Jody Watley [ca. 2006]

It is my honor and focus to help each client realize and fulfill their personal image goals.  And while each client has her or his reasons and desires for making changes and improvements, a true measure of success can be assessed when I see that each one of them becomes a makeover superstar.

You might think that the idea of a makeover is superficial.  But it’s not, especially when you are a makeover superstar.

So what is a makeover superstar?

First, I have to briefly give you some background so you can appreciate the concept.

I was reminded of this idea while going through all the music I own that was written and recorded by singer, songwriter, and music producer, Jody Watley.  She was in town a couple of weekends ago, performing at Yoshi’s in Oakland.  Her stage presence, voice, and performance did not disappoint.

The new thing that really got to me is a song she wrote and recorded in 2006, Makeover Superstar.  It is the title track of an album, The Makeover, which is a compilation of previously recorded music, all except for one track.  A bunch of the tracks are tunes Watley recorded as far back as her 1987 solo debut, while others are re-recordings of other people’s songs.  In a cheeky nod to celebrity culture, she thought of these re-recordings as “makeovers,” and ironically, wrote a new song just for the album that is called Makeover Superstar.

Jody Watley, featured in an edition of Harpers Bazaar.

Long after being discovered as a trend-setting dancer on Soul Train, and later as a founding member of Shalamar, Jody still has a powerful voice, and luminous presence.  She won the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1988 and won a Billboard Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.

Throughout all of this, Jody Watley has had a lot of involvement with fashion.  She has been featured in numerous fashion and lifestyle magazines, was featured in the first celebrity ad campaign created for Gap, and was even the first African-American woman to be given a photo spread in a Japanese publication.  She is known for a strong personal aesthetic that incorporates vintage styles with high fashion and unique designs.

That someone of her talent and presence wrote a song about being a makeover superstar left me a powerful impression of how Jody is really just one of us.  It’s a very powerful concept.

Today’s celebrity culture, of which we find ourselves a part of – being interested in how celebrities look, what they’re doing, and how we can create those looks and events for ourselves – is precisely why the song’s message resonates.  If only we would stop and see how we each are our own superstars, we could be invincible at achieving anything we set our hearts and minds to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrigNhElbCM

A makeover superstar is someone who goes beyond clothes, makeup, and more extreme measures like plastic surgery.  This is a person who transforms from the inside out.  A makeover superstar cares less about how others perceive them, and cares more about being stronger and better.  A makeover superstar knows that he or she has an important mission [or more] in life and wants to use her or his personal power to make it all happen.

This absolutely describes who my clients are.  And yes, clothes are the medium of choice we work with.  Everyone deserves to look great.  Everyone should make great impressions.  But what they really get is a chance to makeover who they are from the inside out.

Think of it like this.  Except for the one song, all those other songs on The Makeover had never been made over.  That’s where you may be right now in your life; a creation of your own making that has never enjoyed an update.  Changing your physical appearance to match who you are and who you want to become is one of the most profound personal experiences you can have.  These songs that were given makeovers have new life, new relevance, and might even reach a different audience.  And maybe that’s just what you need:  to become your own makeover superstar.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs transform their self-confidence by improving their personal style.  Get Joseph’s free report that helps you know “7 Ways to Transform Your Personal Image”.  Learn about Joseph’s “Turbocharge Your Personal Style” Retreats.

These photos are of Tony, a man who chronicled the changes to his body over a 3 month period. Top left was Tony at the start of his program. Top right photo was Tony mid way through. And the photo at bottom is Tony’s transformed torso to date.

My clients are always telling me that no matter how important fitness and nutrition are to their lives and to maintaining a healthy self-image, it’s not easy to keep up with.  Maybe even you are on a journey to improve strength and body shape.  Keeping fit and eating right are not spectator sports.  You can’t watch someone else do it and have the results rub off on you.  If you are concerned about enhancing your self-image by improving your fitness and nutrition, you have to do the work.

But you don’t have to do it alone.

Many people call themselves fitness and nutrition experts.  In my many years as an image professional, I’ve seen these microbusiness owners come and go.  But I’ve met a very special and interesting duo whose mission is to combine both fitness and nutrition into one’s lifestyle.

