that weren't exactly the greatest uh but my mother was
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incredibly supportive and and one of the gifts that she gave me is the thing the gift that I feel
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changed my life more than anything which was a fitness membership no matter how bad my home life was
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or how upset I was at home when I went to that gym I felt incredible I felt like a king and it's where
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I really felt like my confidence was was was developed and for those listeners out there that that exercise
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and take care of themselves physically you know how dramatically it impacts everything else in your
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life when you feel good about yourself that's really ultimately what what what pushes you forward in
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in in many different ways in many different areas of your life and so at the age of 13 I knew what I
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wanted to do for the rest of my life which was own a fitness center and so everything I did up into up
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through graduating college was geared towards owning a fitness center it was the only dream I had
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from the age of 13 um my senior project when I was at West Virginia University was I started a
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fitness center and you know I was so excited I moved to Atlanta I I knew that I didn't want to stay in
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Philadelphia all my friends were selling cars and and I knew that I was I was destined for fitness
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greatness and so I moved to Atlanta I met a guy I was working at the time as a personal trainer at a
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fitness center at a Bally's I met a guy he said hey I want to open a nutrition store I got a guy who's
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willing to give me forty thousand dollars are you in I said absolutely it wasn't a fitness center but
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it was a business and I really feel that at the at my core I'm an entrepreneur I love business and so
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it was my first opportunity and uh went there it was great we expanded to two locations within the year
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but um we ultimately or I ultimately decided that it wasn't something I wanted to stay with long term
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because the gentleman that I was I was in business with was actually selling drugs out of the back
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and um I I knew that I'd be popular in prison but I would not thrive in prison and so I decided to
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leave and that was a very difficult decision um and I ultimately ended up going back to personal
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training at a fitness center well during the time that I was at the nutrition store I met a woman and
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helped her lose a hundred pounds um she came to me one day when I was at the fitness center and said hey
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I didn't tell you this but I actually got certified as a personal trainer sort of behind your back
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and I want to open a fitness center the woman was older she was established she was a technical writer
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named Linda and she now had this new found passion and wanted to help other people like I helped her and so
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um we signed the lease to our location to open a personal training studio on September 11th as in the
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September 11th and that should have been an omen as to how our business was going to unfold but we um we
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we tried making making it work we we thought we were going to expand and and create this this line of
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fitness centers for parents and children and and all sorts of great things we raised money there were all
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sorts of legal issues between one of our business partners and my partner Linda and um ultimately we
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ended up having to shut down the business but something interesting happened when we were there
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I met a guy who was one of my clients who was getting ready for a date and he's like hey I don't
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know what to wear what what should I do and I said well why don't I just come over to your place and
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we'll take a look at what you have see what you need go shopping by the way your nose hairs are crazy
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we got to take care of that and a week later his co-worker called me and said hey I love what you
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did with Steve can you take my husband shopping I said absolutely it was a lot of fun and then she
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asked me that that that question where it was sort of that light bulb moment she said well how much do
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you charge and it's like wait a second maybe there's a market for this at the time my fitness center was
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exploding I had to file bankruptcy I didn't have a plan b though um as an entrepreneur and as as sort of
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just the way that I am I never have a plan b I'm so focused on plan a that I never stopped to think
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well what if this doesn't work out that it's never an option for me and so at the time that I had to
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file bankruptcy I I was um driving a beer cart on weekends just so that I could eat and uh put put gas
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in my car uh but that was the point at which I had to decide okay what's next and I had done a few of
