Millennials or not, first meetings can bring out anxiety in anyone. There is simply nothing more unnerving than being sized up by the other party. It is also but natural to want to be liked and be given the amount of attention and respect. But the need to create a killer first impression is the first step in building rapport, a salient aspect in excellent interpersonal skills.

People naturally feel intimidated or unsettled when being entrusted into an unfamiliar environment. But confidence and optimism will help you overcome situations like this. But while many millennials are touted to be oozing with confidence, building rapport still needs consistency and constant practice way beyond the ease of first meet-ups. To build rapport, certain skills set like verbal and nonverbal, motivational, active listening, sense of humor, and empathy must be utilized.

Building rapport is the very process that turns a killer first impression into a lasting one. This is where trust and mutual respect usually comes in. To start, here are some important behaviors to consider:

Building rapport by starting strong on your first impression can be tricky. Experts believe that first impressions carry a huge weight in dealing with other people. While it may be true, it still takes a lot of consistency and constant communication to tighten such rapport. Practice and mentorship will help largely on this aspect. When done accordingly, you can guarantee building lasting relations with everyone else—and often to your advantage.

Simply put, many businesses do not “talk” to their customers. Many failed (and are continually failing) to learn from their audience, more so listen to them at their level. There are some however, who have learned to leverage actual feedback from consumers—and these are some of the important points they shared:

1. Learn where your customers thrive. Where do they spend time online? What and who are they following on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms? What products and services appeal to them? What posts and other content pique their interest or keep them interested? Starting a conversation with your own audience and seek out these information. The more you learn about customer intricacies, the more effective engagements will be.

2. Engage in active listening. Often, the best conversations start when you engage customers to tell you their thoughts and views. Put yourself in their shoes, would you not feel important when a company asks for your inputs? Let your on-boarding initiative be customer-centric. The moment you open your ears to their concerns and views, the more you can make them work to your business’ advantage.

3. Ask customers the reason for either liking or disliking your product, service or brand. Real insights always come from real-time feedback, from real people buying your brand. Talk to them directly and infuse the reasons behind their actions. Through that, you can gain more traction on your social media growth strategy.

4. Know what your customer needs. Even with good intentions in mind, what your own perception of what the customer needs may actually be not aligned with their views. So, consider asking them what specific improvements and other quirkiness they need. When you put those commendable points, you can immediately turn customers into brand ambassadors.

5. Engage your customers. Crowd-sourcing is the trend these days. So are the use of beta testing, round-table live discussions, hashtag conversation, and hangouts. Involve them in the process. Valuing your customers’ thoughts and opinions, particularly when crafting new products or business solutions, often boomerang in a positive way.

6. Learn your audience’s lingo. Sometimes, we get so caught up in our own industry’s jargon forgetting the fact that our customers may actually have their own language. Pay close attention to that. Often, miscommunication can put your brand-building efforts on digital media astray leading to its failure.

7. Don’t forget to give thanks to those who continually embrace your brand. Sincerity is a powerful thing. When they do not, it is also essential to ask the reason behind. Be open-minded and accept both positive and negative criticisms. In both instances, always show gratitude as both encourage growth to your brand.

Customers are, indeed, shaping up the minutiae of brand-building. Talk to your customers in a language they can understand. Dissect what they deep down need. Connect with them and be sincere at that. In doing so, you can finally strengthen your social brand and make big with your goals in mind.

This only means that your online presence speaks volume about your brand. Your website to your social media profiles, status messages, tweets, pictures, articles, and other stuffs posted online is a reflection of what your business represents, and its culture. While the Internet revolutionizes various aspects of business, this makes branding management even more challenging and arduous in this day and age. To give you competitive advantage, here are some ways to manage your brand without fail:

1. Begin brand-building with your profile in mind. Make your company profile—from account name to photo to cover image—deliver the very imagery that represents who you are, what you stand for, and what you wish to achieve. Be straight to the point in the “About” section. Let your brand ambassadors like employees handling customer service or admin of the page mirror the values of your brand.

2. Steer clear of controversial brand ambassadors. Yes, in this day and age when information overload is notoriously easy, the use of questionable entities will cause more harm than good to your business image. Whether employees or endorsers, it is important to ensure that impression given out must be always on the positive.

3. Policies must be in place particularly in the use of apps. This is to protect private and sensitive information of the business. Part of the policy must be proper venue of the download, data protection, and so on. If you may, consider blocking of free apps to prevent leakage of critical information.

