WEBVTT - Look great fast

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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<v Speaker 1>Good Morning. This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's tip is about how to spend less time getting

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<v Speaker 1>ready in the morning. With a little thought up front

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<v Speaker 1>and more importantly, some mindset shifts, you can figure out

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<v Speaker 1>ways to look great fast. I know that getting ready

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<v Speaker 1>for work or school in the morning can consume a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of time, and unfortunately, the expectations for polish are

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<v Speaker 1>higher for some folks than others. I recently got a

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<v Speaker 1>letter from a Before Breakfast listener who had started a

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<v Speaker 1>new job as an attorney. She had a long commute

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<v Speaker 1>and a family she wanted to spend time with. Because

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<v Speaker 1>I am working in law, I have to always look

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<v Speaker 1>my best, she wrote. She listed various reasons this took

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<v Speaker 1>her a while. I have a curly head of hair,

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<v Speaker 1>so it takes time to tainment and look presentable, she said.

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<v Speaker 1>She also wrote that because of her particular coloring, I

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<v Speaker 1>have a lot of makeup to do. I can't just

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<v Speaker 1>swipe some mascara and I'm good. Because of the amount

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<v Speaker 1>of time it takes to get ready, I feel I

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<v Speaker 1>am always getting ready, driving, working, and not much else.

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<v Speaker 1>This listener asked if I had tips for looking put

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<v Speaker 1>together in less time. This is the biggest deterrent in

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<v Speaker 1>my life, and I just wish I could look as

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<v Speaker 1>naturally pretty as some She wrote, Well, listeners, this letter

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<v Speaker 1>got me. I just hate the idea of anyone, and

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<v Speaker 1>particularly someone who's building a career and raising a family,

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<v Speaker 1>losing big chunks of her life in the service of

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<v Speaker 1>exacting beauty standards. I want to assure our listener and

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<v Speaker 1>everyone that people with all sorts of hair, textures and

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<v Speaker 1>colorings can be naturally pretty, which, by the way, is

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<v Speaker 1>an overrated concept. In general. Most of us are never

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<v Speaker 1>going to be models, and even models don't wake up

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<v Speaker 1>looking like they do in photo shoots. Whenever I do

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<v Speaker 1>on camera work, I'm struck by how long the hair

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<v Speaker 1>and makeup people have to hover over me, touching things

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<v Speaker 1>up between takes. This should never be the standard for

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<v Speaker 1>day to day life. Instead, I think it's more helpful

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<v Speaker 1>for us mere mortals to acknowledge that, yes, people can

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<v Speaker 1>sometimes treat us differently based on appearance, but any given

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<v Speaker 1>person's appearance is going to fall within a certain range,

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<v Speaker 1>and we can aim for the top of that range,

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<v Speaker 1>and doing so can maybe help us project the confidence

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<v Speaker 1>and happiness that make anyone look more attractive. But there's

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<v Speaker 1>also a point of diminishing returns time spent getting ready

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<v Speaker 1>it is time not spent calling clients and meeting their needs.

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<v Speaker 1>And ultimately, a lawyer's success depends more on her being

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<v Speaker 1>a thoughtful and dedicated advocate for her clients versus the

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<v Speaker 1>shape of her eyebrows. So that's today's rant from a soapbox.

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<v Speaker 1>Now onto the practical matter of looking our best while

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<v Speaker 1>optimizing the scarce resource of time. My first suggestion for

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<v Speaker 1>anyone looking to get a grip on this is to

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<v Speaker 1>track how long it currently takes you to get ready.

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<v Speaker 1>How long do you spend in the shower, what do

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<v Speaker 1>you do in there? How long does it take to

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<v Speaker 1>get dressed and do hair and make up if that's

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<v Speaker 1>part of your routine. When you have these numbers, you

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<v Speaker 1>can make thoughtful choices about what to trim. You wouldn't

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<v Speaker 1>want to nix something that took thirty seconds but had

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<v Speaker 1>a huge impact on your confidence. Something that takes ten

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<v Speaker 1>minutes and doesn't do much for you, well, that's worth cutting.

