Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Personal
Have you ever noticed how famous people get better looking the more famous they become? When they're just starting out, their talent shines through, but they tend to look like average Janes and Joes. Once they've reached a certain level of popularity, they look spit-polished and haute. Amy Lee, from the band Evanescence, is a case in point. I just caught the band's new video on VH1 this morning and noticed that Amy has undergone THE SHIFT. Her makeup is perfect, her hair is perfect, her threads are perfect, and the special effects in the video are top-of-the-line, people-flying-around, Matrix effects. She's come a long way, baby.
According to the book "Get What You Deserve! How to Guerrilla Market Yourself" by Jay Levinson and Seth Godin, one thing that helps us to get what we deserve (job, spouse, whatever), is dressing the part. If we want to be taken seriously, we have to dress like we should be taken seriously. Nice looking duds, beautiful grooming, not smelling like a moldy piece of cheese, etc. etc.
Judging by all the makeover shows on TV, apparently this is a lot harder than it seems. While clothes shopping with my daughter, I saw scads of teenage girls take armloads of clothes into dressing rooms to try on. When they were finished, they had maybe one piece they liked. My daughter tried on 30 pairs of jeans during one shopping trip and found only one pair that fit correctly.
This is just the clothing aspect of being one's best. Then there are all the annoying habits we pick up that we have to cure, plus the interpersonal weirdness we engage in (like complaining about someone behind his/her back, but being unwilling to talk to that someone face-to-face). Most of us are out of shape. We don't know how to behave in front of a camera, or speak in front of a crowd. The great lot of us are FLAWED. How do we get out of bed every day?
Before you get too depressed, just think, we flawed folks make the celebs shine in sparkly, splendiferous wonder. Our schlumpy-ness allows them to serve as our guides in how not to be so schlumpy. What's their secret? Sssh! It's personal.
They have personal stylists . . . personal trainers . . . personal tailors . . . personal marketers . . . personal "how-to-look-natural-in-front-of-a-camera" instructors . . . personal speech coaches . . . personal life coaches . . . personal people that help make them look perfect, even if they don't always behave perfectly. (All that perfection takes its toll.)
How beautiful would we all be if we had a few personal coaches assigned to us? Would we be able to tolerate the glare?
According to the book "Get What You Deserve! How to Guerrilla Market Yourself" by Jay Levinson and Seth Godin, one thing that helps us to get what we deserve (job, spouse, whatever), is dressing the part. If we want to be taken seriously, we have to dress like we should be taken seriously. Nice looking duds, beautiful grooming, not smelling like a moldy piece of cheese, etc. etc.
Judging by all the makeover shows on TV, apparently this is a lot harder than it seems. While clothes shopping with my daughter, I saw scads of teenage girls take armloads of clothes into dressing rooms to try on. When they were finished, they had maybe one piece they liked. My daughter tried on 30 pairs of jeans during one shopping trip and found only one pair that fit correctly.
This is just the clothing aspect of being one's best. Then there are all the annoying habits we pick up that we have to cure, plus the interpersonal weirdness we engage in (like complaining about someone behind his/her back, but being unwilling to talk to that someone face-to-face). Most of us are out of shape. We don't know how to behave in front of a camera, or speak in front of a crowd. The great lot of us are FLAWED. How do we get out of bed every day?
Before you get too depressed, just think, we flawed folks make the celebs shine in sparkly, splendiferous wonder. Our schlumpy-ness allows them to serve as our guides in how not to be so schlumpy. What's their secret? Sssh! It's personal.
They have personal stylists . . . personal trainers . . . personal tailors . . . personal marketers . . . personal "how-to-look-natural-in-front-of-a-camera" instructors . . . personal speech coaches . . . personal life coaches . . . personal people that help make them look perfect, even if they don't always behave perfectly. (All that perfection takes its toll.)
How beautiful would we all be if we had a few personal coaches assigned to us? Would we be able to tolerate the glare?
Labels: clothing, daughter, fame, flaws, perfection, seth godin
