The Traveling Introvert

Hello, and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today I'd love to talk about safe havens for eating and drinking as an introvert. A lot of the time, you might want to go out and enjoy a good meal or have a nice cocktail. And it has to be said not all restaurants and bars are created equal in that kind of realm. I know a lot of people have complained that they want to go to a restaurant, enjoy a meal by themselves and get treated like second class citizens because of it. Either they get put in a corner somewhere or they don't get the table that they requested. Or they basically get ignored by staff or on the opposite end of the scale. They get hustled and moved on quickly by staff because they want to turn over the table. And because there's any one of you instead of two of us at the table they They want you to hurry up your meal, whereas you might just want to sit and enjoy and savor the food that you are paying for. So, as an introvert, and trying to find spaces where you where it's okay for you to go and eat by yourself, because that's the other problem, the social norm makes it awkward for you to go and eat by yourself. There was a time when I booked a train in California to go on a wine run. And I was going by myself. And they were very much like, Oh, well, we might see you at somebody else on the train right now. I want to enjoy this beautiful view, by myself at a table by myself. I do not want to have to interact in awkward conversation with somebody I do not know. I'm paying money to go on this trip. And it became a bit of a to do and luckily it was low season so it wasn't that bad. But still, I was made to feel that I was in the wrong for wanting to enjoy my ride. So areas or places That are comfortable for people to sit and go and eat alone or have a drink alone. Many people have said coffee shops most of the time coffee shops you can go in, order your food or drink sit in the corner read a normal bother you and it will be fine and it doesn't feel awkward. But to go to a restaurant and sit down necessarily fine dining, but sit down restaurant, the menu and and you may feel awkward if you're by yourself. One place however, that seems to inadvertently cater to introverts or somebody who wants to just go and dine by themselves and not be bothered. His hotel bars, hotel bars and restaurants. And this is fascinating. And it seems to be because people are transit within a hotel and it was looking to make friends that kind of tired. They've been traveling or their business and they're at a meeting and they're coming in to have a drink and chill and wine down. Eat and leave Eat and go over paperwork or read a book or what have you. But very rarely Will someone came up to you and try and hassle you along or want to talk to you. So airport, no airports also. bars, hotel bars and restaurants seemed to be a really good place for you to go. If you're an introvert and you just want to enjoy a nice meal without getting harassed or feeling uncomfortable because you are by yourself in a hotel you almost expected to be by yourself or you know with somebody else but that's fine. There's no it is normal or abnormal. And so that is a great thing. Dear listeners, I would love to know if there any other spaces that you have found that have been welcoming to you coming in sitting and reading a book, or doing a crossword or just coming in and enjoying a meal by yourself without you feeling that they didn't want you there or they wanted to move you along. I would love to hear from you. I'm trying to think also airports, know when, but it was a funny place like airport lounges. If you sit at the bar people will talk to you, if you just sit away from the bar people will not talk to you. So there's that that halfway point of like, okay, I might want some conversation, or I'm gonna go sit in the corner and do my thing. So that's very, very interesting. And the Uber, the Uber, right, but that's a whole other conversation probably. But I know that Uber we're trying to roll out something and I think there's in certain cities where if you don't want your driver to talk to you, you can you have that option. You have that control, because Uber drivers are not taught customer service the way sort of restaurant is might be. So that's another interesting topic of like, how do you shut down your Uber driver in a nice way that hey, I don't want to talk. It's not you. It's I just you know what to sit here and recharge. Thank you for listening. This is Janice from the careerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and shine as an introvert. If you have any questions, please email me at Janice at the career introvert dot com and have a great rest of your week.