4. Gear your digital team against online trolling. Cyber-bullying is also notorious online striking both individual and business pages. One wrong tweet, like political or sensational topic, can easily blow out of proportion leading to heavy trolling or posting of offensive comments. Do make sure appropriate action plan is in place to handle such situations.

5. Set clear social media guidelines for your team. This will help give your employees or brand ambassadors a clear mandate on what photos, posts, links, and messages to post. It will also help create standard form of replying to comments or reacting to negative comments. Make sure to discuss each item at length with your team to prevent double standards.

6. Be relevant and effective. Share content which are not only significant to your brand but also those that are timely. Keep social media profiles up-to-date and in-sync, too.

7. In everything else, be consistent. In the world of brand building and management, consistency is still the key to gaining the respect of online audience. It also helps to draw in more followers when you give up to date information, organize contests, give freebies, beta testers, and so on.

With the rate this whole Internet and tech-gadget dependency is going, your online reputation definitely precedes the overall aspects of your business. Keep your audience enthralled. Poke on their excitement and curiosity. By keeping them engaged, you may also turn them into your own set of brand ambassadors, like reliable word-of-mouth campaigners on the digital level.

While it is easy to choose buying a house over leasing one, it cannot be said the same to an office space. For one, you need to understand that this means lack of flexibility in your current space. Your business will be “tied-up” to the current location making it harder to expand when the need requires so at a later time. Of course, this also entails coughing off a big chunk off your capital for the down payment, improvement, and maintenance costs.

However, buying also comes with astounding perks. For one, it allows you to have a clearer perspective on your fixed costs. Keep in mind that office rental usually increases year after year. Mortgage interest and property taxes also provide hefty tax deductions thereby, increasing your “income” potential. Take note also that real property rarely depreciates allowing you to have a solid investment for the future or as a retirement fund.

Many startup businesses and small-scale entities prefer leasing or renting an office space over buying to give them more flexibility. Not only does renting allow them to be flexible in terms of image and location, renting also allows them to covet prime property in a more affordable way. Basically, one does not have to shell out huge capital investments that only get tied up to idle asset like an office space. Subsequently, this also allows them to simply let the business grow first and then, be able to move from one prime location to another as they thrive.

But while the option may seem perfect for up and starting businesses, leasing also have notable disadvantages. Remember that lease increases annually and if your business does not take-off as planned, such cost may be too much of a burden. Leasing does not also assure you long-term hold on a strategic location. Often, some landlords tend to toughen their agreement once they see potential in their property.

So, should you lease or should you buy an office space? Again, it all depends on your long-term goals as a business entity. Often, one’s decision will involve not just strategic location but also tax, financial, and personal reasons. Do take note that the surge of rent-to-own office spaces is fast becoming the trend these days. With the help of a financial planner and broker, finding the best deal may give you the win-win situation you want.

Are you preparing a corporate event? Do you have an employee retreat program lined up before the year ends? Is a banquet being prepared to celebrate a milestone or to simply motivate those who have delivered to the progress of the company? Having a keynote speaker is essential to events as they can cohesively deliver the very concept you wish to impart to an audience in an objective perspective. When chosen correctly, this speaker will even create a paradigm shift essential in driving a more enhanced view of business success.

Keynote speakers are the ones who draw a crowd to an event. They normally give attendance a boost. But beyond that, these gifted individuals can raise awareness to a higher level. Most importantly, they ensure a home run on the message’s overall point. With these in mind, how do you actually choose a speaker?

1. Identify the objective of the event. There are many types of keynote speakers out there and often, each delivers focus on certain aspects. Sales conferences, for instance, require motivational ones while tech conferences rely on expertise. The key is to define clearly the objective of the event and from there, create a shortlisted name of keynote speakers who have adhered to the said purpose.

2. Consider brainstorming with a core team. Getting them involved will help open a lot of avenues to ideas and names in the business. This also helps to clarify the perceived results of the said event. Do a survey, if you may, when an event is centered on your workforce. This is quite important when you want to impart something of astounding relevance to your employees.

3. Invest on a multi-faceted speaking engagement rather than a single event. People easily forget those one-time events. Try crafting a series of speaking commitments. This does not only deliver consistent and lasting impact, it also allows you to slice major themes into specific subtopics for a much better understanding. Do remember to take your company’s resources and needs when choosing what will work best for your mission.

