Speaker 1: This show is produced and hosted by Mark Webber.
Speaker 2: The show is sponsored by G three of Parow.
Speaker 1: The views expressed in the following program are those of
Speaker 1: the sponsor and not necessarily the opinion of seven tenor
Speaker 1: or iHeartMedia. Who is Mark Webber. He's a self made
Speaker 1: business executive here to help you find your success, from
Speaker 1: the New York City projects to the Avenue Montaigne in Paris.
Speaker 1: His global success story in the luxury world of fashion
Speaker 1: is inspirational.
Speaker 2: He's gone from clerk to CEO twice.
Speaker 1: Mark is classic proof that the American dream is alive.
Speaker 1: And well, here's your host of Always in Fashion, Mark Weber.
Speaker 3: Mark Weber. Good evening. I have to start by saying
Speaker 3: something that I read. A fool is known by his speech,
Speaker 3: a wise man by his silence. This is what's been
Speaker 3: on my mind this week. I'm trying to be silent.
Speaker 3: I'm trying real hard to be silent. There is so
Speaker 3: much stupidity in our country right now, and yet it
Speaker 3: should have been a better times. But there's travesty in California,
Speaker 3: and that's wreaking havoc with everyone. It's sadly funny and
Speaker 3: it's plain to see that fools known by the speech,
Speaker 3: wise men by the silence. For whatever reason, this year
Speaker 3: to date, I'm drawn to quiet. I've noticed people, the
Speaker 3: most prominent to the least well known, just don't know
Speaker 3: when to say it nicely. Steak silent from Biden rooting
Speaker 3: the Trump transition and insisting he would have won the
Speaker 3: election to Gavin Newsom. Great smile, great looking guy, poised,
Speaker 3: but everything that comes out of his mouth seems to
Speaker 3: be nonsense. He's so well spoken that everything he does
Speaker 3: is bad. His policies finally are under attack, and his
Speaker 3: closest advocates are starting to wonder what are they doing
Speaker 3: there because of the fire words excuses. Please be quiet,
Speaker 3: Golden my favorite President Donald Trump. Right now, if I
Speaker 3: could whisper in his ear, I'd love to tell him
Speaker 3: wise man is silent. Mister President, You're about to start
Speaker 3: negotiations for the future of America, frankly, the future of
Speaker 3: the world. Everything as you know in this world is
Speaker 3: a negotiation. Can I advise you to let the fools talk?
Speaker 3: They're obvious fools. You let Biden talk and he was out.
Speaker 3: You'll let Kamala talk and she lost. Please consider toning
Speaker 3: it down. I love the Greenland idea, I love Canada
Speaker 3: joining the United States. I love the Gulf of America.
Speaker 3: But it's all in negotiation, and you're the best, Frankly,
Speaker 3: Chapter seventeen in my book. As you know, mister president,
Speaker 3: always in fashion is negotiating with the master, and you
Speaker 3: with the master. You have your own chapter and when
Speaker 3: he did it long before you were being considered for
Speaker 3: president in two thousand and five, and it was chronicled
Speaker 3: in twenty fifteen before you announced that you were going
Speaker 3: to take office. You can notion negotiate and win. Tone
Speaker 3: it down, mister president. Hey, I have to say this
Speaker 3: to all of us. The minute we were born, we
Speaker 3: were crying for our milk. Our position was feed me
Speaker 3: or I refuse to be quiet? Could it be that's
Speaker 3: the smartest moment in our lives, knowing how to apply pressure,
Speaker 3: how to negotiate, when to talk and when to be silent,
Speaker 3: when to talk, when to listen. It seems we all
Speaker 3: struggle with this throughout our lives. It's so hard trying
Speaker 3: to be silent. In my personal life. I've noticed I've
Speaker 3: been quieter this year, yet here on the radio, I
Speaker 3: have no choice. On podcasts, I have to speak, and speak,
Speaker 3: I will perhaps softer, let the words have more meaning.
Speaker 3: I try not to be a fool talking. And once
Speaker 3: again I quote Benjamin Franklin, my favorite business quote, well
Speaker 3: done is better than well said. I'm not interested in
Speaker 3: what you say will do. I'm interested only in that
Speaker 3: which you do and get done. Please, mister President, don't
Speaker 3: let fools trap you into being a fool. It's a
Speaker 3: week of could have, should have and would haves in life,
Speaker 3: Miss the President. I love the Golden Age of America.
Speaker 3: Now I must have my lawyer, my co host, my
Speaker 3: son Jesse Weber.
Speaker 2: Hey, what's going on? Good to be here. I tell
Speaker 2: you a very important lesson in listening, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh my god. You know where would you be
Speaker 3: if you haven't had my lessons?
Speaker 2: Happier Listen, listen, Listening to your business advice has been
Speaker 2: incredibly valuable. And you have been through a lot. You
Speaker 2: have been through it all. But I will tell you
Speaker 2: you know, my profession is particularly interviewing on TV. Time
Speaker 2: is precious, so you got to make sure your guests
Speaker 2: answer the questions in a timely basis. You have to
Speaker 2: hear what they're saying, you know, do follow up questions,
Speaker 2: just don't let them talk. So, you know, listening is
Speaker 2: an incredibly it's an incredible skill. It's a skill not
Speaker 2: everybody has it. You have to be thinking about that.
Speaker 2: You have to know when to cut people off, ask
Speaker 2: the next question, follow up. So two guests talking over
Speaker 2: each other can be very dramatic, but most times you
Speaker 2: have to shut it down. It's interesting and podcasts are very,
Speaker 2: very different, different thing because that is all unless there's
Speaker 2: a video podcast, it's all audio. You have to engage
Speaker 2: people through the sound of your voice primarily, so you're
Speaker 2: not rushed for time. With podcasts, you have a little
Speaker 2: bit more time to let things marinate and you know,
Speaker 2: have more smart, intelligent answers or conversations. Hopefully the guest delivers.
Speaker 2: But the key is interviewing or the law. You never
Speaker 2: ask a question you don't know the answer to. So
Speaker 2: if the guest is off for running or boring, or
Speaker 2: maybe saying something incorrectly, you got to step in and
Speaker 2: correct the situation. You got to give him an example
Speaker 2: of what together.
Speaker 3: Fools like to talk too much, there's no question about it.
Speaker 3: And wise men, as I'm saying tonight, i'd like to
Speaker 3: be silent well, coming up on the inauguration, I guess
Speaker 3: I have to ask before we go, though, what's with
Speaker 3: this Jack Smith? What did he do to the president?
Speaker 3: What did he what's the point?
Speaker 2: Well, look, he was the one who was prosecuting Donald
Speaker 2: Trump before Donald Trump became the president elect. He announced
Speaker 2: after the president, after Donald Trump won the election, that
Speaker 2: he was going to be dismissing the case and he
Speaker 2: was going to be stepping aside and he was going
Speaker 2: to be leaving, but not unexpectedly. I didn't think he
Speaker 2: was not going to do this. He released a report
Speaker 2: about the investigation about the case, and he wanted to
Speaker 2: put it on the record about what they had and
Speaker 2: what they found, and the basic conclusion was it wasn't
Speaker 2: anything new that we didn't know. But he basically said
Speaker 2: he was very confident that Donald Trump would have been
Speaker 2: convicted at a trial with respect to interfering in the election,
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty election or election interference crimes if it
Speaker 2: went to trial. And the only reason he dismissed it
Speaker 2: is because under the law, you can't prosecute a sitting president.