Hello, and welcome to the traveling introvert. And today I am going to talk about accountability. And this can come across in a couple of different ways. I have different accountability people in my life for various things. And as an introvert, I found it really important to have people who are accountable to and I don't mean a boss or a manager. What I mean is people who view different areas of my life differently from me. For the longest while I did everything on my own. I'm definitely super independent, for various reasons have lived a lot of my life, sort of been in charge of my own life from a very young age, and been let down by multiple people. And so I definitely had the mindset that don't trust people because they let you down. And over the years, I have learned that that is not always the case. And so as far as business is concerned, having people who are surrounding yourself with people who have different skill sets, or who view things differently from you, heaven forbid, even extroverts is, is, is something that can be really beneficial. And I have, like I said, a few in my life for different reasons. So I have someone who is a daily accountability partner. And our relationship has changed slightly, I guess, over the years. But it's one thing that has been consistent for over two years now. And it doesn't have to be a really big thing. It could just literally be a text message every day that says, hey, my intention today is to do this thing. And then at the end of the day, you check in and say, Hey, did you get to do that thing? Or what stopped you or how can I help or was there an issue or you did that thing? That's awesome. That's one way of having accountability. I have another accountability group that meets weekly. And with that group, we, that has also changed. We tried spreadsheets, we tried all sorts of things of keeping track, and maybe we'll try something again this year. But generally, it's been about emotional support. But also, you know, some of us are better at copywriting, or some of us are better at picking up and figuring out different things to do, and or different ways of approaching different types of business, or just being like, hey, you're being treated badly, you need to sort of deal with it. And people who talk to you straight, and aren't afraid of what you might think or say about it. And you also have to be open to getting that feedback, as long as it is constructive. And the reason why this is helpful for me as an introvert, I'm sure for others as an introvert is we get wrapped up in our own thought process and our own things and we overthink and we tend to we think we're thinking things through from front viewpoints and perspectives. But that not might not be the case. And so having someone from the outside him go and say, Hey, this and this and this and this, and then you're like, Oh, well, I hadn't thought about that. And so it's always wonderful to have that just like, it's always wonderful to have people on your team who work with you or for you, that also have a different viewpoint. They might not have to be introverts, they might not have to be extroverts. They might have a be from a different country, or from a different culture, all of these things, and having this diversity in your life will help you run a better business and be a better person. How you communicate, sometimes, you know, you used to communicating in a certain way. And so I might say, hey, for this particular thing, why don't you try communicating in this way and see what happens and you might discover something new. And with the years rolling by, it's always good to stop and take take pause and take stock and there's a set You know, surround yourself with the kind of people that you want to be. And part of that is maybe surrounding yourself with accountability buddies that inspire you or help you or lift you up and support you and don't tear you down. It's not about competition. It is about support and being there for one another, and people go through bad things and that's okay. People go through good things that is also okay. So I'd love to know dear listeners who you have in your life. That is your accountability person, your your your, your business wife, your BFF your business best friend, your accountability, buddy, your accountability, buddy, whatever you want to call them. Who do you have in your life that is there for you in that way? And if you don't have that person gotten find that person or ask Oh, hey, email me. So this is Janice from the career introvert dot com. Helping you shine as an introvert, build your brand and get hired and all that good stuff. Please email me at Janice at the courage read.com Should you have any questions or any topics you would like me to cover in the future. Have a great rest of your week.

