Look Sharp In 5 Minutes (Even If You’re Lazy)

So, in the movie, Jerry Maguire, the main character seems to have everything, success, money, status. But, he reaches a point which he realizes he's not living up to his own standards. Now, I share this story with you guys because so many of you guys have realized you're not living up to your own standards when it comes to your image, when it comes to your personal presentation. And, gents, if you've made the decision to no longer tolerate sloppy, then first, I want to congratulate you on taking the first step to become the man you know yourself to be. And second, I want to make it easy by giving you action steps that you can execute on that only take minutes a day, so that even if you're lazy, you can start dressing better today. So, my first tip for you, lay out your clothes the night before. Now, for anyone big into fitness, you know the power of this because if you've got an early morning appointment at the gym, you don't want to be looking for your workout gear at 5 AM. No, you want to make it easy, get rid of barriers. Well, gents, I'm here to tell you the same thing applies to dressing sharp. Get a clothing valet and lay out your clothing the day before. Everything laid out nicely, already matched, already put together, already thought through, so that when you wake up late and you're running around trying to get ready, it is easier to dress sharp using the clothing you've already laid out than it is to actually try to dress sloppy to wear something else. Seriously, this one tip, if you implement it, can make dressing sharp so much easier. The next tip, have a go-to uniform. Now, I get it, you're not a first responder, you're not in the military. Why in the world would you wear a uniform? Well, first up, let me define uniform. I'm saying an image, clothing that represents who you aspire to be. This is clothing you thought through, it sends the message you want to send to the world. This can be a simple style of shirt, it can be thrown on a sports jacket or a suit, it can be a casual athleisure look. But, in general, it's the same look. It's a consistent look. It's one that has the benefits of a uniform. You don't have to think about it, yet it consistently out of habit sends the message you want to send to the world, allowing you to be consistent and reap the benefits of compounding basically it builds off itself of a steady image. And the best part about this, it's actually less effort than trying to think and reinvent your look every day. In addition, when you're putting this uniform together, don't be afraid to step up that look. What I mean by that is put together a style that's one level above those around you. And you're doing this not to make others look bad, but to allow yourself to stand apart. And this could be something as simple as bringing in a collared shirt, bringing in a sports jacket, going for a little bit nicer shoes. And speaking of shoes, before you walk out your door, wipe your shoes down. Now, I'm not saying a full-on polish because for some of you guys, it doesn't apply, you're wearing casual shoes. But, even if your uniform is white sneakers, here's the thing, keep them white, keep them clean, change out the laces as needed. What you don't want are dirty scuffed shoes. Now, whether your footwear is casual or a little bit more dressed up, anytime your footwear isn't clean, it is hurting your image. And moving on from shoes, let's talk about our belt. So, if you're dressing sharp, make sure to match your belt with your shoes. And it doesn't always have to be an exact match. If you're wearing casual footwear, then you can wear a more fun belt or one that even blends into the outfit. But, the key here is pay attention to your belt because the right color can bring the outfit together and going with a contrasting color can either lengthen or shorten the leg line. And, of course, if you're wearing trousers that support a belt, make sure to tuck your shirt in. Now, of course, this depends on the style of the shirt, t-shirts, no. With polos, it's optional. But, for all other collared shirts, yeah, you want to tuck in that shirt because overall it's just going to give a cleaner more well put together look. Now, gents, speaking of belts, today's video is brought to you by my friends over at Anson Belt & Buckle. For over a decade, I've been talking about Anson Belt & Buckle. Gents, if you haven't seen it, it's going to blow your mind. They're making the belt hole obsolete by allowing you to adjust the fit of a belt to a quarter of an inch. In addition, the micro adjust system actually keeps your strap looking better longer because you don't get those stretch marks that you see with belts with holes in them. And because every belt is cut to fit, you're never going to get the wrong size. And because all their straps are interchangeable with all of their buckles, you can own three straps and two buckles and you have six different belt combinations. In