Marcel Mendoza is a Certified Fitness Expert who created a proprietary method for helping people transform their bodies through fitness.

Marcel Mendoza and Elizabeth Parsen are both Certified Fitness Experts and they are the real deal.  Marcel has created a special training methodology, and Elizabeth is a nutrition specialist.  The work they do with their clients delivers results in three to six months, leading toward clients’ eventual independence.

Their methodology will ring familiar to you, as it’s very akin to my personalized approach to helping clients tell the very complicated story of their personal brand through style.  Theirs is a very similar hands-on approach built on a solid foundation of trust, respect, and integrity.

It’s not enough to look at how incredibly great the expert trainers’ physiques are; you must get a first hand account of how working with true experts delivers transformative results.

One of their clients, Mike, is a 34-year old network engineer for a Silicon Valley start up who lost a good deal of weight and was able to put on muscle with another personal trainer.  But that was not enough for him to feel that his goals were achieved.  Despite the great success that Mike had, it didn’t translate into increased confidence, and he didn’t see that his self-image had really been enhanced.  He wanted to experience this and knew that it would make a difference in his lifestyle if he could go to the next level.

Elizabeth Parsen is a Nutrition Specialist and Certified Fitness Expert who knows what foods fuel the body for optimum fitness performance.

According to Mike, “I don’t just want to be in the best shape of my life, I want to take it to the next level.  I want to lose body fat and put on muscle, of course.  More importantly though, I really want to understand how it works so I can make it a part of my lifestyle.”

Mike was a self-described “chunky kid” from the South, the nerdy type that made up for his lack of social skills with computer know-how.  After suffering through humiliating high school and college experiences, he finally decided that his body needed to get under his command.  Mike hired a personal trainer and took off most of the weight.  But after his initial weight loss, he uncovered two problems.  First, he still had some extra skin and body fat throughout his abdomen that was particularly stubborn.  Second, moving out to California meant that he lost his old trainer and had no idea how to keep working out on his own.

Mike did his research and found Marcel and Elizabeth.  He was drawn to the premise that their company, MorphFITT, would integrate personal training, nutrition, and lifestyle coaching.  Mike wanted to experience the benefits of a customized fitness and nutritional program designed specifically for him.  Marcel and Elizabeth administered comprehensive assessments that, along with his personal goals, were the basis of his program.  What he found most valuable in working with them was that he met his health and fitness goals, and was well armed with the knowledge and tools he needed to maintain his new health and image status.  He was – and still is – at the next level!

This is critical for those living in Silicon Valley because it’s one of the most competitive environments workwise and in everyday life.  And, it can also be one of the most sedentary for those in high tech.  By working with the MorphFITT team, he was able to increase his edge, compete with the best, and look and feel his best.  After only three months of this personal attention to his fitness, nutrition, and lifestyle, his new “look” put him at the top of his game.

The hours and sweat that Mike put into developing his body had an exponentially positive effect on his mood and persona.  To those who know him, it’s one of the first things they notice about him now. Rather than poor posture and protracted shoulders typical of engineers, he stands tall and confident, the kind of confidence you notice immediately!

Marcel and Elizabeth taught him how to keep his body both well developed and balanced proportionally.  His newly minted eating habits helped him to further reduce his body fat and to tighten up his abdomen.  The nutrition template that he learned and used became a stable and reliable plan for feeding himself.  And his clothes fit well through the chest and arms.

Mike’s results have contributed to his greatly improved self-image, sense of style, confidence, and passion for life.  His increased energy, better sleep, and faster recovery after working out lent to clearing up his skin and helped him to not have “tired” eyes.  The lifestyle coaching he received was the key to integrating the fitness and nutrition components into his overall health and wellness.  He has a solid plan that he can rely on for the rest of his life.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs transform their self-confidence by improving their personal style.  Get Joseph’s free report that helps you know “7 Ways to Transform Your Personal Image”.  Learn about Joseph’s “Turbocharge Your Personal Style” Retreats.

Feeling good enough should not come at the expense of others. Instead, set positive intentions to honor your own outer and inner beauty.

