Follow Your Dreams: Montee served in the U.S. Marine Corps, worked in pharmaceutical sales to building a popular fashion brand.

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3:03Wherever duty calls, APU helps military families make an impact and keep family first. Learn more at apu.apus.edu. Welcome to my show. I'm Richa McDonnell, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass. When we encourage people to stop reading other people's success stories and start planning your own. Now you don't want to miss an episode. So please take a moment right now to follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. It's free. You can follow me on iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your podcast. New Money Making Conversations Masterclass episodes drop daily. I want to keep you on alert because my guests provide tips on how you can uplift your community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Now let's get this podcast started. My guest today is the president and CEO of the Teyon collection. The Teyon collection is 100% solely owned by Monte Halle. Please welcome the Money Making Conversations Masterclass.

4:05It's about the fashion week for us on this show. Monte Halle. I don't miss the Holland. I mean, wherever shot, how are you? Well, first of all, how did you get into business, man? You know, it's interesting. I had always had these visions of, you know, being in the fashion industry in some way, shape, or form. But, you know, but being raised in an Indicinity trade with a single mom and three other siblings had no idea how to get into it. So I just kind of put those thoughts in the back of my mind until I got to high school and I would see my coaches that didn't work in the building come to the building in their professional clothing. Right. They wow. I don't know what they do, but I want to do something that has to do with them, you know, when overcoats, you know, in Detroit, so it's cold overcoats, freaks, cuffs, neckties. And I would always notice, even with all the spristers that had us running, how good they looked in their clothing and I want to do something in that world. And that sparked my thoughts of what I could kind of do with it.

5:09And that's where fashion is that I will came from. I'm remiss. I need to tell everybody where you from. Where you from, Monte? Born and raised, Detroit, Michigan. There you go. See, right there. We got to say where you're from so we can understand why you talking about fashion, why as a young African American male, you will hypnotize by looks because fashion has always been a strong foothold into trop. Why? You know, even before the days of Motown, when those guys really, you know, put their foot on the fashion on the fascia's neck, they always look good. They want to look good because you look good. They felt good. No, these are the stories that I heard from, you know, the elders saying, listen, we would wake up, put a suit on, go to work, come back from work, take that suit off, put another suit on for our extra correct black cavities. And that's I've always heard that I've always seen that Detroit's been, you know, a sexy, fashionable city. Since I've always known now one thing about Detroit is always had a reputation of bright colors.

6:15Is that true? Is that true? Is that true? More so than just bright colors. I think that the people who are really into fashion Detroit would like their fashion to be an extension of their personalities. This is called that. And so I have brighter personalities that they want to express themselves with, with their color and their guard. Well, you know, I'm going to take you to Tazgo that multi. I've been in Detroit many times. I've seen the match and hat, the matching suit, vans and shoes. I mean, it's rare for top of all of this yellow from top of all I've seen green from top about. No one in this country ever seen that other than Detroit. Well, guess what? Think about that. And what you just said, it's actually true. But think about the monochromatic looks that people are doing nowadays. It's the time, you know, for a long time. The model looks pretty odd now. Right. There's any else. But I just know that I got to let everybody know the love I have for Detroit and the fact that the multi-zoomite show talking about fashion.

7:17Because I've been fortunate in life. I've been in the position to get tailor-made suits, tailor-made shirts. But I've never met a person who had a collection, a person who has clothes on the racks. You know, before you got to that, you had to stand in the military before you got into fashion. Talk about that. That's actually how I'll tell you on started. So, I'm a young man in United States Marine Corps and I'm overseas. And on weekends, a lot of people don't know is that they give you time to go out and just kind of hang out. So I'm in Korea and all these places around the world. And on weekends, we just walk up and down the road. Well, on either side of the road, you get these little shops where you can go in and look at fabric and make a shirt and an hour or two. You can make a shoe, you can make a pen, you can make a suit. And I will go in and remember having these thoughts in the back of my head about fashion. And just say, look, I want that shirt, put this collar on it, put this cuff on it. I want that jacket, make it a pair like this, not knowing what's on it, I was designing. But I was, you know, before you know what, I had a nice collection of clothing and people would give me these compliments.

8:20Well, I just said, you know, I got a cool wardrobe. I will wear it out, get all these compliments. I get out of the Marine Corps and those compliments kept coming. So I started to use those contacts that I had. Right. Things for people. Right. Now, when you, when you, when you're looking at clothes and you're looking at design, what is the basis of your design factor, your vision? When you're talking about men, oh, you, oh, you're, remember the backup. Are you designing for, I've heard terms called fast white guys. I've heard terms called the urban community and I heard terms called German general market. What do you look when you start fashioning design of your fashions? Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more money making conversations, masterclass. Now I need for you to do me a favor. Right now, you'll follow or subscribe to money making conversation. It's free. And you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please do me that favor. Follow or subscribe money making conversations.

