Andre Benjamin's personal style is one of my faves!
As you may know, one of the services that I provide is personal styling. Often when I say this to people, they ask “what’s a personal stylist?” So I’ve decided to spell it out here.
Before I go into what a personal stylist does, let’s talk about the root word – style. Generally speaking, style is the way in which you do something. When it comes to your personal style, for our purposes, it’s the way in which you dress, wear your hair and, if applicable, makeup. In a nutshell, your personal style is the outward expression of your personality.
Some people, despite their best efforts, don’t have a good sense of personal style. They don’t have a good understanding of the best hairstyles for their face shape or what types of clothing best accentuate their body type. They don’t understand which colors work well together or work best for them. When it comes to branding, your personal style speaks volumes before you even say a word. I teach clients that your personal style should be in alignment with the message that you want to send about your brand – what you want people to think about you and your brand when they see you. As a personal stylist, I help people develop a style that sends the right message.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, an executive, an employee or a jobseeker, your personal style is the first impression you give to the world. It sets the tone for the rest of the conversation. You can’t leave something that important to chance! When you realize that you need assistance in developing your personal style, to whom should you turn? A personal stylist!
I hope you have a better understanding of personal styling now. There are different levels and types of stylists. Some work with celebrities for special events and photo ops. Some work with artists for photo shoots and music videos. Some work for stores or magazines. There are options galore and all of them great. If you’re reading this, I work with people like YOU.
Interested in a FREE 30 Minute Personal Style Consultation? Clickhereto schedule.
I recently had a conversation in which I was discussing my 10+ years of experience in human resources management. It’s not something I talk about often these days, but it’s definitely a huge part of my life and career experience. During this conversation, the other person asked me, “what’s something that HR managers/hiring managers don’t want people to know?” Honestly, I can think of a few things that are considered to be on a “need to know” basis when it comes to recruiting and hiring, but thinking along the lines of my particular focus, what jumped to mind is this: they’re judging you. Not just your experience – YOU.
Optimally, and on the record, hiring decisions will be made on tangibles such as your resume and skill set. By the time you make it to the interview, though, you can pretty much presume that those things pass muster, especially if you’ve been pre-screened by phone. When you’re sitting in that interviewee seat, you are being judged on not only your experience and responses to the questions asked, but also how you look and speak – your overall presentation. In fact, you are being judged on those things from the time you walk through the door. Don’t underestimate the impressions you make on the receptionist or other staff members you may encounter prior to the actual interview. You never know how much input someone has. Put your best foot forward with everyone you see.
One buzzword that a lot of companies use is “fit.” They’re looking for someone who “fits” with their staff and company culture. I’m not necessarily a fan of this because finding the right “fit” can often translate to biased hiring; however, you will be judged on how well the interviewer thinks you will fit in with the company.
My point here is: don’t underestimate the importance of your presentation – both visual and verbal. Your manners, personality and conversation skills also come into play.
Bonus secret: sometimes people are brought in because the company requires that a certain number of people be interviewed for each position. Don’t rest on the quality of your resume to seal the deal. Of course your resume is important, especially these days when the candidate pools are so large, but once you get your foot in the door, make sure your shoe is polished – literally and figuratively! Stand out among the rest. Remember, you’re being judged.
Need help polishing your image and presentation skills for your job search? Contact me at tamara@msrasberryinc.com or 202.681.8598.
One question that I am often asked is “How do I know if I need an image consultant?” I would venture to say that most people know, even if they don’t want to admit that they know. If you’re considering it, you probably need one. If you’ve ever seen one of those shows such as “What Not to Wear” or “How Do I Look?” you would probably agree with me that most of those people have to know on some level that their look is not working, be it for their personal life, professional life, or both.
When I work with clients I always ask “what is your current style saying about you?” Then I ask “what do you want your style to say about you?” This is important because often times the two aren’t in alignment. When they aren’t, that is when you should hire an image consultant!
Here are some other questions that you will want to ask yourself when determining whether or not to engage someone to help you up your style (and branding) quotient.
Have you been wearing the same clothes/makeup/hairstyle for 10+ years without regard to any changes in career or lifestyle? As our lives change, so should our style. Not at the core, but certain key elements that will keep you looking fresh and focused.
