"A strong positive self image is the best preparation for success." - Joyce Brothers, American psychologist

When I tell people that I am an image consultant, I can almost mind-read their response. Inevitably, they are thinking "She must be a bit vain". Well guess what, I'm not vain but I do care about how I look and how I appear to others.

Vanity is defined as "the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others". Image, on the other hand, is defined as "the personal facade that one presents to the world". So we can safely assume that image and vanity is not the same thing.

Vanity is when you believe you are better than you are. Image is actually how other people see you and it includes a variety of factors, amongst them what you wear; personal grooming; tone of voice; the vocabulary that you use; and your facial expressions.

Given that we have just 15 seconds to make an impact on someone when we meet them for the first time, we had better believe that image matters and that caring about our personal image is actually sound business sense. People make assumptions about us based on limited information.

We can be assessed on a single physical characteristic because our appearance is seen to reflect who we are, what we are and what is important to us. So forget about vanity and use your personal image to make a positive, powerful impact on others.