<![CDATA[The Traveling Introvert]]>39dad214-9c3b-5352-a07f-7e37fe75e37bThu, 18 Dec 2025 17:44:59 +0000Captivate.fmThe Career Introverthttps://artwork.captivate.fm/95edb9a5-6e6b-441e-bf3b-b2382ffae08c/travs.jpgThe Traveling IntrovertThe Career IntrovertThe Career IntrovertA bite-sized podcast about traveling while running a business and being an introvert. Not knowing what introversion was until my 30s, I feel that I wasted some of my early years by not really understanding myself. An inspiration for my business is that I want to help others understand themselves better, earlier on in their careers and their lives. Introversion is a very misunderstood area – introverts can suffer mentally and physically because people typecast them or act negatively towards them. It’s not nice to be trapped in a little box. When you label somebody, they tend to act like that label, which stops people from achieving their true potential. I don’t let being an introvert define me, I let it guide me. If you are looking for some career coaching or just want to reach out contact me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com or check out the website https://thecareerintrovert.com/http://thetravelingintrovert.libsyn.com/websitefalseepisodichttps://feeds.captivate.fm/the-traveling-introvert/nopodcastWhy Introvert Burnout Goes UnnoticedWhy Introvert Burnout Goes UnnoticedThis episode dives into the hidden and gradual nature of burnout, especially as it affects introverts. It breaks down the 12 stages of burnout, explaining how it’s not a sudden switch but a slow process that often goes unnoticed until it's severe. The stages include feeling the need to prove oneself, working harder, neglecting personal needs, displacing conflict, revising values (where work takes over everything), denial of problems, isolation, noticeable behavioral changes, feeling detached, experiencing inner emptiness, depression, and complete mental and physical burnout.

The episode highlights how burnout can be harder to spot in introverts because signs like withdrawal and neglecting needs often look like normal behavior rather than red flags. Introverts may also hide burnout well by creating systems to appear productive or by downplaying their struggles. It also addresses why people ignore the warning signs, linking it to societal expectations and the tendency to overcompensate for being quiet.

The solution isn’t big productivity hacks but rather quiet structure, boundaries, micro-recharges, and support that actually works for introverts' needs. The key message is to recognize burnout early and make small, continuous changes to prevent it from worsening.

]]>This episode dives into the hidden and gradual nature of burnout, especially as it affects introverts. It breaks down the 12 stages of burnout, explaining how it’s not a sudden switch but a slow process that often goes unnoticed until it's severe. The stages include feeling the need to prove oneself, working harder, neglecting personal needs, displacing conflict, revising values (where work takes over everything), denial of problems, isolation, noticeable behavioral changes, feeling detached, experiencing inner emptiness, depression, and complete mental and physical burnout.

The episode highlights how burnout can be harder to spot in introverts because signs like withdrawal and neglecting needs often look like normal behavior rather than red flags. Introverts may also hide burnout well by creating systems to appear productive or by downplaying their struggles. It also addresses why people ignore the warning signs, linking it to societal expectations and the tendency to overcompensate for being quiet.

The solution isn’t big productivity hacks but rather quiet structure, boundaries, micro-recharges, and support that actually works for introverts' needs. The key message is to recognize burnout early and make small, continuous changes to prevent it from worsening.

]]>e2157986-8c78-4694-bc25-b39bb7aa0692Tue, 15 Jul 2025 12:00:00 -050005:27falsefull432433433432The Power of Moving On for Your WellbeingThe Power of Moving On for Your WellbeingThis episode shares a story about someone who left a job because it didn't support their preferred working style, specifically their need to wear headphones to stay focused. Despite good pay and interesting work, a co-worker’s complaint about the headphones led to an unresolved situation with management failing to provide support or clarity. Recognizing the workplace wasn’t a good fit, the individual proactively updated their resume, networked, and found a new position where their needs were respected. The episode highlights the importance of seeking work environments that align with your personal and professional needs, and encourages listeners to look for cultural clues and ask the right questions during interviews to ensure a better fit.

]]>This episode shares a story about someone who left a job because it didn't support their preferred working style, specifically their need to wear headphones to stay focused. Despite good pay and interesting work, a co-worker’s complaint about the headphones led to an unresolved situation with management failing to provide support or clarity. Recognizing the workplace wasn’t a good fit, the individual proactively updated their resume, networked, and found a new position where their needs were respected. The episode highlights the importance of seeking work environments that align with your personal and professional needs, and encourages listeners to look for cultural clues and ask the right questions during interviews to ensure a better fit.

]]>e854504d-2466-4fc1-ad42-910944765f49Tue, 08 Jul 2025 12:00:00 -050005:20falsefull432432432432Advocates When You Need Them MostAdvocates When You Need Them MostThis episode focuses on the power of having advocates and allies in the workplace, especially for introverts. It highlights how support can come in many forms, from standing up for a colleague when a sensitive topic is brought up, to using body language and key phrases to set boundaries and protect others. The episode encourages listeners to identify people who can be their champions—those who will speak up for them when they're not present—and to consider how they can do the same for others. The importance of open communication, setting clear expectations with advocates, and the unique impact of third-party support are emphasized. Listeners are also challenged to reflect on boundaries they want respected and to practice advocating for themselves and others, underscoring the importance of mutual support and appreciation in building a positive work environment.

]]>This episode focuses on the power of having advocates and allies in the workplace, especially for introverts. It highlights how support can come in many forms, from standing up for a colleague when a sensitive topic is brought up, to using body language and key phrases to set boundaries and protect others. The episode encourages listeners to identify people who can be their champions—those who will speak up for them when they're not present—and to consider how they can do the same for others. The importance of open communication, setting clear expectations with advocates, and the unique impact of third-party support are emphasized. Listeners are also challenged to reflect on boundaries they want respected and to practice advocating for themselves and others, underscoring the importance of mutual support and appreciation in building a positive work environment.

]]>fc36d06a-52e8-47c5-8b9f-dae21995c230Tue, 01 Jul 2025 12:00:00 -050005:15falsefull431431Building a Resilient Network as an IntrovertBuilding a Resilient Network as an IntrovertThis episode explores effective networking strategies tailored for introverts, moving beyond typical approaches like broad, superficial networking that can feel overwhelming. Instead, it highlights the power of two complementary styles: the "Deep Diver," who builds a few strong, meaningful connections based on trust and loyalty, and the "Thought Partner," who collaborates thoughtfully and shares valuable insights with others. By combining these two methods, introverts can cultivate a resilient, supportive network rooted in authenticity, consistency, and mutual respect—leading to genuine relationships, high-quality referrals, and sustainable professional growth. The episode encourages embracing these natural strengths for a more comfortable and impactful networking experience.

]]>This episode explores effective networking strategies tailored for introverts, moving beyond typical approaches like broad, superficial networking that can feel overwhelming. Instead, it highlights the power of two complementary styles: the "Deep Diver," who builds a few strong, meaningful connections based on trust and loyalty, and the "Thought Partner," who collaborates thoughtfully and shares valuable insights with others. By combining these two methods, introverts can cultivate a resilient, supportive network rooted in authenticity, consistency, and mutual respect—leading to genuine relationships, high-quality referrals, and sustainable professional growth. The episode encourages embracing these natural strengths for a more comfortable and impactful networking experience.

]]>8879a2ba-f05b-4069-b563-b727fad3c31fTue, 24 Jun 2025 12:00:00 -050005:29falsefull430430Travel Mistakes to Avoid at 30,000 FeetTravel Mistakes to Avoid at 30,000 FeetThis episode focuses on things travelers should avoid during long-haul flights to ensure their own comfort and be considerate of others. Some key points include not clipping toenails on the plane, avoiding new or untested outfits and materials that may turn out to be uncomfortable, and not trying new medications for the first time while flying. It's also important to move around during the flight to prevent circulation issues like deep vein thrombosis, and if you take your shoes off, keep your socks on or wear slippers—never go barefoot in the cabin.

Travelers are advised against using a new neck pillow or face mask for the first time during a flight, as they might cause discomfort or allergic reactions. Unscented products are recommended to avoid bothering others. Lastly, restrictive clothing should be avoided since the body can swell at altitude, making tight clothes even less comfortable. These reminders aim to make flying more pleasant for everyone on board.

]]>This episode focuses on things travelers should avoid during long-haul flights to ensure their own comfort and be considerate of others. Some key points include not clipping toenails on the plane, avoiding new or untested outfits and materials that may turn out to be uncomfortable, and not trying new medications for the first time while flying. It's also important to move around during the flight to prevent circulation issues like deep vein thrombosis, and if you take your shoes off, keep your socks on or wear slippers—never go barefoot in the cabin.

Travelers are advised against using a new neck pillow or face mask for the first time during a flight, as they might cause discomfort or allergic reactions. Unscented products are recommended to avoid bothering others. Lastly, restrictive clothing should be avoided since the body can swell at altitude, making tight clothes even less comfortable. These reminders aim to make flying more pleasant for everyone on board.

]]>6061ba2f-1903-445f-84ee-e8eca8b7e163Tue, 17 Jun 2025 12:00:00 -050005:29falsefull429429Bali’s Enchanting Day of SilenceBali’s Enchanting Day of SilenceNyepi, also known as the Balinese Day of Silence, marks the Balinese New Year and is a unique spiritual and cultural event observed in Bali. Taking place each year following the new moon in March, the entire island completely shuts down for 24 hours—no lights, no music, no transport, and everyone, including tourists, must stay indoors. The day is dedicated to reflection, meditation, and self-purification, providing an opportunity to disconnect from daily chaos and embrace stillness. People prepare by stocking up on food and water beforehand, and some may choose to fast during this period. With no light pollution, the stars become particularly visible and beautiful. All businesses, including the airport, close, creating an atmosphere of profound peace and introspection throughout the island.

]]>Nyepi, also known as the Balinese Day of Silence, marks the Balinese New Year and is a unique spiritual and cultural event observed in Bali. Taking place each year following the new moon in March, the entire island completely shuts down for 24 hours—no lights, no music, no transport, and everyone, including tourists, must stay indoors. The day is dedicated to reflection, meditation, and self-purification, providing an opportunity to disconnect from daily chaos and embrace stillness. People prepare by stocking up on food and water beforehand, and some may choose to fast during this period. With no light pollution, the stars become particularly visible and beautiful. All businesses, including the airport, close, creating an atmosphere of profound peace and introspection throughout the island.

]]>3eea5e90-d6bd-4866-8115-40b4bde2bfc5Tue, 10 Jun 2025 12:00:00 -050005:17falsefull428428Leading Without a TitleLeading Without a TitleThis episode explores the true meaning of leadership, emphasizing that it's more about trust than titles, authority, or formal positions. Leadership can be demonstrated by anyone—regardless of whether they hold an official leadership role—through consistent, thoughtful actions and integrity, especially during challenging times. The episode highlights how introverts often lead not by dominating, but by quietly building trust and guiding others with care and clear communication. Listeners are encouraged to reflect on how they want others to feel when being led, the types of leadership they respond to, and what qualities or actions in leaders they find unhelpful or exclusionary. Ultimately, leadership is presented as something you embody through authenticity and self-knowledge, rather than something you simply pursue for status.

]]>This episode explores the true meaning of leadership, emphasizing that it's more about trust than titles, authority, or formal positions. Leadership can be demonstrated by anyone—regardless of whether they hold an official leadership role—through consistent, thoughtful actions and integrity, especially during challenging times. The episode highlights how introverts often lead not by dominating, but by quietly building trust and guiding others with care and clear communication. Listeners are encouraged to reflect on how they want others to feel when being led, the types of leadership they respond to, and what qualities or actions in leaders they find unhelpful or exclusionary. Ultimately, leadership is presented as something you embody through authenticity and self-knowledge, rather than something you simply pursue for status.

]]>c000a1cb-db38-457c-bcef-29e8e5bb3b83Tue, 03 Jun 2025 12:00:00 -050005:16falsefull427427Guarding Your Leadership EnergyGuarding Your Leadership EnergyThis episode focuses on the importance of protecting your energy as an essential part of leadership, especially for introverts. It highlights how taking on leadership roles often brings increased visibility, more meetings, and greater decision-making demands, which can be particularly draining for those who thrive in quieter, more focused environments.

To manage this, the episode suggests creating personal systems to safeguard your capacity, such as blocking out time for deep work, leaving space between meetings, and practicing saying no to avoid overcommitment. The importance of honoring your energy as much as any other work commitment is emphasized.

Listeners are encouraged to identify what tasks, people, or situations drain their energy and why, as well as what restores it. Reflecting on physical sensations of stress and the impact on productivity helps in understanding when to step back and create breathing room. The episode wraps up by reminding listeners that effective leadership comes from taking care of one’s own energy first.

]]>This episode focuses on the importance of protecting your energy as an essential part of leadership, especially for introverts. It highlights how taking on leadership roles often brings increased visibility, more meetings, and greater decision-making demands, which can be particularly draining for those who thrive in quieter, more focused environments.

To manage this, the episode suggests creating personal systems to safeguard your capacity, such as blocking out time for deep work, leaving space between meetings, and practicing saying no to avoid overcommitment. The importance of honoring your energy as much as any other work commitment is emphasized.

Listeners are encouraged to identify what tasks, people, or situations drain their energy and why, as well as what restores it. Reflecting on physical sensations of stress and the impact on productivity helps in understanding when to step back and create breathing room. The episode wraps up by reminding listeners that effective leadership comes from taking care of one’s own energy first.

]]>696d7414-3cce-4404-a1ad-b0063849401bTue, 27 May 2025 12:00:00 -050005:11falsefull426426The Hidden Flaws of Workplace Personality TestingThe Hidden Flaws of Workplace Personality TestingThis episode discusses the misuse of personality tests in organizations, especially when they're used as gatekeepers in the hiring process rather than as tools for understanding team dynamics and individual strengths. Many companies have begun using these tests to filter candidates early on, potentially overlooking qualified individuals simply because their test results don't fit a certain mold. This often disadvantages introverts and those whose personalities don't match the perceived ideal. The real value of personality tests should be to help managers understand how people think, set goals, and collaborate—not to make hiring or promotion decisions. Misapplying these tests can lead to missed opportunities for diversity, reduced morale, and a disconnect between test results and actual capabilities. Ultimately, organizations should avoid using personality tests as a shortcut for meaningful interviews and instead use them thoughtfully to better support their teams.

]]>This episode discusses the misuse of personality tests in organizations, especially when they're used as gatekeepers in the hiring process rather than as tools for understanding team dynamics and individual strengths. Many companies have begun using these tests to filter candidates early on, potentially overlooking qualified individuals simply because their test results don't fit a certain mold. This often disadvantages introverts and those whose personalities don't match the perceived ideal. The real value of personality tests should be to help managers understand how people think, set goals, and collaborate—not to make hiring or promotion decisions. Misapplying these tests can lead to missed opportunities for diversity, reduced morale, and a disconnect between test results and actual capabilities. Ultimately, organizations should avoid using personality tests as a shortcut for meaningful interviews and instead use them thoughtfully to better support their teams.

]]>fd10b39f-77de-43ff-908d-87854741f7dfTue, 20 May 2025 12:00:00 -050005:16falsefull425425Don't Resent Your IntroversionDon't Resent Your IntroversionThe episode discusses how many introverts experience resentment because they feel their introversion holds them back. This feeling often stems from societal misconceptions and the negative portrayal of introversion in culture. The episode emphasizes the importance of embracing one’s true nature and seeing introverted traits as strengths rather than constraints. It encourages introverts to be vocal about their needs, such as requiring breaks between meetings or needing agendas in advance, to function at their best. The key message is to build a supportive environment and recognize that introversion can be an asset rather than a limitation.

]]>The episode discusses how many introverts experience resentment because they feel their introversion holds them back. This feeling often stems from societal misconceptions and the negative portrayal of introversion in culture. The episode emphasizes the importance of embracing one’s true nature and seeing introverted traits as strengths rather than constraints. It encourages introverts to be vocal about their needs, such as requiring breaks between meetings or needing agendas in advance, to function at their best. The key message is to build a supportive environment and recognize that introversion can be an asset rather than a limitation.

]]>79c2a23e-ea38-4aac-a1d1-f4817fa661a6Tue, 13 May 2025 12:00:00 -050005:23falsefull424424Navigating Feedback: When You're Called 'Too Quiet'Navigating Feedback: When You're Called 'Too Quiet'In the latest episode of "The Traveling Introvert," the issue of being labeled as "too quiet" in professional settings is explored. The feedback of being too quiet can have various interpretations, such as communication style, engagement level, or visibility in the workplace. It's crucial to ask specific questions to understand the real concern, whether it's a matter of not speaking up in meetings or not being visible enough in projects. The episode encourages a curious and non-defensive approach when seeking clarity on feedback, emphasizing the importance of understanding the expectations and measurements used at work. Constructive conversations can then lead to a compromise that allows introverts to communicate authentically while meeting workplace expectations.

]]>In the latest episode of "The Traveling Introvert," the issue of being labeled as "too quiet" in professional settings is explored. The feedback of being too quiet can have various interpretations, such as communication style, engagement level, or visibility in the workplace. It's crucial to ask specific questions to understand the real concern, whether it's a matter of not speaking up in meetings or not being visible enough in projects. The episode encourages a curious and non-defensive approach when seeking clarity on feedback, emphasizing the importance of understanding the expectations and measurements used at work. Constructive conversations can then lead to a compromise that allows introverts to communicate authentically while meeting workplace expectations.

]]>f307c512-7291-4f30-9a81-5f84e27e0ae8Tue, 06 May 2025 12:00:00 -050005:21falsefull423423Creating Calm With Personal Travel RitualsCreating Calm With Personal Travel RitualsIn this episode of The Traveling Introvert, the topic of discussion is travel rituals and their significance. The host highlights how rituals provide stability and comfort amidst the uncertainties of travel. Examples of travel rituals include always staying in the same hotel brand for familiarity, selecting the same seat on a plane, or visiting a favorite cafe. Travel rituals can be small habits that make journeys feel special, like packing in advance, double-checking flight details, and using apps like FlightAware for notifications. Personalized routines, like having a specific travel outfit or consistently repacking after security, enhance feelings of safety and reduce stress. Listeners are encouraged to reflect on their travel habits and consider adopting new rituals that bring joy and calmness to their travels.

]]>In this episode of The Traveling Introvert, the topic of discussion is travel rituals and their significance. The host highlights how rituals provide stability and comfort amidst the uncertainties of travel. Examples of travel rituals include always staying in the same hotel brand for familiarity, selecting the same seat on a plane, or visiting a favorite cafe. Travel rituals can be small habits that make journeys feel special, like packing in advance, double-checking flight details, and using apps like FlightAware for notifications. Personalized routines, like having a specific travel outfit or consistently repacking after security, enhance feelings of safety and reduce stress. Listeners are encouraged to reflect on their travel habits and consider adopting new rituals that bring joy and calmness to their travels.

]]>db6c8467-22a8-4e34-834f-f904ee2c8367Tue, 29 Apr 2025 12:00:00 -050005:10falsefull422422Understanding Different Thought Processes in the WorkplaceUnderstanding Different Thought Processes in the WorkplaceIn this episode of "The Traveling Introvert," the discussion focuses on the different ways introverts and extroverts process information. Introverts typically prefer to think before speaking, processing information internally, and often need time and a quiet environment to fully absorb and understand new information. They thrive in situations that allow for deep, focused thinking without interruptions. On the other hand, extroverts often process information by thinking out loud, refining their ideas through dynamic discussions and real-time engagement with others. They gain energy from social interactions and are most effective in fast-paced, energetic settings. The episode also highlights the importance of understanding these differences to improve communication, reduce frustration, and make interactions smoother across various environments.

]]>In this episode of "The Traveling Introvert," the discussion focuses on the different ways introverts and extroverts process information. Introverts typically prefer to think before speaking, processing information internally, and often need time and a quiet environment to fully absorb and understand new information. They thrive in situations that allow for deep, focused thinking without interruptions. On the other hand, extroverts often process information by thinking out loud, refining their ideas through dynamic discussions and real-time engagement with others. They gain energy from social interactions and are most effective in fast-paced, energetic settings. The episode also highlights the importance of understanding these differences to improve communication, reduce frustration, and make interactions smoother across various environments.

]]>4cb1a9d2-df68-4fba-98fa-7d84f8de9ac9Tue, 22 Apr 2025 12:00:00 -050005:10falsefull421421Preparing for Your Next Long Haul AdventurePreparing for Your Next Long Haul AdventureIn this episode, listeners are provided with handy tips for making long haul flights more comfortable and manageable. Key suggestions include changing into fresh clothes between flights to mentally reset, avoiding wide-leg pants due to unsanitary bathroom floors, and wearing scrubs for their comfort and practicality.

The idea of keeping essential items like a passport, wallet, and phone in a convenient pocket or bum bag is emphasized for emergencies. Traveling over multiple time zones can wreak havoc on your sleep schedule, for which the Time Shifter app is recommended—though its effectiveness falters with flight delays.

Physical well-being is addressed with advice on pre-flight massages and in-flight stretches, especially drawing the alphabet with your feet to maintain circulation. Staying hydrated is crucial, though it means more bathroom trips, leading to the preference of aisle seats for easy access.

Food on flights can be hit or miss, so bringing favorite snacks or meals, like non-perishable curry puffs, can provide comfort. To pass long hours in the sky, it's suggested to divide the flight into time segments filled with movies, reading, decluttering digital devices, or engaging in personal projects and daydreaming. A variety of entertainment options, like podcasts, audiobooks, eBooks, or traditional books, can also help make the time fly by.

]]>In this episode, listeners are provided with handy tips for making long haul flights more comfortable and manageable. Key suggestions include changing into fresh clothes between flights to mentally reset, avoiding wide-leg pants due to unsanitary bathroom floors, and wearing scrubs for their comfort and practicality.

The idea of keeping essential items like a passport, wallet, and phone in a convenient pocket or bum bag is emphasized for emergencies. Traveling over multiple time zones can wreak havoc on your sleep schedule, for which the Time Shifter app is recommended—though its effectiveness falters with flight delays.

Physical well-being is addressed with advice on pre-flight massages and in-flight stretches, especially drawing the alphabet with your feet to maintain circulation. Staying hydrated is crucial, though it means more bathroom trips, leading to the preference of aisle seats for easy access.

Food on flights can be hit or miss, so bringing favorite snacks or meals, like non-perishable curry puffs, can provide comfort. To pass long hours in the sky, it's suggested to divide the flight into time segments filled with movies, reading, decluttering digital devices, or engaging in personal projects and daydreaming. A variety of entertainment options, like podcasts, audiobooks, eBooks, or traditional books, can also help make the time fly by.

]]>346f7050-c115-4f43-b828-1d02719380c5Tue, 15 Apr 2025 12:00:00 -050005:24falsefull420420Creating Your Ultimate In-Flight Comfort KitCreating Your Ultimate In-Flight Comfort KitIn this episode of "The Traveling Introvert," the host discusses the concept of a "comfort bag" for long-haul flights, which involve flights lasting from 8 to 20 hours. The idea is to have a bag with essential items to keep comfortable during the flight, especially considering limited space and movement. Important items for a comfort bag include noise-canceling headphones, compression socks, travel sickness tablets, and hydration aids like Liquid I.V. The host also suggests bringing a Kindle, sudoku book, lip balm, and antibacterial wipes and gel. Personal preferences like LEGO sets, earplugs for sinus issues, and a foot hammock for short people are also discussed. The episode emphasizes the importance of customizing the comfort bag based on individual needs for optimal comfort during long-haul travel.

]]>In this episode of "The Traveling Introvert," the host discusses the concept of a "comfort bag" for long-haul flights, which involve flights lasting from 8 to 20 hours. The idea is to have a bag with essential items to keep comfortable during the flight, especially considering limited space and movement. Important items for a comfort bag include noise-canceling headphones, compression socks, travel sickness tablets, and hydration aids like Liquid I.V. The host also suggests bringing a Kindle, sudoku book, lip balm, and antibacterial wipes and gel. Personal preferences like LEGO sets, earplugs for sinus issues, and a foot hammock for short people are also discussed. The episode emphasizes the importance of customizing the comfort bag based on individual needs for optimal comfort during long-haul travel.

]]>7a89b312-8856-413d-9038-99a435aef2eeTue, 08 Apr 2025 12:00:00 -050005:40falsefull419419Mastering Self-Advocacy for Introverts at WorkMastering Self-Advocacy for Introverts at WorkThis episode of The Traveling Introvert offers practical strategies for introverts to advocate for themselves in the workplace. Emphasizing the importance of self-advocacy, it suggests techniques like keeping a "success visibility portfolio" to track achievements and utilizing "I statements" to communicate one's value. Listeners are encouraged to build confidence, express their ideas clearly and concisely, and seek constructive feedback. By setting clear goals and creating an action plan, introverts can successfully ensure their contributions are recognized and further their careers, reminding themselves that advocacy is a continuous journey, not a single destination.

]]>This episode of The Traveling Introvert offers practical strategies for introverts to advocate for themselves in the workplace. Emphasizing the importance of self-advocacy, it suggests techniques like keeping a "success visibility portfolio" to track achievements and utilizing "I statements" to communicate one's value. Listeners are encouraged to build confidence, express their ideas clearly and concisely, and seek constructive feedback. By setting clear goals and creating an action plan, introverts can successfully ensure their contributions are recognized and further their careers, reminding themselves that advocacy is a continuous journey, not a single destination.

]]>71c0a79b-ecb0-475f-9e84-47297e7174b9Tue, 01 Apr 2025 12:00:00 -050005:40falsefull418418Coaching That Fits Your LifeCoaching That Fits Your LifeAsynchronous coaching offers flexibility and convenience, allowing both the coach and the client to communicate and exchange ideas without having to meet at the same time. This method is particularly beneficial for introverts, as it provides ample time to process, reflect, and respond thoughtfully. It alleviates the pressure of instant replies that come with real-time calls, helping avoid Zoom fatigue and allowing participants to engage in the conversation at their own pace and environment, whether it's while pacing in the kitchen or lighting a candle. Moreover, clients can revisit short voice notes for clarity and confidence boosts, unlike hour-long calls. This style suits busy professionals or people with varying needs and commitments, enabling them to integrate coaching into their lives without having to carve out large, rigid time slots. Asynchronous coaching supports a more personalized experience and can lead to deeper insights and breakthroughs when conversations can flow naturally without time constraints. Lastly, clients can control how quickly they consume the coaching material, listening at their preferred speed.

]]>Asynchronous coaching offers flexibility and convenience, allowing both the coach and the client to communicate and exchange ideas without having to meet at the same time. This method is particularly beneficial for introverts, as it provides ample time to process, reflect, and respond thoughtfully. It alleviates the pressure of instant replies that come with real-time calls, helping avoid Zoom fatigue and allowing participants to engage in the conversation at their own pace and environment, whether it's while pacing in the kitchen or lighting a candle. Moreover, clients can revisit short voice notes for clarity and confidence boosts, unlike hour-long calls. This style suits busy professionals or people with varying needs and commitments, enabling them to integrate coaching into their lives without having to carve out large, rigid time slots. Asynchronous coaching supports a more personalized experience and can lead to deeper insights and breakthroughs when conversations can flow naturally without time constraints. Lastly, clients can control how quickly they consume the coaching material, listening at their preferred speed.

]]>ea20def3-5df9-4e6f-ad42-9ec29859f949Tue, 25 Mar 2025 12:00:00 -050005:28falsefull417417Embracing Self-Compassion in Your CareerEmbracing Self-Compassion in Your CareerIn this episode of The Traveling Introvert, the importance of practicing self-compassion, especially within one's career, is emphasized. Self-compassion involves treating oneself with the same kindness and understanding one would offer a good friend. Many people mistakenly believe that being hard on themselves will drive them to achieve more, but research shows that self-compassion actually fosters greater motivation and resilience. By creating a supportive environment, individuals can learn from their mistakes and progress. Key practices include self-kindness, recognizing common humanity, and cultivating mindfulness. Techniques like self-compassionate writing and being mindful of self-talk can help individuals internalize a kinder voice, ultimately leading to personal and professional growth.

]]>In this episode of The Traveling Introvert, the importance of practicing self-compassion, especially within one's career, is emphasized. Self-compassion involves treating oneself with the same kindness and understanding one would offer a good friend. Many people mistakenly believe that being hard on themselves will drive them to achieve more, but research shows that self-compassion actually fosters greater motivation and resilience. By creating a supportive environment, individuals can learn from their mistakes and progress. Key practices include self-kindness, recognizing common humanity, and cultivating mindfulness. Techniques like self-compassionate writing and being mindful of self-talk can help individuals internalize a kinder voice, ultimately leading to personal and professional growth.

]]>2b3d8c77-50e5-41e0-ab0f-1cbf57593e3aTue, 18 Mar 2025 12:00:00 -050005:16falsefull416416Crafting Your Career NetworkCrafting Your Career NetworkThe episode emphasizes the importance of building a support system to achieve career success. It suggests having a network of people who can provide emotional, professional, and informational support. This network can include peers, mentors, colleagues, friends, and family members. The host advises maintaining regular communication with these individuals to keep them informed about your accomplishments and career developments. Additionally, joining online or offline communities relevant to your work can be beneficial. This support system can help address any knowledge gaps and provide guidance, ultimately serving as champions for your career progress.

]]>The episode emphasizes the importance of building a support system to achieve career success. It suggests having a network of people who can provide emotional, professional, and informational support. This network can include peers, mentors, colleagues, friends, and family members. The host advises maintaining regular communication with these individuals to keep them informed about your accomplishments and career developments. Additionally, joining online or offline communities relevant to your work can be beneficial. This support system can help address any knowledge gaps and provide guidance, ultimately serving as champions for your career progress.

]]>b8c85283-d06a-4fbe-b279-44d0fc2c2bdcTue, 11 Mar 2025 12:00:00 -050005:14falsefull415415Defining Your Finish LineDefining Your Finish LineThe podcast episode discusses various strategies for effective goal setting and tracking. It emphasizes the importance of defining a specific finish line for goals, to make it clear when a goal has been achieved. Visualization techniques involving the five senses can enhance the goal-setting process, providing clarity and motivation. Tracking goals can be done using tools like project management software, journals, or creative methods such as bingo cards. It's important to categorize goals into short, medium, and long-term and find a tracking method that works best for the individual. The episode also highlights the role of accountability partners in maintaining motivation and discipline. Additionally, the flexibility to adjust goals is crucial, allowing for reassessment and modifications based on circumstances. Starting with small, achievable goals and expanding from there helps build confidence, and approaches to goal-setting should be personalized.

]]>The podcast episode discusses various strategies for effective goal setting and tracking. It emphasizes the importance of defining a specific finish line for goals, to make it clear when a goal has been achieved. Visualization techniques involving the five senses can enhance the goal-setting process, providing clarity and motivation. Tracking goals can be done using tools like project management software, journals, or creative methods such as bingo cards. It's important to categorize goals into short, medium, and long-term and find a tracking method that works best for the individual. The episode also highlights the role of accountability partners in maintaining motivation and discipline. Additionally, the flexibility to adjust goals is crucial, allowing for reassessment and modifications based on circumstances. Starting with small, achievable goals and expanding from there helps build confidence, and approaches to goal-setting should be personalized.

]]>8e7d57e8-7f9c-4acc-9895-56413bf20ec3Tue, 04 Mar 2025 12:00:00 -050005:21falsefull414414Exploring Different Brainstorming TechniquesExploring Different Brainstorming TechniquesThe podcast episode focuses on the concept of brainstorming, emphasizing its usefulness in everyday life despite not being commonly taught. It introduces various techniques tailored to different energy levels and working styles. These include:

  1. Energy-Conscious Brain Dumping: Ideal for those who need to quickly offload initial thoughts and work well within time constraints.
  2. Breaks for Processing: Beneficial for individuals requiring mental resets and for those who process ideas in waves.
  3. Quiet Reflection Time: Allows for validating thoughts and integrating ideas without external stimuli.
  4. Prioritization Brainstorming: Helps manage overwhelming options through focused decision-making.
  5. Progressive Brainstorming: Involves phases from individual ideation, small group sharing, to full group synthesis, catering to varied preferences for social interaction and energy-building.

The final step often overlooked is the Written Documentation of the brainstorming process, crucial for clear takeaways and next steps. The episode underscores the importance of both brainstorming and facilitating it as valuable skills in personal and professional contexts.

]]>The podcast episode focuses on the concept of brainstorming, emphasizing its usefulness in everyday life despite not being commonly taught. It introduces various techniques tailored to different energy levels and working styles. These include:

  1. Energy-Conscious Brain Dumping: Ideal for those who need to quickly offload initial thoughts and work well within time constraints.
  2. Breaks for Processing: Beneficial for individuals requiring mental resets and for those who process ideas in waves.
  3. Quiet Reflection Time: Allows for validating thoughts and integrating ideas without external stimuli.
  4. Prioritization Brainstorming: Helps manage overwhelming options through focused decision-making.
  5. Progressive Brainstorming: Involves phases from individual ideation, small group sharing, to full group synthesis, catering to varied preferences for social interaction and energy-building.

The final step often overlooked is the Written Documentation of the brainstorming process, crucial for clear takeaways and next steps. The episode underscores the importance of both brainstorming and facilitating it as valuable skills in personal and professional contexts.

]]>25764f75-c9e6-47f6-af1a-2863d142d7cfTue, 25 Feb 2025 12:00:00 -050005:11falsefull413413Embracing Reflective Planning for Better Time ManagementEmbracing Reflective Planning for Better Time ManagementIn the episode "Time Management Techniques for Reflective Planners" from The Traveling Introvert, reflective planners are empowered with time management strategies tailored to their planning approach. The focus is on accommodating their natural tendency to reflect and ruminate over decisions. Techniques discussed include blocking out time for decision-making post-meetings, aligning tasks with personal energy patterns (e.g., scheduling high-focus tasks during peak energy times), and setting regular reflection points in projects. The importance of weekly reviews to assess the effectiveness of strategies and the use of journaling for self-reflection is highlighted. Emphasis is placed on progress rather than perfectionism, encouraging reflective planners to adapt techniques to their personal style and needs while setting realistic priorities and goals.

]]>In the episode "Time Management Techniques for Reflective Planners" from The Traveling Introvert, reflective planners are empowered with time management strategies tailored to their planning approach. The focus is on accommodating their natural tendency to reflect and ruminate over decisions. Techniques discussed include blocking out time for decision-making post-meetings, aligning tasks with personal energy patterns (e.g., scheduling high-focus tasks during peak energy times), and setting regular reflection points in projects. The importance of weekly reviews to assess the effectiveness of strategies and the use of journaling for self-reflection is highlighted. Emphasis is placed on progress rather than perfectionism, encouraging reflective planners to adapt techniques to their personal style and needs while setting realistic priorities and goals.

]]>493d921c-83a8-4147-88e9-1183f52fb7a8Tue, 18 Feb 2025 12:00:00 -050005:02falsefull412412Leveraging Introversion in Decision MakingLeveraging Introversion in Decision MakingThe episode focuses on decision making for introverts, highlighting both challenges and strategies. Introverts may overanalyze options and prefer internal reflection over external discussions, which can lead to decision fatigue or pressure in group settings. To aid decision making, introverts can schedule alone time for reflection, use writing such as decision journals to analyze choices, and set deadlines to avoid analysis paralysis. Additionally, leveraging strengths like observation skills, pattern recognition, and deep focusing abilities can help break down complex decisions. The episode also emphasizes the importance of having 1 to 2 trusted advisers for external input while setting boundaries to maintain personal decision-making power. In group scenarios, requesting materials in advance and communicating the need for processing time are recommended. By practicing these approaches, introverts can enhance decision-making effectiveness and utilize their introversion as a strength.

]]>The episode focuses on decision making for introverts, highlighting both challenges and strategies. Introverts may overanalyze options and prefer internal reflection over external discussions, which can lead to decision fatigue or pressure in group settings. To aid decision making, introverts can schedule alone time for reflection, use writing such as decision journals to analyze choices, and set deadlines to avoid analysis paralysis. Additionally, leveraging strengths like observation skills, pattern recognition, and deep focusing abilities can help break down complex decisions. The episode also emphasizes the importance of having 1 to 2 trusted advisers for external input while setting boundaries to maintain personal decision-making power. In group scenarios, requesting materials in advance and communicating the need for processing time are recommended. By practicing these approaches, introverts can enhance decision-making effectiveness and utilize their introversion as a strength.

]]>e3546ac4-1309-435e-b8dc-422a1062f577Tue, 11 Feb 2025 12:00:00 -050005:28falsefull411411Strategies for Overcoming Imposter FeelingsStrategies for Overcoming Imposter FeelingsIn this episode of The Traveling Introvert, host Janice Chaka discusses building confidence in professional settings. She emphasizes that true confidence is about trusting in your abilities and being comfortable with yourself, rather than being the loudest or most charismatic person. Janice shares strategies to build confidence, such as acknowledging your strengths, setting realistic goals, preparing thoroughly, practicing mindfulness, and seeking constructive feedback. She highlights the importance of embracing authenticity to create genuine connections and handling imposter syndrome by focusing on accomplishments and self-reflection. Building confidence is portrayed as an ongoing journey that requires patience and practice. Janice aims to inspire listeners to embrace their strengths and confidently thrive in their careers.

]]>In this episode of The Traveling Introvert, host Janice Chaka discusses building confidence in professional settings. She emphasizes that true confidence is about trusting in your abilities and being comfortable with yourself, rather than being the loudest or most charismatic person. Janice shares strategies to build confidence, such as acknowledging your strengths, setting realistic goals, preparing thoroughly, practicing mindfulness, and seeking constructive feedback. She highlights the importance of embracing authenticity to create genuine connections and handling imposter syndrome by focusing on accomplishments and self-reflection. Building confidence is portrayed as an ongoing journey that requires patience and practice. Janice aims to inspire listeners to embrace their strengths and confidently thrive in their careers.

]]>08937019-70dd-4640-8904-b07d395d4eebTue, 04 Feb 2025 12:00:00 -050005:34falsefull410410Reflective Practices for Confident LeadershipReflective Practices for Confident LeadershipIn this episode of The Traveling Introvert, host Janice Chaka discusses leadership skills tailored for introverts. Janice emphasizes recognizing your own strengths and preferences, such as excelling in reflective and calm environments. She advocates for regular reflective practices like journaling and meditation to enhance decision-making. Building strong one-on-one connections and fostering trust within a team is highlighted as crucial for introverted leaders. Janice also talks about the importance of methodically navigating challenges, creating step-by-step plans, and seeking input from trusted colleagues. Finally, she underscores continuous learning and growth in leadership, encouraging ongoing self-improvement and professional development. The episode concludes with a reminder that effective leadership is about leveraging your unique strengths to inspire and guide others.

]]>In this episode of The Traveling Introvert, host Janice Chaka discusses leadership skills tailored for introverts. Janice emphasizes recognizing your own strengths and preferences, such as excelling in reflective and calm environments. She advocates for regular reflective practices like journaling and meditation to enhance decision-making. Building strong one-on-one connections and fostering trust within a team is highlighted as crucial for introverted leaders. Janice also talks about the importance of methodically navigating challenges, creating step-by-step plans, and seeking input from trusted colleagues. Finally, she underscores continuous learning and growth in leadership, encouraging ongoing self-improvement and professional development. The episode concludes with a reminder that effective leadership is about leveraging your unique strengths to inspire and guide others.

]]>3c342685-9e40-457d-b3fa-6ca87bf3005dTue, 28 Jan 2025 12:00:00 -050005:34falsefull409409Redefining Networking for IntrovertsRedefining Networking for IntrovertsIn this episode of "The Traveling Introvert," host Janice Chaka discusses networking from an introvert's perspective, redefining it as relationship building rather than collecting business cards at loud events. She emphasizes leveraging natural introvert strengths like listening and observing to form meaningful connections through one-on-one or small group interactions. Janice advises being strategic about where and with whom to network and highlights the importance of quality over quantity. She underscores the significance of follow-ups to maintain relationships, the value of building an online presence, and the necessity of setting personal boundaries to ensure networking activities align with one's energy levels and preferences.

]]>In this episode of "The Traveling Introvert," host Janice Chaka discusses networking from an introvert's perspective, redefining it as relationship building rather than collecting business cards at loud events. She emphasizes leveraging natural introvert strengths like listening and observing to form meaningful connections through one-on-one or small group interactions. Janice advises being strategic about where and with whom to network and highlights the importance of quality over quantity. She underscores the significance of follow-ups to maintain relationships, the value of building an online presence, and the necessity of setting personal boundaries to ensure networking activities align with one's energy levels and preferences.

]]>db6e9549-b247-4d8a-97dc-c2cde1e346adTue, 21 Jan 2025 12:00:00 -050005:26falsefull408408Finding Your Unique Work StyleFinding Your Unique Work StyleIn this episode of "The Traveling Introvert," host Janice Chaka discusses understanding and leveraging your personal work style for maximum productivity while acknowledging it's unrealistic to be 100% productive all the time. She emphasizes the importance of identifying your peak productivity times and creating a weekly structure that incorporates focused work sessions, whether through techniques like Pomodoro or time blocking. Janice highlights the need to find a system that works for you, whether that's a to-do list, calendar, or a hybrid approach. She also urges listeners to ensure their work routines include time for self-care activities such as eating and recharging. The key takeaway is to develop a work style that aligns with your natural tendencies and supports your well-being.

]]>In this episode of "The Traveling Introvert," host Janice Chaka discusses understanding and leveraging your personal work style for maximum productivity while acknowledging it's unrealistic to be 100% productive all the time. She emphasizes the importance of identifying your peak productivity times and creating a weekly structure that incorporates focused work sessions, whether through techniques like Pomodoro or time blocking. Janice highlights the need to find a system that works for you, whether that's a to-do list, calendar, or a hybrid approach. She also urges listeners to ensure their work routines include time for self-care activities such as eating and recharging. The key takeaway is to develop a work style that aligns with your natural tendencies and supports your well-being.

]]>db59f06f-0def-4e2e-8e3c-dc78b6cc4cc1Tue, 14 Jan 2025 12:00:00 -050005:24falsefull407407Crafting Your Ideal Home Office SanctuaryCrafting Your Ideal Home Office SanctuaryIn this episode of The Traveling Introvert, host Janice Chaka discusses how to create a home office sanctuary tailored to individual needs. She emphasizes understanding personal preferences to enhance comfort and productivity, such as the importance of a suitable layout, ergonomic furniture, and adding personal touches. Janice also highlights managing sensory inputs like sound, lighting, and scent to improve the work environment. Setting boundaries to minimize interruptions and incorporating regular breaks are also crucial for maintaining focus and well-being. The episode concludes with tips on making your workspace a reflection of your personality and a supportive environment for your work.

]]>In this episode of The Traveling Introvert, host Janice Chaka discusses how to create a home office sanctuary tailored to individual needs. She emphasizes understanding personal preferences to enhance comfort and productivity, such as the importance of a suitable layout, ergonomic furniture, and adding personal touches. Janice also highlights managing sensory inputs like sound, lighting, and scent to improve the work environment. Setting boundaries to minimize interruptions and incorporating regular breaks are also crucial for maintaining focus and well-being. The episode concludes with tips on making your workspace a reflection of your personality and a supportive environment for your work.

]]>0d34f860-493a-493d-9166-bafed0d23415Tue, 07 Jan 2025 12:00:00 -050005:14falsefull406406Inside the First 48 Hours of TEDx FameInside the First 48 Hours of TEDx FameNotification Process
  • TEDx video editing and submission process
  • Use of Google Alerts for tracking mentions of one's name
  • Importance and benefits of setting up alerts, even for common names

Discovery of TEDx Video Release

  • Personal experience of finding out via PR companies
  • Outreach by multiple PR companies
  • PR companies offering to increase video views

Emotional Response and Viewing

  • Initial reluctance to watch the TEDx video
  • Personal method of watching the video (locked room, noise-cancelling headphones)
  • Cringing at one's performance and discrepancies between live talk and video

Sharing and Promotion

  • Strategy for sharing the TEDx video
  • Importance of priming people in advance
  • Requesting support through comments and shares
  • Varied responses from different sections of one's life
  • Analysis of optimal timing for shares (e.g., avoiding Friday)

Engagement and Feedback

  • Constantly checking video stats (views, likes, comments)
  • Noting unsolicited comments and feeling appreciative
  • Personal nature and attachment to the TEDx talk

TEDx Organizational Process

  • Lack of control over video title and write-up
  • Insight into the TEDx team's takeaway and summary of the talk

Reflection and Future Plans

  • Realization of the effort and time investment in creating a TEDx talk
  • Intention to document the entire TEDx process through blog posts
  • Mention of coinciding personal stressful circumstances during TEDx preparation


]]>Notification Process
  • TEDx video editing and submission process
  • Use of Google Alerts for tracking mentions of one's name
  • Importance and benefits of setting up alerts, even for common names

Discovery of TEDx Video Release

  • Personal experience of finding out via PR companies
  • Outreach by multiple PR companies
  • PR companies offering to increase video views

Emotional Response and Viewing

  • Initial reluctance to watch the TEDx video
  • Personal method of watching the video (locked room, noise-cancelling headphones)
  • Cringing at one's performance and discrepancies between live talk and video

Sharing and Promotion

  • Strategy for sharing the TEDx video
  • Importance of priming people in advance
  • Requesting support through comments and shares
  • Varied responses from different sections of one's life
  • Analysis of optimal timing for shares (e.g., avoiding Friday)

Engagement and Feedback

  • Constantly checking video stats (views, likes, comments)
  • Noting unsolicited comments and feeling appreciative
  • Personal nature and attachment to the TEDx talk

TEDx Organizational Process

  • Lack of control over video title and write-up
  • Insight into the TEDx team's takeaway and summary of the talk

Reflection and Future Plans

  • Realization of the effort and time investment in creating a TEDx talk
  • Intention to document the entire TEDx process through blog posts
  • Mention of coinciding personal stressful circumstances during TEDx preparation


]]>fc255981-1736-4826-b364-1c16399227bdTue, 31 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -050005:25falsefull405405Planning for the End of Year BluesPlanning for the End of Year BluesEnd of Year Blues
  • Reflections prompted by end of year activities (e.g., Spotify wrap-up)
  • Comparisons and their impact on mental health
  • Examples of people comparing achievements
  • Positive vs. negative reflections

Shifting Annual Planning

  • Timing for planning and review
  • Choosing a time with better weather and mood
  • Personal vs. professional planning schedules
  • Flexibility of personal planning independent of job schedules

Challenges during End of Year

  • Holiday season distractions
  • Social engagements
  • Sales like Black Friday
  • Difficulty prioritizing self-care and reflection

Alternative Planning Strategies

  • Benefits of planning before the holiday season
  • Avoiding impulsive changes and distractions
  • Recommendation to postpone end-of-year reviews
  • Starting fresh in January or February

Bingo Method for Goal Setting

  • Introduction to the bingo method
  • Steps to create a Bingo card
  • Finding templates
  • Balancing personal and career goals
  • Randomizing and filling the bingo card
  • Examples of possible goals
  • Small, attainable goals
  • Lofty, significant goals

Motivation through Bingo Planning

  • Use of bingo as a motivational tool
  • Incentives for completing lines or a full card
  • Application of the bingo method to various types of goals



]]>End of Year Blues
  • Reflections prompted by end of year activities (e.g., Spotify wrap-up)
  • Comparisons and their impact on mental health
  • Examples of people comparing achievements
  • Positive vs. negative reflections

Shifting Annual Planning

  • Timing for planning and review
  • Choosing a time with better weather and mood
  • Personal vs. professional planning schedules
  • Flexibility of personal planning independent of job schedules

Challenges during End of Year

  • Holiday season distractions
  • Social engagements
  • Sales like Black Friday
  • Difficulty prioritizing self-care and reflection

Alternative Planning Strategies

  • Benefits of planning before the holiday season
  • Avoiding impulsive changes and distractions
  • Recommendation to postpone end-of-year reviews
  • Starting fresh in January or February

Bingo Method for Goal Setting

  • Introduction to the bingo method
  • Steps to create a Bingo card
  • Finding templates
  • Balancing personal and career goals
  • Randomizing and filling the bingo card
  • Examples of possible goals
  • Small, attainable goals
  • Lofty, significant goals

Motivation through Bingo Planning

  • Use of bingo as a motivational tool
  • Incentives for completing lines or a full card
  • Application of the bingo method to various types of goals



]]>b2d1ce75-bed6-4b1a-bec0-aeaf78a10d2aTue, 24 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -050005:13falsefull404404Navigating the "Tell Me About Yourself" QuestionNavigating the "Tell Me About Yourself" Question1. Introduction
  • Discussion context: a question from a summit attendee about answering "Tell me a little about yourself"
  • Opinion on the question: Viewed as a lazy question
  • Relevance: Common in interviews, podcasts, and networking events
  • The challenge with the question: Vague and non-specific

2. Issues with the Question

  • Lack of specificity: Burden on the responder to guess the intent
  • Signal sent by the responder: Impression of unpreparedness
  • Missed opportunity: Potential insight lost with a vague question

3. Importance of the Response

  • Critical role in what happens next in an interview
  • Recommendation to use a framework

4. Suggested Framework

  • Present-Past-Future or Past-Present-Future structure
  • Present
  • : Brief explanation of the current role or recent work
  • Past
  • : Highlight relevant experiences or accomplishments
  • Future
  • : Connect skills to the role and express enthusiasm

5. Tailoring the Response

  • Relevance to the job and company
  • Focus on 2 or 3 key points aligned with the role
  • Preparation in advance for the question

6. Including a Hook

  • Start with a compelling sentence or story
  • Example: Personal anecdote linking to professional values

7. Avoiding Pitfalls

  • Keep it concise: Aim for a 60 to 90-second response
  • Avoid rambling
  • Avoid reciting the entire resume
  • Highlight non-resume items: Charity work or extra projects

8. Positive Conclusion

  • Ending on a positive note
  • Transitioning to other questions or parts of the interview
  • Example concluding statement to signal an end and transition smoothly


]]>1. Introduction
  • Discussion context: a question from a summit attendee about answering "Tell me a little about yourself"
  • Opinion on the question: Viewed as a lazy question
  • Relevance: Common in interviews, podcasts, and networking events
  • The challenge with the question: Vague and non-specific

2. Issues with the Question

  • Lack of specificity: Burden on the responder to guess the intent
  • Signal sent by the responder: Impression of unpreparedness
  • Missed opportunity: Potential insight lost with a vague question

3. Importance of the Response

  • Critical role in what happens next in an interview
  • Recommendation to use a framework

4. Suggested Framework

  • Present-Past-Future or Past-Present-Future structure
  • Present
  • : Brief explanation of the current role or recent work
  • Past
  • : Highlight relevant experiences or accomplishments
  • Future
  • : Connect skills to the role and express enthusiasm

5. Tailoring the Response

  • Relevance to the job and company
  • Focus on 2 or 3 key points aligned with the role
  • Preparation in advance for the question

6. Including a Hook

  • Start with a compelling sentence or story
  • Example: Personal anecdote linking to professional values

7. Avoiding Pitfalls

  • Keep it concise: Aim for a 60 to 90-second response
  • Avoid rambling
  • Avoid reciting the entire resume
  • Highlight non-resume items: Charity work or extra projects

8. Positive Conclusion

  • Ending on a positive note
  • Transitioning to other questions or parts of the interview
  • Example concluding statement to signal an end and transition smoothly


]]>97d714da-1487-49fe-9090-b10889299b64Tue, 17 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -050005:19falsefull403403Rethinking Work Hours for IntrovertsRethinking Work Hours for IntrovertsPersonal Experience with a 4 Day Work Week
  • Janice's experience working in the casino community in the UK
  • Positive impact on her work-life balance

Benefits of a 4 Day Work Week for Introverts

  • Provides more time for recharging
  • Flexibility in structuring the work week
  • Examples of different configurations:
  • Traditional Monday to Thursday
  • Mid-week break (e.g., Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday)
  • Including half-days (e.g., half-day Monday and Friday)
  • Tailoring the work week to individual needs and preferences

General Benefits of a 4 Day Work Week

  • Allows for better time management
  • Reduces the feeling of rushing and not having enough time
  • More time for personal errands, hobbies, and relationships

Challenges of a Traditional 5 Day Work Week

  • Limited time for self-care and personal activities
  • Balancing work with other responsibilities like commuting, eating, exercising, and sleeping

Studies and Global Adoption of the 4 Day Work Week

  • Mention of numerous studies supporting the 4 day work week
  • Countries and cities adopting the 4 day work week model

Call for Flexibility and Customization

  • Importance of allowing individuals to choose their 4 day work week structure
  • Consideration of personal circumstances like elder care and childcare
  • Opportunities for businesses to rethink traditional work schedules


]]>Personal Experience with a 4 Day Work Week
  • Janice's experience working in the casino community in the UK
  • Positive impact on her work-life balance

Benefits of a 4 Day Work Week for Introverts

  • Provides more time for recharging
  • Flexibility in structuring the work week
  • Examples of different configurations:
  • Traditional Monday to Thursday
  • Mid-week break (e.g., Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday)
  • Including half-days (e.g., half-day Monday and Friday)
  • Tailoring the work week to individual needs and preferences

General Benefits of a 4 Day Work Week

  • Allows for better time management
  • Reduces the feeling of rushing and not having enough time
  • More time for personal errands, hobbies, and relationships

Challenges of a Traditional 5 Day Work Week

  • Limited time for self-care and personal activities
  • Balancing work with other responsibilities like commuting, eating, exercising, and sleeping

Studies and Global Adoption of the 4 Day Work Week

  • Mention of numerous studies supporting the 4 day work week
  • Countries and cities adopting the 4 day work week model

Call for Flexibility and Customization

  • Importance of allowing individuals to choose their 4 day work week structure
  • Consideration of personal circumstances like elder care and childcare
  • Opportunities for businesses to rethink traditional work schedules


]]>051d3693-05ea-4718-b0db-153da08f3a49Tue, 10 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -050005:10falsefull402402Finding Your Ideal Productivity RhythmFinding Your Ideal Productivity Rhythm


    • Overview of Pomodoro Technique

    • Explanation of the traditional Pomodoro method
    • 25 minutes of work, 5 minutes of rest cycles
    • Longer breaks after several cycles

    Modifying the Pomodoro Technique

    • Flexibility in work and break times
    • Example: 30 minutes of work, 10 minutes break
    • Importance of personalizing the technique
    • Adjusting the time durations to fit individual needs

    Potential Issues with Pomodoro Technique

    • Interruption problems when using fixed time blocks
    • Difficulty in getting back into tasks after taking breaks

    Overview of Flow State

    • Explanation of the flow state phenomenon
    • Importance of maintaining flow state
    • When to prioritize flow state over taking breaks

    Combining Pomodoro and Flow State

    • Using Pomodoro to enter flow state
    • Identifying personal patterns for effective work
    • Differentiating approach based on task type
    • Writing tasks
    • Administrative tasks

    Importance of Taking Breaks

    • Different types of breaks
    • Treats like watching YouTube or playing games
    • Physical activities like walking outside
    • Customizing breaks for individual needs

    Fishbowl Technique

    • Introduction to the fishbowl method
    • Writing down tasks on pieces of paper
    • Randomly picking tasks from a bowl
    • Online tools for random task picking
    • Emphasis on completing tasks once picked

    Additional Tips for Personal Productivity

    • Finding what works best for individual workflows
    • Experimenting with different techniques
    • Considering external factors like meetings


    ]]>


    • Overview of Pomodoro Technique

    • Explanation of the traditional Pomodoro method
    • 25 minutes of work, 5 minutes of rest cycles
    • Longer breaks after several cycles

    Modifying the Pomodoro Technique

    • Flexibility in work and break times
    • Example: 30 minutes of work, 10 minutes break
    • Importance of personalizing the technique
    • Adjusting the time durations to fit individual needs

    Potential Issues with Pomodoro Technique

    • Interruption problems when using fixed time blocks
    • Difficulty in getting back into tasks after taking breaks

    Overview of Flow State

    • Explanation of the flow state phenomenon
    • Importance of maintaining flow state
    • When to prioritize flow state over taking breaks

    Combining Pomodoro and Flow State

    • Using Pomodoro to enter flow state
    • Identifying personal patterns for effective work
    • Differentiating approach based on task type
    • Writing tasks
    • Administrative tasks

    Importance of Taking Breaks

    • Different types of breaks
    • Treats like watching YouTube or playing games
    • Physical activities like walking outside
    • Customizing breaks for individual needs

    Fishbowl Technique

    • Introduction to the fishbowl method
    • Writing down tasks on pieces of paper
    • Randomly picking tasks from a bowl
    • Online tools for random task picking
    • Emphasis on completing tasks once picked

    Additional Tips for Personal Productivity

    • Finding what works best for individual workflows
    • Experimenting with different techniques
    • Considering external factors like meetings


    ]]>    6a50e1c8-ffae-453a-a594-43211f90dc6eTue, 03 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -050005:22falsefull401401    Improving Performance Reviews for IntrovertsImproving Performance Reviews for IntrovertsCurrent Issues with Performance Reviews
    • Bias towards extrovert characteristics
    • Stress and burden on managers
    • Annual review process being cumbersome
    • Time constraints and stress

    Suggested Improvements

    Asynchronous Work and Written Feedback

    • Benefits of written feedback
    • Time for introverts to reflect and process
    • Timing of feedback delivery
    • Importance of not sending feedback last minute

    Allowing Processing Time

    • Time to think before responding during meetings
    • Importance for introverts to give their best answers

    Multiple Formats for Feedback

    • Different preferences: written, verbal, recordings
    • Flexibility in feedback formats
    • Tailoring to individual needs

    Creating a Safe and Collaborative Environment

    • Emphasis on psychological safety during reviews
    • Supportive and non-intimidating review environment
    • Collaborative approach vs. confrontational approach
    • Reducing defensiveness to improve feedback reception

    Understanding Individual Preferences

    • Asking team members how they like to receive feedback
    • Preferences: on the spot, later, via email, etc.
    • Importance of honoring these preferences to ensure effective feedback


    ]]>    Current Issues with Performance Reviews
    • Bias towards extrovert characteristics
    • Stress and burden on managers
    • Annual review process being cumbersome
    • Time constraints and stress

    Suggested Improvements

    Asynchronous Work and Written Feedback

    • Benefits of written feedback
    • Time for introverts to reflect and process
    • Timing of feedback delivery
    • Importance of not sending feedback last minute

    Allowing Processing Time

    • Time to think before responding during meetings
    • Importance for introverts to give their best answers

    Multiple Formats for Feedback

    • Different preferences: written, verbal, recordings
    • Flexibility in feedback formats
    • Tailoring to individual needs

    Creating a Safe and Collaborative Environment

    • Emphasis on psychological safety during reviews
    • Supportive and non-intimidating review environment
    • Collaborative approach vs. confrontational approach
    • Reducing defensiveness to improve feedback reception

    Understanding Individual Preferences

    • Asking team members how they like to receive feedback
    • Preferences: on the spot, later, via email, etc.
    • Importance of honoring these preferences to ensure effective feedback


    ]]>    a7ba330e-82ff-46b0-924e-7277aa16eaa0Tue, 26 Nov 2024 12:00:00 -050005:26falsefull400400    Turning Reviews into Positive ExperiencesTurning Reviews into Positive ExperiencesConfidence Building and Performance Reviews
    • Importance of Performance Reviews
    • Seen as big, bad, scary events
    • Often annual; occasionally more frequent
    • Can trigger imposter syndrome and stress

    Understanding Imposter Syndrome in Performance Reviews

    • Signs of Imposter Feelings
    • Minimizing achievements
    • Forgetting achievements
    • Attributing success to luck or other people

    Steps to Reframe Imposter Thoughts

    • Reframing Achievements
    • Finding evidence in your accomplishments
    • Avoiding qualifiers like "but"
    • Inner Advocate
    • Advocating for yourself as you would for a friend
    • Sharing useful information with your manager
    • Understanding manager's limitations in what they know and remember

    Visualization and Rehearsal Techniques

    • Practicing Successful Conversations
    • Picturing confident speech and positive feedback
    • Using data to support achievements
    • Purpose of Visualization
    • Overcoming self-doubt
    • Recognizing contributions to the team, organization, and boss's goals

    Preparing for the Performance Review Meeting

    • Asking Relevant Questions
    • Understanding manager's goals
    • Connecting your achievements to their goals
    • Grounding Techniques
    • Deep breathing
    • Positive affirmations
    • Dance party to release nervous energy
    • Using Notes
    • Bringing written notes to the review
    • Being prepared for data-driven discussion

    Advocating for Career Advancement

    • Taking Initiative
    • Asking for promotions, career changes, or extra projects



    ]]>    Confidence Building and Performance Reviews
    • Importance of Performance Reviews
    • Seen as big, bad, scary events
    • Often annual; occasionally more frequent
    • Can trigger imposter syndrome and stress

    Understanding Imposter Syndrome in Performance Reviews

    • Signs of Imposter Feelings
    • Minimizing achievements
    • Forgetting achievements
    • Attributing success to luck or other people

    Steps to Reframe Imposter Thoughts

    • Reframing Achievements
    • Finding evidence in your accomplishments
    • Avoiding qualifiers like "but"
    • Inner Advocate
    • Advocating for yourself as you would for a friend
    • Sharing useful information with your manager
    • Understanding manager's limitations in what they know and remember

    Visualization and Rehearsal Techniques

    • Practicing Successful Conversations
    • Picturing confident speech and positive feedback
    • Using data to support achievements
    • Purpose of Visualization
    • Overcoming self-doubt
    • Recognizing contributions to the team, organization, and boss's goals

    Preparing for the Performance Review Meeting

    • Asking Relevant Questions
    • Understanding manager's goals
    • Connecting your achievements to their goals
    • Grounding Techniques
    • Deep breathing
    • Positive affirmations
    • Dance party to release nervous energy
    • Using Notes
    • Bringing written notes to the review
    • Being prepared for data-driven discussion

    Advocating for Career Advancement

    • Taking Initiative
    • Asking for promotions, career changes, or extra projects



    ]]>    c609f1fb-ec92-4266-9380-1f5dcb8705bdTue, 19 Nov 2024 12:00:00 -050005:22falsefull399399    Using Performance Reviews to Set BoundariesUsing Performance Reviews to Set Boundaries


    • Performance Reviews as a Tool for Setting Boundaries

    • Unique opportunity to discuss workload preferences.
    • Recent talk on extrovert bias in the workplace.
    • The general importance of advocating for introvert needs in the workplace.

    Preparing for the Meeting

    • Identifying boundaries before the meeting.
    • Reflect on past 3-6 months' work experiences.
    • Consider workload, communication methods, and energy management.

    Framing Boundaries Positively

    • Positive language in boundary setting.
    • Examples of how to reframe negative statements ("I don't want to attend too many meetings") into positive ones ("I really work best with dedicated focus time and minimizing unnecessary meetings helps me to be more productive").
    • Discussing meeting workload and exploring alternatives.

    Energy Management and Its Importance

    • Explaining energy management and its significance.
    • Importance of uninterrupted time for deep, focused work.
    • Flexibility in work schedules.
    • Benefits of setting boundaries for the company, team, and individual productivity.

    Implementing and Reinforcing Boundaries

    • The need for continuous reinforcement.
    • Setting real, concrete changes after initial discussion.
    • The likelihood of needing reminders and clarification over time.
    • Avoiding frustration and maintaining persistence.
    • Realizing boundary setting is a marathon, not a sprint.
    • Seeking managerial support if boundaries are consistently ignored.


    ]]>


    • Performance Reviews as a Tool for Setting Boundaries

    • Unique opportunity to discuss workload preferences.
    • Recent talk on extrovert bias in the workplace.
    • The general importance of advocating for introvert needs in the workplace.

    Preparing for the Meeting

    • Identifying boundaries before the meeting.
    • Reflect on past 3-6 months' work experiences.
    • Consider workload, communication methods, and energy management.

    Framing Boundaries Positively

    • Positive language in boundary setting.
    • Examples of how to reframe negative statements ("I don't want to attend too many meetings") into positive ones ("I really work best with dedicated focus time and minimizing unnecessary meetings helps me to be more productive").
    • Discussing meeting workload and exploring alternatives.

    Energy Management and Its Importance

    • Explaining energy management and its significance.
    • Importance of uninterrupted time for deep, focused work.
    • Flexibility in work schedules.
    • Benefits of setting boundaries for the company, team, and individual productivity.

    Implementing and Reinforcing Boundaries

    • The need for continuous reinforcement.
    • Setting real, concrete changes after initial discussion.
    • The likelihood of needing reminders and clarification over time.
    • Avoiding frustration and maintaining persistence.
    • Realizing boundary setting is a marathon, not a sprint.
    • Seeking managerial support if boundaries are consistently ignored.


    ]]>    bfa6fdf8-0fa7-4486-8ddb-dcd068f51b71Tue, 12 Nov 2024 12:00:00 -050005:21falsefull398398    Highlighting Your Achievements with ConfidenceHighlighting Your Achievements with Confidence


    • Importance of Performance Reviews for Introverts

    • Introverts' struggle with speaking up about strengths
    • The necessity of showcasing value during performance reviews

    Mindset Shift

    • Discussing strengths isn't bragging
    • The role of managers and their limited awareness of individual contributions
    • Reminding managers of your accomplishments

    Effective Communication Strategies

    • Sharing what you've learned and accomplished
    • Framing contributions through storytelling
    • Using frameworks like the STAR method

    Storytelling for Success

    • Structuring narratives around projects
    • Project initiation
    • Challenges encountered
    • Outcomes achieved
    • Focusing on key highlights

    Impact Over Effort

    • Emphasizing results and contributions to organizational goals
    • Avoiding a laundry list of tasks
    • Importance of numerical and impactful achievements

    Examples of Impact

    • Impact on the bottom line
    • Impact on the team
    • Impact on organizational goals

    Alignment With Organizational and Boss's Goals

    • How your work helps achieve managerial and organizational objectives
    • Enhancing your boss's success through your contributions

    Practice and Preparation

    • Overcoming the feeling of bragging through practice
    • Practicing specific phrases and sentences
    • Example phrases to articulate accomplishments clearly
    • The necessity of practicing to gain comfort and clarity


    ]]>


    • Importance of Performance Reviews for Introverts

    • Introverts' struggle with speaking up about strengths
    • The necessity of showcasing value during performance reviews

    Mindset Shift

    • Discussing strengths isn't bragging
    • The role of managers and their limited awareness of individual contributions
    • Reminding managers of your accomplishments

    Effective Communication Strategies

    • Sharing what you've learned and accomplished
    • Framing contributions through storytelling
    • Using frameworks like the STAR method

    Storytelling for Success

    • Structuring narratives around projects
    • Project initiation
    • Challenges encountered
    • Outcomes achieved
    • Focusing on key highlights

    Impact Over Effort

    • Emphasizing results and contributions to organizational goals
    • Avoiding a laundry list of tasks
    • Importance of numerical and impactful achievements

    Examples of Impact

    • Impact on the bottom line
    • Impact on the team
    • Impact on organizational goals

    Alignment With Organizational and Boss's Goals

    • How your work helps achieve managerial and organizational objectives
    • Enhancing your boss's success through your contributions

    Practice and Preparation

    • Overcoming the feeling of bragging through practice
    • Practicing specific phrases and sentences
    • Example phrases to articulate accomplishments clearly
    • The necessity of practicing to gain comfort and clarity


    ]]>    193587f2-de4a-4c70-928f-52d571672cedTue, 05 Nov 2024 12:00:00 -050005:11falsefull397397    Productivity with Pomodoro and FlowProductivity with Pomodoro and Flow


    • Understanding Pomodoro Technique

    • General Pomodoro cycle: 25 minutes work, 5 minutes rest
    • Alternative Pomodoro cycles: Different work and break durations
    • Personal preference: Customizing Pomodoro to individual needs

    Potential Issues with Pomodoro

    • Interruption of flow state
    • Difficulty resuming tasks post-break

    Flexibility and Personalization

    • No set rules for Pomodoro
    • Adjusting Pomodoro duration based on personal work habits
    • Different tasks may require different Pomodoro durations

    Flow State

    • Definition: Being in the zone and highly productive
    • Balancing flow state with Pomodoro breaks
    • Allowing flexibility to skip breaks if deep in flow state

    Task-Specific Pomodoros

    • Writing tasks: shorter Pomodoro durations
    • Admin or email tasks: longer Pomodoro durations

    Break Types

    • Various break activities
    • Watching YouTube videos or playing games
    • Physical activities like walking outside
    • Importance of individualized break activities

    Balancing Pomodoro and Flow

    • No one-size-fits-all solution
    • Experimentation to find what works best

    Fishbowl Technique

    • Handling miscellaneous small tasks
    • Writing tasks on paper or using online random task pickers
    • Implementing a structured approach for smaller tasks

    External Factors

    • Impact of meetings and other interruptions on productivity
    • Strategies for managing workload when in full control of the schedule


    ]]>


    • Understanding Pomodoro Technique

    • General Pomodoro cycle: 25 minutes work, 5 minutes rest
    • Alternative Pomodoro cycles: Different work and break durations
    • Personal preference: Customizing Pomodoro to individual needs

    Potential Issues with Pomodoro

    • Interruption of flow state
    • Difficulty resuming tasks post-break

    Flexibility and Personalization

    • No set rules for Pomodoro
    • Adjusting Pomodoro duration based on personal work habits
    • Different tasks may require different Pomodoro durations

    Flow State

    • Definition: Being in the zone and highly productive
    • Balancing flow state with Pomodoro breaks
    • Allowing flexibility to skip breaks if deep in flow state

    Task-Specific Pomodoros

    • Writing tasks: shorter Pomodoro durations
    • Admin or email tasks: longer Pomodoro durations

    Break Types

    • Various break activities
    • Watching YouTube videos or playing games
    • Physical activities like walking outside
    • Importance of individualized break activities

    Balancing Pomodoro and Flow

    • No one-size-fits-all solution
    • Experimentation to find what works best

    Fishbowl Technique

    • Handling miscellaneous small tasks
    • Writing tasks on paper or using online random task pickers
    • Implementing a structured approach for smaller tasks

    External Factors

    • Impact of meetings and other interruptions on productivity
    • Strategies for managing workload when in full control of the schedule


    ]]>    63cbc65e-bb4d-4e29-9172-1080df207553Tue, 29 Oct 2024 12:00:00 -050005:22falsefull396396    Strategic Preparation for Annual ReviewsStrategic Preparation for Annual ReviewsOpportunity for Introverts to Shine

    • Importance of 1-on-1 meetings and performance reviews
    • Highlighting work done within the organization

    Being Strategic About Performance Reviews

    • Proactive documentation of work
    • Identifying and emphasizing key achievements

    Effective Preparation

    • Importance of preparation for introverts
    • Tools for tracking progress:
    • Log, journal, spreadsheet, or happy folder
    • Weekly reviews of projects, stretch goals, and client feedback

    Data-Driven Approach

    • Reducing stress with well-documented data
    • Using metrics and results to strengthen your case
    • Combatting impostor syndrome with data

    Reflective Questions for Self-Evaluation

    • Example questions for regular reflection:
    • Projects worked on and challenges overcome
    • Contributions to team success
    • Alignment with goals
    • Feedback received from managers

    Regular Adjustments and Tweaks

    • Benefits of regular reviews:
    • Monitoring progress on KPIs and metrics
    • Making timely adjustments to targets and methods

    Increased Visibility and Contributions

    • Improving visibility within the organization
    • Collaboration with team members
    • Documenting contributions to team and organizational success

    Mock Reviews for Preparation

    • Conducting mock reviews with trusted individuals
    • Benefits of practice: reducing anxiety and crafting stories around metrics

    Taking Control of Your Career

    • Empowerment over career development
    • Importance of self-advocacy in performance reviews


    ]]>    Opportunity for Introverts to Shine

    • Importance of 1-on-1 meetings and performance reviews
    • Highlighting work done within the organization

    Being Strategic About Performance Reviews

    • Proactive documentation of work
    • Identifying and emphasizing key achievements

    Effective Preparation

    • Importance of preparation for introverts
    • Tools for tracking progress:
    • Log, journal, spreadsheet, or happy folder
    • Weekly reviews of projects, stretch goals, and client feedback

    Data-Driven Approach

    • Reducing stress with well-documented data
    • Using metrics and results to strengthen your case
    • Combatting impostor syndrome with data

    Reflective Questions for Self-Evaluation

    • Example questions for regular reflection:
    • Projects worked on and challenges overcome
    • Contributions to team success
    • Alignment with goals
    • Feedback received from managers

    Regular Adjustments and Tweaks

    • Benefits of regular reviews:
    • Monitoring progress on KPIs and metrics
    • Making timely adjustments to targets and methods

    Increased Visibility and Contributions

    • Improving visibility within the organization
    • Collaboration with team members
    • Documenting contributions to team and organizational success

    Mock Reviews for Preparation

    • Conducting mock reviews with trusted individuals
    • Benefits of practice: reducing anxiety and crafting stories around metrics

    Taking Control of Your Career

    • Empowerment over career development
    • Importance of self-advocacy in performance reviews


    ]]>    9df7e70f-b364-48a2-828a-a74f8117b8feTue, 22 Oct 2024 12:00:00 -050005:23falsefull395395    Building Leader Confidence as an IntrovertBuilding Leader Confidence as an Introvert2. Transition from Individual Contributor to Leader
    • Experience of being promoted
    • Challenges in adapting to a leadership role

    3. Addressing Impostor Syndrome

    • Definition and description of imposter syndrome
    • Impact of imposter feelings on self-perception and confidence

    4. Strategies for Building Confidence

    4.1 Self-Awareness and Reflection

    • Importance of being self-aware
    • Regularly reflecting on strengths and past successes

    4.2 Celebrating Past Successes

    • Recognizing and acknowledging achievements
    • Methods for collecting proof of success (emails, thank-you notes, social media)

    4.3 Creating a Personal Achievement List

    • Purpose and benefits of having an achievement list/folder/journal
    • Use of data to affirm skills and accomplishments

    5. Goal Setting for Confidence

    • Importance of setting small, achievable goals
    • Avoid focusing solely on the end state
    • Example: Goal setting for writing a book
    • Importance of focusing on the journey and skills learned
    • Incremental reinforcement through achieving smaller goals

    6. Overall Insights for Growing Confidence

    • Self-reflection and noticing achievements
    • Understanding and valuing one's contributions
    • Celebrating both personal and professional successes



    ]]>    2. Transition from Individual Contributor to Leader
    • Experience of being promoted
    • Challenges in adapting to a leadership role

    3. Addressing Impostor Syndrome

    • Definition and description of imposter syndrome
    • Impact of imposter feelings on self-perception and confidence

    4. Strategies for Building Confidence

    4.1 Self-Awareness and Reflection

    • Importance of being self-aware
    • Regularly reflecting on strengths and past successes

    4.2 Celebrating Past Successes

    • Recognizing and acknowledging achievements
    • Methods for collecting proof of success (emails, thank-you notes, social media)

    4.3 Creating a Personal Achievement List

    • Purpose and benefits of having an achievement list/folder/journal
    • Use of data to affirm skills and accomplishments

    5. Goal Setting for Confidence

    • Importance of setting small, achievable goals
    • Avoid focusing solely on the end state
    • Example: Goal setting for writing a book
    • Importance of focusing on the journey and skills learned
    • Incremental reinforcement through achieving smaller goals

    6. Overall Insights for Growing Confidence

    • Self-reflection and noticing achievements
    • Understanding and valuing one's contributions
    • Celebrating both personal and professional successes



    ]]>    128ddb7b-373f-4655-9eee-9284654b1a60Tue, 15 Oct 2024 12:00:00 -050005:29falsefull394394    Designing a Custom Productivity PlanDesigning a Custom Productivity PlanDefinition and Variation of Productivity

    - Misconception of one-size-fits-all tips

    - Productivity varies from person to person

    - Differences in energy patterns (morning vs. night people)

    - Attention span

    - Work style

    - Personal goals

    Key Elements of a Personalized Productivity Plan

    - Needs to align with personal habits, preferences, and goals

    - Selection through trial and error

    - Key strategies and tools:

    - Time blocking

    - Eisenhower matrix

    - Energy level tracking (using energy journals)

    - To-do lists

    - Time tracking apps

    - Project management systems

    - Importance of flexibility:

    - Breaks

    - Unforeseen events (illness, vacations, off days)

    Steps to Create Your Own Productivity Plan

    - Assess current productivity:

    - Reflect on what's working and what isn't

    - Set goals:

    - Daily, weekly, and long-term goals

    - Align tasks with these goals and break them down

    - Design your schedule:

    - Align tasks around energy levels

    - Choose and utilize tools:

    - Identify apps, systems, or planners that fit your style

    - Test and refine:

    - Continuous iteration and improvement

    Examples of Personalized Productivity Plans

    - Energy Management Focused Plan

    - Morning routine: High focus tasks

    - Midday routine: Moderate tasks and breaks

    - Afternoon routine: Low energy tasks and daily review

    - Tools: Pomodoro timer, energy tracker journal

    - Support: Weekly coaching calls

    - Boundary and Communication Focused Plan

    - Morning routine: Identify priorities, communicate availability

    - Midday routine: Check-ins and boundary reinforcement

    - Afternoon routine: Reflect on adherence and communication effectiveness

    - Tools: Boundary setting templates, communication scripts

    - Support: Biweekly workshops

    - Overcoming Impostor Syndrome Focus

    - Morning routine: Affirmation exercises, priority setting

    - Midday routine: Task completion focusing on strengths

    - Afternoon routine: Reflect on achievements, plan for next day

    - Tools: Affirmation cards, achievement logs

    - Support: Monthly group coaching



    ]]>    Definition and Variation of Productivity

    - Misconception of one-size-fits-all tips

    - Productivity varies from person to person

    - Differences in energy patterns (morning vs. night people)

    - Attention span

    - Work style

    - Personal goals

    Key Elements of a Personalized Productivity Plan

    - Needs to align with personal habits, preferences, and goals

    - Selection through trial and error

    - Key strategies and tools:

    - Time blocking

    - Eisenhower matrix

    - Energy level tracking (using energy journals)

    - To-do lists

    - Time tracking apps

    - Project management systems

    - Importance of flexibility:

    - Breaks

    - Unforeseen events (illness, vacations, off days)

    Steps to Create Your Own Productivity Plan

    - Assess current productivity:

    - Reflect on what's working and what isn't

    - Set goals:

    - Daily, weekly, and long-term goals

    - Align tasks with these goals and break them down

    - Design your schedule:

    - Align tasks around energy levels

    - Choose and utilize tools:

    - Identify apps, systems, or planners that fit your style

    - Test and refine:

    - Continuous iteration and improvement

    Examples of Personalized Productivity Plans

    - Energy Management Focused Plan

    - Morning routine: High focus tasks

    - Midday routine: Moderate tasks and breaks

    - Afternoon routine: Low energy tasks and daily review

    - Tools: Pomodoro timer, energy tracker journal

    - Support: Weekly coaching calls

    - Boundary and Communication Focused Plan

    - Morning routine: Identify priorities, communicate availability

    - Midday routine: Check-ins and boundary reinforcement

    - Afternoon routine: Reflect on adherence and communication effectiveness

    - Tools: Boundary setting templates, communication scripts

    - Support: Biweekly workshops

    - Overcoming Impostor Syndrome Focus

    - Morning routine: Affirmation exercises, priority setting

    - Midday routine: Task completion focusing on strengths

    - Afternoon routine: Reflect on achievements, plan for next day

    - Tools: Affirmation cards, achievement logs

    - Support: Monthly group coaching



    ]]>    b0798c1c-15a7-446d-88a5-bf1fe754a1ecTue, 08 Oct 2024 12:00:00 -050005:24falsefull393393    Navigating Boundary Conflicts in the OfficeNavigating Boundary Conflicts in the OfficeSignificance of Boundaries for Introverts

    - Crucial for deep focus work

    - Impact of boundary violations:

    - Interruptions

    - Unplanned meetings

    - Consequences:

    - Reduced productivity

    - Energy depletion

    Challenges in Enforcing Boundaries

    - People pleasers struggling with boundaries

    - Workplace dynamics:

    - Power imbalance

    - External pressures

    - Common boundary violations:

    - Unwanted interruptions

    - Assigning tasks outside of scope

    - Pressure to attend social events/meetings without preparation

    Impact of Boundary Violations

    - Short-term: Avoiding conflict, maintaining harmony

    - Long-term: Burnout, resentment, lack of team engagement

    - Mental toll: Difficulty asserting oneself, needing to apologize

    Identifying Boundary Violations

    - Recognizing real-time boundary crossings

    - Signs of boundary violations:

    - Discomfort, stress, or resentment

    - Feeling drained or unaligned priorities

    - Frustration about disrespect of time, energy, and space

    Communicating and Reinforcing Boundaries

    - Using clear, respectful language

    - Example: Communicating project focus needs

    - Saying no with confidence

    - Example: Prioritizing tasks and workload

    - Attending crucial meetings selectively

    Need for Compromise and Consistency

    - Balancing relationship maintenance with boundary enforcement

    - Importance of consistency in boundary communication

    - Risk of reversing decisions: Lack of respect for boundaries

    ]]>    Significance of Boundaries for Introverts

    - Crucial for deep focus work

    - Impact of boundary violations:

    - Interruptions

    - Unplanned meetings

    - Consequences:

    - Reduced productivity

    - Energy depletion

    Challenges in Enforcing Boundaries

    - People pleasers struggling with boundaries

    - Workplace dynamics:

    - Power imbalance

    - External pressures

    - Common boundary violations:

    - Unwanted interruptions

    - Assigning tasks outside of scope

    - Pressure to attend social events/meetings without preparation

    Impact of Boundary Violations

    - Short-term: Avoiding conflict, maintaining harmony

    - Long-term: Burnout, resentment, lack of team engagement

    - Mental toll: Difficulty asserting oneself, needing to apologize

    Identifying Boundary Violations

    - Recognizing real-time boundary crossings

    - Signs of boundary violations:

    - Discomfort, stress, or resentment

    - Feeling drained or unaligned priorities

    - Frustration about disrespect of time, energy, and space

    Communicating and Reinforcing Boundaries

    - Using clear, respectful language

    - Example: Communicating project focus needs

    - Saying no with confidence

    - Example: Prioritizing tasks and workload

    - Attending crucial meetings selectively

    Need for Compromise and Consistency

    - Balancing relationship maintenance with boundary enforcement

    - Importance of consistency in boundary communication

    - Risk of reversing decisions: Lack of respect for boundaries

    ]]>    fa7076fc-c64f-4311-be0c-c9e839c41fbbTue, 01 Oct 2024 12:00:00 -050005:38falsefull392392    Intentional Systems for Public Speaking SuccessIntentional Systems for Public Speaking SuccessSure, here's a comprehensive sequence of topics covered in the transcript, along with sub-topic bullets for each primary topic:

    Importance of Systems in Public Speaking

    - How systems provide structure

    - Value of structure for introverts

    Role of Systems in Preparation

    - Preparing content and organizing thoughts

    - Creating clear outlines

    Components of Preparation Systems

    - Researching and creating an outline

    - Timing practice sessions

    Benefits of Regular Practice

    - Avoiding over-practicing

    - Becoming a consistent speaker

    Elements of Practice Systems

    - Setting specific days/times for practice

    - Recording practices for feedback loops

    Flow and Delivery

    - Importance of mapped-out flow

    - Focusing on delivery over structure

    Example of a Personal Prep System

    - Detailed personal preparation system

    - Use of spreadsheets for different speaking engagements

    Content Creation and Review

    - Creating new content vs. recycling old content

    - Allocating time for content creation and reviews

    Practice and Anticipating Audience Questions

    - Running through the presentation

    - Preparing answers for potential questions

    Delivery

    - Examples of different types of public speaking engagements

    - Importance of systems in building proficiency in public speaking

    ]]>    Sure, here's a comprehensive sequence of topics covered in the transcript, along with sub-topic bullets for each primary topic:

    Importance of Systems in Public Speaking

    - How systems provide structure

    - Value of structure for introverts

    Role of Systems in Preparation

    - Preparing content and organizing thoughts

    - Creating clear outlines

    Components of Preparation Systems

    - Researching and creating an outline

    - Timing practice sessions

    Benefits of Regular Practice

    - Avoiding over-practicing

    - Becoming a consistent speaker

    Elements of Practice Systems

    - Setting specific days/times for practice

    - Recording practices for feedback loops

    Flow and Delivery

    - Importance of mapped-out flow

    - Focusing on delivery over structure

    Example of a Personal Prep System

    - Detailed personal preparation system

    - Use of spreadsheets for different speaking engagements

    Content Creation and Review

    - Creating new content vs. recycling old content

    - Allocating time for content creation and reviews

    Practice and Anticipating Audience Questions

    - Running through the presentation

    - Preparing answers for potential questions

    Delivery

    - Examples of different types of public speaking engagements

    - Importance of systems in building proficiency in public speaking

    ]]>    b654b202-8ca5-4f2e-afdb-e4c2b2b36037Tue, 24 Sep 2024 12:00:00 -050005:16falsefull391391    Solo Adventures in Rage TherapySolo Adventures in Rage TherapyCertainly! Here is a comprehensive sequence of topics covered in the transcript, with sub-topic bullets below each primary topic:

    ### Introduction to Smash Rooms

    - Personal interest in smash rooms

    - Past observations and friends' experiences

    - Definition and concept of smash rooms

    ### Preparing for the Smash Room Experience

    - Initial planning for a 10-minute session

    - Going alone vs. going with friends

    - Venue preparation and instructions

    - Providing overalls, helmets, and ear protection

    - Importance of covered shoes

    ### Choosing Equipment and Environment

    - Weapon selection

    - Types of weapons available: baseball bats, crowbars, sledgehammers, etc.

    - Music selection

    - Option to select Spotify music

    - Personal choice: Linkin Park

    ### Tips for Maximizing the Smash Room Experience

    - Making a list of things or people to rage about

    - Music's role in enhancing the experience

    - Examples: classical, jazz fusion, Miles Davis, Linkin Park

    - Types of items to smash

    - Glass bottles, plates, large electrical items, box fans

    ### Execution of the Smash Session

    - Importance of protective gear

    - Strategy: small vs. large items

    - Physical and emotional impact

    - Cathartic and enjoyable nature of the experience

    - Physical exertion and potential for sweating and blistering

    ### Post-Session Reflections

    - Initial 10-minute session and re-scheduling for another 20-minute session

    - Different smashing preferences (glass items, electronics, etc.)

    - Suitability for various groups

    - Individuals, couples, groups, HR professionals, therapists

    ### Conclusion

    - Overall positive experience with the venue and staff

    - Encouragement to try smash rooms, especially for introverts

    - Outro and invitation for listeners to share their experiences

    This should give you a clear and structured overview of the content covered in the transcript.

    ]]>    Certainly! Here is a comprehensive sequence of topics covered in the transcript, with sub-topic bullets below each primary topic:

    ### Introduction to Smash Rooms

    - Personal interest in smash rooms

    - Past observations and friends' experiences

    - Definition and concept of smash rooms

    ### Preparing for the Smash Room Experience

    - Initial planning for a 10-minute session

    - Going alone vs. going with friends

    - Venue preparation and instructions

    - Providing overalls, helmets, and ear protection

    - Importance of covered shoes

    ### Choosing Equipment and Environment

    - Weapon selection

    - Types of weapons available: baseball bats, crowbars, sledgehammers, etc.

    - Music selection

    - Option to select Spotify music

    - Personal choice: Linkin Park

    ### Tips for Maximizing the Smash Room Experience

    - Making a list of things or people to rage about

    - Music's role in enhancing the experience

    - Examples: classical, jazz fusion, Miles Davis, Linkin Park

    - Types of items to smash

    - Glass bottles, plates, large electrical items, box fans

    ### Execution of the Smash Session

    - Importance of protective gear

    - Strategy: small vs. large items

    - Physical and emotional impact

    - Cathartic and enjoyable nature of the experience

    - Physical exertion and potential for sweating and blistering

    ### Post-Session Reflections

    - Initial 10-minute session and re-scheduling for another 20-minute session

    - Different smashing preferences (glass items, electronics, etc.)

    - Suitability for various groups

    - Individuals, couples, groups, HR professionals, therapists

    ### Conclusion

    - Overall positive experience with the venue and staff

    - Encouragement to try smash rooms, especially for introverts

    - Outro and invitation for listeners to share their experiences

    This should give you a clear and structured overview of the content covered in the transcript.

    ]]>    24de6c09-399a-4bec-a4a9-62e4557f7570Tue, 17 Sep 2024 12:00:00 -050005:36falsefull390390    Unlocking Your Unique Concentration StrategyUnlocking Your Unique Concentration StrategyIntroduction to Concentration

    - Importance of concentration for productivity and achieving goals

    - Individual strategies and trial and error

    - Impact of different tasks, time, and conditions on concentration

    - Factors affecting concentration

    Environmental Factors

    - Quiet spaces vs. background noise

    - Music without lyrics

    - Music with lyrics

    - White noise

    - Coffee shop noise

    Time Management Techniques

    - Pomodoro Technique

    - 25 minutes on, 5 minutes off

    - Longer breaks after two-hour periods

    - Time Blocking

    - Working on specific tasks during assigned time slots

    - Extended Deep Work Sessions

    - Sessions of 50 minutes to 90 minutes

    Physical Health Considerations

    - Importance of taking breaks

    - Getting up every 30 minutes

    - Resting eyes and looking into the distance

    - Hydration

    - Importance of well-fed and hydrated brain

    - Regular physical activity

    - Short walks

    - Use of standing desks

    Mindfulness and Meditation

    - Short breaks for mindfulness

    - Benefits of meditation for concentration

    ask Management

    - Breaking big projects into smaller, manageable chunks

    - Creating a sense of accomplishment with smaller tasks

    Experimentation and Adjustment

    - Identifying peak focus times during the day

    - Trying different concentration techniques

    - Tracking effectiveness

    - Logging focus times and productivity

    - Making adjustments based on tracked data


    ]]>    Introduction to Concentration

    - Importance of concentration for productivity and achieving goals

    - Individual strategies and trial and error

    - Impact of different tasks, time, and conditions on concentration

    - Factors affecting concentration

    Environmental Factors

    - Quiet spaces vs. background noise

    - Music without lyrics

    - Music with lyrics

    - White noise

    - Coffee shop noise

    Time Management Techniques

    - Pomodoro Technique

    - 25 minutes on, 5 minutes off

    - Longer breaks after two-hour periods

    - Time Blocking

    - Working on specific tasks during assigned time slots

    - Extended Deep Work Sessions

    - Sessions of 50 minutes to 90 minutes

    Physical Health Considerations

    - Importance of taking breaks

    - Getting up every 30 minutes

    - Resting eyes and looking into the distance

    - Hydration

    - Importance of well-fed and hydrated brain

    - Regular physical activity

    - Short walks

    - Use of standing desks

    Mindfulness and Meditation

    - Short breaks for mindfulness

    - Benefits of meditation for concentration

    ask Management

    - Breaking big projects into smaller, manageable chunks

    - Creating a sense of accomplishment with smaller tasks

    Experimentation and Adjustment

    - Identifying peak focus times during the day

    - Trying different concentration techniques

    - Tracking effectiveness

    - Logging focus times and productivity

    - Making adjustments based on tracked data


    ]]>    2438c4a4-539c-4e22-b709-55f6d26676fdTue, 10 Sep 2024 12:00:00 -050005:26falsefull389389    Finding Focus with Online Coworking SessionsFinding Focus with Online Coworking SessionsCertainly! Here's a comprehensive sequence of topics covered in the text, with sub-topic bullets below each primary topic:

    1. Introduction

    - Welcoming the audience to the podcast

    - Discussion focus: Procrastination and Overwhelm in Remote Work

    2. Procrastination and Overwhelm

    - Lack of structure in remote work

    - Distractions leading to procrastination

    - Overwhelm due to accumulated tasks

    3. Virtual Co-Working as a Solution

    - Introduction to virtual co-working

    - Personal experience with virtual co-working during 2020-2021

    - Different formats of virtual co-working sessions

    - Video on/off options

    - Stating intentions

    4. Benefits of Virtual Co-Working

    - Provides structure through scheduling

    - Time blocking example for focused work periods

    - Increased Focus and Motivation

    - Presence of others reducing procrastination

    - Personal example: Working on a speech for 25 minutes

    5. Using Virtual Co-Working to Your Advantage

    - Blocking out calendar time

    - Setting goals and intentions for co-working sessions

    - Tracking progress based on time spent

    6. Personalized Focus Times

    - Example: One co-working space's 50-minute focus sessions

    - Personal preference for 25-30 minute focus sessions

    7. Community and Accountability

    - Accountability and encouragement from co-working peers

    - Examples of various activities during virtual co-working

    - Chopping vegetables

    - Tidying up the office

    - Self-care activities

    8. Final Thoughts and Recommendations

    - Virtual co-working as a solution for procrastination and intentional time use

    - Encouragement to try virtual co-working or organize a session with friends

    ]]>    Certainly! Here's a comprehensive sequence of topics covered in the text, with sub-topic bullets below each primary topic:

    1. Introduction

    - Welcoming the audience to the podcast

    - Discussion focus: Procrastination and Overwhelm in Remote Work

    2. Procrastination and Overwhelm

    - Lack of structure in remote work

    - Distractions leading to procrastination

    - Overwhelm due to accumulated tasks

    3. Virtual Co-Working as a Solution

    - Introduction to virtual co-working

    - Personal experience with virtual co-working during 2020-2021

    - Different formats of virtual co-working sessions

    - Video on/off options

    - Stating intentions

    4. Benefits of Virtual Co-Working

    - Provides structure through scheduling

    - Time blocking example for focused work periods

    - Increased Focus and Motivation

    - Presence of others reducing procrastination

    - Personal example: Working on a speech for 25 minutes

    5. Using Virtual Co-Working to Your Advantage

    - Blocking out calendar time

    - Setting goals and intentions for co-working sessions

    - Tracking progress based on time spent

    6. Personalized Focus Times

    - Example: One co-working space's 50-minute focus sessions

    - Personal preference for 25-30 minute focus sessions

    7. Community and Accountability

    - Accountability and encouragement from co-working peers

    - Examples of various activities during virtual co-working

    - Chopping vegetables

    - Tidying up the office

    - Self-care activities

    8. Final Thoughts and Recommendations

    - Virtual co-working as a solution for procrastination and intentional time use

    - Encouragement to try virtual co-working or organize a session with friends

    ]]>    71bad050-87d1-4bb9-bbcb-e89bf7ac8e6cTue, 03 Sep 2024 12:00:00 -050005:19falsefull388388    Mastering Vacation Planning with ListsMastering Vacation Planning with ListsCertainly! Here's a comprehensive sequence of the topics covered in the text with sub-topic bullets:

    ### Introduction

    - Welcome to The Traveling Introvert

    - Focus on the power of lists for vacation

    - Mention of familiar travel destinations

    ### Importance of Planning Ahead

    - Planning reduces stress leading to a better vacation

    - Organization and preparation

    ### Creating and Using Lists

    - Using an app to create a list template

    - Adjusting the list annually

    - Example items to include: clothing, equipment, specialty shoes, cottage necessities

    ### First Time Travel List

    - Make a list of items and quantities

    - Review usage of items during the trip

    - Make notes on what was useful or wasted

    ### Note to Future Self

    - Janice's personal example of notes for next year

    - Benefits of saving money by avoiding unnecessary purchases

    ### Breaking Down the List

    - Separate lists for:

    - Items to buy for every trip

    - Stores for purchasing items

    - Items to pack

    - Clothing, food, and drink

    - Tech items like Chromecast and night lights

    ### Morning Of Preparation

    - Importance of a morning of checklist

    - Critical items and tasks (e.g., switching off water, watering plants)

    - Avoiding last-minute forgetfulness

    ### Post-Vacation Review

    - Quick review upon return

    - Evaluating what worked and what didn’t

    - Financial considerations (cash, cards, apps)

    - Continuous improvement of the list

    ### Conclusion

    - Summary of the benefits of lists

    - Encouragement to use lists for personal activities like vacations

    - Sign-off and reminder of podcast’s theme (helping listeners build their brand and get hired)

    By breaking down the text into these primary topics and subtopics, it can be easily navigated and understood.

    ]]>    Certainly! Here's a comprehensive sequence of the topics covered in the text with sub-topic bullets:

    ### Introduction

    - Welcome to The Traveling Introvert

    - Focus on the power of lists for vacation

    - Mention of familiar travel destinations

    ### Importance of Planning Ahead

    - Planning reduces stress leading to a better vacation

    - Organization and preparation

    ### Creating and Using Lists

    - Using an app to create a list template

    - Adjusting the list annually

    - Example items to include: clothing, equipment, specialty shoes, cottage necessities

    ### First Time Travel List

    - Make a list of items and quantities

    - Review usage of items during the trip

    - Make notes on what was useful or wasted

    ### Note to Future Self

    - Janice's personal example of notes for next year

    - Benefits of saving money by avoiding unnecessary purchases

    ### Breaking Down the List

    - Separate lists for:

    - Items to buy for every trip

    - Stores for purchasing items

    - Items to pack

    - Clothing, food, and drink

    - Tech items like Chromecast and night lights

    ### Morning Of Preparation

    - Importance of a morning of checklist

    - Critical items and tasks (e.g., switching off water, watering plants)

    - Avoiding last-minute forgetfulness

    ### Post-Vacation Review

    - Quick review upon return

    - Evaluating what worked and what didn’t

    - Financial considerations (cash, cards, apps)

    - Continuous improvement of the list

    ### Conclusion

    - Summary of the benefits of lists

    - Encouragement to use lists for personal activities like vacations

    - Sign-off and reminder of podcast’s theme (helping listeners build their brand and get hired)

    By breaking down the text into these primary topics and subtopics, it can be easily navigated and understood.

    ]]>    38ab5aa6-c633-4150-9ccf-a849a3beeaebTue, 27 Aug 2024 12:00:00 -050005:35falsefull387387    Simplifying Travel with the Two-Is-One RuleSimplifying Travel with the Two-Is-One RuleCertainly! Below is a comprehensive sequence of topics covered in the transcript along with sub-topic bullets.

    ### Introduction

    - Introduction to the podcast and episode

    - Explanation of the travel rule: "One is none and two is one"

    ### Application of the Travel Rule

    - Origin in military/survival contexts

    - Relevance to frequent travelers

    ### Examples and Practical Tips

    - **Phone Chargers:**

    - Importance of having multiple chargers

    - Scenarios where a single charger is insufficient

    - Recommendation to buy multiple chargers if you find one you like

    - **Toiletries:**

    - Having a separate set of travel-sized toiletries

    - Keeping travel toiletries ready to decrease mental load

    - Suggestion to include extras like a toothbrush and toothpaste

    - **Cords and Cables:**

    - Suggestion to have spare cords for multiple devices (laptop, phone, watch)

    - Keeping a small pack with all necessary chargers

    - Use of organized storage like a Ziploc bag or travel bag

    - **Backup Technology:**

    - Importance of keeping backups for essential tech like computers

    - Ensuring backups are kept updated in the cloud or on external drives

    ### Clothing and Travel Gear

    - **Uniform/Essential Clothing:**

    - Having a set of clothes specifically for travel

    - Preparing outfits for different travel durations

    ### Benefits of the Travel Rule

    - Avoidance of emergencies

    - Decrease in mental load and stress

    - Peace of mind knowing essentials are covered

    ### Maintenance and Rotation of Travel Items

    - Regular check-ups every three months

    - Ensuring everything is functional and up-to-date

    ### Closing Remarks

    - Invitation for listeners to share their travel tips and experiences

    - Contact information provided for feedback and communication

    - Signing off with greetings

    This sequence effectively captures the structure and key points discussed in the transcript.

    ]]>    Certainly! Below is a comprehensive sequence of topics covered in the transcript along with sub-topic bullets.

    ### Introduction

    - Introduction to the podcast and episode

    - Explanation of the travel rule: "One is none and two is one"

    ### Application of the Travel Rule

    - Origin in military/survival contexts

    - Relevance to frequent travelers

    ### Examples and Practical Tips

    - **Phone Chargers:**

    - Importance of having multiple chargers

    - Scenarios where a single charger is insufficient

    - Recommendation to buy multiple chargers if you find one you like

    - **Toiletries:**

    - Having a separate set of travel-sized toiletries

    - Keeping travel toiletries ready to decrease mental load

    - Suggestion to include extras like a toothbrush and toothpaste

    - **Cords and Cables:**

    - Suggestion to have spare cords for multiple devices (laptop, phone, watch)

    - Keeping a small pack with all necessary chargers

    - Use of organized storage like a Ziploc bag or travel bag

    - **Backup Technology:**

    - Importance of keeping backups for essential tech like computers

    - Ensuring backups are kept updated in the cloud or on external drives

    ### Clothing and Travel Gear

    - **Uniform/Essential Clothing:**

    - Having a set of clothes specifically for travel

    - Preparing outfits for different travel durations

    ### Benefits of the Travel Rule

    - Avoidance of emergencies

    - Decrease in mental load and stress

    - Peace of mind knowing essentials are covered

    ### Maintenance and Rotation of Travel Items

    - Regular check-ups every three months

    - Ensuring everything is functional and up-to-date

    ### Closing Remarks

    - Invitation for listeners to share their travel tips and experiences

    - Contact information provided for feedback and communication

    - Signing off with greetings

    This sequence effectively captures the structure and key points discussed in the transcript.

