Ask the Expert: Mark Fonseca with Fonseca Clothiers

Intro: [00:00:15] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Excel Radio’s Ask the Expert brought to you by Buckshot photography and video. It’s your story. Make it awesome. For more information, go to beckshot.com. Now here’s your host.

Randell Beck: [00:00:40] Good morning, everybody. We’re here in the studio with our producer Stone. Good morning, Stone.

Stone Payton: [00:00:44] Good morning, sir.

Randell Beck: [00:00:45] Stone is Business RadioX. And we thank you one more time for letting us come in here and do this.

Stone Payton: [00:00:50] My pleasure.

Randell Beck: [00:00:51] And co-host Robert Mason of Exp Realty. Hey, Rob.

Robert Mason: [00:00:55] How you doing, buddy? Good to see you again.

Randell Beck: [00:00:57] How’s your week been?

Robert Mason: [00:00:58] It’s been fantastic.

Randell Beck: [00:00:59] Yeah. You’re out there churning and burning, right?

Robert Mason: [00:01:01] Churning and burning. Trying to make things happen.

Randell Beck: [00:01:04] We have a special guest today, Mark Fonseca of Fonseca Clothiers is in here today, and he’s going to be talking with us about executive presentation. Morning, Mark.

Mark Fonseca: [00:01:14] Good morning. How are you?

Randell Beck: [00:01:16] I’m doing well. So why don’t you start by telling us what you do.

Mark Fonseca: [00:01:21] In a nutshell? I work with highly visible executives that need to make a great impression based on their appearance.

Randell Beck: [00:01:28] Make a great impression. How? In the business world or in the personal world? Just in general?

Mark Fonseca: [00:01:33] One of my first questions when I ask when I get a new client is if you were to walk into a room of your peers, same social status, same level of education, same career competence, if you were to walk into a room, what message do you want to send without saying a word? Is it credibility, capability, integrity, trust, character, whatever those adjectives are? You can do that using clothing and colors and patterns to send that message. So it’s really personal branding and nonverbal communication.

Randell Beck: [00:02:04] So that sounds like you spend a lot of time consulting with somebody and doing sort of the behind the scenes work of defining what they’re trying to accomplish.

Mark Fonseca: [00:02:12] Yeah, that’s exactly right. It’s really finding out who they are, what message they want to send, what they do for a living. They are an entrepreneur. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re going to dress totally different than you are if you’re an attorney. And it really it’s the personal branding. Finding out what they do casually, what they do. Are they going out with their wives? Are they being photographed together? Whatever they’re doing, whatever their lifestyle is, we’re going to dress them for the lifestyle that they’re leading.

Randell Beck: [00:02:39] And then you tailor a look or looks.

Mark Fonseca: [00:02:42] Yeah, it’s based on your skin color, hair color and eye color. So a lot of people don’t know in the clothing business is the whole point of dressing is to lead the viewer’s eye towards your face, period. And when you walk into a room, people look at you and it takes literally three seconds to form a first impression of you. And they look at you, they immediately say, okay, great, he looks fantastic. It’s that subliminal reflex they have. And then the next thing is, I can’t wait to hear what he has to say.

Randell Beck: [00:03:12] And I take it you make the clothes as well. I don’t.

Mark Fonseca: [00:03:16] Make them. I have tailors and resources that make them for me. So what I do is I come in. It’s a three step process. Essentially, we get together for a wardrobe consultation or and find out about you everything I can about you. That takes about an hour. And if we want to take the next step, the next step is what? Based on what you told me, that the message that you want to send or whatever you want to do with your wardrobe, whatever goals you have, what I call ROI, return on image. Then the second thing is what we do is we go to your closet, do a closet audit to make sure that everything in your closet fits you, makes you feel good, and makes you look fantastic. And that’s the second thing. And if what you have in your closet doesn’t fit what you told me during our consultation, then we start to take those things out that don’t fit that what you’re looking for. And then of course we’re going to create some holes. So I either take that and I will donate it to ministries that I have. So I will give you a write off on your taxes. And some people have thousands of dollars in write offs. I just had a client that had a $3,600 write off of all the stuff we pulled out out of his closet. So that creates gaps now. So the third step in the process is we get together, I come to your house, I have or your office, I have everything put together.

Mark Fonseca: [00:04:30] Based on what you told me, based on your color, hair color, eye color, skin color, what message you have to what message you want to send. I have all the fabrics and everything laid out for you. And then we go through a selection process to select. So let’s say I’ll have five jackets. If you want to do sport coats, I’ll have five jackets laid out. They all work for you based on your color, and all you do is pick the ones that you like. And that’s how you start creating your personal image, your personal style. A lot of guys don’t have a personal style. So what I do, I make it very, very easy. You can’t make a mistake. And then once we select all the clothing, then we measure you and take the measurements. Then I send all that off to my tailors and our factory, and then they make the clothes. And then when they come in, the part that my clients like the most is I have this thing called dressing by the numbers where I number. It’s like grand for everybody that’s old enough to know about. Remember Garanimals? So it’s Garanimals for guys. I basically number all their clothing, so it’s idiot proof and they can’t make a mistake when they’re wearing their clothes. So we need that.

Randell Beck: [00:05:39] This sounds complex, you know, like like, like this is a lot of work for a guy that goes and buys clothes at Walmart. Right. Or JCPenney or something. So who who is the customer that’s calling you and doing this?

Mark Fonseca: [00:05:51] Mainly it’s executives. It is CEOs, entrepreneurs. As VP of sales, a lot of people, most people that are client facing people are doing podcasts. It’s anybody that is out in the public on a regular basis that needs that wants to convey a great image and wants to make a great impression and just really look great in their clothing.

Robert Mason: [00:06:14] Realtor Sports figures.

Randell Beck: [00:06:16] You know, for a realtor or sports figure, I see this, I see this very clearly, right. Like you want to you want to cut a good figure when you’re out there. Right. But a CEO, it seems like he’s got a company to run. Right. Why is he why is he bothering with fashion?

