11. Look the Part

—Ed Cortese (Robb Report)

In his many marketing jobs, Ed Cortese learned to think of himself as the head executive of "Ed Cortese Inc." and to make sure he looked the part every day. No matter what hat he wore at work—and we all wear a lot of different hats at our jobs these days—he looked like George Clooney on the set of Ocean's 11—relaxed and quietly confident. Ed shows that looking the part is more a state of mind than a style of dress.

"Operate your career as if you're your own little company and you've been contracted to do the work," Ed says. "Stand up with your back straight, with a big smile, and be proud of who you are."

Ed's philosophy helped him get his foot in the door of New York's fashion marketing world right out of college, but you don't have to be in the fashion industry to use his advice. The main thing is to use your physical image to project that you have the smarts and the confidence to get the job done—whatever that job might be. On an average day, Ed might wear a dark suit and white shirt when he's in the office all day, but he brings a blazer and loafers to switch into if he has to have lunch with a client in a more relaxed setting. Whatever outfit he wears, Ed says he uses his posture and his whole demeanor as a tool to communicate the message that he's competent and valuable. And that's not all: Ed always has a quick elevator speech in his head to introduce himself to people he bumps into each day. After all, he's representing himself and his employer—and you never know who's watching.

It may seem unfair that we're judged by our appearance, but then again who would you rather trust with your life savings—someone well dressed with a crisp, clean dark suit, or a slouch with green tweed trousers that don't fit and socks that don't match? Well, if appearance doesn't matter, and something superficial such as clothing shouldn't matter, then consider this notion from the famous Lawrence Bell (founder of Bell Aircraft Corporation and considered to be the dean of American aviation in the 1950s):

Show me a man who cannot bother to do little things, and I'll show you a man who cannot be trusted to do big things.

We all want to get the most for our money, and employers are no different; they want that payroll to buy the best value possible for their company. I'm not saying that being well-groomed will help you get ahead if you don't also have what it takes to do the job. But there's a lot of competition out there, and not looking the part can sabotage all your capabilities and hard work. Ed's attention to the details of his appearance kept him getting noticed as he climbed his career ladder—in prosperous times as well as lean times. Now he's in his dream job as marketing director for Robb Report, a magazine about the luxury lifestyle.

The story of how he got to the director position will get you thinking about your own image. Because we all need to wear a lot of different hats at our jobs, it's important to sit back and look at the image we project. Your image should always remind people that one of the hats you wear is captain of your own ship. As you move up to the top of the ladder, you'll see that the rungs get narrower; there's room for fewer people the closer you get to the top. Just being good at your job isn't always enough. Ed saw that and used his image—as well as his good sense and experience—to do good work and get noticed. Early on, he saw that it wasn't enough just to be competent and hard working; he had to look competent and hard working. He had to learn to look the part.

Starting from Scratch

Ed got into marketing because it was what he knew. "I grew up hearing about it. It was a natural for me," says Ed, whose father worked in the marketing field. So Ed majored in business at New York University, focusing on public relations and marketing. That's how a lot of us find our careers—through family influences. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Growing up on Long Island, Ed loved New York City, and he also loved to travel. His parents took family trips to far-flung locations, so he was exposed to culture at an early age. In high school he loved to spend the day walking around the Metropolitan Museum of Art or Greenwich Village and then come home at the end of the day on the train. "I guess I had a sense and awareness of style," Ed says. So his understanding of style was his natural love.

When he graduated from college, Ed started working for his father a bit and looking for a real job. That's when a he found an "in" through a neighbor who sold ads for GQ magazine, a men's lifestyle publication. She told him of an opening at the magazine he should apply for. So he did, and Ed ended up getting called in for an interview. The interview ended up being very casual—they talked about their favorite restaurants in Los Angeles and the latest celebrity gossip, such as the fact that Richard Gere apparently employed a numerologist. "We just talked about all these random things," Ed says. "It didn't seem like an interview at all. When I left I thought, 'What was that?'"

It ended up being a very good sign. GQ called in Ed for five more interviews as well as a camera test. Then one day at 7 a.m. they called and asked if he'd like the job, which was as a merchandising editor. Ed jumped at the chance. He would represent the magazine at media events GQ held at department stores. Ed would pull clothing from the racks for the models and make sure the message of the event matched the message GQ wanted to project. He was thrilled.

