A Fool Is Known By His Speech, A Wise Man By His Silence

wise men by the silence. For whatever reason, this year to date, I'm drawn to quiet. I've noticed people, the most prominent to the least well known, just don't know when to say it nicely. Steak silent from Biden rooting the Trump transition and insisting he would have won the election to Gavin Newsom. Great smile, great looking guy, poised, but everything that comes out of his mouth seems to be nonsense. He's so well spoken that everything he does

is bad. His policies finally are under attack, and his closest advocates are starting to wonder what are they doing there because of the fire words excuses. Please be quiet, Golden my favorite President Donald Trump. Right now, if I could whisper in his ear, I'd love to tell him wise man is silent. Mister President, You're about to start negotiations for the future of America, frankly, the future of the world. Everything as you know in this world is

a negotiation. Can I advise you to let the fools talk? They're obvious fools. You let Biden talk and he was out. You'll let Kamala talk and she lost. Please consider toning it down. I love the Greenland idea, I love Canada joining the United States. I love the Gulf of America. But it's all in negotiation, and you're the best, Frankly, Chapter seventeen in my book. As you know, mister president, always in fashion is negotiating with the master, and you

with the master. You have your own chapter and when he did it long before you were being considered for president in two thousand and five, and it was chronicled in twenty fifteen before you announced that you were going to take office. You can notion negotiate and win. Tone it down, mister president. Hey, I have to say this to all of us. The minute we were born, we were crying for our milk. Our position was feed me

or I refuse to be quiet? Could it be that's the smartest moment in our lives, knowing how to apply pressure, how to negotiate, when to talk and when to be silent, when to talk, when to listen. It seems we all struggle with this throughout our lives. It's so hard trying to be silent. In my personal life. I've noticed I've been quieter this year, yet here on the radio, I have no choice. On podcasts, I have to speak, and speak, I will perhaps softer, let the words have more meaning.

I try not to be a fool talking. And once again I quote Benjamin Franklin, my favorite business quote, well done is better than well said. I'm not interested in what you say will do. I'm interested only in that which you do and get done. Please, mister President, don't let fools trap you into being a fool. It's a week of could have, should have and would haves in life, Miss the President. I love the Golden Age of America. Now I must have my lawyer, my co host, my son Jesse Weber.

an incredibly it's an incredible skill. It's a skill not everybody has it. You have to be thinking about that. You have to know when to cut people off, ask the next question, follow up. So two guests talking over each other can be very dramatic, but most times you have to shut it down. It's interesting and podcasts are very, very different, different thing because that is all unless there's

a video podcast, it's all audio. You have to engage people through the sound of your voice primarily, so you're not rushed for time. With podcasts, you have a little bit more time to let things marinate and you know, have more smart, intelligent answers or conversations. Hopefully the guest delivers. But the key is interviewing or the law. You never

ask a question you don't know the answer to. So if the guest is off for running or boring, or maybe saying something incorrectly, you got to step in and correct the situation. You got to give him an example of what together.

was not going to do this. He released a report about the investigation about the case, and he wanted to put it on the record about what they had and what they found, and the basic conclusion was it wasn't anything new that we didn't know. But he basically said he was very confident that Donald Trump would have been convicted at a trial with respect to interfering in the election, the twenty twenty election or election interference crimes if it

went to trial. And the only reason he dismissed it is because under the law, you can't prosecute a sitting president. So that's why it was dismissed, not on substantive grounds, not on the evidence, but because he had no choice but to throw it up in his state, and.

I have a question I have to ask you. This is Jimmy Kimmel tonight, I don't want to get into all the vile and irresponsible and stupid things are future president and his gaggle of scumbaggs choose to say during our darkest and most terrifying hour. And then he added the fact he chose to attack our firefighters who are out there risking their lives on our behalf. It's disgusting, but not surprising. Instead, I want to focus on thanking these men and women, because that's what we all should

be doing now. First of all, Donald Trump didn't attack the firefighters. He's been very complimentary. He's very much against the politicians who are responsible, in his view, for the fire getting out of control. But what I want to know from you from the law, can anybody arrest Jimmy Kimmel. Does there any consequence for the way he's calling and talking about the president and calling him a scumbag and all of.

not unlimited right. He can't if he were to say, if he were to say, look, Donald Trump just committed murder on Fifth Avenue, I have the evidence to prove it, and there's no evidence. That's called defamation. He could be sued for defamation. He can't be legally charged with unless he filed a false report. People have freedom to say what they want to say. They can't yell fire, he said Donald Trump.

