Being an Introvert in Your Business

Okay, so today, I want to talk about being an introvert. If you're an extrovert, please still listen because I'm sure you have a lot of introverts in your life and you'll still get a lot of lessons out of today's podcast anyway. Now, I have never made any secret of the fact that I feel like I'm a massive, massive introvert, really, really introverted, and a lot of people don't believe me. They don't believe me because I have a big business, I have a very successful multi-seven figure business. They don't believe me because I'm confident.

They don't believe me because I show pictures of myself on social media, but none of that disproves the fact that I'm an introvert. Being an introvert isn't about lack of confidence, it's not about being shy, it's just about how you get your energy, so being around people might drain you or it might energize you, and you might actually be an ambivert, and in that case, still listen. Now, I get totally drained by being around a lot of people, and it took me such a long time to figure that out. I find with a lot of stuff that we talk about in business, there's no right or wrong. It's just about finding what really works for you.

When I started my business, I thought that the only way I could be successful was to go out and do public speaking, for example, and I had a coach who told me, she said, "Make sure you are going to every networking breakfast within a three-hour radius of your house. Go and do speaking everywhere," and just the thought of it, I just, it made me feel sick to be honest. I said, "Oh, I don't want to do any of that," and she was like, "Well, how are you going to get clients?" You know what? I said to her, "Facebook," and she was like, "Mm, I don't know about that."

This is quite a few years ago, but I have been true to myself, true to that feeling in my gut that I didn't want to do those things. I don't like a lot of networking, I don't like to be around a lot of people, but I still managed to create not only a million-dollar business, but actually a huge community of Lucky Bees all around the world, so I'm proof that you don't have to change your personality, you just need to embrace it and find, as I always say in my book, Chillpreneur, find that path of least resistance. The key is to set up your business in a way that works for your personality no matter if you're an introvert, an extrovert, ambivert, whatever, but I want to share some ways that you can do business as an introvert, in particular, and I've got a really, like a few sneaky tricks, of course, because I'm a chillpreneur. I'm always trying to find the hacks, okay? My first, first tip is there are no rules around your business model.

Choose a model that works for you. We are in the best time to be an entrepreneur because you really can choose the marketing channels that suit your personality, so if you don't like public speaking, you don't have to do it. If you don't like networking, you don't have to do it, in the old-school way. If making videos freaks you out, you don't have to do it. You could do podcasts instead.

If you don't even like speaking, you can write. There's no need to leave the house. There's no need for makeup. There's no need to even push yourself out of your comfort zone if you don't want to. It is really the best time to be an introvert in business. It's the best time to be anything in business.

If you don't like one-to-one work, you can do group programs. You can do a purely passive income related business. It's your business, your rules, so not all introverts are the same, not all entrepreneurs are the same, but it's safe for you to really pick and choose what works for you. You don't have to jump on every technology because everyone else is doing it. You know what?

That's the thing too. People go, "Oh, Denise, you're everywhere," but even today, I'm sitting in an empty podcast studio by myself with my computer. You can do live streams. It can go out to thousands of people, and it's just you and a room, so being visible doesn't have to be draining. Your business, your rules. My second tip for introverts, if having a team, having a lot of people in your business feels like it's going to be overwhelming, you can absolutely strategically outsource and partner.

You can spend money on things that make things easier for you. I procrastinate on things that drain me, things that involve other people as my introversion, but for a long time, I was kind of the bottleneck in my business and I had to learn how to outsource that, and I had to learn how to bring people into my business to support me. Now, one example that I did about a year and a half ago is that I hired a community manager to come into my Money Bootcamp and help me hold the space, because as an introvert, yeah, it was starting to feel like I was holding the group back. I was holding back the size of the group because I couldn't hold that energy by myself, so I hired Mara, who's our beautiful, wonderful Community Manager in Money Bootcamp, and you know what the one thing that I was worried about? So funny.

I was like, "What if they like her more than they like me?," but I was holding myself back, right? Anyway, so you can outsource those things that drain you, you can partner in ways that drain you. Occasionally, I'll run business retreats, and I've done that for a couple of years. I'll run them a couple of times a year, so sometimes I'll bring in a co-host. Sometimes I'll bring in someone who has a little bit more energy for like partying than me, right?

A great example of this is one of my best friends, Victoria Gibson. Massive extrovert, like seriously, completely opposite to me, and so we would tag team. I would do the early morning starts, but she would be the one who would be great after dinner, taking people out for drinks, taking people around Bali, where I'd be like the nana going, "I need to go home now. I'm all peopled-out," and so she was my extrovert wingwoman, and she's always a great person to have at networking events and conferences, because she will go up and speak to the speaker. She'll go up and speak to the most intimidating person in the room, and she'll bring me there under her wing, so find yourself other people in your business who can shoulder the energetic load.