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these little mini makeovers on these people and I thought you know maybe there's a market this was
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back in 2006 and so I did a little bit of looking online and really found that there were zero
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resources for regular average guys like me my dad my friends just to get basic solid style advice
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and so sure there was GQ magazine and Esquire but this wasn't my reality and this wasn't the reality of
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most of the guys I knew and so I decided to start an image consulting business and cater exclusively to
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regular guys um 2008 got a video camera long story shorter um the rest is kind of history
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right you created the I am it's I am alpha m yeah the youtube channel is uh alpha m alpha m yeah and
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the website is I am alpha m.com so yeah so you you've basically taken this the style of consulting
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and you brought it online to millions of of men across the country and across the world
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um so let's talk about style um so I think it's something that just it boggles the mind of a lot
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of average guys they're just like I don't know what to wear or like what things go together um so let's
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start big picture first what's your overall approach or philosophy to style in terms of style you really
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just need to find what works for you and when I say what works it's sort of it sounds so simple
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but it's what what you feel good and what makes you feel sexy um and I know that you know what
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what do you hear most regular guys hear the term sexy it's like well wait a second that's for women
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well it is but you can still feel great about yourself um you know you'd never want to push
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your boundaries too far to where you feel uncomfortable but when you get dressed you should
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dress with purpose and everything you put on you should feel great wearing it should fit you
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flawlessly as flawlessly as you know you can find or as you can have tailored without being overly
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tight but you really need to feel comfortable and own what you're wearing gotcha and so I mean like
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that reason is an interesting question the guys sort of that rejection or that knee-jerk reaction is like
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I don't want to why should I care like why should I care how I look right yeah so why should men
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care about how they look because it has never been more competitive
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out there in terms of professional professionally it's never been more competitive personally
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relationships if your competition is paying attention you can't afford not to and it doesn't
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take that long to pay attention to the clothing that you're wearing just making sure that it fits you
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well that it's not worn out that it doesn't have stains that it's iron that it's pressed it's about
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personal packaging you know everything has a brand and we as as individuals we have a brand
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and your image your style that's sort of letting the world know who you are and how you feel about
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yourself and if you're presenting a confident successful package then the world is going to see
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that and as a result you're going to be rewarded both professionally and and personally all right
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so you've you're kind of your bread and butter these makeovers you've um done you know you do that
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one-on-one with people but you also do these makeovers where you film them where you take just
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regular dudes and i've watched these yeah they're like they're regular dudes like they're guys who
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just they're working it jobs they just they look like a normal joe and then you do these makeovers um
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can you share a story or two of some of the men you've worked with on how upgrading their personal
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style just just totally transformed and improved all facets of their life you know it really boils down to
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confidence and that's the big takeaway it's i've worked with so many hundreds thousands of guys
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they're all pretty much doing the same thing wrong um and they they don't really have a firm grasp on what
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works for them what doesn't work for them but it is amazing to see the transformation in their eyes and in
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their confidence in their body language when all of a sudden at the end of a makeover you turn them around
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you let them see themselves in the mirror and they finally for the first time feel incredible about
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themselves and the way that they actually are projecting and presenting themselves um in terms of
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one or two there's so many it's it's men when you feel better about yourself when you like the person you
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see looking back at yourself in the mirror everything gets better you're you're you're you're a better boss