Has it been a VERY long time since anyone has complimented you? Longer than you’d care to admit? I don’t suggest that you dress to impress others. Dress to impress yourself. When you feel good about your image, it comes across to other people.
Do you look in the mirror and remind yourself of one of your parents because your look is so outdated? Granted, some of us have quite stylish parents, but in general, you and your parents should not be wearing the same types of clothing. Dress age appropriately.
Does your personal style match the life that you want to live and how you wish to be perceived? This goes back to my motto, “YOU are your brand!” If you want to be viewed as the confident professional, the hip, stylish artist, the fun-loving parent, etc., the image that you present to others must match. We tend to be visual beings so the saying, “Image is everything” is well, everything.
If you are an entrepreneur, does your style match that of your business brand? By this I don’t mean that you should always dress in your logo colors. I mean do you present yourself so that people will think of you in the same manner in which you want them to think of your business? Consistency is the key to branding.
If you answered “YES” to any of the questions above, I can help you! Email me at tamara@msrasberryinc.com or call me at 202.681.8598.
I originally wrote this post for Appoliciousin 2011. Since I’m seeing a lot of press for some of these apps lately, I thought this would be a good time to revisit.
As an image consultant, I help people develop their sense of personal style when it comes to makeup, wardrobe and overall presentation. I am very hands-on with my clients, but there are definitely a few iPhone apps that make my job easier and make it easier to convey certain ideas and images to my clients, whether or not I am with them. Here, I share with you five iPhone apps that I have found to be very useful. The best part is they’re FREE!
Instagram is a photography app that allows you to not only take photos but to apply a variety of filters to them (ex. making the photo appear brighter or in black & white.) This comes in handy particularly when taking post makeup application shots or headshots. You can also set the app to save the photos in your camera roll. It will save both the original and filter-applied versions.
Pinterest allows you to create virtual pin boards and “pin” various photos that you take. The best use of this app for an image consultant is to create inspirational vision boards using categories such as fashion, beauty, makeup, client recommendations, etc. Let me warn you, it can be addictive.
Makeup Simulator allows you to show your client what various makeup looks could look like on them. You can use a photo from your photo library or take one. The app then analyzes the face and you can apply foundation, blush, eyeliner, etc. The major downside is that the included foundation shades don’t offer much diversity, but you can create a custom shade so it’s not all bad.
FIDM/Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising allows you to keep up to date on fashion related news and trends. This app gives you access to news topics such as Fashion News & Events. My favorite feature is the blog section; which includes the ‘Fashion Club’ and a Student Video section. FIDM is a renowned school and they are offering quite a lot of interesting information via this app.
Evernote is a great app for business in general, but in particular for the busy image consultant it allows you to catalog notes, photos, websites etc. – anything that inspires you! You can save information for general use, reference and/or to share with clients.
A few weeks ago I asked the question “what has your network done for you lately?” Well, someone in my network hooked me up with an impromptu invitation to a White House Q & A session on President Obama’s proposed American Jobs Act. It was much appreciated. The invitation was extended to “young entrepreneurs, new media enthusiasts and bloggers” but it was apparent that there were people who fell into other categories in attendance as well.
The panel included heavy hitters Melody Barnes, Director of the Domestic Policy Council, Shaun Donovan, US Secretary for Housing and Urban Development, Marie Johns, Deputy Administrator of the US Small Business Administration, Ambassador Ron Kirk, US Trade Representative and Gene Sperling, Director of the National Economic Council. Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Obama, did the opening and closing remarks.
Representatives from The Grio, Hello Beautiful, The Urban Daily, Black Planet and News One were on hand to ask the panel questions from their readers and a few questions were taken via Twitter and from the live audience. At the end of the hour, as we expected to hear Ms. Jarrett’s closing remarks, instead we got a surprise visit from the President. He came out to highlight the major points of the Act, answered a couple of questions (even teased a guy about the Chicago Bears beating the Atlanta Falcons) and asked us all to spread the word about the Act.
The White House intended for this to be an interactive event and provided us with the hashtags #AtTheWH to tweet about the event and #WHchat to ask questions, but unfortunately I couldn’t get a signal. At all. Thanks AT&T! Not.