Now, you can start really small on this, but start somewhere, so it's really good to look at the places in your business that drain you or stress you out. In the start of my business, that was actually my inbox, because I felt the energy of every single one of those emails. Every time someone emailed me, it was like a little pebble in my shoe or a pebble in my backpack that I was carrying around, because sometimes it would be things like, "Hey, can you help me with this unrelated area?," Or, "I have this problem," and I want to try and help everybody, but all of those things was such a drain, I actually couldn't help them, so I just hired someone for five hours a week because those requests and those emails were energetically overwhelming me. Now, you don't even have to be an introvert to feel that in some parts of your business, but you can stop by really looking at how you can have other people to help shoulder the load, the energetic load of being in business, so that's the next tip. Tip number three is take all the downtime you need.

Apparently, energy levels aren't just the only difference between introverts and extroverts. Apparently, introverts' brains often take longer to switch between tasks, so sometimes we need a little bit of a buffer between tasks, and I find this for myself when I run a retreat, for example, if I go to a conference, I need a couple of days to like decompress from it, to recover from it, almost to shake off the energy. I've screwed this up so many times, so one, when I used to run retreats in Bali with Victoria, who I mentioned just before, I wouldn't book any downtime after the retreat. I would go straight from the retreat, fly home, go into something else, and now I host retreats at my rose farm, and again, I go straight home after them. On our last retreat, I was driving home and I was like, I started crying, not because I was worried about going home or I didn't feel like I did a good job.

It was more just the releasing of the energy, you know, and so maybe as an introvert, after conferences, workshops, you need to book in one or two days time to shake off the energy. I actually, I did this after I went to Richard Branson's Necker Island with a group of amazing women. I hired a hotel room for the day after and I watched trash TV, I ate trash food and I cried for like a day and said, "Extroverts, you might not understand a little bit of that at all," but introverts, you've got to block it out. If you've got a big launch coming up, you've got a conference coming up, you've got a retreat, you've got a speaking gig, just block that out in your calendar. You'll need it, otherwise you're going to feel burnt out, resentful, all the things.

You know that that's going to happen or maybe you forget, but I'm telling you, go look at your calendar and see where you need to just block out some time, block out some downtime. Make it so nobody can book into your calendar. Make it so you can get rid of some of those obligations, because you're the boss. You're the boss and you need to give yourself that time to reenergize. That's a perfect time for a break. I will be back in just a minute.

Hey there, this is Alicia Forest, and I am the Founder of the Lively Biz Business Club at LivelyBiz.com. I live on the Seacoast of New Hampshire U.S.A. with my husband and our two teenagers, and I joined Money Bootcamp several years ago originally because I was stuck in my business, and then I knew it wasn't the business strategies that were holding me back, it was my mindset and my thoughts and my beliefs around money that was holding back my business growth. The first massive shift I had was around my learned behavior of having to work really hard for the money. Now, as a daughter and a granddaughter and a great-granddaughter of longshoremen, it was ingrained in me that hard work equals more money, but through the lessons and the tools in Money Bootcamp, I was able to release my hold on that belief, and that's when everything in my business and my life started flowing again. Now, what I love most about Money Bootcamp is Denise's down to earth presence and practical teaching.

Yes, even when it comes to tapping, which was a bit of a woo-woo shift for me, and I also love the community, which is incredibly supportive of every member. Now, there are very, very few courses I return to again and again, but Money Bootcamp is one of those rare gems, so if you suspect or you know it's your money blocks that are holding you back, this is seriously the only program I recommend and that you need to bust through them, especially for the ones you don't even know you have.

Okay, welcome back. I am so proud of myself that I even took a break in the middle of that, just for a cup of tea, because I want to practice what I preach, but saying that, let me just preface this. I am never perfect in anything that I do, so when I give tips to you, I'm basically just preaching to myself. Say with my books, the books are just written for like, "Hey, Denise" to these things. Okay.

Anyway, so we're up to tip number four, batch and automate. This is true for anyone in business. It really is, like this is just such a smart way to do business, to batch stuff up, as in if you're doing one thing, you may as well do a million of them. Now, example of this is that I batch a lot of social media content. When I'm in the mood, I'll sit and just make 20 of them instead of doing one at a time, but the other tip on that is some people are really good at the batching part, but then they don't do anything with it, so tip number four is to batch and automate.

