 Out of the comfort zone, I am your host, RB Kelly. Today we're talking about the impact your image has on the way people see you. So in the news recently, the new princess to be in England, Megan Merkel, she paid $75,000 for one dress for her engagement photos. And there are dozens of instances of brand new companies showing up that are promising to make comfortable washable business clothes with big pockets, which if you're a man, that doesn't sound like anything new, but if you're a woman, your mind was just blown. There are dozens of companies popping up that are promising to make comfortable wear for plus size women. And this is because the way our clothes look on us matters. The way our colors look matter. If you watch debates in the United States, say we're looking back at the presidential election, you would have noticed that all of the candidates were wearing either, especially up on stage for the debate, they were wearing either a black suit or a blue suit. And if they were wearing a tie, it was either a blue tie or a red tie. And if they were wearing a pin, it was an American flag. That's because our clothes, the colors, the styles send certain messages. Now I want to make sure your clothes and your image is sending the message that you want it to send, which is why I have here with me now an image consultant coming all the way from Australia. Please help me welcome Nikki McMillan, founder of Nikki McMillan Body Language and Communication. Hi, Nikki. How are you? Good to be here. I'm excited you're here too. So could you start out by telling us a little bit more of why your image matters, how you help people? In my previous career working in journalism and in government and politics, I had this subconscious feeling that clothes affected the way that people connect with us and how we can build rapport. And it got me curious in terms of how that happened, which is why I got into image consulting. And now, studying body language, it confirms that our appearance is a major part of the world of communication. So it doesn't matter if you've heard and yourself as a body language expert RV, we are aware of so many studies in which we create and form a first impression of some reformers immediately. It's not fair, I know, but our brains are hardwired that way. So I guess that if we can help people to understand how to address, according to the situation of communication that they have in front of them, with their heads, to the articles that mentioned, to the articles that form their message authentically, it does make a difference in terms of how we communicate, also, how we interact and how we vibe. I think you bring up a really good point, Nikki. This is something I hear a lot. Earlier in your answer you said, it's not fair, I know, but it's just how our brains work. And I think you're absolutely right. Even the little things, like, for example, this jacket, all right? I've had clients say to me, oh, RV, I can't change the way I dress. I don't have a body shape like yours. These clothes just won't fit me. Well, when I got this jacket, it was hanging off of me. It gave me 20 extra pounds and it made me look dowdy and I had to actually tailor it in order to get the result I wanted. So what are some of the tips, Nikki, that you give your clients when they're putting their image together to figure out what sort of image they want? I experienced myself, Abby. I just backtracked a bit. When I worked in politics, I found that I didn't really understand why, but I found that when I wore a suit to parliament settings, so it's a bit like your politics in Washington, D.C., Capitol Hill, our parliament settings are in Canberra. I felt, and I knew, subconsciously, that when I was in meetings with my senator or with stakeholders or other colleagues, or even during the prime minister's media office, I was taking on seriously. And yet, for some reason, I still do not know to say I was wearing this dress and it was floral. It was very feminine and bold. And I believe it affected people's perceptions of me and sharing of the stories that my trainer shared with me about the partnership. But it also hit my head. I felt not as confident and, therefore, I didn't perform as well. So that's what I talked about, looking good and feeling good. And absolutely, there is truth to that stage. And I tell my clients, teach them through learning to dress their body and changing colours and all that, that dress to feel good and you will ultimately look good. I mean, obviously, there's going to be a common sense. You're not going to be wearing floral clothes because you are going to look good because you're going to look more confident. You're going to feel more confident. You're going to be more confident and approachable. So that is what I tell my clients, enclosed cognition, which is really that the clothes we wear have an emotional influence on us and the way we behave and communicate. That is so powerful, Nikki. So what do you do with your clients to start the process of getting them to where they feel good in what they wear? That's an experience in working with clients. And that is learning your body shape to start with and how to dress your body shape. Learning your body proportions and how to dress your body proportions. Some people, it may not be a big deal, but other people may be more self-conscious about it. They may have short legs. So it can sometimes be in the dress to your proportions so you can look your best. Absolutely, knowing how to wear colours to complement your natural colouring, it is genetically determined through our pigmentation mask in a melanin carotene, hemoglobin. You can't control your pigmentation mask. So if you're wearing the right colours or wearing colours can determine whether you're going to be vibrant, youthful, healthy, even young, through single wrinkles and looking tired. I don't know if you've had someone ask or I'm sure your listeners probably may have had this experience like are you feeling okay or suit your complexion, you're also going to you're going to feel good and you're also going to look cool. I guess more attractive in a way. I think you're absolutely right. I remember in high school I was going shopping with my mom, didn't know my style, didn't know my colours, super awkward as a person, but I found this really cool looking jacket that I looked at that and I thought, that is cool, I