I’m a life long student of self-image.  And if you’re a regular reader of my blog, you probably are, too.  So, whenever I have an opportunity to learn something new, I take it.  Last week, I attended a healthy living class for adult learners at Stanford University focusing on helping others to find ways of feeling good enough about their self-image under the leadership of a licensed clinical social worker and a sexual health instructor.

It was one of the most bizarre classes I’ve ever attended.

Here’s why.

The contention of the class instructors is that images found in the media and Internet affects how we see others and ourselves clearly.  News flash!  They went on at length to say that models are chronic dieters.  Another news flash!  Then they shared that even after the models have done all they can do to look their magazine cover best, the magazine editors re-touch and Photoshop their pictures.  No, seriously?!  These images, postulate the course leaders, are responsible for us not feeling good enough about ourselves.  Yes, readers, that’s nearly all the wisdom the dynamic duo could conjure up to the class.

Thankfully, I remained wide awake for the duration of the class because I got a lot more insight from the participants, which I’m about to share with you.

I really don’t think that any of the mostly women and few men could have cared less about the plight of the starving cover models.  Some had voiced other concerns that left me with a stark reminder that feeling good enough should not come at the expense of others.

For instance, one woman shared with the group that she grew up not feeling good enough because she always got handed down clothes.  She wasn’t concerned about how she looked compared to the airbrushed models.  She was comparing herself to her peers and co-workers.  As a result, she has never put value into clothes and, at her stage and age in life, is still rife with insecurities that the women she works with look better than she does and have more opportunities that she has had.  Now I realize that this was a 90-minute class and that there wouldn’t be time to help everyone with a potential issue.  But since she did speak up, I was very agitated the instructors did not provide her with any suggestions.  Yes, it is great to be heard, but she walked out feeling exactly as she did when she walked in, that somehow she’s not feeling good enough.  She missed hearing that it’s not too late to set a new intention.

Another woman was up in arms over why girls attending high school and college are wearing high-heeled shoes to school.  Again, the pop psychology explanation about why women wear high-heeled shoes left me gasping for breath.  It was suggested that teens, young women, and grown women alike all wear high-heeled shoes because they want to be loved.  [In fact, everything we do comes down to the need to be loved, according to one instructor’s theory.]  That may be true for some people.  But to box women into this concept that they are somehow victims who are not loved, and, in order to be loved, must wear high-heeled shoes, seemed extremely shallow to me.

Then to jump onto the bandwagon, the homely looking woman with second-hand clothes syndrome, chimed in.  She proudly declared that she never watched “Sex and the City.” But she relished in sharing that she read that its fashionista star, Sarah Jessica Parker, made it public that she is now unable to wear the high-heeled shoes she loved so much.  Someone else said that Parker wasn’t actually blaming the shoes or the designers, but a certain material used in the construction of the shoes.  This completely useless conversation goes to show that feeling good enough shouldn’t come at the expense of others.  I mean, taking glee in someone else’s pains just to make one’s self feel better is pretty damned bad.

Even the social worker was a case study all her own.  She’s a woman of a certain age whose long hair is past her prime.  And that’s not the only thing.  Her whole look that night was from another era.  I don’t think she even looks at the cover – let alone the contents – of any fashion magazines.  She wore light green cropped pants with unfashionable but sensible comfort shoes.  In addition, she wore white socks with polka dots, a white t-shirt and a green jacket of another light green tone wrapped around her waist.

She said that she instructs her hairstylist to color her hair by diluting the solution with water so that there is still some visible gray.  She claims to be not the slightest bit uncomfortable with aging and wants to look age appropriate.  While she’s a walking contradiction in terms – coloring her hair at all for starters – she’s clearly not feeling good enough because she’s looking like an even older woman in the old clothes of a formerly younger woman.

Course instructors are leaders.  They should look like they appropriately represent their core messages.  If she’s so comfortable with her stage of life, why is her appearance completely out of sync with her message?

If the woman who was concerned about other women wearing high-heeled shoes really wanted to take a healthy stance, she could accept that many women will continue to wear high-heeled shoes, and if she would prefer to not wear them, accept it as a personal decision.

It is time that women stop sabotaging their own appearance by feigning self-acceptance.  It is time that women stop attacking each other’s looks.  Feeling good enough should not come at the expense of others.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs transform their self-confidence by improving their personal style.  Get Joseph’s free report that helps you know “7 Ways to Transform Your Personal Image”.  Learn about Joseph’s “Turbocharge Your Personal Style” Retreats.