to adhere and uphold the First Amendment. There is talk about whether or not Donald Trump would try to have the authority to control the FCC and whether or not he can mount the legal challenge. We'll see if that happens. There is something that I thought was very interesting, and that is the idea that there are certain provisions that would suggest that in a time of emergency, let's say, a war or national crisis.

would just alienate a whole section of the public. That's why you see like a do you even know whether Tom Cruise voted? Do you even know if Tom Cruise is a Republican or a Democrat or whatever. No, he just makes movies and everybody sees them right on the left. That's don't you want that? If you're an entertainment.

illegal immigration. All these things are happening, and the president has any come in. It bothers me the way people are starting up again and talking so disrespectfully for the president. My view is no matter who the president ever was, you would never know. I didn't like them. I thought Biden's policies were horrendous. Obama to this day is my favorite president, but I don't think he did things that were necessarily good for the country, let alone unite the country.

But he was my favorite. I would never say bad words about him. And the the lack of disrespect here going on. When I heard Jimmy Kimmel do it I only got my backup and of of course out in favor of censory. But I wouldn't have a problem if Donald Trump went to CBS and said, look, you have a choice here. If you're going to continue to run, you're going to have a very poor reputation or access to this network with me, And I want you to know that. Either tell him to behave and apologize for

the way he talks. If he wants to criticize me, that's one thing, but to call me vile, to call the people I'm bringing to this government scumbags? Who the hell is he to talk that way on national television. So with that in mind, I'll get off this subject and get onto the fire. I do want to talk about California, anything you want to say about it.

you rebuild two things. I don't know how you rebuild LA. And if you live in La, do you stay in La? Do would you ever risk this happening again?

force masure, it's an act of God. Nobody could stop it. I hope we don't find out anyone started this fire, but even if they did, there should be mechanisms in place to correct it. And I think that's what we're up to and that's what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the California fires. It's time I'll be back in a minute. Always spent a lifetime of my career building the van Usen brand, and I

am so pleased that they're back with us now. Talking about suits, men were dressing up again and it's become cool to wear a suit. Suits can be won on multiple occasions in multiple ways. You could wear a suit formally to go out at night or to an event. You wear a suit to the office with or without a tie. If you look closely, now fashion trends, suits are being worn with turtlenecks or mark next. The choices are endless and every one of them looks right. You

could really really look the part. I believe that packaging yourself is as important does the products you package, and wearing a suit is one of those things that make men look their best. Venues and invented a new idea. It's called the cool flex suit. It's been engineered stretch technology, giving you the most comfortable fit and mobility. Its wrinkle resistant fabric, it's cool moisture wiki. It makes it perfect

for all occasions. As we discussed just now, this new style of looking sharp while feeling cool and comfortable is amazing, and I'm so excited that the van using company is involved in this new technology and is embracing the whole idea of dressing up. Let's not forget van Us and made it's name with dress shirts. It's only proper that the suit business follows strongly in its way. You can find Vanues and cool Flex men's stretch suits at jcpenny

are online at jcpenny dot com. Guys, they're great, you should go look at them. Donna Karen began her career as one of the finest, most successful, powerful women in the fashion industry. She developed a collection aimed at the luxury market for women on the go, women who were powerful in their workplace, women who had lives, lives that extended beyond the workplace, and her clothes went from day

in tonight an extraordinary collection. But the interesting thing Donna Karen had a young daughter and she had friends and they couldn't afford to buy the Donna Karen collection, and Donna invented dk NY Donna Aaron, New York. It's an offshoot of the Donna Karen collection. The same concept a lifestyle brand. Then we talk about lifestyle brands, what does that really mean? Simply what they say there are brands

that follow you throughout your lifestyle. You get up in the morning, you start to get dressed Donna Karen Decaan why as intimate apparel, as hosiery, as all those products. You're getting dressed for work. You get accessorized shoes, handbags, and it takes you through the day. The remarkable thing about DK and y clothes for work they work into the evening. The dresses, the suits, the pants, the sweaters, the blouses, extraordinary clothes at affordable prices that go from

day in tonight. Part of your lifestyle is active. You have weekends, you have events, you participate in sports. Donna Karen's casual clothes did that under the DK and Y label. A vast array of casual sportswear that make women look great as they navigate their busy lives. Whether you going to soccer games for your children or whether you're going out to the movies, whatever you want to do, DK and Y genes dk Y Sportswear is there for you. That's what a lifestyle brand is. And I need to

mention DKY active Wear, which is extraordinary. The leggings, the sports bras, the sweats. You can wear DKY active Wear certainly in the gym, certainly when you're working out at home, and certainly if you want on the street, because it's that well done. The quality of DK why is nothing short of exceptional, and why shouldn't it be because it was born from the idea of luxury made affordable for

women of America. DK and Why a true lifestyle brand that takes you from day and tonight, from the week into the weekend. DCN Why. You can find DCN Why and Macy's DKY dot com.

