Introverted Business Owners: Don�t Believe These Myths About Introverts� Marketing Abilities
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Marcia Yudkin
Apr 23, 2013, 10:10:17 AM4/23/13
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Please consider this free-reprint article written by:
Marcia Yudkin
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Article Title: Introverted Business Owners: Don�t Believe These Myths About Introverts� Marketing Abilities
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 774
Article URL: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=922301&ca=Marketing
Format: 64cpl
Contact The Author: http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=922301
Easy Publish Tool: http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=922301
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An introvert is someone who needs to recharge their energy alone rather than with other people. An extrovert is someone who gains energy being with other people and loses energy being alone. These definitions come from Carl Jung, whose work formed the basis for the Myers-Briggs personality test. If you�re not sure whether or not you�re an introvert, I encourage you to take that test.
If you do know you�re an introvert, you may believe you�re at a huge disadvantage when it comes to marketing. Many experts define the �shoulds� of marketing in such a way that introverts seem to need a personality transplant in order to do the outreach needed to get their business known. At the same time, much of the stigma attached to being an introvert in business for oneself comes from misconceptions about introverts, and that�s what I�ll be tackling in this article.
Watch out for these three myths that are harmful to a lot of introverts when it comes to marketing.
Myth #1: Introverts are shy and don�t like to be around other people. True, introverts can also be shy, but not all shy people are introverts. These are two different phenomena. Shy people wish they were better at being around other people and want to be around other people. Introverts who understand themselves are content to be by themselves. Shy people are the ones who wish they were invited to the party, wish desperately to be invited to dance or talk but hold back. Introverts are often not interested in going to the party to begin with.
The harmfulness of this myth comes about when you think that because you enjoy being by yourself, you�re shy and therefore socially incompetent, and then you convince yourself that you shouldn�t pursue any form of marketing that involves social contact. Keep reading to learn more about why that�s wrong.
Myth #2 is related to #1: Introverts have poor social skills and poor relationships. In fact, introverts can be very good at getting along with people. They may just have a different style of getting along with people. Instead of using small talk as all-purpose social grease, they may be better at having quiet, meaningful conversations. Introverts tend to relate better one person at a time than to a group of people. They can be very good salespeople because they tend to listen well and be interested in getting at what matters instead of more superficial things. They may have a smaller circle of friends and clients but have more intense, loyal relationships with people who matter to them.
In business, this myth is damaging to introverts because it may get them to discount the less obvious social skills they have. They may therefore put someone in charge of sales and marketing who seems to have the right personality but doesn�t have the ability to get down to brass tacks and nail the sale. That�s exactly what happened to me in an ill-fated business partnership early in my career. It took me nearly two years to figure out that I, the back-room person, was actually much better at marketing than my front-room partner who could talk up a storm but not much else.
Myth #3 is that introverts lack leadership ability. They�re not rah-rah kinds of leaders, but they can certainly inspire the troops and keep followers committed to the right path. Again, their leadership style may be different. Introverted CEOs include Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Andrea Jung of Avon, Vic Conant of Nightingale Conant and many others, by one estimate about 40 percent of CEOs.
Yet in an informal survey on the job site TheLadders.com, 65 percent said introversion is an impediment to climbing the corporate ladder. That�s a matter of perception, not reality. Introverted leaders may not be the life of the company party, but they may have vision that gets broad buy-in, integrity that earns respect, smarts that run rings around the competition, discipline that gets things done and marketing savvy that attracts no end of customers.
Socrates said it best: Know yourself. Use that knowledge to pursue success regardless of whether or not other people think you have the right stuff!
A bookworm as a child, Marcia Yudkin grew up to discover she had a surprising talent for creative marketing. The author of 15 books, she mentors introverts to discover their uniquely powerful branding strategies. Learn more about the strengths and preferences of introverts: http://www.yudkin.com/introverts.htm
About The Author: A bookworm as a child, Marcia Yudkin grew up to discover she had a surprising talent for creative marketing. The author of 15 books, she mentors introverts to discover their uniquely powerful branding strategies. Learn more about the strengths of introverts: http://www.yudkin.com/introverts.htm
Please use the HTML version of this article at:
http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=922301
*********************** ARTICLE END ***********************
- To distribute your articles go to http://www.isnare.com/distribution.php
- For more free-reprint articles go to http://www.isnare.com
Message delivered directly to members of the group:
publish-the...@googlegroups.com
*****************************************************************
Please consider this free-reprint article written by:
Marcia Yudkin
*****************************
IMPORTANT - Publication/Reprint Terms
- You have permission to publish this article electronically in free-only publications such as a website or an ezine as long as the bylines are included.
- You are not allowed to use this article for commercial purposes. The article should only be reprinted in a publicly accessible website and not in a members-only commercial site.
- You are not allowed to post/reprint this article in any sites/publications that contains or supports hate, violence, porn and warez or any indecent and illegal sites/publications.
