What being shortlisted for Young Entrepreneur at the Enterprise Vision Awards taught me about confidence in business

When I was shortlisted for Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the Enterprise Vision Awards, usually known as the EVAs, being recognised was obviously lovely, but by that point it was around my seventh award shortlist, so the shortlist itself was no longer the completely unfamiliar part. What was new was having to sit in front of a judging panel and actually talk through my business, because this was the first award process I had entered where I needed to interview for it.

I am autistic, and that kind of situation is much harder for me than people might assume from looking at what I do for work, because I am completely fine talking to clients when I know why I am there and what I am trying to help them with, but sitting in front of a group of professionals and talking about myself feels completely different. The interview had also originally been scheduled during the summer heatwave and had to be moved, so I had already mentally prepared myself for something I was anxious about and then had to go through the anticipation again, although when the interview eventually happened everyone involved was genuinely lovely and the panel themselves did nothing to make the situation uncomfortable.

I had felt something similar when I was featured on Greatest Hits Radio earlier in the year, because I was incredibly nervous about being interviewed and knowing my voice would actually be broadcast. Thankfully they edited the conversation and apparently managed to get some good soundbites out of me, although I have still never listened to the finished radio feature because I felt far too embarrassed, while my mum has a recording and both my family and my partner have assured me I sound good and, importantly, not obnoxious.

That probably sums up the difference quite well, because I am comfortable being visible when I can write, explain or demonstrate what I know in my own way, while situations where I feel watched and expected to perform confidence are much harder for me. The EVA interview reminded me how much entrepreneurship can still involve that particular kind of performance, where you are expected to sell your achievements and appear completely comfortable doing it, even if none of those things tell somebody how good you actually are at running a business.

See also: What being featured on Greatest Hits Radio meant to me as a neurodivergent business owner

Why am I so much more comfortable talking to clients?

When I am talking to a client, I am in my element because somebody is telling me about their business, I am listening for the problems and opportunities, and I am already thinking about what I would change or what they could do next. I do not spend the conversation wondering whether I sound impressive because I am concentrating on being useful, which means the confidence comes naturally because I know the subject and I know what I am there to do.

An awards interview asks for something much more personal, because suddenly the thing being assessed is you, your choices and your achievements, and you have to deliberately explain why those things matter to a group of other professionals. I find that much easier in writing because I can think about what I actually want to say, whereas saying it directly in front of other people makes me much more conscious that I am talking myself up.

That does not mean I lack confidence in my work, because I am very confident in what I know and in my ability to help people, but confidence in your expertise can look very different from being comfortable in an interview or networking environment. I think that distinction matters, particularly for autistic or more introverted business owners who might look at naturally outgoing entrepreneurs and assume they are missing something important.

Do business owners have to be naturally outgoing?

I think there is still an expectation that successful founders should be good at walking into rooms, introducing themselves to strangers, networking easily and talking about their achievements without feeling awkward, and some people genuinely enjoy all of that, while plenty of successful business owners do not.

I work with people who can talk endlessly once you get them onto the subject they understand, but become uncomfortable when they feel as though they have to sell themselves rather than simply explain their work, and I understand that because I do exactly the same thing in certain situations. I can confidently tell somebody what I think they should change in their branding, website or wider business strategy, but asking me to explain why I personally deserve recognition feels much more uncomfortable.

I do not think every business owner needs to develop the same outgoing personality, because there are plenty of other ways to let people understand your expertise. The important part is making sure your knowledge, experience and results are visible somehow, even if standing in a room repeatedly talking about yourself is not your preferred way to establish them.

What if you hate talking yourself up?

This is one of the reasons I care so much about building authority around a business, because good authority means a potential customer can find evidence of your expertise without you having to personally persuade every person from scratch. Your website can explain what you know, useful content can demonstrate how you think, case studies can show what you have done for clients, while awards and press coverage can provide recognition from people outside your own business.

That does not mean you never have to speak to anybody, unfortunately, but it does mean your entire growth strategy does not have to depend on how well you perform in networking rooms or interviews. This is something I consider in my Complete Brand & Visibility Package, which includes a visibility and authority plan to help businesses demonstrate their expertise and build recognition without relying entirely on traditional networking or public speaking.

If somebody is brilliant at what they do but hates traditional networking, finds public speaking difficult or gets uncomfortable when they have to talk themselves up, I would much rather help them create other ways for their expertise to become obvious. Strong branding and clear positioning can help with that too, because my brand strategy and marketing services are designed partly around making sure people understand why a business is credible and worth choosing before the owner has to explain everything personally.

Why did the EVAs make me think about my age?

One of the questions during the EVA interview was connected to my age and how being young had affected my business, and I remember being slightly taken aback because I do not really think about age very much in relation to what I do. My answer was basically that I do not particularly care about somebody's age as long as I am taken seriously, which is still probably the most accurate way I can explain how I feel about it.

I had just turned 29 by September 2026 and already had around ten years of experience in the creative industry behind me, so although I was obviously in the Young Entrepreneur category, I did not necessarily walk around thinking of myself as unusually young. People younger than me are starting businesses now, getting married and having children, while I am at a completely different stage of my own life, which makes age feel like quite a strange way to judge where somebody is supposed to be professionally or personally.

My partner later pointed out that I regularly advise people older than me who are starting businesses of their own, which I had never really stopped to think about because their age simply does not enter my head while I am working with them. I care whether they trust my expertise and whether I can help them with the problem they have come to me with, while whether they happen to be older or younger than me does not really change the work.