be found. They say, history repeats and therefore we need to know why this is happening and frankly, speaking from history, we know that it does, and there's been pretty widespread understanding of what should be involved in fixing it. Jack Welsh, one of America's famous and most successful business people, was known for saying, I planned for the worst and hope for the best. Where were the plans for the worst? In California? All that thought a little interesting. I spent

in my career a lot of time in California. Actually, until I was in my thirties, I really never had been to California. I came up in my career. I had many different responsibilities, and at one point in time, I was the president of the shirt division at Venues and shirts, particularly dress shirts. With my expertise, and interesting thing happened. The largest trade show in the world was

called Magic for Men's Apparel. Eighty ninety thousand people would come to the show and it was generally considered the Magic the Men's Apparel Guild in California, But it was a sportswear show. It was to sell sportswear to people all around the country, on the West Coast in particular, who couldn't get to New York or the New England side or Dallas. They put on a show for them there,

and everyone came and showed sports with her. But it grew and grew and grew, and one day my boss came to me and said, you are to represent the company and go there for dress shirts. I said, I thought that an interested in dress shirts. He said, well, you think about it. Every retailer of consequence in America is coming to California. They're there anyway. Why not capture their attention and sit with you instead of sitting with

the competitors, even if it's talking dress shirts. Chose to be a brilliant idea, and I went to California and I started spending time there, and sure enough, every retail in America did come. And because I was there, and because we had our presentation, because we were so powerful in the shirt business, we owned venues and dressers, Calvin Klein, tress Shirts, a bunch of other brands. People came to

see us. And I spent a lot of time in California, twice a year, and it was a wonderful, wonderful experience. I got to love it. I remember I used to stay in Century City, which had the only I think of the Hilton, only hotel in californ at the time that had a helipad, so dating back to Ronald reg and helicopters would fly there and land on the roof

and it was a very fun, prestigious thing. The other thing that I loved California for is when you are trying to advertise, when you need to do photo shoots pictures of your products that are for spring. It's cold in New York, cold here when we need to shoot spring, and therefore you need to find warm weather climates where you could emulate spring even though it's winter, and California

was perfect. They had an area near a Century Plaza that had some low level skyscrapers that had bridges and had some things you could walk on shoot the videos in front of. And we did some beautiful advertising in California and I found it amazing. But I also needed to do sportswear. I owned the Gant brand, I owned the Azad brand Venus and it had a sportswear brand. Gh Bess and Shoe Company had Spring Shoes and Spring Apparel.

Had all these brands and we needed Spring and I found Malibu, or should I say my head of mark getting found Malibu and said this would be a great place to shoot, and I went to Malibu multiple occasions. We rented houses on the beach that we could film summer during the winter, and it was a remarkable place to be and I learned to love it. Also, during this period I call my Blue Period, which was the most creative period in my life, I spent time in

California because I started supporting celebrity golf tournaments. We had the Iszid Golf Club, and we had a lot of Isart brand and we were in the golf business and we looked for ways to promote the brand. I never forget. Early on, when Tiger Woods was still an amateur, my guys in the golf division came to me and said, there's a new guy coming out. He's just won the three years in a row the amateur in the United States. We'd like to bid on him to be our spokesman,

wear our clothes. What do you think? I said, Okay, who are going to bin against? And they said everyone. I said, what are we prepared to spend? What do you think we should offer? I said, how about a million dollars. I don't think it'll do it, Mark, but that's a good number. Well, we lost by thirty nine million. I think Nike he paid forty million to Tiger right out of the box, and of course gave him his

own line and blah blah. But I did spend time in California, and it brings me to what's going on here right now. It is a travestic and yes, there's a lot of conversations about why it happened and should it happen, And the reality is, from what you're hearing and what you're seeing, the people in charge of California are almost buffoonish. Like I hate to say it, because I could never be elected governor. I don't have the temperament,

