The Traveling Introvert

Shownotes:

For a frequent flyer, my decisions are usually based on the situation that I’m in. My choices when it comes to the mode of transportation and accommodation usually depend on whether I’m all alone or traveling with someone. But aside from this, the majority of my choices depend on which would take me less time to do even if it means I’d have to spend a bit more.

Hello and welcome to the Traveling Introvert. Today I am going to talk about the differences traveling alone and the differences you make with the decisions that you make and traveling with somebody else. I'm currently figuring out some travel and one of the options I had and I'm going from New York to Washington or Alexandria area and so, I know Alexandria very well and everything is kind of expensive in Washington. And so, I decided that I was going to go to Alexandria instead.

Now as I'm traveling by myself, I looked at the differences between going by train or going by bus. And if I go by train, I have to remember that depending on how long it is, and that generally I'm I'm probably not going to go the restroom because when you're traveling alone it's extremely difficult if you're traveling with luggage or stuff that you want to go to the restroom and feel that your stuff is safe. Yes, you might be on a train and no one can go anywhere but at the same time these things happen.

I've definitely read about, even on planes where people have had things stolen. So when I'm looking at distances and how long a trip is going to take I could take a bus which I think would take me four or five hours. I say four or five because the registered time is about four but we all know traffic is a thing. I could take the train so that was fairly easy enough for me to think about. And then I'm going to stay in Alexandria and then I'm going to go up to Philly for the day. And I again was looking at that Philly.

It's funny with the flights and the trains. One train was $39 and that was to go from Washington, Union Station to Philadelphia and to go from Alexandra was $51. And you your mind you're like, "Ooh, 30 to 50, that's a really big jump.", but actually it's only $11 difference. But, beside the point. The big thing that I had to do was go from Alexandria to roughly the Springfield area in Massachusetts. Now I could take a train and I love taking trains because you get enough personal space and you can get some work done because most of the time the internet is on.

Slow as though it may be, you still get to get stuff done and you get enough personal space which for me is a really big thing. However, the cost was about $100 and it was a seven hour train ride which is great until you consider the fact that you have to get your own food beforehand. There is apparently a buffet cart in there or a food cart, catering cart and after you like to get up and pee. When's the best time? You can ask your neighbor to look after your stuff but do you feel jittery? And going, finding where the bathroom is on the toilet, on the train ... or my other option which I didn't think was a possibility was to catch a flight.

There's a flight from Dulles to Hartford for $90 and it takes like an hour. It really doesn't. I've been on that flight before and it's kind of an up, down sort of a thing. And so I'm going to take that. I would love to take the train. I would get a lot more done but at the same time it's a one hour flight and I don't have to worry about bathroom stuff. The other thing that I find that I do differently when I'm traveling with someone, towards traveling by myself, is the type of accommodation I will pick.

If I am by myself I'm more likely to pick a hotel with 24-hour room service or 24-hour reception so I can drop my stuff off and it can be looked after while I go and do other things and just that feeling of I have a place to go. There's probably going to be a door person there and I don't have to be in an area that I'm not ... even if I'm in an area that I'm not familiar with I feel slightly safer whether that's legitimate or not. Whereas if I'm traveling with somebody and I'd be quite happy to take an Airbnb room for example.

Whereas if I'm traveling with somebody else I'm more likely to want to have the whole space rather than an Airbnb room and will probably do Airbnb over a hotel unless the hotel is really nice in an area that we want to be in or is not as expensive as we would have thought between the two of us. So it really does depend. But for me, a lot of it is about personal space and personal safety. And for me it's also about cost and time. I'd rather do something quicker so I'm happy to spend more money to take the train and take a flight then to do something that will take forever and be cheaper. That's just not something that I want to do.

For example, to go to Philly I could definitely catch a five buck, $5 train. Sorry. Let me start again. To go to Philly from Alexandria I could catch a $5 bus. Actually I can only get that from Washington but ... and the train is actually going to cost me more like $40, but then I have to get to Washington and then change from bus to bus and then get on and you know, the personal space on buses is a little less, a little more cramped and you just don't feel as comfortable. Do you eat? Do you offend the person if you don't eat? If you drink, whatever it is. So I am more likely if I am traveling by myself to take the train or the plane. Thank you for listening. This is Janice from the Career Introvert. I look forward to helping you with your business and your career alongside your introversion.