I don’t really want you to have a vision of me lying in bed while working from home in sweats as I write this post.  So I’m sparing you the gory details by not sharing with you a picture of me looking pretty much at my worst.

When I hear of people working from home in sweats, I tend to have the same vision in my head that you may be having of me in my current state.

For sure, working from home in sweats must mean that you couldn’t possibly be bothered to manage your appearance.  If no one’s going to see you, why bother?  The way I’ve been feeling the past couple of days, I’d actually tend to agree.  But these are not normal circumstances.  I actually can’t wait to have the energy to stand up in the shower, clean my body, blow dry my hair, and put on something nice to wear – just for me.  I can’t imagine anything better than looking like a whole person.  It will undoubtedly make me feel like a whole person, too.

Working from home in sweats shouldn’t have any impact on the quality of your work.  But I’m sure it does.  I mean, being in sweats for the past couple of days, on top of how I’ve been feeling, has given me the added excuse of being lazy.  I didn’t write my blog post in time, which I mainly know is because I got very sick.  But lying around in sweats hasn’t helped me any either.  Who knows if this blog post is even any good?  I’m feeling so unsure of myself that it is even affecting how I feel about the output of my work.  Can you relate?

In the past week, we’ve heard about companies like Yahoo and Best Buy update their policies requiring their employees to show up to their respective offices.  People have commented on TV that they think this is a backward step, that this policy change is disrespectful to women, and so on.  From the bottom of my heart, I believe that these company directives are intended to get people out of the mode of working from home in sweats and into the offices where employees must be present and have a presence.

You sure can’t have a positive presence, do your very best work, or feel great about yourself when you’re working from home in sweats.  Believe me, tomorrow I’m back to work, and I’ve never, ever been so excited to get out of my sweats and back into “me!”

Joseph Rosenfeld helps successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs transform their self-confidence by improving their personal style.  Get Joseph’s free report that helps you know “7 Ways to Transform Your Personal Image”.  Learn about Joseph’s “Turbocharge Your Personal Style” Bootcamp. Men’s Spring Bootcamp:  March 22-24. Inquire about further upcoming dates.

This guy is a cultural icon of social media. But does his personal style make looking like the best you seem like it’s too much?

Time after time, both clients and non-clients tell me that it’s almost too much of an effort to look their very best.  But why is looking like the best you so hard to do?

Let’s review a few key things that come up for a lot of people who have been brave and vulnerable to share their reasons with me.

“Looking my best takes work.”

It’s true that putting energy into your personal appearance and style does take effort.  When you’re busy working, running your household, have an active social life how do you find the time to come up for air and give yourself some attention?  Except for totally bald men [and women with certain health issues], everyone needs to tend to their hair.  So why is it so difficult to make time for that?

Compare this to the idea of maintaining a properly manicured lawn.  I’ll bet that your lawn and landscaping is regularly maintained because of your own pride of ownership and for maintaining curb appeal for neighbors and passersby.  It may even enhance the overall value of your real estate property.

What if you were to think of your body as the most important real estate you could ever own?  Maybe you’ll consider that looking like the best you is worth the time, effort, and the investment.

“I’ve got some childhood issues that seem to keep me from looking my best.”

If you grew up in modest circumstances, it’s possible that you developed a value system that placed greatest importance on hard work and developing credentials.  Now that it’s paid off and you’re finding success in your life and work, you may be having a hard time evolving your thinking and behavior to include something you’ve always considered to be superficial.

Still, chances are that you have been in a work or social position to consider someone not quite up to par, at least in part because of a lapse in their personal appearance.

Maybe you’ve been compared to a sibling who was more attractive than you are.  Whoever made that distinction – whether it was a parent, your sibling, or yourself – look at how that thought has influenced your behavior.  Don’t you feel that you can have both brains and beauty?  If you think your siblings got the good looks, wouldn’t you wish him or her the gift of intelligence, too?  If you’ve got that kind of love in your heart for your family, think of how you can turn that love inward so that you give yourself what you think has always been missing in your life?

“I’d rather just ‘fit in’ than actually look my very best.”

