You have probably been through some challenges in your life, or you are going through some significant challenges right now. You’ve had those moments, when you felt lost, scared, angry, sad, betrayed. Or maybe you felt your whole world was crumbling down, you felt you hit rock bottom, or that you lost everything you believed in, everything loved or worked hard for. Don’t we all go through these moments? 

What’s interesting about life, is that is through those challenges that we grow and become stronger and better. 

How you react to challenges is what defines you.

It’s what separates people who go on and achieve great things no matter what and let nothing stop them, with the people who just give up when obstacles come in their way.  

We all have challenges, obstacles, roadblocks, down moments. That’s life. It’s never a straight road to your goals and dreams.

And those challenges are usually a message from the universe that there is something you need to change.

You need to find that message in the challenge and move on to create something better. 

What I learned in life is that our lowest moments can be our biggest advantage, if, at that low moment, we make a powerful decision to change. The challenge can give you the strong reason, the push and the motivation you need to move to a much better place. Or you can let it destroy you completely. 

I remember some of my biggest challenges. It was always a message that the universe was giving me to move on from something that wasn’t serving me. And those very low moments became my greatest strength. Every single time they moved me to a much better place. 

As Steve Jobs said,

‘You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backward’.

But you need to keep moving forward and trust that the dots will connect. 

If everything is easy in your life, if everything is given to you, there is no challenge and no motivation to grow. And you might ask yourself: why can’t life be easier for me like all these other people? But it’s never about being easy, it’s about how you react to your circumstances and what decisions you make when challenges appear. 

You are the only person who can decide to turn your lowest moments into your greatest advantage. 

Remember that stars can’t shine without the darkness. It’s in your darkest moments that you can know the power of deciding to be the light, not only in your life but the lives of everyone around you. So don’t let your challenges pull you down, let them be the fuel to push you higher! 

Have you ever faced any major challenges in your life? How have you overcome them? Share your experience in the comments below.

The post How to Overcome Challenges in Life and get Self-Motivation to Succeed appeared first on Pavlina Papalouka - Entrepreneur, speaker, consultant and coach in Personal Development, Business and Personal Branding.

Why is building your personal brand so valuable in today’s market? Is it something you should be looking more into or is it relevant only for specific industries and professions?

To understand the importance of your personal brand in today’s digital world, go on Google now and google yourself.

What comes up on Google, represents your personal brand. 

And whether you like it or not, more than 95% of people today will google your name and search for your social media profiles before they even meet you in person or right after they meet you. This could be employers, potential clients, business associates, and anyone who is interested to know more about you.

WHAT IS A PERSONAL BRAND?

Your Personal Brand represents what is unique about you, what value you bring to the world, how you communicate your value to others, what people say about you, how they perceive you and what image they have of you.

Personal Branding is a powerful tool. People who know how to use it skilfully, build great influence in their market in any industry or profession.

Personal branding today plays a central role in your business and career growth. The reason for this is that personal brand represents your online reputation in today’s market. In particular, it shows how people and companies perceive you and how much they value your knowledge, your skills, your services, and your potential.

Strong personal brands in any industry attract the best opportunities, higher payment, better clients, better job offers. We also consider them as the go-to authorities and influencers in their niche.

The benefits of good personal branding are endless nowadays when we all live in a global economy and are part of a global culture. When we are all connected online and the opportunities we meet are not only local but also global.

DO I HAVE A PERSONAL BRAND?

If you have any social media profile or online presence, you already are a personal brand.

And if you don’t have any social media profiles or websites, chances are that people who search for you online can still find something on the internet that someone else posted about you. And this not always represents how you want to be perceived today as a professional.

So in today’s online world, it’s wise to educate yourself and have control over the information people find online about you. You can do it by taking care of your online presence, your image, and your digital footprint.

And you can take it a step further and build great leverage and power out of these unlimited opportunities that the social media platforms are offering to people who can use them skillfully.

So here are

5 REASONS WHY HAVING A PERSONAL BRAND TODAY IS ESSENTIAL FOR YOUR SUCCESS

REASON #1. PEOPLE WILL GOOGLE YOU ANYWAY

Whether you are applying for a job, going to a business meeting or looking to get more clients for your services and products, most people will search for you online before they make a decision to cooperate. Also, your existing business partners, clients, associates, and employer, are also influenced by your online presence. They pay close attention to what you post, how you interact with people online and what image you give out.