Hello and welcome to the traveling internet. Today I am going to talk about why people no longer watch master classes. And this is because I have just and I hate to say this wasted two hours of my life. I have been following a digital marketer online for about a year or so I bought one of her products It was a $27 thing did exactly what it said on the tin. It worked great. And I've just been following along following along and it's been fine. And a lot of companies that I work with will use they talk about are in in glowing terms and say she's wonderful on what she does is wonderful and everything about her is wonderful, which is fun. And she had an offer where you go and look at a video and so I went and up to the video and after the video. There was all we're going to do a master class like next week science Okay, sure, like I looked at the time, my calendar was free, okay, a master class on whatever it was cuz I don't want to out to this person. And so I kept getting email reminders, which was great every, you know, six days to the master class three days of the master class two days to the master class. And we've had 3500 people signed up. But we've only got room for 500 people. So make sure you on time Oh, and by the way, there will be no replay. So as I go, okay, make sure my calendar is clear. And I will go and attend. Next kind of follow up was, hey, we're actually going to be giving away $15,000 worth of prizes. And they kind of detailed what the prizes were going to be. You have to attend live and you have to be there at the end to get the prize. No. Okay, even more incentive, which makes sense. Well around to the day off, I get three Facebook messages, which I now know that I could have switched off and I got an email you know, An hour to go 20 minutes to go kind of a thing. Great. already signed in waiting for the countdown. It starts on time. And they hadn't really said how long the masterclass was going to be. So I allotted like an hour's worth of my time. 20 minutes and she's still giving her backstory about who she is and her journey, yada, yada, yada. And she's got three moderators. And I happened to go and look to see how many participants there were because oh, well, surely because you told us a software can only deal with 500 Oh, I see 800 people in the room. So maybe you upgraded at the last minute, or maybe that was some BS. And then she continues talking about the product and it gets to about I think 3540 minutes in and people are complaining about the video cutting out and lag and some people are saying to use an app and some people use saying to use the computer, whatever. Then it cuts out. I get a four or four message and error message. I go and I message on the Facebook because I see the little green dot there online like hey, this happened. I hope everything's okay. I keep trying to get for one message. So I go about my day for like 20 minutes, and then try again. And magically I get to get back in, which was great. And I see other people are also coming back in and complaining that they just lost 20 minutes. But we've been told there will be no replay and we're like, well, it's not our fault your technology, bro, will there be a replay? And even though there were three moderators, no one was answering that question. Move forward. It's now an hour and 20 an hour and 30 in and she's finished giving the master class which is basically a high level overview of some stuff, there was useful information and some diagrams. And then she starts pitching her product. Now we're in like an hour 40 and people like how long is this gonna last? And she's pitching the product about you know, this is the thing that I'm going to do and I'm putting my all into it and I'm not selling any of my other courses right now. And people are on her website going all the courses is still up for sale, but okay, whatever. So now you know it's time to get annoying because you're wasting our time or have at least haven't said hey, it's going to be this month. time, she said an hour. And then she's like, oh, maybe 90 minutes. And now we're encroaching on two hours, starting to sell some more stuff, breaking down exactly what's in the course, great, breaking out how much it should cost great should cost as and like the value of whatever she's giving. And then, oh, this freebie and that freebie and this other thing that I'm going to throw in for you and this other thing, great. And Sunday, right? Okay, so how much is it going to cost? And how long does this course last? Again, she ignores all of these questions. And our moderators also ignore all of these questions. And people are still complaining about the fact that they've been kicked out, or that the video is lagging, or they can't see the slides. But these moderators don't seem to be doing anything, gets to the two hour mark. And she gets to the end of her pitch about her course, and then says, Oh, hey, there's a little application thing you need to apply for this course. And you click on the Apply thing to apply for the course. And she says because it's limited, we've got you know, because it's a high touch point, you're going to get a lot of my time and my team's time. You know, we can limit how many people are going to get this actually To this as well, people click on the Apply and apply needs to a calendar. And then he booked some time, there was no actual application. Oh, and by the way, we still haven't been told the price. Two hours. And people are asking about the question. So let me go and look at the questions. This is question and answer time. Did she answer that question? No. And so people ask him, Hey, where's the application for me see the link, which was working for some people and not for others? But, you know, that was the application. Oh, well, we're gonna have to talk first. Okay, so what about cost? Well, you attend this, this 30 minutes time thing, and then after that will be discussed the cost. So people at this point and are getting annoyed because you're not respecting our time as human beings. You've had us on this call for two hours on this webinar. You haven't told us the price. You've ignored all of our questions about tech and time and money, and then you're trying to get us to invest more Our time because she likes to use the word invest because we all know invest sounds better than cost. Invest another 30 minutes of our time to hear whatever your spiel is for then you to tell us what the prices. And most of us like to know up front, well, is it worth our time, our time is worth money to. And it's just looks like a way for you to fill up your calendar and say I've had this many people wanting to be on this thing, but I can only accept so many, when in reality, it's smoke and mirrors. And so then, sorry, we forgot about the giveaway. People started asking about the giveaway, because she mentioned that there's going to be $15,000 worth of prizes given away should actually turn to inside them as such and such as the winner and turn back. We don't know if the winner was online. Because right people like she here because you said we had to be online to get that prize. We don't know and then the transmission cut off. Forget. So this is why people are fed up. With master classes, especially ones run like that, and what was even more frustrating was that at the start of the call she was on about how she's disrupting the particular industry and how she's doing things differently. And then she comes up with this bs with this master class. And she did the exact same thing that all master classes have been taught to do and annoy people who attend, because you're not respecting us our time as human beings, nevermind, like business owners, or whatever it might be. As human beings. We spent two hours and then we have to apply we don't know what the grounds are for the application. Do we have to be earning a certain amount of money? Do we have to be located in certain timezone? We have no idea what this application really means. And then you want us to invest another 30 which, judging by the way she talks, it might be 40 or an hour's worth of time to be then told the price and made to feel like shit afterwards, if we don't agree to the price. So this is why This person has lost my respect. They don't respect people's time. They lied about so many things, and then just didn't respond like a human to the requests that were said in the particular webinar. And I am very upset about it. And I've talked about it in my facebook group, and with friends of mine, and that is something that I don't agree with it as business practice that I find disgusting. And I understand why people don't no longer sign up for master classes. So I'd love to know what would be a different term that people could use to attract people to attend useful webinars. This is also why when I do a webinar, they tend to be short. And I tell you how long it's going to be. Normally it's 20 minutes to half an hour because I respect your time. And I don't track whether this is my life story. I tell you what you came here to learn and be done with it. And you might know this because you listened to my podcast. It's kind of short and sweet except this episode because I Really ranting about this. So, I'd love for you to email me at Janice at the career internet calm and let me know your thoughts about webinars master classes if another word should be used and any other thoughts that you have. Thank you for listening. This is Janice from the career introvert helping introverts shine

