7 Ways to Win as an INTROVERT - #7Ways

Today I'm shopping with Alex because he needs food for the week, and I'm going to talk about 7 ways to win as an introvert.

Ooh, I like that one.

You're not an introvert.

Um, no. Kind of, actually.

You're not an introvert at all.

People don't know that about me. Yeah, yeah, I am. Like, after I'm done teaching a class, I need to decompress because I'm like completely exhausted, and I have like moments of 2 or 3 days where I'll be at home and like I don't need I don't need to talk to anybody. It's weird. I do shine more around people though, it's true. I'm complicated, Alex. Can't put Alex in a box.

So one of the things I get a lot from my readers and subscribers and viewers is that people feel like they need to be outgoing, they need to be a Type A personality to have success in business. And I get it because you see the Shark Tank guys and you see Cuban and you see the guys with bravado who are out there making a name for themselves. And you feel like, well, if I'm gonna have success, I need to be like those people. And what I want to tell you is those guys are doing them, and they're having success because they're going all in on their strengths. And so I'm gonna share with you the 7 ways that you can have success as an introvert. So number 1 is stop trying to be an extrovert. You got to be proud of who you are and go all in on your strengths. There's a story that we had on the channel not that long ago where it was an Indian entrepreneur talking about a bunny, and a bunny came home from school on his report card and he got an A+ in hopping but like a C or D in swimming. And so his parents were super upset about that and immediately enrolled him into swimming classes and had to get better at swimming. And he worked hard and got better, and every day slowly got better at swimming, and then eventually came home and got like a B or B- or something like that on the report card. And so the parents were so happy, and then all the while he forgot how to hop. And what's a bunny meant to do is hop, right? And so you will only You only have success by going in on your strengths. Understand what you're good at and play to those instead of trying to be something you're not. As long as you're chasing somebody else's expectations, what you're supposed to be instead of your own, as long as you're living up to what, like, you think you're supposed to be to be a success, then it's never going to work out for you. And so it's understanding what you're good at and going all in on that and not caring so much about how other people are achieving their success. So tied into that is number 2: play to your strengths. If I use myself as an example, I'm very introverted, and that probably doesn't come out a lot on this channel. People are surprised when they hear that about me, but I massively need time to decompress. When I'm around others, I can come alive and be myself, but then I need to have alone time. I need to break. I don't like being around people all the time. I don't talk to the guy next to me on the airplane. I never go to networking events, even if it can help my business. I don't I don't go to networking events. I got a great opportunity to go to a networking event the other day and I said, "You know what? I don't like networking events." And I'm not trying to work on fixing it because I don't care. Because instead, I play to what I'm really good at. And so instead of going to an event and being in the crowd and hosting a booth or whatever it is, I'm the guy who goes on stage and does the speaking. And then people come up to me afterwards. I'm much better at the marketing side than the sales side. I'm not the guy who's picking up the phone and calling people all day long to try to sell them on my product. Or service. I'm the one who creates an environment where people then find me and want to call me and do business with me. And so playing to my strengths really helps, and play to yours as well. It can help you if you are introverted. Not a knock against the people who are extroverted. Go in and do what you do. Play to your strengths, whatever they are. That's where you're going to find real success. Number 3 is model success. You know, whenever I don't know how to do something, my favorite thing to do is go out and find somebody who's done it and model what they did to have success. Alex is buying— what are you buying?

Spinach.

