I am now running my blog over at www.martinbentsen.com, where I specialize in helping actors market, brand, and promote themselves.

Check out my blog at this link.

You're probably on this site because you're considering a professional headshot. Well, knowing what to wear in your headshot is just as important as knowing what to wear in real life, so that's why I'm writing this post!

​Let me first make this clear: I have never had a sense of style! But by doing a bit of research and putting some color-matching rules together (and asking a stylist friend of mine for a couple tips & tricks), I'm now fortunate to say I almost always look well-dressed when I go out. This article was specifically written to help people who HATE picking outfits (especially men) to quickly figure out what to wear and ensure they look good!

​I LOVE systems and setting something up once so it saves me a ton of time later on. Today I'd like to share a super simple system I built to ensure that I'm able to perfectly match my outfits and look great on a daily basis - all while feeling extremely comfortable & relaxed in my clothes - and using EVERY piece of my wardrobe.

So why did I create this system? Because I used to wear the most terribly mismatched outfits - sometimes so bad that my team would make fun of me and say, "What are you wearing? That looks ridiculous!" Because of those jabs, I decided to set up a system to ensure I never looked foolish again, especially since I am a photographer interacting with tons of clients and occasionally doing public speaking. I believe we all have to ensure that we present ourselves well since first impressions are constantly being formed about us.

My belief is if you want to look great every day, your clothing should be timeless. Following the most recent fashion trend might look good for a few months, but pretty soon you'll need to buy a whole new wardrobe because certain clothing items won't be popular anymore and you'll quickly look out of date (think crocs or bell-bottom jeans). I don't enjoy spending money on clothes, so I own just a few things that will always work, regardless of What's Trendy This Summer, etc.

​To keep things simple, here are the three most important rules I follow:

1. Clothes need to fit properly. Clothes should generally be form-fitting, meaning the seams on the shoulders of shirts should be right near the edge of your shoulder, the waist should be somewhat tapered close to your body, and the sleeves should not be too baggy. Lots of guys should wear medium instead of large shirts. Pants should be the right length, meaning the cuff should just slightly rest on the top of the shoe, and they should be somewhat form fitting around your legs, not too baggy and not skin-tight!
2. Colors need to match. Make sure the colors you wear together actually go together. If you're color-blind, you can use free apps that tell you colors or you can ask a friend, and then just write the names of the colors inside the shirts or pants so you remember for next time. We'll discuss color matching in detail in the next section.
3. Feeling comfortable is a MUST. I used to look stylish at the expense of comfort, but I quickly gave up on style and went back to wearing loose jeans and sneakers every day because I wanted to feel comfortable. But eventually I realized I can have both! I love wearing Cole Haan shoes now because they look great but they are designed with sneaker insoles (even their dress shoes) so they are ultra comfortable. I also wear pants that stretch because they can be form-fitting while still feeling super comfortable (and they rarely get wrinkled).

Since I'm generally terrible at matching colors together and remembering all the rules, I wrote a simple cheat sheet for myself that I keep in my phone. When I'm getting ready every morning, I just consult the little chart to ensure that the pants, shirt, shoes, and jacket I'm wearing all match. The entire process of picking out an outfit and getting dressed with this system takes me less than five minutes.

Below you'll find the cheat sheet. Just make sure that whatever colors you match ALL match together. For instance, if you wear something pink and decide to match it with blue, you can't then wear black shoes because even though pink goes with black, the black won't go with the blue.

Important Note: I know some people reading this blog might think my list is inaccurate because it doesn't consider shading and patterns, etc., but I want to keep things simple. My belief is that it's OK to mess up sometimes, and then you can make a note for yourself if a certain outfit combination didn't work. A great resource is a free app called DAMNNN! I occasionally use it if I'm not sure an outfit is going to work - a real stylist will immediately message you back on whether an outfit you're wearing looks good or needs some tweaks to look better. And this service is free!

White
Pairs well with everything.
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Red
Pairs well with pink, brown, purple, yellow, white, tan, blue, gray, black, and teal.

Yellow
Pairs well with blue, red, black, tan, green, gray, pink, white, and teal.

Green
Pairs well with blue, purple, black, gray, brown, white, yellow, and teal.

Teal
Pairs well with green, red, blue, gray, tan, pink, black, yellow, and white.