Shownotes:

Interviews are one of the most nerve-racking parts of the job application process, especially for an applicant who’s also an introvert! The small talks with the interviewer can get us really nervous and end up getting awkward, but there are ways to avoid that. In this episode, I’ll be sharing some tips for the introverts to help them ace this interview and make a really good impression!

Hello and welcome to the Traveling Introvert. Today I'd love to talk about strategic ways to get through and interview, and prepare for an interview more than anything. So, this is the before you get to the interview stage in person, these are a couple of things I think will be really, really helpful.

Now, one thing is to arrange your day strategically. The thing is, normally we're rushing rom place to place, and we get to the interview and we're a little overwhelmed already and we're nervous. And stuff is going on, and you're thinking about what to say and how to say it. I highly recommend that you plan to have a cushion of alone time, recharge time, balance time, both before and after the interview. So, you can recharge. You'll be better if you're fully charged for the interview.

So, I highly recommend you do that. Even if it's just 30 minutes alone, where you can meditate, where you can read a book. Not going over your notes. What you should be doing is nothing that involves the interview, or gets you worried about the interview. It's just whatever it is that you need to stay calm and focused, and to recharge. This strategy ensures you'll have maximum energy during the interview, which, you know, is crucial when you're speaking to people about yourself.

The next thing I'd say is small talk. We don't like it, but we know we have to do it. And so in an interview, or even just before an interview, it's really important to set the tone and vibe with your interviewer, so you will have to make that small talk. What I've learnt is that I've come up with a couple of questions in advance so you're not thinking and scrambling. Maybe you can ask about seasonal activity, or discuss hidden gems in the area that they're in, like a good place to eat, or something of that nature. Don't use normal ones like, "Oh, so how was it to get here?" Or the weather. Don't do that.

Use it as a way of maybe figuring out something about your interviewer's personality. It's a good idea to remind yourself that the ultimate purpose of the interview small talk is to build a rapport with your interviewer, and make them like you. So, it's not a waste of time, you just have to be strategic about it and plan what you're going to ask and why.

And the other thing is we all know first impressions are key, but also the last thing you say, the lasting impression is also key. So, think about it in advance. Smile, the handshake, the body language that you use is really important when you're first meeting your interview, along with those key questions that you're using for small talk. Because normally they're like, "Oh, how was it getting here?" And you can answer, and engage in conversation. But make it a little deeper. That will work in your favor.

Similarly, you want to end on a high note. So, most interviewer's try and summarize their thoughts quickly, so that after you leave the room, they can figure out exactly what they're thinking. And they're less accurately going to remember what you said at the start, unless it as a clanger. So, you want their last impression of you to be as awesome as the first, because that's normally when they're taking notes, or having a conversation.

Make sure you have a big smile, say it was great to meet you, great for the opportunity. A firm handshake, end on a high note. That's what I recommend. So, those couple of things that you need to think about when you're thinking about the interview.

Now, the other thing you need to think about is you should mirror the body language of the person who's interviewing you. Of course they're going to know you're doing this, because that's what they're trained in. Don't go overboard. But you want to match the interviewer's tone. And the reason I say that is because a lot of introverts can come across as standoffish and bored, distant, unenthusiastic, and lots of other negative words. And that might not be the case. We might just be internally thinking and scrambling, and look that way.

So, to make sure that your interviewer doesn't have this impression of you, just subtly copy the interviewer. If they use a lot of gestures, also use gestures. Think about the tone. Is it professional? Courteous? Telling jokes? Whatever it is, try and meld with that.

So, those are my tips on sort of pre-interview techniques to stop you getting too nervous and too worried about what you're going to say. Have little notes in advance as well, of things you could talk about, as well as the highlights of your career. Thank you for listening, this is Janice from the Career Introvert. I look forward to helping you with your business and your career moving forward, along with your introversion. Thanks for listening.