REASON #2. BE VISIBLE IN YOUR MARKET NICHE

If you are invisible online, potential clients or employers cannot find you when they are searching for what you have to offer. There are so many people with amazing knowledge, skills, and potential but unfortunately nobody knows about them. These people often don’t get paid what they are worth because they don’t know how to take care of their online presence and promote themselves and their skills, products, and services.

REASON #3. HAVE BETTER CLIENTS, OPPORTUNITIES AND HIGHER PAYMENT

By building a respected personal brand, you attract better clients, better opportunities, and higher payment. The right people find you and ask to work with you, instead of you going after clients, jobs, associates, and opportunities. It makes your professional life so much easier and allows your business to grow faster. A personal brand gives you the power of choosing who you want to work with and how much you want to charge. This happens because everyone wants to cooperate with the person who is perceived as the top authority in their market niche. Think about how you are easily willing to pay a lot more to go to the best hairstylist, the best doctor, the best lawyer, and the best consultant if you can afford their services.

REASON #4. SEIZE THE UNLIMITED GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES

We live in a new global economy of unlimited opportunities. A few years ago, to get any exposure, you had to pay a lot of money to the media moguls, who used to monopolize information in each country. Now everyone can build their own online ‘media’ channel on LinkedIn, Instagram, Youtube, Facebook or any other social media platform. Everyone nowadays can unlock a world of opportunities, locally or globally. Online there are no restrictions. If people like you, they will follow, ask to work with you and buy from you. It’s up to you to get the knowledge on how to use this power of the social media networks to gain massive leverage in this global economy.

REASON #5. BENEFIT FROM BECOMING AN INFLUENCER AND CELEBRITY

You can choose to take your personal branding a step further and become an influencer and celebrity in your market and industry. You can achieve this by using social media to build your brand skilfully with consistency and patience. Building influencer and celebrity status can have great benefits on your income, your professional, and business growth. There’s a lot of talk about ‘online influencers’ today. Influencer status is not about how many followers you have. It’s about knowing how to use the social media tools the right way to create an impact in your market through your work and through giving value.

PERSONAL BRANDING – SECRET TO SUCCESS

Are there any secrets that people who build big respected personal brands know and use to stand out? What are the strategies that truly work and bring results?

The tools are available to everyone today, wherever you are in the world. However, you need to have access to the right information, the right strategies and formulas that work today and implement consistently over a period of time. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Building your personal brand will take patience. At the same time, without having the right services or products that you offer through your brand, your personal brand can do very little with regards to bringing you more income. So it’s a combination of steps that you need to take.

I know that building a personal brand can sound like a challenging task, especially if you are just getting started. And the truth is that it’s not easy but its worth it.

There are many mistakes that people make when promoting themselves online that can have a negative effect on their image and business. Online if you make a wrong move, it can backfire, so you need to take careful and educated steps. There are two sides of every coin, and we see everything in today’s online world when everyone is trying to stand out.

MY FREE RESOURCES TO HELP YOU BUILD YOUR PERSONAL BRAND

To help you build your personal brand the right way, become a top authority in your niche and grow your business, I’ve been creating free video series, blog posts and actionable tips that you can find on my Youtube channel and my pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. I would love to connect with you there and learn about your personal branding journey!

Are you building your personal brand or considering doing so? Why is personal branding important particularly to you? Let me know in the comments below!

The post Why your Personal Brand is Important appeared first on Pavlina Papalouka - Entrepreneur, speaker, consultant and coach in Personal Development, Business and Personal Branding.

Building your Personal Brand online, getting exposure for your work and publishing content on the social media platforms can have a great positive impact on your business. It has opened a world of opportunities for people and companies, unlike any other time in history.

However, there are two sides of every coin. There are some negative things that will inevitably happen as your personal brand grows online: The appearance of online bullies is one of the biggest problems in today’s online world. And it can happen not only with big personal brands but with anyone who has a social media profile, including children and teenagers.

So how do you deal with online bullies and haters?

# 1 RECOGNIZE THAT ONLINE BULLIES’ ANGER AND HATE HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU

The reason these people hate, bully and try to bring other people down has to do with what’s going on in their own internal world.

Their behavior reflects how they feel about themselves, and they want to use you as a punching bag to put their anger out. That’s why on social media we have the ‘block’ button and the ‘delete’ button. You are not their psychologist or their punching bag. You can’t help. They probably had a difficult childhood or some traumatic experience that they haven’t gotten over yet and want to take it out on others. Have compassion for the suffering they are experiencing in their life and let them go. Realise that their reaction has nothing to do with you.