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you're a better husband you're a better father you are friendlier you make eye contact more you engage
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more but it all boils down to feeling good about yourself and so i joke with people that it's actually
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confidence that we're changing from the outside in but sometimes if that's all it takes then that you
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know go with what works but um i don't know if that answers your question no yeah what i love about
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it because like i used to be like when i was in college and i'd have a lot of free time i'd watch with
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my wife what not to wear yeah on tlc and i was like i enjoy it i mean it's primarily women but
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for some reason i enjoyed it because it was always great to see the story like see how these people's
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lives got better once they did that final makeover i was like man i wish there's something like this
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for dudes and lo and behold there you go you've got it i mean that's the thing it's just like that yeah
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i think what's happening is you're revealing like they also they talk about what not to wear like
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you're revealing like the actual self like your best you that's inside of you whenever you start
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dressing the way you should i love that i think i'm gonna steal that was that that was that clinton
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stacy i think it was clinton stacy it was clinton stacy that you should steal it i don't think i
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don't have a trademark on it so okay you mentioned uh with these makeovers you've seen um sort of the
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same mistakes that guys make um you mentioned that uh it's just like not knowing what works for them
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but what are some of the other more common style or personal presentation mistakes you see men make
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a lot of men pretty much when i work with somebody there there are a few things that right away you
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can change that make a dramatic difference in the way that you actually look and that is wearing
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clothes that fit you better now everybody hears that and it's like oh well of course i'm going to
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wear clothes that fit yeah guys are a little bit hesitant they hear fitted and they think tight
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if you simply go from a regular fit shirt that is cut square like a box and you put somebody in
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something that is a little bit more tailored or tapered or contoured to the body all of a sudden
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they look three inches taller and 20 pounds lighter the same thing goes for pants regular rise
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regular width pants are something that you can modify that automatically make somebody look taller
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their chest wider their shoulders broader they look incredible by simply changing the cut of the shirt
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and the pants that they're wearing and this goes for their their business casual clothing this goes
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for their casual clothing jeans shorts shirts t-shirts everything you can modify and enhance
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somebody's look immediately right i love that because i think a lot of guys you're right they either they
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just they don't know they can modify their clothing i think okay i buy on buy it off the rack that's how i
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gotta take it that's how it's presented to me i gotta wear it like that um but they also don't uh
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where's i gonna go is they don't realize that uh you can change these things absolutely and that's
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the other thing is is you've got guys that have a wardrobe a lot of professional successful men
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i go into their wardrobe and they've got you know thousands of dollars worth of incredible clothes but
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all they need to do instead of throwing out everything is take the key items that you love
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and have them modified or altered take the shirts to the tailor they'll put a few darts in it
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they'll contour it a little bit better and all of a sudden you've got an amazing new wardrobe that fits
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you flawlessly um they can do that with pants they can do that with pretty much anything right and i
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think a lot of too a lot of men prefer the baggier stuff because they feel like it's hiding you know
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maybe that the belly they might have but actually just accentuates it in a weird way absolutely no a lot of
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men confuse comfort with roomy and they also think that by wearing larger clothes it's going to make
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them look smaller when in reality it does the polar opposite it makes them look heavier it makes them
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look sloppy and dumpy when all they need to do is wear clothes that are tailored a bit more to their
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body and that's the other thing brett is that shirts guys that have a belly or that are you know
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have a little bit of extra you know going on they think that they need to wear bigger in order to
