Face To Face

He's gone from clerk to CEO twice. Mark his classic proof that the American dream is alive. And well, here's your host of Always in Fashion, Mark Weber.

We pay the least attention to the phone feature for communicating there's been virtually no effort put forth to improve the phone listening quality, the speakers, etc. And Apple and the other makers will admit that because we're not asking for it. And why because smartphones, when it comes to talking, are not so smart. We don't seem to care about the sound quality of the telephone. The consumer is not

demanding better. Yes they're perfect for email, Yes they're perfect for texting, and yes for accessing any of the social mediums. It's perfect your phone for finding vast amount of information on the Internet, and now perfectly convenient for buying and purchasing about anything. But as a phone, it's not developing. We don't realize. I guess how incredible it is to talk to anyone in the world, anywhere in the world,

from anywhere that you are. We're taking a cell phone for granted, I drove my car from the onset without a phone anywhere I would go. I've drived to Pennsylvania to Flora without a phone, never giving it a moment's thought. But today I'm uncomfortable. I freak out if I forget my phone to go to the clean ears. You want that phone in the car, it's part of you. Let's take a moment to think about it. The future's here. We can talk to anyone any time you want. Yet

we're talking less and less. Texts and emails are growing, talking not so much. We can't blame the phone. It's there for us. It's not the phone, it's us, it's you. Really. Talking is becoming a lost art, and face to face to rushians are disappearing. Talking face to face seems to be avoided at all costs. When did you stop talking and started avoiding? I know it's easy to avoid dialogue today it's email and texting impersonal to say the least, easy,

non confrontational, and easily avoidable for anything. You're at the point dating is online. Relationships are verea text. I remember how difficult it was for me to work up the courage prepare myself to tell a young lady that I was dating, that we would be no more. But face to face was the right way, face to face to communication.

It was uncomfortable, but that's what I did. That's what I want to talk to you about tonight, face to face communication in business and in life, and maybe some politics. Face to face with me tonight. Jesse Weber, my son, my attorney, here and always in fashion. I can't help but stay current on your relationships. Then I raised this point.

become a different world. In fact, i'll tell you I would say it was a couple of years ago. I met a girl at one of an event. You and I went to an event. She was working the event. I went up to her, started talking or got her number. We went out later on that night. I met one of her friends, and her friend says to me, while my date went to the bathroom, shas you know, I heard how you went out. You went out of your way to get her number. I think that's really weird.

I said, what do you mean she goes who goes up to somebody who gets their number? I said, how should I have met her? You use an app everybody else? Oh geez, that's today's day and age. I'm telling you things have just changed. And the worst part about it. You ready for this? Yeah, when you break up with somebody, they cut you off of all social media Facebook, Instagram for not just cut you off. I've been blocked. I can't even search for them anymore.

you put your exclamation marks. I'm told that's a big deal. Putting things in capitals is a big deal. But the decisions in your career will be about FaceTime.

people working for you, will be face to face. Your ideas, your follow through direction, execution may take place through email, but think about it and trust me, it's the FaceTime that leaves the impressions. It's the face time that can make or break you. Your ability to communicate and talk is the key. Now, if you're a listener to the show, you know I don't like humans. I don't have much

faith in them. I just don't like them. If I were to work with only people i'd like, I'd be in a room by myself.

is all about FaceTime, you know. I want to talk about Gina Haspell, the woman who was interviewing this week to be the head of the CIA. She was amazing if you listened to her interview, and I'll tell you why. Running the CIA, it's got to be an incredibly difficult job. And if you listen to this woman, she began in the field, making clandestine meetings with spies and people in

the middle of nowhere in foreign countries. The courage she displayed throughout her career to get where she got, and when you listen to her talk I was so impressed with the degree of information she had at her figure tips. She had done it all, and now she's interviewing for the top spot in spite of all the scandals. I respect our congressmen and senators. Yet when you heard the questions they were asking her, trying to get personal information

from one of America's most important covert operatives. When they started to talk about America is behind the scenes investigating principles, Why are they asking those questions? It makes no sense. Why don't we just tell the whole world how we do everything? Now. I know they're smart. I know they have very learned their lawyers, their attorneys, they're very smart people. But yet they kept probing, probing, probing. But what I took away is the more they asked her, the better

