Lessons - The Real Secret to Personal Branding | Aaron Marino - 6M+ YouTube Subscribers

In this lessons episode, explore how authenticity and persistence shape lasting personal brands in the digital age. Discover why embracing individuality builds stronger audience trust and impact, understand how repeated failure fuels creativity, and resilience in entrepreneurship, and uncover why surrounding yourself with ambitious, like-minded people, transforms both mindset and opportunity. So walk walk me through even just like building out your your own quote-unquote personal brand. So the brand is is a combination of of things that are I don't even know how to best describe it like things that a man would want to figure out or learn about or like how did you come to what Alpha M is what was the most the concept. Yeah so Alpha M when it first started was just style. I was just talking about like how to dress because at the time back in 2008 the only resource for for guys was really like GQ and Esquire and you know it wasn't my reality and wasn't the reality of of my friends and family and people that I knew and so I was like maybe there's just a space for a regular guy to talk about style in a more regular way and then from there it kind of went into grooming and because I've always been interested in grooming I cut my own hair you know and so it was these little things that I started you know talking about like but hair like you know I was the first person talking about like landscaping online really and it was just because I was I was comfortable talking about it and and it's something that I had questions about and so I was like maybe there are other people that are interested in this kind of stuff and and maybe I can just be that resource and then it transitioned into you know pretty much anything that a guy might be interested in and relationships and dating and and you know pretty much just lifestyle stuff and then I I am fortunate enough to be able to give because I am a bit older than a lot of my audience give some just just real-world lifestyle or life advice on things that I've struggled with in my past or things that I've dealt with it I feel I can just share a perspective and so I think you do something really really well and and I've watched you know I've watched a couple of your videos obviously and one thing that how you teach is like you just mentioned you're just telling stories you're telling stories about stuff that you've gone through you talk about X's you talk about your personal choices for style for hair for grooming all that stuff did it take a certain was that something that you were comfortable with putting yourself out there authentic was that something you had to struggle with for a while or was that like you mentioned the first few videos they weren't authentic what were they if they weren't authentic no it was me trying to put be something that I wasn't in trying to you know I I was trying to be something that I thought I needed to be in order to get people to like me honestly and it never works no it never works and so it's very very easy to see through that and so yeah I mean that was just something it wasn't hard I mean that's the thing like the hard thing was was trying to be something and put up off the side and so you know the the easy thing is just the kind of like let your your true self you know shine through and just just do you and and be authentically you know open to you authentically you yeah be authentically you exactly lots of cliches and this in this so many clear then cliches there for reason I love it okay um let's uh okay what's the what's the shartank play what's the shart tag expert you were two acts on shartank right you were there twice I was on so what happened there try to get on a third time they wouldn't take me back they're like Aaron what's yeah what's the story now like shit um yeah so say shartags like my favorite show and for any entrepreneur if you're thinking about you know we're interested in business watch shartank you know the cool thing is that you can go you know they're they're they're syndicated now on on you know television so every night of the week you can go and watch like episode after episode after episode and so um I came up with this e-product it was my first stab at like an info product I should say not an e-product because it was actually physically DVDs that I was trying to sell um it was an info product I thought that you know a lot of the people that I am I'm friends with in the space of internet you know business and sales a lot of guys are like oh the e-product the e-product and so I came up with this style system so my dad was like well how are we gonna try and sell it I'm like I don't know he goes you should try and go on shartank I'm like yeah sure and so literally I remember it was a Friday night um I went home I went to ABC's website and I applied and on Monday I got a call and and they're asked for information and it was three months later I was pitching in front of the sharks in terms of of the the alpha m-style system they hated the idea and um and I was like oh no big deal you know it's okay I'm on TV so it's gonna be great I'm gonna sell you know thousands of these things I'm gonna be rich well the night shark tank aired I had like this big party everybody was around and I was sitting there with like my my computer and I was like ready for the sales to come rolling in I literally right nine million people watching the show I sold one style system get out yeah you sold one I know people that are on shartank and they they get like thousands as I've sailed it depends on what it is apparently apparently I that was a real wake-up call like hey stupid this is not this is not right and um and so yeah it was it was a bomber so I was bummed out for a little bit but then you know kind of got over it and and I am I just realized that I'm not really an e-product kind of guy and at least not like physical DVDs like I said I'm a dinosaur yeah like you can't even play a DVD on your computer anymore like it doesn't even have that ability and so if it was an app if it was like a web-based like program that was less expensive I think it would have been successful and I still think it's a good idea it's just it wasn't the right application and I wasn't the right guy to do it um and then I I started a hair product company beaten Pedro back in 2012 13 somewhere in 2013 I believe um I started beaten Pedro which was a hair product company and um I went to my stylist that I was friends with Stephen I said hey do you have any connections that at any of these like labs that make hair product I think I I want to come out with a hair product line and he's like yeah and so he he gave me a number I I called him up they sent me samples I called a few other labs I got samples I I chose my products I I started beaten Pedro white labeling products and