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<v Speaker 1>I would also recommend investing in some good building blocks.

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<v Speaker 1>A skilled hairstylist can give you a haircut that flatters

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<v Speaker 1>you but doesn't take a whole lot of maintenance. In general,

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<v Speaker 1>you're best off working with your natural hair texture, and

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<v Speaker 1>curly hair can definitely look professional. It might help to

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<v Speaker 1>spend a few minutes looking through online photo galleries of

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<v Speaker 1>people with similar hair to convince you of this and

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<v Speaker 1>to get ideas for your most flattering cut. Makeup can

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<v Speaker 1>likewise be paired down with the help of a pro.

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<v Speaker 1>Seek out a local makeup artist to give you pointers

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<v Speaker 1>and decide on a quantity of time you are willing

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<v Speaker 1>to devote to make up, ideally something lower than your

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<v Speaker 1>current tally. If you decide that you want to spend, say,

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<v Speaker 1>five minutes on daily makeup, then a professional can help

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<v Speaker 1>you optimize within that. The same goes for a wardrobe,

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<v Speaker 1>either on your own or with the help of a

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<v Speaker 1>stylist or a stylish friend. Pare down your work wardrobe

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<v Speaker 1>to say eleven outfits that fit perfectly and look fabulous

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<v Speaker 1>on you. Why eleven, Well, you can cycle through them

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<v Speaker 1>and then you won't always be wearing the same thing

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<v Speaker 1>on a Tuesday meeting. With the right basic pieces, you

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<v Speaker 1>can just pull out the next outfit in line, and

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<v Speaker 1>stop agonizing over this decision. Someone with a big job

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<v Speaker 1>and a family definitely has better things to do. Most importantly, though,

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<v Speaker 1>I'd recommend experimenting with a little mindset shift the hard

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<v Speaker 1>truth people pay far less attention to us than we

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<v Speaker 1>think they do. There's a famous experiment where a college

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<v Speaker 1>student interacted with peers while wearing a very man a

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<v Speaker 1>low T shirt, something the researchers deemed to be humiliating.

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<v Speaker 1>The subject assumed almost everyone noticed. The surveys afterward found

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<v Speaker 1>that almost no one noticed. The other students were too

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<v Speaker 1>concerned with their own appearances and their own lives to

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<v Speaker 1>notice someone else's T shirt. Likewise, if you work in

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<v Speaker 1>a professional environment with clients, you need to look polished,

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<v Speaker 1>But your clients are too wrapped up in their own

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<v Speaker 1>problems and the daily tedium of commutes and such to

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<v Speaker 1>notice the exact shape of anyone's eyebrows. To convince yourself

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<v Speaker 1>of this, try not doing something one day here and there.

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<v Speaker 1>On some morning, challenge yourself to spend two minutes on

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<v Speaker 1>makeup and see where the chips fall. On some other morning,

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<v Speaker 1>just comb your hair, put it in a low ponytail,

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<v Speaker 1>and walk out the door. Does anyone say anything? Does

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<v Speaker 1>anyone notice? I would bet a lot that the answer

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<v Speaker 1>is no. And once you see this, you can be

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<v Speaker 1>empowered to invest sometime in looking decent, but much more

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<v Speaker 1>time and being the sort of person that people want

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<v Speaker 1>to work with. Time is valuable and you don't want

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<v Speaker 1>to invest much of it and something with rapidly diminishing returns. Listeners,

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<v Speaker 1>if you have suggestions for getting ready and less time,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm all ears. You can let me know at Before

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<v Speaker 1>Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com. In the meantime,

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<v Speaker 1>this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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<v Speaker 1>the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to

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<v Speaker 1>hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

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<v Speaker 1>or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook

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<v Speaker 1>and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod. That's b E the

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<v Speaker 1>number four than breakfast p O. You can also shoot

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<v Speaker 1>me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart

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<v Speaker 1>media dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out with

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<v Speaker 1>all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to

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<v Speaker 1>staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I

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<v Speaker 1>Heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit

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