fact, that's why I highly recommend grab their box set. You can mix and match, create your own combination, or you can go with their classic combinations of their best sellers. I highly recommend it. Oh, and if you're traveling, check out their money belts. I got my hands on a few of these things and I absolutely love the practicality and the ability to hide money when I'm traveling and not have to worry about it. Yeah, really cool innovation. And, guys, while you're on their website, check out their compact classic buckle. This is a shorter version of their classic buckle built to reduce front of waist bulk. These compact classic buckles take everything you love about the Anson Belt & Buckle original design and refines it into a design approximately half the length of their standard classic buckle. And it does all this without sacrificing strength, durability, or performance. And for those of you guys that conceal carry, check out their 1.5-inch concealed carry straps. And last, but not least, really quick, I want to talk about their customer service. Guys, they treat their customers like family. So, gents, if you're looking to grab a belt, look no further than Anson Belt & Buckle. I'm linking to them down in the description with the best deal you're going to find out there on the web. Again, use that link. Go check them out. Awesome company, proud to support them. So, the next tip to level up your image quick is to take care of the excess hair in your nose, in your ears, on your neck. It's a small thing, but people notice especially women. On average, they're shorter. They're looking up to you. What do they see in your nose? All of a sudden, a forest coming out of there. You turn around, you've got that hair coming out of your ears, you got more hair on the back of your neck than you have on the top of your head. Yeah, it's just not a great look. Take care of it, set up a routine. Once a week, you're trimming, you're shaving, you're plucking this hair. And speaking of scheduling, schedule your haircut every month. Now, for some of you guys with shorter hairstyles, it may need to be every two to three weeks. If you've got a longer hairstyle, maybe five to six weeks. Point being is have it scheduled. Gents, we want to make this a no-brainer. We want to make this as something you're on top of, not something you're being reactionary to. Because when you're given that presentation, your boss is boss and you realize, hey, I need to get a haircut, your barber is not available, you end up going to someone that you don't trust. Yeah, that can become nightmare fuel because all of a sudden you get a bad haircut. And, unfortunately, that knocks down your confidence. It could have been prevented. So, schedule it and make it one less thing you have to worry about. Next up, let's talk about your t-shirts. Like most guys, you've probably got some white, black, solid colored t-shirts which you default to. And these are great for the gym, casual weekend. But, here's the deal. Over time, they get stretched, they get stained, they get torn. You do not want that kind of clothing in the rotation of your wardrobe. So, every six months, you want to be going through your shirts, preferably actually all your clothing, and looking for stained clothing, looking for pieces, especially your essentials that you need to replace. And as you probably figured out, this also applies to your collared shirts, to your denim, to pretty much all your go-to clothing. You want to have it ready before you need it because that's the situation you don't want to be in when you need the suit and it doesn't fit. So, once a year, you're going through and you're trying all the clothing in your wardrobe. If it's something that doesn't fit, you either take it to get adjusted or you look to donate. If you're like, Antonio, I can't give it away, I spent so much money on it, I'm going to get in shape, I'm going to lose that weight. Then, put that clothing in a box and put a date on it. Because, one, you're being honest with yourself because you don't have a suit if you can't fit into it. And so, by taking items out that don't fit, you'll visually see that you're missing them in your wardrobe. But also, you give yourself a bit of motivation. You see those items that you want to wear that you want to fit back into. But, yeah, you have to make some lifestyle changes, maybe change the diet, start going to gym more often. The point here is the clothing that you have serves the body you have today. So, be aware of what you've actually got available, not the clothing that you wish you could pull off. Next up, let's talk fragrance. You don't have to go expensive, you don't have to go niche, but I recommend that every man have at least one fragrance that when he sprays, it makes him feel like a million bucks. Because here's the deal, scent matters. In fact, we can condition ourselves to feel a certain way based off of what we smell. And the opposite is true because if