The New Professional Image: From Business Casual to the Ultimate Power Look (Paperback)

~ (Author), Nancy Nix-Rice (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"Even though the rules of the game have changed, successful people still dress to win. The New Professional Image offers great insights for this age of diversity, business casual, and Internet culture." (Charles Boyd, IBM)

In today's fast paced business world, impressions regarding your competence, intelligence, and reliability are often formed within seconds - based on your appearance. Knowing how to present yourself as effective and confident is as critical as any business skill on your resume.

Susan Bixler is one of America's top corporate image consultants - and an expert on how you can refine your personal appearance for business success.

Along with more traditional standards for office dress, appearance, and behavior, the growing popularity of "business casual" dress policies mean that you face a new set of decisions about what qualifies as appropriate or effective dress. In The New Professional Image Susan Bixler and Nancy Nix-Rice explain the new standards for today's workplace, with guidelines, practical examples, and creative new ideas for making the most of your professional appearance.

About the Author

Susan Bixler is a widely recognized author, speaker, workshop facilitator and the most frequently quoted expert in the area of corporate image development. As president and founder of The Professional Image, Inc., her company was the first to focus on the image and communication needs of corporations and businesses. Established in 1980, her company is one of the largest and most prestigious in the country.

Her client list includes many of the Fortune 500 companies: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, American Express, Deloitte & Touche, Hughes Electronics, Merck & Co., Kimberly-Clark, Cessna Aircraft, IBM, The Coca-Cola Company, AT&T, Hewlett Packard, Bristol Myers, Walt Disney World, CitiGroup, the Marriott Hotels, Estee Lauder and Motorola, among 1,500 others.

Ms. Bixler has been referenced by the national media as the leading expert in her area. Her advice has been quoted in Time, Newsweek, People Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Industry Week, Glamour Magazine, Vogue, Mademoiselle, Savvy Magazine, Working Woman and 70 other national publications. Ms. Bixler has been featured on the cover of USA Today several times.

Ms. Bixler has been interviewed by Diane Sawyer, Oprah Winfrey, Maria Shriver, PM Magazine and The Wall Street Journal Report. She has shared the speaking platform with Elizabeth Dole, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Francis Lear, Mariette Hartley, Deborah Norville, and Rocky Bleier, among many others. She has served on the advisory board of the Cosmetic, Toiletries and Fragrance Association in Washington D.C. and helped formulate Dr. Joyce Brothers' image and media message.

Ms. Bixler won the distinguished 1992 IMMIE Award presented by the Image Industry Council for her contributions to the image industry. She was honored in 1996 as the first woman inducted into the Louisville Hall of Fame for her professional achievements. The Professional Image, Inc. is a corporate charter member of the Association of Image Consultants International, the largest image consulting organization in the world.

Ms. Bixler has written and appeared in two of the best-selling corporate videotapes from America Media, The Professional Image and Professional Presence. Both videos have won numerous awards including the prestigious Telly Award.

As an author, Ms. Bixler has sold over 300,000 copies of her best-selling books, The Professional Image and Professional Presence, published by G. P. Putnam and Berkeley. Professional Presence has been translated into three languages. Her third business book, Take Action!: 18 Proven Strategies for Advancing in Today's Changing Business World, was published by Random House in 1997. It is into the fourth printing and has been translated into Chinese, German and Russian.

Nancy Nix-Rice is an internationally known image consultant, speaker, and trainer with extensive background in fashion retail and corporate and personal development training. As a retailer, she has earned awards for improving store performance and has sat on the advisory councils for both industry buying services. As an instructor for the prestigious Dale Carnegie Institute, she has repeatedly been honored for outstanding classroom results.

In 1988 she founded her own company, First Impressions, to provide image development services to individuals, associations, and corporations. Ms. Nix-Rice has held training sessions in 48 of the 50 states. Her clients include Southwestern Bell, Ralston Purina, Monsanto, Deloitte & Touche, Malinckrodt Medical, Hyatt and Marriott Hotels, Jenny Craig Weight Loss Centers, Professional Secretaries International, the Association for Family and Consumer Sciences, and the US Postal Service.

