Time and again, I have come across people who have held certain beliefs about Image Consulting that are just NOT true. It is important to understand what this profession entails and what it does not because proper social awareness about the same will help a lot of professionals grow exponentially. This means more confidence and better networking skills which will ultimately lead to longer lasting relationships and more conversions. Like any other profession, Image Consulting comes with its own set of myths and I’m going to list the ones I’ve come across and set the record straight.
Ready?
Myth 1. Image Consulting is only for people in the Glamour Industry.
Image Consulting does not just entail tailoring public opinion to your advantage. What I do as an Image Consultant is make your purpose of channelizing your best self and live your best life a more concrete, achievable plan. It’s not enough to feel motivated by looking up fluffy quotes and affirmations online (you know the effects wear down in a day or two). It takes efforts. It demands your time, blood and sweat. As an Image consultant, I help you analyze your key strengths and enhance them. It is a concrete plan of action.
Myth 2. Image Consulting is an up and coming profession.
As much as I like the opinion, I have to bust this myth. Image Consultation has been around for decades. This opinion is a result of this beautiful platform called the internet, where more and more people are opening up about their experiences and creating awareness among people who might need it (makes you think of therapy, doesn’t it?). Remember how in My Fair Lady (1964), Henry Higgins tells Elizabeth Dolittle how the tone of one’s voice determines a person’s status in society? He was an Image Consultant (or “Scholar of Phonetics” as the Professor would prefer it).
Myth 3. Image Consultation is not a full-time job.
Oh trust me, it is. And what a terrific job it is at that. I find my time as an Image Consultant spent in helping others find their best selves highly gratifying. Not only do I get the satisfaction of seeing people grow, I get to make them my friends! Don’t we all want people of substance, with a growth-oriented personality for friends? Getting to know these people happens to be a fringe benefit of my job. But getting there is no part-time profession. It is taxing and time-consuming.
Myth 4. Image Consultation is all about clothes.
Image Consultants are even better. They know more about fashion than anybody in the industry because they understand the psychology and can thus predict the impact each piece is going to make on people. But styling is just one element. Image Consultation can help you redirect your energies in the right places and help you attain goals not by looking around, but by looking inside yourselves. What makes you different? Why do you think the way you do? Is that the most effective and rational way to think? We know the answers.
Myth 5. Youngsters cannot become Image Consultants.
Image Consultation is now a course of education. People are now understanding the importance of making a mark on society. This is certainly an evolution from letting the economic status of a person determine his/her worth. Each one of us is capable of immense transformation and nobody understands it better than today’s youth, with their normalizing mental health, busting nepotism and believing in the equality of both the sexes. If anything, I think young image consultants can make a huge impact on the population by capitalizing on the power of the internet!
In more ways than one, Image Consultants can help you transform your life by teaching you effective techniques to evolve and express yourself. In order to do that, we have to normalize the whole profession and introduce it to people who don’t think it is for them. It all begins with you.
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