Tag Archives: san jose image consultant

Is Shopping Your Closet Right For You?

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One idea that has popped up this year is to shop your own closet – instead of a store – with your favorite image consultant.

I think shopping your closet is a fantastic way to reinvent the wardrobe, but there is a huge caveat to this concept.  You’ve got to have a fairly extensive wardrobe in order to make shopping your closet a sensible pursuit.  Based on the way my clients have been shopping with me lately, I don’t think everyone is capable of shopping their closets to reinvent their existing wardrobes.

To be plainly honest, many of my clients are taking this time to develop their wardrobes by focusing on a particular need.  While some are building an appropriate work wardrobe, others are realizing a need to develop a personal style for socializing, dating, and for traveling.  If an aspect of your wardrobe, either professional or personal, is underdeveloped, the idea of shopping your closet may be just as much as a fantasy as the season’s trendy fall fashions.

So how and when can shopping your closet benefit you?  If you are fortunate to have a closet full of clothes but are in the unfortunate position of thinking you have nothing to wear, that’s a prime sign it’s time to shop your closet.  You might have underutilized gems lurking around that could become new stars.  Combing through your wardrobe to eliminate pieces that drain it of your energy is very helpful.  Sometimes all you can see are those items you never want to wear.  Yet there they are, staring right back at you like a bad dream.

Psychologically, ridding your closet of unnecessary items can be challenging.  Can you afford to let go of things you paid money for?  I tend to wonder more deeply whether you can afford to feel drained by a wardrobe that isn’t doing its job for you.  So I honor the challenges you might face by this challenge, but I also see and would want to honor the opportunity that this process poses.

When you look at your wardrobe with fresh, new eyes the greatest benefit you can expect is freedom.  There’s freedom from limiting items that don’t support your body, messages, and goals.  And there’s freedom from doing the same ole, same ole.  Try something new with something old, and experience something fresh.  Treat yourself to and mix in a few new key items, and more than the wardrobe is transformed – you are offered some sense of renewal.

It’s an exciting time to be taking stock of your wardrobe as it pertains to your image.  It always feels wonderful being complimented about how good you’re looking. These days we can all use a pick-me-up.  But it’s better still when you open that closet, knowing it’s filled like your own customized boutique, and you see yourself looking back at you, seeing only good choices to wear.

Designing and managing your image is the secret science of your success.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps professional men and corporate workgroups create effective visual brands. Visit JosephRosenfeld.com for details.

Notable Ways to Color Your Life

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Wearing the right colors is something I’ve been aware of since my teenage years and the discovery of The Preppy Handbook. Certain colors and combinations signified the preppy look, and I wanted to look preppy. At the same time, it was obvious some colors did not look so good on me. A pastel-tinted shirt’s low intensity drained my energy. Other colors made me look “blah” while the colors looked stronger than me. This was one of life’s moments when I knew I had an interest in style. Now all these years later, color is central to the work I do as an image consultant to help others develop their personal visual brands.

Recently I did a presentation about how to make an impression with color for a social group of about 25 women. It was a thrill to talk with them about color theory, color types, how to use color to change the way one’s body looks, how to convey different messages by wearing certain colors, and how I identify each client’s essences by reading their color palette. Many of the women have come to see me to develop their customized color palettes, and it’s been a blast showing them what is possible for them with their special combinations of colors.

My clients always inspire me with their unique strengths and energy. I always want each of them to see the strength and energy I see in them as an objective third party and to grow with the help of my suggestions when opportunities are identified.

You might wonder how in the world color can even help you reach your goals. The answer is amazingly simple, and comes by way of this analogy I made up:

Color is a lot like music. In music there are all the notes, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, just like there are all the colors in the prism. Now we all think we should be able to each sing a C note. Guess what? Some of us can’t. This is just like being unable to wear a certain color, regardless of how light or dark the color is. Octave levels in music are like color intensity levels. Not all of us sing at the same octave level either. Some of us sing naturally higher or lower than one another. Not every color intensity level works for everyone. If you were a singer, vocal training and coaching would help you develop a stronger voice, greater awareness of your vocal range, and you’d be in a position to expand your range. The same is true with color. Everybody wears clothes and has messages to convey while wearing them. When you learn and know what colors look best on you, you know more about your visual strengths and how to convey them to everyone else.

