The Fierce Business Babe Podcast Ep 271: Ways to Run Your Business As An Introvert
Today, I am diving into how to run and grow your business as an introvert. Spoiler alert, I am an introvert myself and am here to share some tips and tricks I have learned over the years running my own business. We are going to chat about stepping out of your comfort zone and utilizing tools to help your business blossom.
WAYS TO RUN YOUR BUSINESS AS AN INTROVERT
By: Melissa Lin
Welcome back to another episode of The Fierce Business Babe Podcast! Happy fall. I love this season. My scarves, blankets, sweaters, and my boots are out, I love it. I love fall in the Pacific Northwest, it’s such a fun time. I love just about every season except for winter. Fall is here and we're so excited to get into today's episode. If you spend any time on my social media platforms, you’ve probably heard me say that there is no one right or wrong way to run and grow your business. There is no one right business model that works or doesn’t work. I have had some folks reach out to me in the past and share that they love my energy and how I add value consistently on social media and they feared that they could never get started or grow their business because they weren’t able to do the same. They were a bit more introverted than I may come across. Spoiler alert– I am actually an introvert myself.
What I like to share with anyone who comes to me and asks these questions is that even as an introvert, you can still run and grow your business to seven-figures and beyond. Your business gets to work for you and fit into your lifestyle. Your business gets to embody you as a person. I'm definitely going to go into some examples today on what it can really look like in your business and I cannot wait to get started with that. I love helping my clients get creative and build a business that really feels so good to them and is also really going to support them and how they like to live. We're going to get all into how your business can run as an introvert, ways to utilize social media for your business, how to step out of your comfort zone, and so much more.
RUNNING YOUR BUSINESS IN A WAY THAT FEELS GOOD
I want to dive right in and share how your business really can run as an introvert. I think one of the coolest parts about running your own business is that you can make up the rules. As long as you’re able to help your clients move from point A to point B in a way that serves you both, then you can do it. There are no rules. You might be asking yourself, “how can I run a coaching program or support private one-on-one clients? Maybe I'm afraid of being on video.” I think what is going to really support you here is sharing different ways that you can do some of these things. There are dozens of ways that you can do this and we're going to brainstorm a bit and get creative together.
For example, there is no rule saying that you absolutely have to get on video with your private clients. I have some clients of my own that I only support through Voxer. If you've never used Voxer before, it is a private communication tool. It's kind of like a texting/ voice messaging tool that a lot in our industry use. We don't hop on any calls, it's just straight across private Voxer voice and text messaging support. It's a different form of coaching than I typically provide, I don't do it a ton. Some of my higher-level programs have Voxer included, but sometimes I feel aligned to offer some Voxer only support if that's what someone in my audience is looking for. It's different from my Academy coaching program or my higher-level coaching programs because I do like to hop on video and share screens and really dig deep into my clients' businesses. However, that doesn’t mean that you absolutely have to. I have another client who just launched her next course and it is 100% audio. The entire course is audio, there is no video that goes along with it. As long as you're able to help your client move from that point that they are stuck in right now to that point they are really wanting to get to, that’s all that matters. As long as you're able to do so in a way that is a great client experience for them and for you to be the best coach and mentor that you can be. You get to teach and coach in a way that feels really good to you. If hopping on video or on audio calls doesn’t feel good or aligned to you, you don’t need to do it. There are no rules. Keep that in mind as you are starting to brainstorm your current offer. Have fun with it.
I want to share a few more examples with you today to help you brainstorm just in case you want to try a new way to support your clients and experiment with it. I just mentioned that I have a client who just launched a course that is 100% audio. Some of my course materials in my coaching programs are a PowerPoint with audio on top. I wanted to share some of these examples with you because there are so many different ways that you can teach. There may be different training modules or lessons or exercises that you want to teach your clients that maybe don’t always need a PowerPoint or could benefit from a PowerPoint. Again, there is no one right or wrong way that your course or coaching program gets to run.