9:24Welcome back to money making conversation, masterclass hosted by me, Rishan McDonald. Let's get back into it. So, so first I want to go back to something you said a minute ago, you said that, you know, you coming from a position of means, you've always had custom types of suits. You know, tag lies as this. Whether you're an a size man, Mr. Newman, and whether custom suit meets the ready to wear suit. So every bail on whistle or characteristic that you'll find in your custom suit, you're from i and the tei ready to wear suit. So I start there because remember all those things that I started from my foundation was actually custom. I built it. I made it from a shop to my specifications in terms of the things that I want to inside it, took those, put it into my ready to wear. But what, what, who am I, who am I target target? I'm targeting the same customer that likes to be fashionable, that wants his fashion to be an extension of his personality that likes the type of garment that you're used to that high nice garment, but maybe add a price.

10:29So I'm thinking about what, what, what the time for Ralph from one purple label guys think about, but at a price point. And you know, I like to say humbly, I think that we, we've accomplished that and this guy who's wearing a tan, I can stand next to any of those guys are so confident that he's, you know, right there neck and neck with him. Now, new visionary, because everybody, like I said, I've met a many a man out there who can design suits, who maybe want to be on the rack and a macy's type store. So this start for you, Monty, it's interesting and I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to go into something real quick because, you know, like I said, those coaches inspired me from, from high school, but I'll tell you. And I, and this is this, this is touching to me because, you know, you're such a humble guy, but I want to say this quickly. 2004, I want to say I was at the magic show, a little 10 by 10 booth right down the hall for me was you and your team, you did not know me at all, but you guys took the time to introduce yourselves and say, how much you liked what I was showing.

11:33Now, I had to bring you boo, you had a big time to move with upstairs and I will remember it. And in, in, in you, you took the time to say something to me, how I got into the big box stores, we started selling these small specialty stores. Right. Now, hopefully, it's going to flip what a specialty store is. Well, she stores a moment pop store. Sometimes it's one store, sometimes they have, you know, four or five stores. Sometimes they have like Portabella in New York, 20, 30 stores. So we started to sell these guys. They started to make money and more and more came at one point. We were selling about a thousand specialty stores across the country. And that sounds like a lot and it is a lot, but when you start to compare that to big box, when you start talking about Macy's, Niamh is Norton, it's that's Norsdom. It's nothing. This is dropping the bucket. Right. Until one day, I'm at one of those very shows that I just spoke about and one of the guys who was a customer of mine from Houston, Gary Dante from Supermarkt. Yes. Now, on the hallway towards me, he even making money off of a few years. He's walking with another gentleman. And these are elderly gentlemen, both Jewish gentlemen.

12:34And he says, hey, my tea was going on. We talk to gentlemen, that's what I'm saying. That's a beautiful suture when I said, thank you. That's a beautiful suture when he said, do you know who I am? I said, do not, but you look familiar. And then Gary chimed in and said, man, he's tey on. He's the hottest line in America. Ronnie, you want him to do something. The guy was Ronnie, worst burger. And he was the person that built Pirlis clothing. Pirlis Cloney is Rob Florent, Calvin Client, Tommy Eofick, Michael Cors. You name it. And they are not they manufacture these brands. And he manufactured these brands and he built it because he ran it for 35 years. And he's he's more than just a vendor to these big box doors. He's more like a partner. Right. And he saw me. He said, man, you're very interesting young man. I want to talk to you about maybe doing something because the industry is about to change. And we need to diversify our portfolios. I said, okay, well, let's set something up and sue me to New York. We had a conversation. He took a liking to me and said, very frankly, and I'm going to tell you very frankly, what he said.

13:34He said, listen, I'm the person that made America feel like the only thing appropriate was a two-button black blue brown, not the pale suit. The industry is changing. We need to diversify meaning the the licensees, those types of guys and the big box doors. He said, but I can take this label of any of the brand that I make and put it in another suit. Same suit. Nobody knows the difference. And I was like, I've got already known that. Right. I'll bring you in and have you diversified the industry. And I'm going to help you do it. Wow. And he held true to his word and brought me over to a peerless. He then retired. And I've been there for the last four, four and a half years now. Cool. Let's talk about this location in Vegas, this show. Can you explain to my viewers and my listeners exactly what you're talking about? What I first met you, what Gary met you at all these individuals who changed your lives, and is in an annual event. And the magic show is at nothing to do with magic, by the way.

