Sign Up for DailyWorth
FREE daily money tips to your inbox

Sign Up for DailyWorth
FREE daily money tips to your inbox

Sell Your ASSets

By Amanda Steinberg Tuesday June 16, 2009
This post is about entrepreneurship, work

sunglassesLast week I scored a drool-worthy sales meeting for my Web consulting company. Winning this contract would add a blue-chip client to our roster and serious inflation to our bank account.

The night before the meeting, I was anxious. What should I wear? To sales meetings, I usually wear nice slacks, an elegant shirt and heels. This prospect, of dot-com fame,  was more likely to be casual, so perhaps jeans would be better. I texted a trusted male colleague to get his opinion.

Me: What should I wear? Tight jeans, hipster shirt + flipflops? Or dressy pants, fem shirt, heels?

Male colleague: Tight jeans.

That's it. Two words. "Tight Jeans." OK, I get it. Point taken. My ass sells. Five years ago, that wouldn't have been the case (see my earlier post on weight loss). I remember being harassed at a night club on 14th street in New York City for having a very large butt, and we're not talking J Lo butt. I was depressed about it for weeks. I'm currently and have been for about four years, quite slender, but the psyche of "fat girl" still follows me around.

So my web consultancy means a lot to me, and its income feeds many families in the U.S. and abroad. I enjoy selling large, high-dollar deals that allow me to pay myself and my deserving team of hard-working web producers well. So, if wearing tight jeans helps sell deals, why shouldn't I? I'm sure my mother read me feminist rants as bedtime stories, but I love putting on my size 6 jeans. And if that helps me beat out the competition, I'd really prefer to suppress my inner Gloria Steinem, thank you.

What struck me even more than my colleague's curt reply was the willingness and ease with which I climbed into my skinny jeans the following day. I strutted my little tush past my husband, looking for a compliment, which he willingly bestowed. See, my thinness is definitely a source of pride, revenge on that jerk who called me "fat" in a bar oh so many moons ago, and something I work hard to maintain. It does give me power, I feel worthy of more attention (as twisted as that is), and I get it.

In the end, my prospective client showed up in a classic Brooks Brothers suit and I sorely regretted my choice of clothing. I still don't know if I won this particular contract. Regardless, I think my brain power overall was the selling point, not my clothing, and I don't think I'll be wearing jeans to a meeting like this again.

Talk about it on Twitter

Please use the Twitter hashtag "#DailyWorth" after any tweet.

Not a DailyWorth subscriber? Sign up here.
Comments (5)add
feedSubscribe to this comment's feed
Written by Betsy Teutsch, June 18, 2009
Hope you get the contract. I am very vain about my weight - since most women my age (50's) are looking pretty matronly by now. I also agonize about what to wear to professional occasions. My conclusion: you want to wear clothes that flatter and somehow express some of who you are, but do not distract. I am shocked at how younger women dress, frankly. I cannot take my eyes off their cleavage, fascinated to see just how much MBA's think it's OK to reveal. Now the skirts are getting so short they're meeting up with the plunging necks. Women are such suckers. These clothes neither flatter nor are comfortable - but they get attention. Why do we all, en masse, do this to ourselves?
Written by Laura., June 18, 2009
while i totally agree with the idea of using what you've got (seriously, haven't women been doing this for ages? i think it's one of my favorite things about being a woman), my jaw dropped when i read that you wore jeans to a business meeting! i hope you won the contract! there are probably other pieces of clothing that said "business" and "hot" in the same breath.
Written by Elsie, June 21, 2009
I love how you say it like it is for you, Amanda! All of it. Life ain't black or white, and neither is business. Your way of bringing your authentic self to work is enlivening to witness. So is your willingness to course-correct and move on. Ultimately you are modeling a new way of being "human" in the business world. More! More! Elsie
Written by ErinNewton21, May 14, 2010
The www.lowest-rate-loans.com are essential for people, which want to ground their own career. In fact, that is not very hard to get a secured loan.
Written by jodi, July 05, 2010
Just read this post. For a business relationship to work well, there must be common ground. One way to silently express that is by what you wear & noticing what they wear. Think about the difference in your perceptions if a prospective client shows up wearing a 3 pc suit & tie versus showing up in cut-offs and flip flops. Dress the way you want to be perceived. You can show your ASSets in any style. As Elsie says, you want to show your authentic self. If the differences are too great, if there is not enough common ground, the business relationship wouldn't work anyway. Better to find out early. Voice of tough experience here.
Write comment
smaller | bigger

busy

Show Other Articles Of This Author