Matthew

Right now, I’m working in my family’s heating and cooling business to fund my way through an MBA degree. My vision is to own a chain of gastropub microbreweries that source local ingredients and businesses. I think about it all the time and see them expanding into a whole chain. I imagine the brand and logo when I’m running and ask my subconscious to work on it while I’m asleep.

I’m not in a hurry, but at the same time, I am. I know that my only real competition is in the mirror but when the time comes for a bank loan, the competition will be the other people asking for the same loan. I’m already preparing for that meeting.

Even on a job site, I pay attention to how I look. I wear jeans that fit, clean work boots, and a decent shirt. I found out about PCA from my brother, a business consultant who always seems to wear the right thing. I admit that I was uneasy at first. I mean, was she going to make me wear pink? Or some scarf I would never wear? In life, the times I’ve grown most were those when I took a run at my fear, so I kept the appointment, but I didn’t tell any of the guys on the work crew!

“May I have the courage today to live the life I would love… to postpone my dream no longer. But do, at last, what I came here for and waste my heart on fear no more.” –John O’Donohue

There was nothing airy about it. The analyst reminded me a bit of an optometrist. She brought out a chart and we stuck to it. The process was logical and had its own rhythm. She’d put car magnets on the Season every time one was gone so the chart looked like a board game. I grabbed a picture of it to send my brother. I could tell you right now why the other eleven were disqualified and I was out of there in about two hours…or I would have been, until we got talking about all the different ways that I could wear the colours. It’s like having 12 basic house designs that you decorate in your own way.

Before leaving, I bought a set of neutral fabric colours because I’m not into spending time figuring out something complicated that someone else has done already. I want to know that the answer is right but I don’t need to hear every detail. I went home and showed my parents my white, black, navy, and some grays and browns. I’ve done enough photo editing to know that the number of colours I could wear is massive and these are examples, but I don’t need a thousand colours; I just need a tool to recognize them. She showed me how to do that and I got it right away.

I see my life as the start of something big. Appearance is a way to help me get there faster. It turns out I’m a Soft Summer and finding great colours has been pretty easy so the changeover is happening fast. I know that I already project a more powerful and positive image. When it’s time for my dialogue with the banker, I see the suit in my mind. It’s a lot easier to search when you know what you’re looking for!