You know that old saying, "If you fail to prepare,
then you're preparing to fail"?
Completely true of public speaking.
So, if you prepared your speech,
now you kind of need to prepare everything else.
And one of the things you can control is your outfit.
You want to make sure that you feel good in that talk and you
don't suddenly regret wearing the wrong thing.
So what are some things to keep in mind?
Well first, dress for the ethos and identification you want.
I don't always think that you should dress up.
I think you should dress strategically.
And what I mean by that is, what's the speaker persona that you're trying to convey?
What's the identification you need for that audience?
Now, in general, you're trying to identify with that audience.
Costuming is all part of that.
Typically, I want to dress as well,
if not, slightly better than the audience.
I don't want to dress up too much, right?
That's going to hurt my ability to identify with them.
So, this is my default teaching attire, right?
It's not shabby. It's not nice.
And man, this is Professor Matt.
Now most of my talks and workshops are in this mode.
So, if I'm running a workshop for scientists
in the US or in Europe and I show up in a suit,
I kind of feel overdressed.
But, you can always shed some items to better fit in.
So, if you don't know the speech situation well, dress flexibly, right?
You can't make nicer clothes appear,
and I learned this the hard way.
So, one time I was invited to do a talk and I didn't really investigate the audience.
So I rushed, right?
And so it was a talk that I had done a bunch.
It was on presidential rhetoric.
And it's a little bit of history, it's a little bit of theory.
It's great, right? Now in the speech,
I get to be Professor Matt, right?
I like him. He's fun.
But he's a sweater guy,
a nice pair of slacks and sweater, no tie.
And that was usually right at or just above what the audience was wearing.
So, I go to this talk in Professor Matt's outfit.
Wrong. It was a nice club and they were all in suits and professional attire.
Is that fine? No, it was not.
So, I go in and the woman in charge of getting me set up was like,
"Okay, Matt, we're so happy to have you.
We're looking forward to this talk.
We do have a dress code and you'll be needing to wear a jacket.
So, we have a few complimentary ones for you."
So, I got to go put on this huge jacket. It doesn't fit.
I look like I'm 12 years old.
It's a huge blow to my confidence right before starting the talk.
Since then I've learned,
if you don't know the audience, dress accordingly.
So, if you don't know the audience, dress flexibly.
I've shown up to a talk in a suit and tie,
gauged the room, and dialed in on the identification.
I take off the coat, I can take off the tie,
but I can't make it magically appear out of nowhere, okay?
So finally, I would say, dress for the tech.
If you know you're going to need to use a microphone,
that might affect your clothing choices.
A wireless microphone works great on a lapel with
the mike pack in the back pocket or clipped to a belt on your front pocket.
Now for women, that might mean wearing a coat.
Blouse materials often not sturdy enough to hold a wireless mike.
It might be better having a belt with your skirt if you
don't want to have to carry around that mike pack with you everywhere you go.
Now also, for any type of microphone,
you might avoid large jewelry that might jingle or make a noise.
Now, no terrible speech was ever saved by a great suit,
but costuming should be deliberate.
What's the ethos that you want for that audience?