Two months ago I took a week off to completely revamp my website. I knew my website needed a makeover of its own for a while, it was finding the time to do it that was difficult. However, changing my website confirmed something that I’ve always known, personal style truly does matter. While the image of my website completely changed to something more stylish and attractive, the content of my website remained exactly before the change, EXACTLY the same. However, in the first month after my website’s redesign my traffic doubled. Now, a quarter through the second month since I changed it, it looks like my traffic may double again. I can only assume that the visual presentation or the style of my website has been the biggest factor in this increase.
I tell you this story to remind you just how important your personal style and visual communication is, and how you package yourself really does make a difference. My website is living proof of this. Humans are sensory beings and how we see things is just as important as the other four senses. Yet, because we’ve put such a shallow label on how we judge based on sight alone there is a tendency to not want to put that much importance on it. Taking time to consider our personal style as it relates to our goals is often on the bottom of the list. Instead, it should be at the top.
If you don’t think that personal style and visual communication is important, I’m going to tell you about a exercise I did with people I’d never meet to figure out their personal style. I flashed these images and front of them and asked them to respond one of three ways to each image: I like, I somewhat like, or, I don’t like at all.
After recording the answers, I showed them styles that were in line with their reactions to the images. Each and every time, the visceral reaction that each person gave to the images not only confirmed what they were drawn to but what their personal style was. They responded to the styles they were presented with exactly the same way they responded to the images. When I developed the concept, the people I was working with on this project thought I was crazy. They couldn’t see how I could figure out a person’s style simply by flashing a few these arbitrary in front of the quiz takers. Yet, after years of assessing the styles of people I knew it would work because If I were to textually describe each image, the emotional reaction would not be as strong. Now you know why a website like Pinterest is so popular.
Through evolution, human beings are compelled to view and disseminate visuals. Visuals are processed faster than any other form of communication our emotions to those visual images affect our decision-making. Simply, people are judging you based on your visual presentation quicker than any other form of communication.
Like me and my website, you may be thinking that you don’t have the time to focus on changing your personal style. Yet, what if I told you that if you actually did put some time and energy towards it all those things that you are struggling to accomplish could get done more quickly and efficiently. You may actually succeed where you feel you are failing and all that time you are wasting keeping up or getting it all done would be minimized if you just took a step back and looked at whether your personal style was in line with everything you’re setting out to accomplish. Could it be that your personal style, the thing you’re giving no thought to, is the obstacle?