My programs have definitely evolved over the years. For example, if you hop into my Fierce Business Academy, which is my program to help you get started on your business from the ground up, we brainstorm your niece, your first offer, you start signing clients and creating your social media. We help you scale your business. We have a mix of course material, video, audio, PowerPoints, and then tons of hands-on support inside of our private Slack channel. We support our clients and give personalized feedback on worksheets that we have in our program and any of the business assets that you created as well. We also have coaching calls and those are live on video. We do a lot of screen sharing. That's how it is now, but it wasn't always that way. It has definitely evolved over the past five years we've been running it now.
I love brainstorming different ways to structure and deliver your offers to your clients because it can be different. I wanted to share with you that that is another thing you can do. If you want to run a coaching program with no calls, then you can. If you are going to travel abroad for however long and you're in a different town every week, maybe you just don't have the capacity to hop on calls. Let's brainstorm how you can make that work. You can make anything work. We have taken our programs and scaled them every single year. We’ve needed to make tweaks to how our programs run in terms of structure and delivery. Part of that is experimenting with your materials in your programs and seeing what works with the size of clients that you have inside of whatever offer that you have at the moment.
Let’s say that you wanted to run a coaching program and provide materials for your clients, but didn't necessarily want to hop on calls. Maybe you're traveling, you don't have the capacity to hop on calls for the next six to eight weeks. Something you could do is create course materials and create a Slack channel or a group Voxer channel and support your clients there as they go through the material on their own, like a self-paced course with support on top throughout that communication platform. Again, it doesn't need to be calls as long as you're able to help your clients move from point A to point B in a way that serves both you and the client, that's what matters.
I want to share some questions to really ask yourself as you're starting to brainstorm your next offer and what your business can look like. It's not just the programs you are running, it’s also how your business runs. We're going to get into that a little bit later in today’s episode, but you can use these same questions in other areas of your business. Questions to really ask yourself include, number one, what type of structure or delivery or support is going to really serve your client in the container? Number two, what type of structure or delivery is going to really support you as the mentor? Number three, what do you want the energy exchange to look like for whatever price point that you have your program at? Again, there's no right or wrong, it's all about getting behind something that feels good to you in your business.
No matter what, as an introvert you can run a successful business. There are so many different ways that you can do so. I don't want you to ever feel like there's only one way to run a coaching program because that's how it was run in the program that you were in and that's what you saw. You are allowed to be creative with your business. You're allowed to run your program in a way that you’ve never seen done before. A challenge that I gave one of my clients recently was to go and break the rules. Even though I say there are no rules, because there aren’t, but there are things that we are used to seeing in the online space. Go and break the rules. Let's not be the norm in business. You get to do what feels good to you as long as it’s serving both parties at the end of the day. Those are some examples on how your business can run as an introvert.
Something that's definitely served me over the past few years as we continue to grow the business is making sure that I take time to recharge when needed. Learning to say no to things and really zooming out and asking myself what it is that I need to recharge when needed. It’s important to find that balance that’s going to work for you. I can tell you that I love my time to recharge with a nice bubble bath and I will 100% be doing that tonight.
UTILIZING SOCIAL MEDIA AS AN INTROVERT
Now that we’ve talked a bit about the business, let’s get into social media and ways to utilize social media for your business as an introvert. One of the biggest things that comes up around this is, “Melissa, to start a business, to be successful, to make sales, do I have to go live on Instagram or Facebook? I’m absolutely terrified.” My answer to that is no, definitely not. Video definitely connects you and your audience more, however, it doesn’t necessarily need to be live. I can actually share a story with you about when I went live for the first time on Facebook years and years ago. Now it's just second nature because I've done it so much, it’s just like podcast recording, my coaching calls, that sort of thing. When I went live on Facebook for the very first time I was absolutely terrified. I had my entire outline scripted out verbatim, I had potential questions that I had a feeling might come up. I was doing a training around probably sales and I went through my entire outline quite a few different times in a private group that I had with one of my friends so I could see myself on my screen and practice. I remember going to my Facebook group I had at the time. When you’re getting ready for the live video it shows your screen and how you look and you can see yourself before you actually go live. I practiced through my entire training two different times before I actually started the live and it went fine. I've done hundreds of live training sessions since then.
