When Aaron Marino was working as a personal trainer in 2006, one of his clients—a meteorologist at the Weather Channel—admitted he couldn’t decide what to wear on a first date. After Marino helped him shop for new clothes and prep for the outing, he realized he had stumbled onto a new business: image consulting for men.
“At the time, there was not much style and grooming advice for regular men, just a handful of high-fashion magazines like Esquire and GQ,” Marino says. “I realized there might be a market for my advice.”
With a fitness coach’s drive and intensity, Marino soon built a loyal clientele and started posting videos on YouTube—spicing up style, grooming, and fitness advice with hot tips like why sweat is sexy or that women love drummers. His Alpha M. channel boasts more than 6 million subscribers, and his line of grooming products—Pete & Pedro—was featured on Shark Tank.
