There is No Maximum to Human Potential

The LONG list of Personal Development Blogs

Pricilla Palmer recently compiled a thorough list of personal development blogs and included There is No Maximum to Human Potential. 

How Long Does It Take to Make a First Impression?

I was recently contacted via Zoodango by Jeff Collins and invited to attend an event he was hosting in my area. When I received the invite his name sounded familiar like I had heard it before but I could not place where.  Once I read his email address @myhaberdasher.com I instantly knew that this is the guy I had been hearing about all over town!  I had heard about this "my haberdasher" guy who comes to your office and helps you design a business wardrobe.  I had interacted with at least 3 male executives who have used his serivces over the past 3 months and was excited to get the chance to meet Jeff in person. 

When I met Jeff I could see why he was so popular.  He was very friendly and engaging and was dressed impeccably.  I instantly felt that if I was a guy I would treasure the opportunity to have this friendly and knowledgeable person come to my office and help me design a wardrobe. 

Meeting and talking with Jeff made me ponder the idea of how long does it really take to make a good first impression and how much does ones personal appearance play into their success at work and in life.  I decided to toss these questions to Jeff to get his expert opinion. 

This is what Jeff had to say:

1.       What is the most rewarding aspect of your role as a personal haberdasher?

I believe the most rewarding part of anyone’s career is when you help a person who lacks knowledge by educating them; when you embrace the role as teacher or consultant.  In my business that comes when a person who does not know how to dress well is taught the basics of creating a wardrobe and then adds key pieces of clothing to create multiple great outfits.  As a result they gain an appreciation for dressing well and get compliments from people in an area they never would have before.

I also enjoy working with clients who buy higher end clothing by showing them they can spend the same or less and receive better quality & fit.  They rarely realize that there should be a difference in quality, construction and fit when they pay more rather than the difference residing solely in a label, style or a fabric that caught their eye.  These clients can have it all in design, fit, fabric and construction.

2.       Do you think appearance is a factor in people reaching their maximum potential?

Anyone inside or out of business can tell you about the importance of the first impression.  I shouldn’t have to elaborate too much on this.  It should be obvious that your grooming and what you wear will directly influence those around you. 

However, one thing that is often overlooked is the ongoing opinions of your coworkers and business acquaintances.  It’s hard to measure the impact of receiving compliments vs. the absence of compliments.  I hear from my clients all the time about how they wore a certain outfit and had three or four people come up to them to compliment them.  If that didn’t have an impact on their self-image then they wouldn’t have told me about it.  What they think about themselves is a factor in people reaching their maximum potential and if what others think about them affects this then there definitely is a link.

3.       What is one common mistake you see and how would you correct this

There are lots of little mistakes men make such as not matching belts and shoes, wearing ‘high water’ trousers, really old ties, coat sleeves that are too long, sport coats with ratty cotton pants, awful black tennis shoes with a suit (because they’re comfy), an ill fitting shirt, short ties, un-shined shoes, continuing to wear pants that they used to fit into… should I go on? 

The thing I try to help my customers do is buy clothing in collections instead of one item impulse buys.  To understand what I’m talking about here is an example.  Most men have bought a suit, shirt or tie while they were out and about because they really liked it.  When they returned home they couldn’t match it with anything they had.  This is a Big Mistake, because unless they take it back to a store and buy clothing around it then that money was wasted.  Often I hear from men, ‘I need to buy a couple suits or I need new shirts or it’s time for new ties.’  What I encourage my clients to do is buy these items together so we know they will coordinate well with what they have now as well as what we planning on them adding in the future.  Perhaps instead of two new suits they would be better off with one suit, five shirts and five ties.  This not only results in a well rounded wardrobe, but also less time and energy shopping.  Most men can appreciate that.

So there you have it!  Thank you, Jeff, for sharing your insight!  You can read more about what Jeff has to say on his blog.   

I will take a few extra seconds in the morning to make sure my wardrobe matches my mission for the day. 

You are the Message

Roger Ailes wrote a book on speaking called You are the Message and he has some very helpful advice on speaking in this book.  I never really appreciated the title of this until 2 nights ago. 

I was asked to speak at a dinner meeting for an industry specific association.  I arrived early, set up my projector and laptop, tested it with the screen and lighting, and then sat at the head table until I was called up to begin my talk. 

As soon as I approached the front of the room I had a strange feeling about my projector becuase it was turned on but when I popped the cap off there was no light coming out of the lens.  I turned it off and on and the only thing that came out was black and white stripes on the screen behind me.  After 3 minutes passed of fiddling with this equipment in a room of total silence with 60 sets of eyes watching and waiting I slammed my laptop shut and began my presentation. 

I talked for 45 minutes without any notes and any slides.  Instead of slides I used gestures to try to paint the picture in the audiences mind.  The audience was very engaged the entire time and as I wrapped up they gave me a generous applause.  I had more than 10 different people come up to me individually after to tell me that they were so impreseed that I did not seem phased at all when the projector died.  A few said they would have died right then and there if that had happened to them.  Many said it was one of the best presentations they have had in their association in a long time.  One man even suggested it was better that I did not have slides becuase the audience could focus on me and my delivery of the message.

Now if it sounds that I wrote this entry to toot my own horn it is quite the contrary.  I wrote this entry so that someone out there could gain confidence from my experience. Back in August I wrote about ways to prepare for the unexpected when presenting and how we need to have contingency plans in place.  My bullet point #3 even describes what to do when technology fails.  I am convinced that because I wrote this post I had this event occur as a test.  Serously, as speakers we need to remember that we need to really be the content and have the slides and demos there as add-on features versus critical components of our talk.  If I was using my slides as a crutch or an outline to follow I would have been toast! Instead it went off without a hitch and I will be presenting at a few more dinner meetings for their other chapters in October. 

The Golden Answer to Get Prospects to Call Back

I recently took a trip to the San Juan Islands.  Instead of driving north and taking a ferry to get there we decided to take a float plane on Kenmore Air.  It was so amazing to fly low enough to look down and truly appreciate the beauty of the water and landscape in the Northwest.  It was like seeing the view from the other side---another perspective.

I have been experiencing something similar over the past year.  Instead of being in a role where I call on executives to sell my services, I am the one getting the calls now.  I have had an epiphany that I would like to share with the world in hopes of improving the success rate of cold callers around the globe. 

Drum roll please...

I will call you back if you 1. acknowledge you know my business, 2. you can solve a problem that I am currently facing, and 3. you have a friendly and genuine approach. 

That is it!  Short and simple. Only three ingredients in this recipe.

If all three ingredients are not present I will say "DELETE" into my phone system to erase the message for eternity. 

Just today I received a call from a company that had one out of three...the friendly voice.  What was missing is he did not reference that he knew my business and what I did, and did not position his product in the context of solving a problem I am facing. Instead he told me that he wanted to send me a sample of his product, which I am familiar with, but I would have to call him back to get him the particulars on where to send it.  (A quick glance at my webiste woudl give him "the particulars.")  You can probably already guess what my answer to his voicemail was..

"DELETE!"

Maybe this was the fish hook sales tactic he heard about 25 years ago that he is applying in the attempt of getting the prospect to call back. The sad part is even though I am familiar with his product and there really is a chance it could be relevant to my business today or at some point I am not going to take my time to call him back just to give him info that is in the public domain.