Mark Fonseca: [00:06:28] Yeah. So there’s a great book called Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun. And in that book it says, In order to look like a leader. You have to dress one notch above your subordinates, not ten notches. But I think it’s very important when someone walks into an office that they know who the boss is, who’s in charge. And it’s very easy. I always use the example if you lined up five guys. And they all had Navy suits. Red ties and white shirts on and one only one guys has a pocket square in his pocket. Not only is he the most successful, he’s the boss and he’s in charge. Right? So it’s all about the details. It’s all about really setting expectations. And you as a leader, you’re setting the tone for everybody else, right? You’re the rabbit. Everybody’s chasing you. If you’re the CEO or not an entrepreneur, you’re ahead of the business. People are looking to you to aspire to what they want to be. So you have a huge responsibility. And part of that is the way you look.

Robert Mason: [00:07:29] So casual. Friday, when that came back out and I think it was Microsoft, he started that back in the late 90 seconds that changed things. Men went from wearing ties and suits to sports shirts on a regular basis. Right? There was a time where all men wore nice hats and, you know, that went the way of the dodo bird as well. What did COVID do to the the clothing scene?

Mark Fonseca: [00:07:56] Yeah, COVID changed everything in large part to when Zoom came on, when everybody was on Zoom. Now everybody’s on camera. And there were so many people that are uncomfortable in front of the camera. They had no idea, not only being uncomfortable in front of the camera, but they had no idea of what to wear. I mean, that changed everything. So. Basically what my hard and fast rule for COVID and Zoom calls is if you wouldn’t wear it in person to an in-person meeting, don’t wear it on a on a video call. So I’m talking about earpieces. I’m talking about headsets. If you if you wouldn’t wear it meeting face to face across from a table, then I wouldn’t wear it on a video call.

Robert Mason: [00:08:38] And wear pants, right? And wear.

Mark Fonseca: [00:08:40] Pants. Yeah. There are a lot. All the horror stories.

Randell Beck: [00:08:44] You never know what’s going to happen.

Robert Mason: [00:08:45] Never know what’s under the table. Yeah.

Mark Fonseca: [00:08:47] You know, when I was dressing the guys on TBS and CNN, you know, this is back in the day, Vince Cellini, Ernie Johnson Jr, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith. You know, a lot of those guys do. They wear a nice jacket and a tie and a shirt and they’re wearing gym shorts and tennis shoes. I just can’t do that. I you know, I really just feel I don’t feel totally dressed when I’m halfway dressed.

Randell Beck: [00:09:13] I’m interested in trying a little exercise here. Stone But but before we do that, I’m curious to know, like. Why you? What makes you qualified to do this? How did you get into this? This is I mean, a lot of guys just go to the department store, they go to Macy’s or, I don’t know, Nordstrom or and I know several guys that that use somebody like you, right? Like over at Little River across the road here or somebody like that. So like, what does it take for you to do this and why would they pick you?

Mark Fonseca: [00:09:44] Well, I really feel like I’m living my dream. I’ve wanted to do this since I was 15 years old and now I’m actually doing it. So I’ve got to pinch myself every day that I’m doing something I love to do. I’m very good at it. One of my I guess my tagline is, Give me 15 minutes and I’ll change your life. So I tell my clients, if I walk in within 15 minutes, if you’re not 100% convinced that you’re going to be getting a better value than you’re currently receiving and better service, I won’t call on you again.

Robert Mason: [00:10:11] I would think you’re it would be intimidating to some guys to give up control. You know, we talk about branding a lot, right, Randy? Because that’s real important for our businesses. So if you’re a CEO, if you’re a if you’re a mr. Big Shot, Mr. Cheese, you’re going to hand over control. And that’s got to be somewhat intimidating.

Mark Fonseca: [00:10:30] Yeah. And that’s that’s what’s great about being a subject matter expert because experts love doing business with experts. One of my clients said, Mark, you’re a facilitator. You know, if I need a if I need a carpenter, if I need some woodwork done. I’m going to call a carpenter. If I need some electrical work done, I’m going to call electrician. He said, I never thought about needing some somebody to guide me with my clothing. So you really facilitate my wardrobe for me. And one thing I’ve learned in the 30 years I’ve been doing this is men love easy. They love to press the easy button. The easier you make it, the more they’ll do business with you. And I make it absolutely painless to do business with me. I’ve literally had because of my dressing by the number system, I’ve literally had guys when I walk in, they’d literally hand me their American Express card and say, Mark, I want you to make me a week’s worth of clothes and I want you to number everything so I know what to wear. So I had one of the biggest compliments I can remember that I got from a guy named Bill Goodwin, who was the managing partner at Northwestern Mutual. I’d been calling him for like five years, and finally his clothing guy moved to Saint Louis. And so for the last year of his for Bill’s career, he didn’t have anybody to dress him. So he finally got an opportunity because I’ve been calling him for so long, He said, I came in, we’re talking, we’re sitting down. And he looked at me and he said, Mark, I’m really angry with you. And I said, Bill, why? He said. Why aren’t you more persistent with me five years ago?

Randell Beck: [00:11:55] That’s a good kind of complaint to get.

Mark Fonseca: [00:11:57] He said, I’ve learned more about he said, I’ve learned more about clothing in the last 15 minutes. He actually had a timer. He had his watch on there for 15 minutes. He said, You’re going to change my life in 15 minutes. He said, I’ve learned more about clothing in 15 minutes than I have in 15 years. And what I do is I educate my clients. It’s not about it’s about what you’re wearing, but it’s more important about why are you wearing it? Sy Syms Back in the day, Syms Clothing had a great, great quote. He said, An educated consumer is my best customer and most of my business comes from executive luncheon, learns where I’m doing presentations to executives, telling them about first impressions, what to wear, why they wear it, and when to wear it.

Randell Beck: [00:12:44] So let’s walk through this a little bit. You said a minute ago your first question to somebody is when they walk into the room, what kind of message they want to send. Right. Say that again. How so?