Shownotes:

When we’re on social media, one of the common posts that we see is people working on a particular scenario with the caption, “hustling”. For some people, it is motivating and inspiring to have so much dedication for work regardless of what their situation is. But, has anyone thought about how unhealthy it is to put work on top of your priorities before your health? Imagine if your health becomes at risk, would you be able to work at all?

Hello, and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today, I want to talk about how hustling isn't good, just hustling isn't good.

I was scrolling through Facebook today after speaking to ... I think that was a new friend ... about podcasting. She wants to launch a thing and there is an image of somebody in a podcasting group, and they are in a hospital gown, hooked up to a couple of drips, and they have their laptop out, and they are editing their podcast. And it literally says, "When the episode is supposed to launch on Friday night, it will launch Friday at midnight," and people were like, "Yay. Thumbs up. Keep grinding. Get well soon. Dedication. Inspiring. Work it. Wow, get better." Like, really?

This person is in hospital and yet they are there ... and this is on a Thursday ... editing their podcast. What is the fascination with people thinking that this is a good thing? Thinking that the hustle makes it better. It makes ... it proves them ... that they're a better human being or something.

Let's get this straight. Hustling is not good for you. It is not healthy. Sustained hustling is not healthy and good for you. I do not know why this person is currently in hospital. It could be something minor for all I know. But, the fact that people are seeing this photo, and congratulating him, and thinking it's a good thing, shows a disturbing lack of thought and foresight. So, this person probably didn't plan their podcast a little bit better.

One of the things I always talk about it planning your podcast around your lifestyle and having a few episodes in the bag so in case anything happens, like you go to hospital, or your internet is down, or something happens and you have to go look after somebody. Have a few episodes in the bag already that you can just pull out.

Also, there's nothing wrong with telling people, "Hey, I'm in hospital right now so there will not be a podcast," or, "There will not be a blog post," or, "There will not be an x, why, z," whatever it might be. Why do we have a huge problem with saying, "No, I need to focus on me right now. I need to get better. I will be back." That's it.

But, instead people are congratulating him on the hustle. And I'm kinda anti-hustle. I'm not kind of anti-hustle. I'm anti-hustle. I don't like the hustle. You can hustle for a short space of time on something, but to have a sustained ... "I'm hustling," I think really means, "I'm not prepared," or, "I don't have systems," or, "I just don't know what I'm doing."

Having systems helps. Having backups help. Delegating helps. Outsourcing helps. Means you don't have to hustle as hard or as long. There's no point hustling all the time if you can't be well enough to enjoy it.

So, if you are out there right now, and you are hustling, and you think it's wonderful, shame on you. From my personal point of view, it's disgusting. The fact that we're trying to make it better ... 60 hours a week, not enough. It should be 70, 80 hours a week. Doctors have it easy. No.

Life is about living and enjoying it. So, don't be working all the time if your can't enjoy your life. You can work for a certain amount of time to then enjoy something later, and have a goal. But, the fact that you are doing this, and celebrating it, is not good mentally or physically for you, and for other people in the future.

What are your thoughts on hustling? What does hustle mean to you? And what do you do to prevent hustle and burnout? Because, let's be honest, that's the next stage after hustle, but no one talks about burnout. No one talks about founder's burnout. No one talks about entrepreneurial burnout. No one talks about digital nomad burnout. And these are all things because of hustling.

Thank you for listening. This is Janice from The Career Introvert. Looking forward to helping you with your career and your business alongside your introversion. If you have any questions or comments, please email me at [email protected].

Shownotes:

As a frequent traveler, I’ve been to a lot of hotels in different places. Some people say that every hotel is unique in its own way, or different among other hotels. But rather than difference, I noticed one thing that most hotels have in common - they don’t have ready-to-drink water in the room. It’s either you have to look for a fountain or a dispenser, or you have to ask for room service and get billed too much for water. What could be the reason behind that?