- You are not allowed to use this article in UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email) or SPAM. This article MUST be distributed in an opt-in email list only.
- If you distribute this article in an ezine or newsletter, we ask that you send a copy of the newsletter or ezine that contains the article to http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=922301
- If you post this article in a website/forum/blog, ALL links MUST be set to hyperlinks and we ask that you send a copy of the URL where the article is posted to http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=922301
- We request that you ask permission from the author if you want to publish this article in print.
The role of iSnare.com is only to distribute this article as part of its Article Distribution feature ( http://www.isnare.com/distribution.php ). iSnare.com does NOT own this article, please respect the author's copyright and this publication/reprint terms. If you do not agree to any of these terms, please do not reprint or publish this article.
*****************************
Article Title: Introverted Business Owners: Don�t Believe These Myths About Introverts� Marketing Abilities
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 774
Article URL: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=922301&ca=Marketing
Format: 64cpl
Contact The Author: http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=922301
Easy Publish Tool: http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=922301
*********************** ARTICLE START ***********************
An introvert is someone who needs to recharge their energy alone rather than with other people. An extrovert is someone who gains energy being with other people and loses energy being alone. These definitions come from Carl Jung, whose work formed the basis for the Myers-Briggs personality test. If you�re not sure whether or not you�re an introvert, I encourage you to take that test.
If you do know you�re an introvert, you may believe you�re at a huge disadvantage when it comes to marketing. Many experts define the �shoulds� of marketing in such a way that introverts seem to need a personality transplant in order to do the outreach needed to get their business known. At the same time, much of the stigma attached to being an introvert in business for oneself comes from misconceptions about introverts, and that�s what I�ll be tackling in this article.
Watch out for these three myths that are harmful to a lot of introverts when it comes to marketing.
Myth #1: Introverts are shy and don�t like to be around other people. True, introverts can also be shy, but not all shy people are introverts. These are two different phenomena. Shy people wish they were better at being around other people and want to be around other people. Introverts who understand themselves are content to be by themselves. Shy people are the ones who wish they were invited to the party, wish desperately to be invited to dance or talk but hold back. Introverts are often not interested in going to the party to begin with.
The harmfulness of this myth comes about when you think that because you enjoy being by yourself, you�re shy and therefore socially incompetent, and then you convince yourself that you shouldn�t pursue any form of marketing that involves social contact. Keep reading to learn more about why that�s wrong.
Myth #2 is related to #1: Introverts have poor social skills and poor relationships. In fact, introverts can be very good at getting along with people. They may just have a different style of getting along with people. Instead of using small talk as all-purpose social grease, they may be better at having quiet, meaningful conversations. Introverts tend to relate better one person at a time than to a group of people. They can be very good salespeople because they tend to listen well and be interested in getting at what matters instead of more superficial things. They may have a smaller circle of friends and clients but have more intense, loyal relationships with people who matter to them.
In business, this myth is damaging to introverts because it may get them to discount the less obvious social skills they have. They may therefore put someone in charge of sales and marketing who seems to have the right personality but doesn�t have the ability to get down to brass tacks and nail the sale. That�s exactly what happened to me in an ill-fated business partnership early in my career. It took me nearly two years to figure out that I, the back-room person, was actually much better at marketing than my front-room partner who could talk up a storm but not much else.
Myth #3 is that introverts lack leadership ability. They�re not rah-rah kinds of leaders, but they can certainly inspire the troops and keep followers committed to the right path. Again, their leadership style may be different. Introverted CEOs include Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Andrea Jung of Avon, Vic Conant of Nightingale Conant and many others, by one estimate about 40 percent of CEOs.
Yet in an informal survey on the job site TheLadders.com, 65 percent said introversion is an impediment to climbing the corporate ladder. That�s a matter of perception, not reality. Introverted leaders may not be the life of the company party, but they may have vision that gets broad buy-in, integrity that earns respect, smarts that run rings around the competition, discipline that gets things done and marketing savvy that attracts no end of customers.
Socrates said it best: Know yourself. Use that knowledge to pursue success regardless of whether or not other people think you have the right stuff!
A bookworm as a child, Marcia Yudkin grew up to discover she had a surprising talent for creative marketing. The author of 15 books, she mentors introverts to discover their uniquely powerful branding strategies. Learn more about the strengths and preferences of introverts: http://www.yudkin.com/introverts.htm
About The Author: A bookworm as a child, Marcia Yudkin grew up to discover she had a surprising talent for creative marketing. The author of 15 books, she mentors introverts to discover their uniquely powerful branding strategies. Learn more about the strengths of introverts: http://www.yudkin.com/introverts.htm
Please use the HTML version of this article at:
http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=922301
*********************** ARTICLE END ***********************
- To distribute your articles go to http://www.isnare.com/distribution.php
- For more free-reprint articles go to http://www.isnare.com
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