The way she carry herself speaks volumes before Mattese Lecque utters a single word. Whether entering a room for Charleston County Park & Recreation Commission meetings, walking into Saint Peter’s AME Church for Sunday worship, or addressing the Burke Foundation, her presence commands attention and respect. This isn’t manufactured confidence or rehearsed performance it’s authentic dignity earned through decades of military service, professional healthcare work, personal transformation, and unwavering faith.
As a retired Major with the United States Army Reserves, Mattese learned that how you carry yourself communicates as powerfully as what you say. Military bearing teaches posture, discipline, and command presence. Healthcare work requires projecting competence and compassion simultaneously. Community leadership demands approachability balanced with authority. Through each role, she has cultivated distinctive presence that inspires, encourages, and uplifts everyone she encounters.
Understanding the way she carry herself offers valuable lessons for anyone seeking to develop their own authentic presence, command respect without demanding it, and project confidence rooted in genuine self-knowledge rather than empty bravado.
The Foundation: Military Bearing
Twenty-six years of military service from January 1975 to retirement in 2001 as a Major in the Medical Services Corps fundamentally shaped how Mattese carries herself.
Posture and Discipline
Military training instills proper posture shoulders back, head up, spine straight. This isn’t just about appearance; it’s about physical alignment that projects confidence and readiness. The way she carry herself reflects this discipline, demonstrating that how you hold your body affects how others perceive and respond to you.
Good posture communicates self-respect, alertness, and capability. Slouching suggests defeat, exhaustion, or lack of confidence. Mattese’s military bearing ensures her physical presence always communicates strength and dignity.
Command Presence
The military concept of “command presence” describes the ability to project authority and inspire confidence through bearing, demeanor, and self-assurance. Officers cultivate this presence because lives depend on their ability to lead decisively under pressure.
The way she carry herself embodies command presence adapted for civilian contexts. She doesn’t need to demand attention her presence naturally draws it. She doesn’t need to assert authority loudly her bearing communicates it quietly but unmistakably.
Attention to Detail
Military service emphasizes that details matter. Uniforms must be immaculate, insignia properly positioned, shoes shined, appearance squared away. This attention to detail carries into civilian life, ensuring that the way she carry herself always reflects care, discipline, and self-respect.
When people notice that someone consistently maintains high standards in appearance and bearing, they assume usually correctly that this person maintains similar standards in all areas of life.
Professional Polish: Healthcare and Beyond
Mattese’s career as a Physician’s Assistant with a degree from the College of Allied Health Sciences at MUSC required projecting both competence and compassion a delicate balance reflected in how she carries herself.
Approachable Authority
Healthcare professionals must appear knowledgeable and capable enough to inspire confidence while remaining approachable enough that patients feel comfortable sharing sensitive information. The way she carry herself strikes this balance commanding respect without creating distance, projecting expertise without arrogance.
This skill transfers perfectly to community leadership roles where she must be authoritative enough to guide effectively yet approachable enough that people feel welcomed and heard.
Calm Under Pressure
Medical settings involve high-stress situations requiring calm, composed responses. Patients take emotional cues from healthcare providers. When providers remain calm and centered, patients feel safer and more confident.
The way she carry herself reflects this professional composure. Even in challenging situations, her bearing communicates that she’s capable of handling whatever arises. This steadiness reassures others and creates environment where problems can be addressed rationally rather than reactively.
Faith and Humility
As an active member of Saint Peter’s AME Church in North Charleston, serving as Trustee Board Officer and Financial Secretary, Mattese’s faith profoundly influences how she carries herself.
Confidence Without Arrogance
Her book “You Can’t Make Me Doubt Him” reveals deep spiritual conviction that provides foundation for authentic confidence. True faith produces assurance that doesn’t require proving superiority over others or seeking validation through external approval.
The way she carry herself reflects confidence rooted in knowing whose she is rather than who she is. This spiritual grounding creates presence that uplifts rather than intimidates, inspires rather than threatens, and welcomes rather than excludes.
Servant Leadership
Christian faith emphasizes servant leadership using influence and authority to serve others rather than dominate them. The way she carry herself embodies this principle. Her dignity and presence aren’t tools for self-promotion but platforms for serving her church, community, and the young people she mentors.
This servant-hearted approach means her bearing invites others to rise to their potential rather than making them feel inferior to hers.
Gracious Strength
Faith teaches that strength and grace aren’t opposing qualities but complementary ones. The way she carry herself demonstrates that you can be both strong and kind, both confident and humble, both dignified and warm.
This integration of qualities that seem contradictory creates particularly compelling presence people feel simultaneously respected and welcomed, challenged and encouraged, held to high standards and offered abundant grace.
Southern Grace and Charleston Elegance
As a native Charlestonian and Burke High School graduate, Mattese’s presence reflects distinctive Lowcountry sophistication and Southern hospitality traditions.
