Starting a business is easier said than done. While 66% of millennials say they want to become entrepreneurs, only 3.6% of all businesses are owned by someone under the age of 30.

Why aren’t millennials walking their talk? For starters, launching a business is notoriously risky. Nine out of ten startups fail, which, for prospective entrepreneurs, is a discouraging outlook.  In addition, many of us often don’t feel supported or understood by friends or family.

I remember when I was 22, graduating college and starting my first online business selling feather hair extensions. My dad thought it was too risky and begged me to get a real job.

What most people don’t realize about failed businesses, is that many of them are preventable. The fatal breakdowns in startups are classic—whether it’s a cash flow deficit, an ineffective marketing strategy, or a flawed management team.

I recently spoke with Lena Elkins, a Tel Aviv-based millennial business coach and the host of the Facebook group “Millennial Go Getters,” a community of 15,000+ entrepreneurs learning how to strategize profitable businesses and overcome the common mistakes most millennials make when starting a business online. Elkins is on a mission to empower millennials to build online businesses that afford them a lifestyle of freedom and flexibility.

On the Unconventional Life Podcast, Elkins shares her top success strategies for new entrepreneurs to get started on the path to a promising business right away.

1. You’re Having Trouble Signing Your First Client. Elkins says she was able to sign her first client by joining relevant Facebook groups in the Tel Aviv area related to online marketing. She posted in each of the groups a short description about who she was, what she was offering, why she was qualified, and how anyone interested in her services could reach her. “Essentially I said, ‘I’m new to this community, I’m a freelancer offering social media services, Im looking for my first set of clients, here’s my experience, call me,” Elkins recalls. “I got my first client that same afternoon.”

If you’re unsure of where to start, a powerful first action step is to join Facebook groups related to your niche and post about your offering. Be brief and to the point, and be sure to represent yourself authentically.

2. You Don’t Know How To Enroll Your Ideal Clients. Elkins says sending a short cold email to your ideal clients can be extremely effective in enrolling them to work with you. “Identify your dream clients, find them online, look at their websites. Identify a few problems they’re experiencing, find their contact info and send them an email.” In line one, start with a personalized complement to engage them. In the next line, gently criticize them with something like, “I was looking on your website and saw some things that could use some tweaking.” In line three, give them a free solution to resolve the problem. And finally, tell them if they have any more questions you would love to help. “I’ve probably gotten a 95% response rate,” Elkins says.

3. You Aren’t Befriending Those Who Are Ahead Of You. When you’re first starting out, you don’t yet have the experience to inform high impact decision-making. But luckily, you can turn to others who do to keep you from stumbling and guide you to take effective action. Elkins says, “Identify people who are already a few steps ahead of you in what you’re doing and reach out to them. See how you can help them and build a relationship with them.” Having a guide can be invaluable. If you can create a win-win for someone to play that role for you, you can benefit tremendously. An added bonus of making friends with someone who has influence, is that they may eventually give you the opportunity to speak to their audience, which can help you get more exposure and ultimately sign more clients.

If there were a way for you to multiply your odds of being successful, would you do it?

Experts tell us that if we want to be in the best position to succeed, we need to come at it from all angles: mentally, physically, and emotionally. One will not work without the others, and with all three in conjunction, there is a high probability of success.

I used to believe that in order to become a successful entrepreneur, I needed to work exhaustingly long hours to “out-work” the rest.

The problem with this approach was that it wore down my physical and emotional state. While I managed to build a 7-figure company by age 22, I had grinded my health to the ground and completely neglected my relationships. In the end, my business ended up crumbling and I had to backtrack everything so that I could rebuild my foundation.

Today, my approach to entrepreneurship might seem counterintuitive. I regularly take salt baths, take two hours of “me time” to read, sip chai, and move my body every morning and work a maximum of six hours each day. Ironically, it hasn’t slowed me down—it’s helped me get to the peak of my career.

I talked to one man who’s studied some of the top performers in the world, and he says the same thing. Those at the top practice surprising daily rituals, some of which are the opposite of what we think we should do to be successful.

Meet Dana Cavalea, the former Director of Strength and Conditioning for the New York Yankees. Cavalea worked worked with the Yankees for 12 seasons, and was an integral player in helping them win many World Series. He’s a recipient of the prestigious Nolan Ryan Top Strength Coach Award, and now runs his own practice as a high performance consultant for professional athletes and C-level executives.

This week on the Unconventional Life Podcast, Cavalea shares the daily habits he observed from some of those who are performing at the top tier, and busts the myths about success that don’t actually work. Adopt some of these practices into your own life to enhance your performance.

1. They Work Smarter, Not Harder. Many of us believe that the hustle is the optimal pathway to success. We are willing to put in long hours of sweat and toil each day to achieve what we want. But Cavalea says this isn’t the way the pros work. “When I was a kid, I was told ‘while you’re being lazy, someone else in the Dominican Republic is practicing,’ so I thought I had to practice all the time. But that’s not true. Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera are the last guys to the field, and the first to leave. And they’re the best of the best.”

Working long hours is actually less effective because it puts a strain on your body and causes you to burn out. Rest and recovery are essential to success, so go ahead and reduce your workload each day to increase your long-term output. Success is a marathon, not a sprint.

