5 Tips To Make Dressing Sharp Effortless - Why I Never Tire Of Being A Well Dressed Man
Hi!
I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style.
I'm going to be sharing with you all a question I received this weekend.
Basically, "Antonio, do you ever get tired of dressing sharp?"
I think this is a good question and I'm going to give you the five reasons why my answer
is "no".
So this weekend, I've been in Las Vegas at the New Media Expo and I've enjoyed every
moment of this, meeting amazing people from around the world, a wide range of careers.
I think I was probably the only style guy there, and people come in just with amazing
interests, sales coaches, business coaches, speakers.
I met Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income.
Who else did I meet?
I'm going to share with you a couple of other people I met.
Jaime Tardy over at the Eventual Millionaire, amazing people, and I've never met any of
these people in person.
I've been following and reading about their blogs, so I knew that it was important.
I dressed -- well, actually I dressed pretty much in accordance with how I normally dress
on my videos.
And over the last three days -- and by the way, guys, I did wear pants.
I see what you guys -- because you never see anything below the fold here, but I did officially
have to wear pants on because I didn’t get arrested while I was in Vegas.
So over the last three days, I got asked a lot of questions.
This question in particular I thought was very interesting.
I'm going to show this with you.
It was, "Antonio, do you ever get tired of dressing sharp?"
I was talking with a number of people about shooting a video and they were often asking
this because it was like, "Oh, you've got to dress up," and "You're in the style industry
and people are going to tear apart the way you look and all these little things about
it, so do you ever feel it's hard to -- do you get tired of doing this?" and my answer
is "no".
Why is this relevant to you?
Because you're probably asking yourself "When should I dress sharp and when can I dress
down?
When can I not dress sharp?
When can I kind of let it all hang out?"
So my answer was "no" and these are the five reasons why I don't get tired of dressing
sharp: • because I practice
• because my clothing fits me • because of the environment and the occasion
I'm in • the compliments I receive and the confidence
it gives me.
So let me go ahead and get into each of these five.
Practice
You have to make dressing sharp a habit.
It's not something that you just do once in a while and think you're going to fall right
into it.
Habits are effortless because we no longer have to think about it.
Think about brushing your teeth.
It's a habit you don't think about unless you're put in a position which you can't do
it.
So you also set things up and I talk about this in the Interchangeable Wardrobe.
I help men develop this in My Style System.
We develop systems so that dressing sharp is easier than not dressing sharp.
All the clothing I brought, I brought a small suitcase, everything was interchangeable and
everything was about me putting my best foot forward.
As an athlete, I think a lot of you guys can relate to this, I grew up in West Texas and
we played football.
We practiced a lot.
Games only came once a week and they came on Fridays, and I can tell you that on game
day, it was a lot of fun.
It was a lot easier because we had practiced everything we were already doing, it seemed
like, hundreds and hundreds of times.
And the same thing for those of you that are musicians out there, you don't just go on
stage and play for the first time.
You have rehearsed and gone through these thousands of times.
So when you get up there, it's almost like it hits a muscle memory.
So that's the same with dressing sharp.
You don't go out there and try to pull off clothing that you haven't worn that you feel
uncomfortable in.
What you're actually wearing, you've worn before and you feel good in.
Fit
So well-fitted clothing actually is very, very comfortable.
This shirt fits me well.
It's got high arm holes, everything about this shirt I really like.
It's the right sleeve length.
It's not tight anywhere.
Oftentimes, people, when they wear poorly fitted clothing, not only that it looks bad.
Oftentimes, if they're wearing poorly fitted clothing that doesn’t even fit their environment
or fit their personal style, it's restrictive as well.
Clothing that is way too big on you, you're not going to have so much movement.
High armholes, fitting you well in the crotch area, all of that actually gives you more
movement.
That's why jeans are actually so enjoyable to wear.
Think about how jeans or a well-fitted pair of denim fits you in the crotch area.
It's probably a bit tighter than your pair of dress slacks, which you may have bought
off the rack.
And because there are so much room there, because the crotch hangs so low, you can barely
move your legs if you think about it, so well-fitted clothing is very comfortable.
Environment & Occasion
Now, let's talk about the environment and the occasion.
I'm a custom clothier.
There was an expectation after I started talking with people for a while, if I turn up in a
t-shirt and jeans, even though if it was a very expensive t-shirt and jeans, that would
not connect with who I was and the occasion I was there for.
I would have had a disconnect between what people imagined a custom clothier and style
guy is versus who I was presenting.
So for me, it was important that I did wear a sports jacket, a nice dress shirt, and I
oftentimes wear my raw denim with western boots, although I did wear a grey flannel
trousers along with a pair of monk straps, but dressing sharp, guys, does not mean that
you have to wear a suit.
I saw a lot of well-dressed men, not too many, but it was a New Media Expo, a bunch of internet
guys out there.
Most guys were not dressed, let's just say, "well", but there were some guys who were
dressed very sharp but they were not in a suit.
They weren't even wearing a sports jacket, but they were dressed in a manner that was
right for them.