#2 DO NOT REPLY. DO NOT START DISCUSSIONS. DO NOT INTERACT

It’s like throwing fuel into the fire.

Your reaction is what bullies are looking for, to punch back even more.

So if you reply, it’s going to be an endless spiral down to an even worse place. Trust me, I’ve been there. I’ve made that mistake of trying to have a normal conversation with an online bully. I thought this person was going to understand… It didn’t end well. The more you give them attention, the more they drag you down in their own misery, and the more you give them what they came to get – pleasure out of putting you down. So do not engage, do not answer. Ignore, block, delete and move on.

#3 ASK FOR HELP AND TAKE LEGAL ACTION

Sometimes these people will try to cause real damage to your business or even threaten your physical well being. Look for an expert lawyer, good protection and ask for support from people who have dealt with similar issues. Ask for help by letting people know. Big corporations know this very well. That’s why they have a legal department dealing daily with malicious comments and attacks on the internet. The more your brand grows, the more protection you need. That’s why celebrities always move around with bodyguards.

Remember that online bullies, trolls, and haters, are not people who want to give constructive feedback. They do not want to have a serious conversation, and their opinion has no real essence.

They are the people who are there to attack and bring you down. So non-response. Ignoring them is the best way to go.

On the other hand, you should always ask for feedback from clients you respect and from successful people who have been where you want to go. That’s how you improve.

Also, you should realize that when you build a big personal brand, there is no way for everyone to like you. You should be ok with that too. Keep moving forward irrespective of other’s opinions.

WHAT IF YOU ARE THE ONLINE BULLY…

And by the way, if you are exhibiting any of those behaviors online, if you take pride in being an internet troll and if your hobby is bullying other people, maybe it’s time to ask yourself why you are doing this and how is it helping you in your life. If you start focusing on improving yourself first instead of focusing on what all those other people are doing, you will not have time for putting other people down.

The key is developing strong Self-Awareness.

Look on my blog, social media, and Youtube Channel for more videos on personal growth that can help.

Have you ever faced online bullying? If so, how have you dealt with these online bullies and haters? Share your experience in the comments below!

The post How to Deal with Online Bullies and Haters appeared first on Pavlina Papalouka - Entrepreneur, speaker, consultant and coach in Personal Development, Business and Personal Branding.

There are some people in every market and industry who naturally stand out with their message, product or service. They are the people that everyone looks up to, everyone wants to work with, and they are recognized go-to experts. They are the people you would be willing to pay a lot more to work with if you had the chance.

So the question is: how do you become that person of influence in your market? And why is it important to have influence in your market if you want to have a successful business?

I’ve been running my own business, coaching and speaking on Personal Branding and Entrepreneurship for several years. And the problem I see with most businesses today is that they don’t have enough visibility, credibility, trust, and reach within their target market.

So in this blog post, I would like to share with you the main characteristics that every influencer has that will help you gain Authority, Credibility, and Trust among the people that are important to you and your business.

WHAT IS AN INFLUENCER?

An influencer is a person who influences the actions and perceptions of a substantial percentage of people in the market, through their words and their actions.

Today, you can create influence day by day with the click of a button and a share. And that’s why some social media influencers nowadays have more power than ever, sometimes a lot more than the perceived leaders of a country.

As the recent elections in several countries show, you can even become a nation’s leader a lot more easily if you have influence on social media.

So being an influencer in your niche and building a strong personal brand is more important than ever before.

WHY BECOME AN INFLUENCER

#1 PEOPLE BUY WHO YOU ARE

People today aren’t buying what you are selling. They are buying who you are, who is behind what you are selling. When you have influence, you naturally attract better clients and opportunities because everyone wants to work with you and you get an abundance of choices.

#2 INFLUENCERS CHARGE PREMIUM PRICES

Influencers charge a lot more for their products or services. However, it doesn’t prevent them from having endless clients. Quite the opposite, people and companies are always eager to work with them and pay extra to brand themselves in association to them. This is sometimes called influencer marketing.

#3 INFLUENCERS MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Being an influencer means that you can make a positive difference in people’s lives as a result of what you say or do.

Everyone today is a media channel.

We have unlimited power at our fingertips, and we can learn to use it wisely. When you build a powerful personal brand and become an influencer in your niche, everything you want seems to be naturally drawn to you. So you just get to choose what is best for you!

HOW TO BECOME AN INFLUENCER IN YOUR NICHE

What I found out after working many years in public relations, marketing, online marketing, building my brand and helping my clients create their personal brands globally, is that influencing people has little to do with traditional marketing and a lot to do with connecting to people from the heart. It has to do with emotions and being skilled in building a connection. And the social media platforms are enabling us to do this today online.