4. Scrutinize the shortlisted keynote speakers. Popularity is not always the best option. These speakers often deliver so-so speaking engagements due to their hectic schedule. Sometimes, they too do not easily conform or align to your own company’s particular needs. Go for someone versatile and with a clear grasp of your intentions. Make sure though that such speaker can communicate effectively with an audience such as yours.

5. Keynote speakers do not come cheap. Do make sure what you are getting and when you negotiate, make sure it’s worth it. Simply write down a proposal of your requirements, send it to your shortlisted speakers then, meet-up to discuss the points in detail. Feel free also to ask connections on speaker fees and rates. Bring such data with you when you negotiate.

6. Don’t just sit there and wait for a miracle to happen. Promote! Unless the event is compulsory for all employees to attend, you need to engage them to participate. Even free events require promotions. You would not want to have the best speaker to be talking to an empty auditorium. To create the impact you want, you need attendees.

7. Make good use of audience feedback. This will gauge the effect of the speaking event as well as the effectiveness of the keynote speaker. If satisfaction is high and the point of the speaking engagement had been reached then, by all means, do it again.

Choosing the right keynote speaker means a great deal to any company-sponsored event. Learn to identify your purpose and objectives as well as your budget resources to support such. Be flexible and creative. Best of all, find one who is aligned with your company’s objectives and willing to go the extra mile to deliver the message across.

The marketing concept— emotional branding—refers to the practice of brand-building which directly appeals to consumer’s emotions, ego, needs, and/or aspirations. Marketers and advertisers create an unseen bond between consumers and a certain product by provoking a particular emotion. The very foundation of this concept lies in the emotion-based ego-gratification centered at consumer needs. It is a fulfillment of one’s needs by way of delivering answers or solutions to problems while appealing to the emotion subconsciously.

Many brand bigwigs have mastered emotional branding resulting to cult following. It is important to note that such practice borders on the profound. Methods being used are often meant to trigger a powerful reaction from consumers. It is not a one-time deal though. Emotional branding requires consistency and constancy to build a lasting connection with consumers.

When it comes to leveraging consumer emotions, building a loyal and lasting following requires careful identification of your brand’s promise and personality. Of course, it must also highlight the perks and distinctive features of the products or services your brand carries—and how such features and benefits connect to the emotions of consumers.

Like telling heart-rending tales, emotional branding uses archetypal and universal feelings of guilt, fear, trust, security, competitiveness, love, sense of belonging, control, desires and passion, instant gratification, freedom, sense of relaxation, being stylish or trendy, and so on. Some brands, for instance, make use of consumers’ fear of being left behind or of not being able to spend time with a loved one as a central theme of a Christmas ad featuring their product. Other brands inject the “happy” appeal to their brands to celebrate the yuletide season. Whether appealing to negative or positive emotions, both concepts drive at getting an emotional response from their end-users in an effort to make a sale and to capture their loyalty in the long run.

Emotional branding is definitely putting consumers on a pedestal. To be able to show your consumers that such is the case, it is essential to decide carefully which emotion to target. In all emotional branding strategies, it is crucial to carefully identify and define your target market’s core emotional needs. Communicate this cohesively and make sure that you add a sense of encouragement on their part.

With the Internet and social media, consistent and timely communications must also be done accordingly to reinforce the said move. A cognitive element must also be added to the mix to boost appeal on emotional intelligence. Be reminded that you can easily lose consumers to strong emotional appeal without a cognitive element. This will allow a pinch of practicality which many consumers are so keen of these days.

Indeed, the concept of emotional branding has always proven to be an effective strategy. While old practices are still alive and kicking, new rules are being injected to the concept these days by virtue of online platforms and social media. Continue relearning the ropes of the trade by updating your branding strategy. Best of all, be consistent and constant to develop a deep sense of touch with your target market and convert them into avid followers in the long run.

In 2017, technological innovations will pave for a faster and more reliable Internet connectivity allowing a more robust way of conducting business, gain knowledge and information, share such to friends and colleagues, and live more conveniently. This will bring a new wave of spending revolution leading consumers to rely greatly on online shopping as a way to acquire products or services. When thinking of starting on your own in 2017, consider the following online business ideas to shape-up your profit-savvy success goals.