I'll use the example of my new friends, Tony & Dre over at Sucuri Security in San Diego,
California.
Now, Tony "Zero Compassion" Perez and Dre "Talks a Lot" Armeda, these guys were from
San Diego, California.
They're in the online internet security business.
They weren't going to be wearing suits.
These are not IBM guys.
They're just doing their own thing.
Dre is actually a navy veteran.
Tony, I come to find out talking here, this guy was on the same boat when we went over
to Iraq for the first time.
We were both on the Belleau Wood together.
So that was actually pretty cool.
To me, it's somebody who's on the same boat heading over to the same big event in March
of 2003, but very cool guys.
They have a style.
Look at Dre's hat.
I can tell you he was wearing that hat when I saw him on the floor.
I saw his picture when I did a little bit of a research on the people I wanted to meet.
That hat instantly grabbed my attention.
Now, he pulled it off really well.
It seemed like a second skin.
It was all about his image and presentation.
That was style and he pulled it off very well, the same with Tony.
Tony is a Harley Davidson writer.
He's all about a loose, San Diego, Southern California kind of feel, and the way he was
dressed matched that exactly.
That's what I consider to be dressing right for your environment and the occasion.
Compliments
During the conference, I received about ten compliments a day on how I looked, most of
them from women and it felt really good.
And I spoke with Matthew Kimberly, the guy I've been talking with before who I met for
the first time, a well dressed Brit and an excellent sales coach.
He had received about the same and we talked about it.
It was just interesting the way people would react to you when you're really well dressed.
Compliments feel good, gentlemen, and when you receive compliments, you start to give
them out more freely.
You just feel better.
You're on this high.
I can tell you that I had a great conversation with the PR manager of Military.com because
when I saw her, I didn’t know her.
I mean, she was a very attractive woman, but I noticed her shoes.
She had this snakeskin.
They weren't real snakeskin, but they looked like these snakeskin shoes, and I was like,
wow!
Those are some amazing shoes.
And instantly, we got into a conversation.
It wasn't the typical, "What do you do?"
It was a fun conversation, a bit playful.
The next thing I know, I find out she's the PR manager for the Military.com and we're
talking about another idea that I'm working on the side to help military vets better transition
out, so it was a great conversation.
I got into it because I complimented her.
I made her feel great.
By the way, Matthew Kimberly's book is called "How to Get a Grip".
It's right on Amazon.
I advise that you check it out.
He's an excellent sales coach, so if you're a business guy, check it out.
Confidence
All right, so all of this has helped and it really helped build up my confidence.
Confidence comes from a number of things, but it is something that we can gain, we can
lose within a matter of seconds and minutes, and all of that, what I had just talked about,
helped build up my confidence while I was there.
When other people project a positive feeling, you can't help but radiate confidence.
I've got to share this with you guys.
Pat Flynn during his presentation, he pointed me out and he thanked me for a video I had
sent him on how to improve his style a couple of years ago.
And I can tell you that him thanking me, giving me that great compliment in front of all those
people, it just made me feel so great.
I felt like I was radiating because it was two years later to get recognized for putting
in some effort.
And to see him up there dressing sharp -- and here's a guy who writes over at Smart Passive
Income, amazing blogger -- and to see him transform his style based off of something
I was able to give him, I couldn't help but walk a little bit taller throughout the rest
of the conference.
Did I speak at New Media Expo?
No, but I had a dozen people tell me I should be and that helped a lot.
Really, I'm already looking at it.
Man, maybe I should be, since I'm going to these events, speaking at them.
So it's really nice when you're mistaken for a VIP.
I even had some guy -- I don't know if he was drunk -- but he asked if I was a quarterback.
It was some older guy down the casino floor and I don't know.
I'm only 5'9".
Maybe with my boots, I was 5'11", but I could tell you, that right there, it was like, "Wow!"
Maybe I am projecting a better image than I even thought I was.
So my clothing, guys, was my suit of armor and it performed brilliantly.
"Antonio, don't you get tired of dressing up?"
The answer is "no" guys because dressing sharp is part of who I am.
So to answer that question, I asked you, don't ever think that you ever have to dress down.
Instead, even your casual clothing, even your clothing around the house, why can't it look
good?
Why can't you have a bit of style with it?
If it fits you well, it's going to be comfortable.
I'm not acting; I'm authentic and this comes with practice.
This comes with you discovering what style is right for you just the way I've talked
about how Dre was wearing that hat and it looked great on him because it was a part
of who he is.
He was authentic and he was himself.
People see that and they react very positively.
So guys, now it's your turn.
By the way, if you haven't liked the video, I would appreciate it.
It helps more men find this video.
In addition, if you haven't subscribed to my videos, I would really appreciate that.
And if you want a free 47--page e-book on Men's Style, I liked to you my free 47-page
men's style e-book right down below, but I would love to hear from you guys in the comments,
especially what motivates you to dress sharp.
And if you can't seem to find the motivation to dress sharper, if you're having trouble
making a change, go ahead and let me know what is holding you back.
All right, guys, take care.
See you in the next video.