    ]]>    17d35f9f-35d1-4c9a-96d8-4f2b75b97fd8Tue, 20 Aug 2024 12:00:00 -050005:32falsefull386386    Avoiding Burnout by DesignAvoiding Burnout by DesignAbsolutely! Here's a comprehensive sequence of the topics covered in the podcast transcript, broken down into primary topics with sub-topics:

    1. **Introduction**

    - Welcoming the audience

    - Episode topic: Building a lifestyle-centric business

    2. **Common Business Startup Approaches**

    - Focus on making money

    - Filling a need quickly

    - Achieving success by filling the calendar with meetings and urgent tasks

    3. **Consequences of Traditional Business Approaches**

    - Burnout arising from a packed schedule and urgent tasks

    - Description of burnout: chronic fatigue, cynicism, efficacy issues, brain fog, lack of creativity

    - Stages of burnout and the difficulty of recovery

    4. **Importance of a Lifestyle-Centric Business**

    - Avoiding burnout or making it short-term

    - The role of personal control over business in mitigating burnout

    5. **Defining a Lifestyle-Centric Business**

    - Considering personal priorities and values:

    - Example: time off in summers for family or winters for travel

    - Balancing work with volunteer activities

    - Identifying important time frames, seasons, and activities

    6. **Assessing Personal Work Preferences**

    - Optimal working hours: evenings vs. mornings

    - Preferred modes of communication: asynchronous, emails, phone calls

    - Aligning business tasks with personal preferences to avoid stress

    7. **Strategic Business Planning**

    - Considering current available time and mental bandwidth

    - Choosing services and products based on the time and energy they require

    - Aligning business operations with:

    - Preferred times of day

    - Desired client types

    - Enjoyable tasks and activities

    - Ensuring regular rest periods and time off

    8. **Creating a Custom Business Model**

    - Tailoring business activities to personal lifestyle needs

    - Example strategies:

    - Regurgitating content

    - Hosting guests

    - Other customizable options to ensure time off

    9. **Conclusion**

    - Encouragement to reflect on potential changes in business to match lifestyle needs

    - Sign-off and best wishes from the host

    ]]>    Absolutely! Here's a comprehensive sequence of the topics covered in the podcast transcript, broken down into primary topics with sub-topics:

    1. **Introduction**

    - Welcoming the audience

    - Episode topic: Building a lifestyle-centric business

    2. **Common Business Startup Approaches**

    - Focus on making money

    - Filling a need quickly

    - Achieving success by filling the calendar with meetings and urgent tasks

    3. **Consequences of Traditional Business Approaches**

    - Burnout arising from a packed schedule and urgent tasks

    - Description of burnout: chronic fatigue, cynicism, efficacy issues, brain fog, lack of creativity

    - Stages of burnout and the difficulty of recovery

    4. **Importance of a Lifestyle-Centric Business**

    - Avoiding burnout or making it short-term

    - The role of personal control over business in mitigating burnout

    5. **Defining a Lifestyle-Centric Business**

    - Considering personal priorities and values:

    - Example: time off in summers for family or winters for travel

    - Balancing work with volunteer activities

    - Identifying important time frames, seasons, and activities

    6. **Assessing Personal Work Preferences**

    - Optimal working hours: evenings vs. mornings

    - Preferred modes of communication: asynchronous, emails, phone calls

    - Aligning business tasks with personal preferences to avoid stress

    7. **Strategic Business Planning**

    - Considering current available time and mental bandwidth

    - Choosing services and products based on the time and energy they require

    - Aligning business operations with:

    - Preferred times of day

    - Desired client types

    - Enjoyable tasks and activities

    - Ensuring regular rest periods and time off

    8. **Creating a Custom Business Model**

    - Tailoring business activities to personal lifestyle needs

    - Example strategies:

    - Regurgitating content

    - Hosting guests

    - Other customizable options to ensure time off

    9. **Conclusion**

    - Encouragement to reflect on potential changes in business to match lifestyle needs

    - Sign-off and best wishes from the host

    ]]>    4781bd88-e082-426a-b53f-1b6b04a266fbTue, 13 Aug 2024 12:00:00 -050005:28falsefull385385    Why Looking Forward MattersWhy Looking Forward MattersCertainly! Here's the comprehensive sequence of topics covered in the transcript, with sub-topics listed under each primary topic:

    ### Introduction

    - Welcome to the Traveling Introvert podcast

    - Episode focus: Anticipation

    ### The Importance of Anticipation

    - Explanation of why anticipation is a common topic at networking events

    - Observations on how people react to questions about what they look forward to

    - The mental health benefits of having something to look forward to

    ### COVID-19 Context

    - The impact of COVID-19 on people's sense of anticipation

    - The psychological need for end dates and certainty

    ### Practical Tips for Cultivating Anticipation

    - Importance of having a hard date and time for something to look forward to

    - Example activities to anticipate:

    - Upcoming movie releases

    - Solitary time

    - Staycations

    ### Tools to Aid Anticipation

    - Using calendars to keep track of events

    - Mobile apps with countdown features

    - How countdown apps reinforce anticipation

    - The psychological benefits of seeing progress toward a goal

    ### Recommendations

    - Choosing events or activities to anticipate

    - Guidelines: within 14 days to 6 weeks

    - Personal importance over public significance

    - Setting reminders and customizing countdown apps

    - Encouragement to keep finding new things to look forward to

    - The cycle of positive anticipation effects

    ### Conclusion

    - Summary of benefits from daily small joys and positive anticipation

    - Sign-off and call to action: follow Janice at the Career Introvert for more tips

    ]]>    Certainly! Here's the comprehensive sequence of topics covered in the transcript, with sub-topics listed under each primary topic:

    ### Introduction

    - Welcome to the Traveling Introvert podcast

    - Episode focus: Anticipation

    ### The Importance of Anticipation

    - Explanation of why anticipation is a common topic at networking events

    - Observations on how people react to questions about what they look forward to

    - The mental health benefits of having something to look forward to

    ### COVID-19 Context

    - The impact of COVID-19 on people's sense of anticipation

    - The psychological need for end dates and certainty

    ### Practical Tips for Cultivating Anticipation

    - Importance of having a hard date and time for something to look forward to

    - Example activities to anticipate:

    - Upcoming movie releases

    - Solitary time

    - Staycations

    ### Tools to Aid Anticipation

    - Using calendars to keep track of events

    - Mobile apps with countdown features

    - How countdown apps reinforce anticipation

    - The psychological benefits of seeing progress toward a goal

    ### Recommendations

    - Choosing events or activities to anticipate

    - Guidelines: within 14 days to 6 weeks

    - Personal importance over public significance

    - Setting reminders and customizing countdown apps

    - Encouragement to keep finding new things to look forward to

    - The cycle of positive anticipation effects

    ### Conclusion

    - Summary of benefits from daily small joys and positive anticipation

    - Sign-off and call to action: follow Janice at the Career Introvert for more tips

    ]]>    d14d3982-cd01-40fc-83c0-86fd005db198Tue, 06 Aug 2024 12:00:00 -050005:25falsefull384384    Building Sustainable Relationships with the 531 RuleBuilding Sustainable Relationships with the 531 Rule**Sequence of Topics Covered in "5 3 1 rule" Episode:**

    1. **Introduction to the Episode**

    - Welcome message

    - Introduction of the 531 rule

    - Goals of using the 531 rule for social health and networking

    2. **Explanation of the 531 Rule**

    - **The "5" Component**

    - Spending time with 5 different people a week

    - Flexible scheduling (cram into one day or spread out)

    - Diversity in social connections

    - Examples of interactions (friends, family, coworkers, neighbors)

    - Encouragement to branch out beyond immediate circle

    - **The "3" Component**

    - Nurturing 3 close relationships

    - Importance for introverts to have deeper relationships

    - Strategies for nurturing (messaging, support)

    - Each relationship requires different nurturing approaches

    - Intentionality in reaching out

    - **The "1" Component**

    - Aim for 1 hour of quality connection every day

    - Flexibility in how the hour is divided (e.g., 10 minutes chunks)

    - Focus on meaningful, quality interactions

    - Adaptation to different personal schedules and connections

    3. **Purpose and Flexibility of the 531 Rule**

    - Explanation that the rule is a guideline, not strict

    - Acknowledgment of individual differences and circumstances

    - Flexibility for alterations based on personal life

    4. **Benefits of Adopting the 531 Rule**

    - Sustainability in building and maintaining networks

    - Importance for job opportunities and networking

    - General human well-being

    5. **Challenge to Listeners**

    - Encouragement to spend an hour of quality time per day

    - Closing message and thanks to listeners

    - Reminder of the podcast’s purpose (helping build personal brand and get hired)

    This structure encapsulates the main topics and sub-topics discussed in the episode, providing a clear and comprehensive sequence of the content covered by Janice Chaka.

    ]]>    **Sequence of Topics Covered in "5 3 1 rule" Episode:**

    1. **Introduction to the Episode**

    - Welcome message

    - Introduction of the 531 rule

    - Goals of using the 531 rule for social health and networking

    2. **Explanation of the 531 Rule**

    - **The "5" Component**

    - Spending time with 5 different people a week

    - Flexible scheduling (cram into one day or spread out)

    - Diversity in social connections

    - Examples of interactions (friends, family, coworkers, neighbors)

    - Encouragement to branch out beyond immediate circle

    - **The "3" Component**

    - Nurturing 3 close relationships

    - Importance for introverts to have deeper relationships

    - Strategies for nurturing (messaging, support)

    - Each relationship requires different nurturing approaches

    - Intentionality in reaching out

    - **The "1" Component**

    - Aim for 1 hour of quality connection every day

    - Flexibility in how the hour is divided (e.g., 10 minutes chunks)

    - Focus on meaningful, quality interactions

    - Adaptation to different personal schedules and connections

    3. **Purpose and Flexibility of the 531 Rule**

    - Explanation that the rule is a guideline, not strict

    - Acknowledgment of individual differences and circumstances

    - Flexibility for alterations based on personal life

    4. **Benefits of Adopting the 531 Rule**

    - Sustainability in building and maintaining networks

    - Importance for job opportunities and networking

    - General human well-being

    5. **Challenge to Listeners**

    - Encouragement to spend an hour of quality time per day

    - Closing message and thanks to listeners

    - Reminder of the podcast’s purpose (helping build personal brand and get hired)

    This structure encapsulates the main topics and sub-topics discussed in the episode, providing a clear and comprehensive sequence of the content covered by Janice Chaka.

    ]]>    e8247011-d078-460e-9a41-dbd2a0f2a6c0Tue, 30 Jul 2024 12:00:00 -050005:28falsefull383383    Finding Peace in Restorative IdlenessFinding Peace in Restorative IdlenessCertainly! Here is a comprehensive sequence of topics covered in the transcript, with sub-topic bullets below each primary topic:

    1. **Introduction to the Episode**

    - Welcoming listeners to "The Traveling Introvert"

    - Introducing today's topic: "Restorative Idleness"

    2. **Definition of Restorative Idleness**

    - Explanation of what restorative idleness is

    - Importance of being still to recharge and rejuvenate

    - Difference between idleness and laziness

    3. **Restorative Idleness vs. Laziness**

    - Laziness as unintentional and linked to procrastination

    - Restorative idleness as a deliberate choice to rest and reset

    - Importance of giving oneself permission to rest

    4. **Benefits of Restorative Idleness**

    - Increased productivity, creativity, and well-being

    - Science behind idleness: reducing stress and anxiety levels

    - Importance of daydreaming for mental processing and resetting

    5. **Restorative Idleness and Creativity**

    - Downtime essential for creativity

    - Allowing the mind to wander to make new connections and ideas

    6. **Preventing Burnout and Maintaining Emotional Balance**

    - Importance of rest after social interactions or busy environments

    - Effect of overstimulation and the need for quiet time to regroup

    7. **Integrating Restorative Idleness into Daily Routine**

    - Recommendations for starting with small periods of idleness

    - Examples of activities that facilitate restorative idleness:

    - Quiet time without meditating

    - Sitting in a park

    - Staring out the window

    - Scheduling downtime and treating it as important as any task

    ]]>    Certainly! Here is a comprehensive sequence of topics covered in the transcript, with sub-topic bullets below each primary topic:

    1. **Introduction to the Episode**

    - Welcoming listeners to "The Traveling Introvert"

    - Introducing today's topic: "Restorative Idleness"

    2. **Definition of Restorative Idleness**

    - Explanation of what restorative idleness is

    - Importance of being still to recharge and rejuvenate

    - Difference between idleness and laziness

    3. **Restorative Idleness vs. Laziness**

    - Laziness as unintentional and linked to procrastination

    - Restorative idleness as a deliberate choice to rest and reset

    - Importance of giving oneself permission to rest

    4. **Benefits of Restorative Idleness**

    - Increased productivity, creativity, and well-being

    - Science behind idleness: reducing stress and anxiety levels

    - Importance of daydreaming for mental processing and resetting

    5. **Restorative Idleness and Creativity**

    - Downtime essential for creativity

    - Allowing the mind to wander to make new connections and ideas

    6. **Preventing Burnout and Maintaining Emotional Balance**

    - Importance of rest after social interactions or busy environments

    - Effect of overstimulation and the need for quiet time to regroup

    7. **Integrating Restorative Idleness into Daily Routine**

    - Recommendations for starting with small periods of idleness

    - Examples of activities that facilitate restorative idleness:

    - Quiet time without meditating

    - Sitting in a park

    - Staring out the window

    - Scheduling downtime and treating it as important as any task

    ]]>    7ffc5e65-e2ab-44ef-82a7-d9981f62d488Tue, 23 Jul 2024 12:00:00 -050005:30falsefull382382    Effective Categorization for Clarity and FocusEffective Categorization for Clarity and FocusHow to Get Out of Overwhelm: "Think about all the things on your plate, sort of all the things you're thinking about, things in the back of your head, what you have to order, dinner, things you have to take care of, appointments you need to make, as well as the work and the tasks that you have to do just to sort of have your job or to keep your career going or to keep your company going."

    — Janice Chaka [00:00:51 → 00:01:10]

    The Importance of Categorizing Tasks for Mental Health: "When you can categorize your tasks, it can provide clarity."

    — Janice Chaka [00:02:03 → 00:02:07]

    **Boosting Productivity for Introverts**: "List everything, all your tasks and responsibilities, go ahead and categorize them, evaluate them on the importance and urgency and length of each task, and then prioritize which task to focus on, delegate, and or eliminate."

    — Janice Chaka [00:04:43 → 00:04:55]

    How to Handle Being Overwhelmed: "Isn't it a great thing for you to do to stop you feeling overwhelmed?"

    — Janice Chaka [00:04:56 → 00:04:59]

    ]]>    How to Get Out of Overwhelm: "Think about all the things on your plate, sort of all the things you're thinking about, things in the back of your head, what you have to order, dinner, things you have to take care of, appointments you need to make, as well as the work and the tasks that you have to do just to sort of have your job or to keep your career going or to keep your company going."

    — Janice Chaka [00:00:51 → 00:01:10]

    The Importance of Categorizing Tasks for Mental Health: "When you can categorize your tasks, it can provide clarity."

    — Janice Chaka [00:02:03 → 00:02:07]

    **Boosting Productivity for Introverts**: "List everything, all your tasks and responsibilities, go ahead and categorize them, evaluate them on the importance and urgency and length of each task, and then prioritize which task to focus on, delegate, and or eliminate."

    — Janice Chaka [00:04:43 → 00:04:55]

    How to Handle Being Overwhelmed: "Isn't it a great thing for you to do to stop you feeling overwhelmed?"

    — Janice Chaka [00:04:56 → 00:04:59]

    ]]>    fbbbdf53-a448-40fc-9351-97f81fe79596Tue, 16 Jul 2024 12:00:00 -050005:27falsefull381381    Mapping Your Personal Development JourneyMapping Your Personal Development JourneyIn this episode of The Traveling Introvert, the discussion centers around the importance of prioritizing personal and professional development. Key points include:

    1. Self-Prioritization: Emphasizing the need to regularly make oneself a priority and not see it as selfish.

    2. Vision Clarification: Encouraging listeners to envision their desired future and lifestyle, and align their career aspirations accordingly.

    3. Documenting Goals: Stressing the importance of writing down goals and creating a plan to achieve them.

    4. Strengths Over Weaknesses: Advising an effective focus on enhancing strengths rather than just fixing weaknesses, and the utility of performing a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats).

    5. Purpose and Goals: Highlighting the process of setting goals to discover one's purpose and maintain motivation.

    6. Mental Health Benefits: Pointing out that having a clear direction can improve mental health by providing a sense of purpose.

    7. Relationships and Resources: Considering the necessary relationships and resources required to achieve the desired life and career.


    Listeners are encouraged to take 30 minutes to draft a personal development plan, focusing on what they want to achieve and why, to improve their overall well-being and career satisfaction.

    ]]>    In this episode of The Traveling Introvert, the discussion centers around the importance of prioritizing personal and professional development. Key points include:

    1. Self-Prioritization: Emphasizing the need to regularly make oneself a priority and not see it as selfish.

    2. Vision Clarification: Encouraging listeners to envision their desired future and lifestyle, and align their career aspirations accordingly.

    3. Documenting Goals: Stressing the importance of writing down goals and creating a plan to achieve them.

    4. Strengths Over Weaknesses: Advising an effective focus on enhancing strengths rather than just fixing weaknesses, and the utility of performing a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats).

    5. Purpose and Goals: Highlighting the process of setting goals to discover one's purpose and maintain motivation.

    6. Mental Health Benefits: Pointing out that having a clear direction can improve mental health by providing a sense of purpose.

    7. Relationships and Resources: Considering the necessary relationships and resources required to achieve the desired life and career.


    Listeners are encouraged to take 30 minutes to draft a personal development plan, focusing on what they want to achieve and why, to improve their overall well-being and career satisfaction.

    ]]>    a90b5032-e345-4f97-9388-9a04281a62e4Tue, 09 Jul 2024 12:00:00 -050005:32falsefull380380    Career Conversations with Matt McCarthyCareer Conversations with Matt McCarthyMatt McCarthy is the founder and president of Questful, a personal coaching and business consulting organization focused on the continued quest toward mission and purpose.

    His business consulting is underpinned by 25+ years in business transformation-related roles at organizations of all sizes, across nearly a dozen different industries, as well as by an MBA from Penn State.


    In parallel, he has spent well over 10 years studying achievement, wellbeing, and health from the perspectives of psychology, nutrition, neurology, physiology, and mindfulness, making connections between these diverse fields to help others on their quest.


    His latest project is the culmination of 5 years studying the reasons we get stuck achieving our goals, and how to break through those areas.


    Social media links

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkmccarthy/

    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matt.mccarthy.752

    Instagram: @questfullife


    Link to website

    questful.life


    00:00 Energizing introvert interested in things and transactions.

    05:04 Traumatic events led to coaching for overcoming obstacles.

    08:49 Maintaining emotional well-being through self-care and balance.

    12:12 Mindfulness, meditation, walking in nature, journaling.

    16:21 Realizing emotional drain, seeking social media help.

    17:35 Express anticipation for change, urge balance. Hot dog: sandwich?

    ]]>    Matt McCarthy is the founder and president of Questful, a personal coaching and business consulting organization focused on the continued quest toward mission and purpose.

    His business consulting is underpinned by 25+ years in business transformation-related roles at organizations of all sizes, across nearly a dozen different industries, as well as by an MBA from Penn State.


    In parallel, he has spent well over 10 years studying achievement, wellbeing, and health from the perspectives of psychology, nutrition, neurology, physiology, and mindfulness, making connections between these diverse fields to help others on their quest.


    His latest project is the culmination of 5 years studying the reasons we get stuck achieving our goals, and how to break through those areas.


    Social media links

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkmccarthy/

    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matt.mccarthy.752

    Instagram: @questfullife


    Link to website

    questful.life


    00:00 Energizing introvert interested in things and transactions.

    05:04 Traumatic events led to coaching for overcoming obstacles.

    08:49 Maintaining emotional well-being through self-care and balance.

    12:12 Mindfulness, meditation, walking in nature, journaling.

    16:21 Realizing emotional drain, seeking social media help.

    17:35 Express anticipation for change, urge balance. Hot dog: sandwich?

    ]]>    e939ad89-1c9e-4469-a736-38480a1fd787Tue, 02 Jul 2024 12:00:00 -050020:36falsefull379379    Expressing Ideas and Standing FirmExpressing Ideas and Standing FirmKey Takeaways:

    1. **Preparation is Key**: Clearly define your ideas and gather supporting evidence. Anticipate counterarguments and prepare your responses in advance.

    2. **Choose the Right Communication Channel**: Whether it's a one-on-one conversation, a written document, or a voicemail, select the method that best suits your message.

    3. **Active Listening**: Understand the other person's perspective and frame your arguments accordingly. This helps in maintaining a constructive dialogue.

    4. **Remain Calm and Composed**: State your position clearly and support your arguments with credible information. Respectfully acknowledge valid points from the other side.

    5. **Seek Common Ground**: Identify areas of agreement and work towards mutual compromise. Emphasize shared goals to build a connection.

    ]]>    Key Takeaways:

    1. **Preparation is Key**: Clearly define your ideas and gather supporting evidence. Anticipate counterarguments and prepare your responses in advance.

    2. **Choose the Right Communication Channel**: Whether it's a one-on-one conversation, a written document, or a voicemail, select the method that best suits your message.

    3. **Active Listening**: Understand the other person's perspective and frame your arguments accordingly. This helps in maintaining a constructive dialogue.

    4. **Remain Calm and Composed**: State your position clearly and support your arguments with credible information. Respectfully acknowledge valid points from the other side.

    5. **Seek Common Ground**: Identify areas of agreement and work towards mutual compromise. Emphasize shared goals to build a connection.

    ]]>    56c982c6-930c-4d75-92d9-775ee7a886f8Tue, 25 Jun 2024 12:00:00 -050005:11falsefull378378    Building a Career RoadmapBuilding a Career Roadmap🌟 Career growth doesn't have a one-size-fits-all path! 🌟

    In the latest episode of The Traveling Introvert, I explored different strategies for advancing your career in a way that suits your unique journey. Remember, there's no universal way to achieve career success. Here are three key takeaways from the episode to help you craft a career strategy that works for you:

    🔍 **Assess Your Current Situation**:

    - Evaluate your skills and strengths.

    - Identify areas for improvement and align them with your goals.

    - Tailor your development plans to move in the right direction.

    🤝 **Build A Solid Professional Network**:

    - Focus on building and maintaining meaningful relationships.

    - Leverage your network for support, advice, and opportunities.

    - Giving back is just as important as leveraging your connections.

    📚 **Commit to Continuous Learning**:

    - Always strive to learn new skills, whether in your field or an adjacent one.

    - Stay updated on relevant skills and new technologies.

    - Seek and embrace constructive criticism to fuel your growth.


    ]]>    🌟 Career growth doesn't have a one-size-fits-all path! 🌟

    In the latest episode of The Traveling Introvert, I explored different strategies for advancing your career in a way that suits your unique journey. Remember, there's no universal way to achieve career success. Here are three key takeaways from the episode to help you craft a career strategy that works for you:

    🔍 **Assess Your Current Situation**:

    - Evaluate your skills and strengths.

    - Identify areas for improvement and align them with your goals.

    - Tailor your development plans to move in the right direction.

    🤝 **Build A Solid Professional Network**:

    - Focus on building and maintaining meaningful relationships.

    - Leverage your network for support, advice, and opportunities.

    - Giving back is just as important as leveraging your connections.

    📚 **Commit to Continuous Learning**:

    - Always strive to learn new skills, whether in your field or an adjacent one.

    - Stay updated on relevant skills and new technologies.

    - Seek and embrace constructive criticism to fuel your growth.


    ]]>    f01ea34e-c13b-42a2-9801-2ae420889d0eTue, 18 Jun 2024 12:00:00 -050005:07falsefull377377    Why Business Owners Should Recognize Their Leadership StatusWhy Business Owners Should Recognize Their Leadership StatusCertainly! Below is a comprehensive sequence of topics covered in the podcast episode "business owners are leaders," with sub-topic bullets under each primary topic:

    ### Introduction

    - Recognition of business owners' questions about senior leadership

    - Common misconceptions about leadership among business owners

    ### Defining Leadership for Business Owners

    - Business owners' roles in strategic vision and decision making

    - Multifaceted responsibilities akin to senior leadership roles

    - Head of marketing

    - Head of sales

    - Customer fulfillment service

    - Leadership of teams

    ### Influence and Impact

    - Influence on organization and community

    - Strategic decisions shaping direction and culture

    - Applicable to both small and larger organizations

    ### Misconceptions about Leadership

    - Lack of vision or clarity doesn't mean lack of leadership

    - Ways to gain clarity

    - Peers and organizational members

    - Coaches and mentors

    - Educational resources: podcasts, books, etc.

    ### Solopreneurs and Leadership

    - Equating leadership with leading people

    - Leadership without a traditional team

    - Influence on customers and clients

    - Leading through expertise and product/service engagement

    ### Embracing Leadership Identity

    - Recognizing and embracing the role of a leader as an entrepreneur

    - The importance of confidence and inspiration

    - Combining confidence with humility and curiosity

    ### Closing Thoughts

    - Encouragement to business owners to see themselves as leaders

    - Invitation to fully engage with leadership development resources

    ]]>    Certainly! Below is a comprehensive sequence of topics covered in the podcast episode "business owners are leaders," with sub-topic bullets under each primary topic:

    ### Introduction

    - Recognition of business owners' questions about senior leadership

    - Common misconceptions about leadership among business owners

    ### Defining Leadership for Business Owners

    - Business owners' roles in strategic vision and decision making

    - Multifaceted responsibilities akin to senior leadership roles

    - Head of marketing

    - Head of sales

    - Customer fulfillment service

    - Leadership of teams

    ### Influence and Impact

    - Influence on organization and community

    - Strategic decisions shaping direction and culture

    - Applicable to both small and larger organizations

    ### Misconceptions about Leadership

    - Lack of vision or clarity doesn't mean lack of leadership

    - Ways to gain clarity

    - Peers and organizational members

    - Coaches and mentors

    - Educational resources: podcasts, books, etc.

    ### Solopreneurs and Leadership

    - Equating leadership with leading people

    - Leadership without a traditional team

    - Influence on customers and clients

    - Leading through expertise and product/service engagement

    ### Embracing Leadership Identity

    - Recognizing and embracing the role of a leader as an entrepreneur

    - The importance of confidence and inspiration

    - Combining confidence with humility and curiosity

    ### Closing Thoughts

    - Encouragement to business owners to see themselves as leaders

    - Invitation to fully engage with leadership development resources

    ]]>    a4de0095-5ac1-466a-be42-61f30d727db4Tue, 11 Jun 2024 12:00:00 -050005:06falsefull376376    Career Conversations with Christine ReedCareer Conversations with Christine ReedChristine Reed is a thruhiker, trailrunner, vanlifer and author. She tours the country doing speaking engagements to promote women in the outdoors and her two books. Between those events, she recharges by running away into the woods for some alone time with nature.

    Social media links

    instagram and tiktok @ruggedoutdoorswoman

    Link to website

    www.ruggedoutdoorswoman.com


    **Comprehensive Sequence of Topics**

    1. **Christine Reed's Reluctance to Film Emotional Experiences**

    - Prefers to process and share through writing and poetry

    - Discussion of human behavior's voyeuristic nature

    2. **Career Journey of Christine Reed**

    - Early career in a desk job

    - Inspiration from an Appalachian Trail blog

    - Transition to hiking, living in a van, and writing a book

    - Expansion into a publishing company

    3. **Connecting with People Through Personal Stories**

    - Value of sharing personal stories

    - Inspiration behind helping others publish their stories

    - Support for women’s outdoor stories due to lack of big publishers

    4. **Healing and Solace in Nature**

    - Hiking as a core part of her life

    - Living in a van and choosing a smaller van due to financial reasons

    - Quilt made by her mother as a source of peace

    5. **"Sandwich Punch" Game and Hot Dog Debate**

    - Explanation of the game "sandwich punch"

    - Rules of the game and their relevance to the hot dog debate

    - Discussion about a hot dog being considered a sandwich

    - Host’s disbelief and humor about the game and punching an Oreo cookie

    6. **Christine's Social Media Presence**

    - Information about where listeners can find her on Instagram, TikTok, and her website

    - Discussion on commercialization of authenticity on Instagram

    - Pressure to share vulnerable moments and desire for personal processing time

    7. **Public Speaking and Introversion**

    - Moving away from giving speeches to help others in self-publishing

    - Impact of introversion on work and life

    - Balancing public speaking with alone time for energy management

    - Approach to social media based on personal comfort over algorithms

    8. **Closing Remarks**

    - Summarizing discussion by the host

    - Thanks to Christine Reed

    - Surprise question about the hot dog being a sandwich


    ]]>    Christine Reed is a thruhiker, trailrunner, vanlifer and author. She tours the country doing speaking engagements to promote women in the outdoors and her two books. Between those events, she recharges by running away into the woods for some alone time with nature.

    Social media links

    instagram and tiktok @ruggedoutdoorswoman

    Link to website

    www.ruggedoutdoorswoman.com


    **Comprehensive Sequence of Topics**

    1. **Christine Reed's Reluctance to Film Emotional Experiences**

    - Prefers to process and share through writing and poetry

    - Discussion of human behavior's voyeuristic nature

    2. **Career Journey of Christine Reed**

    - Early career in a desk job

    - Inspiration from an Appalachian Trail blog

    - Transition to hiking, living in a van, and writing a book

    - Expansion into a publishing company

    3. **Connecting with People Through Personal Stories**

    - Value of sharing personal stories

    - Inspiration behind helping others publish their stories

    - Support for women’s outdoor stories due to lack of big publishers

    4. **Healing and Solace in Nature**

    - Hiking as a core part of her life

    - Living in a van and choosing a smaller van due to financial reasons

    - Quilt made by her mother as a source of peace

    5. **"Sandwich Punch" Game and Hot Dog Debate**

    - Explanation of the game "sandwich punch"

    - Rules of the game and their relevance to the hot dog debate

    - Discussion about a hot dog being considered a sandwich

    - Host’s disbelief and humor about the game and punching an Oreo cookie

    6. **Christine's Social Media Presence**

    - Information about where listeners can find her on Instagram, TikTok, and her website

    - Discussion on commercialization of authenticity on Instagram

    - Pressure to share vulnerable moments and desire for personal processing time

    7. **Public Speaking and Introversion**

    - Moving away from giving speeches to help others in self-publishing

    - Impact of introversion on work and life

    - Balancing public speaking with alone time for energy management

    - Approach to social media based on personal comfort over algorithms

    8. **Closing Remarks**

    - Summarizing discussion by the host

    - Thanks to Christine Reed

    - Surprise question about the hot dog being a sandwich


    ]]>    67a6975c-ee77-47dc-86cd-dfcaa3c1e02fTue, 04 Jun 2024 12:00:00 -050051:57falsefull375375    Captivate Any Audience with EaseCaptivate Any Audience with EaseCertainly! Here’s a comprehensive sequence of topics covered in the transcript along with sub-topic bullets below each primary topic:

    ### 1. Importance of Public Speaking

    - Enhances work and career

    - Influences how people perceive you

    - Crucial for engaging and educating an audience

    ### 2. Knowing Your Audience

    - Tailoring your bio and message

    - Understanding their level and expectations

    - Relevance for engagement and impact

    ### 3. Establishing Tone

    - Starting with a compelling statement, question, or relatable story

    - Grabbing attention right from the beginning

    ### 4. Structuring Content

    - Organizing content clearly and logically

    - Introduction: Outlining what will be covered

    - Body: Diving into main points

    - Conclusion: Reinforcing key messages, call to action, or food for thought

    - Circling back to the start

    ### 5. Practicing the Delivery

    - Becoming comfortable with material

    - Avoiding word-for-word memorization (if not suitable)

    - Focusing on key points and transitions

    - Promoting a natural delivery and flexibility

    ### 6. Using Visuals

    - Enhancing presentation with visual aids

    - Using them sparingly and effectively

    - Avoiding cluttered slides

    - Using sharp images, charts, and minimal text

    ### 7. Engagement and Interaction

    - Interacting with the audience

    - Asking questions and inviting opinions

    - Incorporating quick activities

    - Reading audience cues and adapting accordingly

    ### 8. Body Language

    - Utilizing nonverbal cues, gestures, and posture

    - Using open and confident body language

    - Moving around the space to maintain engagement

    ### 9. Closing with Impact

    - Summarizing key points

    - Leaving a strong closing thought or call to action

    ### 10. Seeking Feedback and Ongoing Improvement

    - Reflecting on what went well and areas for improvement

    - Embracing opportunities to speak publicly

    - Refining skills and growing confidence

    ### 11. Conclusion

    - Brief message from Janice Chaka promoting her website and services

    ]]>    Certainly! Here’s a comprehensive sequence of topics covered in the transcript along with sub-topic bullets below each primary topic:

    ### 1. Importance of Public Speaking

    - Enhances work and career

    - Influences how people perceive you

    - Crucial for engaging and educating an audience

    ### 2. Knowing Your Audience

    - Tailoring your bio and message

    - Understanding their level and expectations

    - Relevance for engagement and impact

    ### 3. Establishing Tone

    - Starting with a compelling statement, question, or relatable story

    - Grabbing attention right from the beginning

    ### 4. Structuring Content

    - Organizing content clearly and logically

    - Introduction: Outlining what will be covered

    - Body: Diving into main points

    - Conclusion: Reinforcing key messages, call to action, or food for thought

    - Circling back to the start

    ### 5. Practicing the Delivery

    - Becoming comfortable with material

    - Avoiding word-for-word memorization (if not suitable)

    - Focusing on key points and transitions

    - Promoting a natural delivery and flexibility

    ### 6. Using Visuals

    - Enhancing presentation with visual aids

    - Using them sparingly and effectively

    - Avoiding cluttered slides

    - Using sharp images, charts, and minimal text

    ### 7. Engagement and Interaction

    - Interacting with the audience

    - Asking questions and inviting opinions

    - Incorporating quick activities

    - Reading audience cues and adapting accordingly

    ### 8. Body Language

    - Utilizing nonverbal cues, gestures, and posture

    - Using open and confident body language

    - Moving around the space to maintain engagement

    ### 9. Closing with Impact

    - Summarizing key points

    - Leaving a strong closing thought or call to action

    ### 10. Seeking Feedback and Ongoing Improvement

    - Reflecting on what went well and areas for improvement

    - Embracing opportunities to speak publicly

    - Refining skills and growing confidence

    ### 11. Conclusion

    - Brief message from Janice Chaka promoting her website and services

    ]]>    9a5ac2a0-4a90-4f1c-a40a-3f999a6a35e1Tue, 28 May 2024 12:00:00 -050005:31falsefull374374    Building Success with Small Daily HabitsBuilding Success with Small Daily HabitsSure, here's a comprehensive sequence of topics covered in the transcript, with sub-topic bullets below each primary topic:

    **Introduction**

    - Janice Chaka introduces the episode topic: daily habits that lead to success.

    - Emphasis on success being a gradual process built through regular habits.

    - Initial thoughts on what success looks like and how habits play a role.

    **Prioritizing Tasks**

    - Importance of having a to-do list.

    - The necessity of prioritizing tasks due to the never-ending nature of to-do lists.

    - Impact of starting the day with critical tasks.

    - Benefits: Increased productivity and more fulfilling days.

    **Setting Clear Goals**

    - Importance of knowing what you're aiming for in short, medium, and long term.

    - Need for setting achievable and clear action plans.

    - Benefits of specific, measurable, obtainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals.

    **Embracing Learning**

    - Commit to learning something new every day.

    - Various methods: reading articles, listening to podcasts, taking courses.

    - Benefits: Growth, adaptability, and competitiveness.

    - Time commitment: Can be as short as a 3-minute TED talk or reading for 20 minutes.

    **Practicing Mindfulness**

    - Breathing practice as a simple method to enhance mindfulness.

    - Instructions on how to practice: sit in silence, concentrate on breathing, return focus if mind drifts.

    - Benefits: Stabilizes thoughts, fosters presence and peace.

    **Networking Intentionally**

    - Engage regularly with people in and beyond your profession.

    - Methods: social media, online forums, virtual webinars, interest-based groups.

    - Focus: Sharing knowledge, offering support, being open to collaboration.

    **Daily Reflection**

    - End the day by reflecting on accomplishments, learnings, and areas for improvement.

    - Benefits: Keeps you grounded, helps you learn from experiences, and aids in effective future planning.

    **Conclusion**

    - Recap on the importance of daily habits for achieving success.

    - Encouragement to start building daily habits for transformative results.

    ]]>    Sure, here's a comprehensive sequence of topics covered in the transcript, with sub-topic bullets below each primary topic:

    **Introduction**

    - Janice Chaka introduces the episode topic: daily habits that lead to success.

    - Emphasis on success being a gradual process built through regular habits.

    - Initial thoughts on what success looks like and how habits play a role.

    **Prioritizing Tasks**

    - Importance of having a to-do list.

    - The necessity of prioritizing tasks due to the never-ending nature of to-do lists.

    - Impact of starting the day with critical tasks.

    - Benefits: Increased productivity and more fulfilling days.

    **Setting Clear Goals**

    - Importance of knowing what you're aiming for in short, medium, and long term.

    - Need for setting achievable and clear action plans.

    - Benefits of specific, measurable, obtainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals.

    **Embracing Learning**

    - Commit to learning something new every day.

    - Various methods: reading articles, listening to podcasts, taking courses.

    - Benefits: Growth, adaptability, and competitiveness.

    - Time commitment: Can be as short as a 3-minute TED talk or reading for 20 minutes.

    **Practicing Mindfulness**

    - Breathing practice as a simple method to enhance mindfulness.

    - Instructions on how to practice: sit in silence, concentrate on breathing, return focus if mind drifts.

    - Benefits: Stabilizes thoughts, fosters presence and peace.

    **Networking Intentionally**

    - Engage regularly with people in and beyond your profession.

    - Methods: social media, online forums, virtual webinars, interest-based groups.

    - Focus: Sharing knowledge, offering support, being open to collaboration.

    **Daily Reflection**

    - End the day by reflecting on accomplishments, learnings, and areas for improvement.

    - Benefits: Keeps you grounded, helps you learn from experiences, and aids in effective future planning.

    **Conclusion**

    - Recap on the importance of daily habits for achieving success.

    - Encouragement to start building daily habits for transformative results.

    ]]>    0d7cd1c8-cb6a-4611-b7db-0ac1161fecb8Tue, 21 May 2024 12:00:00 -050005:26falsefull373373    Elevating Your Communication SkillsElevating Your Communication SkillsPrimary Topic: The Art of Conversation

    - Essential skills for engaging in meaningful conversations

    - Importance of learning conversation skills, especially in different social settings

    Sub-Topics:

    - Difficulties and awkwardness in conversations

    - Necessity of talking to people in various life stages

    Primary Topic: Building Connection and Communication Skills

    - Showing genuine interest

    - Active listening and asking questions

    - Avoiding interrupting and filling the silence

    Sub-Topics:

    - Importance of genuine interest and open curiosity in others

    - The impact of active listening on building connections

    - Benefits of asking open-ended questions to keep the conversation flowing

    Primary Topic: Dynamic Conversations

    - Sharing experiences and thoughts

    - Active listening and nonverbal cues

    - Being authentic and present in conversations

    Sub-Topics:

    - Encouraging dynamic conversations through sharing experiences and thoughts

    - The significance of active listening and noticing nonverbal cues

    - The importance of being authentic and present in conversations

    Primary Topic: Enhancing Communication Skills

    - Being yourself

    - Don't fake interest to impress

    - Setting realistic expectations for conversations

    Sub-Topics:

    - Embracing authenticity and genuine interest

    - Avoiding faking interest to impress others

    - Understanding that not every conversation has to be deep and meaningful

    ]]>    Primary Topic: The Art of Conversation

    - Essential skills for engaging in meaningful conversations

    - Importance of learning conversation skills, especially in different social settings

    Sub-Topics:

    - Difficulties and awkwardness in conversations

    - Necessity of talking to people in various life stages

    Primary Topic: Building Connection and Communication Skills

    - Showing genuine interest

    - Active listening and asking questions

    - Avoiding interrupting and filling the silence

    Sub-Topics:

    - Importance of genuine interest and open curiosity in others

    - The impact of active listening on building connections

    - Benefits of asking open-ended questions to keep the conversation flowing

    Primary Topic: Dynamic Conversations

    - Sharing experiences and thoughts

    - Active listening and nonverbal cues

    - Being authentic and present in conversations

    Sub-Topics:

    - Encouraging dynamic conversations through sharing experiences and thoughts

    - The significance of active listening and noticing nonverbal cues

    - The importance of being authentic and present in conversations

    Primary Topic: Enhancing Communication Skills

    - Being yourself

    - Don't fake interest to impress

    - Setting realistic expectations for conversations

    Sub-Topics:

    - Embracing authenticity and genuine interest

    - Avoiding faking interest to impress others

    - Understanding that not every conversation has to be deep and meaningful

    ]]>    666febef-e4aa-408d-818c-fb6c0ae642fcTue, 14 May 2024 12:00:00 -050005:29falsefull372372    Career Conversations with Lindsey DinneenCareer Conversations with Lindsey DinneenLindsey Dinneen has 10+ years of leadership experience in multiple areas of marketing and business across medtech, education, performing arts, fitness, start-ups, B2B services, hospitality, and event management. As a professional ballerina for over a decade, Lindsey founded and successfully ran a nonprofit professional dance company as well as a brick-and-mortar dance studio. She has been featured for her expertise and experience more than 30 times in publications including Authority Magazine, Entrepreneur, Fortune, and Thrive Global. She champions wellness through her online dance, stretching, and mindfulness courses, and serves as a consultant for dance organizations looking to launch, grow, or scale. Lindsey holds an MS in Management & Leadership and an MBA. She and her husband are delighted to be digital nomads, traveling the world while working their full-time jobs. In her spare time, you can often find Lindsey reading or listening to a good book, sitting or walking near water (especially beaches!), exploring new cities, browsing antique shops, taking a ballet class, or enjoying an afternoon tea.

    Social media links

    www.facebook.com/lindseydinneenofficial

    www.instagram.com/lindseydinneenofficial

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsey-d-6b798034/


    Link to website

    www.lindseydinneen.com

    ]]>    Lindsey Dinneen has 10+ years of leadership experience in multiple areas of marketing and business across medtech, education, performing arts, fitness, start-ups, B2B services, hospitality, and event management. As a professional ballerina for over a decade, Lindsey founded and successfully ran a nonprofit professional dance company as well as a brick-and-mortar dance studio. She has been featured for her expertise and experience more than 30 times in publications including Authority Magazine, Entrepreneur, Fortune, and Thrive Global. She champions wellness through her online dance, stretching, and mindfulness courses, and serves as a consultant for dance organizations looking to launch, grow, or scale. Lindsey holds an MS in Management & Leadership and an MBA. She and her husband are delighted to be digital nomads, traveling the world while working their full-time jobs. In her spare time, you can often find Lindsey reading or listening to a good book, sitting or walking near water (especially beaches!), exploring new cities, browsing antique shops, taking a ballet class, or enjoying an afternoon tea.

    Social media links

    www.facebook.com/lindseydinneenofficial

    www.instagram.com/lindseydinneenofficial

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsey-d-6b798034/


    Link to website

    www.lindseydinneen.com

    ]]>    83e925c7-1798-4c99-8a48-4bd357f2dbe1Tue, 07 May 2024 12:00:00 -050024:02falsefull371371    Building Resilience Through Stress ManagementBuilding Resilience Through Stress ManagementPrimary Topic: Introduction to Stress Management Techniques

    - Importance of stress management for physical and mental well-being

    - Impact of stress on productivity and overall well-being

    Sub-Topic: Identifying Stress Triggers

    - Understanding and identifying the sources of stress at work

    - Examples of stress triggers such as heavy workload, difficult colleagues, and work-life balance issues

    - Addressing the root of the problem to reduce stress or prepare for managing specific triggers

    Sub-Topic: Deep Breathing Practice

    - Recognizing the impact of shallow breathing on stress levels

    - Step-by-step deep breathing exercise to soothe the mind and center oneself

    - Benefits of deep breathing for stress reduction

    Sub-Topic: Self-Care and Relaxation

    - Importance of scheduling time for self-care activities

    - Examples of relaxing activities such as reading, exercising, and spending time outdoors

    - The significance of taking short breaks to avoid burnout

    Sub-Topic: Prioritization and Delegation

    - Understanding the need to prioritize tasks to avoid becoming overwhelmed

    - Benefits of delegating less essential tasks to others

    - The importance of embracing leadership by delegating tasks effectively

    Sub-Topic: Time Management and Avoiding Procrastination

    - Impact of poor time management on stress levels

    - Strategies for creating a realistic schedule to maximize time

    - Incorporating breaks and downtime into the schedule to prevent burnout

    Sub-Topic: Adequate Sleep

    - Significance of getting enough sleep for stress management

    - Tips for creating a tech-free environment in the bedroom to promote better sleep

    - Establishing a consistent bedtime routine for quality sleep

    Sub-Topic: Limiting Technology Use

    - Understanding the role of constant technology use in contributing to stress

    - Recommendations for limiting tech use before bed and creating tech-free zones at home

    - Benefits of giving the mind a break by limiting technology use

    Sub-Topic: Seeking Support

    - Encouragement to reach out to mentors, friends, and family for support

    - Importance of processing stress and finding solutions through support systems

    - Recognizing the ongoing nature of stress management and the need to find individualized solutions

    ]]>    Primary Topic: Introduction to Stress Management Techniques

    - Importance of stress management for physical and mental well-being

    - Impact of stress on productivity and overall well-being

    Sub-Topic: Identifying Stress Triggers

    - Understanding and identifying the sources of stress at work

    - Examples of stress triggers such as heavy workload, difficult colleagues, and work-life balance issues

    - Addressing the root of the problem to reduce stress or prepare for managing specific triggers

    Sub-Topic: Deep Breathing Practice

    - Recognizing the impact of shallow breathing on stress levels

    - Step-by-step deep breathing exercise to soothe the mind and center oneself

    - Benefits of deep breathing for stress reduction

    Sub-Topic: Self-Care and Relaxation

    - Importance of scheduling time for self-care activities

    - Examples of relaxing activities such as reading, exercising, and spending time outdoors

    - The significance of taking short breaks to avoid burnout

    Sub-Topic: Prioritization and Delegation

    - Understanding the need to prioritize tasks to avoid becoming overwhelmed

    - Benefits of delegating less essential tasks to others

    - The importance of embracing leadership by delegating tasks effectively

    Sub-Topic: Time Management and Avoiding Procrastination

    - Impact of poor time management on stress levels

    - Strategies for creating a realistic schedule to maximize time

    - Incorporating breaks and downtime into the schedule to prevent burnout

    Sub-Topic: Adequate Sleep

    - Significance of getting enough sleep for stress management

    - Tips for creating a tech-free environment in the bedroom to promote better sleep

    - Establishing a consistent bedtime routine for quality sleep

    Sub-Topic: Limiting Technology Use

    - Understanding the role of constant technology use in contributing to stress

    - Recommendations for limiting tech use before bed and creating tech-free zones at home

    - Benefits of giving the mind a break by limiting technology use

    Sub-Topic: Seeking Support

    - Encouragement to reach out to mentors, friends, and family for support

    - Importance of processing stress and finding solutions through support systems

    - Recognizing the ongoing nature of stress management and the need to find individualized solutions

    ]]>    943e0075-bd46-4773-ac6e-b1190d17c95fTue, 30 Apr 2024 12:00:00 -050005:49falsefull370370    Crafting Your Career RoadmapCrafting Your Career RoadmapPrimary Topic: Introduction to Career Development

    - Understanding the need for navigation in career development

    - Acknowledging the unpredictability of career paths

    Primary Topic: Aligning Career with Lifestyle

    - Considering lifestyle preferences when planning a career path

    - Balancing work-life expectations and personal values

    - Avoiding common mistakes of choosing a career path solely based on title and income

    Primary Topic: Self-Assessment and Goal Setting

    - Conducting a SWOT analysis to identify strengths and weaknesses

    - Setting clear short-term, medium-term, and long-term career goals

    Primary Topic: Continuous Learning and Skill Development

    - Recognizing the importance of continuously learning and updating skills

    - Identifying critical skills aligned with career goals and lifestyle desires

    - Building an active and responsive professional network

    - Seeking feedback, mentorship, and guidance from mentors

    Primary Topic: Personal Branding and Adaptability

    - Crafting a dynamic personal brand to showcase skills and accomplishments

    - Being flexible and adaptable to adjust objectives and methods in response to changes and opportunities

    Primary Topic: Conclusion and Key Takeaways

    - Summarizing the pivotal steps in navigating career development effectively

    - Emphasizing the importance of creating a personalized roadmap for career development.

    ]]>    Primary Topic: Introduction to Career Development

    - Understanding the need for navigation in career development

    - Acknowledging the unpredictability of career paths

    Primary Topic: Aligning Career with Lifestyle

    - Considering lifestyle preferences when planning a career path

    - Balancing work-life expectations and personal values

    - Avoiding common mistakes of choosing a career path solely based on title and income

    Primary Topic: Self-Assessment and Goal Setting

    - Conducting a SWOT analysis to identify strengths and weaknesses

    - Setting clear short-term, medium-term, and long-term career goals

    Primary Topic: Continuous Learning and Skill Development

    - Recognizing the importance of continuously learning and updating skills

    - Identifying critical skills aligned with career goals and lifestyle desires

    - Building an active and responsive professional network

    - Seeking feedback, mentorship, and guidance from mentors

    Primary Topic: Personal Branding and Adaptability

    - Crafting a dynamic personal brand to showcase skills and accomplishments

    - Being flexible and adaptable to adjust objectives and methods in response to changes and opportunities

    Primary Topic: Conclusion and Key Takeaways

    - Summarizing the pivotal steps in navigating career development effectively

    - Emphasizing the importance of creating a personalized roadmap for career development.

    ]]>    26d7e3e6-4390-447f-aeb0-1c9d139ea1bdTue, 23 Apr 2024 12:00:00 -050005:35falsefull369369    Essential Skills for Inspiring LeadershipEssential Skills for Inspiring LeadershipPrimary Topic: Vision in Leadership

    - The importance of having a vision as a leader

    - Leadership as guidance and inspiration towards a common goal

    Primary Topic: Essential Leadership Skills

    - Communication

    - Conveying ideas, thoughts, dreams, vision, and goals clearly and confidently

    - Being open to feedback and listening to other perspectives

    - Confidence in Vision

    - Believing in oneself and one's abilities

    - Having confidence in the vision and the skills to guide others towards it

    - Delegation

    - Knowing team strengths and delegating tasks accordingly

    - Showing trust and respect for team members by delegating

    - Adaptability

    - Overcoming challenges and thinking on one's feet

    - Inspiring a positive and resilient attitude in others

    - Empathy

    - Understanding and sharing the feelings of others

    - Building strong relationships based on trust and understanding

    - Integrity

    - Being ethical, true to one's word, and owning up to mistakes

    - Inspiring trust and respect through integrity

    - Decisiveness

    - Making decisions confidently and promptly

    - Inspiring trust through making tough choices, even if they might be wrong

    Primary Topic: Continuous Development of Leadership Skills

    - Emphasizing that leadership skills take time to develop

    - Reiterating the importance of continuously working on these skills

    - Comparing leadership development to a marathon, not a sprint

    ]]>    Primary Topic: Vision in Leadership

    - The importance of having a vision as a leader

    - Leadership as guidance and inspiration towards a common goal

    Primary Topic: Essential Leadership Skills

    - Communication

    - Conveying ideas, thoughts, dreams, vision, and goals clearly and confidently

    - Being open to feedback and listening to other perspectives

    - Confidence in Vision

    - Believing in oneself and one's abilities

    - Having confidence in the vision and the skills to guide others towards it

    - Delegation

    - Knowing team strengths and delegating tasks accordingly

    - Showing trust and respect for team members by delegating

    - Adaptability

    - Overcoming challenges and thinking on one's feet

    - Inspiring a positive and resilient attitude in others

    - Empathy

    - Understanding and sharing the feelings of others

    - Building strong relationships based on trust and understanding

    - Integrity

    - Being ethical, true to one's word, and owning up to mistakes

    - Inspiring trust and respect through integrity

    - Decisiveness

    - Making decisions confidently and promptly

    - Inspiring trust through making tough choices, even if they might be wrong

    Primary Topic: Continuous Development of Leadership Skills

    - Emphasizing that leadership skills take time to develop

    - Reiterating the importance of continuously working on these skills

    - Comparing leadership development to a marathon, not a sprint

    ]]>    c56e920d-c622-4cdb-8629-42f6b4092d06Tue, 16 Apr 2024 12:00:00 -050005:27falsefull368368    The Importance of Finding Your Ideal Sleep NumberThe Importance of Finding Your Ideal Sleep NumberPrimary Topic: Importance of Sleep

    - Different sleep needs for different individuals

    - Impact of sleep on body and brain

    - Factors affecting sleep patterns (medications, children, age, illness)

    - Recognizing the feeling of a restful, rejuvenating sleep

    - Dealing with the challenges of life and sleep deficits

    Primary Topic: Fluidity of Sleep Needs

    - Understanding that sleep needs change over time

    - Seasonal impact on sleep patterns (winter hibernation, summer energy)

    - Aligning with the body's natural sleep rhythms

    - Effects of sleep deficit on work and productivity

    Primary Topic: Managing Sleep for Overall Well-being

    - Dangers of relying on stimulants to counteract sleep deficit

    - Importance of sustaining healthy sleep patterns

    - Advocating for discovering and maintaining one's ideal sleep number

    - Committing to achieving optimal sleep 90% of the time

    These primary topics address the importance of sleep, the individual nature of sleep needs, and the impact of sleep patterns on overall well-being. This podcast episode provides actionable advice for recognizing and managing one's ideal sleep number for better health and productivity.

    ]]>    Primary Topic: Importance of Sleep

    - Different sleep needs for different individuals

    - Impact of sleep on body and brain

    - Factors affecting sleep patterns (medications, children, age, illness)

    - Recognizing the feeling of a restful, rejuvenating sleep

    - Dealing with the challenges of life and sleep deficits

    Primary Topic: Fluidity of Sleep Needs

    - Understanding that sleep needs change over time

    - Seasonal impact on sleep patterns (winter hibernation, summer energy)

    - Aligning with the body's natural sleep rhythms

    - Effects of sleep deficit on work and productivity

    Primary Topic: Managing Sleep for Overall Well-being

    - Dangers of relying on stimulants to counteract sleep deficit

    - Importance of sustaining healthy sleep patterns

    - Advocating for discovering and maintaining one's ideal sleep number

    - Committing to achieving optimal sleep 90% of the time

    These primary topics address the importance of sleep, the individual nature of sleep needs, and the impact of sleep patterns on overall well-being. This podcast episode provides actionable advice for recognizing and managing one's ideal sleep number for better health and productivity.

    ]]>    ad96ce0e-e126-40ec-a172-788649d8be71Tue, 09 Apr 2024 12:00:00 -050005:19falsefull367367    Career Conversations with Reesa Woolf PhDCareer Conversations with Reesa Woolf PhDReesa is an introvert raised in a family of extroverts.

    She has had an interesting career specializing in other introverts and a dynamic life experiencing the world.

    Social media links

    www.LinkedIn.com/in/reesawoolfphd

    www.Facebook.com/reesawoolfphd


    Link to website

    www.ConfidentSpeaking.com

    ]]>    Reesa is an introvert raised in a family of extroverts.

    She has had an interesting career specializing in other introverts and a dynamic life experiencing the world.

    Social media links

    www.LinkedIn.com/in/reesawoolfphd

    www.Facebook.com/reesawoolfphd


    Link to website

    www.ConfidentSpeaking.com

    ]]>    afbfc0b7-6e8d-4111-a0be-7c912b35ce10Tue, 02 Apr 2024 12:00:00 -050025:06falsefull366366    Overcoming Feeling OverlookedOvercoming Feeling OverlookedPrimary Topic: Feeling Overlooked at Work

    - The disheartening feeling of not getting recognition for valuable contributions

    - Reasons for feeling overlooked

    - Importance of taking steps to raise visibility

    Primary Topic: Identifying and Leveraging Strengths

    - Self-reflection to identify unique skills and core competencies

    - Positioning oneself as an expert in specific areas

    - Seeking opportunities within the organization to showcase skills

    Primary Topic: Communicating with Confidence

    - Developing a clear and concise communication style

    - Being effective in communicating achievements and ideas

    - Confidence in expressing oneself verbally and nonverbally

    - Importance of believing in oneself and exuding confidence

    Primary Topic: Cultivating Relationships

    - Building strong relationships with colleagues and leaders

    - Connecting with others on a genuine level

    - Actively participating in professional development opportunities

    - Seeking mentors for guidance and support

    - Patience, consistency, and authenticity in interactions

    - Networking with individuals who recognize skills and champion for success

    Primary Topic: Consistency and Time

    - Emphasizing that change doesn't happen overnight

    - Stressing the need to consistently apply the discussed steps over time

    Primary Topic: Empowerment and Recognition

    - Tips to empower listeners to take action towards gaining recognition at work

    - Encouragement to make an impact and let talents shine

    - It's never too late to make an impact

    Primary Topic: Closing Remarks

    - Thanking the listeners for tuning in

    - Wishing the listeners a great week

    - Providing contact information for further assistance

    ]]>    Primary Topic: Feeling Overlooked at Work

    - The disheartening feeling of not getting recognition for valuable contributions

    - Reasons for feeling overlooked

    - Importance of taking steps to raise visibility

    Primary Topic: Identifying and Leveraging Strengths

    - Self-reflection to identify unique skills and core competencies

    - Positioning oneself as an expert in specific areas

    - Seeking opportunities within the organization to showcase skills

    Primary Topic: Communicating with Confidence

    - Developing a clear and concise communication style

    - Being effective in communicating achievements and ideas

    - Confidence in expressing oneself verbally and nonverbally

    - Importance of believing in oneself and exuding confidence

    Primary Topic: Cultivating Relationships

    - Building strong relationships with colleagues and leaders

    - Connecting with others on a genuine level

    - Actively participating in professional development opportunities

    - Seeking mentors for guidance and support

    - Patience, consistency, and authenticity in interactions

    - Networking with individuals who recognize skills and champion for success

    Primary Topic: Consistency and Time

    - Emphasizing that change doesn't happen overnight

    - Stressing the need to consistently apply the discussed steps over time

    Primary Topic: Empowerment and Recognition

    - Tips to empower listeners to take action towards gaining recognition at work

    - Encouragement to make an impact and let talents shine

    - It's never too late to make an impact

    Primary Topic: Closing Remarks

    - Thanking the listeners for tuning in

    - Wishing the listeners a great week

    - Providing contact information for further assistance

    ]]>    623474b2-4385-4981-80ab-9c691d7855ffTue, 26 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -050005:30falsefull365365    Embracing Mistakes and Moving ForwardEmbracing Mistakes and Moving ForwardPrimary Topic: Dealing with Negative Thinking After Making a Mistake

    - Janice Chaka shares a personal incident where she thought she made a mistake, leading to negative self-talk.

    - Miscommunication and misinterpretation of events led to feelings of inadequacy.

    - Strategies to Stop Negative Thinking After Making a Mistake

    - Acknowledge the mistake and discuss its significance as a crucial first step toward personal growth.

    - Reframe mistakes as learning opportunities and building blocks for success.

    - Challenge negative self-talk to avoid hindering progress and perpetuating feelings of inadequacy.

    - Utilize reframing techniques to replace negative thoughts with positive affirmations.

    - Analyze the data to identify correct actions and areas for improvement.

    - Question the framing of thoughts to determine their accuracy.

    - Take a step back, breathe, and gather accurate data about the mistake to ground oneself.

    - Taking Action to Address Mistakes

    - Identify actionable steps to change the situation and prevent similar outcomes in the future.

    - Reach out and explain what happened, the planned actions, and the responsible parties to show accountability and stop negative thinking.

    - Embracing mistakes as a natural part of being human and using them to move forward on one's journey of personal and professional growth.

    Each of these topics and sub-topics can be further discussed and elaborated on in the podcast episode to provide practical tips and insights for the audience.

    ]]>    Primary Topic: Dealing with Negative Thinking After Making a Mistake

    - Janice Chaka shares a personal incident where she thought she made a mistake, leading to negative self-talk.

    - Miscommunication and misinterpretation of events led to feelings of inadequacy.

    - Strategies to Stop Negative Thinking After Making a Mistake

    - Acknowledge the mistake and discuss its significance as a crucial first step toward personal growth.

    - Reframe mistakes as learning opportunities and building blocks for success.

    - Challenge negative self-talk to avoid hindering progress and perpetuating feelings of inadequacy.

    - Utilize reframing techniques to replace negative thoughts with positive affirmations.

    - Analyze the data to identify correct actions and areas for improvement.

    - Question the framing of thoughts to determine their accuracy.

    - Take a step back, breathe, and gather accurate data about the mistake to ground oneself.

    - Taking Action to Address Mistakes

    - Identify actionable steps to change the situation and prevent similar outcomes in the future.

    - Reach out and explain what happened, the planned actions, and the responsible parties to show accountability and stop negative thinking.

    - Embracing mistakes as a natural part of being human and using them to move forward on one's journey of personal and professional growth.

    Each of these topics and sub-topics can be further discussed and elaborated on in the podcast episode to provide practical tips and insights for the audience.

    ]]>    69e09085-abce-4f97-ac4e-dbd906d24e21Tue, 19 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -050005:47falsefull364364    Choosing Your Ideal Planning DayChoosing Your Ideal Planning DayPrimary Topic: Importance of Planning Your Week

    - Benefits of using Friday as a planning day

    - Reflect on past week's accomplishments and areas for improvement

    - Set clear goals and priorities for the upcoming week

    - Unwind and recharge over the weekend

    - Brain dump to start Monday with a clear head

    - Advantages of using Sunday as a planning day

    - Start the week with clarity and purpose

    - Identify potential roadblocks and conflicts ahead of time

    - Create a sense of control and reduce stress levels

    - Pros of using Monday as a planning day

    - Capitalize on fresh energy at the beginning of the work week

    - Address urgent matters from the weekend

    - Align goals and tasks with the week's objectives

    Primary Topic: Effective Strategies for Planning Days

    - Effective strategies for a Friday planning day

    - Carve out uninterrupted time for planning

    - Review ongoing projects and deadlines

    - Prepare a comprehensive to-do list

    - Block out time for important work in the following week

    - Useful tips for a Sunday planning day

    - Find a quiet space for reflection and strategizing

    - Review personal and professional commitments

    - Prioritize self-care activities for work-life balance

    - Techniques for effective Monday planning

    - Start the day early for maximum productivity

    - Conduct a brief review of emails and messages

    - Set realistic expectations and adjust plans and tasks accordingly

    Primary Topic: Personalizing Your Planning Day

    - Reflect on energy levels throughout the week

    - Considering specific commitments and recurring meetings

    - Aligning planning day with motivation and focus levels

    - Experimenting with different days and methods to impact productivity and well-being

    Primary Topic: Conclusion and Call to Action

    - Encouraging experimentation with different planning days

    - Highlighting the impact on productivity, mindset, and well-being

    - Suggests taking time to find the ideal planning day for individual needs

    ]]>    Primary Topic: Importance of Planning Your Week

    - Benefits of using Friday as a planning day

    - Reflect on past week's accomplishments and areas for improvement

    - Set clear goals and priorities for the upcoming week

    - Unwind and recharge over the weekend

    - Brain dump to start Monday with a clear head

    - Advantages of using Sunday as a planning day

    - Start the week with clarity and purpose

    - Identify potential roadblocks and conflicts ahead of time

    - Create a sense of control and reduce stress levels

    - Pros of using Monday as a planning day

    - Capitalize on fresh energy at the beginning of the work week

    - Address urgent matters from the weekend

    - Align goals and tasks with the week's objectives

    Primary Topic: Effective Strategies for Planning Days

    - Effective strategies for a Friday planning day

    - Carve out uninterrupted time for planning

    - Review ongoing projects and deadlines

    - Prepare a comprehensive to-do list

    - Block out time for important work in the following week

    - Useful tips for a Sunday planning day

    - Find a quiet space for reflection and strategizing

    - Review personal and professional commitments

    - Prioritize self-care activities for work-life balance

    - Techniques for effective Monday planning

    - Start the day early for maximum productivity

    - Conduct a brief review of emails and messages

    - Set realistic expectations and adjust plans and tasks accordingly

    Primary Topic: Personalizing Your Planning Day

    - Reflect on energy levels throughout the week

    - Considering specific commitments and recurring meetings

    - Aligning planning day with motivation and focus levels

    - Experimenting with different days and methods to impact productivity and well-being

    Primary Topic: Conclusion and Call to Action

    - Encouraging experimentation with different planning days

    - Highlighting the impact on productivity, mindset, and well-being

    - Suggests taking time to find the ideal planning day for individual needs

    ]]>    6a00c2eb-0a5b-44f2-a120-9fe9c27fd2b4Tue, 12 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -050005:31falsefull363363    Career Conversations with Stacy BrookmanCareer Conversations with Stacy BrookmanWomen leaders who want to eliminate imposter syndrome leverage Stacy Brookman and her confident leadership coaching to clarify their power skills and confidently command their seat at the table. She’s a women’s leadership coach, a conference speaker, and the founder of Real Life Resilience. Take the What’s Your Leadership Kryptonite? Quiz: https://www.realliferesilience.com/quiz

    Social media links

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacybrookman/


    Link to website

    https://www.realliferesilience.com


    Primary Topic: Introversion and Leadership

    - Definition of introversion and how it relates to gaining and draining energy

    - How introversion can coexist with being an amazing leader

    - Cultivation of leaders at any age and the role of upbringing and experiences

    Primary Topic: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

    - Work focused on helping women leaders overcome imposter syndrome

    - The indicators of hidden imposter syndrome, such as people-pleasing and perfectionism

    - The development of internal confidence after overcoming imposter syndrome

    Primary Topic: Career Journey as an Introvert

    - Starting at a corporation in the insurance industry from a low level

    - Personal development and acquiring a degree while working in a male-dominated environment

    - The role of imposter syndrome in the career journey

    Primary Topic: Thought Ladders and Emotional Management

    - The use of thought ladders as a practice to improve confidence and leadership

    - The importance of managing emotions and the misconception that coaching conflicts with therapy

    - Importance of understanding and managing emotions for everyone, not just those in therapy

    Primary Topic: Self-Care and Recharging as an Introvert

    - The preferred method of recharging: taking a bubble bath with a good book in a peaceful setting

    - The role of self-care in maintaining energy levels and mental well-being for introverts

    Primary Topic: Personal Philosophy and Social Media Presence

    - The primary platform for networking and sharing resources: LinkedIn

    - The availability of free resources such as the thought ladder guide on real life resilience.com

    - Be open to messaging and provide resources to those who reach out

    Primary Topic: Light-hearted Conversation

    - The playful question of whether a hot dog is a sandwich

    - Engaging in humor and light-hearted discussions in professional conversations

    - A lighthearted end to the podcast with details about where to find more information about the guest

    This comprehensive sequence captures the key topics and subtopics covered in the podcast episode. Each primary topic and its associated subtopics provide a detailed overview of the conversation between the host and guest.

    ]]>    Women leaders who want to eliminate imposter syndrome leverage Stacy Brookman and her confident leadership coaching to clarify their power skills and confidently command their seat at the table. She’s a women’s leadership coach, a conference speaker, and the founder of Real Life Resilience. Take the What’s Your Leadership Kryptonite? Quiz: https://www.realliferesilience.com/quiz

    Social media links

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacybrookman/


    Link to website

    https://www.realliferesilience.com


    Primary Topic: Introversion and Leadership

    - Definition of introversion and how it relates to gaining and draining energy

    - How introversion can coexist with being an amazing leader

    - Cultivation of leaders at any age and the role of upbringing and experiences

    Primary Topic: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

    - Work focused on helping women leaders overcome imposter syndrome

    - The indicators of hidden imposter syndrome, such as people-pleasing and perfectionism

    - The development of internal confidence after overcoming imposter syndrome

    Primary Topic: Career Journey as an Introvert

    - Starting at a corporation in the insurance industry from a low level

    - Personal development and acquiring a degree while working in a male-dominated environment

    - The role of imposter syndrome in the career journey

    Primary Topic: Thought Ladders and Emotional Management

    - The use of thought ladders as a practice to improve confidence and leadership

    - The importance of managing emotions and the misconception that coaching conflicts with therapy

    - Importance of understanding and managing emotions for everyone, not just those in therapy

    Primary Topic: Self-Care and Recharging as an Introvert

    - The preferred method of recharging: taking a bubble bath with a good book in a peaceful setting

    - The role of self-care in maintaining energy levels and mental well-being for introverts

    Primary Topic: Personal Philosophy and Social Media Presence

    - The primary platform for networking and sharing resources: LinkedIn

    - The availability of free resources such as the thought ladder guide on real life resilience.com

    - Be open to messaging and provide resources to those who reach out

    Primary Topic: Light-hearted Conversation

    - The playful question of whether a hot dog is a sandwich

    - Engaging in humor and light-hearted discussions in professional conversations

    - A lighthearted end to the podcast with details about where to find more information about the guest

    This comprehensive sequence captures the key topics and subtopics covered in the podcast episode. Each primary topic and its associated subtopics provide a detailed overview of the conversation between the host and guest.

    ]]>    d52514ae-025d-4741-9848-12ee22c5e2a0Tue, 05 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -050016:38falsefull362362    Finding Balance Beyond WorkFinding Balance Beyond WorkPrimary Topic: Importance of Balancing Work and Personal Life

    - Lewis Hamilton's Experience

    - Balancing work and personal interests

    - Benefits of pursuing other activities outside of work

    - Effect of Overwhelming Workload

    - Impact on creativity and thinking abilities

    - Need for diversity in activities to stimulate the mind

    - Productivity and Rest

    - Acknowledging the productivity of rest

    - The significance of nurturing creativity outside of work

    - Hobbies and Creativity

    - The value of engaging in hobbies for joy and creativity

    - Encouraging creativity regardless of perceived talent

    - Challenging Self-Limiting Beliefs

    - Overcoming childhood beliefs about creativity

    - Embracing different forms of creativity

    - Taking Action

    - Encouragement to engage in a creative activity

    - Evaluating the impact on work after engaging in a creative pursuit

    ]]>    Primary Topic: Importance of Balancing Work and Personal Life

    - Lewis Hamilton's Experience

    - Balancing work and personal interests

    - Benefits of pursuing other activities outside of work

    - Effect of Overwhelming Workload

    - Impact on creativity and thinking abilities

    - Need for diversity in activities to stimulate the mind

    - Productivity and Rest

    - Acknowledging the productivity of rest

    - The significance of nurturing creativity outside of work

    - Hobbies and Creativity

    - The value of engaging in hobbies for joy and creativity

    - Encouraging creativity regardless of perceived talent

    - Challenging Self-Limiting Beliefs

    - Overcoming childhood beliefs about creativity

    - Embracing different forms of creativity

    - Taking Action

    - Encouragement to engage in a creative activity

    - Evaluating the impact on work after engaging in a creative pursuit

    ]]>    5195e474-2564-4c67-a44e-5a734a18fd07Tue, 27 Feb 2024 12:00:00 -050005:14falsefull361361    Leveraging Social Proof for Career SuccessLeveraging Social Proof for Career SuccessPrimary Topic: Importance of Having a Support System

    Sub-topics:

    - Having a virtual support system, especially as an introvert

    - The benefits of having champions and a fan club in your corner

    - The power of social proof in career advancement

    - Building and maintaining reciprocal relationships for social proof

    - Being a champion for others and the significance of reciprocity

    Primary Topic: Expanding Your Network and Seeking Diverse Connections

    Sub-topics:

    - Seeking connections both within and outside of your industry

    - The importance of seeking diverse perspectives and new ideas

    - Engaging in non-work related activities to make personal connections and expand your network

    Primary Topic: Communication and Clarity in Seeking Opportunities

    Sub-topics:

    - Communicating your career goals and intentions clearly

    - Being open to opportunities and making your intentions known

    - Reciprocity in seeking and offering support to others

    These are the primary topics and sub-topics covered in the transcript that can be used to outline the content for the podcast episode.

    ]]>    Primary Topic: Importance of Having a Support System

    Sub-topics:

    - Having a virtual support system, especially as an introvert

    - The benefits of having champions and a fan club in your corner

    - The power of social proof in career advancement

    - Building and maintaining reciprocal relationships for social proof

    - Being a champion for others and the significance of reciprocity

    Primary Topic: Expanding Your Network and Seeking Diverse Connections

    Sub-topics:

    - Seeking connections both within and outside of your industry

    - The importance of seeking diverse perspectives and new ideas

    - Engaging in non-work related activities to make personal connections and expand your network

    Primary Topic: Communication and Clarity in Seeking Opportunities

    Sub-topics:

    - Communicating your career goals and intentions clearly

    - Being open to opportunities and making your intentions known

    - Reciprocity in seeking and offering support to others

    These are the primary topics and sub-topics covered in the transcript that can be used to outline the content for the podcast episode.

    ]]>    0d9341c2-9c71-4de0-9ca5-63e813654669Tue, 20 Feb 2024 12:00:00 -050005:29falsefull360360    Understanding the Science of HabitsUnderstanding the Science of HabitsPrimary Topic: Understanding Habits

    - Definition of a habit

    - Components of a habit loop (cue, routine, reward)

    - Importance of understanding the habit cycle

    Primary Topic: Forming Positive Habits

    - Starting small and building on simplicity

    - Pairing new habits with existing ones

    - Utilizing the power of rewards

    - The impact of immediate gratification on habit formation

    Primary Topic: Breaking Bad Habits

    - Identifying the triggers for bad habits

    - Substituting the bad habit with a healthier alternative

    - The importance of consistency, patience, and grace in breaking old habits

    - The process of changing how one thinks and shaping identity through habits

    Primary Topic: Taking Action

    - Encouragement to take the first step in forming positive habits and breaking bad ones

    ]]>    Primary Topic: Understanding Habits

    - Definition of a habit

    - Components of a habit loop (cue, routine, reward)

    - Importance of understanding the habit cycle

    Primary Topic: Forming Positive Habits

    - Starting small and building on simplicity

    - Pairing new habits with existing ones

    - Utilizing the power of rewards

    - The impact of immediate gratification on habit formation

    Primary Topic: Breaking Bad Habits

    - Identifying the triggers for bad habits

    - Substituting the bad habit with a healthier alternative

    - The importance of consistency, patience, and grace in breaking old habits

    - The process of changing how one thinks and shaping identity through habits

    Primary Topic: Taking Action

    - Encouragement to take the first step in forming positive habits and breaking bad ones

    ]]>    a0a9352b-a829-4991-b6ad-8734aa687a4dTue, 13 Feb 2024 12:00:00 -050005:12falsefull359359    Career Conversations with Emily CoxCareer Conversations with Emily CoxLicensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor offering therapy sessions for children, teens, and young adults.

    Focus on supporting children working through big feelings, adolescents navigating transitions, and emerging adults exploring identity.

    Helping those who feel stuck, misunderstood, or unheard find their voice and use it with confidence.

    Social media links

    @larkspur_therapy on instagram

    @larkspurtherapy on Facebook


    Link to website

    www.larkspurtherapy.com


    Primary Topic: Introversion and Energy Management

    - Understanding introversion and its effects on energy levels

    - How introversion affects energy and connection with oneself

    - Managing energy levels in relation to work and personal life

    - Dispelling myths and misconceptions about introversion and energy management

    - Addressing misconceptions and stereotypes in the mental health field

    - Importance of individualized approaches to therapy and mental health care

    Primary Topic: Career and Work Experience

    - Transitioning into the mental health field

    - Background and various experiences before entering the role of a licensed therapist

    - The importance of previous work experiences and their influence on the current role

    - The impact of diverse work experiences on professional development and personal growth

    - Lessons learned from previous work experiences and their relevance to the current role and career path

    - Navigating challenges and staying motivated as a therapist

    - The value of taking on new challenges and overcoming fears in professional development

    - Using past experiences to navigate career challenges in the mental health field

    Primary Topic: Self-Care and Boundaries

    - Importance of self-care and setting boundaries

    - Utilizing boundaries as a way to protect and connect with oneself

    - How saying "no" can be a radical act of self-care

    - Recognizing the value of setting personal and professional boundaries

    - Recharging and self-care practices

    - Strategies for recharging as an introverted individual

    - The significance of prioritizing rest and self-care in a demanding profession

    - Dismissing misconceptions around taking breaks and self-care in the workplace

    Primary Topic: Business and Calendar Management

    - Balancing work and personal life as a business owner

    - The empowerment and challenges of having control over one's schedule as a therapist

    - Utilizing control over one's schedule for rest and balance

    - Implementing methods to ensure rest and renewal in a busy professional life

    - Navigating calendar management and rest

    - The significance of taking breaks and restorative vacations

    - Addressing workplace challenges and expectations regarding taking breaks and time off

    - The importance of creating a supportive environment for taking breaks and prioritizing self-care

    Primary Topic: Miscellaneous Light-Hearted Discussion

    - Hot dog as a sandwich

    - Engaging in a lighthearted discussion about whether a hot dog qualifies as a sandwich

    - Exploring the idea of allowing the hot dog to exist without categorizing it as a sandwich

    ]]>    Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor offering therapy sessions for children, teens, and young adults.

    Focus on supporting children working through big feelings, adolescents navigating transitions, and emerging adults exploring identity.

    Helping those who feel stuck, misunderstood, or unheard find their voice and use it with confidence.

    Social media links

    @larkspur_therapy on instagram

    @larkspurtherapy on Facebook


    Link to website

    www.larkspurtherapy.com


    Primary Topic: Introversion and Energy Management

    - Understanding introversion and its effects on energy levels

    - How introversion affects energy and connection with oneself

    - Managing energy levels in relation to work and personal life

    - Dispelling myths and misconceptions about introversion and energy management

    - Addressing misconceptions and stereotypes in the mental health field

    - Importance of individualized approaches to therapy and mental health care

    Primary Topic: Career and Work Experience

    - Transitioning into the mental health field

    - Background and various experiences before entering the role of a licensed therapist

    - The importance of previous work experiences and their influence on the current role

    - The impact of diverse work experiences on professional development and personal growth

    - Lessons learned from previous work experiences and their relevance to the current role and career path

    - Navigating challenges and staying motivated as a therapist

    - The value of taking on new challenges and overcoming fears in professional development

    - Using past experiences to navigate career challenges in the mental health field

    Primary Topic: Self-Care and Boundaries

    - Importance of self-care and setting boundaries

    - Utilizing boundaries as a way to protect and connect with oneself

    - How saying "no" can be a radical act of self-care

    - Recognizing the value of setting personal and professional boundaries

    - Recharging and self-care practices

    - Strategies for recharging as an introverted individual

    - The significance of prioritizing rest and self-care in a demanding profession

    - Dismissing misconceptions around taking breaks and self-care in the workplace

    Primary Topic: Business and Calendar Management

    - Balancing work and personal life as a business owner

    - The empowerment and challenges of having control over one's schedule as a therapist

    - Utilizing control over one's schedule for rest and balance

    - Implementing methods to ensure rest and renewal in a busy professional life

    - Navigating calendar management and rest

    - The significance of taking breaks and restorative vacations

    - Addressing workplace challenges and expectations regarding taking breaks and time off

    - The importance of creating a supportive environment for taking breaks and prioritizing self-care

    Primary Topic: Miscellaneous Light-Hearted Discussion

    - Hot dog as a sandwich

    - Engaging in a lighthearted discussion about whether a hot dog qualifies as a sandwich

    - Exploring the idea of allowing the hot dog to exist without categorizing it as a sandwich

    ]]>    4adfdfe9-f547-4396-b26c-8d1033014ac3Tue, 06 Feb 2024 12:00:00 -050020:39falsefull358358    Embracing Mindful Tech UseEmbracing Mindful Tech UsePrimary Topic: Embracing Mindful Technology Use

    - Identifying the Reasons for Device Use

    - Information seeking

    - Connection

    - Habitual behavior

    - Setting Specific Times for Tech Usage

    - Establishing designated times for different types of tech

    - Implementing tech-free periods, e.g., no phones at dinner or turning off notifications in the evening

    - Digital Detox

    - Disconnecting from digital devices

    - Embracing tech-free mornings or days

    - Designating non-digital activity hours

    - Maintaining a Healthy Tech Relationship

    - Utilizing tech in ways that enhance rather than dominate life

    - Paying attention to emotional impacts of tech

    - Recognizing the psychological effects of screen time on brain chemistry and mental well-being

    - Setting Boundaries with Work and Technology

    - Creating digital office hours

    - Establishing a physical workspace to differentiate professional and personal life

    - Tech and Social Relationships

    - Evaluating the impact of tech on social interactions

    - Maintaining meaningful face-to-face relationships

    - Incorporating Mindfulness into Daily Routine

    - Utilizing meditation and mindfulness practices

    - Developing a balanced relationship with technology to improve overall well-being

    ]]>    Primary Topic: Embracing Mindful Technology Use

    - Identifying the Reasons for Device Use

    - Information seeking

    - Connection

    - Habitual behavior

    - Setting Specific Times for Tech Usage

    - Establishing designated times for different types of tech

    - Implementing tech-free periods, e.g., no phones at dinner or turning off notifications in the evening

    - Digital Detox

    - Disconnecting from digital devices

    - Embracing tech-free mornings or days

    - Designating non-digital activity hours

    - Maintaining a Healthy Tech Relationship

    - Utilizing tech in ways that enhance rather than dominate life

    - Paying attention to emotional impacts of tech

    - Recognizing the psychological effects of screen time on brain chemistry and mental well-being

    - Setting Boundaries with Work and Technology

    - Creating digital office hours

    - Establishing a physical workspace to differentiate professional and personal life

    - Tech and Social Relationships

    - Evaluating the impact of tech on social interactions

    - Maintaining meaningful face-to-face relationships

    - Incorporating Mindfulness into Daily Routine

    - Utilizing meditation and mindfulness practices

    - Developing a balanced relationship with technology to improve overall well-being

    ]]>    ed17eca0-84a6-4e33-9311-4c8fa6c93563Tue, 30 Jan 2024 12:00:00 -050005:25falsefull357357    Building Confidence in Decision MakingBuilding Confidence in Decision MakingPrimary Topic: Decision Making and Confidence

    - The fundamental skill of decision making

    - The constant use of decision making in professional and personal lives

    - Understanding the significance of the decision

    - Questions to ask to understand the consequences of the decision

    - Investment of time and effort based on significance

    - Gathering relevant information

    - Collecting data and facts

    - Seeking opinions or advice from trusted sources

    - Being wary of cognitive biases or misinformation

    - Considering alternatives

    - Brainstorming or using mind mapping tools to list all possible options

    - Analyzing pros and cons of each alternative

    - Weighing the outcomes based on personal or organizational priorities

    - Making the decision

    - Choosing the best alternative based on goals and values

    - No guaranteed perfection in the decision making process

    - Taking action

    - Implementing the chosen choice

    - Developing an action plan, setting milestones, or delegating tasks

    - Assessing the results

    - Reflecting on the outcomes of the decision

    - Learning from unforeseen consequences

    - Limiting choices

    - Narrowing down options to avoid decision paralysis

    - Trusting intuition

    - Utilizing intuition as a powerful guide based on past experiences and knowledge

    - Avoiding overthinking

    - Setting a deadline for the decision if necessary

    - Seeking feedback to validate the choice and gain valuable insights

    - Decision making as an art and science

    - Utilizing structured processes, intuition, judgment, and courage

    - Equipping oneself with the right tools and mindset

    - Understanding the stages of the decision making process

    - Learning and refining the decision making process for increased confidence and clarity.

    ]]>    Primary Topic: Decision Making and Confidence

    - The fundamental skill of decision making

    - The constant use of decision making in professional and personal lives

    - Understanding the significance of the decision

    - Questions to ask to understand the consequences of the decision

    - Investment of time and effort based on significance

    - Gathering relevant information

    - Collecting data and facts

    - Seeking opinions or advice from trusted sources

    - Being wary of cognitive biases or misinformation

    - Considering alternatives

    - Brainstorming or using mind mapping tools to list all possible options

    - Analyzing pros and cons of each alternative

    - Weighing the outcomes based on personal or organizational priorities

    - Making the decision

    - Choosing the best alternative based on goals and values

    - No guaranteed perfection in the decision making process

    - Taking action

    - Implementing the chosen choice

    - Developing an action plan, setting milestones, or delegating tasks

    - Assessing the results

    - Reflecting on the outcomes of the decision

    - Learning from unforeseen consequences

    - Limiting choices

    - Narrowing down options to avoid decision paralysis

    - Trusting intuition

    - Utilizing intuition as a powerful guide based on past experiences and knowledge

    - Avoiding overthinking

    - Setting a deadline for the decision if necessary

    - Seeking feedback to validate the choice and gain valuable insights

    - Decision making as an art and science

    - Utilizing structured processes, intuition, judgment, and courage

    - Equipping oneself with the right tools and mindset

    - Understanding the stages of the decision making process

    - Learning and refining the decision making process for increased confidence and clarity.

    ]]>    7607a76c-822d-45d1-a109-bfbd20a53c51Tue, 23 Jan 2024 12:00:00 -050005:13falsefull356356    Finding Success Through Reevaluation and SupportFinding Success Through Reevaluation and SupportPrimary Topic: Challenges When Hard Work Is Not Enough

    - Frustration and its effects

    - The temptation to quit

    - Importance of reevaluation and review of goals and current strategies

    Primary Topic: Building Trusting Relationships and Community Support

    - The value of networking with successful people

    - Importance of creating trusting relationships with like-minded individuals for mutual support

    - Finding a mentor and being a mentor to others

    - Utilizing the services of a professional coach to achieve goals

    - The benefits of learning new methods or skills to overcome obstacles

    Primary Topic: Delegating and Reducing Stress

    - The realization that sometimes lack of progress is due to excess workload

    - The benefits of delegating tasks to free up time and mental energy

    - Hiring a professional service when necessary to handle specific tasks

    - The impact of reducing stress in order to gain new insights and make progress

    Primary Topic: Taking a Break and Gaining New Insights

    - The importance of reassessing the current situation compared to desired goals

    - The value of reducing stress to gain new insights and perspectives

    - Embracing change and making necessary adjustments to move forward

    Primary Topic: Conclusion and Encouragement

    - Emphasis on self-care and self-assessment

    - Encouragement to seek ways to reduce stress and gain new perspectives

    - Acknowledgment of the importance of making changes to make progress

    ]]>    Primary Topic: Challenges When Hard Work Is Not Enough

    - Frustration and its effects

    - The temptation to quit

    - Importance of reevaluation and review of goals and current strategies

    Primary Topic: Building Trusting Relationships and Community Support

    - The value of networking with successful people

    - Importance of creating trusting relationships with like-minded individuals for mutual support

    - Finding a mentor and being a mentor to others

    - Utilizing the services of a professional coach to achieve goals

    - The benefits of learning new methods or skills to overcome obstacles

    Primary Topic: Delegating and Reducing Stress

    - The realization that sometimes lack of progress is due to excess workload

    - The benefits of delegating tasks to free up time and mental energy

    - Hiring a professional service when necessary to handle specific tasks

    - The impact of reducing stress in order to gain new insights and make progress

    Primary Topic: Taking a Break and Gaining New Insights

    - The importance of reassessing the current situation compared to desired goals

    - The value of reducing stress to gain new insights and perspectives

    - Embracing change and making necessary adjustments to move forward

    Primary Topic: Conclusion and Encouragement

    - Emphasis on self-care and self-assessment

    - Encouragement to seek ways to reduce stress and gain new perspectives

    - Acknowledgment of the importance of making changes to make progress

    ]]>    422575b3-20be-40de-ae7f-1179f90c53b4Tue, 16 Jan 2024 12:00:00 -050005:19falsefull355355    Understanding Your Inner VoiceUnderstanding Your Inner VoicePrimary Topic: Introduction to Self-Talk

    - Definition of self-talk

    - Importance of self-talk in shaping self-perception and confidence

    Primary Topic: Understanding Self-Talk

    - Nature of internal dialogue

    - Influence of self-talk on confidence and stress levels

    Primary Topic: Harnessing the Power of Self-Talk

    - Becoming aware of your inner voice

    - Challenging negative thoughts

    - Using positive affirmations

    - Keeping a gratitude journal

    - Practicing mindfulness and meditation

    - Seeking external feedback to gain fresh insights

    Primary Topic: Impact of Uplifting Self-Talk

    - Empowerment and fostering a growth mindset

    - Shifting focus from shortcomings to blessings in life

    - Revising self-view and building confidence through positive self-talk

    ]]>    Primary Topic: Introduction to Self-Talk

    - Definition of self-talk

    - Importance of self-talk in shaping self-perception and confidence

    Primary Topic: Understanding Self-Talk

    - Nature of internal dialogue

    - Influence of self-talk on confidence and stress levels

    Primary Topic: Harnessing the Power of Self-Talk

    - Becoming aware of your inner voice

    - Challenging negative thoughts

    - Using positive affirmations

    - Keeping a gratitude journal

    - Practicing mindfulness and meditation

    - Seeking external feedback to gain fresh insights

    Primary Topic: Impact of Uplifting Self-Talk

    - Empowerment and fostering a growth mindset

    - Shifting focus from shortcomings to blessings in life

    - Revising self-view and building confidence through positive self-talk

    ]]>    29dca829-3d3b-4a11-9c0d-9b8a903fa301Tue, 09 Jan 2024 12:00:00 -050005:25falsefull354354    Career Conversations with Esther AvantCareer Conversations with Esther AvantEsther Avant is a health industry veteran with over 17 years of experience in fitness, nutrition, and wellness related roles. She is a certified sports nutritionist, personal trainer, wellness coach, and owner of EA Coaching, which has provided full spectrum health & lifestyle coaching since 2015.

    Her mission is to help women be healthy, happy, confident, and get the most out of their lives. She knows that if more women prioritized their health, they’d be able to unleash the confidence and focus they all need to leave their mark on the world.

    Esther is also an introvert, boy mom and Navy wife who has lived and traveled all over the world while running her EA Coaching.

    Social media links

    Grab her Weight Loss That Lasts Cheat Sheet at www.estheravant.com/cheatsheet

    Find out more about her at www.estheravant.com

    Connect on Instagram at www.instagram.com/esther.avant

    Connect on Tiktok at www.tiktok.com/@estheravant

    Listen to her podcast Live Diet-Free at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-live-diet-free-podcast/id1543658046


    Link to website

    www.estheravant.com



    Primary Topic: Introduction and Definition of Introversion

    - Guest introduction: Esther Avant

    - Definition of introversion provided by Ester Avant

    - Insights into the various perspectives on introversion

    Primary Topic: Description of Work

    - Ester Avant's role as a health and weight loss coach

    - Emphasis on comprehensive wellness beyond just exercise and nutrition

    - Addressing misconceptions about the industry and the struggle of professionals in the field

    Primary Topic: Impact of Social Media

    - Ester Avant's approach to authentic representation on social media

    - Discussing the power to curate social media feeds for a healthy mindset

    - Addressing how social media can fuel disconnect in the wellness industry

    Primary Topic: Mindset and Career Development

    - Embracing mindset-related work and its impact in Ester Avant's career

    - Learning about being authentic and genuine in online presence

    - Addressing the struggles and growth in developing a mindset-oriented approach

    Primary Topic: Balancing Pursuits and Entrepreneurship

    - Challenges of pursuing multiple interests simultaneously

    - The importance of focus and strategic decision-making

    - Handling the pressure and expectations while running a business

    Primary Topic: Career Transition and Development

    - The evolution of Ester Avant's career in the health and wellness industry

    - Stints in entrepreneurship and the decision to shift back to coaching

    - Emphasizing the importance of aligning passion and expertise in career choices

    Primary Topic: Self-Care and Energy Management

    - Strategies for conserving energy in a demanding role

    - Adjusting priorities based on life phases and core values

    - The significance of saying no, prioritizing self-care, and maintaining work-life balance

    ]]>    Esther Avant is a health industry veteran with over 17 years of experience in fitness, nutrition, and wellness related roles. She is a certified sports nutritionist, personal trainer, wellness coach, and owner of EA Coaching, which has provided full spectrum health & lifestyle coaching since 2015.

    Her mission is to help women be healthy, happy, confident, and get the most out of their lives. She knows that if more women prioritized their health, they’d be able to unleash the confidence and focus they all need to leave their mark on the world.

    Esther is also an introvert, boy mom and Navy wife who has lived and traveled all over the world while running her EA Coaching.

    Social media links

    Grab her Weight Loss That Lasts Cheat Sheet at www.estheravant.com/cheatsheet

    Find out more about her at www.estheravant.com

    Connect on Instagram at www.instagram.com/esther.avant

    Connect on Tiktok at www.tiktok.com/@estheravant

    Listen to her podcast Live Diet-Free at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-live-diet-free-podcast/id1543658046


    Link to website

    www.estheravant.com



    Primary Topic: Introduction and Definition of Introversion

    - Guest introduction: Esther Avant

    - Definition of introversion provided by Ester Avant

    - Insights into the various perspectives on introversion

    Primary Topic: Description of Work

    - Ester Avant's role as a health and weight loss coach

    - Emphasis on comprehensive wellness beyond just exercise and nutrition

    - Addressing misconceptions about the industry and the struggle of professionals in the field

    Primary Topic: Impact of Social Media

    - Ester Avant's approach to authentic representation on social media

    - Discussing the power to curate social media feeds for a healthy mindset

    - Addressing how social media can fuel disconnect in the wellness industry

    Primary Topic: Mindset and Career Development

    - Embracing mindset-related work and its impact in Ester Avant's career

    - Learning about being authentic and genuine in online presence

    - Addressing the struggles and growth in developing a mindset-oriented approach

    Primary Topic: Balancing Pursuits and Entrepreneurship

    - Challenges of pursuing multiple interests simultaneously

    - The importance of focus and strategic decision-making

    - Handling the pressure and expectations while running a business

    Primary Topic: Career Transition and Development

    - The evolution of Ester Avant's career in the health and wellness industry

    - Stints in entrepreneurship and the decision to shift back to coaching

    - Emphasizing the importance of aligning passion and expertise in career choices

    Primary Topic: Self-Care and Energy Management

    - Strategies for conserving energy in a demanding role

    - Adjusting priorities based on life phases and core values

    - The significance of saying no, prioritizing self-care, and maintaining work-life balance

    ]]>    4dd8e0bb-3bb3-4f33-9eb6-5f512401a7baWed, 03 Jan 2024 12:00:00 -050020:23falsefull353353    Career Conversations with Dave SchultzCareer Conversations with Dave SchultzA former music teacher, I now find myself being a tech specialist and corporate trainer for a major insurance company. I have three amazing kids. I have been married for 15 years. I love music, sports and watching my kids be amazing.

    Social media links

    https://twitter.com/daveschultz74

    https://www.facebook.com/minkyboodle/



    Link to website

    https://daveschultz743.wixsite.com/firwood-5



    Primary Topic: Introduction to Dave Schultz

    - Discussion on the meaning of introversion to Dave

    Primary Topic: Dave's Career and Misconceptions

    - Dave's current job roles as an IT tech support and practice development specialist

    - Misconceptions about introverted individuals and their behaviors in the workplace

    - Impact of introversion on Dave's approach to collaboration and teamwork

    Primary Topic: Personal Development and Career Growth

    - Dave's journey from teaching to tech support

    - Challenges and insights gained from transitioning to IT

    - The impact of conscious effort and self-improvement on career development

    Primary Topic: Personal Recharging and Self-Care

    - Dave's strategies for recharging and personal relaxation

    - Balancing personal interests and downtime with work-related responsibilities

    Primary Topic: Misconceptions about Teaching

    - Misconceptions about teachers' responsibilities and compensation

    - The constant preparation and planning involved in teaching, particularly in music education

    - Challenges faced by teachers and the continuous nature of their workload

    Primary Topic: A Look at Future Endeavors

    - Dave's upcoming project "Figuring It Out on Firwood" to provide support and resources for neurodivergent children

    - Details about the future website and its purpose

    ]]>    A former music teacher, I now find myself being a tech specialist and corporate trainer for a major insurance company. I have three amazing kids. I have been married for 15 years. I love music, sports and watching my kids be amazing.

    Social media links

    https://twitter.com/daveschultz74

    https://www.facebook.com/minkyboodle/



    Link to website

    https://daveschultz743.wixsite.com/firwood-5



    Primary Topic: Introduction to Dave Schultz

    - Discussion on the meaning of introversion to Dave

    Primary Topic: Dave's Career and Misconceptions

    - Dave's current job roles as an IT tech support and practice development specialist

    - Misconceptions about introverted individuals and their behaviors in the workplace

    - Impact of introversion on Dave's approach to collaboration and teamwork

    Primary Topic: Personal Development and Career Growth

    - Dave's journey from teaching to tech support

    - Challenges and insights gained from transitioning to IT

    - The impact of conscious effort and self-improvement on career development

    Primary Topic: Personal Recharging and Self-Care

    - Dave's strategies for recharging and personal relaxation

    - Balancing personal interests and downtime with work-related responsibilities

    Primary Topic: Misconceptions about Teaching

    - Misconceptions about teachers' responsibilities and compensation

    - The constant preparation and planning involved in teaching, particularly in music education

    - Challenges faced by teachers and the continuous nature of their workload

    Primary Topic: A Look at Future Endeavors

    - Dave's upcoming project "Figuring It Out on Firwood" to provide support and resources for neurodivergent children

    - Details about the future website and its purpose

    ]]>    ea539981-e46a-4302-9daa-ea625eaf7669Wed, 03 Jan 2024 00:15:00 -050019:14falsefull352352    Career Conversations with Dani NicholsCareer Conversations with Dani NicholsDani Nichols is a journalist, essayist and children’s book author. Her book, Buzz the Not-So-Brave, has won several awards. Her essays are also award-winning and she has been published in The Other Journal, Oregon Humanities, Reckon Review, Barren Magazine and more. When she's not writing, Dani works a certified therapeutic horsemanship instructor. Dani lives with her husband and three young children in Central Oregon, where she's either trying a new recipe, reading a good book, riding her horse or chasing her kids from here to kingdom come.

    Social media links

    instagram.com/buzzthenotsobrave

    daninichols.substack.com

    Link to website

    www.wranglerdani.com



    Primary Topic: Introduction and Background

    - Introduction of guest Dani Nichols

    - Discussion of her work as an adaptive horsemanship instructor and author

    - Her transition from journalism to working with horses

    Primary Topic: Understanding Introversion

    - Dani's definition of introversion as being comfortable with oneself and relying on internal guidance

    - The importance of self-validation and self-directed decision-making for introverts

    - Connecting introversion to Dani's career path and personal experiences

    Primary Topic: Work and Career Journey

    - Dani's career journey, from studying journalism to working in publishing, to becoming a horsemanship instructor and author

    - The unexpected intersection of Dani's journalism background with her love for horses

    - Discussing misconceptions about the journalism field and horsemanship work

    Primary Topic: Writing and Authorship

    - The journey of writing a children’s book about horses and therapeutic benefits

    - Insight into Dani's writing process and collaboration with editors and illustrators

    - The impact of becoming a mother on Dani's confidence in sharing her own stories

    Primary Topic: Self-Promotion and Authenticity

    - Balancing self-promotion with authenticity for introverted individuals

    - Discussing the importance of finding promotional methods that align with personal values and strengths

    - The impact of being true to oneself in promotional efforts


    Primary Topic: Work-Life Balance

    - Emphasizing the importance of part-time work and setting boundaries

    - The value of sustainability and avoiding burnout in career and personal life

    - Identifying favorite activities for recharging, including spending time with horses and reading

    ]]>    Dani Nichols is a journalist, essayist and children’s book author. Her book, Buzz the Not-So-Brave, has won several awards. Her essays are also award-winning and she has been published in The Other Journal, Oregon Humanities, Reckon Review, Barren Magazine and more. When she's not writing, Dani works a certified therapeutic horsemanship instructor. Dani lives with her husband and three young children in Central Oregon, where she's either trying a new recipe, reading a good book, riding her horse or chasing her kids from here to kingdom come.

    Social media links

    instagram.com/buzzthenotsobrave

    daninichols.substack.com

    Link to website

    www.wranglerdani.com



    Primary Topic: Introduction and Background

    - Introduction of guest Dani Nichols

    - Discussion of her work as an adaptive horsemanship instructor and author

    - Her transition from journalism to working with horses

    Primary Topic: Understanding Introversion

    - Dani's definition of introversion as being comfortable with oneself and relying on internal guidance

    - The importance of self-validation and self-directed decision-making for introverts

    - Connecting introversion to Dani's career path and personal experiences

    Primary Topic: Work and Career Journey

    - Dani's career journey, from studying journalism to working in publishing, to becoming a horsemanship instructor and author

    - The unexpected intersection of Dani's journalism background with her love for horses

    - Discussing misconceptions about the journalism field and horsemanship work

    Primary Topic: Writing and Authorship

    - The journey of writing a children’s book about horses and therapeutic benefits

    - Insight into Dani's writing process and collaboration with editors and illustrators

    - The impact of becoming a mother on Dani's confidence in sharing her own stories

    Primary Topic: Self-Promotion and Authenticity

    - Balancing self-promotion with authenticity for introverted individuals

    - Discussing the importance of finding promotional methods that align with personal values and strengths

    - The impact of being true to oneself in promotional efforts


    Primary Topic: Work-Life Balance

    - Emphasizing the importance of part-time work and setting boundaries

    - The value of sustainability and avoiding burnout in career and personal life

    - Identifying favorite activities for recharging, including spending time with horses and reading

    ]]>    b89c5d97-72e5-4204-bf3f-b9f923920a9fWed, 03 Jan 2024 00:15:00 -050016:51falsefull351351    Career Conversations with Nital PhullCareer Conversations with Nital Phull Nital Phull, is a a Corporate Career Coach for female professionals who want to progress in their career, who have so much potential and provide heaps of value to their organisation - but are instead feeling stuck, undervalued and misunderstood.

    Social media links

    LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nital-phull/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hi_its_nital/

    Link to website

    www.nital.me

    Primary topic: Introversion

    - Definition of introversion and common misconceptions

    - Introverts as energized by solitude or close relationships

    - Clarification that introversion is not the same as shyness or being quiet

    - Discussion on the diverse traits and capabilities of introverts

    Primary topic: Career and Work Transition

    - Transition from risk consultancy to corporate career coaching

    - Factors influencing the transition, including the birth of the guest's child

    - Impact of personal reflection and desire for flexibility and autonomy

    - The role of passion and love for coaching in the career transition

    - Balancing work and personal life

    - Strategies for recharging and self-care as a working parent

    - Importance of managing personal time to maintain energy levels

    Primary topic: Corporate Coaching and Leadership

    - Misconceptions about corporate coaches

    - Addressing the misconception that coaches can solve everything quickly

    - Discrediting the belief that coaches cannot solve anything

    - Emphasis on the need for commitment and effort from clients in coaching

    - The decision to invest in coaching and personal development

    - The pivotal role of personal development when taking on managerial responsibilities

    - The impact of coaching in challenging personal periods

    - Leadership skills and qualities

    - Identifying great leadership skills, such as empowering, influence, and vision-setting

    - Illustrating examples of team members exhibiting leadership qualities

    - Leadership and introversion

    - Discussion on how introverts possess valuable traits for leadership

    - Emphasizing the strengths of introverts in decision-making and reflection

    Primary topic: Self-Development and Habit Building

    - Daily check-in and habit formation

    - Implementation of daily gratitude practice and mindset shift

    - Techniques for dealing with situations within and outside of control

    - Recognition of the impact of guilt and energy management in decision-making

    - Embracing core values and setting boundaries

    - The importance of aligning decisions with core values

    - Acknowledging the role of guilt in decision-making and energy management

    - Growth mindset and self-cultivation

    - Emphasizing the role of effort over talent in personal and professional growth

    - Discussion on the continuous learning and experience in leadership development




    ]]>     Nital Phull, is a a Corporate Career Coach for female professionals who want to progress in their career, who have so much potential and provide heaps of value to their organisation - but are instead feeling stuck, undervalued and misunderstood.

