Your appearance matters when presenting. It shouldn’t, but it does. We judge people in a split-second. Over 80% of those judgments come down to just two factors. Fellow speaker Chris Malone explains the phenomenon,
“Early humans developed a kind of genius for making two specific kinds of quick judgments: What are the intentions of other people toward me? And how capable are they of carrying out those intentions? Social psychologists call these two categories of perception WARMTH and COMPETENCE, and they drive most of our emotions and behavior toward other people.”
Before a word comes out when presenting, people have made judgments. How you dress drives those perceptions. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. Once that impression is made, our brain begins the process of looking for clues to confirm that initial bias.
So, what’s the solution?
Simple, you Dress to the Nines. The origin of the phrase is unclear. I prefer the Old English version. The saying “dressed to the eyes,” was often written as “dressed to then eyne.” According to Mental Floss, “The thinking goes that someone at some point heard ‘then eyne’ and mistook it for ‘the nine’ or ‘the nines.”
How are you dressing to the eyes to reinforce warmth + competence?
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Stan Phelps walks the walk. He stands out in the sea of sameness by modeling his own Differentiated Experience (DX) message: Differentiation isn’t just about what you say, it’s about what you do and, more importantly, how and why you do it. Stan leverages his unique collection of 5,000+ case studies on customer, employee, and brand experience to engage audiences with informative learning-based experiences. He believes purposeful DX wins the hearts of employees and customers, and differentiation ultimately boosts loyalty, retention, referrals, and results.
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