Blue
Pairs well with green, white, red, tan, pink, gray, orange, yellow, red, teal, purple, brown, and plaid.

Purple
Pairs well with blue, red, green, white, black, brown, gray, and orange.

Pink
Pairs well with gray, blue, red, black, white, yellow, and teal.

Gray
Pairs well with more subtle colors of pink, blue, red, yellow, tan, green, orange, purple, black, white, and teal.

Brown
Pairs well with tan, white, blue, red, green, purple, and orange.

Black
Pairs well with white, pink, teal, red, dark green, yellow, tan, purple, gray, and orange.

Orange
Pairs well with black, brown, purple, blue, white, and gray.

Tan
Pairs well with red, yellow, white, teal, blue, gray, brown, black, and plaid.

Plaid
Pairs well with blue, tan, and white.

I hope that checklist simplifies the color matching process for you. As you probably noticed, I included plaid as a color, only because it often has numerous colors mixed together. I've found it's easiest to just wear plaid with blue, tan, or white because you minimize the risk of mismatching any of the colors (blue, tan, and white go with almost everything).

Below I'll explain how I personally use my color checklist from above to take less than 5 minutes to pick an outfit and get dressed (with about a 98% chance of not making a mistake), but before we move on, I'd like to quickly add a list of DON'Ts. These are certain things you should avoid if at all possible (unless you're feeling very experimental):

Do Not Mix:
Brown & black
Red & green
Gray & brown
Blue & black
Green & pink
Green & orange
Purple & yellow
Red & orange
Dark gray with bright, intense colors

Those colors often don't go together and could get you into trouble. I generally stay away from them because I like to play things safe. If you're feeling more adventurous than me, try breaking the rules! You never know if you'll come up with something great... or fail miserably. My general rule is to stick to three different colors or less so things stay simple (white doesn't count as a color).

The only other thing to note is that you want to avoid wearing colors that are very close to each other (like blue pants and a blue jacket) because it will look like you tried to match them exactly but failed miserably. Either wear an exact matching suit or go two completely different colors so it's obvious you weren't trying to match them! 🙂

What I love most about my new system is that I literally wear every single thing I own. No longer do I "80/20" my wardrobe where 80% of my clothes stay unused while the remaining 20% get worn so often that they literally fall apart. I'd like to share my exact dresser and closet system with you here so you see what I do (and then I'll make some suggestions if you don't want to follow my system exactly).

1. The first thing I did in order to set up this system was I looked through everything in my drawers and closet. I got rid of anything I didn't like or knew wasn't comfortable to wear.
2. Next, I took all my hanging shirts and pants out of my closet and folded them. You'd be surprised at how wrinkle-free things stay, even when they're folded!
3. I separated my cold weather from my warm weather clothes. I put all the cold weather clothes into two big bins that I now store at the top of my closet, ready to be taken down and switched when Autumn comes. By doing this, I freed up a lot of space in my drawers and closet.
4. Next, I arranged all my pants and shirts into drawers - all the long pants in one drawer, all my shorts in another, all my t-shirts, polos, button downs, etc. You get the idea. In some drawers, if I didn't have that many items (like shorts and t-shirts), I would put them in the same drawer (separate rows) since I only have a few drawers.
5. I folded everything in such a way to be visible from above so I can instantly see into my drawer and know exactly what each shirt or pair of pants is. Nothing is on top of something else (except socks). See the photos below.
6. I left only my suits, jackets, and super fancy clothing hanging in the closet - anything that absolutely needed to stay hanging or would take way too much space in the drawers. Everything else was moved to my dresser. See the image further down.
7. Once this organization was complete, I was easily able to start building my outfits for each day.

​I'd rather have my clothes a tiny bit wrinkly from time to time and just use my wife's steamer when needed than never wear the article of clothing at all. I've found that when my clothes are in the closet, I rarely think to wear them since I keep most of my day to day stuff in my drawers.

I tend to work right to left (or back to front) in my drawers when grabbing new things, and whenever I do laundry I just put the clean, folded pieces on the opposite side of where I grab from. Slowly I rotate through every single piece in my wardrobe by doing this.

Note: If you always wear things from your closet, you can just rotate through items one at a time and put a small marker around whichever hanger you just took from so that you know to grab the next item in line the next day. Just move left to right or right to left.