Hello and welcome to the Traveling Introvert. Today, I'd like to talk about water and specifically water in hotels. What I found is that when traveling, it's amazing how many hotels will have a coffee making machine, and offer you tea and coffee in your room, but not water. Now, as a human being, we generally need water to live. Yes, some of you might argue that you need coffee to live, but that coffee also requires water. And I've definitely been traveling in some countries where the water isn't drinkable from the tap or the faucet, depending on where you come from, and yet there's a coffee machine there. And no way for you to fill said coffee machine with drinkable water. And those places that do offer water might offer one or two plastic bottles of water, small ones, maybe a quarter or half a liter.

But if you're traveling, you're going to be dehydrated. If you're flying, you're going to be dehydrated. You get to a hotel and maybe you get to the hotel late at night where you can't go out to a store or a shop to go and buy water. But as a human being, you need water. And even more so if you're traveling and then doubly or triply so if you're traveling in a hot country. So what I don't understand is why A, hotels make it so difficult for you to get water and B, why is it plastic bottles? I mean now, it'd be a great way for you to promote your hotel if people had stainless steel water receptacles, or maybe there was one in the hotel room and you had a water filter bottle on every floor. Instead of having the ice machine on every floor, next to the ice machine, you could have a water filtration system that someone could go and take their little aluminum or stainless steel cup and get filled up.

One thing I have done, on the odd occasion when I can't leave the hotel and I do need water, I do happen to travel with a refillable water bottle. But if not, what I found is the gym, if your hotel has a gym, which tends to be open 24/7 though I have come across some unique hotels where someone has to be in there with you for you to use the gym. But another story. If you go to the gym, most of the time there will be water in there. I don't think I've ever been to a hotel gym that doesn't have water and so it's a great place to go and refill your water bottle or get some water in a cup or a couple of cups or stand there and just drink a lot of water to re-hydrate. That's something that I would do, especially if I was in a neighborhood that I didn't know. I came in late at night. I find that's a good way to get water.

But yeah, hotels, what's up with not sort of having just water for people. We're human. We need water more than we need coffee or tea. And one time I actually tested out a hotel to see what would happen. They had a coffee maker and I was like, "Oh, hey." So I see the coffee maker, which was not near any plug socket I might add, and it was in a country where you couldn't drink the water. And so I called up and I was like, "There's a coffee machine here and I'd like some coffee or some tea, and how can I get boiling water?" I mean I get it because boiling water is a risk. People will sue because they've been scolded by the water. So I do get it, but then just don't give me a coffee machine.

And their way of working round the problem was by charging me for room service for tea. I literally just got a teapot, a metal teapot with hot water, a teacup. I had to use the tea bags that were with the coffee and tea thing that was in my room to get tea. And so there goes convenience of making it yourself or doing it yourself when you have to get room service, put clothes on, tip and be charged for hot water. Yeah.

So thanks for listening. This is Janice. Please feel free to email me with any questions that you have at [email protected] helping you move forward with your business and your career alongside your introversion. Thank you for listening.

Shownotes:

Facebook Messenger has been really helpful with communication. You can chat with someone, call them, or have a video call with them. However, when you are connected to a client or a colleague through social media, some of them like to assume that you’re free because you’re “online”. So, for today, I’ll be talking about asking a person their preferred way of communication and how to respect it.

Hello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert, today I would like to talk about Facebook Messenger calls. I don't understand why people think it's okay just to call randomly. For example, I had someone recently, we had been exchanging emails, I'd responded to an email, I had to take some time off, but I explained that I was away for two days and a weekend celebrating a thing and I responded to their email. And I got two calls on my Facebook Messenger one after the other, and I didn't respond, mainly because I don't do calls that I'm not expecting and two, we'd been communicating via email, so why did you now need to call me on Facebook Messenger?

And so I waited, and then when I had time I went back and I sent a message going, "Hi, I'm not sure why you called. I did respond to your email, just let me know if there's any questions, but I don't respond to unscheduled calls." And I haven't heard from this person since. Now what bothers me about this is the entitlement, assuming that I would drop whatever it is I was doing to talk to them on Facebook. It's not like we were having a conversation and then they called, it was just a random call. Just because you see someone on Facebook doesn't mean they're not working or that they're in a position where they can talk. They didn't know what I was doing, they didn't know where I was and they did two phone calls, one after the other. With no message in between, saying "Oh hey, is it okay if I call you?" It just beggars belief.