Speaker 2: So that's why it was dismissed, not on substantive grounds,
Speaker 2: not on the evidence, but because he had no choice
Speaker 2: but to throw it up in his state, and.
Speaker 3: He couldn't just shut his mouth and walk away.
Speaker 2: He believes Donald Trump committed a series of crimes and
Speaker 2: he wanted to put on the record that this is
Speaker 2: what he did. And if you think about it, the
Speaker 2: work that he and his team did, he didn't want
Speaker 2: it to be for naught.
Speaker 3: I don't even want to hear this. I can't deal
Speaker 3: with this. But I do have an important question for you.
Speaker 3: Have you listened at all to what Jimmy Kimmel has
Speaker 3: been saying.
Speaker 2: Jimmy Kimmel used to be very funny, and then he's
Speaker 2: gotten so political and this it's kind of hard to
Speaker 2: listen to him at times.
Speaker 3: Yeah, look, I'm still a fan. I think he's a
Speaker 3: smart guy. I think he's very entertaining, and of all
Speaker 3: the late night hosts, I think he'd be my favorite.
Speaker 3: Of course, Jimmy Fallon. When he sings and does this thing,
Speaker 3: it's very interesting. But I want to go there. I
Speaker 3: was listening to him the other night and I want
Speaker 3: to I have a transcript of what he said, and
Speaker 3: I have a question I have to ask you. This
Speaker 3: is Jimmy Kimmel tonight, I don't want to get into
Speaker 3: all the vile and irresponsible and stupid things are future
Speaker 3: president and his gaggle of scumbaggs choose to say during
Speaker 3: our darkest and most terrifying hour. And then he added
Speaker 3: the fact he chose to attack our firefighters who are
Speaker 3: out there risking their lives on our behalf. It's disgusting,
Speaker 3: but not surprising. Instead, I want to focus on thanking
Speaker 3: these men and women, because that's what we all should
Speaker 3: be doing now. First of all, Donald Trump didn't attack
Speaker 3: the firefighters. He's been very complimentary. He's very much against
Speaker 3: the politicians who are responsible, in his view, for the
Speaker 3: fire getting out of control. But what I want to
Speaker 3: know from you from the law, can anybody arrest Jimmy Kimmel.
Speaker 3: Does there any consequence for the way he's calling and
Speaker 3: talking about the president and calling him a scumbag and
Speaker 3: all of.
Speaker 2: That in this country, in this country or North Korea,
Speaker 2: if it's North Korea, you'd be jailed in a second. Look,
Speaker 2: that's the beauty of our country. You're allowed to criticize anybody,
Speaker 2: You're allowed, You're supposed to criticize our politicians, our leaders,
Speaker 2: you're supposed to that's the point. You're supposed to hold
Speaker 2: them accountable. No, he can't get in trouble for what
Speaker 2: he says. Now, if he were to free speech is
Speaker 2: not unlimited right. He can't if he were to say,
Speaker 2: if he were to say, look, Donald Trump just committed
Speaker 2: murder on Fifth Avenue, I have the evidence to prove it,
Speaker 2: and there's no evidence. That's called defamation. He could be
Speaker 2: sued for defamation. He can't be legally charged with unless
Speaker 2: he filed a false report. People have freedom to say
Speaker 2: what they want to say. They can't yell fire, he
Speaker 2: said Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: If he said Donald Trump should be killed though, somebody
Speaker 3: should shoot.
Speaker 2: Him, well, that's where you get into murky territory, because
Speaker 2: if he's advocating for violence against somebody else and somebody
Speaker 2: commits it, you know, there's one there's a separation between
Speaker 2: free speech and opinion, and you're, you know, advocating for violence.
Speaker 2: That's where you could get yourself into a lot of trouble. Yes,
Speaker 2: that that's something he would avoid. But criticizing the president,
Speaker 2: calling him names, he's totally free to do it.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: There was an interesting conversation about whether or not Donald
Speaker 2: Trump would have the power to revoke broadcast licenses. Have
Speaker 2: you heard about this? So that he doesn't love what
Speaker 2: certain networks are doing under the law. The FCC is
Speaker 2: supposed to be independent from the President of the United States,
Speaker 2: and they've gone on record and say they always want
Speaker 2: to adhere and uphold the First Amendment. There is talk
Speaker 2: about whether or not Donald Trump would try to have
Speaker 2: the authority to control the FCC and whether or not
Speaker 2: he can mount the legal challenge. We'll see if that happens.
Speaker 2: There is something that I thought was very interesting, and
Speaker 2: that is the idea that there are certain provisions that
Speaker 2: would suggest that in a time of emergency, let's say,
Speaker 2: a war or national crisis.
Speaker 3: Or buyers out of control.
Speaker 2: Could the president have the power to take control of
Speaker 2: the airwaves. That's a little bit of an unprecedented issue.
Speaker 2: There could be a legal argument for it. I'm not
Speaker 2: saying it would be successful, but I wonder whether or
Speaker 2: not that is something that could be explored in the
Speaker 2: future and what that emergency would be and whether or
Speaker 2: not the president has to do it. But generally speaking,
Speaker 2: he's just going to have to live with the people
Speaker 2: criticizing him and comedians criticizing him.
Speaker 3: Well, I figured you'd say that. I figured i'd ask anyway,
Speaker 3: I didn't Madonna get arrested or the FBI came to
Speaker 3: see you one time she was talking badly about Was
Speaker 3: it Trump?
Speaker 2: I don't know Madonna. I haven't thought about Madonna in
Speaker 2: a long time. I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think so all right. Anyway, I'm not advocating for
Speaker 3: him to be arrested. I'm not advocating I will.
Speaker 2: I will say Jimmy Kimmel, aside from when he gets
Speaker 2: doesn't get to the politics. I think he's a great interviewer.
Speaker 2: I think he's very funny, but man, when he gets
Speaker 2: into kind of politics, I know people love it. But
Speaker 2: I always thought, I always thought, wouldn't you agree that
Speaker 2: if you're in the media and you see actors do
Speaker 2: this too, wouldn't you want to have the best, most
Speaker 2: broad audience possible and not try to say things that
Speaker 2: would just alienate a whole section of the public. That's
Speaker 2: why you see like a do you even know whether
Speaker 2: Tom Cruise voted? Do you even know if Tom Cruise
Speaker 2: is a Republican or a Democrat or whatever. No, he
Speaker 2: just makes movies and everybody sees them right on the left.
Speaker 2: That's don't you want that? If you're an entertainment.
Speaker 3: Well, I would think with the results of the current election,
Speaker 3: why why is this bothering me? We have a new president.
Speaker 3: Seventy seven million people voted for him. There is a
Speaker 3: lot of enthusiasm in this country right now. A lot
Speaker 3: of good things are happening right now. There is overnight
Speaker 3: it looks like Israel and Hamas are going to come
Speaker 3: to terms overnight. There are new people looking at the
Speaker 3: way this fire is going overnight, this conversation's about stopping
Speaker 3: illegal immigration. All these things are happening, and the president
Speaker 3: has any come in. It bothers me the way people
Speaker 3: are starting up again and talking so disrespectfully for the president.