So here’s to all the women who have come to work with me on their personal color profiles in the last few weeks: you each inspire me with your strengths, your stories, and your willingness to be open and share. You make me love being an image consultant, and I can’t wait to see how your style develops.

Designing and managing your image is the secret science of your success.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps professional men and corporate workgroups create effective visual brands. Visit JosephRosenfeld.com for details.

Why Do We Need Civility?

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The Association of Image Consultants International, the organization through which I am credentialed as a Certified Image Professional, has made something of a campaign to encourage civility in others. A chief campaigner of this civility movement contacted me, and asked for my comment on why civility is needed for an upcoming article she is writing for an image industry publication.

I have to admit; being an image consultant is not about living up to a standard of unattainable perfection. Nor is it my thing to encourage others behave in a way beyond the scope of their lifestyles. My lifestyle just isn’t so formal. I live in Silicon Valley and when I’m not working I’m most often in William Rast jeans and a bamboo T-shirt I bought at Kitson in Los Angeles.

Have you heard me swear? I do it very well in Yiddish, too, by the way. My eye contact is not always spot on, and I don’t always have my body turned squarely at someone during conversation. Even my laugh is loud. Absolutely, I’m very skilled at helping clients improve their image for whatever circumstance is of importance to them; but sometimes even I want to turn off the personal impression maker that I am. Don’t you want to turn off too, at times? But this doesn’t mean I’ll not make a genuine effort to remain polite and respectful of others – and of myself.

The challenge with encouraging ourselves to behave in a manner of formal politeness based on social conventions – that is civility – is that it’s like asking ourselves to become less informal. In some way it feels like trying to turn back time to the 1940s when social conventions were more formal and the average person behaved as such. In today’s world, you have to ask if one’s behavior matches the attitude and matches the appearance? All are so closely linked.

Casualness is a current attitude our society has found comfort in for an increasing number of decades. Why show emotional commitment, loyalty, thoroughness, or seriousness, when one can just be ‘casual’ and live life by chance? With all the problems in the world, it seems like a breath of fresh air to throw caution to the wind sometimes, doesn’t it?

Nonetheless, civility, from a modern man’s perspective is very simple and I think it’s important to accept some form of it into your everyday life. Why, you ask? You never know what a great gift a polite smile and the words “please” and “thank you” can bring to someone’s day. Karen, the concierge in my building is always bursting with smiles. And when she was in a car wreck a few months ago, just down the block from our building right after her work day ended, my partner and I raced to the hospital to make sure she was okay. Now that’s civility – that’s caring.

Civility is also the gift that keeps on giving back to you. When you politely address another person, it shows great personal character as much as it shows care for that person. You should note how you feel by treating another person with respect. It feels good to be considerate of others.

You don’t need to address people as “sir” or “madam” to behave politely. That’s the stuff you expect of the upper crust somewhere else. But even when you’re laid-back and in jeans and a T-shirt you can still be kind to others and say “excuse me, please” and “thank you” and “you’re welcome” and “have a great day.” Swear if you must around those who know you best [I sure as hell do]. But be kind and respectful. Make it a personal mission, not a movement.

Designing and managing your image is the secret science of your success.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps professional men and corporate workgroups create effective visual brands. Visit JosephRosenfeld.com for details.

Who Knew? Education is a Huge Part of Image Consulting

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I’m embarking on a program to provide image education late this summer, and in a way you may not expect…

Private clients know the experience of working with me on developing your visual brand and image is about more than producing the final result. They know that the pace of our work is tailored to educating you about yourself and how you communicate through your image. This approach sets you up for success because the educational component helps to sustain transformational change.

Participants of my corporate seminars also know the attention I pay to education. When employers see the cost-benefit of having me to talk to your employee group, you know the value your employer places on professional development. Every business culture and industry is a bit different. That’s why I research your workplace culture and customize each presentation, so what you learn is pertinent to your work life and not a 1950’s era notion.

Peculiarly, I’m one of the only men practicing as an image consultant, and I’m one of the only image consultants dedicated to working with male clients. It feels natural and normal to be in that peculiar, odd place. I’m used to it!

However, I decided a while back to create a program to provide education to other image consultants who want to work with men but lack the skills and insight to do so. Education dedicated to the specialty of working with men has barely existed. Until now.

