ElizabethPW

I missed this vid when it was new, it really struck a chord with me!

I totally understand what you're saying, there are so many stupid little things that we do to be who we think we're "supposed" to be without even realizing it . . .

I'm not a fan of tshirts myself but I am a fan of comfy clothes! I never get dressed if I don't have to. That "get dressed to work from home so you'll feel professional" thing does not work for me!

Wow! Again, Elizabeth. LOL...LOL I loved this video.
You are way too funny! I want to watch everything you
have to say. Sorry if I sound too eager, I just LOVE
intelligent, funny and positive people.

I live in t-shirts, and constantly have this concern about not dressing "age appropriate". I think living & being in Austin makes things a little different. I can go into Saks here dressed in cheap jeans a t-shirt & hoodie and be treated extremely well. Sales associates don't treat me like I am going to steal something at any moment. I can't always pull that off other places. I love you post, because it's almost like you are giving "professionals" a permission slip to just have fun.

I have been to a fancy wedding here (in Austin) where someone showed up in a t-shirt and hoodie.
While I do think you should certainly dress appropriate for weddings and such, you shouldn't have to dress a certain way to be taken seriously.

The clothes I wear are not going to make me suddenly less capable of doing my job.

Kudos to you and your new found freedom.

BTW you should check out my shirts: http://roboroku.com

I'm a huge fan of the t-shirt, but I also feel like I need to be more professional in my presentation. I just uploaded a picture of me in a nice button down shirt, but it's not really me. You are making me rethink this picture and show people the real me.

I'll see your t-shirt and raise you a t-shirt with paint on it. As a professional artist I have two kinds of clothes. Those with paint and....ok maybe I only have one kind of clothes. But I have noticed that when I "dress up" for face to face meetings with gallery owners or shows I make sure to "dress for the job" which means I want people to think I'm already super successful and appear as professional as possible. The other nice thing about being an artist is that people will forgive you if your idea of professional is a little more offbeat.

So you wanna "be yourself" by wearing a t-shirt with some funny slogan that someone else came up with?

rflol ... so from your comment, I assume you design all of your own clothes?

obviously, the "being yourself" comes from which clothes, of everything available, you pick to wear.

No, I was being facetious. Don't get me wrong, I normally like your blog and vids. I just don't see anything profound about a t-shirt.

There is nothing unique about a person having a "professional" wardrobe and a "non-professional" wardrobe. Different clothes serve different purposes. You wouldn't wear a t-shirt and jeans to have dinner at the White House. You wouldn't wear a pantsuit and heels to go for a hike up Half Dome. Everyone knows these things. You just judge each activity you're doing on that scale and you can figure out what is appropriate or not. And what may be appropriate for a coach is not necessarily appropriate for an attorney and vice versa.

He just walks around naked. Nothing resonates with him.

Candice,

What's wrong with that? You don't like those kinda people like me?

LOL!

I love Threadless.com t-shirts! Artists submit their work and if the Threadless people like it, it becomes a t-shirt.

It's funny, I've had a bit of a fashion breakthrough myself recently. I really love fashion, especially vintage-inspired fashion. It's like being a walking artpiece to me. I realized that I had been muting that area of myself to appear more professional. Black pants, sweaters, pearls. And I felt not myself in the clothes, so it was hard to convey to people who I really am, which only makes you attract clients that are hiring you for the you that you put on and not the you that you really are. So I'm totally having fun with fashion again and feeling a lot more like myself!

Thanks for more awesome insight!

-Candice

Awesome Candice! And isn't it amazing how we think we need to wear a certain "uniform" to be professional, when the best strategy is to be ourselves ... and find a job/business where we can do that.

Ooh I love it! I used to come up with slogans to put on t-shirts.. ala thinkgeek.com

But you're so right! After graduating from college, my mom kept saying "t-shirt & sweaters are out now" and I started to get rid of them. My boyfriend still wears tons of t-shirts and he is still like a kid. I need more "kid Nathalie" time, so I think it's a great idea to get back into the cute t-shirts thing. :) Looove the video & photos!

Can't wait to see your next video wearing a t-shirt! ;)

It's called emotional contagion. Self-control, productivity, and effectiveness derive in part from our our own self-image. Productivty improvement is driven by emotions!

Hey, good stuff. Threadless.com probably loves me by now. I think I may have spend about $500 by now on their shirts. Here's the thing: I am not a fashionista. I'm not "cool." I'm ME. And I like nerdy cool artistic T-shirts and Threadless delivers on that bigtime. I decided that I don't want to be a billboard for someone else's "brand". I don't want to be a logo whore.

So my "look" if you want to call it that is part art shirt and part military surplus. It works for me, and it's real. It's who I really am.

I agree, I have no desire to wear a bunch of logos ... I was at old navy today buying stuff for the kid, and 99% of their shirts were unbuyable (like I want to wear old navy advertising)?

Vintage Vantage for t-shirts most comfortable shirts evar...Karmaloop for Paul Frank Hoodie with Built-in Earphones (I live in that thing). Have fun with your new wardrobe.
Jennifer

Love the Vintage Vantage, bought a shirt there today! :)

My wardrobe has gotten to the point where I own almost nothing other than Threadless t-shirts and skirts/pants to match. One of the reasons I love my day job is that I am a Customer Advocate/Business Analyst - and I still wear my shirts every day. And everyone is fine with that.

