The New Professional Image: From Business Casual to the Ultimate Power Look [Paperback]

In today's fast paced business world, impressions regarding your competence, intelligence, and reliability are often formed within seconds - based on your appearance. Knowing how to present yourself as effective and confident is as critical as any business skill on your resume.

Susan Bixler is one of America's top corporate image consultants - and an expert on how you can refine your personal appearance for business success.

Along with more traditional standards for office dress, appearance, and behavior, the growing popularity of "business casual" dress policies mean that you face a new set of decisions about what qualifies as appropriate or effective dress. In The New Professional Image Susan Bixler and Nancy Nix-Rice explain the new standards for today's workplace, with guidelines, practical examples, and creative new ideas for making the most of your professional appearance.

Her client list includes many of the Fortune 500 companies: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, American Express, Deloitte & Touche, Hughes Electronics, Merck & Co., Kimberly-Clark, Cessna Aircraft, IBM, The Coca-Cola Company, AT&T, Hewlett Packard, Bristol Myers, Walt Disney World, CitiGroup, the Marriott Hotels, Estee Lauder and Motorola, among 1,500 others.

Ms. Bixler has been referenced by the national media as the leading expert in her area. Her advice has been quoted in Time, Newsweek, People Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Industry Week, Glamour Magazine, Vogue, Mademoiselle, Savvy Magazine, Working Woman and 70 other national publications. Ms. Bixler has been featured on the cover of USA Today several times.

Ms. Bixler has been interviewed by Diane Sawyer, Oprah Winfrey, Maria Shriver, PM Magazine and The Wall Street Journal Report. She has shared the speaking platform with Elizabeth Dole, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Francis Lear, Mariette Hartley, Deborah Norville, and Rocky Bleier, among many others. She has served on the advisory board of the Cosmetic, Toiletries and Fragrance Association in Washington D.C. and helped formulate Dr. Joyce Brothers' image and media message.

Ms. Bixler won the distinguished 1992 IMMIE Award presented by the Image Industry Council for her contributions to the image industry. She was honored in 1996 as the first woman inducted into the Louisville Hall of Fame for her professional achievements. The Professional Image, Inc. is a corporate charter member of the Association of Image Consultants International, the largest image consulting organization in the world.

Ms. Bixler has written and appeared in two of the best-selling corporate videotapes from America Media, The Professional Image and Professional Presence. Both videos have won numerous awards including the prestigious Telly Award.

As an author, Ms. Bixler has sold over 300,000 copies of her best-selling books, The Professional Image and Professional Presence, published by G. P. Putnam and Berkeley. Professional Presence has been translated into three languages. Her third business book, Take Action!: 18 Proven Strategies for Advancing in Today's Changing Business World, was published by Random House in 1997. It is into the fourth printing and has been translated into Chinese, German and Russian.

Nancy Nix-Rice is an internationally known image consultant, speaker, and trainer with extensive background in fashion retail and corporate and personal development training. As a retailer, she has earned awards for improving store performance and has sat on the advisory councils for both industry buying services. As an instructor for the prestigious Dale Carnegie Institute, she has repeatedly been honored for outstanding classroom results.

In 1988 she founded her own company, First Impressions, to provide image development services to individuals, associations, and corporations. Ms. Nix-Rice has held training sessions in 48 of the 50 states. Her clients include Southwestern Bell, Ralston Purina, Monsanto, Deloitte & Touche, Malinckrodt Medical, Hyatt and Marriott Hotels, Jenny Craig Weight Loss Centers, Professional Secretaries International, the Association for Family and Consumer Sciences, and the US Postal Service.

Ms. Nix-Rice's first book, Looking Good, is a comprehensive guide to wardrobe planning for women. The book is winning praise from both consumers and industry peers. Other image consultants have called it "the best available on how to dress with total confidence" and "a comprehensive resource for getting maximum value from each clothing dollar."

She has consistently earned accolades as a top consultant with Beauty For All Seasons, an international image firm. She has produced nine training videos in the fashion home-sewing field.

Her business has been featured on the cover of the St. Louis Business Plus and in Income Opportunities magazine. Ms. Nix-Rice has been quoted in numerous print articles and television features about business casual dressing. She appears regularly as a guest expert on QVC national cable television.

Ms. Nix-Rice holds an undergraduate degree in accounting with a minor in fashion merchandising and a master's degree in corporate communications. She and her husband Richard are parents of five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4.