Building a powerful personal brand that has influence has three key components:

#1 ADD VALUE

Becoming an influencer in a market or niche is a by-product of adding a great value to the market. The value you provide to the market can be in the form of great content. It can be blogs, videos or articles around your topic created consistently. And it’s also about providing a product or service that really adds great value to people’s lives. Remember: when you are adding value, you need to be visible on the social media platforms where people are interacting on today.

#2 BECOME AN INNOVATOR

Influencers are those who have innovative ideas, products, and services. Some brands are built automatically because of how unique their product and offering is. They gain trust and influence quickly through their innovation. Think of an innovative company like Tesla. Marketing has a completely different angle when you have an innovative product that changes the world.

#3 TELL YOUR WHY, VALUES & STORY

To creating influence, you need to communicate your Why, your Values, and your Story with Authenticity and from the Heart.

People today connect to people, emotions, and stories.

You can only influence people when you touch their emotional side and their heart. As a person and a company, you need to be real, authentic and transparent. You need to communicate your values. People will connect to your why, and they love authenticity.

And as you go through the process of building your brand, remember that being an influencer in your market niche is not about the number of connections you have, it’s about the quality of these connections. Having big reach is great, but nothing can be achieved if people don’t connect with you and don’t trust you. The companies and people that win today know all about building relationships on the online platforms.

To sum up, being an influencer is crucial in today’s market and can help you skyrocket your business growth. You can create influence in your niche by constantly adding value through outstanding content, creating innovative products or services and telling your Why, your Values and your Story with Authenticity and from the heart.

What does it take to become an influencer in your niche? Share your insights and ideas in the comments below.

The post How to Become an Influencer in Your Niche appeared first on Pavlina Papalouka - Entrepreneur, speaker, consultant and coach in Personal Development, Business and Personal Branding.

Have you ever watched successful entrepreneurs like Richard Branson, who is running many multi-million dollar businesses while living on Necker Island enjoying a beautiful and exciting lifestyle with his family and wondered, “How do they do it?” How can you produce such extraordinary results in business while living a dream lifestyle and a totally exciting life? Doesn’t building a business cost a lot of hard work locked up in an office 24/7 with your business partners, team, and employees?

Well, it is like that for most businesses; however, today you have every single tool you need to create a lifestyle business that you can run from anywhere in the world. Today it’s the best time in history to become an entrepreneur who has both the income and the freedom to live the way they want, either changing countries every month or working from home while raising their family. Work from the beach with a laptop is also an awesome option that is a huge part of my personal entrepreneurial lifestyle.

So the question is: how can you make that possible?

My mentors, accomplished entrepreneurs and high achievers who run multiple businesses while traveling the world, taught me 3 secrets of building a successful lifestyle business. And now I’m going to share them with you.

To create a business that you can run from anywhere in the world, you need to have a combination of the following 3 key components.

1. HAVE THE RIGHT BUSINESS MODEL

Everyone focuses on creating a business plan; however, what you really need to be thinking about first is your business model. Does your business model allow you to manage your business from anywhere with access to the Internet and delegate all the day-to-day tasks and operations to your employees? And the most important: is your business model designed to produce online sales even while you sleep?

Think of a business as a shop in a big mall versus an online shop, where customers can click a button, buy a product or service and have it delivered to them while the business owner and even their team are sleeping and enjoying their lunch with the family. All the complicated processes of sales and delivery have been automated and managed in the background. If you want the lifestyle freedom, you would have to choose the second business model.

2. CREATE SYSTEMS

Once you determine your business model, you need to create systems around how everything will operate in the business without you having to be there. Systems of what is required for the business to work according to certain standards. Systems of how your team will manage every activity and every process when you will be miles away from the office.

Your role in the business as a leader and business owner is to create these systems and processes so that you can train other people to run the business for you. If you haven’t done this before and you don’t have a clue how to create systems, hire a mentor or a consultant with proven results on building systems for their business or other businesses and let them guide you.

To get an idea of what a system means, think of a successful franchise like Starbucks. In every country and every airport around the world, you get the exact same Starbucks. It’s all based on duplicatable systems that the employees can follow in any part of the world without the owner having to be there.

3. LEARN THE ART OF DELEGATION

That was the part I personally struggled with most as an entrepreneur. Many entrepreneurs when they are starting out are perfectionists and think that if they don’t do everything themselves, it’s not going to be of particular standards. In fact, this is the exact thing that stops them in their growth because if you can’t delegate, you can’t grow. And not only you can’t grow, but you burn yourself out.