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camouflage and hide and they are still they still should be wearing tailored clothing and wearing
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clothes that are that are fitted as opposed to just just regular and uh big and baggy right and so
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it just goes to my next question like easy upgrade this is an incredibly easy upgrade all you
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gotta do is just take your shirts find a tailor there's tons of them probably in your city
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dry cleaners i mean dry cleaners your mother i mean there are a lot of people your wife i mean
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if somebody knows how to use a sewing machine you can pretty much modify a shirt right at the sides
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and nobody can tell uh but yeah i mean find somebody that can do it now on some of the more complex
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garments pants jackets those are ones that you're probably not going to just take to your dry cleaner
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who who says yeah i can do that but a straight hem on a pan if you want to make that pan a little
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bit shorter you know no problem but the more complex i would try and look for somebody who is
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a little bit more of a tailor or well or more well versed in the art of clothing construction right
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and it's not very expensive either i mean you're like five ten bucks that's it that's it and and the
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look oh my goodness brett i'm telling you it's like it brings tears to my eye when i see these guys
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and i'll not like really but it's so incredible just simple little modifications like having your
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shirt tailored makes all the difference in the world in the way that somebody looks right so yeah
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i buy most of my dress shirts from jc pennies like the stafford oxford shirt but like the thing i do is
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i go find a tailor right away and have them tailor and it just a million times better i mean it looks
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like a like a custom shirt you spent you know 100 200 on even though it's a 36 jc penny shirt
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that's it and and i i say this time and time again you give me somebody give me a 20 shirt and
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have it tailored that fits somebody incredibly versus somebody who spent 200 on a shirt the guy
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who spent 20 looks better 90 100 of the time as opposed to somebody who's wearing something that
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is ill-fitting right so that's an easy style upgrade what's another upgrade that guys can make
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that have you know an immediate high roi jeans invest in a great pair of jeans dark wash denim
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it doesn't get any better than that and it's probably the most versatile pair of pants that you own
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you can dress them up you can dress them down you can throw a sport coat and a button-down shirt on
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a sweater vest but you can throw on a simple plain pocket tee and look incredible a pair of boots
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oh my goodness it's perfect it you're it it's like james dean and um it it's uh it's such a simple
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simple thing but yeah finding a great pair of jeans that is super high roi right yeah i i love i got a
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great pair of jeans there where it's dark denim yeah you're right i wear it all the time t-shirts
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picking up the kids with boots what about the boots too right yeah you gotta do it but then you can
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wear like i've gone to you know a nice steakhouse uh when i've you know entertained clients here i just
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throw on a white shirt and a sport coat and i look fantastic exactly incredibly versatile timeless
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it's always going to be in style and that's the other thing brett is that you know you really need
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to invest in clothing that is going to be stylish now as well as in five years from now talk about roi
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i see guys that buy trendy items or things that are very just now and i i think to myself oh my
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goodness that's just money wasted because next year you're not going to be able to wear that and so
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a key takeaway to the listeners out there is invest in timeless styles don't go crazy with nuts
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patterns stick to the basics build your wardrobe from there that should be your foundation now if you
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want to experiment step a little bit outside of your box and invest in a few other things and go with
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some of the more trendy items that's fine do that but just know that it's probably going to be out of
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style in a year and so invest in the in the classics and you'll never go wrong well i think that raises
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a great point because i think a lot of guys particularly are leery of style because i think
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oh geez it's gonna be so expensive i have to buy stuff all the time but you don't if you just buy a
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few good pieces it's gonna last you three four five sometimes 10 years and so like that you know
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two hundred dollar you know shirt around i wouldn't spend time that you know four hundred dollar suit