So, I’ve created such a program, which has been reviewed and approved by AICI [the Association of Image Consultants International] and provides continuing educational credits [CEUs] to participants who complete the program. One significant program highlight experience participants will have is to work with an actual client of mine in a retail setting to help him with his wardrobe procurement based on his current needs and goals. They will have autonomy to select what they deem is appropriate with my oversight. This experience will culminate in the client making final selections with my guidance. The consultants will be on hand to experience this selection process.

Some image consultants turn to “training” [I prefer the word “educating”] because they stop working with actual people and businesses but contemplate their legacy. Yes, they consider how to hand down their knowledge to others so they live on somehow.

My reason for turning to education within the image consulting industry is totally different. I’m not going anywhere, for one thing! As I turn 40 later this month, this is prime time to start sharing the knowledge I have amassed over my career. Sounds nutty, in a way. But the truth is I’ve been dressing men and addressing their image issues for more than twenty years. Yes, it’s time to share what I know with other image consultants so they can offer their male clients the high level consulting for which I’ve become well known, but in a way that works for them.

The approach is to help other consultants get the knowledge they need to ehnance their own methodologies so they have more successful results with their male clients, or so they can work with men. The point is not to have them mimic or mirror the precise ways I work with clients. I’m so excited about this new adventure because teaching your own colleagues is full of its own challenges, but one I’m up to. After all, like I said, I’m used to being a stand out in my field, and I help each of my clients learn how to become a standout with their image, too.

Designing and managing your image is the secret science of your success.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps professional men and corporate workgroups create effective visual brands. Visit JosephRosenfeld.com for details.

Improving Your Image, One Bite at a Time

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Why would an image consultant like me take the time and effort to share insights into healthy nutrition? The answer is because the results of good nutritional intake show up through an improved body figure, healthy skin, better digestion [which hopefully only you know about], and best of all you feel – and everyone sees – a significant improvement in your energy level and focus.

No doubt a lot of us aim to do the right thing when it comes to eating healthy. But over the weekend, my partner Kevin and I took in the documentary film Food, Inc. We now swear we won’t ever look at American food in the same way.

Both of us have been giving ourselves what you could call physique makeovers by changing the way we eat and revving up our workout regimens. Since taking ourselves to task, we’ve gotten in great shape, and lost significant weight relative to our proportions and ages. But even with our newfound ways of looking at food and how we eat it, we were aghast by the film’s many points about the American food system, as we know it.

Kevin and I have moved away from eating processed foods and doing so has helped us to lose weight. We avoid most starches, breads, potatoes, rice, and corn. But corn is broken down and is in so many food items, as Food, Inc. makes abundantly clear. We were shaking our heads at how many ingredients are created from corn. It’s become the centerpiece of the American diet, but it does not have to become the centerpiece of yours.

Corn, however, was practically the centerpiece of Food, Inc., because of its pervasiveness in the American food system. In fact, we really learned a lot about the corn-beef connection that will have you thinking about your diet once you read this.

Cows are meant to feed on grass, but big cattle companies are not feeding cows grass. They feed cows cheap corn to fatten them up. Cows cannot digest this corn, and as a result, corn fed cows are prone to illness. How do you suppose ecoli bacteria get into the food supply? This is how. The way to avoid this is not to avoid beef, but to buy grass-fed beef. My St. Louis friends may not like this, but the folks at Monsanto have essentially genetically engineered all American corn to be made of their seeds and have created a “cash cow” unlike no other – literally.

So even when we think we’re eating healthy and doing the right thing, we have more to learn. Here’s an illustrative story Kevin and I recently read about an American woman’s experience of going to live in Germany that makes the point:

This woman was concerned about living in a country known for its meat-and-potatoes diet and that she’d gain a significant amount of weight. She ended up living in Germany for several years, and during that time she met a man and they married. While living in Germany, she actually lost weight eating the local diet and her husband’s weight remained steady. Eventually, when the couple moved to the United States, both of them gained significant weight without altering their diets. What she learned was that the food they were eating was processed differently, highly salted, laden with sugars [high fructose corn syrup, etc.], and that is was fatty.

One of the people who really influenced Kevin and me on our journey toward personal wellness is an old neighbor and friend, Richard Nikoley. He writes a very informative blog about eating natural foods and I highly recommend reading up on his posts for more information because he’s so passionate about this topic. It’s particularly changed his life like it’s changed ours. And if you haven’t gotten the hint to get out and see Food, Inc., it’s a must.

