Hey You Millennials – Want to Be Taken Seriously? Wear a Tie

Last week, I attended a business workshop on revving up your business, and this week I’ve met with a handful of young adults interested in sharing their ideas, and growing their businesses.

Instantly upon meeting them I knew I’d be going away empty handed. Within seconds of meeting these individuals on separate occasions, I already felt that they just weren’t serious about their own success – so why entrust them with my success?

How’d I know this so fast?

None were dressed for success.

Hey, don’t get me wrong – I have my favourite pair of torn and worn blue jeans, soft and cuddly warm fleece hoodies, and occasionally on weekends I’ve been known to skip shaving, and maybe not even comb my hair.

But when meeting someone for business or professional purposes, unless you’re a well known rock star and already have a bank account bigger than mine, you’d better be wearing a tie.

Okay, a tie is a bit over the top in this modern era of corporate casual dress.

But ripped blue jeans, tattered T-shirts, and uncontrolled body hair are just too relaxed for making that all important first impression.

Even when I do conference calls from the comfort of my home, I dress professionally – and I don’t have a video phone.

I find I’m in more of a professional mindset when I dress like a professional, so I can ask the tough questions and figure out pretty quickly if you’re worth my time – or not.

Maybe that’s my secret advantage – just dressing for success. Perhaps those still in their pyjamas are more ready for bed, than talking business, so when the tough questions need to be answered, they yawn away any attempts of winning me over?

That’s great if I’m negotiating a better price – but really sucks for them because they just got taken to the cleaners.

What’s worse – for us both – is we feel our time was wasted, because my bias is to not take anyone seriously if they themselves don’t take themselves seriously.

And the easiest way to show me how seriously you need and want my business, is really very simple – dress professionally.

So listen up you millennials – I know who you are – sitting there in your parent’s basement, sipping on your diet caffeine free flavourless colas, wearing torn jeans that are three-sizes too large and your favourite Justin Bieber or Katy Perry T-shirt – drop the useless cola, put on some decent clothes, and dress like you know a thing or two about being a professional.

And then, I’ll treat you like one.

End of story.

Winter Fashion – Big Boots, Short Skirts, and Cut-Off Tops?

Although I’m a guy, I think I have a decent fashion sense. I know what I like, and more importantly, I know what looks good on me.

But I never can figure out the latest trends in fashion. Like the current one which seems to be making it big as we transition from summer to winter-wear.

I see all the kids today sporting big flimsy-looking boots, the shortest of mini skirts, and cut-off tops. For winter!?!?

Really?

I can’t get over the un-matching look of boots and skirts, but on a more practical side, how will this “outfit” protect someone from the elements? The belly shirts are cute, who doesn't want to see some hot gal showing a little skin?

However, showing some skin in a North American winter is like going to a baseball game with a basketball. Sure you can toss the ball around the field, but you’ll never hit a home run.

Here in Canada and much of North America, winter means cooler – if not downright cold – temperatures, snow and ice storms, and freezing rain.

You should have footwear with a good, solid bottom, that gives you traction, and warm clothes that will keep you dry.

Short skirts may make any man turn and look. But a frigid cold woman, obviously under-dressed for the weather just makes me wonder: “what the hell were you thinking?”

When I was a kid, my parent’s wouldn't let me leave the house without the proper attire for the weather.

Yeah, I was the guy with the big snow suit that took forever to get on and off. But I was always warm and dry.

Today, I don’t wear big bulky snow suits, but I've learned to always dress for the weather. And I still am always warm and dry.

Who’s The Most Beautiful Canadian?

Shania Twain, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams are among Hello! Canada magazine's most beautiful Canadians.

Sadly, I wasn’t on the list. I suppose white men with beer-belly guts and rising hairlines just don’t cut it.

Though Justin Bieber and Ryan Reynolds made the list.

You know you’re not going to qualify for a beauty list, when you’re competing against people who haven’t fully gone through puberty yet.

But what makes a beautiful Canadian – or beautiful person – well – beautiful?

A while back, marketing giants Ogilvy& Mather created the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, which featured anything but the traditional supermodels to market women’s skin care products. Average looking women were used, to show where real beauty comes from.

One billboard in the series asked viewers to phone a toll-free number to vote on whether a woman on the billboard was "fat" or "fab". The results were posted real-time on the board. The percentage of "fat" votes overtook "fab", leading to the creation of the Dove Self-Esteem Fund that claims to change the Western concept of beauty from ultra-thin models with "perfect" features to making every woman feel positive about her looks.

Dove produced a series of online short films promoting the self-esteem fund.

Unilever, the company which owns the Dove brand, has been criticized on the grounds that Unilever also produces Fair and Lovely, a skin-lightening product marketed at dark-skinned women in several countries. Unilever also markets the Lynx's brand, which contradicts the sentiment of the Campaign for Real Beauty, by using traditional hot models in the advertising.

Unilever also owns and is responsible for the branding of their AXE brand of deodorants and body sprays, which uses hot chicks in skimpy outfits craving ordinary looking men after they apply the AXE product.

So we’re back asking the question – where does real beauty come from?

Unilever tried to show us our inner beauty, and that we’re all beautiful in some way, but eventually went back to the old tried and true standard of using fashion models.

Beauty comes from within – or does it?

 As a species, we are naturally attracted to others visually first. This goes back to our basic instincts – men look for women with full lips and hips, good teeth, hair, skin and nails, as a sign of someone who’s healthy and fit to produce off-spring. Tall dark and handsome also has some truth – it’s a sign to women that the guy is fit and will have good genes, and that the man can defend the cave (remember we’re talking basic instincts here) to protect the family.

Even our pheromones have been linked to our health – muscular, men smell better to women, according to more than a few studies. When compared to overweight men, socks worn by the fit men seemed less “stinky” than the unfit men to women who volunteered to participate in one study.

However, in today’s complex society, obviously there is more at play than how one smells. We all want to be surrounded by people that make us feel good.

No one wants to hang out with the neighborhood bully, or be forced to endure a night alone with someone that bores the hell out of them.

So true beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, as it depends on what each one of us needs in another to be happy and comfortable.

Maybe that’s true love really is blind?