like it, I want to wear it. So I put it on and I was like, I am so awesome, look at this jacket. And I brought it out to show my mom and she was like, oh no, it's not your colour. And it was this dark colour that just like drained all the colour from my face, made me look really pale and salo and I was devastated because I loved the look of this jacket but it did not love the look on me. That's right. We talked about in colours eye enhancers which I'm happy to share this tip with your clients or your listeners. Eye enhancers are colours that are similar to your colour. So they make your eyes stand out more. So ideally we communicate obviously non-verbally more than 60, at least 60% of the time. But we do have a lot of contact in communication. When we're talking to someone, we ideally want them to focus up here. So by wearing colours that enhance that is a really good way to keep attention and draw attention to your face when you're communicating. And then there's also your skin enhancers like teal. Teal is a universal colour like if you're looking for uniforms for your staff, a blue but teal is a universal colour that suits people who are both of a warm undertone, plastic, cool undertone and there's also a great skin that makes your skin look really, it just enhances your skin, it makes it look healthy if that makes any sense. And then you have reds, different shades of reds according to your undertone that if you're being stuck in hospitals for example, I think it's like the Dixie and Kennedy debate that we studied and Nixon was, of course he's not going to wear red in the presidential debate but say you've been in hospital and you're deranged and you're pale, wearing a best in your colours that complement your profile will give you more of a healthy glow. And okay, viewers you don't know this but I actually met with Nikki a few weeks ago and she did a mini style consultation with me which is why you'll notice if you look back through the past few episodes I'm either wearing a blue suit or a blue shirt because she told me to wear eye enhancing colours and my eyes are blue. So I am already following her advice but I absolutely agree with you, Nikki it makes such a big difference just some colours they just make you pop and some colours don't but I've noticed for me even the colours that do really suit my skin or some of the ones that really suit my eyes they don't seem to suit my personality so in that instance for you, would you what advice would you give someone? That's like at least 50 or some 50,000 colours that a client can wear. It's all about wearing colours that are in harmony with you you don't have to wear an exact kind of congressional election back in 2002 and what's fascinating is then about the red and the and that's the trend whereas for those of you who wear psychological colours it means energy and enthusiasm and then our prime minister's gender is innovation and that's something you'd be really passionate about so I don't I'm pretty sure it's an intentional thing that he read a professional concert with a stylist maybe not but that colour that he wears is his branding of what his gender is and it's like that, yeah as he said in the US politics and he read he does signify power if you sign like they're going to war and you've got the president announcing that he's more likely to wear a red wear stable, wear in control you know, you're in good hands so the psychology colour does play out there and I think it's important in a leadership role to be scientific about colour sorry, I love the series yeah, you go, sorry I'll be I was just going to mention that in our election recently President Trump consistently wore black suits with red ties which is that kind of power statement of I am, I am dominant, I am in control where a lot of his opponents went for the more subtle, soothing stable blue suits with red tie or black suit with blue tie to add that stability, that calmness it's a very, you've got this theory of being in Yang so Yang is very assertive Yang is obviously more submissive and in high contrast like black and white it's very Yang, it's very yes, it's powerful it's that Trump was strategic in some way I knew he was trying to drive me crazy and many immigrants can talk to him over here into how long he's tired because it's distracting, maybe it's just a bit of a struggle but yeah, and again that also comes into avoiding distractions, we have some politicians over here and you know sometimes yes more that's been reflected in your personality but you also don't want that to compete with the message or your branding or what you're trying to say yeah so it's really interesting how the emotional influence on us but also in other people and with regards to color psychology I mean there's so many views about there's this research of popular marketing research that created that 62% to 90% of that interaction, that influence why color and I drive into that because I wanted to know why because so many complex views and absolutely color our personal experience and even our culture that's done influence our perspective on certain colors but there's this really interesting research by Angela Wright she's a color psychologist but based in the United Kingdom and this made sense to me and what happened is that when the light wipes our eyes it does so at different wavelengths in those, the vibrations in those wavelengths then converted to electrical pulses then into our brain it goes through the kind of salamence curve up in which control that endocrine gland which as you know produces that form and controls that form so as a result of the different wavelengths of the colors it affects us, it triggers a physiological response and therefore a psychological response and that to me was like primarily there's something that may take a little bit for a long period of time so I put up this red, this big green red up the green and of course green is going to be welcoming, struggle to adjust with the wavelengths of red which is why then that we've done that red light so a person wearing red or a red tie and when you think about it it makes sense, I haven't been an operating theater, thankfully for a long time but they used to paint operating theaters for green so when surgeons were immersing red or operating when they looked at, I'm sure that's one of those landless aspects, the green around them, they are the red