Interview #7 - Ben Christensen

Ben is one of the more interesting people I've had the opportunity to interact with over the years. His style is a strong blend of 19th century cowboy with modern skater and he somehow pulls it off in a way that's interesting without looking like a costume. In this episode Ben and I talk about how his style has evolved, what it's like to wear unique and interesting pieces, how his career and family have impacted his approach to his appearance, and a whole lot more.

It seems that more and more men are experiencing a crisis of identity. We know we want to be better, but we don't know exactly what that looks like, how to make it work in our contemporary world, or what the long-lasting implications of it are. In this episode we explore two key things I believe every man needs in his life in order to live up to his full potential.

In order to understand the relationship between appearance and masculinity we need to know what it is to be a man. And, while most of the world tries to tie up masculinity into moral virtues, my guest today articulately makes the point that masculinity is amoral - that regardless of how good or bad a person you are - whether or not you can be deemed a man is on a separate scale. Jack and his work have largely influenced my own approach to masculinity and, in this episode, we talk about how deeply rooted the principles of appearance are in the amoral world of being good at being a man.

If you and I had an evil plan to take over the world and we wanted complete and total domination, how would we approach altering men's relationships with their clothing and appearance? In today's episode I outline my plan and it looks eerily similar to what we see around us today

Dan Trepanier has been involved with the online menswear world nearly since its inception. And he's been a powerful player the entire time. However, Dan wasn't content to just write about the importance of a man's appearance, he wanted to do something more. So he created Articles of Style, and commerce menswear brand with a killer style and focus on everyday clothes for successful men. In this episode Dan and I talk about his own style evolution from rural farmer, to athlete, to sartorialist; his take on the current state of menswear; and his views on how companies can do more than just make clothing.

Having surrounded myself with men who make a living online, one of the most common things I hear is your website/Instagram/YouTube/whatever is your business card. Implied in that statement is the idea that you need to be putting yourself online and creating a "personal brand" in order to stand out and succeed in the 21st century But is that really true, or can you still do things the old way?

Today's guest is not only stylish in his own right, he also runs Stock & Barrel - a leather company creating some of the best-looking, Western-inspired leather goods out there. Parker and I talk about his approach to his own personal style, along with how he's used that approach to create his successful company.

I had to buy a cheap H&M dress shirt last month and I'll never do it again. In this episode I'll tell you all the reasons why the extra investment into quality clothing is worth it

Real men care how they look and Ryan Michler, the founder of Order of Man, is on the show today to talk exactly about why that is. He walks us through his own personal style journey and how it's been an important part of becoming the intentional, masculine man he's built himself into

Have you ever noticed that most men look like they're about 10 or 20 years behind the times? Like they're still wearing what was popular on TV in the late 90's and early 00's? In today's episode I talk about the two main reasons this happens, how it will likely happen to you, and why it's a problem. And no, I don't tell you you need to jump on the latest trend to avoid the problem either.