    Social media links

    LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nital-phull/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hi_its_nital/

    Link to website

    www.nital.me

    Primary topic: Introversion

    - Definition of introversion and common misconceptions

    - Introverts as energized by solitude or close relationships

    - Clarification that introversion is not the same as shyness or being quiet

    - Discussion on the diverse traits and capabilities of introverts

    Primary topic: Career and Work Transition

    - Transition from risk consultancy to corporate career coaching

    - Factors influencing the transition, including the birth of the guest's child

    - Impact of personal reflection and desire for flexibility and autonomy

    - The role of passion and love for coaching in the career transition

    - Balancing work and personal life

    - Strategies for recharging and self-care as a working parent

    - Importance of managing personal time to maintain energy levels

    Primary topic: Corporate Coaching and Leadership

    - Misconceptions about corporate coaches

    - Addressing the misconception that coaches can solve everything quickly

    - Discrediting the belief that coaches cannot solve anything

    - Emphasis on the need for commitment and effort from clients in coaching

    - The decision to invest in coaching and personal development

    - The pivotal role of personal development when taking on managerial responsibilities

    - The impact of coaching in challenging personal periods

    - Leadership skills and qualities

    - Identifying great leadership skills, such as empowering, influence, and vision-setting

    - Illustrating examples of team members exhibiting leadership qualities

    - Leadership and introversion

    - Discussion on how introverts possess valuable traits for leadership

    - Emphasizing the strengths of introverts in decision-making and reflection

    Primary topic: Self-Development and Habit Building

    - Daily check-in and habit formation

    - Implementation of daily gratitude practice and mindset shift

    - Techniques for dealing with situations within and outside of control

    - Recognition of the impact of guilt and energy management in decision-making

    - Embracing core values and setting boundaries

    - The importance of aligning decisions with core values

    - Acknowledging the role of guilt in decision-making and energy management

    - Growth mindset and self-cultivation

    - Emphasizing the role of effort over talent in personal and professional growth

    - Discussion on the continuous learning and experience in leadership development




    ]]>    aeb2f084-63c9-4bc4-b671-b1d96baa3c91Wed, 03 Jan 2024 00:15:00 -050016:17falsefull350350    Career Conversations with Mark WiggintonCareer Conversations with Mark WiggintonMark Wigginton understands the importance of asking quality questions and used them throughout his career as a salesperson, management consultant, trainer, and even as a jail counselor (that’s a long story). He recently retired as a Regional Vice President for Shipley Associates, a global leader in business development consulting and training. During his 20 years at Shipley, he grew his region to be the top performing in the U.S. by focusing on his customers.

    A Certified Professional Coach and strategy consultant, Mark helps his clients learn the importance of customer focus, as well as how to advance the sales cycle, clarify goals and win more business! His professional training includes post-graduate studies in Business and Executive Coaching and an MS in Counseling Psychology. He is APMP certified as a Capture, Bid and Proposal Practitioner and is Shipley Business Winning certified. Mark is recognized by LinkedIn as a "Top Business Development Voice".

    Social media links

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/focusingonresults/

    https://twitter.com/ManageYourFocus

    Link to website

    www.focusingonresults.com


    Primary Topic: Introduction and Definition of Introversion

    - Janice Chaka introduces the podcast and the guest, Mark Wigginton

    - Mark describes introversion as the source of where he draws his power from in a world full of information and processing

    Primary Topic: Mark Wigginton's Career and Work

    - Mark discusses his transition from a career involving selling, training, and marketing to coaching and strategy consulting

    - He mentions his experience in the mental health field and using his sales skills in his new role

    - Mark introduces the "sales spotlight" concept, highlighting the importance of effective listening and asking insightful questions in sales and business development

    Primary Topic: Misconceptions about Sales

    - Mark addresses misconceptions about sales, particularly the outdated notion of needing to be visually extroverted

    Primary Topic: Personal and Professional Development

    - Mark shares how he transitioned from ineffective coping skills to becoming an endurance athlete, leading to positive changes in his business

    - He emphasizes the importance of taking care of oneself and making healthy choices, leading to improved creativity and performance

    Primary Topic: The Impact of Physical Activity on Creativity

    - Mark discusses how engaging in physical activities, especially running, gives him headspace for creativity and idea development

    - He highlights that mood follows action, emphasizing the correlation between movement and attitude

    Primary Topic: Building Relationships Based on Values and Ethics

    - Mark shares a story about maintaining ethical values by firing a customer, leading to a deep, trusting professional and personal relationship

    - Janice acknowledges the importance of being authentic and working with people who share the same values

    Primary Topic: Self-Promotion

    - Mark provides details about his business, Focusing on Results, and how to connect with him on LinkedIn and via email

    - He describes the services he offers, including sales strategy consulting and business development coaching

    - Mark mentions working with individuals as they transition to the next stage in their careers or venture into entrepreneurship


    ]]>    Mark Wigginton understands the importance of asking quality questions and used them throughout his career as a salesperson, management consultant, trainer, and even as a jail counselor (that’s a long story). He recently retired as a Regional Vice President for Shipley Associates, a global leader in business development consulting and training. During his 20 years at Shipley, he grew his region to be the top performing in the U.S. by focusing on his customers.

    A Certified Professional Coach and strategy consultant, Mark helps his clients learn the importance of customer focus, as well as how to advance the sales cycle, clarify goals and win more business! His professional training includes post-graduate studies in Business and Executive Coaching and an MS in Counseling Psychology. He is APMP certified as a Capture, Bid and Proposal Practitioner and is Shipley Business Winning certified. Mark is recognized by LinkedIn as a "Top Business Development Voice".

    Social media links

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/focusingonresults/

    https://twitter.com/ManageYourFocus

    Link to website

    www.focusingonresults.com


    Primary Topic: Introduction and Definition of Introversion

    - Janice Chaka introduces the podcast and the guest, Mark Wigginton

    - Mark describes introversion as the source of where he draws his power from in a world full of information and processing

    Primary Topic: Mark Wigginton's Career and Work

    - Mark discusses his transition from a career involving selling, training, and marketing to coaching and strategy consulting

    - He mentions his experience in the mental health field and using his sales skills in his new role

    - Mark introduces the "sales spotlight" concept, highlighting the importance of effective listening and asking insightful questions in sales and business development

    Primary Topic: Misconceptions about Sales

    - Mark addresses misconceptions about sales, particularly the outdated notion of needing to be visually extroverted

    Primary Topic: Personal and Professional Development

    - Mark shares how he transitioned from ineffective coping skills to becoming an endurance athlete, leading to positive changes in his business

    - He emphasizes the importance of taking care of oneself and making healthy choices, leading to improved creativity and performance

    Primary Topic: The Impact of Physical Activity on Creativity

    - Mark discusses how engaging in physical activities, especially running, gives him headspace for creativity and idea development

    - He highlights that mood follows action, emphasizing the correlation between movement and attitude

    Primary Topic: Building Relationships Based on Values and Ethics

    - Mark shares a story about maintaining ethical values by firing a customer, leading to a deep, trusting professional and personal relationship

    - Janice acknowledges the importance of being authentic and working with people who share the same values

    Primary Topic: Self-Promotion

    - Mark provides details about his business, Focusing on Results, and how to connect with him on LinkedIn and via email

    - He describes the services he offers, including sales strategy consulting and business development coaching

    - Mark mentions working with individuals as they transition to the next stage in their careers or venture into entrepreneurship


    ]]>    82538d46-a2c4-4245-a4b6-0ff7efaf7beeTue, 02 Jan 2024 12:00:00 -050016:52falsefull349349    Career Conversations with Adrian SantiagoCareer Conversations with Adrian SantiagoLike his books, Adrian Santiago is made of a little bit of everything; The spice of the Caribbean Islands (BORICUA!); sharp edges from a childhood on the block in Buffalo, NY; some southern charm and a dose of crazy from the land of “Florida Man”; and a knack for drama born of comics punk rock music, and a love for stories.

    Welcome to Books By Adrian. Here you’ll find a mix of sci-fi, fantasy, crime drama, thriller, mystery, romance and spice, with a diverse cast from all walks of life. Embark on his maiden voyage, the MYTHIC series, and discover the magic of Gaia and The Spark.

    Social media links

    https://YouTube.com/@booksbyadrian

    https://Instagram.com/@books_by_adrian

    https://TikTok.com/@booksbyadrian

    https://Facebook.com/@booksbyadrian

    Link to website

    https://www.booksbyadrian.com

    Being Introverted: "I didn't wanna go. I don't wanna go to places. I wanna stay home and watch my movies and read my books and stuff."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:00:59 → 00:01:04]

    Viral Topic: Self-discovery and Understanding

    Quote: "I I wouldn't say it's either a positive or negative experience. It's more like, self-discovery and understanding is what it all comes down to."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:02:39 → 00:02:43]

    Overcoming Challenges: "It's hard. If it was easy, everybody would do it."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:07:00 → 00:07:34]

    The Importance of Discipline in Art: "If you're a writer, every day, you gotta sit down and get the writing done. Whether it's a half hour session, an hour, 2 hours, whatever it is. You set that goal, and you get it done."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:08:47 → 00:08:57]

    Viral Writing Tip: "Your 1st draft is going to be garbage. It's supposed to be because The 1st draft is you telling yourself the story."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:10:58 → 00:11:04]

    How to Stay Focused While Writing: "Other than having some music so that I could focus, and the music has to be lyricless just like, you know, movie scores and stuff like that, something with just instruments so that I I don't get logged into lyrics and stuff like that."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:13:08 → 00:13:19]

    The Power of Sprinting: "I will write for 25 minutes, and then I'll take a 5 to 10 minute break."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:14:08 → 00:14:11]

    Viral Topic: Inspiration from Jenna Moreci: "I was on YouTube, and I saw this author. Her name is Jenna Moreci. She has a channel on YouTube where she gives writing advice."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:15:37 → 00:15:40]

    Viral Topic: Finding Community as a Writer

    Quote: "But once I was in, it was the camaraderie of all these authors, like helping each other out, you know, giving advice, sharing their experiences, and, you know, promoting each other and interviewing each other and all this kind of stuff."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:16:50 → 00:17:00]

    The power of community: "I give them a platform to share their knowledge, and that has really, really changed things for me, just being surrounded by other people who do what I do."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:17:20 → 00:17:27]

    ]]>    Like his books, Adrian Santiago is made of a little bit of everything; The spice of the Caribbean Islands (BORICUA!); sharp edges from a childhood on the block in Buffalo, NY; some southern charm and a dose of crazy from the land of “Florida Man”; and a knack for drama born of comics punk rock music, and a love for stories.

    Welcome to Books By Adrian. Here you’ll find a mix of sci-fi, fantasy, crime drama, thriller, mystery, romance and spice, with a diverse cast from all walks of life. Embark on his maiden voyage, the MYTHIC series, and discover the magic of Gaia and The Spark.

    Social media links

    https://YouTube.com/@booksbyadrian

    https://Instagram.com/@books_by_adrian

    https://TikTok.com/@booksbyadrian

    https://Facebook.com/@booksbyadrian

    Link to website

    https://www.booksbyadrian.com

    Being Introverted: "I didn't wanna go. I don't wanna go to places. I wanna stay home and watch my movies and read my books and stuff."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:00:59 → 00:01:04]

    Viral Topic: Self-discovery and Understanding

    Quote: "I I wouldn't say it's either a positive or negative experience. It's more like, self-discovery and understanding is what it all comes down to."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:02:39 → 00:02:43]

    Overcoming Challenges: "It's hard. If it was easy, everybody would do it."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:07:00 → 00:07:34]

    The Importance of Discipline in Art: "If you're a writer, every day, you gotta sit down and get the writing done. Whether it's a half hour session, an hour, 2 hours, whatever it is. You set that goal, and you get it done."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:08:47 → 00:08:57]

    Viral Writing Tip: "Your 1st draft is going to be garbage. It's supposed to be because The 1st draft is you telling yourself the story."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:10:58 → 00:11:04]

    How to Stay Focused While Writing: "Other than having some music so that I could focus, and the music has to be lyricless just like, you know, movie scores and stuff like that, something with just instruments so that I I don't get logged into lyrics and stuff like that."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:13:08 → 00:13:19]

    The Power of Sprinting: "I will write for 25 minutes, and then I'll take a 5 to 10 minute break."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:14:08 → 00:14:11]

    Viral Topic: Inspiration from Jenna Moreci: "I was on YouTube, and I saw this author. Her name is Jenna Moreci. She has a channel on YouTube where she gives writing advice."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:15:37 → 00:15:40]

    Viral Topic: Finding Community as a Writer

    Quote: "But once I was in, it was the camaraderie of all these authors, like helping each other out, you know, giving advice, sharing their experiences, and, you know, promoting each other and interviewing each other and all this kind of stuff."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:16:50 → 00:17:00]

    The power of community: "I give them a platform to share their knowledge, and that has really, really changed things for me, just being surrounded by other people who do what I do."

    — Adrian Santiago [00:17:20 → 00:17:27]

    ]]>    4037de4f-8dd3-401f-9814-077747eda85fTue, 02 Jan 2024 00:15:00 -050020:28falsefull348348    Career Conversations with Andrea PuttingCareer Conversations with Andrea PuttingAndrea Putting is a passionate explorer on a quest to uncover the secrets of creating a better life. With a background that spans both entrepreneurship and the corporate world, she has gained unique insights into finding fulfilment and purpose.

    But what truly sets Andrea apart is her unexpected journey. It led to the creation of Chocolate and Coffee Day for Religious Harmony, an inspiring initiative that brings people from diverse backgrounds together over the simple pleasures of chocolate, coffee, and conversation, dismantling the barriers that divide us. This journey also gave birth to Chocolate and Coffee Breaks, an extension of that spirit of togetherness throughout the year.

    She delved into Social Missions, becoming the voice behind a popular podcast and the author of two thought-provoking books: "Compassionate Prosperity: When Success is Not Enough" and "Compassionate Purpose: Discovering a Life of Fulfilment."

    But the adventure doesn't stop there. As a seasoned speaker, Andrea has graced countless stages, captivating audiences with their wisdom and insights. Self-publishing opened new horizons, leading to the establishment of a publishing business, Putting Words. Her life is now a captivating and ever-evolving story, guided by a deep understanding of her own identity, strengths, and the opportunities that present themselves.

    Through countless interactions with clients, Andrea was reminded that each of us possesses a story worth sharing—a story with the power to touch and transform lives. She firmly believes that by persistently sharing these stories, positive change can ripple through our world.

    Andrea Putting lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and pet cockatoo. They have two adult children and two grandchildren who keep her jumping in puddles


    Social media links

    www.Facebook.com/AndreaPuttingSpeaker

    www.LinkedIn.com/in/AndreaPutting


    Link to website

    www.AndreaPutting.com.au; www.ChocolateandCoffeeBreaks.com: www.PuttingWords.com; www.SocialMissionRevolution.com



    Viral Topic: The Power of Introversion

    Quote: "Introversion to me is about needing to have your own space and not always about jumping into things, but just to have time to really connect with who you are and what it is that you're feeling before you go out into the world."

    — Andrea Putting [00:00:55 → 00:01:05]

    The Power of Giving: "When we give of ourselves to somebody else, whether it's individually or as a business, our lives are so much better."

    — Andrea Putting [00:02:19 → 00:02:26]

    Finding Purpose and Impact: "So I do that, and that works into helping people to find that special social mission that resonates with them, whether that's a volunteering situation or whether it's starting their own social mission and the same with businesses on coming together and finding that and collaborating together maybe with other businesses on creating a social mission and finding a way they can have a greater impact in the world."

    — Andrea Putting [00:02:47 → 00:03:15]

    "The Journey of Self-Publishing": "Actually, I write 3 books at a time. And so I needed to publish them, but who can afford to publish their own 3 books at once? So I took the...]]>Andrea Putting is a passionate explorer on a quest to uncover the secrets of creating a better life. With a background that spans both entrepreneurship and the corporate world, she has gained unique insights into finding fulfilment and purpose.

    But what truly sets Andrea apart is her unexpected journey. It led to the creation of Chocolate and Coffee Day for Religious Harmony, an inspiring initiative that brings people from diverse backgrounds together over the simple pleasures of chocolate, coffee, and conversation, dismantling the barriers that divide us. This journey also gave birth to Chocolate and Coffee Breaks, an extension of that spirit of togetherness throughout the year.

    She delved into Social Missions, becoming the voice behind a popular podcast and the author of two thought-provoking books: "Compassionate Prosperity: When Success is Not Enough" and "Compassionate Purpose: Discovering a Life of Fulfilment."

    But the adventure doesn't stop there. As a seasoned speaker, Andrea has graced countless stages, captivating audiences with their wisdom and insights. Self-publishing opened new horizons, leading to the establishment of a publishing business, Putting Words. Her life is now a captivating and ever-evolving story, guided by a deep understanding of her own identity, strengths, and the opportunities that present themselves.

    Through countless interactions with clients, Andrea was reminded that each of us possesses a story worth sharing—a story with the power to touch and transform lives. She firmly believes that by persistently sharing these stories, positive change can ripple through our world.

    Andrea Putting lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and pet cockatoo. They have two adult children and two grandchildren who keep her jumping in puddles


    Social media links

    www.Facebook.com/AndreaPuttingSpeaker

    www.LinkedIn.com/in/AndreaPutting


    Link to website

    www.AndreaPutting.com.au; www.ChocolateandCoffeeBreaks.com: www.PuttingWords.com; www.SocialMissionRevolution.com



    Viral Topic: The Power of Introversion

    Quote: "Introversion to me is about needing to have your own space and not always about jumping into things, but just to have time to really connect with who you are and what it is that you're feeling before you go out into the world."

    — Andrea Putting [00:00:55 → 00:01:05]

    The Power of Giving: "When we give of ourselves to somebody else, whether it's individually or as a business, our lives are so much better."

    — Andrea Putting [00:02:19 → 00:02:26]

    Finding Purpose and Impact: "So I do that, and that works into helping people to find that special social mission that resonates with them, whether that's a volunteering situation or whether it's starting their own social mission and the same with businesses on coming together and finding that and collaborating together maybe with other businesses on creating a social mission and finding a way they can have a greater impact in the world."

    — Andrea Putting [00:02:47 → 00:03:15]

    "The Journey of Self-Publishing": "Actually, I write 3 books at a time. And so I needed to publish them, but who can afford to publish their own 3 books at once? So I took the self publishing journey."

    — Andrea Putting [00:03:26 → 00:03:39]

    Viral Topic: Sharing Stories Over Chocolate and Coffee

    Quote: "Come and have a couple. Let's share some chocolate and have a conversation. I wanna hear your story. How do you see the world? What are your experiences? What's your story. So that's a lovely little thing. It it's not about me or any money, but I love to share that with the world and hope that people embrace it so that we can get to know each other a bit better."

    — Andrea Putting [00:04:08 → 00:04:26]

    Viral Topic: Balancing Motherhood and Entrepreneurship

    Quote: "I started my journey as an at home mother. I managed to be at home with my children right through their school life. But while I say that, I didn't just sit around and do nothing."

    — Andrea Putting [00:05:30 → 00:05:40]

    Workplace Satisfaction: "Why is going to work such a drag? Why are people so depressed in the workplace. Why do we get so unsatisfied with what we do?"

    — Andrea Putting [00:06:51 → 00:07:02]

    The Power of Volunteering: "That's probably the thing that has cemented what I do. It's standing up and putting my hand up and getting involved with people and community."

    — Andrea Putting [00:08:06 → 00:08:10]

    Saying No to Say Yes: "In order to say yes, I have to say no."

    — Andrea Putting [00:09:37 → 00:09:41]

    Finding Balance: "When we're doing those things that excite us, they're not draining."

    — Andrea Putting [00:10:43 → 00:10:46]

    ]]>20dd01df-785b-4154-a62a-323fd9ca0152Tue, 02 Jan 2024 00:15:00 -050017:07falsefull347347    Career Conversations with Kellie NissenCareer Conversations with Kellie NissenKellie Nissen is an author coach, editor and dragon boater with Dragons Abreast Canberra - Goanna. Canberra born, she still lives in Australia’s capital city, along with her husband, two teens and two pugs. Between work, writing, dragon boat training and pug duties, Kellie has no time to engage in any more conversations with cancer.

    Social media links

    https://www.linkedin.com/company/just-right-words/

    https://www.facebook.com/KellieNissenEditWrite

    https://www.instagram.com/justrightwords/

    Link to website

    https://justrightwords.com.au/

    Overcoming Breast Cancer: "I need to start believing in myself and start being who I want to be and doing what I want to do and not saying yes to everything."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:03:05 → 00:03:16]

    Starting a New Business After Overcoming Cancer: "If you fail, you fail."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:05:06 → 00:05:07]

    Overcoming Challenges: "Dare tell me I can't do something. And that sort of stuck with me."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:05:53 → 00:05:58]

    The Reality of Being an Author: "Authors make a lot of money from their books, episode, which anybody out there who's listening and who has published a book either with a publisher or under their own steam would be like, no. We definitely we don't. We don't."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:07:39 → 00:07:54]

    The Cost of Book Publishing: "You get $100 worth of editing versus some proper, some real in-depth editing."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:08:36 → 00:08:40]

    Finding the Right Editor: "An editor who understands what you're trying to achieve I think is really, really important."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:10:47 → 00:10:54]

    Finding success in business with a business coach: "I didn't start working with a business coach until, I'd been I'd started the business about 3 years because f I could I actually couldn't afford a business coach. So because they're they're not cheap, but they are worth every cent you pay them."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:12:28 → 00:12:44]

    Overcoming Networking Anxiety: "I really had to convince myself that even now, if I go to a network meeting, I'm like, you know, what if, you know, what if I say something silly or whatever? And it's I think it's just putting yourself out there."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:13:52 → 00:14:02]

    Stepping out of your comfort zone: "So, I suppose, in answer to your question, on a daily basis or a weekly basis, I try to find something where I can put myself out there. So whether it's doing it's meeting with my business coach. It's going to a network meeting. It's connecting with somebody who I know might be able to help me in some way or, doing a Facebook live or something like that. That's still scary."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:14:02 → 00:14:36]

    Aussie Sausage Sandwich: "If you buy those, you throw away the white bread, you throw away the sausage, you eat the onion, you're probably a winner. Yes."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:18:11 → 00:18:18]

    ]]>    Kellie Nissen is an author coach, editor and dragon boater with Dragons Abreast Canberra - Goanna. Canberra born, she still lives in Australia’s capital city, along with her husband, two teens and two pugs. Between work, writing, dragon boat training and pug duties, Kellie has no time to engage in any more conversations with cancer.

    Social media links

    https://www.linkedin.com/company/just-right-words/

    https://www.facebook.com/KellieNissenEditWrite

    https://www.instagram.com/justrightwords/

    Link to website

    https://justrightwords.com.au/

    Overcoming Breast Cancer: "I need to start believing in myself and start being who I want to be and doing what I want to do and not saying yes to everything."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:03:05 → 00:03:16]

    Starting a New Business After Overcoming Cancer: "If you fail, you fail."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:05:06 → 00:05:07]

    Overcoming Challenges: "Dare tell me I can't do something. And that sort of stuck with me."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:05:53 → 00:05:58]

    The Reality of Being an Author: "Authors make a lot of money from their books, episode, which anybody out there who's listening and who has published a book either with a publisher or under their own steam would be like, no. We definitely we don't. We don't."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:07:39 → 00:07:54]

    The Cost of Book Publishing: "You get $100 worth of editing versus some proper, some real in-depth editing."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:08:36 → 00:08:40]

    Finding the Right Editor: "An editor who understands what you're trying to achieve I think is really, really important."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:10:47 → 00:10:54]

    Finding success in business with a business coach: "I didn't start working with a business coach until, I'd been I'd started the business about 3 years because f I could I actually couldn't afford a business coach. So because they're they're not cheap, but they are worth every cent you pay them."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:12:28 → 00:12:44]

    Overcoming Networking Anxiety: "I really had to convince myself that even now, if I go to a network meeting, I'm like, you know, what if, you know, what if I say something silly or whatever? And it's I think it's just putting yourself out there."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:13:52 → 00:14:02]

    Stepping out of your comfort zone: "So, I suppose, in answer to your question, on a daily basis or a weekly basis, I try to find something where I can put myself out there. So whether it's doing it's meeting with my business coach. It's going to a network meeting. It's connecting with somebody who I know might be able to help me in some way or, doing a Facebook live or something like that. That's still scary."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:14:02 → 00:14:36]

    Aussie Sausage Sandwich: "If you buy those, you throw away the white bread, you throw away the sausage, you eat the onion, you're probably a winner. Yes."

    — Kellie Nissen [00:18:11 → 00:18:18]

    ]]>    f4bcc9aa-2656-4131-89de-101c81336b6cTue, 02 Jan 2024 00:15:00 -050020:50falsefull346346    Career Conversations with Benjamin FriedmanCareer Conversations with Benjamin FriedmanBenjamin Friedman has handled finance and operations for over 20 years, leading those roles in his last six positions before starting his own company, Build Scale Grow Inc., in 2018. The company helps founders address the fears of entrepreneurship and gaps in capacity, scale quickly, and grow exponentially. His companies have had five successful M&A transactions in the last ten years.

    Social media links

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminbfriedman/

    Book - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BP9GVRPY

    Link to website

    https://www.webuildscalegrow.com/

    Primary Topic: Understanding Introversion

    - Benjamin's explanation of introversion and how he recharges

    - The impact of introversion on his personal and professional life

    Primary Topic: Benjamin's Work with Start-up Founders

    - Providing support to start-up founders after achieving product or service market fit

    - Offering holistic business consulting to identify areas for improvement

    - Discussing solutions, risks, and options for moving forward

    Primary Topic: Misconceptions about Benjamin's Role and Industry

    - Misconception of having pre-determined solutions

    - Challenges in understanding Benjamin's fractional role

    Primary Topic: Benjamin's Career Journey

    - Transitioning from full-time employee to a fractional role

    - The role of circumstance and planning in career development

    Primary Topic: Strategies for Business and Career Success

    - Strategic thinking and planning for business and personal life

    - Navigating social events and interactions as an introvert

    - Saying no to maintain boundaries and prevent burnout

    Primary Topic: Personal Practice for Recharging

    - Negotiating the need for alone time with family

    - Balancing personal needs with family responsibilities

    ]]>    Benjamin Friedman has handled finance and operations for over 20 years, leading those roles in his last six positions before starting his own company, Build Scale Grow Inc., in 2018. The company helps founders address the fears of entrepreneurship and gaps in capacity, scale quickly, and grow exponentially. His companies have had five successful M&A transactions in the last ten years.

    Social media links

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminbfriedman/

    Book - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BP9GVRPY

    Link to website

    https://www.webuildscalegrow.com/

    Primary Topic: Understanding Introversion

    - Benjamin's explanation of introversion and how he recharges

    - The impact of introversion on his personal and professional life

    Primary Topic: Benjamin's Work with Start-up Founders

    - Providing support to start-up founders after achieving product or service market fit

    - Offering holistic business consulting to identify areas for improvement

    - Discussing solutions, risks, and options for moving forward

    Primary Topic: Misconceptions about Benjamin's Role and Industry

    - Misconception of having pre-determined solutions

    - Challenges in understanding Benjamin's fractional role

    Primary Topic: Benjamin's Career Journey

    - Transitioning from full-time employee to a fractional role

    - The role of circumstance and planning in career development

    Primary Topic: Strategies for Business and Career Success

    - Strategic thinking and planning for business and personal life

    - Navigating social events and interactions as an introvert

    - Saying no to maintain boundaries and prevent burnout

    Primary Topic: Personal Practice for Recharging

    - Negotiating the need for alone time with family

    - Balancing personal needs with family responsibilities

    ]]>    89989b1a-76fe-43d4-a9a4-e9006bb061d4Tue, 02 Jan 2024 00:15:00 -050018:58falsefull345345    Career Conversations with Stefan BucherCareer Conversations with Stefan BucherStefan G. Bucher designs and produces high-end books for corporate and private clients. 

    He has designed for Sting, Whitney Houston, Jason Bentley, David Hockney, Philip Glass, Judd Apatow, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is an ADC Young Gun and has won a D&AD Yellow Pencil for book design.

    In addition to scores of books, he has created custom letterforms for the main titles of the films "The Fall," “Immortals” and “Mirror, Mirror” for director Tarsem. His time-lapse drawings appear on the Emmy-award winning TV show “The Electric Company.” He designed the Blue Man Theater at the Monte Carlo Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, and gave life to the Saks Fifth Avenue Yeti.

    Bucher is a graduate of Art Center College of Design. Following stints at Wieden + Kennedy, Modernista!, and Maverick Records, he created the Daily Monster, an online drawing series and and story-telling community that spawned a book and three popular “Monster Maker” iOS apps. 

    He is the author of seven books, including the best-selling "344 Questions—The Creative Person’s Do-It-Yourself Guide to Insight, Survival, and Artistic Fulfillment” which was just re-released as an expanded edition.


    Social media links

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/344books/


    Link to website

    https://344lovesyou.com


    Primary Topic: Understanding Introversion

    - Stefan's definition of introversion

    - The challenges of being an introvert in social situations

    - Favorite ways to recharge as an introvert

    Primary Topic: Stefan's Work as a Graphic Designer and Illustrator

    - Overview of Stefan's work

    - How Stefan has crafted his workspace to balance his energy

    - How Stefan has improved his career by taking a less serious approach and focusing on helping people with his work

    Primary Topic: Setting Boundaries in Work and Business

    - Saying no to opportunities that don't align with his work style

    - How Stefan has crafted his business to accommodate his unique work schedule

    - The importance of setting clear expectations for clients and colleagues

    Primary Topic: Misconceptions in the Design Industry

    - Discussing the misconceptions around the design industry and the role of designers in client preferences

    - The shift needed in the application of energy in the design industry

    Primary Topic: Stefan's Journey in the Creative Field

    - Stefan's early start in the design and creative industry

    - Balancing control over working hours throughout his career

    Primary Topic: Balancing Personal and Professional Life

    - The trade-offs Stefan has made in his career for personal fulfillment

    - The importance of support from family in pursuing a non-traditional career path

    ]]>    Stefan G. Bucher designs and produces high-end books for corporate and private clients. 

    He has designed for Sting, Whitney Houston, Jason Bentley, David Hockney, Philip Glass, Judd Apatow, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is an ADC Young Gun and has won a D&AD Yellow Pencil for book design.

    In addition to scores of books, he has created custom letterforms for the main titles of the films "The Fall," “Immortals” and “Mirror, Mirror” for director Tarsem. His time-lapse drawings appear on the Emmy-award winning TV show “The Electric Company.” He designed the Blue Man Theater at the Monte Carlo Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, and gave life to the Saks Fifth Avenue Yeti.

    Bucher is a graduate of Art Center College of Design. Following stints at Wieden + Kennedy, Modernista!, and Maverick Records, he created the Daily Monster, an online drawing series and and story-telling community that spawned a book and three popular “Monster Maker” iOS apps. 

    He is the author of seven books, including the best-selling "344 Questions—The Creative Person’s Do-It-Yourself Guide to Insight, Survival, and Artistic Fulfillment” which was just re-released as an expanded edition.


    Social media links

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/344books/


    Link to website

    https://344lovesyou.com


    Primary Topic: Understanding Introversion

    - Stefan's definition of introversion

    - The challenges of being an introvert in social situations

    - Favorite ways to recharge as an introvert

    Primary Topic: Stefan's Work as a Graphic Designer and Illustrator

    - Overview of Stefan's work

    - How Stefan has crafted his workspace to balance his energy

    - How Stefan has improved his career by taking a less serious approach and focusing on helping people with his work

    Primary Topic: Setting Boundaries in Work and Business

    - Saying no to opportunities that don't align with his work style

    - How Stefan has crafted his business to accommodate his unique work schedule

    - The importance of setting clear expectations for clients and colleagues

    Primary Topic: Misconceptions in the Design Industry

    - Discussing the misconceptions around the design industry and the role of designers in client preferences

    - The shift needed in the application of energy in the design industry

    Primary Topic: Stefan's Journey in the Creative Field

    - Stefan's early start in the design and creative industry

    - Balancing control over working hours throughout his career

    Primary Topic: Balancing Personal and Professional Life

    - The trade-offs Stefan has made in his career for personal fulfillment

    - The importance of support from family in pursuing a non-traditional career path

    ]]>    d1b8a072-1070-4fa1-922e-aa8c82f04ec9Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:15:00 -050019:07falsefull344344    Career Conversations with Maya LombartsCareer Conversations with Maya LombartsMaya Lombarts is a social introvert from Belgium. She's been living in a very extroverted culture in Cusco, Peru for seven years, where she's a professional singer, an operations manager, and a Functional Medicine Health Coach. Using her Belgian structured side and her Peruvian flexible side, she's a Left-Brained Sidekick for Creative Entrepreneurs as she helps them find structure in their business and balance in their life.

    Social media links

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mayalombarts/

    YouTube: https://youtube.com/@mayalombarts

    Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zJUm9qs5FvVXEYye5t4it

    Link to website

    www.mayalombarts.com

    Primary topic: Introduction and Definition of Introversion

    - Definition of introversion as explained by Maya Lombarts

    - Personal experiences of introversion and energy levels

    - Comparison of introversion to extroversion

    Primary topic: Maya Lombarts' Work

    - Description of Maya's work as a virtual assistant and coach

    - Focus on helping creative entrepreneurs and improving work-life balance

    - Integration of management and coaching backgrounds

    Primary topic: Combining Different Roles

    - Misconceptions about Maya's work and finding a suitable label

    - Transition from corporate life to starting her own business

    - Combination of different skills and backgrounds

    Primary topic: Setting Boundaries and Balancing Work

    - Importance of setting boundaries in managing energy levels

    - Use of specific communication channels and time blocks

    - Working across different time zones and managing client expectations

    Primary topic: Regular Practices for Business Improvement

    - Staying curious and continuously learning new systems and tools

    - Personalizing the approach to clients and avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach

    - Balancing productivity with energy levels and using coaching skills

    Primary topic: Importance of Recharging

    - Favorite way of recharging: foot bath with Epsom salts and journaling

    - Benefits of writing it all out as a form of processing emotions

    - Early experiences with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue shaping the need for energy management

    Primary topic: Working Hours and Routines

    - Average daily work hours of 4-6 hours

    - Flexibility in working hours and adapting to personal energy levels

    - Transition from an earlier morning routine to a later start time

    - Balancing introversion in an extroverted culture

    ]]>    Maya Lombarts is a social introvert from Belgium. She's been living in a very extroverted culture in Cusco, Peru for seven years, where she's a professional singer, an operations manager, and a Functional Medicine Health Coach. Using her Belgian structured side and her Peruvian flexible side, she's a Left-Brained Sidekick for Creative Entrepreneurs as she helps them find structure in their business and balance in their life.

    Social media links

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mayalombarts/

    YouTube: https://youtube.com/@mayalombarts

    Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zJUm9qs5FvVXEYye5t4it

    Link to website

    www.mayalombarts.com

    Primary topic: Introduction and Definition of Introversion

    - Definition of introversion as explained by Maya Lombarts

    - Personal experiences of introversion and energy levels

    - Comparison of introversion to extroversion

    Primary topic: Maya Lombarts' Work

    - Description of Maya's work as a virtual assistant and coach

    - Focus on helping creative entrepreneurs and improving work-life balance

    - Integration of management and coaching backgrounds

    Primary topic: Combining Different Roles

    - Misconceptions about Maya's work and finding a suitable label

    - Transition from corporate life to starting her own business

    - Combination of different skills and backgrounds

    Primary topic: Setting Boundaries and Balancing Work

    - Importance of setting boundaries in managing energy levels

    - Use of specific communication channels and time blocks

    - Working across different time zones and managing client expectations

    Primary topic: Regular Practices for Business Improvement

    - Staying curious and continuously learning new systems and tools

    - Personalizing the approach to clients and avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach

    - Balancing productivity with energy levels and using coaching skills

    Primary topic: Importance of Recharging

    - Favorite way of recharging: foot bath with Epsom salts and journaling

    - Benefits of writing it all out as a form of processing emotions

    - Early experiences with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue shaping the need for energy management

    Primary topic: Working Hours and Routines

    - Average daily work hours of 4-6 hours

    - Flexibility in working hours and adapting to personal energy levels

    - Transition from an earlier morning routine to a later start time

    - Balancing introversion in an extroverted culture

    ]]>    a46f0255-b7ae-41d0-ad3f-3e4487c8c36fMon, 01 Jan 2024 00:15:00 -050018:15falsefull343343    Career Conversations with Yvette EstimeCareer Conversations with Yvette EstimeShe is the owner of Dirty Celebrity, a sustainable brand creates accessories from organic and deadstock materials.

    As an introvert, standing outside at a booth was not for me and so I created a way to reach people without overwhelming myself. I turned to social media as a way to reach others locally.

    Social media links

    @Dirty_celebrity -on X, Instagram and Tik Tok

    Link to website

    https://www.shopdirtyceleb.com

    Primary topic: Introversion and Career Conversations

    - What does introversion mean?

    - Need to recharge after social events

    Primary topic: Yvette Estime's Career in Sustainable Fashion

    - Yvette Estime's work as an accessory designer for Dirty Celebrity

    - Use of vintage and deadstock materials in creating accessories

    - Misconceptions about sustainability in the fashion industry

    - Definition and explanation of deadstock

    Primary topic: Yvette Estime's Career Journey

    - Transition from data allocation job to fashion industry

    - Use of data analysis and trends in her business

    - Fast fashion industry's reliance on trends and production

    - Importance of avoiding waste and inventory

    Primary topic: Setting Boundaries and Finding Alternative Opportunities

    - Importance of setting boundaries as an introvert

    - Inability to participate in certain events due to introversion

    - Organizing and hosting micro events to connect with interested customers

    Primary topic: Recharging and Gaining Energy

    - Making more products as a way to recharge and gain energy

    - The cycle of creativity and recharging

    ]]>    She is the owner of Dirty Celebrity, a sustainable brand creates accessories from organic and deadstock materials.

    As an introvert, standing outside at a booth was not for me and so I created a way to reach people without overwhelming myself. I turned to social media as a way to reach others locally.

    Social media links

    @Dirty_celebrity -on X, Instagram and Tik Tok

    Link to website

    https://www.shopdirtyceleb.com

    Primary topic: Introversion and Career Conversations

    - What does introversion mean?

    - Need to recharge after social events

    Primary topic: Yvette Estime's Career in Sustainable Fashion

    - Yvette Estime's work as an accessory designer for Dirty Celebrity

    - Use of vintage and deadstock materials in creating accessories

    - Misconceptions about sustainability in the fashion industry

    - Definition and explanation of deadstock

    Primary topic: Yvette Estime's Career Journey

    - Transition from data allocation job to fashion industry

    - Use of data analysis and trends in her business

    - Fast fashion industry's reliance on trends and production

    - Importance of avoiding waste and inventory

    Primary topic: Setting Boundaries and Finding Alternative Opportunities

    - Importance of setting boundaries as an introvert

    - Inability to participate in certain events due to introversion

    - Organizing and hosting micro events to connect with interested customers

    Primary topic: Recharging and Gaining Energy

    - Making more products as a way to recharge and gain energy

    - The cycle of creativity and recharging

    ]]>    2caedb37-4df4-4dfb-8ef9-28c99a7234eaMon, 01 Jan 2024 00:15:00 -050017:48falsefull342342    Embracing Life's Transitions: How to Thrive Through ChangeEmbracing Life's Transitions: How to Thrive Through ChangeI. Introduction

    - Importance of thriving through life's transitions

    II. Understanding the value of now

    - Being mindful and present

    - Focusing on the present moment

    - Letting go of multitasking

    - Finding humor in life's challenges


    III. Embracing change and transitions

    - Accepting change as a normal part of life

    - Adapting and shifting gears quickly

    - Making and maintaining self-care routines


    IV. Building a supportive social community

    - Recognizing the need for both alone time and social connections

    - Building relationships with like-minded individuals

    - Trusting and relying on supportive people

    - Asking for help when needed


    V. Thriving through difficult transitions

    - Preparing for inevitable changes

    - Taking the good with the bad

    - Setting an example for others to thrive


    Conclusion and closing remarks by Janice

    ]]>    I. Introduction

    - Importance of thriving through life's transitions

    II. Understanding the value of now

    - Being mindful and present

    - Focusing on the present moment

    - Letting go of multitasking

    - Finding humor in life's challenges


    III. Embracing change and transitions

    - Accepting change as a normal part of life

    - Adapting and shifting gears quickly

    - Making and maintaining self-care routines


    IV. Building a supportive social community

    - Recognizing the need for both alone time and social connections

    - Building relationships with like-minded individuals

    - Trusting and relying on supportive people

    - Asking for help when needed


    V. Thriving through difficult transitions

    - Preparing for inevitable changes

    - Taking the good with the bad

    - Setting an example for others to thrive


    Conclusion and closing remarks by Janice

    ]]>    fd1f6c4a-452d-412f-863d-618c6c472895Tue, 26 Dec 2023 12:00:00 -050005:08falsefull341341    The Power of Understanding Human NatureThe Power of Understanding Human NaturePrimary topic: Introduction to human nature

    - Importance of understanding human nature for a happier and less stressful life

    - Humans as social beings and the need to interact with others

    Primary topic: Memory and perception

    - Memories can be subjective and reconstructed based on perceptions

    - Memories can be altered by tone or the addition of words

    - Different words can lead to different memory recall


    Primary topic: Unconscious decision-making

    - Most decisions are made unconsciously by the brain

    - Unconscious mental processing plays a role in decision-making

    - Study shows that unconscious decisions are made about 7 seconds before conscious awareness


    Primary topic: Multitasking

    - Multitasking is not effective

    - Humans can only think about one thing at a time

    - Multitasking is actually switching back and forth between tasks quickly

    - Multitasking hinders productivity and communication skills

    - AI can be useful for taking notes in situations where multitasking is difficult


    Primary topic: Benefits of understanding human nature

    - Changing perspectives through understanding human nature

    - Development of better communication skills

    - Thriving in personal and professional systems


    Closing remarks and podcast outro.

    ]]>    Primary topic: Introduction to human nature

    - Importance of understanding human nature for a happier and less stressful life

    - Humans as social beings and the need to interact with others

    Primary topic: Memory and perception

    - Memories can be subjective and reconstructed based on perceptions

    - Memories can be altered by tone or the addition of words

    - Different words can lead to different memory recall


    Primary topic: Unconscious decision-making

    - Most decisions are made unconsciously by the brain

    - Unconscious mental processing plays a role in decision-making

    - Study shows that unconscious decisions are made about 7 seconds before conscious awareness


    Primary topic: Multitasking

    - Multitasking is not effective

    - Humans can only think about one thing at a time

    - Multitasking is actually switching back and forth between tasks quickly

    - Multitasking hinders productivity and communication skills

    - AI can be useful for taking notes in situations where multitasking is difficult


    Primary topic: Benefits of understanding human nature

    - Changing perspectives through understanding human nature

    - Development of better communication skills

    - Thriving in personal and professional systems


    Closing remarks and podcast outro.

    ]]>    62710be4-3a13-4289-bb38-860e76e652caTue, 19 Dec 2023 12:00:00 -050005:14falsefull340340    Uncovering the Hidden Roots of Self SabotageUncovering the Hidden Roots of Self SabotagePrimary Topic: The Power of Root Causes

    - Introduction to the concept of root causes and their connection to personal growth and success

    Sub-topics:

    - Explanation of how behaviors and actions are influenced by underlying factors

    - Importance of self-reflection and increased awareness in uncovering root causes

    - Identifying recurring patterns of behavior and moments of self-doubt

    - Examining reasons for procrastination and lack of motivation

    - Tracing back root causes to childhood experiences and fears of failure

    - Delving deeper into personal history and exploring past experiences and relationships

    - Emphasizing the need for an open and nonjudgmental attitude during this process


    Primary Topic: Challenging and Reframing Beliefs

    - Recognizing the need to challenge and reframe beliefs that hold you back


    Sub-topics:

    - Questioning the validity of current beliefs and considering healthier alternatives

    - Difficulty in changing deeply ingrained beliefs

    - Viewing past failures as learning opportunities instead of judgments on self-worth

    - Replacing the belief that failure defines you with the understanding of growth

    - Using setbacks as a part of the process and practicing self-compassion


    Primary Topic: Seeking Support and Practicing Self-Compassion

    - The importance of seeking support and practicing self-compassion during the journey


    Sub-topics:

    - Seeking support from friends, family, mentors, or coaches

    - Sharing insights and progress with someone else for fresh perspectives and encouragement

    - Recognizing that change takes time and setbacks are normal

    - Treating oneself with kindness and understanding, similar to a good friend

    - Emphasizing the role of self-discovery and growth in evolving into the best version of oneself

    ]]>    Primary Topic: The Power of Root Causes

    - Introduction to the concept of root causes and their connection to personal growth and success

    Sub-topics:

    - Explanation of how behaviors and actions are influenced by underlying factors

    - Importance of self-reflection and increased awareness in uncovering root causes

    - Identifying recurring patterns of behavior and moments of self-doubt

    - Examining reasons for procrastination and lack of motivation

    - Tracing back root causes to childhood experiences and fears of failure

    - Delving deeper into personal history and exploring past experiences and relationships

    - Emphasizing the need for an open and nonjudgmental attitude during this process


    Primary Topic: Challenging and Reframing Beliefs

    - Recognizing the need to challenge and reframe beliefs that hold you back


    Sub-topics:

    - Questioning the validity of current beliefs and considering healthier alternatives

    - Difficulty in changing deeply ingrained beliefs

    - Viewing past failures as learning opportunities instead of judgments on self-worth

    - Replacing the belief that failure defines you with the understanding of growth

    - Using setbacks as a part of the process and practicing self-compassion


    Primary Topic: Seeking Support and Practicing Self-Compassion

    - The importance of seeking support and practicing self-compassion during the journey


    Sub-topics:

    - Seeking support from friends, family, mentors, or coaches

    - Sharing insights and progress with someone else for fresh perspectives and encouragement

    - Recognizing that change takes time and setbacks are normal

    - Treating oneself with kindness and understanding, similar to a good friend

    - Emphasizing the role of self-discovery and growth in evolving into the best version of oneself

    ]]>    e50d230a-9158-4162-ba6b-c17035195b63Tue, 12 Dec 2023 12:00:00 -050005:30falsefull339339    Career Conversations with Scott PatonCareer Conversations with Scott PatonWhen his last son left home, Scott could finally decide what he wanted to do now that he had no responsibilities. He flew to Morocco. The next two years he went from Norway to Ukraine, from Ireland to Jordan and many places in-between.

    The U2 song: "Still haven't Found What I'm Looking for" comes to mind. After 7 years visiting SE Asia, Mexico, Central and northern South America, Europe and Northern Africa, is he still traveling because he hasn't found what he's looking for or because he has?


    Social media links

    https://www.youtube.com/@bookscafe-freeebooksdotnet8010/

    https://www.facebook.com/freeebooksdotnet


    Link to website

    www.Free-ebooks.com


    Primary Topic: Introduction and Personal Background

    - Introduction to the podcast and guests

    - Scott Paton's definition of introversion

    - Scott Paton's current location and travel experience

    - Scott Paton's hobbies and interests during his travels

    - Scott Paton's experience with house sitting and its benefits


    Primary Topic: Misconceptions About House Sitting

    - Scott Paton's experience with people's reactions to house sitting

    - The responsibility and importance of caring for pets while house sitting

    - Scott Paton's positive experiences with house sitting


    Primary Topic: Scott Paton's Business and Work Experience

    - Scott Paton's business divisions and roles

    - The importance of respect and mutual values in business partnerships

    - The role of competency in building a reputation and securing client recommendations

    - Scott Paton's approach to taking on new projects and saying yes to opportunities

    - The impact of focusing on the right tasks and delegating responsibilities


    Primary Topic: Recharging and Self-Care

    - Scott Paton's love for hammocks and recharging in nature

    - The benefits of alone time and quietness for introverts

    - Scott Paton's contrast with his extroverted mother's need for social interaction

    - The presence of hammocks in Scott Paton's travel experiences


    Primary Topic: Crafting a Career Based on Energy and Preferences

    - Scott Paton's unintentional alignment of his career with his energy levels

    - The importance of prioritizing time and energy as an entrepreneur

    - Different ways people have crafted their careers to match their needs

    - The intersection of art, science, and business in Scott Paton's work


    Bonus Topic: Hotdogs as Sandwiches

    - Scott Paton's opinion on whether hotdogs are considered sandwiches


    Primary Topic: Finding Scott Paton Online

    - Information about Scott Paton's website, FreeEbooks.net

    - Scott Paton's role as president of FreeEbooks.net and their mission

    - Contacting Scott Paton through LinkedIn for further discussions on travel, house sitting, and being an author


    Closing Remarks and Podcast Outro

    ]]>    When his last son left home, Scott could finally decide what he wanted to do now that he had no responsibilities. He flew to Morocco. The next two years he went from Norway to Ukraine, from Ireland to Jordan and many places in-between.

    The U2 song: "Still haven't Found What I'm Looking for" comes to mind. After 7 years visiting SE Asia, Mexico, Central and northern South America, Europe and Northern Africa, is he still traveling because he hasn't found what he's looking for or because he has?


    Social media links

    https://www.youtube.com/@bookscafe-freeebooksdotnet8010/

    https://www.facebook.com/freeebooksdotnet


    Link to website

    www.Free-ebooks.com


    Primary Topic: Introduction and Personal Background

    - Introduction to the podcast and guests

    - Scott Paton's definition of introversion

    - Scott Paton's current location and travel experience

    - Scott Paton's hobbies and interests during his travels

    - Scott Paton's experience with house sitting and its benefits


    Primary Topic: Misconceptions About House Sitting

    - Scott Paton's experience with people's reactions to house sitting

    - The responsibility and importance of caring for pets while house sitting

    - Scott Paton's positive experiences with house sitting


    Primary Topic: Scott Paton's Business and Work Experience

    - Scott Paton's business divisions and roles

    - The importance of respect and mutual values in business partnerships

    - The role of competency in building a reputation and securing client recommendations

    - Scott Paton's approach to taking on new projects and saying yes to opportunities

    - The impact of focusing on the right tasks and delegating responsibilities


    Primary Topic: Recharging and Self-Care

    - Scott Paton's love for hammocks and recharging in nature

    - The benefits of alone time and quietness for introverts

    - Scott Paton's contrast with his extroverted mother's need for social interaction

    - The presence of hammocks in Scott Paton's travel experiences


    Primary Topic: Crafting a Career Based on Energy and Preferences

    - Scott Paton's unintentional alignment of his career with his energy levels

    - The importance of prioritizing time and energy as an entrepreneur

    - Different ways people have crafted their careers to match their needs

    - The intersection of art, science, and business in Scott Paton's work


    Bonus Topic: Hotdogs as Sandwiches

    - Scott Paton's opinion on whether hotdogs are considered sandwiches


    Primary Topic: Finding Scott Paton Online

    - Information about Scott Paton's website, FreeEbooks.net

    - Scott Paton's role as president of FreeEbooks.net and their mission

    - Contacting Scott Paton through LinkedIn for further discussions on travel, house sitting, and being an author


    Closing Remarks and Podcast Outro

    ]]>    1342c094-a4e0-44e9-8f91-fbf43d5f1867Tue, 05 Dec 2023 12:00:00 -050023:33falsefull338338    World Introvert Day Career Conversations IntroductionWorld Introvert Day Career Conversations IntroductionI have created The World Introvert Day Career Conversations Series. It is a collection of 12 podcast episodes, that explores the career paths of introverts, providing valuable insights and strategies for navigating different industries while managing energy effectively. This series will be released on Jan 1, 2 and 3.

    ]]>    I have created The World Introvert Day Career Conversations Series. It is a collection of 12 podcast episodes, that explores the career paths of introverts, providing valuable insights and strategies for navigating different industries while managing energy effectively. This series will be released on Jan 1, 2 and 3.

    ]]>    0ef66879-bba3-4a73-8865-4b435b514defSat, 02 Dec 2023 12:00:00 -050002:50falsebonus354354    Finding Inspiration When Everything Goes WrongFinding Inspiration When Everything Goes WrongPrimary Topic: Dealing with a month where nothing is going right

    - Feeling overwhelmed and exhausted

    - Difficulty finding inspiration


    Primary Topic: Finding inspiration when things are not going right


    - Focus on gratitude

    - Difficulty in finding things to be grateful for

    - Recognizing that it's not a competition

    - Allowing yourself to feel emotions

    - Validating negative emotions

    - Managing negative emotions

    - Practicing deep breathing

    - Noticing the tendency to hold breath during stressful times

    - Benefits of taking time to breathe

    - Asking "what" instead of "why"

    - Accepting that there may not be a good answer to why things happen

    - Focusing on actions to create change

    - Understanding that everything is temporary

    - Accepting the impermanence of situations

    - Finding hope in knowing that things will eventually end

    - Using neutral language

    - Practicing neutral thoughts and words

    - Shifting focus away from the negative

    - Disconnecting from social media and the outside world

    - Taking a break from social media

    - Avoiding isolation and maintaining connections with supportive people

    - Engaging in mindfulness and activities you love

    - Prioritizing self-care and relaxation

    - Finding joy and inspiration in small things

    - Embracing the belief that this too shall pass

    - Maintaining hope in challenging times

    - Keeping an optimistic perspective

    Note: Each sub-topic can potentially be expanded or discussed further in the podcast episode.

    ]]>    Primary Topic: Dealing with a month where nothing is going right

    - Feeling overwhelmed and exhausted

    - Difficulty finding inspiration


    Primary Topic: Finding inspiration when things are not going right


    - Focus on gratitude

    - Difficulty in finding things to be grateful for

    - Recognizing that it's not a competition

    - Allowing yourself to feel emotions

    - Validating negative emotions

    - Managing negative emotions

    - Practicing deep breathing

    - Noticing the tendency to hold breath during stressful times

    - Benefits of taking time to breathe

    - Asking "what" instead of "why"

    - Accepting that there may not be a good answer to why things happen

    - Focusing on actions to create change

    - Understanding that everything is temporary

    - Accepting the impermanence of situations

    - Finding hope in knowing that things will eventually end

    - Using neutral language

    - Practicing neutral thoughts and words

    - Shifting focus away from the negative

    - Disconnecting from social media and the outside world

    - Taking a break from social media

    - Avoiding isolation and maintaining connections with supportive people

    - Engaging in mindfulness and activities you love

    - Prioritizing self-care and relaxation

    - Finding joy and inspiration in small things

    - Embracing the belief that this too shall pass

    - Maintaining hope in challenging times

    - Keeping an optimistic perspective

    Note: Each sub-topic can potentially be expanded or discussed further in the podcast episode.

    ]]>    37826c4a-9f3b-43b7-b53c-f1e4362a2e75Tue, 28 Nov 2023 12:00:00 -050005:15falsefull337337    Leadership and Thinking Like a LeaderLeadership and Thinking Like a LeaderPrimary Topic: Thinking Like a Leader

    - Importance of training and experience to become a great leader

    - Understanding common qualities and behaviors of leaders

    - Effectively sharing your vision

    - Developing effective communication skills

    - Learning about human nature and how people communicate

    - Showing empathy for others

    - Listening more than you talk

    - Being present and actively listening

    - Putting the mission first

    - Focusing on the mission and sharing it with others

    - Avoiding distractions and staying focused on the mission

    - Setting action-focused goals

    - Learning how to set goals and turn them into daily actions for progress

    - Being an example

    - Practicing what you preach

    - Leading by example

    - Engaging and connecting with others

    - Taking time to listen and communicate with people

    - Rolling up your sleeves and doing the work

    - Being willing to do any job you ask others to do

    - Maintaining values as a leader

    - Being a leader that people look up to and want to follow and emulate

    ]]>    Primary Topic: Thinking Like a Leader

    - Importance of training and experience to become a great leader

    - Understanding common qualities and behaviors of leaders

    - Effectively sharing your vision

    - Developing effective communication skills

    - Learning about human nature and how people communicate

    - Showing empathy for others

    - Listening more than you talk

    - Being present and actively listening

    - Putting the mission first

    - Focusing on the mission and sharing it with others

    - Avoiding distractions and staying focused on the mission

    - Setting action-focused goals

    - Learning how to set goals and turn them into daily actions for progress

    - Being an example

    - Practicing what you preach

    - Leading by example

    - Engaging and connecting with others

    - Taking time to listen and communicate with people

    - Rolling up your sleeves and doing the work

    - Being willing to do any job you ask others to do

    - Maintaining values as a leader

    - Being a leader that people look up to and want to follow and emulate

    ]]>    b39eb719-2bbf-4cff-b7cb-5da83849678fTue, 21 Nov 2023 12:00:00 -050005:31falsefull336336    Keeping Your Battery Charged During the Holiday SeasonKeeping Your Battery Charged During the Holiday SeasonTopic: Ways to top up your battery during the holiday season

    - Introduction to the holiday season and its impact on recharge levels

    - Changes in weather and their effects

    - Increased social activities and events

    - Importance of maintaining daily routines

    - Avoid unnecessary changes to routines

    - Incorporate important self-care activities like meditation and exercise

    - Maximizing exposure to sunlight

    - Spending time outdoors

    - Using light therapy devices in the absence of sunlight (happy lights)

    - Practicing generosity towards oneself

    - Avoiding burnout by treating oneself

    - Balancing giving to others with self-care

    - Managing expectations

    - Adjusting perspectives and avoiding disappointments

    - Communicating expectations with loved ones and colleagues

    - Being honest about feeling overwhelmed

    - Taking responsibility for communicating needs

    - Discovering and addressing unrecognized expectations

    - Letting go of perfectionism

    - Accepting that things may not go as planned

    - Reducing self-imposed stress by embracing imperfections

    - Scheduling downtime for recharging

    - Setting aside specific times for rest and self-care

    - Preparing in advance to ensure uninterrupted recharging

    - Conclusion and final thoughts on taking care of oneself during the holiday season

    ]]>    Topic: Ways to top up your battery during the holiday season

    - Introduction to the holiday season and its impact on recharge levels

    - Changes in weather and their effects

    - Increased social activities and events

    - Importance of maintaining daily routines

    - Avoid unnecessary changes to routines

    - Incorporate important self-care activities like meditation and exercise

    - Maximizing exposure to sunlight

    - Spending time outdoors

    - Using light therapy devices in the absence of sunlight (happy lights)

    - Practicing generosity towards oneself

    - Avoiding burnout by treating oneself

    - Balancing giving to others with self-care

    - Managing expectations

    - Adjusting perspectives and avoiding disappointments

    - Communicating expectations with loved ones and colleagues

    - Being honest about feeling overwhelmed

    - Taking responsibility for communicating needs

    - Discovering and addressing unrecognized expectations

    - Letting go of perfectionism

    - Accepting that things may not go as planned

    - Reducing self-imposed stress by embracing imperfections

    - Scheduling downtime for recharging

    - Setting aside specific times for rest and self-care

    - Preparing in advance to ensure uninterrupted recharging

    - Conclusion and final thoughts on taking care of oneself during the holiday season

    ]]>    de6af71b-785e-4763-9677-519372fc080cTue, 14 Nov 2023 12:00:00 -050005:29falsefull335335    Career Conversations with Scot McKayCareer Conversations with Scot McKayScot McKay has shared bad jokes with North Korean military officers, sipped coffee at Pablo Escobar’s home (served by his maid), survived a shark attack while surfing, held his breath as the pride of lions walked by his tent, and blitzed through California canyons with his knee on the double-yellow line at 140 mph. Yet somehow, he has also been referred to as the “sane one” on Twitter by Scott Adams, of all people.

    But despite once being mobbed by the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, being able to back a 30′ travel trailer into its slot on the first try, and that time he beat the World Champion at his own sport (no details provided), he’s still the most objective and down-to-earth dating expert out there.

    He’s also the most fluff-free fountainhead of original content in his field, if only because that’s what seventeen years of immersive geekery on the subject does for someone.

    Scot’s wife Emily is his “proof of concept”, given that she’s just as sweet as she is smokin’ hot and still gets carded at her age. But you’ll never hear her brag about any of that, only Scot.

    His show The Mountain Top has also been named a Top 10 Dating Podcast by DatingAdvice.com, and a long time ago Grader.com weirdly ranked Scot the #1 most influential Facebook user in the world.

    Social media links

    https://www.twitter.com/scotmckay

    Link to website

    https://mountaintoppodcast.com

    www.scotmckay.net


    Primary Topic: Introversion and Personality


    - Definition of introversion

    - Differentiating introversion from shyness

    - Introverts gaining energy from solitude

    - Comparison of introverts and extroverts in social situations


    Primary Topic: Career in Dating and Relationships


    - Scot's background as a dating and relationship coach

    - Working with clients worldwide

    - Relationship-oriented approach

    - Differentiating from pickup artist mentality


    Primary Topic: Misconceptions about the Dating and Relationships Industry


    - The misconception that clients are "lovable losers" or lack social skills

    - Working with successful individuals seeking meaningful relationships


    Primary Topic: Career Changes and Fulfillment


    - Scot's previous careers before becoming a dating and relationship coach

    - Transitioning from coaching troubled kids to the business world

    - Lack of fulfillment in the corporate setting

    - Desire to make a positive impact and help others find love


    Primary Topic: Leaving the Internet Working World


    - Scot's decision to leave the unsatisfying corporate job

    - Filling his nest and building his coaching business on the side

    - Reaching critical mass and leaving the corporate world for good


    Primary Topic: Energy Levels and Fulfillment in Work


    - The draining effect of unfulfilling work on energy levels

    - Feeling like an anonymous member of a team

    - The importance of enthusiasm and excitement in work

    - Scot's natural curiosity and enthusiasm for life


    Note: The transcript covers various topics, but the main focus is on Scot McKay's career as a dating and relationship coach, his background, and the misconceptions surrounding the industry. The topics of introversion and career changes provide context to Scot's journey and experiences.

    ]]>    Scot McKay has shared bad jokes with North Korean military officers, sipped coffee at Pablo Escobar’s home (served by his maid), survived a shark attack while surfing, held his breath as the pride of lions walked by his tent, and blitzed through California canyons with his knee on the double-yellow line at 140 mph. Yet somehow, he has also been referred to as the “sane one” on Twitter by Scott Adams, of all people.

    But despite once being mobbed by the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, being able to back a 30′ travel trailer into its slot on the first try, and that time he beat the World Champion at his own sport (no details provided), he’s still the most objective and down-to-earth dating expert out there.

    He’s also the most fluff-free fountainhead of original content in his field, if only because that’s what seventeen years of immersive geekery on the subject does for someone.

    Scot’s wife Emily is his “proof of concept”, given that she’s just as sweet as she is smokin’ hot and still gets carded at her age. But you’ll never hear her brag about any of that, only Scot.

    His show The Mountain Top has also been named a Top 10 Dating Podcast by DatingAdvice.com, and a long time ago Grader.com weirdly ranked Scot the #1 most influential Facebook user in the world.

    Social media links

    https://www.twitter.com/scotmckay

    Link to website

    https://mountaintoppodcast.com

    www.scotmckay.net


    Primary Topic: Introversion and Personality


    - Definition of introversion

    - Differentiating introversion from shyness

    - Introverts gaining energy from solitude

    - Comparison of introverts and extroverts in social situations


    Primary Topic: Career in Dating and Relationships


    - Scot's background as a dating and relationship coach

    - Working with clients worldwide

    - Relationship-oriented approach

    - Differentiating from pickup artist mentality


    Primary Topic: Misconceptions about the Dating and Relationships Industry


    - The misconception that clients are "lovable losers" or lack social skills

    - Working with successful individuals seeking meaningful relationships


    Primary Topic: Career Changes and Fulfillment


    - Scot's previous careers before becoming a dating and relationship coach

    - Transitioning from coaching troubled kids to the business world

    - Lack of fulfillment in the corporate setting

    - Desire to make a positive impact and help others find love


    Primary Topic: Leaving the Internet Working World


    - Scot's decision to leave the unsatisfying corporate job

    - Filling his nest and building his coaching business on the side

    - Reaching critical mass and leaving the corporate world for good


    Primary Topic: Energy Levels and Fulfillment in Work


    - The draining effect of unfulfilling work on energy levels

    - Feeling like an anonymous member of a team

    - The importance of enthusiasm and excitement in work

    - Scot's natural curiosity and enthusiasm for life


    Note: The transcript covers various topics, but the main focus is on Scot McKay's career as a dating and relationship coach, his background, and the misconceptions surrounding the industry. The topics of introversion and career changes provide context to Scot's journey and experiences.

    ]]>    4396c9ce-8f57-4a50-992a-cd9871c69a7fTue, 07 Nov 2023 12:00:00 -050020:35falsefull334334    Coping Strategies for Interacting with Difficult PeopleCoping Strategies for Interacting with Difficult PeopleTopic: Dealing with People You Don't Like

    - Introduction to the topic

    - Acknowledging that it's normal to not like everyone

    - Importance of treating people with respect and humility


    Topic: Strategies for Dealing with People You Don't Like


    - Accepting that you won't like everyone

    - Letting go of the idea that everyone has to like you

    - Identifying something you do like about the person

    - Focusing on the things you like to make interactions easier

    - Using the things you like about the person to engage them in conversation

    - Practicing assuming positivity instead of negativity

    - Ignoring negative thoughts to avoid draining interactions

    - Being cognizant of managing energy as an introvert

    - Reflecting on personal reasons for not liking someone

    - Differentiating between genuinely negative traits and personal preferences

    - Considering if there's something else going on that impacts the dislike


    Topic: Making Encounters Easier and Conserving Energy


    - Recognizing that you will encounter people you don't like in various situations

    - Implementing strategies to make these encounters easier

    - Conserving energy by managing interactions effectively


    Conclusion


    - Recap of strategies discussed

    - Encouragement to use these strategies to make interactions less stressful and draining

    - End of episode message and sign-off

    ]]>    Topic: Dealing with People You Don't Like

    - Introduction to the topic

    - Acknowledging that it's normal to not like everyone

    - Importance of treating people with respect and humility


    Topic: Strategies for Dealing with People You Don't Like


    - Accepting that you won't like everyone

    - Letting go of the idea that everyone has to like you

    - Identifying something you do like about the person

    - Focusing on the things you like to make interactions easier

    - Using the things you like about the person to engage them in conversation

    - Practicing assuming positivity instead of negativity

    - Ignoring negative thoughts to avoid draining interactions

    - Being cognizant of managing energy as an introvert

    - Reflecting on personal reasons for not liking someone

    - Differentiating between genuinely negative traits and personal preferences

    - Considering if there's something else going on that impacts the dislike


    Topic: Making Encounters Easier and Conserving Energy


    - Recognizing that you will encounter people you don't like in various situations

    - Implementing strategies to make these encounters easier

    - Conserving energy by managing interactions effectively


    Conclusion


    - Recap of strategies discussed

    - Encouragement to use these strategies to make interactions less stressful and draining

    - End of episode message and sign-off

    ]]>    09c66696-55cd-44c0-a6d5-1ed3ec48da8eTue, 31 Oct 2023 12:00:00 -050005:13falsefull333333    The Power of the Done ListThe Power of the Done ListPrimary Topic: The concept of "done lists" as an alternative to-do lists

    - To-do lists

    - Negative impact of to-do lists

    - The never-ending nature of to-do lists

    - The lack of dopamine stimulation from to-do lists

    Primary Topic: The importance of recognizing and acknowledging accomplishments

    - The need to realize and appreciate what has been accomplished

    - Writing down everything that has been done

    - The positive impact of acknowledging accomplishments

    - Increased self-awareness and behavior modification


    Primary Topic: Optimizing time management based on the analysis of accomplishments

    - Analyzing the time spent on different tasks

    - Patterns and insights from analyzing accomplishments

    - Adjusting time allocation for different tasks

    - Increasing conscientiousness and accountability

    - Achieving the desired goals through behavior modification


    Primary Topic: Identifying areas for improvement and making necessary changes

    - Realizing time spent on tasks that are not enjoyable

    - Identifying unexpected time allocations (e.g. emails, interaction with key individuals)

    - Evaluating the impact of hired assistance (e.g. VA)

    - Optimizing work processes and arrangements

    - Making necessary changes for personal and professional growth


    Primary Topic: Benefits of having a "done list" mindset

    - Shifting focus from to-do lists to accomplishments

    - Boosting mood and motivation through acknowledging successes

    - Making informed decisions based on time allocation analysis

    - Creating a sense of achievement and success

    - Improving overall lifestyle and well-being


    Primary Topic: Conclusion and call to action

    - Encouraging listeners to try implementing the "done list" approach

    - The potential positive impact on mood and productivity

    - Emphasizing the importance of self-reflection and making necessary changes

    ]]>    Primary Topic: The concept of "done lists" as an alternative to-do lists

    - To-do lists

    - Negative impact of to-do lists

    - The never-ending nature of to-do lists

    - The lack of dopamine stimulation from to-do lists

    Primary Topic: The importance of recognizing and acknowledging accomplishments

    - The need to realize and appreciate what has been accomplished

    - Writing down everything that has been done

    - The positive impact of acknowledging accomplishments

    - Increased self-awareness and behavior modification


    Primary Topic: Optimizing time management based on the analysis of accomplishments

    - Analyzing the time spent on different tasks

    - Patterns and insights from analyzing accomplishments

    - Adjusting time allocation for different tasks

    - Increasing conscientiousness and accountability

    - Achieving the desired goals through behavior modification


    Primary Topic: Identifying areas for improvement and making necessary changes

    - Realizing time spent on tasks that are not enjoyable

    - Identifying unexpected time allocations (e.g. emails, interaction with key individuals)

    - Evaluating the impact of hired assistance (e.g. VA)

    - Optimizing work processes and arrangements

    - Making necessary changes for personal and professional growth


    Primary Topic: Benefits of having a "done list" mindset

    - Shifting focus from to-do lists to accomplishments

    - Boosting mood and motivation through acknowledging successes

    - Making informed decisions based on time allocation analysis

    - Creating a sense of achievement and success

    - Improving overall lifestyle and well-being


    Primary Topic: Conclusion and call to action

    - Encouraging listeners to try implementing the "done list" approach

    - The potential positive impact on mood and productivity

    - Emphasizing the importance of self-reflection and making necessary changes

    ]]>    084906a9-1a1d-4850-9caf-bbc3e5531974Tue, 24 Oct 2023 12:00:00 -050005:19falsefull332332    Surviving the Holiday SeasonSurviving the Holiday Season"The Holiday Season for Introverts: 'It is only September, and yet I'm planning how to get through the next sort of 4 month season, including January.'"

    — Janice Chaka [00:00:01 → 00:01:01]

    "The Festive Season: What does the festive season look like for you? Maybe you're working all the way through. I definitely had a job, previously, which I kind of really enjoyed, that it was the quiet season. I still had to work all the way through because payroll. Everyone still needs to get paid, but everything else died down. And it was a great time for me to organize things, and it was a great time me to clean things up and to prepare for the new year."

    — Janice Chaka [00:01:16 → 00:01:39]

    Finding Balance and Prioritizing: "Knowing in advance when your days off are going to be and knowing that maybe I can only do 1 social activity during that time and prioritizing, maybe in advance. Like, who is it that you wanna spend that time with? And there some people who will energize you when you spend time with them and some will drain. So maybe trying to find a balance or planning advance who you're gonna see so that maybe one time it's someone draining and one time it's someone not draining and thinking about that in advance."

    — Janice Chaka [00:01:49 → 00:02:17]

    Finding Joy in Community: "Be like, this is my day that I'm gonna do this thing that brings me joy... having some pillars of stability and things that bring joy that are embedded in your calendar and embedded in your next coming months will be really impactful and helpful for you and your energy levels."

    — Janice Chaka [00:03:20 → 00:03:33]

    Setting Boundaries: "Yes, I have the time and energy and bandwidth to do this. Or, actually, no. I'm gonna do this thing instead because it's better for me."

    — Janice Chaka [00:03:52 → 00:04:00]

    Holiday Preparation: "Knowing how to diffuse situations, knowing what you will and won't talk about, knowing different topics and having conversations in mind that you would like to have or can have that are safe. Topics is also a really good thing to think about in advance."

    — Janice Chaka [00:04:11 → 00:04:25]

    "Achieving Career Success: 'Helping you build your brand and get hired.'"

    — Janice Chaka [00:05:07 → 00:05:08]

    ]]>    "The Holiday Season for Introverts: 'It is only September, and yet I'm planning how to get through the next sort of 4 month season, including January.'"

    — Janice Chaka [00:00:01 → 00:01:01]

    "The Festive Season: What does the festive season look like for you? Maybe you're working all the way through. I definitely had a job, previously, which I kind of really enjoyed, that it was the quiet season. I still had to work all the way through because payroll. Everyone still needs to get paid, but everything else died down. And it was a great time for me to organize things, and it was a great time me to clean things up and to prepare for the new year."

    — Janice Chaka [00:01:16 → 00:01:39]

    Finding Balance and Prioritizing: "Knowing in advance when your days off are going to be and knowing that maybe I can only do 1 social activity during that time and prioritizing, maybe in advance. Like, who is it that you wanna spend that time with? And there some people who will energize you when you spend time with them and some will drain. So maybe trying to find a balance or planning advance who you're gonna see so that maybe one time it's someone draining and one time it's someone not draining and thinking about that in advance."

    — Janice Chaka [00:01:49 → 00:02:17]

    Finding Joy in Community: "Be like, this is my day that I'm gonna do this thing that brings me joy... having some pillars of stability and things that bring joy that are embedded in your calendar and embedded in your next coming months will be really impactful and helpful for you and your energy levels."

    — Janice Chaka [00:03:20 → 00:03:33]

    Setting Boundaries: "Yes, I have the time and energy and bandwidth to do this. Or, actually, no. I'm gonna do this thing instead because it's better for me."

    — Janice Chaka [00:03:52 → 00:04:00]

    Holiday Preparation: "Knowing how to diffuse situations, knowing what you will and won't talk about, knowing different topics and having conversations in mind that you would like to have or can have that are safe. Topics is also a really good thing to think about in advance."

    — Janice Chaka [00:04:11 → 00:04:25]

    "Achieving Career Success: 'Helping you build your brand and get hired.'"

    — Janice Chaka [00:05:07 → 00:05:08]

    ]]>    8eeff6ce-3d67-48ed-a17c-e5cea1812678Tue, 17 Oct 2023 12:00:00 -050005:32falsefull331331    Unpacking the Importance of Fire PreparednessUnpacking the Importance of Fire PreparednessPrimary Topic: Lack of awareness about fire safety

    - Lack of familiarity with fire drills

    - Lack of knowledge about fire alarm sounds and protocols

    - Comparison of fire drills in school and corporate environments

    Primary Topic: Personal experience with a fire alarm


    - Awakening to a faint fire alarm sound

    - Uncertainty about the nature of the alarm

    - Observing external surroundings to assess the situation

    - Gathering essential items for evacuation


    Primary Topic: Response to fire alarm


    - Forgetting to check the door for heat before opening

    - Encountering another person who also heard the alarm

    - Choosing between taking the elevator or stairs

    - Low number of people evacuating the hotel

    - Observing others without essential items


    Primary Topic: Importance of preparedness


    - Planning ahead when booking a hotel

    - Knowing emergency procedures and evacuation routes

    - Ensuring essential items are accessible during an emergency

    - Advice on having a "get out bag"


    Primary Topic: Conclusion and key takeaways


    - Reiterating the need for awareness and preparedness

    - Emphasizing the importance of having a plan and essential items

    - Encouragement to learn the sound of a fire alarm.

    ]]>    Primary Topic: Lack of awareness about fire safety

    - Lack of familiarity with fire drills

    - Lack of knowledge about fire alarm sounds and protocols

    - Comparison of fire drills in school and corporate environments

    Primary Topic: Personal experience with a fire alarm


    - Awakening to a faint fire alarm sound

    - Uncertainty about the nature of the alarm

    - Observing external surroundings to assess the situation

    - Gathering essential items for evacuation


    Primary Topic: Response to fire alarm


    - Forgetting to check the door for heat before opening

    - Encountering another person who also heard the alarm

    - Choosing between taking the elevator or stairs

    - Low number of people evacuating the hotel

    - Observing others without essential items


    Primary Topic: Importance of preparedness


    - Planning ahead when booking a hotel

    - Knowing emergency procedures and evacuation routes

    - Ensuring essential items are accessible during an emergency

    - Advice on having a "get out bag"


    Primary Topic: Conclusion and key takeaways


    - Reiterating the need for awareness and preparedness

    - Emphasizing the importance of having a plan and essential items

    - Encouragement to learn the sound of a fire alarm.

    ]]>    e9cff5a0-200d-409e-bc60-cb39e240a0b9Tue, 10 Oct 2023 12:00:00 -050005:23falsefull330330    Career Conversations with Wayne TurmelCareer Conversations with Wayne TurmelFor over 25 years, Wayne Turmel has been obsessed with how people communicate (or don't) at work. He's the author of 15 books and has spoken at conferences and clients around the world.

    Link to website

    https://kevineikenberry.com/team/about-wayne-turmel/

    Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayneturmel/


    "The Misconceptions of Introverts: 'Because we often get told, you know, when you start, describe the traits of an introvert and you get, You know, quiet, keeps to themselves, never bothers anybody. Basically, the same descriptions they use for serial killers.'"

    — Wayne Turmel [00:01:48 → 00:02:03]

    Viral Topic: Scariest Moments in Early Career

    Quote: "The probably true answer in terms of the scariest thing is very early on in my career. This is how early on it was. We had just rolled out email to the organization, like we were trend trending leaders. And our instructors wanted access to laptops so that we could do PowerPoint presentations and answer email when we were on the road. And You would have thought that we were storming the Bastille."

    — Wayne Turmel [00:04:04 → 00:04:43]

    Beard Discrimination: "And even though I wore a suit and tie, they felt that the beard was unprofessional and didn't exude the right image."

    — Wayne Turmel [00:06:01 → 00:06:12]

    Rising through Buyouts: "During these buyouts, I kept rising in the organization, and eventually, I had reached either the as much as I was going to be in that organization or the Peter principle Caught up with me."

    — Wayne Turmel [00:09:12 → 00:09:31]

    Managing Energy in the Entertainment Industry: "I work pretty much like a volcano. I'm dormant, and I build up all this kinetic energy, and then it bursts out of me like a crazy person, then I am spent and need to lie dormant for another 100 years."

    — Wayne Turmel [00:10:53 → 00:11:08]

    "The Power of Networking: I met somebody who said, you know, You should consider, given your skill set and who you are, you should consider going into the training business"

    — Wayne Turmel [00:12:41 → 00:14:22]

    Finding Opportunities in Unexpected Places: "And he said, oh, you're looking for a job? Come see me next week. And I went to see him next week, and he's offering me the instructor manager position for which I was wildly unqualified, But desperate times, desperate measures, the correct answer is, of course, I can do that, And that's how I got my 1st management position."

    — Wayne Turmel [00:15:10 → 00:15:32]

    The Future of Virtual Work: "you know, there's a a thing here with this virtual work, and maybe I could, get to the point where I step down from a full time position. I continue to teach as needed to pay the bills and start my business, and 20 minutes later, the phone rang and I was fired. So, you know, I'm not a huge believer in signs from the universe, but that was pretty much neon."

    — Wayne Turmel [00:17:27 → 00:17:53]

    The Introverted Trainer: "Well, the most obvious one is that, because I'm a trainer, Because I am out there, because I speak for a living, all that good stuff that I am this raging extrovert. And, you know, there is nothing more terrifying to me after a day of being on my feet training or doing a keynote, when they say, a few of us are going to dinner. Oh. Oh, heavens. No."

    — Wayne Turmel [00:18:58 → 00:19:25]

    Getting Started: "I send Kevin a quick Message in Slack. Hey. I'm here. How's it going? And my day starts. That is super important for me Because I was, at the beginning, very bad about when does your day start, when does your day end."

    — Wayne Turmel [00:25:43 → 00:26:01]

    ]]>    For over 25 years, Wayne Turmel has been obsessed with how people communicate (or don't) at work. He's the author of 15 books and has spoken at conferences and clients around the world.

    Link to website

    https://kevineikenberry.com/team/about-wayne-turmel/

    Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayneturmel/


    "The Misconceptions of Introverts: 'Because we often get told, you know, when you start, describe the traits of an introvert and you get, You know, quiet, keeps to themselves, never bothers anybody. Basically, the same descriptions they use for serial killers.'"

    — Wayne Turmel [00:01:48 → 00:02:03]

    Viral Topic: Scariest Moments in Early Career

    Quote: "The probably true answer in terms of the scariest thing is very early on in my career. This is how early on it was. We had just rolled out email to the organization, like we were trend trending leaders. And our instructors wanted access to laptops so that we could do PowerPoint presentations and answer email when we were on the road. And You would have thought that we were storming the Bastille."

    — Wayne Turmel [00:04:04 → 00:04:43]

    Beard Discrimination: "And even though I wore a suit and tie, they felt that the beard was unprofessional and didn't exude the right image."

    — Wayne Turmel [00:06:01 → 00:06:12]

    Rising through Buyouts: "During these buyouts, I kept rising in the organization, and eventually, I had reached either the as much as I was going to be in that organization or the Peter principle Caught up with me."

    — Wayne Turmel [00:09:12 → 00:09:31]

    Managing Energy in the Entertainment Industry: "I work pretty much like a volcano. I'm dormant, and I build up all this kinetic energy, and then it bursts out of me like a crazy person, then I am spent and need to lie dormant for another 100 years."

    — Wayne Turmel [00:10:53 → 00:11:08]

    "The Power of Networking: I met somebody who said, you know, You should consider, given your skill set and who you are, you should consider going into the training business"

    — Wayne Turmel [00:12:41 → 00:14:22]

    Finding Opportunities in Unexpected Places: "And he said, oh, you're looking for a job? Come see me next week. And I went to see him next week, and he's offering me the instructor manager position for which I was wildly unqualified, But desperate times, desperate measures, the correct answer is, of course, I can do that, And that's how I got my 1st management position."

    — Wayne Turmel [00:15:10 → 00:15:32]

    The Future of Virtual Work: "you know, there's a a thing here with this virtual work, and maybe I could, get to the point where I step down from a full time position. I continue to teach as needed to pay the bills and start my business, and 20 minutes later, the phone rang and I was fired. So, you know, I'm not a huge believer in signs from the universe, but that was pretty much neon."

    — Wayne Turmel [00:17:27 → 00:17:53]

    The Introverted Trainer: "Well, the most obvious one is that, because I'm a trainer, Because I am out there, because I speak for a living, all that good stuff that I am this raging extrovert. And, you know, there is nothing more terrifying to me after a day of being on my feet training or doing a keynote, when they say, a few of us are going to dinner. Oh. Oh, heavens. No."

    — Wayne Turmel [00:18:58 → 00:19:25]

    Getting Started: "I send Kevin a quick Message in Slack. Hey. I'm here. How's it going? And my day starts. That is super important for me Because I was, at the beginning, very bad about when does your day start, when does your day end."

    — Wayne Turmel [00:25:43 → 00:26:01]

    ]]>    f3aca668-417a-43fd-9c39-334b9e58af6fTue, 03 Oct 2023 12:00:00 -050030:47falsefull329329    Answering Questions from ExtrovertsAnswering Questions from ExtrovertsPrimary Topic: Questions from Extroverts

    - Question: Do you feel like you're missing out on social activities?

    - Response: Depends on what social activities mean to the individual

    - Explanation: Social activities can vary from large group events to one-on-one interactions

    - Question: Are introverts just shy?

    - Response: Introverts can be shy, but shyness is not exclusive to introverts

    - Explanation: Introverts choose when to interact, not out of obligation

    - Question: Do introverts need to change or become more extroverted?

    - Response: No, there is nothing wrong with introverts as they are

    - Explanation: Introverts have different needs and energy sources

    - Question: Why are introverts so quiet?

    - Response: Introverts may be listening, observing, or uninterested in the conversation

    - Explanation: "So quiet" is subjective and compared to what or whom

    - Question: Do introverts get lonely being alone so much?

    - Response: There is a distinction between alone time and loneliness

    - Explanation: Introverts choose to be alone for recharge, not out of loneliness

    - Question: Why don't introverts speak up more in group discussions?

    - Response: Several factors can influence introverts' participation

    - Explanation: Need for time to process information, wait for the right opportunity, or gather thoughts before speaking up

    ]]>    Primary Topic: Questions from Extroverts

    - Question: Do you feel like you're missing out on social activities?

    - Response: Depends on what social activities mean to the individual

    - Explanation: Social activities can vary from large group events to one-on-one interactions

    - Question: Are introverts just shy?

    - Response: Introverts can be shy, but shyness is not exclusive to introverts

    - Explanation: Introverts choose when to interact, not out of obligation

    - Question: Do introverts need to change or become more extroverted?

    - Response: No, there is nothing wrong with introverts as they are

    - Explanation: Introverts have different needs and energy sources

    - Question: Why are introverts so quiet?

    - Response: Introverts may be listening, observing, or uninterested in the conversation

    - Explanation: "So quiet" is subjective and compared to what or whom

    - Question: Do introverts get lonely being alone so much?

    - Response: There is a distinction between alone time and loneliness

    - Explanation: Introverts choose to be alone for recharge, not out of loneliness

    - Question: Why don't introverts speak up more in group discussions?

    - Response: Several factors can influence introverts' participation

    - Explanation: Need for time to process information, wait for the right opportunity, or gather thoughts before speaking up

    ]]>    15aed93d-bf1f-419f-b3cf-ea7b8aba4e97Tue, 26 Sep 2023 12:00:00 -050005:28falsefull328328    Building Your Brand for Job Hunting SuccessBuilding Your Brand for Job Hunting SuccessThe Importance of Having a Brand: "Whether you like it or not, people have thoughts about you and that is part of your brand...a brand is how you differentiate yourself from other humans."

    — Janice Chaka [00:00:19 → 00:00:26]

    Crafting a Personal Brand as an Introvert: "Crafting a compelling and authentic personal brand as an introvert can help you stand out from the competition. It highlights your unique strengths, skills, personality traits, making it easier for potential employers or people that you know to see what makes you a valuable candidate."

    — Janice Chaka [00:01:05 → 00:01:23]

    The Importance of Creating a Personal Brand: "Creating a personal brand allows you to showcase your unique abilities. It could be deep thinking, it could be attention to detail, it could be empathy. Emphasizing these strengths demonstrates how you can bring your own fresh perspective and valuable contributions to potential employers."

    — Janice Chaka [00:02:02 → 00:02:27]

    Building a Professional Network: "Part of building a brand is building a professional network. And to be fair, having a strong personal brand will attract like-minded professionals and mentors who appreciate those particular things about you because they are authentic, because they are you."

    — Janice Chaka [00:03:23 → 00:03:33]

    "Crafting a compelling and authentic personal brand during the job hunting search and quite frankly, before you start job hunting is a strategic approach that not only sets you apart, but ensures you are presenting your true self to potential employers."

    — Janice Chaka [00:04:39 → 00:04:54]

    ]]>    The Importance of Having a Brand: "Whether you like it or not, people have thoughts about you and that is part of your brand...a brand is how you differentiate yourself from other humans."

    — Janice Chaka [00:00:19 → 00:00:26]

    Crafting a Personal Brand as an Introvert: "Crafting a compelling and authentic personal brand as an introvert can help you stand out from the competition. It highlights your unique strengths, skills, personality traits, making it easier for potential employers or people that you know to see what makes you a valuable candidate."

    — Janice Chaka [00:01:05 → 00:01:23]

    The Importance of Creating a Personal Brand: "Creating a personal brand allows you to showcase your unique abilities. It could be deep thinking, it could be attention to detail, it could be empathy. Emphasizing these strengths demonstrates how you can bring your own fresh perspective and valuable contributions to potential employers."

    — Janice Chaka [00:02:02 → 00:02:27]

    Building a Professional Network: "Part of building a brand is building a professional network. And to be fair, having a strong personal brand will attract like-minded professionals and mentors who appreciate those particular things about you because they are authentic, because they are you."

    — Janice Chaka [00:03:23 → 00:03:33]

    "Crafting a compelling and authentic personal brand during the job hunting search and quite frankly, before you start job hunting is a strategic approach that not only sets you apart, but ensures you are presenting your true self to potential employers."

    — Janice Chaka [00:04:39 → 00:04:54]

    ]]>    987d2b30-3d99-4760-8886-81a8e1310088Tue, 19 Sep 2023 12:00:00 -050005:30falsefull327327    Behind the Scenes of a Successful Speaking Gig: Nurturing a Positive Relationship with TechBehind the Scenes of a Successful Speaking Gig: Nurturing a Positive Relationship with Tech"The Importance of Speaker Preparation: 'And all the speakers had been told in advance that they had to go to tech check, which was separate from what I was doing the day before they were speaking.'"

    — Janice Chaka [00:00:39 → 00:00:46]

    Importance of Adaptability for Speakers: "And so here's the thing, if you are going to be a speaker at that event, do you care how many times you've done it before? Each stage is different. All tech is different. How people set things up is different. What how the, tables and chairs might be set up is different? Who runs your Q and A is different? You might have been on stage 1000 and 1000 of times, but I'm sure that even Taylor Swift could tell you that are all stages are the same."

    — Janice Chaka [00:01:04 → 00:01:37]

    "The Key to a Successful Presentation: Following Instructions and Not Pissing Off Your Tech Team" : "It's not only about your slides. Things that can make or break you on stage, are following instructions, and not pissing off your tech team."

    — Janice Chaka [00:02:08 → 00:02:10]

    Preparing for a Successful Presentation: "I would give you a talk. The tech guys would tell you exactly how to use the microphone, because not all microphones, as you might know, all microphones are creating equal."

    — Janice Chaka [00:02:36 → 00:02:46]

    "Preparation for Public Speaking: 'Get your selfies in, get your photos in... when you're not actually speaking on the stage, that way you don't get someone standing in front of the camera recording while you're on stage to try and get a little best photo of you.'"

    — Janice Chaka [00:03:32 → 00:03:40]

    "Importance of Mutual Respect towards Tech Teams: 'Do not assume that the venue is gonna have wifi dedicated just to the computer that is going to run your slides and not to the 18,000 other people that are probably at that event. Be nice. It costs nothing to say, please, and thank you and to listen.'"

    — Janice Chaka [00:03:51 → 00:04:07]

    Tech Team Woes: "But just because you've spoken in lots of places, or just because you have the biggest ego, doesn't mean that the tech team can't ruin it for you, unintentionally..."

    — Janice Chaka [00:04:31 → 00:04:41]

    ]]>    "The Importance of Speaker Preparation: 'And all the speakers had been told in advance that they had to go to tech check, which was separate from what I was doing the day before they were speaking.'"

    — Janice Chaka [00:00:39 → 00:00:46]

    Importance of Adaptability for Speakers: "And so here's the thing, if you are going to be a speaker at that event, do you care how many times you've done it before? Each stage is different. All tech is different. How people set things up is different. What how the, tables and chairs might be set up is different? Who runs your Q and A is different? You might have been on stage 1000 and 1000 of times, but I'm sure that even Taylor Swift could tell you that are all stages are the same."

    — Janice Chaka [00:01:04 → 00:01:37]

    "The Key to a Successful Presentation: Following Instructions and Not Pissing Off Your Tech Team" : "It's not only about your slides. Things that can make or break you on stage, are following instructions, and not pissing off your tech team."

    — Janice Chaka [00:02:08 → 00:02:10]

    Preparing for a Successful Presentation: "I would give you a talk. The tech guys would tell you exactly how to use the microphone, because not all microphones, as you might know, all microphones are creating equal."

    — Janice Chaka [00:02:36 → 00:02:46]

    "Preparation for Public Speaking: 'Get your selfies in, get your photos in... when you're not actually speaking on the stage, that way you don't get someone standing in front of the camera recording while you're on stage to try and get a little best photo of you.'"

    — Janice Chaka [00:03:32 → 00:03:40]

    "Importance of Mutual Respect towards Tech Teams: 'Do not assume that the venue is gonna have wifi dedicated just to the computer that is going to run your slides and not to the 18,000 other people that are probably at that event. Be nice. It costs nothing to say, please, and thank you and to listen.'"

    — Janice Chaka [00:03:51 → 00:04:07]

    Tech Team Woes: "But just because you've spoken in lots of places, or just because you have the biggest ego, doesn't mean that the tech team can't ruin it for you, unintentionally..."

    — Janice Chaka [00:04:31 → 00:04:41]

    ]]>    6619b063-8a49-40fe-8726-ed80418c99bfTue, 12 Sep 2023 12:00:00 -050005:21falsefull326326    Career Conversations with Sucheta RawalCareer Conversations with Sucheta RawalSucheta Rawal is a former investment banker turned food and travel expert with a mission to raise

    awareness of the world through meaningful travel and cultural understanding. Drawing from her own experience of traveling to 100+ countries across 7 continents, Sucheta speaks to entrepreneurs on how to break

    social norms, follow their passion, be change makers, and travel sustainably. Her passion for travel shines through in her ventures. She founded Go Eat Give, a nonprofit that promotes cross-cultural understanding through travel, food, and volunteerism. She has also authored 'Beato Goes To,' a series of children’s illustrated books on travel that

    inspire young readers to learn about different countries and cultures.

    Social media links

    https://www.facebook.com/sucheta.rawal

    https://www.instagram.com/suchetarawal/

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/suchetarawal/

    https://twitter.com/suchetarawal


    Link to website

    https://suchetarawal.com/


    🌟 3 Key Takeaways from Sucheta Rawal's Career Conversations on The Traveling Introvert Podcast:


    1️⃣ Meaningful Networking: Instead of solely seeking connections based on shared interests, focus on adding value to others and helping them succeed in their roles or career paths.


    2️⃣ Meaningful Travel: When visiting a destination, don't just stick to typical tourist experiences. Instead, immerse yourself in the local culture, customs, and traditions. Make personal connections and support the local community.


    3️⃣ Leadership & Public Speaking: Taking on leadership roles and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone can lead to personal growth and improved public speaking skills. Getting stage time at conferences and engaging in sessions helps others remember your expertise and opens the door for further conversations.



    ]]>    Sucheta Rawal is a former investment banker turned food and travel expert with a mission to raise

    awareness of the world through meaningful travel and cultural understanding. Drawing from her own experience of traveling to 100+ countries across 7 continents, Sucheta speaks to entrepreneurs on how to break

    social norms, follow their passion, be change makers, and travel sustainably. Her passion for travel shines through in her ventures. She founded Go Eat Give, a nonprofit that promotes cross-cultural understanding through travel, food, and volunteerism. She has also authored 'Beato Goes To,' a series of children’s illustrated books on travel that

    inspire young readers to learn about different countries and cultures.

    Social media links

    https://www.facebook.com/sucheta.rawal

    https://www.instagram.com/suchetarawal/

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/suchetarawal/

    https://twitter.com/suchetarawal


    Link to website

    https://suchetarawal.com/


    🌟 3 Key Takeaways from Sucheta Rawal's Career Conversations on The Traveling Introvert Podcast:


    1️⃣ Meaningful Networking: Instead of solely seeking connections based on shared interests, focus on adding value to others and helping them succeed in their roles or career paths.


    2️⃣ Meaningful Travel: When visiting a destination, don't just stick to typical tourist experiences. Instead, immerse yourself in the local culture, customs, and traditions. Make personal connections and support the local community.


    3️⃣ Leadership & Public Speaking: Taking on leadership roles and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone can lead to personal growth and improved public speaking skills. Getting stage time at conferences and engaging in sessions helps others remember your expertise and opens the door for further conversations.



    ]]>    a530a595-34fb-4e29-aaac-dd2f208b06bcTue, 05 Sep 2023 12:00:00 -050021:44falsefull325325    Intentional Action by Prioritizing You for Professional GrowthIntentional Action by Prioritizing You for Professional GrowthIn this episode of "The Traveling Introvert," host Janice Chaka explores the reasons why introverts often delay investing in themselves professionally and the potential consequences that arise from this hesitation. Janice discusses how many introverts struggle with self-confidence, fear of judgment, and a tendency to prioritize the needs of others over their own growth and development. This selfless mindset often leads to delayed investments in personal and professional growth, which can result in missed career opportunities, stagnation, and reduced job satisfaction. Janice emphasizes the importance of consistently investing in oneself and offers strategies for overcoming barriers and prioritizing self-care. She also addresses common reasons people back out of investing in themselves, such as self-doubt and imposter syndrome, and encourages listeners to do the necessary inner work to overcome these challenges.

    🔑 Key Takeaways:

    - Overthinking and fear of judgment can lead to paralysis and delays in investing in oneself.

    - Waiting until a crisis occurs can lead to missed career opportunities and uncertainty about financial stability.

    - Prioritizing personal and professional growth, setting aside time for self-care, and seeking mentorship are crucial steps for success.


    ]]>    In this episode of "The Traveling Introvert," host Janice Chaka explores the reasons why introverts often delay investing in themselves professionally and the potential consequences that arise from this hesitation. Janice discusses how many introverts struggle with self-confidence, fear of judgment, and a tendency to prioritize the needs of others over their own growth and development. This selfless mindset often leads to delayed investments in personal and professional growth, which can result in missed career opportunities, stagnation, and reduced job satisfaction. Janice emphasizes the importance of consistently investing in oneself and offers strategies for overcoming barriers and prioritizing self-care. She also addresses common reasons people back out of investing in themselves, such as self-doubt and imposter syndrome, and encourages listeners to do the necessary inner work to overcome these challenges.

    🔑 Key Takeaways:

    - Overthinking and fear of judgment can lead to paralysis and delays in investing in oneself.

    - Waiting until a crisis occurs can lead to missed career opportunities and uncertainty about financial stability.

    - Prioritizing personal and professional growth, setting aside time for self-care, and seeking mentorship are crucial steps for success.


    ]]>    47440db6-b123-42e9-8fb3-3d8cae00c0e2Tue, 29 Aug 2023 12:00:00 -050005:48falsefull324324    Resisting Conformity and Celebrating Strengths as and IntrovertResisting Conformity and Celebrating Strengths as and IntrovertIn this episode of "The Traveling Introvert" podcast, host Janice Chaka discusses the impact of external expectations and societal pressure on introverts' stress levels. Challenging the negative stereotype of introversion, Janice emphasizes the importance of self-acceptance and celebrating individuality to resist societal pressure. Strategies for navigating these pressures and prioritizing personal wellbeing are explored, such as speaking up about boundaries and needs, setting aside time for focused work, and building a supportive network.

    The Impact of Societal Pressure on Introverts: "As introverts we very often face expectations from society and culture to be more outgoing or assertive or socially active, whatever those things might mean to the person saying them. This pressure can lead to increased stress levels as we often feel the need to conform to those extrovert leaning norms."

    — Janice Chaka [00:00:00 → 00:01:28]

    Reducing Stress: "Building a support network of like minded individuals ... can provide validation and therefore reduce stress."

    — Janice Chaka [00:01:28 → 00:02:45]

    The Power of Introversion: "The more that we emphasize self acceptance and celebrate individuality, it will empower introverts and other people alike to resist societal pressure."

    — Janice Chaka [00:02:46 → 00:03:51]

    The Power of Speaking Up: "Prioritize speaking up with your boundaries and what your needs are... And by standing up and saying that and having that recognition, you therefore make it easier for others to do that..."

    — Janice Chaka [00:03:51 → 00:04:41]

    "The Power of Introverts: Being an introvert is not a negative thing, and we need to crush that stereotype."

    — Janice Chaka [00:04:41 → 00:04:58]

    ]]>    In this episode of "The Traveling Introvert" podcast, host Janice Chaka discusses the impact of external expectations and societal pressure on introverts' stress levels. Challenging the negative stereotype of introversion, Janice emphasizes the importance of self-acceptance and celebrating individuality to resist societal pressure. Strategies for navigating these pressures and prioritizing personal wellbeing are explored, such as speaking up about boundaries and needs, setting aside time for focused work, and building a supportive network.

    The Impact of Societal Pressure on Introverts: "As introverts we very often face expectations from society and culture to be more outgoing or assertive or socially active, whatever those things might mean to the person saying them. This pressure can lead to increased stress levels as we often feel the need to conform to those extrovert leaning norms."

    — Janice Chaka [00:00:00 → 00:01:28]

    Reducing Stress: "Building a support network of like minded individuals ... can provide validation and therefore reduce stress."

    — Janice Chaka [00:01:28 → 00:02:45]

    The Power of Introversion: "The more that we emphasize self acceptance and celebrate individuality, it will empower introverts and other people alike to resist societal pressure."

    — Janice Chaka [00:02:46 → 00:03:51]

    The Power of Speaking Up: "Prioritize speaking up with your boundaries and what your needs are... And by standing up and saying that and having that recognition, you therefore make it easier for others to do that..."

    — Janice Chaka [00:03:51 → 00:04:41]

    "The Power of Introverts: Being an introvert is not a negative thing, and we need to crush that stereotype."

    — Janice Chaka [00:04:41 → 00:04:58]

    ]]>    6336536d-6582-4890-a9ea-d16cbd2ed9a3Tue, 22 Aug 2023 12:00:00 -050005:19falsefull323323    Managing Energy: Strategies for Introverts to Prevent BurnoutManaging Energy: Strategies for Introverts to Prevent BurnoutIn this episode of "The Traveling Introvert" podcast, host Janice explores the significance of finding the right balance between social interactions and alone time to prevent burnout in introverts. Janice emphasizes the importance of self-awareness in recognizing personal limits and understanding energy levels. She encourages introspection and reflection on past experiences to identify strategies that work best for each individual. Janice highlights the importance of prioritizing self-care and engaging in activities that bring joy and rejuvenation. Setting clear boundaries and communicating them effectively is crucial for maintaining mental well-being. By finding the right balance and understanding energy dynamics, introverts can prevent chronic burnout and thrive in their personal and professional lives.

    - Importance of finding the right balance between alone time and social interactions

    - Recognizing personal limits and understanding energy levels

    - Differentiating between energizing and draining social interactions

    - Prioritizing alone time for restoring energy and maintaining mental well-being

    - Self-care activities that bring joy, relaxation, and rejuvenation

    - Assessing the effectiveness of different strategies

    - Reflection on past experiences and understanding what works and what doesn't

    - Flexibility and adaptability in recharging and setting boundaries

    - Considering alternative methods for recharging when preferred options are not available

    - Chronic stress and burnout resulting from consistent lack of proper recharge and boundary setting

    - Strategies for making conferences less draining

    - Spending one-on-one time with someone

    - Staying at the conference hotel

    - Setting clear boundaries and communicating them effectively

    - Consistency and considering external factors in maintaining balance

    - Differentiating between social anxiety hangover and burnout

    - Understanding energy dynamics and their impact on finding the right balance

    - Recognizing that not all social interactions are draining; some can actually recharge introverts

    - The impact of different types of friends on energy drain or recharge during social interactions.