Speaker 3: My view is no matter who the president ever was,
Speaker 3: you would never know. I didn't like them. I thought
Speaker 3: Biden's policies were horrendous. Obama to this day is my
Speaker 3: favorite president, but I don't think he did things that
Speaker 3: were necessarily good for the country, let alone unite the country.
Speaker 3: But he was my favorite. I would never say bad
Speaker 3: words about him. And the the lack of disrespect here
Speaker 3: going on. When I heard Jimmy Kimmel do it I
Speaker 3: only got my backup and of of course out in
Speaker 3: favor of censory. But I wouldn't have a problem if
Speaker 3: Donald Trump went to CBS and said, look, you have
Speaker 3: a choice here. If you're going to continue to run,
Speaker 3: you're going to have a very poor reputation or access
Speaker 3: to this network with me, And I want you to
Speaker 3: know that. Either tell him to behave and apologize for
Speaker 3: the way he talks. If he wants to criticize me,
Speaker 3: that's one thing, but to call me vile, to call
Speaker 3: the people I'm bringing to this government scumbags? Who the
Speaker 3: hell is he to talk that way on national television.
Speaker 3: So with that in mind, I'll get off this subject
Speaker 3: and get onto the fire. I do want to talk
Speaker 3: about California, anything you want to say about it.
Speaker 2: It's like a horror scene. I can't believe what is
Speaker 2: going on, and it's shocking. It came out of nowhere
Speaker 2: and how quickly the fire spread. And I know there's
Speaker 2: a whole conversation about what caused it, who's to blame.
Speaker 2: Those are fair questions, but I think the immediate thing
Speaker 2: you have to be thinking about is how to prevent
Speaker 2: loss of life and prevent the loss of further destruction
Speaker 2: because so many people's lives have been devastated. It is
Speaker 2: shocking to see what has happened. I don't know how
Speaker 2: you rebuild two things. I don't know how you rebuild LA.
Speaker 2: And if you live in La, do you stay in La?
Speaker 2: Do would you ever risk this happening again?
Speaker 3: Well, that's where Trump and the team comes in. What
Speaker 3: you know, history repeats itself, and from my point of view,
Speaker 3: I remember reading back in the day. If it was
Speaker 3: at the time that everyone was emulating the Japanese economy,
Speaker 3: how brilliant they were, and how they dealt with people,
Speaker 3: and their strategy was they don't have fixed blame. They
Speaker 3: fix problems. And we have a lot of problems right
Speaker 3: now in California. And there is an answer a question.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of blame to go around. It's a
Speaker 3: force masure, it's an act of God. Nobody could stop it.
Speaker 3: I hope we don't find out anyone started this fire,
Speaker 3: but even if they did, there should be mechanisms in
Speaker 3: place to correct it. And I think that's what we're
Speaker 3: up to and that's what I want to talk about.
Speaker 3: I want to talk about the California fires. It's time
Speaker 3: I'll be back in a minute. Always spent a lifetime
Speaker 3: of my career building the van Usen brand, and I
Speaker 3: am so pleased that they're back with us now. Talking
Speaker 3: about suits, men were dressing up again and it's become
Speaker 3: cool to wear a suit. Suits can be won on
Speaker 3: multiple occasions in multiple ways. You could wear a suit
Speaker 3: formally to go out at night or to an event.
Speaker 3: You wear a suit to the office with or without
Speaker 3: a tie. If you look closely, now fashion trends, suits
Speaker 3: are being worn with turtlenecks or mark next. The choices
Speaker 3: are endless and every one of them looks right. You
Speaker 3: could really really look the part. I believe that packaging
Speaker 3: yourself is as important does the products you package, and
Speaker 3: wearing a suit is one of those things that make
Speaker 3: men look their best. Venues and invented a new idea.
Speaker 3: It's called the cool flex suit. It's been engineered stretch technology,
Speaker 3: giving you the most comfortable fit and mobility. Its wrinkle
Speaker 3: resistant fabric, it's cool moisture wiki. It makes it perfect
Speaker 3: for all occasions. As we discussed just now, this new
Speaker 3: style of looking sharp while feeling cool and comfortable is amazing,
Speaker 3: and I'm so excited that the van using company is
Speaker 3: involved in this new technology and is embracing the whole
Speaker 3: idea of dressing up. Let's not forget van Us and
Speaker 3: made it's name with dress shirts. It's only proper that
Speaker 3: the suit business follows strongly in its way. You can
Speaker 3: find Vanues and cool Flex men's stretch suits at jcpenny
Speaker 3: are online at jcpenny dot com. Guys, they're great, you
Speaker 3: should go look at them. Donna Karen began her career
Speaker 3: as one of the finest, most successful, powerful women in
Speaker 3: the fashion industry. She developed a collection aimed at the
Speaker 3: luxury market for women on the go, women who were
Speaker 3: powerful in their workplace, women who had lives, lives that
Speaker 3: extended beyond the workplace, and her clothes went from day
Speaker 3: in tonight an extraordinary collection. But the interesting thing Donna
Speaker 3: Karen had a young daughter and she had friends and
Speaker 3: they couldn't afford to buy the Donna Karen collection, and
Speaker 3: Donna invented dk NY Donna Aaron, New York. It's an
Speaker 3: offshoot of the Donna Karen collection. The same concept a
Speaker 3: lifestyle brand. Then we talk about lifestyle brands, what does
Speaker 3: that really mean? Simply what they say there are brands
Speaker 3: that follow you throughout your lifestyle. You get up in
Speaker 3: the morning, you start to get dressed Donna Karen Decaan
Speaker 3: why as intimate apparel, as hosiery, as all those products.
Speaker 3: You're getting dressed for work. You get accessorized shoes, handbags,
Speaker 3: and it takes you through the day. The remarkable thing
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Speaker 3: day in tonight. Part of your lifestyle is active. You
Speaker 3: have weekends, you have events, you participate in sports. Donna
Speaker 3: Karen's casual clothes did that under the DK and Y label.
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Speaker 3: and Y genes dk Y Sportswear is there for you.
Speaker 3: That's what a lifestyle brand is. And I need to
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Speaker 3: sports bras, the sweats. You can wear DKY active Wear
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Speaker 3: and Macy's DKY dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to it always in fashion. Here's your host,
Speaker 2: Mark Webber.
Speaker 3: Thank you for being here tonight. I try and avoid
Speaker 3: nasty subjects, but I am, like all Americans, devastated by
Speaker 3: what's happened and what continues to be going on in California.
Speaker 3: It is an act of God. Legal terms is called
Speaker 3: force majeure. You can't legislate what God has in mind
Speaker 3: for us here and whatever is going on with this fire.
Speaker 3: I hope it's not arson, but even if it was,
Speaker 3: what's happened is inexplicable. There are answers that have to
Speaker 3: be found. They say, history repeats and therefore we need
Speaker 3: to know why this is happening and frankly, speaking from history,
Speaker 3: we know that it does, and there's been pretty widespread
Speaker 3: understanding of what should be involved in fixing it. Jack Welsh,
Speaker 3: one of America's famous and most successful business people, was
Speaker 3: known for saying, I planned for the worst and hope
Speaker 3: for the best. Where were the plans for the worst?
