Growing a Business as an Introvert

Being a business owner is hard enough. The ups and downs, whew are they real. But being an introvert can require different approaches to running and growing a business. Here are a few lessons I’ve learned along the way. For my fellow introverts, what are you learning, and how does it align with and/or differ from what I share below? I look forward to hearing your thoughts and cheering you on. 

Plant Seeds 

In the ideal world, all of us business owners would have multi-person marketing teams to do outreach and business development. But many of us don’t even have one person to do that. So many of us business owners are doing that networking and outreach work. For an introvert, that might feel forced or uncomfortable. Over the last three years, some of the best outreach work I have done has been one-on-one video chats, coffee chats, etc., where we were focused on connecting as people. Maybe I asked them to keep me in mind for future work, but not always. Sometimes it was just about connecting or reconnecting. Rather than thinking of it as networking, I truly see it as seed planting. Making meaningful connections with your people, and hopefully new people you meet through your people, is how I have built trust and maintained trust and gotten referrals. For my business, all of my work is from referrals by others. That doesn’t mean that’s where it will or can stay, but it has done so much for growing and sustaining my business. How do you like to plant seeds? What is a recent conversation that felt inspiring to you? What was it about that conversation that felt energizing? Was there anything you want to replicate in future conversations with others?

Lean Relational 

While I often find large crowds overwhelming, I absolutely love connecting one-on-one or in small groups. While extroverts may be able to attend a conference and shmooze with hundreds of people, as an introvert, I have leaned heavily into a relational approach to relationship and trust building. That process is a lot slower, and takes a lot more time. But it feels more authentic to me and maybe as a fellow introvert it will feel more authentic to you. Being relational means not just sending one-sided content out but also checking in with folks. Asking them how they are doing. Hearing their updates, asking questions about their work and lives, and maybe even troubleshooting something together. People are smart and can pick up on your energy. I so appreciate when my people tell me how genuine our conversations feel and how people-focused my approach is. That means a lot and reminds that it’s ok to do business development our own way. And whether you are an introvert or extrovert, relationships are everything. Just everything. Do you consider yourself relational in your approach to running your business? What does that look like for you? 

Check and Attend to Your Energy

There have been times in my life where I get exhausted much quicker than other people in group settings, especially larger groups. I haven’t been as in touch with myself as I am now, and so I went from high energy, battery charged, to complete shut down, battery at zero. Like that old laptop you may still have that isn’t able to hold a charge anymore? Like that. You remove the plug and bam it’s out. Over the last few years, maybe with age, maybe trying to be kind to myself during such a tumultuous time in our world, I have tried to check in on myself more. How am I feeling? What is my energy level? I don’t need to quantify it for myself, but I do try to sense where I’m at. If I’m hungry, I grab food. If I’m close to running out of energy, I go home. If I’m not feeling an event I’m at, I give it time, but then if I am still not feeling it, I leave. I love giving myself permission to leave a place. It’s ok that not every event is going to yield a new connection. That realization has been so helpful for me. I no longer see those kinds of events as a failure on my part. How do you check in on yourself? How do you know if you’re feeling something or not? What do you feel in your body? What are your cues?

Find Curated Spaces

For me, there is a huge difference between a large event with hundreds of people who are expected to mingle for a few hours and a small group of people invited to a small venue with a specific program or facilitated experience. This morning, I had the pleasure of attending a small group program that had been carefully curated and designed by someone I trust and respect. It was worth the time out of my day to attend because I knew that this experience would be meaningful and connect me with like-minded people. It reminded me that not all networking events are created equal, and there are ones that feel a lot more aligned with how I like to connect with others. What spaces have you been in lately that you like?

Come Early 

Coming early to events is something I have only recently started doing. Because I don’t like big crowds, I would often find myself waiting until the last minute to go somewhere. Maybe it was dread keeping me at home. But what I realized is that actually coming early is about a million times better for my personality type because there are only a few people there, and you can actually have a conversation with someone. They don’t need to be the people you stay in touch with, but it’s a way to open up and get comfortable in the setting without a larger crowd. Even when I know it’s going to be a small and curated group, I still like to come on the early side when there are only a few people. I’m also ok being the first person to arrive. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner, but this has changed my life both in professional and personal circumstances. Have you tried this? Does this work for you? Is there another approach you take that helps you warm up in a group setting?

Taking a step back, the common thread with all of the above ideas is that they feel authentic to me, and they have helped me sustain the outreach work needed to grow my business. This is not an easy time to be an entrepreneur, and I applaud you and celebrate your efforts. Keep up your amazing work. You got this. You can do hard things.