Christien Louviere

I love the scene below from Boiler Room (viewer discretion advised) in which Ben Affleck delivers his “Act As If…” speech. The point is that if you’re going to sell, then you have to look the part. It doesn’t matter if you’re in sales or not, you need to dress for the position you want because you’re always selling yourself. The position you want may not even be with your current company; but you need to always look good because you never know who is looking at you.

Unlike the boys hustling shares of stock, we’re not all pulling down $25K per month; so lining our closets with the latest trends seen in Men’s Health or Playboy is not an option. Here are 5 ways to cut some corners with suits and still look good:

1) Suits

Buy the inexpensive styles of the suits you saw in the magazines. Jos. A. Bank and Men’s Wearhouse are constantly having sales on decent quality suits. Pick a store and find a dynamic contemporary pattern you feel comfortable with. Dillard’s and Macy’s always have sales too, but getting a good opinion or measurements from a general department store salesman can be hit or miss.

On style, feel free to venture from the typical browns and blacks as just a subtle charcoal pinstripe or a something cooler for the summer months such as a taupe are fetching. Go with the 3-button suits as they are seen as more stylish.

Also, when shopping for a suit, you will need a second set of eyes because the colors will all begin to bleed together. I suggest bringing a girlfriend (platonic or otherwise) or a gay male friend. If you have a friend that still wears Croakies around his sunglasses for any activity aside from boating, do not bring him!

2) Dress Shirts

If you’re on a budget, then your shirts are the most important aspect of your wardrobe. This is where you get a chance to create your own sense of style. This doesn’t mean buying a Polo dress shirt from a department store. It means looking to some high quality designers and custom clothiers. Spend the $125 required on a high quality dress shirt. You need at least three. Find your style with the likes of Thomas Pink, Paul Smith or Ted Baker to name a few. They can be found online or at your local haberdashery. Never doubt the power of a custom shirt. Check out a company such as Tom James that has been manufacturing custom made shirts for years. It’s big boy time, so only get French cuffs. It takes us approximately 45 minutes less than the average woman to get dressed in the morning, take the extra 90 seconds to put cuff links into your shirts.

3) Cuff Links

Again, you have a chance to exhibit your own style without having to dye your hair or install permanent ink onto visible areas of your body. For the most part, cuff links can be anything you choose. My only rule of thumb is to make sure the metal (usually gold or silver) matches your belt buckle (and watch if you wear one). I can go into any haberdashery and find hundreds of cuff links that will match my shirts and ties. Unless you are close with your client or work in familiar office space, I would stick with a more conservative design during the day. Night time is the time to break out the spinning roulette wheels.

4) Sport Coats

The sport coat is great because there is almost no wrong answer. They are versatile in that one or two coats can pair with many combinations of dress pants or nice jeans. I wouldn’t go nuts like TNT’s Craig Saeger, but you should definitely feel free to express yourself some here.

5) Rule on Blue

I can’t stress this enough. If you were blue slacks or have a blue suit, you need to wear brown NOT black shoes. Unless you are in the United States Marine Corp, there are no exceptions to this rule. Ok, there really are, but to be safe please use brown. If nothing else, the ladies will definitely notice your dress savvy.

Bottom Line

Perception is reality. Dress how you want to be perceived.

I’ve given the short, short version several times to many people, but there is always a plethora (Three Amigos) of questions that ensue about the setup, espionage and deceit (necessary) that took place to make this magical event everlasting and memorable. Three months of planning and preparation went into the engagement night, so I’ve decided to break the entire story up into a few posts. In this post, I will give you the story about the night I asked Heather Platt to be my wife…I think that’s what I said to her.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

630PM – Heather and I left my parents house for dinner at one of my most favorite restaurants…Restaurant Cuvee on Magazine Street in downtown New Orleans. She had known about the dinner reservation for nearly two months as I told her that I was dying to go back since I hadn’t been back since before Katrina. When I asked her, she had no suspicions because we both love to try great restaurants.

At this point, I wasn’t nervous at all. I felt all the pieces were in place, so all that was left was the timing and execution.

At a traffic light outside the Superdome, I flashed a picture of Heather looking beautiful in her black dress. As she fiddled with the camera, I grazed my right hand across my left jacket pocket to make sure the two rings were still in there.

700PM – Dinner was served at Cuvee over a nice bottle of French red. Heather went for the filet marinated in bleu cheese served over a piece of prime rib. I had some sort of soft-shell crab that I wasn’t too impressed with largely because I felt it didn’t reflect its menu description. She polished off the filet but left the slab of prime rib. The conversation was light and interesting as always. Dinner was being served at a nice pace and the bottle of wine began to take our conversation off onto strange tangents. I wish I could say that I remember most of it, but my mind was heavily occupied with the two brilliant ovals in my left pocket.