Mark Fonseca: [00:12:55] When you’re looking for the first question I ask and to this day, I’ve never had anybody say, Mark, no one’s ever asked me that question before because it’s a question that no one asks, right? That tells them a couple of things. Number one, I know what I’m doing and I’m not just a salesman and a peddler like so many of these people out there that are just slinging clothes and they’re out there, this one called clothes and they’re coming to your office and they’ve got these pretty girls selling to you. And. Right. So I don’t want I don’t want to be a salesman and a peddler. I want to be a resource, not a commodity. The reason I got into the business is I want my business and my relationships to be an inch wide and a mile deep, not a mile wide and an inch long. Right? That’s good.

Randell Beck: [00:13:36] So and so the question then is what? When I walk. When I walk.

Mark Fonseca: [00:13:41] So when? So when you walk when I question, I ask is when you walk into a room of your peers. I’m saying that your peers, whether you’re a CEO, same level of education, same income level, same career competence, same level of education. If you were to walk into that room without saying one word, what message do you want to send? Okay. Because you’re going to send in a message when you walk in. Good, bad or indifferent. We live in a world where people are judging you by your appearance, right? So they’re going to judge you. The great news is you can control that.

Randell Beck: [00:14:12] Okay. So, Robert, if you were going to be working with Mark and he asked you that question, you were going to walk into that room. Let’s just assume for a minute that. Like we’ll go through this exercise. I don’t know. Let’s assume I don’t know anything about fashion or how to dress myself. Right? I know it’s obvious. Hard to believe such a such a stretch to assume that such a stretch. But let’s just say. What’s that message for you? What would you want to see?

Robert Mason: [00:14:38] Competence. The first thing that I want people to think is, is this guys competent? Okay. You know, and if you ask my wife this question, she would say, Mark, go through his closet and burn it. Just get rid of everything, which she would probably be correct and Mark would probably burn everything. And you couldn’t even give it away. So for you, it’s competence.

Randell Beck: [00:14:57] Stoneo how about you?

Stone Payton: [00:14:58] Well, I would love to to thread the needle between I don’t know if you’d call it wealthy, casual, but competent, affluent, but not trying to impress you. I’d love to thread that needle if I could.

Robert Mason: [00:15:15] That would be more of a casual look. Right. But.

Stone Payton: [00:15:17] Yeah, but an upscale casual and something that would, you know, make up for this radio face.

Randell Beck: [00:15:23] Yeah.

Randell Beck: [00:15:24] Okay. So. So here we have. We have a guy in this room. He’s got a radio face. He wants to be competent, affluent. What else did you say?

Stone Payton: [00:15:33] But I don’t want to come off like I just went and bought the most expensive suit I could so that I’m trying to impress you. I want that position.

Randell Beck: [00:15:40] Natural, natural looking and not trying to impress. So, Mark, how would you do that for that guy?

Mark Fonseca: [00:15:44] So I call that casual elegance. Okay? Right. It’s really or, you know, sophisticated chic or where you’re not trying to overplay it. So when someone comes in, I had one of my clients, he’s the CEO of this huge company, and he said, Mark, how do I look like the boss? And I don’t want to wear a jacket or a suit. I don’t even want to wear a tie. Right. That would freak most people in my business out. Right. So the less you wear. The nicer it has to be. Great shoes. Great accessories. Great belts. Right. Great belts. You’re wearing glasses. Great glasses. Great looking shirts. Right. The less you wear, the higher quality it needs to be. And not only that. So when you when you’re doing that casual, it’s also another saying I have is you wear the clothes, don’t let the clothes wear you. And so that’s why it’s so important when we’re going through the process. When I show you five. Five jacket swatches. When you look at it, if it takes you longer than a nanosecond, we’re not getting it. I want you to look at that swatch and go, bam, I love that. That’s how we start creating your your own image, right? I make it really easy. All five will look amazing on you. It’ll look like you just walked off your private jet.

Randell Beck: [00:17:12] So now our mythical guy. We’re going to call him Bill today. So now Bill says. Okay, great. I love the lime green. Synthetic pants. And I. And I want a hot pink jacket with an orange liner.

Mark Fonseca: [00:17:26] If you can pull it off, wear it.

Robert Mason: [00:17:28] If you want to live in Miami.

Mark Fonseca: [00:17:29] If you want to be a Richard, if you want to be Richard Branson, if you can pull that off, let’s do it. Wear it. You wear the clothes. Don’t let the clothes wear you. I mean, when you see guys I mean, I’m a hockey guy, so I like big hockey guy. So I watch P.K. Subban. He’s on ESPN all the time, but the stuff he wears is monster. The guy looks like a beast every day and he can pull it off. So I have a saying, you know, when you know the rules, it’s okay to break them. And, you know, a lot of guys out there are leading quiet lives of desperation. They want to look good. They see somebody that looks good. They just don’t know how to do it right. That’s where I come in. And, you know, so what’s great, like one of my clients wives said, Mark, you know, you’re a, you know, a heterosexual guy to come in and tell my husband it’s okay to wear pink. I’ve been trying to get him to wear pink for five years. You walk in and in 15 minutes he’s wearing pink and lavender because you said it was okay for him to wear it. So all guys need a lot of times is permission, right? That’s all. That’s all I’m doing is giving them permission to look. They want the way they want to look.

Robert Mason: [00:18:35] So when we talk about investing in yourself, that’s what we’re talking about, really. Branding is investing in yourself. It really is. Do you get a lot of pushback on. Well, I really don’t want to spend that much money, How much is this going to cost, Mark? And in like real estate selling real estate, if you have to ask what the price is, then you can’t afford it. I hate to be that simple, but that’s the truth. Is that kind of what you’re doing? Yeah.

Mark Fonseca: [00:19:01] So here’s I’m looking for guys that want to save. Want to spend money to save time. I’m looking for guys that want to basically want to save. Save time by investing money and not save money by investing time.

Robert Mason: [00:19:18] It’s an investment in themselves.

