Page 159 - ConvinceThemFlip

find your style
Make sure what you
wear is projecting
the message you
want to send.
Taken together, your attitude and personal packaging
establish your unspoken credentials. Your authority/
approachability quotient determines how other people
will initially respond to you when you finally get to open
your mouth. Think of a sliding scale of work attire with
blue jeans (the pants of the people) at one end and very
expensive, custom-made suits (the togs of the toffs) at the
other. Of course, you don’t
have to get stuck at one
end or the other. Most peo-
ple find a comfortable spot
that borrows and combines
elements from both ends.
(Remember the way I com-
bined an authoritative top with an approachable bottom
when I approached strangers on the street for The New
York Times article?)
For example, a man with a serious attitude and a set
of bankers’ pinstripes to match presents a facade of total
authority. But if you add a pair of bright red suspenders
to that pinstriped suit, the businessman immediately
becomes more approachable. How sure am I about this?
Well, who’s going to feel threatened by Larry King while
he’s keeping his pants up with his trademark suspenders?
They make him look like the intelligent good sport that
he is.
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