One of my mentors at the early stages John Assaraf was always saying, “You need to hire people who play at things you need to work at.” It means: know your top skills as a business owner, focus on them, then hire people who are great at everything else and delegate them the tasks in their area of expertise. As a business owner, you need to remember that you need to be working on the business, not in the business.

To sum up, any entrepreneur nowadays can build a lifestyle business that they can run from anywhere in the world. The only three requirements for this are the right business model, strong duplicable systems, and the art of delegation.

Would you like to build a lifestyle business and achieve more freedom and time for your family? What do you think you need for this? Share your insights and ideas in the comments below.

The post How to Create a Lifestyle Business appeared first on Pavlina Papalouka - Entrepreneur, speaker, consultant and coach in Personal Development, Business and Personal Branding.

What if you had an online presence so strong and clearly defined that every single day it attracted to you ideal clients, great opportunities, and people who ask to do business with you instead of you going after them?

There is a lot of talk around personal branding today. To a certain extent, it’s because Google, Apple, Youtube, Facebook, Amazon, LinkedIn, and all the other big social media and online distribution platforms dominate our lives and our businesses and even determine what kind of success we will have in attracting great clients and opportunities.

By realizing that all these platforms are ruling the market today and learning how to manage your social media presence to build a powerful personal brand, you automatically get a substantial advantage over everyone else who are posting information on the Internet and their personal profiles without a clearly defined purpose or strategy.

Personal branding is about creating a strong and clear presence, image, and message that you want to give to the world about yourself and communicating this message online in such a powerful and engaging way that people want to connect with you and do business with you instead of everyone else in your market niche because you clearly stand out as an authority. 

So here are the 5 key steps to build your personal brand online:

1. DETERMINE YOUR PERSONAL BRAND IDENTITY 

Your Personal Brand Identity is not about creating a logo and design. Logos and brand design are great, but branding goes much deeper than that.

Your Personal Brand Identity is about what unique value and message you as a personal brand bring to the world. 

Ask yourself,

What is the No1 value that you can give to the world, with all your knowledge, background, and experience? 

and create a brand message around that.

For example, my brand message and vision are ‘helping people overcome their limitations and unlock their true potential’ so that they can build successful businesses around their passion, purpose, and unique skills, achieve their goals and dreams and create the lifestyle that they desire.

Your brand message and identity are firstly about your values, your purpose, your unique skills and the vision of what you want to create in the world as your legacy. Once you determine what your brand message is about, then you can start communicating it to the world through social media, a personal website, content, and design.

Which takes us to…

2. KNOW YOUR IDEAL CLIENT PROFILE AND TARGET AUDIENCE

In order to be able to deliver your brand message to the world in a clear and effective way, you need to know who you are communicating to, who your target audience is and the profile of your ideal client.

Building a personal brand is not about trying to sell to everyone. It’s about connecting and building relationships with the right people.

Who is the person you want to work with? What are their needs, their personality traits, and their values? What challenges do they have and what solutions are they looking for in their life or business that you can provide? What is their income level, age group, where do they live? How do they spend their time? How do they interact with your brand? 

Write down a clear Ideal Client Profile so that you can communicate to them according to their specific needs and also target them on the online platforms where they are engaging.

Which takes us to:

3. CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

Once you know who your ideal client is and determine where they are engaging most online, you can decide on your social media strategy. You can reach your customers through Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, Live Video, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, iTunes depending on who you are looking to target. You need to adjust your message to your client and also adjust the message for each platform.

And you can do this through:

4. PUT A LOT OF VALUABLE CONTENT WITH CONSISTENCY 

Great content today can be in the form of articles, video, live video, podcasts, interviews with other experts, and blogging.

The key here is to provide high-quality content in the form of advice, knowledge, and information that your target audience needs around your specific area of expertise and do it consistently and with a purpose. While doing this, focus on building relationships and giving value first and not on selling. Sell through giving value and building relationships.

Once you build these relationships through content and social media, you need to have a strategy for converting these contacts into clients.

Which takes us to:

5. BUILD A MARKETING FUNNEL TO CONVERT PROSPECTS INTO CUSTOMERS

Your marketing funnel is a process by which you attract the right people to your websites and mailing list through social media and online marketing activities, build relationships with them by providing value and engaging in conversations and then make an offer to them for something that they are looking for so that they convert into clients. 