14:34Yeah. Sure. And that's wasn't doing magic. It's a peril trade show that's held two times a year in August and in February. And you know, vendors are there, you know, showing their product. Buyers are there buying products. Celebrity brands are there with licensing deals. Every category for men to women to boys to casual to out of wear to sportswear. It's a huge show. It used to be a four day show is now a three day show. And it is just where the whole fashion industry converges in one week to, you know, to represent their particular their fields. And that's where I decided I was going to go ahead. No industry knowledge. I didn't know what was going to happen. But I worked for Pfizer pharmaceutical. Had a little money in my pocket. I was in my back. We're up in America at that time. I took for my buddies took 15 suits. Got that little 10 bucks in. And luckily, and I mean this because it was so last minute, there was only one 10 by 10 space left, which is the smallest booth. And it was down the hall from where you were.

15:36Awesome. You know, it is the fun part about the, you know, fashion, this collection and multi-talking. The magic show is wow. Yes. What? You go to the hip hop area. It's like, you know, it's almost walking from, and I might be a nigga without saying that. You're verifying this. It's a little quiet section. It's like very white. Yep. And as you get closer to the hip hop, you start getting louder. The women start wearing less and less clothes. And it's like, okay, where am I at now? You know, you're getting these clothes. You're selling your number more salesman at Pfizer. But now you're getting into the fashion business. Yeah. And necessarily everybody, the clothes you send out don't mean people going by. How does all that manufacture itself, my brother? So I learned, I like to say, I learned my business acumen, certainly an apparent industry through the school of hard knocks. I tell you, you know, they tore my behind up. And here's what I mean by that.

16:37And I'm going to be candid here. I don't know many six foot three, 240 pound Marine Quil Train detoyers that can say they stole millions from me. And I know they are. And I didn't catch a case. So. Because I got to tell you, I now say that lightheartedly, but there were times when it was tough. Because as we started to grow and as we started to make money and we were selling this product, I started to ask questions, okay, so where's the money? You know, what? Right. And with this, I didn't quite understand the business side of it. And the most important side, you can have the hottest garments in the world. You don't understand the business of it. You will lose and you will fail. Right. So as we're making this hot product, stores are buying it. And you know, I'm not understanding how to track it. I'm not understanding the true cost of the garment, meaning the cost of fabric, meaning the cost of production, meaning the landed cost, meaning the warehouse cost, meaning the wholesale cost, and as it relates to what you should be paying me. I have to learn those things the hard way.

17:37And unfortunately, a lot of these smaller, lighthearted companies didn't play above board. Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more money making conversations, masterclass. Chad GPT can do more than answer questions. It can help you get real work done. Chad GPT work is built for bigger projects with multiple steps. You bring the goal along with the information it needs, like notes, files, customer feedback, calendars, project plans, or data. Then, Chad GPT can help turn that into a useful work. A marketing grief, a sales tracker, an investment update, a deck outline, an analysis, even a workflow your team can use. It can also work with approved apps and connected tools to help move the project forward. And you stay in control the whole time. You give directions, review the work, approve any access, and decide what the final result should be. So instead of spending all your time figuring out where to start, you can start making progress. Put Chad GPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects.

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22:59When I talk about your clothing, your line, you know, Steve Harvey made an impression in the fashion industry, especially how did that impact you and also how you're able to stay ahead of what the next fashion trend would be. Talk to us. And that's funny. You mentioned Steve. Steve was in that group that I'll talk about with you all. And the, you know, he's always been a fashion icon in my opinion. And he always looked good. So I always wanted to kind of walk in that same spirit of fashion excellence that you and your team and specifically Steve walked in. So I would take those types of styles because they were very similar to what I wanted to do and and create my line. But then you have to be able to see beyond. Yes. What's hot now and and continue to source. You know fabrics continues. Yes. Inchmarked meaning around you have to be overseas. You have to be in different states and cities and see what's trending. What's hot looking around corners. And that's what I always do. Always okay. That's hot. I like that.

24:03But what's hot in DC? What's going to be hot in Houston? What this work here. Work there. Let's try something different. We've been doing this lapel with for a year and a half now. Let's try something a little bit different. And I've always done that and thank goodness that the things that we've done that were many would think were cutting edge. We're right on point and we've never had a season where we did not sell very, very well. So it's about being taking risks and it's about following that little voice in your head because a little voice in your head is your gift and you have to listen to it. No, the interesting thing about you know, because this is like money may come since the master class. I try to educate my audience on terminology that's very popular in your door license. You think what does that mean and how does that impact how you are going to do relations with various vendors. So that's a great question. And here's what I like to sum it up and and and short. So if people have an understanding of it licensing in short means this.

