Dress for success - Using personal presentation to improve your personal brand
I came across an interesting selection of make over videos done by Tom Ford and GQ; the concept of 'Dress your future' was the focus.
Tom Ford would ask each individual before giving them a makeover where they see themselves in five years? What are you doing? Where are you living? Who are you dating? What kind of car are you driving?
He then went on to do a complete makeover of that individual with great success.
The videos are fun, entertaining, and give you some great fashion ideas. However I found a much deeper message of how the way you dress shows what you think of yourself. It is all about self belief and knowing with confidence where you want to be and drawing that vision into the present, this is a core component of developing your personal brand.
Humans are visual creatures and we draw assumptions based on how someone looks or carries themselves. It is therefore important to take this into consideration when developing your personal brand. We wrote an article that goes deeper into this element of understanding perception, and helps deconstruct the rationale behind developing your personal brand (Find the link to the article below).
Raul
The personal presentation aspect is a physical part of that, but will also have to be digitised effectively when you talk about how you're presenting yourself online in terms of photos, videos etc. where people are also making assumptions.
A main chunk of developing your personal brand is personal presentation. This is where you have to know what direction you want to take and this comes from understanding your aims and being authentic.
Having some form of social awareness about what people will think of you, how your personal presentation amalgamates with your profession and what you feel is 'you', is important to recognise when it comes to personal presentation.
For example, someone in the yoga industry might not choose to wear a three piece suit when working. This is because it might not fit what the person would want to convey about themselves with relation to their profession and their personal brand; it may also not be their authentic selves. We have a link to a relevant article below that discusses the psychology of dressing as a core part of your self belief and values.
Affluent CEO
The flip side to this is that it potentially could be their authentic selves but does not fit the industry they are in. This is where you have to really have a grounding on what feels natural to you and some instances of this may play in your favour.
An example of this would be Don King and his hair! He went against conventional thinking when it comes to personal presentation but felt it was his authentic self and understood the potential upside, being attention! This is where understanding perception is important and developing your personal brand with that in mind.
That is why at the beginning of this article I referred to Tom Ford's dress your future concept as that is where you have to start. Where do you want to be? then dress that way!
It's like being affirmative with your dreams and goals in a tangible way that you can harness now!
Dressing for success (whatever you deem that to be in your life) matters and can be applied right away. You would be surprised what points you can score with your personal brand and professional life based on changing the way you present yourself and set you on the path you want to go down.