Hello, and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today I want to talk about stress management as an entrepreneur. And this has come up because of burnout has become a very popular topic among the circles that I'm in. But knowing what to do before you even get that far, and realizing when you are under stress, and how you should deal with it. And a lot of the time, you don't realize how much stress you are under, because it ends up being a very gradual thing. It's very rare that one minute you're not stressed in the next minute, you're super stressed. It could be like an email or something like that, but it's something very temporary. You'll write the email and the stress will go away. But what tends to happen as an entrepreneur is there is a slow and steady buildup of stress to the point that you don't realize it's happening until it's too late. And this happened to me recently. And I ended up breaking down crying and calling friends. And that was great, because I realized what had happened. And I reached out and I got support. And that part was great. But looking back and realizing that this was something that had been steadily building over a period of time, and that I hadn't caught the signs. It's, it's kind of sad to me. And so what I realized is what I need to build into my every day work practices or my everyday non work practices, is something that will always ground me something that will bring come to my mind, something that will bring peace to my body as well. And it could be a variety of things. I'm having a list or a variety of things that you know that you do that ground you It could be something like reading a book for 10 minutes. It could be Something like gentlemen, where you brain dump everything that's going on in your mind and put it all on paper, you have to do anything about it, you have to solve any problems, you just have to get it out of your mind. What happens with me is I tend not to sleep very well, the more stressed I am. And that's because I just, I just lie there. And I think and I think and I think and so one way to stop that is to write it down or to leave a voicemail if you don't write it down because I can't read my handwriting the next morning. Maybe it's nice to have a voice memo of the stuff. And it could be something like coloring. It could be something like playing a game it could really be something like zoning out and Xbox in for an hour. That could make you feel grounded and whatever it is, whatever it is that you need to do have a bath every Friday night Are you always loved during that sitting candles and glass of wine or my favorite drink of choice at that time with the book. But try and build something in every day and then something slightly Bigger maybe every week, something that's a bigger thing every month and something that's taking a half day and going to a spouse mean that like completely unplugged you every quarter so you can reset. I've seen it happen to a friend of mine they recently went on vacation they haven't been on vacation in years and it's only because they girlfriend push them to go on vacation and they're like, oh, okay, I feel far more equipped to go back and deal with like the stuff because they got to unplug and just be away. For three days. It was like a long weekend. So stress management as an entrepreneur, it's not about the the every day stuff that gets you angry or upset or stressed. It's the realizing that your pressure valve is slowly creeping up and and it will get to a point where it bursts and you need to stop that. So making sure that you have a valve a release valve for every day and every week and every month and every quarter. It really lucky every year. That you can go and you can reset and release that pressure. And that steam that I found and I'm finding is the best way to deal with stress management as an entrepreneur because other things are always going to change. Other things are always going to get in the way. There's always going to be a setback, there's always gonna be some software that breaks, there's always going to be something and because of this having a practice of a range of things that you do that calms you will save your blood pressure, possibly save your life, and it will give you mind space to think about things from a different angle. Thank you for listening. This is Janice from The Career Introvert, helping you launch your podcast with a minimum stress and no overwhelm