Your personal and professional image is created by more than just how you dress. It also develops based on what you eat and how you care for yourself. You can make a difference in your image, one bite at a time.

Designing and managing your image is the secret science to your success.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps professional men and corporate workgroups create effective visual brands. Visit JosephRosenfeld.com for details.

Why the Term ‘Business Casual’ Must Go

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It was interesting to me as an image consultant attending a business conference where the expected attire was listed as “business casual” so, according to the conference flyer, “everyone can be comfortable during the conference.” I found this to be very strange language for a conference dedicated to making high-level business connections. Excuse me, but shouldn’t everyone know how to buy clothing that is at once the right size so it is comfortable and the right style so it is appropriate for the occasion?

The term ‘business casual’ is officially on my shit list and I am out to ban this term from use because there is nothing ‘casual’ about doing business. Since when is business to be done by chance or without prior thought or planning? The way you dress for business is part of the way you do business.

I have to wonder how much more productive meetings would be if people showed up looking like they were ready to engage with the other party. If you were interested in buying a piece of real estate, would you be comfortable visiting a messy home? Virtually anyone reading this would honestly answer, “No.” So why not take care of the most valuable piece of real estate you own?

Often, you just get one opportunity to make an indelible impression at an important meeting or interview. The meeting may not turn out as you’d prefer, but the least you can do is show up looking like you care about yourself, about the person you’re meeting with, and like you care about doing business.

There is so much confusion as to what ‘business casual’ is and what it means. Every author has a different spin on what it is because they want to sell books. Wikipedia even has a citation-lacking entry about ‘business casual’, full of statistics backing up misinformation in support of someone’s wardrobe imperative. Even OpenTable.com regularly lists ‘business casual’ among the dress codes of restaurants it supports. If you’re going out for a social dinner with friends, how does ‘business casual’ even figure into your game plan?

The truth is: when you inquire about the accepted style of clothing, you’re asking for the rules, for the “code,” so you fit in at the interview, or at the job, or for the business or social occasion. When the answer you’re given is ‘business casual,’ it only causes more questions than it does answers.

Answers are available, but getting meaningful insight requires unlearning bad information and wiping the slate clean in order to get clarity. Here are some key tips to keep in mind about relaxing the look of your professional attire without looking like you’ve gone out of business:

If you dress up every day in a suit and are looking to relax the look, opt for a sport coat.

If you regularly wear a sport coat, continue to wear outfits that are “jacket ready.”

If you commonly wear pant and shirt, combinations, show your personality and finish them with suitable accessories because shoes and a belt will really stand out with just a shirt and pant.

Don’t confuse these social attire items with business attire:
Jeans
Knit polo tops
Short-sleeved shirts

And never wear clothing in which to conduct business that is torn, stained, collegiate or sports themed, or athletic wear.

There is an appropriate time and place to wear all kinds of clothing. Knowing when and where to wear your wardrobe items requires planning and intention to accomplish your goals.

Designing and managing your image is the secret science to your success.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps professional men and corporate workgroups create effective visual brands. Visit JosephRosenfeld.com for details.

‘Communication’ a Focus of the AICI Conference

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I just returned home from the annual AICI conference for image consultants and find myself reflecting positively about the experience. The conference is a traveling pilgrimage of sorts, one part educational, and one part experiential, just held in a different locale each year. This year’s conference was one of the best overall experiences I’ve encountered in some time.

Much of the educational content I was drawn to revolved around effective communication. Ironic, eh? I thought so, too. Jason Alba, the founder of JibberJobber.com spoke at a session where he laid out a sound strategy for communicating online and following up with contacts. The volume of people I encounter makes communicating online an absolute must, and Jason’s counsel came at a great time. Apparently my blog posts are too long!

The great thing about learning is that you don’t know what you don’t know until you know that you don’t know it. When you stumble into that area of ‘unknowingness,’ like the wilderness, you start to find your way around and learn new things. It’s better to deal with the unknown than the unknowable.

Colleagues Dominique Isbecque and Lynne Marks also facilitated great communication-based presentations. It was great learning from Dominique about profiling people in order to effectively provide value, while Lynne’s program was at least as much about listening as it was about conversing.

