11 Ways to Embody the Entrepreneur You Want to Be
You can have all the practical business know-how in the world, and just the right strategy, but if you're not BEING the entrepreneur you need to be, none of it will matter.
How you're showing up in the world is more important than you may realize.
Here, I'm going to share my top tips for stepping into the version of yourself that you need to be to lead your dream business.
Or your dream life. I originally wrote this for my business coaching clients, but most or all of these ideas will work for anyone with dreams and goals.
NOTE: This article is based on a PDF guide I created a couple of years ago for my coaching clients. I recently decided to share it (and some of my other guides, workbooks, and resources) freely with anyone who could benefit from them. So I'm turning much of that original guide into this article. The guide itself has additional exercises and tips, so I highly recommend downloading the PDF version as well.
How to Be the Entrepreneur You Want & Need to Be for Your Business to Thrive
If you have big dreams and goals, and I know you do if you’re reading this, it’s time to match your energy, thoughts, and actions with those dreams and goals. By aligning yourself in this way, you’ll fast track your success and create the results you desire quicker and easier.
The 11 ideas I cover in this article include:
- Be grateful for your business
- Know your big vision
- Be the leader now
- Protect the asset
- Be yourself
- Raise your vibe
- Curate your environment
- Plan your work & work your plan
- Focus like you mean it
- Selling is service
- Take action now
#1. Be grateful for where you and your business are now
An important, but often overlooked, step is to truly accept where you are in your business right now rather than beating yourself up for not being farther along.
Accepting the current status of your business doesn’t mean that you don’t want to make changes or strive to grow your business. And it doesn’t mean giving up on your dreams and goals. But it does mean that you acknowledge and accept where you are now.
Celebrate how far you have come, what you have achieved, and the lessons you have learned. Whether you have been in business for years or you are just starting out, you are right where you need to be.
Don’t compare yourself to where others are in their businesses. We are each on our own path and own timeline. Focus on your own work. And when you do look at other entrepreneurs and businesses, look for inspiration of what is possible.
Be grateful for the version of yourself who got you to where you are.
Be grateful for your business as it is now.
RELATED: I have a free 14-day gratitude challenge that can help you explore different gratitude practices and be more grateful in general.
#2. Know your big vision
Getting clear on your vision and knowing why it is important to you helps you align your more immediate goals and tasks to a bigger purpose, stay motivated, and take action.
What is your vision for yourself, your business, and your life?
If anything were possible, and there were no barriers, what is it that you truly want to be, do, and have?
Once you're clear on your vision, I recommend keeping it top of mind throughout your day, week, year. A great way to do this is with a vision board, which is essentially a visual representation of your dreams and goals.
RELATED: I have a workbook on creating or clarifying your big vision for your business that I will be sharing soon.
#3. Be the leader now
Think and act like the CEO of your future business.
The results you have now are rooted in the thoughts you’ve been thinking and the actions you’ve been taking.
What can you think and do differently in order to get where you want to go?
How does that future CEO self—someone who has built a thriving business, started a movement, made an impact—act?
Be confident that everything will work out. And if something doesn’t play out the way you want it to, see it as an opportunity to make adjustments. Trust that you’ll be able to address anything that comes your way.
"Everything is figureoutable." -Marie Forleo
Listen to your intuition and trust yourself.
Be decisive.
Be resourceful.
Ask better questions.
The way you phrase your questions determines the quality of your answers. Instead of asking, “Why isn’t this _____ working?” or “Why can’t I do ___?” ask “What can I do to get the results I want?” Your brain will look for solutions instead of excuses.
#4. Protect the asset
You are the most important asset of your life and business. Treat yourself as such.
Take good care of yourself. Do whatever you can to improve or maintain your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well being.
Prioritize self care.
Go on long walks. Give yourself down time. Watch your favorite Netflix series. Get the sleep you need. Treat yourself to a massage. Take time out for lunch with friends. Sit down to meditate.
Invest in yourself.
The best long-term investments you can make are in yourself and your brain. Be willing to spend time, energy, and money on health, education, and mentorship.
Work on your mindset.