I found it odd that when I was first contemplating shooting some video for the website (http://www.beawesomeonline.com/category/video), I was a little scared of wearing the t-shirts. I mean, I was explaining how DNS works! Would people take me seriously if I was wearing a shirt with a bar of soap proclaiming, "Rub me on your butt!"

I had to remind myself that my Right People would be fine with that, and in fact would love hearing technical subjects explained by someone who was obviously relaxed and personable.

Ironically, it was YOUR free 4 weeks to video series that convinced me to go for it! I knew that the person in a t-shirt could explain things much, much better than the one in a collared shirt that makes her feel stifled and boring.

Rock on, Elizabeth. I love watching you continue to push back the boundaries.

And I agree, I have to remind myself constantly that the "right people" will love me the most *when* I am being completely 100% myself. And, when I do that, I will attract only the right people. So then I get to be 100%. #circularawesomeness

I've got an awesome t-shirt for you! A Mom I'd Like To Tweet t-shirt. I have one and love it! You can get one here http://tweet.spreadshirt.com/

Saw you tweet about this earlier, awesome, thanks Jen!

One of the big perks of self/unemployment is not having to dress like a grown-up. But I do have to put on "real clothes" (jeans not sweats - slacker formalwear!) so I don't feel like I am totally losing control. So, yes, clothes definitely have an impact on my state of mind!

Yes, I agree that I do "get dressed" every day, in jeans & shoes & a top, even a jacket or hoodie that is cute. I find that if I'm wearing junkie clothes or PJs all the time, then I'm not productive.

Awesome video/blog post Elizabeth. I am SO a jeans and t-shirt girl and one of the reasons I became an entrepreneur was because I absolutely felt out of my element in the corporate world. I cannot stand suits w/ blazers because I feel like I'm wearing a straight-jacket. My last corporate boss practically mandated that I change my entire wardrobe to match hers--What the heck?! I really don't get why we have such dress code rules anyway, but such is life.

T-shirts RULE! I grew up in the 80's when graphic tees were the standard :o)

I remember in law school (late 1990s) when they said that women had to wear skirt-suits to interviews. Yeah. I wore pants.

I'm so glad I quit big law so I can wear whatever I want. Awesome.

Hey, everyone's gotta have down time - and I don't care what Stacy & Clinton say - authenticity trumps style every time!!

Isn't it funny how I got all sucked into those shows? Now, there is something important that I am picking different shirts than I had in my early 20s ... now I'm much more conscious about choosing clothing that I *love* and that fits right. A t-shirt can be comfortable & fun as well as sexy & even professional. :)

I'm a big fan of What Not to Wear, and really, I think the spirit of the show would agree with you - you should wear things you love that FIT! If you love what you're wearing, and it emphasizes your assets nicely, what can't you accomplish? I started noticing that the guys in my industry (web design and development) have been dressing more nicely in the past few years, breaking out of that "web nerd" stereotype of the dude with the video game t-shirt and ratty pants and bad hair. Lately, I've seen web guys (speaking at cons, attending casual meetups, etc) putting a collared shirt under a fun tshirt, which actually looks pretty awesome, it just has to fit right, not too tight and not too loose. I love that it's a hybrid of office wear and guy wear.

As for me, I work for a corporate law firm, so I'm lucky I don't have to wear suits. But I'm still going to think about ways I can incorporate more of my style into my daily work wear. Thanks for posting this!

TSHIRT HELL!!! TSHIRT HELL! Tshirthell.com - they also have stuff for babies... since I know you have a lot of mothers in your tribe.

Craig says anything by Mission Playground.

F*&* growing up! I say revert to being a kid. Be playful. Run through the puddles... show up to a corporate event wearing galoshes. Listen to the wind, talk like darth vader through the fan, set the occasional toy on fire. Whatever it was that you were as a kid. Go do it again! To tell you the truth, that's why I want to have kids... so I can have an excuse to do all those things again... most my friends won't fingerpaint or eat paste with me these days, ya know?

I am elated to discover that my homework has caused such a boost in your happiness, and even productivity! Guess it all moves up when you're really living your truth :)

Yes, everything in life is heightened when everything is aligned with my truth. :)

Agreed, my daughter has been such an amazing teacher to me, one of the huge things is remembering to play, a completely fresh outlook on life. Especially when I'm sitting here working constantly and she's constantly pulling me off to dance around or explore outside or live in constant fantasyland with her.

And I can totally imagine you'll be the most fun dad ever ... I mean, who else still eats paste? ;)

I guess if you are not wearing the clothes you want to, but, feel you need to, you may not be living your truth and you are not being totally transparent.

This is one of my favorite t-shirt resources. My brother and his friends own this company and they do amazing work (and I don't just say that because I'm related). http://inawemilitia.bigcartel.com/

Love it.

I'm a t-shirt girl. I'm wearing Spider-Man right now.

My favorite t-shirt shop is http://skreened.com/. They are a small Columbus, Ohio business -- great people.

I've also snagged some of my favorites from Etsy. Do a search for American Apparel athletic tri-blend. The BEST.

Just ordered a shirt from skreened. awesome. http://skreened.com/illfitting/brand-slave-5

this grown up LIVES in t-shirts...great vid :)

of course you do Alison, of course you do. :)