Liz Weinstein also facilitated a program I thoroughly enjoyed. She’s a great corporate presenter and makes it look rather easy. But I think part of the secret to her success is how she uses activities to engage participants as she did with us. It was also the point of her helpful program and really got me thinking about new ways to present material.

It was my pleasure to share knowledge with colleagues about men’s neckwear. The tie may be a small piece of cloth, but it carries a big message about its wearer. Like all clothing, it can tell an authentic story as much as it can help the wearer overcome personal challenges and communicate strength. I had a blast and invited people to stay afterward for a question and answer session. About a third of the participants took the opportunity to stick around.

The conference got me all fired up to keep learning and sharing, and to stay focused on helping my clients, present and future.

Welcome to my presentation!

The participants preparing for the program

Neckwear

Sarah Brummitt from London participating in a demonstration

More sharing information, post workshop

Getting all Hollywood with Sherlyn Fox

Messing with Texas: Bethany Buice Siggins and Deborah King

Canadian Queens Zayna Mosam and Karen Brunger
(Hey, I’m not Canadian!)

Designing and managing your image is the secret science of your success.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps professional men, women, and corporate workgroups create effective visual brands. Visit JosephRosenfeld.com for details.

17 Again – Make an Indelible Impression at Any Age

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While it’s true that most of my clients are professional men (and some professional women, too) I was quite delighted to receive a call last week from a woman whose teenage son wants to reinvent his image. Would I work with him? After a good discussion to learn about the genesis of his desires – and his parents’ sheer willingness to support him – I determined working with him would be a mutually good fit.

Apparently this young man is inspired to take action about reinventing his image since seeing the recent hit movie, “17 Again”. It stars Zac Efron, as a 37-year old man miraculously transformed back to the age of 17 to get a second shot at life. If a movie could entertain and inspire someone to do something good for himself, I did what a good image consultant should do. I went on a bro-date with my twenty-something friend Andrew and saw the movie together.

I won’t give away the details of the movie because I think you should go see it. My friends Karl and Lindsey will read this at this point and roll their eyes; go ahead you two! It was more than just the next generation’s version of Tom Hank’s “Big”.

“17 Again” reminded me of my own high school experiences, being maligned and marginalized until a set of transformational experiences occurred. The movie had a star athlete bully character. Such a student bullied me in high school. Efron’s character, Mike O’Donnell, back in high school with his kids, rescues his son from the high school bully. I remember needing to change my defenseless mindset in order to physically defend myself against a bully three times my size and in a very public way. I was a nervous wreck and totally scared. In the movie, Mike is poised, self-assured, knows how to spin a basketball like a Harlem Globetrotter and is admittedly great looking. Oh, if only I could be 17 again…What if I could look like Zac??

Efron’s high school character, thrust back into teen life, didn’t fit into the school’s culture in his over-the-top Ed Hardy wardrobe, droopy jeans with exposed boxer shorts, and baseball cap worn sideways. It may have been very L.A., but it was just too affected and bad-boy-adult for a high school student. So he cleaned up his act by getting none other than a makeover of sorts. [Hey, Ed Hardy clothes were not around circa 1989. But that’s Hollywood.] He got a refreshed hairstyle and new clothes, and even a gorgeous car that seemed to go along with his physical style. Considering that Mike O’Donnell’s “dad” is a wealthy man, anything is possible. [Oh, Hollywood.]

The point, though, is it’s possible to make a permanent, yet dynamic, impression. In the movie, despite the apparent failing of their relationship, Mike and his high school sweetheart wife can’t escape the early impressions they once made on one another. Could they reconnect to those impressions? So often as we age, this is what life’s relationships are all about. We want to be relevant to ourselves and to others. What was surprisingly interesting, fun, and entertaining about the movie is the message that having a good self-image is a great way to create a first and multiple impressions. Once Mike got his style right, and spoke from his heart, everyone swooned over him. Even his kids, without them knowing he was their father, looked up to him, like he was the BMOC.

The hairstyle, the wardrobe, the poise, and the car – those things are the physical choices made by a person who has it together on the inside and is expressing himself outwardly. The writers portrayed this aspect authentically to the character.

In truth, I wouldn’t want to be 17 again. I’m about to turn 40 in three months and am in the best physical, emotional, and spiritual condition of my whole life. Why turn back from a good thing? But I like the premise of taking stock of your life and finding a way to do something better from this point forward. Your personal image is a gateway to your consciousness where you can live your best life.