All in all, it was a very cool way to spend a Monday afternoon. Thanks, Brian Citizen!
I recently attended an event designed to inspire collaboration and information sharing between entrepreneurs and start-ups. There was quite an interesting group of people with a lot of wonderful ideas – DC is really trying to come up on the tech scene. As tends to happen at this type of event, we went around the room a couple of times introducing ourselves and the businesses/brands that we represented. Later, I struck up a conversation with someone that was sitting across from me and we got on the topic of names. I told him that as a child I had hated my last name. Some little girls dream of meeting their Prince Charming and having a fairy tale wedding – I just wanted to marry someone so I could have a different last name. I mean who the heck is named ‘Rasberry’?
I got called every fruit in the book and when Prince’s song ‘Raspberry Beret’ came out, that was all she wrote. That became the song everyone would start singing as I walked by. To this day, when I hand my credit card to a cashier, seven times out of ten he/she will ask me if ‘Rasberry’ is my real last name. Really? The other comments I hear frequently are “wow, what a cool last name!” and “I wish I had a name like that!” I used to always want to say, “No; you don’t.” Now, not so much.
Since I’ve gone into business for myself, I’ve realized that this name that I spent years hating is actually a benefit. For example, at the aforementioned event, it was the main thing people remembered from my little intro. When I began to have one-on-one conversations with people, some people remembered that my first name is ‘Tamara’ but EVERYONE remembered the last name ‘Rasberry.’ Why? Because it stands out. I know I’m not the ONLY person in the world with this last name – heck, I’m not even the only person named Tamara Rasberry if you can believe that- but the majority of people with whom I come in contact have never met anyone with this last name. Since my company name is ‘Rasberry Consulting’ having an uncommon last name has helped me to stand out and made me that much more memorable to people.
I encourage you to embrace what makes you different when it comes to establishing your business, developing your brand and just living life in general. The things that make you stand out will be the things that make you memorable and, in some cases, successful. Don’t get caught up in the cult of conformity. We each have our own set of qualities and/or skill sets that make us stand out. Some you may have developed, like your sense of humor or your business acumen. Some you may have inherited, like large ears (a la Will Smith) or less than perfect eyesight. Or a crazy last name! Whatever your thing is, embrace it. Play off of it. Enhance it. Use it to get people talking about you and your brand.
If I can do it, you can do it (or I can help you do it.) I went from dreaming of the day that I could change my name to creating a social persona and brand as ‘Ms. Rasberry.’ Yep; that’s me. I embrace it.
What makes you and/or your business different? Leave a comment and let me know.
August is my birthday month and all month long I’ve been holding giveaways on my personal blog to celebrate. Well, it occurred to me that I shouldn’t let those readers have all the fun. So on this, the last day of August 2011, I am holding a giveaway for YOU.
You may have read my previous post on the Guy Kawasaki seminar that I attended a few months ago. If not, you can find it here. Guy wrote a book titled Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions and I would like to gift a copy to one lucky reader. Enchantment is about taking your customer/client/employee/etc. engagement to the next level. In other words, don’t just engage, enchant. All you have to do for a chance to win this interesting and informative book is:
Obviously I’m a huge proponent of social networking and on a daily basis, I communicate with hundreds of people via various social outposts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.) but lately I’ve been thinking about the tangible business benefits of networking. In other words, not just meeting people and sharing information, but having actual jobs or other opportunities result. When a recent conversation with a friend turned to his increase in workload, he told me that several of the opportunities that he has been afforded have been due to recommendations. Typically when you think of recommendations, you think of positive feedback from people with/for whom you’ve worked; however, he was referring to others in his network who had given him the heads-up about or recommended him for job and other opportunities. That’s what I call a tangible benefit!
Just last night I read a post on Single Black Male that pretty much wraps up my point and ties it all together with a pretty little bow. Basically, the author of the post wrote a post committed to helping someone in his network achieve a goal. Now, in addition to the people to whom she had already reached out, there is another network of readers of that site that have been made aware. That’s what I call a tangible benefit!