she was. The more I was excited about her because she had done every single job there was to be done. She knew how to run the CIA. This should have been simple, but it wasn't. I will tell you that the theme of tonight's show, face to face, was remarkable, watching her testify face to face in front of the committee, and with that in mind, you could never do that via text. The eye contact the face to face questioning

whether I like the questions or not. I don't even know why the whole thing wasn't done in closed session. You know, we're talking about the CIA here, We're not talking about your favorite food. But it was interesting to watch the face to face while I'm on the subject of politics. You know who else I want to talk about, Jesse Donald Trump. Absolutely, he is perhaps one of the

most effective communicators ever to occupy the Oval Office. Before you run a revolt on me, I know there's a lot of you out there that doesn't like the President. I happen to think he's an effective communicator, and I'll dissuade you for the moment, and I give you a point of view on whether I like Donald Trump or not. In fact, I know Donald Trump. I actually devoted a chapter in my book Always in Fashion to Donald Trump, Chapter seventeen, and I entitled it Negotiating with the Master.

Donald Trump has a life licensing business. He is a brand. He believes in the Trump brand, and with that brand, he likes to put his name on various different products, products ranging from vodka to buildings, to hotels to golf courses. And when I met him, he wanted to be in the men's apparel business. He believed during his period in the Apprentice that he was creating a demand for shirts, ties, suits, clothing, and he wanted my company, at the time, the van

using company, to be his licensee. And my guys came to me one day and said, Donald Trump wants to be our partner in shirts and ties and suits. I said, you know what, what do I need that for? Forget it, go back and tell him we don't need it. We got enough good things going on. The following morning, the president of our licensing business came into me and said, Donald Trump wants to come up here. I said, come on.

He said, no, Donald Trump wants to come up here. Now, this was way before he was going to run for office. This is when he was running his business. I said, I'll tell you, if Donald Trump the man wants to come up here and see me, then I'm going to come up and see him, and lo and behold. Two days later, Donald Trump and his entourage, which weren't very many, came up to see me in my conference room. Hi, Mark, I've heard so much about you. I love your company.

I have this brand that I want you guys to be involved to make money. I was absolutely not interested. I had no interest in whatsoever. I didn't need it. You know, mister Trump, we have all a good business going on. Why do I need this? He said? You know, I've done celebrity brands before. They come and go. They don't last the time, he said, you don't understand the Trump brand. And the point of the story is is face to face he was so articulate, so clever, so

interested in building a brand with our company. He was flattering, he was tough. I was tougher and made him crazy. He said, listen to me, you're very tough. I'm not sure I have hi met anyone tougher than you. But if you trust me, we could build this brand together. And I please, I'd like you to think about it. Make a long story short. Our people were enthused. We ended up doing it. We had a great run until he ran for office. The point is, face to face

makes a difference. On the phone, I would have never agreed to anything but face to face communicating. Looking in his eyes, seeing how serious he was, seeing how important it was to him, really really made a difference. And when I watch him communicate as president in his town halls or in his pep rallies from city to city. I found him to be the most effective communicator I've

ever seen in the Oval office. Now, does he get himself in trouble, yes, Do some people dislike him, yes, But those people there listening to him talk to them face to face, hearing him tell you what's important to him, whether it's a border wall, whether it's peace in Korea, whether it's trade, whether it's being treated respectfully, whether it's putting America first. How come we all know all of these things as second nature? Because he wants to make

America great again? And how is he doing it face to face? I'm gonna take a break. When we come back, we'll talk some more.

car Lagofelparis 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 amazing. 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 com Paris. 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 Carlagafel is my buddy. Calls 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 Carlagafel 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 Lagafel dot com. A favorite brand has always been ISOD. My company at one

time bought that brand. The CEO of the company handed it to me and said, you better make it work. And I put everything in my career to make ISOD work, and I fell in love with that brand, and to this day it is one of the most exciting endeavors I've ever got involved with. Isod is an incredibly strong golf brand. If you play golf, if you play tennis for that matter. They make a great polo shirts. I

mean great. They're fit perfect. The material is unique because it's a PK fabric that waffle weave you see, and it's made of a blend of cotton and microfiber that allows you to stretch, and very often they are treated with solar protection as well, so they stretch, they're comfortable, and they breathe well. And one thing about ISOC they always fit. They'll never tug on you. You put it in your waist, they'll fit you great. The colors, patterns