I still wasn’t nervous. I kept reminding myself that she still had no idea what was coming, and I relaxed by listening to her childlike enthusiasm. Her vigor kept me at ease because I knew she would always be able to make me smile.

730PM – My family (Mom, Dad, Chenae, Chris, Caitlyn, Jacob (Caitlyn’s BF) and Heather’s parents were having dinner at Café Adelaide at the Lowe’s Hotel.

825PM – We ordered dessert and two cappuccinos. We weren’t really hungry, but she has a sweet tooth and I needed to kill about 15 more minutes. After we ordered, I excused myself to the restroom.

I was alone in the marble-lined restroom. I removed the two rings from the small jewelry bag in left pocket. I put her Grandmother’s ring in my right pocket beneath my money clip…the engagement ring into my left pocket beneath my Blackberry. I looked at myself in the mirror to make sure I was in order and then I repeated several times, “Old…right…new…left, old…right…new…left.”

840PM – We wrapped up dessert. I went to the restroom again because I actually had to go and had forgotten before. She then went, and I paid the bill.

845PM - On the way to the car, I suggested we go take a walk on the River until Kim and Paul (already in town) could meet us for drinks. It was a mild New Orleans night with that pinkish-blue sunset. It was turning out to be a nice night. She was excited to go for the walk because we had spent time in downtown New Orleans but rarely alone.

9PM – We walked out of the Hilton parking garage towards Spanish Plaza. I called Kim, strategically, on my cell phone to let her know where we should meet when she got downtown.

As I hung up the phone, we were about 50 yards from the River barricade. All of a sudden, I finally felt my heart rate increase rapidly. I knew my plan was to hold the older ring (missing the center stone) and act like I saw it on the ground. I had my hand in the correct pocket, but I couldn’t seem to shake it free from under my clip. Meanwhile, I was doing a poor job of playing it off as we were basically walking in miniature circles.

Heather quickly saved me and pointed out some ship doing something fast in the water.

“One question,” I asked myself as she spoke. “Are you ready for this?” “Yes,” I answered and quickly bent over on my right leg…

“Look at this baby,” I acted as though I’d just picked it up off the ground. She looked over curious and confused, and I handed her Grandmother’s ring to her.

I watched her face carefully for three seconds (felt like ten).

As soon as I saw the recognition of the ring in her eyes, I pulled the new ring out of my left pocket and dropped to one knee. Her initial reaction was confused as I could see she didn’t know if I was serious or not, but she soon realized I was serious as I began my speech with my right hand on her waist and my left clenching tightly to the ring. Her hands were resting on my shoulders. She burst into her tears for the first time. Her poor eyes were covered by the seemingly endless stream of joy. She later told me that all she initially saw of the ring was the sparkle because there was so much haze over her eyes.

My speech began with, “Heather…” and I honestly can’t tell you (neither can she) what I said after that. I know the points I wanted to make to her, and I did do that.

I ended with, “Heather, will you be my wife?”

“Yes!” she tried to scream out in a teary voice. I put my arms around her waist and hugged her tightly.

Then, I stood up, hugged her and said, “I gave you four of the five things (missing family) that are most important to you on your engagement.”

“Baby, it was perfect,” she cried towards me as we walked away from Spanish Plaza.

Almost finished…the hard part is over…just get to the hotel.

­915PM – I started walking her away from Spanish Plaza as she pulled out her Blackberry.

“I guess you saw my parents earlier, so that’s family…right…that’s five then?” She agreed. “Don’t you want to call your parents?”

“Oh yes!” she laughed like she’d forgotten about the whole world.

As she did that, I texted Caitlyn, “She said yes! On our way!”

“Oh, I guess they’re in bed by now,” she sighed.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

She then called her brother, Victor and her friend Star in Seattle. As she told her, she started crying immediately. Meanwhile, I was rushing us to the Café Adelaide because I wasn’t sure if everyone was finished eating.

Standing outside of the Lowe’s Hotel with the doormen staring at us, Heather continued to gab about something completely unrelated to marriage to Star.

Typical!! My heart was racing because I knew I was so close to completing the last step.

I was dragging her into the hotel and asking her to get off the phone. She finally told Star that she really had to go because of me.

As we turned into the bar of the hotel, Kim and Paul sat on the edge smiling. As soon as Heather saw Kim, she burst into tears for the third time. I reached over and shook Paul’s hand.

Almost there…only one more step to make this night perfect. Paul played it great like the night was already concluded. Kim was great in asking Heather if she wanted to go sit at their table in the back. Heather obliged.

Kim guided Heather to the back as Paul and I slowly pulled up the rear. Caitlyn was standing on the far side of the large table and snapped shots of Heather as she stopped dead in her tracks and cried for the fourth time. Her tears came from the six people (my family) she saw sitting at the table. She had failed to notice the other two. As she walked over toward Chenae (I think), she noticed the two other people at the table…her Mom and Dad. Heather’s tears turned to waterfalls.

