Thursday, October 15, 2015

Image is Everything for Growing Your Business!

Writing a book is in my game plan so I recently went to a seminar called “Marketing with a Book & Speech” and heard a compelling speaker who is a past president of National Speakers’ Association.  His name is Mark LeBlanc and as a speaker, he had the perfect balance of intelligence and heart.  Another striking thing about Mark was his appearance.  Unique eyeglass frames, great shirt & sport jacket and fantastic shoes.  After the talk I said to him, “You have great style for a straight man.”  He laughed and thanked me and I told him how I think business casual is the worst thing to ever happen to fashion.  He emphatically agreed. 

I just started reading Mark’s book Growing Your Business! and the old adage about not judging a book by its cover totally applies to this tiny little book.  It is 1/4” thick and retails for $7.95.  How great could it be?  And what could it possibly say that I haven’t read before in other business coaching books?  Well, actually – A LOT.  It has blown my mind completely and I am still only halfway through.  (It’s only 77 pages but I am savoring it – and implementing the principles slowly.) I am not going to outline the first 3 chapters for you, but I am going to tell you about one intriguing principle in it. 

In Chapter 2, LeBlanc outlines 10 ways to “Position Yourself for More Prospects” and 2 out of the 10 are about image!  They are…

Your appearance
The clothes you wear

Even I was floored that LeBlanc included not 1, but 2 principles here.  2 out of 10!  That’s 20% of the key to success!  I was amazed by this and it was major validation for what I do as an image consultant.  So - for anyone who thinks that fashion is superfluous and paying attention to grooming is a waste of time & money, you can argue with the highly successful speaker & business coach who literally wrote the book on success.

Mark LeBlanc
For anyone who is an entrepreneur, I highly recommend getting your hands on Growing Your Business! and reading it.  I promise that it will rock your world!  I’ve already decided that it is my holiday gift to all my self-employed colleagues and clients.

For more about Mark LeBlanc and to get a copy of Growing Your Business! visit his website here.