In image says more than a thousand words, that’s true in business and politics. Some become leaders, others follow.
* Written by Lorena Hebé Moreno, Image consultant, journalist. Passionate about knowledge. She likes challenging projects, having a good conversation and music.
Reunions are always exciting, it allows us to value the present, it creates the perfect balance between the past and it allows us, above all, to take the most useful decisions towards the construction of our destiny.
Today is the day I meet with the press and I cannot be more excited. Four years ago, I left the written media and I launched myself into the adventure of the television world. No matter how hard I tried to keep in touch with my pencil and paper, day by day, I was wrapped up in learning, information, administrative matters, and my obsession with school, to which I saw all my time being absorbed.
As I am ready to face my past, I also find sense a fear in me, a fear – I imagine – hits us all when we start a new project and make it public, the fear of what they will say to us.
That fear that I am feeling is what allows me to be in contact with you. For years, I hated talking about image issues because I feared of what they will say. Moreover, I refused to acknowledge that our background is always the most important thing, the background is always the origin of form… I failed to realize that denying my charm had a lot to do with the image I had of myself.
It was until one day that I faced that fear and decided to reconcile with myself and enhance what I had lived for many years with him: I decided to specialize in issues of power and public image. Yes, specialize in the image of what we see every day, the power of the first impression, the light and the shadow, the element that makes some leaders and other followers. I decided to take on what makes people stand out and have others admire them. Yes, I took on the image we see and everything behind it – what almost nobody sees – to achieve results that impact, in other words, the invisible government, as Edward Bernays calls it: planning, building speeches, selecting one approach above another, building the soul of what is seen, the spirit of what is said, the essence of the image.
My job took me to to the bottom of a figure like Barack Obama, I studied what it was about him that made him the most powerful man on Earth, the Nobel of peace, the most popular and the most beloved leader of this time. This new adventure also took me on exploring the image of Angela Merkel and finding out how a conservative man and a brief smile has the toughest handle in Europe and America. The job took me to inquire into the motives that make Vladimir Putin an unbearable man that during his day plans an attack and an irresistible shirtless leader hunting in the forest.
My decision took me to investigate how David Cameron left his place to Theresa May; to lay the foundations in knowing how Enrique Peña gained wasted image and a lost speech throughout his presidency.
My job gave me an insight to great corporate leaders: How does Carlos Slim deliver a forceful message? What young entrepreneurs have combined glamour and technology? What with the hundred black jerseys that Steve Jobs kept in his closet? How did it help him deliver a statement?
Image can help you approach power: Why do people love Coca-Cola despite the high rates of diabetes? How does the Bimbo bear that help its company best qualifications in terms of social responsibility? Why is the iPhone still an object of desire? Why are CEOs who they are?
Unknowingly, this obsession with the image cleared the way for me to rediscover my other great passion: written journalism.
So that’s what this column is about, it is a call for you to rediscover the meaning of everything you see, the images you perceive, to crumble the photographs you see every day. It is a call so you listen again to the speech we have heard unheeded; to look at the spectacular as we drive in the big cities; to formulate together theories and strategies to improve the public image, to understand it and to rethink it.
These are reunions: with ourselves, with the commitment to our country, with the in-depth analysis of things, with building a stronger and more powerful reputation. Of image and of power.
