Heroes in Business - Rob Kessler Founder Million Dollar Collar

Episode Date: April 6, 2021

Best Collar to stand up for you... Rob Kessler Founder of Million Dollar Collar and Eliances Member, is interviewed by David Cogan founder of Eliances and host of the Eliances Heroes Show. Broadcast on am and fm network channels, internet radio and online syndication.    

Welcome back to Alliances Heroes, where heroes in business align. To be part of our super community and find out more about Alliances, visit www.alliances.com. All right, so welcome back. Boy, what an incredible morning it's been, and thank you again, too. I just love the feedback we continue to get when we have, and I interviewed the founder of Guess Menswear and also the former CEO of Calvin Klein. So again, it's all about looking good, dressing good, and our next hero has nailed it in that field. You're going to be blown away. We've got with us Rob Kessler, inventor and founder of Million Dollar Collar. Now, we're going to find out what he did before, which is going to blow your mind and how it led to what he's doing now.

And you could reach Rob at milliondollarcollar.com. First of all, Rob, how did you come up with such an awesome name? I just love saying it, Million Dollar Collar. You know, everybody wants to look like a million bucks, and I don't wear ties, and most guys don't wear ties. And I just hated the way that shirts looked without a tie on. So I came up with this thing after my wedding photos were ruined in Jamaica and came home. I'm like, cool, everyone wants to look like a million bucks. And Million Dollar Collar just kind of fell out of my mouth, and that's what it's been.

All right. So for those of you that are watching, and again, we're also on AM, FM and all over the place. But those of you that are watching, you'll see Rob is actually wearing his shirt now that he's created as far as the million dollar collar. So describe to our listeners that may be out there exactly what it is. So there is no structure in the placket of the dress shirt. That's where the buttons and the holes are because dress shirts were designed to be buttoned all the way up and worn with a tie. You know, the last 10 or 15 years, ties have really gone to the wayside. And in the last year especially, they're really pretty much out.

So I never liked wearing a tie. There's no structure. My shirt's all sloppy. So think of it as a collar stay, except it's nine inches long and it goes down the front of the shirt where the buttons and the holes are to give that reinforcement and structure to prevent the weight of the collar from collapsing the front of the shirt. But how did you like, so the idea struck when it was your photos that you saw, is that how this all came to be? Yeah.

So we got married in Jamaica. We had a buddy who was a photographer. So we flew him down. So we're looking at the photos the next day. And I just kept remembering that I was always adjusting my shirt. And it was brand new. It was freshly pressed, starched, everything it was supposed to be. And before I could even say I do, it was just a sloppy, crumbled mess. And so I came home from Jamaica.

I cut open a shirt. I shoved a piece of cardboard down the front and showed my new bride. And she said, oh, I get what you've been freaking out about all these years. Because to me, the dress shirt is just the go-to piece for a guy. You can dress it up. You can dress it down. It's like the most versatile thing in your closet. And I just thought that there was a serious design flaw. So there was nothing out there. Everything seemed to be around the collar. It was always like magnetic collar stays or some kind of kitschy collar stay thing, but the problem was down the front of the shirt, and nobody had addressed it.

So I spent three years and ruined 100 shirts trying to figure this thing out. But this is, you know, creating and building a company is not new to you. In fact, let's talk about what you did prior then that allowed you the opportunity to do what you're doing now. Share the magic. So I was very, very fortunate. One of my first jobs was at a little soccer

and volleyball store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And day one, I'm like 16 or 17 years old. The owner handed me a key and a code to the store and said, you're part of the team. You're part of the family. And it felt like it was mine. So from 16 years old, I basically had my own company and with the support of these other guys. And it just gave me the confidence going forward to do other things. So after college, I got into real estate, which, you know, there's really no support in that system. I just, you know, I built my own real estate career. During that, graphic t-shirts had kind

of grown and become a really big thing. Ed Hardy was selling t-shirts for $100. And I was like, I know that they don't cost that much. So I hooked up with a bunch of artists and started a little screen printing business out of the basement of my house, which I grew to over a million dollars in revenue before I sold and moved out to California and followed the million dollar collar passion. My wife and I owned a couple of commercial properties with 32 offices. We started a yacht charter business since we've been in LA, which we're in the process of selling right now. So we like to find a niche, build a great foundation and sell it to somebody else who can take it off and make it grow. Man, I love it. You get to such entrepreneur. This is again, what it's all

about and going into so many different fields that you didn't know. And that's what we do here. We share those secrets on the Alliance's Hero Show because you're listening, watching me, David Kogan, Alliance's Heroes interviewer. That's right. And we're talking again with Rob Kessler. that's right. And we're talking again with Rob Kessler. He's the inventor and founder of Million Dollar Collar. And you can reach him at milliondollarcollar.com. In fact, Rob, you're also too part of the Eat Alliances community, which is the only place where entrepreneurs line. Let's talk about your experience at the private round table that you attended. Share with our audience and viewers and listeners what that was like for you. You know, it was really incredible. I was very fortunate when I got to LA. I ended up meeting a guy, actually some ladies that got me into a men's group here.