Mark Fonseca: [00:19:19] Right? So essentially, if you’re if someone’s going to question me and try to nickel and dime me, they’re really not the right client for me. I want you to get to the point where you’re serious about investing in your wardrobe. And it’s really your you’re right. You’re investing in yourself. And if you’re not willing to invest in yourself, then why should somebody else invest in you? That’s a very good point. Very good point. You know, I just saw speaking about real estate, I have a I have some people in our neighborhood that are selling their house and they’re selling it for sale by owner. And they put up this janky little sign that was homemade, you know, scribbled their number on there. And I’m thinking, is really is that what you. Is that how you feel about your home? Yeah, the house to.

Randell Beck: [00:20:02] Represent you’re about to get me and Robert started now, right?

Mark Fonseca: [00:20:05] Is that really how you feel about your house? Right. So Pearl Binder has a great quote. She says, Be careful of what you wear because it tells the world what you think of yourself. That’s true.

Robert Mason: [00:20:17] My wife tells me that all the time. So it must be true.

Randell Beck: [00:20:22] There’s. There’s something I haven’t heard before. Yeah.

Mark Fonseca: [00:20:26] So I’m looking for people that want to spend money to save time, not spend time to save money.

Randell Beck: [00:20:33] When you when you and I first started talking, the thing that struck me about it was very much like what Robert was saying about investing in your own branding there. One of one of the things I say all the time is that professionalism shows that you care enough to get it right. Okay. And I’m talking about quality. You know, when we talk about that and doing things not in a cheap, cheerful Sunday afternoon picnic way. Right. So you were talking you were talking to me about what you do. And it it struck me that. Because these because these clients are in a public eye, they’re visible. Like you said, they need to make a good presentation of themselves, of their brand, of their product. It’s not just about standing. A presentation is not just standing up like with PowerPoint, but. They are sort of the avatar of what it is that they’re representing. That was a thought that came to me. Can you talk about that a little? Like for your clients? What does that mean to them?

Mark Fonseca: [00:21:33] Yeah. So I’m going to equate it to your LinkedIn profile picture. Okay. Harvard Business Review did a study that said people spend 33% of their time. 33%. Looking at your LinkedIn profile picture before engaging you. So you could even lose business and you don’t even know it based on your first impression on your LinkedIn profile picture before they look at the rest of your bio. So make sure your LinkedIn profile picture is professionally done. And make sure that picture when someone looks at that picture. What? Remember, everything is a nonverbal everything is branding. When they look at that picture, when they look at you, what do you want them to think? Right when they when they hear your name or they when they hear the name of your company. What’s the first thing you want them to come to your mind?

Robert Mason: [00:22:31] That’s good stuff.

Randell Beck: [00:22:32] That’s correct. This is exactly why we tell people, don’t do your video on your cell phone or you tell people, don’t market your house with cell phone photos. Right.

Robert Mason: [00:22:40] See that all the time?

Randell Beck: [00:22:41] I mean, same deal. Yeah, except except their clothing, like you say, is reflecting their opinion of themselves and their operation. And a lot.

Mark Fonseca: [00:22:49] Of, you know, and a lot of it, you know, they just don’t know what they don’t know. Brian Tracy says people that don’t know what they don’t know don’t grow. And it’s not good or bad. It’s just dc-dc. So you have to remember, most guys growing up, they’re not trained. They’re you grow up, you’re dressed by your mother, right? You start dating a girl, she starts buying you clothes, you get married, your wife buys you clothes. So most men are constantly dressed by women and not there’s anything wrong with that. But there’s there’s rules in the business world that you need to follow, Right? It’s okay to break those rules. You know, you can go shopping with your wife on vacation. I can’t tell you how many times a day today. At least 3 or 4 times I will get a text from one of my clients. They’re on spring break right now. They’re at the Ritz Carlton. They’re somewhere. They go through the gift shop and they’re looking to buy something and they’ll text me a picture and say, Mark, will this work for me? I’ll say absolutely. Get it or don’t get it. It’s a lot of responsibility that I have. When someone trusts you that much. So.

Randell Beck: [00:23:53] You know. So I heard Jordan Peterson was doing a thing the other day and I was listening to you and he was talking about the uniform of business and, you know. The topic was women who come to work inappropriately dressed like they’re going out on a Friday night. But here they are in the office. But that’s not the part I want to talk about. The part I want to talk about is where he said, you know, we got to this point where we all know male or female what we can wear to the office. We know we can’t show up naked and we know we can’t show up in a bathrobe or pajamas. Right. And nobody wears tuxedos to work. So somewhere in the middle there’s a line. And he says, okay, So in business we developed, we took it out of the equation. We said, we said we’re going to have a business uniform, which was the suit and the tie. And now that we when you put the uniform on, we know you’re a serious player. We know we have to take you a little bit seriously. So how do you react to that constraint? And like what you’re doing is kind of the opposite of that. You’re not trying to make people into a uniform. You’re trying to give them some self expression here, right?

Mark Fonseca: [00:24:56] Yeah. Mark Twain says clothes make the man naked. People have little or no influence on society. I think you have to develop your own culture. Right now, Jordan. He’s a subject matter expert. If he wants to come up with his company, if he wants to come up with a uniform, then that’s fine. But I think at some point, a lot of guys, you have to develop your own style. And also it’s going to be and that’s what part of the first part of the consultation. I want to find out what you do. Where do you work? Are you in the office two days a week or are you at home? Tell me what you do on a on a regular basis. What is your day to day look like? And I’m going to dress you for that. So, for example, this was the most important meeting I’m going to have today. So I know if I look good for this meeting, I’m going to be dressed for the rest of my day. So if I go someplace and they they’re not wearing jackets, I can take my jacket off. I still have a great looking shirt on and. It really comes down to your your personal style. I mean. You have to develop. You have to find out what works for you, what works for you because you have silver hair is not going to work for me because I have dark hair or stone.