I don't have the style. I don't understand politics. I don't understand what it takes to manage a city or a state, and I don't have the wherewithal. I have tremendous respect for elected officials, whatever state, there, in whatever position they hold. I am sure that if I became a congressman, I learned how to do it, et cetera, et cetera. But you have to respect these offices, and

I do. But when I hear what's going on that after the brushfires they've taken place, which seems like every year in California, and all the rhetoric that went on with these brushfires, that they have to be cleaned up, that you can't leave, they'll fallen, leaves to turn brown, that they're on the ground, they have to be clean off, and forest management needs to be done diligently, and nobody did it. On top of which, they cut the firefighting

budget by one hundred million dollars in California. How could they do this when they have so many problems. By the way, it's one hundred million, one hundred billion, I think it's one hundred million. And they did it with their eyes wide open. How could they let the reservoirs run dry. They're accusing Trump of not stating what's loud or not allowed legally. I don't care whether he knows what's legal or not. There's something to be said for the water's draining and not allowing it to happen to

protect extinct fish types. I think this is a little on the walk side. And even if it's not, what's more important protecting our citizens' life or some fish called the smelt that somehow lives in the waters there, and because of that, our reservoirs are not full. How could it be that our fire hydrants in these areas are not filled with water, don't have access to the water. How can it be that we have a system in this country for dealing with emergencies. It is run by

I guess the Federal Trade Commission. I'm not even sure I apologize. I'm not our news reporter. But to send out erroneous messages, you get wrong messages. It's like the Boy who crieth Wolf. Do you remember that story. There's a little boy and every once in a while he would say the wolf is coming, the wolf is coming. Every would run out and they bring their rifles and guns to protect everyone from the wolves. And it kept doing and it was a farce. He was making it up.

And then one time the wolf was there when he called a No One game and the wolf adum. How could you send out messages that aren't right? And when you hear Gavin Newsom, he's taking the bureautic position. I did everything right. I don't understand why this happened. I

have to find out for my people. When you listen to what's gone on with that mayor from originally apologizing, she would never go out of the country, should focus on her job right here in California where she needs to to the fact that she did nothing to manage this process in the beginning to avoid it. I said it earlier. I don't want to fix blame. I want to fix problems. Albert Einstein said, if you do the same thing over and over and expect a different result,

you're crazy. Everyone seems to be crazy, everyone seems to have an excuse, and everyone is on the wrong path. Now I sound like an art and Trump's supporter right now, and I don't want to do that. Throughout the show, I am excited that the country is enthusiastic. I am

excited that we need change. There's so many bad things that have taken place under the Biden administration, including a president who wasn't fit to earn, who wasn't fit to govern, and all of his counterparts wouldn't call it out until they had no choice and they saw it on national TV during the debates. A terrible situation to have put the country in, to have lied to created this distrust with the government. It is beyond crazy Trump. I don't

want him fixing blame. I want him fixing the problems, he'll find out and those people are responsible should be responsible. What does it mean to take responsibility? I should have would have done it. It means that you don't belong in those jobs anymore. In corporate America, when you're the CEO, when you're the president, when you're a vice president, whatever position you hold, you are assigned responsibilities. If you don't prefer,

you lose your job. The worst thing that I've ever done in my corporate life is having to fire people. The only time that I was able to deal with it without a bad conscience was when people stole from the company and I had to look them in the eye, present the tapes, all the transcripts, all their emails, and show them we caught them. It was the ugliest time. I hated doing it. I still felt sorry for that.

But other than that, anytime people don't do the jobs and they're not capable of doing their jobs, or they have excuses, or they don't understand what happened, you have to let them go and heads should roll. People should be held accountable in California, and people should never vote for the people they put in place if they don't perform the number one job of a politician is to keep the people safe. It's such a travesty, the idea of people losing their homes. Thank god, we never really

think about that. In rare occasions, in hurricanes or in tornadoes, we see it, but it seems a little further removed. It shouldn't be. But you're talking about Hollywood, the Capitol, movies and television. Everybody feels connected. Everyone should be grateful to California for entertaining us and making us happy, or making us say, or teaching us lessons about life for entirety of our lives, and we have to feel connected. This has to be fixed and people have to be