    ]]>    In this episode of "The Traveling Introvert" podcast, host Janice explores the significance of finding the right balance between social interactions and alone time to prevent burnout in introverts. Janice emphasizes the importance of self-awareness in recognizing personal limits and understanding energy levels. She encourages introspection and reflection on past experiences to identify strategies that work best for each individual. Janice highlights the importance of prioritizing self-care and engaging in activities that bring joy and rejuvenation. Setting clear boundaries and communicating them effectively is crucial for maintaining mental well-being. By finding the right balance and understanding energy dynamics, introverts can prevent chronic burnout and thrive in their personal and professional lives.

    - Importance of finding the right balance between alone time and social interactions

    - Recognizing personal limits and understanding energy levels

    - Differentiating between energizing and draining social interactions

    - Prioritizing alone time for restoring energy and maintaining mental well-being

    - Self-care activities that bring joy, relaxation, and rejuvenation

    - Assessing the effectiveness of different strategies

    - Reflection on past experiences and understanding what works and what doesn't

    - Flexibility and adaptability in recharging and setting boundaries

    - Considering alternative methods for recharging when preferred options are not available

    - Chronic stress and burnout resulting from consistent lack of proper recharge and boundary setting

    - Strategies for making conferences less draining

    - Spending one-on-one time with someone

    - Staying at the conference hotel

    - Setting clear boundaries and communicating them effectively

    - Consistency and considering external factors in maintaining balance

    - Differentiating between social anxiety hangover and burnout

    - Understanding energy dynamics and their impact on finding the right balance

    - Recognizing that not all social interactions are draining; some can actually recharge introverts

    - The impact of different types of friends on energy drain or recharge during social interactions.

    ]]>    ab5a65bb-8ac0-4526-8c59-c34683846f62Tue, 15 Aug 2023 12:00:00 -050005:35falsefull322322    The Power of Recharging: Managing Energy for IntrovertsThe Power of Recharging: Managing Energy for IntrovertsIn this episode of "The Traveling Introvert" we explore the importance of energy management for introverts. Janice talks about how external factors can affect energy levels and lead to feelings of exhaustion and lack of concentration. Janice emphasizes the need for introverts to prioritize self-care and set clear boundaries to protect their energy. She suggests cultivating healthy habits, practicing stress management techniques, and allocating time wisely. The episode highlights the significance of regular evaluation and adjustment of energy management practices to maintain optimal energy levels and enhance overall well-being.


    - Introduction: The challenges introverts face in managing energy

    - Consequences of unmanaged energy: feeling rundown, lack of concentration, procrastination

    - Importance of energy management for introverts

    - Reflecting on energy levels and identifying patterns

    - Setting boundaries and saying no to protect energy

    - The impact of insufficient recharging on work-life balance

    - The effects of lack of sleep and unmanaged energy on focus

    - Setting clear boundaries and communicating them to others

    - Cultivating healthy habits for optimal energy

    - Stress management techniques for introverts

    - Prioritizing tasks and allocating time wisely

    - The importance of rest and relaxation

    - Engaging in activities that bring joy and recharge energy

    - Practicing gratitude and positive thinking

    - Surrounding oneself with positive influences

    - Evaluating and adjusting energy management practices

    - Using the Recharge Energy Management Framework

    - Continuously refining energy management strategies

    - Prioritizing self-awareness, healthy habits, and effective time management.

    ]]>    In this episode of "The Traveling Introvert" we explore the importance of energy management for introverts. Janice talks about how external factors can affect energy levels and lead to feelings of exhaustion and lack of concentration. Janice emphasizes the need for introverts to prioritize self-care and set clear boundaries to protect their energy. She suggests cultivating healthy habits, practicing stress management techniques, and allocating time wisely. The episode highlights the significance of regular evaluation and adjustment of energy management practices to maintain optimal energy levels and enhance overall well-being.


    - Introduction: The challenges introverts face in managing energy

    - Consequences of unmanaged energy: feeling rundown, lack of concentration, procrastination

    - Importance of energy management for introverts

    - Reflecting on energy levels and identifying patterns

    - Setting boundaries and saying no to protect energy

    - The impact of insufficient recharging on work-life balance

    - The effects of lack of sleep and unmanaged energy on focus

    - Setting clear boundaries and communicating them to others

    - Cultivating healthy habits for optimal energy

    - Stress management techniques for introverts

    - Prioritizing tasks and allocating time wisely

    - The importance of rest and relaxation

    - Engaging in activities that bring joy and recharge energy

    - Practicing gratitude and positive thinking

    - Surrounding oneself with positive influences

    - Evaluating and adjusting energy management practices

    - Using the Recharge Energy Management Framework

    - Continuously refining energy management strategies

    - Prioritizing self-awareness, healthy habits, and effective time management.

    ]]>    2ec4b5de-123b-41b1-8b1e-05fa27bc4774Tue, 08 Aug 2023 12:00:00 -050005:25falsefull321321    Career Conversations with DuVäl ReynoldsCareer Conversations with DuVäl Reynolds"On this episode of The Traveling Introvert, our host Janice Chaka sits down with guest DuVäl for an insightful conversation about career and introversion. DuVäl highlights the importance of setting aside time to be alone and recenter oneself, even in the context of being married and having a dog. They explain how their spouse is understanding and supportive of their need for personal space. DuVäl also shares how they use time blocking to maintain control over their schedule, preferring structure over spontaneity. These strategies not only help with introversion but also benefit their business.


    DuVäl also discusses their journey as an entrepreneur and expresses a wish to have started their business sooner. They believe their business is thriving, thanks in part to the systems and processes they have put in place to manage energy and relationships. They even share their approach to communication, including moving conversations to email to create more space and sending small gifts to show appreciation without requiring further follow-up.


    As an interior architecture and design professional, DuVäl sheds light on the misconceptions about their industry, emphasizing that it involves much more than just pillows and fabrics. They explain how they make holistic design decisions and the importance of boundaries in their work environment. DuVäl acknowledges their introverted nature and the need for personal space, which is supported by their understanding team. Networking is also discussed, with DuVäl explaining their intentional approach to maintaining positive interactions while managing energy levels.


    Throughout the episode, DuVäl emphasizes the significance of time blocking, culture, and reserving energy in order to successfully navigate their career and business. They provide valuable insights for both introverts and listeners interested in the world of interior design and entrepreneurship. Grab your headphones and join us on this episode of The Traveling Introvert with DuVäl!"


    Guest information


    DuVäl Design is a full-service interior design firm, based in Fairfax, VA. Honored by magazines as “The One to Watch'', “Hot Talent”, and House Beautiful’s Next Wave, he’s been seen in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Washington Post, and more. He currently serves on the Interior Design Advisory Council for Marymount University, as the co-chairperson for HPMKT Diversity Advocacy Alliance, and has recently launched his e-commerce furnishings site, House of DuVäl.

    ]]>    "On this episode of The Traveling Introvert, our host Janice Chaka sits down with guest DuVäl for an insightful conversation about career and introversion. DuVäl highlights the importance of setting aside time to be alone and recenter oneself, even in the context of being married and having a dog. They explain how their spouse is understanding and supportive of their need for personal space. DuVäl also shares how they use time blocking to maintain control over their schedule, preferring structure over spontaneity. These strategies not only help with introversion but also benefit their business.


    DuVäl also discusses their journey as an entrepreneur and expresses a wish to have started their business sooner. They believe their business is thriving, thanks in part to the systems and processes they have put in place to manage energy and relationships. They even share their approach to communication, including moving conversations to email to create more space and sending small gifts to show appreciation without requiring further follow-up.


    As an interior architecture and design professional, DuVäl sheds light on the misconceptions about their industry, emphasizing that it involves much more than just pillows and fabrics. They explain how they make holistic design decisions and the importance of boundaries in their work environment. DuVäl acknowledges their introverted nature and the need for personal space, which is supported by their understanding team. Networking is also discussed, with DuVäl explaining their intentional approach to maintaining positive interactions while managing energy levels.


    Throughout the episode, DuVäl emphasizes the significance of time blocking, culture, and reserving energy in order to successfully navigate their career and business. They provide valuable insights for both introverts and listeners interested in the world of interior design and entrepreneurship. Grab your headphones and join us on this episode of The Traveling Introvert with DuVäl!"


    Guest information


    DuVäl Design is a full-service interior design firm, based in Fairfax, VA. Honored by magazines as “The One to Watch'', “Hot Talent”, and House Beautiful’s Next Wave, he’s been seen in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Washington Post, and more. He currently serves on the Interior Design Advisory Council for Marymount University, as the co-chairperson for HPMKT Diversity Advocacy Alliance, and has recently launched his e-commerce furnishings site, House of DuVäl.

    ]]>    7a0d7f5b-a034-4cc6-a4c9-4989220e9dfeTue, 01 Aug 2023 12:00:00 -050023:00falsefull320320    The Continuous Process: Developing Good Habits for Critical ThinkingThe Continuous Process: Developing Good Habits for Critical ThinkingTopics covered in this audio session:

    1. The importance of curiosity in critical thinking

    - Embrace curiosity and let it guide your thoughts

    - Question the status quo and challenge assumptions


    2. Seeking deeper understanding and diverse perspectives

    - Ask meaningful questions

    - Seek diverse perspectives for discoveries


    3. Being open to changing perspectives

    - Responding to compelling evidence

    - Value of evidence-based reasoning


    4. Responding to claims about introversion

    - Engaging in conversations to understand beliefs

    - Providing supportive information


    5. Developing good habits for critical thinking

    - Continuous process and sound judgment

    - Examining evidence, implications, and biases

    - Stepping back and gaining clarity


    6. Building a sturdy bridge analogy

    - Reliable evidence, research, and logical arguments


    7. Reacting to a situation in a Facebook group

    - Importance of self-understanding and daily choices

    - Avoiding reactive responses


    8. Contact information and website

    - Janice's website: thecareintrovert.com

    - Assistance in building a personal brand and finding employment opportunities


    9. Seeking diverse opinions and insights

    - Engaging in respectful conversations

    - Embracing diversity for enriched thinking and empathy


    10. Reflecting and analyzing situations from various angles

    - Taking time for critical thinking


    11. Opportunity for growth and learning

    - Developing critical thinking skills in a world of instant opinions

    - Importance of good habits


    12. Embracing curiosity

    - Approaching situations with a curious mindset

    ]]>    Topics covered in this audio session:

    1. The importance of curiosity in critical thinking

    - Embrace curiosity and let it guide your thoughts

    - Question the status quo and challenge assumptions


    2. Seeking deeper understanding and diverse perspectives

    - Ask meaningful questions

    - Seek diverse perspectives for discoveries


    3. Being open to changing perspectives

    - Responding to compelling evidence

    - Value of evidence-based reasoning


    4. Responding to claims about introversion

    - Engaging in conversations to understand beliefs

    - Providing supportive information


    5. Developing good habits for critical thinking

    - Continuous process and sound judgment

    - Examining evidence, implications, and biases

    - Stepping back and gaining clarity


    6. Building a sturdy bridge analogy

    - Reliable evidence, research, and logical arguments


    7. Reacting to a situation in a Facebook group

    - Importance of self-understanding and daily choices

    - Avoiding reactive responses


    8. Contact information and website

    - Janice's website: thecareintrovert.com

    - Assistance in building a personal brand and finding employment opportunities


    9. Seeking diverse opinions and insights

    - Engaging in respectful conversations

    - Embracing diversity for enriched thinking and empathy


    10. Reflecting and analyzing situations from various angles

    - Taking time for critical thinking


    11. Opportunity for growth and learning

    - Developing critical thinking skills in a world of instant opinions

    - Importance of good habits


    12. Embracing curiosity

    - Approaching situations with a curious mindset

    ]]>    3dd89322-0419-4fbc-9e76-6cbfa3410d00Tue, 25 Jul 2023 12:00:00 -050005:19falsefull319319    Mastering Nonverbal Communication: Boosting Confidence and Building RapportMastering Nonverbal Communication: Boosting Confidence and Building Rapport


    Episode Topics:

    1. The Importance of Direct Interaction:

    - Facing the audience or person during communication.


    2. Building Rapport through Mirroring:

    - Mirroring body language for connection.

    - Mirroring voice to create similarity and safety.


    3. Matching Tone for Effective Communication:

    - Speaking at the same pace to communicate effectively.

    - Matching the tone of measured speakers.


    4. The Role of Self-Awareness:

    - Significance of self-awareness in communication and confidence.


    5. Nonverbal Communication Elements:

    - Body language, eye contact, and empathy.


    6. Enhancing Nonverbal Communication Skills:

    - Practice and self-awareness as essential for improvement.


    7. Nonverbal Communication Techniques for Confidence:

    - Learning and practicing nonverbal communication skills.


    8. Your Face and Expressions:

    - Using facial expressions to convey sincerity, authenticity, and active listening.

    - Micro expressions and their role in revealing true emotions.


    9. Effective Hand Gestures and Body Alignment:

    - Proper use of hand gestures and avoiding overdoing it.

    - Importance of body alignment.


    10. Body Language and Introversion:

    - Common assumption of poor body language by introverts.

    - Improving body language to project confidence and willingness to interact.


    11. The Connection between Body Language and Speaking:

    - How improving body language can enhance speaking ability.


    12. Voice Modulation and Body Language:

    - Demonstration of voice changes based on posture.


    13. Nonverbal Communication in Various Contexts:

    - Importance of nonverbal communication in conveying thoughts, emotions, and intentions.


    14. Focus on Body Language and Voice Modulation:

    - Specific focus on body language and voice modulation as aspects of nonverbal communication.


    15. Significance of Openness and Attention:

    - Avoiding crossed arms to signal interest and attentiveness.


    16. Eye Contact and Facial Expressions:

    - The importance of eye contact and understanding potential cultural differences.

    - Facial expressions as indicators of true emotions and individual expressiveness.

    ]]>


    Episode Topics:

    1. The Importance of Direct Interaction:

    - Facing the audience or person during communication.


    2. Building Rapport through Mirroring:

    - Mirroring body language for connection.

    - Mirroring voice to create similarity and safety.


    3. Matching Tone for Effective Communication:

    - Speaking at the same pace to communicate effectively.

    - Matching the tone of measured speakers.


    4. The Role of Self-Awareness:

    - Significance of self-awareness in communication and confidence.


    5. Nonverbal Communication Elements:

    - Body language, eye contact, and empathy.


    6. Enhancing Nonverbal Communication Skills:

    - Practice and self-awareness as essential for improvement.


    7. Nonverbal Communication Techniques for Confidence:

    - Learning and practicing nonverbal communication skills.


    8. Your Face and Expressions:

    - Using facial expressions to convey sincerity, authenticity, and active listening.

    - Micro expressions and their role in revealing true emotions.


    9. Effective Hand Gestures and Body Alignment:

    - Proper use of hand gestures and avoiding overdoing it.

    - Importance of body alignment.


    10. Body Language and Introversion:

    - Common assumption of poor body language by introverts.

    - Improving body language to project confidence and willingness to interact.


    11. The Connection between Body Language and Speaking:

    - How improving body language can enhance speaking ability.


    12. Voice Modulation and Body Language:

    - Demonstration of voice changes based on posture.


    13. Nonverbal Communication in Various Contexts:

    - Importance of nonverbal communication in conveying thoughts, emotions, and intentions.


    14. Focus on Body Language and Voice Modulation:

    - Specific focus on body language and voice modulation as aspects of nonverbal communication.


    15. Significance of Openness and Attention:

    - Avoiding crossed arms to signal interest and attentiveness.


    16. Eye Contact and Facial Expressions:

    - The importance of eye contact and understanding potential cultural differences.

    - Facial expressions as indicators of true emotions and individual expressiveness.

    ]]>    c90f2fc9-69f2-480b-a7f0-d428ce6bde62Tue, 18 Jul 2023 12:00:00 -050005:43falsefull318318    Saying No to Say Yes: The Importance of Boundaries at WorkSaying No to Say Yes: The Importance of Boundaries at WorkOn this episode of The Traveling Introvert, we dive into the workplace worries people face, specifically those in leadership positions. Leaders shouldn't feel like they need to be an expert on everything, and how saying no and setting boundaries can lead to success. There's a common pressure to say yes to everything, but this can lead to a lack of time for deep work and potential failure. Personal productivity levels vary, and it's important to evaluate time availability before taking on unnecessary meetings and projects. Tune in to hear more about why saying no can be the key to becoming a successful leader.



    Topic: Pressure to be an expert and compete with co-workers

    - Discouraging the need to be an expert on everything

    - Advice to not compete with co-workers

    - Leaders should not be the only expert in a team


    Topic: Importance of setting boundaries

    - Saying yes to everything can lead to overwhelm and low quality work

    - Preventing burnout by setting boundaries

    - Evaluating time availability before saying yes to projects


    Topic: Success and productivity are personal

    - Personal productivity levels vary from person to person

    - Success and productivity are subjective and not necessary to compete with peers

    - Discouraging learning something just to appear knowledgeable


    Topic: Newcomers and saying yes

    - Newcomers may feel pressure to say yes to everything to compete with peers

    - Saying yes can show teamwork, but can lead to failure

    - Involvement in unnecessary meetings and projects can lead to more of them


    Topic: Advice for leaders

    - Leaders should not be overwhelmed by being the only one everyone goes to for guidance

    - Leaders are there to support others in the team

    - Leaders should not feel pressured to always speak first or be the hub of the team



    ]]>    On this episode of The Traveling Introvert, we dive into the workplace worries people face, specifically those in leadership positions. Leaders shouldn't feel like they need to be an expert on everything, and how saying no and setting boundaries can lead to success. There's a common pressure to say yes to everything, but this can lead to a lack of time for deep work and potential failure. Personal productivity levels vary, and it's important to evaluate time availability before taking on unnecessary meetings and projects. Tune in to hear more about why saying no can be the key to becoming a successful leader.



    Topic: Pressure to be an expert and compete with co-workers

    - Discouraging the need to be an expert on everything

    - Advice to not compete with co-workers

    - Leaders should not be the only expert in a team


    Topic: Importance of setting boundaries

    - Saying yes to everything can lead to overwhelm and low quality work

    - Preventing burnout by setting boundaries

    - Evaluating time availability before saying yes to projects


    Topic: Success and productivity are personal

    - Personal productivity levels vary from person to person

    - Success and productivity are subjective and not necessary to compete with peers

    - Discouraging learning something just to appear knowledgeable


    Topic: Newcomers and saying yes

    - Newcomers may feel pressure to say yes to everything to compete with peers

    - Saying yes can show teamwork, but can lead to failure

    - Involvement in unnecessary meetings and projects can lead to more of them


    Topic: Advice for leaders

    - Leaders should not be overwhelmed by being the only one everyone goes to for guidance

    - Leaders are there to support others in the team

    - Leaders should not feel pressured to always speak first or be the hub of the team



    ]]>    1be79a79-2f24-4622-8757-312adb54c5c5Tue, 11 Jul 2023 12:00:00 -050005:19falsefull317317    Career Conversations with Mike LinCareer Conversations with Mike LinMike Lin began his career as a website designer in 1995. He was initially exposed to desktop publishing through his work designing concert posters as a college concert promoter. Lin preferred to work independently and utilize his introverted personality to think through projects alone. His introverted nature proved helpful in his tech career, allowing him to think deeply and work diligently.

    Topics Covered in the Podcast Episode:

    1. The Benefits of Exercising for Mental Health

    - Exercise as one of the best things to do for mental health, especially when depressed

    - Personal experience with Orange Theory Fitness studio in San Francisco

    - Founder of Orange Theory Fitness, Ellen Latham, agrees that exercise is helpful for mental health

    - Release of dopamine from exercise found to be more effective than past medication for depression


    2. Career in Technology

    - Early employee at LinkedIn

    - Details about work experience and roles held

    - Started a t-shirt company called Tshirtsmatter.com

    - LinkedIn profile and Linktree account provided

    - Experience working independently as a designer

    - Refers to tech companies as Fang (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google)

    - Image of techies wearing t-shirts and jeans


    3. Resilience and Business Ideas

    - Resilience in career and life

    - Story about a call with a company that works with only five clients per quarter

    - New idea for an urban camping Airbnb experience

    - Company's requirement for generating $50,000 per month and spending $150,000,000 on ads

    - Claims to have scaled companies


    4. Orange Theory Fitness and Collaboration

    - Completed 97 workouts at Orange 30 Fitness over two and a half years

    - Wearing a t-shirt that says "Oranger Fitness is my drug" on 100th workout

    - Plans to send photo of t-shirt to owner of the franchise in San Francisco to see if they can make it an official collaboration between their merge company, T-Shirts Matter, and Orange Fitness

    - Spoken to Ellen Latham, the founder of Orange Theory Fitness

    - Reception of collaboration idea as international opportunity


    5. Career Trajectory

    - First job with a company called Creative Internet Design in Pasadena in 1997

    - Role in Adjacency, which was later acquired by Sapien

    - Worked for Yahoo Shopping, Yahoo Travel, LinkedIn, and Zinger

    - Worked in production design, visual design, and user interface design

    - Worked mostly independently with headphones on

    - Adjacency's prestigious clients like Apple, Land Rover, Nordstrom, Specialized Bikes, Virgin Music, Tag Hoyer, and Patagonia

    - Bernie Deshant as a mentor during depression

    - Career trajectory changed after job offer from Adjacency



    Social media links

    http://linkedin.com/in/mikelin

    http://instagram.com/mikelin.sf



    Link to website

    http://t-shirtsmatter.com

    ]]>    Mike Lin began his career as a website designer in 1995. He was initially exposed to desktop publishing through his work designing concert posters as a college concert promoter. Lin preferred to work independently and utilize his introverted personality to think through projects alone. His introverted nature proved helpful in his tech career, allowing him to think deeply and work diligently.

    Topics Covered in the Podcast Episode:

    1. The Benefits of Exercising for Mental Health

    - Exercise as one of the best things to do for mental health, especially when depressed

    - Personal experience with Orange Theory Fitness studio in San Francisco

    - Founder of Orange Theory Fitness, Ellen Latham, agrees that exercise is helpful for mental health

    - Release of dopamine from exercise found to be more effective than past medication for depression


    2. Career in Technology

    - Early employee at LinkedIn

    - Details about work experience and roles held

    - Started a t-shirt company called Tshirtsmatter.com

    - LinkedIn profile and Linktree account provided

    - Experience working independently as a designer

    - Refers to tech companies as Fang (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google)

    - Image of techies wearing t-shirts and jeans


    3. Resilience and Business Ideas

    - Resilience in career and life

    - Story about a call with a company that works with only five clients per quarter

    - New idea for an urban camping Airbnb experience

    - Company's requirement for generating $50,000 per month and spending $150,000,000 on ads

    - Claims to have scaled companies


    4. Orange Theory Fitness and Collaboration

    - Completed 97 workouts at Orange 30 Fitness over two and a half years

    - Wearing a t-shirt that says "Oranger Fitness is my drug" on 100th workout

    - Plans to send photo of t-shirt to owner of the franchise in San Francisco to see if they can make it an official collaboration between their merge company, T-Shirts Matter, and Orange Fitness

    - Spoken to Ellen Latham, the founder of Orange Theory Fitness

    - Reception of collaboration idea as international opportunity


    5. Career Trajectory

    - First job with a company called Creative Internet Design in Pasadena in 1997

    - Role in Adjacency, which was later acquired by Sapien

    - Worked for Yahoo Shopping, Yahoo Travel, LinkedIn, and Zinger

    - Worked in production design, visual design, and user interface design

    - Worked mostly independently with headphones on

    - Adjacency's prestigious clients like Apple, Land Rover, Nordstrom, Specialized Bikes, Virgin Music, Tag Hoyer, and Patagonia

    - Bernie Deshant as a mentor during depression

    - Career trajectory changed after job offer from Adjacency



    Social media links

    http://linkedin.com/in/mikelin

    http://instagram.com/mikelin.sf



    Link to website

    http://t-shirtsmatter.com

    ]]>    ea259345-8831-4788-866e-23897074ba56Tue, 04 Jul 2023 12:00:00 -050025:49falsefull316316    Mindful Procrastination: Tips for Minimizing Stress and Boosting CreativityMindful Procrastination: Tips for Minimizing Stress and Boosting CreativityOn this episode of The Traveling Introvert, we explore a topic that many of us may be guilty of: procrastination. While often seen as a negative trait, intentional procrastination can actually lead to increased creativity and problem-solving skills. The link between procrastination and creativity is rooted in the incubation period, a time when the brain is in a relaxed state and works on a problem in the background. I share practical strategies on how to use procrastination to your advantage, such as taking regular breaks, switching between tasks, and setting specific times for procrastination breaks. I also discuss the downsides of unplanned procrastination, such as stress and decreased productivity. Tune in to discover how to become a master of the art of procrastination and tap into its benefits.

    Podcast Episode: The Benefits of Procrastination in Enhancing Creativity


    - Intentional procrastination as a tool for unlocking creativity

    - Strategies that can help listeners become a master of the art of procrastination

    - The guilt-free usage of planned procrastination

    - Introduction of speaker Janice from thecareintrovert.com to help listeners build their brand and get hired

    - Famous personalities like Leonardo da Vinci and Douglas Adams were famous for their procrastination habits

    - The science behind the link between procrastination and creativity

    - The role of incubation period in creativity

    - Tips to maximize the incubation period such as taking a break every 90 minutes and switching between tasks

    - The importance of focusing on one task at a time and avoiding multitasking

    - Procrastination can lead to increased creativity while unplanned procrastination can have negative effects

    - Creating specific times for procrastination can help to boost creativity without lowering productivity

    - Discussion on the link between procrastination and creativity amongst famous artists, writers, and inventors

    - Practical ways to tap into the creative benefits of procrastination and minimize its downsides

    - Visualization techniques and mindfulness practices that can help with procrastination

    - Strategies to minimize the negative effects of procrastination include setting realistic goals and deadlines, breaking tasks into smaller portions, creating a distraction-free environment, and using positive affirmations.

    ]]>    On this episode of The Traveling Introvert, we explore a topic that many of us may be guilty of: procrastination. While often seen as a negative trait, intentional procrastination can actually lead to increased creativity and problem-solving skills. The link between procrastination and creativity is rooted in the incubation period, a time when the brain is in a relaxed state and works on a problem in the background. I share practical strategies on how to use procrastination to your advantage, such as taking regular breaks, switching between tasks, and setting specific times for procrastination breaks. I also discuss the downsides of unplanned procrastination, such as stress and decreased productivity. Tune in to discover how to become a master of the art of procrastination and tap into its benefits.

    Podcast Episode: The Benefits of Procrastination in Enhancing Creativity


    - Intentional procrastination as a tool for unlocking creativity

    - Strategies that can help listeners become a master of the art of procrastination

    - The guilt-free usage of planned procrastination

    - Introduction of speaker Janice from thecareintrovert.com to help listeners build their brand and get hired

    - Famous personalities like Leonardo da Vinci and Douglas Adams were famous for their procrastination habits

    - The science behind the link between procrastination and creativity

    - The role of incubation period in creativity

    - Tips to maximize the incubation period such as taking a break every 90 minutes and switching between tasks

    - The importance of focusing on one task at a time and avoiding multitasking

    - Procrastination can lead to increased creativity while unplanned procrastination can have negative effects

    - Creating specific times for procrastination can help to boost creativity without lowering productivity

    - Discussion on the link between procrastination and creativity amongst famous artists, writers, and inventors

    - Practical ways to tap into the creative benefits of procrastination and minimize its downsides

    - Visualization techniques and mindfulness practices that can help with procrastination

    - Strategies to minimize the negative effects of procrastination include setting realistic goals and deadlines, breaking tasks into smaller portions, creating a distraction-free environment, and using positive affirmations.

    ]]>    46af292a-f736-405a-a67a-d31dc8d4d306Tue, 27 Jun 2023 12:00:00 -050005:25falsefull315315    Smaller Pieces, Visible Results: Breaking Down Big Tasks For SuccessSmaller Pieces, Visible Results: Breaking Down Big Tasks For SuccessOn this episode of The Traveling Introvert, we're exploring how to stay focused on big, overwhelming projects. I share my tips for breaking down tasks into smaller, manageable, time-bound pieces to increase productivity and motivation. I discuss the importance of prioritizing tasks based on urgency and importance, and how to create specific endpoints for each step. I also talk about the benefits of taking a step back and seeing the bigger picture, including reducing stress and avoiding burnout. Don't miss out on this episode if you're looking for ways to improve your productivity and achieve your goals faster.

    Topic: Breaking Down Tasks for Better Results


    - Breaking tasks down into smaller pieces makes progress easier and results more visible

    - Janice from the Career Introvert shares this tip to help with building a personal brand and getting hired

    - Stepping back to see the overall picture is crucial for completing tasks

    - Prioritize tasks based on importance and urgency

    - Break each step down into smaller, specific tasks

    - Focusing on the most important tasks first is essential

    - Breaking down large tasks into smaller ones can increase productivity

    - Doing a "brain dump" to write down all the steps needed to complete a project can help create a clear understanding of what needs to be done

    - Focusing on one task at a time can improve efficiency and effectiveness

    - Breaking down tasks can reduce stress and prevent procrastination

    - Procrastinating too often can lead to negative consequences

    - Breaking down tasks is a useful trick for tackling big projects

    - Setting deadlines for each task helps create a sense of urgency and avoid procrastination

    - Starting on the first task and working through each one until the project is complete is the key to success.

    ]]>    On this episode of The Traveling Introvert, we're exploring how to stay focused on big, overwhelming projects. I share my tips for breaking down tasks into smaller, manageable, time-bound pieces to increase productivity and motivation. I discuss the importance of prioritizing tasks based on urgency and importance, and how to create specific endpoints for each step. I also talk about the benefits of taking a step back and seeing the bigger picture, including reducing stress and avoiding burnout. Don't miss out on this episode if you're looking for ways to improve your productivity and achieve your goals faster.

    Topic: Breaking Down Tasks for Better Results


    - Breaking tasks down into smaller pieces makes progress easier and results more visible

    - Janice from the Career Introvert shares this tip to help with building a personal brand and getting hired

    - Stepping back to see the overall picture is crucial for completing tasks

    - Prioritize tasks based on importance and urgency

    - Break each step down into smaller, specific tasks

    - Focusing on the most important tasks first is essential

    - Breaking down large tasks into smaller ones can increase productivity

    - Doing a "brain dump" to write down all the steps needed to complete a project can help create a clear understanding of what needs to be done

    - Focusing on one task at a time can improve efficiency and effectiveness

    - Breaking down tasks can reduce stress and prevent procrastination

    - Procrastinating too often can lead to negative consequences

    - Breaking down tasks is a useful trick for tackling big projects

    - Setting deadlines for each task helps create a sense of urgency and avoid procrastination

    - Starting on the first task and working through each one until the project is complete is the key to success.

    ]]>    070dd7cf-080f-4550-afb7-b4b099cabce2Tue, 20 Jun 2023 12:00:00 -050005:21falsefull314314    From Sensory Overload to Solitude: Organizing the Perfect Recharge During TravelFrom Sensory Overload to Solitude: Organizing the Perfect Recharge During TravelOn this episode of the Traveling Introvert, I share tips for event organization and maintaining routines while traveling. I speak from personal experience of running a large event and highlights the importance of having someone to ensure the event organizer stays hydrated and fed. I talk about being prepared for potential delays and offers advice on having a meeting before an event to run through everything step by step. She recommends booking recharge time or activities in advance to prevent wasted time and provides insight into finding her favorite restaurants in a new city.

    Topic: Preparing for an event

    - Tips for organizing events and making the event organizer's life easier

    - The importance of having someone to make sure the event organizer is properly hydrated and fed throughout the event

    - Expecting and planning for potential delays such as people being late or traffic

    - Having a meeting before any event and running through everything step by step to ensure everyone knows what they need to do

    - Having a designated bag person to remind you of important timing


    Topic: Maintaining routines while traveling

    - Traveling and being out of routine can cause people to feel out of sorts

    - Maintaining certain routines, like going for a walk or getting alone time, even while traveling

    - The lack of alone time can cause people to feel cranky and lose their minds

    - One should force themselves to take time for solitude and maintain their routines, even when travelling


    Topic: Taking recharge time

    - After an event, the speaker knew they needed recharge time and booked a hotel to be alone and also a massage

    - Recommending booking recharge time or activities in advance instead of wasting time trying to find them last minute




    ]]>    On this episode of the Traveling Introvert, I share tips for event organization and maintaining routines while traveling. I speak from personal experience of running a large event and highlights the importance of having someone to ensure the event organizer stays hydrated and fed. I talk about being prepared for potential delays and offers advice on having a meeting before an event to run through everything step by step. She recommends booking recharge time or activities in advance to prevent wasted time and provides insight into finding her favorite restaurants in a new city.

    Topic: Preparing for an event

    - Tips for organizing events and making the event organizer's life easier

    - The importance of having someone to make sure the event organizer is properly hydrated and fed throughout the event

    - Expecting and planning for potential delays such as people being late or traffic

    - Having a meeting before any event and running through everything step by step to ensure everyone knows what they need to do

    - Having a designated bag person to remind you of important timing


    Topic: Maintaining routines while traveling

    - Traveling and being out of routine can cause people to feel out of sorts

    - Maintaining certain routines, like going for a walk or getting alone time, even while traveling

    - The lack of alone time can cause people to feel cranky and lose their minds

    - One should force themselves to take time for solitude and maintain their routines, even when travelling


    Topic: Taking recharge time

    - After an event, the speaker knew they needed recharge time and booked a hotel to be alone and also a massage

    - Recommending booking recharge time or activities in advance instead of wasting time trying to find them last minute




    ]]>    73bbdb51-4063-4569-90db-82fc405697e9Tue, 13 Jun 2023 12:00:00 -050005:18falsefull313313    Career Conversations with Megan BozzutoCareer Conversations with Megan BozzutoOn this episode of The Traveling Introvert, our guest shares their journey in leadership, from dealing with Impostor syndrome to networking as an introvert. They emphasize the importance of transparency in personal situations, building a supportive network, and creating space in a busy schedule for recharging. As an introvert, they value alone time but still make intentional efforts to network and lead their team. They also highlight the crucial support and resources provided by the International Association of Women for women struggling with confidence and asking for help. Join us to learn more about navigating leadership as an introvert and building a solid support network.

    Megan Bozzuto is a woman who is always ready to take on opportunities that come her way. She was recently presented with a chance to help with a brand initiative and strategy for her parent company, and without hesitation, she raised her hand and took on the challenge. This move has resulted in an exciting career advancement for her while still being able to continue doing what she loves at IAW. Megan is a professional who is passionate about her work and is always eager to learn and grow.

    Social media links

    https://www.facebook.com/megbozz/

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/megbozz/

    https://www.instagram.com/megbozz/


    Link to website

    www.iawomen.com


    Episode: Leading, Networking, and Fostering Community as an Introverted Woman


    - Importance of being transparent with colleagues and managers without oversharing

    - Benefits of sharing personal information with team members

    - Communication skills when declining opportunities

    - Accepting oneself as a leader despite doubt and overcoming impostor syndrome

    - Delegating tasks instead of saying "no" directly

    - Building relationships and maintaining a supportive network for nonlinear career paths

    - Managing time and creating space for alone time to recharge as an introverted woman

    - Strategies for successful networking, including being intentional about who to meet and where to network

    - Support for women's confidence and negotiation skills in the workplace from organizations such as the International Association of Women


    Note: The topics are not in chronological order and are a general summary of the episode content.


    ]]>    On this episode of The Traveling Introvert, our guest shares their journey in leadership, from dealing with Impostor syndrome to networking as an introvert. They emphasize the importance of transparency in personal situations, building a supportive network, and creating space in a busy schedule for recharging. As an introvert, they value alone time but still make intentional efforts to network and lead their team. They also highlight the crucial support and resources provided by the International Association of Women for women struggling with confidence and asking for help. Join us to learn more about navigating leadership as an introvert and building a solid support network.

    Megan Bozzuto is a woman who is always ready to take on opportunities that come her way. She was recently presented with a chance to help with a brand initiative and strategy for her parent company, and without hesitation, she raised her hand and took on the challenge. This move has resulted in an exciting career advancement for her while still being able to continue doing what she loves at IAW. Megan is a professional who is passionate about her work and is always eager to learn and grow.

    Social media links

    https://www.facebook.com/megbozz/

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/megbozz/

    https://www.instagram.com/megbozz/


    Link to website

    www.iawomen.com


    Episode: Leading, Networking, and Fostering Community as an Introverted Woman


    - Importance of being transparent with colleagues and managers without oversharing

    - Benefits of sharing personal information with team members

    - Communication skills when declining opportunities

    - Accepting oneself as a leader despite doubt and overcoming impostor syndrome

    - Delegating tasks instead of saying "no" directly

    - Building relationships and maintaining a supportive network for nonlinear career paths

    - Managing time and creating space for alone time to recharge as an introverted woman

    - Strategies for successful networking, including being intentional about who to meet and where to network

    - Support for women's confidence and negotiation skills in the workplace from organizations such as the International Association of Women


    Note: The topics are not in chronological order and are a general summary of the episode content.


    ]]>    39fdd54d-ce66-41fc-b65e-f3956ff4fb65Tue, 06 Jun 2023 12:00:00 -050021:32falsefull312312    The Unspoken Abuse of the Hiring Process: Respect Candidates' Time and InformationThe Unspoken Abuse of the Hiring Process: Respect Candidates' Time and InformationOn this episode of The Traveling Introvert, I discusses the importance of transparency in job postings, pricing, and service offerings. It all started when I came across a private post from someone looking for guests on their podcast without disclosing that it was a paid opportunity. I believe transparency shows respect for people's time and leads to better client and job-seeking experiences. I also dive into the issue of complicated job application processes and the lack of information disclosed to job seekers.


    Topic: Posting Salaries on Job Listings and Costs on Service Provider Websites

    - Job seekers want salaries to be listed on job postings; service seekers want costs to be listed on a service provider's website

    - This shows respect for people's time and helps them make decisions

    - Making the process easy helps waste nobody's time, giving a good overall client experience

    - The aim of the game is to give a good client or potential job seeker experience

    - Lack of transparency wastes time and causes frustration


    Topic: Hiring Process Efficiency and Transparency

    - The hiring process should be efficient and respectful

    - Complicated interview processes and lack of important information can be seen as abuse towards job seekers

    - Posting salary with job description and posting shows respect for potential candidates' time and is a valuable resource

    - Transparency in pricing and salary establishes trust and eliminates ambiguity, leading to efficient decision making

    - Transparent pricing can lead to better fit between job seekers and employers/clients


    ]]>    On this episode of The Traveling Introvert, I discusses the importance of transparency in job postings, pricing, and service offerings. It all started when I came across a private post from someone looking for guests on their podcast without disclosing that it was a paid opportunity. I believe transparency shows respect for people's time and leads to better client and job-seeking experiences. I also dive into the issue of complicated job application processes and the lack of information disclosed to job seekers.


    Topic: Posting Salaries on Job Listings and Costs on Service Provider Websites

    - Job seekers want salaries to be listed on job postings; service seekers want costs to be listed on a service provider's website

    - This shows respect for people's time and helps them make decisions

    - Making the process easy helps waste nobody's time, giving a good overall client experience

    - The aim of the game is to give a good client or potential job seeker experience

    - Lack of transparency wastes time and causes frustration


    Topic: Hiring Process Efficiency and Transparency

    - The hiring process should be efficient and respectful

    - Complicated interview processes and lack of important information can be seen as abuse towards job seekers

    - Posting salary with job description and posting shows respect for potential candidates' time and is a valuable resource

    - Transparency in pricing and salary establishes trust and eliminates ambiguity, leading to efficient decision making

    - Transparent pricing can lead to better fit between job seekers and employers/clients


    ]]>    d42c39af-4ca1-46e3-b2b8-ba7a0051e50bTue, 30 May 2023 12:00:00 -050005:21falsefull311311    Setting up your deep work environmentSetting up your deep work environmentAnd welcome to The Travelling introvert. Today is almost a second part to talking about deep work. I've talked about why deep work is really important, especially for introverts. But now I want to talk about strategies to help you be able to do that deep work. And deep work refers to the ability to just focus on one task, to concentrate intensely on a cognitive demanding task without distraction and interruption, allowing you to produce high quality work in less time. In the context of self development, deep work is a highly valuable skill to cultivate and use on a regular basis. When you learn to focus intensely on essential tasks, you become more efficient and effective in reaching your goals. But deep work is also about creating an atmosphere that can help you focus on that one task. And to do this, it's crucial to turn off possible distractions like social media, email, phone notifications, that a thing. But also avoid things that might take away your attention like pets, kids, and spouses. Breaking your tasks into smaller parts and setting goals will help you finish your work quickly. In addition to improving productivity, deep work leads to personal growth and development.

    When you engage in deep work, you challenge your mind and expand your knowledge and skills. Achieving deep work is an essential skill that maximizes productivity and focuses on the most critical tasks. Although, don't get me wrong, it's not always easy to get into the zone and that deep flow and focus intensely on a single task. But the more often you do it, the easier you find it. And setting yourself up for success is really important. You can't just be like, I'm going to do some deep work today. Setting the environment to help you do so is hugely important. And so I want to talk about some of the things that I've done that might help. Schedule uninterrupted blocks of time. And I know that might be easier said than done. But one of the best ways to help you achieve deep work is by scheduling uninterrupted blocks of time to do it. Block off a certain amount of time on your calendar. It could be 30 minutes. No one says it has to be 18 hours. That's a lot of time. But block off a certain amount of time on your calendarand commit to focusing on a specific task during that time.

    You can set aside 30 minutes, an hour, or several hours depending on the task's requirement. Also, eliminate distractions. Distractions are the enemy of deep work. To achieve deep work, you need to not have phone calls, emails, notifications. There are various ways you can do this. You can turn off your phone. Some people lock their phone in another room, put it on airplane mode, close your email and make sure it doesn't have the notifications that pop up. Some people use noise cancelling headphones if necessary. Tell your family and friends not to interrupt without a good cause. Those are the things you could do. It's really, really important that even though you are doing deep work, that you take breaks. An integral part actually of achieving deep work is by taking breaks. After working for an extended period of time, take a short break to rest your mind, recharge, bio break, hydrate. It could include going for a walk, getting some fresh air, or doing some stretching exercises. But this will help improve what you do overall over time. Don't think that this is, Oh, I have to sit at my desk for four hours. Please do not.


    You should get up, take a break, give your eyes a rest at least every 30 to 40 minutes. One other thing is make sure you set a very clear goal. Setting clear goals is really crucial for deep work. Before you start working on a task, take time to set a clear goal and define what it is specifically you want to achieve. And when you're thinking about that, it has to be important that there is an end point. It can't be, work on my website. It should be more like, I want to complete all the copy for the homepage of my website. This...]]>And welcome to The Travelling introvert. Today is almost a second part to talking about deep work. I've talked about why deep work is really important, especially for introverts. But now I want to talk about strategies to help you be able to do that deep work. And deep work refers to the ability to just focus on one task, to concentrate intensely on a cognitive demanding task without distraction and interruption, allowing you to produce high quality work in less time. In the context of self development, deep work is a highly valuable skill to cultivate and use on a regular basis. When you learn to focus intensely on essential tasks, you become more efficient and effective in reaching your goals. But deep work is also about creating an atmosphere that can help you focus on that one task. And to do this, it's crucial to turn off possible distractions like social media, email, phone notifications, that a thing. But also avoid things that might take away your attention like pets, kids, and spouses. Breaking your tasks into smaller parts and setting goals will help you finish your work quickly. In addition to improving productivity, deep work leads to personal growth and development.

    When you engage in deep work, you challenge your mind and expand your knowledge and skills. Achieving deep work is an essential skill that maximizes productivity and focuses on the most critical tasks. Although, don't get me wrong, it's not always easy to get into the zone and that deep flow and focus intensely on a single task. But the more often you do it, the easier you find it. And setting yourself up for success is really important. You can't just be like, I'm going to do some deep work today. Setting the environment to help you do so is hugely important. And so I want to talk about some of the things that I've done that might help. Schedule uninterrupted blocks of time. And I know that might be easier said than done. But one of the best ways to help you achieve deep work is by scheduling uninterrupted blocks of time to do it. Block off a certain amount of time on your calendar. It could be 30 minutes. No one says it has to be 18 hours. That's a lot of time. But block off a certain amount of time on your calendarand commit to focusing on a specific task during that time.

    You can set aside 30 minutes, an hour, or several hours depending on the task's requirement. Also, eliminate distractions. Distractions are the enemy of deep work. To achieve deep work, you need to not have phone calls, emails, notifications. There are various ways you can do this. You can turn off your phone. Some people lock their phone in another room, put it on airplane mode, close your email and make sure it doesn't have the notifications that pop up. Some people use noise cancelling headphones if necessary. Tell your family and friends not to interrupt without a good cause. Those are the things you could do. It's really, really important that even though you are doing deep work, that you take breaks. An integral part actually of achieving deep work is by taking breaks. After working for an extended period of time, take a short break to rest your mind, recharge, bio break, hydrate. It could include going for a walk, getting some fresh air, or doing some stretching exercises. But this will help improve what you do overall over time. Don't think that this is, Oh, I have to sit at my desk for four hours. Please do not.


    You should get up, take a break, give your eyes a rest at least every 30 to 40 minutes. One other thing is make sure you set a very clear goal. Setting clear goals is really crucial for deep work. Before you start working on a task, take time to set a clear goal and define what it is specifically you want to achieve. And when you're thinking about that, it has to be important that there is an end point. It can't be, work on my website. It should be more like, I want to complete all the copy for the homepage of my website. This will keep you inspired and focused and motivated throughout the tasks. But overall, all I'm talking about is developing better habits. Better habits will help you achieve deep work easier. And this might include creating a consistent morning routine, getting enough sleep, color coding your calendar, having certain days where you do deep work and certain days that you don't. All of these are just better habits to help you work more efficiently and in a way that works for you. Achieving deep work is crucial for maximizing productivity and completing tasks. Focusing on what you are doing and nothing else ensures that you can do the task well and therefore, it comes to get more and in a better way.


    Thank you for listening. This is Janice at thecareerintrovert.Com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    ]]>4b99bfad-5605-470e-a182-4a9cd68d1eb5Tue, 23 May 2023 12:00:00 -050005:25falsefull310310    The benefits of deep workThe benefits of deep workAnd welcome to the travelling introvert. Today I'm going to talk about deep work. And the reason this has come up is because a lot of the time I talk about how introverts need time to recharge, and back to back meetings suck, and very rarely now do we have time for deep work because we are in back to back meetings. And so I want to talk about the real benefits of deep work and what that entails, because all the time that you're these days, we're getting distracted by notifications and email and social media. And as a result, the ability to focus on a single task for, and I'm going to say the word extended period of time, but these days, I know, anything over 20 minutes has become a rare skill. However, the practice of deep work, which is the ability to focus intensely on a single task for a significant period of time, is really, really important. Okay, you have increased focus. Focusing deeply on a task when you train your mind to concentrate on one thing for an extended period, you'll improve your ability to focus on other daily tasks in your life, not just the ones that you're actually thinking about that this is going to be deep work.

    And what most people, most introverts find is there is enhanced productivity. If you get the time to do deep work and get to engage in deep work, it will significantly improve your productivity because focusing deeply on a task makes you more likely to complete it quickly and accurately. And it means you'll be able to accomplish everything faster, freeing up more time and brain space for other tasks or activities. Part of that means there'll be a better quality output. Deep work really allows for this, because when you just focus on working on that single task without distraction, very importantly, without distraction, you get into a flow state. And so giving that task that attention and time that it needs to be completed, means that your work will be of a higher quality. You'll come up with more ideas because you're just concentrating on that thing and giving it thought and time. And it will result in greater job satisfactionand even recognition from colleagues or superiors. But regardless of that, you will find your quality of work will be better because of having the time to have deep, uninterrupted, focused work. And because of this, you'll probably have improved job satisfaction.

    When you can focus deeply on a task, you're more likely to experience a sense of accomplishment because you're not just confetting from one thing to another thing to another thing and bouncing around like a pinball. You will experience this sense of accomplishment because you focus deeply on one task and can completely go, Yes, this is done, which in turn leads to a more positive outlook on your life. And so therefore will lead to more positive job satisfaction. Even if you don't like the job, it's okay. Also, it helps reduce stress. Deep work reduces stress levels by eliminating those distractions and allows you to focus solely on a single task. Because being distracted is stressful, so as a result, you will reduce these feelings of overwhelm or being overworked, and therefore this will improve your overall wellbeingand help, possibly, prevent future burnout. Deep work also provides strengthened creativity in problem solving. It helps you develop your creativity and problem solving skills when you allow yourself to focus on a single task. You will fully immerse yourself in the problem or the task and explore various solutions and develop innovative ideas, resulting in more effective and creative problem solving.


    And there is greater learning and retention. Deep work promotes better learning and retention of information. You give your full attention to the material where you are studying or the skills you are trying to develop, and that focused attention allows for more effective learning and retention as your brain can better process and consolidate the information. And of...]]>And welcome to the travelling introvert. Today I'm going to talk about deep work. And the reason this has come up is because a lot of the time I talk about how introverts need time to recharge, and back to back meetings suck, and very rarely now do we have time for deep work because we are in back to back meetings. And so I want to talk about the real benefits of deep work and what that entails, because all the time that you're these days, we're getting distracted by notifications and email and social media. And as a result, the ability to focus on a single task for, and I'm going to say the word extended period of time, but these days, I know, anything over 20 minutes has become a rare skill. However, the practice of deep work, which is the ability to focus intensely on a single task for a significant period of time, is really, really important. Okay, you have increased focus. Focusing deeply on a task when you train your mind to concentrate on one thing for an extended period, you'll improve your ability to focus on other daily tasks in your life, not just the ones that you're actually thinking about that this is going to be deep work.

    And what most people, most introverts find is there is enhanced productivity. If you get the time to do deep work and get to engage in deep work, it will significantly improve your productivity because focusing deeply on a task makes you more likely to complete it quickly and accurately. And it means you'll be able to accomplish everything faster, freeing up more time and brain space for other tasks or activities. Part of that means there'll be a better quality output. Deep work really allows for this, because when you just focus on working on that single task without distraction, very importantly, without distraction, you get into a flow state. And so giving that task that attention and time that it needs to be completed, means that your work will be of a higher quality. You'll come up with more ideas because you're just concentrating on that thing and giving it thought and time. And it will result in greater job satisfactionand even recognition from colleagues or superiors. But regardless of that, you will find your quality of work will be better because of having the time to have deep, uninterrupted, focused work. And because of this, you'll probably have improved job satisfaction.

    When you can focus deeply on a task, you're more likely to experience a sense of accomplishment because you're not just confetting from one thing to another thing to another thing and bouncing around like a pinball. You will experience this sense of accomplishment because you focus deeply on one task and can completely go, Yes, this is done, which in turn leads to a more positive outlook on your life. And so therefore will lead to more positive job satisfaction. Even if you don't like the job, it's okay. Also, it helps reduce stress. Deep work reduces stress levels by eliminating those distractions and allows you to focus solely on a single task. Because being distracted is stressful, so as a result, you will reduce these feelings of overwhelm or being overworked, and therefore this will improve your overall wellbeingand help, possibly, prevent future burnout. Deep work also provides strengthened creativity in problem solving. It helps you develop your creativity and problem solving skills when you allow yourself to focus on a single task. You will fully immerse yourself in the problem or the task and explore various solutions and develop innovative ideas, resulting in more effective and creative problem solving.


    And there is greater learning and retention. Deep work promotes better learning and retention of information. You give your full attention to the material where you are studying or the skills you are trying to develop, and that focused attention allows for more effective learning and retention as your brain can better process and consolidate the information. And of course, there's time management because you'll get better at prioritizing essential tasks and eliminating time wasting activities and increased resilience and heightened self awareness. Because you'll be accustomed to doing a single task and overcoming distractions, you'll be better able to handle unexpected obstacles. Deep work has numerous benefits that improve your work and personal life. So just think about how that might work for you and why it's so important for you to carve out that time. Thank you for listening. This is Janice at thecareerintrovert.Com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    ]]>9d8a54f8-ec90-4994-93f7-fb2675730a85Tue, 16 May 2023 12:00:00 -050005:24falsefull309309    Personal development mythsPersonal development mythsAnd welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today, I am going to talk about some myths that I've heard around personal or self development. And I hear these a lot from organisations, I hear these a lot from humans, and so I want to just talk a little bit about them. Self development or personal development is the process of developing or improving yourself through various growth strategies, techniques, and time. When you engage in self development, you might set goals, learn new skills, and engage in personal reflection. And this helps you become a better and happier human, which overall is the point. Self development will improve your life. Through thoughtful and intentional action taking, great things can happen. You might learn how to manage stress. You might develop better decision making skills. You might develop better methods of communication. You will learn a lot about yourself. Just because you've lived with yourself for 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years doesn't mean that you know everything about yourself or where things stem from. And also, we change as humans over time. You will also, in that self development phase, practice self acceptance. You might also practice self love, allowing you to gain more confidence and be more compassionate towards yourself.

    Through focused self development, you probably end up accomplishing more of your goals, but in a way that you least expect it. You'll build positive relationships and develop better communication and problem solving skills. All of these traits will improve your life by allowing you to achieve more of your goals. They will assist you in making better decisions that align with your principles, your morals, and your values. So to sum it up, self development provides the necessary tools to help you grow as a human, and therefore, making your life better. But one myth is self development is expensive. And that really depends how you look at self development. You taking the time out to meditate for one minute a day t hat's free, that's not expensive. There are levels, but not all self development is expensive. Some folks will tell you that it requires expensive classes or workshops. The truth is there are many free or low cost options available. There are books, online resources, and podcasts totally related to self development. People will tell you self development is time consuming. You don't have to spend every waking moment on self development to reap the rewards. The truth is small daily habits like, for example, the meditating for one minute a day can lead to significant personal growth.

    Reading or practicing gratitude or walking for 15 minutes a day can significantly improve your life over time. They don't necessarily have to be time consuming in one day. Something else I hear is, Oh, well, I don't have time for that, or That's selfish. There's so many other things that I could be doing, so many other ways that I could be making an impact. And so you might feel it is selfish, or people might tell you it's selfish to spend so much time or money, or brain power on self development. And the truth is, self development benefits not just you, but everyone around you. You could become more productive. You could become more empathic. You could become more effective with professional development and personal development and growth. Therefore, it's not just about you, it helps others. And another thing I always hear is, Well, this person did this one thing and it worked for them, so it's going to work for me. One size does not fit all. The great thing about self improvement is everyone's different, everyone's unique. So you can tailor it to meet your needs at the time. Just because your neighbour spends an hour at the gym every day doesn't mean that you have to.


    A rabbit diet might work great for your co worker, but not much for you and your body type. The key is to figure out exactly what you wantand research ways to obtain that. Choose the way...]]>And welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today, I am going to talk about some myths that I've heard around personal or self development. And I hear these a lot from organisations, I hear these a lot from humans, and so I want to just talk a little bit about them. Self development or personal development is the process of developing or improving yourself through various growth strategies, techniques, and time. When you engage in self development, you might set goals, learn new skills, and engage in personal reflection. And this helps you become a better and happier human, which overall is the point. Self development will improve your life. Through thoughtful and intentional action taking, great things can happen. You might learn how to manage stress. You might develop better decision making skills. You might develop better methods of communication. You will learn a lot about yourself. Just because you've lived with yourself for 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years doesn't mean that you know everything about yourself or where things stem from. And also, we change as humans over time. You will also, in that self development phase, practice self acceptance. You might also practice self love, allowing you to gain more confidence and be more compassionate towards yourself.

    Through focused self development, you probably end up accomplishing more of your goals, but in a way that you least expect it. You'll build positive relationships and develop better communication and problem solving skills. All of these traits will improve your life by allowing you to achieve more of your goals. They will assist you in making better decisions that align with your principles, your morals, and your values. So to sum it up, self development provides the necessary tools to help you grow as a human, and therefore, making your life better. But one myth is self development is expensive. And that really depends how you look at self development. You taking the time out to meditate for one minute a day t hat's free, that's not expensive. There are levels, but not all self development is expensive. Some folks will tell you that it requires expensive classes or workshops. The truth is there are many free or low cost options available. There are books, online resources, and podcasts totally related to self development. People will tell you self development is time consuming. You don't have to spend every waking moment on self development to reap the rewards. The truth is small daily habits like, for example, the meditating for one minute a day can lead to significant personal growth.

    Reading or practicing gratitude or walking for 15 minutes a day can significantly improve your life over time. They don't necessarily have to be time consuming in one day. Something else I hear is, Oh, well, I don't have time for that, or That's selfish. There's so many other things that I could be doing, so many other ways that I could be making an impact. And so you might feel it is selfish, or people might tell you it's selfish to spend so much time or money, or brain power on self development. And the truth is, self development benefits not just you, but everyone around you. You could become more productive. You could become more empathic. You could become more effective with professional development and personal development and growth. Therefore, it's not just about you, it helps others. And another thing I always hear is, Well, this person did this one thing and it worked for them, so it's going to work for me. One size does not fit all. The great thing about self improvement is everyone's different, everyone's unique. So you can tailor it to meet your needs at the time. Just because your neighbour spends an hour at the gym every day doesn't mean that you have to.


    A rabbit diet might work great for your co worker, but not much for you and your body type. The key is to figure out exactly what you wantand research ways to obtain that. Choose the way that best fits with you and your lifestyle. If you find it doesn't work, that's okay. It's an experiment. Pick another method and try again. Improving your self development isn't all that hard. Making small changes slowly can give you just as good, if not better results, than jumping in at the deep end. It's just individual. The first start is just getting started and to recognize that there are some myths surrounding this topic and ignoring them will help you over the overcome any misgivings so you can put yourself first. Thanks for listening. This is Janice at thecoury introvert. Com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    ]]>fcec93a7-28d3-439b-895c-97d342bb7fe9Tue, 09 May 2023 12:00:00 -050005:45falsefull308308    Career Conversations with Patricia Q JenkinsCareer Conversations with Patricia Q JenkinsOn this episode of The Traveling Introvert, we speak to a successful entrepreneur who runs a podcasting business. Patricia shares their journey of building their business from scratch without a strong tech background and how they manage to indulge in something they love. The conversation revolves around the importance of making connections and attending events, as well as the challenges of being an introvert, as the speaker prefers one-on-one conversations to big gatherings. There's also a discussion about the evolution of the podcasting industry and how one can get started. The episode concludes with valuable insights on self-care, the importance of taking breaks, and having conversations about the division of labor at home. Tune in to get tips on how to make connections and build a successful podcasting business as an introvert.

    Patricia Q Jenkins values focused energy and giving her full attention to people or tasks at hand. She finds introversion to mean focused attention on what's important and can become overwhelmed and scattered if pulled in too many directions. Patricia struggles with large groups and the dynamic energy that comes with them, preferring instead to connect with individuals on a deeper level.

    [00:00:47] Introversion = focused attention on what's important. Large groups drain energy.

    [00:02:57] Self-employment as a podcast creator is satisfying but challenging, with the risk of burnout if not managed well. Building a brand and receiving recognition is an amazing feeling.

    [00:04:24] Plan breaks even if you're not busy. Take public holidays off and have someone to discuss business with. Don't work on holidays.

    [00:05:44] Make time for self-care and indulge in hobbies unrelated to work. Communicate with partners about division of labor at home. Attend meetups and business meetings to build connections, even as an introvert.

    [00:08:46] Meeting her partner led to becoming an expat, a traveling spouse, and building a podcasting business. Meeting a kind lady while in the US who understood the expat experience was also life-changing.

    [00:11:13] Person says no to many social activities, especially crowded ones, due to living in a small place and not wanting to introduce themselves to big groups. Energy levels dictate whether they attend events.

    [00:12:38] The writer loves meeting new people but prefers one-on-one conversations because they can give it the energy and thought it deserves. They find it more restful and relaxing.

    [00:13:54] Overwhelming experience at Podcast Movement led to seeking a quiet space in lady's bathroom.

    [00:18:31] Podcast editing requires minimal equipment and misconceptions about earning exist, but friendly competition exists and entry barriers have lowered thanks to innovative software.

    [00:20:47] The origin of the sandwich is unclear but it may have been invented to allow a gambler to continue playing while eating.


    ]]>    On this episode of The Traveling Introvert, we speak to a successful entrepreneur who runs a podcasting business. Patricia shares their journey of building their business from scratch without a strong tech background and how they manage to indulge in something they love. The conversation revolves around the importance of making connections and attending events, as well as the challenges of being an introvert, as the speaker prefers one-on-one conversations to big gatherings. There's also a discussion about the evolution of the podcasting industry and how one can get started. The episode concludes with valuable insights on self-care, the importance of taking breaks, and having conversations about the division of labor at home. Tune in to get tips on how to make connections and build a successful podcasting business as an introvert.

    Patricia Q Jenkins values focused energy and giving her full attention to people or tasks at hand. She finds introversion to mean focused attention on what's important and can become overwhelmed and scattered if pulled in too many directions. Patricia struggles with large groups and the dynamic energy that comes with them, preferring instead to connect with individuals on a deeper level.

    [00:00:47] Introversion = focused attention on what's important. Large groups drain energy.

    [00:02:57] Self-employment as a podcast creator is satisfying but challenging, with the risk of burnout if not managed well. Building a brand and receiving recognition is an amazing feeling.

    [00:04:24] Plan breaks even if you're not busy. Take public holidays off and have someone to discuss business with. Don't work on holidays.

    [00:05:44] Make time for self-care and indulge in hobbies unrelated to work. Communicate with partners about division of labor at home. Attend meetups and business meetings to build connections, even as an introvert.

    [00:08:46] Meeting her partner led to becoming an expat, a traveling spouse, and building a podcasting business. Meeting a kind lady while in the US who understood the expat experience was also life-changing.

    [00:11:13] Person says no to many social activities, especially crowded ones, due to living in a small place and not wanting to introduce themselves to big groups. Energy levels dictate whether they attend events.

    [00:12:38] The writer loves meeting new people but prefers one-on-one conversations because they can give it the energy and thought it deserves. They find it more restful and relaxing.

    [00:13:54] Overwhelming experience at Podcast Movement led to seeking a quiet space in lady's bathroom.

    [00:18:31] Podcast editing requires minimal equipment and misconceptions about earning exist, but friendly competition exists and entry barriers have lowered thanks to innovative software.

    [00:20:47] The origin of the sandwich is unclear but it may have been invented to allow a gambler to continue playing while eating.


    ]]>    d652163c-ef85-4ca6-8216-f32d124b6de0Tue, 02 May 2023 12:00:00 -050023:13falsefull307307    Managing Stress and Expectations in a New Job as an IntrovertManaging Stress and Expectations in a New Job as an IntrovertTopics covered in the podcast episode:

    1. Limitations of Traditional Onboarding Processes

    - Reliance on static resources

    - Lack of consideration for individual learning styles

    - Accessibility issues

    - Lack of efficient search options


    2. Challenges Faced by Introverts in New Jobs

    - Dealing with new people, systems, equipment, and ways of working

    - One-size-fits-all approach to onboarding processes

    - Importance of setting clear expectations and boundaries


    3. Strategies for Success in New Jobs

    - Saying no to prevent overloading

    - Setting boundaries and expectations

    - Making an impression in a new organization

    - Importance of work methods and software used


    4. Challenges in Managing Change When New Employees Join

    - Expectation to absorb a large amount of information in a short period of time

    - Pressure to pack in many tasks during the first 100 days



    "New Jobs and Introverts: Starting a new job can be extra stressful. But it can be especially hard on introverts, especially in organizations that are more extrovert leaning."

    — Janice Chaka [00:00:00 → 00:00:51]

    The Importance of Accessible Learning: "Very rarely do they take into account the person's way of learning, and very rarely do they make the content accessible in multiple different ways... It makes it hard to go back and digest or reaffirm something or look something up."

    — Janice Chaka [00:00:51 → 00:01:41]

    Onboarding: "A lot of organizations don't take into account the massive change they do really bad change management when it comes to new humans joining the organization."

    — Janice Chaka [00:01:41 → 00:02:37]

    "The Danger of Overcommitting in a New Job: You take on too much work. You set unrealistic expectations. You feel like you are not doing as much as you could or you should because of whatever expectations you or the organization might have upon you."

    — Janice Chaka [00:02:37 → 00:03:12]

    Setting Boundaries in the Workplace: "You probably don't have any deep time work, deep work time. And that can be to work or to just take in all the information that is being thrown at you. And so many times people say, oh, it's okay. We're not expecting you to know all of this, but really they kind of are."

    — Janice Chaka [00:03:12 → 00:04:06]

    Setting Boundaries: "Letting people very clearly know your preferred learning styles, your preferred communication styles, what that looks like, your times of working and not working, or, you know, what happens if there's an emergency or an extra project comes up, setting boundaries of not overloading yourself because you want to learn and you want to do things right."

    — Janice Chaka [00:04:06 → 00:04:57]



    And welcome to the traveling introvert. Today, I want to talk about new jobs. Who this? So one thing I've noticed with people in general and especially introverts is starting a new job can be extra stressful. Now, we know it's stressful for everyone. You're starting a new job, new people, new systems, new equipment, new way of working, new, new, new, new, new, new. But it can be especially hard on introverts, especially in organisations that are more extrovert leaning. And this comes across in a couple of ways and for a multitude of reasons. A lot of organisations, when they're thinking about onboarding people, they have one way of doing it, and mostly it's death by PowerPoint, or here, watch a bunch of videos, or here's a bunch of PDFs. Very rarely do they take into account the person's way of learning, and very rarely do they make the content accessible in multiple different ways. They won't have the video with closed caption and a transcriptand an audio only version that you can listen to. A lot of the time it's this way and this way only. And not everyone takes it...]]>Topics covered in the podcast episode:

    1. Limitations of Traditional Onboarding Processes

    - Reliance on static resources

    - Lack of consideration for individual learning styles

    - Accessibility issues

    - Lack of efficient search options


    2. Challenges Faced by Introverts in New Jobs

    - Dealing with new people, systems, equipment, and ways of working

    - One-size-fits-all approach to onboarding processes

    - Importance of setting clear expectations and boundaries


    3. Strategies for Success in New Jobs

    - Saying no to prevent overloading

    - Setting boundaries and expectations

    - Making an impression in a new organization

    - Importance of work methods and software used


    4. Challenges in Managing Change When New Employees Join

    - Expectation to absorb a large amount of information in a short period of time

    - Pressure to pack in many tasks during the first 100 days



    "New Jobs and Introverts: Starting a new job can be extra stressful. But it can be especially hard on introverts, especially in organizations that are more extrovert leaning."

    — Janice Chaka [00:00:00 → 00:00:51]

    The Importance of Accessible Learning: "Very rarely do they take into account the person's way of learning, and very rarely do they make the content accessible in multiple different ways... It makes it hard to go back and digest or reaffirm something or look something up."

    — Janice Chaka [00:00:51 → 00:01:41]

    Onboarding: "A lot of organizations don't take into account the massive change they do really bad change management when it comes to new humans joining the organization."

    — Janice Chaka [00:01:41 → 00:02:37]

    "The Danger of Overcommitting in a New Job: You take on too much work. You set unrealistic expectations. You feel like you are not doing as much as you could or you should because of whatever expectations you or the organization might have upon you."

    — Janice Chaka [00:02:37 → 00:03:12]

    Setting Boundaries in the Workplace: "You probably don't have any deep time work, deep work time. And that can be to work or to just take in all the information that is being thrown at you. And so many times people say, oh, it's okay. We're not expecting you to know all of this, but really they kind of are."

    — Janice Chaka [00:03:12 → 00:04:06]

    Setting Boundaries: "Letting people very clearly know your preferred learning styles, your preferred communication styles, what that looks like, your times of working and not working, or, you know, what happens if there's an emergency or an extra project comes up, setting boundaries of not overloading yourself because you want to learn and you want to do things right."

    — Janice Chaka [00:04:06 → 00:04:57]



    And welcome to the traveling introvert. Today, I want to talk about new jobs. Who this? So one thing I've noticed with people in general and especially introverts is starting a new job can be extra stressful. Now, we know it's stressful for everyone. You're starting a new job, new people, new systems, new equipment, new way of working, new, new, new, new, new, new. But it can be especially hard on introverts, especially in organisations that are more extrovert leaning. And this comes across in a couple of ways and for a multitude of reasons. A lot of organisations, when they're thinking about onboarding people, they have one way of doing it, and mostly it's death by PowerPoint, or here, watch a bunch of videos, or here's a bunch of PDFs. Very rarely do they take into account the person's way of learning, and very rarely do they make the content accessible in multiple different ways. They won't have the video with closed caption and a transcriptand an audio only version that you can listen to. A lot of the time it's this way and this way only. And not everyone takes it information that way. It makes it hard to go back and digest or reaffirm something or look something up.


    In fact, a lot of the times when organisations do create onboarding processes, it's very hard to just search for the specific thing that you might be needing or the question that you might have. You have to try and think the way you think the person who wrote the software or the program or the way that you're putting it together works. Not only that, a lot of the time you'll be like, Here's all your computer, here's all your staff, here's all these people you have to meet, here's a buddy, so you have a buddy system, and here's some projects for you to start working on. And a lot of organisations don't take into account the massive change. They do really bad change management when it comes to new humans joining the organisation. Yes, you want the human to be up to speed as quickly as possible. But let's be honest, we all know there's only a certain amount of information humans can really understandably take in in any period of time. And yes, they might say, Well, here's your 90 day plan or your 100 day plan. And a lot of organisations ask in your interview, like, What would your first 100 days look like?


    And they're expecting you to shove 18,000 different things in there. And a lot of the time, especially if you also have imposter syndrome, you're going in, it's a new job, you want to make the best impression possible. So you'll say yes to everything. You'll attend all the meetings because the more meetings you attend, the more information you get, the more likely you're going to be able to understand everything that's going on and not be out of the loop. However, what really ends up happening is you take on too much work, you set unrealistic expectations, you feel like you are not doing as much as you could or you should because of whatever expectations you or the organization might have upon you. You have not been able to set clear boundaries of what works for you and your method of working. You probably have back to back and last minute meetings, and you probably don't have any deep work time. And that can be to work or to just take in all the information that is being thrown at you. And so many times people say, Oh, it's okay, we're not expecting you to know all of this.


    But really, they are. So when you are joining an organization for the first time as an introvert, because we are just grateful for a job. This isn't an introvert thing, this isn't any one thing. A lot of the time, we end up being timid about setting expectations and setting boundaries and letting people know how we like to work and what works best for us and seeing how that works in the culture of the organisation that you're in. Letting people very clearly know your preferred learning styles, your preferred communication styles, what that looks like, your times of working and not working, or you know what happens if there's an emergency or an extra project comes up. Setting boundaries of not overloading yourself because you want to learn and you want to do things right. This is the time for you to set expectations. Stop setting yourself up to fail by taking on everything and anything and saying yes to all the meetings. You're doing yourself a disservice, and by extension, you're doing the organization a disservice. When you first start a job, it's the start of a new relationship, and so you get to set the standard of how you want to be treated.


    So act accordingly, set boundaries accordingly, and communicate accordingly. Thanks for listening. This is Janice at the career introvert. Com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    ]]>a0ec3c38-f615-48eb-98e5-367f2d7748abTue, 25 Apr 2023 12:00:00 -050005:25falsefull306306    Embracing Imperfection Letting Go of the Need for PerfectionEmbracing Imperfection Letting Go of the Need for PerfectionHello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today, I would like to talk about perfectionism. This came up a lot in the Imposter Syndrome program that I have. People were identifying the fact that perfection was holding them back or making them procrastinate or whatever it might be. And so perfectionism can be extremely harmful. So really what you need to do is embrace imperfection so you can let go of the need- the deep seated need for perfection. And perfection is a concept that so many people strive for, whether it's in their personal lives or at work. However, any pursuit of perfection is at the very least unrealistic and damaging. In fact, it is hugely important to recognize that nobody is perfect and it is okay to make mistakes and have flaws. And so many work environments don't make you feel that that is a possibility and that causes other issues.

    So I want you to talk about some of the benefits of embracing imperfection. Embracing imperfection has many benefits for your cognitive and emotional wellbeing. For example, you will lower your stress and anxiety and improve relationships because you'll focus more closely on the here and now and not on the unobtainable.


    Additionally, learning to live with imperfection makes you more resilient in life and your career. You'll be much more innovative if you're not always worried about what others think or whether your idea is just perfect. By understanding and accepting that nothing and no one is perfect, you can focus more on what other important things there are in life and things that are impossible, right? So recognize that perfection is unobtainable, unattainable. You can't do it. No one's perfect. No one ever will be perfect, including yourself. No matter what your other half may or may not tell you, no matter what your cat is looking at you, saying, you're perfect because you're feeding it or giving it scriptures, right? It is vital to accept that fact. Achieving perfection is an endless and futile pursuit, leading to frustration and disappointment. Now those are not positive attributes, right?


    The other thing right now is social media. Stop comparing yourself to others. It is super, super easy to compare yourself to others these days, making you feel like you are not good enough. You get to curate what is in your feed on social media, on Instagram, on Facebook, on LinkedIn. You do get to curate it. You could just have a feed of fluffy cats. That is up to you. Unfortunately, comparison is often unfair and inaccurate, which leads to negative self-esteem. It's really valuable to remember that everyone has their own unique strengths and weaknesses and that being different is okay. We're not all the same. That's just an impossibility.


    Practice self-compassion. Being kind to yourself is critical. When you recognize that everyone makes mistakes, it's far easier to feel that self-compassion. So instead of criticizing yourself for your imperfections, practice self-compassion and acknowledge that everyone has flaws and you can't be good at everything. And speaking of being good at everything, set realistic goals. Perfection is an unrealistic goal. Therefore, work with yourself and set more achievable objectives. By setting realistic goals, you're going to avoid that feeling of failure or not quite being good enough when you inevitably make mistakes or don't get something done the way that you wanted it done. And all of this is to say, being part of embrace yourself, embrace what is unique about you. And part of that, because we are human, is you have imperfections. It is really important to recognize that your imperfections are what makes you unique and special. Instead of trying to hide or fix your flaws, try embracing them and work with them and see them as part of who you are you are.


    When you keep these ideas in your mind moving forward, you'll begin embracing your imperfections, leading to a...]]>Hello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today, I would like to talk about perfectionism. This came up a lot in the Imposter Syndrome program that I have. People were identifying the fact that perfection was holding them back or making them procrastinate or whatever it might be. And so perfectionism can be extremely harmful. So really what you need to do is embrace imperfection so you can let go of the need- the deep seated need for perfection. And perfection is a concept that so many people strive for, whether it's in their personal lives or at work. However, any pursuit of perfection is at the very least unrealistic and damaging. In fact, it is hugely important to recognize that nobody is perfect and it is okay to make mistakes and have flaws. And so many work environments don't make you feel that that is a possibility and that causes other issues.

    So I want you to talk about some of the benefits of embracing imperfection. Embracing imperfection has many benefits for your cognitive and emotional wellbeing. For example, you will lower your stress and anxiety and improve relationships because you'll focus more closely on the here and now and not on the unobtainable.


    Additionally, learning to live with imperfection makes you more resilient in life and your career. You'll be much more innovative if you're not always worried about what others think or whether your idea is just perfect. By understanding and accepting that nothing and no one is perfect, you can focus more on what other important things there are in life and things that are impossible, right? So recognize that perfection is unobtainable, unattainable. You can't do it. No one's perfect. No one ever will be perfect, including yourself. No matter what your other half may or may not tell you, no matter what your cat is looking at you, saying, you're perfect because you're feeding it or giving it scriptures, right? It is vital to accept that fact. Achieving perfection is an endless and futile pursuit, leading to frustration and disappointment. Now those are not positive attributes, right?


    The other thing right now is social media. Stop comparing yourself to others. It is super, super easy to compare yourself to others these days, making you feel like you are not good enough. You get to curate what is in your feed on social media, on Instagram, on Facebook, on LinkedIn. You do get to curate it. You could just have a feed of fluffy cats. That is up to you. Unfortunately, comparison is often unfair and inaccurate, which leads to negative self-esteem. It's really valuable to remember that everyone has their own unique strengths and weaknesses and that being different is okay. We're not all the same. That's just an impossibility.


    Practice self-compassion. Being kind to yourself is critical. When you recognize that everyone makes mistakes, it's far easier to feel that self-compassion. So instead of criticizing yourself for your imperfections, practice self-compassion and acknowledge that everyone has flaws and you can't be good at everything. And speaking of being good at everything, set realistic goals. Perfection is an unrealistic goal. Therefore, work with yourself and set more achievable objectives. By setting realistic goals, you're going to avoid that feeling of failure or not quite being good enough when you inevitably make mistakes or don't get something done the way that you wanted it done. And all of this is to say, being part of embrace yourself, embrace what is unique about you. And part of that, because we are human, is you have imperfections. It is really important to recognize that your imperfections are what makes you unique and special. Instead of trying to hide or fix your flaws, try embracing them and work with them and see them as part of who you are you are.


    When you keep these ideas in your mind moving forward, you'll begin embracing your imperfections, leading to a greater sense of self-acceptance and therefore happiness. Of course, that doesn't mean you can't work on yourself by improving your skills, but you shouldn’t, and you do not need to strive for something that won't happen. Perfection, because that is a futile waste of time and effort.


    Thank you for listening. This is Janice at The Career Introvert, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    ]]>db671b3d-24fb-4c41-b3ef-90d3a094bd91Tue, 18 Apr 2023 12:00:00 -050005:27falsefull305305    How to move on from a toxic work environmentHow to move on from a toxic work environmentHello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today I want to talk about how to move on when you've been working in a toxic environment.

    So, I've had a lot of my clients recently get new jobs, which is great, and moving out of toxic environments. And they're so used to whatever toxic environment that they are in, they find it hard when they're in the new environment to reset and refresh. And so, I want to talk about some steps that can be done when moving on.


    Millions of people are in unhealthy, toxic environments at work, at home, whatever it might be. And it's really interesting. There's a struggle to move on and free yourself from that negative effects of that. Basically, you're in a bad relationship. And so with that in mind, I'm going to talk about some ways that you can start letting go of that.


    And the first one is acknowledging the problem. And most people have done that once they've moved. They acknowledge that their last workplace was toxic. And it can be pretty obvious, but like most issues, you need to acknowledge there was a problem before you can tackling it. So, recognizing that it was a toxic relationship and why it was toxic and why that culture was toxic is really helpful because that will help you to accept and acknowledge the issue.


    Then there’s sort of setting healthy boundaries. Once you've acknowledged this, you need to figure out what you want to do differently this time around in this new environment, this new culture that you're going to be in. How are you going to set boundaries that are healthy for you? And then if those boundaries get stomped on, you know that you need to move on.


    Another thing is spending time with positive humans. Sometimes when you've been around a toxic environment for so long, it's really easy to forget what it's like not to be in that environment. So enveloping or surrounding yourself with people who will support you and help you heal, spend time with encouraging people to build a positive support system as you move on from that toxic work environment into a better work environment. And part of that is taking care of yourself. Don't jump from one job to another. Give yourself a week if you can, or two weeks in between, just so you can take care of yourself, your mind and your body and your spirit. Do things that bring you joy. Get rid of all that back list of errands that you've been meaning to run, but you haven't had the chance to because you've just been so burnt out. Hey, just do nothing for two weeks. Eat healthier, drink water, exercise regularly, get enough sleep. Without taking care of yourself in the most simple and basic ways, you will not be strong enough to weather anything else that comes in your way. And you're trying to like reset your equilibrium at this point. And part of that is taking care of yourself is practicing caring and self-love. You will take care of yourself better. And now is a really critical time to focus on all your needs and your wants. So, when you get into this new environment, you know how to set boundaries and what boundaries they are. You know what to say no to, what to say yes to, what you want your ideal work day to look like. That is hugely important when you're thinking about walking into a new job. What would your ideal day look like? I know for the first three months you've got to be on board and all that stuff and things, but now is the time for you to start setting those boundaries, start letting people know and communicating about the ways that you work best and what works for you. Is it deep work? What communication works best for you? Email, instant messaging? All of that is really, really important for you to know now so that when you start your new role, you can go in and set those confidently. So, spend time doing things that make you feel good and build up your self-confidence.


    For example, take that class you've always wanted...]]>Hello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today I want to talk about how to move on when you've been working in a toxic environment.

    So, I've had a lot of my clients recently get new jobs, which is great, and moving out of toxic environments. And they're so used to whatever toxic environment that they are in, they find it hard when they're in the new environment to reset and refresh. And so, I want to talk about some steps that can be done when moving on.


    Millions of people are in unhealthy, toxic environments at work, at home, whatever it might be. And it's really interesting. There's a struggle to move on and free yourself from that negative effects of that. Basically, you're in a bad relationship. And so with that in mind, I'm going to talk about some ways that you can start letting go of that.


    And the first one is acknowledging the problem. And most people have done that once they've moved. They acknowledge that their last workplace was toxic. And it can be pretty obvious, but like most issues, you need to acknowledge there was a problem before you can tackling it. So, recognizing that it was a toxic relationship and why it was toxic and why that culture was toxic is really helpful because that will help you to accept and acknowledge the issue.


    Then there’s sort of setting healthy boundaries. Once you've acknowledged this, you need to figure out what you want to do differently this time around in this new environment, this new culture that you're going to be in. How are you going to set boundaries that are healthy for you? And then if those boundaries get stomped on, you know that you need to move on.


    Another thing is spending time with positive humans. Sometimes when you've been around a toxic environment for so long, it's really easy to forget what it's like not to be in that environment. So enveloping or surrounding yourself with people who will support you and help you heal, spend time with encouraging people to build a positive support system as you move on from that toxic work environment into a better work environment. And part of that is taking care of yourself. Don't jump from one job to another. Give yourself a week if you can, or two weeks in between, just so you can take care of yourself, your mind and your body and your spirit. Do things that bring you joy. Get rid of all that back list of errands that you've been meaning to run, but you haven't had the chance to because you've just been so burnt out. Hey, just do nothing for two weeks. Eat healthier, drink water, exercise regularly, get enough sleep. Without taking care of yourself in the most simple and basic ways, you will not be strong enough to weather anything else that comes in your way. And you're trying to like reset your equilibrium at this point. And part of that is taking care of yourself is practicing caring and self-love. You will take care of yourself better. And now is a really critical time to focus on all your needs and your wants. So, when you get into this new environment, you know how to set boundaries and what boundaries they are. You know what to say no to, what to say yes to, what you want your ideal work day to look like. That is hugely important when you're thinking about walking into a new job. What would your ideal day look like? I know for the first three months you've got to be on board and all that stuff and things, but now is the time for you to start setting those boundaries, start letting people know and communicating about the ways that you work best and what works for you. Is it deep work? What communication works best for you? Email, instant messaging? All of that is really, really important for you to know now so that when you start your new role, you can go in and set those confidently. So, spend time doing things that make you feel good and build up your self-confidence.


    For example, take that class you've always wanted or get that new haircut that you always wanted. Because building your self-confidence and then will give you that push and that confidence that when you are in that new role, you can ask for and communicate what you want.


    Now, one thing, it can be really easy to be hard on yourself with letting yourself be in a toxic environment for a long period of time. But it's important to forgive yourself and move forward. Tell yourself that now that you know better, you'll do better and that's okay. You're going to take time to reflect and practice gratitude, reflect on the lessons that you've learned and know what to look for that you don't want in a new role or culture or organization, right? Let go of resentment. Anything that's bad and toxic, just let go.

    You've moved on. Those are things to think about when you're moving on from a toxic workplace environment and moving on to something new.


    Thanks for listening. This is Janice at The Career Introvert. Helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    ]]>e3166a36-2397-4f6f-a8b1-6215261a98a2Tue, 11 Apr 2023 12:00:00 -050005:35falsefull304304    Career Conversations with Sonia Layne-GartsideCareer Conversations with Sonia Layne-GartsideSonia, Introvert or Extrovert

    Introverts are people who tend to look inwards for energy and they are also the type of people who tend to think much before they talk.

    Are Leaders Born or Cultivated

    Leaders are cultivated. Though most people think that leaders are born it is not true. A person might have the talent and the charisma to be an effective leader but, all that has to be nurtured and trained to be the best version of that particular talent. All this is necessary to be effective.


    Keys to being an effective leader

    ● Clarity - Be clear and provide clarity to the people you are leading. You need to be able to paint a clear picture to the people who you are leading to have effective feedback. Make sure you are not messy so that others can follow.

    ● Empathetic skills - Spend your time listening to the people you are leading. You need to understand what makes them motivated and what makes them tick. In this, you will be able to handle every individual differently. Leaders should be able to deal with all types of people.

    ● Ability to recognize great work - as a leader you should be able to recognize different individuals' work. You should be able to tell them and compliment their handy work. In most companies, people work hard and yet feel that their work goes unnoticed and unappreciated. As a leader, you should be able to handle such people and make them feel wanted.


    Misconceptions in Training industries

    ● Training does not change people.

    ● Coaching people is a must In any industry.

    ● Both training and coaching lead to changed behavior.


    Misconceptions in the consulting industry

    ● You do not only hire a consultant only when things get bad.

    ● People tend to think recommendations are the final product; it is important to know that you will still need to implement

    what the consultant advised.


    It is important to seize opportunities as they arise. Always be ready to use what you have at a given time. As a leader, you should learn to be overwhelmed and not show it. This is mainly important so that the people whom you are leading don't get demoralized.


    Things to say no to.

    ● Meetings that are not worth your time.

    ● Underfunded projects.


    LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonialaynegartside/

    Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/soniagartside/

    ]]>    Sonia, Introvert or Extrovert

    Introverts are people who tend to look inwards for energy and they are also the type of people who tend to think much before they talk.

    Are Leaders Born or Cultivated

    Leaders are cultivated. Though most people think that leaders are born it is not true. A person might have the talent and the charisma to be an effective leader but, all that has to be nurtured and trained to be the best version of that particular talent. All this is necessary to be effective.


    Keys to being an effective leader

    ● Clarity - Be clear and provide clarity to the people you are leading. You need to be able to paint a clear picture to the people who you are leading to have effective feedback. Make sure you are not messy so that others can follow.

    ● Empathetic skills - Spend your time listening to the people you are leading. You need to understand what makes them motivated and what makes them tick. In this, you will be able to handle every individual differently. Leaders should be able to deal with all types of people.

    ● Ability to recognize great work - as a leader you should be able to recognize different individuals' work. You should be able to tell them and compliment their handy work. In most companies, people work hard and yet feel that their work goes unnoticed and unappreciated. As a leader, you should be able to handle such people and make them feel wanted.


    Misconceptions in Training industries

    ● Training does not change people.

    ● Coaching people is a must In any industry.

    ● Both training and coaching lead to changed behavior.


    Misconceptions in the consulting industry

    ● You do not only hire a consultant only when things get bad.

    ● People tend to think recommendations are the final product; it is important to know that you will still need to implement

    what the consultant advised.


    It is important to seize opportunities as they arise. Always be ready to use what you have at a given time. As a leader, you should learn to be overwhelmed and not show it. This is mainly important so that the people whom you are leading don't get demoralized.


    Things to say no to.

    ● Meetings that are not worth your time.

    ● Underfunded projects.


    LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonialaynegartside/

    Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/soniagartside/

    ]]>    7781b845-ed91-482e-b9e5-9dbf1cc96c40Tue, 04 Apr 2023 12:00:00 -050018:57falsefull303303    Group Travel for IntrovertsGroup Travel for Introverts Hello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. I've been asked today to do an episode on travelling in a group as an introvert. It does tend to vary how big the group may be. Are you in a tour bus group? Are you in a group of friends? It is mainly assumed that introverts can't travel with groups or don't like it as much. I want to talk about some ways that can help things go smoother if you do happen to find yourself traveling in a group. It can be really interesting.


    One of the things to do is to make sure that you have time and or space where you can be alone to recharge, be it that you pay extra for a room just by yourself, or that as part of the trip, you get a day where you just get to be alone, or there's a certain time of the day where everyone's always doing something, but you have a chance to slip away, whatever it might be. And if you do travel with the group, maybe you don't sit with everybody because there's nothing worse than flying and then realizing that you have to sit next to someone who's also going on the trip, who's also very excited, which is great, but then just talks the entire time, that might not be what you're looking for.


    So, when you're looking into flights or rooms or that sort of a thing, try and carve out little pockets of time and pockets of space where you can recharge and or get away from it all. It's also very good if you are traveling with a group of mixed personalities where everyone doesn't have to do everything all the time. If you find that you're in a group where everyone has to do everything altogether all the time, that is probably not the group for you. You need a group of individuals that some people are super into X things, some people are into Y things, some people will just do whatever they want to do whenever they want to do it while still being part of the group.


    Another thing that's really helpful to set up in advance is how payments for things are made. Payments for accommodation tend to be really easy. You're going to split it a huge amount of ways. But for example, restaurants and food, if you all are going out and there's a big group of you, say more than five and there's like 6, 20 of you, figuring out in advance, is it all going on one person's card? Is it being just split equally? Do you all eat and drink the same? Having that and knowing that's going to be the plan in advance helps you plan your money, plan what you're eating, how you just might feel about the entire situation, and then doesn't come as a surprise at the end. There's nothing worse than being with a group of people where maybe some people are bigger drinkers, or some people are more into smoking, or some people are more into lobster. For example, expensive foods than everyone else and then the person that isn't into all of that still has to pay their share. Or it's a really big group and people order, assuming other people will eat it all. So maybe they order all the entrée and all the appetizers and then split it. And one person is like, “Actually, I wasn't feeling well”, or like “I wasn't hungry”, or “I didn't eat that”, whatever it might be. And they just maybe had a starter but yet have to pay for like a three course meal plus cocktails and wine. So setting that up in advance and having a conversation and making sure everyone is okay with that is hugely important.


    Also, as an introvert, if you are going on a trip with a group and you think it might be draining, book some extra time either end to prep at the beginning and at the end to decompress. So even if you come back on the Friday and then you've got the weekend to decompress, that can be hugely helpful because you might feel you need a vacation from the vacation. And the other thing is, be upfront about your needs. Communicate. Sometimes you might feel like going out with everyone and sometimes you might want to stay at home and get a take out. Whatever it is,...]]> Hello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. I've been asked today to do an episode on travelling in a group as an introvert. It does tend to vary how big the group may be. Are you in a tour bus group? Are you in a group of friends? It is mainly assumed that introverts can't travel with groups or don't like it as much. I want to talk about some ways that can help things go smoother if you do happen to find yourself traveling in a group. It can be really interesting.


    One of the things to do is to make sure that you have time and or space where you can be alone to recharge, be it that you pay extra for a room just by yourself, or that as part of the trip, you get a day where you just get to be alone, or there's a certain time of the day where everyone's always doing something, but you have a chance to slip away, whatever it might be. And if you do travel with the group, maybe you don't sit with everybody because there's nothing worse than flying and then realizing that you have to sit next to someone who's also going on the trip, who's also very excited, which is great, but then just talks the entire time, that might not be what you're looking for.


    So, when you're looking into flights or rooms or that sort of a thing, try and carve out little pockets of time and pockets of space where you can recharge and or get away from it all. It's also very good if you are traveling with a group of mixed personalities where everyone doesn't have to do everything all the time. If you find that you're in a group where everyone has to do everything altogether all the time, that is probably not the group for you. You need a group of individuals that some people are super into X things, some people are into Y things, some people will just do whatever they want to do whenever they want to do it while still being part of the group.


    Another thing that's really helpful to set up in advance is how payments for things are made. Payments for accommodation tend to be really easy. You're going to split it a huge amount of ways. But for example, restaurants and food, if you all are going out and there's a big group of you, say more than five and there's like 6, 20 of you, figuring out in advance, is it all going on one person's card? Is it being just split equally? Do you all eat and drink the same? Having that and knowing that's going to be the plan in advance helps you plan your money, plan what you're eating, how you just might feel about the entire situation, and then doesn't come as a surprise at the end. There's nothing worse than being with a group of people where maybe some people are bigger drinkers, or some people are more into smoking, or some people are more into lobster. For example, expensive foods than everyone else and then the person that isn't into all of that still has to pay their share. Or it's a really big group and people order, assuming other people will eat it all. So maybe they order all the entrée and all the appetizers and then split it. And one person is like, “Actually, I wasn't feeling well”, or like “I wasn't hungry”, or “I didn't eat that”, whatever it might be. And they just maybe had a starter but yet have to pay for like a three course meal plus cocktails and wine. So setting that up in advance and having a conversation and making sure everyone is okay with that is hugely important.


    Also, as an introvert, if you are going on a trip with a group and you think it might be draining, book some extra time either end to prep at the beginning and at the end to decompress. So even if you come back on the Friday and then you've got the weekend to decompress, that can be hugely helpful because you might feel you need a vacation from the vacation. And the other thing is, be upfront about your needs. Communicate. Sometimes you might feel like going out with everyone and sometimes you might want to stay at home and get a take out. Whatever it is, everyone should be cool with that because you're doing you and you've set your expectations. So it's all about communication mainly and a little bit of forward planning just to make sure that you get the space and the time that you need to recharge and enjoy your vacation.


    So, thank you for listening. This is Janice at TheCareerIntrovert.com. Helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    ]]>d5e2f33f-c7fd-45e0-95c5-de9a2574f60bTue, 28 Mar 2023 12:00:00 -050005:17falsefull302302    Moving On from a Failed Business or Career Opportunity.Moving On from a Failed Business or Career Opportunity.Hello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today, I would like to talk about how to bounce back a little from maybe a failed business venture or a career or job opportunity. It's really difficult when you've recently experienced a business or career setback because sometimes it leaves you feeling maybe lost, overwhelmed, anxious, unsure of your next steps, and wondering if where do you go from here? Are you able to bounce back? And everyone kind of experiences this. You are not alone. Everyone on the planet experiences failures and setbacks at some point in life. That is just a part of life, but it hits harder when it's to do with the way that you make money. And it really is very natural to feel upset and discouraged when something like that happens. But understanding that the incident or the failure that has just happened is a normal part of learning and growth, and that will help you get through it and also change your perspective a little bit. And this is how to make sure and figure out if you're ready to move on and start something new. And so here are some steps that will help you get back on track and put that past failure into perspective.

    Go ahead and reflect on what went wrong. Take some time to think about what might have led to that failure. What were the challenges that you faced? What mistakes or missteps did you make? What could you have done differently with the knowledge you knew then? Because don't do the hindsight is 2020 thing. And then when you reflect on what went wrong or not the way that you thought, you might start to identify patterns or areas where you need to improve if this is something that happens frequently.


    Another thing you can do is get some support. If one thing is vital to your ability to bounce on back, it's having a supportive network of folks who want to and are willing to help you get through tough times and provide you with guidance and encouragement. Reach out to people you trust and talk to them about what's going on, what you're thinking. Maybe they can help you with your reflections. They might be able to offer you really valuable insights and advice, or simply provide you with the emotional support you need to get through this difficult time or be a sounding board. The next thing you need to think about is taking care of you.


    After a setback, it's really easy to get caught up in negative thoughts and feelings. However, taking care of your physical and emotional wellbeing is really important, especially when you're dealing with a difficult situation. So, ensure that you get enough sleep, eat well, and engage in behaviors that help you relax and recharge so that you can go and move forward with your life.


    Now, with the review that you did, learn from those mistakes and those missteps. The fact is, pretty much every failure is an opportunity for growth and learning. Try to take the lessons that you've learned from your experiences so you can apply them to your future endeavors. Use your experiences to make better decisions, and with each choice you make, you're going to become better at it.


    Don't beat yourself up. Be kind to yourself. It's really natural to feel disappointed and upset after a failure, but it's important to remember that everyone makes mistakes and experiences setbacks. So be kind and don't beat yourself up over what happened. Instead, focus on the positive things you've accomplished and the progress that you have made. Use it as a motivation to keep moving forward. If necessary, take a break. If you're feeling overwhelmed and burnt out, it may be helpful to take a break from work or whatever it is and focus on other aspects of your life for a while, as long as you can afford to do it. Use this time to relax, recharge, pursue hobbies or activities that bring you joy so that you can return to yourself with a fresh perspective and renewed energy.


    And look for new...]]>Hello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today, I would like to talk about how to bounce back a little from maybe a failed business venture or a career or job opportunity. It's really difficult when you've recently experienced a business or career setback because sometimes it leaves you feeling maybe lost, overwhelmed, anxious, unsure of your next steps, and wondering if where do you go from here? Are you able to bounce back? And everyone kind of experiences this. You are not alone. Everyone on the planet experiences failures and setbacks at some point in life. That is just a part of life, but it hits harder when it's to do with the way that you make money. And it really is very natural to feel upset and discouraged when something like that happens. But understanding that the incident or the failure that has just happened is a normal part of learning and growth, and that will help you get through it and also change your perspective a little bit. And this is how to make sure and figure out if you're ready to move on and start something new. And so here are some steps that will help you get back on track and put that past failure into perspective.

    Go ahead and reflect on what went wrong. Take some time to think about what might have led to that failure. What were the challenges that you faced? What mistakes or missteps did you make? What could you have done differently with the knowledge you knew then? Because don't do the hindsight is 2020 thing. And then when you reflect on what went wrong or not the way that you thought, you might start to identify patterns or areas where you need to improve if this is something that happens frequently.


    Another thing you can do is get some support. If one thing is vital to your ability to bounce on back, it's having a supportive network of folks who want to and are willing to help you get through tough times and provide you with guidance and encouragement. Reach out to people you trust and talk to them about what's going on, what you're thinking. Maybe they can help you with your reflections. They might be able to offer you really valuable insights and advice, or simply provide you with the emotional support you need to get through this difficult time or be a sounding board. The next thing you need to think about is taking care of you.


    After a setback, it's really easy to get caught up in negative thoughts and feelings. However, taking care of your physical and emotional wellbeing is really important, especially when you're dealing with a difficult situation. So, ensure that you get enough sleep, eat well, and engage in behaviors that help you relax and recharge so that you can go and move forward with your life.


    Now, with the review that you did, learn from those mistakes and those missteps. The fact is, pretty much every failure is an opportunity for growth and learning. Try to take the lessons that you've learned from your experiences so you can apply them to your future endeavors. Use your experiences to make better decisions, and with each choice you make, you're going to become better at it.


    Don't beat yourself up. Be kind to yourself. It's really natural to feel disappointed and upset after a failure, but it's important to remember that everyone makes mistakes and experiences setbacks. So be kind and don't beat yourself up over what happened. Instead, focus on the positive things you've accomplished and the progress that you have made. Use it as a motivation to keep moving forward. If necessary, take a break. If you're feeling overwhelmed and burnt out, it may be helpful to take a break from work or whatever it is and focus on other aspects of your life for a while, as long as you can afford to do it. Use this time to relax, recharge, pursue hobbies or activities that bring you joy so that you can return to yourself with a fresh perspective and renewed energy.


    And look for new opportunities. Once you're ready, look for new opportunities aligned with your goals and interests. Don't fear risks and please keep trying new things. Sometimes the best opportunities come from failures. So, remember, it's okay to experience setbacks and failures. However, it is vital to learn from them and you will start again and be in a better place.


    Thank you for listening. This is Janice at The Career Introvert. Helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    ]]>c4885906-609d-4569-a12a-1c3c82c69ec2Tue, 21 Mar 2023 12:00:00 -050005:29falsefull301301    300th Episode AMA300th Episode AMAHello and welcome to the 300th episode of The Traveling Introvert. This is Sparta? I don't know. When I started this journey, I didn't have any thoughts about where it would go or things I'd be able to do or even the thought that I would get to 300 episodes. To the point that when I hit 50, 100, 200, I didn't do anything special. They kind of like went past and I was like, “Oh, that's how many episodes I've done!”.

    This one almost went past. But because I'm trying to batch a lot of episodes, I noticed, and because I also I made a hosting company, I noticed that, Oh, I've done this many episodes. I probably should do something. So I put a little call out and asked people to send me their questions. So there might be questions that they've been wanting to ask or write in about. And so I have a list of questions here. We're going to see how long this lasts that people wanted to ask. So here we go.


    Question number one, how have you kept on podcasting for so long?


    That is a great question because I think 300 episodes is just under two…three…no, five years? A long time. Especially as I've had an episode out every single week. And I've only had one month in there where I had adjusted reruns. And there've mostly been several episodes, apart from the past three that have had other humans that I've interviewed.


    And how have I kept podcasting for so long? Because I draw a lot of the things that I talk about from life. So as long as my life keeps going and I keep meeting new humans and coaching new people and hearing about new companies and working within organizations, there's always going to be something for me to talk about. I do get paranoid that I'm repeating myself or I've already covered a topic, especially over the past couple of years when there hasn't been as much travel-related topics. So that has been interesting. I did at one point think about stopping, and I just had to kind of and that's when the episodes came out that were reruns. Then I got inspired again and carried on. That's also a reason why I batch record my episodes. I record a bunch of them and then I have a break. I don't have to think about it, or if I get inspired, I will record one off the cuff. But generally that I found has helped me keep going for as long as I have.


    Also, just the way I set up the podcast to be a solo podcast for only five minutes, so I don't have to book people to talk to and arrange schedules and all of that sort of thing. And there's not too much back-end work to go with it. So how have you kept podcasting for so long? An accident? Sort of planned it. Happy that I have. But yeah, it’s definitely been an interesting journey.


    Okay, next question is, where are some unusual places you have visited?


    Travel one. Depends what you mean by unusual. Instead of unusual, I'm going to say one of the most unexpected places I've been to has been Sri Lanka. And this was because I ended up finding a website where you could bid on vacations. And this site isn't as popular now because of everything that's happened in the past couple of years. But it was frequented by a lot of hotels that were looking to get people to go to give reviews or just get the name and the words out there. And so it's really interesting that I did this random bid, and I was happy to do it because PayPal was an option, and I knew I could get my money back if it all went Pete Tong. And I won. I won this seven day vacation in this boutique hotel in Sri Lanka. And I'd already had a planned trip out to Asia anyway. So I was already going out in that direction. So I just had to tack this on. But not only was it a surprise that I won and that it was legitimate. Even still, when you get to the country, you're not sure what's going to happen, what to expect. And this place was gorgeous. And we were the only people in the entire place. It was, I think, no more than 10 room...]]>Hello and welcome to the 300th episode of The Traveling Introvert. This is Sparta? I don't know. When I started this journey, I didn't have any thoughts about where it would go or things I'd be able to do or even the thought that I would get to 300 episodes. To the point that when I hit 50, 100, 200, I didn't do anything special. They kind of like went past and I was like, “Oh, that's how many episodes I've done!”.

    This one almost went past. But because I'm trying to batch a lot of episodes, I noticed, and because I also I made a hosting company, I noticed that, Oh, I've done this many episodes. I probably should do something. So I put a little call out and asked people to send me their questions. So there might be questions that they've been wanting to ask or write in about. And so I have a list of questions here. We're going to see how long this lasts that people wanted to ask. So here we go.


    Question number one, how have you kept on podcasting for so long?


