If you were to buy a billboard ad with your picture prominently displayed, would you have a professional photograph taken so that you looked as dynamic and attractive as possible? And would you make certain that your hair looked its best and your garments were the most flattering and professional looking possible?

Or would you just “be yourself” and wear the most comfortable clothes you have and not worry about details like hair (and makeup if you are a woman)? In other words, would you be confident enough that the people who see the billboard will trust that you are the best because you proclaimed so on the billboard? Chances are you wouldn’t take that risk, considering the rather high cost of a billboard.

Who were you born to be? What does it mean to “be yourself”? Were you born to be an anonymous person who is barely noticed when you enter a room? Or someone who is a mover and a shaker—someone who wants to change the world? This is the beginning of a new year, and it is the ideal time to size yourself up and decide whether your current wardrobe, makeup, and image send the message that you want them to send. If heads don’t turn when you enter a room, your image isn’t powerful enough.

The way you look reveals how you see yourself and how you feel about yourself. Highly successful people take the time to educate themselves about image skills because they don’t want to risk having an image that is incongruent with their credentials. They see themselves as experts, and they make certain that the image they project announces at a single glance that they are head and shoulders above the competition.

Many people continue to improve their skills and gain invaluable experience over the years, yet their appearance belies this fact because they haven’t updated their look. A dated or “safe” appearance sends the message that your products and services are dated or ordinary. It is very difficult to be objective about oneself, so a great many people sabotage their success by not looking distinctive, and they don’t even know it.

American companies spend large sums of money advertising in magazines and newspapers. There is another way to advertise that is far less expensive, however. The employees of a company are walking advertisements for their firm’s products or services, so they are far more effective “billboards.” Employees are the most valuable commodity a company has. Ultimately, billboards and ads don’t sell products, people do! The way a person looks announces the outcome that potential clients can expect. If a company advertises in print that they are better than the competition, the employees must confirm this and announce it by their appearance, or advertising money will be wasted.

Sadly, each day we all see hoards of people who show up at work announcing that the outcome that can be expected is fraught with carelessness or sloppiness.

They clearly announce that you cannot expect an extraordinary outcome. Others announce “my comfort is more important than pleasing you.”

Yesterday I heard a keynote address by Harley Davidson’s Ken Schmidt, who spoke about turning the company around when it was close to bankruptcy a few years back. Sometimes by accident, Schmidt discovered that potential customers didn’t want, above all else, customer satisfaction, quality, or all the other “typical business” expectations. No. More than anything else, they wanted to feel validated and be noticed. They wouldn’t stand a chance of being noticed on any of the myriad of “ordinary” motorcycles churned out by the competition. Even their sounds were wimpy – and identical. You couldn’t tell them apart. Not so with a Harley, as everyone knows.

And now you know the secret to branding—and the secret to attracting clients. Have a product that makes your clients feel special. And to attract clients? Your appearance must announce that you are special so, naturally, you know how to make others have the same specialness. How can you sell it if you don’t own it? Make your goal in 2007 to look so distinctive and special that you will draw others to you like a magnet. Branding yourself is as simple as that.

To view the original article in Tidewater Women, please visit here 

by Sandy Dumont, THE Image Architect © 2007
Originally published in Tidewater Women, January 2007