The Everyday Icon Style Podcast

Episode 182: Beyond the Dress Code

• Tiffany Howard

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Your wardrobe plays a critical role in professional perception, setting the tone before your skills or experience enter the conversation. Visual cues shape how colleagues and executives see your value, transforming you from background assistant to recognized strategic partner.

• "Dress for the job you want" is outdated—when you enter important rooms, someone else has already walked in looking like they own the position
• Power isn't given but perceived, and that perception begins the moment you walk in

If you're ready for the room to start responding to you differently, schedule your free discovery call to discuss the Executive Wardrobe Refresh and create the wardrobe you've always envisioned.


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This is the Everyday Icon Style Podcast the space for style-conscious, career-driven women who are ready to look like the next-level version of themselves. Each episode helps you build a wardrobe that reflects not only your executive presence but your real life. With a little bit of guidance, intentional edits and no full-blown transformation required. Let's elevate your style and your authenticity one outfit at a time. I'm Tiffany, your style coach. Let's elevate your style and your authenticity one outfit at a time. I'm Tiffany, your style coach. Let's get started.

Speaker 1:

I'm probably sure you've heard the following phrase dress for the job you want. Now, this may sound old school, it sounds smart and maybe even a tad bit strategic, but here's the thing If you're only dressing for the job you want, you're already behind, because in the rooms that matter, power is not given, it's perceived, and you have seen this time and time again. This is when you ask about why does she have this job? Why does he have this job? It's because it's. They are perceived in that way, and perception begins the moment you walk in, not the moment you speak. So if you're dressing for the job you want, somebody else has already walked in, looking like they already own it and have the job. Now, when it comes to administrative professionals, especially those that sit beside C-level executives, this shift doesn't necessarily come from adding more clothes to their closet. It comes from intentionally incurating a presence that reflects the value that they bring. That is what you want people to see and show. What value? Because they need somebody sitting next to them, working beside them, being in partnership with them, having value and adding value to who they are and to their role. This is when they stop being the assistant in the background and start getting introduced like the strategic partner that I know that you actually are and, yeah, I get it. Well, what does how I have to dress have to do with anything? Your wardrobe actually plays an actual critical role in part in this, and it's not because it's shallow, because it's not, but because visual cues set the tone long before your resume enters the chat, so long before that people are talking about. Well, this is what she does. This is how I see her. Her not. She went to school here, she worked here, here and here. Your visual cues are always going to speak and enter the room way before you do so. Here's something that you can literally do this week, because I want to be able to give you really quick tips, a quick win that you can always start to do right after you're done listening to this podcast, and this will instantly change how people respond to you.

Speaker 1:

I want you to swap out one safe piece in your work rotation. If it's a dated cardigan, tired flats or an overly casual blouse, I want you to maybe pair it with a structured blazer, a tailored trouser or a shoe that has authority and yes, me being the shoe guru that I am. I am currently in retirement right now, but I'm about to come out of retirement. I am currently in retirement right now, but I'm about to come out of retirement. A shoe is a statement that people will talk about long after you're gone and long after you've changed out of your heel and put on your comfy flats. When you're in the car or on your way home. These small little things will send a signal of authority and presence.

Speaker 1:

We are not here chasing trends. We're not trying to be flashy. We just want to be refined, and I want you to watch, not necessarily how people view you, but I want you to watch how your posture shifts and watch how the conversations begin to shift, because when you make one small little tweak, it can change your whole trajectory on how you feel and give you even just a little bit more confidence. And here's one thing that I have learned and that I am learning is that most people underestimate how a quiet change in presentation, how it can invite a different kind of attention. And it's more of the strategic detention, attention, not detention, but attention. And this is exactly what and how we, and what we uncover in the executive wardrobe refresh and this is a two-hour virtual intensive where we don't play dress up at all. We want to reposition your wardrobe to reflect where you're going, not where you've been. So we are going to strip away and really just lay a begin, to lay a foundation. This is the starting point of how you want to look. You get to craft this from the very beginning the way that you truly want to. We'll take a small peek at your current closet with a discerning eye, will remove what no longer fits the narrative and will begin to build out a simple strategic plan that will actually make getting dressed decisive and not draining. This isn't the full picture, but this is just giving you your quick win that you can begin to run and off to the races. You will be able to go with it. So, if you're ready for the room to start responding to you differently, the link to schedule your free discovery call will be in the description box of this episode, so we can start to chat about your wardrobe and actually bringing the wardrobe that you've always envisioned for yourself back to life.

Speaker 1:

Now here's what most professionals will ultimately get wrong. They will think that dressing well means dressing expensively, but here's what actually moves the needle Consistency, structure and clarity. When you dress some way consistently, people will begin to see you in such a way, within a structure and with clarity. Once you become clear of who it is that you are becoming and where you are going, it will help you getting dressed a little bit easier, because your wardrobe should not should have a clear point of view rooted in fit color, cohesion and silhouette. You don't need 50 blouses, you just need the right 10, styled with intention. That's all it takes.

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We have been taught and trained that overconsumption of.

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Even if you do it with intention, everything in your closet should be able to relay the same exact message, because sometimes, truth be told, I'd like to indulge just a little bit more than what I'm probably supposed to when it comes to shopping. But this will also help with stop to wasting your mornings by asking does this work? Which means if it doesn't work, you'll pull for the same old, same old. Instead, you will have built a wardrobe that answers that question for you. Your whole wardrobe will literally answer that question for you. So if any of this opened your eyes today and you're starting to realize that your wardrobe might be the thing quietly holding you back which it is, or even keeping you overlooked, which it is, then I invite you to book your discovery call with me today so we can discuss how we can work together, bring and build your wardrobe to life. So I hope you guys had an amazing rest of your day, stay healthy, stay safe, and I will talk to you all next week in the next episode.