um my opening order I believe it was I started beaten Pedro for $3,000 and so no well that includes everything that includes my website that includes my my little stamps.com like printing station boxes inventory I had five products private hair products that I was selling and I got 96 units of each and um and it took me like five months to sell through that inventory and um yeah that was uh that was an amazing business my first kind of business selling physical products other than I I played around I had a website also that I tried doing for a while a membership website where I was selling like hand strung like beaded bracelets the problem was that I was sitting there at night hand stringing these bracelets and so not not a scale not not fun no and so I've tried a ton of shit man I have tried a lot of things and you know a lot of things some things have worked most things haven't you know and you just keep you know trying and throwing stuff against the wall and just scratching the the curious itch and that's kind of the takeaway you know I'm not scared to fail once you fail as big as I failed in terms of the fitness center and bankruptcy and all that you know failure it's not as scary and once you kind of get it out of the way and you realize it okay well that sucks it's things and and and a lot of it not only one of the worst parts about when you when you when you fail in business it's not necessarily the burden that it places on you it's the embarrassment of having to acknowledge that something that you tried didn't work to other people and so when you get over at least it was for me you know I can only speak for myself but once you kind of get over that the ego of yep you know what I tried it at least and and you realize that most people aren't even willing to do that you know and and it's funny because the most people that are the most critical or the naysayers of the people that'll you know say oh you shouldn't do that or you're wrong they've never done shit and they never will they're just going to basically they're more comfortable staying comfortable and would rather you know sit on the sidelines and point figures and and say how you you didn't do something right or you should have done this way it's like you know what you know f you you know I'm I'm out here trying I'm gonna I'm gonna try I may not I may not be successful but at least I I don't have regret and I'm not doing something I don't want to do that's a damn good attitude to have just just jump into stuff in life and I think that that's what you have to it's super but you know what you got to do you got to find you got to find your tribe that just supports and and then and then you double down on that tribe and you force yourself to be accountable by telling them what you are doing so you're so you know that if you fail they're there to support you because you don't want you know and that's a tough thing because like sometimes it's family sometimes it's friends you've had for a long time that are just really shitty to towards what you're trying to do and that's a tough pill for a lot of people to swallow but when you find your tribe people to support you that are also trying shit and entrepreneurial not even entrepreneurial just like super ambitious if you put it out into the world like for this podcast for example like I purposefully tell every single person I meet now and now my identity has become more of the podcast when it was first starting it was the other stuff I was doing well I work at this job and I have a podcast on the side versus I lead with the podcast because that's holding me accountable man like they're gonna look me up and they're gonna see it and like I don't want I don't want to fail so I don't you know I'm just like making myself do it all the time but I think that's the tribe you have to build people that are cool with that and that was yeah and and that was you know there was a gentleman that I that I met that was on YouTube Antonio Centeno he is a YouTube channel real men real style he reached out to me and and I knew about him just because I saw it was it was me I started the YouTube thing first talking about style and then he came in a few years later and and I and I hated him I'm like this son of a bitch is doing trying to you know steal my something whatever and so he actually reached out to me and he said hey let's get together and and meet up and why don't we have kind of like a get together or meet up for some of these other people that kind of are in our space and I was very resistant to doing it but it was one of the best decisions I ever made was kind of stepping out of my comfort zone because I did not understand the importance of surrounding yourself with people that are sort of moving in the same direction and you know and that was one of the like I said the things that changed my life all the sudden I was around people that I had I needed to be around that were all like you know inspiring like people that were trying that were just going after their dreams and doing something different you know and and that was it was amazing because once you do get around those people that are that are trying that are striving that are just doing things outside of the box it is amazing how it inspires you number one but it also will give you ideas and then if you ever need help you know it's there always you know just a phone call or text away and my my friend Jordan Harbinger likes to say you your network is your your network or your network is your network I'm sure he stole back somebody else anyway but the damn good quote I know yes the Jordan he has a great podcast you yeah that's what I'm trying to go yeah he's he's he's a rock star right and so yeah Jordan you know he says and and Jordan had kind of like a tumultramult I can't even say that we're tumultuous tumultuous sort of relationship break up with his former business partner and you know and and it was hard I mean Jordan literally almost started like from ground zero he had his podcast but you know they had a very big you know and successful coaching business and and you know and and Jordan he was like you know what I'm just gonna reach out to these people that I know that are friends and and he does he every day like sits down and sends text messages to people just to say hey and just to keep that connection going and you know I think that's something so incredibly you know powerful because we get so caught up in our own lives and our own shit a lot of times that you know just take in a few seconds out of the day just to connect with people you never know when you're going to need them or they may need you thanks for tuning in if you found this valuable don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode and if you want to dive deeper into this conversation check out the links in the description to watch the full episode see you in the next one