The other thing that bothers me is, all of our communication apart from the initial communication was via email. Now what would have been so urgent that you needed to call me? And a little explanation about the communication, the communication was about me sponsoring an event to do with NASA and helping out some kids with their project. Now the project had already been done and this was following up on the time that I was donating to these kids and they just had to set up a time on my calendar. They had the link and they also had my website to go and so I could do some mentoring. There was absolutely no reason that anything should have been on fire or urgent enough to call me. And so I found it really interesting.

So when you are communicating with anyone and you've been using one method of communication, keep with that method of communication. If it's all been through Facebook, great, unless they tell you, "Hey, I'm only on Facebook for this, please send all further communication to ..." Whatever it might be, my Instagram, my email, my slack whatever your particular method is. But once they do that and they make that request, you should really respect that request.

Same thing goes if they're in email, and "You know what, could you just send it to this thing?" Do it, it just shows respect and understanding. The problem these days is, especially with Facebook and sometimes with Instagram, is the need for instant response, and just because you see someone, like you see the little typing sign, so you wait for them to finish typing. It's the same with WhatsApp, you wait for them to finish typing so you can respond really quickly. We feel that we have to respond immediately and most times you don't necessarily need to respond straight away. A lot of the time, you can be doing whatever you're doing, stuff will happen and then you come back and you then respond and it's okay. The world is not burning.

So what I would like you to do, is...

Since I go to different places pretty often, I’ve learned a lot of things not only about traveling but also about packing my stuff wisely. Because of this, I usually get asked for tips and what I put inside my carry on for both short and long hauls. So for today’s episode, I want to share with you the things that are always present in my backpack or handbag.

Hello, and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today I want to talk about my carry on luggage. So, this came up because I talked about delays and also I've talked about being short and I don't generally track my luggage. And so, one of the questions someone asked was, "Okay, so what do you keep in your carry on for short haul and awful long haul travel?a and is it the same thing?"

And so for me, it very much isn't. For my short haul travel, I have a backpack. I don't carry a roller suitcase, I just have a backpack and maybe a handbag. But. The must things I have to have are some kind of bar, nuts, whatever is might, like a Nutri-Grain bar or a Clif bar, whatever it might be. Simply because you never know when you're going to be delayed and there are times when I've definitely been just stuck on a tarmac for a couple of hours. Which, isn't great, but it's better than, you know, anything bad happening. But at the same time, they can't feed you and if they do feed you it'll be pretzels or cookies or what have you. So, making sure you just always have a bar or two stashed somewhere is really good.

I also do tend to have chocolate stashed somewhere in my bag just because it makes you feel better.

All right, next this is water or water and any kind of electrolyte type drink. So, Powerade, Gatorade, anything like that.

I also have my noise canceling headphones. I will have all my sort of tech equipment so my mouse, my chargers, my power cords, anything like that will be with me, but that I keep in a separate stuff sack or what people would call a small bag so that if I ever have to take out my electronics for TSA or anything of that nature, it's all in one place. Instead of them having to go through my entire bag pulling out wires everywhere or misplacing stuff and not having it all in one place, I just tend to have a little bag, one of those e-bag things that has all of my electronics in.

And, so I'm just talking about my carry on right now, I'm not [inaudible 00:02:21]. So, it's definitely got my noise canceling headphones in, my laptop. I have a coloring book, there's a small version of a coloring book that I'm currently carrying around with me with about six pencils. What I realized is if I carry my entire pencil case in my carry on luggage, the scanners don't like it and they generally have to go through my bag, so I've stopped taking my entire pencil case and not I take six. If I'm somewhere and I have my entire pencil case in my checked luggage.

Then, the other things that I tend to have are clothes. I have a set of clothes to change. It will be sort of like underwear, socks, a Tshirt maybe, not necessarily bottoms but definitely something that if I reach to wherever I'm reaching, if I want to sleep, I'll just shower and put on a Tshirt and sleep. I say put on a Tshirt because I like to be warm, so I always have a change of clothes.