Spinach, first up. That's some healthy spinach. So one name that comes to mind for me is Ellen. Ellen claims that she's an introvert, and when I saw that video, we mentioned her in our top 10, I was actually really shocked by that because you think of Ellen, you don't see someone who is introverted, but she is. She's in a field that's dominated by extroverts for the most part, right? If you look at people who are comedians or talk show hosts, for the most part, they love being around— Hi! I'm the assistant store manager. Can I ask what you're filming? I'm filming a video for my YouTube channel. Okay, can you not do it in our location? Really? Yeah. Alright, I'm at TDS. I got kicked out of Loblaws for filming because they're worried about what's gonna show up on Yelp and people's reviews. The way to get negative reviews is to kick the people out who can influence the reviews. Anyway, it doesn't really make a lot of sense, but it's all good. So talking about modeling success, right? Ellen is this person who's extremely introverted, and I, you know, respected a lot of her coming out and telling her story, and I'm just gonna set up for the videos for the day. And so finding people that you look up to who can share their stories, who are introverts, in building that model up where you can look at what they've done, learn from their success. Like, if you're an introvert, doesn't mean you can't have success in comedy. Doesn't mean you can't have success as a talk show host, right? Doesn't mean you can't have success as a speaker. Doesn't mean you can't have success in the things that we traditionally associate with extroverted people. Just means you have to play the game a little bit differently and play it your way. And so whenever you don't know what to do, find someone who's done it and model models of success and apply it to your situation to increase the chances of you making it. Number 4 is create an environment for success. Once you discover the things that you need to do, the, the mentors that you are following, the habits that you need to put in place, it's important that you create a system and a routine so that it's consistent. Because it's easy to get motivated, watch Ellen one day, and then you're off and running and you think everything's great, but then the next day you wake up and all that motivation is gone. And so you need to build that into your daily habits your daily practice, your morning routine. What are you doing every morning to read a story about something that inspires you to want to be great at what you do, to go chase your dream? And it's especially important when all the messages are against what you're trying to do. You know, when the people or friends or family in your life are telling you that you can't have success doing something. And it's often those people closest to us who don't believe in us, oddly enough, at the start. So you have to figure out a way to make it something that you do every single day. That motivation, that charge that you felt, Watching that video, listening to that audiobook, you know, reading that article, that charge that you felt, you have to incorporate into your daily structure, your daily routine, so that you get it every single day. So you are building up the foundation for your success, and it's not some accidental thing that happens once in a while, but you're planning for it, you're preparing for it, you're expecting it every single day. That really dramatically improves the chance of your success. So think about your environment, think about your physical space, right? Think about where you're doing your, your business. Think about your habits. Habits and your morning routines and pop that in so that you are setting yourself up for success every single day. Number 5 is follow your passion. This is important for anybody who's trying to do anything. You gotta follow your passion. When you are following your passion, you will find a new level that you didn't know existed. You might think I'm super extroverted. My excitement comes out, guys, when I'm talking about entrepreneurship. When I'm hanging around entrepreneurs, if I'm talking about entrepreneurship, the Toronto Blue Jays, you know, salsa dancing, League of Legends, maybe a handful I can get excited about it. I can find a new level, and it's not faking it, and it's not trying to be somebody I'm not, you know. It's who I am. Like, I can be animated, and even though I don't like being around people in social settings, you know, all the time, I could talk to entrepreneurs all day long, all day long, and try to fix your business all day long. Like, that fuels me. When you find the thing that you're passionate about, it helps you find a new gear, find a new level in yourself. It helps you push through limiting beliefs. It helps you break through your comfort zones and do things that you never thought you'd be able to do. And so whether that's as an entrepreneur, as a, you know, as a— in a job that you're chasing, in a relationship, anything, like, you have to find that passion for what you're doing to have success. And so hopefully you found that with what you're doing. If not, then, you know, waking up every day and doing something that you hate is not the answer. You gotta be exploring, trying, until you find a thing that you're so jazzed up about that you, you know, want to dedicate an insane amount of time to perfecting and making better. Number 6 is don't use it as a crutch. You want to embrace your introvertedness, but find success your way. Where I think a lot of people then will say, "Well, I can't do this, or I won't do this because that's only what extroverted people do," or "I won't have success because I'm an introvert." Just like the people who say, "I won't