Once you have a pair of pants that matches your shirt and shoes, it's time to think about whether you want to make your outfit look more crisp. Here are a few tips that can take outfits from boring to snazzy!

• Tuck in your shirt (don't do this with t-shirts though).
• Wear a nice watch (not an Apple Watch).
• Try using different color shoelaces (you can buy different ones on Amazon).
• Try wearing nicer-looking shoes.
• Try rolling up the sleeves on button-downs. This looks great with a nice watch.
• Wear a tie or pocket square. And try adding a tie clip if you want!
• Wear shirts with French cuffs and cufflinks.
• Wear nice sunglasses when you're outside.
• Wear a well-fitted jacket that color matches your outfit (or one up it by wearing a suit jacket or blazer - even with jeans).
• Buy a cool belt that's a unique color like blue or beige (rather than just a brown or black one).
• Wear dress socks with nice designs (and if you don't like how thin they are because they get holes, wear a pair of short black gym socks underneath the dress socks - it makes them feel much more comfortable & thick in any pair of shoes).
• Make sure your haircut is looking good.
• If you're a girl, jewelry is always great too.

​​I hope you're not overwhelmed by the amount of information in this article. As someone who works with clients to help them look great for camera, I aim to make things not only effective, but also simple. In this final section, I'd like to just give you an idea of my process, step by step, so you see how easy it is to use this system to figure out what to wear.

​

1. Season: I already have all my winter clothes put away for the warm weather, but if I didn't I would need to make sure I'm wearing colors that are appropriate to the season - brighter colors in warm weather and darker colors in cold weather.
2. Weather: If it's going to be dingy and raining, I stick with darker, muted colors, and if it's going to be bright and sunny, I'll stick to more colorful colors.
3. Formality: If I'm going to a fancy event, I'll plan to wear something more formal, and if I'm just hanging out, I'll wear something more casual.
4. Start with pants. Knowing all the above, I'll open my pants drawer. Whatever pair of pants is furthest to the right I'll choose - unless it doesn't match the conditions above. For instance, if it's going to be a bright, sunny day and it's a weekend, I won't wear the pair of gray pants that should be next, or the black ones next to those. I'll just choose the blue jeans that are up third since they go better with bright days.
5. Pick a shirt. Knowing the weather, I'll open either my long-sleeve shirt drawer or my short-sleeve drawer. Whichever shirt is furthest to the right is the one I'll wear, assuming it matches the color of the pants. So since it's going to be a warm and sunny day, and I don't have any important meetings, I'll wear a short-sleeve polo shirt. The next one in line is black. That doesn't match blue jeans (or the bright weather), so I'll look at the next one, which is red. Cool, it matches, so that's going to be my outfit today!
6. Pick shoes & a belt. I usually try to match my shoes and belt unless I want to be experimental. Black won't match blue jeans, so I'll pick brown shoes. So now I've got brown shoes, brown belt, blue jeans, and a red polo shirt.
7. One-up my outfit. I don't want to tuck in my shirt since I'm going for casual, but I decide to do a few other things: I put on a nice watch that matches, do my hair, and pick out a lightweight blue jacket to wear since it's still a bit chilly this morning. I had previously thrown some tan laces onto my brown shoes which made them look more summery, and they look fine. Finally, I'll wear some nice socks. Technically I can choose any color socks as long as they match, but I often try to wear a similar color sock to my pants, so I'll just grab a pair of dark blue argyle dress socks and put them on over a pair of short black gym socks so they feel really comfortable.
8. I'm done!​

I've never worn this exact outfit before but it took me less than 5 minutes to put it together and get dressed. I'm happy because it matches and looks fine! You can see a picture below.

My goal is not to go overboard and be crazy and try to have perfect outfits every time. I'm sure some people who look at this outfit will have critiques. But what I know is three things:

1. I get to use all my clothes I own.
2. My clothes match fairly well every day.
3. I'm super comfortable every day, and I look good.

Those are really the only things I really care about. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me in this post, feel free to leave a comment below!

Seeing as I will be turning 30 in just a few months, and I'm getting ready to dive into the metaphorical river of true "adulthood," I decided it would make sense to write down some of the biggest things I've learned over the past decade. From going to college to starting my own business, hiring employees, getting married, and having a dog and two cats (one of whom has sadly passed away), I've definitely learned a lot!