Also, because I check my bag, if something happens and I have to stay in a hotel if I'm delayed, having a change of clothes can make a huge difference in how good you feel about the whole situation.

Along with that is I have a small carry on toiletries bag and so this will have toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, that's kind of it. That's how small it is. Again, it's also just to freshen up maybe while traveling. Ah, wet wipes are also good but also in case you get delayed, at least you have a way to brush your teeth that's familiar to you. Yes, you might get a kit from the airline but...

Shownotes:

Productivity is one of the main concerns of people. Some of us may have a problem with focusing because of certain factors such as chatty co-workers, slow network connection or your laggy desktop. But either way, if you really wanted to boost your productivity, there are lots of ways to do that effectively. Have you tried any techniques before? If not, take notes as I will introduce you to strategies that you can use!

Hello and welcome to the Traveling Introvert. Today, I want to talk about productivity mix. We all want to be as productive as possible whether we're working for ourselves, working for other people. As introverts, it's even more important because we want to be productive maybe in small bursts so we have longer time to recharge. Today, I want to talk about just the different ways that you can boost your productivity.

Everyone is different. There is no one quick fix or one way to be productive. Everyone is different. Everyone will have their own mix and things of ways that work for them. Some people work on sleep-rated cycles where we get told that our body is in four hour cycles, so people will sleep for four hours and work for four hours and sleep for four hours and then work for four hours. Some people do what's known as a time blocking method where you take your calendar and you block out times, maybe 30 minutes long or an hour long or two hours long for specific types of tasks, be it create tasks, admin tasks, daily job stuff, food, leisure, etc. Some people will actually block out each hour of their day and this prevents context switching where you're switching from one kind of work to another type of work, so you know that you're just going to focus on this one thing for two or three hours.

Now, the thing is when you are scheduling out blocks of time for this, you need to have a mixture of reactive and nonreactive blocks. So, reactive blocks or proactive blocks are when you focus on things that need to get done and reactive blocks is sort of going through your email and that sort of a thing. So, that's one other thing that you could do. Some people try the most important task method. So, they think about okay, most important three things for me to do today that will earn me money or get me a promotion or whatever your main overall goal is. You think about those three things, put them at the top of your list and they're the first things you're going to work on. Now, this is great if when you start working, that's the best time of day for you but for some people, it's not. So, depending on how you work or depending on when you want to fit in these most important tasks, it's a good method for some people and works in various ways. You need to be very focused, however, and ignore all distractions. That's why some people like to do it first and get everything out of the way and it clears the way for anything else that you might need to do.

Another very popular technique is The Pomodoro. This one, I found, is very used in a lot of co-working and virtual co-working groups. So, you pick a task, set a timer for 25 minutes, work on the task until the timer goes off, take a short break around five minutes and then start again. Do this for three or four cycles and then you would then take a slightly longer break, say 15 to 30 minutes. Now, there's lots of timers online but you can just use your phone. It's a great way of getting things done and you don't realize just how much you get done in that short amount of time. The trick, however, is figuring out which task will take you 25 minutes.

And then there's ... Some people go for 90 minutes focus session where they work really hard for an hour and a half and then rest for 20 minutes instead. It's just a different version of The Pomodoro Technique and you just work and then rest and then work and then rest and work and then rest. Same thing....

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Uber Pool has made everything easier for passengers because of its amazing features. You can book an uber for your convenience with just a few taps on your phone. It has been really useful to me every time until this one incident happened. Today, I’m going to talk about how my Uber Pool started as a wonderful experience and ended up being annoying. Have you ever experienced something like this as well?

Hello, and welcome to the Traveling Introvert. Today, I want to talk about [Uber Pool 00:00:09]. It is not available everywhere, but I happen to be taking it, one time I was in San Francisco for a conference. After the conference, I was going to go to a co-working space and do somethings. I ordered Uber Pool. This Uber Pool is Uber Pool Express. What I want to talk about Uber Pool Express today, because I'm still mad about what happened to me earlier. We're going to talk about Uber Pool, and I want to describe this particular trip because it had almost everything wrong with it, that should be wrong.