Ms. Nix-Rice's first book, Looking Good, is a comprehensive guide to wardrobe planning for women. The book is winning praise from both consumers and industry peers. Other image consultants have called it "the best available on how to dress with total confidence" and "a comprehensive resource for getting maximum value from each clothing dollar."

She has consistently earned accolades as a top consultant with Beauty For All Seasons, an international image firm. She has produced nine training videos in the fashion home-sewing field.

Her business has been featured on the cover of the St. Louis Business Plus and in Income Opportunities magazine. Ms. Nix-Rice has been quoted in numerous print articles and television features about business casual dressing. She appears regularly as a guest expert on QVC national cable television.

Ms. Nix-Rice holds an undergraduate degree in accounting with a minor in fashion merchandising and a master's degree in corporate communications. She and her husband Richard are parents of five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 262 pages
• Publisher: Adams Media Corporation (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558507299
• ISBN-13: 978-1558507296
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #799,876 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ultimate guide to looking your best..., July 6, 2001

By A Customer

If you are looking for a comprehensive guide to making a positive impact through appearance, this is your book. I am a recruiter with a Fortune 100 company in the US, and a professional image consultant recommended this book to me when I originally began my position. As a person who was looking for solid guidelines around professional dressing, as well as a reference for others who are looking to improve their appearance, I have found no other book to be comparable.

There are many aspects which make this book such an important resource for professionals:

1. The author provides specific guidelines around what items should be in a professional wardrobe, even going as far as to outline what quantities are particularly helpful of each piece of clothing.

2. The book is filled with "before and after" pictures, which allow the reader to see first-hand how the author's recommendations can make a startling appearance alteration.

3. To reflect the variety of workplace formality levels, there are six levels of workplace dress covered in the chapters. For those people who work for companies that have never successfully defined "Casual Friday", this book gives a lot of great hints of how to dress casual but still remain professional.

4. Two separate chapters outline accessories and generic grooming guidelines, and I have only found those hints in this particular guideline book.

5. For people looking to improve their wardrobe on a limited budget or a first job out of school, the author does not suggest spending a fortune on designer clothing. Rather, she suggests some key pieces to acquire first, and then others that can be obtained after your finances begin to improve.

Overall, I see the negative impact every day in my position from candidates who do not make the extra effort to go from "dressing up" to "looking professional". I strongly suggest that you make the $15 investment in this book, since it could help you to acquire the high paying career of your dreams!

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Success is Yours in 30 Seconds--With This Book!, February 15, 2000

By	"frankkr" (Newport News, VA USA) - See all my reviews

I am currently beginning my second career and needed the Zero to 60 information, now, to level the playing field. You may think, gee, this guy should know all the rules--but my first career was 25 years in the military. Susan Bixler and Nancy Nix-Rice have me confident that when I walk into the interview, I will have the external factors covered (the first 30 seconds)--they even give you hints on how posture, speak, and express the internal you--your knowledge, skills, and ability. I notice people much more now--I look for the suit and tie color, suit make, belts, shoe style, etc., to see the type client the individual is playing up or down to. If you're at all uncertain--this is your next book--you will not be sorry.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a book to show you how to look successful!, April 19, 2001

By	KiLoGr - See all my reviews

As a young woman entering the workforce, I recognized the need to make a strong first impression. What I lacked was the concrete rules to pull this off. This book is outstanding! Given to me as a present, it will surely serve as my dressing bible for years to come. I was especially helped by the dress/grooming guidelines given for specific occasions and the tips for creating a more polished overall look.

Just be forewarned that the women's photos show fashions which are about five years out of style, but the overall ideas are still applicable to everyday life. Men's fashions are a lot more constant so their section is still current.