Your actions and results in business, as in life, stem from your thoughts and feelings. So it makes sense to do what you can to get your brain on your own side. Talk nicely to yourself. Establish a gratitude practice. Focus on the present.
Release your blocks.
What is holding you back in your business? Identify those things and work to release or overcome them, whether on your own or with a therapist or coach.
#5. Be yourself
Celebrate your uniqueness.
What makes you uniquely you is something to be proud of rather than something to hide.
Instead of trying to fit yourself or your business into a mold of what you think an entrepreneur needs to do or how a business needs to operate, do the opposite. Ask yourself how you can be more uniquely you in your business, your working style, your dress, your branding, your messaging, and how you serve.
Many people who work 9-to-5 jobs have two lives. They act one way at work, to fit into the corporate mold, and another in their private lives.
Entrepreneurs have the opportunity and power to be completely themselves in both realms, but many don’t do so out of cultural norm programming, fear, or lack of practice.
But what makes you different can actually be your biggest asset. It will help you attract your dream clients. Plus, being yourself in business makes it more sustainable, unique, and fun.
You are the creator of your business. You get to do business your way. You don’t need to do it like everyone else.
"Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken." - Oscar Wilde
Use your imagination, creativity, and unique strengths to build the business you want. Yes, you can learn and implement proven business strategies. But that doesn’t mean you can’t implement them your own way or experiment with new ways of doing business.
#6. Raise your vibe
Your vibe is everything. It’s your energy and your confidence. It’s how you feel inside and out. It’s also how you show up in the world, for yourself, for others, and for your business.
Act confident and you’ll start feeling more confident. While it may feel fake at first, keep doing it until one day you realize that you are acting confident because you are confident.
Stand tall, raise your head high, and walk into the room like you belong there. Whatever room that is.
Watch Amy Cuddy’s hugely inspirational and informative TED Talk on body language and power poses for confidence and success if this doesn’t come naturally to you. She shows you how to fake it until you become it.
Get physical.
Move your body regularly to increase your energy, whether it’s dancing, running, or jumping jacks. It can be especially helpful to do this just before an important meeting, presentation, or livestream.
Listen to high vibe music that motivates & energizes you.
Practice high-vibe thoughts. Use affirmations, visualizations, and gratitude practices to raise your energy and confidence.
Dress well, but comfortably YOU. How does the successful entrepreneur version of you dress? Start dressing like that now.
Clear your head regularly, whether it’s with meditation, a brisk walk, or journaling.
Surround yourself with positive, supportive, ambitious, high vibe people.
Our relationships have a huge influence on our thoughts and actions. Entrepreneur and motivational speaker Jim Rohn famously said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
If high vibe isn’t how you would describe your current circle, perhaps it’s time to branch out and find some new people to spend time with.
#7. Curate your environment
There’s a popular saying that change happens from the inside out, and there’s a lot of truth to that. Your thoughts and beliefs guide your feelings and actions, which is why doing inner work can be so crucial. But sometimes the easiest and quickest way to get things moving in the right direction is to make changes to your external environment.
Declutter to make some space in your life to let in the new. Remove anything that no longer serves you or that is in opposition to your dreams and goals. This could mean decluttering your home, your office, your closet, your car, your computer, or your schedule.
Then take the time to curate your external environment with intention. Set up and decorate your living and working spaces in a way that affirms and supports your goals and engages your imagination. Surround yourself with visual reminders of what you desire as well as the tools that will help you achieve those desires.
Some things to consider are art, decor, affirmations, equipment, gear, books, magazines, movies, clothes, and music.
You can (and should) even curate the other environments that you spend time in, taking into consideration the people, activities, and energies in them. Spend more time in environments that have good energy (nature, high-vibe stores and coffee shops, the company of friends and family that lift you up) and less time in environments that bring you down (low-vibe restaurants and shops, the company of those who gossip, criticize, or complain).
#8. Plan your work & work your plan
Work backwards from your big vision to create goals and action steps that will get you there.
First, ask yourself where you want your business to be in one year?
Next decide what you need to accomplish in the next 3 months to keep you on track to reach your one year goals?