There will definitely be moments where you mess up. You might mess up a word or maybe the doorbell's ringing in the background, who knows, things happen. Just go with the flow and remind yourself that you are human and everyone watching is also human, they know these things are going to happen. Any time that happens to me I remind myself, and this is also a permission slip for everybody else, it doesn't need to be perfect. Break the rules. Let the doorbell ring, if it happens you don’t need to shut the entire live down and restart.
My second story I want to share with you is a few years ago when Instagram stories first started I was afraid of recording a video talking to my camera as I was walking down the street. I was so worried about what other people would think of me, which is funny because I was never going to see any of those people again. I broke through that fear by practicing a little every single day. The first day was just a quick selfie on the sidewalk as I was on my morning walk. The next day was a five second story and then a ten second story the next day. Now it doesn't even phase me, I just talk to my camera. I was on a date night with Ryen last week, we went to a OneRepublic Concert and we had dinner beforehand. We were getting some sushi and I was doing a quick little video of us on our date and the couple sitting right next to us completely video bombed. I could have totally rerecorded and asked them not to do that, but I was in the moment and just did it. That also gave other people permission to let it be messy. At the end of the day, messy action beats no action every single time. Go press live and be okay with it messing up. Go hop on an Instagram story. Maybe your hair isn't perfect or your pet hops onto your table in the background, which also happens often for me, it’s okay for it to be a little messy. Have fun with it. Know that with practice you do get better at some of these things and it starts to feel easier every time that you do it.
Getting back to ways to utilize social media for your business, you don’t have to go live. I went live for many years and now most of my content is pre-recorded. My Fierce Business Q&As that we post every single week over on Instagram are pre-recorded. Most of our trainings are pre-recorded. I recently hosted a workshop that was live, however, that was a paid live. Most of our free content is pre-recorded. Again, there are no rules, you can most definitely do that. You also don’t have to show yourself 24/7. Ryen and I recently moved into our new home. If you've been part of my social platforms you know that we’ve been building a home for the past few years. We purchased land and built it from the ground up. Last summer was a very busy season for us. We packed up our old house and moved into the new house. We had quite a few things to wrap up with the city, permits and things like that, before we could move in. It was a very busy season. I was not able to hop on social media every single day and show my face and add value the way I typically would. We repurposed some pre-recorded content. That's also a permission slip for you. You don’t have to show up 24/7 on your social media platforms. Everyone is human and you're going to have seasons in life where you have to lean away from social media a little bit. Your business is still running in the background, however, you don't have to show yourself 24/7. You can show behind the scenes of your life, which is a big favorite for so many. You can share behind the scenes of what your day looks like, a checklist, a quote, some graphics, your pets, anything like that. Now, if you are wanting to create a brand I would recommend showing yourself. Let your audience really get to know you a bit more. Does that mean you have to share every aspect of your life? Definitely not, however, to create a like, know, trust factor you may want to start to show a little bit more of it.
Again, baby steps. Just like my story about creating an Instagram story on the sidewalk. Start with a picture today, a five second story tomorrow, ten seconds the next day, and then continue to grow and get more comfortable with it. I promise it will feel easier. You don’t have to share yourself 24/7, start with something a little smaller. For example, if you want to create a reel, you can do so with videos of just copy. If you go to our reels, in a few of our earlier reels we were playing around and experimenting with my notepad and adding value and turned that into a video of going through those notes instead of me speaking to the camera. Our audience takes information in different ways. Play around and experiment. You can create reels that are videos of a voiceover on top of graphics. You can create pre-recorded materials. There's so many different things that you can do. Again, there's no right or wrong way to do any of it. Have fun, experiment, and see what feels good to you and what form of communication really works for you. I also don't want anyone to use this as a reason to not step out of their comfort zone. I believe that you can do both. You can be an introvert and also step out of your comfort zone.