and red is really really fascinating and it makes a lot of sense as to what people think red can be intimidating in large amounts Interesting, wow alright that is a lot to chew on so viewers we are going to be right back, I am Arby Kelly you are watching Out of the Comfort Zone with guest Nikki McMillan about the subtle way to close influence our emotions we'll be back in one minute, see you Aloha my name is Mark Shklav I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea Law Across the Sea comes on every other Monday at 11am please join us I like to bring in guests that talk about all types of things that come across the sea to Hawaii not just law, love people ideas history please join us for Law Across the Sea Aloha Hey Aloha Stan the energy man here on Think Tech Hawaii where community matters this is the place to come to think about all things energy we talk about energy for the grid, energy for vehicles, energy and transportation, energy and maritime energy and aviation we have all kinds of things on our show we focus on hydrogen here in Hawaii this is my favorite thing but we talk about things that make a difference here in Hawaii, things that should be a big changer for Hawaii and we hope that you'll join us every Friday at noon on Stan the Energy Man and take a look with us at new technologies and new thoughts on how we can get clean and green in Hawaii Aloha Hello, welcome back to Out of the Comfort Zone I'm your host, RB Kelly and I'm here with Nikki McMillan an Australian image consultant talking about the subtle way your clothes and your outer appearance affects not only your emotions the emotions of the people around you now when we left off, Nikki was telling us about how surgeons the way we see, it was so cool alright so surgeons the way they see red it's hard for our eyes to see and it can actually stress your eyes out which is why if you're in a hospital now you'll notice a lot of the doctors in the hospital, blue or subtle green scrubs to give relief to the eyes so that they're more accurate during the operating procedure so Nikki, welcome back I really am excited you're here but I also wanted to ask you about how you arrived at your current look I touched on it before in terms of my experience working in politics and I'm a bit curious in terms of why I left politics I just, I just I guess I thought, well from going to work and staying long hours to help someone else live their aspirations I might as well do it myself and go into business of course I really didn't have any idea what I was going to do but my curiosity, that subconscious curiosity in terms of the emotional influence of clothes combined with some body image issues prompted me to go see an image consultant myself and that was the last dating experience and information but I became confident in my own skin to the point I guess I can go on the beach now and not give a talk about what people think about what I look like in my, in my talks of course we think people are looking at us but we know because they know but there was a lot of mind stuff going on there and it was a life changing experience I thought well this is pretty cool if I can help people feel confident within themselves and therefore become a better person a better version of themselves then yeah I'm up for that I guess that's how I got into image consulting and then the next step was body language and communication and bringing it all together which I guess what image consulting is all about it's helping you to manage your image so you can be the best version of yourself that is powerful so Nikki I'm I'm curious I'm sure you've had people be like oh my image doesn't matter oh it doesn't matter how I dress when you when you meet up with those people what do you tell them you just have to respect it I mean people who come with me are the ones that what's the help it's actually quite funny I had a meeting with two absolutely gorgeous entrepreneurs on Monday I forgot what you were through a meeting with a stylist not a stylist but an image consultant I do find that people kind of get body language and study people so you have to really reassure them okay just relax they they just have to realise it themselves you just have to do it diplomatically I mean if it was my boss to me you have secretary to me because we travel to regional areas a lot and we were also rezoning the Great Barrier Reef which was quite contentious and I'm sure that your listeners are very concerned about that quality change you're a lot of angry what do I wear up there through this meeting through controversial reasons angry recreational fishermen it would have been a plain situation more that I guess in terms of politics what message do you want to send be it a meeting, be it a picture whatever and even myself when I'm at me which is the effect of my personality I'm introverted I do and you know Nikki that reminds me of okay sometimes I will go out like okay so today I'm wearing a suit but sometimes maybe I'm going out to get a drink maybe I'm on a not necessarily a day off but I'm doing back office work and on those days I'm not wearing a suit but when I go out even if even if my makeup is the same, my hair is the same my accessories are the same but I change my shirt so I'm wearing a shirt instead of a blazer people think I'm in college or they think I'm a student instead of the way they see me when I go out in a suit they see me as a professional they see me as an expert so I'm right on with you that when you've got an event coming up and there's a message you want to send and the way you want to be seen you have to figure out what is the message I'm sending what do I want people to assume when they first meet me and then you go to your closet and you find an outfit that says that and you wear it so Nicky can you I love your story about the politician can you tell us any more stories about your clients? that was a bit of a deliberate term how do we in terms of clothes very tasty I'm happy to send it particularly interesting that it showed that true level that's interesting and that's something I can attest to for myself now thank you Nicky so much for coming We are out of time, but viewers thank you for watching. This has been Out of the Comfort Zone with RV Kelly on Think Tech Hawaii with Nikki McMillan, talking all about how your clothes influence your emotions. We'll see you next time. Bye.