If your marketing funnel is created in the right way, you will get loyal customers who want to buy from you without you pushing for the sale because you have taken the time to build the relationship first, before making an offer.

How to do you use social media and other digital platforms to build your personal brand? Share your experience in the comments below.

The post 5 Steps to Build Your Personal Brand Online appeared first on Pavlina Papalouka - Entrepreneur, speaker, consultant and coach in Personal Development, Business and Personal Branding.

Have you ever stood in front of a mirror or your closet wondering what is the best outfit to wear for that very important meeting or an event you were going to? At that photoshoot for your website or when you have to appear in front of an audience or in the media?

We’ve all been through some or all of those scenarios.

And wouldn’t it be great if you knew exactly what influence you have on other people with what you wear? Wouldn’t you like to be able to tune your choices according to the results you want to achieve in each occasion?

The color is a powerful tool in business as it exudes energy, invokes emotion and has a subconscious influence on people. All big brands are aware of this and use color with a great consideration for their logos and branding.

The very same principles apply to personal branding.

Below you will find 13 ways to bolster and boost your personal brand with color. Knowing these secrets will help you not only choose the right color of your personal brand but also easily pick up clothes for your next important meeting, photo shoot, event or public appearance.

1. GAIN TRUST WITH DARK BLUE

Blue is the most popular color in personal branding. In general terms, all shades of blue are safe for most business occasions.

Darker blues make you appear trustworthy, responsible, loyal, honest, friendly and approachable. Generally, it’s a safe option for all occasions, unless you want to be very authoritative, and if you want to appear unique and creative.

2. PUT PEOPLE AT EASE WITH LIGHT BLUE

Lighter blues will make you look tranquillising, fresh and pleasant. They will make people feel peaceful, calm and serene around you, put others at ease, and help you look fresh and inspirational. More on that, it’s the preferred color by 80% of people.

Light blue is not a good color to wear if you want to radiate authority and power and if you need to be assertive with strong personalities, For example, you shouldn’t wear it if you are going to a meeting to negotiate a deal.

3. DRAW ATTENTION WITH TURQUOISE AND AQUA BLUE

Turquoise and aqua blue shows prestige, high ideals, attracts attention and is the colour of communication. This makes it a great colour for most occasions, except if you want to radiate authority and power and if you want to be assertive with dominant personalities.

4. SHOW PASSION WITH RED

Red exudes powerful emotions, excitement. It’s passionate, aggressive, very provocative and it makes you memorable. If you are going to a party where you want to stand out and be the center of attention, I would say it’s safe to wear red. On the other hand, red is a no-no if you are trying to resolve a conflict or dispute, and if you need to be calming. You can safely wear it where you want to stand out and provoke excitement and passion.

So what is the ultimate power color if you do want to demonstrate power and strong personalities?

5. RADIATE AUTHORITY WITH BLACK

Black is your safe choice for conveying power, sophistication, mastery, stability, and even creativity. That’s why you see many artists and designers wearing all black. It emphasizes the ability to make decisions and, if paired with white, radiates authority.

However, black is not a good color to wear if you need to gain trust in tense situations. Besides, you should avoid black in case you want to seem approachable to subordinates. Another inappropriate occasion for this color is job interview (unless you are going for a top managerial and leadership position).

6. DISPLAY AUTHENTICITY WITH WHITE

White is great when you want to seem genuine, innocent, faithfulness. Also, it’s a good choice for an occasion in which you intend to appear transparent and reliable. It’s a delicate, refined and pure color. So it’s a good color to wear when you want to gain people’s trust and look pure and innocent, like a little angel.

Though, its choice isn’t appropriate if you want to convey authority. Unless it’s paired with black.

7. APPROACH PEOPLE WITH GREEN

Green is my personal favorite color. I wear it very often since I am naturally sociable. Green makes you appear very friendly, pleasant and candid. It conveys coolness, balance, and well-being. Its dark shades also imply wealth and tradition. All in all, it’s a safe color for making new friends and appearing approachable and easy-going. At the same time, a green outfit should be left aside if you want to be assertive with dominant personalities and if you want to radiate authority and power.

8. STAND OUT WITH PURPLE

Purple is the color of wealth, royalty, and creativity. It makes you look poised, authoritative, powerful, dramatic and innovative. Although, purple doesn’t suit occasions in which you don’t want to stand out or are going to be around timid people.

9. BRING JOY WITH PINK

Pink is a very calming color, young and joyful, gentle and calm. A lot of bright pink can sap the energy of the viewer after a while, so it’s not a good color if you need your audience to retain energy levels for long periods. Pink also represents love and gentleness, which makes it appropriate for romance. As a contrary, you should never wear it if you intend to appear assertive and radiate power and authority.