Speaker 3: In California? All that thought a little interesting. I spent
Speaker 3: in my career a lot of time in California. Actually,
Speaker 3: until I was in my thirties, I really never had
Speaker 3: been to California. I came up in my career. I
Speaker 3: had many different responsibilities, and at one point in time,
Speaker 3: I was the president of the shirt division at Venues
Speaker 3: and shirts, particularly dress shirts. With my expertise, and interesting
Speaker 3: thing happened. The largest trade show in the world was
Speaker 3: called Magic for Men's Apparel. Eighty ninety thousand people would
Speaker 3: come to the show and it was generally considered the
Speaker 3: Magic the Men's Apparel Guild in California, But it was
Speaker 3: a sportswear show. It was to sell sportswear to people
Speaker 3: all around the country, on the West Coast in particular,
Speaker 3: who couldn't get to New York or the New England
Speaker 3: side or Dallas. They put on a show for them there,
Speaker 3: and everyone came and showed sports with her. But it
Speaker 3: grew and grew and grew, and one day my boss
Speaker 3: came to me and said, you are to represent the
Speaker 3: company and go there for dress shirts. I said, I
Speaker 3: thought that an interested in dress shirts. He said, well,
Speaker 3: you think about it. Every retailer of consequence in America
Speaker 3: is coming to California. They're there anyway. Why not capture
Speaker 3: their attention and sit with you instead of sitting with
Speaker 3: the competitors, even if it's talking dress shirts. Chose to
Speaker 3: be a brilliant idea, and I went to California and
Speaker 3: I started spending time there, and sure enough, every retail
Speaker 3: in America did come. And because I was there, and
Speaker 3: because we had our presentation, because we were so powerful
Speaker 3: in the shirt business, we owned venues and dressers, Calvin Klein,
Speaker 3: tress Shirts, a bunch of other brands. People came to
Speaker 3: see us. And I spent a lot of time in California,
Speaker 3: twice a year, and it was a wonderful, wonderful experience.
Speaker 3: I got to love it. I remember I used to
Speaker 3: stay in Century City, which had the only I think
Speaker 3: of the Hilton, only hotel in californ at the time
Speaker 3: that had a helipad, so dating back to Ronald reg
Speaker 3: and helicopters would fly there and land on the roof
Speaker 3: and it was a very fun, prestigious thing. The other
Speaker 3: thing that I loved California for is when you are
Speaker 3: trying to advertise, when you need to do photo shoots
Speaker 3: pictures of your products that are for spring. It's cold
Speaker 3: in New York, cold here when we need to shoot spring,
Speaker 3: and therefore you need to find warm weather climates where
Speaker 3: you could emulate spring even though it's winter, and California
Speaker 3: was perfect. They had an area near a Century Plaza
Speaker 3: that had some low level skyscrapers that had bridges and
Speaker 3: had some things you could walk on shoot the videos
Speaker 3: in front of. And we did some beautiful advertising in
Speaker 3: California and I found it amazing. But I also needed
Speaker 3: to do sportswear. I owned the Gant brand, I owned
Speaker 3: the Azad brand Venus and it had a sportswear brand.
Speaker 3: Gh Bess and Shoe Company had Spring Shoes and Spring Apparel.
Speaker 3: Had all these brands and we needed Spring and I
Speaker 3: found Malibu, or should I say my head of mark
Speaker 3: getting found Malibu and said this would be a great
Speaker 3: place to shoot, and I went to Malibu multiple occasions.
Speaker 3: We rented houses on the beach that we could film
Speaker 3: summer during the winter, and it was a remarkable place
Speaker 3: to be and I learned to love it. Also, during
Speaker 3: this period I call my Blue Period, which was the
Speaker 3: most creative period in my life, I spent time in
Speaker 3: California because I started supporting celebrity golf tournaments. We had
Speaker 3: the Iszid Golf Club, and we had a lot of
Speaker 3: Isart brand and we were in the golf business and
Speaker 3: we looked for ways to promote the brand. I never forget.
Speaker 3: Early on, when Tiger Woods was still an amateur, my
Speaker 3: guys in the golf division came to me and said,
Speaker 3: there's a new guy coming out. He's just won the
Speaker 3: three years in a row the amateur in the United States.
Speaker 3: We'd like to bid on him to be our spokesman,
Speaker 3: wear our clothes. What do you think? I said, Okay,
Speaker 3: who are going to bin against? And they said everyone.
Speaker 3: I said, what are we prepared to spend? What do
Speaker 3: you think we should offer? I said, how about a
Speaker 3: million dollars. I don't think it'll do it, Mark, but
Speaker 3: that's a good number. Well, we lost by thirty nine million.
Speaker 3: I think Nike he paid forty million to Tiger right
Speaker 3: out of the box, and of course gave him his
Speaker 3: own line and blah blah. But I did spend time
Speaker 3: in California, and it brings me to what's going on
Speaker 3: here right now. It is a travestic and yes, there's
Speaker 3: a lot of conversations about why it happened and should
Speaker 3: it happen, And the reality is, from what you're hearing
Speaker 3: and what you're seeing, the people in charge of California
Speaker 3: are almost buffoonish. Like I hate to say it, because
Speaker 3: I could never be elected governor. I don't have the temperament,
Speaker 3: I don't have the style. I don't understand politics. I
Speaker 3: don't understand what it takes to manage a city or
Speaker 3: a state, and I don't have the wherewithal. I have
Speaker 3: tremendous respect for elected officials, whatever state, there, in whatever
Speaker 3: position they hold. I am sure that if I became
Speaker 3: a congressman, I learned how to do it, et cetera,
Speaker 3: et cetera. But you have to respect these offices, and
Speaker 3: I do. But when I hear what's going on that
Speaker 3: after the brushfires they've taken place, which seems like every
Speaker 3: year in California, and all the rhetoric that went on
Speaker 3: with these brushfires, that they have to be cleaned up,
Speaker 3: that you can't leave, they'll fallen, leaves to turn brown,
Speaker 3: that they're on the ground, they have to be clean off,
Speaker 3: and forest management needs to be done diligently, and nobody
Speaker 3: did it. On top of which, they cut the firefighting
Speaker 3: budget by one hundred million dollars in California. How could
Speaker 3: they do this when they have so many problems. By
Speaker 3: the way, it's one hundred million, one hundred billion, I
Speaker 3: think it's one hundred million. And they did it with
Speaker 3: their eyes wide open. How could they let the reservoirs
Speaker 3: run dry. They're accusing Trump of not stating what's loud
Speaker 3: or not allowed legally. I don't care whether he knows
Speaker 3: what's legal or not. There's something to be said for
Speaker 3: the water's draining and not allowing it to happen to
Speaker 3: protect extinct fish types. I think this is a little
Speaker 3: on the walk side. And even if it's not, what's
Speaker 3: more important protecting our citizens' life or some fish called
Speaker 3: the smelt that somehow lives in the waters there, and
Speaker 3: because of that, our reservoirs are not full. How could
Speaker 3: it be that our fire hydrants in these areas are
Speaker 3: not filled with water, don't have access to the water.
Speaker 3: How can it be that we have a system in
Speaker 3: this country for dealing with emergencies. It is run by
Speaker 3: I guess the Federal Trade Commission. I'm not even sure
Speaker 3: I apologize. I'm not our news reporter. But to send
Speaker 3: out erroneous messages, you get wrong messages. It's like the
Speaker 3: Boy who crieth Wolf. Do you remember that story. There's
Speaker 3: a little boy and every once in a while he
Speaker 3: would say the wolf is coming, the wolf is coming.