held accountable. Before I leave this subject, I want to talk about David Muir, the anchorman for I think NBC or was it ABC. I think it might have been ABC. I was not happy with he and his compatriot when they had the debates on his station. They seem biased. They did all this fact checking only on Trump. Everybody knows that nobody agreed. They made it easier for the Democratic candidate than the Republican candidate. Should never be the You want to talk about the media losing credibility, that

was part of it. But David Muir is under huge what's the right word, criticism for the fact that he put clothespins on the back of his fire coat, rain suit, whatever you want to call it. During his interview and coverage of the fires. He's having to explain he's disgraced, he's embarrassed. They talk about whether he will or will not stay and I have to say, this is the stupidest thing I ever heard. All you men in the media, all you men criticizing him, all you men writing articles

about him. I ask you, when you get up in the morning, do you comb your hair, do you shave, do you brush your teeth? Do you put on the makeup you have to put on before you get on the screen? Do you think about what you're going to wear? Do you think about how you're packaging yourself that day? The answer is yes, and every one of you gave

thought to what you will wear during your coverage. To you, ladies, is there any one of you who hasn't put on makeup before getting in front of the camera, hasn't put on lipstick, hasn't thought about how their eyes look, hasn't worn the right nails or nail polish, hasn't given and spent time in the selection of your outfits, even if it's outdoors during a fire, with the hat you choose, the outerwear jacket you choose, or the boots you wear,

whatever it is, you've given it thought. There's not a time you've ever been in front of the camera where you've got any control whatsoever without trying to look your best. David Muir tried to look his best, and in that this show is called always in Fashion. I have to point out that packaging yourself is as important as the

products you package. And if he felt by tapering his cloat using those clothes pins to give a better appearance and maybe give him credibility in the conversations, he was about to have the coverage he was giving, so be it. Nobody is any different than him. And the point is it doesn't change the coverage. He is entitled to look his best because looking his best makes you feel your best.

And if you feel your best in front of the camera, behind the microphone, at your typewriter or at your computer, why would it be criticized? And it's ridiculous, it's stupid. I feel for him. I don't like what he did on the debate but I have no problem whatsoever, and you are all all full of baloney. You're all hypocrites because you all do the same thing. Unfortunately for him, he got caught. So in terms of California, terrible, what's

going on. I've read that they're considering canceling the oscars. I'm not sure that's right or wrong. It's terrible what people are going through. I don't know how it ever would be built. I have a funny feeling if you sent Donald Trump to Malibu said to him, what would you do, mister president, to build this thing in the next two years? Build it back up, might come up with a solution. Having said that, I can't help but think about what people have had to say this week.

A fool is known by his speech, a wise man by his silence. I'll be silent for a minute until you come back after commercial.

dot com. But it's more than that. I have, for one, love to shop. I love going around and seeing what's happening and what catches my attention, what would make me feel good to wear now. I don't wear the women's wear obviously, but I can appreciate it and they look amazed. If you want to look right, you want to have clothes that fits you well. You want to look like you're wearing something that's very expensive, that's exclusive for you and yours. You can find it at very affordable prices

at Macy's Orcarlagofel dot Comparis. The women's ready to wear fashion is extraordinary, as well as the handbigs and the shoes. I for one wear men's clothes, unlike my appreciation of women's clothes. I'm a modern guy. I want to look current. I want to look the way I want to feel. I go out at night, I'm in black and Carlago felt is my buddy. Clothes are great, they fit great, and they have little tweaks and touches, whether it's a stripe on the sleeve or button at the neck or

on the shoulder. There's a lot of details that go into Carlago felt because he's always been, he always had been one of the world's great designers, and this legacy and goes on and on. I can't speak enough about it except to say to you, you want to feel good about yourself. You want to know that you're dressing properly. You want to clothes that fits you well. Carl lagafeld Paris at Macy's Orcarl lagofel dot com.

a problem, your silks can survive. Your company won't suffer, you won't disappear, you won't go back round. You might have a hip, you may lose some money here or there, but you'll still be around to survive. I go back to California. They're a fail safe. There's the brush that should be cleaned up. They're the reservoirs that should have

been filled. There are hydrants that should have been operating, the fool proof systems that are in place, the checks and balances, all the inspections that needed to take place. I know, when I was manufacturing around the world in products, I could have put all my products in China. China was cheaper than any other country, almost twice as cheap than anywhere. But what if we had a problem with China,

We'd get nothing, We'd be out of business. So I went to Bangladesh, I went to Indonesia, I went to Japan, I went to Hong Kong, I went to Korea. I went and placed orders in all these various different countries. So if in fact, that there was force masure, the act of God, if there was government intervention, if there was a sinkage in boats, if the Panama Canal got blocked.