10. STAY DOWN TO EARTH WITH BROWN 

Brown is a color that conveys protection, practicality, and security. It works well in business and social settings but will not help you if you want to indicate authority.

11. ENERGIZE WITH ORANGE

Orange is a great color for displaying energy, playfulness, cheerfulness and paired with intense blue can give the impression of strength. However, it might make people feel nervous and therefore is not good if you want to radiate authority and power and in tense situations.

12. INSPIRE WITH YELLOW

Yellow is an exciting, inspirational, high energy color representing happiness. At the same time, too much yellow can put people around you in tension, increase their anxiety and temper. Since yellow is the first color the eye sees, avoid wearing it if you want to escape someone’s attention.

13. BE EXCLUSIVE WITH DARK GRAY

Dark charcoal gray is suitable for business meetings, conferences and networking events as it will make you look exclusive, successful, cultured, wise and dependable. For this reason, it’s an excellent choice for conservative companies and industries.

To sum up, be aware that the colors you wear influence people. But at the same time, choose for your personal brand what feels best for you and what makes you feel comfortable and confident.

The post How to Use Color for Your Personal Brand appeared first on Pavlina Papalouka - Entrepreneur, speaker, consultant and coach in Personal Development, Business and Personal Branding.

You hear this over and over and over again in different countries around the world, especially whenever there are elections or a financial crisis or political crisis.

The government has ruined my life. The government is not providing jobs for me. The government is corrupt. The government destroyed the economy. The government, the government… Blame everything on the government, on the politicians, and on the corrupt system.

The truth is that…

The government does not control your actions; you do. 

The government does not control your mind; you do.

The government cannot control your values, your beliefs or your dreams.

You are the president in charge of your own life.

It doesn’t matter what is happening with the politics, the economy, and the environment in your country. The real power lays in your ability to perceive things and turn them to your advantage. Fear and blame are liabilities, not assets for you.

When you focus on what you CAN do when negative things are happening around you and use your attention on what is the opportunity in it, that’s where your power lies. 

Because every crisis comes to push us to grow and our lowest moments can be our biggest advantage if we see the lesson. It’s all a matter of focus and perception.

Whatever the situation is, you can turn it to your advantage by shifting your attention from the problem or the crisis to the opportunity, and your mind will start providing solutions for you as soon as you make that change of mindset.

So you can say for example, “Ok, there is a financial crisis now in my country, this is the situation”, and then ask yourself – “What is the best way that I as an entrepreneur can create solutions that people need right now in this economy?” or “How can I change my strategy and expand to new markets through the unlimited opportunities the Internet is offering so that I do not limit myself to one economy?”

When you get into that mindset, it really does not matter who is leading your country, what is happening with the economy or what decisions political leaders are making. You will always find opportunity, and you will always be able to turn things to your advantage.

So you can either sit around and be miserable and depressed and complain about what others are doing to ruin your life or your business or realize that you have the power to choose your focus and take your life and your business in your hands.

If you are focusing on all the reasons why the situation with the government and with the system is corrupt and failing you, then that’s what you are going to create in your life. Your brain will go and find all the evidence why the situation is terrible, and then you will lose your power and create more failure.

If you focus on what the opportunity is in your current condition, your brain will start looking for solutions, and you will be able to find and create those solutions and those opportunities out of every situation that you face. This is exactly what successful entrepreneurs do throughout history. Their brain always looks for the opportunity in every situation.

You have the power of choice. Even at our lowest moments, we have the choice to either grow ourselves and find opportunities or accept defeat and give up. What is your choice?

The post The Government Does Not Control Your Mind appeared first on Pavlina Papalouka - Entrepreneur, speaker, consultant and coach in Personal Development, Business and Personal Branding.

Have you ever sat in front of the computer and wondered what the best way to use social media to attract more clients, business partners, and opportunities without wasting money in advertising that doesn’t really yield results is?

And if you are like most business owners, you are probably still struggling with what the best ways to use social media today for promoting your business are. Things in the online world are changing and developing every single day, and for most business owners it’s difficult to keep up.

Today every person is a media channel, transmitting information 24/7 about what they think, what they are doing, what they like and what they don’t like. Fortunately, you can learn to use this to your advantage because you are a media channel too. Due to this shift and the transparency that social media and the internet is giving, the way people make decisions to purchase has changed compared to just a few years ago.

