Board shorts. A T-shirt. A room full of investors.
Dr Clinton Schultz used that picture on my podcast. About himself.
"If I don't do that work, then I can't complain about the audience not receiving my message because I turned up to a VC meeting in board shorts and a T-shirt."
And the room says back: "I'm not sure that I can invest in you."
Same pitch. Same numbers. The clothes answered first.
A tailored jacket makes your body feel held
Clinton is a psychologist, so I asked what he does before he walks on stage. He told me why it works, not what to do.
"Clothing gives you an experience of feeling held. So when you're wearing tailored clothing, you're probably feeling quite held by that."
Then he took the feeling back further than any suit shop would.
"And that's an experience that we've nurtured since birth, because as infants, we want to feel held, and then across our life, we continue to chase that experience of acceptance, love, feeling like we're held."
So the first thing a suit does, it does to you. Not to the room.
"I would argue that what it also is doing that adds to your comfort level is it's giving you an inherent experience of feeling held."
Comfort is what confidence is built on
He puts the order the other way round from most men. Comfort is not the prize for being confident. It is the floor confidence stands on.
"We do feel more confident when we are comfortable, so whatever we can do before we're having to present, whatever the stage may be, whatever the scenario might be, you're more likely to come across as confident if you feel comfortable."
Then the line that holds the chain together. "If I feel held, I feel comfortable, I feel confident, I feel loved."
That chain ends in the only place a founder cares about. You speak, and you are easier to listen to.
Mine runs the same way. On stage, tailoring is the one thing I never have to think about, and it makes me very confident.
The room that claps is not the room that pays
This is where the comfort story stops being soft. I hear the same line most months, from men who are very good at what they do.
"I know my stuff. Why should how I dress change whether they listen?"
Fair question. The answer is about money, not looks.
"You might appeal to the person that you inspire, they clap for you, but they won't pay you for it."
Two rooms. The one that claps for you, and the one that pays you, and they do not see the same man.
"If you wanna be heard by the person that's gonna pay for what you offer, you'd need to speak the language, and you need to look like the person that they would wanna give money to, and they can trust them with the money."
The T-shirt founders you follow are dressing for cameras
Clinton pushed back here, and he was right to. Some of the best known men in business wear a T-shirt to work.
Steven Bartlett was the one he named. His crowd is 35 and under, and that crowd is who the clothes speak to.
Then he asked the question that settles it. Would that founder walk into a board meeting to ask for money dressed the same way?
Mostly those founders do not walk in at all. Other people handle the money while the founder keeps the front his crowd wants.
He lives both sides himself. Pitching to a room of IT people, he dresses down. Pitching to a room of investors, he dresses up.
Same pitch, both times. "I'm going to dress differently, even though I might be going to give the exact same pitch to those two audiences."
He controls almost nothing else about those rooms. By his own count, "I have no control over 99.9% of the things that occur around me."
What he does control is how he turns up. That is the one thing he chooses.
Referrals get you the meeting. They do not get you the money.
This is the one I get pushed on hardest. "I get all my work through referrals, not through how I look."
The referral is not the problem. It opens the door and does half your selling.
But the man who signs looks you up first. Then he sits across the table and decides about money, and no referral can do that part for him.
There is a quieter version of the same thing. "I am fine in a T-shirt right up until the one room where I am not."
That one room is the expensive one.
You stop thinking about what you are wearing
This is what a custom business suit buys that an off-the-rack one cannot. Cut to your body, so it moves when you move.
More comfortable than your favourite jeans. You forget it is on. Nothing is pulling at you while you talk.
Inside, it lands as being taken care of. Recognised, seen, at home in a room you already earned your way into.
Outside, the first look carries the weight. The man they remember personally. The authority they trust with the deal.
And nobody wants the loud version of a suit. "I want to be taken seriously without looking like I am trying."
A suit that fits gets you taken seriously without the noise.
Your suit is your first sentence
Most men treat a custom business suit as the way to look the part. A sharper version of the same man.
It works on your own body first. Held, so comfortable. Comfortable, so able to speak.
Then it shows up in whether the man who can pay you stays in the room.
That is the change. Not a man who looks better. A man who is easier to listen to.
Speaking for a living? The piece on what to wear on stage covers the clothes. The guide to custom suits in Brisbane covers how the choices get made.
Then come and sit down. Book a consultation with House of Falcone and we start with the rooms you walk into, not the fabric.
Board shorts are fine until the money is on the table. Custom business suits in Brisbane are for the other meeting.
Presence is power.
Bruno Falcone
Frequently asked questions
Does my clothing change whether people take me seriously?
Two things happen at once. A tailored suit settles your own body, which a psychologist on my podcast put down to the feeling of being held. Settled men speak better, and the man across the table decides fast whether you look like someone to trust with money.
Do I need a suit if all my work comes through referrals?
The referral gets you the meeting and nothing past it. The man who signs still looks you up, sits down with you, and makes up his own mind about trusting you with money.
Is dressing up for investors fake?
Only when the clothes say something the work cannot back. A suit cut for your body tells the truth about where your business already is.
Should I dress differently for an IT room than for an investor room?
Yes, and Clinton Schultz does it with the same pitch. Work out what the room expects, then turn up to match. Dressing down for an IT crowd is a choice you make on purpose.
Are custom business suits in Brisbane worth it for two big rooms a year?
Those two rooms are where the year is won or lost. One suit built to your body covers both, works for every ordinary meeting in between, and you stop thinking about it.