Mark Fonseca: [00:26:09] Right? Or so he’s got. We’ve got brown hair here. What happens is a lot of people try to put you in the same thing. There are some there’s some big company out there that they literally train their salespeople. To find ten sport jackets that you like and ten suits that you like and sell them to everybody. Right. I’ve got referrals from that company. Recently over the holiday, I got a I got an email from somebody I’d been trying to come to, trying to work with them and they said, okay, Mark, I want I want you to come and see me. He was an attorney and they went to their Christmas party and this company was dressed in a lot of the attorneys in their five guys showed up in the same jacket and tie and and and shirt. He said, I’m done. Right. Because you’re not dealing with subject matter. You’re dealing with salesmen and peddlers that have a quota to hit. I have no quotas to hit. I’m not trying to win Presidents Club. Right. I want you to look the best you could possibly look every day of your life. So a lot of times when you’re going out. Okay, so I’ll ask you guys a question. So when you’re going out, you’re going out to a big event, You’re getting ready. Your wife walks in her closet and what does she come out and say?

Robert Mason: [00:27:27] How does this look on me?

Randell Beck: [00:27:29] Or I’ve got nothing to wear.

Mark Fonseca: [00:27:31] Bingo. It’s not.

Randell Beck: [00:27:34] It’s got three rows of the closet, but nothing to wear.

Mark Fonseca: [00:27:36] Okay. So it’s not that she doesn’t have anything to wear. What it is, is she has nothing to wear that’s going to make her feel the way she wants to feel that night for that event. I make you clothes that make you feel like that every day of your life. So, Mark.

Robert Mason: [00:27:55] Are you attached to any private labels or brands per se?

Mark Fonseca: [00:27:59] No, I’m independent. I work with some of the best vendors, shoe vendors, tie vendors, accessory vendors. I do have two main resources where I get my clothing made. But as an independent.

Robert Mason: [00:28:14] Domestic or is that there.

Mark Fonseca: [00:28:16] Off shore? Yeah, there there are very few. There are. There are a handful, just a couple, but there are very few resources to get tailored clothing in the US anymore. So, you know, we had a we had a factory in China in Shanghai. We’re pulling out because of all the brain damage and all the stuff that’s going on in China. But. You can still have quality craftsmanship offshore, but there are very few onshore resources anymore.

Robert Mason: [00:28:46] Yeah, that was part of NAFTA’s change. Yeah. Everything went offshore.

Speaker7: [00:28:50] Well.

Randell Beck: [00:28:52] I mean, you would expect it to, but then you have to deal with all the quality questions and the logistical questions.

Robert Mason: [00:28:57] Look at Nike.

Randell Beck: [00:28:58] Yeah, exactly. All right. So let’s go back to the exercise now. So let’s take Robert as our model, okay? Robert’s got a little muscle on him. He’s a man’s man. You’re, what, five, seven, five, eight.

Robert Mason: [00:29:09] Well, it used to be six. Five, but.

Randell Beck: [00:29:11] But then you took up real estate, and it’s grinding you down.

Robert Mason: [00:29:13] It sure is.

Randell Beck: [00:29:14] So. So what is your height?

Robert Mason: [00:29:16] Five, seven, five, seven.

Randell Beck: [00:29:17] Yeah. Dark hair is age. Starts with a five and. Okay, so the easy case is real estate. And he said competent. So how does how does Robert. Project competency. In his marketplace.

Mark Fonseca: [00:29:36] Yeah. So you remember dark colors. Always send a message of trust and integrity. The darker the color, the more trust and integrity. That’s why it’s an oxymoron. But politicians wear dark colors, right? Firemen, Navy blue police officers. Navy blue. Right. Dark colors send the message of character and integrity. Lighter colors send the message of more casual. So if I tell a lot of clients, if you want to if you’re getting ready to fire somebody, you want to create a lot of rapport. Wear light colors are earth tones. They create a lot more rapport. If you want to have a very serious meeting, then put a Navy suit or a dark charcoal suit on or something dark, something dark. So colors send different messages. And then you also have to dress for your audience. So for Robert in real estate, he gets a new client. How are they dressing? You want to dress one notch above them? What you don’t want to do is if you see a couple comes in to buy their house, whatever, whatever way they’re dressed, you don’t want to come in and overpower them. And you’re thinking, wow, this guy’s really just he’s too much for us, right? If he’s if they’re look nice and wear a nice shirt, maybe he throws on a jacket. Just take it up just a little bit. Not overwhelming, but you’re always you always like your wardrobe is like tools in your toolbox. You’re looking at your day, you’re looking at your client. You’re always dressing for your audience. So there’s two main reasons that we dress. The first reason that we dress is to show respect for ourselves. All right. The second reason we dressed is to show the respect for people that we’re meeting with.

Randell Beck: [00:31:16] Okay, So now let’s let’s change the scenario. Let’s say Robert’s not selling real estate. He goes in and he gets a job and he’s working for Cousins properties and he is a VP of Construction. Right. So now he’s on the development side. He’s in a corporate environment and he’s dealing with manual labor and and their management on a daily basis. So how does the how does the formula change? Yeah.

Mark Fonseca: [00:31:40] So number one, you have to find out what the corporate culture is, what are people wearing in the office? And then if he’s in the construction side, if he’s more, then obviously you’re not going to wear a jacket. I wouldn’t think if he’s dealing with if he’s dealing with labor and hourly labor and things every day, you’re going to wear a great polo. Like he’s wearing maybe a branded polo that says Cousin Cousins properties on it. I was always a great safe thing to wear with a nice pair of either, you know, stretch pants and some some some nice some great not great shoes, but shoes that look good, that like Skechers something. Something that looks good but is comfortable. If you’re doing if you’re going to be outside a lot. So you can still look neat. And then if he has to throw a jacket on, he can he can just carry a Navy blazer or a black blazer or a jacket in his truck. And if he has to throw a jacket on and meet somebody for lunch, you can throw a jacket on. And then he’s right. So he’s got a great looking polo look, great with a jacket. He’s got some great, you know, solid pants, a nice stretch, a stretch five. We call them five pocket pant. And they have different colors and some really great looking comfortable shoes. And then so he can be on the construction site or like I said, if he has to keep a jacket in his truck, throws a jacket on if he wants to go meet somebody for lunch.