She ran to them and hugged them aggressively. She then rushed to me to bury her head in my shoulder. I put my arm around her, put her ear to my lips and whispered, “Now, your family is here too. I gave you the five most important things. I love you baby.” She cried more and hugged me tight.

I pulled up a chair in between my mom and dad. I watched her enjoy herself with everyone seated at the table. Over our freshly poured Vodka-Sodas, we listened to everyone recount their stories of the planning over the previous 3 months. The topper was the “Proposal Agenda” I’d created for everyone that night.

So, I’ve been engaged just over a week.  I know I’ve promised many of you a detailed version of the story via my blog.  First of all, thank you all so much for caring!  It’s great to know so many people have your best interests at heart.  Second, my plan was to do it this past weekend; however, viewing wedding sites is a more time consuming process than I thought.  Needless to say, after viewing 5 wedding sites spread all over metro Atlanta (drove over 300 miles in two days) and a soccer game on Sunday, I was quite worn down.  One thing I noticed is that looking at wedding sites starts to be like shopping for a suit…eventually, they all start looking alike.

The engagement story…it’s coming…I promise!

The perceived recession is over hyped. A recent Business Week article finally proved as much. Regardless of the economy, I maintain the mindset of ABS…not brakes…ABS = Always Be Saving. Our generation isn’t going to collect a dime of social security, so it’s important for us to save now.

George Costanza said very few intelligent things, but he did once say, “Interest…it’s an amazing thing. You can make money without doing anything.” He was half correct because you have to put the pieces in place to work for you. Here are 5 ways to get your money working for you:

1) 401(k) and/or Roth IRA

This is the biggest no brainer in the book especially if your company has a match. It’s tax free money. If your company has a match, then max it out. If your company doesn’t have a 401(k), then open a Roth IRA. I prefer Fidelity and Schwab, but you can use any brokerage service. Each brokerage I mentioned offers a method for incremental contributions just as you’d have with an employer. That way you can open an account with $50 instead of $3,000. The maximum contribution for 2008 is $5,000…try to hit that! You have until tax day 2009 to contribute.

Be a ROCKSTAR! If you can afford it, open a Roth on top of the 401(k).

DON’T TOUCH!! Pull the money out and you’re taxed 30%. However, there are little loop holes. For instance, you can make a withdrawal as a down payment on your first home purchase.

2) Mint.com

I work hard for my cash, and I want to know where it’s going. Throughout college my mom was baffled that I could never fully balance a checkbook. However, I’ve always been able to budget. I’ve used Quicken and Money in the past…never again! Mint is barely a year old. It has won an award, received major funding and is more efficient than those other two. The security is top notch, and the only information they need is your email address. It helps you track expenses, bills, budget, savings opportunities and much more!

3) Payment & Punishment

Once you have Mint setup…use it! Figure out your biggest expenditure, aka weakness, and exploit it. Take whatever you spend there and match it into your own savings. For instance, my weakness is for random runs to the nearest crack house…errrr…espresso distributor; so each month I find out what I spent on it and put that same amount into my money market fund.

So, if you spend $175 a month on Marlboros, then you put $175 into your savings of choice. This practice will have several positive effects on your financial life.

4) High Yield Checking

I only need a physical bank for one thing…ATMs. When I moved to Atlanta, I went with Wachovia because they are everywhere. My paychecks are direct deposits and my bills are paid via online checking.

Schwab now has an award winning checking account the garners interest. I can do everything with them that I do with Wachovia and earn 2% on my cash. In the rare occasion, I need a physical check, they are free. Visa debit card is included. If I need cash, the world is my ATM! They reimburse for ATMs worldwide.

5) AMEX One Card

This is a little known card from American Express. The only AMEX card I see less than this is the elusive black Centurion card. The One card is boring in appearance except as it’s mostly green. Green because it earns you money. AMEX One has replaced my ATM/Debit card. I use this card for all of my purchases.

AMEX opens a savings account for you and matches your spending into your savings account. They start you with $50 after your first purchase. Thereafter, they match 1% of your monthly expenditures directly into the savings account. While your money is sitting, it earns interest (currently 2.75%). It has interest protection for new purchases. Basically, this means that you don’t pay interest on the full balance but only on what was due before the current month. Having said that, I strongly suggest you only using this method if you typically pay your credit card off in full each month. Paying interest defeats the purpose of the savings account.

Bottom Line

Money, Knowledge and Sex are Power…Know where your money is going, use the intelligence to distribute it so you can attain more, this will make you more attractive on several levels and then you’ll have more sex. You are now ALL POWERFUL!!