are sensational. Now I will also tell you ISAOD makes great shorts and great golf pants. You're a golfer and you want to look good. You don't have to think about how do I look. You want to think about how you play, not how you feel. ISOD is the brand for you. I know I was there when it was created. The strategy behind that brand is brilliant. It's one of my favorite brands. While I talk about it, I should tell you about the men's sportswear. ISOD wasn't

enough being a golf brand. It wasn't enough being just great polo shirts with logos, without logos. Incredible brand and story and history. Isaad makes salt weather programs. They have

great printed woven shirts, short sleeves. They look excellent with colors, excellent with shorts, excellent with cotton pants, of which they also make this whole salt order relaxed line from ISAD, whether it be fleece, cotton, swea knitpolos, woven shirts and pants of a range of colors and fabrics that are perfect for a guy wants to go casually in the spring and summer of this year. And here's the thing.

ISOD is affordable. Everyone listening to me talk about this brand can afford to buy it and know that there are a lot of other brands that also have a look like ISID. Although I don't believe it's fun as Isaia is. The brand has a lot of energy in it, but at the price points no one can compete. You can find ISAAC at your leading retailers and online at isid dot com. Talk to you, lady guys. I wish you.

I'm very happy springing summer, and I help you by telling you if you were ISAID, you're going to look great.

with people. Nothing is as clear as talking to someone face to face. You see their whites of their eyes, you see their expressions. The psychology of you, your ability to read people, comes into play. It's so important face to face. Otherwise people are talking for you. You're being misrepresented. Perhaps you're not getting your points across as well. There is a game that we all know. It's called telephone. I whisper something in Jesse's ear, Jesse, and it comes

out something completely different exactly, and that's telephone. And you pass it along, and you pass it along and you end up your message is misconstrued. It happens every day in politics, it happens every day everywhere. But when you do it face to face, and it's clear from you. First of all, you have no one else to blame but yourself. You're the one doing the talking, so you better know what you're talking about. But at least it's coming from you. You're making the points that you want

to make. I like to communicate in speeches. I've done it my whole career, as I said, starting out till the days I became senior VP, executive VP, president, CEO, board member, I've had to make my own speeches, and I think it's really important to communicate directly with the people I work with, face to face, ensuring that you hear it from the horse's mouth. In this case, me my ideas, my vision, my view of the company, what I'm doing, no interpretations. I'm leaving you with what I

want you to be left with. I love your speeches. Ah do you love your speeches?

I'm one of them, that I'm not above them. I want to make sure I have a clear message, make sure they understand that this is a great company, that there are reasons that they're at this company. We're going to talk about right now. Why don't you take the anchor position and introduce me. Let's see take one of my titles. Which title would you like to use.

you guys look great. I'm going to share that with all of you later. Yes, my name is Mark Webber. I know most of you. I've been with this company now for nine years. Prior to that, I've been with many companies where I've been I have to admit a fairly senior executive. I became a president the first time in nineteen eighty six, and since then I've really had a spectacular time working for a number of companies. And

I'm pleased to be here with you tonight. I'm really thrilled to be part of Louis Vitan mo ed Hennessy because it's one of the world's great companies, and we're going to touch on that in a minute. But I also have to tell you I didn't start at the top like you. I had to start somewhere, and I began as a clerk. I will tell you I began as the lowest paid clerk in the company at that time. I remember my boss being very proud when he hired me,

hiring me for salary less than anyone else. So when you see me up here talking and standing in front of you as the CEO of a company, I want you to know that you too could be up here, and nobody handed this to me. I began as a clerk and I worked my way up. Having said that, why is this a great company? First of all, it has an accumulation of some of the world's great brands Louis Vuton, Dior Cavanci, Sephora Berludi, Laura Piano, on and on.

An amazing, amazing company. And it's a place for you because this company recognizes that the people that work in it are more important than even the brands we run, because you are the people that will make the brands great. You are the people that we need to take the company to the next level. You are the people, and that's what makes this company special. We understand that we need people. As a group here and around the world

is over one hundred thousand employees. So just keep in mind one of these great jobs standing here before you. You could be the CEO. There's no reason you can be. And those of you who really really want to strive for the top, I'll tell you two things. One, be very very curious. Always look to learn as much as you can. And two, any of you that can speak foreign languages, you are our hero. This is a company that operates in every market, in every country and almost

every city around the world. Those of you who speak multiple languages, you have a great opportunity with this company, and those of you who don't, it's never too late to learn. What a great place for you. Talk about learning, Think about a company that owns brands and shipbuilding, fashion, communications, hotels, jewelry, apparel, footwear, handbags.

