Suit Jacket vs. Straight Jacket: And other distractions of Personal Branding for women

"PSSSSST, We see you and we know you're a woman".

I think that's how I'll start my talk later this month when I speak to the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit Super Women Luncheon. What do you think?

I'm of an age when I remember how it came to be that women started dressing like men to get taken more seriously in the workplace. It was the '80s and using the mindset; "If you look more like a man you must think like them too", hence the shoulderpads. There should be no wonder why the rise of women business owners has increased from 5 million in 1997 to 8 million according to Amercian Express OPEN State Of Women Owned Business Report. Its not because getting an AMEX got easier it's because they are sick of dressing like men at the office.

Believe it or not I hear stories all the time from women who are still having it strongly suggested to them that they should consider wearing a jacket for presentations.  To which I reply: "Why, so they have somewhere to clip the wireless mic?"

I've spoken at Ameriprise a few times so when Adelaide Lancaster of In Good Company (and co-auther of the new book "The Big Enough Company") introduced me to Judi Rosenthal I knew we had a lot to talk about.  Judi is a financial advisor for Ameriprise and is the driving force behind their Bloom network which is a virtual “water cooler” … a community that shares positive peer support, Ameriprise expertise and outside inspiration from all types of business resources and beyond. She also hosts a radio program for Bloom members which we agreed that the topic of Personal Branding Through Appearance was neccessary.

Judi is an easy person to talk to and has a ready laugh so the interview was a lot of fun.  Not surprisingly there were some predictable topics discussed like; Is a jacket even neccessary for women anymore? And hoisery rules and preferences. But the best topic of all was around distractions. Particularly the kind that bad or misfunctioning underwear can create.  I'm pretty certain this is exclusive to women but I'd be happy to entertain the mail perspective on this one.

Enjoy the interview and don't leave before we get to the good stuff
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