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you bought that looks great i mean by the time you know five years later it's been like pennies a day
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like that cost per use that no absolutely and that's that's one of the the ways that i justify
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purchases um like a leather jacket you know i had this this i i went to buy a new leather jacket two
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years ago and it was a little bit more expensive than my budget and when i really sat down and did the
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math i can wear this jacket because it's a it's just a brown you know motorcycle inspired jacket
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small little collar it's nothing outlandish or crazy with a lot of zippers or anything
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i can wear it now almost every day throughout the winter spring and fall i can wear it for 10 years
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it's gonna look better in 10 years because it's broken in when you break it down to a per cost wear
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it's it's it's pennies as opposed to that one item that one jacket that you buy that you only wear six
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times that even it may be you know a third of the cost but it's much more expensive when you actually
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calculate and do the math that way all right so aaron we've talked about some of the wardrobe
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essentials i think a guy's guy could have a pair of dark washed jeans is one of them any other wardrobe
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essentials like sort of build the foundation of a of a man's wardrobe sure i think that um investing in
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a great pair of brown slip-on loafers is is a great option something that is dressy that you can wear
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with jeans but you also could wear with um with the suit a great pair of boots you know boots are one
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of those things that that make a guy feel good when you put on a great pair of boots you just stand a
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little bit taller it gives you a little bit of height i'm a short guy and so every inch absolutely
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helps um you know some other things is a great navy suit you know nothing with peak lapels just your
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standard notched lapel navy suit you can wear it to weddings you can wear it to funerals you can wear
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it to interviews you can wear it to business meetings um your tailored white dress shirt another
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staple um i also would say hey if you're going to get a white dress shirt get a a a light blue dress
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shirt as well it's a little bit more color it's a little bit more playful but it's still professional
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and you can wear it with a pair of jeans by itself roll those sleeves up you look great um and i would
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say a leather jacket i am a big fan of leather jackets just kind of they're sort of the the perfect
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counterbalance to a great pair of boots where they just make you feel good when you're wearing it and
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and women find it attractive and so that's a bonus as well find a track steve mcqueen there it is
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so here's a question we've had people on the podcast and we've written a lot about sort of
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formal style like i think you know this people got that down like okay i need a suit that fits well
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i dress shirt that that fits well it's iron or whatever but like i think the thing a lot of guys
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have trouble with is like how to look good in a casual setting whether it's at the office because
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like there's so many like your options just explode for casual wear right with with a suit like it's just
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like you wear a suit and dress shirt and a tie that's you know that's it you know i mean many
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choices so how can a man dress sharp in a casual setting when they have so many choices to to choose
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from you know it it does boil down to you know make sure that the pants that you're wearing fit you
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know all pleated cat all khaki pants were not created equal it really boils down to you selecting
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better fitting better styled items i would say that invest in a few great pairs of chinos um you know
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one of one of my favorite pairs of pants is a gray pair of chinos they're incredibly versatile you can
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dress it up with a button down or throw on a great you know lightweight v-neck sweater or crew neck
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sweater um wear wear some a sport coat with it wear with a pair of loafers or a pair of boots it's
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incredibly versatile um you know pay attention to the details layer sweater vests are i i still think
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sweater vests are really cool um and it's a great way to just add another level of of depth and
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dimension to an outfit um you know a lot of guys are just doing the basic slacks with a button down
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shirt that's it throw a sweater vest on top of it or if you want to a lightweight v-neck sweater is a
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great option um just to like i said add that next level of dimension to an outfit but then pay
00:24:50.020
attention to the details the belt the socks the shoes your watch all these little details that
00:24:57.860