2. They Work At Their Peak. “What are your prime work hours?” says Cavalea. “I function at my best between 5am and 2pm, so I work during those hours. But after that, there’s no high-level thinking or work for me.” Become self-aware of when you feel the most focused, energized, and creative, and structure your work schedule within that time window. “It’s requires a little bit of boundaries and knowing your own tendencies. Too many times we run a reactive schedule and always say yes,” Cavalea says.

3. They’re Consistent. “Jeter was an introvert from the midwest who lived a very simple life. The best players, they keep it so simple. They’re very consistent people. They’re not looking for the new flavor of the week. They know their talent and they become consistent in their training and habits. That’s it,” Cavalea says. If you want to be successful, focus on one discipline and be consistent in developing your proficiency. Show up every single day, for a few hours a day, and you will invariably progress over time.

With so many Millennials jumping aboard the entrepreneurship bandwagon these days, competition is stiff. Just visit any Millennial’s personal or business website, and one of the first things you’ll see is a list of all of the press outlets they’ve been featured on.

Pitching yourself to press can be intimidating. What do you say, and what do you leave out? Or if you’ve already tried it, how come you aren’t getting any yeses?

As the host of the #1 Ranked Podcast for Entrepreneurs in 2017 and as a Forbes columnist, I’m in the unique position of being on the receiving end of press pitches. Each month, I get hundreds of emails from people asking me to feature them.

The truth is, however, I only respond to a very small percentage of these emails. The ones I delete all have a few deal-breaking characteristics in common.

This week on my podcast, Unconventional Life, I interviewed Jeremy Slate, the host of the Create Your Own Life Podcast and founder of Get Featured, an agency that helps entrepreneurs get press coverage and exposure with pitching strategies that work.

Below, Jeremy and I share the top nine mistakes we find most entrepreneurs make to help put you on the right track to crafting a no-fail pitch strategy. 

1. You’re Too Focused On Yourself. Don’t be that person who’s only focused on themselves. Nothing turns me off faster than somebody who doesn’t know me and is just trying to use my position to advance their career. “Most people are so ‘me, me, me,’ they have to get out of that mindset or it’s not going to work,” Slate agrees. If you want to stand out in a crowded inbox, don’t start with what you want. Instead, make it about the other person. Find the “win-win”.

We are living in the age of the content consumer. There is more demand than ever for engaging content that adds value, teaches, and entertains.

The average Millennial spends 17.8 hours a day consuming different types of content. Often, media is overlapping—like watching a video on your laptop while you send texts from your smartphone, or listening to music as you browse through articles. The common theme is that we are all nearly always plugged in.

This is great news for content creators: for those looking to capture attention, it is ever-present in the digital sphere, waiting to be reeled in.

“Attention is the new economy. It’s the world’s most valuable resource. You shape hearts and minds only with attention,” says Fox Network’s president of advertising, Joe Marchese.

With attention, you can capture leads and customers, sell your products and services, spread brand awareness, and build a winning reputation.

So just how do you create engaging content that captures attention?

This week I interviewed someone who has cracked the content code, reliably attracting millions of views with every post… in a ridiculously short amount of time.

Meet Julius Dein, a 22-year-old influencer with a following of 9M+ across Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat. You wouldn’t believe Dein started out with zero followers just a year and a half ago. Today, Dein is a sought-after content creator whose viral videos have amassed 1B+ views. He’s collaborated with leading brands like Doritos and Ubisoft, feature films Now You See Me 2 and Watch Dogs 2, and a handful of celebrities.

This week on the Unconventional Life Podcast, Dein reveals his secrets for dependably creating viral content and building a highly engaged following you can sell to.

1. Aim To Be Real, Not Hollywood. “Forget the quality, the glitz and glam,” Dein says. A common misconception about filming great content is that the production quality should be professional-grade. While it’s important your camera captures high resolution sound and audio, you can skip the $3,000+ camera equipment and film crew—your smartphone will do just fine.

Dein recommends recording your content on a smartphone camera because it’s raw and relatable. “I’m 22, I don’t have the budget of a film crew. I filmed my grandma on my phone and it got 87M views,” Dein says.

2. Create ‘Feel Good’ Content. The biggest determinant of whether or not a video will go viral is if people feel compelled to share it. “Before you post something, ask yourself, ‘Are people going to share this?’” Dein says. “People share content that makes them feel good—things that are cute, funny, emotionally eliciting. Boring things don’t stand a chance, it has to be entertaining and provocative.”

It helps to have a general understanding of what the general public will be able to relate to. If your video represents beliefs that are controversial or extreme, you may have a harder time connecting to your audience and thus getting them to like and share your content. Aim to appeal to a mass audience in order to go viral.

3. Get Into The Action Right Away. The average attention span today is 8 seconds, which means you’ve got no time to spare in capturing your audience. Avoid a lengthy introduction and show, don’t tell. “Jump into the action in less than a second,” Dein says. “No ‘hey guys I’m Julius and today I’m going to do this.’” Once you’ve caught your viewer’s attention, keep them on their toes. The most engaging content is full of unexpected surprises and is designed to evoke emotion.