Then chunk your 3-month goals down into smaller steps and tasks to create a general action plan for the next 90 days.
And finally, start taking action.
NOTE: You don’t have to know HOW you’ll achieve your goal. For some things you’ll have a clear idea of the steps you need to take. For some, you won’t. And that’s okay. Just take one step in the right direction. And then another.
RELATED: I have a workbook on creating action plans that I will be sharing soon.
#9. Focus Like You Mean It
Your time and energy are two of your most important assets in life and business. Learn to focus them on actions and tasks that will make a difference and help you reach your goals.
What do you need to focus on in your business right now?
Choose one thing to prioritize at a time.
Is it meeting new people, marketing, launching a new product, building your team, growing your email list, establishing authority, or increasing revenue?
Then choose one way to do that.
If you want to focus on marketing so that you can reach your ideal clients, what do you think is the best way to do that right now?
If it is by attracting potential clients through social media, choose one social media platform and focus on that.
Then choose one method to focus on mastering and using for now. Such as inspiring, educating, and engaging with video on that social media platform.
After you master one area, you can add others.
Same with products and services. Focus on building one first and making it work before building the next.
MORE FOCUS TIPS
Another way to develop focus in your life and business is to find ways to remove what is not important from your list, then block off time for what is.
Pare down your schedule and to-do list.
What can you remove, delegate, or postpone so that you have more time for what is important to you?
Time blocking
Block time for yourself to do the important work. Maybe that means blocking off a day a week to create your course or an hour each morning to write your book. Or maybe it means scheduling two afternoons a week to connect with potential clients.
#10. Selling is Service
Your business needs to be profitable and sustainable. If you don’t have revenue, then it’s a hobby, not a business. And if you’re working hard but not making money, it will result in burnout, resentment, and limitation.
You need money to pay yourself.
You need money to grow your business, serve more people, create products, hire help, and make a bigger impact in the world.
And the more money you make, the easier it will be to do all of that. Which is a big reason why making or increasing your revenue needs to be one of your top priorities.
Whatever it is that you do to actually make money in your business is something you should be focusing on every day.
If you feel uncomfortable selling or marketing, it may be time to rethink how you think about selling.
Selling is serving.
You are helping your customers with your product or service. You are making their lives better---transforming them in some way, even. But if they don’t know about you or don’t work with you, they don’t get your help or that transformation.
#11. Take Action Now
Take consistent action toward your business goals. Refer to your action plan regularly and do the next step. Then the next.
Get in the habit of asking yourself, what is the most important thing I need to be doing right now? Then do it.
If you don’t know how to get from where you are to where you want to be, trust that you will learn through taking action. Ask yourself what you do know. What is the next best step? What is one action you can take right now?
Follow your intuition and take inspired action.
Take it one step at a time. Make the first call. Take the photo you’ll use on Instagram. Send the message about the possible collaboration. Contact a graphic designer about a logo design.
Take one small action towards a daunting task. Write the first line of an email or the big picture outline of the product you want to create. You’ll probably find that you keep going after you dip your toe in.
The first step naturally leads to the next and you begin to build momentum.
When work feels hard, ask yourself, how can I let this be easy? How can I have fun doing this? How can I make it more sustainable?
Maybe it would be easier and more fun to...
- make phone calls while walking your dog or taking a bubble bath.
- wearing your favorite outfit while you work.
- holding client meetings at your favorite tea shop.
- injecting more of your own unique personality into your marketing materials.
- color coding your spreadsheets & to do lists.
- focusing on your strengths rather than trying to improve an area that doesn’t come naturally to you.
- hiring a part-time VA to handle the bits and pieces of business you’re resisting.
You're a visionary entrepreneur. Act like it.
As you implement the ideas and suggestions in this article and guide, you'll be stepping into the version of yourself that you need to be to lead your dream business. You'll begin to create the results you desire easier and quicker. And, you'll have a lot more fun doing it!
Get the Free Guide
Click here to download the free PDF guide version of this article, nicely formatted and complete with extra exercises and tips.
Send me a Message
I hope you enjoyed this article and guide! If you have any questions or comments, send me an email at [email protected].