Amazing company and like the United States of America the land of opportunity, this company can be the land of opportunity for you here in the United States and around the world. I know for sure here in the United States. Now, having said this, I want to leave you with a short message that any one of you can be successful. It's not easy. You need a whole lot of different skills to get to the top. If that's what you want, you have to be able to write, You have to

be able to communicate. It shouldn't matter how you look, but it does. Yet. We all can't be tall, we all can't be thin, we all can't be beautiful. It takes a lot of different types, but you can look your best. You should care about the way you look. This is business. You're competing and while you should like, admire and respect everyone sitting next to you, you are competing with them. So it's your obligation to do everything you can to make yourself look presentable and present properly.

Perhaps there's nothing more important in communicating than your oral word, your ability to speak, your ability to get your eye ideas across, your ability to explain your vision, your ability to explain to people what you're doing, why you took the direction you took, and how pleased you are. When you start to become a manager, telling the people that work for you how well they're doing and how much you appreciate what they're doing. With that in mind, I'm

glad you came to know. I look forward to seeing you soon. I'm so thrilled to be here with you tonight, and I look forward to you growing and prospering in this company. Good night. Now, that is face to face communication. And as I said before, the reason I like making speeches is because people now know what I'm thinking, not what someone that works with me thinks I'm thinking or saying. I'm thinking face to face. Jesse'd you like that you heard the applause? Did you take anything away from it?

and every one of them looks right. You could really really look the part. I believe that packaging yourself is as important as 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 with stretch technology, giving you the most comfortable fit and mobility. It's wrinkle resistant fabric, it's cool moisture wicki. 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 Usen made it's name with dress shirts. It's only proper that the suit business follows strongly in its way. You can find van Using cool Flex Men's stretch suits at jcpenny are online at jcpenny dot com. Guys, they're great. You

should go look at them. D Knwhy Donna Karen, New York. 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 that extended beyond the workplace. And her

clothes went from day and 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 Aaron 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. Now 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 dcaan 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 Jenes dk Y sportswear is there for you.

That's what a lifestyle brand is. And I need to mention DKY Activewear, 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. D can Why. You can find DCN Why and Macy's DKY dot com.

their back, and only two things come to mind. One I don't like them, and two they'll do it to me. They'll talk behind my back. Here's a story I want to tell. It's one of my favorite stories in business. It's about talking behind my back. It was so flagrant and so obnoxious and so ego driven that the person doing the talking didn't realize that I was sitting there listening. I was at a company dinner. I had recently become the president of this time was of the Phillips fan

Using Corporation, the president of the whole place. I was sitting there having a corporate dinner. Two seats down from me, there was a fella I'll call him Steve, started talking. Let's talk about how smart he was and how stupid the company was. And he talked about how his four to oh one K dived in the last year, that it was worth about hundred thousand dollars. Now it was

only worth forty thousand dollars. And he talked about how stupid the management of the company was and how he can't believe that the company made these decisions and now that's the four to one k and the stock is all bad, et cetera. And I'm sitting there listening with one ear to the person right next to me. But really my ear is trained on what this guy says.

I'm upset about this and his stupidity. He's an officer of the company, he's a vice president of the company. Here's an obligation to take the company line. He has an obligation to speak well of the company. So if somebody would ask him what happened to the four oh one K, what happened to the stock? Listen? Listen. This happens in business. Sometimes companies run into a difficult spot. We didn't do this quickly enough for our competition got there before us. But this is not an issue. Don't

worry about it. I have faith in the company, have faith in the brands. I know the management. They're going to do the right thing. And you watch, in the next six months to a year, we're going to really blow out of the stuldrum. That's what I expect him to say. But the real part that really really bothered me, even if the other two issues didn't, this is a guy that we took under our wing This is a

guy who came to the company. He was introduced to us by a friend of the company, told us that he would appreciate us hiring him, and over the course of his short career with the company, let's say three years, he went from clerk to vice president, from No. One to someone because we were looking out for him. Now, granted, he was a very, very capable guy. I expected more. Now, as it turns out, he was a protected guy. What do I mean by that? He came in a friend

of the company. We did everything we could to train him. We made sure he was taken care of. We made I'm sure he was given every benefit the company could give him, including every special opportunity the company had to offer. During the course of this tenure, we looked out for him. No one could touch him. He was protected. I'll never forget his arrogance and his ego came in front of the president of the shirt company, and she came to me one time and said, I can't take this guy Mark.