25:03What you rather have all of a million dollars or 10% of a hundred million dollars. And but how do you do that? Yes, sir. I tell guys all the time they say, hey man, I want to get into the industry and I'm ready to do it. You did. I can do it. And I say, yeah, you're right. But what happens if you do show show Macy something and they say we like it. Now give us 40,000 units. 40,000 units is about four million dollars. Do you have one? Do you have four million dollars to make it? Two million dollars to make it? Two million dollars to have the wherewithal to wait to be paid several months for it. And then three, do you have another four million dollars to have another boat coming here with another four million on it? Yes. If the answer is no, then you probably should be considering a licensing deal because they're going to do the heavy lifting. You know, the interesting thing about it was that Macy's came out with this divide nine. Yes. Fashion line. And I'm not going to lie to you Marty. As soon as I saw what I went, let's tell you. Yeah. Yeah. I did. I did my research and it was you tell us how that relationship happened and why did you do it?

26:07So two part question. First of all, probably you can see behind me a lot of pink. My wife said a K.A. Yeah. Of his movies. I had heard about this initiative they tried a couple of years ago. Right it with the sororities. The young lady who was addressed by her Macy's. She's a Zeta. She had been asking to do this because she was trying to express to them the gravity of the sororities and fraternities. You know, educated people with means. These are people on the world. These are people that know what they want and can galvanize. You know, groups of people that can support an initiative. Right. And our huge and philanthropic areas, huge and a community, you know the whole deal. Uh-huh. Did it? They do these rap dresses, panel rap dresses. When $10 million out to do it. I think they sold $10 million a week or so. Wow. We used to. They did great. She caught a little bit of flat because what she did was she went to a manufacturer who is,

27:09let's just say they're not minority owned. Right. They were to them and they made these dresses and somebody who was in the industry. I think it's rolling Martin. And I'm not sure if he's an alpha or a Q. But he said, he's an alpha. I'm a cub. Uh-huh. He said we appreciate the sister for doing this. However, she couldn't find any African American vendors. So Macy's then and it was a lot of flack. It was a lot of pressure on her. He said, Macy's the president of the equity and inclusion was on fire right now. Right. They said that, okay, we know there's something here, but let's do this thing the right way. Uh-huh. So what it was they went to all of the presidents and they they talked about how they were partnered. They were partnering via workshops. They were partnering via internships. They were partnering with the regional initiatives. You know, all the different things you do in the community. And then they said, we're going to donate to all of the organizations. They came to me and said, okay, look, you're a minority, own vendor. You're just well in Macy's. Would you be willing to do this?

28:09And when I realized that they're there, commitment to it was honest and never going to do what they said they were going to do. And they were actually doing it. I said, I'm in. So they came to me and said, can you do the Taylor clothing? The jacket is the vest, the pants, the ties, the shirts out of it. And I said, sure. So in order to make sure that everything's being followed up with and done properly, I go to these workshops. I go to these regional conferences. They're doing what they said they're going to do. We created a really nice product and it's going to involve to be something that's very special. Well, you know, this is Steven Smith, who was my friend brother. As soon as he saw the line, he went, I got to get a suit. I got to get that look because you know, purple and gold. That's a hard look to get right. You know, because I've seen a million of my friends looking. Why are you doing that to yourself? Why are you doing that to yourself? But these are colors. You know, and they're really not bringing up because these aren't like everyday colors, but they went to a Detroit man. See, Detroit man, nobody had them colors. They know how to make those colors work for the everyday person.

29:11The talk to us about the color schemes and also your vision of making it comfortable for the everyday brother. Who want to wear this work? Who want to wear the church? Who want to wear it out to a festification that's high fashion? So that's exactly what we did. What we did was, just so you know, the collection is done in the signature colors of all of the fraternities. Yes. Using any of your signs, any of your lettering, any of your specific logos, Jeff the colors. I said, I said, okay, well, I can take these colors and I can make them interchangeable so that if you know, you know, but if you don't know, hey, that's a cool purple jacket. There you go. I can put white spirit that has a little purple in it with that jacket. Yes sir. Just white paint in it and wear it during the spring and in the summer and be sure of his head. So I did that throughout the whole collection and I made it such that you can dress it up. You can dress it down. You can dress it casual with the jacket without a jacket.