Speaker 3: Every would run out and they bring their rifles and
Speaker 3: guns to protect everyone from the wolves. And it kept
Speaker 3: doing and it was a farce. He was making it up.
Speaker 3: And then one time the wolf was there when he
Speaker 3: called a No One game and the wolf adum. How
Speaker 3: could you send out messages that aren't right? And when
Speaker 3: you hear Gavin Newsom, he's taking the bureautic position. I
Speaker 3: did everything right. I don't understand why this happened. I
Speaker 3: have to find out for my people. When you listen
Speaker 3: to what's gone on with that mayor from originally apologizing,
Speaker 3: she would never go out of the country, should focus
Speaker 3: on her job right here in California where she needs
Speaker 3: to to the fact that she did nothing to manage
Speaker 3: this process in the beginning to avoid it. I said
Speaker 3: it earlier. I don't want to fix blame. I want
Speaker 3: to fix problems. Albert Einstein said, if you do the
Speaker 3: same thing over and over and expect a different result,
Speaker 3: you're crazy. Everyone seems to be crazy, everyone seems to
Speaker 3: have an excuse, and everyone is on the wrong path.
Speaker 3: Now I sound like an art and Trump's supporter right now,
Speaker 3: and I don't want to do that. Throughout the show,
Speaker 3: I am excited that the country is enthusiastic. I am
Speaker 3: excited that we need change. There's so many bad things
Speaker 3: that have taken place under the Biden administration, including a
Speaker 3: president who wasn't fit to earn, who wasn't fit to govern,
Speaker 3: and all of his counterparts wouldn't call it out until
Speaker 3: they had no choice and they saw it on national
Speaker 3: TV during the debates. A terrible situation to have put
Speaker 3: the country in, to have lied to created this distrust
Speaker 3: with the government. It is beyond crazy Trump. I don't
Speaker 3: want him fixing blame. I want him fixing the problems,
Speaker 3: he'll find out and those people are responsible should be responsible.
Speaker 3: What does it mean to take responsibility? I should have
Speaker 3: would have done it. It means that you don't belong
Speaker 3: in those jobs anymore. In corporate America, when you're the CEO,
Speaker 3: when you're the president, when you're a vice president, whatever
Speaker 3: position you hold, you are assigned responsibilities. If you don't prefer,
Speaker 3: you lose your job. The worst thing that I've ever
Speaker 3: done in my corporate life is having to fire people.
Speaker 3: The only time that I was able to deal with
Speaker 3: it without a bad conscience was when people stole from
Speaker 3: the company and I had to look them in the eye,
Speaker 3: present the tapes, all the transcripts, all their emails, and
Speaker 3: show them we caught them. It was the ugliest time.
Speaker 3: I hated doing it. I still felt sorry for that.
Speaker 3: But other than that, anytime people don't do the jobs
Speaker 3: and they're not capable of doing their jobs, or they
Speaker 3: have excuses, or they don't understand what happened, you have
Speaker 3: to let them go and heads should roll. People should
Speaker 3: be held accountable in California, and people should never vote
Speaker 3: for the people they put in place if they don't
Speaker 3: perform the number one job of a politician is to
Speaker 3: keep the people safe. It's such a travesty, the idea
Speaker 3: of people losing their homes. Thank god, we never really
Speaker 3: think about that. In rare occasions, in hurricanes or in tornadoes,
Speaker 3: we see it, but it seems a little further removed.
Speaker 3: It shouldn't be. But you're talking about Hollywood, the Capitol,
Speaker 3: movies and television. Everybody feels connected. Everyone should be grateful
Speaker 3: to California for entertaining us and making us happy, or
Speaker 3: making us say, or teaching us lessons about life for
Speaker 3: entirety of our lives, and we have to feel connected.
Speaker 3: This has to be fixed and people have to be
Speaker 3: held accountable. Before I leave this subject, I want to
Speaker 3: talk about David Muir, the anchorman for I think NBC
Speaker 3: or was it ABC. I think it might have been ABC.
Speaker 3: I was not happy with he and his compatriot when
Speaker 3: they had the debates on his station. They seem biased.
Speaker 3: They did all this fact checking only on Trump. Everybody
Speaker 3: knows that nobody agreed. They made it easier for the
Speaker 3: Democratic candidate than the Republican candidate. Should never be the
Speaker 3: You want to talk about the media losing credibility, that
Speaker 3: was part of it. But David Muir is under huge
Speaker 3: what's the right word, criticism for the fact that he
Speaker 3: put clothespins on the back of his fire coat, rain suit,
Speaker 3: whatever you want to call it. During his interview and
Speaker 3: coverage of the fires. He's having to explain he's disgraced,
Speaker 3: he's embarrassed. They talk about whether he will or will
Speaker 3: not stay and I have to say, this is the
Speaker 3: stupidest thing I ever heard. All you men in the media,
Speaker 3: all you men criticizing him, all you men writing articles
Speaker 3: about him. I ask you, when you get up in
Speaker 3: the morning, do you comb your hair, do you shave,
Speaker 3: do you brush your teeth? Do you put on the
Speaker 3: makeup you have to put on before you get on
Speaker 3: the screen? Do you think about what you're going to wear?
Speaker 3: Do you think about how you're packaging yourself that day?
Speaker 3: The answer is yes, and every one of you gave
Speaker 3: thought to what you will wear during your coverage. To you, ladies,
Speaker 3: is there any one of you who hasn't put on
Speaker 3: makeup before getting in front of the camera, hasn't put
Speaker 3: on lipstick, hasn't thought about how their eyes look, hasn't
Speaker 3: worn the right nails or nail polish, hasn't given and
Speaker 3: spent time in the selection of your outfits, even if
Speaker 3: it's outdoors during a fire, with the hat you choose,
Speaker 3: the outerwear jacket you choose, or the boots you wear,
Speaker 3: whatever it is, you've given it thought. There's not a
Speaker 3: time you've ever been in front of the camera where
Speaker 3: you've got any control whatsoever without trying to look your best.
Speaker 3: David Muir tried to look his best, and in that
Speaker 3: this show is called always in Fashion. I have to
Speaker 3: point out that packaging yourself is as important as the
Speaker 3: products you package. And if he felt by tapering his
Speaker 3: cloat using those clothes pins to give a better appearance
Speaker 3: and maybe give him credibility in the conversations, he was
Speaker 3: about to have the coverage he was giving, so be it.
Speaker 3: Nobody is any different than him. And the point is
Speaker 3: it doesn't change the coverage. He is entitled to look
Speaker 3: his best because looking his best makes you feel your best.
Speaker 3: And if you feel your best in front of the camera,
Speaker 3: behind the microphone, at your typewriter or at your computer,
Speaker 3: why would it be criticized? And it's ridiculous, it's stupid.
Speaker 3: I feel for him. I don't like what he did
Speaker 3: on the debate but I have no problem whatsoever, and
Speaker 3: you are all all full of baloney. You're all hypocrites
Speaker 3: because you all do the same thing. Unfortunately for him,
Speaker 3: he got caught. So in terms of California, terrible, what's
Speaker 3: going on. I've read that they're considering canceling the oscars.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure that's right or wrong. It's terrible what
Speaker 3: people are going through. I don't know how it ever
Speaker 3: would be built. I have a funny feeling if you
Speaker 3: sent Donald Trump to Malibu said to him, what would
Speaker 3: you do, mister president, to build this thing in the
Speaker 3: next two years? Build it back up, might come up
Speaker 3: with a solution. Having said that, I can't help but
Speaker 3: think about what people have had to say this week.
