Happy New Year!

No, we haven't lost our marbles in wishing you a Happy New Year! We just consider fall the season of promise and positivity - almost like the start of a new calendar year. This is the perfect way to approach this September if you're about DONE with 2020!

September is the new January - so now is the perfect time to review your career goals and resolutions – are you on track to accomplish what you want for the rest of the year? If not, there's still time to do something about it.

We've said it before and it does bear repeating, 85% of one’s professional success is connected to one’s social skills. So one of your resolutions this September should be to start improving your social skills - no matter where you are on the corporate ladder - starting out or already rubbing elbows with the c-suite.

And solid social skills help set you apart from your competition who is equally as smart and knowledgeable as you are.

The first building block in the area of social skills is your PERSONAL BRAND.

Your personal brand is your reputation. What do people say about you when you aren’t in the room? What’s your message? What do you want people to think of you - or not think of you?

Don't think you have a personal brand? Think again! We all have one. But did you intentionally create it or did it just develop and now it follows you around at work?

Good personal brands– help you get a better job, better contacts and industry recognition. You will attract more and better opportunities! The converse is true too – bad personal brands hurt careers of even the smartest of people. People don’t want to work for you, don’t want to work with you and don’t want to have you on their team when you have a personal brand. We all know people with bad personal brands.

People form a first impression of us within 5 seconds. Let them form an impression of you that will help lead to your success. Of that impression:

• 55% is your body language – how you look and your confidence

• 38% how we speak – your pace, tone and clarity

• 7% your words – what you actually say

That means 93% of what others think of us is dependent on what we do with our body. So we tell our students to start their transformation with their personal deportment. Our bodies all talk to the world – what messages are we sending? We want all of our body language to be positive and polished. Our body language tells others what we think of ourselves and what we think of our world around us.

So work to improve your personal deportment – your physical bearing – how you carry yourself, your posture, your poise, your stance- this focus. We want to carry ourselves graciously and with confidence.

We have the most fun helping others to understand the importance of both honing one's social skills and being well-mannered and to know that the rules of etiquette can help make one's professional (and personal) life so much more happy and successful.

There is no downside to good manners.

Happy New Year! Have a marvelous week!