Hello, and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today I'm going to talk about how you can make an impact even if you feel like you're not an expert yet. And the reason I want to talk about this is because recently I attended a conference. There's a conference I attend every year. And it's called seven and seven, and it's seven cities and seven continents in seven years. And three years ago in Barcelona, they were gracious enough to let me talk about introversion and remote working. Fast forward to this year. It's now been a couple years I followed them to Colombia and I followed him now to New Zealand. And they normally have networking sort of mixer welcome party at a location. And I normally go with a time limit. I actually had plans to go and have dinner that evening, so I was going to pop in pick up my badge, any swag. Say hello to a few select people and skedaddled Mainly because it's not I don't know, people I know some people who go and it's just, you know, the edge of the circle going in do I get a drink? First I sit and have some nibbles. Because the place of food is the general comfortability of me in networking events. And I was talking to one person and we finished a conversation, I almost spilled a glass of beer, not mine. And I went and I was at the edge of a conversation, those three people talking and I was gonna, you know, just get into the conversation and like, Hi, I'm just gonna join you. And I did. And they told me that they were talking about me. And I stared wild eyed for a minute and they explained that they were telling a new person who had just started coming to this event that I'd spoken a couple of years ago. How they learned so much from me because when they first met me, they overwhelmed me and we're talking at me and everything else. And they're the two people who were talking to me were extroverts. And who I go, my God, I must have done all the horrible things, but you taught me so much about ambivert and introversion and all of these things, and we thank you. And I didn't know what to say. I mean, I smiled and nodded and said, Thanks, Mike, really me okay. But it's amazing because I never would have considered myself to be an expert on introversion, on expert on working remotely. In fact, this talk that I did was one of the first that I done on introversion and how I ended up starting the career introvert. And so it was humbling, terrifying and flattering, of course, to hear people talking about me years later and how they learned something you always think that people already know what you know. And that is so not the case. There's always somebody in front of you who knows more than you. But there's always someone behind you, who knows less than you, or wants to learn more or just doesn't know, your point of view on something or your instincts about something or your background on something or what different lens or angle that you can bring to something. So whenever you're thinking, Oh, I don't want to start this podcast. Oh, I don't want to write that book. Oh, I don't want to give that speech. Oh, who am I to say X, Y and Z about whatever. Just remember. There's always people out there willing to listen to you and hear what you have to say. And, and take it and accept it and listen and learn from it. That is a great gift. And something that I think we we forget a lot because we're social media. Everything's Instant and it's pictures and all of these things, but just having your voice out there, and people listening and, and, and, and agreeing with you is is a wonderful thing and people loving and taking that and passing it on to other people. It's wonderful. So I highly just want to say you can make a difference you can make an impact. Even if you don't feel like you're an expert in whatever topic it might be. You are an expert in you. Your viewpoint, your bubble your life. bring that to the table. That is more than enough. Thank you for listening. This is Janice at the current rate.com if you have any questions for me, please email me at [email protected] helping you launch your podcast with minimum overwhelm