It started off well enough, I ordered Uber Pool, and my car was two minutes away, it turned up. The driver was like, "Oh hey, do you live at that house?" I'm like, "Yes." He said, "Oh, I live like half a block down, I literally just started work." I'm like, "Oh, that worked out well. That's wonderful." Then the radio's on, it's playing Salt-N-Pepper. We're both like, he's whistling to Salt-N-Pepper Push It Real Good. I'm singing along, and we're having a good time. It's all good. We drive for about five to eight minutes. Then, we pick up a next person. We're at the place where we're supposed to pick up the person. He messages the person, we sit outside for two minutes. That person comes out, it's like, yeah, a person for our Uber Pool. They get in the car, and they have a couple of bags in there to Starbucks. They come in, and he's like, "Okay, so did you order two?"

Because you have the option of ordering one or two seats with Uber Pool. She's like, "Yeah, I ordered two seats, thank you very much." She got settled in, and she put down there was a divider that you could have, that you could put your little cups in. She put that down, I said that was okay. She put her bags out, and she made herself at home. Which is fine, I don't really care. I have my seat, I'm doing my thing. We've stopped whistling to Salt-N-Pepper at this point. Then she gets out food. Starting crunching, snacking, eating away at the food. It's fine, I guess. Then she decides she's going to have a phone call. This isn't one of those quick, I'm in the car, I'm on the way phone calls, or tap, tap, tap, tap, on your phone, phone calls, well text message, let's be honest. It was a, I'm going to have a full on catch up with my friend while I'm in the car video call.

It started off at a reasonable level, volume. Then it got louder and then they started talking about San Francisco. Now, I say it like this, because the person was not speaking English. The person assumed that the rest of the car could not understand what they were talking about. Mistake number one. They started talking trash about San Francisco, and yes you are allowed to you know have your own opinion, but you are in the presence of other people. One of these people happens to work in San Francisco, because they're your Uber driver. She continues, she's eating, and she's chatting, and she's laughing, and now it's getting very loud and very you know annoying. Then, what she does is she takes the head rest that's in front of her for the passenger seat, and she moves it so she can stick her phone in between the space so she doesn't have to hold her phone anymore while she continues to eat and have this loud, gregarious conversation with her friend.

This total ride was another 20 minutes. While this is happening, Uber in its trying to be efficient, messages me and it goes, "Hey, can...

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As an introvert, sometimes, it can be hard to let other people know the things that we’re capable of. Not because we’re not confident of what we can do, but because it can be pretty awkward for us to do so. And when you’re in the workplace, you are required to showcase your abilities and make yourself useful not only for your boss but also for your colleagues. But how do you do this? How can you let other people know your strengths?

Hello, and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today I am going to talk about showcasing your strengths. As an introvert, I'm going to talk about me, I definitely have found it difficult to showcase my strengths whatever they may be in various work situations, and I've talked to a lot of people. I'm in HR. I've seen a lot of interviews. I've talked to a lot of managers, and so there are a few things that you can do as a human, never mind as an introvert, to help showcase your strengths but in a way that doesn't feel icky and salesy. I think that's something that's really important because as an introvert I know that I made the mistake of assuming that my boss knew exactly what I was doing. I was there. I was doing my job. Everything was running smoothly. There was no complaints. Obviously, my boss knows what I'm doing.

Actually, not the case. So, I want to talk about a few strategies that can help you move forward in your career without feeling sticky and icky and all the rest of it about what you're doing. One thing you should definitely do is find a comfortable way to showcase what you can do while helping other people. Interesting tip if you're good listeners and then take time to process and reflect on information. We're excellent on focusing on the task at hand, and so it's better for us to showcase our skills in a way that makes ourselves feel like we're just helping somebody, and so we feel at ease and are confident in what we're doing.