make a big difference when you collectively put them together um you know and and it really is going
00:25:04.380
to determine be determined by the corporate culture that you're you're immersed in and what is
00:25:09.880
acceptable and what's not um if you're wearing say polo shirts if polo shirts are acceptable for
00:25:15.560
business casual you can put away those peaked cotton polo shirts and invest in something that
00:25:21.580
has a little bit nicer fabric maybe a a nice microfiber um you know banana republic ministry
00:25:27.800
of supply there are a lot of great polos that are a little bit dressier they're going to hold their
00:25:31.780
shape a little bit better than some of the standard quote-unquote polo shirts or or cotton polos you're
00:25:37.940
going to get at old navy or the gap gotcha so um that's that's an interesting question we can go
00:25:42.640
they're like are there places or stores that are your go-tos that you can go there and you'll always
00:25:47.620
find something that will look great yeah absolutely um you know as as men we don't have
00:25:55.240
the the the quantity and the options that that are our female counterparts do you know when you go
00:26:02.440
into a shoe store like a dsw look at the men's section look at the woman's section the men get like
00:26:08.080
a row the women get 37 rows right um for men they're really only a few options in terms of
00:26:15.380
stylish clothes um and and from the casual department you're looking at you know the gap
00:26:21.120
j crew you know banana republic that's sort of the the the you know more expensive version of the gap
00:26:28.480
but you know that if you're going to these places that the clothing is going to be stylish
00:26:32.880
and it's not going to be too over the top or outlandish um some of the boutique stores and
00:26:39.060
some department stores will have sections that are a little bit outside of the the box but i know
00:26:44.680
that if i'm looking for a great outfit that's going to be nice quality the fabric's going to be good and
00:26:50.020
the fit is going to be more on the tailored side as opposed to the bigger baggier side i like the
00:26:56.180
banana republic um but the downside to banana republic is it is a little bit pricey
00:27:01.780
uh compared to sort of it's you know more casual counterpart the gap but i am a big fan of the
00:27:09.100
gap for casual clothes um but department stores you mentioned jc penny earlier great option macy's
00:27:16.320
incredible there are a lot of department stores that i absolutely love because you can find different
00:27:23.440
styles and different price points within one store and so macy's is probably my one go-to store
00:27:30.960
just because it does have different levels and you can find something for everybody
00:27:41.460
yeah that abercrombie there are a lot of the general rule of thumb is when you walk in
00:27:47.080
if everybody there could be your child then probably are in the wrong store for your demographic
00:27:52.980
right yeah one that i forgot about i was for some reason i remembered it was american eagle
00:27:57.480
remember american eagle yeah american see and here's the thing american eagle is
00:28:02.160
is still like you can find some some good stuff even that would be age appropriate for guys in in
00:28:09.180
their late 20s 30s 40s um you know as long as you don't have big logos you can find some some decent
00:28:16.800
standards and um that actually american eagle has some good good prices on just regular denim and you
00:28:23.960
can find items but you have to know what you're looking gotta know what you're looking for all
00:28:27.480
right so let's uh talk style for like uh specific body types you mentioned you're a shorter guy
00:28:32.020
um any advice on sharp dressing for for shorter men out there absolutely you need to make sure that you
00:28:38.880
are wearing clothes i mean fit is even more important on a short guy than than anyone else just because
00:28:45.780
it does make such a difference um the mid-rise pant is going to be much better than a standard rise
00:28:52.760
um just because you want to accentuate and elongate your legs and another way that you do that is make
00:28:58.980
sure that the leg the pant leg isn't too wide um shoes you want shoes that have a little bit more of
00:29:05.800
an elongated toe box as opposed to something that is a little bit rounder and bulky sort of like you
00:29:12.020
think doc martens all right um shoes also have a visual can give the visual illusion of somebody being a
00:29:20.740
little bit taller than they are um shirts also fitted um monochromatic is good um for short guys
00:29:28.760
you know there you really can't go wrong with with you know vertical stripes you don't want patterns
00:29:34.940
that are too big just because it's going to make you look this proportionally small if your pattern is
00:29:43.240
really big stick with tighter patterns like small checks you know small window pane there there
00:29:48.040
definitely some smaller tighter patterns that you should be gravitating towards gotcha and like i've
00:29:53.620
i've seen this in action guys i've seen aaron in person didn't even really notice the height issue
00:29:58.380
like he was super confident looked great and it was awesome yeah and that's the thing and that's one of
00:30:04.380
the i get asked a lot about being short and about height and and a lot of guys are super self-conscious
00:30:11.580
oh yeah i mean like they they treat it like it's this like devastating handicap and um there's a good
00:30:18.860
friend of mine brock who owns a a men's style blog called the modest man he caters exclusively to men
00:30:26.220
of modest height or under five foot eight and i was on a podcast with him and and tanner guzzy who
00:30:32.740
is another great podcaster who and a vlogger that does masculine style and uh brock said that um
00:30:40.600
tanner was asking us about being short in style and uh brock said well aaron nobody's told him that
00:30:46.860
he's short yet and it it it made me laugh but it was a very incredible compliment honestly because
00:30:54.440
you know being short is just it's it's like having brown hair it's like having brown eyes are you going
00:30:59.440
to miss out on opportunities of course is it because of your your short well if you're trying to date a
00:31:04.880
six foot two amazon you know it could potentially you know affect that but men need to really just
00:31:12.380
focus on they're all the amazing things that they are as opposed to what they're not they're not six
00:31:19.660
feet tall it's okay you just need to basically be as confident as you possibly can dress to look tall
00:31:25.680
and just don't let that be an excuse right well so uh on the flip side um another thing that a lot