Ed's proximity to New York's fashion industry was his natural edge; his sense of style was his natural love. Bringing the two together to make a career in the fashion industry made sense.

The job wasn't just about style—Ed was there to get results for his employer. So he started to run the numbers and figure which kind of events brought in the most business for the magazine. Also he started writing articles for GQ's newsletter, which was circulated to its advertisers, thinking it would help drum up more advertising revenue. Ed worked at GQ from 1988 to 1994 and loved it. Leaving there was unplanned, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The next opportunity was a detour. Ed would still be working in the fashion industry, but he would try something new: on-air host of Q2 Television, an upscale home shopping channel. Q2, which was a startup owned by QVC, was an adventure. Some of the other on-air hosts had talent agents and came from the modeling world. Ed didn't. He was hired more for his knowledge of the fashion industry. Standing up in front of a camera hawking luxury items, Ed saw the power of image.

"You have to always be aware of the first impression," Ed says. "You're perceived as the front line of your company, and it's not just in public relations and advertising. This is true in all lines of work."

So even if we're not literally up in front of a camera in our jobs, we might as well be. That's because people are so influenced by what they see in front of them. Instead of throwing up our hands about it, we can be like Ed and make it work for us.

"The way you dress is a kind of communication," he says. "You send a message with your attire."

Underestimating Obstacles

Unfortunately, the new network didn't take off. "The products were too upscale for its audience," Ed says. "Home shopping had not yet taken off." After Q2, Ed's career was a string of fashion industry jobs that he did well in, but didn't feel exactly right.

First there was the job at Harper's Bazaar, where he did some of the same kinds of things he'd done at GQ. Next he moved to Nine West Group, which designs and markets women's shoes, where he was starting to have some creative control over marketing strategy. After that he took a bit of a sidestep at Ralph Lauren Footwear, which wasn't all it was cracked up to be. "The job was sold to me as if I'd have some creative involvement," Ed says, "but that was an enormous exaggeration. Maybe I was just starry eyed to be back in New York, working with the Ralph Lauren brand." Whatever the case, Ed chalked it up as a lesson. He should have researched the job better, he says now.

After a short stint at Ralph Lauren, Ed put out his own shingle and set up his own public relations company—with mixed results. "I found the spirit of entrepreneurship is very difficult to execute in real life," says Ed, who found it overwhelming to run a startup. Even though he was used to wearing a lot of hats, he didn't have time to do the business end of things—such as collecting on accounts—and didn't have enough cash to hire someone to do it. Plus, he missed working with a team.

It's one thing to underestimate obstacles, but it's foolhardy to ignore reality. And the reality was that running his own PR firm really wasn't what Ed wanted to do. So he worked his connections and again started looking for another job.

The next stage of Ed's career was marked by the technology boom and bust.

It started with a job at MAGIC International, which hosts a huge event every year to bring together buyers and sellers in the apparel industry. Ed's job was to head up MAGIC's fledgling dot-com project, which was to be an online center for business-to-business commerce in the apparel industry. "I was really excited about that," Ed recalls. "Two years we plugged away at that, and for a bunch of reasons the final online product did not work. The actual software didn't work. It was disastrous." When the project began to implode, the employees were called together in a conference and told what was going on.

"You're in this industry that's exploding, all you hear is dot-com, dot-com, dot-com…and before you know, it's dot-gone," Ed recalls. This was a tough time, but Ed managed to stay upbeat.

Building Momentum—Confidently

Luckily, the job at MAGIC led to a job at WGSN.com, one of MAGIC's online partners that had a working site with industry information about trade shows, designers, and fashion editors. His boss at MAGIC recommended him, and Ed was grateful. To this day, he thinks it was because he knew how to project a successful image for WGSN.

At first, WGSN seemed like a dream job. Ed spent his days in the showrooms of designers, such as Hilfiger, Levi's, and Saks Fifth Avenue. He was in charge of cultivating connections that were vital to the website, and he loved it. Then his employer invested in technology that would let Ed communicate online with his fashion contacts instead of in person—it was supposed to boost productivity. Instead of establishing relationships in person, he was chatting online, and Ed was all about that person-to-person touch. "It didn't matter what I wore; I could be in pajamas at home," Ed recalls. "It took the wind out of my sails. Even though this was something I was great at, they could tell I wasn't happy. They were paying me a lot of money for my selling and connections." So Ed negotiated a separation agreement and took some time off.