Gracious Hospitality
Southern culture emphasizes making others feel welcomed, valued, and comfortable. The way she carry herself communicates this hospitality her presence doesn’t intimidate or exclude but invites and includes.
Even while projecting authority and confidence, she maintains warmth that puts people at ease. This combination defines true Southern grace elegance without pretension, confidence without coldness.
Cultural Pride
The way she carry herself also reflects pride in her African American heritage and Charleston roots. This cultural confidence adds richness and authenticity to her presence. She doesn’t downplay her background to fit others’ expectations but embraces it as source of strength and identity.
This authentic cultural expression teaches that true presence comes from embracing who you are rather than attempting to become who others think you should be.
What We Can Learn
The way she carry herself offers valuable lessons for anyone seeking to develop their own authentic, commanding presence.
Posture Matters
Physical bearing affects how others perceive you and how you feel about yourself. Stand tall. Make eye contact. Hold your head up. Move with purpose rather than shuffling uncertainly. These physical adjustments create immediate impact on presence.
Consistency Builds Trust
The way she carry herself remains consistent across contexts church, community meetings, professional settings, and casual encounters. This consistency builds trust because people know what to expect. Authentic presence doesn’t shift dramatically based on who’s watching.
Confidence Comes from Within
The most powerful presence emerges from genuine self-knowledge and acceptance rather than external validation. Mattese’s confidence roots in faith, accomplishment, and clarity about her values and purpose. This internal foundation creates unshakeable presence that external circumstances can’t diminish.
Details Demonstrate Respect
Attention to appearance, grooming, and presentation isn’t vanity it’s respect. When you care about how you present yourself, you communicate that you value both yourself and the people you’ll encounter. The way she carry herself reflects this principle consistently.
Grace Under Pressure
True presence reveals itself most clearly during challenges and stress. Anyone can maintain composure when everything goes smoothly. The way she carry herself during difficulties remaining calm, solution-focused, and dignified demonstrates authentic strength.
Practical Applications
Developing presence similar to what Mattese demonstrates requires intentional practice in several areas.
Morning Preparation
How you start your day affects how you carry yourself throughout it. Mattese likely begins with prayer and spiritual centering that grounds her presence in faith rather than circumstances. She probably takes time with appearance, ensuring she’s properly groomed and appropriately dressed before facing the day.
This morning investment in spiritual, mental, and physical preparation creates foundation for consistent presence throughout the day.
Mindful Movement
Pay attention to how you move through space. Walk with purpose. Enter rooms confidently. Stand rather than slouch. Sit with proper posture. These small adjustments compound into significantly different presence over time.
Voice and Speech
The way she carry herself includes vocal presence speaking clearly, at appropriate volume, with confidence. She likely avoids vocal fry, excessive upspeak, and verbal fillers that undermine authority. She probably pauses thoughtfully before responding rather than rushing to fill silence.
Eye Contact and Engagement
Authentic presence includes genuine engagement with others. The way she carry herself probably involves making appropriate eye contact that shows interest and respect, listening actively rather than waiting to speak, and giving people her full attention during interactions.
The Impact of Authentic Presence
When you develop presence rooted in authenticity, discipline, faith, and genuine care for others, the impact extends far beyond personal benefit.
Opening Doors
The way she carry herself likely opened doors throughout Mattese’s career and community involvement. People with authentic presence get noticed, remembered, and considered for opportunities others miss. Not because they’re seeking attention but because their bearing naturally attracts it.
Inspiring Others
Particularly for young people Mattese mentors through the Burke Foundation, her presence provides model worth emulating. When young women see her carrying herself with dignity, confidence, and grace, they understand what’s possible for their own development.
Building Credibility
In leadership roles with Charleston County Park & Recreation Commission, North Charleston High School PTSA, and her church, the way she carry herself builds credibility before she presents ideas or proposals. Her presence predisposes people to take her seriously and consider her perspectives thoughtfully.
Conclusion
The way she carry herself represents more than personal style or cultivated image it’s authentic expression of who Mattese Lecque truly is. Military service taught discipline and bearing. Healthcare work required professional composure. Faith provided spiritual grounding. Charleston heritage contributed cultural grace. Personal transformation created humility and empathy.
All these elements integrated into distinctive presence that commands respect while extending welcome, projects confidence while maintaining humility, and demonstrates strength while offering grace.
As Mattese emphasizes in “The Make-Over: Re-imagining & Recreating Myself,” transformation involves internal work that eventually manifests externally. The way she carry herself reflects internal qualities faith, discipline, self-knowledge, purpose, and love for others made visible through bearing, demeanor, and presence.
For anyone seeking to develop their own authentic, commanding presence, Mattese’s example teaches that real presence can’t be faked or manufactured. It emerges naturally from living with integrity, pursuing growth, maintaining discipline, grounding yourself in faith, and genuinely caring about others.
Stand tall. Walk with purpose. Speak with confidence. Serve with humility. Carry yourself with the grace and dignity that reflects your true worth.