Your workplace, industry, and your social circle are made up of certain kinds of cultures.  Unless there’s a particular dress code at your company, these cultures all have unwritten rules.  The “rules” seem to favor conformity over individuality.

In today’s day and age, when formal codes exist in a very few work or social settings – seemingly meant to foster individuality and personal expression – these unwritten rules actually create more tribal-like behavior.  But, what if you feel trapped by those unwritten rules?  And if you’re one of the few who is still made to enforce a formal dress code, do you feel trapped, unable to experience looking like the best you?

It’s true that some companies do adhere to time-honored appearance standards.  If you are required to wear a suit, there is still room for you to decide which styles, colors and attitudes you prefer.  This latitude allows you make decisions that help you to look like the best you.

Many country clubs understand that our overall social culture is far more laid back than ever.  But most will go only so far, disallowing members and guests alike from entering the dining room in denim jeans.  Even with that restriction, there are still plenty of style choices you have left to consider that make looking like the best you entirely possible.

Why do you think that owning at least one fine suit for business or social occasions is blocking you from looking like the best you?  Conversely, how does being forbidden from wearing jeans in certain circumstances make it impossible to look your best?

“I don’t want to look overdone when everyone’s lifestyle is so casual, including my own.”

Looking like the best you requires a fearless approach that is based on your desire to do it just for you.  Can you imagine being concerned that if you happen to stand out, people will think that you must think highly of yourself?  You should think highly of yourself!  If you don’t, who else will?  I promise you that anyone who thinks less of you because you put energy into looking like the best you is actually having their own problems.  And if you’re preventing yourself from having fun looking your best, then that’s a huge problem because you’re giving up control of your self-expression just to fit in.

So how do you work through these issues and others like them?  First, you need to make a personal commitment to change these thoughts and behaviors.  Make appointments with professionals who can help you with your hair, nails, and cosmetics.  Freshen up your look with updated eyewear and accessories.  If you need recommendations and you live along the Peninsula or in the South Bay, I’m happy to offer them to you privately.

Finally, if you’re that stuck in these kinds of issues, I can help you overcome these challenges either at my “Turbocharge Your Personal Style” Bootcamps, or working with me privately.  Many highly successful and brilliant individuals have been the happy recipients of my expertise, guidance, care, and friendly personalized attention.  You can create change in your life so that looking like the best you becomes a reality.  And you don’t have to do it alone.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs transform their self-confidence by improving their personal style.  Get Joseph’s free report that helps you know “7 Ways to Transform Your Personal Image”.  Learn about Joseph’s “Turbocharge Your Personal Style” Bootcamp.  Women’s Spring Bootcamp:  March 1-3.  Men’s Spring Bootcamp:  March 22-24.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie

It’s practically impossible to see New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on TV or in person without reacting to his obvious obesity, isn’t it?  At the same time, do you feel that your opinion about Governor Christie’s weight affects your perception of the job he does as governor?

A recent Wall Street Journal article, “Want to be CEO? What’s Your BMI [Body Mass Index]?” got me thinking about how weight affects your perception.

This is such an uncomfortable and controversial topic.  It’s time to  – wait for it – weigh in on the subject and to explore whether weight affects your perception of leaders and other people in your life.

The WSJ article reported on new research conducted by the Center for Creative Leadership that suggests being overweight and oversized affects how people perceive the leadership abilities of others.  According to the study’s findings, executives with larger waistlines and higher body-mass-index readings tend to be perceived as less effective in the workplace, both in performance and interpersonal relations.

The study is not saying – nor am I – that a heavier and larger person is incapable of doing his or her job well.

Data taken from the peer-performance reviews and health-screening results of 757 CEOs and other senior level managers revealed that weight could influence how peers, subordinates, and superiors perceive the leaders.  But none of this is the same as measuring actual leadership success.  The perception of competence is just that.  But it is important.

One client, who has a very prominent position at his company, revealed to me just last week that his weight loss of some 30 pounds has made a big difference in the way he feels about himself and has positively affected his energy level.  He took on this role at his heavier weight.  So the team who placed him in that role definitely believed in his ability to be a very successful leader.  Now that he’s committed to be – and remain – fit, he isn’t insecure about his image.

