How Anjula Acharia Used Inexperience as Fuel

It can be hard to realize how your skills might apply to a new field or project. For Anjula Acharia, believing in her ideas, trusting her skills, and finding fearless collaborators and clients helped pave the way for a new leg of her career as a talent manager.

During a recent Office Hours episode, Anjula explained how inexperience can be a superpower to ignite your next project or career move. 

1. Channel confidence.

Whether she’s helping a female entrepreneur pitch to new investors or presenting a new project proposal herself, unlocking confidence can be key to Acharia’s success. Luckily, there are tools that can help, she noted.

“You start with body language. When you feel unsure and scared, you're more kind of hunched in,” she said. “I would force myself to sit [more upright]. I would flick my hair. Eventually that became normal for me. My body would naturally go into that state of openness, and people would respond and react differently.”

You can test your presentation on people in advance to get their feedback, she noted. It can also be important to adjust on the fly. Acharia makes sure to read the room and find ways to keep people engaged, such as by asking them a question to break up the presentation.

These tips can be especially key for small-business owners, she added.

“When you're an entrepreneur, you spend most of your time getting people to buy into your vision and your idea. That is what being an entrepreneur is,” she said.

2. Use your existing skills.

According to Acharia, “experience doesn’t equal success.” She used her skills advising startups to manage new people and projects in music, television, and more. When entering a new industry, inexperience can be a strength that helps you offer a unique perspective, she explained.

“Every industry that I've gone into, whether it's finance, tech, music, I've gone in and disrupted in a certain way,” she said. “Not because I was educated or smart, but because I just had a perspective that I believed in. I think anyone can do anything if they believe in themselves."

3. Find fearless people.

For Acharia, there’s no set formula for finding talented people, but she surrounds herself with others who are confident and fearless.

“I think I have the ability to see magic in people, and I just look for that,” she said. “People have to believe in their perspective. They have to believe they have a unique vision or lens on a problem and can solve it in a different way [than] everybody else.”

These relationships can become productive for boosting each other’s confidence, Acharia noted.

“In the moments where people have doubts, I like to pep talk them into believing in themselves and explain to them what I saw in them.”

The Takeaway

Believing in your vision and goals can go a long way toward trying new projects and entering new industries. According to Acharia, actually visualizing what you want can be an “incredibly powerful tool.”

“I really believe I visualized my entire life, and I got it,” she said.

This article is part of Office Hours, a series that connects you with entrepreneurs and expert tips for running and growing a business right now. Find their can’t-miss conversations here.