Although he still hadn't found his dream job, Ed had done well. He had money in the bank, he owned a home, and he was prudent about money. "I think it's really important to protect yourself financially in this world," Ed says. With a financial cushion, the lean times didn't hurt as bad. As a kid he'd mown lawns and saved up enough to help make a down-payment on a New York apartment early on in his career. When he sold the apartment, he was able to get a great home in suburban Long Island. So Ed planned his next move.

Besides cultivating financial health, it's wise to cultivate our spiritual and psychological health. This is something very personal that a lot of folks are a little shy to talk about, but Ed shared with me how he used prayer to get himself through this part in his life. One of his old college friends was marketing director at the Robb Report, a job that Ed wanted. "So I prayed that Bill would be offered a job that he couldn't refuse," and create a job opening, says Ed, who's a little sheepish about this part of his story because he doesn't want to sound like a religious fanatic. "I decided I didn't want to pray for my benefit directly." And, yes, it happened. Bill got an even better job, recommended Ed for the vacated position, and he was hired.

I include this story because it shows such strength of character—and I love that. Instead of drowning in envy that his friend had the job he wanted, Ed used prayer to stay constructive and positive. Instead of praying for his own enrichment, Ed prayed for his friend's benefit. Getting the job, after all, was up to Ed's own effort, not divine intervention. And when the call came for an interview at Robb Report, Ed was in a positive, vibrant frame of mind. His image wasn't just skin deep—he truly felt confident and valuable.

Taking the Next Leap

When Ed joined Robb Report in 2003, it was a little-known magazine; now it's at the forefront of luxury media. Although he knows it's not all his doing—an acquisition by CurtCo Media pumped cash into the brand—Ed has successfully drawn on his industry experience to grow the magazine and its visibility. Thanks to his experience running events earlier in his career, Ed used the magazine's annual "Best of the Best" issue to stage huge annual events showcasing luxury watchmakers, jewelers, and makers of other luxury items.

Before Ed joined Robb Report, the magazine had staged a regional "Best of Greenwich" event, but Ed decided to "blow those events out" and make them the backbone of Robb Report's marketing. "At our events we try to bring each brand to life. It's not about having the Rolls Royce there; we have the president of Rolls Royce there and one of the senior engineers," Ed says. "It's not just about having jewelry there. It's about having the stonecutter there with his table, actually cutting the stone or setting the gem so you can really be part of it."

Instead of having the events in one area of the country, Ed located pockets of wealth throughout the country and hosted events in those communities. "By making an impact in one of these communities, we're able to create a big buzz," he says. And the events span 3 days, including a private dinner, a golf invitational tournament, as well as the main event.

Ed is still using what he has learned about projecting the right image: "When I'm in New York I wear a suit, shirt, tie—it's pretty buttoned up. If I do site inspections in Greenwich for an event, I don't want to walk around in a gray pinstripe suit—all of a sudden I look like a lawyer. So I'm going to put on an oxford, chinos, navy blazer, loafers, and I'm just going to slip into the community. I can be a chameleon."

Looking the part is only half the story, of course—you need to have some substance to back up your image. But if you use your image skillfully, use it as a way to make people feel comfortable and confident in you, more power to you. "There are tools you can use to enhance your business and make things easier, more comfortable. You just have to be smart about it."

Recently, Ed was in Monte Carlo for a Robb event, standing on a 285-foot yacht in his stocking feet (because it's good form to remove your shoes when you walk on someone's yacht.) There he was, standing between a billionaire and a waiter who was serving them drinks, and Ed looked down to see they were all three wearing Gold Toe brand socks, a good quality, affordable sock brand. It helped remind him that waiters and billionaires can all appreciate good, everyday quality—and that good quality doesn't have to be out-of-sight expensive.

In the same line of thinking, having a good image doesn't have to break your bank or turn you into a shallow person. After all, if you believe in yourself, then why not pay attention to the packaging on the outside?

Looks aren't everything, but the way we look communicates a lot about us. If you're an 'entrepreneur undercover,' you're thinking about your career as your own personal business, so you have to look the part. This goes way beyond "dressing for success" in the traditional sense of wearing a nice suit. In addition to picking up the skills you need, your reflection in the mirror should say you're someone who can create value.