Hello, and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today I'm going to talk about co working spaces. And the reason I want to talk about co working spaces is because recently I did a lot of traveling. I think it was a ridiculous amount of countries in a short amount of time. And I love to explore the different co working spaces that might be available and most co working spaces have a free offer or a free day or an hour, or they'll show you around. And so there was one co working space that I went to in Wellington and New Zealand. And they knew I was coming they were having an open week where they were giving out free co working spaces and open hot desking for the week. And you have to sign up to go to the New York Comic and you had to say which days that you're going to come in. So they have this information on me already. I entered the coworking space known as that reception. I look around and Okay, but there is an iPad there for you to sign in. So I go ahead and I sign in this place that very blatantly says hot desk so I go and sit myself down and I see the Wi Fi code and use that and start working. I don't put my headphones in. I didn't do all the usual things that I do when I just want to sit down and work just because I wanted to be open to someone to come up to me and welcome you to the CO working space and show me where everything was. And this was about 10am. at one o'clock I get hungry. I see the someone at reception she sees me but doesn't say anything. I kind of look around I see people taking water so I scrambled around and I kind of find a cup eventually and so on and so forth. I then go out have get lunch come back in. People are cooking because in this particular co working space there is a full on stove and people are cooking I sit in and kind of eat lunch with a toothpick because I can't find the knives forks. Spit any cutlery, and I haven't been shown round. And I quite frankly too nervous to go and say anything. So yes, I know part of this is my own fault. But move on to another couple of hours of the day. It's now 445 and the receptionist finally comes up to me and he said, Oh, hey, such and such and I'm like, Yes, I am. Oh, I I saw he checked in but I just I wasn't I welcome to the coworking space and I hope you found everything Okay, and what was it? At no point did I get told where the bathrooms were, what the facilities were the coworking spaces was their quiet rooms was their Skype rooms where the cutlery was where to find water, tea, coffee. Welcome to the coworking space. This is all the activities we have going on. Nothing, nothing at all. And come in being there for an entire day. being ignored by reception felt uncomfortable enough that I Couldn't be didn't want to ask where the cutlery was. And that was it. And this was the open house week like they wouldn't new people were coming in. They were expecting people to come in there was events going on. And basically they ignored me. And glutton for punishment, I went back for a second day. And I got ignored gang and it's not like this co working space was super busy and couldn't have seen me. I was the only non white person there I kind of stick out and still reception or any of the other members because they were also doing like an Instagram. Like photoshoot thing. No one said anything to me. In fact, I might be in some of their photos because they failed to mention that they were taking photos and I don't really think I send an undisclosed anyway. So co working spaces. When you are having an open event. Try and be welcoming especially as you You have my information in advance I then checked in on the iPad and somehow reception so don't notice this did not come and find me did not make me welcome did not show me where everything was. And this was your chance for me to be like, Oh, I'm gonna go tell everybody because it happened that there was 100 plus bunch of people in Wellington, specifically digital nomads who are looking for co working spaces and I can recommended your place, but I didn't. Because, yeah, not great. So that is just one of my experiences with coworking spaces around the world. I'm sure there will be more to come because I'm now thinking of others. But that one particularly stuck out just because I was not made to feel I wasn't not made to feel welcome, but I wasn't made to feel welcome. I'd love to know if you have any co working space stories or what would make a really good coworking space for you. Oh, and did I mention they were singing they had a radio on and people were singing along to the radio anyway Thank you for listening. This is Janice from the career introvert helping you launch your podcast using systems and workflows to prevent overwhelm.

:  welcome to the traveling introvert. Today I want to talk about keeping in touch. This has been on my mind since a friend of mine messaged me, must've been. Two weeks ago. I hadn't heard from this friend in about three to four years, and so it always something that comes up time and time again.

I do tend to be the, the keeper of my friends relationships. I do tend to be the person that keeps in touch the most. I'm the one that starts conversations. However, this is not always the case. I'm trying to get better at making sure that my relationships are a two way street. And so I got this message and I was traveling at the time, and so I kind of looked at it and then didn't think about it again.

But this person had reached out after not reaching out at all for about three to four years. And I happen to live in the same city as this particular person. And so it's not a case of, Oh, they live in a different time zone or in a different country or anything of that nature. They literally live in the same city as me.

And what bothered me about this message was they were very much like, hi, long time, no, see you haven't heard from you in ages. And. Okay, so you haven't heard from me, but you also haven't messaged in ages. Why is it me that has to be the one to keep in touch, and I definitely have friends who are bad at communicating.

So, but they're very upfront about it. They're very much like, Hey, I'm really bad at keeping in touch if you message me  I will  messages straight back. And so I have that already in mind with that person. And so yes, I do definitely have two or three friends who are those people. But if I message them, I do get a message within 24-48 hours depending on which time zones we're in.

So that is fine because they've set the boundaries in advance, they've set expectations, and that we know. But people who I used to talk to every two weeks who suddenly drop off the map and then turn up three one three years later, and as if nothing happened or as if it's my fault, irritates me friendships and relationships in all their forms.

That should be a two way street. And so. When you're thinking about your friendships, think about when's the last time you reached out to somebody and are you always reaching out when you want something, because that's the other thing. I've definitely had people who drop off the first of the earth and then turn up a couple of years later say, Hey, I need you to do this thing for me.

And then get frustrated, irritated when you're like, Oh, Hey, haven't heard from you in forever. Thought you were dead or whatever, and now you want something from me. No, that's not how this works. That's not how relationships or friendships work. It is a two way street where. Both of us. There's some give and take.