What about you? Would you want to turn back the hands of time?

Designing your image is the secret science to your success.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps professional men and corporate workgroups create effective visual brands. Visit JosephRosenfeld.com for details.

Confidence for Sale

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This morning on “Meet the Press” a conversation centered on confidence. According to the pundits, no one has any. Wall Street is broken. Main Street is frozen. The president, following a Doobie Brothers song idea, is taking his ideas “to the streets” – whichever will listen. Given the state of things, it seems like ideas aren’t so much for sale these days as is confidence, and no one is really selling or instilling a whole lot of confidence.

I don’t doubt that Washington and Wall Street each have a hand in how the economy will evolve from where it is today. But what you and me? Don’t we have a hand in all this, too? Aren’t we part of this economy, and what about our own confidence? If we are selling or buying we are part of the economy and however we participate in the economy we are showing our confidence or lack thereof.

It’s understandable to have your confidence shaken if you’ve lost money in the stock market, even if you’ve lost your job. Others have fared worse, having lost their homes. Confidence is one intrinsic commodity long on demand and short in supply these days. But confidence is something we deeply possess as long as we channel our energy to activate it.

I like to exercise as a means of awakening self-confidence. The women in my family from my mother to my grandmother to my great-grandmother all had the gift of confident eye contact. Somehow that gift transferred to me, and I never shy away from strong, reassuring eye contact. It always makes me feel great to dress in nice clothes that give me confidence while simultaneously instilling others’ confidence in me.

As an image consultant, and someone who discovered the secret values of clothing thirty years ago (long before studying and practicing it professionally) I advocate the simple things in life we do have control over to instill confidence. Confidence does sell. It sells who we are and what we do. It enhances the value of our expertise, of our services and products, too. People buy on emotion. These days people are buying (or not) on the emotion of confidence.

Let me hear how are you non-verbally conveying confidence and stimulating your personal economy.

Designing your image is the secret science to your success.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps professional men and corporate workgroups create effective visual brands. Visit JosephRosenfeld.com for details.

About Face: Mark Zuckerberg

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This morning on NBC’s “Today” program, Matt Lauer interviewed Facebook’s CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. As an image consultant who is dedicated to improving how men connect with their audiences, I was struck by the wardrobe choices Zuckerberg or his public relations handlers made and the way he ended up appearing on “Today”.

The point of Zuckerberg’s appearance was to clear the air about Facebook’s ‘about face’ [as it were] regarding changes to its terms of service. Concerns have been mounting amongst its 175,000,000 users over who owns the content placed on each user’s profile. I’m not convinced his explanation was the clearest it could have been, however, because his appearance was distracting to his message.

So just how important is it that Mark Zuckerberg and all successful, talented men in Silicon Valley develop more of a visual personal brand? It all has to do with the attention paid to the way you are presented. But don’t misunderstand my point. It’s not about creating Hollywood glamour because you’re going to be on TV. It’s about being respected and correctly understood by your audience. To wit, Matt Lauer and the production staff queued up a tape of Zuckerberg’s 2007 appearance on “Today” just to talk about how he dressed then and how he dressed today for his appearance.

Lauer commented how Zuckerberg wore flip-flops in 2007 and actually wore a tie today. I noted he wore outerwear pieces by The North Face with The North Face embroidered logo emblazoned on the chest for both appearances. It was better branding for a company of a different face, than for his company. I took further issue with the tie. Worn with a white shirt, jeans, sneakers, The North Face activewear piece, Zuckerberg appeared as a nondescript individual rather than a company leader.

When a man with such youthful looks wears a tie in this kind of combination it never works for several reasons. The tie is out of place for an otherwise casual statement. The tie says, ‘take me seriously’ while the rest of the outfit says, ‘take me skateboarding’. Zuckerberg is known to be highly intelligent; and yet, this tie-wearing trick still challenges his sense of worldliness, and of appropriateness. There comes a time as a business leader when you have to mature your brand instead of staying rooted in the look of Ivy League collegiate youth.

So whether you’re Mark Zuckerberg, or someone else who’s got an upcoming media appearance, I welcome the opportunity to work on developing your image with you.

After all, designing your image is the secret science to your success.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps professional men and corporate workgroups create effective visual brands. Visit JosephRosenfeld.com for details.