    That is a great question because I think 300 episodes is just under two…three…no, five years? A long time. Especially as I've had an episode out every single week. And I've only had one month in there where I had adjusted reruns. And there've mostly been several episodes, apart from the past three that have had other humans that I've interviewed.


    And how have I kept podcasting for so long? Because I draw a lot of the things that I talk about from life. So as long as my life keeps going and I keep meeting new humans and coaching new people and hearing about new companies and working within organizations, there's always going to be something for me to talk about. I do get paranoid that I'm repeating myself or I've already covered a topic, especially over the past couple of years when there hasn't been as much travel-related topics. So that has been interesting. I did at one point think about stopping, and I just had to kind of and that's when the episodes came out that were reruns. Then I got inspired again and carried on. That's also a reason why I batch record my episodes. I record a bunch of them and then I have a break. I don't have to think about it, or if I get inspired, I will record one off the cuff. But generally that I found has helped me keep going for as long as I have.


    Also, just the way I set up the podcast to be a solo podcast for only five minutes, so I don't have to book people to talk to and arrange schedules and all of that sort of thing. And there's not too much back-end work to go with it. So how have you kept podcasting for so long? An accident? Sort of planned it. Happy that I have. But yeah, it’s definitely been an interesting journey.


    Okay, next question is, where are some unusual places you have visited?


    Travel one. Depends what you mean by unusual. Instead of unusual, I'm going to say one of the most unexpected places I've been to has been Sri Lanka. And this was because I ended up finding a website where you could bid on vacations. And this site isn't as popular now because of everything that's happened in the past couple of years. But it was frequented by a lot of hotels that were looking to get people to go to give reviews or just get the name and the words out there. And so it's really interesting that I did this random bid, and I was happy to do it because PayPal was an option, and I knew I could get my money back if it all went Pete Tong. And I won. I won this seven day vacation in this boutique hotel in Sri Lanka. And I'd already had a planned trip out to Asia anyway. So I was already going out in that direction. So I just had to tack this on. But not only was it a surprise that I won and that it was legitimate. Even still, when you get to the country, you're not sure what's going to happen, what to expect. And this place was gorgeous. And we were the only people in the entire place. It was, I think, no more than 10 room boutique hotel with a swimming pool and peacocks, and hammocks and private chefs and all for just two humans. And the food was amazing! And it's kind of hard to get used to sort of, they were like, “Well, you're the only ones here, so what do you want to eat?” And we're like, “I don't know. Bring us all your local dishes and we'll try them all.” I don't know what to ask for. And then you finally get into the rhythm of like, well, I could ask for this thing that I never get, or it's really difficult for me to cook. But yes, Sri Lanka was... I'm not going to say unusual, it was great. It was just unexpected.


    All right, so next question. As you used to live in Mexico, what is the spiciest thing you have ever eaten?


    So funnily enough, even though I used to live in Mexico, that's not where I've eaten the spiciest food. The one place that I ate the spiciest food was some random Indian restaurant in New York. I want to say Brooklyn, but I'm not 100 % sure because it was quite a while ago. I normally order the butter chicken. I'm not someone who goes for the vindaloo or the biryani. I'm pretty much a butter chicken a girl with no cilantro. I hate cilantro, so I hate coriander, so just the most basic thing possible. And got that butter chicken and it was so spicy that even with rice, you were still trying to look for milk or something else to douse the flames to the point that we didn't end up finishing the curry because it was so spicy.


    All right, next question. What makes you roll your eyes every time you hear it?


    You're all going to love this one. Well, you don't look like an introvert. Yeah, I hear that a lot from people who have just met me and hear what I do and then ask, “Well, why did you get into what you do?” And when I start with, “Well, I'm an introvert”, they're like, “But you don't look like an introvert”. You get the idea. That makes me roll my eyes real hard.


    How comfortable are you speaking in front of a larger groups of people? Depends what you mean by large. I'm going to say I'm probably always going to be terrified because it's that nervous energy. I used to be in a lot of dance things and a lot of theatre things, and there was large groups of people. In fact, at one point I sang in the Royal Albert Hall, and huge amounts of people, you're always going to get nervous and terrified. But then once you start doing whatever it is that you're doing, that just goes away because you're in the moment and you're just doing your thing.


    Let me see. What did you think was going to be amazing but turned out to be horrible?


    Probably there's two organizations come to mind that I was really excited to work with and then was not by the end of it. That's a short version of those two.


    How do you make yourself sleep if you can't get to sleep?


    So I have the calm app and so there's a couple of meditations on there that I have saved as favorites, especially sleep ones. So, I will try and put that on and try and concentrate on it. Also, breathing exercises are things that I will do to try and get to sleep if I can't.


    What life skills are rarely taught but extremely useful?


    Finances, how do you deal with finances? You have this amount of money coming in, how much should you be spending on rent and food and transportation and insert all things here. Also, I don't know if it can be taught per se, but just skills of it's okay to be you, set boundaries and communicate and everything else should be okay.


    This is a nice question. What brand are you most loyal to?


    Our number one answer is Samsonite and number two answer is King Arthur- bakery stuff. I just got into that and oh, that's so good. And they're really good company. Owned by employees.


    What is the saddest scene in a movie or a TV series?


    Game of Thrones, Hodor. I'm going to go with that one that comes to mind straight away.


    Okay. Last but not least, what qualities do all of your friends have in common?


    They are low maintenance. That is what I will say. They are not friends who I need to message every single day. There are a couple that I end up really actually talking to almost every day. They are all dotted around the world. Majority of them use WhatsApp. Yeah, actually, those are a lot of things that they have in common. I don't know if those are qualities and they are all low maintenance. I could see them and not see them physically for years and we'd get back together and everything would be fine.


    Right. Wow. Double the episode this time. Thank you for listening. This is Janice at TheCareerIntrovert.com. Thank you for helping me celebrate my 300th episode and helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.


    ]]>db9351e7-ae8b-4fb3-8ce8-50f7ec1ddce4Tue, 14 Mar 2023 12:00:00 -050010:31falsefull300300    Diana Robertson Career ConversationsDiana Robertson Career ConversationsShy Introvert

    This is the type of person who happens to be very quiet and thus avoids all contact with other people.

    Even knowing the answer to something they would still choose not to talk since they avoid all attention.


    Difference between Shyness and Being an introvert

    People tend to confuse the two. The main difference is that shyness is a lack of confidence. In this case, it is important to note that confidence can be boosted or learned.


    Introversion on the other hand is the people who tend to avoid other people or look inwards for their daily energy. They might be socially awkward.


    Misconceptions About Introversion

    A lot of people who struggle with communication believe that they were born like that and cannot change their introversion. Most of them need to know that they can work on their communication skills and later be best at what they do. You might be an introvert but that can change


    Most introverts are aware of what they go through but, they are not aware that there are ways to 'fix' the issue. With time and dedication, they can turn their lives around. Of course not be Extroverts but mostly just be able to handle public speaking and such.


    As a public speaker, you should realize that people will listen to you and will hold what you say, dear to them. Even if you might think that your actions and words do not influence people, keep in mind that they might affect somebody's life.


    Life Lessons

    ● Do not be afraid to take risks in life.

    ● Always try harder even after failing.

    ● Do not be afraid to take disappointments positively.

    ● Learn from your mistakes.

    ● Do not be obsessed with making profits. Do what makes you happy.

    ● The first startup might not be the best for you. Learn to pivot in life.



    Is a hotdog a sandwich?


    Find Diana https://www.linkedin.com/in/diana-robertson-skillsme/

     


    ]]>    Shy Introvert

    This is the type of person who happens to be very quiet and thus avoids all contact with other people.

    Even knowing the answer to something they would still choose not to talk since they avoid all attention.


    Difference between Shyness and Being an introvert

    People tend to confuse the two. The main difference is that shyness is a lack of confidence. In this case, it is important to note that confidence can be boosted or learned.


    Introversion on the other hand is the people who tend to avoid other people or look inwards for their daily energy. They might be socially awkward.


    Misconceptions About Introversion

    A lot of people who struggle with communication believe that they were born like that and cannot change their introversion. Most of them need to know that they can work on their communication skills and later be best at what they do. You might be an introvert but that can change


    Most introverts are aware of what they go through but, they are not aware that there are ways to 'fix' the issue. With time and dedication, they can turn their lives around. Of course not be Extroverts but mostly just be able to handle public speaking and such.


    As a public speaker, you should realize that people will listen to you and will hold what you say, dear to them. Even if you might think that your actions and words do not influence people, keep in mind that they might affect somebody's life.


    Life Lessons

    ● Do not be afraid to take risks in life.

    ● Always try harder even after failing.

    ● Do not be afraid to take disappointments positively.

    ● Learn from your mistakes.

    ● Do not be obsessed with making profits. Do what makes you happy.

    ● The first startup might not be the best for you. Learn to pivot in life.



    Is a hotdog a sandwich?


    Find Diana https://www.linkedin.com/in/diana-robertson-skillsme/

     


    ]]>    2d9e88d0-5ae2-443f-8d10-eccdaeb0945fTue, 07 Mar 2023 12:00:00 -050021:44falsefull299299    The Role of Rest and Recovery in Achieving Your GoalsThe Role of Rest and Recovery in Achieving Your GoalsHello and welcome to the Traveling Introvert. Today, I'm going to talk about rest and the role it plays in helping you achieve your goals. As you work towards your goals, or your career or your business or whatever it is that you're doing these days- making the best sourdough ever, it is essential to remember the role that rest and recovery play in just your overall health, well-being, and success.

    Your body and mind need time to recharge to perform at their best. Without adequate rest, you might feel tired and sluggish and unable to focus. In the long run, quite frankly, this leads to burnout and may hinder your ability to reach any goals you might have set. This is especially important if you're starting a new job because it tends to be the case where you start a new role, and they throw everything at you. They've got all these manuals that you need to look at and you've got all these PowerPoint presentations, and health and safety and paperwork, and meeting new people, and meeting new clients. And all of these things, all fire hosed at you. And you're also supposed to do your job. And never do companies put in their time for you to rest and recover. Because they assume when you go home that's what you do. Do you though?

    So the role of rest and recovery, your body and mind need it. When working towards a goal, it is easy to become consumed by the drive to succeed. You may push yourself to the limit, sacrificing sleep and leisure time to pursue that singular objective.


    However, this approach is not sustainable. Your body and mind need regular breaks to function correctly. Your body repairs itself during rest. One of the critical benefits of rest and recovery is that it allows your body to repair and rebuild itself. Engaging in physical activity puts stress on your muscles, bones and connective tissues.


    For example, if you lift weights and exercise and ignore your body's needs, it might lead to muscle soreness, fatigue, and injuries. However, allowing your body time to rest ensures it will repair and rebuild itself, becoming stronger and more resilient in the process. Just like you're not supposed to exercise the same muscle every day, there's a reason for that. Also, rest and recovery will help increase your mental wellbeing. In addition to the physical benefits, rest and recovery are crucial for your mental wellbeing.


    Constant stress, chronic stress and overwork can negatively affect your mental health, leading to feelings of anxiety, depression, burnout. Taking regular breaks allows you to relax and recharge, improving your mood and helping maintain a positive outlook. Making rest and recovery a regular part of your routine is essential to reap the benefits of rest fully. Ensure that you set aside time in your calendar for rest and relaxation and prioritize it. You can make time for whatever you need, including meditation, exercises like yoga, or simply taking a break to read a book or even listen to music. You will be more mindful regarding your needs with rest.


    Listening and being mindful of your mental and physical needs is vital. If you are tired or overwhelmed, take a break. It's almost always better to take a step back to recharge rather than pushing yourself through. The more you listen to yourself and are mindful of your mind and your body's needs, the better off overall you will be. There is no doubt that rest and recovery play a huge role in helping you achieve all your goals.


    We just don't think about it that way. We think about all the work that we do and the meetings that we have and the ticks we put on our To-do list. But it's rest and recovery that are real pillars. When you let your body and mind recharge, your physical and mental wellbeing improves, therefore increasing your chance of success. Take the time to learn how important it is to allow your body and mind to break.


    Make rest and...]]>Hello and welcome to the Traveling Introvert. Today, I'm going to talk about rest and the role it plays in helping you achieve your goals. As you work towards your goals, or your career or your business or whatever it is that you're doing these days- making the best sourdough ever, it is essential to remember the role that rest and recovery play in just your overall health, well-being, and success.

    Your body and mind need time to recharge to perform at their best. Without adequate rest, you might feel tired and sluggish and unable to focus. In the long run, quite frankly, this leads to burnout and may hinder your ability to reach any goals you might have set. This is especially important if you're starting a new job because it tends to be the case where you start a new role, and they throw everything at you. They've got all these manuals that you need to look at and you've got all these PowerPoint presentations, and health and safety and paperwork, and meeting new people, and meeting new clients. And all of these things, all fire hosed at you. And you're also supposed to do your job. And never do companies put in their time for you to rest and recover. Because they assume when you go home that's what you do. Do you though?

    So the role of rest and recovery, your body and mind need it. When working towards a goal, it is easy to become consumed by the drive to succeed. You may push yourself to the limit, sacrificing sleep and leisure time to pursue that singular objective.


    However, this approach is not sustainable. Your body and mind need regular breaks to function correctly. Your body repairs itself during rest. One of the critical benefits of rest and recovery is that it allows your body to repair and rebuild itself. Engaging in physical activity puts stress on your muscles, bones and connective tissues.


    For example, if you lift weights and exercise and ignore your body's needs, it might lead to muscle soreness, fatigue, and injuries. However, allowing your body time to rest ensures it will repair and rebuild itself, becoming stronger and more resilient in the process. Just like you're not supposed to exercise the same muscle every day, there's a reason for that. Also, rest and recovery will help increase your mental wellbeing. In addition to the physical benefits, rest and recovery are crucial for your mental wellbeing.


    Constant stress, chronic stress and overwork can negatively affect your mental health, leading to feelings of anxiety, depression, burnout. Taking regular breaks allows you to relax and recharge, improving your mood and helping maintain a positive outlook. Making rest and recovery a regular part of your routine is essential to reap the benefits of rest fully. Ensure that you set aside time in your calendar for rest and relaxation and prioritize it. You can make time for whatever you need, including meditation, exercises like yoga, or simply taking a break to read a book or even listen to music. You will be more mindful regarding your needs with rest.


    Listening and being mindful of your mental and physical needs is vital. If you are tired or overwhelmed, take a break. It's almost always better to take a step back to recharge rather than pushing yourself through. The more you listen to yourself and are mindful of your mind and your body's needs, the better off overall you will be. There is no doubt that rest and recovery play a huge role in helping you achieve all your goals.


    We just don't think about it that way. We think about all the work that we do and the meetings that we have and the ticks we put on our To-do list. But it's rest and recovery that are real pillars. When you let your body and mind recharge, your physical and mental wellbeing improves, therefore increasing your chance of success. Take the time to learn how important it is to allow your body and mind to break.


    Make rest and recovery a regular part of your routine. Listen to your body's needs. When you do, you will ensure that you are always at your best and ready to tackle whatever challenges come your way.


    Thank you for listening. This is Janice at TheCareerIntrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    Mentioned in this episode:

    300th episode

    My 300th episode is coming up soon and I would love to answer your questions. Send them to janice@thecareerintrovert.com

    ]]>43786689-9286-4b0d-9693-81d1426dea1eTue, 28 Feb 2023 12:00:00 -050005:37falsefull298298    Crafting the Perfect Daily Routine for Your Needs and GoalsCrafting the Perfect Daily Routine for Your Needs and GoalsHello and welcome to the Traveling Introvert. So today, I want to talk about crafting the perfect daily routine for you, your needs, and your goals. So many times, we see articles, blog posts, podcast episodes-Top Five Things You Should Do To Be Successful. What are these five humans doing every morning? You got to get up at five and exercise and do something. Okay, great.

    But we're all individual. We all have individual needs and goals and things we're working towards. So, creating a workable daily routine that works for you is vital for achieving your goals, right? And vital for keeping you happy and healthy. A well-designed daily routine can help ensure that you stay organized and on task. It can also help reduce stress by improving your productivity.


    And I'm just going to talk about ways you can do this and things for you to think about. Some things will apply to you and some things won't, and that's okay. Identify priorities and goals. To understand your priorities, you need to know ultimately what it is you want to achieve. Ask yourself questions and be open to your answers. What are the essential things in your life?


    What do you want to achieve? What would you want your obituary to say about you? Once you have this information, you can write down goals and use them as a guide or North Star when designing your daily routine. Know your energy levels. Introverts, you know how important this is. Know your energy level as well as your natural rhythm.


    Plan your daily activities for when you're most alert and energetic. It is important to note that while your natural rhythm can be a factor in when you're more energetic, maybe in the morning or at night, daily habits and routines will also play a role. You can establish healthy sleep habits and a regular sleep week schedule, regardless of whether you are naturally a morning person or a night owl like myself. However, for most people, it's better to work within your true nature instead of trying to fight it.


    If it takes you two hours to get going in the morning, respect that about yourself and plan accordingly. Set aside enough time-set aside time for self-care. While self-care is more than bathing and brushing your hair, if you're not giving yourself enough time to do the basics, you'll not have enough time to take it up a notch. Caring for yourself is vital for maintaining good physical and mental health. Make sure to include exercise, meditation, and relaxation in your routine along with other daily activities. Plan meals and snacks.


    Proper nutrition is essential for good health and wellbeing, we all know. You wouldn't leave nutrition to chance for your kids or your pets. So why do you do it for yourself? Plan what you will consume and avoid unhealthy snacks or food. I mean, you don't have to eat healthy all the time, but say at least 80% of the time.


    Consider switching out snacks for fresh fruit and vegetables and replacing fizzy beverages with filtered tap water, for example. A crunchy sliced apple can be more enjoyable than a bowl of chips. It's just most of us habitually choose cheap chips over apples. And please, please, please do not forget to schedule fun. Your daily routine should not all be about work. There should be play. Make sure to include activities that you enjoy, like reading, watching a movie, listening to a podcast, spending time with friends or family, petting your cat.


    In fact, practice scheduling time to do these things- family time, friend time, you time. Schedule that stuff first and then put the other stuff into your schedule. Daily routine should be a guide, not a rigid schedule. Be prepared to adjust and adapt your routine when necessary, depending on the changing demands of your life rather than setting specific times for tasks. Some people benefit from using block schedules that allows them to be more flexible in the...]]>Hello and welcome to the Traveling Introvert. So today, I want to talk about crafting the perfect daily routine for you, your needs, and your goals. So many times, we see articles, blog posts, podcast episodes-Top Five Things You Should Do To Be Successful. What are these five humans doing every morning? You got to get up at five and exercise and do something. Okay, great.

    But we're all individual. We all have individual needs and goals and things we're working towards. So, creating a workable daily routine that works for you is vital for achieving your goals, right? And vital for keeping you happy and healthy. A well-designed daily routine can help ensure that you stay organized and on task. It can also help reduce stress by improving your productivity.


    And I'm just going to talk about ways you can do this and things for you to think about. Some things will apply to you and some things won't, and that's okay. Identify priorities and goals. To understand your priorities, you need to know ultimately what it is you want to achieve. Ask yourself questions and be open to your answers. What are the essential things in your life?


    What do you want to achieve? What would you want your obituary to say about you? Once you have this information, you can write down goals and use them as a guide or North Star when designing your daily routine. Know your energy levels. Introverts, you know how important this is. Know your energy level as well as your natural rhythm.


    Plan your daily activities for when you're most alert and energetic. It is important to note that while your natural rhythm can be a factor in when you're more energetic, maybe in the morning or at night, daily habits and routines will also play a role. You can establish healthy sleep habits and a regular sleep week schedule, regardless of whether you are naturally a morning person or a night owl like myself. However, for most people, it's better to work within your true nature instead of trying to fight it.


    If it takes you two hours to get going in the morning, respect that about yourself and plan accordingly. Set aside enough time-set aside time for self-care. While self-care is more than bathing and brushing your hair, if you're not giving yourself enough time to do the basics, you'll not have enough time to take it up a notch. Caring for yourself is vital for maintaining good physical and mental health. Make sure to include exercise, meditation, and relaxation in your routine along with other daily activities. Plan meals and snacks.


    Proper nutrition is essential for good health and wellbeing, we all know. You wouldn't leave nutrition to chance for your kids or your pets. So why do you do it for yourself? Plan what you will consume and avoid unhealthy snacks or food. I mean, you don't have to eat healthy all the time, but say at least 80% of the time.


    Consider switching out snacks for fresh fruit and vegetables and replacing fizzy beverages with filtered tap water, for example. A crunchy sliced apple can be more enjoyable than a bowl of chips. It's just most of us habitually choose cheap chips over apples. And please, please, please do not forget to schedule fun. Your daily routine should not all be about work. There should be play. Make sure to include activities that you enjoy, like reading, watching a movie, listening to a podcast, spending time with friends or family, petting your cat.


    In fact, practice scheduling time to do these things- family time, friend time, you time. Schedule that stuff first and then put the other stuff into your schedule. Daily routine should be a guide, not a rigid schedule. Be prepared to adjust and adapt your routine when necessary, depending on the changing demands of your life rather than setting specific times for tasks. Some people benefit from using block schedules that allows them to be more flexible in the scheduling without sacrificing what needs to be done.


    For example, if you then end up having an unexpected meeting, you can shift other tasks around in your schedule to make room for it. Track your progress. Regularly evaluate your daily routine are just as needed to ensure it is helping you achieve your goals while also keeping you happy and sane. Nothing feels quite as motivating as seeing how far you've made it towards a goal you've set. There is no doubt that a well-designed daily routine keeps you organized, reduces stress and improves productivity.


    It all starts with identifying priorities and goals while also considering your natural rhythm and energy levels, plus ensuring that you remember to make time for yourself. Relaxation and fun never hurts. While you're aware of yourself and mindful of how daily activities and habits affect you, creating your daily routine to help reach your goals will almost happen naturally.


    Thank you for listening. This is Janice at TheCareerIntrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    Mentioned in this episode:

    300th episode

    My 300th episode is coming up soon and I would love to answer your questions. Send them to janice@thecareerintrovert.com

    ]]>de22a331-c4e7-4bd8-bd27-ae35d034731bTue, 21 Feb 2023 12:00:00 -050006:09falsefull297297    The Power of Celebrating Your Accomplishments and ProgressThe Power of Celebrating Your Accomplishments and ProgressHello and welcome to the Traveling Introvert. Today, I want to talk about the power of celebrating your accomplishments and progress? This is something that I go through with my clients very frequently just because we get so stuck in the day to day of doing things that we forget how awesome we are. And so, have you ever stopped to celebrate your accomplishments and progress, no matter how small they might seem? And to be honest, if you haven't started doing it, you should start now. No time like the present.

    Celebrating your successes, no matter how big or small, is a really integral part of the journey of life. Giving yourself that moment to celebrate solidifies the memory of what you have done in your mind so that you now know and will remember what success feels like. And once you know, you can bring back that memory anytime you feel stuck or overwhelmed. Celebrating accomplishments and progress can provide so many more benefits.

    For example, it can boost your confidence and motivation. Recognizing and celebrating your achievements reminds you of your capabilities and reinforces the idea that you can achieve your goals. This in turn gives you the confidence and motivation you need to keep pushing forward and to continue making progress. Not only that, it keeps you focused and on track. Celebrating your progress serves as a reminder of how far you've come and the progress you still have to make.


    This can keep you focused on your goals and prevent you from being sidetracked or with shiny things on losing sight of what you've been working towards. Not only that, it can help build momentum. Celebrating your accomplishments doesn't mean you need to have a big party every time. You could just take a moment and sit and acknowledge and appreciate the hard work and effort that you've put in. Noticing and recognizing how the accomplishment feels will help build momentum and make it easier to keep moving forward and easier for you to recall it at a later date when you're feeling a little low.


    It can also help maintain a healthy and positive mindset. Celebrating your progresses and your accomplishments can help you stay positive even when things get tough. It will remind you of good things that happened and are currently happening and will enable you to keep that positive attitude. Not only that, it provides your mind with the memory of success. Once you have the experience of knowing what it feels like to accomplish something, even if it is small, that memory will fuel your motivation and continue pushing you along that road of progress, even when things become more complex or challenging.


    Evaluating your progress feels good and that feeling will keep you going. Now those are some of the benefits of just celebrating your accomplishments and progress, no matter how big or small they are. But how do you go about celebrating if it's not going to have a big party every time? And so, I want to talk about ways that you might want to think about celebrating your accomplishments and success. I mean, the first thing is, what I tell all my clients is have a little pop that you can put on a mug or anything of that nature that you can put piece of post-it notes in and write down anytime you achieve something and put it in this particular vessel. And then when you're feeling low, you can dip into the vessel and pick out something that reminds you how good you are. And or at the end of the year, you tip it all out and read them.

    But here are some other things that you can do. You can reflect on what you've achieved so far and how far you've come. You can share your accomplishments with others, whether that's through social media, a group chat in person, whatever works for you.


    Treat yourself to something you enjoy, whether that be a walk on the beach, a favorite meal, a new book, or something else that sparks joy. Set aside time to celebrate with friends or]]>Hello and welcome to the Traveling Introvert. Today, I want to talk about the power of celebrating your accomplishments and progress? This is something that I go through with my clients very frequently just because we get so stuck in the day to day of doing things that we forget how awesome we are. And so, have you ever stopped to celebrate your accomplishments and progress, no matter how small they might seem? And to be honest, if you haven't started doing it, you should start now. No time like the present.

    Celebrating your successes, no matter how big or small, is a really integral part of the journey of life. Giving yourself that moment to celebrate solidifies the memory of what you have done in your mind so that you now know and will remember what success feels like. And once you know, you can bring back that memory anytime you feel stuck or overwhelmed. Celebrating accomplishments and progress can provide so many more benefits.

    For example, it can boost your confidence and motivation. Recognizing and celebrating your achievements reminds you of your capabilities and reinforces the idea that you can achieve your goals. This in turn gives you the confidence and motivation you need to keep pushing forward and to continue making progress. Not only that, it keeps you focused and on track. Celebrating your progress serves as a reminder of how far you've come and the progress you still have to make.


    This can keep you focused on your goals and prevent you from being sidetracked or with shiny things on losing sight of what you've been working towards. Not only that, it can help build momentum. Celebrating your accomplishments doesn't mean you need to have a big party every time. You could just take a moment and sit and acknowledge and appreciate the hard work and effort that you've put in. Noticing and recognizing how the accomplishment feels will help build momentum and make it easier to keep moving forward and easier for you to recall it at a later date when you're feeling a little low.


    It can also help maintain a healthy and positive mindset. Celebrating your progresses and your accomplishments can help you stay positive even when things get tough. It will remind you of good things that happened and are currently happening and will enable you to keep that positive attitude. Not only that, it provides your mind with the memory of success. Once you have the experience of knowing what it feels like to accomplish something, even if it is small, that memory will fuel your motivation and continue pushing you along that road of progress, even when things become more complex or challenging.


    Evaluating your progress feels good and that feeling will keep you going. Now those are some of the benefits of just celebrating your accomplishments and progress, no matter how big or small they are. But how do you go about celebrating if it's not going to have a big party every time? And so, I want to talk about ways that you might want to think about celebrating your accomplishments and success. I mean, the first thing is, what I tell all my clients is have a little pop that you can put on a mug or anything of that nature that you can put piece of post-it notes in and write down anytime you achieve something and put it in this particular vessel. And then when you're feeling low, you can dip into the vessel and pick out something that reminds you how good you are. And or at the end of the year, you tip it all out and read them.

    But here are some other things that you can do. You can reflect on what you've achieved so far and how far you've come. You can share your accomplishments with others, whether that's through social media, a group chat in person, whatever works for you.


    Treat yourself to something you enjoy, whether that be a walk on the beach, a favorite meal, a new book, or something else that sparks joy. Set aside time to celebrate with friends or family, whether it's a special dinner or a fun outing, keep reminders of your accomplishments in your space so you can think about them as you continue working towards whatever goal it is you have. So let what I've talked about encourage you to take the time to celebrate your accomplishments and progress. No matter how big or small, recognizing your accomplishments will help you stay motivated, focused, and positive as you continue on your journey.


    Thank you for listening. This is Janice at TheCareerIntrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    Mentioned in this episode:

    300th episode

    My 300th episode is coming up soon and I would love to answer your questions. Send them to janice@thecareerintrovert.com

    ]]>f136b286-fa0d-40ff-8cd4-151e2a071f8fTue, 14 Feb 2023 12:00:00 -050005:43falsefull296296    Career Conversations with Molly WoodhullCareer Conversations with Molly WoodhullEXTROVERSION

    Generally, a person who recharges or at least feels better and more composed while among other people. At the same time, it is important to note that the time one needs for themselves is also important.

    Misconceptions about meditation Teachers

    Most people assume that meditation teachers have every part of their lives figured out. This could not be far from the truth; it is important to note that they too are humans and are prone to anxiety and other mental challenges of life. The difference is that in some way they can deal with stress and anxiety much better than an average person.

    Proving yourself as a meditation Teacher in the corporate world

    Dealing with the corporate world is a bit tough since you will need to go the extra mile of having to sell your expertise and deliver what is expected of you. You will be dealing with different people from different fields. On top of this, all these people will need to feel your value. In short, they will need to see or feel value for their money.

    This becomes even harder since you will be dealing with different people or different roles in a company and thus the way you handle them each time is different.

    Improving oneself

    You will need to be able to concentrate on one thing at a time and not get distracted by other things or chores on your to-do list. This brings about a lot of discipline in whatever you decide to do. This can be boosted greatly by self-meditation.

    Breath Awareness

    This is breathing in and out deeply while being aware you are doing it. This can help you calm down greatly. In case you are about to face a difficult conversation or you are straight from one, this will help you calm down greatly. This can be called micro meditation.

    Advantages of Meditation

    Mediation will help you sleep better; you will be more aware of when your mind is wandering off and thus help you bring your thoughts into control. It helps with the nervous system since you are more composed and less stressed.

    Know your limits

    Know when to say no to people and listen to your body more. You need to know your limits and get enough time to recharge. Your body needs to develop more and get some rest when you can.

    Lyme Disease

    Lyme disease is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected ticks and can cause a range of symptoms, including fever, rash, joint pain, and fatigue. If left untreated, it can cause serious health problems. It is important to protect yourself from tick bites by wearing insect repellent, long sleeves and pants when outdoors, and performing regular tick checks. If you think you may have been exposed to ticks and are experiencing symptoms of Lyme disease, it is important to see a doctor as soon as possible for proper diagnosis and treatment.

    Authenticity In Life

    As a person, you need to understand that not being yourself is much more stressful than just being you and people accepting who you are. Whether you are an extrovert or an introvert you need to be more aware of who you are than who people want you to be

    Is a hot dog a sandwich? (Joke)

    Connect with Molly at woodhullwellness.com

    Mentioned in this episode:

    300th episode

    My 300th episode is coming up soon and I would love to answer your questions. Send them to janice@thecareerintrovert.com

    ]]>    EXTROVERSION

    Generally, a person who recharges or at least feels better and more composed while among other people. At the same time, it is important to note that the time one needs for themselves is also important.

    Misconceptions about meditation Teachers

    Most people assume that meditation teachers have every part of their lives figured out. This could not be far from the truth; it is important to note that they too are humans and are prone to anxiety and other mental challenges of life. The difference is that in some way they can deal with stress and anxiety much better than an average person.

    Proving yourself as a meditation Teacher in the corporate world

    Dealing with the corporate world is a bit tough since you will need to go the extra mile of having to sell your expertise and deliver what is expected of you. You will be dealing with different people from different fields. On top of this, all these people will need to feel your value. In short, they will need to see or feel value for their money.

    This becomes even harder since you will be dealing with different people or different roles in a company and thus the way you handle them each time is different.

    Improving oneself

    You will need to be able to concentrate on one thing at a time and not get distracted by other things or chores on your to-do list. This brings about a lot of discipline in whatever you decide to do. This can be boosted greatly by self-meditation.

    Breath Awareness

    This is breathing in and out deeply while being aware you are doing it. This can help you calm down greatly. In case you are about to face a difficult conversation or you are straight from one, this will help you calm down greatly. This can be called micro meditation.

    Advantages of Meditation

    Mediation will help you sleep better; you will be more aware of when your mind is wandering off and thus help you bring your thoughts into control. It helps with the nervous system since you are more composed and less stressed.

    Know your limits

    Know when to say no to people and listen to your body more. You need to know your limits and get enough time to recharge. Your body needs to develop more and get some rest when you can.

    Lyme Disease

    Lyme disease is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected ticks and can cause a range of symptoms, including fever, rash, joint pain, and fatigue. If left untreated, it can cause serious health problems. It is important to protect yourself from tick bites by wearing insect repellent, long sleeves and pants when outdoors, and performing regular tick checks. If you think you may have been exposed to ticks and are experiencing symptoms of Lyme disease, it is important to see a doctor as soon as possible for proper diagnosis and treatment.

    Authenticity In Life

    As a person, you need to understand that not being yourself is much more stressful than just being you and people accepting who you are. Whether you are an extrovert or an introvert you need to be more aware of who you are than who people want you to be

    Is a hot dog a sandwich? (Joke)

    Connect with Molly at woodhullwellness.com

    Mentioned in this episode:

    300th episode

    My 300th episode is coming up soon and I would love to answer your questions. Send them to janice@thecareerintrovert.com

    ]]>    ba62e7a1-b8b9-4514-b256-ffdea12248fdTue, 07 Feb 2023 12:00:00 -050020:41falsefull295295    Discover Habits to Increase AccountabilityDiscover Habits to Increase AccountabilityHello and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today I want to talk about accountability. It’s come up a lot recently with some of the work that I’ve been doing with clients and some of the work I’ve been doing with organizations. And it can come from things such as people saying, no one holds managers accountable. It could be, I need to do this thing, but I have no one to keep track of. Or I have a client working on a project, and I’m the kind of person that doesn’t get stuff done, unless there’s a huge time limit, or a milestone that I need to hit by a certain date. They need that external force, that validation, that accountability. And here’s thing, the way life is set up, we get toward accountability at an early age in school and University and at work, if you work for your if you work for a company, there is external accountability, because you have a manager. But if you work for yourself, or there’s some personal stuff, it’s really kind of not as easy to get accountability. And accountability is really vital for success in life.

    Being accountable requires that you take responsibility for your actions and are able to answer for their outcomes. And it’s a really, really crucial trait and thing to have, not just in your personal life, but in your professional life as well. And so today I want to talk about six ways that you can be more accountable.

    Set personal and professional goals. When you have defined goals, it’s far easier to be held accountable for your actions. If you don’t have goals, it’s easy to get kind of sidetracked and go after the shiny thing, and not really accomplish what you wanted to. Having realistic and achievable goals will help you stay on track. While at the same time giving you something to strive for.

    And speaking of staying on track, it’s also one thing that you can do is track your progress. That way you know how close you’re getting to said goal. Right? This will help you stay accountable to yourself and see how far you’ve come. We’re really good at setting goals and not realizing the work that we’ve done to get there and sort of looking back, and we’re viewing and patting ourselves on the back that,” hey, I’m a hit this goal at this time, but I did all of this other work towards it”. You can track your progress in any way you want. In a notebook on an app like whatever works for you, but keeping track is key.

    Another thing can be, tell someone about your goals. Telling others about your goals. Trick your mind and makes it a little bit more real and help you stay accountable. And it’s really helpful to choose someone who supports and encourages you. On one hand it could also be like, it could be family member or friend, or it could be good to pick someone who is very far removed, so you feel extra accountable to them. You can join a group or a class related to your goal, so that you are also surrounded by unlike mandated people. Tell somewhat about your goal, your actions.

    Another thing you can do is create consequences for yourself. Now, if you find it difficult to be countable to yourself, maybe you can create consequences for not meeting your goals. Maybe you could give yourself a set amount of time to complete a task. And if you don’t, you have to do something that you’d rather not do. Maybe run a certain amount of laps or clean something. I don’t whatever it might be, creating consequences for yourself can work for some people. So, give it a try.

    Another thing to help yourself, help you stay accountable, could be to set deadlines. If you want to be more accountable at work normally, someone will set deadlines for you. A project manager, a manager, manager, whoever might be, will help set deadlines. So, in your personal life, you should also set deadlines. It works. It will help you stay on track and avoid procrastination. When developing timelines and setting deadlines, be realistic and give yourself enough time to complete the task. If you...]]>Hello and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today I want to talk about accountability. It’s come up a lot recently with some of the work that I’ve been doing with clients and some of the work I’ve been doing with organizations. And it can come from things such as people saying, no one holds managers accountable. It could be, I need to do this thing, but I have no one to keep track of. Or I have a client working on a project, and I’m the kind of person that doesn’t get stuff done, unless there’s a huge time limit, or a milestone that I need to hit by a certain date. They need that external force, that validation, that accountability. And here’s thing, the way life is set up, we get toward accountability at an early age in school and University and at work, if you work for your if you work for a company, there is external accountability, because you have a manager. But if you work for yourself, or there’s some personal stuff, it’s really kind of not as easy to get accountability. And accountability is really vital for success in life.

    Being accountable requires that you take responsibility for your actions and are able to answer for their outcomes. And it’s a really, really crucial trait and thing to have, not just in your personal life, but in your professional life as well. And so today I want to talk about six ways that you can be more accountable.

    Set personal and professional goals. When you have defined goals, it’s far easier to be held accountable for your actions. If you don’t have goals, it’s easy to get kind of sidetracked and go after the shiny thing, and not really accomplish what you wanted to. Having realistic and achievable goals will help you stay on track. While at the same time giving you something to strive for.

    And speaking of staying on track, it’s also one thing that you can do is track your progress. That way you know how close you’re getting to said goal. Right? This will help you stay accountable to yourself and see how far you’ve come. We’re really good at setting goals and not realizing the work that we’ve done to get there and sort of looking back, and we’re viewing and patting ourselves on the back that,” hey, I’m a hit this goal at this time, but I did all of this other work towards it”. You can track your progress in any way you want. In a notebook on an app like whatever works for you, but keeping track is key.

    Another thing can be, tell someone about your goals. Telling others about your goals. Trick your mind and makes it a little bit more real and help you stay accountable. And it’s really helpful to choose someone who supports and encourages you. On one hand it could also be like, it could be family member or friend, or it could be good to pick someone who is very far removed, so you feel extra accountable to them. You can join a group or a class related to your goal, so that you are also surrounded by unlike mandated people. Tell somewhat about your goal, your actions.

    Another thing you can do is create consequences for yourself. Now, if you find it difficult to be countable to yourself, maybe you can create consequences for not meeting your goals. Maybe you could give yourself a set amount of time to complete a task. And if you don’t, you have to do something that you’d rather not do. Maybe run a certain amount of laps or clean something. I don’t whatever it might be, creating consequences for yourself can work for some people. So, give it a try.

    Another thing to help yourself, help you stay accountable, could be to set deadlines. If you want to be more accountable at work normally, someone will set deadlines for you. A project manager, a manager, manager, whoever might be, will help set deadlines. So, in your personal life, you should also set deadlines. It works. It will help you stay on track and avoid procrastination. When developing timelines and setting deadlines, be realistic and give yourself enough time to complete the task. If you go ahead and are unrealistic with your milestone setting, or your goal setting, it will help you feel kind of unmotivated and overwhelmed, and then you won’t want to do the thing. So be careful when you are setting deadlines.

    And another thing you can do is find an accountability partner. This is someone who will motivate you to stick your goals and never get off track. Choose someone who has similar goals as working towards the same thing. You can meet up with your accountability partner regularly and check in with each other and offer support.

    Again, accountability is a necessary trait to have to help you sort of get things done. And so hopefully these tips have been helpful and will help you be more accountable for your actions.

    Thank you for listening. This is Janice at thecareerinrovert.com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    ]]>7065a175-45b0-444c-96f1-c42532925fe9Tue, 31 Jan 2023 12:00:00 -050005:25falsefull294294    Put Your Values Into ActionPut Your Values Into ActionHello and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today I want to talk about living by your core values. So, here’s the thing, hopefully, if I ask you, what are your core values? You have an idea of what those might be. Your personal core values are thing that you believe are most important in life. These principles guide and dictate how you live your life and how you make decisions. Developing your personal core values is a really important exercise that can help you clarify what is most important to you. Knowing your personal core values ensures that you commit better decisions, set boundaries and help you live a far more, sort of, authentic feeling in life. And so, if you don’t know what your core values are right now, that’s OKAY. There are ways to kind of, and I’m going to talk about ways to develop and to sort of help you live by your personal core values. And these might change over time. Don’t think that because you’ve OKAY, I’ve, I’ve got core values check, and I should live by them. They may change just because of the world around your things that happen. But first thing to do is clarify what’s most important to you.

    Developing your core values as an important first step. But how exactly do you accomplish this? Core values guide how you live your life and make decisions. There are many ways to develop your core values. One way is to think about what you believe in and what’s most important to you. What about, what do you stand for? What do you value most in life? Another way to think about developing your core values is to look at your past behavior. What principles have you consistently upheld in your life? Once you developed your personal core values, it’s really important to let them be, sort of north star, guide you. It’s important to live by them. And this means making decisions based on your values and setting. And setting boundaries based on your values and living in alignment with your values. This will help you make better decisions, right?

    One of the benefits of developing and living your personal core values is that it will help you make better decisions. When you know what your core values are, you can make decisions based on those values. They can help you avoid making decisions that are not in line or in tune with what’s most important to you and guide you down a different path. Decision making therefore becomes much easier when you know what you stand for. When you clearly understand your core values, you can use these to guide all your decision making and any decision-making process that you create. It can help making tough choices with confidence and clarity. Not only that, it helps you set boundaries. I’ve always talked about, as an introvert, how important boundaries are. And setting boundaries help you protect yourself from people and situations. It can help you identify relationships that are not healthy for you. If a relationship is not in line with your core values, it might be time to set some boundaries, or even end the relationship. And part of this is when you’re clear about what’s important to you, you then start to breathe life into those values that are quarter you and help you avoid your living a life that feels little off a little inauthentic or out of alignment with your values. And then for living within this alignment, you’ll find more meaning of purpose in your life. When you live a life that is true to your values, you’re more like to feel fulfilled and satisfied.

    Now, on the other side, living by your core values, can sometimes mean making sacrifices. For example, there may be a time where you must give something up because you want to uphold your values. This can be difficult sometimes, but it often necessary to help you live a life that is true to your values. And don’t get me wrong, not all sacrifices are equal. Some may be small, such as giving up a material possession, how the sacrifices such as giving up a relationship or a job might be far more...]]>Hello and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today I want to talk about living by your core values. So, here’s the thing, hopefully, if I ask you, what are your core values? You have an idea of what those might be. Your personal core values are thing that you believe are most important in life. These principles guide and dictate how you live your life and how you make decisions. Developing your personal core values is a really important exercise that can help you clarify what is most important to you. Knowing your personal core values ensures that you commit better decisions, set boundaries and help you live a far more, sort of, authentic feeling in life. And so, if you don’t know what your core values are right now, that’s OKAY. There are ways to kind of, and I’m going to talk about ways to develop and to sort of help you live by your personal core values. And these might change over time. Don’t think that because you’ve OKAY, I’ve, I’ve got core values check, and I should live by them. They may change just because of the world around your things that happen. But first thing to do is clarify what’s most important to you.

    Developing your core values as an important first step. But how exactly do you accomplish this? Core values guide how you live your life and make decisions. There are many ways to develop your core values. One way is to think about what you believe in and what’s most important to you. What about, what do you stand for? What do you value most in life? Another way to think about developing your core values is to look at your past behavior. What principles have you consistently upheld in your life? Once you developed your personal core values, it’s really important to let them be, sort of north star, guide you. It’s important to live by them. And this means making decisions based on your values and setting. And setting boundaries based on your values and living in alignment with your values. This will help you make better decisions, right?

    One of the benefits of developing and living your personal core values is that it will help you make better decisions. When you know what your core values are, you can make decisions based on those values. They can help you avoid making decisions that are not in line or in tune with what’s most important to you and guide you down a different path. Decision making therefore becomes much easier when you know what you stand for. When you clearly understand your core values, you can use these to guide all your decision making and any decision-making process that you create. It can help making tough choices with confidence and clarity. Not only that, it helps you set boundaries. I’ve always talked about, as an introvert, how important boundaries are. And setting boundaries help you protect yourself from people and situations. It can help you identify relationships that are not healthy for you. If a relationship is not in line with your core values, it might be time to set some boundaries, or even end the relationship. And part of this is when you’re clear about what’s important to you, you then start to breathe life into those values that are quarter you and help you avoid your living a life that feels little off a little inauthentic or out of alignment with your values. And then for living within this alignment, you’ll find more meaning of purpose in your life. When you live a life that is true to your values, you’re more like to feel fulfilled and satisfied.

    Now, on the other side, living by your core values, can sometimes mean making sacrifices. For example, there may be a time where you must give something up because you want to uphold your values. This can be difficult sometimes, but it often necessary to help you live a life that is true to your values. And don’t get me wrong, not all sacrifices are equal. Some may be small, such as giving up a material possession, how the sacrifices such as giving up a relationship or a job might be far more significant. But all sacrifices require you to give up something to live by your true values and stand by your values.

    Now, when you have these values and you know what they are on your crystal clear on them, there will be challenges. There will be occasions that prove difficult to uphold your values. You may be tempted to give up or cave in to pressure. But if you want to live by your values, you should be aware that these challenges will come up. They are not always negative. They can actually help you grow and become stronger. So even though challenges may be complex, they can ultimately help you lead a more fulfilling life. So just talking about that, these are ways that can support you in developing and living by your personal core values. And this, in return, were enabled you to lead a more fulfilling life.

    Thank you for listening. This is Janice at thecareerintrovert.com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    ]]>a7fc0f5c-4195-41da-adee-52b5e072c64fTue, 24 Jan 2023 12:00:00 -050005:39falsefull293293    Why Burnout is More Common Now Than Ever BeforeWhy Burnout is More Common Now Than Ever BeforeHello and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today, I’ve talked about Burnout in the past, but today I want to talk about why it is so common, the commonality of burnout, why almost every person that you talk to in a room will have experienced burnout in some way, shape or form, during their lifetime. And right now, more people the most probably experiencing burnout within the past two to three years.

    According to dictionary.com, burnout is a state of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion. And is categorized by feelings of doubt and disinterest. But most importantly, a decreased sense of accomplishment on achieving your goals. Burnout occurs when you feel like you are unable to meet the demands of your life, and you’re not getting the support that you needed to cope and carry on. And this is a problem that generally is caused by chronic stress.

    When you are under chronic stress, your body is in a constant fight or flight state. This can lead to physical symptoms such as headaches, insomnia, gastrointestional problems, intestinal problems. Sorry. Burnout may also lead to mental health problems such as anxiety and/or depression.

    Burnout has been coming increasingly common due to the demands of the life we live in right now. You’re expected to do more and be available far more than ever before. Technology, which is great, has made this possible for you to be connected 24/7. However, due to this, you are far more likely to take on too much, too much responsibility. And, don’t get me wrong, there’s never just one factor that contributes to burnout. But I’m going to talk about some of the most common ones.

    Unreasonable workloads. When you are given or have accepted, more work than you can reasonably handle, it can lead to feelings of overwhelm and then anxiety. And this sustained, so it becomes chronic, then will eventually lead to burnout. One of the other things could be a lack of control. It’s not uncommon to feel powerless in a job or life when things aren’t working out quite as planned. However, a lack of control can also lead to feelings of powerlessness and almost despair. And so, this can contribute to burnout. How long will these unrealistic expectations? What expectations are placed on you that are unreasonable, and therefore you cannot meet them? Also, there’s a flip side of that. These unrealistic expectations can lead to feelings of failure and inadequacy when things don’t work out as you thought they would, no matter if they were realistic or not.

    Another thing that can lead to burnout is poor work life balance. If you’re working too much and not taking enough time for yourself, it can lead to burnout. You need to try and set up your life in a way to provide time for you to relax and recharge and not be overworked, so you can avoid and/or recover from burnout. One area that is definitely overlooked when it comes to burnout is having a lack of social support. If you don’t have a support of network of peers, or accountability buddies, or a coach, or a mental and generally all of these things, it can be really tough to manage the stresses of life or your work. And this, along with some the way it works out, can lead you to feel isolated and lonely, which can also help trigger other negative emotions. And then you go in this downward spiral. So having that lack of emotional and social support can also lead to burnout.

    Then, here’s one that is very, very common in the workplace, is a lack of appreciation. It is so disheartening when you don’t feel appreciated for your efforts. And it’s possible if you are doing something and you don’t believe what you’re doing is valued, it will lead to a loss of enthusiasm and the belief that your labor is meaningless. And we all know that people leave bad managers, not bad jobs, but if you have a good manager and your job, makes you feel undervalue, you will still leave, or just be led to burnout, because you’re just tired.

    Then...]]>Hello and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today, I’ve talked about Burnout in the past, but today I want to talk about why it is so common, the commonality of burnout, why almost every person that you talk to in a room will have experienced burnout in some way, shape or form, during their lifetime. And right now, more people the most probably experiencing burnout within the past two to three years.

    According to dictionary.com, burnout is a state of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion. And is categorized by feelings of doubt and disinterest. But most importantly, a decreased sense of accomplishment on achieving your goals. Burnout occurs when you feel like you are unable to meet the demands of your life, and you’re not getting the support that you needed to cope and carry on. And this is a problem that generally is caused by chronic stress.

    When you are under chronic stress, your body is in a constant fight or flight state. This can lead to physical symptoms such as headaches, insomnia, gastrointestional problems, intestinal problems. Sorry. Burnout may also lead to mental health problems such as anxiety and/or depression.

    Burnout has been coming increasingly common due to the demands of the life we live in right now. You’re expected to do more and be available far more than ever before. Technology, which is great, has made this possible for you to be connected 24/7. However, due to this, you are far more likely to take on too much, too much responsibility. And, don’t get me wrong, there’s never just one factor that contributes to burnout. But I’m going to talk about some of the most common ones.

    Unreasonable workloads. When you are given or have accepted, more work than you can reasonably handle, it can lead to feelings of overwhelm and then anxiety. And this sustained, so it becomes chronic, then will eventually lead to burnout. One of the other things could be a lack of control. It’s not uncommon to feel powerless in a job or life when things aren’t working out quite as planned. However, a lack of control can also lead to feelings of powerlessness and almost despair. And so, this can contribute to burnout. How long will these unrealistic expectations? What expectations are placed on you that are unreasonable, and therefore you cannot meet them? Also, there’s a flip side of that. These unrealistic expectations can lead to feelings of failure and inadequacy when things don’t work out as you thought they would, no matter if they were realistic or not.

    Another thing that can lead to burnout is poor work life balance. If you’re working too much and not taking enough time for yourself, it can lead to burnout. You need to try and set up your life in a way to provide time for you to relax and recharge and not be overworked, so you can avoid and/or recover from burnout. One area that is definitely overlooked when it comes to burnout is having a lack of social support. If you don’t have a support of network of peers, or accountability buddies, or a coach, or a mental and generally all of these things, it can be really tough to manage the stresses of life or your work. And this, along with some the way it works out, can lead you to feel isolated and lonely, which can also help trigger other negative emotions. And then you go in this downward spiral. So having that lack of emotional and social support can also lead to burnout.

    Then, here’s one that is very, very common in the workplace, is a lack of appreciation. It is so disheartening when you don’t feel appreciated for your efforts. And it’s possible if you are doing something and you don’t believe what you’re doing is valued, it will lead to a loss of enthusiasm and the belief that your labor is meaningless. And we all know that people leave bad managers, not bad jobs, but if you have a good manager and your job, makes you feel undervalue, you will still leave, or just be led to burnout, because you’re just tired.

    Then there’s a conflict of values. When your personal values conflict with the values of your job, your organization, or your manager, have definitely had a client where their values were at odds with their manager. They just found it really hard to carry on. When you experience this conflict, it can be very stressful. A lack of value alignment will lead to a sense of a dissonance and frustration, which can lead to burnout, because you’ve always got this, this conflict happening. That is a definite stressor.

    Burnout is a serious problem that can profoundly impact your health and well-being. So, if you are struggling with burnout, or think you are struggling with burnout, please seek help and support to help overcome it.

    Thank you for listening. This is Janice at thecareerintrovert.com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of the week.

    ]]>e21d7241-40de-4ed0-802e-8249f0fc7523Tue, 17 Jan 2023 12:00:00 -050005:40falsefull292292    What pushing yourself could cost youWhat pushing yourself could cost you

    Hello and welcome to the travelling introvert. Today I want

    to talk about work, working hard. We have a habit of wanting to be always seen

    as working hard. And there's a difference between being a hard worker and

    always working hard.



    Working hard is often lauded as like the key to success. You

    must work hard, pull yourself up by your bootstrap, struggle through, keep

    going. And the thing is, there is levels and working too hard can actually be very

    bad for you. And there are a lot of different ways how overworking, more than

    working too hard, is bad for you and can negatively affect your life. If you

    want to be happy and balanced and successful, overworking isn't the way to go.



    You can do it in short sprints, but for long periods of time

    it's not the best thing to do because it can lead to burnout. When a person is

    burnt out, they might feel like they can't keep going, or they're not cut out

    for the demands of their job. However, burnout therefore can lead to

    absenteeism, lower productivity and increased risk of error. If you are

    experiencing burnout, take a step back and assess your work situation. You know

    what?



    Even if you're not experiencing burnout, take a step back

    and assess if your work situation is attainable. Are you taking on too much? Do

    you need more help? Are there changes that you can make to your work schedule,

    or your routine, or the way you do things to help you feel less overwhelmed, so

    you can recover from burnout? If you are overworked, you are more likely to get

    sick.



    Your immune system will eventually fail if you are

    constantly working hard and putting in long hours with very little breaks or rest

    or recharge time for both your body and your mind. When you don't have that

    time to relax and to recharge, your body is more susceptible to illness. And so,

    if you're constantly feeling run down, it might be time to assess your work

    schedule. And along the lines of overworking and getting sick, you're also more

    likely to get injured. If you are overworking your body when you are tired,

    your reflexes are slower. And because of this, there are more accidents just

    waiting to happen.



    So, if you become aware that you are getting sick or hurt

    more often than usual, maybe take a look and maybe it's time to cut back on

    your working hours if you can. Now, along with the fact that you are more

    likely to get injured and sick and feel burnout, because of all of these things

    compounded, you are much more likely to make mistakes. When you are exhausted

    and overworked, focusing and paying attention to detail is harder. And many

    people sort of drink a lot of coffee to try and combat that. And that might

    work in small doses, but over a long period of time it's just going to keep

    building up. You're going to find it harder and harder to pay attention. And as

    a result, you are more likely to make mistakes, not just at work, but during

    your life in general.



    You might be slower to make that turn when you're driving.

    You might be slower to see someone. And that's how accidents happen. And we

    already talked about getting sick and getting injured and so accidents, and

    accidents is when you make a mistake. If you're making a lot more errors, you

    are therefore costing your company money.



    And so maybe it's time to rethink how much you are working.

    And because of all of these things and so many other things that kind of

    combine when you are overworked for long periods of time, if you are working

    all the time, when do you have time to actually enjoy your life? When...]]>

    Hello and welcome to the travelling introvert. Today I want

    to talk about work, working hard. We have a habit of wanting to be always seen

    as working hard. And there's a difference between being a hard worker and

    always working hard.



    Working hard is often lauded as like the key to success. You

    must work hard, pull yourself up by your bootstrap, struggle through, keep

    going. And the thing is, there is levels and working too hard can actually be very

    bad for you. And there are a lot of different ways how overworking, more than

    working too hard, is bad for you and can negatively affect your life. If you

    want to be happy and balanced and successful, overworking isn't the way to go.



    You can do it in short sprints, but for long periods of time

    it's not the best thing to do because it can lead to burnout. When a person is

    burnt out, they might feel like they can't keep going, or they're not cut out

    for the demands of their job. However, burnout therefore can lead to

    absenteeism, lower productivity and increased risk of error. If you are

    experiencing burnout, take a step back and assess your work situation. You know

    what?



    Even if you're not experiencing burnout, take a step back

    and assess if your work situation is attainable. Are you taking on too much? Do

    you need more help? Are there changes that you can make to your work schedule,

    or your routine, or the way you do things to help you feel less overwhelmed, so

    you can recover from burnout? If you are overworked, you are more likely to get

    sick.



    Your immune system will eventually fail if you are

    constantly working hard and putting in long hours with very little breaks or rest

    or recharge time for both your body and your mind. When you don't have that

    time to relax and to recharge, your body is more susceptible to illness. And so,

    if you're constantly feeling run down, it might be time to assess your work

    schedule. And along the lines of overworking and getting sick, you're also more

    likely to get injured. If you are overworking your body when you are tired,

    your reflexes are slower. And because of this, there are more accidents just

    waiting to happen.



    So, if you become aware that you are getting sick or hurt

    more often than usual, maybe take a look and maybe it's time to cut back on

    your working hours if you can. Now, along with the fact that you are more

    likely to get injured and sick and feel burnout, because of all of these things

    compounded, you are much more likely to make mistakes. When you are exhausted

    and overworked, focusing and paying attention to detail is harder. And many

    people sort of drink a lot of coffee to try and combat that. And that might

    work in small doses, but over a long period of time it's just going to keep

    building up. You're going to find it harder and harder to pay attention. And as

    a result, you are more likely to make mistakes, not just at work, but during

    your life in general.



    You might be slower to make that turn when you're driving.

    You might be slower to see someone. And that's how accidents happen. And we

    already talked about getting sick and getting injured and so accidents, and

    accidents is when you make a mistake. If you're making a lot more errors, you

    are therefore costing your company money.



    And so maybe it's time to rethink how much you are working.

    And because of all of these things and so many other things that kind of

    combine when you are overworked for long periods of time, if you are working

    all the time, when do you have time to actually enjoy your life? When you're

    constantly hustling, it's super easy to forget what brings you joy. So, if

    you're feeling unhappy and unfulfilled, it might be time to reassess just how

    much work you are taking on, and how hard you are working. No one can tell you

    what your balance is.



    You yourself need to find your unique balance between working

    and playing and being successful and feeling happy. And it doesn't always look

    like inequality on a scale, it works for you and your particular needs.

    However, working too hard can and will harm your health.  So, take time for yourself. Relax and recharge

    or you will end up burning out.



    Thank you for listening. This is Janice at thecareerintrovert.com,

    helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    ]]>ed4ac90d-86fe-4964-84cd-c84f23fa4787Tue, 10 Jan 2023 12:00:00 -050005:30falsefull291291    Career Conversations with David HallCareer Conversations with David HallWhat Is Introversion?


    This is the tendency of turning

    inward more. Introverts spend most of their time analyzing what happening o

    them and around them. They are more in touch with their feeling and the

    feelings of others. They take time to energize and recharge in their lives.

    They also need people in their lives unlike what most people think. It is only

    that it is different for them. They just need a balance.

    Journey into learning oneself


    Most introverts at an early age,

    think something is wrong with them. They tend to be extroverts only because it

    does not work for them.  There is this

    one point that people forget, Introverts Think then speak while extroverts

    speak to think. Understanding this will make you understand more about these

    two people. Introverts will tend not to note their surrounding as most of the

    time they are in their heads.

    Their behaviors come to them

    naturally. Most books that are out there, there were written for extroverts

    rather than introverts. It's not true to think that introverts generally want

    to be alone.  They just do not like

    excessive exposure to many people. They like a controlled environment.

    Time Management


    Introverts need to have order in

    their lives. The best thing that they do is have a calendar and plan about what

    they will be doing. This is unlike most extroverts who just wing it. The

    calendar happens to bring order into most introverts' worlds in the corporate

    world.

    Misconception about podcasting


    Most people tend to think that

    podcasts are just for introverts. This is far from the truth. Podcasting is for

    almost everybody.


    Scary Things for an introverts


    Putting yourself out there is the

    hardest thing for most introverts. Introverts need to be understood more in

    society. A study has shown that the number of introverts is 50% of any

    population but for some reason, the actual number is shown to be lower. This

    recent study just shows that introverts need to be heard more.

     


    Find David on


    quietandstrong.com

    ]]>    What Is Introversion?


    This is the tendency of turning

    inward more. Introverts spend most of their time analyzing what happening o

    them and around them. They are more in touch with their feeling and the

    feelings of others. They take time to energize and recharge in their lives.

    They also need people in their lives unlike what most people think. It is only

    that it is different for them. They just need a balance.

    Journey into learning oneself


    Most introverts at an early age,

    think something is wrong with them. They tend to be extroverts only because it

    does not work for them.  There is this

    one point that people forget, Introverts Think then speak while extroverts

    speak to think. Understanding this will make you understand more about these

    two people. Introverts will tend not to note their surrounding as most of the

    time they are in their heads.

    Their behaviors come to them

    naturally. Most books that are out there, there were written for extroverts

    rather than introverts. It's not true to think that introverts generally want

    to be alone.  They just do not like

    excessive exposure to many people. They like a controlled environment.

    Time Management


    Introverts need to have order in

    their lives. The best thing that they do is have a calendar and plan about what

    they will be doing. This is unlike most extroverts who just wing it. The

    calendar happens to bring order into most introverts' worlds in the corporate

    world.

    Misconception about podcasting


    Most people tend to think that

    podcasts are just for introverts. This is far from the truth. Podcasting is for

    almost everybody.


    Scary Things for an introverts


    Putting yourself out there is the

    hardest thing for most introverts. Introverts need to be understood more in

    society. A study has shown that the number of introverts is 50% of any

    population but for some reason, the actual number is shown to be lower. This

    recent study just shows that introverts need to be heard more.

     


    Find David on


    quietandstrong.com

    ]]>    2fec24e3-ef4f-4da9-a36b-1a3ef38ecee2Tue, 03 Jan 2023 12:00:00 -050019:14falsefull290290    Career Conversations with Angie BatesCareer Conversations with Angie BatesThis is a bonus episode for national introvert day

    Introversion


    These are the kind of people who are more comfortable alone

    or in a room of people who are hardly interacting with each other. As for

    Angela, she might be an Ambivert which is a person who has a balance of both

    introvert and extrovert. This highly depends on the circumstance or setting.

    Job Recruitment


    HR professionals have more to them than what we see. They

    have to make decisions for the company and keep the company alive from the

    sidelines. There is a misconception that HR is just for recruiting and protecting

    the company.

    In a company, the HR manager should be able to make

    decisions based on the information got from both the company's side and the

    worker's side. This is very important since in some cases there are wrongful

    terminations.

    Habits


    Regular habits are very important in a person's life. Some

    habits are hard to break but others are not even worth breaking. These habits

    are the ones that help us in life, may it be meditation, reading, and more.

    These habits will one way or another define who we are in life.

    Angie can be found on LinkedIn at

    linkedin.com/in/-angelabates.

    ]]>    This is a bonus episode for national introvert day

    Introversion


    These are the kind of people who are more comfortable alone

    or in a room of people who are hardly interacting with each other. As for

    Angela, she might be an Ambivert which is a person who has a balance of both

    introvert and extrovert. This highly depends on the circumstance or setting.

    Job Recruitment


    HR professionals have more to them than what we see. They

    have to make decisions for the company and keep the company alive from the

    sidelines. There is a misconception that HR is just for recruiting and protecting

    the company.

    In a company, the HR manager should be able to make

    decisions based on the information got from both the company's side and the

    worker's side. This is very important since in some cases there are wrongful

    terminations.

    Habits


    Regular habits are very important in a person's life. Some

    habits are hard to break but others are not even worth breaking. These habits

    are the ones that help us in life, may it be meditation, reading, and more.

    These habits will one way or another define who we are in life.

    Angie can be found on LinkedIn at

    linkedin.com/in/-angelabates.

    ]]>    1dfb634f-999d-4273-b275-e84065680ce8Mon, 02 Jan 2023 12:00:00 -050022:59falsebonus289289    Beyond Stress; Burnout Is More ComplicatedBeyond Stress; Burnout Is More ComplicatedSpeaker 1 (00:01)

    Hello and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today I want to talk about burnout. I know I talk about this a lot, but for this particular episode, I want to talk about the fact that burnout is not just about being stressed out. I was having a conversation with a client recently and they we're talking about the end of the year and list of stuff to do and just general stuff to do and having projects in mind and what are you going to do next year? And the usual stuff that happens around this time of year, which happens to be the end of the year, in case you're listening at some other time.

    Speaker 1 (00:43)

    And I mentioned that, hey, maybe you don't want to do anything for the next month because you're showing signs of burnout. And the response was like, yeah, but this is the least stressed job I've ever had. How could I possibly be displaying signs of burnout? And so there was a couple of things that were interesting. One, that because they said they were very used to being in very toxic work cultures where they were stretched pretty thin.

    Speaker 1 (01:14)

    Chain of all trades was the phrase used, and how they were everything to everybody and therefore they were used to being in a very stressful environment and that was a past job and now they're in a new job and it's been the least stressed they've been this job is less stressful. And so I made a statement, actually, which was stress doesn't equal burnout. I understand that you are no longer in a toxic as toxic or a different type of toxic work environment, but you are still currently in a toxic work environment. It's just a different type of toxic. You know that frog that's in boiling water and it's fine, it's fine, it's fine.


    Speaker 1 (01:55)

    It really isn't because it's killing the frog. The frog gets out, but it's just jumped into a pan that the water isn't boiling yet, it's still warm, it's still bad for the frog, but the frog thinks it's fine because it's not as bad as the other pot. So a lot of people get confused and think that when you're talking about burnout, it's just about how stressed and overwhelmed you are. And that's not always the case. Yes, definitely, burnout can come from stress, but burnout can come from so many other areas.


    Speaker 1 (Speaker 1 (00:01)

    Hello and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today I want to talk about burnout. I know I talk about this a lot, but for this particular episode, I want to talk about the fact that burnout is not just about being stressed out. I was having a conversation with a client recently and they we're talking about the end of the year and list of stuff to do and just general stuff to do and having projects in mind and what are you going to do next year? And the usual stuff that happens around this time of year, which happens to be the end of the year, in case you're listening at some other time.

    Speaker 1 (00:43)

    And I mentioned that, hey, maybe you don't want to do anything for the next month because you're showing signs of burnout. And the response was like, yeah, but this is the least stressed job I've ever had. How could I possibly be displaying signs of burnout? And so there was a couple of things that were interesting. One, that because they said they were very used to being in very toxic work cultures where they were stretched pretty thin.

    Speaker 1 (01:14)

    Chain of all trades was the phrase used, and how they were everything to everybody and therefore they were used to being in a very stressful environment and that was a past job and now they're in a new job and it's been the least stressed they've been this job is less stressful. And so I made a statement, actually, which was stress doesn't equal burnout. I understand that you are no longer in a toxic as toxic or a different type of toxic work environment, but you are still currently in a toxic work environment. It's just a different type of toxic. You know that frog that's in boiling water and it's fine, it's fine, it's fine.


    Speaker 1 (01:55)

    It really isn't because it's killing the frog. The frog gets out, but it's just jumped into a pan that the water isn't boiling yet, it's still warm, it's still bad for the frog, but the frog thinks it's fine because it's not as bad as the other pot. So a lot of people get confused and think that when you're talking about burnout, it's just about how stressed and overwhelmed you are. And that's not always the case. Yes, definitely, burnout can come from stress, but burnout can come from so many other areas.


    Speaker 1 (02:26)

    Burnout can come from having to make too many decisions every day for an extended period of time. This is one of the reasons why moving house can be extremely stressful. It's not the fact that your moving house and going to new space that is normally joyful, but having to make decisions of do I keep something? Do I throw it away? Do I give it to charity?


    Speaker 1 (02:45)

    What do I do with it? Having to do that for each and every item in your house is exhausting because we only have so much cognitive function to make decisions per day. Another thing is when you are in constant conflict, even if it's microconflict, this is something that happens a lot to people of colour. They are always experiencing microaggressions, right? That can be wearing, that can grind you down, that can lead to burnout, that can lead to you feeling very angry all the time.


    Speaker 1 (03:15)

    Another thing could be just disagreeing with the values that you have, don't aren't in line with your manager's values or your company's values and fighting that all the time can be wearing. Having a person in your team that is always that squeaky wheel and not necessarily in a good way, that's always going behind your back or backstabbing or you're always waiting for them to say something nasty that is grinding on you and that could lead to burnout. Because you're dealing with this negative emotion constantly and fighting it, and it takes extra energy that you don't have. Burnout can come and I'm not even then talking about like a physical burnout. Burnout can come from so many different things in so many different ways that don't think that just because you're not stressed, and I'm putting this in air quotes, stressed, doesn't mean that you cannot be experiencing burnout.


    Speaker 1 (04:12)

    So just stop and think for a minute, oh, hey, maybe I am wicked tired, maybe I am experiencing a form of burnout and what can I do to neutralise that or get myself better? And don't think that it's just do one thing and for a week and that'll be fine. No, this is something that needs to be worked on on a regular basis and with thought and intention.


    Speaker 1 (04:40)

    So please move forward with your life with the intention of dissipating or getting rid of or getting better from burnout. Thank you for listening. This is Janice at The Career Introvert, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    ]]>66f3cdd9-c4ed-472e-9077-bbc330361df0Tue, 27 Dec 2022 12:00:00 -050005:17falsefull288288    The red flag of work life blendingThe red flag of work life blendingSpeaker 1 (00:01)

    Hello, and welcome to the travelling introvert. Today I'm gonna talk about work life blending. So I was talking with a client the other day and this this conversation happened where they mentioned that a key executive of the organisation that they work with, they were at a leadership conference conference and this particular executive was like I don't want to talk about work life balance, I want to talk about work life blending. And this particular executive mentioned that even while they're on vacation, they made sure that they took an hour a day to look at their emails this way. They felt that they continued to be in the loop and also didn't feel the stress of having to play catch up when they came back after their vacation.

    Speaker 1 (00:53)

    So any organisation that mentions work life blending should be a huge screaming red flag. Work life blending to the point where you are always thinking about work unless you're like you're a founder, I get that, but you're just a director of an organisation or a manager of an organisation. Work life blending should not be something that your organisation talks about at their leadership conference. To the point because then the question there's a couple of questions here because when there is work life blending and you are taking an hour or two of each day of your PTO, in some countries that means you are actually working that day. That is not PTO.


    Speaker 1 (01:46)

    So what happens to that extra hour of PTO? Does it go back in your PTO bank? What goes on there? Also, this probably means that you are taking your work laptop with you on vacation. You could be working in a country that you're not supposed to be working in.


    Speaker 1 (02:07)

    Also it could mean that you have your work emails on your phone if you have a bring your own device policy connecting to an unsafe WiFi network, possibly while you are on vacation. Doubt you were going through the company VPN, but that's a different conversation to be had. The more important conversation is if any organisation tells you that they are all for work life blending run away.


    Speaker 1 (02:40)

    Work should not bleed into every aspect of your life, it sets. And the fact that there's an executive saying this means now that]]>Speaker 1 (00:01)

    Hello, and welcome to the travelling introvert. Today I'm gonna talk about work life blending. So I was talking with a client the other day and this this conversation happened where they mentioned that a key executive of the organisation that they work with, they were at a leadership conference conference and this particular executive was like I don't want to talk about work life balance, I want to talk about work life blending. And this particular executive mentioned that even while they're on vacation, they made sure that they took an hour a day to look at their emails this way. They felt that they continued to be in the loop and also didn't feel the stress of having to play catch up when they came back after their vacation.

    Speaker 1 (00:53)

    So any organisation that mentions work life blending should be a huge screaming red flag. Work life blending to the point where you are always thinking about work unless you're like you're a founder, I get that, but you're just a director of an organisation or a manager of an organisation. Work life blending should not be something that your organisation talks about at their leadership conference. To the point because then the question there's a couple of questions here because when there is work life blending and you are taking an hour or two of each day of your PTO, in some countries that means you are actually working that day. That is not PTO.


    Speaker 1 (01:46)

    So what happens to that extra hour of PTO? Does it go back in your PTO bank? What goes on there? Also, this probably means that you are taking your work laptop with you on vacation. You could be working in a country that you're not supposed to be working in.


    Speaker 1 (02:07)

    Also it could mean that you have your work emails on your phone if you have a bring your own device policy connecting to an unsafe WiFi network, possibly while you are on vacation. Doubt you were going through the company VPN, but that's a different conversation to be had. The more important conversation is if any organisation tells you that they are all for work life blending run away.


    Speaker 1 (02:40)

    Work should not bleed into every aspect of your life, it sets. And the fact that there's an executive saying this means now that at a leadership summit means that now all the leaders are very much like oh, so I guess I need to put work email on my phone now and respond at all hours of the day or at least as quickly as possible. But this shows an inherent lack of planning and a lot of organisations do this. They don't have a plan for what to do when someone goes on vacation. How is their workload distributed?


    Speaker 1 (03:17)

    What happens to their email when they come back? Is it a soft landing or a hard landing? Most people come back and they're dreading the hundreds of emails that are going to be in their mailbox. Is there a way to mitigate that? Is there a way to let people know far enough in advance that they're going to be on vacation?


    Speaker 1 (03:35)

    Therefore they should email somebody else having a backup, making sure that backup human is trained on whatever has to happen next. Or very much like this person's on vacation for a week, everything else is going to be on pause. So this other person isn't overloaded just because someone is on vacation. It's all about workload balance. It's a workload balance and a lot of managers and organisations don't even think about it.


    Speaker 1 (04:04)

    And it's something that is really, really important. Also, when people go on maternity leave, if you have maternity leave and you go, what happens? Do the rest of your team just get overloaded? Does the work get spread out and do people get extra time off? What happens?


    Speaker 1 (04:17)

    It's all about the planning and organisations are really good for planning about when they get work and projects, but not for when people have to need to deserve to take time off. So companies out there, I challenge you, show me your plans, what you do when people take time off, whether it's expected or unexpected, what do you have in the pipeline? What do you have as a plan, as an SOP, as a guideline for what happens when people take the time off they deserve and they need to come back and be productive for your organisation. Thank you for listening. This is Janice, at, the career introvert, helping you build your brand and get hired.


    Speaker 1 (05:00)

    Have a great rest of your week.

    ]]>e123db0d-d83f-4e7b-b888-08a025aa7a42Tue, 20 Dec 2022 12:00:00 -050005:24falsefull287287    Are you a workaholicAre you a workaholicHello and welcome to the the the Traveling introvert going

    to talk about workaholics. And the reason I want to talk about workaholics is

    because so many of us come and live in a workaholic environment. And we might

    not think about it, but you probably grew up or working in a workaholic culture

    or maybe a family or even your business that you've almost self imposed on

    yourself that you are now a workaholic. And what do I mean by a workaholic? And

    my question to you would be when was the last time you left work on time?


    When was the last time you didn't take your laptop on

    vacation with you? When was the last time you didn't have your work emails on

    your phone and then you were checking every time there was a ping? It is so

    easy these days with the expected 24 hours access and people expecting you to

    respond very quickly, that we become workaholics. And for introverts it's even

    worse because part of that workaholic culture means that you do not have

    downtime or recharge time or creative brain time or just time to help prevent

    burnout and zoom fatigue. So thinking about your average work day or work week,

    what does that look like?



    One thing that some people do is every day they look at

    their calendar and they try and make sure they have no more than say, two or 4

    hours of meetings on their calendar. Because, let's be honest, how much are you

    really concentrating if you have more than 4 hours of meetings or conversations

    on your calendar? Some people go for four day work weeks, so they preserve maybe

    a Wednesday or maybe a Friday morning or a Monday afternoon. So they can do

    deep, focused work or just have free time for anything that might pop up. What

    about vacation?



    I know that a lot of people do have very limited vacation

    depending on where they're living, but how can you strategically use that

    vacation to get what you need as a human and what this all comes down to? And

    sort of also how often do you cheque your email? How frequently do you respond

    to people immediately? All of these things tend to be because we have a lack of

    limits and guardrails and boundaries without limits in a fully flexible, remote

    first environment, it is super, super easy just to keep on working and to be

    working constantly. Not consistently, constantly, especially if you've grown up

    in a school with a university, with people around you and your family and the

    culture that is workaholics related.



    You might obsess over your client designs, you might obsess

    over your clients, you might obsess over the project that you're doing. And it

    feels great until it doesn't. Because without guardrails and boundaries and

    limitations, you're more than likely to work 8910, 1112, 14, 15 hours a day.

    And when I say work, is it going to be quality work or is it going to be work

    under stress and dress. And when you're tired, when you work these kind of

    days, you're not giving yourself time to be sick, to take a break, just to

    breathe, to give your eyes a rest from the screen.



    There's things that we don't do. So clear limits to meetings

    and work hours, helps prevent burnout, helps prevent zoom fatigue, helps

    prevent you from doing harm to yourself. You need clear limits and boundaries.

    Most people are way more productive and focused when they have a self imposed

    boundaries, limitations, maybe even a condensed schedule. And sure, you might

    not always achieve that goal of having no meeting Monday, but if you do it,

    more than not, you will see the benefits.



    You need to be intentional about putting in these

    guardrails. You need to be intentional about...]]>Hello and welcome to the the the Traveling introvert going

    to talk about workaholics. And the reason I want to talk about workaholics is

    because so many of us come and live in a workaholic environment. And we might

    not think about it, but you probably grew up or working in a workaholic culture

    or maybe a family or even your business that you've almost self imposed on

    yourself that you are now a workaholic. And what do I mean by a workaholic? And

    my question to you would be when was the last time you left work on time?


    When was the last time you didn't take your laptop on

    vacation with you? When was the last time you didn't have your work emails on

    your phone and then you were checking every time there was a ping? It is so

    easy these days with the expected 24 hours access and people expecting you to

    respond very quickly, that we become workaholics. And for introverts it's even

    worse because part of that workaholic culture means that you do not have

    downtime or recharge time or creative brain time or just time to help prevent

    burnout and zoom fatigue. So thinking about your average work day or work week,

    what does that look like?



    One thing that some people do is every day they look at

    their calendar and they try and make sure they have no more than say, two or 4

    hours of meetings on their calendar. Because, let's be honest, how much are you

    really concentrating if you have more than 4 hours of meetings or conversations

    on your calendar? Some people go for four day work weeks, so they preserve maybe

    a Wednesday or maybe a Friday morning or a Monday afternoon. So they can do

    deep, focused work or just have free time for anything that might pop up. What

    about vacation?



    I know that a lot of people do have very limited vacation

    depending on where they're living, but how can you strategically use that

    vacation to get what you need as a human and what this all comes down to? And

    sort of also how often do you cheque your email? How frequently do you respond

    to people immediately? All of these things tend to be because we have a lack of

    limits and guardrails and boundaries without limits in a fully flexible, remote

    first environment, it is super, super easy just to keep on working and to be

    working constantly. Not consistently, constantly, especially if you've grown up

    in a school with a university, with people around you and your family and the

    culture that is workaholics related.



    You might obsess over your client designs, you might obsess

    over your clients, you might obsess over the project that you're doing. And it

    feels great until it doesn't. Because without guardrails and boundaries and

    limitations, you're more than likely to work 8910, 1112, 14, 15 hours a day.

    And when I say work, is it going to be quality work or is it going to be work

    under stress and dress. And when you're tired, when you work these kind of

    days, you're not giving yourself time to be sick, to take a break, just to

    breathe, to give your eyes a rest from the screen.



    There's things that we don't do. So clear limits to meetings

    and work hours, helps prevent burnout, helps prevent zoom fatigue, helps

    prevent you from doing harm to yourself. You need clear limits and boundaries.

    Most people are way more productive and focused when they have a self imposed

    boundaries, limitations, maybe even a condensed schedule. And sure, you might

    not always achieve that goal of having no meeting Monday, but if you do it,

    more than not, you will see the benefits.



    You need to be intentional about putting in these

    guardrails. You need to be intentional about setting these boundaries each

    week, each day, to ensure balance and focus productivity without wasted time.

    And a lot of it can be done with asynchronous sort of practises, but just

    something to think about. Are you a workaholic? Thank you for listening.



    This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your

    brand and get higher. Have a great rest of your week.



    ]]>f07a50c8-c07e-41ff-b5e3-0709d52d53d8Tue, 13 Dec 2022 12:00:00 -050005:23falsefull286286    Introvert cruisingIntrovert cruisingHello and welcome to the travelling introvert. I'm going to

    do a travel episode. It's been a while, there's some less travelling going on,

    but I want to talk about cruise ships. I have being on one, I'm contemplating

    going on another and I have many people asking me and I see a lot of videos

    also going on about well, the extroverted people will want to do all the

    partying and the introverted people, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah

    and generally not covering the information that you want about cruises. What I

    will say is that most cruise lines do what is called sort of traditional

    dining, where you are sat at the same table every night with random humans.


    If that is not something that you are into for various

    reasons. I recommend NCL because you can eat at any time and anywhere and or

    virgin except for the Korean barbecue place because you can go and eat when you

    want. Where you want and you are not forced to sit and socialise with complete

    strangers who you may or may not like for the duration of your cruise. One

    thing I will say about cruise ships is there a lot of hidden nooks and crannies

    where you can just sit and read a book and no one will bother you or just watch

    the water go by.



    People may games rooms are extremely popular, definitely

    made friends in the games rooms. If you are a solo cruiser, there is a lot of

    cruise ships that do solo supplement. There are quite a few that now aren't and

    are definitely creating environments that are really good for solo.



    I've got solo surfers in my mind and I know that's not the

    right word for solo travellers. And one thing that would be great if you just

    want to get away and have some peace and quiet, there's definitely the spa

    option within a lot of the cruise ships so you can get a day pass and you just

    go and you go from hot tub to sauna to steam room to just lounging around and

    that's a great recharge thing to do. And there's generally no children allowed

    in those areas as well. If you are into trying different types of cocktails,

    that is one huge plus point for maybe all inclusive places, but also on cruise

    ships because you've already possibly bought a beverage package. You can go and

    try things that you wouldn't normally try or you're not sure about or any of

    the above and you can go and sit and have a cocktail or a beverage or try

    something in any way that you want or take it back to your room and enjoy the

    water.



    I highly recommend getting a balcony just because when you

    want to recharge, you get to go and you still get to enjoy being outside

    without necessarily being outside with a bunch of people. Having said that,

    most cruise ships are large enough that there are little nooks and crannies

    where you can sit and watch the water and not interact with other humans if you

    don't need to. But you also have the option of interacting with humans in a way

    that you have control over, which is incredibly nice. But being able to try all

    sorts of food, being able to drink all sorts of drinks and there's games,

    there's arcades, there's all sorts of things to do when you want to recharge

    and be by yourself and there's lots of things to do with other humans. It's

    kind of like a staycation, but a floating staycation.



    I've probably talked about staycations before, where you

    would go and stay at a hotel, maybe in the town that you live in or maybe the

    next town over if you want to get some work done or you just want to recharge

    or you just want to treat yourself. And so this is a different version of that

    that just happens to be floating and maybe you get to travel to a couple...]]>Hello and welcome to the travelling introvert. I'm going to

    do a travel episode. It's been a while, there's some less travelling going on,

    but I want to talk about cruise ships. I have being on one, I'm contemplating

    going on another and I have many people asking me and I see a lot of videos

    also going on about well, the extroverted people will want to do all the

    partying and the introverted people, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah

    and generally not covering the information that you want about cruises. What I

    will say is that most cruise lines do what is called sort of traditional

    dining, where you are sat at the same table every night with random humans.


    If that is not something that you are into for various

    reasons. I recommend NCL because you can eat at any time and anywhere and or

    virgin except for the Korean barbecue place because you can go and eat when you

    want. Where you want and you are not forced to sit and socialise with complete

    strangers who you may or may not like for the duration of your cruise. One

    thing I will say about cruise ships is there a lot of hidden nooks and crannies

    where you can just sit and read a book and no one will bother you or just watch

    the water go by.



    People may games rooms are extremely popular, definitely

    made friends in the games rooms. If you are a solo cruiser, there is a lot of

    cruise ships that do solo supplement. There are quite a few that now aren't and

    are definitely creating environments that are really good for solo.



    I've got solo surfers in my mind and I know that's not the

    right word for solo travellers. And one thing that would be great if you just

    want to get away and have some peace and quiet, there's definitely the spa

    option within a lot of the cruise ships so you can get a day pass and you just

    go and you go from hot tub to sauna to steam room to just lounging around and

    that's a great recharge thing to do. And there's generally no children allowed

    in those areas as well. If you are into trying different types of cocktails,

    that is one huge plus point for maybe all inclusive places, but also on cruise

    ships because you've already possibly bought a beverage package. You can go and

    try things that you wouldn't normally try or you're not sure about or any of

    the above and you can go and sit and have a cocktail or a beverage or try

    something in any way that you want or take it back to your room and enjoy the

    water.



    I highly recommend getting a balcony just because when you

    want to recharge, you get to go and you still get to enjoy being outside

    without necessarily being outside with a bunch of people. Having said that,

    most cruise ships are large enough that there are little nooks and crannies

    where you can sit and watch the water and not interact with other humans if you

    don't need to. But you also have the option of interacting with humans in a way

    that you have control over, which is incredibly nice. But being able to try all

    sorts of food, being able to drink all sorts of drinks and there's games,

    there's arcades, there's all sorts of things to do when you want to recharge

    and be by yourself and there's lots of things to do with other humans. It's

    kind of like a staycation, but a floating staycation.



    I've probably talked about staycations before, where you

    would go and stay at a hotel, maybe in the town that you live in or maybe the

    next town over if you want to get some work done or you just want to recharge

    or you just want to treat yourself. And so this is a different version of that

    that just happens to be floating and maybe you get to travel to a couple of

    different islands while you are at it, even if you are travelling with another

    human being or with a group of people. The great thing is that as long as you

    have your own room, you all can do things together and then you can separate

    and come back and do things in your room or somewhere else and then agree at a

    time to meet, to then have dinner or lunch or games or whatever it might be. It

    is great for groups of friends as well. I am definitely looking forward to I

    think I'm probably going to book another one and to see how that goes.



    A lot of cruise ships have a big central area that tends to

    be very, very noisy. However, the Virgin Cruises, apart from being out, only

    have lots of different smaller areas within one big area, how they've described

    it as a yachtlike experience, but on a cruise ship. So I'm curious how that

    works out. That's just a little bit of random information about cruising if you

    are an introvert and or a solo travelling. So thank you for listening.



    This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com, helping you build your

    brand and get hired and recharge. Have a great rest of your week.



    ]]>08ee58a5-8eb6-4d85-9584-cd530c644cf2Tue, 06 Dec 2022 12:00:00 -050005:28falsefull285285    Tips on dealing with difficult peopleTips on dealing with difficult peopleHello and welcome to the not so travelling introvert. Today

    I'm going to talk about dealing with difficult people or more to the point, how

    to tips for dealing with difficult people. No matter where you go in the world

    world you will find difficult people and difficult to you might be what's not

    difficult. For me, difficult can mean various things and while we go out in the

    world and maybe we socialise and socialising is a beneficial activity that most

    people look forward to, it can also come with a lot of stress as there are many

    difficult people that you have to deal with out there in the world. Just about

    anything you do will require dealing with humans and some of those humans will

    be difficult at some point from colleagues at work to the people you cross on

    the way.


    While fulfilling simple everyday errands like grocery

    shopping. Dealing with difficult people is frustrating, stressful and can be

    downright eggsofting, so there are things that you can do to help deal with

    them. And so I want to talk about six tips on how you can make it easier to

    deal with difficult people. Don't have high expectations. Don't expect anything

    from anyone but yourself.



    You can't control others no matter how destructive or

    difficult they may be. So lowering your expectations decreases your stress and

    allows you to keep control where you can. If you expect nothing then you don't

    need to waste your time worrying about what ifs. Stay calm and recognise the

    fans. Unfortunately, some situations will require you to work with or be around

    difficult humans.



    Avoiding them will not work in these situations, so instead

    focus on the facts and data and always draw attention to that. Don't add your

    emotions to the situation and be as calm and direct as you can be. Using facts

    and data to your advantage puts most difficult humans to rest as their only

    trying to cause a fuss and don't have supporting facts to help. You can also

    practise assertive communication. So assertive communication can be direct and

    clear about your boundaries while also being respectful of the needs of others

    as well.



    This helps difficult humans understand that while you have

    boundaries, so do other people. And so you should respect other people's

    boundaries as much as you should hope that they would respect yours. Another

    thing you could do is maybe find common ground. Many times there are situations

    where you can find that common ground that makes it easier to cope with a

    difficult human. For example, when you're completing an important work assignment,

    both parties have the goal to get the work done and hopefully get to the work

    done well.



    So putting your differences aside and focusing on that goal

    is one of the best ways that you can hope to get the work done successfully.

    Another thing you could practise maybe is ignoring their demands or negative

    responses. Difficult humans want to get under your skin and cause a reaction.

    So don't allow this to happen. Simply ignore them and don't give them that

    pleasure to gain control over you and your emotions.



    Overall, their opinion or idea of you is really none of your

    business or important to where your life is going. This is only a temporary

    moment of your life and you have control over your body and mind not to

    respond. Sometimes the best response is none at all and you can avoid defensive

    and negative behaviour. Don't respond poorly. Take responsibility for the

    situation and your actions and reflect on the more you reflect on that other

    person's behaviour, the worse the interaction will...]]>Hello and welcome to the not so travelling introvert. Today

    I'm going to talk about dealing with difficult people or more to the point, how

    to tips for dealing with difficult people. No matter where you go in the world

    world you will find difficult people and difficult to you might be what's not

    difficult. For me, difficult can mean various things and while we go out in the

    world and maybe we socialise and socialising is a beneficial activity that most

    people look forward to, it can also come with a lot of stress as there are many

    difficult people that you have to deal with out there in the world. Just about

    anything you do will require dealing with humans and some of those humans will

    be difficult at some point from colleagues at work to the people you cross on

    the way.


    While fulfilling simple everyday errands like grocery

    shopping. Dealing with difficult people is frustrating, stressful and can be

    downright eggsofting, so there are things that you can do to help deal with

    them. And so I want to talk about six tips on how you can make it easier to

    deal with difficult people. Don't have high expectations. Don't expect anything

    from anyone but yourself.



    You can't control others no matter how destructive or

    difficult they may be. So lowering your expectations decreases your stress and

    allows you to keep control where you can. If you expect nothing then you don't

    need to waste your time worrying about what ifs. Stay calm and recognise the

    fans. Unfortunately, some situations will require you to work with or be around

    difficult humans.



    Avoiding them will not work in these situations, so instead

    focus on the facts and data and always draw attention to that. Don't add your

    emotions to the situation and be as calm and direct as you can be. Using facts

    and data to your advantage puts most difficult humans to rest as their only

    trying to cause a fuss and don't have supporting facts to help. You can also

    practise assertive communication. So assertive communication can be direct and

    clear about your boundaries while also being respectful of the needs of others

    as well.



    This helps difficult humans understand that while you have

    boundaries, so do other people. And so you should respect other people's

    boundaries as much as you should hope that they would respect yours. Another

    thing you could do is maybe find common ground. Many times there are situations

    where you can find that common ground that makes it easier to cope with a

    difficult human. For example, when you're completing an important work assignment,

    both parties have the goal to get the work done and hopefully get to the work

    done well.



    So putting your differences aside and focusing on that goal

    is one of the best ways that you can hope to get the work done successfully.

    Another thing you could practise maybe is ignoring their demands or negative

    responses. Difficult humans want to get under your skin and cause a reaction.

    So don't allow this to happen. Simply ignore them and don't give them that

    pleasure to gain control over you and your emotions.



    Overall, their opinion or idea of you is really none of your

    business or important to where your life is going. This is only a temporary

    moment of your life and you have control over your body and mind not to

    respond. Sometimes the best response is none at all and you can avoid defensive

    and negative behaviour. Don't respond poorly. Take responsibility for the

    situation and your actions and reflect on the more you reflect on that other

    person's behaviour, the worse the interaction will become.



    So just don't just let it go. Practise these things. Next

    time you come across a difficult human, remember you are only in control of

    yourself. While you cannot change the difficult person, you can control your

    all reactions and responses to them. The more confidence and control you have,

    the more difficult they will become.



    Thank you for listening. This is Janice at

    Janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your helping you build your brand

    and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.



    ]]>4d9dfdd6-3912-40eb-945e-170b6dcc652cTue, 29 Nov 2022 12:00:00 -050005:19falsefull284284    Where to find inspiration as an introvertWhere to find inspiration as an introvertHello and welcome to the Travelling introvert. So I recently

    did an episode on why inspiration is so important and I got messages asking, so

    it's important, how do I go about finding inspiration? So here you go. I'm

    going to talk about about ways that might help you find inspiration when you

    need it. And the importance, as I said before, of inspiration cannot be

    understated.


    Inspiration spurs creativity and it is a driving force

    behind any artistic endeavour. Without inspiration, we would not have the

    beautiful things we have that fill our lives with joy and happiness. And while

    there are different ways to find inspiration in life, it can be difficult to

    pinpoint exactly what works for you or for the type of inspiration that you

    need, because you might find you need different types of inspiration for

    different things. And that's okay. Because of this, it's really crucial to

    experiment with different avenues until you find something that suits your

    needs and helps you with what you need to do.



    Look for inspiration in your everyday life. Keep your

    options open, and experimenting is the best advice that you will probably hear.

    Inspiration is everywhere, but you need to be willing to take the time to look.

    So when you're possibly staring at a blank screen and you know that you need to

    write 500 words or whatever it might be, one thing you can do is take a break.

    You may be so focused on your work that you don't realise that you're exhausted

    or hungry or hungry or just need a bio break.



    Take some time away from the computer or your work

    environment. Go for a walk, read something completely unrelated and then come

    back. Another thing you can do is change your environment. Getting into a new

    environment will help you find new ideas and perspectives on your work. It can

    also help you get away from distractions like social media or other tasks that

    can take time and will keep you distracted.



    I know that some people very much have an area for creative

    work and an area for non creative work and an area for admin work and an area

    for finance work. And they've kind of like trained or tricked their brain into

    realising, oh, I'm in the creative space now, so I will be creative. It works.

    Your brain loves that kind of a thing. Another thing you can do is do a

    different task.



    Do something completely different from what you're currently

    trying to accomplish. This, again, will help your brain sort of take a rest and

    in the background it's going to be working on stuff. And this can sometimes

    help your brain kind of get that downtime, that ram time to figure out

    something else. Find a new perspective by talking to somebody. Find someone to

    talk to and ask them and talk through what your thoughts are and they'll be

    able to give feedback and or find someone who inspires you and study their

    process, then think about how they found their inspiration and turned it into

    something extraordinary.



    You could also take a risk. The truth is, risks are

    essential. Creativity often comes from pushing boundaries and exploring

    possibilities that can lead to new thinking and ideas. This could also mean

    confronting fears and insecurities and digging deeper into personal demons and

    being open to the world around them. Taking a risk, or as some people like to

    say, kind of getting out of your comfort zone, can come with its own rewards.



    Depending on how it's done. You can also listen to music.

    Music can be a fantastic source of inspiration and also can help change your

    mood. It's a wonderful way to learn how to think...]]>Hello and welcome to the Travelling introvert. So I recently

    did an episode on why inspiration is so important and I got messages asking, so

    it's important, how do I go about finding inspiration? So here you go. I'm

    going to talk about about ways that might help you find inspiration when you

    need it. And the importance, as I said before, of inspiration cannot be

    understated.


    Inspiration spurs creativity and it is a driving force

    behind any artistic endeavour. Without inspiration, we would not have the

    beautiful things we have that fill our lives with joy and happiness. And while

    there are different ways to find inspiration in life, it can be difficult to

    pinpoint exactly what works for you or for the type of inspiration that you

    need, because you might find you need different types of inspiration for

    different things. And that's okay. Because of this, it's really crucial to

    experiment with different avenues until you find something that suits your

    needs and helps you with what you need to do.



    Look for inspiration in your everyday life. Keep your

    options open, and experimenting is the best advice that you will probably hear.

    Inspiration is everywhere, but you need to be willing to take the time to look.

    So when you're possibly staring at a blank screen and you know that you need to

    write 500 words or whatever it might be, one thing you can do is take a break.

    You may be so focused on your work that you don't realise that you're exhausted

    or hungry or hungry or just need a bio break.



    Take some time away from the computer or your work

    environment. Go for a walk, read something completely unrelated and then come

    back. Another thing you can do is change your environment. Getting into a new

    environment will help you find new ideas and perspectives on your work. It can

    also help you get away from distractions like social media or other tasks that

    can take time and will keep you distracted.



    I know that some people very much have an area for creative

    work and an area for non creative work and an area for admin work and an area

    for finance work. And they've kind of like trained or tricked their brain into

    realising, oh, I'm in the creative space now, so I will be creative. It works.

    Your brain loves that kind of a thing. Another thing you can do is do a

    different task.



    Do something completely different from what you're currently

    trying to accomplish. This, again, will help your brain sort of take a rest and

    in the background it's going to be working on stuff. And this can sometimes

    help your brain kind of get that downtime, that ram time to figure out

    something else. Find a new perspective by talking to somebody. Find someone to

    talk to and ask them and talk through what your thoughts are and they'll be

    able to give feedback and or find someone who inspires you and study their

    process, then think about how they found their inspiration and turned it into

    something extraordinary.



    You could also take a risk. The truth is, risks are

    essential. Creativity often comes from pushing boundaries and exploring

    possibilities that can lead to new thinking and ideas. This could also mean

    confronting fears and insecurities and digging deeper into personal demons and

    being open to the world around them. Taking a risk, or as some people like to

    say, kind of getting out of your comfort zone, can come with its own rewards.



    Depending on how it's done. You can also listen to music.

    Music can be a fantastic source of inspiration and also can help change your

    mood. It's a wonderful way to learn how to think creatively about your everyday

    habits. So listening to songs you know you love, or instrumental music for some

    peace and quiet time, can be wonderful things.



    Or even having certain music for certain tasks that you do.

    You can also read a book. Reading can help inspire innovative ideas while also

    providing insight into new topics that you might not have explored before. You

    might even discover something about yourself. Along with reading a book, of

    course, I'm going to recommend listening to podcasts.



    It's so easy these days to go into your podcast app and put

    in a word and it will bring up a list of podcast episodes from podcasts all

    over the world about that topic. So it's a great way to learn a different

    perspective on a different sort of topic. And obviously, I haven't explained

    every way that you could find inspiration. You could find inspiration outside.

    You can find inspiration like looking at different things.



    There's just so much out there. It's just being open and how

    that looks to you. As you can see, inspiration can come from many diverse

    sources. It may seem difficult to come by, but it takes an unfamiliar

    perspective, mindfulness and proper reflection to find it. Thank you for

    listening.



    This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com, helping you build

    your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    ]]>039fad78-af97-4fae-8e7a-dd5c59b51bb2Tue, 22 Nov 2022 12:00:00 -050005:39falsefull283283    The importance of inspiration for introvertsThe importance of inspiration for introvertsHello and welcome to the not so travelling Introvert. Today

    I want to talk about inspiration. Every now and then I get asked about who

    inspires me, why do I do the things that I do? And to be honest, I don't have a

    specific, specific person in mind. There's not someone I want to be or someone

    I admire per se.


    And maybe it's because I don't really understand the admire

    part. I don't know. But inspiration is different as far as how I find

    inspiration to do the things that I do, or for new podcast episodes, for

    example, or a cross stitch pattern or whatever it might be. Inspiration happens

    all the time in everyday life. But sometimes we get so bogged down in the grind

    of stuff and just getting through each day, you know, go to work, eat, come

    home, eat, sleep, repeat that we lose the access to avenues for inspiration.



    And that can be a bad thing. Finding inspiration can be the

    key to success in any area of your life. It can help you develop new ideas,

    overcome challenges and stay motivated. And if you don't have a way of looking

    for inspiration, then life can become very stuck. Inspiration can come from

    many places.



    It could be a book, a movie, a song, a person. Maybe you

    have a hobby that you're passionate about, or a cause that you care deeply for.

    Finding ways to spark inspiration or finding things that inspire you, can help

    you achieve goals in really random ways. So I want to talk about six reasons

    that will help you understand why it's important to find inspiration. So let's

    start with new ideas.



    If you're feeling stuck, inspiration can give you the push

    you need to come up with new ideas. It can help you see things from a different

    perspective, maybe create or develop creative solutions to problems. Let's say

    you are a writer struggling to create new ideas for stories, for a book that

    you're writing. You could try reading books in a genre that you don't usually

    read, or watching movies from different cultures. That could help you see

    things in a new light and then come up with fresh ideas for your writing.



    Having inspiration can help you overcome challenges. When

    facing a difficult situation, inspiration can give you the strength to kind of

    keep going. It can remind you of your goals and why they are essential to you.

    If you are dealing with a personal challenge, you could look to someone who's

    overcome a similar obstacle. Reading that story, watching them speak, listening

    to them speak, watching a movie about them, can give you hope and ideas of how

    you too can overcome that challenge.



    Inspiration can help you stay motivated. Losing motivation

    when things get tough is so very common. But if you have something to look

    forward to, it can help you to sort of just get through those tough times.

    Inspiration can give you a reason to keep going even when things are tough.



    Inspiration can help you find your purpose or a purpose. If

    you're unsure what you want to do with your life, inspiration can help you

    discover a purpose. It can show you what is possible. Help you see the impact

    that you could have on the world. Maybe your goal is to start your own

    business.



    When reading about successful or maybe even unsuccessful

    entrepreneurs, note what it takes to repeat their success or avoid their

    failures. It can give you inspiration and motivation at the same time. Also,

    inspiration can help you connect with others. When you're feeling inspired,

    it's so much easier to connect with others. Inspiration can help you find

    common ground and build...]]>Hello and welcome to the not so travelling Introvert. Today

    I want to talk about inspiration. Every now and then I get asked about who

    inspires me, why do I do the things that I do? And to be honest, I don't have a

    specific, specific person in mind. There's not someone I want to be or someone

    I admire per se.


    And maybe it's because I don't really understand the admire

    part. I don't know. But inspiration is different as far as how I find

    inspiration to do the things that I do, or for new podcast episodes, for

    example, or a cross stitch pattern or whatever it might be. Inspiration happens

    all the time in everyday life. But sometimes we get so bogged down in the grind

    of stuff and just getting through each day, you know, go to work, eat, come

    home, eat, sleep, repeat that we lose the access to avenues for inspiration.



    And that can be a bad thing. Finding inspiration can be the

    key to success in any area of your life. It can help you develop new ideas,

    overcome challenges and stay motivated. And if you don't have a way of looking

    for inspiration, then life can become very stuck. Inspiration can come from

    many places.



    It could be a book, a movie, a song, a person. Maybe you

    have a hobby that you're passionate about, or a cause that you care deeply for.

    Finding ways to spark inspiration or finding things that inspire you, can help

    you achieve goals in really random ways. So I want to talk about six reasons

    that will help you understand why it's important to find inspiration. So let's

    start with new ideas.