You can't just be like, Oh, Hey, I haven't seen you in eight years or however long it is. I need something from you, or I need to stay at your house, or where are you? It's very frustrating. So my advice to you out there is checking on people because also you don't know what has happened. Don't be the one person that.

People always are asking for, make sure you reach out to other people, even if it's just to say hi. It's better than radio silence for years on end. And also when you reach out, don't only reach out to people when you want something that's not fair, nor is it nice and it doesn't make you a good human being.

We check out people and say, hi. You don't know what's going on in their lives. Maybe they just need someone to say hi to them. So be that person and see what a difference that makes, what a difference you can make in people's lives. But I'm curious listeners, how do you view it? If you have a friend who hasn't messaged you in three or four years and they pop up out of nowhere as if nothing happened and asking you for something, how do you react?

How do you feel? Do you empathize? Maybe something's happened in their life and they lost track. But they're not apologizing. They're not saying, sorry. They're not asking how you are. They want something from you. So how does that make you feel? And if you are that person that does these things, there's, you can never, it's never too soon to stop being their person.

Go through your lists, go through your WhatsApp list, go through your contact list and just say, hi. It makes the biggest difference in the world. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions, please email me at [email protected]. 

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In this episode I am going to talk about all the ways I got to connect with fellow introverts at a 7 day conference and still felt wiped out at the end! It was totally worth it and I scheduled some time to recharge. How do you recharge after a conference?

Hello, and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today I'm going to talk about introverted with other introverts. And the reason this has come up is I recently spent time at a think about a seven day conference, which is quite a long time, it was split up into different types of conference and different activities and different things were done. But at the same time, it was about a week's worth of attending events, talking to people, I also gave a workshop and there was meetups and dinners and and events and activities to go to. And looking back at this week's worth of activity, even though I knew it was going to happen, and even though I tried to pace myself, I still found myself overwhelmed at times. And that's okay, that happens. I was still in Join what I was doing, though now, I'm enjoying really long showers or just lying and not doing anything and letting my my mind wander. But looking back during those seven days, I realized there were quite a few times where I was into reading with another interview, which was wonderful. And I want to talk about a couple of ways that this happened during this conference. So one times agenda this conference had provided breakfast and lunch and that coffee breaks. And you'd come in in the morning and there was one morning where there was a little seating area, and one person mentioned that she can get Wi Fi where we were because her house had had gone her Airbnb. So she was like catching up on things. And I was sitting going through my email, and then third person came and joined, but she didn't say anything. Just let me not it that to the other person, not it went on her phone and it was great. He was blissful. It was wonderful day we all introverted together. Another was at this particular conference, there was a breakout session and all the interest wanted to get together and talk about stuff related possibly to interpersonal just issues or things I wanted to discuss. And so there was about, I'm going to say at least 10 of us all sitting there, talking about different things that have come up with the way people have viewed introversion, how you've dealt with certain situations, what's good and what's bad. Everything from eating alone in a restaurant to how to tell an Uber driver thank you for you know, talking, I'm not really like talking right now actually need this time to recharge, can you please be quiet without being rude? So that was one way I ended up interviewing with other introverts which was great. And then there was a third time a friend that I've been trying to this is someone that I knew online, but I had never actually met in person, but we felt like we knew each other. And on the last day, we decided to have lunch. And we ended up we weren't weren't in a corner, we were in an area where other people could join in. But just the two of us just sat there and had a conversation. Other people sort of dipped in an hour. But definitely respect to the fact that the two of us were sitting there trying to have quality time together. So that was great. And another way introverted, this time without a fellow introvert was I found a quiet space. And then I realized another internet was like, Okay, so I'm gonna go find a quiet space. And so we both went, and then separate ends of the quiet space, where they're doing whatever we needed to do. And also at this particular event, they provided a quiet room and so it was a room dedicated to you recharging or recharging your