Speaker 3: A fool is known by his speech, a wise man
Speaker 3: by his silence. I'll be silent for a minute until
Speaker 3: you come back after commercial.
Speaker 2: Always in fashion.
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Speaker 3: feel good to wear now. I don't wear the women's
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Speaker 3: you're wearing something that's very expensive, that's exclusive for you
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Speaker 3: I go out at night, I'm in black and Carlago
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Speaker 2: Welcome back to Always in Fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber.
Speaker 3: Tonight, I really want to be silent because the title
Speaker 3: of the show, A fool is known by his speech,
Speaker 3: a wise man by his silence, and I'd like to
Speaker 3: be a wise man. I've talked a great deal about California,
Speaker 3: but before I let it go, I have one more
Speaker 3: thing to say. I want to talk about brands on California.
Speaker 3: When I was involved with procurement for a company, where
Speaker 3: do you buy your products to ensure that you get
Speaker 3: delivery and how do you plan it so if there's
Speaker 3: a problem, your silks can survive. Your company won't suffer,
Speaker 3: you won't disappear, you won't go back round. You might
Speaker 3: have a hip, you may lose some money here or there,
Speaker 3: but you'll still be around to survive. I go back
Speaker 3: to California. They're a fail safe. There's the brush that
Speaker 3: should be cleaned up. They're the reservoirs that should have
Speaker 3: been filled. There are hydrants that should have been operating,
Speaker 3: the fool proof systems that are in place, the checks
Speaker 3: and balances, all the inspections that needed to take place.
Speaker 3: I know, when I was manufacturing around the world in products,
Speaker 3: I could have put all my products in China. China
Speaker 3: was cheaper than any other country, almost twice as cheap
Speaker 3: than anywhere. But what if we had a problem with China,
Speaker 3: We'd get nothing, We'd be out of business. So I
Speaker 3: went to Bangladesh, I went to Indonesia, I went to Japan,
Speaker 3: I went to Hong Kong, I went to Korea. I
Speaker 3: went and placed orders in all these various different countries.
Speaker 3: So if in fact, that there was force masure, the
Speaker 3: act of God, if there was government intervention, if there
Speaker 3: was a sinkage in boats, if the Panama Canal got blocked.
Speaker 3: If IF and if I was responsible for making sure
Speaker 3: that we had a fail safe in place, we had
Speaker 3: checks and balances that would allow the business enterprise to
Speaker 3: go on. California. The fire is an utter travesty. Everything
Speaker 3: has broken down. Nothing is working except the break men
Speaker 3: and women fighting those fires, and everyone in this country
Speaker 3: willing to help out. Where there are airline pilots, where
Speaker 3: they are planes, where their helicopter, all those things, congratulations
Speaker 3: and thank you to all of them. But where are
Speaker 3: the checks and balances?
Speaker 2: Boom?
Speaker 3: I don't want to talk about that anymore tonight. Everyone's
Speaker 3: depressed as it is, and I want to talk about
Speaker 3: good things. I want to talk about brands, and I
Speaker 3: do have some interesting stories about brands that I noticed
Speaker 3: either took place with me or I read about this week.
Speaker 3: Always in fashion. Somewhere in all of that is retail
Speaker 3: and wholesale and luxury. I want to talk about Warren Buffett.
Speaker 3: He had a great quote, lose money for the firm,
Speaker 3: and I'll be understanding, lose a shred of reputation, and
Speaker 3: I will be ruthless. Your reputation I've done shows about.
Speaker 3: I'll talk again there is nothing more important to you? Hell,
Speaker 3: that's the question. First, What do you own? You can
Speaker 3: think about all your possessions. You can think about all
Speaker 3: these things, the land you live on, the government owns
Speaker 3: you paid axes for. You know, what do you own?
Speaker 3: The reality is you don't own really very much. The
Speaker 3: only thing you own, and I'm sure there are other things,
Speaker 3: but for the purpose of this exercise, I just want
Speaker 3: to say, the only thing you own is your word.
Speaker 3: What you say you own it. You are what you say.
Speaker 3: You make promises you deliver. You've made promise, you don't
Speaker 3: deliver it. Your word matters. And Warren Buffett's comment about
Speaker 3: understanding if a firm loses money, you made a mistake,
Speaker 3: but if you lose a shred of reputation, he'll be ruthless.
Speaker 3: You can't afford to lose your word. And I want
Speaker 3: to take that to the subject of brands. When my
Speaker 3: company bought Calvin Klein, it was fascinating. We had three
Speaker 3: major executives involved in the acquisition of Calvin Klin. Oh,
Speaker 3: we had a lot of people helping. We had the
Speaker 3: CEO whose idea it was to buy Calvin Kline, whose
Speaker 3: responsibility was to convince the board and to find a finance.
Speaker 3: Our chief financial officer acted as his partner to find
Speaker 3: the finance and seek to buy Calvin Klin buy companies.
Speaker 3: The money doesn't grow on trees. You have to find lenders.
Speaker 3: You have to find people that will believe in your
Speaker 3: ability to make that acquisition, to make that investment pay
Speaker 3: off for your lenders. The worst thing a bank can
Speaker 3: do is lend you a billion dollars and then you
Speaker 3: can't pay it back. So you have to be convinced.
Speaker 3: So between the CEO is idea, the chief financialized officer
Speaker 3: finding the money, and me doing the due diligence on
Speaker 3: the company. Now what did that mean? It meant that
Speaker 3: I was the guy who spent the three months going
Speaker 3: over to the Calvinklin offices every single day from morning tonight,
Speaker 3: understanding how they worked, learning how they did things, understanding
Speaker 3: what they were trying to accomplish, and whether or not
Speaker 3: they had the resources in place to execute. At the
Speaker 3: same time, if there were faulty ideas and they would
Speaker 3: never come to fruition. I needed to understand that Calvin
Speaker 3: Klein had a lot of licensees. Big part of this
Speaker 3: structure was in the renting business renting the Calvin Kleine
Speaker 3: name to other people to manufacture and product and pride
Speaker 3: product to consumers. Be interesting to let you know that
Speaker 3: the largest business at the time was Calvin Kleine genes,
Speaker 3: and they weren't done by Calvin Klein. They were done
Speaker 3: by another company under license and pay a royalty for
Speaker 3: the use of the name. Calvin Klein had oversight on
Speaker 3: the genes, but nonetheless it was licensed. The same for
Speaker 3: Iwere and the same for Fragrance. I guess I should
Speaker 3: say maybe the biggest business of all was Fragrance. All
Speaker 3: those famous clones, Eternity, moment k one, those were under
Speaker 3: license with Unilever. And I went there to look, learn, listen, comment,
Speaker 3: so that when we bought the company. If we bought
Speaker 3: the company, we would know exactly what to do. We
Speaker 3: had had a running start. There were no blips, no surprises,
Speaker 3: and I was expert at due diligence. I had learned it,
Speaker 3: I understood it, I knew how to run business. And
Speaker 3: I have to tell you, between the three of us,
Speaker 3: our acquisition of Calvin Klein was brilliant. There were no hiccups,
Speaker 3: no disappointments, no surprises other than Calvin Klein decided when
Speaker 3: we bought the company, he'd no longer walk down the
Speaker 3: runway and take credit for the collection, which in itself
Speaker 3: was its own problem. But go no. And that's for
Speaker 3: another time. But one of the things I noticed about
Speaker 3: Calvin Klein and talking about brands, they were fanatical about
Speaker 3: protecting the brand. They would do nothing that would take
Speaker 3: a penny of value out of the brand. What Calvin
Speaker 3: Klein represented, from the logo to the product, to the
Speaker 3: quality control, nothing would ever be jeopardized. One of my
Speaker 3: favorite stories. Again I'm told you like my stories, I'll
Speaker 3: tell you young designer took the Calvin Klein logo and changed it.