If IF and if I was responsible for making sure that we had a fail safe in place, we had checks and balances that would allow the business enterprise to go on. California. The fire is an utter travesty. Everything has broken down. Nothing is working except the break men and women fighting those fires, and everyone in this country willing to help out. Where there are airline pilots, where they are planes, where their helicopter, all those things, congratulations

and thank you to all of them. But where are the checks and balances?

I will be ruthless. Your reputation I've done shows about. I'll talk again there is nothing more important to you? Hell, that's the question. First, What do you own? You can think about all your possessions. You can think about all these things, the land you live on, the government owns you paid axes for. You know, what do you own?

The reality is you don't own really very much. The only thing you own, and I'm sure there are other things, but for the purpose of this exercise, I just want to say, the only thing you own is your word. What you say you own it. You are what you say. You make promises you deliver. You've made promise, you don't deliver it. Your word matters. And Warren Buffett's comment about understanding if a firm loses money, you made a mistake, but if you lose a shred of reputation, he'll be ruthless.

You can't afford to lose your word. And I want to take that to the subject of brands. When my company bought Calvin Klein, it was fascinating. We had three major executives involved in the acquisition of Calvin Klin. Oh, we had a lot of people helping. We had the CEO whose idea it was to buy Calvin Kline, whose responsibility was to convince the board and to find a finance. Our chief financial officer acted as his partner to find the finance and seek to buy Calvin Klin buy companies.

The money doesn't grow on trees. You have to find lenders. You have to find people that will believe in your ability to make that acquisition, to make that investment pay off for your lenders. The worst thing a bank can do is lend you a billion dollars and then you can't pay it back. So you have to be convinced. So between the CEO is idea, the chief financialized officer finding the money, and me doing the due diligence on

the company. Now what did that mean? It meant that I was the guy who spent the three months going over to the Calvinklin offices every single day from morning tonight, understanding how they worked, learning how they did things, understanding what they were trying to accomplish, and whether or not they had the resources in place to execute. At the same time, if there were faulty ideas and they would never come to fruition. I needed to understand that Calvin

Klein had a lot of licensees. Big part of this structure was in the renting business renting the Calvin Kleine name to other people to manufacture and product and pride product to consumers. Be interesting to let you know that the largest business at the time was Calvin Kleine genes, and they weren't done by Calvin Klein. They were done by another company under license and pay a royalty for the use of the name. Calvin Klein had oversight on

the genes, but nonetheless it was licensed. The same for Iwere and the same for Fragrance. I guess I should say maybe the biggest business of all was Fragrance. All those famous clones, Eternity, moment k one, those were under license with Unilever. And I went there to look, learn, listen, comment, so that when we bought the company. If we bought the company, we would know exactly what to do. We had had a running start. There were no blips, no surprises,

and I was expert at due diligence. I had learned it, I understood it, I knew how to run business. And I have to tell you, between the three of us, our acquisition of Calvin Klein was brilliant. There were no hiccups, no disappointments, no surprises other than Calvin Klein decided when we bought the company, he'd no longer walk down the runway and take credit for the collection, which in itself was its own problem. But go no. And that's for

another time. But one of the things I noticed about Calvin Klein and talking about brands, they were fanatical about protecting the brand. They would do nothing that would take a penny of value out of the brand. What Calvin Klein represented, from the logo to the product, to the quality control, nothing would ever be jeopardized. One of my favorite stories. Again I'm told you like my stories, I'll tell you young designer took the Calvin Klein logo and changed it.

You know, if you look at Calvin Klein, it's drawn up from high case letters and lower case letters. Calvin Klein designer came in and he did it in all block letters, all large case letters. And he showed it to me and it was brilliant, and everyone he showed it to looked amazing, and it was fresh and it was different. And here we are buying a company new, shouldn't we make a change in the logo. And finally I got to the point where I wanted to show it to Calvin, and I said, Calvin, you know this

came out of nowhere. One of our young designers took the logo and changed it from lower and upper case to all large letters, upper case letters. What do you think? And he looked at me and he started to laugh and he said, let me tell you something more. In all my years, said Calvin Klein, every single month, every single year, every single whenever somebody came in and wanted to change the logo. Wow, this looks great. It's not with Calvin kleines. We have a logo. We should cherish it.

