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Veronika Maresova—founder, CEO, and lecturer at Empower Your Image—has spent over 10,000 hours coaching clients to align their inner mindset with their outer presence. In this insightful interview, she shares real-life transformations that prove personal style is more than fabric and colour—it’s a powerful tool for building self-esteem, strengthening professional relationships, and opening doors you didn’t think possible.
When I used to study in high school, I started to read books connected with personal growth, regularly participated in workshops and conferences about building self-esteem. In such a short period of time, I realized that it had a huge impact on the way I dressed and cared about myself. I started to treat myself with more love, confidence, and self-awareness.
Sure. I have many transformational stories with my clients. One of my favourites is Vera’s story. She was a businesswoman dealing with fruit and vegetables from the European market, in her middle age. She came to me because she had a problem making a deeper connection with her colleagues. Her appearance was too strong, and she wanted to influence and treat them more positively and friendly than she did. Her personality was really strong, with a logic and goal-achieving orientation. But it didn’t mean that she needed to strengthen that more through her outer appearance. She wanted and needed to treat others in a more feminine, empathetic way.
We started with coaching practice about the way she saw herself, what helped her, and what didn’t. She realized and visualized her new image of herself—not only her new outer appearance but also her way of being. After that, we found the right colours that enhanced her needs, her personal goals, and visual aspects of her natural image that supported her femininity. She started to feel more confident about herself. That was the moment when people started to see changes in her way of talking to them and her energy during working hours. Vera changed her inner way of thinking about herself, and it changed her results in her career, too.
Most of my clients are entrepreneurs or people working with others, because they see the importance of dressing on a daily basis. One of my clients from the real estate investment sector—we can call him Jacob—was under 30 years old. His appearance looked really young, and it didn’t help him to influence investors like someone who had the experience needed for this hard department of investment. He wanted to grow his business and start with larger contracts. We did a multi-step process working with his appearance and the emotions he reflected outward. I taught him how to use colours to support his intentions, influence, and self-confidence.
After that, he had the meeting with a big fish in the real estate investment industry. He received an offer to participate in the purchase of a project. But when they met in person, the investor gave him a much bigger opportunity than he couldn’t have imagined before. The investor just told him: “You look like a professional, and I trust you.” After that meeting, Jacob texted me a message to say thank you, because it had started his new business era, with bigger numbers than before.
One of the natural mistakes that people make when they go for a job interview is that they choose their clothes more based on how they will look, not how they want to feel in them. Making a good first impression is important. But do you really think that you can do it in a totally different style of dressing than what you feel authentic in? I find it crucial to dress for all of those occasions in a way that supports showing what’s in you.
It doesn’t mean that you’ll choose your “home pants” when you go for a special occasion, just because you want to feel comfortable. I believe that everyone has a specific image signature for all of our life roles, and for every occasion, we are able to find a way that combines respect for the occasion and our authentic true self-image. So my suggestion is: ask yourself, How do I need to feel in that situation? What does it require of me? And then go and dress yourself for success.
There were many situations—from a funeral where I gave a eulogy, to performing, to a speech at a conference for a thousand participants, or in negotiations with my ex-husband. In every one of these situations, I felt more confident and had inner peace because of choosing the right colours and style of dressing. It helped me to focus on what was important in that moment.
I believe that if you want to excel in anything, you need to find the right people who have results in that area and learn from them. I am absolutely convinced that this had a fundamental impact on the uptake and long-term development of my business. The biggest value of mentoring for me was during the COVID time when it was absolutely necessary to change my current business model. It helped me to think and act differently, not to feel alone in that situation. I felt supported and trusted that I could be successful in it, no matter what happened.
We find something we can include in professional outfits that helps clients feel more authentic. It can be a specific type of accessory or a colour combination that makes the client feel more okay with the way they’re dressed.
Sometimes it can show us that the client is not in the right working field when it requires something that doesn’t match with their values, lifestyle, or natural way of dressing.
A lot of people who come to me have the need to feel more communicative and confident when they interact with others. Most of them wear colours that don’t help them with that. So one of the things we can change—and clients see results really fast—is the colours they wear.
Another situation is when people wear the wrong size of clothes, and it has a huge impact on how they feel about themselves. Most of the time, they don’t realize it. They are positively shocked by how much it can change the way they feel and look.
I foresee—and hope—that people will start to realize how their dressing can support their emotions more than how it looks on the outside, whether it’s trendy or not. We all can ask ourselves: What will help me the best for today? For this occasion?
Don’t look at what other people think. Focus on the way you feel is right.