I found a great teamwork and camaraderie and that's since disbanded. But I was introduced to you and was able to come to one of the private roundtables recently. And I've met several people that I've done business with already. And it was just another great extension. And I like to surround myself with smart people. I like being the dumbest guy in the room because I can learn the most. And being around people that have been there and done that is where I like to be. So this is amazing. Yeah. And again, what you've created is just absolutely phenomenal. So where do you see things evolving with what you've created? I mean, are there different sizes of the shirts, twos and colors and that, that they purchased from you? How does that work?

So what I invented was the technology and that can go into any shirt. And so the initial design was an aftermarket thing you could add to your shirt. The complexity is that most people in America don't do a lot of altering to their clothes to make them fit well. So we were actually in about 650 dry cleaners and tailors where you can just walk in and say, hey, I want million dollar color on my shirts and they have them or they know how to do the installation. Then we added in dress shirts. So we started our own line called Go Tylist, which is the first shirt designed to be worn without a tie. We also buy shirts from Ralph Loren and Perry Ellis and like all these other brands. And we install million dollar collar. So you could buy a shirt from a brand that you already know. You can buy a shirt from us. That's really great. You can buy just the technology and upgrade the shirts that are already in your closet. So we've really tried to cover the whole band and make it as easy as

possible for someone to try. Because once they get a shirt with this in, it's a game changer. You'll never go back to a standard dress shirt without it. So the end goal is to be ubiquitous, just to be in every single dress shirt. There's no reason not to have the technology in a shirt. You can still button up and wear a tie if you want. If you ever wear a tie and you get that gap between the first and second button, this will solve that problem also. Unbelievable. Yeah. So there's really no reason it shouldn't be in a tie in every dress shirt. And to us, the biggest thing that's happened to dress shirts recently was non-iron and that was in the 1950s. So it's time for a revolution. And we hope to be the product that does that.

And is this patented? Oh yeah. It took me three years to patent and I'm in the six figures now. So it's it's insanely expensive. Well, absolutely. Again, incredible, incredible. And I think it's important too too, for our listeners and viewers to know, too, is how do you stay motivated with what you're doing? And what are the secrets that you could share with really some children out there that want to be able to make a difference, create something that's not been created before, like what you have done and what you continue to do? I mean, you just,

again, how you came up with this is absolutely phenomenal. And I can only imagine you've got a long life in front of you, all the other things that you're going to be creating. You know, to me, the biggest thing is perseverance. I am a absolute bull when it comes to having my mindset on a goal. I mean, I'm working on a 13,000 piece puzzle right now that has, I don't know, 7,000 pieces of white. So I know when I get a goal, I can stick with it. You know, I'm eight years into this process. It was three years of R&D and five years of sales. You know, just like your reaction,

and I'm sure a lot of people that are listening and watching, oh, that's brilliant. That should be right, blah, blah, blah. I'm five years into sales and it's not really hit where it's supposed to have hit. So you have to be able to persevere through those no's, which I've heard thousands of. At some point, as long as you make an inch of progress every day and plant enough seeds, it's going to grow and you're going to be able to reap that harvest at some point. So you just have to keep plowing forward.

That's why we've done a couple other businesses because maybe this one hasn't grown as fast, but I know it will grow bigger. The beauty of the boat business was that it actually got me away from my desk to really think and to be able to not be sitting in front of my computer because you can't get creative if you're stuck in one spot all the time doing the same thing. You kind of have to get out of your own way sometimes.

Absolutely amazing. That's right. And we help facilitate that too. if you're stuck in one spot all the time doing the same thing, like kind of have to get out of your own way sometimes. So. Absolutely amazing. That's right. And we help facilitate that too at the alliances hero show, Rob, you make sure that men's shirts, the collar stand up for them and they look great any day, any time that's right with million dollar collar.

So that's a hero. Rob, make sure that you go to milliondollarcollar.com. And of course, we'll have it on our website at alliances.com. This has been David Kogu with the Alliance's Hero Show.