    If you're feeling stuck, inspiration can give you the push

    you need to come up with new ideas. It can help you see things from a different

    perspective, maybe create or develop creative solutions to problems. Let's say

    you are a writer struggling to create new ideas for stories, for a book that

    you're writing. You could try reading books in a genre that you don't usually

    read, or watching movies from different cultures. That could help you see

    things in a new light and then come up with fresh ideas for your writing.



    Having inspiration can help you overcome challenges. When

    facing a difficult situation, inspiration can give you the strength to kind of

    keep going. It can remind you of your goals and why they are essential to you.

    If you are dealing with a personal challenge, you could look to someone who's

    overcome a similar obstacle. Reading that story, watching them speak, listening

    to them speak, watching a movie about them, can give you hope and ideas of how

    you too can overcome that challenge.



    Inspiration can help you stay motivated. Losing motivation

    when things get tough is so very common. But if you have something to look

    forward to, it can help you to sort of just get through those tough times.

    Inspiration can give you a reason to keep going even when things are tough.



    Inspiration can help you find your purpose or a purpose. If

    you're unsure what you want to do with your life, inspiration can help you

    discover a purpose. It can show you what is possible. Help you see the impact

    that you could have on the world. Maybe your goal is to start your own

    business.



    When reading about successful or maybe even unsuccessful

    entrepreneurs, note what it takes to repeat their success or avoid their

    failures. It can give you inspiration and motivation at the same time. Also,

    inspiration can help you connect with others. When you're feeling inspired,

    it's so much easier to connect with others. Inspiration can help you find

    common ground and build relationships.



    So that's a great thing. And it can also then lead you to

    help make a difference. Inspiration can help you see the potential for change.

    It can show you how your actions can positively impact humans and therefore the

    world. When you are inspired, you have the power to make a difference.



    Say you're passionate about environmentalism. You may be

    inspired to start a recycling programme at your school or workplace. Or maybe

    you're concerned about social injustice. You may be encouraged to volunteer at

    a local nonprofit that helps those in need. No matter what your passion,

    inspiration can help make a difference.



    It's what's needed when you want to achieve your goals. If

    you're feeling stuck, don't give up. You will keep looking for that inspiration

    and eventually it will lead you to success. But only if you give yourself time

    and space to find inspiration. So that's my final thought for you.



    Dear listeners, how much time do you leave every day, week

    or month to find inspiration? Thank you for listening. This is Janice @thecareerintrovert.com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great

    rest of your week.


    ]]>3d3f8f11-6358-44a3-b907-ecb97ebf5e0aTue, 15 Nov 2022 12:00:00 -050005:50falsefull282282    Do you feel guilty for no reason?Do you feel guilty for no reason?Hello and welcome to the Travelling Introvert. Want to talk

    about guilt? Guilt comes up a lot in many different ways and one of the things

    I found is it is a real driving force to what people do and why they do it. And

    guilt guilt can come up in many ways that can be detrimental but.


    Also can be helpful. But a lot of it is cultural.




    And what you've been taught to do. And if you're a people

    pleaser, this is a huge thing. It's not necessarily about pleasing people, it's

    the guilt involved if you don't. So, are you guilty for no reason? Guilt is a

    feeling that everyone experiences at one time or another and that is fine. It

    is an emotion that tells you that you've done something wrong. But while guilt

    is a normal and healthy emotion, there may be times where you end up feeling

    guilty for no reason. And this type of guilt is known as irrational guilt and

    is often the result of irrational thinking. And what this means is that you are

    thinking about something in a way that's not based on reality. The thoughts you

    are having are not a fact. There is no data supporting that information. For

    example, if you feel guilty because you think you should have known better than

    doing something even though you had no way to know about it, you're wasting that

    emotion. You end up feeling that guilt. Alternatively, you may feel guilty

    because you could have done more to prevent something from happening. As a

    result, you just made the wrong choice, which may lead to anxiety and even

    depression.



    So we need to talk about ways to kind of look at guilt.

    First of all, figure out is the guilt based on data or is it just a thought? If

    it is just a thought, you need to acknowledge that guilt that you're currently

    feeling is irrational. Remember that just because you feel guilty doesn't mean

    you actually are guilty of anything. If you can convince yourself or point

    yourself in the right direction and reframe and take a look at the data and see

    that the guilt is irrational, it will be easier for you to let go of it. Write

    down your feelings so you can read them out loud. Take notice of the areas that

    are just thoughts and not fact and not based on data and are not realistic.

    Circle them or write a note, whatever it takes to make you aware of how

    irrational it is, then identify the source. Once you have acknowledged that the

    guilt is irrational, it's really crucial to figure out where that is coming

    from. What's in your past that might be causing you to feel guilty? Often the

    source of guilt isn't even something that you should feel guilty about.



    If you can identify the basis of, let's be honest, the

    shame, then you'll be able to better deal with it. And sometimes that takes

    time and practise, and that's okay. It's not something that will happen

    overnight. This is a continual practise. Especially if you're the kind of

    person who's been feeling guilty for most of your life and say you're now 2030

    or 40 years old.



    It is going to take a long time for you to unlearn.




    That automatic a lot of the time. Feeling of Guilt one thing

    you can do is try to change your thinking patterns. This means learning to

    question your thoughts and evaluating whether they are based on data and facts

    or reality. If you find that your thoughts are not based on facts, then you can

    start to challenge them. Another thing you can do is talk it out. Another way

    to overcome that irrational guilt is to find someone to talk to. It could be a

    friend, a family member, a therapist, somebody that you trust. Talking through

    your feelings and talking about them can...]]>Hello and welcome to the Travelling Introvert. Want to talk

    about guilt? Guilt comes up a lot in many different ways and one of the things

    I found is it is a real driving force to what people do and why they do it. And

    guilt guilt can come up in many ways that can be detrimental but.


    Also can be helpful. But a lot of it is cultural.




    And what you've been taught to do. And if you're a people

    pleaser, this is a huge thing. It's not necessarily about pleasing people, it's

    the guilt involved if you don't. So, are you guilty for no reason? Guilt is a

    feeling that everyone experiences at one time or another and that is fine. It

    is an emotion that tells you that you've done something wrong. But while guilt

    is a normal and healthy emotion, there may be times where you end up feeling

    guilty for no reason. And this type of guilt is known as irrational guilt and

    is often the result of irrational thinking. And what this means is that you are

    thinking about something in a way that's not based on reality. The thoughts you

    are having are not a fact. There is no data supporting that information. For

    example, if you feel guilty because you think you should have known better than

    doing something even though you had no way to know about it, you're wasting that

    emotion. You end up feeling that guilt. Alternatively, you may feel guilty

    because you could have done more to prevent something from happening. As a

    result, you just made the wrong choice, which may lead to anxiety and even

    depression.



    So we need to talk about ways to kind of look at guilt.

    First of all, figure out is the guilt based on data or is it just a thought? If

    it is just a thought, you need to acknowledge that guilt that you're currently

    feeling is irrational. Remember that just because you feel guilty doesn't mean

    you actually are guilty of anything. If you can convince yourself or point

    yourself in the right direction and reframe and take a look at the data and see

    that the guilt is irrational, it will be easier for you to let go of it. Write

    down your feelings so you can read them out loud. Take notice of the areas that

    are just thoughts and not fact and not based on data and are not realistic.

    Circle them or write a note, whatever it takes to make you aware of how

    irrational it is, then identify the source. Once you have acknowledged that the

    guilt is irrational, it's really crucial to figure out where that is coming

    from. What's in your past that might be causing you to feel guilty? Often the

    source of guilt isn't even something that you should feel guilty about.



    If you can identify the basis of, let's be honest, the

    shame, then you'll be able to better deal with it. And sometimes that takes

    time and practise, and that's okay. It's not something that will happen

    overnight. This is a continual practise. Especially if you're the kind of

    person who's been feeling guilty for most of your life and say you're now 2030

    or 40 years old.



    It is going to take a long time for you to unlearn.




    That automatic a lot of the time. Feeling of Guilt one thing

    you can do is try to change your thinking patterns. This means learning to

    question your thoughts and evaluating whether they are based on data and facts

    or reality. If you find that your thoughts are not based on facts, then you can

    start to challenge them. Another thing you can do is talk it out. Another way

    to overcome that irrational guilt is to find someone to talk to. It could be a

    friend, a family member, a therapist, somebody that you trust. Talking through

    your feelings and talking about them can help you understand them better and

    might help you get answers. It is essential to take action to overcome feeling

    guilty all the time. It shouldn't be a habit. And to be fair, a lot of the time

    it is just because of the way that we've been conditioned. This might mean

    forgiving yourself, for whatever it is you feel guilty about, or taking steps

    to make sure that you don't repeat the behaviour that caused that guilt in the

    first place. Taking action will help you overcome that guilt and move on. Don't

    get me wrong.



    Everyone struggles with guilt in some way, shape or form.

    You are not alone. It is a common emotion. But there are things that you can do

    to overcome it. Talking to someone about changing your thinking patterns and

    with mindfulness and time, you'll learn to overcome that irrational guilt which

    will help you move on with your life and your career. Thank you for listening.

    This is Janice at the Career Introvert, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    ]]>cd91ab5c-bdb4-41a7-a984-f5911b13e98aTue, 08 Nov 2022 12:00:00 -050005:37falsefull281281    Why understanding yourself as an introvert is importantWhy understanding yourself as an introvert is importantHello and welcome to the the Travelling introvert going to

    talk about self understanding and the reason this has come up is because

    there's a common thread throughout of the questions that you see online or

    through things that my clients ask me and a lot of it comes down to self

    understanding. And so I want to talk about why self understanding is important.

    Self understanding is the ability to understand who you are, what you want to

    do and what you need to be able to do that. It's the ability to understand your

    personality, how your mind works, how your body works and how your personality

    and how it functions. It's examining understanding and comprehending your own

    thoughts, feelings and motives along with figuring out how your body best works.


    And you might think that this is a simple thing but the

    truth is most people experience a lot of external pressure and outside

    interference when growing up both at home and in society with families, when

    you're at school, when you're at university and jobs. And this can sometimes

    make you sort of deny yourself or try and fit yourself into a mould that you

    think you're supposed to be in instead of trying to understand yourself better,

    advocating for what you need and want and then going forth and getting that and

    communicating that. Self understanding is so important for so many aspects of

    your life. Not just your career, which is what I talk about the most, but

    relationships in general and personal development. It is an integral part of

    life because it helps you grow as a person and will be successful because you

    understand yourself better.



    And there are many benefits to understanding yourself

    better, including improved decision making skills. When you understand how you

    work and your own thoughts and feelings, you therefore can make better

    decisions because you're going to be more rational and thoughtful about what

    you do, because you're less likely to make your emotions get in the way. And of

    course understanding yourself better equals greater self awareness goes without

    saying. By understanding your own thoughts and motives you will also become

    more aware of your own strengths and weaknesses which guides you and allows you

    to work on improving yourself in those areas. Then there's improved

    relationships.



    When you understand yourself better you will find that

    you'll be able to relate to others better, you'll be able to communicate more

    effectively and understand where others are coming from. And this in turn will

    lead to more robust and meaningful relationships with people you actually want

    to have a relationship with rather than just having people in your life that

    don't support and help you when needed. And because of this, studies have shown

    that people who understand themselves better tend to be happier in the long run

    than those who don't. And this there's no clearcut reason why, but it might be

    because they accept themselves for who they are and aren't as hard on

    themselves when making mistakes or different decisions. Overall, the deeper

    understanding you have about your needs and your body and the way your mind

    works will lead to better stress management.



    People who understand themselves better are better at

    managing stress, and this is because they know their triggers and then know how

    to deal with their emotions in a healthy manner. So there are many ways to

    improve your understanding of self. One thing you could do is try keeping a

    journal where you can write about your thoughts and feelings. Make sure you

    review your journal. Reading your entries will then help you identify patterns

    about your...]]>Hello and welcome to the the Travelling introvert going to

    talk about self understanding and the reason this has come up is because

    there's a common thread throughout of the questions that you see online or

    through things that my clients ask me and a lot of it comes down to self

    understanding. And so I want to talk about why self understanding is important.

    Self understanding is the ability to understand who you are, what you want to

    do and what you need to be able to do that. It's the ability to understand your

    personality, how your mind works, how your body works and how your personality

    and how it functions. It's examining understanding and comprehending your own

    thoughts, feelings and motives along with figuring out how your body best works.


    And you might think that this is a simple thing but the

    truth is most people experience a lot of external pressure and outside

    interference when growing up both at home and in society with families, when

    you're at school, when you're at university and jobs. And this can sometimes

    make you sort of deny yourself or try and fit yourself into a mould that you

    think you're supposed to be in instead of trying to understand yourself better,

    advocating for what you need and want and then going forth and getting that and

    communicating that. Self understanding is so important for so many aspects of

    your life. Not just your career, which is what I talk about the most, but

    relationships in general and personal development. It is an integral part of

    life because it helps you grow as a person and will be successful because you

    understand yourself better.



    And there are many benefits to understanding yourself

    better, including improved decision making skills. When you understand how you

    work and your own thoughts and feelings, you therefore can make better

    decisions because you're going to be more rational and thoughtful about what

    you do, because you're less likely to make your emotions get in the way. And of

    course understanding yourself better equals greater self awareness goes without

    saying. By understanding your own thoughts and motives you will also become

    more aware of your own strengths and weaknesses which guides you and allows you

    to work on improving yourself in those areas. Then there's improved

    relationships.



    When you understand yourself better you will find that

    you'll be able to relate to others better, you'll be able to communicate more

    effectively and understand where others are coming from. And this in turn will

    lead to more robust and meaningful relationships with people you actually want

    to have a relationship with rather than just having people in your life that

    don't support and help you when needed. And because of this, studies have shown

    that people who understand themselves better tend to be happier in the long run

    than those who don't. And this there's no clearcut reason why, but it might be

    because they accept themselves for who they are and aren't as hard on

    themselves when making mistakes or different decisions. Overall, the deeper

    understanding you have about your needs and your body and the way your mind

    works will lead to better stress management.



    People who understand themselves better are better at

    managing stress, and this is because they know their triggers and then know how

    to deal with their emotions in a healthy manner. So there are many ways to

    improve your understanding of self. One thing you could do is try keeping a

    journal where you can write about your thoughts and feelings. Make sure you

    review your journal. Reading your entries will then help you identify patterns

    about your behaviour to learn more about what makes you tick.



    Additionally, spending time with those close friends and

    family members can be helpful because they can give you feedback. Talking to

    others about your thoughts and feelings can help you gain new perspectives and

    learn more about yourself. So no matter what method you use, increasing your

    self understanding is really important in living a happy and fulfilling life.

    When you know yourself better, you can advocate for yourself and make choices

    that are right for you to achieve the goals that are important to you and lead

    the life that you want to live. Thank you for listening.



    This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.



    ]]>9b1d01c8-94e8-4570-8471-90f37fe2d8f8Tue, 01 Nov 2022 12:00:00 -050005:36falsefull280280    Quarterly planning for introvertsQuarterly planning for introvertsHello and welcome to the Travelling Introvert. Going to talk

    about quarterly planning. And the reason I'm doing this is because it's come up

    a lot both on social media plus with clients that I've spoken to. And one thing

    that I'm hearing resounding against and again is that why is quarterly planning

    the norm? A lot of people in different organisations find that they do

    quarterly planning.


    The quarter starts and then halfway through the quarter they

    have to start planning the next quarter. And so their mind is never really on

    what they're supposed to be accomplishing this quarter because they're

    desperately sort of thinking about what the next goal is rather than

    concentrating on achieving the first goal that they had set. And that's really

    interesting along with the fact that. Okay. Financials tend to be quarterly and

    business tend to be quarterly.



    But does it have to be a set quarter when people are

    thinking about. For example. Right now. If you listen to this episode in time.

    It is Q Four and it's considered to be the last quarter of the year and people

    are thinking.



    Okay. What can I do in Q Four now? I happen to be right now

    in the United States and Q Four involved, okay, all of October. That's great.

    Probably half of November because Thanksgiving hits the second to last week of

    November.



    So people are already like trying to think of travel plans

    are not really there, thinking of cooking or already starting to wind down. And

    then you've got the week you come back from Thanksgiving which is catching up

    with all the stuff that you didn't do and all that good stuff. And then you've

    got like a couple of weeks of December and depending where other festival

    holidays turn up there, sometimes holidays will turn up early or later in

    December depending on what you do or do not celebrate. And then you have the

    holiday season and that can start anywhere, sort of like mid December. So Q

    Four, when people are planning for Q Four they're like, okay, what can I do in

    the next three months?



    But the reality of it is probably more like a month and a

    half and you're trying to squeeze all these things in and this doesn't just

    happen for Q Four a lot of the time. So at the start of the year you're

    thinking, okay, I have a whole year, I have twelve months, I'm going to make

    this plan. And a lot of the time we make a plan based not on really good hard

    data. When we plan, we normally plan, okay, we've got three months, split that

    three months up into each individual month and then into each individual week.

    Like, okay, so I have 40 hours to work on Eckh.



    But do you really? Because do you actually consistently work

    at 100% for 40 hours a week? For most of you, I'm guessing the answer is no. So

    already your math is wrong and then you're not taking into consideration days

    where you don't feel 100% or days that you are sick and or days where something

    comes up like the car breaks down or you get covert, like there's all sorts or

    just sick. There'll have to be covered.



    But these things happen. And when we make our plans, we do

    not take these things into consideration. We assume that we'll be 100% working

    40 solid hours for that time, and that's not doing you or anyone else any

    favours. And also when we're planning and one of the time, we don't take into

    consideration the time needed to recharge. Great.



    I can think that I'm going to go to five networking events

    per month. Am I factoring in travel, preparing and recharging from said events?

    Probably not. And this is where the...]]>Hello and welcome to the Travelling Introvert. Going to talk

    about quarterly planning. And the reason I'm doing this is because it's come up

    a lot both on social media plus with clients that I've spoken to. And one thing

    that I'm hearing resounding against and again is that why is quarterly planning

    the norm? A lot of people in different organisations find that they do

    quarterly planning.


    The quarter starts and then halfway through the quarter they

    have to start planning the next quarter. And so their mind is never really on

    what they're supposed to be accomplishing this quarter because they're

    desperately sort of thinking about what the next goal is rather than

    concentrating on achieving the first goal that they had set. And that's really

    interesting along with the fact that. Okay. Financials tend to be quarterly and

    business tend to be quarterly.



    But does it have to be a set quarter when people are

    thinking about. For example. Right now. If you listen to this episode in time.

    It is Q Four and it's considered to be the last quarter of the year and people

    are thinking.



    Okay. What can I do in Q Four now? I happen to be right now

    in the United States and Q Four involved, okay, all of October. That's great.

    Probably half of November because Thanksgiving hits the second to last week of

    November.



    So people are already like trying to think of travel plans

    are not really there, thinking of cooking or already starting to wind down. And

    then you've got the week you come back from Thanksgiving which is catching up

    with all the stuff that you didn't do and all that good stuff. And then you've

    got like a couple of weeks of December and depending where other festival

    holidays turn up there, sometimes holidays will turn up early or later in

    December depending on what you do or do not celebrate. And then you have the

    holiday season and that can start anywhere, sort of like mid December. So Q

    Four, when people are planning for Q Four they're like, okay, what can I do in

    the next three months?



    But the reality of it is probably more like a month and a

    half and you're trying to squeeze all these things in and this doesn't just

    happen for Q Four a lot of the time. So at the start of the year you're

    thinking, okay, I have a whole year, I have twelve months, I'm going to make

    this plan. And a lot of the time we make a plan based not on really good hard

    data. When we plan, we normally plan, okay, we've got three months, split that

    three months up into each individual month and then into each individual week.

    Like, okay, so I have 40 hours to work on Eckh.



    But do you really? Because do you actually consistently work

    at 100% for 40 hours a week? For most of you, I'm guessing the answer is no. So

    already your math is wrong and then you're not taking into consideration days

    where you don't feel 100% or days that you are sick and or days where something

    comes up like the car breaks down or you get covert, like there's all sorts or

    just sick. There'll have to be covered.



    But these things happen. And when we make our plans, we do

    not take these things into consideration. We assume that we'll be 100% working

    40 solid hours for that time, and that's not doing you or anyone else any

    favours. And also when we're planning and one of the time, we don't take into

    consideration the time needed to recharge. Great.



    I can think that I'm going to go to five networking events

    per month. Am I factoring in travel, preparing and recharging from said events?

    Probably not. And this is where the biggest part of where introverts make bad

    decisions when they're thinking about planning in general, they don't take into

    consideration, okay, when do I work at my best? What kind of tasks do I do at

    my best?



    And when I'm at my worst, what can I do to recharge and how

    long does that take? And is that just recharging mentally or is that recharging

    physically as well? So when you are planning, be it Q, four off the whole year,

    trying to take more time to take those things into account is really helpful.

    For example, for me, when I am doing planning, it's a case of look at the

    calendar. Where are all the holidays that could possibly happen, depending on

    what country?



    And is it federal holidays, national holidays? Insert word

    here holidays. Okay, those are blocked out in my calendar. All right, what other

    holidays? Like, do I work for my birthday?




    What about family members or things that I do on a regular

    basis? For example, pie day not working part day. I'm making pies on pie day.

    So taking those into consideration, when you are doing your planning, you

    shouldn't be thinking about what do I need to do first? You should be thinking

    about what things are there already that give me break, that gives me pause,

    that sparks joy and helps me recharge and live my best life.



    I could talk about more about this, but I'm not going to

    right now. So thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com

    helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.



    ]]>b9333c87-4edb-45c9-9fce-4828fc310ce8Tue, 25 Oct 2022 12:00:00 -050005:25falsefull277277    Introvert habits that are misunderstoodIntrovert habits that are misunderstoodHello and welcome to the the the travelling introvert want

    to talk about some habits that a lot of introverts might have. And to be

    honest, most of the time they are misunderstood. Like most things about

    introverts, there's a lot of misinformation out there or people make

    assumptions about things. For example, if you work in an office you might want

    to have lunch by yourself and your coworkers might see you as being unfriendly

    or not being part of the team because you wish to recharge by having lunch by

    yourself. Yet I know so many introverts tell me about how they go in their car

    to eat lunch or go in their car and drive around the corner so people don't

    come and knock on their window in the car.


    I myself used to go and sleep in my friend's car to start

    with. I used to work very close to where I lived so I would walk home, nap and

    go back to work. I'd even feel better off not eating food because I napped. And

    then when I worked a little further away, I would actually ask to borrow my

    friends car keys because it was nice and warm and sunny so I could go and sleep

    in their car for half an hour. But a lot of people see this as being rude or

    why wouldn't you want to eat with the team or with other people?



    It's not that we don't want to, it's just normally that is a

    really good time for introverts to recharge their battery. Then there's if you

    are working in remotely right now, wanting to sometimes just not have your

    camera on for zoom calls, introverts and extroverts all people talk about zoom

    fatigue. Do you remember the world before zoom? In the world before zoom we had

    confidence calls. At no point was video a thing, right?



    You'd have this thing in the middle of the table and

    everyone would dial in using their phone and you would have a conference call.

    Yes. The bad side was people would talk over each other but it was half as

    exhausting as being on video all the time. So why is it now that people think

    it's rude or you're not paying attention when you are not on video in a zinc or

    it's just like being on the phone. It's almost like we've forgotten how to do

    that.



    It doesn't mean you're unsociable, it's just some people

    will find that it is a lot of stimulation looking at all the faces or just

    looking at yourself for hours on end. Then there's wearing headphones at work.

    If you are in an office you might use headphones to cut out the noise to help

    you concentrate and do deep work. Or just maybe you just like listening to

    music. It helps you get into the groove of working more.



    Again, this can be misconstrued as you not wanting to talk

    to people and not wanting people to interrupt you because you're too good to

    talk to everyone. But reality is probably just a really good way to help you

    focus. So these are just a couple of things that we talk about when people

    assume certain things about things that introverts might do to help them

    recharge. Now, it doesn't make us rude. It just means that we know what we need

    to keep our batteries charged and people should respect that and maybe just ask

    a question, but not in a derogatory or accusing way.



    Then there's also sort of like small talk and wanting to go

    out for drinks after work. Yes, sometimes that might be great, but if we've

    just spent 8 hours in and out of meetings around people and then you want us to

    go and spend another two or 3 hours talking and drinking with people, it might

    be too much. Our battery might already be drained and spending more time with

    you would drain our battery further. So we don't necessarily want to do that.

    And a lot of people say...]]>Hello and welcome to the the the travelling introvert want

    to talk about some habits that a lot of introverts might have. And to be

    honest, most of the time they are misunderstood. Like most things about

    introverts, there's a lot of misinformation out there or people make

    assumptions about things. For example, if you work in an office you might want

    to have lunch by yourself and your coworkers might see you as being unfriendly

    or not being part of the team because you wish to recharge by having lunch by

    yourself. Yet I know so many introverts tell me about how they go in their car

    to eat lunch or go in their car and drive around the corner so people don't

    come and knock on their window in the car.


    I myself used to go and sleep in my friend's car to start

    with. I used to work very close to where I lived so I would walk home, nap and

    go back to work. I'd even feel better off not eating food because I napped. And

    then when I worked a little further away, I would actually ask to borrow my

    friends car keys because it was nice and warm and sunny so I could go and sleep

    in their car for half an hour. But a lot of people see this as being rude or

    why wouldn't you want to eat with the team or with other people?



    It's not that we don't want to, it's just normally that is a

    really good time for introverts to recharge their battery. Then there's if you

    are working in remotely right now, wanting to sometimes just not have your

    camera on for zoom calls, introverts and extroverts all people talk about zoom

    fatigue. Do you remember the world before zoom? In the world before zoom we had

    confidence calls. At no point was video a thing, right?



    You'd have this thing in the middle of the table and

    everyone would dial in using their phone and you would have a conference call.

    Yes. The bad side was people would talk over each other but it was half as

    exhausting as being on video all the time. So why is it now that people think

    it's rude or you're not paying attention when you are not on video in a zinc or

    it's just like being on the phone. It's almost like we've forgotten how to do

    that.



    It doesn't mean you're unsociable, it's just some people

    will find that it is a lot of stimulation looking at all the faces or just

    looking at yourself for hours on end. Then there's wearing headphones at work.

    If you are in an office you might use headphones to cut out the noise to help

    you concentrate and do deep work. Or just maybe you just like listening to

    music. It helps you get into the groove of working more.



    Again, this can be misconstrued as you not wanting to talk

    to people and not wanting people to interrupt you because you're too good to

    talk to everyone. But reality is probably just a really good way to help you

    focus. So these are just a couple of things that we talk about when people

    assume certain things about things that introverts might do to help them

    recharge. Now, it doesn't make us rude. It just means that we know what we need

    to keep our batteries charged and people should respect that and maybe just ask

    a question, but not in a derogatory or accusing way.



    Then there's also sort of like small talk and wanting to go

    out for drinks after work. Yes, sometimes that might be great, but if we've

    just spent 8 hours in and out of meetings around people and then you want us to

    go and spend another two or 3 hours talking and drinking with people, it might

    be too much. Our battery might already be drained and spending more time with

    you would drain our battery further. So we don't necessarily want to do that.

    And a lot of people say that this is prime, like bonding time for the team when

    you're out of work and you can let your hair down and talk about to be honest,

    you talk about work.



    So after having 8 hours a day doing that at work, why would

    you necessarily want to go and do it in your recharge stroke spare time? So

    this is again one of those times where people just jump to conclusions about

    what helps and works for different humans to help them just be better at work

    and be better in their lives. I would love to tell listeners what is one thing

    that you do in your work environment that people question or misconstrue?

    Please email me at janice@thecareerintrovertcom and let me know. Thank you for

    listening.



    As I said, this is Janice, the career introvert helping you

    build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.



    ]]>87501b19-2f47-4ff7-9e11-cef4facdea6dTue, 18 Oct 2022 12:00:00 -050005:19falsefull278278    How introverts can improve their public speaking skillsHow introverts can improve their public speaking skillsHello and welcome to 

    The Traveling Introvert want to talk about public Speaking speaking

    skills, presentation skills. So many times I hear people who are introverts say

    that they don't like public speaking speaking because they're introverts. And

    it's really interesting to hear that because then it kind of perpetuates the

    myth that introverts can't do public speaking, which is not the case. What

    tends to be the case is that there are some levels of anxiety, of fear, of

    nervousness around public speaking and possibly just not even knowing the right

    tools that you might need to channel your anxiety or how to calm down or just

    being confident in what you're saying that makes you think that it's because of

    your introversion. But as we all know, introversion is about how you channel

    and use your energy, right?


    So I want to talk about ways to channel your anxiety, if you

    do have that, and how to improve your public speaking skills. Now, there is no

    public speaker in the world that hasn't felt nervous, some butterflies before

    going out on stage because it is something that can be electrifying and

    lifechanging. And you're telling people who want to listen to you about

    whatever it is that you're speaking about. You are commanding that attention.

    So it is only natural that you feel maybe a little nervous and some butterflies

    in your stomach and that is fine.



    Now, first of all, there's so much inspiration. If you need

    some inspiration when you're thinking about public speaking and the type of

    public speaker that you would like to be, or even just presentations or talks,

    look for recorded videos like Ted Talks or that sort of thing, giving speeches

    about maybe a similar topic as you. What have they used for props or visuals?

    How have they arranged things? How have they even crafted their speech?



    What has worked and what hasn't? And then another thing is

    when preparing for a presentation or a speech, consider the wants and needs of

    your audience. What problem is it that they need solving? How can you help

    solve it for them? And what do they really want to hear from you?



    And last but not least, actually it should be first is what

    is the goal of your presentation? Why are you doing this in the first place? Is

    it to make a sales pitch? Make sure that people are informed about X, Y and Z?

    To let people know about a service that is available or an event like why are

    you doing that?



    And that will help channel some of the things that you want

    to talk about. Use your body language to advantage facial expressions, gesture

    and good posture all help make an impact when telling your story. Look people

    in the eye, smile, walk around if possible, to give more passion and more

    credence to what you are saying. The best speakers present themselves as being

    friendly, confident, enthusiastic and energetic. Wow.



    Well, that is the first of the podcast and I am not going to

    edit it out. Practise breathing from your diaphragm instead of from your chest.

    When we are anxious or nervous, we tend to do a lot of shallow breathing, and

    it makes it really hard for us to get deep breaths and to be able to slow

    ourselves down. So just think about breathing from your diaphragm. It really

    helps if you're standing up instead of your chest to better control your voice,

    the tone of your voice, the pitch and the volume.



    Because what some people find is when they are nervous or

    anxious, their pitch and their tone changes in their voice, which makes it more

    difficult for people to understand, which helps them feel more nervous,...]]>Hello and welcome to 

    The Traveling Introvert want to talk about public Speaking speaking

    skills, presentation skills. So many times I hear people who are introverts say

    that they don't like public speaking speaking because they're introverts. And

    it's really interesting to hear that because then it kind of perpetuates the

    myth that introverts can't do public speaking, which is not the case. What

    tends to be the case is that there are some levels of anxiety, of fear, of

    nervousness around public speaking and possibly just not even knowing the right

    tools that you might need to channel your anxiety or how to calm down or just

    being confident in what you're saying that makes you think that it's because of

    your introversion. But as we all know, introversion is about how you channel

    and use your energy, right?


    So I want to talk about ways to channel your anxiety, if you

    do have that, and how to improve your public speaking skills. Now, there is no

    public speaker in the world that hasn't felt nervous, some butterflies before

    going out on stage because it is something that can be electrifying and

    lifechanging. And you're telling people who want to listen to you about

    whatever it is that you're speaking about. You are commanding that attention.

    So it is only natural that you feel maybe a little nervous and some butterflies

    in your stomach and that is fine.



    Now, first of all, there's so much inspiration. If you need

    some inspiration when you're thinking about public speaking and the type of

    public speaker that you would like to be, or even just presentations or talks,

    look for recorded videos like Ted Talks or that sort of thing, giving speeches

    about maybe a similar topic as you. What have they used for props or visuals?

    How have they arranged things? How have they even crafted their speech?



    What has worked and what hasn't? And then another thing is

    when preparing for a presentation or a speech, consider the wants and needs of

    your audience. What problem is it that they need solving? How can you help

    solve it for them? And what do they really want to hear from you?



    And last but not least, actually it should be first is what

    is the goal of your presentation? Why are you doing this in the first place? Is

    it to make a sales pitch? Make sure that people are informed about X, Y and Z?

    To let people know about a service that is available or an event like why are

    you doing that?



    And that will help channel some of the things that you want

    to talk about. Use your body language to advantage facial expressions, gesture

    and good posture all help make an impact when telling your story. Look people

    in the eye, smile, walk around if possible, to give more passion and more

    credence to what you are saying. The best speakers present themselves as being

    friendly, confident, enthusiastic and energetic. Wow.



    Well, that is the first of the podcast and I am not going to

    edit it out. Practise breathing from your diaphragm instead of from your chest.

    When we are anxious or nervous, we tend to do a lot of shallow breathing, and

    it makes it really hard for us to get deep breaths and to be able to slow

    ourselves down. So just think about breathing from your diaphragm. It really

    helps if you're standing up instead of your chest to better control your voice,

    the tone of your voice, the pitch and the volume.



    Because what some people find is when they are nervous or

    anxious, their pitch and their tone changes in their voice, which makes it more

    difficult for people to understand, which helps them feel more nervous, and

    then they get faster and all of those things. So stop thinking about those and

    remember, take a good outline. You don't have to fully write out your speech.

    And if you have slides, please, please do not read from the slides. Have some

    bullet points and talk around it.



    It's going to make you sound more natural because you're not

    reading word for word. Engage your audience, ask questions and encourage

    participation. That way they're more likely to remember what you're talking

    about and not just be like, staring at the PowerPoint presentation that you

    have in front of them. People love hearing stories. Stories help bring the

    message home for them.



    So if you can tell a good story that's related to your

    speech topic, please do so. And practise. Practise again and practise some

    more. Thank you for listening. This is Janice at The Career Introvert, helping

    you build your brand and get hired.



    Have a great rest of your week.



    ]]>54acb79a-9748-43b1-80fd-1dd9904c8565Tue, 11 Oct 2022 12:00:00 -050005:31falsefull277277    Introvert is a word to explain how you manage your energy levelsIntrovert is a word to explain how you manage your energy levelsThe word introvert has a lot of myths and misconceptions about it. In this episode I talk about the real meaning of the word "introvert"

    Hello and welcome to the travelling introvert. Today I want to talk about how about the word introvert? Introvert is a word to explain how you manage your energy levels. However, when you go and look at a dictionary, like dictionary.com says a person who prefers calm environments, limits social engagement or embraces a greater than average preference for solitude, that sounds great, but then when you go and look at thesaurus.com, it's synonyms for introverts. It's got observer, okay, homebody, solitary, loner and wallflower.


    And those aren't necessarily true.


    In a world that is constantly moving, it can be really easy to forget the importance of taking time for yourself and for us introverts, that is especially true. It doesn't mean that you're shy or antisocial. Of course you can be both. But in the pure sense of the word introvert, it means that you manage your energy levels differently from, say, an extrovert. As an introvert, you may need more time alone to recharge after a long day or maybe a night out.


    And to be fair, it is no secret that introverts need alone time to recharge their batteries. But what many people don't realise is that energy levels can also affect how an introvert functions in social situations. When an introvert is low on energy, we are more likely to be withdrawn and less engaged in conversation. On the other hand, when we're feeling energised, we may be more talkative and outgoing. So what causes these fluctuations in energy levels?


    It could be anything from a poor night's sleep to too much stimulation from being around people. For introverts, it's really important to pay attention to our energy levels and make sure that we are getting enough downtime and recharge time. Otherwise we risk burning out and becoming overwhelmed by social interactions, interruptions and just not having enough me time. And so when you think about this need for managing the energy levels, that's why introverts may prefer to work independently rather than being in a team setting. This is why introverts might prefer an office where they can be closed off, where they can function and go ahead and deep dive into work than an open plan office.


    Even in the cubicles, they might prefer the corner cubicle rather than the one that faces out to the career. Introvert might also enjoy having some me time after work or on weekends in order to relax and recharge. And this looks different for all types of introverts. We all have different ways how we recharge and how we manage our time. And sometimes we are more aware of our energy levels than other times.


    But if you meet us when we've had back to back meetings and haven't had any chance to take a drink of water or a bio break, you're probably more likely to have a lower energy level, which will lead to us seeming less attentive or taking part less. It's not that we don't want to, it's just our battery, our energy battery has been drained. Some people say, oh, you have resting hate face on you. Well, no, I'm just tired. I'm just tired and I want to go home.


    So when you think about the word introvert, don't think about it as being shy or socially anxious or not liking people. While those things might be true, they are not the pure thought about introversion. It's a word to explain how you manage your energy levels. And you, as an introvert, are in charge of managing your energy levels, not anyone else. So this is why you have to advocate for yourself.


    This is why you have to learn what works for you to energise yourself. And what does deplete you. Different things will deplete you in different ways. Different people will deplete you in different ways. You are in charge.


    So use that energy that...]]>The word introvert has a lot of myths and misconceptions about it. In this episode I talk about the real meaning of the word "introvert"

    Hello and welcome to the travelling introvert. Today I want to talk about how about the word introvert? Introvert is a word to explain how you manage your energy levels. However, when you go and look at a dictionary, like dictionary.com says a person who prefers calm environments, limits social engagement or embraces a greater than average preference for solitude, that sounds great, but then when you go and look at thesaurus.com, it's synonyms for introverts. It's got observer, okay, homebody, solitary, loner and wallflower.


    And those aren't necessarily true.


    In a world that is constantly moving, it can be really easy to forget the importance of taking time for yourself and for us introverts, that is especially true. It doesn't mean that you're shy or antisocial. Of course you can be both. But in the pure sense of the word introvert, it means that you manage your energy levels differently from, say, an extrovert. As an introvert, you may need more time alone to recharge after a long day or maybe a night out.


    And to be fair, it is no secret that introverts need alone time to recharge their batteries. But what many people don't realise is that energy levels can also affect how an introvert functions in social situations. When an introvert is low on energy, we are more likely to be withdrawn and less engaged in conversation. On the other hand, when we're feeling energised, we may be more talkative and outgoing. So what causes these fluctuations in energy levels?


    It could be anything from a poor night's sleep to too much stimulation from being around people. For introverts, it's really important to pay attention to our energy levels and make sure that we are getting enough downtime and recharge time. Otherwise we risk burning out and becoming overwhelmed by social interactions, interruptions and just not having enough me time. And so when you think about this need for managing the energy levels, that's why introverts may prefer to work independently rather than being in a team setting. This is why introverts might prefer an office where they can be closed off, where they can function and go ahead and deep dive into work than an open plan office.


    Even in the cubicles, they might prefer the corner cubicle rather than the one that faces out to the career. Introvert might also enjoy having some me time after work or on weekends in order to relax and recharge. And this looks different for all types of introverts. We all have different ways how we recharge and how we manage our time. And sometimes we are more aware of our energy levels than other times.


    But if you meet us when we've had back to back meetings and haven't had any chance to take a drink of water or a bio break, you're probably more likely to have a lower energy level, which will lead to us seeming less attentive or taking part less. It's not that we don't want to, it's just our battery, our energy battery has been drained. Some people say, oh, you have resting hate face on you. Well, no, I'm just tired. I'm just tired and I want to go home.


    So when you think about the word introvert, don't think about it as being shy or socially anxious or not liking people. While those things might be true, they are not the pure thought about introversion. It's a word to explain how you manage your energy levels. And you, as an introvert, are in charge of managing your energy levels, not anyone else. So this is why you have to advocate for yourself.


    This is why you have to learn what works for you to energise yourself. And what does deplete you. Different things will deplete you in different ways. Different people will deplete you in different ways. You are in charge.


    So use that energy that you have. An advocate for yourself. Advocate for your needs. Speak out. And this is how people will get to know more.


    That introvert, it's not a bad thing. It's just a word to explain how you manage your energy levels. Thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.


    Bye.

    ]]>7bb93409-954e-480f-a638-cdb4b7966927Tue, 04 Oct 2022 12:00:00 -050005:19falsefull276276    You don't need a mentor, you need a championYou don't need a mentor, you need a championHello and welcome to the travelling introvert. Today I'm going to talk about the fact that you don't need a mentor, you need a champion. And there is a huge difference. Mentors and champions are two important figures in the professional world. Both offer guidance and support, but there are key differences between the two.

     


    And so many times I hear people saying they need a mentor and expecting that to come for free, which is a whole other conversation. Mentors are typically more experienced professionals who take on a protégé to help them develop their skills and knowledge. That mentor protégé relationship is built on trust and mutual respect and the mentor provides advice and feedback to help their protégé grow. Champions, on the other hand, are advocates for someone or something within an organization. They use their influence to promote their protégé or project within the company.


     


    And they work to ensure that that person has the resources they need to be successful. They already know that you can do the job and so they promote for you and fight for you. While both mentors and champions can be helpful in professional development, it's really important to know which one is right for your needs. So as I mentioned, a champion is someone who can help you accomplish your goals. So usually people have been successful in their field and are willing to share their knowledge with others.


     


    But they tend to be people who go and be above and beyond the call of duty to help you succeed. They're the people at work who will always have your back. They're the ones who fight for you when you need it the most. Champions are the ones who make sure you get the credit you deserve and they're also the ones who help promote you within the company. So that's the difference between a mentor and a champion.


     


    And we all need a champion in our lives in some way, shape or form. So how do you even go about finding a champion at your workplace or even outside of your workplace? Look for people who are always willing to help you'll find that a champion is someone who is always willing to sort of lend a helping hand, whether it's the project or just offering advice. Look for someone who is a strong advocate for others who are in your position. A champion is someone who will speak up for you when management isn't around.


     


    And they'll also be your biggest cheerleader during reviews or promotions. Think about attending events like conferences, meetups or anything sort of work related or not work related, but events related to your field of interest. And start networking with people there. You may be able to find a champion among those attendees. Now, in today's working world, it's more important than ever to have a champion.


     


    Maybe also a mentor, but a champion in your corner. A champion is someone who believes in your potential already and is willing to fight for you, whether that means helping you get a promotion or being a standing board for your ideas. Yes, they might think you need improving or in your skills, but the whole point is they already know how awesome you are. They already can see how good you are at your job or how good you might be for a different role or project or promotion. They already have that faith in you, rather than a mentor who sees your potential and is going to help you work towards X, Y and Z.


     


    They are both useful in their own distinct and different ways. So I'd love for you to take a moment and think, who is a champion for you right now? Do you have one? If you don't have one, how can you go about finding one and how much of a difference that can make to you and your professional career?


     


    While it's great to have a...]]>Hello and welcome to the travelling introvert. Today I'm going to talk about the fact that you don't need a mentor, you need a champion. And there is a huge difference. Mentors and champions are two important figures in the professional world. Both offer guidance and support, but there are key differences between the two.

     


    And so many times I hear people saying they need a mentor and expecting that to come for free, which is a whole other conversation. Mentors are typically more experienced professionals who take on a protégé to help them develop their skills and knowledge. That mentor protégé relationship is built on trust and mutual respect and the mentor provides advice and feedback to help their protégé grow. Champions, on the other hand, are advocates for someone or something within an organization. They use their influence to promote their protégé or project within the company.


     


    And they work to ensure that that person has the resources they need to be successful. They already know that you can do the job and so they promote for you and fight for you. While both mentors and champions can be helpful in professional development, it's really important to know which one is right for your needs. So as I mentioned, a champion is someone who can help you accomplish your goals. So usually people have been successful in their field and are willing to share their knowledge with others.


     


    But they tend to be people who go and be above and beyond the call of duty to help you succeed. They're the people at work who will always have your back. They're the ones who fight for you when you need it the most. Champions are the ones who make sure you get the credit you deserve and they're also the ones who help promote you within the company. So that's the difference between a mentor and a champion.


     


    And we all need a champion in our lives in some way, shape or form. So how do you even go about finding a champion at your workplace or even outside of your workplace? Look for people who are always willing to help you'll find that a champion is someone who is always willing to sort of lend a helping hand, whether it's the project or just offering advice. Look for someone who is a strong advocate for others who are in your position. A champion is someone who will speak up for you when management isn't around.


     


    And they'll also be your biggest cheerleader during reviews or promotions. Think about attending events like conferences, meetups or anything sort of work related or not work related, but events related to your field of interest. And start networking with people there. You may be able to find a champion among those attendees. Now, in today's working world, it's more important than ever to have a champion.


     


    Maybe also a mentor, but a champion in your corner. A champion is someone who believes in your potential already and is willing to fight for you, whether that means helping you get a promotion or being a standing board for your ideas. Yes, they might think you need improving or in your skills, but the whole point is they already know how awesome you are. They already can see how good you are at your job or how good you might be for a different role or project or promotion. They already have that faith in you, rather than a mentor who sees your potential and is going to help you work towards X, Y and Z.


     


    They are both useful in their own distinct and different ways. So I'd love for you to take a moment and think, who is a champion for you right now? Do you have one? If you don't have one, how can you go about finding one and how much of a difference that can make to you and your professional career?


     


    While it's great to have a champion at work, I get it. It's not always easy to find one. But if you are lucky enough to have a champion in your life, especially at your work, cherish them and let them know how much you appreciate their support. And why not look into being a champion for somebody else, someone who needs lifting up. Having a champion in your corner at work can lower stress, help you when you're down, and give you insight into very different areas of your workplace and get you on projects you never would have dreamed of.


     


    Thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    ]]>5b6244a3-469d-45d1-9abe-33082bb7f155Tue, 27 Sep 2022 12:00:00 -050005:16falsefull    Why new managers need to build a peer support systemWhy new managers need to build a peer support systemHello and welcome to the Travelling Introvert. Today I want to talk about being a manager. Whether you've created this role yourself or you're new to being a manager and how you need to craft and create a peer support system. Now, you may have been a manager before, you may know everyone at your workplace, you may have been promoted to be a manager so you know everyone and you know what's going on, or you might be a new manager in a new role in a new company. Either way, you need to have a support system during the first 90 days of any new role.

     


    It's super stressful and having a support system is beneficial in many ways, not just for the first 90 days, but for your ongoing success as a manager and a leader. Now, when you're thinking about setting up your peer support system, the idea is for you to get a system that helps you feel supported and helps you manage stress and is a go-to group of people humans that you can go to about work stuff. So, for example, I was working with someone who has crafted their own position within their job and they're the first person that's done it. They took certification and now, like the other director of Insert Bank here, they've never been director of anything in any other organization, don't have experience in this role in any organization or any other organization. So they don't know what they don't know.


     


    While they know the culture of the company, while they know everyone that they work with, they don't know really huge gaps that they might have in their learning just because of the way certifications are made these days. They don't necessarily cover a lot of real world scenarios and nothing gives you more experience in working in different types and sizes of organizations. So this person has gone out to try and create their peer support system of fellow humans that work within her industry as well as outside of her industry, but have the same role or job title, or have had the same role and job title previously because they can help fill in the gaps of what she does and doesn't know. Not only that, having insight into other industries and other verticals and seeing how they do things will help them figure out what might be missing from their work. For example, after getting this group of peers together, she figured out that she needed a better infrastructure and policies within their workplace and also just generally software.


     


    The company did not have software to track general things for this particular type of work. Not only that, it gives you people to go and bounce ideas off who aren't part of the work, click or don't know about the drama and aren't involved in those sorts of things. It gives you a space to learn and to grow and see how different people deal with the type of situations that you have or how they've dealt with them in the past. And everyone learns together. And so there's nothing better than having that feeling of nonjudgmental support when you are in the first throws of a new position or just when you are a little bit further along.


     


    I want to expand your knowledge now, you can't just go ahead and get anyone when you're thinking about building a peer support system, but do think about where the gaps in your knowledge might be missing. And this is where it's a really good idea for you to kind of do a skills audit and figure out where your blind spots, your weaknesses might be. And then go ahead and find people who have skills and strengths in those areas to be part of your peer support network. This helps you take care of yourself as a manager and a leader. This shows your potential for growth.


     


    This helps you on your personal journey. And by doing this, we will help expand your network. And it's not expanding your network because I need to do networking. It's because you want]]>Hello and welcome to the Travelling Introvert. Today I want to talk about being a manager. Whether you've created this role yourself or you're new to being a manager and how you need to craft and create a peer support system. Now, you may have been a manager before, you may know everyone at your workplace, you may have been promoted to be a manager so you know everyone and you know what's going on, or you might be a new manager in a new role in a new company. Either way, you need to have a support system during the first 90 days of any new role.

     


    It's super stressful and having a support system is beneficial in many ways, not just for the first 90 days, but for your ongoing success as a manager and a leader. Now, when you're thinking about setting up your peer support system, the idea is for you to get a system that helps you feel supported and helps you manage stress and is a go-to group of people humans that you can go to about work stuff. So, for example, I was working with someone who has crafted their own position within their job and they're the first person that's done it. They took certification and now, like the other director of Insert Bank here, they've never been director of anything in any other organization, don't have experience in this role in any organization or any other organization. So they don't know what they don't know.


     


    While they know the culture of the company, while they know everyone that they work with, they don't know really huge gaps that they might have in their learning just because of the way certifications are made these days. They don't necessarily cover a lot of real world scenarios and nothing gives you more experience in working in different types and sizes of organizations. So this person has gone out to try and create their peer support system of fellow humans that work within her industry as well as outside of her industry, but have the same role or job title, or have had the same role and job title previously because they can help fill in the gaps of what she does and doesn't know. Not only that, having insight into other industries and other verticals and seeing how they do things will help them figure out what might be missing from their work. For example, after getting this group of peers together, she figured out that she needed a better infrastructure and policies within their workplace and also just generally software.


     


    The company did not have software to track general things for this particular type of work. Not only that, it gives you people to go and bounce ideas off who aren't part of the work, click or don't know about the drama and aren't involved in those sorts of things. It gives you a space to learn and to grow and see how different people deal with the type of situations that you have or how they've dealt with them in the past. And everyone learns together. And so there's nothing better than having that feeling of nonjudgmental support when you are in the first throws of a new position or just when you are a little bit further along.


     


    I want to expand your knowledge now, you can't just go ahead and get anyone when you're thinking about building a peer support system, but do think about where the gaps in your knowledge might be missing. And this is where it's a really good idea for you to kind of do a skills audit and figure out where your blind spots, your weaknesses might be. And then go ahead and find people who have skills and strengths in those areas to be part of your peer support network. This helps you take care of yourself as a manager and a leader. This shows your potential for growth.


     


    This helps you on your personal journey. And by doing this, we will help expand your network. And it's not expanding your network because I need to do networking. It's because you want to support others who are in the same situation. As you will end up finding people who you want to mentor or you want to be part of their peer support group where you are further along in your journey than they are, when you also want to find out all sorts of industry things that you might not have known, websites to go to, pieces of software tricks and tips that you just didn't know about.


     


    It's all about gaining knowledge. It's not necessarily about the networking and the people. It's about gaining knowledge so you can be good at your job and successful while balancing out and reducing that stress. Because you know you have people that you can go to who will answer your questions in times of need. Thank you for listening.


     


    This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week and don't forget to do that skills audit. Bye.


     

    ]]>f207b751-d91d-4e7a-987f-05069c411674Tue, 20 Sep 2022 12:00:00 -050005:21falsefull    How to view your business as a creative projectHow to view your business as a creative projectHello and welcome to the travelling introvert. Today I want to talk about how you can view your business as a creative project. Now, as an introvert, you may or may not see yourself as a creative person. I definitely have struggled with seeing myself as a creative person only to have creatives look at me like I'm got two heads and don't understand why I don't consider myself to be a creative person. However, you too can view your business as a creative project and this might help you tap into your creative side and help you come up with new and innovative ideas.

     


    And so I want to talk about some tips on how you can go about viewing your business as a creative project. Whether you be a freelancer, sellerpreneur, a small business owner insert word here. So start off by defining your creative vision. And for some people that's their values. For some people it's their mission statement.


     


    What is your creative vision? Do you want to help introverts around the world build their careers and get hired? Or do you want to stamp out imposter syndrome? Do you want to make sure that every flower has a shady spot to rest in? Whatever your creative vision is, define that.


     


    And then as part of that, develop a plan that supports that plan and that vision. But make sure it also supports your creativity. And keep in mind your time management, your energy management and things that are important to you. For example, maybe you're about anti hustle, maybe you're about five minutes a day is enough. Whatever it might be, make sure that your plan supports this.


     


    Then set aside time on a regular cadence to brainstorm new ideas that could be every week, every quarter, every month, or whatever works for you and your lifestyle. And then keep a journal or book or to do list or whatever it might be of your thoughts and ideas. Having a place to dump thoughts and ideas is really helpful. Some people call it second Brain. Just a way to get it out of your head and try and take on new challenges and experiment with new things.


     


    Don't be thinking that once you try things that are the be all and end all and that's the way it has to stay, we really get caught up in thinking that once you try a thing, that's the last thing you can do and if it doesn’t work, that's the end of it. It's an experiment, it's a creative project. Another thing that's really important is don't be afraid to delegate or outsource tasks that don't support your creativity. If you are not into writing outsource to delegate it or find a way to do it differently, like voice to text. Find different ways that support your creativity so you're not being sucked into things that drain your creativity.


     


    Also be open to feedback from others, of course, constructive feedback. And embrace change and embrace failure. As part of the learning process. Not everything is going to go right, not everything is going to go perfectly and not everything is going to go the way you think it's going to go. And that is okay.


     


    I know someone that I work with is currently showing everyone, every time they quote, unquote fail, they might go and apply for a certain thing. They are creative, so they'll apply for certain art programs or for certain jobs or like voiceover work, and they have now taken to posting every time they don't get that role or don't get that job to help normalize that. Hey, not everything you see on my Instagram and my LinkedIn is going to be me success all the time. These are quote unquote failures. But also, like, I tried and I didn't get it and that's okay.


     


    And I'm learning and moving on. Take time for yourself outside of your business to refuel your creativity. Be that taking time off,...]]>Hello and welcome to the travelling introvert. Today I want to talk about how you can view your business as a creative project. Now, as an introvert, you may or may not see yourself as a creative person. I definitely have struggled with seeing myself as a creative person only to have creatives look at me like I'm got two heads and don't understand why I don't consider myself to be a creative person. However, you too can view your business as a creative project and this might help you tap into your creative side and help you come up with new and innovative ideas.

     


    And so I want to talk about some tips on how you can go about viewing your business as a creative project. Whether you be a freelancer, sellerpreneur, a small business owner insert word here. So start off by defining your creative vision. And for some people that's their values. For some people it's their mission statement.


     


    What is your creative vision? Do you want to help introverts around the world build their careers and get hired? Or do you want to stamp out imposter syndrome? Do you want to make sure that every flower has a shady spot to rest in? Whatever your creative vision is, define that.


     


    And then as part of that, develop a plan that supports that plan and that vision. But make sure it also supports your creativity. And keep in mind your time management, your energy management and things that are important to you. For example, maybe you're about anti hustle, maybe you're about five minutes a day is enough. Whatever it might be, make sure that your plan supports this.


     


    Then set aside time on a regular cadence to brainstorm new ideas that could be every week, every quarter, every month, or whatever works for you and your lifestyle. And then keep a journal or book or to do list or whatever it might be of your thoughts and ideas. Having a place to dump thoughts and ideas is really helpful. Some people call it second Brain. Just a way to get it out of your head and try and take on new challenges and experiment with new things.


     


    Don't be thinking that once you try things that are the be all and end all and that's the way it has to stay, we really get caught up in thinking that once you try a thing, that's the last thing you can do and if it doesn’t work, that's the end of it. It's an experiment, it's a creative project. Another thing that's really important is don't be afraid to delegate or outsource tasks that don't support your creativity. If you are not into writing outsource to delegate it or find a way to do it differently, like voice to text. Find different ways that support your creativity so you're not being sucked into things that drain your creativity.


     


    Also be open to feedback from others, of course, constructive feedback. And embrace change and embrace failure. As part of the learning process. Not everything is going to go right, not everything is going to go perfectly and not everything is going to go the way you think it's going to go. And that is okay.


     


    I know someone that I work with is currently showing everyone, every time they quote, unquote fail, they might go and apply for a certain thing. They are creative, so they'll apply for certain art programs or for certain jobs or like voiceover work, and they have now taken to posting every time they don't get that role or don't get that job to help normalize that. Hey, not everything you see on my Instagram and my LinkedIn is going to be me success all the time. These are quote unquote failures. But also, like, I tried and I didn't get it and that's okay.


     


    And I'm learning and moving on. Take time for yourself outside of your business to refuel your creativity. Be that taking time off, going to the beach, going for a massage, whatever it might be. No one is creative 100% of the time, so don't expect yourself to be either. So all of these things will help you with saying no to things that are not in line with your vision and your creative project.


     


    And if you are currently having problems saying no, please check out the link with a worksheet that will help you in different ways to say no and set those boundaries that help you're to keep you on course with your creative project, your creative vision or life in general. Thank you for listening.


    This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    ]]>bcc8a985-2879-4b1e-a850-170c5812b1c4Tue, 13 Sep 2022 12:00:00 -050005:05falsefull    Everyone can be a leader not everyone can be a managerEveryone can be a leader not everyone can be a managerHello and welcome to the travelling introvert. Today I'm going to talk about leadership. I was talking with a client the other day and it was a group of managers who were in for some leadership training. And the first question is what makes a leader a leader? And this led to like a 45 minutes discussion and conversation between what makes a leader different from a manager or from an influencer.

     

    Some things that came up right now is that how being a manager is considered to be old school and very rigid, and more about giving people tasks, and how a leader is like the new cool kid on the block. But people really couldn't identify what makes being a leader different. One person was like, well, a leader is someone who gets followed. People follow you if you're a leader. Which led to the conversation about, okay, so there's a bunch of people on Instagram with thousands of followers.

     

    Does that make that influencer a leader? And they were like, well, not necessarily that's an influencer, it's a little different. Okay, so what makes a leader a leader? And they were like, okay, well, people have to trust you, all right? Don't people trust their managers?

     

    Sometimes yes, sometimes no. So there starting to be a degree of separation between what makes a leader a leader and a manager a manager. Then we started to talk about inspiration. Leaders inspire people. That's something that they all agreed on, that they are inspired by leaders, but they themselves did not feel that they were inspiring, yet they consider themselves to be leaders.

     

    And yes, different people will inspire different types of people because not everyone inspires everybody. You will inspire someone who aspires to be like, you right, but it is a form of leadership. And then there was the question, can everyone be a leader? And they were like, huh? So then I flipped it and said, can everyone be a manager?

     

    And they're like, no, no, no. Good. Managers gives tasks in a clear way with timeline, expected turnaround. They answer questions, they give examples of what done looks like.

     

    They explain why it's important managers do a very specific thing. Okay, all right, so very clear definition what a manager is and very specific people can be managers, but not everyone can be a manager. Yet so many people are in management area or roles who shouldn't be there, according to a lot of people. But leaders, anyone can be a leader because anyone can inspire someone else.

     

    And just because they don't know that they're inspiring somebody else doesn't mean that they are not a leader. Every one of us has someone that looks up to us. And it might not be everything that we do, it might be one thing that we did. That person is like, oh, wow, that was awesome. I'm inspired by that.

     

    We might not know it. Most of the time we don't know because it's very rare someone comes up to and goes, you inspire me. And to be honest, if they did, I'm not sure how our reactions would be right. But everyone has the competency to be a leader, whether they see themselves as one or not. You're always a couple of steps ahead in your journey, whatever that journey might be.

     

    Then somebody else, somebody will look at something you do and be like, oh, I want to do something like that. Someone will listen to something that you say and be like, oh, that really inspired me to go and do A, B, or C.

     

    Thinking about the fact that anyone can be a leader should make you think differently about how you view other leaders and how you wish to inspire others or the people that inspire you. What do they do? What did they say? Who do they connect with? Who do they network with?

     

    And what makes them inspiring? Why do you aspire to have certain traits of another human? So remember that it's not being a manager makes a good manager. The key trait that separates...]]>Hello and welcome to the travelling introvert. Today I'm going to talk about leadership. I was talking with a client the other day and it was a group of managers who were in for some leadership training. And the first question is what makes a leader a leader? And this led to like a 45 minutes discussion and conversation between what makes a leader different from a manager or from an influencer.

     

    Some things that came up right now is that how being a manager is considered to be old school and very rigid, and more about giving people tasks, and how a leader is like the new cool kid on the block. But people really couldn't identify what makes being a leader different. One person was like, well, a leader is someone who gets followed. People follow you if you're a leader. Which led to the conversation about, okay, so there's a bunch of people on Instagram with thousands of followers.

     

    Does that make that influencer a leader? And they were like, well, not necessarily that's an influencer, it's a little different. Okay, so what makes a leader a leader? And they were like, okay, well, people have to trust you, all right? Don't people trust their managers?

     

    Sometimes yes, sometimes no. So there starting to be a degree of separation between what makes a leader a leader and a manager a manager. Then we started to talk about inspiration. Leaders inspire people. That's something that they all agreed on, that they are inspired by leaders, but they themselves did not feel that they were inspiring, yet they consider themselves to be leaders.

     

    And yes, different people will inspire different types of people because not everyone inspires everybody. You will inspire someone who aspires to be like, you right, but it is a form of leadership. And then there was the question, can everyone be a leader? And they were like, huh? So then I flipped it and said, can everyone be a manager?

     

    And they're like, no, no, no. Good. Managers gives tasks in a clear way with timeline, expected turnaround. They answer questions, they give examples of what done looks like.

     

    They explain why it's important managers do a very specific thing. Okay, all right, so very clear definition what a manager is and very specific people can be managers, but not everyone can be a manager. Yet so many people are in management area or roles who shouldn't be there, according to a lot of people. But leaders, anyone can be a leader because anyone can inspire someone else.

     

    And just because they don't know that they're inspiring somebody else doesn't mean that they are not a leader. Every one of us has someone that looks up to us. And it might not be everything that we do, it might be one thing that we did. That person is like, oh, wow, that was awesome. I'm inspired by that.

     

    We might not know it. Most of the time we don't know because it's very rare someone comes up to and goes, you inspire me. And to be honest, if they did, I'm not sure how our reactions would be right. But everyone has the competency to be a leader, whether they see themselves as one or not. You're always a couple of steps ahead in your journey, whatever that journey might be.

     

    Then somebody else, somebody will look at something you do and be like, oh, I want to do something like that. Someone will listen to something that you say and be like, oh, that really inspired me to go and do A, B, or C.

     

    Thinking about the fact that anyone can be a leader should make you think differently about how you view other leaders and how you wish to inspire others or the people that inspire you. What do they do? What did they say? Who do they connect with? Who do they network with?

     

    And what makes them inspiring? Why do you aspire to have certain traits of another human? So remember that it's not being a manager makes a good manager. The key trait that separates managers from leaders is to be inspiring, and you can do that by just being you. Thank you for listening.

     

    This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>be31831f-9ff9-4634-aa8c-8c87cd5a9df8Tue, 06 Sep 2022 16:00:00 -050005:27falsefull    How to know if you are micromanaging yourselfHow to know if you are micromanaging yourself1260e8ea-2c55-49a9-bc63-a3accb263342Tue, 30 Aug 2022 16:00:00 -050005:14falsefullHow to work with ExtrovertsHow to work with Extrovertsworksheet to explore where you are on the journey to being heard.    ]]>worksheet to explore where you are on the journey to being heard.    ]]>60f6a6b0-d25f-49a3-9080-337c3579f680Tue, 23 Aug 2022 17:19:26 -050006:14falsefullHow to make yourself visible at workHow to make yourself visible at workI'm grabbing another one from the archives for you this week, and this is a classic one to talk about how you can make your work visible, as well as doing sort of a mini skills assessment to see your areas of strength and your areas of growth so you can access this free four part mini assessment. And let's start by making you the star you deserve to be seen.

    Grab the free assessment here

    Hello and welcome to the travelling introvert, or the not so travelling introvert. Today I'm going to talk about why you need to regularly assess your skills. I think something that happens as we go through life and we come across a problem, we deal with it, we move on to the next problem or move on to the next thing. And there's a kind of time of year where people are planning for the next year and looking back from the previous year and we tend to look at what we've done, what we've accomplished. And one thing that really needs to happen is to regularly assess what skills you have and what you've learned or what you need to change or what isn't useful anymore.

     

    And we don't do this enough. Anyone who wants to improve and prosper, even your professional or your personal lives, you need to make time to assess your skills. And this can be, I don't know, every quarter is a good way of doing it. I mean, when you're an employer, you know often employers will have a yearly assessment, feedback and so on and so forth to make sure that their employees are learning and growing with the new company. This is because it benefits the company as a whole.

     

    If you improve your team, the company improves and the bottom line improves. And so, whether you're an employee or an employer or just entrepreneur, regularly assessing your skills is really important. And so think about these things. When you are assessing your skills, what can you do to improve your quality and speed? Productivity is a crucial attribute for successful people.

     

    And to do this, you must improve your quality. And by doing so, you'll take less time doing things. After all, getting more done isn't good enough if it's not done well.

     

    Also, when you're regularly assessing your skills, use it as a time to self-reflect. Self-reflection is vital for successful career business life in general. It provides time to look within yourself and see where you can improve and what you've accomplished. So putting this in your calendar on a regular basis and making it a non-negotiable is a way of doing this. Now, when you are thinking about assessing your skills, also think about your strengths and how you can maximize those and all lead to new ones.

     

    Repeating daily life stuff can make things easy to ignore what you are truly good at. So reflecting and testing your skills and reassessing your abilities will allow you to focus even more on areas that you are great at and allowing you to perfect that skill even more. And on the flip side, of course, is also understanding your weaknesses and how to improve them. Just how looking back and reassessing your skills will highlight what your strengths are. It should also highlight what your weaknesses are, your shortcomings and make them far more visible to you.

     

    This is great because if it's done more than once a year. You want it to work towards bettering them or having a plan to mitigate your weakness. If you are selling, if you are bad at certain things, you can outsource it or you can learn to make it better. Often, if you reassess this on a more regular basis, you'll figure out where that gap is. An outsourcing is fine, but the sooner you figure that out, the sooner things can balance out and work out better.

     

    Also, when you're assessing your skills, it allows you to take education and learning into your own hands. It provides]]>I'm grabbing another one from the archives for you this week, and this is a classic one to talk about how you can make your work visible, as well as doing sort of a mini skills assessment to see your areas of strength and your areas of growth so you can access this free four part mini assessment. And let's start by making you the star you deserve to be seen.

    Grab the free assessment here

    Hello and welcome to the travelling introvert, or the not so travelling introvert. Today I'm going to talk about why you need to regularly assess your skills. I think something that happens as we go through life and we come across a problem, we deal with it, we move on to the next problem or move on to the next thing. And there's a kind of time of year where people are planning for the next year and looking back from the previous year and we tend to look at what we've done, what we've accomplished. And one thing that really needs to happen is to regularly assess what skills you have and what you've learned or what you need to change or what isn't useful anymore.

     

    And we don't do this enough. Anyone who wants to improve and prosper, even your professional or your personal lives, you need to make time to assess your skills. And this can be, I don't know, every quarter is a good way of doing it. I mean, when you're an employer, you know often employers will have a yearly assessment, feedback and so on and so forth to make sure that their employees are learning and growing with the new company. This is because it benefits the company as a whole.

     

    If you improve your team, the company improves and the bottom line improves. And so, whether you're an employee or an employer or just entrepreneur, regularly assessing your skills is really important. And so think about these things. When you are assessing your skills, what can you do to improve your quality and speed? Productivity is a crucial attribute for successful people.

     

    And to do this, you must improve your quality. And by doing so, you'll take less time doing things. After all, getting more done isn't good enough if it's not done well.

     

    Also, when you're regularly assessing your skills, use it as a time to self-reflect. Self-reflection is vital for successful career business life in general. It provides time to look within yourself and see where you can improve and what you've accomplished. So putting this in your calendar on a regular basis and making it a non-negotiable is a way of doing this. Now, when you are thinking about assessing your skills, also think about your strengths and how you can maximize those and all lead to new ones.

     

    Repeating daily life stuff can make things easy to ignore what you are truly good at. So reflecting and testing your skills and reassessing your abilities will allow you to focus even more on areas that you are great at and allowing you to perfect that skill even more. And on the flip side, of course, is also understanding your weaknesses and how to improve them. Just how looking back and reassessing your skills will highlight what your strengths are. It should also highlight what your weaknesses are, your shortcomings and make them far more visible to you.

     

    This is great because if it's done more than once a year. You want it to work towards bettering them or having a plan to mitigate your weakness. If you are selling, if you are bad at certain things, you can outsource it or you can learn to make it better. Often, if you reassess this on a more regular basis, you'll figure out where that gap is. An outsourcing is fine, but the sooner you figure that out, the sooner things can balance out and work out better.

     

    Also, when you're assessing your skills, it allows you to take education and learning into your own hands. It provides you the ability to be more self-aware and acknowledge your achievements as well as your failures. And it also gives you a clearer, more defined path to learn and develop yourself interpersonally and professionally. If you want to grow as a person and have a more successful career or business or work on your life goals, you need to continually make time to evaluate your abilities so that you know where to improve and where you lack. You can go ahead and look for online skill assessments or personality tests.

     

    Ask friends and co-workers to assess you. Look at past reviews, past things that you've said about yourself. These are just a few ways that you can get valuable feedback on your current abilities so that you can enhance your career, advance your business, and accomplish your goals. Reviewing is crucial. Thank you for letting this is janice@thecareerintrovert.com, helping you build your brand and grow your business.

     

    Have a great rest of your day.

     

    ]]>fb2e055a-c8d2-44f2-8eed-14c9b8e7a735Tue, 16 Aug 2022 16:00:00 -050005:48falsefull    Put yourself firstPut yourself firstThis is a great one for the archives and it's currently what I'm doing right now. I would love to know how you prioritize yourself. What things do you put in place to put yourself first? Be it your needs for recharging, be it your needs for creativity, be it your needs for just being able to get 8 hours of sleep. So how do you prioritize yourself first? And please go ahead and let me know in the poll. Do you, number one, engage in self-awareness and development through digital content? Kind of like this? Number two, do you work with a coach or mastermind group like myself? Do you three have a gratitude and mindfulness practice that you engage in? And number four, do you never really prioritize yourself? Let me know and enjoy listening to this episode. Bye.

     

     

    Hello, and welcome to the not so travelling introvert. Today I want to talk about prioritizing yourself. I'm guilty very much of not doing this. I don't want to say I'm a regular basis frequently enough and one of the worst things you could ever do is pile on the guilt of wanting to have some time to yourself and putting yourself first. In fact, putting yourself first is really the reverse of being selfish.

     

    Because of that fact, there is no reason to feel guilty. I want to talk about some of the ways that you can be helped by prioritizing yourself. People who care about you will respond healthily to you finding time to put yourself first, especially when it comes to your health and happiness. Because they want you to be happy. If you tell them that these 15 minutes, an hour, a day, a particular activity that you do alone is important to you and why they truly care about you, they'll respect it.

     

    And even if they don't first and you explain why, they see the benefits of you getting that time to do what you need to do and prioritize yourself. Then they will understand. Don't get me wrong, even your best friend at times might take advantage of you if you let them. But it's not that they don't care about you or they even mean to take advantage, it's the fact that if you just say yes, they assume you wanted to say yes. Try saying no or not right now or let me check my calendar.

     

    Or actually I'd prefer to do blah blah blah set boundaries. So you help yourself to prioritize yourself. When you have some downtime, that's just for you to do whatever it is that you love doing, whether it's reading, painting, walking, meditating, coloring, all of those things. If you put aside downtime for you to do these things, you will be a happier person because you get to do things that you enjoy. So you will enjoy life more.

     

    And let's be honest, prioritizing yourself is a requirement, not an option. The fact is you shouldn't feel guilty for doing something that is a requirement in your life. It is not optional for you to take care of yourself. If you don't take care of yourself in the way that you know best, you won't be productive or happy and you can't blame other people for that. And then if you think about it, what happens if you don't put yourself first?

     

    You'll end up sick in some way, shape or form. What happens when you feel sick? If you go to bed for a few days with the flu or any other illness? Does the world fall apart? No.

     

    If you take time to take care of yourself, you're less likely to be stressed, you're less likely to get ill. And even when you do, you won't be ill feeling stressed that you're missing stuff, or that you'll feel guilty being sick, that won't happen because you know you're taking time to prioritize yourself. When you're overworked and say yes to all the things or things you'd rather not do, it shows. People might not be able to interpret the actual reason behind your attitude, behavior or energy, but they will be able to sense that something is off. And this can make people feel uncomfortable without understanding why.

     

    So don't do]]>This is a great one for the archives and it's currently what I'm doing right now. I would love to know how you prioritize yourself. What things do you put in place to put yourself first? Be it your needs for recharging, be it your needs for creativity, be it your needs for just being able to get 8 hours of sleep. So how do you prioritize yourself first? And please go ahead and let me know in the poll. Do you, number one, engage in self-awareness and development through digital content? Kind of like this? Number two, do you work with a coach or mastermind group like myself? Do you three have a gratitude and mindfulness practice that you engage in? And number four, do you never really prioritize yourself? Let me know and enjoy listening to this episode. Bye.

     

     

    Hello, and welcome to the not so travelling introvert. Today I want to talk about prioritizing yourself. I'm guilty very much of not doing this. I don't want to say I'm a regular basis frequently enough and one of the worst things you could ever do is pile on the guilt of wanting to have some time to yourself and putting yourself first. In fact, putting yourself first is really the reverse of being selfish.

     

    Because of that fact, there is no reason to feel guilty. I want to talk about some of the ways that you can be helped by prioritizing yourself. People who care about you will respond healthily to you finding time to put yourself first, especially when it comes to your health and happiness. Because they want you to be happy. If you tell them that these 15 minutes, an hour, a day, a particular activity that you do alone is important to you and why they truly care about you, they'll respect it.

     

    And even if they don't first and you explain why, they see the benefits of you getting that time to do what you need to do and prioritize yourself. Then they will understand. Don't get me wrong, even your best friend at times might take advantage of you if you let them. But it's not that they don't care about you or they even mean to take advantage, it's the fact that if you just say yes, they assume you wanted to say yes. Try saying no or not right now or let me check my calendar.

     

    Or actually I'd prefer to do blah blah blah set boundaries. So you help yourself to prioritize yourself. When you have some downtime, that's just for you to do whatever it is that you love doing, whether it's reading, painting, walking, meditating, coloring, all of those things. If you put aside downtime for you to do these things, you will be a happier person because you get to do things that you enjoy. So you will enjoy life more.

     

    And let's be honest, prioritizing yourself is a requirement, not an option. The fact is you shouldn't feel guilty for doing something that is a requirement in your life. It is not optional for you to take care of yourself. If you don't take care of yourself in the way that you know best, you won't be productive or happy and you can't blame other people for that. And then if you think about it, what happens if you don't put yourself first?

     

    You'll end up sick in some way, shape or form. What happens when you feel sick? If you go to bed for a few days with the flu or any other illness? Does the world fall apart? No.

     

    If you take time to take care of yourself, you're less likely to be stressed, you're less likely to get ill. And even when you do, you won't be ill feeling stressed that you're missing stuff, or that you'll feel guilty being sick, that won't happen because you know you're taking time to prioritize yourself. When you're overworked and say yes to all the things or things you'd rather not do, it shows. People might not be able to interpret the actual reason behind your attitude, behavior or energy, but they will be able to sense that something is off. And this can make people feel uncomfortable without understanding why.

     

    So don't do it. Only you can control yourself. You might have a hard time with guilt, and I get that. But the truth is you can only control yourself. You can't control all the things that are going on, no matter how much you try.

     

    And just a word of warning prioritizing yourself does not mean neglecting others. Some people think that me time means that you neglect others, but that's actually just not the case. You have to learn to differentiate needs versus once. Needs are before once. You need time to yourself, you need time to recharge.

     

    You need to take care of yourself. That's far more important than whether you run the PTA bake sale or whether Betsy does. There's a difference. And honestly, the more that you learn to put your needs before other people's wants I'll say that again. The more you learn to put your needs before other people's wants, the happier and healthier and better you will feel.

     

    And to be fair, if you don't put yourself first, no one else will. Not your partner, not your kids, not your friends. So it must be you.

     

    Why would you feel guilty about being true to you? Thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>6f4ea058-3ef8-41e8-90ed-2df0db74f180Tue, 09 Aug 2022 16:00:00 -050006:04falsefull    Ways to say NOWays to say NOI said no this month. When's the last time you said what you really wanted to say? No. I said no this month and yes to myself. I'm doing a little bit reworking on my programming and so using this time to bring back some of the most popular episodes from the archive. Now, this particular one is about saying no. You might need to say no to request for your time, to borrow your work, to borrow your materials, or even just wanting someone invading your personal or office space with an in person meeting. Here's the thing. No is a complete sentence, but sometimes that doesn't feel just right. So to help you to prepare for the inevitable, grab the download and get your best no face on. No is a complete sentence.

    Hello, and welcome to the travelling introvert. Today I want to talk about, and I've talked about this before, but saying no and how to do it the right way it's super easy to feel guilty and want to avoid conflict or simply want to make other people feel good. However, if you don't say no, it can consume your whole life on how other people react and you might get stressed because of other people's happiness. Your happiness is kind of more important. So, in fact, saying no more often is crucial to come to your goals and aspirations.

     

    And actually, it's something that I've struggled with the past couple of weeks where I wanted to say no and I wanted to set boundaries. I found it incredibly hard and so this has been helpful to me. No is not always a negative. Behind every no, there's also a yes. So what I mean is, when you say no, you're also saying yes to another opportunity that can better serve you in your life.

     

    Just because you're saying no doesn't mean like no right now and no forever. Saying no means that you're committed to your values and goals and your boundaries. And you can always say yes without considering everybody. It's fine. The sad truth is, you will always need to think about yourself first.

     

    Establish and stick to your boundaries. The only person you are responsible for is yourself and you can't expect others to know what you need. If you don't speak up, say something practice, assertive communication. Always speak up about your boundaries. And don't be afraid to let others know if they can't respect your boundaries, you don't need them, they're only going to hold you back.

     

    You're only going to feel guilty and resentful on a whole bunch of other things which will just get you down and have you feeling overwhelmed. And I know it's not that easy. So finding the right words is hugely important. You don't just say no. There are other ways to let people know why you can't do it.

     

    Suggest an alternative or provide a reason why you can't do it. Let them know that it doesn't work with your schedule or your timing is wrong. The more you can communicate and the more information you can give them. As far as I'm not doing this because of X, Y and Z, we'll stop them asking you again, but not in a bad way. If you are like, I can't do this on Mondays, then I'll ask you for Tuesdays instead.

     

    So setting the right boundaries and using the right words are really helpful. Take the personal out of it. In other words, you're not saying no to the person asking, you're simply saying no to the activities that they want you to do. Often people don't say no because they're afraid to offend the person. However, not being fully honest with yourself isn't fair on them either.

     

    Instead, realize it isn't about the person, but rather what they asked for. More likely than not, they'll understand why you are respectively declining their request. If you're always saying yes to people and activities that you don't enjoy, then you're not really being you. You're not really living your life. You're living the life you think other people expect from you.

    ...]]>I said no this month. When's the last time you said what you really wanted to say? No. I said no this month and yes to myself. I'm doing a little bit reworking on my programming and so using this time to bring back some of the most popular episodes from the archive. Now, this particular one is about saying no. You might need to say no to request for your time, to borrow your work, to borrow your materials, or even just wanting someone invading your personal or office space with an in person meeting. Here's the thing. No is a complete sentence, but sometimes that doesn't feel just right. So to help you to prepare for the inevitable, grab the download and get your best no face on. No is a complete sentence.

    Hello, and welcome to the travelling introvert. Today I want to talk about, and I've talked about this before, but saying no and how to do it the right way it's super easy to feel guilty and want to avoid conflict or simply want to make other people feel good. However, if you don't say no, it can consume your whole life on how other people react and you might get stressed because of other people's happiness. Your happiness is kind of more important. So, in fact, saying no more often is crucial to come to your goals and aspirations.

     

    And actually, it's something that I've struggled with the past couple of weeks where I wanted to say no and I wanted to set boundaries. I found it incredibly hard and so this has been helpful to me. No is not always a negative. Behind every no, there's also a yes. So what I mean is, when you say no, you're also saying yes to another opportunity that can better serve you in your life.

     

    Just because you're saying no doesn't mean like no right now and no forever. Saying no means that you're committed to your values and goals and your boundaries. And you can always say yes without considering everybody. It's fine. The sad truth is, you will always need to think about yourself first.

     

    Establish and stick to your boundaries. The only person you are responsible for is yourself and you can't expect others to know what you need. If you don't speak up, say something practice, assertive communication. Always speak up about your boundaries. And don't be afraid to let others know if they can't respect your boundaries, you don't need them, they're only going to hold you back.

     

    You're only going to feel guilty and resentful on a whole bunch of other things which will just get you down and have you feeling overwhelmed. And I know it's not that easy. So finding the right words is hugely important. You don't just say no. There are other ways to let people know why you can't do it.

     

    Suggest an alternative or provide a reason why you can't do it. Let them know that it doesn't work with your schedule or your timing is wrong. The more you can communicate and the more information you can give them. As far as I'm not doing this because of X, Y and Z, we'll stop them asking you again, but not in a bad way. If you are like, I can't do this on Mondays, then I'll ask you for Tuesdays instead.

     

    So setting the right boundaries and using the right words are really helpful. Take the personal out of it. In other words, you're not saying no to the person asking, you're simply saying no to the activities that they want you to do. Often people don't say no because they're afraid to offend the person. However, not being fully honest with yourself isn't fair on them either.

     

    Instead, realize it isn't about the person, but rather what they asked for. More likely than not, they'll understand why you are respectively declining their request. If you're always saying yes to people and activities that you don't enjoy, then you're not really being you. You're not really living your life. You're living the life you think other people expect from you.

     

    And is that really what you want to do? Yes. You might be avoiding conflict, but you will easily create more by being dishonest with yourself and the people around you. A vague yes versus a firm no can be seen as more harmful, as your lack of commitment and poor attitude are noticeable. And it means people can't rely on what you say, and that's something really important.

     

    Seeming wishy washy isn't a great thing. Knowing when to say yes and when to say no or when to say, let me check my schedule, let me check my calendar, let me get back to you within the next 24 hours. Whatever it might be is far better than being like, yeah, I guess it just doesn't work. So in the end, saying no allows you far more control and ease and less stress with your life and will help you accomplish more. It's not about making others feel unwanted.

     

    It's not about being rude. It's about ensuring you are using your time wisely and doing the things that you want to do and following the path that you want to go on and where you want to be and your goals in life. Once you find a balance that works for you, you'll never regret saying no because of reasons that you value in your life. Thanks for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired.

     

    If you have any questions that you want me to answer on the show, email me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    Get your download here

     

     

     

     

    ]]>cea918e9-c67a-4ad4-9b81-21e80949a1b2Tue, 02 Aug 2022 16:00:00 -050006:06falsefull    Stop feeling guilty about self careStop feeling guilty about self care7307cda0-0b4a-4824-97b0-b6689ac782fdTue, 26 Jul 2022 16:00:00 -050005:24falsefullThings to do for your staycationThings to do for your staycation691ed0e3-ebb8-42cf-afc0-cf82177572a5Tue, 19 Jul 2022 17:00:00 -050005:19falsefullSpeaking up is hard doSpeaking up is hard do90e44f83-bda3-4e78-844f-d9c7d99301adTue, 12 Jul 2022 17:00:00 -050005:25falsefullThe lies we tell ourselvesThe lies we tell ourselvesb2fe02d1-a39f-4a48-8a62-33605e88abdeTue, 05 Jul 2022 16:00:00 -050005:22falsefullBeing sick as an introvertBeing sick as an introvert9d9d7174-5d2a-4bd4-aaa6-97623b3e0e51Tue, 28 Jun 2022 16:00:00 -050005:21falsefull262262How to survive public facing rolesHow to survive public facing rolesHello and welcome to the not so the travelling introvert. Today, I want to talk about people or client facing jobs. A lot of the time, the assumption is as introverts, we can't do client facing or public facing or high touch jobs. And that is not the case. I know I've spoken about how I used to work in casinos, and that is very much a people skills job, but I want to just talk about some ways that could help you through when you're thinking about jobs or you're in a job that is a people facing job.

     

    So one of the things that I talked about was the fact that even though the casino job was very people facing, we got brakes on a regular basis. So that was one of the reasons why that job was a really good fit for me was because I got a lot of downtime in between the people facing time. And most jobs have that cadence. There are very few jobs where you are facing and dealing with people all the time. And even if that is the case, there are ways of finding those moments of solitude within that that help you recharge.

     

    For example, if you have a job where you're on the road a lot and you're going to sales meetings or client meetings and going to different offices, that time in between when you're not at the client's site where you are planning the trip, sending emails or just travelling to said site is your gift of downtime. That's when you can go ahead and recharge and think things through and gain second wind or third wind. So you might have five meetings a day, but in between and that might just be like a busy period of the month. A lot of people have a cadence with their jobs where the start of the month is really busy or the end of the month is really busy. But the middle two weeks are not as busy.

     

    Use those middle weeks as and block out time to do focused work and recharge work. Every type of job has a cadence, and it is for you to find that cadence and make it work for you.

     

    And that's like one of the things that you need to think about when you're thinking, oh, no, it's a people facing job. I can't do that. That's not necessarily true. It's just finding a way that works for you. Now, say you're in a sales role, and a lot of people, when they think about sales roles, are like, you have to talk all the time and you have to go ahead and smooth.

     

    And that's not necessarily the case. A lot of the times, it's a lot of emails, a lot of the time, it's just listening to the other person, figuring out what their specific wants are, what their pain points are, because they could be talking about one thing, but really what they need help with is something else. So one thing that you can do to help you get through that or figure out what works for you is to role play do it on a regular basis in different ways that people could react to you and figure out what you would say and what you would do just like you would practice for an interview to make sure that you feel comfortable do the same thing for that role and you know, if you're more of a phone person then use the phone more. If you're more of a text person, you know, use asynchronous messaging like figure out a way that works for you and even if you still end up not liking phone calls, you'll figure out a way that works for you to have these phone calls. Whether it's making sure that there is an agenda before the phone call or whether it's making sure that phone calls are done on a certain week or a certain time that works for you, begin thinking about what you want from that phone call and even in meetings it's really interesting how many times people will set up a meeting on a calendar but don't explain what they want from that meeting.

     

    When you think about is it you want to sell a service, you want to request feedback, what is it you want from that call and then work backwards to the steps that you need to take to make that happen and some of that stuff might be have to do before the...]]>Hello and welcome to the not so the travelling introvert. Today, I want to talk about people or client facing jobs. A lot of the time, the assumption is as introverts, we can't do client facing or public facing or high touch jobs. And that is not the case. I know I've spoken about how I used to work in casinos, and that is very much a people skills job, but I want to just talk about some ways that could help you through when you're thinking about jobs or you're in a job that is a people facing job.

     

    So one of the things that I talked about was the fact that even though the casino job was very people facing, we got brakes on a regular basis. So that was one of the reasons why that job was a really good fit for me was because I got a lot of downtime in between the people facing time. And most jobs have that cadence. There are very few jobs where you are facing and dealing with people all the time. And even if that is the case, there are ways of finding those moments of solitude within that that help you recharge.

     

    For example, if you have a job where you're on the road a lot and you're going to sales meetings or client meetings and going to different offices, that time in between when you're not at the client's site where you are planning the trip, sending emails or just travelling to said site is your gift of downtime. That's when you can go ahead and recharge and think things through and gain second wind or third wind. So you might have five meetings a day, but in between and that might just be like a busy period of the month. A lot of people have a cadence with their jobs where the start of the month is really busy or the end of the month is really busy. But the middle two weeks are not as busy.

     

    Use those middle weeks as and block out time to do focused work and recharge work. Every type of job has a cadence, and it is for you to find that cadence and make it work for you.

     

    And that's like one of the things that you need to think about when you're thinking, oh, no, it's a people facing job. I can't do that. That's not necessarily true. It's just finding a way that works for you. Now, say you're in a sales role, and a lot of people, when they think about sales roles, are like, you have to talk all the time and you have to go ahead and smooth.

     

    And that's not necessarily the case. A lot of the times, it's a lot of emails, a lot of the time, it's just listening to the other person, figuring out what their specific wants are, what their pain points are, because they could be talking about one thing, but really what they need help with is something else. So one thing that you can do to help you get through that or figure out what works for you is to role play do it on a regular basis in different ways that people could react to you and figure out what you would say and what you would do just like you would practice for an interview to make sure that you feel comfortable do the same thing for that role and you know, if you're more of a phone person then use the phone more. If you're more of a text person, you know, use asynchronous messaging like figure out a way that works for you and even if you still end up not liking phone calls, you'll figure out a way that works for you to have these phone calls. Whether it's making sure that there is an agenda before the phone call or whether it's making sure that phone calls are done on a certain week or a certain time that works for you, begin thinking about what you want from that phone call and even in meetings it's really interesting how many times people will set up a meeting on a calendar but don't explain what they want from that meeting.

     

    When you think about is it you want to sell a service, you want to request feedback, what is it you want from that call and then work backwards to the steps that you need to take to make that happen and some of that stuff might be have to do before the call.

     

    Another thing is thinking about like icebreakers and that sort of a thing have some topics that you're quite happy to talk about whether traffic, art, restaurants, whatever it might be, have those as handy things that you are happy to talk books that you are happy to talk about when you have to talk about something unexpected and don't forget you can't control everything and that's okay because you learn along the way. Thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>3d5aa383-b02b-40ac-b333-90634588e69dTue, 21 Jun 2022 16:00:00 -050005:17falsefull    Quick networking tipsQuick networking tipsQuick Networking Tips

     

    Networking lets you connect to a variety of helpful people — everyone from potential business partners to new customers — and promote yourself. It doesn’t come easily on learning how to network and build relationships with smart, successful people. But when done right, networking is genuine, comfortable, and extremely valuable for both parties. But how do you get started? And how to do it effectively.

     

    I’m sharing the following insights on this episode.

    • How can get the most out of networking events.
    • Ways to connect with speakers and audience.
    • Things to consider before starting.

    Hello and welcome to the not so Travelling Introvert. Today, I'm going to talk about events online or otherwise. A lot of the times there are certain things that you can do in advance of an event and after an event to make networking easier.

     

    So, the first thing is start networking before you even get to the event. Normally, when you are told about an event, there will be a list of speakers or a website with a landing page that has information about who's running the event, what organizations are involved and you can go and look and do some research on these people.

     

    Say you're going to an event and there's twelve speakers. Go on LinkedIn, take a look at the speakers. Normally, you'll be able to find them and maybe their contact information or connect with them on LinkedIn, send them a message like, “Hello, I've seen that you are going to be speaking at this event that I'm attending. I'm very excited to hear your talk on [insert topic here] really looking forward to it’. Let them know that you are looking forward to hearing from them.

     

    If you don't want to connect on LinkedIn, most speakers, when they're at an event or advertising for an event will have their contact details, how they prefer to be contacted. So, if they don't have their Twitter profile up there, don't go and stoke them on Twitter. Contact them the way they wish to be contacted and let them know.

     

    Now, feel free to also email or contact the producers of the show and let them know that you're excited about the show and that sort of a thing. Review the schedule or the program before the events start, make a list of the talks that you want to hear and then put those in your calendar so you're not going to miss them. And then make sure that you have time to attend.

     

    Also, give yourself time before and after to prepare any questions that you might want to ask or do further research. Afterwards, because a lot of the time these things run over, they'll leave time for questions and you just might need to refresh or just recharge after that event. So, those are a couple of things that you should do where you don't have to network just at the event.

     

    Now when you're at the event, for example, if it is a Zoom event, normally you would see people's names or their organization names and their names in their Zoom window. If there's someone who's talking or someone who's asked a question that is of interest to you, go ahead, make a note of that person's name and the company they work for and then go and look at their LinkedIn and say, “Hey, saw you were at this event. I really enjoyed the question you asked on [insert here]. I would really love to connect”.  

     

    Not only have you then connected with the people who are speaking at the event but then you started to connect with the audience there as well and if the event is using a hashtag. For example, go ahead and look up that hashtag on social media to see what the conversation is about and who else is using that hashtag because you can connect with them as well. Now the other thing is having an introduction or an elevated speech prepared.

     

    If you get asked who are you where are you from? Or drop your links in...]]>Quick Networking Tips

     

    Networking lets you connect to a variety of helpful people — everyone from potential business partners to new customers — and promote yourself. It doesn’t come easily on learning how to network and build relationships with smart, successful people. But when done right, networking is genuine, comfortable, and extremely valuable for both parties. But how do you get started? And how to do it effectively.

     

    I’m sharing the following insights on this episode.

    • How can get the most out of networking events.
    • Ways to connect with speakers and audience.
    • Things to consider before starting.

    Hello and welcome to the not so Travelling Introvert. Today, I'm going to talk about events online or otherwise. A lot of the times there are certain things that you can do in advance of an event and after an event to make networking easier.

     

    So, the first thing is start networking before you even get to the event. Normally, when you are told about an event, there will be a list of speakers or a website with a landing page that has information about who's running the event, what organizations are involved and you can go and look and do some research on these people.

     

    Say you're going to an event and there's twelve speakers. Go on LinkedIn, take a look at the speakers. Normally, you'll be able to find them and maybe their contact information or connect with them on LinkedIn, send them a message like, “Hello, I've seen that you are going to be speaking at this event that I'm attending. I'm very excited to hear your talk on [insert topic here] really looking forward to it’. Let them know that you are looking forward to hearing from them.

     

    If you don't want to connect on LinkedIn, most speakers, when they're at an event or advertising for an event will have their contact details, how they prefer to be contacted. So, if they don't have their Twitter profile up there, don't go and stoke them on Twitter. Contact them the way they wish to be contacted and let them know.

     

    Now, feel free to also email or contact the producers of the show and let them know that you're excited about the show and that sort of a thing. Review the schedule or the program before the events start, make a list of the talks that you want to hear and then put those in your calendar so you're not going to miss them. And then make sure that you have time to attend.

     

    Also, give yourself time before and after to prepare any questions that you might want to ask or do further research. Afterwards, because a lot of the time these things run over, they'll leave time for questions and you just might need to refresh or just recharge after that event. So, those are a couple of things that you should do where you don't have to network just at the event.

     

    Now when you're at the event, for example, if it is a Zoom event, normally you would see people's names or their organization names and their names in their Zoom window. If there's someone who's talking or someone who's asked a question that is of interest to you, go ahead, make a note of that person's name and the company they work for and then go and look at their LinkedIn and say, “Hey, saw you were at this event. I really enjoyed the question you asked on [insert here]. I would really love to connect”.  

     

    Not only have you then connected with the people who are speaking at the event but then you started to connect with the audience there as well and if the event is using a hashtag. For example, go ahead and look up that hashtag on social media to see what the conversation is about and who else is using that hashtag because you can connect with them as well. Now the other thing is having an introduction or an elevated speech prepared.

     

    If you get asked who are you where are you from? Or drop your links in the chat or whatever it might be, make sure that you have that information ready to copy and paste and drop in the chat so that will be a good thing to do. Now, another thing is set yourself realistic expectations. There's no way that everyone who's at the event is going to respond to your invitation or talk to you and that's okay, don't be upset if not everyone does that. It is kind of a numbers game.

     

    When you're thinking about networking have a goal in mind. What is your goal being that you just want to add more people to your role decks? Is that you're looking for people that you want to interview for a book? Are you looking for a mentor? Are you looking for something specific? Be interested in the person and not just the opportunity and part of that is by being a good listener asking follow-up questions.

     

    Now, after the event always feel free to follow up 24 to 48 hours later to say, “Oh hey, I really enjoyed your speech on this or this topic. I had a follow up question or [insert whatever it is that you are looking for]”.  Those are things that will be helpful for live and in person and events moving forward.

     

    Thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovertcom.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    ]]>f1aba1f2-6be7-4b32-b4dc-a416e513810fTue, 14 Jun 2022 16:00:00 -050005:18falsefull    Why constructive criticism is importantWhy constructive criticism is importantWhy constructive criticism is important?

     

    Have you ever wanted to give constructive criticism on something, but held back from doing so because you did not know how to convey your ideas across? Let’s face it, it can be hard to give or receive criticism no matter how it is delivered. But getting comfortable with offering and receiving practical, constructive criticism is helpful to deliver better results, find motivation, and strengthen relationships.

     

    In this episode, I will discuss the following:

    • What is constructive criticism and its importance.
    • Practical strategies to give and receive it well, and what to avoid.
    • Benefit of accepting constructive criticism.

    Hello and welcome to the not so Travelling Introvert. Today, I want to talk about why introspection, retrospection, and criticism can be the key to success. Constructive criticism -- That's feedback that you get from others, intending to help build you up and provide you with more information and data or tools to help you improve in some way. It's not meant to harm you, it's not meant to be personal, it's not meant to feel like an attack.

     

    And, a lot of people aren't very good at giving constructive criticism, but also in general, accepting criticism. Proper criticism can open-up doors and opportunities that you might not have been aware of before, leading you to more success and happiness closer towards your goals as long as it is provided respectfully. And I want to talk about reasons why accepting constructive criticism can lead to more success. It tends to improve your awareness and your focus. When others provide criticism, it unlocks key bits of information that you might have otherwise overlooked and over time, in doing retrospectives and reviewing, it can help you notice patterns and vital details on your own, and therefore improving your skills and understanding of what to do next time to be more successful, the more information and data you have that you actually review and take action on, the more that you can improve.

     

    And by improvement, I mean it inspires personal growth. When you know that others will provide a valuable feedback, it motivates you to do better before the information is even given. In addition, consistent feedback improves your awareness, which fuels your determination to keep improving and growing. And, this is why, lots of companies should have regular reviews, not just once a year. If you want to provide someone with valuable feedback, the more often you do it and the more constructive you do it, the more the better you're going to get out of that human.

     

    Because at the end of the day, it's helping somebody understand themselves. So, when you're thinking about constructive criticism and accepting it, this helps you increase your understanding of yourself.  Within constructive criticism, of course, there are likely to be variables that detail who you are as a person as opposed to something else. For example, your boss may have noticed how you deal with completing an important assignment, which it may not ultimately affect the results, but they want to provide you with the tools to help you get the results, maybe more efficiently in the future.

     

    In addition, your actions can easily affect other areas of your life and also work assignments, so the feedback gives you richer knowledge of who you are, what you've done well, and what you need to improve. And this, will inspire you to take action. Without action, there is no success. You need to take consistent steps in order to get where you want to go and achieve your goals. No one else can provide this. No one else can do this. Only you can do it yourself.

     

    And taking action is normally the most difficult step in process to overcome. However, receiving constructive criticism can be a great reminder of just how important the right steps...]]>Why constructive criticism is important?

     

    Have you ever wanted to give constructive criticism on something, but held back from doing so because you did not know how to convey your ideas across? Let’s face it, it can be hard to give or receive criticism no matter how it is delivered. But getting comfortable with offering and receiving practical, constructive criticism is helpful to deliver better results, find motivation, and strengthen relationships.

     

    In this episode, I will discuss the following:

    • What is constructive criticism and its importance.
    • Practical strategies to give and receive it well, and what to avoid.
    • Benefit of accepting constructive criticism.

    Hello and welcome to the not so Travelling Introvert. Today, I want to talk about why introspection, retrospection, and criticism can be the key to success. Constructive criticism -- That's feedback that you get from others, intending to help build you up and provide you with more information and data or tools to help you improve in some way. It's not meant to harm you, it's not meant to be personal, it's not meant to feel like an attack.

     

    And, a lot of people aren't very good at giving constructive criticism, but also in general, accepting criticism. Proper criticism can open-up doors and opportunities that you might not have been aware of before, leading you to more success and happiness closer towards your goals as long as it is provided respectfully. And I want to talk about reasons why accepting constructive criticism can lead to more success. It tends to improve your awareness and your focus. When others provide criticism, it unlocks key bits of information that you might have otherwise overlooked and over time, in doing retrospectives and reviewing, it can help you notice patterns and vital details on your own, and therefore improving your skills and understanding of what to do next time to be more successful, the more information and data you have that you actually review and take action on, the more that you can improve.

     

    And by improvement, I mean it inspires personal growth. When you know that others will provide a valuable feedback, it motivates you to do better before the information is even given. In addition, consistent feedback improves your awareness, which fuels your determination to keep improving and growing. And, this is why, lots of companies should have regular reviews, not just once a year. If you want to provide someone with valuable feedback, the more often you do it and the more constructive you do it, the more the better you're going to get out of that human.

     

    Because at the end of the day, it's helping somebody understand themselves. So, when you're thinking about constructive criticism and accepting it, this helps you increase your understanding of yourself.  Within constructive criticism, of course, there are likely to be variables that detail who you are as a person as opposed to something else. For example, your boss may have noticed how you deal with completing an important assignment, which it may not ultimately affect the results, but they want to provide you with the tools to help you get the results, maybe more efficiently in the future.

     

    In addition, your actions can easily affect other areas of your life and also work assignments, so the feedback gives you richer knowledge of who you are, what you've done well, and what you need to improve. And this, will inspire you to take action. Without action, there is no success. You need to take consistent steps in order to get where you want to go and achieve your goals. No one else can provide this. No one else can do this. Only you can do it yourself.

     

    And taking action is normally the most difficult step in process to overcome. However, receiving constructive criticism can be a great reminder of just how important the right steps are and data is and can provide you with the inspiration you need to keep going and will make better decisions. And with that, it inspires you to take action based on data.

     

    So many times, people are like, well, X, Y, and Z and it's answered by how do you know this? Where is the data? A thought is not a fact. Do you know that you work harder than somebody else? Do you know other people have more experience than you? In what way and does that matter?

     

    Another thing that accepting criticism means is that you get it. You look at it, you digest it and you go ahead and make tiny improvements on the data that you are given and then learn measure and repeat. You learn from it. There's a measurement taken data given back and then you adjust and then you repeat criticism is not harmful nor should it be avoided. In fact, you should seek it out from those you admire the most and those who know you best and have your best interests at heart. The more knowledgeable and more perspective that you gain upon yourself, the better you will become.

     

    Thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>3f406a2b-3d5c-41a9-8fc5-9756037ee20aTue, 07 Jun 2022 16:00:00 -050005:16falsefull    How much approval is too muchHow much approval is too muchHow much approval is too much

     

    People pleasing doesn’t have to be a life sentence.  But, it can be common problem. This can be normal as we are part of a social and professional system that requires a very wide range of inter-relational skills for us to be happy, appreciated and successful. So, you might be wondering:  what makes a people pleaser? How people-pleasing shows up in your work, social life and more. In fact, every area of your life. And what you can do about it.

     

    I will cover the following on this episode.

    • Red flags that someone is a people pleaser.
    • Dealing with people pleasers.
    • How to overcome people pleasing and approval seeking tendencies.