Randell Beck: [00:32:58] Okay. And if we change it again. And so let’s say let’s say he goes out and he starts a business, he’s a marketing we’re going to call it whale tail. So your whale tail marketing now and you’re dealing with all sorts of business people and no predictability in the day. Now, what should he do?

Mark Fonseca: [00:33:12] Yeah, I’m always a big fan of personal branding, so having quality shirts that have your logo on it, right? So you could wear a great white button down or any kind of a button down shirt or a great shirt with a logo on it, some great dress slacks or dress khakis, you know, great looking shoes, great looking belt. And you’d be good. You’d be good to go. And he wears glasses. So glasses actually become an accessory. He could have 20 different pair of glasses, all different colors. So depending on what you’re wearing, he’s got brown hair. So things that look best on him are brown. Any kind of brown leather, brown shoes, light brown, dark brown walnut, brown chocolate, brown earth tones look good on him. Pinks, lavenders blues and just have those in a variety of different colors that look great. You know, you can change your glasses up for a nice look, change, change your accessories, change your shoes. And so I’m a big fan of. You know, symmetry in your branding, whether it’s what you’re wearing or if your matches your business card. You know, if you’ve got your radio collars here or black and red and white. So you walked in wearing this. You’re we talked about that. Same with your van. Right. And the great news is, is you’re coloring for you. Randall matches the coloring for your business. So there are a lot of there are a lot of positives there.

Robert Mason: [00:34:31] And being a Navy man, it took a while to get you away from that navy blue probably, right? Maybe.

Randell Beck: [00:34:37] I don’t know. I really wouldn’t know. Probably. And you’re a.

Robert Mason: [00:34:42] Little sailor.

Randell Beck: [00:34:42] Cap. Probably. Well, I still wear the sailor cap. Yeah. So your clients, it’s. Let me back up. You clearly put a lot of thought and a lot of time and experience into this. And coming up, thinking at a much deeper level than most people do about this topic. I think it would be fair to.

Mark Fonseca: [00:35:04] Say people pay me a lot of money.

Randell Beck: [00:35:05] But your clients, I mean, there’s a market for you. Clearly, there are people out there in the business world that somebody like, say, Robert or Stone would want to reach. They’re thinking like this because there’s a market. They’re putting the same level of attention and detail and resources into it as well. Are they not?

Mark Fonseca: [00:35:22] Yeah. Yeah, I think that. You know you. It all comes down to the. Me as a person, right? My clients can buy their clothes. They can afford to buy their clothes wherever they want. I’ve got guys that fly to Las Vegas to buy their clothes. They can they can do business, but they love to do business. With people that are experts at what they do. That’s really the bottom line is, you know, guys have to feel guys have to feel comfortable with me. I always thought about writing a book called Closet Confessions of a CEO. I can’t tell you how many times in my career that I walk into an office. Right? Go in. They close the door and we sit down and they look at me and they’re like, Dude, I need some help. They don’t want anybody else knowing that. Right? Guys will be vulnerable with you if they feel that they can trust you and you start asking good questions, right? When you start asking good questions and they know that you’re just not a salesman and a peddler when you’re there, they’ll say, okay, here’s what’s going on. And they’ll tell you they’ll they’ll just, you know, open up to you. And when they know that you’re there to help them and to pull the thorn out of the lion’s paw and solve a problem that they’ve had, a guy named Mitch Albom, you ever heard of him? Okay. So he says, Mark, when I walk in my closet. I feel like I’m in a Western movie because I just I hear the wind blowing and the tumbleweeds blowing across the the, you know, the desert plains. You know, I have no idea what to wear. Did you make it so easy? Right now I can walk in and I can. The numbering system. I walk in, I get dressed. I don’t have to wake up my wife up at 630 in the morning when I’m getting ready to go to work and get her out of bed to see ask how I look. I know I look like a rock star every day.

Stone Payton: [00:37:24] So, you.

Robert Mason: [00:37:25] Know, things have changed since COVID and especially on the clothing front and people going to offices or not going to offices, you know, office spaces. It’s, you know, it’s empty right now. Has that changed your business profile since 2020?

Mark Fonseca: [00:37:42] A little bit. It has. People still if you’re. Even if you’re at home. Even when I’m at home, I’m not dressed like this, but I’m going to throw on a nice shirt, a nice pair of jeans, and, you know, I’m at work. I mean, even if I’m even if I’m home, I have to have I have to have the mentality that I’m working. And it’s it’s all mental, right? The better you look, the better you feel.

Robert Mason: [00:38:04] It’s better to look good and to feel good. I think I’ve heard that before.

Mark Fonseca: [00:38:07] So the better you look, you know, the better you feel, the better. The more money you make, Right? There’s a there’s a saying in the sports industry, you know, you look good. You feel good, you play good, you get paid good.

Robert Mason: [00:38:20] You feel marvelous.

Mark Fonseca: [00:38:20] Yeah. And, you know, really, I do a little. I do a lot of presentations to One of my favorite things to do is talk to underprivileged young men when I’m presenting as a great charity called Brother to Brother. It’s all these young African American kids that are have no fathers. And I, when I speak to them, I got to because how I grew up, I grew up. So when I walk in, I’m all dressed up. I take my tie off, I take my jacket off and I relate to them. And I’ll take some one of the young men out of the audience and I’ll take them and put them in a blazer, a white button down shirt and some khaki pants and bring them back out. Did it’s transformational.

Robert Mason: [00:39:02] So I think it’s you said something that was important. When you’re at home and you’re not leaving the house, you still dress, you still success because that’s a mental process, right? You flip the switch. I’m ready to roll.

