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So I got this idea from uh my friend Ted who ah works with me on a few projects, Ted Payne,
Thanks Ted for the idea ah the idea for today's post is to be yourself in business and in
life really um and it's amazing how many people you run into who are trying to be something
that they are not or they are trying to pretend to be something they are not or they are even
trying to fake it until they make it or one of these other you know um terms that people
use but what it all comes down to for me anyway is is that there was a time when I first started
out in business that I really tried to you know look the part um you know I would wear
ah dress pants and a suit jacket a blazer or whatever and I was never comfortable in
those clothes ah and its not that I won't wear a suit you know to a wedding or a funeral
or to ah you know an important ah gala event or something like that when it's warranted
that everybody's going to be wearing a suit or a tuxedo or something I will wear a suit
um but only on a special occasion and ah I'll tell you a quick story I sold one of my advertising
companies um I sold an advertising company um back in 2006 and um they hired me to come
back and consult for them where basically I was working under the new ah CEO of the
company and ah he was all about dressing the part in some of the things that we had to
do and we had this meeting with Sony BMG um and you know the record label and I remember
him sending me an email saying you know "dress the part, put on some dress pants and a and
a collared shirt I want you to look good" and i remember thinking I don't really want
to look like that but um ah I was working for someone else so I bit my tongue and I
kinda I went after it I put on the dress pants and the dress shirt and I'll never forget
cause we went in to Sony and Sony is the type of company where or at least the Sony BMG
record label office everybody was wearing jeans everybody was dressed casually so we
you know we kind of looked like idiots and that was the the turning point for me that's
when I really decided No I'm going to stick to my own personal style I'm going to wear
jeans I'm going to wear t-shirts um I'm not going to be too afraid of of how I look because
if you don't want to work for me or you don't want to work with me or you don't want to
partner with me or you don't want to do a project with me because of the way I dress
then I don't want to do business with you it's that simple um so anyway um I'll tell
you another quick story now that I'm getting into public speaking and I'm doing a lot more
events where I 'm standing on stage in front of a group of people some of the other public
speakers have approached me and said you know "Brad you really should be wearing a nice
suit when you go up on stage people will respect you more" uh and I've kind of stuck to my
casual style of um jeans and a t-shirt or a sweat shirt you know I it's not that I don't
care it's that that is what I am comfortable in and if you want me to do the best possible
job on stage as a speaker I better be in comfortable clothes you know if I'm standing there in
a suit trying to be someone that I'm not I'm not going to be as good a speaker and I'm
not going to be able to do as good a job so the take home for this is be yourself in business
if you are not comfortable in a suit don't wear a suit your customers ultimately in this
day and age are not going to care unless they are in their 80's and they absolutely expect
you to wear a business suit to every single business meeting and if those are the people
you are dealing with maybe you've got to change it if that's not how you are comfortable so
be yourself.