Coca Cola doesn't change their logo. McDonald's doesn't shake their logo. Nobody of consequence. Who built the brand? We have this company? You paid a billion dollar for it. There's a reason this is our logo. Don't change it. And we never did, and I don't think they ever did since I've been gone. I also remember walking in the offices. Now, remember I was a president of PVH at the time. We just acquired this company. So and I walked, you know, the

ground shook. Whatever I said mattered, and I had to choose my words very carefully. I had an appreciation for what I would say, and more importantly, appreciation for silence went to listen when to learn? I remember walking through the offices. It was quiet, you can hear a pin drop. The showroom's noisy, of course, where there's activity, but everything, and I noticed a couple of phenomenon. One I never

saw pens or paper on anyone's desk. And I remember walking over to a young lady and said, you know, I never see pens and papers on your desk. Running from that matter, don't you have pens? Don't you have paper clips? And she laughed and said, of course we do. She's let me show you. She opens a drawer. Her desk was silver, Everything was silver. All the working in the the building was white, silver and gray. She opened up a deester and showed me her pens. All her

paper clips were black. All the pens were black. I said, is that by accident? And she said no. In this company, you're not allowed to take out a pen that isn't all black. You're not to use paper clips that are not all black. And I remember saying to myself, is this crazy? Are my nuts? And then I said, I noticed that there were no family pictures on her desk, And I said, once again, I've noticed in the offices no family pictures, your office clean, none of the other osters.

We are not allowed to have family photos in this company. The only photos were allowed to have are Calvin Klein ads or anything associated with Calvin Klein. I said, do you believe in that she's well? Would I like to have a picture of my husband here? Course, But I respect what the company represents. We all understand that we're all tied together. We understand what the greater good was and I really really respected it, and I would have

never changed it. My CEO showed up one day. He had the courage I guess of conviction or he was a liberal, and he made a decision immediately that all the people working there that were allowed to have their picture. Now. While I respected it, and because everyone else in the company and all the other divisions and all the other businesses we ran had access to everything, they weren't fanatical like Calvin Klein was at the brand, and he immediately

allowed them to have pictures. But I can tell you I could never prove it. The minute that started, the brand lost part of its luster. We always had something special. Now it didn't change. The company is still one of the wildly successful companies of our time and hopefully forever. And I only have fond memories, but I think understanding how important it is to protect the brand comes across with Calvin Klein's esthetics and everything they've done about the brand.

And when Warren Buffett I saw that article this week, lose money for the firm, I'll be understanding, lose a shred of reputation, I'll be ruthless. I thought about Calvin Klein. You know, when it comes to brands and what you do with a brand, you have to satisfy your customer, maybe surprise him, create a special feeling. You know. When I think about the words to sound off and say what you should be doing for your customer to build your brand, I don't know, create joy, create a special feeling?

Is that the goal? I think about it, and I came with the word that did it for me. You have to mesmerize your customer. It could be the littlest thing, the biggest thing. And that's what you should be thinking about. When I look at all these stores and I look at the products, and when I'm disappointed, I wonder, what are you thinking? Are you not hiring the right people. Do you not, let me say again, are you not setting the goal in the standards at the corporate level?

Are you not making clear what's important? Are you not spelling out the essex, the ethos of the brand so that people understand what you're supposed to do. You want to see a great brand, go to fifty seventh Street in New York and look look what Louis Utone has done to wrap their store while it's under construction, while their rail stores across the street in the former Nike store in a temporary shot. Look at the effort and the time and attention to the brilliance they did to

wrap the store under construction. So everything you do is so important, so important, you know. I'm always constantly trying to teach people, my son's, my friends. I have a thing called repeat after me. Drives me crazy, drives me nuts with my friends or people disappoint but I know it drives them even crazier than I drive them. In fact, to make a point, I had a very close friend and that meant a lot to me, and often made mistakes and always often wrong, never in doubt, and said

the wrong things. And I would say to it, I would say to him, you got to do me a favor of this one time. I need to teach you a lesson. Would you mind? And he said okay. I said repeat after me. The guy looked at me like I was crazy. I said please. He said okay, I'll try it. And he said, Mark, Mark, You're always right. He looked at me like I was nuts, Mark, You're