Mark Fonseca: [00:39:14] Yeah. You just feel different when you walk out. You just feel different when you dress up. I mean, you just feel different than you are if you’re if you’re going to hang out in your in your sweats and your your pajamas all day, you just you get you go take a shower, you put you put a nice jacket on, you put a great shirt on. You just feel different. Your whole attitude changes when you’re.

Randell Beck: [00:39:33] You know, you use that phrase. But we were we always said, look better, feel better, do better. That was our version.

Mark Fonseca: [00:39:41] Yeah, there are so many studies out there that talk about I can tell you several, several CEOs, they disdain casual Friday. They wish it was because if you give people liberty, they’re going to take it. Right. And but they can’t say anything. Right, Because they overstep.

Robert Mason: [00:39:58] Yeah, they.

Mark Fonseca: [00:39:59] People you got guys wearing flip flops to work and shorts especially it. Dude, it’s the worst. That’s my wife does you know, it’s there are a lot of companies out there that actually send their clients to etiquette school. Right. And I know. So they’ll come the CEO or the executive team will pull me in and they’ll say, Hey, Mark, we want you to work with this person because they’re they’re going to be on the next one. We’re going to promote up to the executive team. So a lot of times I know the guys that are going to be elevated before they do, and they’ll send me in and say, hey, I want you to go in and start working with this guy. And because he needs to fit the image of the corporation, Right. And, you know, every every corporation has their own culture. And it also so a lot of times like interviewing, for example. So I’m really fortunate to be like nine for nine recently. On helping my client’s children get an interview, get a job on their first interview, right? And so now I’ve been doing this long enough time. My clients trust me to dress their, you know, their young men that are interviewing for jobs. They’re graduating from college. So I had one of my client’s sons that was going to interview at a private equity company where I just happened to dress the managing partner. Right. They didn’t know that. But so I dressed him exactly like the managing partner. It was an investment on their part. But the the message you want to send when you’re interviewing is when you walk in. You don’t want people to say, Here comes our next interviewee. What you what you want them to say is, here comes our next CEO. Here comes our next VP of sales. You want to walk in like you already have the position and you want to look like you already have it.

Robert Mason: [00:41:42] So we talked about instant impressions, you know, and that’s exactly what you just described right there. You’ll make a decision about somebody in the first three seconds when they walk in the door. For men, it’s how we we greet you, how we shake your hand is our back straight Is our grip firm. Are we looking you in the eye? How are we dressed? How will we put together? So first impressions are lasting impressions.

Randell Beck: [00:42:06] So what about. What about Sam Walton, who ran around in jeans and a beat up old truck and basically played the part of a bumpkin? Even though he’s the richest guy in the world for a while or something?

Mark Fonseca: [00:42:17] Yeah, he was definitely a model of humility, you know, for sure. And you know, when you’re Sam Walton or Mark Zuckerberg, you can dress however you want. I mean, that’s, you know, people are coming to you. But again, it’s all about it’s all about really when I when I talk to people and I give my presentations, I said, what’s most important is what’s on the inside, right? Really what’s on the inside, Your character, your integrity, your heart. But unfortunately, we live in a society that judges us by our impression. So if you you want to make sure that you have all the cards stacked in your favor, because if you’re not, you’re not missing opportunities. Right? If you don’t look approachable, then you could be missing opportunities. I talk I do a lot of work with with VP of Sales and their sales force. And I always talk about dead people, dead men or dead women. I work mainly with men, but I talk talk about dead men walking, right? You can walk into your appointment and just walk into the lobby and just based on the first impression you’re already done, you’re not going to make the sale and you don’t even know it based on that first impression.

Randell Beck: [00:43:24] So I think in business terms, we’ve identified a pocket of overlooked value, unrealized value here for people that just aren’t thinking in these terms. I mean, I have to admit, I know a guy who stands up in front of a room of 100 people and will make a presentation or say something in a in an authoritative way about business. But he’s wearing a raggedy t shirt and gym shorts and he looks like he just came out of the showers. And I know that and I’m not the only one, but I know that I tend to think, why would I listen to this?

Mark Fonseca: [00:43:56] Yeah. And a lot of times it’s it’s pride. It’s, you know, a lot of guys think, well, if I’m making money, then I must be doing something right. Right. They. They tend to overlook it. But what happens is, unfortunately, people around you, like you just said, you’re talking about this guy and so are other people. So a lot of times I’m the one that walks in and gives them the bad news. Right. And a lot of times, you know, guys just again, they just don’t know. They’re leading that life of quiet desperation and they just don’t know how to do it. And that’s where, you know, that’s where I come in.

Robert Mason: [00:44:33] Well, I think you’re giving him a lifeline, frankly, by walking in and saying what you’re going to say.

Mark Fonseca: [00:44:38] Yeah. And that’s why I’m in. I’m in this business to change people’s lives. I’m not in I’m not in it to sell clothes. I’m in it to change your life. I’m in it to. Honestly, I my deliverables when I deliver the clothing I just delivered, you know. A half a month’s salary, wear the clothes to a guy up in Milton. And I walked in. He tried everything on and he just said, Mark, thank you so much, because he was this guy is a he’s a mercenary. Guys pay him $3,000 a day to consult them. Right. Multiple companies, not just one, but that’s his fee, $3,000 a day. And the guy looked horrible. And, you know, he’s like, Mark, I need I need some help. So we walked in, sat down with him for 45 minutes and, you know, delivered everything last week shoes, jackets, pants, shirts, pocket squares. And he put everything on and he looked in the mirror and he said, Thank you so much. And everything was numbered. He dressed himself, right? He you know, he looked at the number. He was like, oh, just put the numbers together. His wife came in and Pam was like, Mark. She’s like, Greg, you look amazing. You could just tell. I mean, his whole here’s a guy, he’s making, you know, several million dollars a year. And here is a guy, you know, 58, 59 years old that has just lit up when his wife said, Greg, you look amazing. That’s my deliverable.

Robert Mason: [00:46:12] So it’s not too late for us, Randy. It’s not. Speak for yourself, Stone. It’s still time.

Stone Payton: [00:46:18] That is very encouraging.