Apparel Collection. Remember Jack Ma of Alibaba fame? Peg your e-commerce future with such grand dream. Start small by selling apparels online. From clothes to shoes, belts, berets, stockings and hosiery, and accessories, the fashion industry simply never goes out of style. It’s a vibrant industry, one that attracts money like sweet flies to pancakes. Look for reliable suppliers to ensure building good reputation.

Jewelry Shop. Today, people see pieces of jewelry as investments rather than as enhancers to physical aesthetics. Both men and women have become keen on wearing a necklace or a bracelet, multiple earrings, rings, and so on. Start by selling to your circle of family, friends and work colleagues via social media. Let online “word of mouth” give credence to your trustworthiness and make sure to be transparent in all transactions.

Social Media Solutions. Social media will continue to reign supreme in the year 2017. Businesses will become more focused on their social efforts opening a lucrative avenue for you to pursue. Monetize your social media skills and offer effective solutions. You can offer consultancy or third-party services as a business.

eBook Writing/Publishing. Lift your writing skills to a whole new level by writing and publishing e-books. Instructional and insightful books are quite the rage nowadays and this will continue to be so in the years to come. Do make sure that your ebooks are scalable in both online and mobile platforms as the thrust tend to point to smart gadgets in 2017.

Skills/Service-Oriented Businesses. There are many ways to sell services online. Consider promoting events by selling tickets and making reservations, rental services by offering access to real estate properties in various vacation points across the globe, grocery deliveries, professional online shoppers, virtual stylists and personal assistance, and so on. Online tutorial spanning the usual school subjects, second language, and the likes are also thriving. Make good use of your skills and showcase it by delivering topnotch performance all the time.

Indeed, the increasing necessity of the Internet will become even more prominent in 2017. This increased penetration and dependency on online resources will create high demands and lucrative returns for startups like you. With these online business ideas, you can finally start shaping your entrepreneurial aspirations and reach your success goals in no time.

While it is easy to simply create a professional website and link it to a social media page like LinkedIn, marketing your skills require utmost care. You need to “brand” your own capabilities in such a way that you will “sell” to the right employers and eventually enjoy the best career opportunities in the industry you wish to belong. So, how to do just that? Here are some tips to get you on the right path:

1. Be yourself and make sure you know that “self”. As a professional, it is imperative to be aware of both your strengths and weaknesses—and make them work to your advantage. Take a good look at your experiences and correlate these with your skills and talents while considering the path you wish to carve for your professional life.

2. List down your career goals. A professional journey requires some form of direction. This will give you a sense of purpose and focus on how to brand and promote your skills set and your capabilities. Your goals will deliver clarity and direction on when, where and how to invest your time and efforts.

3. Carefully map out an introduction or summary about yourself. The key is to be concise, complete and credible on all the things you write. See to it that you clearly present who you are, your mission and vision, your expectations, and in what way you will be an asset to the company. Focus on your strengths when doing this.

4. Create an online presence tailored to the industry you wish to pursue. A personal website with your curriculum vitae (CV) duly connected to your social media profiles can also come handy. Keep information up-to-date and accurate. Be precise in your educational background, skills, past experiences, certifications and qualifications, and other notable aspects related to your professional goals. Doing so will help increase your job search success rate.

5. If you are careless on using social media before, today is the time to revamp your online presence. Accounts on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are a heavily utilized tool by headhunting agencies and employers. What could be a fun post can easily damage your reputation.

6. Network extensively. Use platforms like LinkedIn, online networking events and referrals, professional organizations and groups, discussion forums, and so on. Make connections with alumni friends and former work colleagues. This will allow you vast access to information in the industry as well as more hits from prospective employers via referrals and recommendations.

7. Be on the point in your chosen field. Make good use of short and long keywords that will attract online crawlers to find you. Litter your professional website and social media profiles with such keywords to make you more visible. This is the digital world after all. So, try to convert your passion into catch words and phrases that attract Internet searches.

There are many ways to market your own professional self to employers. The key is to show what you got, pique a prospective employer’s interest, and to instill trust. Selling yourself is but a small part of the job search game. Make sure you don’t short-sell your own and downplay your potential to succeed.

Truth be told, this strategy has no place in today’s business arena.  This flawed leadership style does not only put employees in a state of anxiety and malcontent, it also hinders creativity, respect, and productivity. If you happen to be getting a lot of bad rap from employee feedback sheets, it is high time to have that paradigm shift via these tips.

1. Practice humility by fostering mutual respect with your employees. While you may still have full authority, it is imperative that you treat employees with respect. You need to understand that bosses do not have the monopoly to excellent ideas. Good leaders easily relate to their employees by being approachable.