He thinks he's so smart. He's a troublemaker. He says bad things. He's not as smart as he thinks he had. I really don't think he belongs here. I'd like to move him, if it's okay with you. I thought about it, as I said, we were watching out for him, and I said, look, do your best to make it right with him. We care about this guy, we want him to do well, and I wouldn't let anything happen. Fast

forward a year later, I'm at this dinner table. I'm listening to this arrogant guy who's not only arrogant, he's stupid. Because no, I'm listening and here who is he talking about the management of the company being stupid? And yours truly was one of the management of the company. Following day, I walked down to the office of the president of the shirt company and I said, how is my friend here doing? He says, Look, I tried very hard to turn him around. He's still not very good. He's not

as good as he thinks he is. I don't particularly like him, and left to my own devices, I would sever him from the company. I listened, I smirked, I smiled, and I said, he's no longer protected. You could sever him, and that week he no longer was with the company. So to moral to the story here, So you're going to be face to face in this case, you better be smart. What you say matters, and when you're communicating, you got to know what you're doing face to face. Be back in a minute.

part of the venues and collection. You can find these products including sweaters, polos, quarter zips, trousers, and even the best of fashion has to be preserved. I don't know if I ever mentioned to you the advent of the men's necktie. There's nothing better in a men's necktie business than the business lunch, because guys we go out, they'd have their lunch that have their salads or their beef

and potatoes and snow stout about it. They would always stain their tie and therefore the business grew and grew venues and today doesn't want to make money on your hardships. They want to do it and prevent you from having to go through that. And they invented Stainshield. It's a technology that was invented to protect your favorite items. The Stainshield collection provides extreme defense again water based stains by causing spills to beat up before they can be absorbed

into the fabric. This collection, by the way, in addition to regular fits, is also often in all body sizes, including big and tall. You can find Vanues and Stainshield and the great venues in styled sports were at vanues in dot com. That's Vanusen dot com. As one of the world's most celebrated fashion designers, Carl Lagafeld was renowned for his aspirational and cutting edge approach to style. His unique vision of Parisian shit comes to America through car

Lagofeld Paris. He has women's collections, men's collections, ready to wear, accessory, shoes and bags. The fashion house Carlagofeld also offers a range of Watchers eyewear and premium fragrances. You can explore the car collection at Carlagofelpoaris dot com. But it's more than that. I 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 amazing. 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 com. Paris, 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 Carlagofel is my buddy. Cars 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 carg 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 Lagafel dot com.

they are, your opponent. The smartest negotiators are the ones that can figure out how to get what they want and give something to that other person the table so they have what they want. You'll always should get a little more. That's what you're trying to do. But two people walk away from a negotiation happy. I think that's what you're looking for, you know, Actually I don't think. I know that's what you're looking for. With that in mind,

I want to talk about negotiating around the world. I've traveled around the world ten times over and I've negotiated around the world. I've had some fun times and interesting times careers in the news. They were the most interesting people I ever met to negotiate with. The Koreans were tough, tough, tough people. It's no surprised when you're living ten miles from the demilitarized zone where the Korean War was fought. Whenever I negotiated with the Koreans, I'd walk in be

prepared to negotiate. And I realized early on that you never negotiate with them. Oh, you could talk, you can go back and forth, but they're going to guide you exactly where they're going to go, where they want to go, and you're going to agree if you want to buy product in that country, you want to get the benefit of their price to labor, the workmanshift, and their ingenuity. Whatever their case may be, automobiles, textiles, it's going to be their rules. That's what I liked about them. It

was never a guess. It's just we're going to try and figure out how close you come to where you want to be. In China and Hong Kong, it was very different than negotiating here in the United States. Every company you're doing business with pretty much is the founding family managing it. You're talking to the founder, you're talking to the daughters, their heirs. People kept the business alive. And what was amazing about negotiating with those people is

the long term thinking. When you negotiat and you're a public company in the United States, you're worried about the next quarter, you're certainly worried about the next half, and you're certainly worried about the year. When you're dealing with

