I'm a serious introvert who isn't shy too. Thing is, it took a lot of practice to get that way and I find it hard to believe it was natural for ant other introvert to not be shy too. My practice wasn't deliberate and one day I woke up and realized that yeah, I'm still am introvert but I'm not shy anymore.
The thing that changed my shyness was performing in front of people. I was always bad one on one but if I had to present to a large group I was in heaven. First I played in a band while in high school and now I give presentations to clients and anti-drug talks to parents, teachers, politicians, and students and I love it.
Getting over my one on one shyness was a matter of having to do it out of necessity. I'm running a one man company here and I have to be able to network and sell. I'm not totally good one on one yet though. If I'm near someone I can't relate to in some way then I become awkward and act like a mute but as long as I can find one thing, no matter how small, that we can relate on then I'm good.
This post made me think of a guy I was talking with at a chamber after hours event this past week. He was from Dale Carnegie (I hadn't heard of them till then) and I was having trouble relating and thus was being shy so I asked him for advice and at that point we really hit it off and he not only gave me some great advice but introduced me to some great people. He pretty much told me just about the exact same things this slide was trying to get across. And that's one of my tricks. If I find myself unable to relate and becoming that awkward mute then I'll try to ask for help. It doesn't always work and it's a last resort but when it works i get amazing results. I'm just amazed at how willing people are to help young, struggling entrepreneurs.
Getting involved with anything is also great advice for introverts. I'm on the board of a charity and I've done a lot of free work for them and that has really helped me to connect with fairly important people. There are state officials that know my name and respect me. It's amazing! I'm over here not knowing what the hell I'm doing and these important people know me and have my number in their phones. My intention isn't to brag but to illustrate that this stuff really works. I'm just some random, introverted kid barely into his second year in business and somehow just talking to people has opened the doors to some aweso,e opportunities.
The thing that changed my shyness was performing in front of people. I was always bad one on one but if I had to present to a large group I was in heaven. First I played in a band while in high school and now I give presentations to clients and anti-drug talks to parents, teachers, politicians, and students and I love it.
Getting over my one on one shyness was a matter of having to do it out of necessity. I'm running a one man company here and I have to be able to network and sell. I'm not totally good one on one yet though. If I'm near someone I can't relate to in some way then I become awkward and act like a mute but as long as I can find one thing, no matter how small, that we can relate on then I'm good.
This post made me think of a guy I was talking with at a chamber after hours event this past week. He was from Dale Carnegie (I hadn't heard of them till then) and I was having trouble relating and thus was being shy so I asked him for advice and at that point we really hit it off and he not only gave me some great advice but introduced me to some great people. He pretty much told me just about the exact same things this slide was trying to get across. And that's one of my tricks. If I find myself unable to relate and becoming that awkward mute then I'll try to ask for help. It doesn't always work and it's a last resort but when it works i get amazing results. I'm just amazed at how willing people are to help young, struggling entrepreneurs.
Getting involved with anything is also great advice for introverts. I'm on the board of a charity and I've done a lot of free work for them and that has really helped me to connect with fairly important people. There are state officials that know my name and respect me. It's amazing! I'm over here not knowing what the hell I'm doing and these important people know me and have my number in their phones. My intention isn't to brag but to illustrate that this stuff really works. I'm just some random, introverted kid barely into his second year in business and somehow just talking to people has opened the doors to some aweso,e opportunities.