Randell Beck: [00:46:20] Speak for yourselves, man. I think I’m over the event horizon here.

Robert Mason: [00:46:25] Other questions? Golly. I mean, I’m just sitting here listening and learning because I fight this a lot. And in my profession and the real estate profession, we are not a profession that likes to spend a lot of money. Okay. That’s just the truth.

Randell Beck: [00:46:41] That’s one way to describe it.

Robert Mason: [00:46:42] Yeah. Yeah. And I’m being I’m trying to be kind here. It’s difficult to get us to do anything that involves spending money and pulling out that that credit card. But this is bang for the buck. It’s like, what kind of car are you driving? Do you wash your car when you you go to meet your clients? Do you get a haircut? And my wife’s always got a haircut yesterday because my wife’s like, you’ve got to get a haircut. You don’t look you don’t look good. And so this is something as a professional first impression kind of person, I fight this myself and I’m not very good at it. I think we want.

Randell Beck: [00:47:15] To be comfortable. We want things, like you said, to be easy. And and if you don’t know about these topics, dressing yourself is a pain, right?

Robert Mason: [00:47:23] To do it right. The dress by numbers, man, that makes sense.

Stone Payton: [00:47:26] I love that. I have a quick observation. I cut close to 50 pounds about a year ago and I think fit is so important to and to wear clothes that fit you properly. And I really struggled with that for a couple of months after after I cut that weight. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Mark Fonseca: [00:47:43] Yeah. My my term for a lot of guys is you want to be relevant, You want to look. You want to look your age. You don’t want to be 40 something and try to dress like you’re 20 something. But also you want you want trim, not tight. You want something to to flatter you that. But you don’t want it overly. You know, you don’t want an overly too tight but when you’re so there’s different ways to dress there’s you know, if you’re six, 3 or 5 eight and but when you’re really when you’re slender, you want to stick with a lot of solid colors. So solid colors are always great and then big patterns. So it depends on, you know. So I’ve got I’ve got a guy who’s very, very successful in the real estate business. He’s five seven, right? He said, Mark, how do I dress bigger? So you dress bigger patterns, right? So your shirts have large window panes or your jackets have large window panes in them to to give the impression that you that you look bigger, Right? But when you’re slender, you know, you you can wear a solid pant and a patterned jacket or a patterned jacket and a solid pant to give you a, you know, a larger impression.

Mark Fonseca: [00:49:02] But you want to you just want to make sure that your clothes are not unsightly right there. If you button your jacket and you see little, little wrinkles, it means your jacket is too tight. But, you know, for you, you know, bigger patterns are good for you. Right. But again, it all depends on the message that you want to send, you know, for what you want to wear. But you’re losing weight is. So just to give you an idea, you have in most clothing, in the clothing panels, you have a 20 pound swing, 20 to 25 pound swing, meaning. So in the clothing business, every 10 pounds you gain or lose is an inch in your waist and a half inch in your seat. And most guys typically gain and lose weight from the bottom of their chest to the bottom of their seat. Just in that area is where all the most alterations change when you’re losing weight.

Randell Beck: [00:50:00] There’s a trend where suits look like everybody looks like Jethro Bodine, like they’ve outgrown their suits. What’s that about?

Mark Fonseca: [00:50:08] You know, it’s unfortunate that so many people, especially guys, get their cues from Hollywood and sports, and what looks good on somebody doesn’t look good on everybody. You know, I went to another store. I went to a client’s house, very successful guy. He lived in midtown up in the penthouse. So I go in, he’s a single guy, and I walk in and I walk in his closet. And he literally has four distinct like he has, like Tommy Bahama here. He’s got Brooks Brothers over here. He’s got Armani over here. And I’m like, Dude, what? What? Why the disparity in your wardrobe? He goes, Oh, it’s my last four girlfriends. I mean, you know, and, you know, so many so many guys get their cues from people. Just because they have money doesn’t mean you know how to dress. We see that every day. Right. And sometimes people in sports and Hollywood are the worst dressed. They just try to be ostentatious. But that’s where it helps. That’s where it helps you just look for help, right? If you’re looking for something, just seek it out. There are so many great guys out there that have YouTube videos that can help you. But the first thing is like, you have to admit that you need help.

Mark Fonseca: [00:51:24] And once you realize you need help, then you can start. You start searching it out and make sure that you’re. You got to remember that if you’re going to Neiman’s or Saks or wherever, a lot of the retail stores, when you walk in, you’ve got to remember they’re there to sell you something. You’re not going to walk in and they’re going to say, Oh, Randall, I’m sorry, we don’t have anything that’s going to fit you because your hair color, skin color. They’re not consulting you. They’re selling you. There’s a huge difference. Right. And so that’s really what you’re looking for. You’re looking for. That’s why referrals on my business is 100% referrals. I’ll get 2 or 3 calls a month of a guy say, Hey, Mark, I got referred to you by Randall. I got referred you by Rob or I got referred by by stone. I get. And that’s really for me how my business grows. Or I do a lot of speaking engagements. And when I when I speak, then you’re seen as a subject matter expert and I’m automatically elevated, you know, above all the all the salesmen and the peddlers out there that are calling on you.

Randell Beck: [00:52:22] I think I am going to refer Robert to you. I mean, we do video series. Robert, you’ve had good, good success with our video, right? This is successful marketing for you. But imagine how good it would look if you dressed like Mark. I know. Imagine how well that would work. It would work very well. Yeah. So okay, parting shot time. So I think I’m I think there’s value here for me. I’m considering it. I’m not quite sure how it all goes. If you had one thing you could say to me about working with you, what would that be?

Mark Fonseca: [00:52:48] Give me 15 minutes and I’ll change your life.

Randell Beck: [00:52:51] Thank you for coming in, Mark. It was really informative. I think we covered a lot of very valuable ground for a lot of people today.

Robert Mason: [00:52:57] Thank you, Mark. Fantastic stuff.

Mark Fonseca: [00:53:00] Yeah, Great being here. Thank you. I really appreciate the time.