On top of his improved physique, wearing clothing that emphasize his height and trim appearance continues to provide him with added non-verbal queues of his strong presence and self-discipline.  There is no question in my mind that his subordinates and peers see in him a very capable man, not just because of what they see of his appearance, but because of what they sense about him.  He is in control of those positive perceptions because he is successfully managing his image.

The self-perception piece of this is particularly significant.  You can exercise all you want, and can dress as well as you are able.  But if you don’t feel good about yourself, others will sense the same perception and diminish the results of your dedication.

This brings me back to Governor Christie.  He has publicly acknowledged his obesity.  But he also shows up as being very comfortable with himself.  As a result, fewer people seem to think that his weight affects his competency.  Yes, some people will be concerned that a political leader who runs a state, or possibly even a nation, requires that she or he be in excellent health.  The same can also be said of corporate leaders and managers.

There is perhaps a fine line between perception and prejudice.  The mental picture you create about a person, for instance, is a perception.  People make those kinds of evaluations all the time.  But these perceptions can turn prejudicial when there is a lack of knowledge about that person.

I do feel that people are irrationally hostile toward others that they don’t understand, whether it’s because of someone’s weight, or any number of other human qualities.  You can’t mend anyone else’s prejudices against you, should you face that situation.  Still, when it comes to your weight, managing your attitude about your body image can make a huge difference others’ perceptions of you.  Working with clients on these very issues, I feel that it’s your personal responsibility to take good care yourself – and to feel no sense of guilt in doing so – in order to be at your best for everyone else who depends on your leadership, your friendship, and your love.

If your own weight affects your perception of you, it’s time to take proactive measures.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs transform their self-confidence by improving their personal style.  Get Joseph’s free report that helps you know “7 Ways to Transform Your Personal Image”.  Learn about Joseph’s “Turbocharge Your Personal Style” Bootcamp. Women’s Spring Bootcamp: March 1-3. Men’s Spring Bootcamp: March 22-24.

The very same should apply to your image. Giving up on your image is like giving up on you. If you do give up on your image, it’s like failing that bar exam and never taking it – and passing it – again.

If you think of it like that, how could you ever even think of giving up on your image?

Sometimes the hard stuff requires that we keep coming back to deal with it, so that we conquer what blocked us and we become more successful.

I was thinking about this while exercising the past couple of days, and likened giving up on your image to giving up on exercising. Can you relate to giving up on exercising?

Here’s what I realized about my own ebb and flow of giving up on exercising. Maybe you’ll relate to it in your own way.

My main exercise focus is to lose weight, particularly fat weight around my lower abdomen, and to stay physically fit. To do this, I head to the gym in my building and hit the stationary bike. On weekends, I hit the Baylands in Palo Alto with my partner and our very close friend. It’s pretty easy to just get on the bike and away we go!

Well, not always is it quite so “away I go.” When I’m in the gym in the building, I can’t tell you how many times I want to give up on exercising. These little whispers in my voice keep willing me into quitting. Those little voices that keep saying, “Just stop already. You’ve done enough. You’re tired. You’re not really into it today, so why bother…” Those damned little voices are the tapes in my mind that play one tune: negativity. And those tapes make it so much harder to complete the challenging level of exercise at which I play.

These little whispers that make me want to give up on exercising have the greatest power when I first start out on the bike. It’s not until I break a sweat that those pesky voices crooning the tune of negativity begin to lose their power. By the time I’m half way through the 28-minute program, there’s basically no turning back. That is until I’ve got only a few minutes left, and realize that there are five more “cooling down” minutes to add back into the clock. And true to my nature, I do not “cool down” during those remaining minutes. Those extra five minutes are the opportunity to power through!

By then, there is no negativity, nothing to make me conceive of giving up on exercising.

Something else that I also realized is that if I try to overcompensate for the negative self-talk going on in my head, I may begin to race through the ride. And that only tires me out and has made me terminate the workout early. The result: the negative talk won the battle after all. So what I have realized is that it’s more important to go all the way through to the end of the program than it is to race, regardless of how many miles the machine says that I clocked.

