This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
I don't know if you have noticed, but introverts are the cool kids these days. I really appreciate this because I have always identified as an introvert, but until probably the past decade or so, we have been kind of underappreciated. So first of all, big thanks to Susan Cain for writing the book "Quiet" and making the extroverted world aware of us. Second, if you happen to be an introvert as well, hey, what's up? So glad you're out there.
I mean, I welcome our extroverts as well. I work with a guy named Jed, who is my side hustle sidekick. He's also part of the WDS team. And on our team of about, I don't know, eight or 10 people, probably the majority of us identifies introverted. And Jed is very outgoing.
He likes to say that he is an aspirational introvert. He wants to be an introvert now because it's so popular, which is funny and interesting in lots of ways. And this relates to our question of the day. Welcome to side hustle school. First, my name is Chris Guillebeau.
With introverts getting so much attention these days, might it be worth it to create some type of networking club for them? Or is this exactly the thing they don't want? Great question. I love this person's idea. Would you join an introverts networking club?
Let's talk about it in this episode. Quick shout out to our sponsor, then her question and my answer. [Music]
Hi Chris, this is Cheryl from the Bay Area. And I've been listening to the show for a couple of years now. I've always been a little shy, but much to my surprise, being an introvert is now cool.
What do you think about an introverts networking club? Is that too meta? Is it the opposite of what introverts want? Or is there a way to tap into the desire for connection in an authentic manner? I've already started building a website, but I'm not totally sure what to do next.
Thanks for your help. [Music]
Well, clearly there is great interest in the broader topic. As mentioned, I talked about Susan's book earlier, the classic book, I guess I can call it classic. It's been out for a decade now, quiet. There are now a lot of other books written including "The Introvert Entrepreneur" by Beth Bulow.
That's definitely a good one if you are a side hustling introvert as I am. So definitely a lot more people began identifying with that term in recent years and connecting with it and just more awareness of what it means to be more introverted. Of course, ultimately we're all kind of ambiverted in the sense that we have some introvert qualities, some extrovert qualities. But to look at this question about a club, like the question is, do those people want a networking club? My first thought is don't call it a networking club.
Find a way to provide exactly that with some other name because that name, that description is part of what introverts might be a little bit wary of. So I wouldn't call it that. But I think also what you do is it's not so much like a networking club for introverts. Perhaps you create a welcoming community that has some other purpose. It's not just about, this is our club for introverts, but it goes out of its way to recognize that a lot of people don't like traditional networking for all kinds of reasons.
So in other words, the introvert thing itself doesn't have to be the main selling point. It's more of a feature. It's more of a recognition within our community that we have a lot of people that need to be on their own sometimes to recharge their energy, which is essentially what introversion is all about. It's not, you know, I'm unable to have a social experience or I'm unable to speak in public or whatever concept ideas stereotype tends to apply. So, you know, a lot of online communities are aware of this now and are doing a good job with it.
Gretchen Rubin has a course called The Happiness Experience, does it really well. Good Life Project by another good friend of mine, Jonathan Fields does it really well. Basically anything that you do, you just think about who are the people in this group or who am I making this community for and what are the ways that they prefer to interact and engage. So maybe the introvert networking club could succeed on its own, you know, without more to it. But I tend to think that Cheryl's onto something when she says, you know, is that too meta?
I know she's already building a website for it, but I think this is more just a tweak that you apply and think what kind of online community do I want to make in general. That's my two cents. Of course, Cheryl should do what's best for her. I'm always cheering you on all of our listeners. And if you have a question, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions.
We will continue to feature them throughout the year, along with updates from projects as they roll out. Thank you so much for joining me today. Do come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
from the Onward Project.