My twenties have not followed a particularly neat timeline

I think part of the reason I do not pay much attention to traditional age milestones is because my own twenties have not followed a particularly straightforward timeline. I spent ten years in a relationship that eventually became abusive, and when that ended I moved back into my parents' house and had to restart a huge part of my life, while at the same time deciding that I did not want to simply take another office job and return to the same kind of working life I had already realised did not suit me.

I decided to properly build Hi This Is Bry instead, and I did that without funding or a big financial safety net behind the business, because what I had was my professional experience, a laptop, a website, social media and a fairly unreasonable amount of stubbornness. Within a relatively short period the business became much more established, I was advising other business owners, my client base was growing and I started being recognised repeatedly through awards.

My personal life was starting again at the same time, and I am now in a much happier serious relationship while still feeling as though some parts of adulthood have happened in a completely different order from the one I might once have expected. That experience has probably made me even less interested in judging somebody's capability by age, because two people can be exactly the same age and have completely different amounts of experience in almost every part of their lives.

The way I rebuilt the business was closely connected to understanding myself better too, because I stopped trying to copy ways of working that had already made traditional workplaces difficult for me and started creating something I could realistically sustain.

See also: What rebuilding my business taught me about sustainability as a neurodivergent founder

Does being young matter when somebody is choosing whether to trust you?

The only part of age I really care about professionally is whether somebody makes assumptions that stop them taking me seriously, because once somebody understands my experience and what I can do, I do not think the number itself is particularly interesting. I have worked with clients older than me, younger than me and around the same age, and I do not think about those differences while I am doing the work because the relationship is based on the expertise they need from me.

That is also why building visible authority has mattered so much to me, because somebody can see my work, read my articles, find awards, look at press coverage and understand my experience before age ever becomes part of the conversation. If the evidence is strong enough, somebody has far more useful information available than simply making assumptions based on how old they think I am.

For younger business owners, I think that can be particularly helpful because you cannot change your age, but you can make your experience easier to see. You can document good work properly, explain what you know, build useful content around your expertise and make sure people have enough evidence to judge you by what you have actually done.

What did the EVA interview actually teach me about confidence?

The main thing the EVA interview reminded me is that being good at business and enjoying the performance expected around business are completely different skills, because I can be very confident about my work and still find an awards interview stressful. I know how to help somebody shape an offer, improve their brand, work out what is wrong with their website or identify opportunities they have missed, and I can discuss those things confidently because that is the work I have spent years learning how to do.

Talking about myself in front of a judging panel is harder, and I do not think I need to pretend otherwise in order to look more entrepreneurial. What mattered was that I still did the interview despite being anxious about it, despite having to prepare for it twice because it was rescheduled and despite finding some of the questions difficult simply because I was being asked to focus on myself rather than somebody else's business.

I think that is useful for other people who find similar situations difficult, because success does not require you to magically become comfortable with every part of running a business. Sometimes you need to find ways to manage the situations that matter, then build the rest of your business around the environments where you are actually at your best.

What can other quieter or neurodivergent business owners take from this?

I think one of the most useful things you can do is separate your ability from how comfortable you feel performing it, because feeling awkward in a networking room or interview does not tell you whether you are good at your job. If writing comes more naturally to you, publish useful content that demonstrates what you know, if you have strong client results, document them properly, and if you have received awards or press recognition, make sure people can actually find that evidence when they research your business.

You can also be much more deliberate about which uncomfortable parts of business are genuinely worth doing, because there is a difference between occasionally pushing yourself through an important opportunity and deliberately building a growth strategy around something that drains you every week. I will probably never become somebody who loves every interview, networking event or professional room, but I can build enough confidence in my actual expertise to enter those environments when there is a good reason for me to be there.

That is a version of confidence I understand much better, because it comes from knowing what I am good at and having enough evidence behind me to trust that I deserve to be in the room, even when I still feel uncomfortable while I am sitting in it.

FAQs

Do you have to be outgoing to be a successful entrepreneur? You do not have to be naturally outgoing to run a successful business, because confidence can show up through expertise, clear communication and the quality of somebody's work as much as it does through networking or public speaking. Building visible evidence around your experience can also reduce how much you have to rely on constantly selling yourself in person.

Does being a young entrepreneur make it harder to be taken seriously? Some younger business owners may encounter assumptions about their experience, but age alone does not tell somebody how much professional knowledge they have. Making your work, experience and results easy to find gives potential clients much more useful evidence when they are deciding whether to trust you.

How can I build authority if I hate self promotion? You can build authority by publishing useful content, showing client results, creating case studies and making your professional experience clear on your website, while external recognition such as awards or press can add further evidence. This gives people ways to understand your expertise without every interaction depending on how confidently you can talk yourself up.

Can autistic people be successful entrepreneurs? Autistic people can absolutely build successful businesses, although the parts of entrepreneurship somebody finds comfortable will vary from person to person. Creating ways of working around your strengths, while finding practical ways to manage the situations that require more energy, can make business much more sustainable.

What being shortlisted at the EVAs reminded me about success

Being shortlisted for Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the Enterprise Vision Awards reminded me that I can have years of experience, multiple award shortlists and a business I am confident running, while still finding it incredibly awkward to sit in front of a panel of professionals and talk about how successful I am. Those things can comfortably exist together, because how somebody behaves in an interview is only one very small part of how they operate as a business owner.

The interview also made me think about age more than I normally would, and I came away still feeling much the same way I did when I was asked about it, which is that I mostly do not care. I care about being taken seriously, I care about knowing what I am doing and I care about helping the person who has trusted me with their business, while whether they are older or younger than me rarely enters my head.

If you want to look at whether your own expertise and authority are clear before somebody ever has to speak to you, my free Business Visibility Playbook helps you assess your branding, website, social media and wider credibility so you can see what potential customers actually find when they research you.