30:13And it seems to be working because we did some really cool shirts that you can see some of the bells and whistles without the jacket. Now let's try a regular shirt. If you put a tie on with it, you can't see the paneling that we did down the front. You can't see the treatment that we did up under the cuff. So if you did it without a jacket, you want to wear a cuff on it. You know, I will flip the sleeve up and see the purple and white treatment up under the cuff. We're open a little bit and show the placket to see the purple on it. So we did some things to make it for the everyday white. We did something to make it for the guy that wants to wear it to black tie and in the guy that wants to wear it to work and stand out a little bit. You know, the beautiful thing about interviewer and Marthe is that he makes you smile because you love what you do. I do. I do. I do 100%. And I tell people all the time that if you oftentimes we show we have these, these gifts. And because we do it, it comes easy to us. We don't look at it at something that we can monetize or something that we can make a living at.

31:14So I spend a lot of time trying to one inspire people like you inspired me like what inspired me to try to explain to them. If you're that guy or that woman that wakes up and you put your make a loom of really well, you do your hair really well. You dress nicely and people are always complimenting you on it. It's maybe something that you could do in monetize. So think about that. Those are our gifts. I don't draw or so. I tell people that all the time and say what? I said, but my gift is I look at a thousand fabrics and I can remember watch 976 tied in just watch eight and it can go. And I can do something with it. Right. And I might go to a fabric mill no matter where in the world Turkey China wherever they're always amazing that but that's my gift. And I like to, you know, let's see around corners and do things that I think are coming and it happens to work every single season. So you have to love what you do. You hit out little voice and you want to step out becoming entrepreneur. You need to maybe try it. You will not fail.

32:14You will know that's the beauty of my relationship with you. You know, like I said, you invited me out to one of your magic shows, your collection showing and one of the primary conversations I had with him. What about the collection by what you do for the community? What's philanthropic side? Why is that so important? It's important because I was that little boy who like I said, I would look at my coach and see how they would dress. You know, I didn't have a father in the house and I would that inspired me in such a way that I wanted to make sure I number one inspired. But number two, I was also an athlete. I was an highly heralded athlete. I came out of high school in Detroit when literally every team in Detroit had either two or three division ones or one or two. I was a high school garden Derek Coleman. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Big. And see on the street what's your very meals right there. You know T. Will team will team had 16 scholarships.

33:16All right. The shot is 15 players on the team. There are water boy got a full-rads scholarship. So, you know, I came out this. So I was pretty good. But I didn't have a lot of schools being down my doors. So I decided that I wanted to because I had a lot of relations. I ultimately got a scholarship for basketball and college. Right. So I built relationships with these schools in the region that I went to school. And I started to send guys. I started to work guys out. I started to mentor guys. And I started to send guys to school. Before I knew it, I had 50, 60 scholarships. And I just loved it. I fell in love with securing scholarships for young African American boys. Well, I love it. I love that. I love the fact that you are engaged in the community. I love the fact that you love the draw. What's the future? So the future is this. The line is doing very well in several big box doors. The line is doing well in specialty stores. Yes, sir. I have licensing deals with four companies right now, all based in New York. Doors are asking us for other categories. They're asking for casual.

34:17They're asking for women. They want to expand the categories. So in the future, we're going to be expanding the categories to have a full collection. Men, women, young people. And then, we're showing them we want to take this thing abroad. We want to take it to other countries. I want to quite literally grow this like a heritage brand. Why not? These guys are doing billions of dollars. And it's not so much about the money as it is what, you know, what guys showed me. We're supposed to be doing it. So I want to walk in that. I want to take this as far as we can take it. And I believe there is no mountain top. But it's a legacy brand that can be here for years and years to come. And that's what I want to, you know, build. Well, this is Teion Collection, Monte Holland, a star. He looks good. He looks just like, young, because he's younger than me. For me, your future is bright. And thank you for bringing some fascist to my fraternity colors that I can not wear. Because brother, I have not worn purple and gold ever. In the history of my make-us-eye-fired lifestyle.

35:18And I've been a member since 1981. But thank you for taking the time to come on Monday making conversations with Monte. And again, Teion Collection, he already told you. He's out there for more importantly, if you're near a Macy's, go in and check out the collection. Check out his brand. Is it a website you can tell us about Teion? Yes, collections available. So all of my IG and social is at Teion Collection, that's T-A-Y-I-O-N collection. And LinkedIn is Teion Collection and Monte Holland, Monte with two Eans, Holland like the country. And if you want to do so, that's special, special thing. You want to tell your Teion.com and that's just T-A-Y-I-O-N.com. Thank you for listening to this episode. Now I need you to do me a favor. Right now, to follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversation, it's free. And you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Please do me that favor. Follow or subscribe, Money Making Conversations. T-Winning.

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