My female clients who work with me on women’s personal styling services are often high level executives who have little time, energy, or patience for a complex analysis of just how their fashion choices are impacting their career.
As a corporate image consultant, I give them easy tools to ensure that their outfits reflect their personal brand, and help promote their image and reputation in their career.
Fashion decisions have a direct impact on how confident you feel doing your job. An expert in fashion, tailoring, color combinations and executive styling knows which sartorial choices will have the most impact on how you see yourself. This is where the corporate image consultant comes in.
Here are five tips on how a corporate image consultant helps you in your leadership role.
#1. A corporate image consultant gives you confidence
We have all heard that dressing for success helps you have a productive mindset.
Research proves that this is true most of the time. Studies have proved that dressing formally for the part “lead to higher abstract thinking, that wearing a lab coat like a doctor can make you focus better, and that wearing the color red leads athletes to lift a heavier amount of weight (as opposed to wearing the color blue—who knew?),” Muse reports.
This confidence your clothes can give you matter for important work meetings, interviews, and negotiation opportunities.
A corporate image consultant can help you create comfortable and stylish alternatives to ensure you are confident in your clothes.
#2. A corporate image consultant saves you time
Leaders in C-level roles and management positions don’t have any time to spare.
As you move further up the ladder, and maybe even eventually become CEO, your time becomes increasingly more valuable to you.
Protecting it and making sure it’s used in a way that will move you forward personally and professionally is key.
Not only can a corporate image consultant instruct you on exactly what to wear for each occasion, but they’ll help you understand how they came to these decisions so you can save time in the future even after you’ve finished working with them.
#3. A corporate image consultant saves you mental energy
Have you ever had a morning where you put together an outfit, but then felt completely uncertain about the fit and look? This can be eliminated with a knowledgeable corporate image consultant.
It can be exhausting trying to look the part of a leader without a rule book, a guide, or a tutorial.
None of these are handed to business leaders when they step in front of a microphone for the first time representing their company, or present at a major meeting with investors or clients.
Eliminating the guesswork means that you will save mental energy and not leave for your workday or an event already flustered.
#4. A corporate image consultant gives you a plan
A leader shouldn’t spend the hours before a big event concerned with what to wear. They should be prepping for the event itself.
By working with the image consultant ahead of time, you will know weeks before an event what you will wear, and also how the outfit will be on brand with your goals and your role in the company.
There’s a psychology behind choosing outfits to reflect your personal brand and to nonverbally communicate with your audience, and that’s my job.
The outfits will be authentic to you and your style, without feeling forced or preprescribed. This is one of the major benefits of working with an image consultant rather than a personal stylist.
#5. A corporate image consultant helps you control how others perceive you
Like it or not, people judge you in seconds based on what you are wearing.
If this makes you feel uneasy, keep in mind that you have the power to control their perceptions. A corporate image consultant will ensure that you are putting off the vibes you are trying to, on purpose.
How you present yourself involves the fit and coordination of your clothes, the accessories you choose, and even your scent.
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Cassandra Sethi is a NYC Personal Stylist and Image Consultant. After working over 15 years in the Fashion Industry, most recently as a Senior Buyer for Equinox, she created her business, Next Level Wardrobe – a luxury personal shopping service for successful professionals.
Next Level Wardrobe has been featured in Wall Street Journal, Today and CNN. See here.
