It starts with the intention to be disruptive, creative and strategic. It starts with the belief in the idea that you were born for a purpose and you have a mission you deserve to accomplish. Your belief becomes your message. Your belief needs to be clear. It needs to express what you feel deep inside.

In this two-part series, I want to talk about anxiety. This is something that we entrepreneurs don’t talk about often. I am going to. This wasn’t easy to write. I stopped myself several times to write something else. It’s got to be done. It’s going to sound a little dark.

It starts with getting clear about you as an entrepreneur. You are not any different from other entrepreneurs around you who seem to have more control over their businesses and lives. You just haven’t figured out how to have the right people around you who can help you maximize your potential.

The biggest mistake you can make in your business and in your life as an entrepreneur is to try and protect yourself from failure. If you want to become who you want to be, you must be willing to fail. If you want to get hired, you must be willing to get fired. If you want to get customers, you must be willing to get rejected.

I believe when it comes to growing your business as an entrepreneur you need to do it in a way that makes people feel safe and secure around you. This is about being an effective leader and exuding great energy and making others feel good around you.

I believe every entrepreneur today needs personal coaching more than ever. For me, it was the fastest way to becoming who I wanted to be. Personal coaching helped me learn the most important skill every entrepreneur needs to learn sooner rather than later – Authentic Leadership.

It starts with making a decision to do things differently. This is a decision to match your outer expressions with your inner experiences. Yes, you may get into trouble for doing this, but do it anyway. The things you say and the things you do need to match with the things you actually believe.

Now, more than ever, your customers are hungry. They are after something. They want your genuineness more than your products, services, ideas or expertise. They want an experience. They want an experience that is more authentic and real. This means you need to stay in touch with the real you.

Being true to yourself as a young entrepreneur is like falling in love. You can’t fake it. You have to be vulnerable. There are no guarantees that the other person will love you back. Some people will love you back and some people will reject you. And that’s ok.