     

    Hello and welcome to the not so Travelling Introvert. Today, I want to talk about being a people pleaser or some people might see it as having a need, a deep need for approval, almost like an addiction.

     

    Receiving validation from other people feels good for a lot of people. So, good that some people kind of develop almost an addiction for receiving that outside approval and take more weight in getting that outside approval instead of being motivated intrinsically. And therefore, they can't motivate themselves without somebody else's approval. It could manifest as if you're obsessed with people going to express interest in you.

     

    Maybe you like being on social media, dating sites, or any situation where you can attract people and get their attention by having them express an interest in you. It might even be hard for you to settle down with like one human because you enjoy having people express an interest with you rather than just having that interest from one person. Maybe you need constant reassurance to make sure that your friends and family are not mad or upset with you.

     

    Maybe you're often overthinking little confrontations and so you often ask for reassurance about how somebody feels about you. You might like to talk about how awesome you are and this can be weird, like, especially if you lack confidence. But some people who aren't confident will talk about all the impressive things they've done to appear worthier than they think they are, in the hopes that people hearing all the things that they've done will agree and validate their thoughts about said awesomeness, even though they might not believe it themselves.

     

    You might find someone who is that really craves attention, loves to name drop. Do you find someone like name drops people who you may know who they have worked with or know a friend of a friend in order to make themselves look more important? This is a sign can be a sign of insecurity, especially when it's not done within context. So, that can be an issue.

     

    Some people will go ahead and make friends with folks based on their wealth or their reputation. So, they look around at their close friends group and they might think, well, this person's rich, this person is a doctor, this person X, Y, and Z. But they might not know a lot about them as humans, and so they might not share the same values which can lead to issues.

     

    Also, you might find someone who is a people pleaser or has a need for approval. They might change their beliefs or the way that they act, or how they act, depending on the situation or the company that they're keeping. They might change what they say or what they think about certain topics depending on who they're talking to.

     

    They might also feel the need to be in control of each and every single social situation when it comes to networking and making friends or building relationships. They might need to be the one that is control of the event so that they can feel confident and comfortable. Because if they let other people oversee the social situations, it might be a bit scary because you might not therefore appear as confident or might not know...]]>How much approval is too much

     

    People pleasing doesn’t have to be a life sentence.  But, it can be common problem. This can be normal as we are part of a social and professional system that requires a very wide range of inter-relational skills for us to be happy, appreciated and successful. So, you might be wondering:  what makes a people pleaser? How people-pleasing shows up in your work, social life and more. In fact, every area of your life. And what you can do about it.

     

    I will cover the following on this episode.

    • Red flags that someone is a people pleaser.
    • Dealing with people pleasers.
    • How to overcome people pleasing and approval seeking tendencies.

     

    Hello and welcome to the not so Travelling Introvert. Today, I want to talk about being a people pleaser or some people might see it as having a need, a deep need for approval, almost like an addiction.

     

    Receiving validation from other people feels good for a lot of people. So, good that some people kind of develop almost an addiction for receiving that outside approval and take more weight in getting that outside approval instead of being motivated intrinsically. And therefore, they can't motivate themselves without somebody else's approval. It could manifest as if you're obsessed with people going to express interest in you.

     

    Maybe you like being on social media, dating sites, or any situation where you can attract people and get their attention by having them express an interest in you. It might even be hard for you to settle down with like one human because you enjoy having people express an interest with you rather than just having that interest from one person. Maybe you need constant reassurance to make sure that your friends and family are not mad or upset with you.

     

    Maybe you're often overthinking little confrontations and so you often ask for reassurance about how somebody feels about you. You might like to talk about how awesome you are and this can be weird, like, especially if you lack confidence. But some people who aren't confident will talk about all the impressive things they've done to appear worthier than they think they are, in the hopes that people hearing all the things that they've done will agree and validate their thoughts about said awesomeness, even though they might not believe it themselves.

     

    You might find someone who is that really craves attention, loves to name drop. Do you find someone like name drops people who you may know who they have worked with or know a friend of a friend in order to make themselves look more important? This is a sign can be a sign of insecurity, especially when it's not done within context. So, that can be an issue.

     

    Some people will go ahead and make friends with folks based on their wealth or their reputation. So, they look around at their close friends group and they might think, well, this person's rich, this person is a doctor, this person X, Y, and Z. But they might not know a lot about them as humans, and so they might not share the same values which can lead to issues.

     

    Also, you might find someone who is a people pleaser or has a need for approval. They might change their beliefs or the way that they act, or how they act, depending on the situation or the company that they're keeping. They might change what they say or what they think about certain topics depending on who they're talking to.

     

    They might also feel the need to be in control of each and every single social situation when it comes to networking and making friends or building relationships. They might need to be the one that is control of the event so that they can feel confident and comfortable. Because if they let other people oversee the social situations, it might be a bit scary because you might not therefore appear as confident or might not know what's going on. And, it could be a case of just being rejected in any way, shape or form could make that person feel out of control. It often happens with job searches. It can happen with just people that you know, someone you've just met and how they deal with that rejection can reveal whether or not they are a people please or maybe they have an approval addiction and things that don't help with these are social media, especially things like Instagram where what we call vanity metrics. How many followers do you have? How many people liked that particular post?

     

    These things go towards hurting someone's self-esteem and making them more of a people pleaser. People pleasers need to stop and think and figure out who they are, make sure they have personal values and design a path to reach their goals based on their own values rather than what other people value them as.

     

    Thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and to get hired. Have a great rest of your week!

     

    ]]>cbffa8e4-ad02-4845-92bf-f5cdae5eff1aTue, 31 May 2022 16:00:00 -050005:27falsefull    You are not alone in your introvert struggles.You are not alone in your introvert struggles.You are not alone in your introvert struggles

     

    In today’s world, it can be hard to be an introvert. Introverts face many struggles, as we navigate extrovert-biased workplaces and social situations. Often, introverts feel exhausted and overwhelmed by the sheer pressure to be more extroverted and like to have ample alone time to recharge and feel at our best. Unfortunately, not everyone understands this.

     

    In this episode, I will share with you the following:

    • Understanding the struggles that introverts might be facing.
    • Some of the most successful introverts in the world.
    • Providing a perspective that you are not alone.

     

    Hello and welcome to the not so travelling introvert. Today, I want to talk about some struggles that introverts might have, but also the fact that you are not alone. So, by understanding why you might struggle with certain types of communication or certain things, it means you can better explain yourself to other people. For example, extroverts in your life, and for example, conversation, due to some perfectionist tendencies and just also not wanting to interrupt or various other things. A lot of introverts don't speak up or interrupting a conversation because they're listening and absorbing.

     

    Even when you have something to say that you might not feel it's going to be insightful enough, or you're just listening and you want to have deeper conversations. So, just letting people know that oh hey, how's the weather isn't the best conversation starter for you. You might neglect phone calls. You probably much prefer text or email or asynchronous types of communication because you can skip the small talk because that's socially acceptable in those forms of communication. But phone calls, it's a little different.

     

    You might even find yourself procrastinating and making important phone calls or return calls even to those that you care about. Or for example, just to get your dentist. You must feel energized enough to be an enthusiastic participant in the conversation, which can cause you to put off making calls even if they are vital. You also might find it difficult to think in groups because you need to think before you speak and because you might need silence while you ponder. You might find it challenging to participate in a conversation where there are comments and ideas flying everywhere.

     

    You may feel that you can't gather your thoughts well enough to contribute to the conversation because you're still processing and because of this, big groups might exhaust you. When you have to be around a lot of people, especially when you don't know them, you might feel exhausted fast, and one reason is because it involves a lot of meaningless small talk which we talked about before, which doesn't come naturally to us. Introverts and putting in that much effort can wear you out along with the pace of the conversation and you wanting to think and then sort of feeling left behind almost because the conversation has moved on.

     

    Maybe you might dislike working in groups because you must rely on others to communicate in ways that you might not feel comfortable with, and it can be a real challenge to complete a project. There's also the issue of perfectionism there, but not being able to have the time to think and do focused work because you're supposed to be working in a team and as a group, but regardless of that, you are in good company. Albert Einstein was also believed to be an introvert. In fact, Einstein believed that the quiet life was the secret to his creativity. If he had any preconceived notions about introverts not being successful, he is one that trounces that stereotype.

     

    Another example is Bill Gates. You certainly can't say he's not successful but he is, again, another quiet human that enjoys his solitude and if he's called out for being that way, it...]]>You are not alone in your introvert struggles

     

    In today’s world, it can be hard to be an introvert. Introverts face many struggles, as we navigate extrovert-biased workplaces and social situations. Often, introverts feel exhausted and overwhelmed by the sheer pressure to be more extroverted and like to have ample alone time to recharge and feel at our best. Unfortunately, not everyone understands this.

     

    In this episode, I will share with you the following:

    • Understanding the struggles that introverts might be facing.
    • Some of the most successful introverts in the world.
    • Providing a perspective that you are not alone.

     

    Hello and welcome to the not so travelling introvert. Today, I want to talk about some struggles that introverts might have, but also the fact that you are not alone. So, by understanding why you might struggle with certain types of communication or certain things, it means you can better explain yourself to other people. For example, extroverts in your life, and for example, conversation, due to some perfectionist tendencies and just also not wanting to interrupt or various other things. A lot of introverts don't speak up or interrupting a conversation because they're listening and absorbing.

     

    Even when you have something to say that you might not feel it's going to be insightful enough, or you're just listening and you want to have deeper conversations. So, just letting people know that oh hey, how's the weather isn't the best conversation starter for you. You might neglect phone calls. You probably much prefer text or email or asynchronous types of communication because you can skip the small talk because that's socially acceptable in those forms of communication. But phone calls, it's a little different.

     

    You might even find yourself procrastinating and making important phone calls or return calls even to those that you care about. Or for example, just to get your dentist. You must feel energized enough to be an enthusiastic participant in the conversation, which can cause you to put off making calls even if they are vital. You also might find it difficult to think in groups because you need to think before you speak and because you might need silence while you ponder. You might find it challenging to participate in a conversation where there are comments and ideas flying everywhere.

     

    You may feel that you can't gather your thoughts well enough to contribute to the conversation because you're still processing and because of this, big groups might exhaust you. When you have to be around a lot of people, especially when you don't know them, you might feel exhausted fast, and one reason is because it involves a lot of meaningless small talk which we talked about before, which doesn't come naturally to us. Introverts and putting in that much effort can wear you out along with the pace of the conversation and you wanting to think and then sort of feeling left behind almost because the conversation has moved on.

     

    Maybe you might dislike working in groups because you must rely on others to communicate in ways that you might not feel comfortable with, and it can be a real challenge to complete a project. There's also the issue of perfectionism there, but not being able to have the time to think and do focused work because you're supposed to be working in a team and as a group, but regardless of that, you are in good company. Albert Einstein was also believed to be an introvert. In fact, Einstein believed that the quiet life was the secret to his creativity. If he had any preconceived notions about introverts not being successful, he is one that trounces that stereotype.

     

    Another example is Bill Gates. You certainly can't say he's not successful but he is, again, another quiet human that enjoys his solitude and if he's called out for being that way, it doesn't bother him. And why should I he's living his life? Abraham Lincoln was someone who believed in having integrity. He believed more of being the unsung hero rather than performing acts for the sake of the attention that it gets. However, he was able to attention that he did receive because he was the President of the United States and that's got a lot of attention.

    You'll also find that Lady Gaga is an introvert. With all the flash and energy from her concerts, it's hard to believe that she might even fall into this category. But she is a very private and needs a lot of time to recharge. Mel Streep is a well-known actress and she is so talented. But she is and she is an introvert along with Michael Jordan who is among the list of celebrities who is a larger than life basketball player and at one point even tried his hand at professional baseball. But he is also an introvert.

     

    So, you are not alone and you, too can be successful. It's just knowing more about yourself that helps. So the next time anyone says to you that introverts can't make their way in this extroverted world, refer to them to this list. These are all people who have accomplished amazing feats in their life and are tremendous inspirations to everyone, not just you.

     

    Thank you for listening. This is Janice at janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

    ]]>1f172af0-5695-4dc0-9bc2-93e35da405b7Tue, 24 May 2022 16:00:00 -050005:32falsefull    Client privacyClient privacyHello and welcome to the not so travelling introvert. Today I want to talk about client Privacy. So many times there are Facebook groups, popup Facebook groups or posts on social media celebrating that this person and that person and the other person has joined this particular coaching group or coaching program. Or there is a group in Facebook and people join and there's a welcome to the group and listing all the names on that particular post. So here's the thing.

     

    A lot of people who reach for coaching services, no matter what kind of coaching services they are, are doing so expecting a certain level of confidentiality and Privacy. And I know that a lot of coaches use their hey, join my group and hey, these people have joined. Look how popular this group is to make that fear of missing out thing that much more palatable. But at the same time, what they are doing is destroying their credibility, destroying their clients trust in them because of the lack of confidentiality and Privacy. So many times I get asked, hey, why don't we see a bunch of testimonials on your website?

     

    Or hey, let me know the people that you have worked with. Or why don't we see you posting about all the successes that your clients have? And the simple fact is, my clients come to me because they want help in their career. More than likely they don't want their boss or their LinkedIn friends or their Facebook friends knowing that they are seeking help and support to maybe change careers, maybe start their own business, maybe just do better or get a promotion. They don't need people to know that and they don't want people to know that.

     

    So those of you who are out there looking for your next coach or mentor or insert word here, keep in mind that you want them to keep your information private. You want them to keep your information confidential. Not everything is made to be splashed around on social media. It's fine if they get your permission. That's also the reason why I don't run a Facebook group for my clients that I coach.

     

    Because putting them all into a group means that then things pop up like, oh you might know such and such because you know the Facebook algorithm, right? Oh, you might know such and such. You should ask them to join this group. Oh, such and such is in a group that's similar to yours. No matter how private you make that group, people can still take screenshots of things you say in that group and post them to other places.

     

    Nothing is truly, truly private if it is in a Facebook group.

     

    So when you are thinking about who to work with, take a look and see how they treat their clients. Are all their clients splashed all over their social media, with or without permission? Or do they just give examples that are anonymous because then they're more likely to keep your information private and confidential. That's also one of the reasons that clients work with me is because they don't have to be on video with me. I respect their Privacy.

     

    If they're having a bad day and they don't want to be on video or to be honest, we've all got Zoom fatigue at this point, then they don't have to be I have coaching that I've had some that I've coached with for I think now three years and we don't do video. She doesn't have to see me and I don't have to see her. We still get the job done. So it's just something to keep in mind. Find someone that works with you in a way that works for you.

     

    Thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecreerintovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week. Bye.

     

    ]]>    Hello and welcome to the not so travelling introvert. Today I want to talk about client Privacy. So many times there are Facebook groups, popup Facebook groups or posts on social media celebrating that this person and that person and the other person has joined this particular coaching group or coaching program. Or there is a group in Facebook and people join and there's a welcome to the group and listing all the names on that particular post. So here's the thing.

     

    A lot of people who reach for coaching services, no matter what kind of coaching services they are, are doing so expecting a certain level of confidentiality and Privacy. And I know that a lot of coaches use their hey, join my group and hey, these people have joined. Look how popular this group is to make that fear of missing out thing that much more palatable. But at the same time, what they are doing is destroying their credibility, destroying their clients trust in them because of the lack of confidentiality and Privacy. So many times I get asked, hey, why don't we see a bunch of testimonials on your website?

     

    Or hey, let me know the people that you have worked with. Or why don't we see you posting about all the successes that your clients have? And the simple fact is, my clients come to me because they want help in their career. More than likely they don't want their boss or their LinkedIn friends or their Facebook friends knowing that they are seeking help and support to maybe change careers, maybe start their own business, maybe just do better or get a promotion. They don't need people to know that and they don't want people to know that.

     

    So those of you who are out there looking for your next coach or mentor or insert word here, keep in mind that you want them to keep your information private. You want them to keep your information confidential. Not everything is made to be splashed around on social media. It's fine if they get your permission. That's also the reason why I don't run a Facebook group for my clients that I coach.

     

    Because putting them all into a group means that then things pop up like, oh you might know such and such because you know the Facebook algorithm, right? Oh, you might know such and such. You should ask them to join this group. Oh, such and such is in a group that's similar to yours. No matter how private you make that group, people can still take screenshots of things you say in that group and post them to other places.

     

    Nothing is truly, truly private if it is in a Facebook group.

     

    So when you are thinking about who to work with, take a look and see how they treat their clients. Are all their clients splashed all over their social media, with or without permission? Or do they just give examples that are anonymous because then they're more likely to keep your information private and confidential. That's also one of the reasons that clients work with me is because they don't have to be on video with me. I respect their Privacy.

     

    If they're having a bad day and they don't want to be on video or to be honest, we've all got Zoom fatigue at this point, then they don't have to be I have coaching that I've had some that I've coached with for I think now three years and we don't do video. She doesn't have to see me and I don't have to see her. We still get the job done. So it's just something to keep in mind. Find someone that works with you in a way that works for you.

     

    Thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecreerintovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week. Bye.

     

    ]]>    be85c6d2-1a75-47fc-8d22-36d5c5d66302Tue, 17 May 2022 16:00:00 -050004:48falsefull    The Continuum of AngerThe Continuum of AngerHello and welcome to the not so travelling introvert. Today we’re gonna talk about the different facets of anger. Different facets of anger. So more than one way to, I’m angry, that's all it is. This thing happened and I got really angry.

     

    But angry, anger, I should say, is nuanced. There are different things to go through and feelings as far as anger. So how anger grows? Anger and irritation are normal human emotions that we all go through. But it's not something that you need to think about too hard.

     

    But you need to learn to understand your anger and what sets it off. Because once you understand this, you can take steps to reduce it and know what to do in certain situations, right? But there's a continuum of anger. Any of us can escalate from irritation to rage as any other human.

     

    So let's think about more about what happens. So irritation. Irritation tends to be on an everyday part of life. For example, your car won't start, the WiFi keeps kicking you off. The store is out of your brand of toilet paper again too soon.

     

    You're usually a calm person and you're just having a bad day feeling frustrated or agitated. You express your irritation as annoyance, but it's not necessarily meant personally and the situation is forgotten quickly. Then there is mild anger. One of your goals is blocked. For example, say you wanted to go away for the weekend but your child is sick so you have to cancel.

     

    Alternatives exist. You can go away next weekend. However, you do feel disappointment and frustration. You remember the experience and the feelings.

     

    Then there's intense anger. Your goal is blocked and there is no acceptable alternative. For example, you've been let go from your job. A close family member has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Your level of anger and frustration is very high. It's difficult to express and you become preoccupied with the situation. As you can see, no way out. And then there's a rage. Rage results from frustration and then some a build-up of circumstances. You are consumed by angry feelings. You have no control over the expression of your feelings and you don't respond logically.

     

    Violence may occur, either verbal or physical, and you could be a danger to yourself and others.

     

    This is a vicious cycle of aggression. You can see the continuum of anger. At each stage, the level of anger rises. So what do you need to do is think about how you deal with anger and aggression and what that looks like in various cycles for you. Is it because of low self-esteem, anxiety, hostility, guilt?

     

    It's these things that you need to think about, because you need to acknowledge that emotion. Acknowledge the emotion you are feeling and then have a method for you to deescalate that feeling. Be it you take a walk outside, be it you stop, take a beat and then restart the conversation. It could be that you need to Journal most of the time it's like you need to stop but you need to do this before you get to the rage stage because if you're already at the rage stage, logic is not an option. So just by looking at and knowing these different stages and levels of irritation and anger and rage, think about situations that you have been in previously where you thought these things or experienced these feelings.

     

    How did you deal with them? What have you done previously that helped those feelings go away or settle down? And is it something that you can think about and use in the future to make sure that you don't reach the stage of rage. And maybe have a little list of when this happens, I need to do this when X happens, I need to do B when Y happens I need to do Z and B. Knowing yourself and knowing how to deal with these situations will help you moving forward.

     

    Hopefully you never get to the stage of rage and it daily irritation is fine but just thinking about...]]>Hello and welcome to the not so travelling introvert. Today we’re gonna talk about the different facets of anger. Different facets of anger. So more than one way to, I’m angry, that's all it is. This thing happened and I got really angry.

     

    But angry, anger, I should say, is nuanced. There are different things to go through and feelings as far as anger. So how anger grows? Anger and irritation are normal human emotions that we all go through. But it's not something that you need to think about too hard.

     

    But you need to learn to understand your anger and what sets it off. Because once you understand this, you can take steps to reduce it and know what to do in certain situations, right? But there's a continuum of anger. Any of us can escalate from irritation to rage as any other human.

     

    So let's think about more about what happens. So irritation. Irritation tends to be on an everyday part of life. For example, your car won't start, the WiFi keeps kicking you off. The store is out of your brand of toilet paper again too soon.

     

    You're usually a calm person and you're just having a bad day feeling frustrated or agitated. You express your irritation as annoyance, but it's not necessarily meant personally and the situation is forgotten quickly. Then there is mild anger. One of your goals is blocked. For example, say you wanted to go away for the weekend but your child is sick so you have to cancel.

     

    Alternatives exist. You can go away next weekend. However, you do feel disappointment and frustration. You remember the experience and the feelings.

     

    Then there's intense anger. Your goal is blocked and there is no acceptable alternative. For example, you've been let go from your job. A close family member has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Your level of anger and frustration is very high. It's difficult to express and you become preoccupied with the situation. As you can see, no way out. And then there's a rage. Rage results from frustration and then some a build-up of circumstances. You are consumed by angry feelings. You have no control over the expression of your feelings and you don't respond logically.

     

    Violence may occur, either verbal or physical, and you could be a danger to yourself and others.

     

    This is a vicious cycle of aggression. You can see the continuum of anger. At each stage, the level of anger rises. So what do you need to do is think about how you deal with anger and aggression and what that looks like in various cycles for you. Is it because of low self-esteem, anxiety, hostility, guilt?

     

    It's these things that you need to think about, because you need to acknowledge that emotion. Acknowledge the emotion you are feeling and then have a method for you to deescalate that feeling. Be it you take a walk outside, be it you stop, take a beat and then restart the conversation. It could be that you need to Journal most of the time it's like you need to stop but you need to do this before you get to the rage stage because if you're already at the rage stage, logic is not an option. So just by looking at and knowing these different stages and levels of irritation and anger and rage, think about situations that you have been in previously where you thought these things or experienced these feelings.

     

    How did you deal with them? What have you done previously that helped those feelings go away or settle down? And is it something that you can think about and use in the future to make sure that you don't reach the stage of rage. And maybe have a little list of when this happens, I need to do this when X happens, I need to do B when Y happens I need to do Z and B. Knowing yourself and knowing how to deal with these situations will help you moving forward.

     

    Hopefully you never get to the stage of rage and it daily irritation is fine but just thinking about how you act and how people might see that is something to take into consideration. Thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your day. Bye.

     

    ]]>5448e19b-ca37-4a1a-a571-40723e730c55Tue, 10 May 2022 16:00:00 -050005:23falsefull    7 Key Steps to Handle Any Difficult Situation7 Key Steps to Handle Any Difficult SituationHave you found yourself in a difficult situation lately? Have you dealt with a difficult client or customer? How do you deal with your customers after a rough start to your day? 

     

    In today's episode I discuss:

     

    • The 7 steps to handling any difficult conversations or situation. 

     

    • Remaining calm
    • Listening 
    • Wait until the other person is calm 
    • Apologizing 
    • Find common ground 
    • Move towards an endpoint
    • Next Steps  

     

    The Traveling Introvert - About the show

    The Career Introvert - Coaching, courses, and more, to help you shine.

     

    Check out membership levels at The Career Introvert, a place for introverts to thrive. 

    ]]>    Have you found yourself in a difficult situation lately? Have you dealt with a difficult client or customer? How do you deal with your customers after a rough start to your day? 

     

    In today's episode I discuss:

     

    • The 7 steps to handling any difficult conversations or situation. 

     

    • Remaining calm
    • Listening 
    • Wait until the other person is calm 
    • Apologizing 
    • Find common ground 
    • Move towards an endpoint
    • Next Steps  

     

    The Traveling Introvert - About the show

    The Career Introvert - Coaching, courses, and more, to help you shine.

     

    Check out membership levels at The Career Introvert, a place for introverts to thrive. 

    ]]>    0cde038c-8523-48f9-a5d5-119c20be3939Tue, 03 May 2022 16:00:00 -050005:11falsefull    Where is home for you?Where is home for you?In today's virtual world it’s all about virtual meetings. In these meetings, there's the age-old question “Where are you from”? This can be a difficult question to answer. 

     

    In today's episode I discuss:

     

    • Why you don’t want to ask, people “where are you from?” 
    • How to be more inclusive in the way you ask questions. 
    • How to better frame your questions for today's internationally connected world. 
    • Staying conscious about appropriately networking questions. 

    The Traveling Introvert - About the show

    The Career Introvert - Coaching, courses, and more, to help you shine.

    Check out membership levels at The Career Introvert, a place for introverts to thrive.

    ]]>    In today's virtual world it’s all about virtual meetings. In these meetings, there's the age-old question “Where are you from”? This can be a difficult question to answer. 

     

    In today's episode I discuss:

     

    • Why you don’t want to ask, people “where are you from?” 
    • How to be more inclusive in the way you ask questions. 
    • How to better frame your questions for today's internationally connected world. 
    • Staying conscious about appropriately networking questions. 

    The Traveling Introvert - About the show

    The Career Introvert - Coaching, courses, and more, to help you shine.

    Check out membership levels at The Career Introvert, a place for introverts to thrive.

    ]]>    8f665b4d-8199-4bb8-99fc-b8289266d8c4Tue, 26 Apr 2022 16:00:00 -050005:14falsefull    Who Do You Find DifficultWho Do You Find DifficultDo you have people in your life you find “difficult”? Do you find yourself getting frustrated with the difficult people in your life? Are these negative situations affecting your personal or professional life?

     

    In this episode I discuss:

     

    • How to identify patterns in the situations that frustrate you.
    • Identifying your feelings with each difficult situation.
    • What to do with your newly gained insight about your frustrations.

     

    The Traveling Introvert - About the show

    The Career Introvert - Coaching, courses, and more, to help you shine.

    Check out membership levels at The Career Introvert, a place for introverts to thrive.

    ]]>    Do you have people in your life you find “difficult”? Do you find yourself getting frustrated with the difficult people in your life? Are these negative situations affecting your personal or professional life?

     

    In this episode I discuss:

     

    • How to identify patterns in the situations that frustrate you.
    • Identifying your feelings with each difficult situation.
    • What to do with your newly gained insight about your frustrations.

     

    The Traveling Introvert - About the show

    The Career Introvert - Coaching, courses, and more, to help you shine.

    Check out membership levels at The Career Introvert, a place for introverts to thrive.

    ]]>    3711ef56-ab44-4dca-b192-542ad3d1ca0eTue, 19 Apr 2022 16:00:00 -050005:19falsefull    How Procrastination Will Hinder Your SuccessHow Procrastination Will Hinder Your SuccessAre you someone who is always pushing tasks off until the last minute? Do you find yourself constantly procrastinating tasks in your personal and professional life? 

     

    In this episode I share:

     

    • How procrastination can hinder your success.  
    • How procrastination can negatively affect your health. 
    • Why procrastination is the key to destroying your confidence. 
    • How procrastination affects your reputation, trust, and credibility with others. 
    • Why procrastination is making you lose out on opportunities. 

    The Traveling Introvert - About the show

    The Career Introvert - Coaching, courses, and more, to help you shine.

    Check out membership levels at The Career Introvert, a place for introverts to thrive.

    ]]>    Are you someone who is always pushing tasks off until the last minute? Do you find yourself constantly procrastinating tasks in your personal and professional life? 

     

    In this episode I share:

     

    • How procrastination can hinder your success.  
    • How procrastination can negatively affect your health. 
    • Why procrastination is the key to destroying your confidence. 
    • How procrastination affects your reputation, trust, and credibility with others. 
    • Why procrastination is making you lose out on opportunities. 

    The Traveling Introvert - About the show

    The Career Introvert - Coaching, courses, and more, to help you shine.

    Check out membership levels at The Career Introvert, a place for introverts to thrive.

    ]]>    ce075c55-1c23-4add-a4d2-c91606fb2086Tue, 12 Apr 2022 16:00:00 -050005:23falsefull    How public is publicHow public is publicDo you feel like you have to tell all your friends and family about what you do? Have you heard people say that you should tell everyone about your business ventures because you never know who they know? Are you someone who’s reluctant to share much of your personal life on the internet?

     

    In this episode, I share:

     

    • Avoiding the pressure of being everywhere online.
    • Why it’s okay to not share everything about your work or career with everyone in your life. 
    • How building a community around your work, while keeping private is possible. 
    • When sharing more about your business is appropriate.

    The Traveling Introvert - About the show

    The Career Introvert - Coaching, courses, and more, to help you shine.

    Check out membership levels at The Career Introvert, a place for introverts to thrive.

    ]]>    Do you feel like you have to tell all your friends and family about what you do? Have you heard people say that you should tell everyone about your business ventures because you never know who they know? Are you someone who’s reluctant to share much of your personal life on the internet?

     

    In this episode, I share:

     

    • Avoiding the pressure of being everywhere online.
    • Why it’s okay to not share everything about your work or career with everyone in your life. 
    • How building a community around your work, while keeping private is possible. 
    • When sharing more about your business is appropriate.

    The Traveling Introvert - About the show

    The Career Introvert - Coaching, courses, and more, to help you shine.

    Check out membership levels at The Career Introvert, a place for introverts to thrive.

    ]]>    c709f1be-ee45-4850-9ac5-d789d538af84Tue, 05 Apr 2022 16:00:00 -050005:30falsefull    Why you should interview even if you have a job you loveWhy you should interview even if you have a job you loveAre you someone who is happy with their job, and have no intentions of leaving? What are the benefits of interviewing, even if you’re not looking for a new job?

     

    In this episode, I share: 

     

    • Why you should interview for jobs even when you aren't looking to move. 
    • Why keeping up to date with the most current interviewing information and interview styles is important. 
    • How interviewing can be a great way to learn more about an organization 
    • How practicing interview skills can be a benefit you later. 
    • Why making connections with recruiters matters. 
    • How you could end up finding something you didn’t know you were looking for.  

    The Traveling Introvert - About the show

    The Career Introvert - Coaching, courses, and more, to help you shine.

    Check out membership levels at The Career Introvert, a place for introverts to thrive.

    ]]>    Are you someone who is happy with their job, and have no intentions of leaving? What are the benefits of interviewing, even if you’re not looking for a new job?

     

    In this episode, I share: 

     

    • Why you should interview for jobs even when you aren't looking to move. 
    • Why keeping up to date with the most current interviewing information and interview styles is important. 
    • How interviewing can be a great way to learn more about an organization 
    • How practicing interview skills can be a benefit you later. 
    • Why making connections with recruiters matters. 
    • How you could end up finding something you didn’t know you were looking for.  

    The Traveling Introvert - About the show

    The Career Introvert - Coaching, courses, and more, to help you shine.

    Check out membership levels at The Career Introvert, a place for introverts to thrive.

    ]]>    75214bbe-6062-4534-ac3b-b3e3b068607cTue, 29 Mar 2022 16:00:00 -050005:23falsefull    Why you should dreamWhy you should dreamWe have forgotten how to truly dream. The world is full of opportunities, and everything can be reshaped. Sometimes dreamers are seen as abstract creators with a train of thought that's hard to follow. Having a dreamer mind seat doesn't mean you are void of reality. A lot of dreamers are very practical. Here are some benefits to being a dreamer.

     

    Dreamers take nothing as certain or definite. They let their imagination breathe, keeping in mind that your current situation is just a temporary state of thing and that everything has the potential to change. Whatever negative things are happening in your life are not permanent. This can give you a more positive outlook on life. Additionally, positive things in your life are a chance to smile. It's a common trait of a dreamer mindset to appreciate all aspects of life. This doesn't mean you are immune to the bad things happening. The difference is the way you deal with them when these situations arise. 

     

    Dreamers tend to be more positive in their thinking and more active in the present. 

    When it comes to the future, dreamers know the world is full of opportunities. Whatever your present situation, it can always shift. Your highest fulfilling dreams could become a reality. 

     

    A dreamer's mindset knows that they are the architect and master of their own life. Dreamers are free to make their own choices. 

     

    Creativity is nurtured and taken care of with a dreamer mindset. A dreamer mindset lets you explore the big world and all its opportunities. It is the perfect breeding ground for ideas. This is why the best writers, musicians, and scientists are dreamers. With this creativity, implementation and action need to go hand in hand. Without action, there can be no progress. Dreams don’t come true without putting the work in. 

     

    Be ready to go for what you believe in and to put the work in. A dreamer can be anyone that allows themself to think outside the box concerning themselves and the outside world. Without considering societal norms, you can allow yourself to try things you haven't tried before and dream. 

    ]]>    We have forgotten how to truly dream. The world is full of opportunities, and everything can be reshaped. Sometimes dreamers are seen as abstract creators with a train of thought that's hard to follow. Having a dreamer mind seat doesn't mean you are void of reality. A lot of dreamers are very practical. Here are some benefits to being a dreamer.

     

    Dreamers take nothing as certain or definite. They let their imagination breathe, keeping in mind that your current situation is just a temporary state of thing and that everything has the potential to change. Whatever negative things are happening in your life are not permanent. This can give you a more positive outlook on life. Additionally, positive things in your life are a chance to smile. It's a common trait of a dreamer mindset to appreciate all aspects of life. This doesn't mean you are immune to the bad things happening. The difference is the way you deal with them when these situations arise. 

     

    Dreamers tend to be more positive in their thinking and more active in the present. 

    When it comes to the future, dreamers know the world is full of opportunities. Whatever your present situation, it can always shift. Your highest fulfilling dreams could become a reality. 

     

    A dreamer's mindset knows that they are the architect and master of their own life. Dreamers are free to make their own choices. 

     

    Creativity is nurtured and taken care of with a dreamer mindset. A dreamer mindset lets you explore the big world and all its opportunities. It is the perfect breeding ground for ideas. This is why the best writers, musicians, and scientists are dreamers. With this creativity, implementation and action need to go hand in hand. Without action, there can be no progress. Dreams don’t come true without putting the work in. 

     

    Be ready to go for what you believe in and to put the work in. A dreamer can be anyone that allows themself to think outside the box concerning themselves and the outside world. Without considering societal norms, you can allow yourself to try things you haven't tried before and dream. 

    ]]>    aedb2840-621b-4749-8e21-8c1bd99a55bfTue, 22 Mar 2022 16:00:00 -050005:25falsefull    Solo Adventures for IntrovertsSolo Adventures for IntrovertsWhy would you want to go on a solo journey? Most of us enjoy travel, and that comes in many forms, from a weekend trip or a year-long trip. Most times, we tend to travel with others. But there are reasons to consider traveling alone. 

     

    Silence and solitude: our lives are filled with noise and stimuli from the start of our day. Rarely do we get silence and solitude. These are the best times to slow down and reflect. Experiencing retreats alone by yourself in nature can have great benefits on your mental well-being.

     

    Learning to deal with loneliness: voluntary periods of loneliness can calm your mind and entangle all that's going on in your head. Disconnecting from your normal routine and going into nature helps you gain calmness and concentration and puts you face to face with your strengths and weaknesses to work through. 

     

    Detaching from technology: we spend so most of our time online. We have the tendency to get lost and scroll on our phones for hours. Companies design their content this way to keep us on our phones for longer. Traveling in nature takes us off our phones and reminds us that we don't need to be our phones. It's okay to be bored.

     

    Start small, don't overextend yourself with a month-long mountain climb. Start with a small nature walk in your local park. Happiness can lie in removing yourself, and there is magic in nature. Give nature a try, go on a mini solo adventure. 

    ]]>    Why would you want to go on a solo journey? Most of us enjoy travel, and that comes in many forms, from a weekend trip or a year-long trip. Most times, we tend to travel with others. But there are reasons to consider traveling alone. 

     

    Silence and solitude: our lives are filled with noise and stimuli from the start of our day. Rarely do we get silence and solitude. These are the best times to slow down and reflect. Experiencing retreats alone by yourself in nature can have great benefits on your mental well-being.

     

    Learning to deal with loneliness: voluntary periods of loneliness can calm your mind and entangle all that's going on in your head. Disconnecting from your normal routine and going into nature helps you gain calmness and concentration and puts you face to face with your strengths and weaknesses to work through. 

     

    Detaching from technology: we spend so most of our time online. We have the tendency to get lost and scroll on our phones for hours. Companies design their content this way to keep us on our phones for longer. Traveling in nature takes us off our phones and reminds us that we don't need to be our phones. It's okay to be bored.

     

    Start small, don't overextend yourself with a month-long mountain climb. Start with a small nature walk in your local park. Happiness can lie in removing yourself, and there is magic in nature. Give nature a try, go on a mini solo adventure. 

    ]]>    c76da2e6-b275-4941-a385-52e4d5cbfd58Tue, 15 Mar 2022 16:00:00 -050005:15falsefull    Focus BoostsFocus Boostsa3830d59-83f2-4f5b-a2ca-34deaa8ab7f5Tue, 08 Mar 2022 17:00:00 -050005:17falsefullHow to be more assertiveHow to be more assertiveHow to be more assertive

     

    Being assertive doesn't have much to do with being an introvert.  Assertive communication helps you get your message across in a clear, respectful, and direct manner regardless of being an introvert or an extrovert. Assertive communication is a valuable skill to have. It helps you lead with confidence and enables groups to work more effectively as a team. Additionally, assertive communication reduces stress, anger, and depression. Good communication skills provide mental clarity and better relationship with others. Assertive communication can be important in all aspects of life, not just work. Here are some tips to help you feel more assertive. 

     

    Understand your value: what benefits do you provide to your organization, and why do they matter? Create a detailed list and be ready to offer it up if requested. Highlight your strengths and weaknesses, be realistic, and avoid internal criticism. If you want to be taken more seriously, you need to know your value. 

     

    Expect discomfort: to set proper boundaries you won't always be comfortable in the process. Don't give in, some might use your discomfort to take advantage of the situation. You don't have to step back because of someone's negative reaction. That could very well have more to do with them than the boundary being set. 

     

    When you know that being assertive is tied to your self-worth and self-esteem, you can then start to move forward and think about your needs and boundaries and if they line up with your values. 

     

    There is also a fine line between being assertive and being aggressive. Being assertive is about being respectful to those around you while still valuing your thoughts and opinions and finding harmony between the two while standing your ground. It's not about taking full control, micromanaging, and disrespecting those around you. Stating you disagree with an idea and explaining why you got there is a much more effective way of communicating than calling someone's idea stupid, crazy, or dumb.

     

    Personal growth will also lead you to be more assertive. The more you learn, grow, and practice, the more understanding of your character you will gain, allowing you to draw attention to your value. This will give you more confidence to speak when appropriate, appropriately. 

     

    Remember to give yourself time to adjust and be patient as you learn to be more assertive and set boundaries.

    ]]>    How to be more assertive

     

    Being assertive doesn't have much to do with being an introvert.  Assertive communication helps you get your message across in a clear, respectful, and direct manner regardless of being an introvert or an extrovert. Assertive communication is a valuable skill to have. It helps you lead with confidence and enables groups to work more effectively as a team. Additionally, assertive communication reduces stress, anger, and depression. Good communication skills provide mental clarity and better relationship with others. Assertive communication can be important in all aspects of life, not just work. Here are some tips to help you feel more assertive. 

     

    Understand your value: what benefits do you provide to your organization, and why do they matter? Create a detailed list and be ready to offer it up if requested. Highlight your strengths and weaknesses, be realistic, and avoid internal criticism. If you want to be taken more seriously, you need to know your value. 

     

    Expect discomfort: to set proper boundaries you won't always be comfortable in the process. Don't give in, some might use your discomfort to take advantage of the situation. You don't have to step back because of someone's negative reaction. That could very well have more to do with them than the boundary being set. 

     

    When you know that being assertive is tied to your self-worth and self-esteem, you can then start to move forward and think about your needs and boundaries and if they line up with your values. 

     

    There is also a fine line between being assertive and being aggressive. Being assertive is about being respectful to those around you while still valuing your thoughts and opinions and finding harmony between the two while standing your ground. It's not about taking full control, micromanaging, and disrespecting those around you. Stating you disagree with an idea and explaining why you got there is a much more effective way of communicating than calling someone's idea stupid, crazy, or dumb.

     

    Personal growth will also lead you to be more assertive. The more you learn, grow, and practice, the more understanding of your character you will gain, allowing you to draw attention to your value. This will give you more confidence to speak when appropriate, appropriately. 

     

    Remember to give yourself time to adjust and be patient as you learn to be more assertive and set boundaries.

    ]]>    6809b9be-6452-4738-a19a-de6d6247f3fdTue, 01 Mar 2022 17:00:00 -050005:10falsefull    Finding your niche within your jobFinding your niche within your job5c40789d-053f-4716-a686-99d4b6ee1772Tue, 22 Feb 2022 17:00:00 -050005:22falsefullFirst 90 days on the job for introvertsFirst 90 days on the job for introvertsLet’s talk about some things that can help you ease into a new job and avoid feeling overworked for those first 90 days and ways to help you avoid burnout. 

     

    If possible, look at a calendar, and at 90 days mark, schedule at least a three-day weekend. It’s often the case that at a new job, the new mental processes and all the new learning will have you feeling burnt out at about 90 days. Also, consider the same for 30 days and 60 days if your job allows. Keep federal holidays in mind and use them as rest days as well to avoid burnout. 

     

    Set the tone early on for the type of boundaries and recharge time you would like that allows you to work best. This could be as simple as telling your manager you would like to, for example, avoid early meetings on Mondays. Set these expectations early on. 

     

    Be intentional about meeting people. It doesn't have to be a live Zoom meeting. It can be prerecorded video or audio. Meeting with people daily via zoom can be tiring, so be intentional when meeting with others.  Make the meetings productive and ask questions that allow you to better support your team.

     

    Think about the communications you use. It could be a web series or podcast; get creative.

     

    Find a mentor, mentors are great for getting information, getting people talking, and for pointers you can use moving forward. 

     

    Be clear with what works for you and set aside downtime. These are the keys to a successful first 90 days. 

    ]]>    Let’s talk about some things that can help you ease into a new job and avoid feeling overworked for those first 90 days and ways to help you avoid burnout. 

     

    If possible, look at a calendar, and at 90 days mark, schedule at least a three-day weekend. It’s often the case that at a new job, the new mental processes and all the new learning will have you feeling burnt out at about 90 days. Also, consider the same for 30 days and 60 days if your job allows. Keep federal holidays in mind and use them as rest days as well to avoid burnout. 

     

    Set the tone early on for the type of boundaries and recharge time you would like that allows you to work best. This could be as simple as telling your manager you would like to, for example, avoid early meetings on Mondays. Set these expectations early on. 

     

    Be intentional about meeting people. It doesn't have to be a live Zoom meeting. It can be prerecorded video or audio. Meeting with people daily via zoom can be tiring, so be intentional when meeting with others.  Make the meetings productive and ask questions that allow you to better support your team.

     

    Think about the communications you use. It could be a web series or podcast; get creative.

     

    Find a mentor, mentors are great for getting information, getting people talking, and for pointers you can use moving forward. 

     

    Be clear with what works for you and set aside downtime. These are the keys to a successful first 90 days. 

    ]]>    0512a3cc-a29e-48b1-9255-d0f2caa919e1Tue, 15 Feb 2022 17:00:00 -050005:27falsefull    Employer red flagsEmployer red flagsToday let’s talk about employers and red flags. There are tell-tell signs from employers that might indicate to you that it’s best not to accept a job offer from them or look for a new job if you are with the company currently. 

     

    The first one is the sink or swim method. At first, it might seem like the company has a good onboarding process, but once work starts, you are left to your own devices to succeed or fail on your own. Avoid companies like this because if you are not appropriately trained, chances are others aren’t appropriately trained, and customers aren’t happy. 

     

    Also, if the entire staff is either young or old, this is a red flag. It can mean that it’s hard to move up in that company, and everyone has been there for a long time if everyone is older. And if everyone is younger, it means people aren’t sticking around and just moving on. 

     

    Always in an interview, ask, why is this position now open? Is this a new position, or is this a position someone left, and why did they leave? The answer can be a great indicator if the company will be a good fit.

     

    Another red flag is when a company says, “everyone here is family. We are all like family”. Generally, this means you are overworked without pay and expected to do everything and anything without complaining because “we are all family.” 

     

    Avoid companies where in the interview they ask you if you are the type of person that leaves at the end of the workday or leaves when the job is done. This tends to indicate that the company doesn't have enough staff, and you will be overworked and expected to pick up the pieces. 

     

    Another huge red flag is when companies say they offer “competitive pay” and won't tell you how much they pay until they give you an offer. This is a big indicator of low pay. 

     

    Poor communication during the hiring process is also a red flag. If it’s messy from the beginning, it can indicate overall disorganization within the company. 

     

    Don’t allow companies to rush you once an offer is made. This could mean they want to snatch you up before you have had a chance to “shop around” and compare job offers. 

    ]]>    Today let’s talk about employers and red flags. There are tell-tell signs from employers that might indicate to you that it’s best not to accept a job offer from them or look for a new job if you are with the company currently. 

     

    The first one is the sink or swim method. At first, it might seem like the company has a good onboarding process, but once work starts, you are left to your own devices to succeed or fail on your own. Avoid companies like this because if you are not appropriately trained, chances are others aren’t appropriately trained, and customers aren’t happy. 

     

    Also, if the entire staff is either young or old, this is a red flag. It can mean that it’s hard to move up in that company, and everyone has been there for a long time if everyone is older. And if everyone is younger, it means people aren’t sticking around and just moving on. 

     

    Always in an interview, ask, why is this position now open? Is this a new position, or is this a position someone left, and why did they leave? The answer can be a great indicator if the company will be a good fit.

     

    Another red flag is when a company says, “everyone here is family. We are all like family”. Generally, this means you are overworked without pay and expected to do everything and anything without complaining because “we are all family.” 

     

    Avoid companies where in the interview they ask you if you are the type of person that leaves at the end of the workday or leaves when the job is done. This tends to indicate that the company doesn't have enough staff, and you will be overworked and expected to pick up the pieces. 

     

    Another huge red flag is when companies say they offer “competitive pay” and won't tell you how much they pay until they give you an offer. This is a big indicator of low pay. 

     

    Poor communication during the hiring process is also a red flag. If it’s messy from the beginning, it can indicate overall disorganization within the company. 

     

    Don’t allow companies to rush you once an offer is made. This could mean they want to snatch you up before you have had a chance to “shop around” and compare job offers. 

    ]]>    1d2f48c2-e530-4e6f-9601-d0c4fcd0fa10Tue, 08 Feb 2022 17:00:00 -050005:21falsefull    having a bad attitude can affect your job performancehaving a bad attitude can affect your job performanceLet’s talk about how your attitude or mindset can affect your performance. 

     

    Studies show a positive correlation between a positive attitude and performing your best. Multiple studies back the idea that a negative attitude leads to poorer performance and quality in work. 

     

    A positive attitude encourages constructive thinking, gives you a more optimistic look on life, and it can lead to more energy and motivation to reach your goals. Practice positive thinking, and you should see a noticeable difference in your quality of work. 

     

    Here are some tips to get you started:

     

    Expect Success: successful people expect success, even when they fail. Failing is still a success. A positive attitude and drive will push you forward. 

     

    Look for inspiration: we are surrounded by inspiring things. Be open with your mind. The more variety, the better. 

     

    Build up your perseverance: a person with a positive attitude will persevere through hard times. Don't get discouraged when things get hard. Focus on the overall outcome to motivate you to keep you going. 

     

    Open your eyes to opportunities: keep your eye out for opportunities. Figure out what opportunities are good to take. When you focus on the positive, you will notice more opportunities come your way. 

     

    Never stop learning or moving forward: most successful people are lifelong learners. They are always looking to improve and learn in their current field or in new and different ways. 

     

    Believe in yourself: The critic in your head can make this challenging. But a positive attitude leaves less room for self-doubt. 

     

    Become more solution-orientated: a positive person thinks of a solution to a problem instead of harping on the negative and seeing setbacks as failures. Instead, stay positive and see “failures” as opportunities to improve and come up with a solution. 

     

    The more you seek to improve your attitude, the more success you will experience. 

    ]]>    Let’s talk about how your attitude or mindset can affect your performance. 

     

    Studies show a positive correlation between a positive attitude and performing your best. Multiple studies back the idea that a negative attitude leads to poorer performance and quality in work. 

     

    A positive attitude encourages constructive thinking, gives you a more optimistic look on life, and it can lead to more energy and motivation to reach your goals. Practice positive thinking, and you should see a noticeable difference in your quality of work. 

     

    Here are some tips to get you started:

     

    Expect Success: successful people expect success, even when they fail. Failing is still a success. A positive attitude and drive will push you forward. 

     

    Look for inspiration: we are surrounded by inspiring things. Be open with your mind. The more variety, the better. 

     

    Build up your perseverance: a person with a positive attitude will persevere through hard times. Don't get discouraged when things get hard. Focus on the overall outcome to motivate you to keep you going. 

     

    Open your eyes to opportunities: keep your eye out for opportunities. Figure out what opportunities are good to take. When you focus on the positive, you will notice more opportunities come your way. 

     

    Never stop learning or moving forward: most successful people are lifelong learners. They are always looking to improve and learn in their current field or in new and different ways. 

     

    Believe in yourself: The critic in your head can make this challenging. But a positive attitude leaves less room for self-doubt. 

     

    Become more solution-orientated: a positive person thinks of a solution to a problem instead of harping on the negative and seeing setbacks as failures. Instead, stay positive and see “failures” as opportunities to improve and come up with a solution. 

     

    The more you seek to improve your attitude, the more success you will experience. 

    ]]>    e52eaf7d-6c81-425c-af22-cfe4d5333f5aTue, 01 Feb 2022 17:00:00 -050005:25falsefull    Scheduling funScheduling funLet’s talk about making time for fun and creativity. 

     

    It’s easy to block out time for work and events you know are happening, and it’s even easy to block out time for rest. But are you also blocking out time for fun? Not vacations or parties. But just something you find to be fun. 

     

    Start allowing for some mental white space in your calendar. This time is for sitting, daydreaming, and being creative without distractions from your phone, work, or social media. Truly just sitting with you and your thoughts. 

     

    When you are thinking about your schedule (even if you work a 9-5), think about when you can schedule some creative white space and some fun time.  

     

    Before creating a schedule that works for you, consider the following.

     

    Know your priorities and your overall goal: This way, when you are scheduling, you keep an overarching goal in mind of what moves you forward. 

     

    Learn to say, No: No, or you could say “let me check my schedule.” Knowing your priorities makes it easier to say no, and it makes it easier to know when to say yes. Stepping back and saying, “let me check my schedule,” allows you to take the time to evaluate if this is something that will advance you towards your overall goal. If not, say no. 

     

    Focus on impact: Focus on the impact your choices make on your life and aspects of your life. When you see the effects good choices make, it’s easier to say no to things you don’t want to do. 

     

    Understand how long tasks take: We tend to be bad at scheduling out how long a task might take. When scheduling a task, don't lie to yourself, be honest about how long your task will take. Give yourself a time buffer as well. 

     

    Group like tasks together: If you are already out at a doctor's appointment, consider adding any outdoor errand to your schedule while you're out. Or, if you're already online posting, your social media use that time for your page engagement. Make the most of your scheduled time. 

     

    Use the right tools: whatever the right tools for the job are, make sure you know what those are and be ready to use them when needed. 

     

    Establish a system and a routine: when you do something in a specific order day in and day out, you are less likely to make mistakes. 

     

    Schedule everything: work, sleep, eating, downtime, white space, and fun time. When you really want to do something having it on your schedule and committing to yourself can be very helpful.

    ]]>    Let’s talk about making time for fun and creativity. 

     

    It’s easy to block out time for work and events you know are happening, and it’s even easy to block out time for rest. But are you also blocking out time for fun? Not vacations or parties. But just something you find to be fun. 

     

    Start allowing for some mental white space in your calendar. This time is for sitting, daydreaming, and being creative without distractions from your phone, work, or social media. Truly just sitting with you and your thoughts. 

     

    When you are thinking about your schedule (even if you work a 9-5), think about when you can schedule some creative white space and some fun time.  

     

    Before creating a schedule that works for you, consider the following.

     

    Know your priorities and your overall goal: This way, when you are scheduling, you keep an overarching goal in mind of what moves you forward. 

     

    Learn to say, No: No, or you could say “let me check my schedule.” Knowing your priorities makes it easier to say no, and it makes it easier to know when to say yes. Stepping back and saying, “let me check my schedule,” allows you to take the time to evaluate if this is something that will advance you towards your overall goal. If not, say no. 

     

    Focus on impact: Focus on the impact your choices make on your life and aspects of your life. When you see the effects good choices make, it’s easier to say no to things you don’t want to do. 

     

    Understand how long tasks take: We tend to be bad at scheduling out how long a task might take. When scheduling a task, don't lie to yourself, be honest about how long your task will take. Give yourself a time buffer as well. 

     

    Group like tasks together: If you are already out at a doctor's appointment, consider adding any outdoor errand to your schedule while you're out. Or, if you're already online posting, your social media use that time for your page engagement. Make the most of your scheduled time. 

     

    Use the right tools: whatever the right tools for the job are, make sure you know what those are and be ready to use them when needed. 

     

    Establish a system and a routine: when you do something in a specific order day in and day out, you are less likely to make mistakes. 

     

    Schedule everything: work, sleep, eating, downtime, white space, and fun time. When you really want to do something having it on your schedule and committing to yourself can be very helpful.

    ]]>    680fadce-26ee-4ad9-a589-c6c46efe9732Tue, 25 Jan 2022 17:00:00 -050005:20falsefull    Self compassionSelf compassionSelf Compassion

     

    Let’s talk about the importance of showing self-compassion. It is important to remember that everyone is going through something, whether we know it or not, and we need to learn to be more compassionate towards others and ourselves.

     

    There are times in our lives where we are hard on ourselves. When you do this, you lack self-compassion. The way your inner critic speaks to you would never be an acceptable way to speak to others. Don’t allow yourself to speak that way about yourself either. 

     

    Here are some tips for self-compassion:

     

    It can help to give your inner critic a name. Example “Beatrice”, that way when you are having negative thoughts about yourself, you can tell “Beatrice” off by name with an appropriate speech. 

     

    Avoid negative self-talk, internal and external. It’s okay to accept responsibility for a mistake. But name-calling is not an appropriate response to making a mistake. You wouldn’t talk to others that way, don’t speak to yourself that way either. 

     

    Practice self-kindness. Give yourself the same encouraging, patience, and understanding advice you would give friends or family when it comes to facing a dilemma in your life. 

     

    Stop comparing yourself to others. Everyone has different abilities and experiences. Don't focus on what others are doing and live your life and enjoy what you have. 

     

    Recognize when something is a learning opportunity. Sometimes unexpected results can yield something great. Don’t be hard on yourself when you make “mistakes”; instead, learn from them. 

     

    Look at your budget and see if you have something set aside for personal development. It can be something as simple as a coloring book. It doesn’t have to be just professional development (but it certainly can be). 

     

    If you are having difficulty being kind to yourself, you might consider professional help. Many people who suffer from imposter syndrome find it hard to be kind to themselves. A professional therapist or counselor can help with that. 

     

    Lastly, be patient. Change doesn't happen overnight. Craft a plan that allows you to tackle your self-compassion issues over time. Deal with one thing at a time. 

    ]]>    Self Compassion

     

    Let’s talk about the importance of showing self-compassion. It is important to remember that everyone is going through something, whether we know it or not, and we need to learn to be more compassionate towards others and ourselves.

     

    There are times in our lives where we are hard on ourselves. When you do this, you lack self-compassion. The way your inner critic speaks to you would never be an acceptable way to speak to others. Don’t allow yourself to speak that way about yourself either. 

     

    Here are some tips for self-compassion:

     

    It can help to give your inner critic a name. Example “Beatrice”, that way when you are having negative thoughts about yourself, you can tell “Beatrice” off by name with an appropriate speech. 

     

    Avoid negative self-talk, internal and external. It’s okay to accept responsibility for a mistake. But name-calling is not an appropriate response to making a mistake. You wouldn’t talk to others that way, don’t speak to yourself that way either. 

     

    Practice self-kindness. Give yourself the same encouraging, patience, and understanding advice you would give friends or family when it comes to facing a dilemma in your life. 

     

    Stop comparing yourself to others. Everyone has different abilities and experiences. Don't focus on what others are doing and live your life and enjoy what you have. 

     

    Recognize when something is a learning opportunity. Sometimes unexpected results can yield something great. Don’t be hard on yourself when you make “mistakes”; instead, learn from them. 

     

    Look at your budget and see if you have something set aside for personal development. It can be something as simple as a coloring book. It doesn’t have to be just professional development (but it certainly can be). 

     

    If you are having difficulty being kind to yourself, you might consider professional help. Many people who suffer from imposter syndrome find it hard to be kind to themselves. A professional therapist or counselor can help with that. 

     

    Lastly, be patient. Change doesn't happen overnight. Craft a plan that allows you to tackle your self-compassion issues over time. Deal with one thing at a time. 

    ]]>    e0f8910d-2f0a-4184-be0f-e211f0726186Tue, 18 Jan 2022 17:00:00 -050005:25falsefull    Creativity boostsCreativity boostsCreativity 

     

    We as humans all think of different ways of doing things, we daydream, we work in or out of the home. So even if you don't consider yourself a creative person, we all are all creative by nature.

     

    Solutions start with creativity. The ability to form an idea that brings new and different value to a problem is creativity. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, but thinking of creative ways to help you and those around you daily can be of great benefit. Here are some ideas to get you thinking creatively. 

     

    Get rid of the fear of failure. Creativity is about trying new things. There is always a risk in trying new things. Just because it doesn't work now doesn't mean it won't work in the future. The more you harp on the failure, the less room for positive growth you give yourself. Embrace the lessons that failure gives you. 

     

    Don't stick to the status quo of what's been done before. Learn from what's been done but make it your own. Don't be concerned about what others think about your idea or that you might be doing something differently. Thinking about others will only cloud your thoughts about your ideas. 

     

    Creativity doesn't follow a set schedule. Reduce outside pressures and fill your workspace with materials that encourage you to be creative, be that color pencils, post-it notes, fidget spinners, whatever might help you be more creative. 

     

    Give yourself time to be creative. If you are constantly procrastinating and pushing up on deadlines, your mind doesn't have the opportunity to be creative and sit on ideas. 

     

    Figure out how you best process ideas and come to conclusions. Consider how much space and time you need to get a job done, and then give yourself ample time to be creative. Your career and business will appreciate it. 

    ]]>    Creativity 

     

    We as humans all think of different ways of doing things, we daydream, we work in or out of the home. So even if you don't consider yourself a creative person, we all are all creative by nature.

     

    Solutions start with creativity. The ability to form an idea that brings new and different value to a problem is creativity. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, but thinking of creative ways to help you and those around you daily can be of great benefit. Here are some ideas to get you thinking creatively. 

     

    Get rid of the fear of failure. Creativity is about trying new things. There is always a risk in trying new things. Just because it doesn't work now doesn't mean it won't work in the future. The more you harp on the failure, the less room for positive growth you give yourself. Embrace the lessons that failure gives you. 

     

    Don't stick to the status quo of what's been done before. Learn from what's been done but make it your own. Don't be concerned about what others think about your idea or that you might be doing something differently. Thinking about others will only cloud your thoughts about your ideas. 

     

    Creativity doesn't follow a set schedule. Reduce outside pressures and fill your workspace with materials that encourage you to be creative, be that color pencils, post-it notes, fidget spinners, whatever might help you be more creative. 

     

    Give yourself time to be creative. If you are constantly procrastinating and pushing up on deadlines, your mind doesn't have the opportunity to be creative and sit on ideas. 

     

    Figure out how you best process ideas and come to conclusions. Consider how much space and time you need to get a job done, and then give yourself ample time to be creative. Your career and business will appreciate it. 

    ]]>    20676108-885e-4b2e-be14-d15f8d6a0d75Tue, 11 Jan 2022 17:00:00 -050005:10falsefull    Remote leadership tipsRemote leadership tipsTips for remote team leaders

     

    Let's talk about some ways to be a better remote leader. 

     

    First, hire people who can work independently. There is no need to micromanage a team when you can trust that they are getting the job done. Hire candidates who have taken ownership of their work in the past. 

     

    Over communicate, and encourage others to do the same. Communication is different when working remotely. Consider a shared google calendar for the entire team (including CEO). Find ways to make sure everyone is in the know. 

     

    Cultivate spaces where people can share what they are working on regularly. And make it so that others can hold each other accountable. Be it with long projects or a project of the day.  

     

    Understand that life happens, people get sick, people need off days, the doorbell might ring, you could hear kids in the background. As long as the work is getting done and the interruptions are just occasional, be understanding. 

     

    Be flexible about how you communicate. Not everything needs to be a "cameras on" zoom meeting. A quick form of communication is often a more effective way to get the job done. 

     

    Build systems that account for downtime, for international teams or different holidays, etc. Find ways to communicate without interrupting your team's downtime. 

     

    Practice empathy and check up on your team regularly. As the team leader, this is your responsibility. Actively listen and work to cultivate a healthy working environment. 

     

    Ask for feedback. Just because it works now doesn't mean it will always work.

    ]]>    Tips for remote team leaders

     

    Let's talk about some ways to be a better remote leader. 

     

    First, hire people who can work independently. There is no need to micromanage a team when you can trust that they are getting the job done. Hire candidates who have taken ownership of their work in the past. 

     

    Over communicate, and encourage others to do the same. Communication is different when working remotely. Consider a shared google calendar for the entire team (including CEO). Find ways to make sure everyone is in the know. 

     

    Cultivate spaces where people can share what they are working on regularly. And make it so that others can hold each other accountable. Be it with long projects or a project of the day.  

     

    Understand that life happens, people get sick, people need off days, the doorbell might ring, you could hear kids in the background. As long as the work is getting done and the interruptions are just occasional, be understanding. 

     

    Be flexible about how you communicate. Not everything needs to be a "cameras on" zoom meeting. A quick form of communication is often a more effective way to get the job done. 

     

    Build systems that account for downtime, for international teams or different holidays, etc. Find ways to communicate without interrupting your team's downtime. 

     

    Practice empathy and check up on your team regularly. As the team leader, this is your responsibility. Actively listen and work to cultivate a healthy working environment. 

     

    Ask for feedback. Just because it works now doesn't mean it will always work.

    ]]>    3e5f3e5e-8a49-4ffd-8767-bb3d66016253Tue, 04 Jan 2022 17:00:00 -050005:27falsefull    TraditionsTraditionsLet's talk about traditions. 

    What are some things you do during the holidays or the year solely because other people have done them before you, whether alive or dead?

     

    Traditions can be held dearly to us.  But they should be able to grow and change in a way that best suits our lives. Like themes, they should be flexible. When we learn more, we should change the way traditions fit into our lives. 

     

    For example, instead of holiday cards this year, I chose to send voice memos with a personalized message to the close people in my life. Many people appreciated this, and it can be a one-off tradition, or I can choose to do this again. Traditions don't have to last 20 years. You can choose to incorporate one-off traditions into your life. 

     

    Think about the things you do every year because it's expected of you and not because you like to do them. Reconsider these traditions and change them in a way that best fits you. Make your traditions add value to you, don't just think about what happened in the past; consider your future. 

     

    Don't forget to join me on January 2nd, on https://www.bullhorn.fm/thetravelingintrovert

    ]]>    Let's talk about traditions. 

    What are some things you do during the holidays or the year solely because other people have done them before you, whether alive or dead?

     

    Traditions can be held dearly to us.  But they should be able to grow and change in a way that best suits our lives. Like themes, they should be flexible. When we learn more, we should change the way traditions fit into our lives. 

     

    For example, instead of holiday cards this year, I chose to send voice memos with a personalized message to the close people in my life. Many people appreciated this, and it can be a one-off tradition, or I can choose to do this again. Traditions don't have to last 20 years. You can choose to incorporate one-off traditions into your life. 

     

    Think about the things you do every year because it's expected of you and not because you like to do them. Reconsider these traditions and change them in a way that best fits you. Make your traditions add value to you, don't just think about what happened in the past; consider your future. 

     

    Don't forget to join me on January 2nd, on https://www.bullhorn.fm/thetravelingintrovert

    ]]>    ca6da7c7-6423-4d14-bb62-35ce6e8e9282Tue, 28 Dec 2021 17:00:00 -050005:41falsefull    Themes for the new yearThemes for the new yearWe are coming to the end of 2021, and it’s a great time to talk about Themes. These aren’t goals or resolutions for the New Year. But instead, overarching themes for your New Year or even next season. 

     

    Traditionally you might start a New Years’ resolution, but these goals tend to be strict and ridged on the intended action. Say “work out every day” or “lose 10 lbs by x date”. And when we miss a day or don’t achieve our goal, it derails the entire resolution, and we then have “failed.” Instead, a theme is a word or short sentence that guides you through the year or season to make more decisions towards your said theme. 

     

    My 2021 theme was Year of Discovery, so I chose activities that would let me “discover” something new throughout the year. As long as you move forward in choosing activities within your theme, you won’t fail. 

     

    Themes help you avoid burnout. The broadness of themes means you can choose something different daily and still move forward with your theme. You will feel more accomplished at the end of the summer or year, having chosen activities within your theme. 

     

    Themes are easy to pivot and change as well. If you think you like learning via reading books but come to find you prefer to listen to books with your theme as “winter of learning,” you are staying within your theme and keeping motivated. 

     

    Theme can also be made seasonally to avoid the feeling like you have all year to get something done. It shortens down your time frame and pushes you toward your theme faster.

     

    Themes are a different way to look at things and change your frame of mind. 

    If you want more info on Themes check out CGP Grey

    Join me for a live version of this podcast on Jan 2nd on World Introvert Day at 3 pm EST. Download the Bullhorn podcast app and follow the podcast to get notified when I go live.

    ]]>    We are coming to the end of 2021, and it’s a great time to talk about Themes. These aren’t goals or resolutions for the New Year. But instead, overarching themes for your New Year or even next season. 

     

    Traditionally you might start a New Years’ resolution, but these goals tend to be strict and ridged on the intended action. Say “work out every day” or “lose 10 lbs by x date”. And when we miss a day or don’t achieve our goal, it derails the entire resolution, and we then have “failed.” Instead, a theme is a word or short sentence that guides you through the year or season to make more decisions towards your said theme. 

     

    My 2021 theme was Year of Discovery, so I chose activities that would let me “discover” something new throughout the year. As long as you move forward in choosing activities within your theme, you won’t fail. 

     

    Themes help you avoid burnout. The broadness of themes means you can choose something different daily and still move forward with your theme. You will feel more accomplished at the end of the summer or year, having chosen activities within your theme. 

     

    Themes are easy to pivot and change as well. If you think you like learning via reading books but come to find you prefer to listen to books with your theme as “winter of learning,” you are staying within your theme and keeping motivated. 

     

    Theme can also be made seasonally to avoid the feeling like you have all year to get something done. It shortens down your time frame and pushes you toward your theme faster.

     

    Themes are a different way to look at things and change your frame of mind. 

    If you want more info on Themes check out CGP Grey

    Join me for a live version of this podcast on Jan 2nd on World Introvert Day at 3 pm EST. Download the Bullhorn podcast app and follow the podcast to get notified when I go live.

    ]]>    028d7f65-d20e-4a52-97cd-9178fbec0e4cTue, 21 Dec 2021 17:00:00 -050005:36falsefull    You are the best person for the jobYou are the best person for the jobAre you having feelings of imposter syndrome when applying for jobs or when at a new job?

     

    Imposter syndrome at work is especially damaging and can affect you in many ways. Holding you back from promotions, being known as the person that can't be handed an extra task, long hours at work, and overall added stress. Imposter syndrome needs to be dealt with before it derails your career entirely. 

     

    Almost everyone has suffered from imposter syndrome at one time or another. 

     

    When having this feeling, you need to analyze why exactly you have this feeling. Are you in the wrong department, do you not understand the assignment, are you in the wrong career, or do you not understand the assignment right now? Once you know why then you can address the problem. Create a plan for your particular reason. Maybe you need more training, or you might have a bad manager, or you need time to settle into your career, or it could be time to look for a new job? 

     

    Having imposter syndrome can cause us to overcompensate and set unrealistic goals. This creates a self-feeding cycle of failure. Start by setting small goals to get your confidence going. 

     

    Always get advice and find a mentor. Find someone who has accomplished the things you want to achieve or someone "higher up" than you. 

     

    Recognize what you have achieved. Track your accomplishments to look back on as reference when the feeling of imposter syndrome comes on. 

     

    Your career can take over your life if you let it, especially with imposter syndrome. These feelings can have you working long hours to overcome your own perceived shortcomings. The lack of balance can take a toll on your physical and mental health. 

     

    When you don't know the answer, ask for help and get clarification. Getting clarification will help ensure you are on the right path to do what needs to be done. You can't do your best if you lack details. When in doubt, ask questions. 

     

    If you are feeling derailed by imposter syndrome, consider this. You came into this job with a specific purpose in mind. Whatever that may be, allowing feelings of insecurity to pull the rug out from underneath you won't help you accomplish your goals. Take a step back recenter your vision, and move forward with that. 

     

    ]]>    Are you having feelings of imposter syndrome when applying for jobs or when at a new job?

     

    Imposter syndrome at work is especially damaging and can affect you in many ways. Holding you back from promotions, being known as the person that can't be handed an extra task, long hours at work, and overall added stress. Imposter syndrome needs to be dealt with before it derails your career entirely. 

     

    Almost everyone has suffered from imposter syndrome at one time or another. 

     

    When having this feeling, you need to analyze why exactly you have this feeling. Are you in the wrong department, do you not understand the assignment, are you in the wrong career, or do you not understand the assignment right now? Once you know why then you can address the problem. Create a plan for your particular reason. Maybe you need more training, or you might have a bad manager, or you need time to settle into your career, or it could be time to look for a new job? 

     

    Having imposter syndrome can cause us to overcompensate and set unrealistic goals. This creates a self-feeding cycle of failure. Start by setting small goals to get your confidence going. 

     

    Always get advice and find a mentor. Find someone who has accomplished the things you want to achieve or someone "higher up" than you. 

     

    Recognize what you have achieved. Track your accomplishments to look back on as reference when the feeling of imposter syndrome comes on. 

     

    Your career can take over your life if you let it, especially with imposter syndrome. These feelings can have you working long hours to overcome your own perceived shortcomings. The lack of balance can take a toll on your physical and mental health. 

     

    When you don't know the answer, ask for help and get clarification. Getting clarification will help ensure you are on the right path to do what needs to be done. You can't do your best if you lack details. When in doubt, ask questions. 

     

    If you are feeling derailed by imposter syndrome, consider this. You came into this job with a specific purpose in mind. Whatever that may be, allowing feelings of insecurity to pull the rug out from underneath you won't help you accomplish your goals. Take a step back recenter your vision, and move forward with that. 

     

    ]]>    cee8ee91-9a90-4754-84df-8c17affcb752Tue, 14 Dec 2021 17:00:00 -050005:25falsefull    The lost art of doing nothingThe lost art of doing nothingThe lost art of doing nothing

     

    You should be scheduling time out to do nothing. 

     

    On your days off, you might find that you have lots of things to get done. Whether it is doing chores, seeing people, side projects. You might often find yourself scheduling out your days off instead of allowing yourself to go with where the day takes you. 

     

    Due to the nature of technology nowadays, with notifications and easy access to our phones, we gravitate toward that instant gratification, and we have a large fear of missing out. This makes it hard for us to do nothing and plan nothing. 

     

    Don't feel guilty for not being "productive"  all hours of the day. Our bodies and minds are not designed for that. If you continue to push yourself without a "do-nothing" break, you build up a deficit that can eventually lead to burnout. 

     

    Don't even plan things that will make you feel better. Truly let your body or mind take you through the day.  Does your body need more rest, does it need to meditate, does it need Netflix, does it want to bake a cake? Listen and let your mind and body decide. 

     

    It can take effort and practice, but go with the flow, don't check your mail or phone. Don't be "productive." Let yourself play, let yourself be.

    ]]>    The lost art of doing nothing

     

    You should be scheduling time out to do nothing. 

     

    On your days off, you might find that you have lots of things to get done. Whether it is doing chores, seeing people, side projects. You might often find yourself scheduling out your days off instead of allowing yourself to go with where the day takes you. 

     

    Due to the nature of technology nowadays, with notifications and easy access to our phones, we gravitate toward that instant gratification, and we have a large fear of missing out. This makes it hard for us to do nothing and plan nothing. 

     

    Don't feel guilty for not being "productive"  all hours of the day. Our bodies and minds are not designed for that. If you continue to push yourself without a "do-nothing" break, you build up a deficit that can eventually lead to burnout. 

     

    Don't even plan things that will make you feel better. Truly let your body or mind take you through the day.  Does your body need more rest, does it need to meditate, does it need Netflix, does it want to bake a cake? Listen and let your mind and body decide. 

     

    It can take effort and practice, but go with the flow, don't check your mail or phone. Don't be "productive." Let yourself play, let yourself be.

    ]]>    62619212-8c9e-4335-8139-25fbffb156cdTue, 07 Dec 2021 17:00:00 -050005:24falsefull    Prioritize yourselfPrioritize yourselfPrioritizing yourself

     

    One of the worst things you can do is feel guilty about prioritizing yourself. Prioritizing yourself is a need, and you should not feel guilty about your needs. 

     

    People who care about you will respond healthily to you putting yourself first. 

    Set boundaries or time for yourself and explain why this designated time is important to you. It May take time, but the people around you that care about you will understand why this time is important to you. 

     

    Sometimes friends and family don’t mean to take advantage of you. Instead, they assume that if you say yes, it’s because you wanted to say yes. Instead, try saying no, not right now, let me check my calendar, or I would rather do…

     

    Set boundaries and help yourself prioritize yourself. 

     

    Block out the downtime to prioritize yourself by doing the things you like. Walking, reading, painting, meditating, coloring. If you allow yourself this time, you will be a happier person and enjoy life more. 

     

    It is not optional for you to take care of yourself. If you don’t, you won’t be productive. You might end up sick and stressed. It shows in your work when you’re not allowing time for yourself. People will be able to sense that something about you is off. They might not know why, but your energy can be telling. 

     

    You can only control yourself so give yourself that time. Prioritizing yourself doesn’t mean neglecting others. 

     

    Needs and wants are different, and learning to differentiate is very important. When you finally learn to put your needs before other people’s wants, you will be happier. 

     

    If you don’t put yourself first, no one else will. Don’t feel guilty about being true to yourself.

    ]]>    Prioritizing yourself

     

    One of the worst things you can do is feel guilty about prioritizing yourself. Prioritizing yourself is a need, and you should not feel guilty about your needs. 

     

    People who care about you will respond healthily to you putting yourself first. 

    Set boundaries or time for yourself and explain why this designated time is important to you. It May take time, but the people around you that care about you will understand why this time is important to you. 

     

    Sometimes friends and family don’t mean to take advantage of you. Instead, they assume that if you say yes, it’s because you wanted to say yes. Instead, try saying no, not right now, let me check my calendar, or I would rather do…

     

    Set boundaries and help yourself prioritize yourself. 

     

    Block out the downtime to prioritize yourself by doing the things you like. Walking, reading, painting, meditating, coloring. If you allow yourself this time, you will be a happier person and enjoy life more. 

     

    It is not optional for you to take care of yourself. If you don’t, you won’t be productive. You might end up sick and stressed. It shows in your work when you’re not allowing time for yourself. People will be able to sense that something about you is off. They might not know why, but your energy can be telling. 

     

    You can only control yourself so give yourself that time. Prioritizing yourself doesn’t mean neglecting others. 

     

    Needs and wants are different, and learning to differentiate is very important. When you finally learn to put your needs before other people’s wants, you will be happier. 

     

    If you don’t put yourself first, no one else will. Don’t feel guilty about being true to yourself.

    ]]>    1908b78c-7808-4bf1-8adc-e0141b09d49fTue, 30 Nov 2021 17:00:00 -050005:13falsefull    Balancing self-esteemBalancing self-esteemBalancing self-esteem 

    Having healthy and balanced self-esteem is key to a happy and healthy life. 

     

    Sometimes people assume that introverts don’t have high self-esteem or even that they have low self-esteem.

    And then, there are times when self-esteem morphs into ego or overconfidence. 

     

    There is healthy self-esteem. Here you have the confidence to be honest with yourself. You know your strengths and weaknesses, and you love yourself. Healthy self-esteem encourages you to live your life to the fullest, make good measured choices, and keep going even when mistakes happen with a lesson learned. 

     

    Then there is low self-esteem. Unhealth low self-esteem leaves you with no confidence and a fear of making mistakes. Often this leads to a poor quality of life where you feel scared and trapped. Here you take in a lot of what people say about you, especially if it is negative.  

     

    Then there is the overinflated self-esteem. This is also unhealthy. Overinflated self-esteem can trick you into thinking that you are better than everyone. This is ego and can ostracize you from your friends and family. 

     

    Your self-esteem can fluctuate. But it is important to keep balance.  Unbalanced self-esteem can lead to poor quality of life. People with low self-esteem can miss out on important experiences. And overinflated self-esteem can push people away.

     

    Most excess confidence or extreme lack of confidence is a form of deception. You are the one person you really don’t want to lie to, and unbalanced self-esteem is likely you lying. 

     

    Understanding what self-esteem means is important. It is defined as confidence in your own self-worth and a sense of self-respect. You are not respecting yourself if you don’t believe you deserve respect and happiness. Neither is it when you hide behind a false sense of confidence. 

     

    Being honest with yourself is the most important step. Only then can you start working on the changes to your life for the better.

    ]]>    Balancing self-esteem 

    Having healthy and balanced self-esteem is key to a happy and healthy life. 

     

    Sometimes people assume that introverts don’t have high self-esteem or even that they have low self-esteem.

    And then, there are times when self-esteem morphs into ego or overconfidence. 

     

    There is healthy self-esteem. Here you have the confidence to be honest with yourself. You know your strengths and weaknesses, and you love yourself. Healthy self-esteem encourages you to live your life to the fullest, make good measured choices, and keep going even when mistakes happen with a lesson learned. 

     

    Then there is low self-esteem. Unhealth low self-esteem leaves you with no confidence and a fear of making mistakes. Often this leads to a poor quality of life where you feel scared and trapped. Here you take in a lot of what people say about you, especially if it is negative.  

     

    Then there is the overinflated self-esteem. This is also unhealthy. Overinflated self-esteem can trick you into thinking that you are better than everyone. This is ego and can ostracize you from your friends and family. 

     

    Your self-esteem can fluctuate. But it is important to keep balance.  Unbalanced self-esteem can lead to poor quality of life. People with low self-esteem can miss out on important experiences. And overinflated self-esteem can push people away.

     

    Most excess confidence or extreme lack of confidence is a form of deception. You are the one person you really don’t want to lie to, and unbalanced self-esteem is likely you lying. 

     

    Understanding what self-esteem means is important. It is defined as confidence in your own self-worth and a sense of self-respect. You are not respecting yourself if you don’t believe you deserve respect and happiness. Neither is it when you hide behind a false sense of confidence. 

     

    Being honest with yourself is the most important step. Only then can you start working on the changes to your life for the better.

    ]]>    47b9cfeb-1357-410a-9bd3-3f6f450f9afaTue, 23 Nov 2021 17:00:00 -050005:27falsefull    Benefits of alone timeBenefits of alone timeAs an introvert, you likely like to have alone time. 

    There are benefits to spending time alone.

     

    Schedule into your days alone time. Here are some benefits to a healthy amount of alone time.

     

    It is important to enjoy your own company, alone time enables you to just be in the moment with yourself. This will overall give you more peace and can make you a better friend 

     

    Time alone can encourage creativity. When you are alone and centered you will find that this is when your best ideas will come to you due to the lack of distractions. 

     

    You might find that you get more done. Without distractions, you will be surprised at what you can get done in a short amount of time.

     

    Spending time alone is a great way to recharge. Even 10 minutes to yourself can be beneficial. Find something that revives both your mind and body. 

     

    Spending time alone can help you clear your mind. A few deep breaths alone can recenter you. 

     

    Ideally, you can find an hour of alone time each day but even 10 or 30 minutes can be beneficial. If you can’t, even a 2-minute break alone with deep breaths can give you what you need to recenter and take on the tasks ahead. 

     

    Spending time alone can help relieve some stress. A lot of stress comes from the people around you. Scheduling the alone time gives you something to look forward to and keeps you pushing through your day. Your alone time can be spent any way you want.  Sit, meditate, read, watch tv, it’s up to you. Humans are not meant to always be on, scheduling alone time will allow you to be a more rounded and healthy person. 

     

    ]]>    As an introvert, you likely like to have alone time. 

    There are benefits to spending time alone.

     

    Schedule into your days alone time. Here are some benefits to a healthy amount of alone time.

     

    It is important to enjoy your own company, alone time enables you to just be in the moment with yourself. This will overall give you more peace and can make you a better friend 

     

    Time alone can encourage creativity. When you are alone and centered you will find that this is when your best ideas will come to you due to the lack of distractions. 

     

    You might find that you get more done. Without distractions, you will be surprised at what you can get done in a short amount of time.

     

    Spending time alone is a great way to recharge. Even 10 minutes to yourself can be beneficial. Find something that revives both your mind and body. 

     

    Spending time alone can help you clear your mind. A few deep breaths alone can recenter you. 

     

    Ideally, you can find an hour of alone time each day but even 10 or 30 minutes can be beneficial. If you can’t, even a 2-minute break alone with deep breaths can give you what you need to recenter and take on the tasks ahead. 

     

    Spending time alone can help relieve some stress. A lot of stress comes from the people around you. Scheduling the alone time gives you something to look forward to and keeps you pushing through your day. Your alone time can be spent any way you want.  Sit, meditate, read, watch tv, it’s up to you. Humans are not meant to always be on, scheduling alone time will allow you to be a more rounded and healthy person. 

     

    ]]>    76ccd651-2904-4a6c-8097-f14a812e8084Tue, 16 Nov 2021 17:00:00 -050005:21falsefull    The problem with multitaskingThe problem with multitaskingWe all multitask, so being aware of when you are multitasking and why can be very helpful. 

    Everyone might think they are good multitaskers, but our brains are not wired to multitask; it's not designed for it. 

    It is important to avoid multitasking when doing specific tasks. (ie. Reading, driving, learning, writing). 

    What we call "multitasking" is actually task switching. Meaning you go back and forth between tasks. You aren't really doing both at the same time, more so not focusing on either task. Multitasking also causes you to be slower. When you don't give 100% focus to one task, it will take you longer to complete your tasks. 

    Multitasking can also cause you to make some mistakes. Mistakes can range from deadly, like in instances of texting and driving, or just an unneeded mistake. 

    When completing a task with multiple steps, be sure to focus on your task at hand to avoid mistakes or inaccuracies. 

    Multitasking can make you stressed. When things are taking longer or mistakes are being made, this adds stress. 

    When your brain has too much going on, it can get information overload that can cause problems with your memory. Your brain starts filtering information incorrectly, giving everything the same weight of importance. 

    When you have multiple tasks to complete, do one task at a time, do not kind of do each task at the same time. 

    Knowing and acknowledging that you are task switching and not multitasking allows you to categorize similar tasks. For example emails, you might want to work through your emails consisting of info, things to get done, archives, calendar invites. If you filter each of thous individually, you will find that you will get things done quicker because you will not be task switching through your email work. Attempting to multitask can ruin your creativity and take the joy away from the things you like to do. Take the time to enjoy life by focusing on one thing at a time. 

     

    ]]>    We all multitask, so being aware of when you are multitasking and why can be very helpful. 

    Everyone might think they are good multitaskers, but our brains are not wired to multitask; it's not designed for it. 

    It is important to avoid multitasking when doing specific tasks. (ie. Reading, driving, learning, writing). 

    What we call "multitasking" is actually task switching. Meaning you go back and forth between tasks. You aren't really doing both at the same time, more so not focusing on either task. Multitasking also causes you to be slower. When you don't give 100% focus to one task, it will take you longer to complete your tasks. 

    Multitasking can also cause you to make some mistakes. Mistakes can range from deadly, like in instances of texting and driving, or just an unneeded mistake. 

    When completing a task with multiple steps, be sure to focus on your task at hand to avoid mistakes or inaccuracies. 

    Multitasking can make you stressed. When things are taking longer or mistakes are being made, this adds stress. 

    When your brain has too much going on, it can get information overload that can cause problems with your memory. Your brain starts filtering information incorrectly, giving everything the same weight of importance. 

    When you have multiple tasks to complete, do one task at a time, do not kind of do each task at the same time. 

    Knowing and acknowledging that you are task switching and not multitasking allows you to categorize similar tasks. For example emails, you might want to work through your emails consisting of info, things to get done, archives, calendar invites. If you filter each of thous individually, you will find that you will get things done quicker because you will not be task switching through your email work. Attempting to multitask can ruin your creativity and take the joy away from the things you like to do. Take the time to enjoy life by focusing on one thing at a time. 

     

    ]]>    438f84b2-ed0d-4133-8b74-1ccd9e83a23aTue, 09 Nov 2021 17:00:00 -050005:35falsefull    How to create a time management planHow to create a time management planHave you been thinking about time management and how you block out work time?

    Are you blocking out your week, month, quarter, year?

    One of the most important things when planning is creating a time management plan. A time management plan helps you avoid procrastination and make the hours you have count. It can alleviate pressure and let you enjoy your downtime because you know you have put in the hours needed to get your tasks done. 

    Having a plan ensures you get things done more quickly and can allow you to spread your tasks out accordingly. 

    Create a plan that is unique to you. 

    Think about the following:

     

    Be realistic with your planning. Listen to your internal clock for when you best complete tasks. Suppose you are not a morning person or night person, don't schedule out work time during that time frame. 

     

    Set time limits: with tasks you like and dislike. Sometimes tasks we like can keep us procrastinating from tasks we don't like.  

     

    Avoid distractions. Plan ahead on how you will deal with distractions.

     

    Differentiate important tasks from none important tasks. Make it a habit to plan to do more important tasks first. This will make you feel accomplished, and it gives you the motivation to get more done. 

     

    Both calendars and lists can work together but find what works for you. with technology, make sure to set reminders for tasks. 

     

    Eliminate the need for urgency in your life. Train your clients or staff to give you enough time to get things done, set family time and time to recharge into your calendar as well. 

     

    Create a daily action plan. Pick three things to do that will work you toward a future plan or goal. 

    ]]>    Have you been thinking about time management and how you block out work time?

    Are you blocking out your week, month, quarter, year?

    One of the most important things when planning is creating a time management plan. A time management plan helps you avoid procrastination and make the hours you have count. It can alleviate pressure and let you enjoy your downtime because you know you have put in the hours needed to get your tasks done. 

    Having a plan ensures you get things done more quickly and can allow you to spread your tasks out accordingly. 

    Create a plan that is unique to you. 

    Think about the following:

     

    Be realistic with your planning. Listen to your internal clock for when you best complete tasks. Suppose you are not a morning person or night person, don't schedule out work time during that time frame. 

     

    Set time limits: with tasks you like and dislike. Sometimes tasks we like can keep us procrastinating from tasks we don't like.  

     

    Avoid distractions. Plan ahead on how you will deal with distractions.

     

    Differentiate important tasks from none important tasks. Make it a habit to plan to do more important tasks first. This will make you feel accomplished, and it gives you the motivation to get more done. 

     

    Both calendars and lists can work together but find what works for you. with technology, make sure to set reminders for tasks. 

     

    Eliminate the need for urgency in your life. Train your clients or staff to give you enough time to get things done, set family time and time to recharge into your calendar as well. 

     

    Create a daily action plan. Pick three things to do that will work you toward a future plan or goal. 

    ]]>    a6acacdb-8a57-4eae-8bc0-d202ab0d21d4Tue, 02 Nov 2021 16:00:00 -050005:42falsefull    Trusting Yourself to Make Good DecisionsTrusting Yourself to Make Good DecisionsWe only have the capability to make so many decisions in a day. Little daily tasks like choosing outfits or meals count towards this capacity to make decisions. 

    It is important to cultivate an environment where you trust yourself to make good decisions.  If you trust your decision-making, you know that everything will be alright or that a good lesson will come from a bad decision. 

    Here are some ways to start trusting yourself. 

     

    Connect with your gut instinct, quiet your mind, find the voice of compassion and respect and listen to that voice. This skill takes practice, so keep at it. 

     

    Avoid people who weaken your self-trust. “Naysayers”

     

    When you make a promise to yourself, keep it! When you don’t do something you say you are going to do, you slowly erode trust in yourself. 

     

    Be kind to yourself, don’t be an inner critic of yourself.

     

    Forgive yourself when you make a mistake or make the wrong choice, and trust that you will make a better choice next time. 

     

    Keep a list of the times that you followed your instinct and note how it felt in your body. Use this as a feelings reference for future decisions. 

     

    Surround yourself with people who support and understand you. These people will encourage you to listen to yourself!

    Just make that decision, trust yourself enough to know that you are making the right decision, and stop holding yourself back from getting things done.

    ]]>    We only have the capability to make so many decisions in a day. Little daily tasks like choosing outfits or meals count towards this capacity to make decisions. 

    It is important to cultivate an environment where you trust yourself to make good decisions.  If you trust your decision-making, you know that everything will be alright or that a good lesson will come from a bad decision. 

    Here are some ways to start trusting yourself. 

     

    Connect with your gut instinct, quiet your mind, find the voice of compassion and respect and listen to that voice. This skill takes practice, so keep at it. 

     

    Avoid people who weaken your self-trust. “Naysayers”

     

    When you make a promise to yourself, keep it! When you don’t do something you say you are going to do, you slowly erode trust in yourself. 

     

    Be kind to yourself, don’t be an inner critic of yourself.

     

    Forgive yourself when you make a mistake or make the wrong choice, and trust that you will make a better choice next time. 

     

    Keep a list of the times that you followed your instinct and note how it felt in your body. Use this as a feelings reference for future decisions. 

     

    Surround yourself with people who support and understand you. These people will encourage you to listen to yourself!

    Just make that decision, trust yourself enough to know that you are making the right decision, and stop holding yourself back from getting things done.

    ]]>    09f9d245-3947-4282-a33d-02a4f8a56adaTue, 26 Oct 2021 16:00:00 -050005:33falsefull    Productivity breaksProductivity breaksDo you have trouble with productivity consistency? 

    Some days you can get a lot done and then other days you lack the energy to get small tasks done?  A reason for this could be the type of work you are doing or that needed to be done the next day. It could also be mental fatigue. You could be pushing yourself too hard past your work stopping point. Your mind like your body can’t work all out, all the time. Slow and steady will give you a better average of work completed. Get into a good rhythm that works day after day. 

     

    Productivity also includes taking quality breaks. This will take some trial and error to find what kind of break works best for you.  It could be a 5-minute break when you are in a good rhythm, or a longer break when you are switching to a different type of task. What you do during your break is also important. Stay hydrated, eat a snack, take a walk. Do something that will allow you to recover. Remember to be mindful of what works or take notes for future reference.

     

    Don’t max out on productivity one day and then be maxed out for the rest of the week. Consider blocking out smaller 3-4 hour productive blocks. We are not designed to be productive all the time. 

     

    I had a question come in that I wanted to answer today on the show and it was a question about productivity. And this person mentioned that they have really unproductive days after super productive days. They recently tried out basically like pomodoros. So it was like 25 minutes on five minutes of 24 minutes and twelve minutes of and it worked really well for them for the day.

     

    They got a lot done and was even able to get sort of ahead of schedule. However the next day and they did this for about 7 hours the next day they got literally nothing done. They were either learning out doing a top back a piece of paper filling on the internet. They got some work done just through to guilt, but like, the day was gone, but I know it can be productive. This worked for me yesterday.

     

    Why isn't this working for me today? And there's multiple answers to that. It could be the type of work that was done or the type of work that needed to be done the next day. It could be the fact that you might have been pushing yourself super hard and you didn't realise where you're stopping point was because it's like, I'm now going to the gym. If you go hard all day every day, it doesn't work out.

     

    You do I know 100 pushups and that's the maximum you can do. And you try nd do 101 Luke your body's like not not doing it. If you try and do 100 on Monday and then try and do it on Tuesday and then try and do it on Thursday and every day of the week you'll have like, you know, a certain amount of push ups, but really your body can't do that. It needs slow and steady. If you did maybe 70 push ups a day instead, you could probably get a better average and you wouldn't feel so exhausted the next day.

     

    So instead of trying to go all out every day and pushing everything to the Max, it might be better to look into where you get into a good rhythm and you're like, I've done. I've done good to dive on a certain amount. Maybe that's 3 hours work. Maybe that's far as a focus work. And then I'm going to stop and take breaks and do something else.

     

    And here's the other important part about productivity is it shouldn't just be about the work that you do, but it should be about the quality of the break that you take and everyone is different. But you need to figure out for yourself what type of breaks work best for you and how often and that might depend on the type of work that you did. So there could be some breaks were a five minute break is enough because you want to keep rolling on and maybe you're writing a paper, whatever else kind of work that you might be doing, or you might be doing the type of work where you're actually context switching.

     

    So...]]>Do you have trouble with productivity consistency? 

    Some days you can get a lot done and then other days you lack the energy to get small tasks done?  A reason for this could be the type of work you are doing or that needed to be done the next day. It could also be mental fatigue. You could be pushing yourself too hard past your work stopping point. Your mind like your body can’t work all out, all the time. Slow and steady will give you a better average of work completed. Get into a good rhythm that works day after day. 

     

    Productivity also includes taking quality breaks. This will take some trial and error to find what kind of break works best for you.  It could be a 5-minute break when you are in a good rhythm, or a longer break when you are switching to a different type of task. What you do during your break is also important. Stay hydrated, eat a snack, take a walk. Do something that will allow you to recover. Remember to be mindful of what works or take notes for future reference.

     

    Don’t max out on productivity one day and then be maxed out for the rest of the week. Consider blocking out smaller 3-4 hour productive blocks. We are not designed to be productive all the time. 

     

    I had a question come in that I wanted to answer today on the show and it was a question about productivity. And this person mentioned that they have really unproductive days after super productive days. They recently tried out basically like pomodoros. So it was like 25 minutes on five minutes of 24 minutes and twelve minutes of and it worked really well for them for the day.

     

    They got a lot done and was even able to get sort of ahead of schedule. However the next day and they did this for about 7 hours the next day they got literally nothing done. They were either learning out doing a top back a piece of paper filling on the internet. They got some work done just through to guilt, but like, the day was gone, but I know it can be productive. This worked for me yesterday.

     

    Why isn't this working for me today? And there's multiple answers to that. It could be the type of work that was done or the type of work that needed to be done the next day. It could be the fact that you might have been pushing yourself super hard and you didn't realise where you're stopping point was because it's like, I'm now going to the gym. If you go hard all day every day, it doesn't work out.

     

    You do I know 100 pushups and that's the maximum you can do. And you try nd do 101 Luke your body's like not not doing it. If you try and do 100 on Monday and then try and do it on Tuesday and then try and do it on Thursday and every day of the week you'll have like, you know, a certain amount of push ups, but really your body can't do that. It needs slow and steady. If you did maybe 70 push ups a day instead, you could probably get a better average and you wouldn't feel so exhausted the next day.

     

    So instead of trying to go all out every day and pushing everything to the Max, it might be better to look into where you get into a good rhythm and you're like, I've done. I've done good to dive on a certain amount. Maybe that's 3 hours work. Maybe that's far as a focus work. And then I'm going to stop and take breaks and do something else.

     

    And here's the other important part about productivity is it shouldn't just be about the work that you do, but it should be about the quality of the break that you take and everyone is different. But you need to figure out for yourself what type of breaks work best for you and how often and that might depend on the type of work that you did. So there could be some breaks were a five minute break is enough because you want to keep rolling on and maybe you're writing a paper, whatever else kind of work that you might be doing, or you might be doing the type of work where you're actually context switching.

     

    So you finish one thing in 25 minutes. When you stop and you go do something else.

     

    So you might need a ten or 15 minutes break in between to go and context switch and do something else. Now, what you do during that break is just as important as what you do while you're working. Do you eat? Do you stay hydrated? Do you go and breathe fresh air?

     

    Do you splashing cold water on your face? Do you zone out? Do you give your brain a chance to recover? So what you do on the brakes is just as important, if not more important than the work you are actually doing. Think about what type of breaks work best for you, depending on the type of work you are doing, and it will be sort of hit and miss and will take some fine tuning and tweaking.

     

    So Journal it, write it down, take notes, have data points. But at the end of the day, it's not just about the work that you're doing. It's about the breaks that you take, how long they are, what you do with them, maybe even the time of day. So you can't just Max out on productivity all on one day and expect to be fully functioning the next day. It just doesn't work.

     

    Is that having an introvert hangover right? You go to an event, you speak to lots of people and you come home and you're done because you've hit that wall and you're like, I'm done. I can't. I just and you come home and you're exhausted for the rest of it, like the week. But if you go speak to one or two people and leave and come home, you'll still be able to function of the next day.

     

    It's the same sort of thing. You just need to think about it in the that sort of a way.

     

    And so maybe try and have smaller, productive day on the whole seven or 8 hours, but three hour block or a four hour block, and it's not necessarily the amount of things you get done, but the type of work you get done right. It's just something to think about and to be fair, we're not done to be productive all the time, something that we kind of forget about. So thank you for listening. This is Janice at the Korean trip. Com helping you build your brand and get hired.

     

    Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>bd8af739-0a3d-4eec-8c29-d8d3e8bbebc7Tue, 19 Oct 2021 16:00:00 -050005:22falsefull    Why problem solving is importantWhy problem solving is importantProblem-solving is a crucial skill. All success comes with challenges and obstacles to overcome. 

    Tips on how to problem solve 

    1) Be able to adapt and learn: No one has all the answers. Focus on what you have to do to learn the answers using your " Research Mindset." You will need different approaches for different problems. 

    2) Be confident in your abilities and welcome challenges: Success stories have obstacles to overcome. Remember that the challenge will help you grow and develop your skills. Experience will give you the confidence to get the job done. 

    3) Focus on Finding Solutions: Don't focus your time on the problem. Instead, come to the table with a solution. Use your time to test possible solutions. 

     

    Don't take challenges negatively. Instead, change your perspective to consider what valuable knowledge and experience and your organization will learn. 

    Don't shy away from challenges. They will help you achieve more than you ever thought possible. 

    Transcript 

    . I want to talk about how to problem solve. A crucial factor that stands in anyone's way to success is how they solve problems. No success comes without some form of obstacles or decisions to make and things to overcome. So it's crucial to understand just how to go ahead and solve problems.

     

    And so I want to took about four different ways that I've heard about or done or had people come up to me and talk about to solve problems efficiently, be able to adapt and be willing to learn. Sounds simple, but no one. No one has all the answers and this is okay. You're not going to have the answer right away. Instead, focus on what you need to do to learn it.

     

    Research that research mindset that I've talked about in the past. Every situation you face will be different and will require different approaches to solve it. You can't expect the same approach to work every time and that's okay. You must be willing to adapt and learn new ideas and and come at things in a different way. With a curious mindset, successful people stress the importance of adaptability because they wouldn't be as far as they are today without it.

     

    Just think about any business organisation. If they weren't open to trying new things, the business might have failed. Now you should be confident you a bit it and welcome challenges. No success comes with that action, hard work or obstacles. With every success story, there's always something someone overcame to achieve their goals.

     

    You must welcome these challenges as an opportunity to grow and develop your skills. Experience ensures that you will learn to trust your abilities over time, allowing you to solve problems more quickly and with different facets of creativity. When you believe in yourself and your abilities, you will no longer focus your mind on what you can't do but what you can do or how best to do it. And one thing managers really love focus on finding solutions. Don't just bring me the problem.

     

    That'll be what we can do to solve it. Focusing too much time on the problem rather than the solution really helps. It only leads to more frustration, stress and no action plan to take it. And so it just sits there and it is to be a problem. While you need to understand the problem to develop solutions, this shouldn't be your focus and shouldn't only occupy should only occupy a short period of time.

     

    The rest should be used to creating and testing possible solution. Obviously you can have a solution and it might not work, but at least you've got something and stay positive and carb. So here's the thing. You will always have something to overcome. There will always be struggles.

     

    There will always be someone who doesn't agree with you. There'll always be all sorts of things that you might see as getting in your way. While these things can be frustrating. You see silver lining. A]]>Problem-solving is a crucial skill. All success comes with challenges and obstacles to overcome. 

    Tips on how to problem solve 

    1) Be able to adapt and learn: No one has all the answers. Focus on what you have to do to learn the answers using your " Research Mindset." You will need different approaches for different problems. 

    2) Be confident in your abilities and welcome challenges: Success stories have obstacles to overcome. Remember that the challenge will help you grow and develop your skills. Experience will give you the confidence to get the job done. 

    3) Focus on Finding Solutions: Don't focus your time on the problem. Instead, come to the table with a solution. Use your time to test possible solutions. 

     

    Don't take challenges negatively. Instead, change your perspective to consider what valuable knowledge and experience and your organization will learn. 

    Don't shy away from challenges. They will help you achieve more than you ever thought possible. 

    Transcript 

    . I want to talk about how to problem solve. A crucial factor that stands in anyone's way to success is how they solve problems. No success comes without some form of obstacles or decisions to make and things to overcome. So it's crucial to understand just how to go ahead and solve problems.

     

    And so I want to took about four different ways that I've heard about or done or had people come up to me and talk about to solve problems efficiently, be able to adapt and be willing to learn. Sounds simple, but no one. No one has all the answers and this is okay. You're not going to have the answer right away. Instead, focus on what you need to do to learn it.

     

    Research that research mindset that I've talked about in the past. Every situation you face will be different and will require different approaches to solve it. You can't expect the same approach to work every time and that's okay. You must be willing to adapt and learn new ideas and and come at things in a different way. With a curious mindset, successful people stress the importance of adaptability because they wouldn't be as far as they are today without it.

     

    Just think about any business organisation. If they weren't open to trying new things, the business might have failed. Now you should be confident you a bit it and welcome challenges. No success comes with that action, hard work or obstacles. With every success story, there's always something someone overcame to achieve their goals.

     

    You must welcome these challenges as an opportunity to grow and develop your skills. Experience ensures that you will learn to trust your abilities over time, allowing you to solve problems more quickly and with different facets of creativity. When you believe in yourself and your abilities, you will no longer focus your mind on what you can't do but what you can do or how best to do it. And one thing managers really love focus on finding solutions. Don't just bring me the problem.

     

    That'll be what we can do to solve it. Focusing too much time on the problem rather than the solution really helps. It only leads to more frustration, stress and no action plan to take it. And so it just sits there and it is to be a problem. While you need to understand the problem to develop solutions, this shouldn't be your focus and shouldn't only occupy should only occupy a short period of time.