So between yesterday and today, I tested out my mindset resistance. Yesterday, I had a lot more mindset resistance, but powered through to ride 9.65 miles in 33 minutes. Today, with far less resistance, I eked out 9.9 miles during the same time. The result indicates that I was operating at peak performance today, improving the workout efficiency by nearly a full minute.

The same exercise experience that I have just shared with you is directly related to not giving up on your image. Working to improve yourself is not a sprint or a race to the finish line. It is definitely about overcoming your limiting beliefs about what you can accomplish and about your self worth. It may not be easy to accomplish the goals you’ve set for your personal image. When you know that you can do it with guided help, that it doesn’t have to happen at the snap of a finger, or the wiggle of the nose, you can accomplish it all!

Joseph Rosenfeld helps successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs transform their self-confidence by improving their personal style. Get Joseph’s free report that helps you know “7 Ways to Transform Your Personal Image”. Learn about Joseph’s “Turbocharge Your Personal Style” Bootcamp. Women’s Spring Bootcamp: March 1-3. Men’s Spring Bootcamp: March 22-24.

What You Get Out of A Turbocharge Your Personal Image Bootcamp
Actually, Bootcamp participants want the same thing as my private clients: to significantly improve their presence by updating the way you look. The way the Bootcamp has been developed, you get to honor and celebrate exactly who you are. And with the added benefit of working with a small group of participants who share the same interests and desire the same kinds of outcomes, you will finally see yourself as your truly are, and be supported by others. Not only will you get a fresh vision of yourself, others will be able to reflect that back to you. One thing you can count on is that you’ll come away from this powerful weekend turbocharged to embody your essential qualities.

The weekend is very comprehensive.
• It all begins with a 1:1 personal assessment before the Bootcamp actually begins. You and I first clarify what you want to get out of the Bootcamp.
• Next, you will develop your personal style profile, which becomes the basis of all the work we will do.
• Then a team of top hairstylists will work with each of the participants to update your hairstyle.
• Once you start to see your updated self, we’ll delve into your mindsets about your image and shopping, and develop healthier thoughts and practices.
• From here on in, you are immersed into the shopping environment for some real “hands-on retail therapy.”
• You’ll learn best shopping practices that are meaningful to your image and style, put looks together, and present the outcome of your selections to me and to the group.

I want you to have the skills, knowledge, and mindset that allow you to manage your personal image with total confidence so that you’re not worried or afraid of what visual messages you’re conveying in social or business situations.

Why I Created The Turbocharge Your Personal Style Bootcamp
This Bootcamp is specifically for rising stars and others who might be restarting their careers, and whose time and resources are limited. Still, they have a strong desire to discover and reinvent their personal style, via a fast and affordable immersion into personal style transformation. This Bootcamp gives more people the opportunity to experience transformation in a way that is different from how clients work with me privately.

What Are The Differences Between the Bootcamp and Working Privately?
There are several differences between attending a Bootcamp weekend and working with me privately. Each has their distinct benefits.

• A Turbocharge Your Personal Style Bootcamp requires the commitment of just one weekend of your life plus a full month of follow-up that includes homework assignments and a mid-month conference call. In contrast, private clients work on their image development over the course of a full year. So during a Bootcamp, we accomplish in just a weekend what happens over the course of a number of months.

• Private clients don’t get to enjoy the opportunity of shopping in stores with me. In an effort to help manage their image development while minimizing their time commitment, I do all the shopping and present all of the possibilities to them. But at a Turbocharge Your Personal Image Bootcamp, you get to have the experience of being in a retail environment with me. You get to learn how to shop successfully so that you can retain this important skill and are able to have the experience on your own after the Bootcamp.

• Turbocharge Your Personal Image Bootcamp participants learn and experience their transformation in small groups of up to 6 participants. By experiencing image development in a small group, you witness and support the transformations of others, and you equally receive the same connection from your fellow Bootcamp participants.

Interested in learning more? Check out the complete details here. I’m so excited about this Turbocharge Your Personal Image Bootcamp, and look forward your participation.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs transform their self-confidence by improving their personal style. Get Joseph’s free report that helps you know which “7 Ways to Transform Your Personal Image” at josephrosenfeld.com.

If making the most of your personal image was so easy, you probably wouldn’t be reading this post or following this blog on a regular basis.  It’s okay; you’re in good company.  Some of the most successful people I know are my clients, and they would tell you that if we weren’t working together, they’d be struggling to make the most of themselves.