So how do you utilize this new and fast-changing social media environment to build a powerful brand that will naturally attract the right people, clients and opportunities to you?

I’d like to share with you 3 main tips on how to promote your business on social media in today’s market in the most effective way.

1. FOCUS ON RELATIONSHIPS. 

Social media is all about building relationships and not about how many ‘likes’ and followers you get. Focus on the quality of connections, not the quantity and don’t expect immediate gratification from each connection. Don’t expect people to make a decision to buy something from you on the first or second or even third interaction. Take time to build authentic relationships, interact, have conversations, reply to comments without expecting immediate results, and people will respond when it’s the right time for them.

2. PUT OUT A LOT OF VALUABLE CONTENT IN YOUR AREA OF EXPERTISE OR YOUR PRODUCT NICHE. 

Content can be in the form of advice, tips, knowledge, stories, and examples of success. It has to be on topics that your customers usually have questions or issues to resolve.

You can give this content in the form of articles, video, images, e-books, and speaking at live events, which today can be online and without any cost to you because of Periscope, Facebook, and Youtube live and so many other platforms that are available for transmitting your content live to your audience. One tip I would give for content, is to make sure you do great video content with a purpose. Good video content that tells a story and engages people works better than anything else on social media today in every market niche.

When you give value to people in the form of great content without directly selling, they will respond to you, and the more value you provide, the less selling you will need to do. The formula is to give, give, give and give again and then ask. Sell by giving. If your social media profile is full of promotions, this will put people off. Build great content in your area of focus that people are interested in and adjust it to each platform.

3. BUILD A MARKETING FUNNEL.

The marketing funnel is a very important online marketing system that you need to put together if you are promoting anything on the social media platforms. You need to set up an online marketing process that allows you to attract people to your social media profiles and then your website and mailing list by giving value to them for free. As a result of building relationships with potential customers through consistently providing them with valuable content, you will eventually convert them into clients. This might sound too technical if you don’t have online marketing background and knowledge, so you might need the support of an expert to put this together or get training yourself at specialized seminars and trainings.

The post How to use Social Media to Promote your Business appeared first on Pavlina Papalouka - Entrepreneur, speaker, consultant and coach in Personal Development, Business and Personal Branding.

Have you ever wondered if there is something different in people who are able to build extraordinary companies that change the world starting from scratch, or athletes who win Olympic gold medals, or people who hit the absolute height of their careers like Hollywood stars who get an Oscar? How do these people think and behave differently so that they reach these extraordinary results and stand out in the world?

What separates high achievers that everyone admires, to the rest of the people in the world, is actually just a few simple things in their mindset that get them to behave differently. And if you decide to apply their way of thinking in your life, you can create huge success too, in your business, career and any area of your life where you want to excel. 

1. DO IT ANYWAY (EVEN IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT)

High achievers will easily do things they hate to do or when they don’t feel like doing them at all because they know this will bring results in the future. They are not picky about doing only things that they like and only if they are in the mood to do them.

Take the example of an overweight person who is suffering from health issues due to bad nutrition and lack of exercise. They will go to doctors knowing that they have a big problem that needs to be solved, but when you ask them why they don’t start exercising, they might say that they don’t like exercise and they never feel like doing it.

Now compare this with a person who is always fit, always finds time to go to the gym, go for a walk or do something for their physical health. Even if you are the most athletic person in the world, there are days when you just don’t feel like exercising at all, but people like pro athletes will get up and do it anyway, and that’s why they excel in sports.

And once you learn to do something that is important even when you don’t feel like it, then you develop a new muscle, and you start to enjoy doing these things because you know how it feels after you do them, when you get the results.

2. DON’T LET REJECTION STOP YOU EVER

Take the example of J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, one of the wealthiest self-made women in the world today. If she couldn’t handle rejection, she would probably still be a struggling writer with a big dream and the world would not have the Harry Potter series. Her manuscript got rejected by publishers numerous times before publishing because publishers didn’t believe there was money to be made in children’s books and wizards.

3. DEVELOP SELF DISCIPLINE

High achievers do what’s important first, and they do it consistently and with discipline. They are able to delay gratification, like going out with friends, taking vacations or chilling in front of the TV, to complete what is important for them first. What all these successful people share in common is an amazing discipline to do what’s important every single day. Such discipline is rare in the world, and that’s why very few people stand out and become high achievers.

The post 3 Main Characteristics of High Achievers appeared first on Pavlina Papalouka - Entrepreneur, speaker, consultant and coach in Personal Development, Business and Personal Branding.