When you are with friends or family, do you feel like an outsider looking in? Does it feel silly or funny to talk about your business with non-entrepreneurs?

Sometimes it feels like being a double agent! (Pretending to be someone else with people, while being yourself when you’re working inside your business.)

In this episode you’ll discover 5 ways to overcome this uneasy feeling and move on to continue your entrepreneurship journey (and it’s easier than you think!)

Prefer Video? Watch here:

Please let me know in the comments if you’ve experienced this feeling of the double agent complex.

Before you go, I’d love to connect with you and give you some gifts to help you grow your online presence!

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Full Transcript:

Complete this sentence for me.

Being an entrepreneur can feel like…

Now I am going to complete the sentence for you. Being an entrepreneur can feel like being a double agent. According to Webster’s dictionary, the definition of a double agent is a spy pretending to serve one government while serving another.

So an entrepreneur to me is pretending to be a part of the social norm class while working on a completely non norm vision. Does that resonate with you?

The reason I want to talk to you about this double agent complex as being an entrepreneur is several times throughout the year this is the feeling that I encounter when I am with some friends and family that I’m not around all the time.

So for example, we go up to Wisconsin in the summer on weekends to a cabin on a lake and we get together with some close family and friends just to enjoy the weekends, go boating, be at the campground, share some drinks and have some laughs. And if I haven’t seen these people for a long time, don’t really see them over the winter, sometimes the question will come up.

“How have you been doing, how was your winter, what’s going on in your life?” And when I begin to mention or talk about my journey as an entrepreneur, or talk about my business, sometimes I can kind of get that strange stare or almost like a deer in headlights look, where they just don’t really understand where I’m coming from.

I feel as an entrepreneur, I do not have that typical, nine to five job, that typical social norm class of everyone, having different jobs, distinct roles, typical roles that you hear from everyone else. So I want to share with you, if you are feeling this double agent complex with friends and family.

How do we overcome this double agent complex? Over and over, you’re going to have this battle of during the week or whatever you’re working on your business. You are a true entrepreneur, and you are working for your passions and your vision. But when you are in a situation with friends and family, and they do not share that are entrepreneur mindset, you feel that you almost must be a different person to fit in with that so-called social norm or that social class. So what can you do to overcome this double agent complex?

Number one, I want you to continue to focus on your passions, your why and your long term visions. Therefore it’s so important to sit down and think about why you have this business. What are you working for? Write down your passions. What is your why or your reason for doing this and what is your long-term vision that is going to keep you going? That is going to keep you focused so you don’t give up and you don’t stop

Number two and this is, I think, one of the most important things that you should do. You need to build your inner circle of like-minded people. These are other entrepreneurs just like you, and they can be online. My closest entrepreneur BFFs are all online and they are truly my friends. We can Voxer each other, DM each other.

We can even call or text each other through our phones because they are going through the same things I am. And it’s so important to have that inner circle to support you and to encourage you and to help you keep going.

Number three, and this is also so important, and I must tell myself this over and over. What your friends and your family members say about your business has nothing to do with you. That’s their problem. We must let that go. We cannot control what other people think about our business and our visions and our goals and what we’re focusing on that is out of our control. So we must let it go.

Number four, this is another great tip. Listen to uplifting podcast or read books by other entrepreneurs who have gone through the journey that you are going through now. That’s my favorite way to kind of let go of all the outside distractions or all the outside noise is just sit down with a really enjoyable book or listen to a really great podcast by other entrepreneurs.

And number five, lead your life with confidence and courage. And as Tonya Dalton would say, “live on purpose,” this is your life, not theirs.

So I would love for you to send me a message, leave a comment, and let me know if you’ve ever had this feeling of the double agent complex. And I hope my tips today will help you out.