Let’s say that you are having a difficult time in making the most of your personal image.  Sit with that statement and ask yourself why.  Just be patient with yourself and let the answer come to you.

Next, you might consider asking yourself these additional questions.  Are you closed to the possibility of seeing yourself in a whole new way?  Do you fear the idea of changing?  Do you get so frustrated by trying to coordinate your clothes that you comfort yourself by wearing whatever you believe to be the most “comfortable” clothes you own?  Do you think that your credentials and experience are what count, and that how you look shouldn’t matter?  Do you feel unhappy with yourself to the point that you have stopped eating right, stopped exercising, and realize that you’ve gotten lazy?  What comes up for you in thinking about these questions?

Yes, it’s possible that a lot may come up for you in asking yourself these questions.

I thought it would be a great week to bring up the idea of making the most of your personal image.  After all, the holidays are upon us, the year is drawing to a close, and the New Year is approaching.  This time of year is ideal to be thinking about how to show up as your best self at holiday parties, family events, at your house of worship, and at work.  It’s a great time to seek out the opportunity for renewal and rededication to yourself and to your goals.

To help you think about making the most of your personal image during the holidays, consider planning out what you’re going to wear to any events you’ll be attending.  Do it sooner than later, so you can shop for items that would complete outfits and compliment clothes you all ready own.  Think about the messages you want to send others about who you are based on the way you look.  Don’t give into the temptation that you want to look like you don’t care.  How can you expect others to care about you if you don’t appear that you do?

Last, it takes just as much effort to look like a wreck as it does to look like a winner.  If you put the right effort into it, you will absolutely benefit from exuding your visual brand with style.  Making the most of your personal image is definitely a choice.  I hope that you will consider taking some steps toward putting your best foot forward during the holidays and the coming year ahead.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs transform their self-confidence by improving their personal style.  Get Joseph’s free report that helps you know which “7 Ways to Transform Your Personal Image” at josephrosenfeld.com.

Thinking back to your childhood, can you remember a time when you were subjected to wearing something your parents “made” you wear? Did you have to wear a uniform to parochial school, or did your parents choose clothes for you to wear that weren’t your style?  This is far more common than any of us may realize, and is the cause of long term fear about our appearance.  It makes many of us unplug and disconnect from being cognizant of our self-image.

Being told to wear certain kinds of clothing is not just limited to childhood.

I have worked with countless numbers of high-level and professional men whose wives previously bought their clothes with the sole purpose of maintaining some form of control.  What were the wives trying to control?  Well, it appeared to me that the wives, despite being attracted to their husbands’ success, were equally insecure about it.  In numerous cases, I have found that if they could keep their husband looking less than his best, other women wouldn’t look at their husbands.  But in doing so, the men lost control of the power of their personal presence.

Men are not perfect creatures either.  They have similarly objectified the women in their lives by choosing alluring clothing, sometimes in ways that women find uncomfortable or unflattering.  A woman’s self-image is precious, and many men don’t know how their clothes buying behavior triggers deep issues, bring past issues right into the present.

Also of note is the persistent objectification of women in the workplace.  Of course, this cannot be construed as a good thing for obvious reasons.  But what’s also terrible about these inappropriate acts is that this can effectively make women go into hiding by wearing clothing that disguises their curvy figures and wearing clothing that is more masculine looking.  Clothing that a woman feels forced to wear in order to avoid being objectified is another example of clothes that make you feel controlled.

Even here in Silicon Valley, dressing a certain way to fit into a very casual and sloppy work culture is an extension of wearing clothes that make you feel controlled.  Wouldn’t it be amazing if you felt that you could wear stylish and good quality clothing without judgment, without people feeling that you had just gone to a job interview at a different company or that you’ve been to a funeral? What if you could excel at your job due, in some part, because your clothing brought your personal power up, rather than somehow keeping you down?

With 25 years of working with people of all types on their image, I know the importance of breaking free of those shackles.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs transform their self-confidence by improving their personal style.  Get Joseph’s free report that helps you know which “7 Ways to Transform Your Personal Image” at josephrosenfeld.com.