but she charmed them with a personality she bought in the drugstore, the shoe store, listening to soap operas while doing laundry at her sister's house. Stiletto heels. Lizard. A bit of bouffant. Short skirts (and in that trade you're in and out of a car a lot). It's dressing in drag. And by and by she was salesman of the month. Rage made the new Kim spring fully formed from the old Kim's head. The only way to survive the office was to cuss a lot and be nobody's mother. What does it mean to be somebody's mother? To make a suggestion. If you're not in a position to give an order, don't say anything. Just do your own thing and do it better until they come to you looking for something, a tip, and even then you have to let it slip as if it's not you telling them but something you both already know. No suggestions.
Then there's the wife. The client's wife. Make sure she knows you know she'll make the final decision. But make sure she knows you know her husband doesn't know it. Or maybe she doesn't know it's her decision: and you have to train her slowly to understand her role, to play her cards well. Dress in a proper suit, a powder-blue suit, when you meet her, below the knee.
The Parisian ladies helped. And without a husband, you have for yourself the time that you would otherwise spend propping up his ego. Which is different from making an art of being a woman: which is what you now have time for because you don't have the husband. And the clients like that. The men, and, when you have fully elaborated the strategy, the women too.