Speaker 3: You know, if you look at Calvin Klein, it's drawn
Speaker 3: up from high case letters and lower case letters. Calvin
Speaker 3: Klein designer came in and he did it in all
Speaker 3: block letters, all large case letters. And he showed it
Speaker 3: to me and it was brilliant, and everyone he showed
Speaker 3: it to looked amazing, and it was fresh and it
Speaker 3: was different. And here we are buying a company new,
Speaker 3: shouldn't we make a change in the logo. And finally
Speaker 3: I got to the point where I wanted to show
Speaker 3: it to Calvin, and I said, Calvin, you know this
Speaker 3: came out of nowhere. One of our young designers took
Speaker 3: the logo and changed it from lower and upper case
Speaker 3: to all large letters, upper case letters. What do you think?
Speaker 3: And he looked at me and he started to laugh
Speaker 3: and he said, let me tell you something more. In
Speaker 3: all my years, said Calvin Klein, every single month, every
Speaker 3: single year, every single whenever somebody came in and wanted
Speaker 3: to change the logo. Wow, this looks great. It's not
Speaker 3: with Calvin kleines. We have a logo. We should cherish it.
Speaker 3: Coca Cola doesn't change their logo. McDonald's doesn't shake their logo.
Speaker 3: Nobody of consequence. Who built the brand? We have this company?
Speaker 3: You paid a billion dollar for it. There's a reason
Speaker 3: this is our logo. Don't change it. And we never did,
Speaker 3: and I don't think they ever did since I've been gone.
Speaker 3: I also remember walking in the offices. Now, remember I
Speaker 3: was a president of PVH at the time. We just
Speaker 3: acquired this company. So and I walked, you know, the
Speaker 3: ground shook. Whatever I said mattered, and I had to
Speaker 3: choose my words very carefully. I had an appreciation for
Speaker 3: what I would say, and more importantly, appreciation for silence
Speaker 3: went to listen when to learn? I remember walking through
Speaker 3: the offices. It was quiet, you can hear a pin drop.
Speaker 3: The showroom's noisy, of course, where there's activity, but everything,
Speaker 3: and I noticed a couple of phenomenon. One I never
Speaker 3: saw pens or paper on anyone's desk. And I remember
Speaker 3: walking over to a young lady and said, you know,
Speaker 3: I never see pens and papers on your desk. Running
Speaker 3: from that matter, don't you have pens? Don't you have
Speaker 3: paper clips? And she laughed and said, of course we do.
Speaker 3: She's let me show you. She opens a drawer. Her
Speaker 3: desk was silver, Everything was silver. All the working in
Speaker 3: the the building was white, silver and gray. She opened
Speaker 3: up a deester and showed me her pens. All her
Speaker 3: paper clips were black. All the pens were black. I said,
Speaker 3: is that by accident? And she said no. In this company,
Speaker 3: you're not allowed to take out a pen that isn't
Speaker 3: all black. You're not to use paper clips that are
Speaker 3: not all black. And I remember saying to myself, is
Speaker 3: this crazy? Are my nuts? And then I said, I
Speaker 3: noticed that there were no family pictures on her desk,
Speaker 3: And I said, once again, I've noticed in the offices
Speaker 3: no family pictures, your office clean, none of the other osters.
Speaker 3: We are not allowed to have family photos in this company.
Speaker 3: The only photos were allowed to have are Calvin Klein
Speaker 3: ads or anything associated with Calvin Klein. I said, do
Speaker 3: you believe in that she's well? Would I like to
Speaker 3: have a picture of my husband here? Course, But I
Speaker 3: respect what the company represents. We all understand that we're
Speaker 3: all tied together. We understand what the greater good was
Speaker 3: and I really really respected it, and I would have
Speaker 3: never changed it. My CEO showed up one day. He
Speaker 3: had the courage I guess of conviction or he was
Speaker 3: a liberal, and he made a decision immediately that all
Speaker 3: the people working there that were allowed to have their picture. Now.
Speaker 3: While I respected it, and because everyone else in the
Speaker 3: company and all the other divisions and all the other
Speaker 3: businesses we ran had access to everything, they weren't fanatical
Speaker 3: like Calvin Klein was at the brand, and he immediately
Speaker 3: allowed them to have pictures. But I can tell you
Speaker 3: I could never prove it. The minute that started, the
Speaker 3: brand lost part of its luster. We always had something special.
Speaker 3: Now it didn't change. The company is still one of
Speaker 3: the wildly successful companies of our time and hopefully forever.
Speaker 3: And I only have fond memories, but I think understanding
Speaker 3: how important it is to protect the brand comes across
Speaker 3: with Calvin Klein's esthetics and everything they've done about the brand.
Speaker 3: And when Warren Buffett I saw that article this week,
Speaker 3: lose money for the firm, I'll be understanding, lose a
Speaker 3: shred of reputation, I'll be ruthless. I thought about Calvin Klein.
Speaker 3: You know, when it comes to brands and what you
Speaker 3: do with a brand, you have to satisfy your customer,
Speaker 3: maybe surprise him, create a special feeling. You know. When
Speaker 3: I think about the words to sound off and say
Speaker 3: what you should be doing for your customer to build
Speaker 3: your brand, I don't know, create joy, create a special feeling?
Speaker 3: Is that the goal? I think about it, and I
Speaker 3: came with the word that did it for me. You
Speaker 3: have to mesmerize your customer. It could be the littlest thing,
Speaker 3: the biggest thing. And that's what you should be thinking about.
Speaker 3: When I look at all these stores and I look
Speaker 3: at the products, and when I'm disappointed, I wonder, what
Speaker 3: are you thinking? Are you not hiring the right people.
Speaker 3: Do you not, let me say again, are you not
Speaker 3: setting the goal in the standards at the corporate level?
Speaker 3: Are you not making clear what's important? Are you not
Speaker 3: spelling out the essex, the ethos of the brand so
Speaker 3: that people understand what you're supposed to do. You want
Speaker 3: to see a great brand, go to fifty seventh Street
Speaker 3: in New York and look look what Louis Utone has
Speaker 3: done to wrap their store while it's under construction, while
Speaker 3: their rail stores across the street in the former Nike
Speaker 3: store in a temporary shot. Look at the effort and
Speaker 3: the time and attention to the brilliance they did to
Speaker 3: wrap the store under construction. So everything you do is
Speaker 3: so important, so important, you know. I'm always constantly trying
Speaker 3: to teach people, my son's, my friends. I have a
Speaker 3: thing called repeat after me. Drives me crazy, drives me
Speaker 3: nuts with my friends or people disappoint but I know
Speaker 3: it drives them even crazier than I drive them. In fact,
Speaker 3: to make a point, I had a very close friend
Speaker 3: and that meant a lot to me, and often made
Speaker 3: mistakes and always often wrong, never in doubt, and said
Speaker 3: the wrong things. And I would say to it, I
Speaker 3: would say to him, you got to do me a
Speaker 3: favor of this one time. I need to teach you
Speaker 3: a lesson. Would you mind? And he said okay. I
Speaker 3: said repeat after me. The guy looked at me like
Speaker 3: I was crazy. I said please. He said okay, I'll
Speaker 3: try it. And he said, Mark, Mark, You're always right.
