The Importance of Professionalism in Modern Business

Okay, drum ROLL.  Pull back the curtains. Start the show. Break a leg.

We all know that social media can be a real PILL, especially if you’re trying to get a job at a bank, boring ol’ classic accounting firm, traditional office, etc. WE KNOW.Don’t post a picture of you and that fireball shot or YOU WILL BE SORRY! BUT, that is not what I’m talking about.  There is a difference between being stupid and being intentional.  You doing something ghastly inappropriate, illegal, or crass is NOT what I’m talking about here. 

What I want to dive into is past all that.

I want to talk about what you do once you’re free of that burden and how you handle yourself as a professional without a traditional “profession” to abide by.

I remember getting a call from a super boujee Chief Operating Officer (who wouldn’t go without her red bottom heels and LV clutch, lived in a $5 million dollar mansion kind of thing) who was put off by an Instagram pic I had posted.  I was fully clothed, in shorts and a tank top (not revealing in the least) and had my grandmother’s pink robe on.  It was edited with a bit of a sensual moodiness, but nothing too crazy. Remember when those church girls gave me crap about that same pic (read here). I remember feeling like I was being attacked for my art, my harmless art.  I wasn’t getting trashed at a party on camera. I wasn’t bashing the company name.  I wasn’t cursing.  I wasn’t showing off my bikini bod. I was just taking a simple photograph. 

The next job I got, I stood there in my interview and said:

“I just want to make sure that I can blog about what I want, post what I want, and be an artist outside of work, with no pressure or restrictions.”

My then soon-to-be boss said, “I don’t care what you post, just as long as it has nothing to do with our business, clients, or product.”

DEAL.  And off I went.

Okay, so now I was faced with a different challenge.

I have no rules. So create rules for yourself?  Much harder!

I know that people all over the spectrum read my stuff. Not bragging, I wish it was a “target audience” but it’s not.  It’s my Great Aunt in tim-buck-too, it’s Trevor’s extended family twice removed, it’s some random guy in Mexico who wants to marry me, I don’t know! I’m working on it.

What I was faced with at the time was defining who I wanted to be to EVERYONE when I had no rules.  Early on I made a pact, that hey, I wanted to be real, but I wanted to put limits on myself to keep it profesh.

Could I deal with a little leg, a little cleavage, a little sass, and a sexy pose? Yes.

I know TONS of conservative Moms who love looking at my stuff nonetheless. It’s pretty harmless. It’s fashion and it’s expressive.  (Sorry Mom / Isaiah, I know you don’t love it).  Was my choice going to piss off some random friends and family? Probably at some point.  Would Trevor’s (more conservative) people think differently of me? Probably. I was ready for it. I’m not going to change who I am to impress someone!

Could I deal with someone copy-pasting a terrible, awful, crass, blast of curse words and horrific writing and sending it to a potential client? NO. Absolutely not.

Hence where I got the idea for this post.

I don’t curse online. I MAY throw in a VERY necessary D word or S word, but NEVER an F word. You won’t see ONE TIME where I EVER said the F word online. EVER!

I have friends that are like “well, I choose to be exactly myself, my whole self, exactly the way I am all the time online.” I’m proud of them. That’s bold.

However, I get real… REAL big, important, special, amazing clients from being a presence online and I would be SO embarrassed if they were reading my blog and saw several capital letters screaming profanities and questioned me because of it.

I would feel super “icky” and uncomfortable cussing online.  So, it is me.  AND yes, sometimes I curse in person. Who doesn’t.  But it’s a strong choice I’ll stand behind.

So this moves me into another aspect of professionalism in blog writing or any online verbiage for that matter.  STOP SAYING “LOL and HAHA” in your posts! I mean, you can if you want to… but picture this:

You’re a new mom, searching for a post on breast feeding.  You do a quick Google search. You come across someone screaming profanities and dropping “haha” every other sentence.  Do you trust what they are saying? Do you really think that THIS material you’ve landed on is LEGITIMATE?  Is this someone’s “opinion” or is this factual evidence? Who knows!

One time I heard Tim Fariss say that if you write a book, you can’t write a “good” book, you need to write a “great book.” He thinks that publishing a “good book” could be more of a liability than an accomplishment & asset, because once it is out there, your name is on it… for life.  People have that book with YOUR name all over it.  His point is, if you’re going to put a piece of “work” out there, make it your best.  Make it sharable.  Make it count.

I honestly think that cursing, super casual “lols” in the middle of a blog is extremely distracting and it causes the writer to lose credibility.

Switching gears.

I’m okay with being a bit “provocative.” Sex sells and even some appliance brands (that shall not be named so I don’t get in trouble with YOU KNOW WHO) use a sexy, fresh, relevant, high fashion model blowing smoke over their cook top to get the point across.  It’s okay to have “fire” in marketing.  BUT, I would never see those large brands screaming profanities. 

Okay, moving on.

Professionalism is not only an instinct, skill, and art… it’s a choice. 

I choose to wear a bra to a nice dinner.  I know girls that don’t and trust me, a white see-through shirt is distracting to both me AND my boyfriend.

I choose to speak in WHOLE words when I text. “I C U” is not only “So 2003”; you never know if you’re texting your future boss. 

I choose to craft an email to a prospective client as if they are the CEO of Intel.  Just in case they like it that way.  It’s better to be safe than sorry.

At the end of the day, we all do things that we regret when we’re young.  I’m not old, but I’m wise enough to know that.  I’m just hoping that I’m SMART enough to KEEP myself from making LARGE, unspeakable mistakes that cost me business, money, relationships, and future opportunities.  Does that make sense?

Hopefully you found some value in all of this, even if you’re in a completely different work space.

You can be a creative, you can be yourself, you can be YOU and still be 100% professional!

Photos by my leasing agent, Julian!