About bells, whistles, suits and ties

I moved house recently. Closer to my business, you see. Now the cool thing about moving home is the discovery of the past, hidden underneath piles of garbage and dust in the back corners of your darkest cupboards. That is where I found my last surviving pair of trusted pixie shoes - still intact with bells on its curled-up toes.

Those of you who have been in this industry for as long as I have will know that I spent my first few years in advertising wearing my pixie shoes and with my hair in long locks which shouted: "Hey look, I'm a creative dude!"

Façade

This façade became a large part of my persona. Wherever I went, I was noticed. People would whisper in response to my walking billboard: "Did you see that guy's shoes. Wow, he must be an artist." They would make an effort to know my name and nobody doubted my creativity.

And, although I stood out in general society, I fitted right into our advertising fraternity - an industry built on bells and whistles. Where the next creative person strives to look more different and weirder than the next. Because the more tattoos we adorn or the more scruffy our T-shirts, the more exposed our underwear from under our low-slung, torn jeans or the more way-out our hair styles, the more we believe that we ooze creativity.

Back then I didn't see the flaw.

With time, as we grow through the ranks, we upgrade the cost of our scruffy facades.

Low-slung hipsters are replaced with high priced low-slung hipsters. Scruffy designer shoes are purchased at the most exorbitant prices. And our tattered T-shirts are replaced by tatty couturier T-shirts.

You get the picture?

A different picture

But slowly, as the years matured me, I started to see a different picture.

We are an industry filled with phenomenal talent. Talent trusted with massive budgets in order to assist marketers to build their brands. In fact, I have yet to see any industry filled with more passion matched by talent than ours.

I have witnessed the brightest thinking from guys and girls within creative departments. I have seen creative people slave away through long, sleepless nights, cracking a miraculous, insightful piece of communication on a very thin and insight-less brief. Yet the writer of that same brief, with three years' experience, earns the same salary as the award-winning writer of the concept, with six.

So I asked myself: Could it be because the one wears a suit?

No, seriously, I know the old adage "never judge a book by its cover". But for crying out loud, we are in the business of branding, yet we are our own worst enemies.

I mean, would you trust a doctor who is about to perform an operation on you if he was dressed the way we do? Or a lawyer, for that matter? Would you trust an investment broker who's giving you advice on building wealth if she arrives in slops and leaves in her 1997 rusted Toyota Corolla?

And with this thinking brewing in my mind, I realised that everything was not going right.

Don't behave the part

We expect clients to trust us, yet we just don't behave the part.

Thus I decided to take myself a touch more seriously. I chucked my bells in month one of 2007, cut the long locks in month two and cut the bull of pretending to be creative by what I wear, in month three. And since those first steps in a new direction, I have walked a long, long way in the way I perceive myself.

Through this change in self-perception, I've seen a change in the way others are starting to perceive me. I discovered that people are finding it easier to accept me being smart if I look the part. And the more I started to look the part, the less I heard my clients utter: "You're being too creative" or "I want to sell products, not make art."

It seemed the smarter I dress, the more weight my words carry in the boardroom. Because for too long have I allowed myself to not be taken seriously. For too long have I been ok with the fact that I am seen as "the creative guy" rather than a brand partner, whose biggest interest is actually to make a difference to my client's bottom line.

So I'm starting to dress smart because I think smartly. I'm starting to behave smart because I am an example to the smart people that surround me. I'm making my office smart because it inspires smart behaviour. I'm reintroducing etiquette to the business of creativity, starting with myself.

And if you're a creative person, I sincerely hope you'll follow suit.