phones, laptops, etc. And just quiet and there was um, coloring books, and that sort of a thing. So those are ways that I ended up integrating with and without fellow introverts and Oh, the last thing was there was a closing party and it was an In a bar strip restaurant, and as usual in bars, the music starts off relatively nice and quiet. And then it ramps up as the evening goes on, I think they think it makes people feel the party mood. It just makes it more difficult for people to talk to each other. And so they had an outside patio area, and myself and another person went out to the outside patio area. So we could hear each other talk and be it stopped all that noise because when you have everyone talking over each other, and the music and everything else, it gets loud and overwhelming and overbearing, and then you just want to leave. When we went outside. I was as I walk 30 minutes and then I'm done. I can't do this anymore, and then end up staying outside for two hours just talking to her and a couple of other people because the environment was a little more chilled and calm. So those are ways that I introverted with fellow introverts at a seven day conference and survived. I would love to hear how you interact with fellow interest, please email me at [email protected] Thanks for listening and have a great day.

Shownotes:

How many plans of yours succeeded? How many of them failed? The success of your plan depends on many factors including planning -- which most people don’t pay much attention to. Many people would rather go unplanned, but that’s not advisable if your plan is to achieve a goal. In today’s episode, I want to dive into planning and some tips that would help you stick to your plan and achieve consistency.

Hello, and welcome to the Traveling Introvert. Today, I would like to talk about planning. It's an area that I haven't covered, and I'm not going to talk about travel planning. Well, in a way, I am. But I want to talk about just planning for the upcoming month.

Now, most people sort of know how to have a rhythm of what's going to happen. At rely spends any money with you, but it would have been nice just to get an email so that you noticed that I wasn't paying anymore." Again, I didn't get a response. And now, I don't think I'd ever go back even if they ended up changing their product and doing it in such a way that was a good fit for me, I'm not sure I would ever use them again because now I just feel like a number, and not even a number. People notice when their numbers go down.

Then, on the second hand, there was another company, again a very large company, that reached out to me and said, "Hey, we think you might be a good fit for this thing we're doing. I'd love to get on a call with you." I'm like, "Ah, really, me? Little old... I mean, sure, I guess," and I got a little excited about it. I started researching on the thing that they wanted me to be a part of and I found some information, but really not that much. I know someone who had been involved with them and so I asked them some questions, but there really wasn't a lot out there for me to gather myself if I didn't have a friend.

So, they said that they wanted to have her call me. The call was scheduled for 20 minutes. So, I'm on the line and waiting. I'm a little bit nervous. I have a list of questions from what I've gathered. The person is late to the meeting, and they were five minutes late. They did not message, but also they did not say sorry when they got on the line. They just asked me if I had any questions. They didn't even try to explain anything to me or pitch anything to me, they were just like, "So, do you have any questions?" My response was, "Well, you haven't really given me a lot of information. Please tell me about this thing that you want me to be involved in." As I said, this call was scheduled for 20 minutes. This person took five minutes to explain their product.

I then went ahead and asked the questions that I had on my list, and a lot of the questions were very much like, "Well, what happens with this information?" or, "Okay, well this happens and then what if I stop contributing or whatever happens?" and, "How long is this process?" A lot of the answers I got during this interview was, "Oh, I don't know. Well, I'm not sure. Oh, I'll have to figure it out." And this wasn't someone that was new to the company because I had checked on that. This person had been with the company for a long time. I don't know if they weren't expecting the questions, or I wasn't giving them the right... I don't know what it was, but they didn't seem to know the answers to my questions.

Now, we're about 12 to 15 minutes in and this person is like, "Oh, well, yeah, you can email those questions and I'll email a response back to you. I'm going to have to go now." I said, "But, the call was scheduled for 20 minutes and I have some more things that I'd like to ask and would like for you to explain a little bit more." Her response was, "Yeah, but just email them to me and I'll email you a response. I've got to go now, bye," and that was 16 minutes of the 20 minute conversation where they were trying to get me to do something. So, I waited with bated breath for this email to come through, and I got the one email, and I haven't responded yet, and I haven't heard from them since. This is a huge, global company.

Customer service is key, people. Just following up, and it doesn't have to be aggressive following up. It could just be like, "Hey, here's this information and if you have any questions," and follow up a couple of days later. It's the really simple things that make the difference. For example, I did an interview in a podcast, totally forgot about it, and a month later I received this beautiful box with information and it was a gift box. I'd totally forgotten about it but it made me feel special. That little bit of customer service goes a long, long way.

Listeners, please email me at [email protected] and tell me a time when you have had awesome customer service and what that meant to you.