Vanessa Van Edwards suggests introverts arrive early to events when it's quieter, limit their time to 30 minutes or an hour, and find the person laughing most to join their conversation. A polite rejection just means the talk got too personal.
I wanna give us a couple tips for introverts. For my introverts, especially if you're looking at events, I want you to go for small, not just smaller events and smaller groups, but even small time. If you say to yourself, I'm gonna do 1 hour of socializing, it's a little bit easier to really maximize that hour. Be like, this is gonna be my best hour or my best 30 minutes. And I highly recommend the very, very start of the event. It's usually quietest. You have people who are fresh, and typically you have the best conversations in that first 30 minutes, that first hour. I would avoid big groups unless they are loud. But if they're a loud big group, it's actually the easiest one to break into. Here's why. If it's a loud big group, all eyes will not be on you if you sidle up to someone. In a big group that's loud and talking, pick the person who's laughing the most. Look for that open body language. Look for the person who has their shoulder angled out towards the room. Sidle up right next to them and say, you guys look like you're having so much fun. Can I join? That's your intro line. That person can then be your little networking angel bringing you into the group. By the way, if someone says no, it was actually a really good thing because they were having a very personal conversation that I did not want to be a part of. This almost always works, and if it doesn't work, I just saved you from a conversation that probably would have been too personal.