have success because I, you know, I don't have the right family," or "I didn't go to school," "I don't have any money," or "I'm in the wrong country," or whatever it is, like whatever reason, right? A lot of people feel like they won't have success because they're introverted. If you want to be a speaker, you don't have to be massively outgoing. To be a great speaker. There's lots of speakers who are introverted. There's lots of entrepreneurs who are introverted. You look at the, the list of the richest entrepreneurs, most of them you've never even heard of because their model isn't to go out and be a public speaker and make a big name for themselves. They just quietly do their thing. And so whatever it is that you want to do, there's a way to do it without having to use it as a crutch. You still need to push yourself. This is not an excuse for you to stop driving because now you realize you're an introvert and that's okay. This isn't, this isn't a negative a negative thing. You know, if you're an introvert, wear that as a badge of honor and go out and drive and push and get better and look for ways to consistently do something that's, that's challenging yourself. And so don't ever, ever, ever use anything as a crutch. If you didn't get to where you want to be, it's you. It's your fault. You didn't try hard enough. You're not prepared enough. You're not good enough yet. You can get better. And so when you ask yourself why Why can't I be a successful fill-in-the-blank? Or why haven't I had the success that I want yet at fill-in-the-blank? You look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself why you can't be a success. Whatever answer comes back, that's the belief that you need to crush. That's the crutch that you need to get rid of. You are not as far ahead as you want to be, and it's nothing to do with you being an introvert or not. It's because you're not hustling enough. You're not pushing your limiting beliefs enough. You're not driving forward enough. So don't ever, ever, ever use the fact fact that you are introverted as a crutch for not getting to where you want to go. It's a badge of honor. Be proud. Wear it. Got excited there. And number 7 is find your one word. And this might sound self-serving because I have a book coming out about your one word, but what I found is whether it's through your one word or through some other mechanism, you need to have self-awareness. You need to understand what you stand for, what you will tolerate, what you won't tolerate any longer. And having Having that self-awareness gives you confidence to say yes and no to certain things and make important decisions in your life. So as an example, this school is about family. The school's one word is family. That means that we need to be inclusive. That means we need to be welcoming. That means we need to make people feel like they belong when they come here. That adjusts a lot of the decision-making that we make here as a school. You know, there's a lot of people who are out there that may be better salsa dancers than us. And a lot of people out there who are great salsa dancers, a lot of them are really snobby. A lot of them won't dance to dance with a beginner student because they feel like it's beneath them, because they haven't, you know, they're not, they're not gonna be fun for me to dance with. And it could be easy to get sucked down into that thinking that we need to get better, or that, oh, maybe I shouldn't, maybe I should only dance with more advanced dancers, maybe I shouldn't pay attention to the beginner dancers, maybe that's not, you know, the right way to do it. And as soon as people start casting doubt on you, right, as soon as people tell you, you should be doing this and not that, If you don't have a strong center, if you don't have a sense of purpose and a sense of clarity, if you don't know what you stand for as a human being— forget about being an entrepreneur— if you don't have that sense of confidence in knowing what you're all about, then you'll fall for anything, right? If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything. And that's a problem for a lot of people. And so when you have the self-awareness to know what you're all about— for me, it's belief, for TDS's family, for you It's whatever it is. Figuring out that one word makes a big difference. So now when you run up against people who don't believe the same things as you, you don't want to hang around them, right? I don't want to hang around the salsa snobs who feel like they're too good for everybody else, because that's the opposite of what we're all about here at TDS. We're about family and community and connectivity. And so somebody doesn't believe in that, doesn't have a, you know, won't enjoy being here. And I don't want them influencing what we do here either. And so if you don't have that awareness for yourself, then you'll continually feel like you're making the wrong decisions, continually doubt yourself, continue laying into the pressures that other people put upon you to be better, to do something differently. And I hope that, that you can break free. So those are my 7 tips, my 7 ways that you can have success in business, in life, as an introvert. I'm curious, what did you guys think? Did you like this video? Did you like this style? A little bit different style than I usually do these, a little more ad hoc and impromptu. So let me know what you thought. What was your favorite point? Leave it down in the comments below. Did I miss something? Is there an 8, 9, 10 that you guys want to add or contribute? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Leave in the comments. Thank you guys so much for watching. Continue to believe, or whatever your one word is, and I'll see you soon.