Build A Trustworthy Public Image

For a business person, just like any other public figure, how the public views you can affect your sales, your media coverage and the trust others have in you.  Nanz explains why keeping a good public image — and not just good looks — is a wise investment.

You would think that being a model I waste hours grooming myself, but on the contrary, I do not spend hours deciding what to wear and adjusting my face with makeup. I may have done that when I was a teen and my confidence was at a low.

During my modelling days, I learnt to dress quickly with careful planning and practice.  To me, it has always been more important what I was like as a person and how people perceived me inside and out.

Time is very precious to me, so most times, rather than simply leveraging on my looks, I would focus on what I can do that is different and that would build up my image.  I believe in branding.  And I like to be innovative.

I believe in the person as a whole. It is good if you as this whole can become the spokesperson of a company, like Richard Branson with Virgin Records, Bill Gates with Microsoft, Sim Wong Hoo with Creative Technology, Theresa Chew with Expressions and Steve Jobs, who is an icon just for being himself! It is important that you have a face that can deliver trust, a face that will automatically endorse your product or whatever it is that you are trying to deliver or to sell.

In September 2002, when I was summoned to receive The President’s Challenge Trophy in recognition for my work for the community programme, I was confident enough to turn up for the occasion wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt – the uniform worn by all my staff.  It carried the ONE.99shop logo.

Of course, marketing and branding does not fall on one person alone.  It has to be the combined effort of the whole team, the whole company.  The way you answer the phone, the way you serve your customer or the way you sell your product… these are all part of below-the-line advertising and marketing.

I had the privilege of being in the newspapers very often.  This free publicity was always good to have, but it still pays to be hardworking, honest and sincere. These traits often bring favours.

Once I was invited to the Istana for dinner.  There were 20 to 30 tables of guests. I was pleasantly shocked to find I had been given the honour to sit at a VIP table beside the then Prime Minister, Mr Goh Chok Tong.

Being in the public eye can bring great opportunities.  It is up to you how you leverage on these opportunities to help your business, and to help others. Building your public image is a crucial skill, but it will all come to nothing if the smart and wonderful person who appears in the newspapers is a mean and arrogant person face-to-face.

Learn to have the very personality you want to project – sincerity will always be your best advertisement.

This article is taken from Nanz Chong-Komo’s One Business, 99 Lessons.