Speaker 3: He looked at me like I was nuts, Mark, You're
Speaker 3: always right. This time, I was delighted in an experience
Speaker 3: that has to do with a number of things, all
Speaker 3: lessons learned, and the first has to do with the
Speaker 3: Grand Lux Cafe. I don't know if any of you
Speaker 3: ever eaten in Grand Lux. It's supposed to be a
Speaker 3: luxury version of cheesecake factory. Now, I am a man
Speaker 3: of the people. I could eat in Lusser, I could
Speaker 3: eat in the most expensive, famous restaurants and love it
Speaker 3: and be comfortable. But I also love the simple pleasures
Speaker 3: in life. I love McDonald's chicken sandwich with a dye
Speaker 3: coke or even a regular coke. I love the Grand
Speaker 3: Lux Cafe. I was there the other night and I
Speaker 3: ordered one of my favorite dishes there. It's barbecue plank salmon.
Speaker 3: I love the barbecue taste it comes with rice, and
Speaker 3: I always change out the rice for green beans and broccoli.
Speaker 3: I like to eat healthy, and I always order it
Speaker 3: well done. Something about me and fish. I like the
Speaker 3: fish cook anyway. Ten to fifteen minutes later comes out.
Speaker 3: It looks great. I start to eat the fish. The
Speaker 3: top is grilled be perfectly, and it's completely raw inside.
Speaker 3: And I'm really discouraged because I don't eat a lot
Speaker 3: of meals, and when I do eat, I want to
Speaker 3: eat them get my job done. I'm looking around, there's
Speaker 3: no way, no waiter, and ultimately I eat maybe a
Speaker 3: third of the fish. I only eat the crust because
Speaker 3: it's the only thing that I could actually look at.
Speaker 3: I ate the vegetables and that was it. And during
Speaker 3: the course of my dinner, a woman walked by and
Speaker 3: looked at my food, didn't say and she said to me,
Speaker 3: are you finished? I said yes. She took the plate away.
Speaker 3: Would you like any dessert? I said no, thank you.
Speaker 3: She came a minute later with a check and she said,
Speaker 3: I noticed you didn't need your meal. I also noticed
Speaker 3: that the waiter put it in well done and wasn't
Speaker 3: served to you well done. And for that we take
Speaker 3: our responsibility seriously. We're sorry you're unhappy. We could cook
Speaker 3: you a meal again if you'd like, but either way,
Speaker 3: we're not charging you for tonight. That mesmerized me, the
Speaker 3: fact that she saw it, the fact that they took action,
Speaker 3: the fact that they dealt with it without even asking me.
Speaker 3: They gave me a complete credit. I was impressed with that,
Speaker 3: and I thought it was amazing to see that that way.
Speaker 3: On the negative side, without mentioning names my favorite clothing maker,
Speaker 3: it's pretty much everything I wear is one of the
Speaker 3: greatest designers of all time has a problem. And in
Speaker 3: the tailor shop, and every time I go to buy
Speaker 3: a sport go to or a suit and end up
Speaker 3: coming back no less than three times to have it repaired,
Speaker 3: to the point that this winter, this fall to date,
Speaker 3: I have bought nothing, haven't even stepped in the store
Speaker 3: because I feel let down. As much as I love
Speaker 3: the brand and much as I feel simpatico to the brand,
Speaker 3: I am not being mesmerized and I feel let down,
Speaker 3: and they have a problem, and I've shared with them,
Speaker 3: and the salesman that handles me knows I feel this way.
Speaker 3: They either fix it or they don't. It's up to them.
Speaker 3: But it's a problem when you're a brand. You don't
Speaker 3: want to leave your customers feeling this way. I've been
Speaker 3: noticing another subject. I don't know about you, guys. If
Speaker 3: anybody seen the Jaguar advertising, I'm a fan of Jaguar.
Speaker 3: When I was a teenager, my first car was a
Speaker 3: Jaguar XKE. It was the biggest mistake in my life.
Speaker 3: It was six years was used. I borrowed money from
Speaker 3: my mother to pay for it. It was a disaster.
Speaker 3: I drove it Friday Saturday, was in the shop, stayed
Speaker 3: in the shop for a month, picked it up a month,
Speaker 3: drove it Friday back in the shop. Never ever performed.
Speaker 3: It was one of the worst cars I ever had,
Speaker 3: But nonetheless I had a love for it. And as
Speaker 3: it stands, one of the reasons I loved it is
Speaker 3: I eventually sold it. And if you would ever see
Speaker 3: the engagement ring on my wife's hand, if you looked
Speaker 3: very very closely and used your imagination, that was the
Speaker 3: Jaguar I had on but recently not a Jaguar. Jaguar
Speaker 3: decided to rebrand. They changed their local disaster. They changed
Speaker 3: the look of the car disaster. They made it all electric, disaster,
Speaker 3: alienating every customer that doesn't want an electric car at
Speaker 3: this stage of the game disaster. I can't believe Jaguar,
Speaker 3: one of my favorite brands of all time, is about
Speaker 3: to destroy it. Tirety of this strategy is disastrous. Everybody's
Speaker 3: making fun of their marketing campaign, the change of the logo.
Speaker 3: I'm worried. I was hoping they'd come out with great
Speaker 3: sports cars again. Branding is so important. Once you make
Speaker 3: a customer, you do all the research. In the luxury business,
Speaker 3: there's something called CRM Customer related marketing. What it is
Speaker 3: is fish where the fish are swimming. Why would you
Speaker 3: fish where the fish aren't When you have customers in
Speaker 3: this case that are already inclined to buy your brand,
Speaker 3: that they know, you know who they are, that you've
Speaker 3: demonstrated that you like what they're doing, You've been mesmerized,
Speaker 3: you want to market to them. My friends at Jaguar,
Speaker 3: do you have any idea that I won't buy an
Speaker 3: electric car at this time because I don't think we're ready.
Speaker 3: Have you any idea that I want your logo the
Speaker 3: way it is? It has meaning to me since I
Speaker 3: was a teenager. Do you have any idea, the kinds
Speaker 3: of cars I want to purchase. My family still has Jaguars,
Speaker 3: but no, you went and made all these changes. I
Speaker 3: am worried for you. I've been mesmerized. Don't you want
Speaker 3: me to stay? Now? I could keep myself quiet. I
Speaker 3: don't have to say anything else. But I realize that
Speaker 3: a fool is known by his speech, and I am
Speaker 3: trying to be very careful. But I'd like to think
Speaker 3: I'm a wise man by my silence. And with that,
Speaker 3: I've decided to go silent for the rest of the evening.
Speaker 3: Good Night,