2. Be constructive and compassionate. Yes, be ready to criticize but offer proactive solutions. It is easy to put the blame on employees but to humiliate or make them suffer is definitely out of the lead frame. When an employee makes an error, correct in private, encourage to do better, and to offer a solution to prevent recurrence. Brainstorm with everyone when mistakes happen and focus on key learnings as well as solutions.

3. Be appreciative. One of the biggest management problems today is the lack of appreciation to employees. Why is it so hard to say “thank you” or “good job”? Shout it out in your company’s social media pages if you may. Recognize them during weekly or monthly meet-ups. Incentivize such by offering free lunch or anything that will make them feel appreciated. This will help raise their spirits and encourage more productivity.

4. Be a role model by walking the talk. Character and value formation is often mirrored by employees. If you want them to be productive, work alongside them practicing what you preach. The values you pursue will eventually trickle down to your employees. Engagement as always starts with you on top.

5. Learn to have fun every now and then. All work and no play stunts creativity which, in turns, negatively impacts productivity. Infusing merriment like going on a fun team-building or group training will allow employees to develop camaraderie with their co-workers, loyalty to the company they work for, and more push to deliver excellent results.

6. Engage employees in the virtue of volunteerism. Crafting a culture of “giving back” to society will help open their eyes that there is more to the company than mere profit-making. Such sensitivity to other people or another marginalized sector will open employee consciousness to become better individuals and, in return, as better workers.

7. Learn how to practice the virtues of compassion, trust, respect, humility, and cooperation. Leadership is all about “giving” (or channeling) pieces of such virtues to others. Be reminded that you can only give what you have.

Fostering a healthy work environment, indeed, is no rocket science. To generate high performing employees, you need to strike them where it matters the most: their inner needs. Look after their happiness and tap on their inner strengths. In doing so, they will care more about their work and perhaps, even about you as their boss.

To event planners, creating their own personal brand is a must to stand out among hundreds of competition in the market. As an event planner, there really is no limit to what you can do if you complement creativity with hard work and commitment. But all that will be lost if you do not cultivate your own personal brand, the YOU in the business of events organization. With the industry continually in upswing, this gives you a bright future up ahead—but only when you do it right. Creating your signature brand then, requires careful thought. The same can also be said with businesses building their own “signature brand” via events organization.

Instead of the usual sponsorship deals or philanthropic means by donating funds, top brands like Clinique, Coca Cola, sports outfitters like Nike and Reebok, insurance companies, and various organizations are joining the fray in the hope of sustaining their personal brand with something else. Clinique, for instance, has set its eyes on UK’s fun run extravaganza—Run or Dye, a 5K run wherein runners are thrown with dyed powder every 1K they finished, and “Kiss It Better”, another fundraiser. In both these events, Clinique is posting itself as a brand ambassador for beauty, creativity, fitness, and of course, the life of the party! Fun is what it’s selling and every run brings in a huge pack of brand awareness and in-store promotions, too.

It is important to understand that this is not an entirely new concept though. Businesses used to promote causes as well as advocacies and then, using such support as a means to promote their brands. Today, however, they tend to be more hands-on in the realm of event organization. Think about The Body Shop and its signature campaign versus animal testing, Kenneth Cole’s AWearNess events and campaigns, TOMS shoe revolution, Hanes for the homeless, Shake Shack’s Great American Shake Sale, Dunkin Donuts Cop on a Rooftop, and many more.

From one event to another, there is literally a personal brand littered all over it without anyone knowing. It’s a marketing campaign but one that’s solely based on social responsibility. While it cannot be denied that certain businesses do events to make their businesses endearing to the bevy of supporters for a particular cause or advocacy, it is still a welcoming change. Truth of the matter is that—no event in history has ever happened without the financial backing of businesses and, in a way, their brands.

Bottom line is: Both event planning and business markets are enjoying the concept of personal branding vis-à-vis social responsiveness. As brands continue to use events to forge trust and loyal following from its new and existing customers, event planners also continue to flourish. This mutualistic-symbiosis offers a perfect alignment of sustainability in the business arena. While event organizers or planners build their personal brand to deliver unique ideas, businesses are also doing its best to create a persona that allow closer relationship with its customers. All in all, the concept of personal branding allows a harmonious fusion—something that brands, event planners and consumers are just too willing to embrace.