The Everyday Icon Style Podcast

Episode 162: Mastering First Impressions and Corporate Chic

• Tiffany Howard

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Can a polished appearance and well-crafted personal brand truly impact your professional success? Uncover the secrets behind first impressions and how they can transform your career in our latest episode.  

We'll explore the importance of projecting confidence, authority, and leadership through your visual brand, especially for women in corporate America. Learn how sloppy or overly casual dress can undermine your professionalism and what you can do to maintain a strong visual brand in highly visible roles like executive and administrative assistants.

Discover how to build a core wardrobe that not only complements your personal style but also includes a capsule wardrobe and a touch of trendy accessories. We delve into the details of creating a polished and cohesive look by paying attention to silhouettes, haircuts, manicures, and accessories. 

Dressing for success can significantly influence how you're perceived and the opportunities available to you, particularly in key professional roles. Tune in to empower your confidence, embrace your inner icon, and redefine your corporate chic, while also getting updated on changes in the podcast schedule to better match my new job.

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

10 Steps To A Stylish, Organized Wardrobe: https://bit.ly/3LeeB7Z


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LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-howard-8b

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Speaker 1:

Ignite your style with the Everyday Icon Style Podcast. I'm Tiffany, your style navigator and confidant here to lead women in corporate America on the quest to discover their timeless style. Let's revolutionize your wardrobe, empower your confidence and embrace your inner icon. Are you ready to redefine your corporate chic? Then let's get started. Hi everybody and welcome back to the Everyday Icon Style Podcast. I am your host, tiffany, and today we are going to be talking about first impressions Because, guess what?

Speaker 1:

You only get one chance to make a first impression and with first impressions I have a question Is your wardrobe working for or against you in your professional space? Working for or against you in your professional space? And I think in this day and age, especially with the competition that we're having with finding jobs in the job market today, with people pivoting and changing careers, that first impressions and how we dress for our executive success. It can elevate and help actually our personal brand outside of our skill set. And I think sometimes we rely so much on our skill set, especially in the administrative spaces, the executive assistant spaces, the chief of staff spaces, we tend to lean more heavily on our skill sets but not our personal brand. And we need a personal brand too, and with that, our appearance. It plays a crucial role in how we're perceived by not only our colleagues, but our internal, external clients and leadership and majority of us. If you're in these spaces, we're working with directors, executives and above, so our personal brand is just as crucial as our skill sets. So the way that we present ourselves visually it can actually impact our opportunities for advancement, credibility and respect. So as we're going through this, I want you to always keep in mind of how your first impression may be perceived or seen, or just how you're seen in general, and how your first impression can actually mold how they think or see you in your particular role.

Speaker 1:

So let's start with this here. From the science of first impression studies and it actually showed that people from form impressions of us within seconds of a meeting how about less than seven seconds? And I'll also interject here as well that when it comes to building your personal brand through your style, this is the one thing that you control. So you get to control how people see you and perceive you in that seven seconds or less. And in fact, the research has found that visual cues like clothing and grooming account for up to 93% of how we're initially evaluated. And these rapid judgments aren't just superficial. They actually influence assessments of our competence, likability and trustworthiness. They get all of that just by looking at us in second seconds.

Speaker 1:

So that is why it is important and should be part of your career development, part of your career goals to making sure and creating a cohesive personal brand, because it doesn't matter how great of a skill set you have, it doesn't matter how many degrees you have skill set you have. It doesn't matter how many degrees you have and I've fallen into this as well is that how we look plays a huge part in our career advancement and, as the study said here, 93% of how we're initially evaluated, they get the cues from clothing and grooming. You waited, they get the cues from clothing and grooming. Just grooming alone and I'll have an episode on that, um, shortly is huge. Like just that alone can elevate your personal brand and your look. Quick and easy, like that's like the easiest thing. And that's your maintenance, your hair, your nails, um, you know, your waxing, things of that nature. It's always in the small details that we might not really think about as part of the whole cohesive personal brand, but they are, and even for me right now I am entering into a new space of going back into a role of administrative assistant for the head of a department in the bank that I'll be working for. So do you know how important that will be for me? Making and building really building a personal brand and building it through style, and not always weigh heavily on my skill set, because that's easy to do. Oh, I'm just going to learn this and become proficient in this. But now, really taking a step back and thinking to myself okay, I am at a level now where I will be more visible and will literally be the right hand of who I, of the person that I will be supporting. So I will be in spaces and places that it will be important that my first impression and what they think of me when I step into a room sitting in a meeting. It's going to be important. So definitely want to go and always keep that in mind. But before we dive into the full episode as a whole, I want to go over and let you know that I will be changing the frequency of my podcast Because I have a new job. I will be going to every other week and for that you'll get two episodes a month. So if you have not yet subscribed to the podcast, please be sure that you subscribe so that you are notified when new episodes are uploaded. So now let's get back into today's episode.

Speaker 1:

So, when it comes to our appearance, it communicates a lot about who we are and what we value Our put together attire. It can project confidence, authority and leadership. Conversely, if we're sloppy or overly casual dress, it can undermine the perceptions of our professionalism, professionalism and capabilities. So what's the saying? It's, uh, you don't get a second chance to make a first impression. That's why it's so important for executives in our space and rising leaders to be intentional about our visual brands, especially and when I mean executives if you're an executive assistant, if you're an administrative assistant, if you're a chief of staff, you're in roles that are highly visible because you are the right-hand person of your executive. So if you're working in an executive space, your visual brand is extremely important and something that needs to be worked on all the time, because people are going to come across and say, well, they see you, is this the CEO's executive assistant? She doesn't look like it, even though, like I said earlier, even though we lean upon our skill sets, we kind of have to lean away from that because the skill set is a part of it, but our personal brand, visually, is also a component and when merged together you will have a personal brand that is probably literally unstoppable. So the components of executive presence through dress it does mean to dress for executive success and with that there are several key components of cultivating an image of authority and graviteous I always pronounce that wrong throughout your wardrobe.