LEARNING TO STEP OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE
Now let's chat about how to step out of your comfort zone. In order to get to a place in life that you've never lived you get to do things that you've never done, which does mean stepping out of your comfort zone. Don't let being an introvert hold you back from doing some of those new things. I promise that you can do those things. Your success is inevitable as long as you try and move the needle forward. Let it be messy a little bit, but move the needle forward a little bit every single day. Does this mean that you need to go press live on Instagram right now and share your entire life story today? No, definitely not. It does, however, mean that you get to do something that you normally wouldn’t. Maybe you can show yourself on an Instagram story. Do a five second story saying hi to your audience. Reach out to a lead that you know would benefit from hearing from you.
Work with what you have, don’t focus on what you don't have. You can thrive in business as an introvert. Something that I like to do is think ahead to any potential barriers or any questions that may pop up with whatever you’re about to hop into. In that example of me hopping on Facebook live for the very first time I shared that I had prepared a few questions in case they came up. Let’s say you're about to hop on a sales call. Prepare yourself for any potential sales objections that you may get. The biggest ones are money, time, and “I don’t feel ready.” Also, communicate your preferred communication method. I think this is something that we as an industry weren't as open to in the past. I think it's so cool seeing the different ways that new programs are being created. It's so fun to watch.
I shared samples of how this can look in your coaching programs or courses earlier in this episode and this can also be true in other areas of your business. Instead of sales calls you can sell in the DM's with audio, right? I haven't done a sales call in over three years. It's not that I wouldn't do it if I needed to, it's that I've created a way to sell very well without them. You can sell in the DM's with just text. Instead of sales calls with video, you could do audio only calls. Instead of a weekly team call, maybe you do something in a Slack channel where you're communicating daily. We communicate with our team multiple times throughout the day in a Slack channel. We also get together at various times throughout the month on Zoom calls as well. It really supports us because there's a lot of behind-the-scenes work that we do together.
I want to leave you with a question that I asked my clients earlier this week. What is one area in your business where you've been playing small? How will you step out of your comfort zone this week to move the needle forward with it? I would love to hear what that is for you and cheer you on as you start to step out of your comfort zone a little bit more and have fun with your business. Know that it's okay to run your business in a different way if it feels better to you. We have touched on so much today including how there is no right or wrong way to run your business as an introvert, ways to utilize social media for your business, how to step out of your comfort zone, and so much more. We are already getting ready for next week's episode and I cannot wait to share it with you. We will see you next week in another brand new episode of The Fierce Business Babe Podcast bright and early next Monday morning.
Topics we cover include:
Creating a business that embodies you
Making your business work
Breaking the norm in the industry
And so much more!
FREEBIES:
4 Step Training to Start & Scale Your Online Coaching Business:
https://melissalincoaching.lpages.co/4-steps-to-starting-a-successful-coaching-business
Quiz: Your Next Business Strategy:
https://www.themelissalin.com/quiz
WORK WITH MELISSA:
Are you ready to take your online coaching business to the NEXT level? Have you been wanting to start coaching, finally start making a full time income doing what you love? The Fierce Business Academy might be the right fit for you! Head to the link below for more details and to hop on the waitlist!
The Fierce Business Academy:
https://www.themelissalin.com/academy
The 6 Figure Fierce Business Mastermind:
https://www.themelissalin.com/mastermind
The Caption Capsule
https://www.themelissalin.com/captioncapsule
Promo Code: PODCAST to save $$$ on The Caption Capsule!
Find me on social media for more daily content!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_melissalin/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melissa.lin.180410
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fiercebusinessbabes/
Fierce Business Academy: https://www.themelissalin.com/academy