Now we all know, or should know, that successful networking isn’t just about adding contacts to your iPhone or what the next person can do for you. It’s about building mutually beneficial relationships. It’s about being willing to share information and opportunities. It’s also about having a personal marketing team, or as we call them nowadays, brand ambassadors. These are people who will help promote your brand (be it you or your business) because they believe in it and want to help you grow. If you’re reading this, I’m sure you have some people or businesses for which you have done this because I know my readers are great people. My question to you is, have they done it for you? When was the last time someone in your network reached out to you with a recommendation or an opportunity? When was the last time they retweeted your blog post or told someone about your business? Have they liked your Facebook fan page? You get my drift. For small business owners, or solopreneurs, active – and effective – networks are especially critical because you don’t have employees to act as your brand ambassadors. When you’re pretty much doing everything yourself, it’s important to have a strong network of people who support you in deed.
I’m not in any way, shape or form implying that you should put requirements or deadlines on your network, just that you think about how/if they are supporting you in the same manner in which you are supporting them or in a way that is truly beneficial to you/your business. Obviously you can’t expect all of the hundreds or thousands of people in your various networks to always have your interests front of mind, but when it comes to your core network, they should be doing something for you. And you for them. The actions won’t be the same for everyone and they won’t be on the same timetable for everyone, but action is key.
What has your network done for you lately?
I know this is a business blog, but I had to add this. Inspiration.
Way before I was a new media/image consultant, even before I was a cosmetologist or an HR professional, I wanted to be a psychologist. I’ve always been intrigued by human behavior and thought processes and though I didn’t make it to Ph.D status, I aced all of my college psychology courses.
Recently I realized that doing makeup and wardrobe consultations is like being a layperson psychologist (or at least a talk therapist.) I have to get inside of my clients’ heads, understand them and how they view themselves, then devise a workable and realistic plan for getting them from where they are to where they want to be. ‘Realistic’ is key because if my recommendations are too complicated, too overwhelming, take too much time, etc. most likely they will not stick with them and will end up going back to their same old ways. Even when people know that they want to change, they often don’t want to have to change too much or work too hard at it. My recommendations have to be not only suitable based on external factors such as skin tone and body type, but also based on their personality type. So, you see, image consulting isn’t just all fun and games – there’s a science to it.
I thoroughly enjoy what I do and being able to combine my passions for helping people, beauty, fashion AND psychology makes it that much better. Need help developing your personal style? Contact me.
I’ve read statistics that say that three out of four people suffer from glossophobia, or as it’s more commonly called, a fear of public speaking. You can count me in that number. This is said to be the number one phobia, ahead of the fears of death, flying and heights. I can believe it! I don’t fear either of those three things, but public speaking, oh yes! I get the shakes and start sweating like I’m going through withdrawal or something. It’s not a pretty picture.
I’ve always been one to shun the spotlight. I’m not the “all eyes on me” type. I always say “I’d rather be rich than famous.” When you’re famous, all eyes are on you. Lately; however, I’ve been reading and hearing from professionals and friends alike that public speaking is where it’s at when it comes to career progress/success. I have a fear of public speaking, but I do NOT have a fear of success. So you know what that means – yours truly is going to have to slay this dragon. I can’t let something like a little social anxiety hold me back. Fear is NOT a part of my brand!
Some people have recommended that I join Toastmasters, which I may consider, but first I’ve decided to read this book, which came highly recommended – The 7 Principles of Public Speaking. I’m hoping that it will teach me some ways to overcome this issue, which is said to stem from shyness in childhood. This makes sense because I have no issue talking one on one or in small groups, but put me behind a podium staring out at a sea of faces and I lose all composure. Not for long though. I’m determined to conquer this. Lookout for me, coming to a stage near you!
Have you had to conquer a fear or phobia in order to be successful? Tell me about it.
My focus is branding - online and off. I work with small businesses and individuals to build and develop their brand via new media and visual presence. I create content, design blogs, develop social media strategies and provide training/consulting, among other things. I also work with individuals to develop or enhance their personal style, because after all, YOU are your brand, so you must represent accordingly. I'd love to work with you! Learn more...
I don’t suggest that you dress to impress others. Dress to impress yourself. When you feel good about your image, it comes across to other people.