A good example is, I don't know if you're a wizard at Excel because I hate Excel, so I love people who love Excel, you could volunteer to help next time someone is struggling with their spreadsheets. One-on-one, we're not talking about doing a training, or email a list of handy shortcuts to your team, or maybe you just need to ensure that you're communicating your wins in a good way. The other thing that you can do is volunteer outside of work, this doesn't even have to be a work thing, in a way that can help your portfolio and increase your skills and at the same time helping other people, so, just think about the things that you can do in that way.

Now, one thing I said is that my boss never knew what I was doing. I thought they knew, but let's be honest. They're not being necessarily copied in on all your emails. They are in charge of a lot of other people. So, what you need to do is find out exactly how your boss likes to communicate, what they expect from you, and then make sure you communicate in that way, so if they want a report every Friday by email, great, if they want a meeting, great. Do what you need to do, but also it's good for you because you may then start making a journal on every Friday what you've accomplished, what you didn't accomplish, what you want to accomplish in the next week. These are things that are really important in the long run because at the end of the year when you have your performance review and you're looking like, “Oh, man I don't know what I did,” but if you have a journal then you'll know.

Another thing that you can do especially if you don't like being put on the spot is to get allies or do your thinking in advance. What I found is great is if you know you have a meeting coming up and you know that there is an agenda and you know what's going to be talked about think about what you might want to say in advance and then go and talk to somebody else in the office about it and ask their opinion...

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Eventbrite is one of the best apps to use when organizing and launching an event. It’s pretty useful, not only to those who have already established their brand online but also to those who are just starting out. I've been loving how convenient setting up events have been so far until Eventbrite had one slip that caused my attendees to miss my event.

Hello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today I want to talk about my Eventbrite mistake. When I run live events ... actually even when I ran webinars, I advertised them and I put them in Eventbrite. Eventbrite I have found to be very useful for getting the word out and getting people to know about my webinars or my live events who wouldn't normally know about me.

And this time round I was in Singapore and I'd posted the event ... and I've done this before. I posted the event. When I first posted, I didn't have a confirmed address. I just knew it was gonna be in Singapore and I had a time. And we just wanted to see if people would actually come, so we put it up, and we got a few bites.

So, I was waiting for confirmation on the address that I wanted to hold the event because my friend wasn't sure which location would be better, etc., etc. It was no longer than a week. I get confirmation of the actual address, I put that in Eventbrite, people are still signing up, and I think nothing more of it. And I started this about a month in advance of the actual event.

Come two days before the event, I'm checking the place out, I'm making sure it's easy to get to. I realize if people wanna park, they'll need to let me know. I make a note of the nearest station and that sort of a thing. And setting up, and seeing how many seats we have, and everything's gonna be okay.

So, I send out an email through Eventbrite being like, "Okay, don't forget, in 24 hours time. Here's a thing. If you do need parking, please let me know. If you can't make it, let me know." All of that good stuff. And I got a couple of responses. One person was sick, another person wasn't sure, all of that. Everything seemed to be okay.

I had to go out. I went and I bought refreshments, and beverages, and made sure there was enough snacks because I had had 59 ... no, well actually, I originally had 50 people sign up for the event, which was amazing because we only had space for about 40. And then you think a certain percentage are gonna turn up. And then, I ended up opening up a wait list for another 10 people, and that got filled up as well. So, 60 people had said they were gonna attend this event. And even if I get say 20% of those, that's a nice little number, especially as it was an event which was networking for introverts so I specifically said I didn't want it to be a big event because I wanted it to be small, and intimate, and not scary.

Come the day of the event, I'm there nervously waiting all these people to trickle in. Some people might be coming from work, and some people might be late, and I wasn't starting on time. I let them know the first half hour was networking. But still, it's your event and you're standing there, and you're waiting. I saw one person hanging out outside, pretending to be on their phone, or being busy, and so I mentioned they should come on in, join the fun. And I actually had a friend in town that she was coming. She was from England, and we happened to meet on her podcast, and then we met in real life, and that was super fun. And I let her know, "Oh, come to the event. It's fine. One other person won't make a difference."

Little did I know, come the time of the event, I still have two people. One is my friend and one is this other person that's turned up. And I don't understand why. I was stoked that so many people had said yes, they were gonna come to my event. And then, I started talking to the person who'd attended and I said,...