Photo Courtesy of DeShawn Stevenson ;->

I’m pleased to announce that I was recently asked to be a contributor to the international DailyDOOH. It’s one of the most widely read blogs in the OOH industry. My first article about the new ‘Eyes On’ measurement system was the feature article for yesterday’s email newsletter. Here is the link to the article.

Last night, I was texting my friend in New York about the New Orleans Hornets’ chances in the upcoming NBA Playoffs. He and I were going back and forth for a bit. I realized that his messages were one page and mine were two every time. My Blackberry Pearl has been affecting my real life texting capabilities. The Pearl has been great, and many have commented on the quickness and accuracy of my thumbs to spit out messages; but it has stolen my true SMS capabilities. I sent my first SMS in 2002 and worked hard to hone my craft. I’m scared to go back to a regular phone now. Maybe it’s like riding a bike, and I’ll relearn it easily if need be.

They say you learn something new every day.

Lately, I’ve been putting a lot of time into honing my SEO skills. A great starting point for anyone beginning on this trek is to use the vast array of free tools out there. A great starter tool is Google Analytics. I’m amazed the amount of information I get out of it. I can track anything from my most popular article to how fast a user’s connection speed is. The most fun feature to me is the geography because I can see where all of my users are located down to the county…err Parish if you’re in Louisiana…line! I have readers all over the United Sates as well as Poland and Jamacia.

Anyway, being from New Orleans and traveling much of the state, I was surprised to learn of a place I’ve never heard of…Killona, Louisiana. Apparently it is only like 25 miles from where I grew up and in the same Parish (St. Charles) as a girl I dated. Anyway, I thought this was neat to learn about a new place in this manner. Much love to my readeR in Killona!

Recently, I’ve had a few conversations about emerging media and technology with corporate marketing heads. For many companies, they are just now thinking about or starting emerging media departments. One of the common themes that quickly come up is my view on the upcoming generations and the role mobile will play. I’m quick to bring up two points in each conversation.

One, as Cyriac Roeding pointed out earlier this year, the content has got to be redesigned for mobile applications. Companies can’t afford to simply re-purpose online content and then redistribute it amongst cell phones. Too many companies are doing this, and it’s a waste of time. This is discussion for another post though.

The second point I bring up is that companies must start looking past cell phones and iPods. People, especially Gen-Y and early adopters, are about to take their living rooms with them. Recently, I’ve seen Intel ads for a new processor scattered amongst technology sites and LinkedIn. Intel is working on a chip that powers nothing more than a simple computer….no big hard drive, no DVD player, etc. They are designing chips for laptops that won’t be much bigger than a PSP. Need space? Today, you can grab a 250+GB hard drive the size of passport for under $200. My future laptop need be nothing more than a screen, keyboard and USB port. Check out these pictures of the future Lenovo line courtesy of John Bancroft.

Here’s an Intel Netbook via Engadget.

My life would be so easy if I could put everything I need in my jacket pocket. The future of music will be streamed not downloaded. I already mentioned my 250GB USB drive. With the power of Google, new frontiers in social media and the upcoming breakout of Web 3.0, I may not even need that large hard drive except for backup purposes. I could be streaming my life to that little device.

Obviously, the emergence of these devices will help define the direction of mobile advertising. But, how fast will companies digest these new processes? They have to think past the mobile phone with SMS. Companies need to start having more conversations with their consumers. This is one area where I see Twitter becoming so powerful. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but GM is already starting to take the lead on Twitter. I’m glad but surprised. They’re having active conversations with their customers. Now, will they truly hear them?

I wish I’d been born in my 8 year-old Godson’s generation (no official title given yet) because by the time he’s college, he may not have to carry anything more than some sort of laptop and Kindle combination.

Aki Spicer, from Fallon, has a wonderful slideshow about the 10 Social Networking Trends. Here are the 10 topics it covers:

1 Social graphs
2 Social shopping
3 Portability
4 Lifestreaming
5 Crowdsourcing
6 Continuous partial attention
7 Privacy protection
8 Open social
9 Virtuality
10 Measurement 2.0

The best part is his insight into the virtual worlds that will be demanded by today’s  youth.  And if you get nothing else from it, his best point was that the good and bad of Social Networking is that no one has figured anything out yet!

I just registered for this Cisco web conference on April 3^rd. I’m excited about it. The conference will have some great minds speaking about making your business Web 2.0 (I hate that term) compatible. The conference will demonstrate how these emerging applications can be applied to any type of business. Some of the speakers include: Don Tapscott, Jeremiah Owyang, Robert Scoble and David Knight.

If you’re a small business owner in any industry, work at an ad agency or a newly formed emerging media department, then this will probably be beneficial for you to watch.

Check out the details here. It looks like they’ll have it up for you to view until December 31st, but I think you still need to register.