People often complain about how difficult flying can be these days. I recently spoke with certified speaking professional and author Garrison Wynn to learn what can make it easier to travel and navigate the airlines. Wynn, who categorizes himself as a professional traveler, “tourconsultancy.com” nationwide to about 100 speaking engagements each year. Here, in a series of interviews, he provides tips for ironing the kinks out of air travel for speakers and others who often find themselves flying on business.
Linda Singerle: As a seasoned international keynote speaker, you travel almost continuously. What’s your strategy for eliminating some of the hassles that come with that kind of life?
Garrison Wynn: My advice is to travel light and travel easy. First off, your luggage is key. You want to have sturdy luggage with really good wheels that allow the bag to glide easily so you don’t have to pull it too much. You have to make travel as easy on yourself as you possibly can. In every airport, I see miserable people dragging squeaky-wheeled clunkers and wearing that “Someone please kill me” expression on their faces. My theme for traveling? Make it easy. If you make it difficult, you can’t do a lot of it and you show up at your destination with a new, self-induced priority of simply recovering from travel! You and your clothing have to show up in top condition to do the best you can.
LS: Whathave you learned about how much to take with you on business and how best to pack it?
GW: One thing is to realize the goal. The goal of packing is to arrive at your destination with the things that you need and to have those things arrive in good condition. But if you arrive with the distinctive look of a police mug shot… Well, it’s hard to be influential when you show up at the meeting looking like you’ve slept in the bar. I saw a guy one time who showed up to a conference fresh-faced, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. However, his suit looked like it had a hangover. He made it to the meeting but his suit didn’t really.
LS: So how does one prevent that? I’ve seen you take the stage to deliver your keynote. You look like your suit just came off the tailor’s hanger. How do you not look wrinkled and travel weary?
GW: There are a lot of ways you can pack your clothing so that when it gets there, you almost need to have it pressed. If you don’t do certain things, you’ve got problems.
No. 1: The type of luggage is important. For suits or dresses, you want a tri-fold bag – the kind that your suit lays flat in when you’ve opened up or unfolded the three sections. But before you lay your clothes inside, put each suit or dress in a dry cleaner’s thin plastic bag. Then put one thicker plastic bag around the whole bunch. I often use a garbage bag, but you could also use the thicker bags dry cleaners use on wedding dresses. Just make sure the dry cleaner’s bag has the staples removed and the garbage bag never actually held any garbage (unless you’re looking to make a unique impression).
So the suits are covered in plastic and they’re put into a tri-fold bag. Your next step is to roll up a pillow case and place it at one of the folding points of the bag. Do the same at the other folding point. Now when you fold up the bag, there’s a rolled-up pillow case at the two pinch points. When you do this, you dramatically minimize the wrinkling of your clothing. You’re getting a light fold that’s not so severe that it can’t be steamed out or shaken out.
LS: So do you hang your suit in the hotel bathroom and let the shower steam it?
GW: Many people do hang their clothes in the bathroom and steam the shower up. What I think works a lot better – or even in conjunction with that – is to travel with a handheld steamer. The one I use, E-Steam, is available online for $50-$199. That’s quite a range, I know; it depends on where you get it online. This handheld steamer is a quality item made of hard polymer, and it takes up less space than a pair of shoes. This thing is a miracle item for me, allowing me to steam suits very quickly and effectively. Don’t be fooled by the claims made about other steamers. I’ve tried them all and they produce very weak steam but somehow manage to shoot water on your clothes from 10 feet away.
The first thing you do when you get your suit out of the bag is take it off the wire hanger you travel with (because wire is less clunky) and put it on the hotel’s hanger. Shake the suit out really well and hang it up. After you shake the jacket out, hang it on the hook in the bathroom, plug your steamer in, and hold the steamer about 4 or 5 inches away from the fabric. It works really well! Now, if you think this is something you just can’t do for whatever reason, you can use the shower to steam your suit; just make sure your pants and jacket are well away from the shower head and close the curtain. You want to avoid the appearance of being so nervous about your meeting that you have managed the seemingly impossible feat of sweating through a suit.
You’d be surprised how many businesspeople who are amateur travelers get to a destination and are unable to get their clothing in the condition in which they normally would wear it at home. Women’s business clothes are a little different – they’re made of rayon and polyester and all kinds of different fabric that might travel better or be easier to care for. But men, if you’re wearing a suit, then it’s worsted wool. If your suit’s not made out of wool, then you’ve got problems I can’t help you with. I’ll put it this way: If you’re traveling with a polyester suit, then when you get to where you’re going, whatever you do will not be good enough. If you’re wearing a suit you could strike a match on… If your suit is quite literally a fire hazard… If you start to feel a little hot before realizing your suit is melting… OK, sorry, let’s move on.