you smell bad and you know you smell bad, your confidence levels drop. Seriously, this has been shown through multiple studies. So, of course, shower daily. Keep yourself clean. Make sure your clothing is washed. That's defense. But, don't be afraid to play a little bit of offense with a signature scent that you love. And you don't need to overpower. I think it's better to be discovered when wearing a fragrance than it is to announce yourself when you walk in and choke people out. But, yeah, the right fragrance can instantly level up your confidence and make you look better. Next up, let's talk watches. Notice I'm not talking fitness trackers, smart watches. No, I'm talking about classic mechanical watches. Tons of different styles out there, but in my opinion, every man should have one in his wardrobe. I know some of you guys are going to say watches are repetitive. My phone tells me the time, right? But, here's the deal. A classic watch, not only is this a piece of jewelry which I think draws attention, gets people's eyes. Actually, women notice a nice watch. But, a classic mechanical watch, it also can improve your relationship with time. Seriously, there was a whole study of people that wore watches were more likely to be on time. And from a stylistic perspective, it's so fun, it's so interesting and really is a great hobby to get into. So, guys, go out there and get a watch, level up your style in a matter of minutes. Now, getting back to grooming, this one is simple, cut your nails. Every week, have a routine of cleaning up your nails. You do not want to have dirty long nails. Seriously, go to Reddit, tons of threads on this. This is probably the number one thing that turns women off. And personally, it's something that I am a little bit repulsed by whenever you shake somebody's hands and they've got nails that are nasty and look like they can cut you up. Yeah, just something that you want to take care of. And speaking of taking care of, we talked about the daily shower. But, here's something you also need to be doing daily. Before going to bed, first thing in the morning, wash your face. And if you're over the age of 30, you deal with any flaking skin, make sure twice a week to exfoliate your face. Basically, this helps to remove dead skin cells and gives your face a more vibrant look. And after washing your face, use a moisturizer because a good facial moisturizer not only is it going to penetrate the skin, helping to make it softer and more firm, but it's also going to protect the skin. And this is important on really cold days or if you spend a lot of time in air-conditioned buildings. Yeah, it gets dry and moisture leaves the body oftentimes through the skin, so having that moisturized layer helps to protect the skin and keep it looking good all day. And now, let's talk about wrinkles. When it comes to cotton shirts, they will wrinkle up. I like to iron all my shirts once a week fresh out of the wash. In fact, I don't even throw them in the dryer. I just take that moist shirt, iron immediately. And the great part about doing this all at once, I find it's more effective, more time-efficient. I'll listen to some of my favorite audiobooks and, boom, just get the job done. Now, with linen clothing, I do find that you could iron it and a week later, a lot of the wrinkles have returned. You just have to understand with linen, usually you need to iron it the morning of. And by midday, definitely by mid-afternoon, the wrinkles will return. But, yeah, that's just the nature of linen, understanding it is a more casual fabric. Now, when it comes to non-ironed shirts, in general, you don't iron them because they contain performance materials that do not do well under heat. But, what you can do especially if they've got creases in them, if they do have a little bit of wrinkles even though they shouldn't, use a steamer. Now, as a guy that owns a lot of clothing, I invested in a full-size steamer, but I know most guys don't have it. So, make sure that the iron that you have, look at those holes at the bottom, you can actually use it as a steamer. It's got a steaming function and that can work as well. And by the way, the great part about steaming is that you can also use it on wool and more delicate materials. So, if you've got a suit, sports jacket, blazer, or a sweater, you can use the steam function on that iron to actually pull out any wrinkles. Again, you don't touch the iron to the surface, you keep it a good inch to two inches away, but you have that steam coming out. And, boom, look at that, the steam, doing what it's meant to do, pull out those wrinkles. Now, gents, if you enjoyed this video, I have a feeling that you're going to love this one. Seriously, go check it out. Boom, right here, keep watching. I got you covered here at Real Men Real Style. Hopefully, you enjoyed the video. If not, let me know in the comments or if, you know, I missed something. I always love hearing from you guys, but, oh, yeah.