Business Coach : Success You Are After
-Do you– I heard it said one time by a business coach, you want to dress the way you want to be addressed.
-Absolutely.
-Now you are very intentional about your appearance.
DAMARIO SOLOMON-SIMMONS: Abosolutely.
-Your photos, impeccable. The style that you put on your website. What’s your website, by the way, for anybody watching this?
-SolomonSimmons.com. www.SolomonSimmonscom.
-Every time I show people your press kit, people are like, man that guy’s sharp. So what would be some tips you would suggest for anybody who’s looking to dress for success? Maybe never done it before.
-Absolutely, man. One of the make things I tell young people is Ross, TJ Maxx, and Marshall’s could be your best bet. You can go and find– you can go buy you about four or five white shirts. You can get them pretty inexpensive, 15, 20 bucks. Get you solid color ties. Don’t get a bunch of stuff going on, especially if you’re challenged like I was when I first started trying to dress nice. And make it easy. Like I say, I try to keep this uniform look. Because I don’t want to think about it. I just want to know it matches. I know it looks good. And that’s one less thing I can cross off my to do list. I’m not getting up in the morning, trying to really mix and match. You think about a lot of cultures around the world, successful cultures and successful people. They’re not as into wearing something different or trying to do all these different things every day. Because that’s really secondary to what you want to do. You want to present yourself in a professional manner, clean, but don’t get too caught up in it. Any business coach will tell you this.
-OK. Now, there’s one book, it’s called, “Dress for Success,” that Arthur Greeno, one of the Thrive mentors, recommends. Arthur’s the owner of a Chick-fil-A, he’s a successful guy in town. Is there any sort of reference you say, hey, go get yourself a GQ? Would you recommend go getting yourself– I mean, what would you recommend you do so you have– because I know, the word gigline meant nothing to me. The idea of a tie– I didn’t know how to tie one. Is there any place you recommend? Or do you just kind of find a mentor that maybe has dressed sharp and kind of humble yourself and ask them to teach you?
-I just think in today’s technology, in today’s world, where you have Google, you have the internet, whatever you see yourself trying to do, put in that and dress the way those people who are in that field, who are the most successful in that field, dressed in some way in that manner. You might want to have your personal flare. I like to keep this pocket square. That’s what I like to do. But maybe you don’t want a pocket square, because you don’t like the way it’s poofing out. But find a way to say you’re within the–
-That changes my whole impression of you. I don’t even know you anymore without a pocket square. I get concerned there. I’m getting worried. I don’t know if you guys want to film me getting worried. I don’t even know this guy.
-Who are you?!
-Now I want to ask you this. I want to be serious. If I am dressing for success–
-Dress the way you want to be addressed, like you said. Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.
-What if I’m motivated? What if I’m dressed up nice? Why are some people more successful than others? Why is it that some people never get there? It seems like they’re in that rut. And some people, year by year, just get a little bit farther ahead. What’s that all about?
-Well, I don’t know if I have the absolute answer on that, but I think part of it is organization, being organized, as we’re talking about here, having a vision of where you want to go, and not making those false steps. Because one false step can really throw you off. You can lose a lot of money. You can lose a lot of opportunity. I think you said something earlier that some people have to be at the right place at the right time, but then you have to capitalize on it. You hear all the time people say that luck is where preparation meets opportunity. Are you really prepared for what you’re trying to do? As I’m speaking here, one thing that keeps coming to my mind, though– and it’s something that, again, I struggle with– focus. Hiring a business coach could help.
-Focus.
-On the primary goal. You got to focus on a primary goal. I’m a person who is interested– I’m a renaissance type person. I want to know and get in a lot of stuff. It’s a challenge for me. It’s challenging for me to focus.
-But you recognize that’s something we have to do?
-That’s a weakness of mine. But that’s something that– if you look at anybody that’s great, anybody that’s made it– I mean, like you said, you started a DJing business. People laugh at that, right?
-Yeah.
-In fact, that commercial they have on TV right now, where the guy’s dressed up and he’s playing like he’s a financial guru, but in fact he’s a DJ. And it’s like this big joke.
-Yeah.
-But you work on that DJing.
-Yeah.
-You were dealing with how to take it and scale it up, because you were focused on building that business. And had a business coach to help. And now it allows you to do everything you’re doing now. And that’s what I think a lot of us lacks. Particularly in today’s society, when there’s so many distractions. There’s text messages, emails, there’s Facebook, there’s Twitter it’s phone calls.