I think the four most important distinctions I've made so far are the following:

1. Stop being distracted by shiny objects.
2. Enjoy life now and stop putting it off until later.
3. Use money for what I love most.
4. Push past my comfort zone.

​The funny thing? I learned these all within the past six months. And since I've learned them, a lot has changed.

As a young millennial, my number one priority throughout my twenties was this: Become Rich & Famous.

Luckily I'm not obsessed with this idea anymore, but this insane hunger for success had led me to read tons of books, buy all kinds of courses, and constantly look for the next big idea that could make me successful. It was great at the beginning because it led me to start this business, but then it quickly turned into my Achilles heel.

My hunger for success caused me to become obsessed with finding the next shiny object, and it distracted me from following through on anything worthwhile.

At one point, it got so bad that I randomly wanted to completely leave City Headshots to try to become a famous PGA golfer! So absurd.

It's funny because it seemed that the more things I learned, the less I followed through. The more marketing strategies I read about and the more business development courses I took, the less I did to actually grow my business. I would literally start implementing a great idea and three days later, I'd come up with a new idea, and would abandon the first one completely!

It took me about nine years to break the habit, and I have Ramit Sethi to thank for that.

But now that the habit is dead, I realize how important it is to SLOW DOWN. I can't do everything at once, and if I try, I'll wind up doing absolutely nothing.

I've become much more methodical in my processes and I now take plenty of time to make decisions and act on them. There is no race! No one cares how rich or successful you are, or how old you are when you reach your goals. What matters most is that you stay true to what you care about and follow through on those things, otherwise you'll accomplish LESS!

The sad part about all this is that my perverse obsession with fame and success made me almost completely miss enjoying my twenties! I spent every day working like crazy to grow my business (which didn't even grow by more than 20% throughout all 10 years), and when I look back at my social life then, I realize it was almost non-existent. I don't have many friends, I don't have many college memories, and I didn't have many fun, life changing experiences - besides my own wedding and some amazing trips with my wife. Honestly if it weren't for my wife I probably would have gone insane years ago.

We only have one life to live, and we often become so obsessed with working towards goals that life winds up passing us by.

As I said earlier, I look back on my last decade and realize that I have very few great memories. And what's crazier... my business has not even grown much in that time! Although I worked like crazy on it every day, it stayed pretty much stagnant. Here's a quote I think would be perfect here:

"Being busy is a form of laziness. Lazy thinking and indiscriminate action." - Tim Ferris

It's important that we stop spending our time making ourselves busy by obsessing over little things like arguments with people, stressful days at work, and spending three hours on the phone on a beautiful Saturday afternoon fighting a $15 internet surcharge, etc. We need to just relax and enjoy life.

I recently heard a story about a guy (let's call him Peter) who's father worked so hard when he was just a young boy that they hardly got to see each other. The father's plan was to grow his business as much as possible until he could sell it and retire (he planned for age 53), and then he would spend the rest of his time enjoying life and relaxing. Peter didn't see his father at all for months at a time because he would leave before Peter woke up and get home after he went to bed.

Well, at age 52, Peter's father was diagnosed with ALS. And by age 53, he had died, never able to enjoy that retirement he'd be so looking forward to.

This story really hit home for me because from age 20 to 29 I had been working like crazy almost every single day, just like Peter's father. I would do shoots at the studio during the week and then work on weekends trying new marketing tactics. I'd even have my laptop out at night instead of spending time with my wife and animals.

I'm very grateful that I learned to slow down before jumping into that metaphorical river of adulthood I mentioned earlier. Otherwise I'd seriously be swept away by the current with non-furry kids (which we plan to have in the next year or so) and all the responsibilities that come with that!

Not only do I now have way more time to enjoy life, but I've also stopped chasing shiny objects. Because I'm no longer worried about some sort of imaginary time-limit on my success, I've been able to clarify my thoughts and have been way more effective in growing my business. We grow by 10% in just the last quarter of 2018, where, prior to me slowing down, the business had grown by just 2-3% per year!