00:31:32.580
are self-conscious about is their weight so you know guys who are larger um style tips for them
00:31:38.380
yeah dark clothes monochromatic looks um you know it depending on what's larger some guys will have
00:31:45.560
and most most typically are going to have a larger midsection and so what i would recommend in order to
00:31:52.280
balance i would go dark on the top and then a little bit lighter color on on the bottom uh the dark
00:31:58.700
is going to make you look smaller the the lighter like a light tan a light gray is going to make your
00:32:04.180
your lower half appear a little bit larger but it's going to offset the the upper body um you know
00:32:11.740
once again not super big bold colors not super big bold patterns you want to make sure that it's it's
00:32:18.280
subtle and subdued um you know fit once again is going to be is going to be king if you are wearing
00:32:25.760
big baggy pants and you're a bigger dude you're going to look bigger heavier shorter and dumpier
00:32:31.520
than you actually are so it does boil down to fit as well but dark colors clothing that's fitted small
00:32:38.140
patterns okay great advice there so let's move away from clothes let's talk about grooming because this
00:32:43.480
is something um you've done a lot of content about and in fact you own two men's grooming companies you
00:32:49.200
have pete and pedro the the hair product company and then uh what's the new the name of your new
00:32:52.900
skincare product yeah it's uh it's called tige hanley tige hanley yeah well let's talk about
00:32:57.580
grooming so i mean where do most men skimp on their grooming routine that they should be spending more
00:33:03.660
time on you know it's funny right because well groomed is so all over the board what well groomed
00:33:10.280
means to me is not what it means to my father um you know but but the one thing that a lot of guys
00:33:16.680
don't pay attention to is is the is is neck hair and chest hair coming out of their shirt um and i'm
00:33:24.920
not saying that you should remove your chest hair i'm not saying that you should you know remove your
00:33:29.880
back hair if that's your thing but you know make sure that you take a little bit of the length down
00:33:35.980
if it is curling outside of your shirt um another thing is is ear hair and nose hair it blows my mind
00:33:42.620
that with all of the all of the jokes all of the the information that is out there um that guy still
00:33:50.000
it's like hey if i don't see it looking directly in the mirror then it's not there um and if i had a
00:33:56.580
dollar for every for every guy who had super long ear hair i would uh i would be a rich man those are
00:34:03.100
those are two areas ear and nose hair that that guys really kind of skimp on and um eyebrows are another
00:34:10.080
thing you don't need to shape them like a woman but as we age the hair on our eyebrows starts to get
00:34:16.760
exponentially longer and so just trimming them up um when you go in to get a haircut if you are going
00:34:23.000
to a a good barber or a good stylist they should take a look around and help you out and trim those
00:34:29.600
those crazy strays as well right i can attest to the nose hair in your hair thing it's like i've
00:34:35.980
suddenly like it's in my consciousness now my wife because i remember like i've checked that i
00:34:40.140
never had a problem because i was younger but now i'm in my mid-30s like they're starting to peek out
00:34:44.360
like a grandpa it's absolutely insane my wife's like you need to get an ear and nose trimmer and so
00:34:50.380
like i've had to buy one on amazon and yeah it makes the world of difference absolutely yeah um
00:34:57.500
and on the chest hair man i like the tom sellick look i no no no tom no i'm saying no here's the thing
00:35:03.900
you're no chest hair is fantastic it's amazing it's just when it peeks out of a crew neck shirt
00:35:12.600
and it moves out that's what i'm talking about um no chest hair go for it all right everybody who's
00:35:19.560
listening to this i think absolutely you've got the audience brett guys that come to me a lot of
00:35:25.820
them are are uh are younger guys that are still trying to be abercrombie models i've given up on that
00:35:33.140
exactly i'm done i think another thing that a lot of guys skimp on is uh nails oh yeah yeah feet
00:35:40.880
feet especially feet oh my goodness yes if i oh lord there is nothing that is more repulsive than
00:35:48.540
looking down at a guy wearing flip-flops or sandals and the nails are incredibly overgrown
00:35:55.220
or discolored i mean you need to take care of those feet i'm not saying to go get a pedicure
00:36:00.220
but pay attention when you trim your fingernails trim your toenails and i'll tell you too like
00:36:05.640
women don't like to have a man claw foot scrape them in the middle of the night and when i got
00:36:12.380
married my wife is like good night like she's like you scratched me with your hideous big toenail
00:36:17.880
so i was like okay i gotta pay attention to this stuff now um any other places i mean like skincare i
00:36:23.800
think that's a lot of like guys i don't even like don't really think about that but you got the
00:36:27.120
skincare product but i mean why should guys care about their skin yeah because it once again it
00:36:34.000
boils down to wanting to age gracefully and there's nothing wrong with wanting to look good there's
00:36:40.340
nothing wrong with wanting to age well um you know the sun is incredibly hard on our skin um it's why
00:36:47.460
i wear sunglasses outside it's why i put an spf moisturizer um you know i've had loved ones that
00:36:53.900
have had skin cancer you need to take care of your skin um you know drink plenty of water it's it goes
00:37:00.400
beyond just applying eye cream it's just about using a moisturizer cleaning your face you know once or
00:37:08.060
twice a day to remove those that that dead skin exfoliate um the the the grime the grit you want to
00:37:15.220
make sure that you're bringing that new fresh healthy skin up to the surface and reducing the amount of
00:37:21.460
blackheads and blemishes due to excess oil and all the nastiness that builds up it's just about you
00:37:28.300
know looking good and feeling great and so um i don't know if that answers the question like the
00:37:34.180
thing is you don't have to be fastidious about this right i think a lot of guys feel like they avoid it
00:37:38.380
because they're like oh it's just like i gotta be like girly about this but you don't have to
00:37:42.060
no absolutely not there are many products out there that that have a nice masculine odor scent
00:37:47.780