Now, again, as an introvert, as I said, sometimes I have days where I just do not want to do anything or I've got a bit of a hangover from too much peopling. You know what? Even, same in my business, there's times where I feel like I've got nothing to say. Even when I sat down in a podcast studio today, I'm like, "I got nothing to say," and I've had weeks where I've just wanted to do nothing but watch TV or play like Gardenscapes is a game that I play. It's like Candy Crush, but it's gardens, but I have a very, very consistent business.

If you follow me on social media, and you absolutely should, I am on @denisedt on Instagram, you will see that I post pretty much every day, if not, every second day, okay? That is not because of, "Hey, I'm so excited to be online," it's because I get really organized and I batch and automate stuff. It's really tempting to only work on your business when you feel like it, or when you feel like you've got something to say, but truth time is if you do that, you might not really have a business that has that consistent flow and that consistent flow of clients, so I set up systems that allow me to automate as much as possible so I am consistent even when I don't feel like it, so I might make a ton of videos all at the same time because I'm like, "I got hair and makeup on. I may as well do it while I feel pretty," and then I don't have to stress if I don't feel like getting in front of the camera for a little bit. Same with social media content.

I've actually even found that there's different times in my monthly cycle where I'm more articulate than others, so like the week before my period is due, I've got a lot of things to say, and so I'll sit down and I'll make 30 things for social media, and then I'll put them in my social media scheduler, because the idea is to make sure your business keeps working even when you're not feeling great. That works for introverts and that works for extroverts. Really, it's so smart to do that and have that consistency in your business without you having to feel like it, and life happens. Stuff happens external to you. You might have family members who are ill.

You might have a chronic illness that flares up, right? That approach works so well for everything. Okay, tip number five is actually don't allow yourself to hide away for too long. I've seen this for some people. They skip their newsletter a couple of weeks and they just feel like they can't ever come back or they have to come back and go, "Hey, guys, I'm so sorry I was away," so it's okay just to jump back in.

Jump back on the wagon, whether that is, you might feel inspired after this just to get on and do a really quick live on your social media, to post something, repost something that's been on your phone for a long time. Don't hide away for too long. Just jump back in and say hi. People are not going to stress about it. All right, tip number six, this is a game-changer for everybody, you've got to get over your resistance to creating passive, easy income, because having ways that people can pay you, that don't involve your one-to-one time is a dream business model for introverts.

You do the work once, you sell it over and over again, you never have to leave your house, you don't even have to put on a bra. You don't have to interact with people beyond customer service stuff. It really is introvert heaven, but if you're like most Lucky Bees I know, you'll find yourself really resisting marketing or creating in the first place a passive income product. Now, trust me, it's going to have a huge difference to your business if you don't have to rely on your personal energy to make money each month. Now, because I am the money mindset girl, I know that so many people, introverts and everyone else, resist making passive income because it feels too easy.

It feels like cheating. It feels like you didn't do the work for it, and that's where you've got to get over your resistance, because we live in a world where things are so unpredictable. This goes for every personality type. You might want to take time off to have a baby. You might take time off to do a different creative project.

You might have someone in your family you need to take care of, and as we've seen over the last couple of years, something like a coronavirus happened and maybe some source of your income dries up, and this is where passive income is just such a brilliant thing. A passive income could be a book, it could be a course, it could be a meditation that you sell, a spreadsheet that you use in your own business somebody else could use, but you've got to get over your resistance to it in the first place, that making money has to be hard, it has to be onerous, it has to be a massive drain on your energy, and allow yourself to do it in a way that feels really easy and enjoyable for you. Even the way you create your passive income product can be looking at the path of least resistance, something that you know you know, something that's easy for you to create. My first passive income thing, really was my books. It was a $10 eBook version of Lucky Bitch when it came out in 2011, and suddenly, I was like, even though it didn't sell crazily amounts at first, I felt this guilt that I had to call up each person who bought it and read it to them over the phone for that $10, but I had to get over that because I saw the feedback coming in, "Oh, this is really useful."

"Oh, I really love this book," so I was like, "Oh, maybe it's okay for me to make money doing this," but then I created a $50 e-course, and soon I was making, I think I remember $1,200 a month I was making from that $50 e-course, that I found on my iPad, but it was really useful for people. Suddenly, that meant that I didn't feel like I had to take on every client. I didn't feel like I had to do things that were outside of my comfort zone. I really felt like then, I had the choice to do it, and that is really my biggest tip for everyone in business, is to have a passive income product so you can make money even when you don't feel like it and it will still be really useful for people. Now, if you want to explore that further, I talk about passive income quite a bit in my books, in particular, Get Rich, Lucky Bitch! and in my book, Chillpreneur, because there's a lot of mindset stuff that goes into that.