Paretto's 80/20 rule states that for the first 20% of effort you put in, you'll get 80% of the results. and the last 80% of effort will only get you 20% of results. This rule can be seen in all different areas of life, from 20% of crops generating 80% of harvests, to 20% of clients generating 80% of revenue, and even to people using only 20% of their wardrobe 80% of the time.

Using the 80/20 principle, I now focus my time on the biggest ROI generating tasks. I look at all the things I could be doing and ask myself, if I could only do 1/5th of these things, which would make the biggest difference?

I've now deliberately set up myself so that I spend 80% of my time doing things I love or hanging out with family, and 20% of my time working on tasks that will generate 80% of growth for my business.

And the most amazing part is that I've found that when I work on those important tasks now, I do them much better than I used to because my mind is so clear. I'm excited to get those things done instead of feeling drained like I used to, and I think that's why the business is growing so much faster now.

Because of societal expectations, most of us are led to believe that we need to save up and buy a car, house, and many other things. We're led to believe that we should skip buying lattes so we can put the savings towards retirement.

Well, plan on skipping lattes for 171 years if you want to save $250,000 to retire. Which, by the way, will probably not even be enough!

One interesting thing I've learned is that buying a house is generally not a great investment - in many cases, it winds up being a liability that costs you money in the long run. If you look at the data, putting your savings into an index fund growing at 7% annually will often beat the returns you'll get on a house, plus you won't have to pay property taxes and upkeep, and if you ever needed the money for an emergency, it's much easier to access than if it were tied up in a house. I understand that some people need more space, but fortunately my wife and I are happy living in tiny spaces - we've been doing so since college!

So I'm now much more careful with where I put my money. Some people enjoy traveling, some enjoy food, and others love fancy things. Personally, I love convenience. And now that I'm aware of that, I've begun taking steps to allow myself to put my money towards things that bring such convenience.

For example, I came up with a rough estimate of how much money I could spend each month on cab rides, and it turned out to be about $150. So I set up a simple, free app on my phone that automatically adds $150 each month into an imaginary "envelope" that I can subtract cab expenses from. I no longer feel guilty if I decide I want to take a cab home from my wife's grandparents' house in Long Island if it's getting late. Sure it might cost $70 for an Uber, but who cares when I haven't taken a cab in a few weeks and there is $210 in my cab budget?

By looking at where I'm spending money and cutting out the things I don't care about (like cable television or buying alcohol when I'm out to eat with people), I can easily allocate that money towards things that make me super happy, like flying in an upgraded airline seat, hiring a maid to clean and do laundry for $120 per month (yes this is doable if you search Craigslist), or hiring a virtual assistant to save me time and do things I don't enjoy doing - like organizing events, booking flights, or taking care of other time-consuming tasks.

Don't get me wrong, I still save money like everyone else, but by not spending my money on things that my family and friends expect me to spend it on (like a house or cable), I'm able to allocate more to things that make me truly happy. And as I get ready to step into that metaphorical river of real "adulthood," I think this will be a great skill to have because it will give me much more control of my finances throughout life.

I'm not about to talk about doing psychological things that frighten you (like laying down on the floor randomly in public or asking ten women for their phone number). That's what I always used to think "stepping out of your comfort zone" meant. But I completely missed the point!

I think everyone ought to do a self-assessment at least once a year.

What do I mean by self-assessment? I mean take an honest look at where you are in life compared to where you want to be, and see how much progress you've actually made within the past year or two. The results might freak you out!

​Let me tell you a little story so you have an analogy.

About two and a half years ago, I started going to the gym. I would go almost every day, five days a week. Ultra consistent, tracking my calories, and within five months, I completely changed my physique and finally had abs!

But what happened over the course of the next two years? Well, I would bulk and cut, bulk and cut, change up my workout routine, and I really felt like I was making a ton of progress! Because weight lifting is a long and slow process, you tend to feel like you're progressing because you keep seeing the scale change and you change your workouts here and there, so it feels like you're getting stronger. I had no doubt I was getting bigger and stronger and would look amazing after finishing my next cutting cycle.

Well, I did a self-assessment on my weightlifting a couple months ago and that's when I realized that in two years of weightlifting, I had gained just ONE SOLITARY POUND of muscle. HOW AWFUL! A weightlifter with my experience level should be able to gain about 20-25 pounds of muscle in that time frame!