they're grooming companies and that sell skincare exclusively for men um and it's something where i
00:37:54.940
think our grandfathers might not have done it but i think using just a daily moisturizer is becoming a
00:38:00.840
bit more it's becoming a bit more mainstream and um you know it's it's it's definitely something that
00:38:08.140
a lot of a lot more men are are being more conscious and diligent about you didn't honor all right so uh
00:38:13.900
let's let's shift gears we talked about personal presentation as far as grooming and style um i'd
00:38:19.680
like to get your insights in this because you i think have some really great insights you are a
00:38:23.200
two-time shark tank contestant and this is one of the most intense pitches a person can ever make
00:38:29.900
you're in front of it doesn't get any worse you're in front of mark cuban you're in front of uh
00:38:34.620
what's his name mr wonderful you know damon williams what i'll be named with damon sean what i'll
00:38:39.940
whatever and then like close close yeah i got it i messed up he's gonna if he listens to it he's
00:38:44.760
gonna bamboozle me but um he doesn't listen to it i know that um but then like it's on front of a
00:38:50.240
million you know millions of people watching on this on tv so super intense how do you prepare
00:38:55.240
for a pitch like that oh man you i but i joke with people by the time i actually walk out of those
00:39:03.020
doors and the one thing that shark tank is such a great show people think that there are cuts and takes
00:39:09.520
there's not if you screw up you screw up they leave it in and you keep going there is no cutting
00:39:16.040
when you actually go out there and pitch the other issue is that you're out there for much longer than
00:39:21.820
you see um the second time i was out there for an hour and a half and they cut it to like 12 minutes
00:39:27.260
but i joke with people that by the time i go out there i've been in that room 6 000 times and it
00:39:35.220
really comes down to for me i'm a big fan of visualization and practice um i could i could
00:39:42.640
recite my pitch in my sleep backwards in latin i practiced and practiced and what i would actually do
00:39:50.940
is um i would try and get myself nervous when i would practice i would get myself so amped up and
00:39:58.420
just put myself in there as as as much as i could that i would sort of try to simulate or duplicate
00:40:06.920
the anxiety that would come along with actually doing that um you know the one thing that i i
00:40:12.940
wanted to make sure is that i could just recite it that it was almost like the alphabet i didn't have
00:40:16.640
to think about it because i knew that i was going to be dealing with a lot of other things um funny
00:40:21.560
story the first time i go out and i'm getting ready and when you when you go out there to pitch to make
00:40:27.300
get even more just intense when you walk out there's a little x on that oriental carpet and
00:40:34.320
they say okay you're going to walk out and you're going to stand there and then you're going to stare
00:40:38.260
down the sharks for 30 seconds in complete silence and so everybody is out there and you go out and
00:40:45.160
you stand there and you're just looking at these people nobody's talking and then all of a sudden you
00:40:50.740
hear a voice come over the you know loudspeaker says and pitch and you go right into it but the first
00:40:56.960
time i was on there i'm standing there getting ready to pitch i'm super nervous butterflies are
00:41:01.300
crazy all of a sudden barbara looks over to robert and says oh my gosh look at his ears
00:41:06.420
and so all of a sudden this woman is making fun of my ears because they are a bit spock-like
00:41:12.780
and uh i'm thinking to myself you gotta be kidding me i'm about to pitch for my life and you're making
00:41:18.380
fun of my ears awesome but uh but yeah so just practice practice practice practice practice
00:41:24.540
practice and know your stuff for the questions that's the other thing that blows my mind about
00:41:29.620
shark tank people come out there and that you know what questions they're going to ask brett you've
00:41:33.540
never been on but you know what questions i know exactly what they're going to ask every single time
00:41:38.200
what's the revenue for a month you know what's profit what's this and like there's people just
00:41:42.520
like i don't know exactly know your numbers shark tank 101 so yeah so any pitch uh practice practice
00:41:51.360
practice visualize visualize and then uh just know your stuff know your numbers everything inside and
00:41:57.320
out well hey aaron this has been a great conversation um and i i love i wish we could
00:42:03.500
continue there's a lot more we could dig into but where can people find out more about your work
00:42:07.240
yeah um my website iamalpham.com is where all my videos are or you can just search in youtube
00:42:13.840
alpha m m as in mail and find more than you more than you wanted to um i i talk about pretty much
00:42:22.160
anything nothing's off limits and um i just have a lot of fun and uh yeah youtube is is probably where
00:42:29.400
i'd be most proud of people people went check me out there that's awesome and he does get into
00:42:33.580
everything there's some questions that you wouldn't you would be surprised he'd be he will
00:42:38.300
address it in his youtube video but but i do it as diplomatically right you do a good job and you
00:42:44.820
keep it fun thank you thank you i'm i'm like blue cheese at first you might not like me but if you
00:42:50.320
watch a few more i may grow on you a bit so well aaron marino thank you so much for your time it's been
00:42:55.920
a pleasure brett mckay absolutely and thank you my guest today was aaron marino he is a men's style
00:43:01.680
consultant style expert and owner of several businesses you can check out his amazing style
00:43:06.640
content at iamalpham.com or just go to youtube and google i am out or search i am alpha m you'll find
00:43:12.820
his stuff also check out the show notes at aom.is slash marino for links to resources where you can
00:43:18.100
delve deeper into this topic well that wraps up another edition of the art of manliness podcast
00:43:32.780
for more manly tips and advice make sure to check out the art of manliness website at
00:43:36.060
artofmanliness.com our show is edited by creative audio lab here in tulsa oklahoma if you have any
00:43:41.460
audio editing needs or production needs they're the place to go you can find out more information
00:43:45.940
about them at creativeaudiolab.com as always i appreciate your community support and until
00:43:50.640
next time this is brett mckay telling you to stay manly