This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
If you're an introvert, how can you sell and market effectively? Welcome back to Side Hustle School. My name's Chris Guillebeau, also an introvert. Today's question comes from Lily in Richmond, Virginia. She has recently started a side hustle but is challenged with the idea of networking or self-promotion.
She just finds it kind of icky and overwhelming. So what can she do? Of course, she's got a business that she wants to be able to talk about and she wants to serve clients and customers. Presumably she's got something that can actually help people or make a difference in their lives. So how can she overcome?
Or maybe that's the wrong word. In fact, how can she kind of work through this challenge of feeling like, "Hey, I don't like to self-promote. I don't like to network. What can I do as an introvert?" I have some thoughts on this. As noted, lifelong introvert here.
So let me see what I can do to be helpful to Lily and anybody else out there who might be in this situation or if you know somebody who's introverted, how can introverts sell and market effectively? That's our question of the day. Stay tuned for the detailed version from Lily and my answer. [Music]
Hey, Chris. This is Lily from Richmond, Virginia.
I'm an introvert and recently started as site hustle, but I'm struggling with the idea of marketing myself. I find traditional marketing tactics like networking and self-promoting to be really overwhelming. What strategies can introverts use to market their site hustle effectively without feeling drained? I'd love some tips on how to get my business out there in a way that feels more comfortable. [Music]
Lily, I get it and this is why I love the internet because for me, the idea of going to a networking event that just sounds terrible, like an old school event where you pass around business cards.
I don't know if people still do that. I've never done something like that. So I can just imagine that if you think about marketing like that, then you're like, "Wow, this sounds really unattractive." And I think the wrong answer is to be like, "Lily, push through, it's okay." You can do it and you can do it, but I think you'll actually be much more successful and you'll be much more aligned with your own energy, your own preferred work style. If you rethink marketing and think of marketing as, "Okay, this is just a way of connecting with people "who need the product or service "or better yet, the solutions that I have created." And what is the best way to meet them? It probably is not going to these networking events to pass out those business cards and such.
So digital marketing is great and digital marketing, it allows you to promote your business from behind the screen, which can feel less overwhelming than face-to-face interactions. Now, obviously, depending on the kind of business you have, maybe you do need to do more phone calls or in-person meetings or whatever is one-on-one. And in that case, I would just encourage you to try to avoid cold selling where, again, it is that assumption of like, "Oh, this sounds very confrontational, very unattractive "and just kind of uninteresting." As much as possible, you want to be talking to people who are interested in what you have to say or offer. So I would design the business from the ground up to be built around your strengths and built around kind of an inbound strategy of people coming to you as opposed to you going to them, leveraging digital marketing as much as possible. I was so excited when I started writing my blog long, long ago because I was like, "Oh, I am an introvert, but I can do this on my own "and put it out there." And people are engaging and connecting in different ways and that's really fun.
But I can do it on my own schedule. I can do that with some boundaries. We just had this episode on boundaries about a week ago. I can do that in a way that kind of accommodates my unique energy requirements. And so I encourage you and all of our listeners to do that as well.
And if you're more extroverted, of course, that's great too. But ultimately, you want to think about what is effective for you and your business. That's my encouragement to you, Lily, and everyone else. Thank you for being out there. sidehustleschool.com for resources, tips, detailed notes for each episode.
And of course, more is on the way, always free. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