always right. This time, I was delighted in an experience that has to do with a number of things, all lessons learned, and the first has to do with the Grand Lux Cafe. I don't know if any of you ever eaten in Grand Lux. It's supposed to be a luxury version of cheesecake factory. Now, I am a man of the people. I could eat in Lusser, I could eat in the most expensive, famous restaurants and love it and be comfortable. But I also love the simple pleasures

in life. I love McDonald's chicken sandwich with a dye coke or even a regular coke. I love the Grand Lux Cafe. I was there the other night and I ordered one of my favorite dishes there. It's barbecue plank salmon. I love the barbecue taste it comes with rice, and I always change out the rice for green beans and broccoli. I like to eat healthy, and I always order it well done. Something about me and fish. I like the fish cook anyway. Ten to fifteen minutes later comes out.

It looks great. I start to eat the fish. The top is grilled be perfectly, and it's completely raw inside. And I'm really discouraged because I don't eat a lot of meals, and when I do eat, I want to eat them get my job done. I'm looking around, there's no way, no waiter, and ultimately I eat maybe a third of the fish. I only eat the crust because it's the only thing that I could actually look at.

I ate the vegetables and that was it. And during the course of my dinner, a woman walked by and looked at my food, didn't say and she said to me, are you finished? I said yes. She took the plate away. Would you like any dessert? I said no, thank you. She came a minute later with a check and she said, I noticed you didn't need your meal. I also noticed that the waiter put it in well done and wasn't served to you well done. And for that we take

our responsibility seriously. We're sorry you're unhappy. We could cook you a meal again if you'd like, but either way, we're not charging you for tonight. That mesmerized me, the fact that she saw it, the fact that they took action, the fact that they dealt with it without even asking me. They gave me a complete credit. I was impressed with that, and I thought it was amazing to see that that way.

On the negative side, without mentioning names my favorite clothing maker, it's pretty much everything I wear is one of the greatest designers of all time has a problem. And in the tailor shop, and every time I go to buy a sport go to or a suit and end up coming back no less than three times to have it repaired, to the point that this winter, this fall to date, I have bought nothing, haven't even stepped in the store

because I feel let down. As much as I love the brand and much as I feel simpatico to the brand, I am not being mesmerized and I feel let down, and they have a problem, and I've shared with them, and the salesman that handles me knows I feel this way. They either fix it or they don't. It's up to them. But it's a problem when you're a brand. You don't want to leave your customers feeling this way. I've been

noticing another subject. I don't know about you, guys. If anybody seen the Jaguar advertising, I'm a fan of Jaguar. When I was a teenager, my first car was a Jaguar XKE. It was the biggest mistake in my life. It was six years was used. I borrowed money from my mother to pay for it. It was a disaster. I drove it Friday Saturday, was in the shop, stayed in the shop for a month, picked it up a month, drove it Friday back in the shop. Never ever performed. It was one of the worst cars I ever had,

But nonetheless I had a love for it. And as it stands, one of the reasons I loved it is I eventually sold it. And if you would ever see the engagement ring on my wife's hand, if you looked very very closely and used your imagination, that was the Jaguar I had on but recently not a Jaguar. Jaguar decided to rebrand. They changed their local disaster. They changed the look of the car disaster. They made it all electric, disaster, alienating every customer that doesn't want an electric car at

this stage of the game disaster. I can't believe Jaguar, one of my favorite brands of all time, is about to destroy it. Tirety of this strategy is disastrous. Everybody's making fun of their marketing campaign, the change of the logo. I'm worried. I was hoping they'd come out with great sports cars again. Branding is so important. Once you make a customer, you do all the research. In the luxury business, there's something called CRM Customer related marketing. What it is

is fish where the fish are swimming. Why would you fish where the fish aren't When you have customers in this case that are already inclined to buy your brand, that they know, you know who they are, that you've demonstrated that you like what they're doing, You've been mesmerized, you want to market to them. My friends at Jaguar, do you have any idea that I won't buy an electric car at this time because I don't think we're ready. Have you any idea that I want your logo the

way it is? It has meaning to me since I was a teenager. Do you have any idea, the kinds of cars I want to purchase. My family still has Jaguars, but no, you went and made all these changes. I am worried for you. I've been mesmerized. Don't you want me to stay? Now? I could keep myself quiet. I don't have to say anything else. But I realize that a fool is known by his speech, and I am trying to be very careful. But I'd like to think

I'm a wise man by my silence. And with that, I've decided to go silent for the rest of the evening. Good Night,