Chinese families, they're worrying about perpetuity. They're worrying about and they're interested in making sure that they and their children and their children's children and the children's children's children have a bug business that they can run and they can prosper form that family businesses forever, and therefore they're very interesting to negotiate with. When I would go to Japan, was also very fascinating the japan The people are very very polite. Half the time, I wonder what they were

talking about behind my back. Can't imagine they all liked me. I was such a brass American. But nonetheless they were always polite, partially because do you know, when you ask for Japan for something, there is no word no. There is no Japanese word that translates to know. Maybe that explains the politeness. Very efficient, they get what's done. You can negotiate with them, but it was always very pleasant. Took a lot to get someone mad. I don't think

I ever saw anyone get mad in Japan. But one of my favorite stories has to do with the New York Yankees. Go Yankees. They're doing incredibly well right now, winning, winning and winning. It's so exciting, young team, awful team, amazing to watch. I'll never forget. I was in Europe, in Sweden, and I was negotiating with a brand with the owners of a brand. There were three partners. We owned the brand in the United States, and we had rented the name to them for around the world usage.

During the course of the negotiations, the CEO of the partners, the three guys that owned this company in Europe distributing the product throughout Europe, got very angry at me because I owned the brand and I was giving him direction

on how I wanted it to be managed. And he finally lost his cool and he said, you Americans, you think the World Series is a baseball game played in Yankee Stadium once a year, when everyone else in the world knows that the World Series is called the World Cup, played every two years around the world, in every city and country of the world. We know that. As Saka, I thought that was a great lesson about life and learning. My favorite favorite story though of all time about negotiating

took place in the South of France. And yes, I used to go to the South of France a lot, because I work for a French company, Louis the talk about way to Tennessee, and because we had us strategic

planned meetings every June. Right after those strategic plan meetings, I'd get on a plane and fly from Paris Denise with either Jesse or his brother, depending who was free, and Jesse and I did it very often, and I would go to the south of France and I wanted to go to can Can is the scene where the movie To Catch a Thief took place Carrie Grant Grace Kelly,

one of my favorite movies of all time. The hotel that the entirety of the movie, or a big part of the movie took place, was at the Carlton Hotel, right in the water in can I had to stay there, and the first time I stayed there it was magical for me because I knew that movie from when I was a little boy. I watched it. So I was at the Carlton Hotel with Jesse on those one particular trip. Get in there, Get in the door. You can't imagine

what it was like negotiating for a decent room. I must have been in five different rooms till we finally got one that they were willing to rent to us at some excruciatingly expensive price. There were competing with Arab sheiks, Russian oligarchs and some of the witchest people in the world. But somehow or another, my title and my willing to pay a little more and maybe tip the front of the person at the front got me a decent room overlooking the water. But that's not the purpose of the story.

Where in con it's beautiful. Every day is sunny. Every meal you eat outdoors. The breakfast buffet to this day is probably my favorite meal of all time. Remember the breakfast jest and ah so good and the weather and the palm trees and looking out at the riviera. Amazing paradise. But the Carlton Dinner restaurant outside was part of my French the coup d'etarre. It was amazing. Now I've stayed at the hotel and this is one of the first trips.

I get there and I realize there's a pecking order for where you sit in the restaurant, and we would get there face to face, which is our theme of tonight. Talking face to face. I started chatting it up with the matre d and started pointing to the tables that I wanted to sit in on the first nine. He said, I'm sorry, sir, that's already reserved. I said, how about for the next night. He said, well, you come down tomorrow we'll see. Which really meant take care of me

and I'll do it for you. Didn't realize it at first. The next night we went down there, tried to get that table or the table in that area, didn't get it again. So finally I asked one of the waiters, how do you get to sit there? And he said, in his French accents, you have to have had a relationship face to face with the matre d ah A. That night, after dinner, I went to the matre d and I said I'd like to have that table tomorrow, and he said, okay, I have to think about it.

I gave him a hundred euros and lo and behold, the next night we came down, we got the table, and now we're being looked at, we're being seen. Jesse and I dressed properly for the south of France and June looking great, and now we're where we want to be, sitting in the restaurant. I want to be sitting. Jesse and I went shopping that day, having a great time, talk about you need to know culture and you need

to know what's going on face to face. Jesse and I were in a store and we found what would be the most beautiful sweat top, but not sweat toop, the most beautiful what kind of jacket we.