Upon noticing my lack of progress, I decided to check my workout logs and one-rep maxes. I realized that I had not actually been pushing myself in the gym and most of my one-rep maxes were exactly the same as they were two years ago. Because I had not been progressively lifting heavier weights (and instead would just change the exercise I did when it started to get too hard), I had not gained any new muscle to speak of.

At first I felt completely terrible, like I wasted the past two years of my time going to the gym. But then I felt happy that I noticed this now instead of five years from now. I realized exactly what needed to change, and I started pushing much harder and working on increasing those one-rep maxes. This all started about 3 months ago, and since then I have gained about 3 pounds of muscle in just 3 months!

Thinking about my business, I knew that it had stalled and stayed at almost the exact same level for the past 9 years, and even though I was doing all kinds of different tactics, nothing seemed to work.

I realized that, just like changing my workout routine constantly, changing my business marketing strategies and the services we were offering our clients too often was holding my business back from growing.

I know now that I really need to push myself outside my comfort zone if I want to grow. Rather than getting worried certain services or taking on too many clients would be too difficult, we are now saying yes to larger projects that are outside our comfort zone because we know that offering these services is what we need to do if we're to start growing again.

Originally I thought stepping out of your comfort zone only applied to growing as a person psychologically, but now I realize how vital it is in all areas of life. I need to face the things that scare me most and push past them. I need to stop changing tactics and trying something new whenever things get hard. I need to dive headfirst into this river that faces me and never look back.

What's the difference between using a simple photo taken by a friend and a modern, high-quality headshot taken by a pro photographer when it comes to your LinkedIn profile or your acting career? Does it really make that big of a difference, and if so, why?

​Headshots do more for you that just put a face to your name. Using professional headshots on your social media and LinkedIn profiles creates a great first impression and builds trust between you and people looking at your profile. If you're an organization, matching headshots for everybody on your team unifies your website and company brand, making it come across as more professional and aesthetically pleasing.

Here is what having a professional headshot can subconsciously say about you:

1. I am established and have reached a level in my career where I both need and can afford a professional headshot.
2. I take my career and professional presence seriously.
3. I have a well-established personal brand and people trust me.
4. I am in-demand - people are requesting a professional photo of me.
5. I am detail-oriented and make sure important things are done properly.
   
6. I stay up to date with modern trends.
7. I'm the type of person who goes above and beyond most others.

Each of these is important to being perceived positively, whether you're looking for a new job or searching for opportunities to advance your career (or you're a company looking to wow your clients).

​Having a nice camera and snapping a photo doesn't equate to a great photo. No matter the style of photo you're looking for, be it a landscape, wedding photo, or portrait, each requires a certain eye and unique set of skills. Trained headshot photographers are imperative for great headshots because they know how to capture specific expressions and how to direct you for great posture, no double chin, and finding your best side.

Photographers in department stores or the "trained portrait photographers" you can find online for $50 almost never understand how to direct those subtle things that are so important. And if they say they specialize in portraiture, you should always make sure the people in their portfolio have fantastic expressions. Have you ever looked at a photo and thought to yourself, "There's something slightly off with this person?" They look worried or "out to lunch"? That's exactly what you want to avoid in your headshot.

If your expression doesn't look natural or the lighting is off in your shot, thousands of people will see it every month and each will be thinking, "There's something slightly off here."

Is that the first impression you want to make?
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Many people are surprised when they come in for a shoot by the amount of direction we give. From body position to the subtle squint of your eyes, to how far your chin is tilted down, we leave no stone unturned. Each of these details really matters.

​I understand that hiring a professional headshot photographer can be expensive. If it's going to completely break your bank and you're giving up your savings to do it, STOP. I don't want you to spend all your money on a headshot if you truthfully can't afford it.

We're beginning to shoot a brand new mini series and we're inviting YOU to be in it!

I'm super excited for this. Each week (or every other week, depending on how busy we are), I will personally be doing a photoshoot with a client who wants to be featured in the show.

The goal of the show is not only to capture great images for people who normally don't like photos of themselves, but to also use what we've learned during the shoot to help other people who watch the show learn tips to look better on-camera.

I hope it's a win-win for everyone!

​If you're interested in being a part of this and working with me personally, I'd love for you to sign up!