You can actually learn how to do it pretty easily and quickly, but you'll block yourself. Okay. One bonus tip for introverts, if you go to conferences, this is my tip. I already said get a wingwoman, like an extrovert wingwoman, but here's my other tip for going to conferences as an introvert, and this works so well, I am always the first person to put my hand up to ask a question. Always, always, and I feel sick doing it.

I feel like I'm going to vomit, but as soon as I say, "Anyone got a question?," I run to the front of the room or I put my hand up so quick or I stand up, and then I go, "Oh, hi. Thank you so much. I'm Denise Duffield-Thomas, author of Chillpreneur," or whatever I say. I used to say my website or whatever, whatever's appropriate, and then I say my question, and so everyone turns to look at the person who's asking the question. I just introduce myself to every single person in the room, and then for the rest of the conference, I can chill out. I'm like, "Ah, good."

"I don't have to talk to people now," because then, they'll come up and say, "Oh, hi. I really liked your question," or, "Oh, hi. You're Denise," and it's so great. It's like my best introversion tip ever, and then you don't feel like you have to network. In between, you can just go to your room for a little bit, have a little sleep if you want to.

Okay. Remember, path of least resistance. All right, so they're my six tips for introverts. Now, of course, I always love to hear from you on this. You can reach out to me on Instagram @denisedt.

I want to hear if you're an introvert or if you're an extrovert and you got a lot out of this as well. Just to recap, number one, choose a model that works for you. There are no rules in business anymore. You can do whatever you like. You don't even have to get out of your comfort zone anymore.

It's totally okay. Number two, outsource and partner with other people to help you shoulder that energetic load. Number three, build in downtime. Remember, go and put that in your calendar right now. Build that time off.

Number four, batch and automate so you don't have to rely on your energy and your business doesn't flow in and out with your energy. Tip number five, don't hide away for too long. Tip number six, get over your resistance to making passive income so you can make money no matter how much you like being around other people, and remember that little tip about getting up on the microphone and saying hi to everyone in the room. All right. I can't wait to hear your feedback on that.

Go introverts. Go extroverts. We can all create our business exactly the way we want. All right, I'll see you in a few.

Hi, I'm Alina Martin, and I'm a Mindfulness Mentor and a Soul Activation Coach on the Sunshine Coast. I've recently read Get Rich, Lucky Bitch!, and I've been decluttering my wardrobe, my physical environment and my money blocks, and I've just noticed that it's made room for new opportunities to come in for my business, and I've been asked to be a guest speaker at my local female entrepreneur network business group, and I feel like it's really easy to apply the knowledge from the book. You don't just read the book and just put it back on the bookshelf. It's really, lends itself to directly applying it straight to your life, to get your vision board into your reality, really, so I 100% recommend all of Denise's books and products and I can't wait to do more.

Hey, welcome back, and here's my final thought for today. Now, I love affirmations. I love a good motto, and you might have heard me talk about this one all the time, and, "It's my time and I'm ready for the next step." Where these came from was me feeling really jealous about friends who somehow seemingly getting all the opportunities that I wanted in my life. I actually, at the time, I really hated my job and I was like, "Oh, I just wish someone would just pay me to do what I wanted to do."

Within two weeks, two of my friends got made redundant from their jobs and they got massive payouts, and I remember just going, "Oh, I'm feeling really jealous," and sometimes that happens, right? The universe kind of brings something into our life but via somebody else, like a friend or maybe your partner, and you're like, "Where's my thing?," and so that's the genesis of this affirmation that I talk about all the time, and I started to say, "It's my time too and I'm ready for the next step," and so that might help for you and you can emphasize different words, so you can say, "It's my time and I'm ready for the next step," or, "It's my time and I'm ready for the next step," especially if you've been kind of thinking, waiting for the perfect timing or waiting for the stars to align or whatever. "It's my time and I'm ready, and I'm ready," or, "It's my time and I'm ready for the next step," so you don't feel like it has to be a big leap, just the next thing. Yeah, that's where that came from and it really, really does start to shift and change things, so until we speak again. Just try this.

I want you to write it down somewhere where you can see it or quickly make up a screensaver for your computer or your phone, and so you can just see that and you can just go, "It is my time and I am ready for the next step," because sometimes things will shift and change when you declare yourself ready for the next step. Guess what will happen? In the next day or two, an opportunity will come up and you'll go, "Oh, but I'm not ready for that," or, "I didn't ask for that," and you go, "No, no, wait. It is my time and I am ready for the next step," so yeah. I can't wait to hear what magic starts to shift and change where you declare yourself ready.

That'll be really fun. Reach out and let me know what opportunities come up when you start this magic mantra affirmation. Okay, my gorgeous one. Go forth, chill and prosper. It is your time. Peace out for me, and I will see you on the next episode. Bye.