Speaker 1:

So, first and foremost, fabrics and silhouettes matter. We want tailored, high-quality pieces in neutral, muted color palettes. Usually the color go-tos are navies, grays and blacks. But I would even like to interject if you want to add color your browns, your creams, your soft pinks, your camel colors, because they tend to read a more professional, elevated I don't like the word polished, so I'm going to use the word elevated look. And also, you want to keep in mind, with well-fitted garments that complement your body shape will make you appear, will not make you appear. You will look elevated and in control. Minimal will have accessories like our watches, scarves, our tote bags. They can literally elevate our look, our shoes.

Speaker 1:

Always remember when you're looking at this as your visual brand as a whole. You are, it's in the details and what I like to refer to. This visual brand is sort of like your visual business card, because you are working on your visual portion of you so that when you walk into a room, one you're going to feel confident, and when they see you and they know what your title is and they know who you support, all of it is cohesive and all of it will look together. So, beyond the clothing themselves, attention to grooming is also crucial for projecting this executive presence. So is your hairstyle. It's your nails. Are they clean? Are they trimmed? If you get fill-ins, are you getting regular fill-ins? Are they subtle? Do you have natural looking makeup or is just? Is your? Does your makeup compliment you? Because not some, depending on how you like makeup. If you don't wear makeup, is your skincare game on point? If you like to wear makeup some days, not, it still goes back to like your skincare. Are you drinking enough water? Are we hydrating and moisturizing? All of that plays a part into this the details, the things that we sometimes don't look at, and I think, when it comes to grooming, it's one of the overlooked details when it comes to our visual brand. Now, with these habits, they'll show that we're serious about not only our role, but about ourselves, because we're taking care of ourselves and we're ready to take on those higher level responsibilities. Because they're looking at you as a whole and not looking at you as just a piece or a portion. They're looking at the whole complete package deal.

Speaker 1:

Now the overall aesthetic that you present. It should be streamlined. If you're classic, it should be classic. If you're classic with a little bit of edge you know you can add those punches here and there it should look cohesive, so it shouldn't look be broken or disjointed. That's why you always want to take time and figure out exactly what your style is when developing your style. If you haven't already, please be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel because I will finally finally I know I've been saying this for a while, but I will finally be going through my style development as I'm taking on my new role, so I can develop my visual style for this role, as I know where I want my career to go. Now this will all take place.

Speaker 1:

Now. The goal is to come across as competent, confident and in command of a room, because that is what we have to do and that is what our roles require of us to command a room, command meetings and command the attention when need be. So, with a carefully curated wardrobe and grooming routine, you will see and be on your way to embodying the look of an executive. Okay, even though we're not in the front, we are sort of like how do I like to say this? We are the executive behind the executive, if that makes any sense. We are the person behind there. So while they're out in the face in the community dealing with our externals, our external clients, our internal clients, we are working with everybody else to make sure everything runs fluently and efficiently and we are kind of in charge when they are not there. So we are like to look at ourselves as the executives behind the executives. So a quick few do's and don'ts for dressing for success.

Speaker 1:

Of course there will be some common missteps, and that's okay, because this is a marathon and not a sprint. That can also determine your things. So things of course that should be no-brainers, overly tight clothes, short skirts, low crop top tops they can come across as unprofessional and distracting. Something too casual, like making even though we wear jeans to work at times, making them too casual and I'm thinking about actually leaning a little bit more less from jeans and working more towards wearing trousers a little more, because trousers have come a long way. T-shirts, sneakers they won't fly in most corporate spaces, of course, things like ill-fitting, if they're wrinkled, outworn garments. They can detract from your in it, from your image and competence and control, because remember, they're looking at you first visually and this is speaking for you, before you open your mouth and begin the meeting, the call or anything of that nature, or just say hi if you're in a networking event.

Speaker 1:

But on the flip side, some best practices for dressing like the executive behind the executive would include high quality essentials, not necessarily suits anymore, but maybe have one or two good suits in your arsenal. You you could have, like your dress, shirts, classic pumps. You want to find, I always say, building out your core wardrobe and a lot of this, the old practices that we kind of know. We kind of have to throw them out the window because style and wardrobe and dress codes have changed. So you want to.

Speaker 1:

I always always say build out your core wardrobe first, which is your style. Then have your capsule wardrobe in second, 15 percent and a few trendy pieces which I like to add would be like your accessories and things of that nature, outside of the normal, paying attention to details like your silhouettes, your haircuts, maintaining your manicures and your accessories, to kind of bring that look all together. So, to sum it and bring everything to a close the way we present ourselves visually has a major impact on how we're perceived and the professional opportunities that come our way. Don't let anybody tell you different. So by dressing for success, especially the executive success, with tailored, high-quality attire and a groomed, polished appearance, we can project confidence, authority and leadership that command respect in the workplace.

Speaker 1:

If you're in roles such as myself administrative assistants, executive assistants, chiefs of staff even though they're very different but they are on the line to become that we are authority figures. It's a form of a leadership role and we have to remember that and be mindful of that in how our whole overall look and demeanor affects us, both professionally. So what do I want you to do? I want you to take a look at your wardrobe and your grooming routine, and is it positioning you for success or could your appearance be holding you back? We want to start upgrading your look today and watch how it transforms the way you carry yourself and the way others see you, as your future self will thank you for that. So I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Anything that you need, of course, is always in the description box below, and, as always, have an amazing rest of your day, stay healthy, stay safe, and I will talk to you guys in the next episode.