     

    The rest should be used to creating and testing possible solution. Obviously you can have a solution and it might not work, but at least you've got something and stay positive and carb. So here's the thing. You will always have something to overcome. There will always be struggles.

     

    There will always be someone who doesn't agree with you. There'll always be all sorts of things that you might see as getting in your way. While these things can be frustrating. You see silver lining. A lot of people see problems as new opportunities.

     

    Therefore, the next time you run into a problem, a roadblock and issue a challenge instead of putting a negative cast on it straight away, turn around and try and think about it from a different point of view. What new opportunities or knowledge could you gain? And how will it help you achieve your goals or your tasks or your organization's? Goals or your tasks? Right?

     

    Changing your perspective and keeping a Curiosity a curious mindset or research mindset allows you to save energy as it takes far less energy in time, and so you can focus on what matters the most. So just learn from your experiences and so that way you can look at problems differently. Don't shy away from challenges. Embrace it to help you learn and achieve even more than you ever thought possible. Thank you for listening.

     

    This is Janice at the CareerIntrovert. Com, helping you build your brand and get hide. If there's any question or topic that you would like me to cover on the podcast, please email me at Janice at the CareerIntrovert. Com. Have a great rest of your day.

     

    ]]>5552b32a-f7b4-4aa1-8605-84bcf7c42291Tue, 12 Oct 2021 16:00:00 -050004:56falsefull    How to Relax More at Work, and WhyHow to Relax More at Work, and WhyHello and welcome to the Not So Travelling Introvert today I want to continue a conversation I started having actually at an event I was part of talking about work productivity, but more like how to relax and refresh and recharge at work and why so nearly 80% of work as a reporter to feel that they feel stressed at work and roughly half of them need help managing it and the other half just think that's the way it is and it doesn't have to be. Stressful. Environments do not breed positive productivity.

     

    It hinders and store success and creativity, and your mind just doesn't work too well and de stress for long periods of time. So when you can't take a break or relax at work, you generally can't make the right decisions to perform.

     

    At Ur best, you will always be underperforming, making it harder to focus on what matters and ultimately affecting your professional goals or tasks that you need to do. So one of the things I really recommend is recognise your triggers. Actively take notice of the things that are causing you stress, so it be obvious others not so much to have a notebook or a post it note. You can write a list so you can create a more personalised way to combat them when you're uncomfortable or you start to feel stressed.

     

    Write it down.

     

    You don't have to do anything then, but examine it later and it will help you better identify what is causing problems. This way you can make sure that you're doing the right actions to counteract those issues and those triggers and to make work that much better for you, speak up and establish your boundaries. You must speak up if things or people are taking advantage of your space and time. If the hours are too long or too many meetings back to back and the causing you to experience problems, speak to somebody about it to a manager.

     

    Appear.

     

    Find a solution. Honesty and establishing healthy work boundaries are essential for any positive relationship. Ensure you have an optimised workspace and I feel this one set up your environment and dash for success for you. You don't add items that get in your way or distract you. Add things that help you reach your work goals and be more efficient but also inspire you.

     

    Do you like being at the beach? If so, can you get a tiny part of the sea and stick it in the wall in front of you? Do you want to remember how to get stuff done? So you have a little poster that says stuff and what to do? Yes.

     

    No in the next step. So you just kind of look at it. Whatever it is that can optimise your workspace for you to work more efficiently or happier. Anything to make you happy. It could be a little stuffed toy, it could be a plant, it could be dual monitors, whatever it is.

     

    See if you can get that set up for you and take short, quick breaks. Often take small five to ten minute breaks in between us and focus on your breathing and relaxing your muscles. Go for a short work around the office or your house or your building wherever it might be, go outside on a break or turn on some calming music or even just meditate for five minutes. Do something that completely distracts you from the noise or the chaos or the overwhelm and stress at work and reduces the tension.

     

    However, don't rent to others.

     

    This time should only be used to focus on you, your body and your mind because when you invite other people, you're not giving yourself a real break. And the other thing which is so much harder to do these days is keep work at work. You don't need to take your work stress home or do your home environment. When you're at home, you can do nothing about work issues until you get back to work. So why use that time to focus on negativity play music to separate the time when you're at work, to the time when you're at home.

     

    I know someone who even though they work and you live in the same...]]>Hello and welcome to the Not So Travelling Introvert today I want to continue a conversation I started having actually at an event I was part of talking about work productivity, but more like how to relax and refresh and recharge at work and why so nearly 80% of work as a reporter to feel that they feel stressed at work and roughly half of them need help managing it and the other half just think that's the way it is and it doesn't have to be. Stressful. Environments do not breed positive productivity.

     

    It hinders and store success and creativity, and your mind just doesn't work too well and de stress for long periods of time. So when you can't take a break or relax at work, you generally can't make the right decisions to perform.

     

    At Ur best, you will always be underperforming, making it harder to focus on what matters and ultimately affecting your professional goals or tasks that you need to do. So one of the things I really recommend is recognise your triggers. Actively take notice of the things that are causing you stress, so it be obvious others not so much to have a notebook or a post it note. You can write a list so you can create a more personalised way to combat them when you're uncomfortable or you start to feel stressed.

     

    Write it down.

     

    You don't have to do anything then, but examine it later and it will help you better identify what is causing problems. This way you can make sure that you're doing the right actions to counteract those issues and those triggers and to make work that much better for you, speak up and establish your boundaries. You must speak up if things or people are taking advantage of your space and time. If the hours are too long or too many meetings back to back and the causing you to experience problems, speak to somebody about it to a manager.

     

    Appear.

     

    Find a solution. Honesty and establishing healthy work boundaries are essential for any positive relationship. Ensure you have an optimised workspace and I feel this one set up your environment and dash for success for you. You don't add items that get in your way or distract you. Add things that help you reach your work goals and be more efficient but also inspire you.

     

    Do you like being at the beach? If so, can you get a tiny part of the sea and stick it in the wall in front of you? Do you want to remember how to get stuff done? So you have a little poster that says stuff and what to do? Yes.

     

    No in the next step. So you just kind of look at it. Whatever it is that can optimise your workspace for you to work more efficiently or happier. Anything to make you happy. It could be a little stuffed toy, it could be a plant, it could be dual monitors, whatever it is.

     

    See if you can get that set up for you and take short, quick breaks. Often take small five to ten minute breaks in between us and focus on your breathing and relaxing your muscles. Go for a short work around the office or your house or your building wherever it might be, go outside on a break or turn on some calming music or even just meditate for five minutes. Do something that completely distracts you from the noise or the chaos or the overwhelm and stress at work and reduces the tension.

     

    However, don't rent to others.

     

    This time should only be used to focus on you, your body and your mind because when you invite other people, you're not giving yourself a real break. And the other thing which is so much harder to do these days is keep work at work. You don't need to take your work stress home or do your home environment. When you're at home, you can do nothing about work issues until you get back to work. So why use that time to focus on negativity play music to separate the time when you're at work, to the time when you're at home.

     

    I know someone who even though they work and you live in the same environment, they will make sure they get up and go walk around the block as their commute. Do something that that's your mind has a chance to separate. Oh, I'm going home now. I'm going to work now. Once the work is done, it's done and must stop thinking about it.

     

    Don't have notifications on your phone, don't have pings on your computer, have a different computer or whatever it is. Using these tips to help you relax and disconnect a little bit at work more often and stop stress in its tracks will be great because it will help you long term before plagues plague you and stops you doing other things and it's something we kind of forget. Our brain is not made. We are not made to work for 8 hours straight. So why we forcing ourselves to do so?

     

    You will find you will be more productive and creative if you just give yourself time to breathe and have a break. Thank you for listening. This is Janice at The Career Introvert com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>93f7cdef-a44d-4d9f-b7e9-eeb18850d4ebTue, 05 Oct 2021 16:00:00 -050005:22falsefull    Do you have a research mindset?Do you have a research mindset?This week's topics: Making extra time and having a research mindset

     

    Are you not scheduling time to review and do tasks after meetings? 

    Sometimes meetings require you to block out additional time after the meeting to review the slide deck or task for that meeting. 

    Are you going about your work with a research mindset?

    Doing so will eliminate the possibility of letting your assumptions guide how your work. Instead, when going about your work, confirm or research your assumptions. Sometimes you will find that what you believe to be true is not the case. 

     

    Hello and welcome to the not so travelling introvert. Today, I want to talk about making extra time. So I was in a meeting the other day and it was the usual PowerPoint presentation with lots of hyperlinks embedded within the presentation and the presentation hadn't been hadn't been shared in advance. You didn't know what was going on and then the person is like, so doesn't have any questions. And I said, Well, you know me.

     

    I'll look at the presentation later and then I'll get back to you. Only then did I realise that I've said this multiple times and not actually done that thing. I always mean to go back and look at whatever was presented, but I don't actually schedule time to do it because other things. Ok. The reason isn't because other things getting the way.

     

    But I just go about my day and continue doing other things. I very rarely go back and do and look over the things that I said I was going to do. This leads me to realise that not only do I have to schedule in time for these meetings, but depending on the type of meeting, if I can't convince them to share their screen or the slide deck earlier is to set aside time. What I'm in that meeting to review said slide deck, and I can't believe I've been working all this time and haven't done this.

     

    It's amazing when you think of random things.

     

    That is one way to make sure that I go ahead and move you the information and get what I need from it and come back. So decide time only for the meeting, but we view the meeting afterwards. Another thing that I've realised is some people go about their work with a research mindset and I think this comes across with this, you know, going ahead and reviewing that information, everything that they do or see or try is a data point to be put aside and come back to later or built upon having a research mindset like the growth mindset thing but sort of approaching projects, tasks, assumptions with.

     

    Okay, I'm going to try this to see if it works or what I need to tweak or what I need to reiterate or iterate having that research and curious mindset stop you from making assumptions and moving forward with those assumptions, speaking to a client the other day about pay rates for their staff and they're very much like all they get paid this and then I get paid that and then as far as I know, they get this and I'm sure they get the paid X, Y and Z after this point and we have the conversation where was like, well, actually, I've spoken to your staff and they get paid this and then this which isn't the number that you gave me.

     

    And that doesn't happen at the time.

     

    You told me she's like, Wait, what? But I assumed it seeshe's like, oh, well, I'm going to have to research into this. So after making the assumption, she's now going back and researching what she thought was true in her assumptions, which could have been avoided. If, instead of making this options, you go from a research mindset. Hey, I want to double cheque that this is true.

     

    I want to make sure I got this right. Just because this book sets, though, doesn't make it right. I highly recommend thinking about your work and your assumptions and projects, and that sort of thing with a research mindset. Just think about it from a curiosity standpoint. Oh, what...]]>This week's topics: Making extra time and having a research mindset

     

    Are you not scheduling time to review and do tasks after meetings? 

    Sometimes meetings require you to block out additional time after the meeting to review the slide deck or task for that meeting. 

    Are you going about your work with a research mindset?

    Doing so will eliminate the possibility of letting your assumptions guide how your work. Instead, when going about your work, confirm or research your assumptions. Sometimes you will find that what you believe to be true is not the case. 

     

    Hello and welcome to the not so travelling introvert. Today, I want to talk about making extra time. So I was in a meeting the other day and it was the usual PowerPoint presentation with lots of hyperlinks embedded within the presentation and the presentation hadn't been hadn't been shared in advance. You didn't know what was going on and then the person is like, so doesn't have any questions. And I said, Well, you know me.

     

    I'll look at the presentation later and then I'll get back to you. Only then did I realise that I've said this multiple times and not actually done that thing. I always mean to go back and look at whatever was presented, but I don't actually schedule time to do it because other things. Ok. The reason isn't because other things getting the way.

     

    But I just go about my day and continue doing other things. I very rarely go back and do and look over the things that I said I was going to do. This leads me to realise that not only do I have to schedule in time for these meetings, but depending on the type of meeting, if I can't convince them to share their screen or the slide deck earlier is to set aside time. What I'm in that meeting to review said slide deck, and I can't believe I've been working all this time and haven't done this.

     

    It's amazing when you think of random things.

     

    That is one way to make sure that I go ahead and move you the information and get what I need from it and come back. So decide time only for the meeting, but we view the meeting afterwards. Another thing that I've realised is some people go about their work with a research mindset and I think this comes across with this, you know, going ahead and reviewing that information, everything that they do or see or try is a data point to be put aside and come back to later or built upon having a research mindset like the growth mindset thing but sort of approaching projects, tasks, assumptions with.

     

    Okay, I'm going to try this to see if it works or what I need to tweak or what I need to reiterate or iterate having that research and curious mindset stop you from making assumptions and moving forward with those assumptions, speaking to a client the other day about pay rates for their staff and they're very much like all they get paid this and then I get paid that and then as far as I know, they get this and I'm sure they get the paid X, Y and Z after this point and we have the conversation where was like, well, actually, I've spoken to your staff and they get paid this and then this which isn't the number that you gave me.

     

    And that doesn't happen at the time.

     

    You told me she's like, Wait, what? But I assumed it seeshe's like, oh, well, I'm going to have to research into this. So after making the assumption, she's now going back and researching what she thought was true in her assumptions, which could have been avoided. If, instead of making this options, you go from a research mindset. Hey, I want to double cheque that this is true.

     

    I want to make sure I got this right. Just because this book sets, though, doesn't make it right. I highly recommend thinking about your work and your assumptions and projects, and that sort of thing with a research mindset. Just think about it from a curiosity standpoint. Oh, what happens if this what happens?

     

    If that I think this happens? Does that actually happen? Let me cheque. Let me ask someone. Let me test.

     

    You will be amazed at what you will find if you come to something with that time of a mindset. And if you feel you struggle with that crowd source, I had a problem recently. Not a problem. I had a thing come recently that I really had no clue about. I asked three or four different people who all gave me three or four different pieces of advice, but all together made this wonderful thing hopefully happened.

     

    And it all came from different angles. Different viewpoints, different expectations, different things that they had seen and heard. But that helped me learn so much. And so when I was creating this thing that I needed to help with, that nothing about. I came at it from a research point of view.

     

    I'm getting data points to help with that. So just my thoughts today. Talk about research. Thank you for listening.

    Have a great rest of your day.

     

     

    ]]>dc3c1571-5f05-4cd2-8cc6-b7d6303cb47bTue, 28 Sep 2021 16:00:00 -050005:25falsefull    Saying No and How to Do It RightSaying No and How to Do It RightIt’s easy to feel guilty, want to avoid conflict, or simply make other people feel good. However, you can’t consume your whole life on how other people react, nor should you stress about other people’s happiness. Your happiness is more important. In fact, saying no more often is crucial to accomplishing your goals and aspirations.

     

    “No” Is Not Always Negative

     

    Behind every no, there is also a yes. To explain further, when you say no, you are also saying yes to another opportunity that can better serve your life. Just because you are saying no doesn’t mean it is the end of the world. Saying no means that you are committed to your values and goals in life. If you always say yes without considering everyone, the sad truth is, you will always be living someone else’s life.

     

    Stick to And Establish Your Boundaries

     

    The only person you are responsible for is yourself, and you can’t expect others to know what you need if you don’t speak up. Practice assertive communication, always speak up about your boundaries, and not be afraid to let others know. If they can’t respect your boundaries, you don’t need them in your life. They will only hold you back.

     

    Find the Right Words

     

    You don’t have just to say “no.” There are other ways to let others know you can’t do it. Suggest an alternative or provide an apparent reason why you can’t do it. Let them know it doesn’t work with your schedule or objectives: the more communication you can provide, the better.

     

    Take the Person Out of It

     

    In other words, you are not saying no to the person asking; you are simply saying no to the activities you want to do. Often people don’t want to say no because they are afraid to offend the person; however, not being fully honest with yourself isn’t fair to them either. Instead, realize that it isn’t about the person but rather what they asked for. More likely than not, they will understand why you are respectively declining their request.

     

    Strive to Be More Authentic

     

    If you are always saying yes to people or activities that you don’t enjoy, you will never live the life you want. Even if you're going to avoid conflict, you can easily create more by being dishonest with yourself and the people around you. A vague yes versus a firm no can be seen as more harmful as your lack of commitment and poor attitude are noticeable.

     

    In the end, saying no allows you to control your life and accomplish more goals. It is not about making others feel unwanted or being rude. It’s about ensuring you are using your time more wisely and following the path you want. Once you find the balance that works for you, you’ll never regret taking control of your life.

    ]]>    It’s easy to feel guilty, want to avoid conflict, or simply make other people feel good. However, you can’t consume your whole life on how other people react, nor should you stress about other people’s happiness. Your happiness is more important. In fact, saying no more often is crucial to accomplishing your goals and aspirations.

     

    “No” Is Not Always Negative

     

    Behind every no, there is also a yes. To explain further, when you say no, you are also saying yes to another opportunity that can better serve your life. Just because you are saying no doesn’t mean it is the end of the world. Saying no means that you are committed to your values and goals in life. If you always say yes without considering everyone, the sad truth is, you will always be living someone else’s life.

     

    Stick to And Establish Your Boundaries

     

    The only person you are responsible for is yourself, and you can’t expect others to know what you need if you don’t speak up. Practice assertive communication, always speak up about your boundaries, and not be afraid to let others know. If they can’t respect your boundaries, you don’t need them in your life. They will only hold you back.

     

    Find the Right Words

     

    You don’t have just to say “no.” There are other ways to let others know you can’t do it. Suggest an alternative or provide an apparent reason why you can’t do it. Let them know it doesn’t work with your schedule or objectives: the more communication you can provide, the better.

     

    Take the Person Out of It

     

    In other words, you are not saying no to the person asking; you are simply saying no to the activities you want to do. Often people don’t want to say no because they are afraid to offend the person; however, not being fully honest with yourself isn’t fair to them either. Instead, realize that it isn’t about the person but rather what they asked for. More likely than not, they will understand why you are respectively declining their request.

     

    Strive to Be More Authentic

     

    If you are always saying yes to people or activities that you don’t enjoy, you will never live the life you want. Even if you're going to avoid conflict, you can easily create more by being dishonest with yourself and the people around you. A vague yes versus a firm no can be seen as more harmful as your lack of commitment and poor attitude are noticeable.

     

    In the end, saying no allows you to control your life and accomplish more goals. It is not about making others feel unwanted or being rude. It’s about ensuring you are using your time more wisely and following the path you want. Once you find the balance that works for you, you’ll never regret taking control of your life.

    ]]>    ca60ea96-d67d-47b3-a7b0-ef2be73db0aeTue, 21 Sep 2021 16:00:00 -050005:13falsefull    Why Improve Your Emotional IntelligenceWhy Improve Your Emotional IntelligenceControlling your emotions or possessing proper emotional intelligence is vital for a successful life. Feelings, along with rational thoughts, ensure you get what you need out of life financially, physically, and mentally. This is essential to understand your emotions and improve or possess emotional intelligence. The following five tips, when implemented, will improve your emotional intelligence:

     

    Recognize Your Good and Bad Emotions

     

    When you feel a particular emotion, recognize and label it right away. Don't push it away or ignore it. Allow the feelings to happen, good or bad. Let them rush over you. Then take a moment to recognize how it makes you feel and what reactions you took or want to take. To understand your emotions better, you need to experience them first, not avoid them.

     

    Identify Your Triggers

     

    A trigger is something that starts or causes you to react and experience an emotion or feeling. Before you feel something, there is likely a cause or culprit. Take note of the cause, how it makes you feel, and what actions you take now. This is important so you can learn to control your emotions before they happen. If you know that you will be around a particular trigger, you can bring resources to cope or avoid it altogether.

     

    Understand the Difference Between Responding and Reacting

     

    Often people tend to react to conflict instead of responding to it. This situation can lead to further consequences. These reactions don't benefit the situation. Learn to take the time to listen and then respond instead of reacting.

     

    Receiving criticism from a peer or manager is often an excellent example of this type of situation. Imagine the last time you received constructive criticism. Did you take the time to listen to what they had to say genuinely, or did you feel attacked and react?

     

    Utilize Active Listening Skills

     

    This includes your own thoughts before you express them to others. If you have difficulty processing, your emotions pause for a moment instead. Reflect on your behavior and truly analyze what is being said by others and yourself. "Think before you speak" is an all-too-common phrase that is just as easy to avoid as it sounds. It takes determination and will power to control this behavior.

     

    Be Mindful of Your Actions

     

    Last but certainly not least, you must practice self-awareness and mindfulness. You need to understand your actions or lack thereof can have a negative or positive consequence at any moment. With this in mind, you won't allow your emotions to overcome or control the situations. Instead, you will likely choose a rational solution or make a good decision.

     

    Keep track of each of these tips by investing and writing in a journal or diary. By keeping track, you allow yourself to look back on your progress, and seeing that proof can help you find the motivation to keep growing and improving. You have more control of your emotions than you think, if you keep trying and doing the work necessary to understand yourself truly.

     

     

     

     

    ]]>    Controlling your emotions or possessing proper emotional intelligence is vital for a successful life. Feelings, along with rational thoughts, ensure you get what you need out of life financially, physically, and mentally. This is essential to understand your emotions and improve or possess emotional intelligence. The following five tips, when implemented, will improve your emotional intelligence:

     

    Recognize Your Good and Bad Emotions

     

    When you feel a particular emotion, recognize and label it right away. Don't push it away or ignore it. Allow the feelings to happen, good or bad. Let them rush over you. Then take a moment to recognize how it makes you feel and what reactions you took or want to take. To understand your emotions better, you need to experience them first, not avoid them.

     

    Identify Your Triggers

     

    A trigger is something that starts or causes you to react and experience an emotion or feeling. Before you feel something, there is likely a cause or culprit. Take note of the cause, how it makes you feel, and what actions you take now. This is important so you can learn to control your emotions before they happen. If you know that you will be around a particular trigger, you can bring resources to cope or avoid it altogether.

     

    Understand the Difference Between Responding and Reacting

     

    Often people tend to react to conflict instead of responding to it. This situation can lead to further consequences. These reactions don't benefit the situation. Learn to take the time to listen and then respond instead of reacting.

     

    Receiving criticism from a peer or manager is often an excellent example of this type of situation. Imagine the last time you received constructive criticism. Did you take the time to listen to what they had to say genuinely, or did you feel attacked and react?

     

    Utilize Active Listening Skills

     

    This includes your own thoughts before you express them to others. If you have difficulty processing, your emotions pause for a moment instead. Reflect on your behavior and truly analyze what is being said by others and yourself. "Think before you speak" is an all-too-common phrase that is just as easy to avoid as it sounds. It takes determination and will power to control this behavior.

     

    Be Mindful of Your Actions

     

    Last but certainly not least, you must practice self-awareness and mindfulness. You need to understand your actions or lack thereof can have a negative or positive consequence at any moment. With this in mind, you won't allow your emotions to overcome or control the situations. Instead, you will likely choose a rational solution or make a good decision.

     

    Keep track of each of these tips by investing and writing in a journal or diary. By keeping track, you allow yourself to look back on your progress, and seeing that proof can help you find the motivation to keep growing and improving. You have more control of your emotions than you think, if you keep trying and doing the work necessary to understand yourself truly.

     

     

     

     

    ]]>    b33b38ed-1ac0-49e1-9738-33825f0c2528Tue, 14 Sep 2021 16:00:00 -050005:22falsefull    Self reviewSelf reviewI want to talk about self assessment or that can other both be sort as self view or a retrospective. This is something that this came  up recently with the clients that I work with, but also just myself. I'm very good at planning. I say that I'm fairly good at planning most of the time, but very, rarely do I take the time to review and look back and see what you know, what has happened and how it's happened and maybe reasoning why.

     

    So I've all these data points, but I'm not really using them to the to you know, how I could improve things for myself on my business. And so some of my clients and now started doing retrospectives from products that they've done. But here's the thing about doing sort of self assessments or your views. It helps you to be honest and open and ask yourself challenging questions and the reason why you want to do this so you can learn. It's not just for you to do a workplace on annual sort of review to get a promotion or anything like that.

     

    It's a great strategy to use on yourself yearly, monthly, weekly, whatever sort of time period feels right for you to ensure you are on the right path for your idea of success. Just think about it for if you never got the opportunity to reflect new abilities and mistakes and what you want in life, you know, how does that really affect when you're going? How would you know if you're making the right decision to ensure the future is the way that you want it to be see you at some time.

     

    And one of the things you should do, especially if you do this weekly, is what is one thing is a question I should say, what is one thing that I struggled with this week? And the more often you ask yourself that question, the easier it will become, because sometimes you don't want to admit that you've struggled with anything like that.

     

    Everything this week was fine. But the more that you ask yourself and you're like, okay, well, today I struggled or this week I struggled with getting spending time in myself or setting boundaries or whatever it might be. Then the next question from that is sort of OK, well, how can I make sure that doesn't happen again, or what can I do to improve my chances of it not happening again? And so that gives you the actionable steps to take that will help make your life better in the long run.

     

    Another question could be what negative is emotions?

     

    Have I experienced this week day, month, whatever it is and why this will help you figure out maybe certain aspects of certain situations that start these emotions and set them off? Another question you could ask yourself is, what change can I make right now to get me closer to my goals. You might have three or four different types of goals, but it could be what can I change right now that will get me closer to my self care goals or what can I change right now? That will make me do X, Y and Z.

     

    And when you think about what that change is, then go ahead and put it in your calendar, but it can note of it to make that change and go ahead and do it right then and then document and keep track, keeping track of your progress and achievements.

     

    Failures in most challenges and rewards. These are all essential for you to look back and be like, oh, I felt this at this time. I didn't realise that it's probably because of this, this and this. Oh, all right. So I should avoid it in the future because of this.

     

    This or this helped me grow. Or this helped me change this or this is why I ended up doing this particular thing and not the other. Take the time to be proud of yourself. Brag on yourself. A little self evaluation or reflection isn't just about the bad stuff.

     

    You should also the good stuff, too. And it's not about comparing. It's not about a competition. It's just making sure that you're aligned in what you want to do and making yourself better, incrementally, bit by...]]>I want to talk about self assessment or that can other both be sort as self view or a retrospective. This is something that this came  up recently with the clients that I work with, but also just myself. I'm very good at planning. I say that I'm fairly good at planning most of the time, but very, rarely do I take the time to review and look back and see what you know, what has happened and how it's happened and maybe reasoning why.

     

    So I've all these data points, but I'm not really using them to the to you know, how I could improve things for myself on my business. And so some of my clients and now started doing retrospectives from products that they've done. But here's the thing about doing sort of self assessments or your views. It helps you to be honest and open and ask yourself challenging questions and the reason why you want to do this so you can learn. It's not just for you to do a workplace on annual sort of review to get a promotion or anything like that.

     

    It's a great strategy to use on yourself yearly, monthly, weekly, whatever sort of time period feels right for you to ensure you are on the right path for your idea of success. Just think about it for if you never got the opportunity to reflect new abilities and mistakes and what you want in life, you know, how does that really affect when you're going? How would you know if you're making the right decision to ensure the future is the way that you want it to be see you at some time.

     

    And one of the things you should do, especially if you do this weekly, is what is one thing is a question I should say, what is one thing that I struggled with this week? And the more often you ask yourself that question, the easier it will become, because sometimes you don't want to admit that you've struggled with anything like that.

     

    Everything this week was fine. But the more that you ask yourself and you're like, okay, well, today I struggled or this week I struggled with getting spending time in myself or setting boundaries or whatever it might be. Then the next question from that is sort of OK, well, how can I make sure that doesn't happen again, or what can I do to improve my chances of it not happening again? And so that gives you the actionable steps to take that will help make your life better in the long run.

     

    Another question could be what negative is emotions?

     

    Have I experienced this week day, month, whatever it is and why this will help you figure out maybe certain aspects of certain situations that start these emotions and set them off? Another question you could ask yourself is, what change can I make right now to get me closer to my goals. You might have three or four different types of goals, but it could be what can I change right now that will get me closer to my self care goals or what can I change right now? That will make me do X, Y and Z.

     

    And when you think about what that change is, then go ahead and put it in your calendar, but it can note of it to make that change and go ahead and do it right then and then document and keep track, keeping track of your progress and achievements.

     

    Failures in most challenges and rewards. These are all essential for you to look back and be like, oh, I felt this at this time. I didn't realise that it's probably because of this, this and this. Oh, all right. So I should avoid it in the future because of this.

     

    This or this helped me grow. Or this helped me change this or this is why I ended up doing this particular thing and not the other. Take the time to be proud of yourself. Brag on yourself. A little self evaluation or reflection isn't just about the bad stuff.

     

    You should also the good stuff, too. And it's not about comparing. It's not about a competition. It's just making sure that you're aligned in what you want to do and making yourself better, incrementally, bit by bit. It's a great thing.

     

    Also learn forgiveness and be more mindful be forgiving to yourself realise that you are human. And yes, you will make mistakes, and that's okay. But dwelling on them instead of forgiving yourself and taking action is really where you will fail and stay sort of trapped and not move forward and to make sure that you do take the time to put like, yes, this happened. Yes, it wasn't quite what I wanted. This is what I've learned from it.

     

    This is what I'll do. Moving forward to this happen again. Now move on forgiving yourself and realising your human is key and also part of that is that the thinking about it because making a mistake might be lead to negative thinking. Failure isn't a negative. There's a positive, positive side to it, but yes, go ahead and ask yourself those questions today and then maybe do it once a week whenever you listen to this podcast.

     

    Thank you for listening. This is Janice at the Cure. Introvert. Com. Helping you build your brand and get hired.

     

    Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>ed7e205a-60ab-4386-945b-b2e7276d3be0Tue, 07 Sep 2021 16:00:00 -050005:30falsefull    What is introversionWhat is introversionI realize that this is possibly a topic I haven't gone over whenever I am working with new contractors to taking on new staff. One of my go to questions always is, what does introversion mean to you? Because as we know, there's a lot of misinformation out there and I wanted to just talk about some of the things that people say when I ask them what introversion means to them, bearing in mind what I do and where they find me, where they hear my name.

     

    So one person said to me, Introversion means being more comfortable, either alone or in smaller crowds, are not expressing ideas and thoughts outside of an inner circle. So I found this really interesting, that the thought process there wasn't necessarily about being aloof, it was just setting boundaries and knowing that very comfortable with a smaller group of people, people you trust and telling them about stuff which was interesting. And someone else said it's being shy and possibly not being able to or wanting to express oneself, always wanting to be alone and indoors.

     

    And I think they're not being able or wanting to express oneself could come from, yes, quite happy to express oneself, but get shot down by extra first or by other people or in general, what needing the right time or to think about something before expressing oneself which can come across as hesitancy. Then someone said, introversion for me means a lack of confidence.

     

    Okay, I wanted to delve a little bit deeper into that and asked, Why does introversion mean a lack of confidence? And they're very much like, well, if you're not outgoing and bubbly, it means that you are not confident in your abilities or what you want to do. So there's that juxtaposition there. You have to be seen as outgoing and bubbly to be sure of yourself. And that's not necessarily true.

     

    A lot of people who are sure of themselves, whether they are introverts or extroverts, might not be out there or the time they're just cracking on and doing their thing. This next statement was really interesting. It was an internet is a person who is shy and not able to convey their ideas to the world in a convincing manner. So it's not what you say, but how you say it according to this person makes an introvert an introvert, which is really fascinating. And someone mentioned introversion to them was focusing about how they handle emotions with their mind.

     

    So when I delve a little bit deeper to them, being an introvert or an extrovert was all a mind game kind of a thing like you could get out of your comfort zone if you really wanted to, sort of a thing, which was fascinating. Now I'm going to move on to introverts that I've spoken to and what they feel introverts or introversion is. So someone said, as an introvert to me, it means only being able to handle groups of people for so long. I require time to recharge alone.

     

    I prefer to be more alone than with others, which makes it hard for us to start businesses and brand.

     

    Pitching to others about what we can do is draining someone else mentioned as an inert myself. I like to describe it as having my own bubble. It means knowing oneself, having a safe space to be alone with my own thoughts and feelings, and having the power to decide if and when I want to participate in what's going on on the other side. I love that she's happy with what they've got and she feels empowered, which is wonderful. Someone mentioned that I'm an introvert all the way, and to me it means that I want to recharge, and I do this by spending time alone with self care and meditation or just downtime helped with that.

     

    I process things internally first and think about them before answering, and I love this statement. For me, introversion means having a calf and exciting world inside one's own thoughts. It is found that really, really fun, and there's nothing negative there that introverts said about themselves,]]>I realize that this is possibly a topic I haven't gone over whenever I am working with new contractors to taking on new staff. One of my go to questions always is, what does introversion mean to you? Because as we know, there's a lot of misinformation out there and I wanted to just talk about some of the things that people say when I ask them what introversion means to them, bearing in mind what I do and where they find me, where they hear my name.

     

    So one person said to me, Introversion means being more comfortable, either alone or in smaller crowds, are not expressing ideas and thoughts outside of an inner circle. So I found this really interesting, that the thought process there wasn't necessarily about being aloof, it was just setting boundaries and knowing that very comfortable with a smaller group of people, people you trust and telling them about stuff which was interesting. And someone else said it's being shy and possibly not being able to or wanting to express oneself, always wanting to be alone and indoors.

     

    And I think they're not being able or wanting to express oneself could come from, yes, quite happy to express oneself, but get shot down by extra first or by other people or in general, what needing the right time or to think about something before expressing oneself which can come across as hesitancy. Then someone said, introversion for me means a lack of confidence.

     

    Okay, I wanted to delve a little bit deeper into that and asked, Why does introversion mean a lack of confidence? And they're very much like, well, if you're not outgoing and bubbly, it means that you are not confident in your abilities or what you want to do. So there's that juxtaposition there. You have to be seen as outgoing and bubbly to be sure of yourself. And that's not necessarily true.

     

    A lot of people who are sure of themselves, whether they are introverts or extroverts, might not be out there or the time they're just cracking on and doing their thing. This next statement was really interesting. It was an internet is a person who is shy and not able to convey their ideas to the world in a convincing manner. So it's not what you say, but how you say it according to this person makes an introvert an introvert, which is really fascinating. And someone mentioned introversion to them was focusing about how they handle emotions with their mind.

     

    So when I delve a little bit deeper to them, being an introvert or an extrovert was all a mind game kind of a thing like you could get out of your comfort zone if you really wanted to, sort of a thing, which was fascinating. Now I'm going to move on to introverts that I've spoken to and what they feel introverts or introversion is. So someone said, as an introvert to me, it means only being able to handle groups of people for so long. I require time to recharge alone.

     

    I prefer to be more alone than with others, which makes it hard for us to start businesses and brand.

     

    Pitching to others about what we can do is draining someone else mentioned as an inert myself. I like to describe it as having my own bubble. It means knowing oneself, having a safe space to be alone with my own thoughts and feelings, and having the power to decide if and when I want to participate in what's going on on the other side. I love that she's happy with what they've got and she feels empowered, which is wonderful. Someone mentioned that I'm an introvert all the way, and to me it means that I want to recharge, and I do this by spending time alone with self care and meditation or just downtime helped with that.

     

    I process things internally first and think about them before answering, and I love this statement. For me, introversion means having a calf and exciting world inside one's own thoughts. It is found that really, really fun, and there's nothing negative there that introverts said about themselves, which is really interested that it all comes from people who might see themselves as being more extroverted. So dear Listener, I'd love for you to email me and let me know. What does introversion mean to you?

     

    Email me at Janice at the current overt com helping you build your brand and get hired, and I guess I should finish with to me for me, for me and my introversion, it means where I get my energy from how I recharge. I am occasionally shy, but generally it's me figuring out for like you are not an on going from there, but yeah, how I get managing how I recharge, and it's an ongoing learning journey and process. All right. Thank you for listening. Has a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>7ea2892c-5547-443f-92d9-76017d44c346Tue, 31 Aug 2021 16:00:00 -050005:25falsefull    Energy Management vs. Time ManagementEnergy Management vs. Time ManagementToday I want to talk about the difference between energy management versus time management. What I've found that working with my clients is so many so often they're trying to manage their time, which is great. All the projects and all the things that you have to do and figuring out what goes and what bucket and using line of house matrix or, you know, using get stuff done, flow whatever it needs to do. And that time management.

     

    And they kind of forget that as an introvert, energy management is just as important. You've likely heard the old adage that life is a marathon, not a sprint. So if you're trying to manage your time effectively, but you are not paying attention to your energy management, you might end up with like sprints and sprints and sprints rather than like a long, sustained marathon, and that it could be fine if that works for you. But more than likely, it's better for you to do something in a sustainable manner than it is to sprint, get stuff done, burn out, have to stop for however long, and then sprint burn out and then stop for however long.

     

    So experts are always saying about productivity and productivity can mean very different things to different people, and productivity and success have more to do with how you manage your energy than it does with time management.

     

    And so many people try to do everything to give us more time, because time is like one thing that we only have a certain amount of, but thinking about staying healthy, eating healthy, spending time, doing things and connecting and all of those sort of things. This a time we don't necessarily schedule in time for energy management. Right? And so we normally scheduling all the things that we have to do. But whether we have the energy to do all of those things, it's a problem that is often overlooked.

     

    Trying to adhere to a certain time to manage everything can leave us feeling exhausted, so we're not even able to relax and enjoy ourselves when we've scheduled at the time for it. So an alternative to managing your time or can be used in conjunction with managing your time is to manage your energy effectively, and it works by taking time for recovering from those sprints so you can make it to the end of the moth and so to speak. So here are some things that I found with my clients work work well for managing your energy, and these are some of the things I've talked about previously, like learning how to recharge what you need to do to recharge yourself.

     

    Make a list of what makes you feel refreshed, more creative, lift your mood, feels rejuvenated all of those things. Write them down and will help to remind you about the benefits of these particularly uplifting activities.

     

    For example, watching a great series or show that you follow on TV, sipping a cup of tea and listening to music can be very rejuvenating to your energy levels, and they can go on and do something else. Doubling the time you usually take for breaks. Don't get to a timetable when it comes through vibing your energy level. Take that hour instead of a half an hour and have fun with whatever you're doing. You might have a schedule that, you know, I'm going to have the study minute break, and I'm going to go do something else.

     

    But if you get to the end of the study minute break and you still don't feel quite Rejuven idea enough, take that extra time. And as the time with so concerned about having time to do stuff that we never scheduled enough time to not do stuff and then reward yourself for every goal reached. If you have lots of projects and it seems like you'll never finish them to be able to relax and enjoy yourself, break those projects down into parts and reward yourself. After that, you complete each one.

     

    And rather than waiting to the entire huge project is finished, make sure you sit frequent recovery stops with those so that while you're doing that...]]>Today I want to talk about the difference between energy management versus time management. What I've found that working with my clients is so many so often they're trying to manage their time, which is great. All the projects and all the things that you have to do and figuring out what goes and what bucket and using line of house matrix or, you know, using get stuff done, flow whatever it needs to do. And that time management.

     

    And they kind of forget that as an introvert, energy management is just as important. You've likely heard the old adage that life is a marathon, not a sprint. So if you're trying to manage your time effectively, but you are not paying attention to your energy management, you might end up with like sprints and sprints and sprints rather than like a long, sustained marathon, and that it could be fine if that works for you. But more than likely, it's better for you to do something in a sustainable manner than it is to sprint, get stuff done, burn out, have to stop for however long, and then sprint burn out and then stop for however long.

     

    So experts are always saying about productivity and productivity can mean very different things to different people, and productivity and success have more to do with how you manage your energy than it does with time management.

     

    And so many people try to do everything to give us more time, because time is like one thing that we only have a certain amount of, but thinking about staying healthy, eating healthy, spending time, doing things and connecting and all of those sort of things. This a time we don't necessarily schedule in time for energy management. Right? And so we normally scheduling all the things that we have to do. But whether we have the energy to do all of those things, it's a problem that is often overlooked.

     

    Trying to adhere to a certain time to manage everything can leave us feeling exhausted, so we're not even able to relax and enjoy ourselves when we've scheduled at the time for it. So an alternative to managing your time or can be used in conjunction with managing your time is to manage your energy effectively, and it works by taking time for recovering from those sprints so you can make it to the end of the moth and so to speak. So here are some things that I found with my clients work work well for managing your energy, and these are some of the things I've talked about previously, like learning how to recharge what you need to do to recharge yourself.

     

    Make a list of what makes you feel refreshed, more creative, lift your mood, feels rejuvenated all of those things. Write them down and will help to remind you about the benefits of these particularly uplifting activities.

     

    For example, watching a great series or show that you follow on TV, sipping a cup of tea and listening to music can be very rejuvenating to your energy levels, and they can go on and do something else. Doubling the time you usually take for breaks. Don't get to a timetable when it comes through vibing your energy level. Take that hour instead of a half an hour and have fun with whatever you're doing. You might have a schedule that, you know, I'm going to have the study minute break, and I'm going to go do something else.

     

    But if you get to the end of the study minute break and you still don't feel quite Rejuven idea enough, take that extra time. And as the time with so concerned about having time to do stuff that we never scheduled enough time to not do stuff and then reward yourself for every goal reached. If you have lots of projects and it seems like you'll never finish them to be able to relax and enjoy yourself, break those projects down into parts and reward yourself. After that, you complete each one.

     

    And rather than waiting to the entire huge project is finished, make sure you sit frequent recovery stops with those so that while you're doing that sprint, you may stop, take a break, rejuvenate, and then start again.

     

    Do it. You'll feel so much more like completing everything when you and you'll be happier at the end. Managing your energy is a much more effective way to get through life rather than putting time limits on making schedules for everything. Your energy thermos that doesn't pay attention to the timetable you've created. Instead, make your energy the most important factor while you are going through life.

     

    Thank you. This is janice from the career introvert helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>bb79ee0c-9b33-4ad4-8d87-2dd3c4df46c1Tue, 24 Aug 2021 16:00:00 -050005:03falsefull    Do NothingDo Nothingtoday I'm going to talk about not doing something, I find that not doing something is the hardest thing of all to not do, to do. Not sure which way I'm not supposed to go. There's times where you might have a lot going on. You keep busy. Things are coming at you left, right and centre. You just want to go, go, go, go, go all the time and you might lose focus of what your overall goals and mission is because you're just kind of stuck in the weeds taking five minutes to just not do anything and look at a piece of paper.

     

    Maybe that's on the wall or on your your board that says whatever it is you're famous for the year or the week or month or whatever it is, and be like, OK, well, the things my doing today or in this next hour that are working towards that goal or are in line with that mission is everything that I'm doing towards that yes or no. Also not doing something is really helpful when setting boundaries. For example, I have been known to not be good at setting boundaries with clients and if something is urgent or I know that other people are depending on me or I know that it's urgent for somebody else, I will probably go out of my way to work hours that are not paid for or do work in times that I would not normally work.

     

    And so it's really hard to not just automatically default into that, but you need to remember that it works both ways. And if they are not willing to do the same, then you really shouldn't be. And it's not setting healthy boundaries for yourself. So not doing something. For example, this weekend I saw two emails come in to my business email address, and my first thought was to, oh, I know this is really urgent and this needs doing, but at the same time me stopping and thinking and being like, what kind of expectations am I sitting if I now go and respond to these emails on a Saturday night, on a Sunday mid afternoon?

     

    And is that how I want to be moving forward? Is that the impression I want them to have and I setting myself up for failure because they're just going to keep doing that. And to be fair, I have lost clients because of this. I know previous clients have gone on and hired other people who would be more flexible, but that's not what works for me. I can't remember for the longest time when I have had a two day weekend and I'm still working towards that.

     

    So and with that, it's doing nothing because I could have a two day weekend, but what else would I fill it with? And that's normally my first thought is OK, well, so now I have this time what can I fill it with? But if I just take a second and do nothing, then my brain gets time to process, my body gets time to relax and repair itself and life goes on. Other times when it's good to do nothing is when you get an email and and it invokes a reaction and emotional reaction.

     

    You might want to fire off an email straight away, be it happy or sad or angry. But I can almost guarantee you that it is better to do nothing for at least five minutes. You could write that email, you could journal about that thing, but do not send a response email in that time. Just do nothing, sit with it, think about it, think about it from that other person's point of view. Think about how you were communicating.

     

    What you are communicating in the right way was the information that you are missing. Maybe you won't play it, but just stop and do nothing. And it is the hardest thing because in this day and age we are primed to be always doing something. Even if we're sitting still on board, we're scrolling through our phones on Facebook or Instagram or Reddit or whatever it is doing. Nothing is almost harder than doing all the things and all the hustle. So if you can at least once a day just sit and do nothing.

     

    Thanks for listening. This is Janice from The Career Introvert, helping you build your brand, get hard and do nothing. That doesn't quite sound right, does...]]>today I'm going to talk about not doing something, I find that not doing something is the hardest thing of all to not do, to do. Not sure which way I'm not supposed to go. There's times where you might have a lot going on. You keep busy. Things are coming at you left, right and centre. You just want to go, go, go, go, go all the time and you might lose focus of what your overall goals and mission is because you're just kind of stuck in the weeds taking five minutes to just not do anything and look at a piece of paper.

     

    Maybe that's on the wall or on your your board that says whatever it is you're famous for the year or the week or month or whatever it is, and be like, OK, well, the things my doing today or in this next hour that are working towards that goal or are in line with that mission is everything that I'm doing towards that yes or no. Also not doing something is really helpful when setting boundaries. For example, I have been known to not be good at setting boundaries with clients and if something is urgent or I know that other people are depending on me or I know that it's urgent for somebody else, I will probably go out of my way to work hours that are not paid for or do work in times that I would not normally work.

     

    And so it's really hard to not just automatically default into that, but you need to remember that it works both ways. And if they are not willing to do the same, then you really shouldn't be. And it's not setting healthy boundaries for yourself. So not doing something. For example, this weekend I saw two emails come in to my business email address, and my first thought was to, oh, I know this is really urgent and this needs doing, but at the same time me stopping and thinking and being like, what kind of expectations am I sitting if I now go and respond to these emails on a Saturday night, on a Sunday mid afternoon?

     

    And is that how I want to be moving forward? Is that the impression I want them to have and I setting myself up for failure because they're just going to keep doing that. And to be fair, I have lost clients because of this. I know previous clients have gone on and hired other people who would be more flexible, but that's not what works for me. I can't remember for the longest time when I have had a two day weekend and I'm still working towards that.

     

    So and with that, it's doing nothing because I could have a two day weekend, but what else would I fill it with? And that's normally my first thought is OK, well, so now I have this time what can I fill it with? But if I just take a second and do nothing, then my brain gets time to process, my body gets time to relax and repair itself and life goes on. Other times when it's good to do nothing is when you get an email and and it invokes a reaction and emotional reaction.

     

    You might want to fire off an email straight away, be it happy or sad or angry. But I can almost guarantee you that it is better to do nothing for at least five minutes. You could write that email, you could journal about that thing, but do not send a response email in that time. Just do nothing, sit with it, think about it, think about it from that other person's point of view. Think about how you were communicating.

     

    What you are communicating in the right way was the information that you are missing. Maybe you won't play it, but just stop and do nothing. And it is the hardest thing because in this day and age we are primed to be always doing something. Even if we're sitting still on board, we're scrolling through our phones on Facebook or Instagram or Reddit or whatever it is doing. Nothing is almost harder than doing all the things and all the hustle. So if you can at least once a day just sit and do nothing.

     

    Thanks for listening. This is Janice from The Career Introvert, helping you build your brand, get hard and do nothing. That doesn't quite sound right, does it? All right. It's been great speaking to you, looking forward to the rest of the week. If you have any questions for me, please email me at Jannis at The Career Introvert dot com. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>ce05f46c-b103-42eb-844e-907c66c41b3fTue, 17 Aug 2021 16:00:00 -050005:18falsefull    A to do list is not a planA to do list is not a plantoday I want to talk about something that happens a lot with some of my clients. They confuse a plan with a to do list. And so I want to talk about how these things are completely different. A to do list is basically a list of tasks that you want to do during the day, the week, the month, the year, etc.. Plan is what's the plan? OK, so this is what a plan could look like.

     

    10 a.m. wake up 10 a.m. to 10, 30, some sort of loose morning routine, 10, 30 till one deep work, one o'clock. There's going to be breakfast probably in there somewhere, but it might be part of your morning routine, one o'clock till to go to the gym or sort of meditate or do something that is a self development wise, two to five more deep work. All right. So what I'm trying to show that is that a plan doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the tasks that you'll do during the day.

     

    And I have a rough idea, but not necessarily. So you set the intention during the time frame, your work on your business or your career or your job or whatever it might be. The point is to include in your plan or the kind of activities that you want to do throughout the day, but not necessarily exact specific things. Because here's the thing. As an introvert, your time is precious. As a human, your time is precious for making sure that you have enough time to do the things that you want to do and get recharged in the way that works for you is really important.

     

    So you must guard your time wisely. And a plan, of course, can include non-work activities, i.e. recharge time. That's why it's called a plan. Doing something for yourself, doing something for yourself, like I said, meditating or anything of that nature. That is OK, because it's something that you need to do for yourself. And it shouldn't cause guilt. It should be intentional and not just sort of like, oh, fit that in somewhere.

     

    Right. If you don't have a plan and you will let yourself become sort of susceptible to wasting time and being distracted and procrastinating or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So you need to set out like a carved out time. Some people call this time blocking. Some people call this planning whatever wording you want to use, but your time must be guarded and protected. The way you use your time should be aligned with your values. So some of the things to consider are sort of what are your values?

     

    Who do you want to be? What do you want to do, where you want to get to? And it's really interesting that you just need to take ten minutes per day, probably before you go to sleep or at the end of your workday to map out a plan for the next day. But it is not a list of to do items. You can block out time. That's deep work. And then you go and look in your list of things that I need to work on and then work on those things.

     

    During your deep work time, the plan is to do deep work. The to do list is to do deep work on marketing and then deep work on client work. I'm in deep work on something else. You see the difference between the plan and the to do list. The plan is all about you and protecting what you need to do and making sure that your life and day works for you. The to do list is more along the lines of stuff you do for others or the individual tasks that you do to complete your overall plan.

     

    So don't be confused with the two. So many people are like, yeah, I have a plan, I have this like to do list of stuff to do. No, you have a to do list, which is great. It's great to have to do it, but it is not a plan. So that's something for you to think about. And again, God, your time, how you God, your time is really important moving forward, because a lot of the time we let other influences and outside influences push us into doing different things with our time.

     

    But as an introvert, we need our time to recharge. We need our time to regroup, to help us be better humans. And so,...]]>today I want to talk about something that happens a lot with some of my clients. They confuse a plan with a to do list. And so I want to talk about how these things are completely different. A to do list is basically a list of tasks that you want to do during the day, the week, the month, the year, etc.. Plan is what's the plan? OK, so this is what a plan could look like.

     

    10 a.m. wake up 10 a.m. to 10, 30, some sort of loose morning routine, 10, 30 till one deep work, one o'clock. There's going to be breakfast probably in there somewhere, but it might be part of your morning routine, one o'clock till to go to the gym or sort of meditate or do something that is a self development wise, two to five more deep work. All right. So what I'm trying to show that is that a plan doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the tasks that you'll do during the day.

     

    And I have a rough idea, but not necessarily. So you set the intention during the time frame, your work on your business or your career or your job or whatever it might be. The point is to include in your plan or the kind of activities that you want to do throughout the day, but not necessarily exact specific things. Because here's the thing. As an introvert, your time is precious. As a human, your time is precious for making sure that you have enough time to do the things that you want to do and get recharged in the way that works for you is really important.

     

    So you must guard your time wisely. And a plan, of course, can include non-work activities, i.e. recharge time. That's why it's called a plan. Doing something for yourself, doing something for yourself, like I said, meditating or anything of that nature. That is OK, because it's something that you need to do for yourself. And it shouldn't cause guilt. It should be intentional and not just sort of like, oh, fit that in somewhere.

     

    Right. If you don't have a plan and you will let yourself become sort of susceptible to wasting time and being distracted and procrastinating or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So you need to set out like a carved out time. Some people call this time blocking. Some people call this planning whatever wording you want to use, but your time must be guarded and protected. The way you use your time should be aligned with your values. So some of the things to consider are sort of what are your values?

     

    Who do you want to be? What do you want to do, where you want to get to? And it's really interesting that you just need to take ten minutes per day, probably before you go to sleep or at the end of your workday to map out a plan for the next day. But it is not a list of to do items. You can block out time. That's deep work. And then you go and look in your list of things that I need to work on and then work on those things.

     

    During your deep work time, the plan is to do deep work. The to do list is to do deep work on marketing and then deep work on client work. I'm in deep work on something else. You see the difference between the plan and the to do list. The plan is all about you and protecting what you need to do and making sure that your life and day works for you. The to do list is more along the lines of stuff you do for others or the individual tasks that you do to complete your overall plan.

     

    So don't be confused with the two. So many people are like, yeah, I have a plan, I have this like to do list of stuff to do. No, you have a to do list, which is great. It's great to have to do it, but it is not a plan. So that's something for you to think about. And again, God, your time, how you God, your time is really important moving forward, because a lot of the time we let other influences and outside influences push us into doing different things with our time.

     

    But as an introvert, we need our time to recharge. We need our time to regroup, to help us be better humans. And so, God, your time wisely by creating plans with time blocks, with what you're going to do moving forward and then go from there, take some time to make a plan, a plan in order to do list. Thanks for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. If you have any questions or topics that you want me to cover during the podcast, please email me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com.

     

    The Confort speaking to you next week and have a great rest of your day.

     

    ]]>16be8c83-f9b3-4307-ad88-3ba30dfae137Tue, 10 Aug 2021 16:00:00 -050005:14falsefull    Days Off Are Not Always FunDays Off Are Not Always Funstill today I want to talk about days off. This came about because I was talking with a friend and we assume when people take time off work that it is full recharge and fun reasons. And let's be honest, it's not always the case. And when you come back to work, people like, oh, he must be now well rested after that time off. You took time off work.

     

    Yes, that may be the case. But if you look at the last year, a lot of people have taken time off for funerals. A lot of people have taken time off for mental health. A lot of people have taken time off to deal with whatever it is they're dealing with. It might be you need to put down an animal. It might be you need to look after grandma. It might be the plumber's coming and you have to take the time off work.

     

    So we were talking about how it would be great if there was a different way. There's two things. There's one is a different way of calling time off when you're doing something that isn't fun or recharging. And the other flipside of that is how to deal with people, how to change people's assumptions. That time off is always a vacation or holiday or recharging and or fun without because you might not want to tell people why you're taking time off. If you're going to put your cat down, for example, you might not want people bring it up.

     

    You might not want people going, oh, I'm so sorry about all of this other stuff. You might just want to get back to work and work. But at the same time, when they're like, oh, what did you do on your day off? You don't want to say so how do you deal with that and how do we get around calling? Time off. Time off? Yes, it might be time off from work, but that doesn't mean that you might not be not thinking about work.

     

    Maybe you are seeing the emails pile up and it is stressful. Maybe you get a phone call from work and it is stressful or WhatsApp message or whatever method of communication it is. How do you let people know that there are boundaries with the time off? Yes, you are taking time off from this thing, but it doesn't mean that you are coming back refreshed all the time. I know there is no well, I mean, there might be a right answer.

     

    I do not know it. So if you have any ideas, please feel free to email me. But it's a very interesting thing to think about how we use time off, what the expectations are for time off and people's assumptions with time off. I know that there is definitely the idea that people shouldn't be asking you why you're taking time off. You just taking time off and that's that. Managers, CEOs, supervisors should not be asking you why you're taking time off and in all honesty, should not be making comments about, oh, this is the second Friday you've had off in two months or whatever it might be.

     

    You might be taking an exam, you might be applying for another job, whatever it is, the reason you are taking time from not doing work should not be up for discussion in general. And then the other part of this conversation was the work that's left behind when you know in advance that you're going to take time off, even if it's one day, sometimes you might find yourself working weekends or working extra time that week to make up for the time off that you have not been at work.

     

    And so does that make your time off enjoyable or not? Because the rest of the time is spent stressing around that one day off or two days off that you will not be around at work. How do you balance the workload? How do you make sure everything gets done and people know what's going on and you don't come back to a train wreck yet? Enjoy that time. Because what tends to happen is if you have like, you know that you're going to take one day, you're not going to be at work.

     

    You tend to front stack all your other work on the other days. You're not going to be there. And so you end up working more anyway. And so then is that day off?...]]>still today I want to talk about days off. This came about because I was talking with a friend and we assume when people take time off work that it is full recharge and fun reasons. And let's be honest, it's not always the case. And when you come back to work, people like, oh, he must be now well rested after that time off. You took time off work.

     

    Yes, that may be the case. But if you look at the last year, a lot of people have taken time off for funerals. A lot of people have taken time off for mental health. A lot of people have taken time off to deal with whatever it is they're dealing with. It might be you need to put down an animal. It might be you need to look after grandma. It might be the plumber's coming and you have to take the time off work.

     

    So we were talking about how it would be great if there was a different way. There's two things. There's one is a different way of calling time off when you're doing something that isn't fun or recharging. And the other flipside of that is how to deal with people, how to change people's assumptions. That time off is always a vacation or holiday or recharging and or fun without because you might not want to tell people why you're taking time off. If you're going to put your cat down, for example, you might not want people bring it up.

     

    You might not want people going, oh, I'm so sorry about all of this other stuff. You might just want to get back to work and work. But at the same time, when they're like, oh, what did you do on your day off? You don't want to say so how do you deal with that and how do we get around calling? Time off. Time off? Yes, it might be time off from work, but that doesn't mean that you might not be not thinking about work.

     

    Maybe you are seeing the emails pile up and it is stressful. Maybe you get a phone call from work and it is stressful or WhatsApp message or whatever method of communication it is. How do you let people know that there are boundaries with the time off? Yes, you are taking time off from this thing, but it doesn't mean that you are coming back refreshed all the time. I know there is no well, I mean, there might be a right answer.

     

    I do not know it. So if you have any ideas, please feel free to email me. But it's a very interesting thing to think about how we use time off, what the expectations are for time off and people's assumptions with time off. I know that there is definitely the idea that people shouldn't be asking you why you're taking time off. You just taking time off and that's that. Managers, CEOs, supervisors should not be asking you why you're taking time off and in all honesty, should not be making comments about, oh, this is the second Friday you've had off in two months or whatever it might be.

     

    You might be taking an exam, you might be applying for another job, whatever it is, the reason you are taking time from not doing work should not be up for discussion in general. And then the other part of this conversation was the work that's left behind when you know in advance that you're going to take time off, even if it's one day, sometimes you might find yourself working weekends or working extra time that week to make up for the time off that you have not been at work.

     

    And so does that make your time off enjoyable or not? Because the rest of the time is spent stressing around that one day off or two days off that you will not be around at work. How do you balance the workload? How do you make sure everything gets done and people know what's going on and you don't come back to a train wreck yet? Enjoy that time. Because what tends to happen is if you have like, you know that you're going to take one day, you're not going to be at work.

     

    You tend to front stack all your other work on the other days. You're not going to be there. And so you end up working more anyway. And so then is that day off? Was it because then you just playing catch up and all recovery and not necessarily enjoying it is something that you need to enjoy while having the headspace to deal with that time off when you are not at work. I know. I just find this very fascinating and I would love to hear people's thoughts about this because it's all about mental health, physical health and how the work life balance is that even a thing anymore is lines are blurred.

     

    Anyway, thanks for listening. We'd love to hear from you. Please email me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com. This is Janice from The Career Introvert. How can you build your brand and get hired? Looking forward to speaking to you next week. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>7dbd26d5-9197-4b3f-bcfc-6f102519e43cTue, 03 Aug 2021 16:00:00 -050005:22falsefull    The two sides of volunteeringThe two sides of volunteeringI want to talk about volunteering, something I've done for the majority of my working life in one way or another. And yes, there are upsides to volunteering and giving back to the community, your local community, the international community and people in general. And there are also downsides. But let's talk about the benefits, first of all. Volunteering can be seen as a vital service to your community. There are many organisations that rely on volunteers to help them get done what they need, doing charities and nonprofits.

     

    Basically, it often takes the care and empathy from volunteers to provide help the community's needs. Now, there might be a lot of different organisations that thrives on volunteers, and it can provide benefits to your life as well as the people that you are helping. It can help you build more relationships when you're part of a team connexions form learning. This affects three out of five Americans. According to Signees 2020 Loneliness Index. Loneliness needs depression and anxiety and can wreak havoc on people's immune systems and the economy.

     

    As we have seen recently, when you start volunteering virtually or otherwise to meet new people who share your values but are different from you, from those you help and from those you work with, they are all different. Creating new relationships and opening your life to more opportunities, knowledge and understanding of the world is a huge benefit from volunteering. And the great thing is you can do a lot of virtual volunteering, especially right now. But even before I certainly did virtual volunteering and it can be such tasks as compiling data during analyst work, it doesn't necessarily have to be the kind of work we have to be out talking to people all the time.

     

    It could just be creating a spreadsheet for people so they can see where the money's coming from or where it's going. It could be leading a coworking sessions. There are so many different ways to volunteer to help organisations. One of the other benefits is it increases your knowledge and understanding of others only volunteer. You get a clearer idea of how other people live differently or similarly to you, opening your perspective and getting a new understanding of the world and the people within it.

     

    This increases your compassion and empathy, and this knowledge allows you to live a more positive life with more intention and knowing empathy, where people are coming from and the struggles and maybe how you can help them. It can also provide you a sense of purpose. It doesn't have to be overall purpose, but a purpose while doing this role. When you know your purpose is in life, is it to understand he one where fit best within a community, within the world, within your role and your job?

     

    This knowledge also helps bring a greater sense of happiness and success. Most of time, because you feel fulfilled, it helps you feel fulfilled. Purpose and fulfilment do tend to go hand in hand, and volunteering can give you a sense of direction. It can help you figure out things that you do like and don't like work that you would like to do and work that you do not do well without the added pressure of it being for a job and for money and, you know, to pay the bills so you can use it in a way to test different types of roles and things that you would like to try out.

     

    Also, I can give you a sense of pride because of what you're doing and the difference you're making in people's lives. So these are all various methods where volunteering can bring a benefit to your life. But please not let's not overlook the downsides of volunteering so many times you can volunteer and have your work taken for granted or basically have an organisation use you instead of paying somebody, instead of paying somebody to do the work part time, paying a reasonable wage, just get so used to having a volunteer.

     

    They forget that if...]]>I want to talk about volunteering, something I've done for the majority of my working life in one way or another. And yes, there are upsides to volunteering and giving back to the community, your local community, the international community and people in general. And there are also downsides. But let's talk about the benefits, first of all. Volunteering can be seen as a vital service to your community. There are many organisations that rely on volunteers to help them get done what they need, doing charities and nonprofits.

     

    Basically, it often takes the care and empathy from volunteers to provide help the community's needs. Now, there might be a lot of different organisations that thrives on volunteers, and it can provide benefits to your life as well as the people that you are helping. It can help you build more relationships when you're part of a team connexions form learning. This affects three out of five Americans. According to Signees 2020 Loneliness Index. Loneliness needs depression and anxiety and can wreak havoc on people's immune systems and the economy.

     

    As we have seen recently, when you start volunteering virtually or otherwise to meet new people who share your values but are different from you, from those you help and from those you work with, they are all different. Creating new relationships and opening your life to more opportunities, knowledge and understanding of the world is a huge benefit from volunteering. And the great thing is you can do a lot of virtual volunteering, especially right now. But even before I certainly did virtual volunteering and it can be such tasks as compiling data during analyst work, it doesn't necessarily have to be the kind of work we have to be out talking to people all the time.

     

    It could just be creating a spreadsheet for people so they can see where the money's coming from or where it's going. It could be leading a coworking sessions. There are so many different ways to volunteer to help organisations. One of the other benefits is it increases your knowledge and understanding of others only volunteer. You get a clearer idea of how other people live differently or similarly to you, opening your perspective and getting a new understanding of the world and the people within it.

     

    This increases your compassion and empathy, and this knowledge allows you to live a more positive life with more intention and knowing empathy, where people are coming from and the struggles and maybe how you can help them. It can also provide you a sense of purpose. It doesn't have to be overall purpose, but a purpose while doing this role. When you know your purpose is in life, is it to understand he one where fit best within a community, within the world, within your role and your job?

     

    This knowledge also helps bring a greater sense of happiness and success. Most of time, because you feel fulfilled, it helps you feel fulfilled. Purpose and fulfilment do tend to go hand in hand, and volunteering can give you a sense of direction. It can help you figure out things that you do like and don't like work that you would like to do and work that you do not do well without the added pressure of it being for a job and for money and, you know, to pay the bills so you can use it in a way to test different types of roles and things that you would like to try out.

     

    Also, I can give you a sense of pride because of what you're doing and the difference you're making in people's lives. So these are all various methods where volunteering can bring a benefit to your life. But please not let's not overlook the downsides of volunteering so many times you can volunteer and have your work taken for granted or basically have an organisation use you instead of paying somebody, instead of paying somebody to do the work part time, paying a reasonable wage, just get so used to having a volunteer.

     

    They forget that if they actually want to have a thriving business, they should be able to afford to pay someone that will. Sometimes being a volunteer is a thankless role. Sometimes you do not get fat for being a volunteer. You don't get any praise, you don't get any recommendations. Nothing comes up on your LinkedIn profile. Sometimes it is a thankless job and you might feel that you are being taken advantage of. So just be aware when you're volunteering what you get out of the situation as well as the organisation.

     

    Thanks for listening. This is Janice from The Career Introvert, helping you build your brand and get hired. Looking forward to speaking to you next week. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>de55418c-17b8-4f9c-acb2-fe80d9b640c0Tue, 27 Jul 2021 16:00:00 -050005:15falsefull    How to systematize your memoryHow to systematize your memoryI'm going to talk about creating a reference system and this is something I've realised that I've been doing unintentionally for a little while now. So when I say creating a reference system, the reasoning to do this is so that you you free up space in your brain for other things. And what I mean by a reference system is, for example, when you go shopping, do you go ahead and just make a list of all the things that you need and then go shop for them?

     

    Or do you make a list of all the things you want, go around your cupboards and those sort of things, and then go shopping? Or when you run out of something or when you're down to the last jar or 10 or kind of something, do you then go to the place where you normally go shopping online or place where you make a list and write that item down straight away, which those three things do you do? And which of those three things do you think helps free up more space in your brain for other things?

     

    So what I've been doing for a long while is any time I think of something that we need in the house, I'll go ahead and go to my target dot com or Amazon.com or whatever site that is to whatever it is that we're using for shopping and go find that item and put it in our cart, not buying it then and there I am just adding it to our cart to buy later. And I've been doing that for quite a while. And then what I've been doing is as far as I was having a conversation with a friend the other day about content, how do I think of content and where do I come up with ideas, etc.

     

    ? And I was I said, well, I come across things all the time when I'm not thinking about content and when I'm not thinking about my podcast or my newsletters. So when I am coming across content, what I do is I have a place where I go and store the link to said content that I want to go ahead and talk about. And so this place I have, this could be a better name for it, but it's like the dumping ground.

     

    And so it is a dumping ground of ideas. Articles means Facebook chats, things, whatever it is that have sparked interest about whatever it is that I'm going to talk about. So this is a dumping ground and it frees my brain because I'm like, OK, I'm going to remember that thing, because otherwise what I used to do before was, oh, that's a great article. Click read article, maybe have a tab that's open for months on end because I'm like, I need to come back and read that and talk about that.

     

    And then when I do want to go ahead and create content around that thing, I can't find it. I'm not thinking about it at the time. I'm on a different, different document, a different item like it could be a laptop. I could be on the phone, can't find it, or I'll just go and do something totally different. So having one main place where I put stuff that I want to talk about on my podcast, stuff that I want to talk about in my news, that is stuff that I want to talk about in webinars is a really good way for me to keep track of content and be free my mind from having to remember what I did with that content so I can go ahead and use it later.

     

    So I realise that now this is expanded into other areas of my life. So I use it, my shopping, I use it for creating content. And so I was speaking to a colleague about this because they found it really difficult to sit and create content because they had to find inspiration for that content. So now they have this Pinterest board and they have this Trello board and some other places where they go ahead and dump content. And it doesn't have to be just for creating content.

     

    It can just be for it. For an example, you are talking to a client you're having is a meeting and they're telling you this list of things that they want to do in the future and mid-term and stuff that you're going to do now and you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then maybe write it on a Post-it and then nothing happens. You...]]>I'm going to talk about creating a reference system and this is something I've realised that I've been doing unintentionally for a little while now. So when I say creating a reference system, the reasoning to do this is so that you you free up space in your brain for other things. And what I mean by a reference system is, for example, when you go shopping, do you go ahead and just make a list of all the things that you need and then go shop for them?

     

    Or do you make a list of all the things you want, go around your cupboards and those sort of things, and then go shopping? Or when you run out of something or when you're down to the last jar or 10 or kind of something, do you then go to the place where you normally go shopping online or place where you make a list and write that item down straight away, which those three things do you do? And which of those three things do you think helps free up more space in your brain for other things?

     

    So what I've been doing for a long while is any time I think of something that we need in the house, I'll go ahead and go to my target dot com or Amazon.com or whatever site that is to whatever it is that we're using for shopping and go find that item and put it in our cart, not buying it then and there I am just adding it to our cart to buy later. And I've been doing that for quite a while. And then what I've been doing is as far as I was having a conversation with a friend the other day about content, how do I think of content and where do I come up with ideas, etc.

     

    ? And I was I said, well, I come across things all the time when I'm not thinking about content and when I'm not thinking about my podcast or my newsletters. So when I am coming across content, what I do is I have a place where I go and store the link to said content that I want to go ahead and talk about. And so this place I have, this could be a better name for it, but it's like the dumping ground.

     

    And so it is a dumping ground of ideas. Articles means Facebook chats, things, whatever it is that have sparked interest about whatever it is that I'm going to talk about. So this is a dumping ground and it frees my brain because I'm like, OK, I'm going to remember that thing, because otherwise what I used to do before was, oh, that's a great article. Click read article, maybe have a tab that's open for months on end because I'm like, I need to come back and read that and talk about that.

     

    And then when I do want to go ahead and create content around that thing, I can't find it. I'm not thinking about it at the time. I'm on a different, different document, a different item like it could be a laptop. I could be on the phone, can't find it, or I'll just go and do something totally different. So having one main place where I put stuff that I want to talk about on my podcast, stuff that I want to talk about in my news, that is stuff that I want to talk about in webinars is a really good way for me to keep track of content and be free my mind from having to remember what I did with that content so I can go ahead and use it later.

     

    So I realise that now this is expanded into other areas of my life. So I use it, my shopping, I use it for creating content. And so I was speaking to a colleague about this because they found it really difficult to sit and create content because they had to find inspiration for that content. So now they have this Pinterest board and they have this Trello board and some other places where they go ahead and dump content. And it doesn't have to be just for creating content.

     

    It can just be for it. For an example, you are talking to a client you're having is a meeting and they're telling you this list of things that they want to do in the future and mid-term and stuff that you're going to do now and you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then maybe write it on a Post-it and then nothing happens. You remember some stuff because you're going to do it straight away, but the long term stuff in the midterm stuff kind of gets lost.

     

    What did you do with that Post-it note? You need a system. So whether it's always clear or Post-it notes at the end of the day and make sure that it is inputted into a computer or a note taking Apple to do task list app, what is it you do? What is your system to make sure that you remember all the things that you need to remember that is really important will help you free up space to do other things and be more creative and just have space to breathe rather than having to remember all the things because your brain can only remember.

     

    Say so much. Thanks for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Thank you for speaking to you next week. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>ed961f8e-2da5-4b32-97f7-4f9ec3e425cbTue, 20 Jul 2021 16:00:00 -050005:14falsefull    How to create a starting pointHow to create a starting pointI want to talk about procrastination, kind of, but in a different way, how to bounce back from feeling like you've been procrastinating or lazy or that you've wasted any time in your day. Because here's the thing. We have a habit of, as humans say, it's midday, like, oh, well, I haven't studied X, Y and Z, so I'll put it off to tomorrow because I won't have time to finish it today or then before you know it, it's two o'clock.

     

    You're like, oh, well, I could have done this other thing, but now I'm going to put it off to the next day and then it's five o'clock. You're like, oh, well, like, I'm not going to do all the other things right. Don't wait till some future moment to start something or do better. You have an opportunity to do better or to start something right now. And I think what we get trapped in with our thinking is that we have to start fresh tomorrow.

     

    We can start fresh next week. We can start fresh next month. We're always waiting for that. But delineator, which we've made up arbitrarily in our minds what that is, and just by doing so arbitrarily in our minds, we can choose to start now. I definitely have been the person that, you know, like, oh, wait till, you know, the next set of virtual cycles starts what I'm working with coworking like, oh, well, it doesn't start for like an hour and a half, so I won't start X, Y and Z.

     

    There's nothing stopping me from studying X, Y and Z. It's just a form of procrastination or having a start point. Something about us as humans feel the need to have a clean, fresh start point. Now you have the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and begin again. This is easy. If you have a way to mark the transition, you could use mealtimes or other daily rituals to create transitions. For example, you could be like, OK, I'm going to start after breakfast.

     

    I'll do this thing after lunch. I'll do that thing after elevenses. I'll do this other thing, whatever it might be. Or you could use physical action as a divider of time. If you need to get a fresh start for your day, get up and go for a walk, do some breathing exercises, meditate. Any of these things can help your brain believe that you were leaving behind a previous state and decisions and then you are starting fresh to make better ones moving forward.

     

    There are so many things that you can do in that way. So just think about it doesn't have to be dinnertime or lunchtime or after this meeting, it can really be as simple as. Getting up. Going outside, walking around the block or just walking down the street, coming back and sitting down again, that's your fresh slate. It could be going sitting in a corner for three minutes, centred deep breathing. Meditating a little bit, clearing your mind, stopping coming and starting again, that could be your clean, fresh slate, it could be journaling and a book, getting a book, writing a bunch stuff down, doodling, colouring, stitching, crocheting, doing the laundry, anything it can be used to help your brain reset.

     

    And I think it's really important that we learn to do this as humans and not just wait for that arbitrary day in the month or day of the week to start a thing because nothing is worse than not starting something. You don't know what the possibilities are and what could happen once you start this thing. And I am definitely guilty of putting things off. I know from a previous month I was like, I'm not going to do X, Y and Z because I'm waiting for other people to make decisions about A, B and C.

     

    Were these decisions linked? Sort of, but not really. It was just an excuse me, procrastinating, maybe me being scared. That's something to think about, is also why you don't want to start this thing that you are putting off, because getting to the root of that might help you also move forward. Well, thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your...]]>I want to talk about procrastination, kind of, but in a different way, how to bounce back from feeling like you've been procrastinating or lazy or that you've wasted any time in your day. Because here's the thing. We have a habit of, as humans say, it's midday, like, oh, well, I haven't studied X, Y and Z, so I'll put it off to tomorrow because I won't have time to finish it today or then before you know it, it's two o'clock.

     

    You're like, oh, well, I could have done this other thing, but now I'm going to put it off to the next day and then it's five o'clock. You're like, oh, well, like, I'm not going to do all the other things right. Don't wait till some future moment to start something or do better. You have an opportunity to do better or to start something right now. And I think what we get trapped in with our thinking is that we have to start fresh tomorrow.

     

    We can start fresh next week. We can start fresh next month. We're always waiting for that. But delineator, which we've made up arbitrarily in our minds what that is, and just by doing so arbitrarily in our minds, we can choose to start now. I definitely have been the person that, you know, like, oh, wait till, you know, the next set of virtual cycles starts what I'm working with coworking like, oh, well, it doesn't start for like an hour and a half, so I won't start X, Y and Z.

     

    There's nothing stopping me from studying X, Y and Z. It's just a form of procrastination or having a start point. Something about us as humans feel the need to have a clean, fresh start point. Now you have the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and begin again. This is easy. If you have a way to mark the transition, you could use mealtimes or other daily rituals to create transitions. For example, you could be like, OK, I'm going to start after breakfast.

     

    I'll do this thing after lunch. I'll do that thing after elevenses. I'll do this other thing, whatever it might be. Or you could use physical action as a divider of time. If you need to get a fresh start for your day, get up and go for a walk, do some breathing exercises, meditate. Any of these things can help your brain believe that you were leaving behind a previous state and decisions and then you are starting fresh to make better ones moving forward.

     

    There are so many things that you can do in that way. So just think about it doesn't have to be dinnertime or lunchtime or after this meeting, it can really be as simple as. Getting up. Going outside, walking around the block or just walking down the street, coming back and sitting down again, that's your fresh slate. It could be going sitting in a corner for three minutes, centred deep breathing. Meditating a little bit, clearing your mind, stopping coming and starting again, that could be your clean, fresh slate, it could be journaling and a book, getting a book, writing a bunch stuff down, doodling, colouring, stitching, crocheting, doing the laundry, anything it can be used to help your brain reset.

     

    And I think it's really important that we learn to do this as humans and not just wait for that arbitrary day in the month or day of the week to start a thing because nothing is worse than not starting something. You don't know what the possibilities are and what could happen once you start this thing. And I am definitely guilty of putting things off. I know from a previous month I was like, I'm not going to do X, Y and Z because I'm waiting for other people to make decisions about A, B and C.

     

    Were these decisions linked? Sort of, but not really. It was just an excuse me, procrastinating, maybe me being scared. That's something to think about, is also why you don't want to start this thing that you are putting off, because getting to the root of that might help you also move forward. Well, thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Looking forward to talking to you next week.

     

    Have a great rest of your week. If you have any questions that you would like me to answer on the podcast. Email me at Janice@thecareerintrovert.com. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>9ac3a760-79d1-4719-94cb-240a23eef57bTue, 13 Jul 2021 16:00:00 -050005:11falsefull    Don't say no, ask whenDon't say no, ask whenI'm going to talk about saying no, but not just saying no, generally when you're feeling overwhelmed or think about productivity or one of the things we get told, and I definitely agree with it to a certain extent, and I've said it myself, is to say no to sad thing and constructively saying no or, you know, I'll check my calendar or I'll do whatever it is to put a little buffer between that person asking a question.

     

    You having to get back with an answer straight away, because a lot of the time might say yes, reflexively and then look at me like, oh, I don't know how I'm going to fit this in. So, yes, when you feeling overwhelmed and you're not sure if you can do something or maybe you just don't want to say yes to something, saying no in a way that is constructive is helpful. However, when you're at work, you might feel more pressure.

     

    If you say now, you might feel that you can't really. So here's what kind of works, yes, you should say no more often, because it will free up your time and really work for your productivity. But in practise, this advice can also kind of backfire, because while you can set boundaries around your work, you can't straight up refuse a task when your boss asks you to take it on. So you need to figure out a better way or method of saying no, which can at least turn that no into an actual actionable solution or like a no.

     

    But so instead of saying no, a straight out no or no, blah, blah, blah, blah, you can also say no, let me check my calendar. But instead of saying no, ask when I'm without understanding sort of where your deadline might be, it can be superficial for you just to say no straight off the bat could be there asking you for something that they don't need for two months. So setting that boundary be like, OK, when do you need this body is really, really important.

     

    And so the other thing you can do to help expand that is, oh, you need it by this date. OK, well, let's look at my calendar and see how this can fit in. So you want to sit down with your manager or whoever else, you know, time to look over your schedule together. This only works if you've got sort of time boxing in your calendar where you've blocked out certain times for certain things on certain tasks.

     

    So you're like, OK, here is everything that is on my plate for the week ahead. For example, here, all my task is how long it should take to do them. This is what my calendar currently looks like. Now you want me to do this X, Y or Z task for whenever it might be. Let's see how I can fit it in. Maybe this task you've already given me that you can see here that aren't as much of a priority as this new task you want to give me.

     

    So let's work to see where I can fit some time into work on this thing that you need me to work on and then we can figure out the priorities together. Now, the great thing about doing that is you're being proactive, showing how your time is being used, because a lot of managers really just don't have a clue. And you're saying you're happy to make space and time for this task, but they need to keep in mind how much of a priority it is and it helps them rethink their priorities and what they're asking.

     

    So asking when they need it and then taking a look at everything that you need to do is super helpful when it comes to making sure you have time, block time, letting your manager know exactly what it is that you're doing and making sure that you have space and time to do said work. Now, just say, like we discussed before, just saying no isn't the best option. So having these extra questions like how long do you think it's going to take?

     

    What steps and what other information do I need to make a concrete sort of plan about this? Because sometimes you think it's going to be one thing but really ends up taking X, Y and Z time. And so if you've already shown your commitment and said, OK,...]]>I'm going to talk about saying no, but not just saying no, generally when you're feeling overwhelmed or think about productivity or one of the things we get told, and I definitely agree with it to a certain extent, and I've said it myself, is to say no to sad thing and constructively saying no or, you know, I'll check my calendar or I'll do whatever it is to put a little buffer between that person asking a question.

     

    You having to get back with an answer straight away, because a lot of the time might say yes, reflexively and then look at me like, oh, I don't know how I'm going to fit this in. So, yes, when you feeling overwhelmed and you're not sure if you can do something or maybe you just don't want to say yes to something, saying no in a way that is constructive is helpful. However, when you're at work, you might feel more pressure.

     

    If you say now, you might feel that you can't really. So here's what kind of works, yes, you should say no more often, because it will free up your time and really work for your productivity. But in practise, this advice can also kind of backfire, because while you can set boundaries around your work, you can't straight up refuse a task when your boss asks you to take it on. So you need to figure out a better way or method of saying no, which can at least turn that no into an actual actionable solution or like a no.

     

    But so instead of saying no, a straight out no or no, blah, blah, blah, blah, you can also say no, let me check my calendar. But instead of saying no, ask when I'm without understanding sort of where your deadline might be, it can be superficial for you just to say no straight off the bat could be there asking you for something that they don't need for two months. So setting that boundary be like, OK, when do you need this body is really, really important.

     

    And so the other thing you can do to help expand that is, oh, you need it by this date. OK, well, let's look at my calendar and see how this can fit in. So you want to sit down with your manager or whoever else, you know, time to look over your schedule together. This only works if you've got sort of time boxing in your calendar where you've blocked out certain times for certain things on certain tasks.

     

    So you're like, OK, here is everything that is on my plate for the week ahead. For example, here, all my task is how long it should take to do them. This is what my calendar currently looks like. Now you want me to do this X, Y or Z task for whenever it might be. Let's see how I can fit it in. Maybe this task you've already given me that you can see here that aren't as much of a priority as this new task you want to give me.

     

    So let's work to see where I can fit some time into work on this thing that you need me to work on and then we can figure out the priorities together. Now, the great thing about doing that is you're being proactive, showing how your time is being used, because a lot of managers really just don't have a clue. And you're saying you're happy to make space and time for this task, but they need to keep in mind how much of a priority it is and it helps them rethink their priorities and what they're asking.

     

    So asking when they need it and then taking a look at everything that you need to do is super helpful when it comes to making sure you have time, block time, letting your manager know exactly what it is that you're doing and making sure that you have space and time to do said work. Now, just say, like we discussed before, just saying no isn't the best option. So having these extra questions like how long do you think it's going to take?

     

    What steps and what other information do I need to make a concrete sort of plan about this? Because sometimes you think it's going to be one thing but really ends up taking X, Y and Z time. And so if you've already shown your commitment and said, OK, this is how much time I have, and then you figure out that, oh, actually, it's going to take X, Y and Z more time, you can then get back to manager and be like, remember when up to my count I had this amount of time we thought the task was going to take this amount of time.

     

    Well, it's not it's going to take this amount of time because of X, Y and Z. So now let's take a look again, see if the timeline is still right and if that's what we want to do and how priority it is. And this is how I will fit it into how I work. So this is a just a different way that you can work with managers to help them respect your time, be let them see what you're doing and see give a little bit of pushback if they're trying to get you to do something that is out of scope or will take too much time and make you work overtime that they won't be paying for.

     

    So I thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Look forward to speaking to you next week. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>e20b0a6a-1f25-435f-88b9-33b866891b6eTue, 06 Jul 2021 16:00:00 -050005:24falsefull    Things not to do on ZoomThings not to do on Zoomday I want to talk about I can't believe I'm saying this, things that happen on some things that you really shouldn't do when you are on Zoom. So in my time, I have been running online coworking sessions and sometimes most people have their video off, which is fine and makes perfect sense. But occasionally I've been running the sessions and there's a couple things that I've noticed that even if I'm deep in work, catch my eye and therefore make it hard for me to concentrate.

     

    If you are on video and depending on where your camera is compared to you, especially if your camera is lower down on, you are looking down into your camera. If you are eating or chewing gum while being on easy video and you were looking down into the camera, it's not a great look. And also it is very distracting if I get it, if you are working and the camera's on for accountability. But that movement of constant chewing can be distracting for people because it is a very consistent kind of movement that can back.

     

    And also people then want to know what you mean, because there's been times where I thought someone was just like taking a bite and then realised that the chewing gum the entire time or they're having a full four course meal, then the other things that I have seen and these are stories also that people have told me about things that they have found disturbing during coworking sessions as well as in video meetings, is people who pick their nose and not just a gentle sort of like wipe or blow your nose and sneeze and wipe it out and go.

     

    But more like, you know, digging for gold or buried treasure up there. If this is something that you do, please be aware that people can see you and might find it off. Putting other things that people have mentioned during the meetings is the camera of the camera of your angle. The angle of your camera is very important. If you are looking down into the camera, it means the camera can see directly up your nose. I didn't mean to do to nose things in a row, but so be it.

     

    And that might not be the best, most flattering angle for you. It's also not ergonomically great if you're using the same keyboard. So something to think about when you are doing a zoom meeting, online, coworking, any other sort of thing that involves Zoom. What else have I heard about? There was also the time when and I get it, it happens. You forget that your camera comes on automatically. You set it to come on the start of a meeting and in the meantime you faffing around doing whatever.

     

    But we've definitely had people who have gotten changed during a zoom meeting or working session. They kind of put the camera sort of when you sort of half close your laptop and you put the camera down and you think the camera can't see stuff. But the problem tends to be Kamisese, the lower half of you. So if you are, you know, bulleting where you you're great on top in the bottom. We've just got underway. We see that.

     

    So just something to keep in mind. Just because you close your laptop, then three quarters of the way doesn't mean the camera switches off and or we get to see the lower half of you. And it could be that your dog is at your feet and we just get sea dog. Or it could be that we get to see those fancy fishnets that you're wearing or some stripy socks or underwear and a lot of leg. So these are things to take into consideration.

     

    I highly recommend chess is better just not to have video if you're going to do anything and or double safety is to have a little cover of your camera that you can flip over it so that it can cover it. So you know for sure that your camera is not on or it can be seeing stuff because, you know, stuff glitches. Just because you press that button on zoom, sometimes it doesn't always work or there's a delay, etc., etc.

     

    . So thank you all for listening. If you have any stories of things that people have...]]>day I want to talk about I can't believe I'm saying this, things that happen on some things that you really shouldn't do when you are on Zoom. So in my time, I have been running online coworking sessions and sometimes most people have their video off, which is fine and makes perfect sense. But occasionally I've been running the sessions and there's a couple things that I've noticed that even if I'm deep in work, catch my eye and therefore make it hard for me to concentrate.

     

    If you are on video and depending on where your camera is compared to you, especially if your camera is lower down on, you are looking down into your camera. If you are eating or chewing gum while being on easy video and you were looking down into the camera, it's not a great look. And also it is very distracting if I get it, if you are working and the camera's on for accountability. But that movement of constant chewing can be distracting for people because it is a very consistent kind of movement that can back.

     

    And also people then want to know what you mean, because there's been times where I thought someone was just like taking a bite and then realised that the chewing gum the entire time or they're having a full four course meal, then the other things that I have seen and these are stories also that people have told me about things that they have found disturbing during coworking sessions as well as in video meetings, is people who pick their nose and not just a gentle sort of like wipe or blow your nose and sneeze and wipe it out and go.

     

    But more like, you know, digging for gold or buried treasure up there. If this is something that you do, please be aware that people can see you and might find it off. Putting other things that people have mentioned during the meetings is the camera of the camera of your angle. The angle of your camera is very important. If you are looking down into the camera, it means the camera can see directly up your nose. I didn't mean to do to nose things in a row, but so be it.

     

    And that might not be the best, most flattering angle for you. It's also not ergonomically great if you're using the same keyboard. So something to think about when you are doing a zoom meeting, online, coworking, any other sort of thing that involves Zoom. What else have I heard about? There was also the time when and I get it, it happens. You forget that your camera comes on automatically. You set it to come on the start of a meeting and in the meantime you faffing around doing whatever.

     

    But we've definitely had people who have gotten changed during a zoom meeting or working session. They kind of put the camera sort of when you sort of half close your laptop and you put the camera down and you think the camera can't see stuff. But the problem tends to be Kamisese, the lower half of you. So if you are, you know, bulleting where you you're great on top in the bottom. We've just got underway. We see that.

     

    So just something to keep in mind. Just because you close your laptop, then three quarters of the way doesn't mean the camera switches off and or we get to see the lower half of you. And it could be that your dog is at your feet and we just get sea dog. Or it could be that we get to see those fancy fishnets that you're wearing or some stripy socks or underwear and a lot of leg. So these are things to take into consideration.

     

    I highly recommend chess is better just not to have video if you're going to do anything and or double safety is to have a little cover of your camera that you can flip over it so that it can cover it. So you know for sure that your camera is not on or it can be seeing stuff because, you know, stuff glitches. Just because you press that button on zoom, sometimes it doesn't always work or there's a delay, etc., etc.

     

    . So thank you all for listening. If you have any stories of things that people have done during zoom meetings, that or coworking sessions that you would like to share, please email me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Thanks for listening and have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>f1b6de4d-119f-4ded-becd-b791d43fca87Tue, 29 Jun 2021 16:00:00 -050005:12falsefull    You are not lazy, you are processingYou are not lazy, you are processing, I want to talk about processing time, there's been a lot of changes in the world in the past year or so, and I'm sure everyone has been dealing individually with changes in general. And to be fair, changes happen all the time. And sometimes when you don't realise that you feel like you're being lazy or unproductive, you might feel like just staying in bed for the day or reading a book or whatever it is that you like to do to help yourself feel better.

     

    And for the longest while I was talking to a friend of mine, as always, these episodes, so many of them are inspired by a really good friend of mine. And we're talking and I was like, I don't want to do this. I don't feel like doing that. I have a couple of things that are up in the air in the moment. And so I don't want to move forward with these other things because things are up in the air.

     

    And I said, this is just me using these things up in the air as an excuse to procrastinate. And she was like, you're not procrastinating, you need processing time. And I was like, yeah, but blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Move on a couple more days. And I'm complaining again that, yeah, I put this thing off and I'm putting this other thing off until these things get sorted.

     

    And I should have some closure at least next week. And she once again was like, yes, I understand what you're saying, you need processing time. And I was like, oh, OK. And then I had a second friend be very much like, you need to do the pros and cons of this and you need to figure out this and this. And if all things are equal, which would you choose? And I was like, oh, I guess I need to.

     

    And it's a process that because so much of my life, I have fallen into things by accident. And to be fair, whatever happens next, I would have fallen into it by accident as well. However, I never really realised I have the luxury to process and understand that I need to process. And even if I don't end up making a decision and the decision gets made for me, at least me processing everything that's going on is hugely important to my well-being and my ability to go ahead and do other things.

     

    And so processing time, ladies and gentlemen, is what I want to talk to you about, giving yourself the time and I see yourself, your brain, the time to process. And that can mean many things. The brain filters through a lot of stuff. You have a lot of inputs coming in at you throughout the day, from email to social media to just being outside to talking to someone. There's a lot more inputs today than they have ever been.

     

    And you have that along with whatever you're dealing with at the time. Maybe something's happening with your children at school, maybe works making a change. Maybe there's something happening in your personal life. You as an introvert, you as a human being, need to take the time to give your brain space to process. These things, and I don't think it will happen in a day very much like, oh, I've gone and I've written down all the things that are on my mind, I processed I can move forward.

     

    Now, that is not how your brain works. Your brain is like, oh, you've written all the things down. That's great. You'll have some space. Now I want to fill up with stuff. Don't let your brain fill it with stuff. Sit, meditate, go for a walk, take deep breaths, pause, chill, relax. Think about nothing. Think about everything. Let thoughts float, don't feel the urge to write them down.

     

    Just float back and do other things and then come back again an hour or two hours or a day later and focus again on that thing and process and think and float. You need a couple days where all you do is sit and eat cherries and strawberries all day while crocheting. Go for it if you need to colour, if you need to journal whatever it is, don't try and shove all these other things in your head. So I had a day off and I was like,]]>, I want to talk about processing time, there's been a lot of changes in the world in the past year or so, and I'm sure everyone has been dealing individually with changes in general. And to be fair, changes happen all the time. And sometimes when you don't realise that you feel like you're being lazy or unproductive, you might feel like just staying in bed for the day or reading a book or whatever it is that you like to do to help yourself feel better.

     

    And for the longest while I was talking to a friend of mine, as always, these episodes, so many of them are inspired by a really good friend of mine. And we're talking and I was like, I don't want to do this. I don't feel like doing that. I have a couple of things that are up in the air in the moment. And so I don't want to move forward with these other things because things are up in the air.

     

    And I said, this is just me using these things up in the air as an excuse to procrastinate. And she was like, you're not procrastinating, you need processing time. And I was like, yeah, but blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Move on a couple more days. And I'm complaining again that, yeah, I put this thing off and I'm putting this other thing off until these things get sorted.

     

    And I should have some closure at least next week. And she once again was like, yes, I understand what you're saying, you need processing time. And I was like, oh, OK. And then I had a second friend be very much like, you need to do the pros and cons of this and you need to figure out this and this. And if all things are equal, which would you choose? And I was like, oh, I guess I need to.

     

    And it's a process that because so much of my life, I have fallen into things by accident. And to be fair, whatever happens next, I would have fallen into it by accident as well. However, I never really realised I have the luxury to process and understand that I need to process. And even if I don't end up making a decision and the decision gets made for me, at least me processing everything that's going on is hugely important to my well-being and my ability to go ahead and do other things.

     

    And so processing time, ladies and gentlemen, is what I want to talk to you about, giving yourself the time and I see yourself, your brain, the time to process. And that can mean many things. The brain filters through a lot of stuff. You have a lot of inputs coming in at you throughout the day, from email to social media to just being outside to talking to someone. There's a lot more inputs today than they have ever been.

     

    And you have that along with whatever you're dealing with at the time. Maybe something's happening with your children at school, maybe works making a change. Maybe there's something happening in your personal life. You as an introvert, you as a human being, need to take the time to give your brain space to process. These things, and I don't think it will happen in a day very much like, oh, I've gone and I've written down all the things that are on my mind, I processed I can move forward.

     

    Now, that is not how your brain works. Your brain is like, oh, you've written all the things down. That's great. You'll have some space. Now I want to fill up with stuff. Don't let your brain fill it with stuff. Sit, meditate, go for a walk, take deep breaths, pause, chill, relax. Think about nothing. Think about everything. Let thoughts float, don't feel the urge to write them down.

     

    Just float back and do other things and then come back again an hour or two hours or a day later and focus again on that thing and process and think and float. You need a couple days where all you do is sit and eat cherries and strawberries all day while crocheting. Go for it if you need to colour, if you need to journal whatever it is, don't try and shove all these other things in your head. So I had a day off and I was like, oh, I need to plan the day off.

     

    And I was like, my wait, I shouldn't plan a day off. I used to have it and I don't know, I got out of practise where I had one day a week, which just like do what my mind and my body tells me feels good at the time. And I stopped and I didn't realise I had stopped doing that. So don't feel you were being lazy. Don't feel that you're being unproductive. Remember that you need time to process everything that is coming at you.

     

    Take that time to process. Don't be hard on yourself and you will find that life is easier. Thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>737b2876-9eb9-4086-91d8-5dddb1de5fd7Tue, 22 Jun 2021 16:00:00 -050005:17falsefull    The Introvert HangoverThe Introvert Hangoverintrovert today I'm talking about what to do when you have an introvert hangover. This is what I currently have I I had a busy couple of weeks that involved seeing humans in the flesh because there is a difference between an intimate hangover and a Zoom hangover. I know a lot of people during the pandemic got very zoomed out and, you know, fed up of them. And I get that and how I dealt and it's kind of easy to deal with that.

     

    You just have less same interaction or change the way you have your same interaction. And obviously in the past year or so, I spent less and less time amongst other humans, are having to do with other humans in person. And I thought I was being smart and doing a soft re-entry into having to deal with humans in person. I had a weekend where I saw some people in small doses and I had an evening where I had a break. I was all by myself and then saw some other people in small doses and then had another break.

     

    And then I was on our way home. We had brunch with a friend, which was wonderful. And then we made a last minute decision to go see another friend. And then we ended up spending, I think, an hour and a half there speaking to this other friend. And it was it was worth the trip. But what I realised was my mind already thought, hey, I'm on my way home and. Was almost in wind down mode when we ended up seeing this other person, and so I got back from that trip and passed out and that was a few days.

     

    And then I had a couple of busy days because, you know, after you've taken some time off, you always try to catch up. So at a couple of busy days with some slightly stressful calls that I had to make, and then I went to an event outdoors. But it featured a lots of people that I didn't necessarily know and no one that I knew very well. And this event was from about five, six, six ish in the evening.

     

    And I did not get home until about 1:00 and then the very next day. I slept, didn't even want to talk to the other person that I live with, and I thought I thought I to be OK, but I got up and I was grumpy and I was tired. But it wasn't a tie due to lack of sleep, like I wasn't a yawning tired, it just presented to me just feeling very drained and tired and grumpy. And then that same day, I also had to go to another.

     

    Rent and hang out with a couple of people for a couple of hours, and I got back that evening and yes, was hanging out, but it's kind of that when you're at home and you need to be productive, but you just can't. And then this is now manifested into data where I'm just sort of napping, playing games, not sure what to do with myself because I know I should be working. But at the same time, I'm foggy brained.

     

    I don't have the energy. I'm not going to produce good works. What the hell am I doing? So I would love to know. Dear listeners, how does your Internet hang over present in you? Do you get grumpy? Do you get hungry? Do you get short tempered? Do you have foggy brain? Do you like how does it present in you? And also what do you do to counteract that? I realised I was foolish to not give myself enough alone time and felt guilty and wanted to perform societally.

     

    Also realised that my my levels have obviously dropped the ability to deal with lots of people for more than a few days or what have you. You know, it's a muscle that muscle has exercised, atrophied, petrified. That would so what I am going to try and do over the next week or so is to nap read. I did a lot of meditation that was useful, and I'm going to do some work and I need to plan and check my schedule and see what other things that I've got planned and make sure I have downtime in between.

     

    And I'm just trying to figure out what works best for me in my current situation to help recharge myself. Whatever that might look like and how I might feel about it could be do nothing, but I feel bad doing nothing. So that's...]]>introvert today I'm talking about what to do when you have an introvert hangover. This is what I currently have I I had a busy couple of weeks that involved seeing humans in the flesh because there is a difference between an intimate hangover and a Zoom hangover. I know a lot of people during the pandemic got very zoomed out and, you know, fed up of them. And I get that and how I dealt and it's kind of easy to deal with that.

     

    You just have less same interaction or change the way you have your same interaction. And obviously in the past year or so, I spent less and less time amongst other humans, are having to do with other humans in person. And I thought I was being smart and doing a soft re-entry into having to deal with humans in person. I had a weekend where I saw some people in small doses and I had an evening where I had a break. I was all by myself and then saw some other people in small doses and then had another break.

     

    And then I was on our way home. We had brunch with a friend, which was wonderful. And then we made a last minute decision to go see another friend. And then we ended up spending, I think, an hour and a half there speaking to this other friend. And it was it was worth the trip. But what I realised was my mind already thought, hey, I'm on my way home and. Was almost in wind down mode when we ended up seeing this other person, and so I got back from that trip and passed out and that was a few days.

     

    And then I had a couple of busy days because, you know, after you've taken some time off, you always try to catch up. So at a couple of busy days with some slightly stressful calls that I had to make, and then I went to an event outdoors. But it featured a lots of people that I didn't necessarily know and no one that I knew very well. And this event was from about five, six, six ish in the evening.

     

    And I did not get home until about 1:00 and then the very next day. I slept, didn't even want to talk to the other person that I live with, and I thought I thought I to be OK, but I got up and I was grumpy and I was tired. But it wasn't a tie due to lack of sleep, like I wasn't a yawning tired, it just presented to me just feeling very drained and tired and grumpy. And then that same day, I also had to go to another.

     

    Rent and hang out with a couple of people for a couple of hours, and I got back that evening and yes, was hanging out, but it's kind of that when you're at home and you need to be productive, but you just can't. And then this is now manifested into data where I'm just sort of napping, playing games, not sure what to do with myself because I know I should be working. But at the same time, I'm foggy brained.

     

    I don't have the energy. I'm not going to produce good works. What the hell am I doing? So I would love to know. Dear listeners, how does your Internet hang over present in you? Do you get grumpy? Do you get hungry? Do you get short tempered? Do you have foggy brain? Do you like how does it present in you? And also what do you do to counteract that? I realised I was foolish to not give myself enough alone time and felt guilty and wanted to perform societally.

     

    Also realised that my my levels have obviously dropped the ability to deal with lots of people for more than a few days or what have you. You know, it's a muscle that muscle has exercised, atrophied, petrified. That would so what I am going to try and do over the next week or so is to nap read. I did a lot of meditation that was useful, and I'm going to do some work and I need to plan and check my schedule and see what other things that I've got planned and make sure I have downtime in between.

     

    And I'm just trying to figure out what works best for me in my current situation to help recharge myself. Whatever that might look like and how I might feel about it could be do nothing, but I feel bad doing nothing. So that's a whole counter-intuitive thing for me. So those of you who are out there who are thinking about going out and seeing humans and you haven't seen them in a really long time, be aware of the overwhelm and be aware of the impending possibly you might not get it, but just be aware that it could happen.

     

    Hang over that. I mean, they haven't had alcohol hung over in a really long time, but this almost feels worse. Thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get high and have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>c36f285b-d48a-43f6-a771-e419afa352caTue, 15 Jun 2021 16:00:00 -050005:24falsefull    Staying at a job for sentimental reasonsStaying at a job for sentimental reasonsIntrovert today I'm going to talk about staying with your employer for sentimental reasons, and this has come up due to a couple of clients that I've been working with and. It's a case of I've got a client, she has been working with a Start-Up for eight years, she was an employee in about four or five. She's been with them through thick and thin. She's helped build processes, build the company that she's not a co-founder and worked 60, 70 hour weeks well, obviously at 40 an hour pay.

     

    And basically her life was consumed by this organisation. And she did rise up the ranks along the way due to experience within that organisation. It was like her first job and also due to just knowledge, she went and pulled together and created processes and documentation and programmes and figured out how to basically run this type of logistics company. And now it's got to a stage where the company is heading in a direction that she doesn't agree with. There are people have values, and this company, when she started with them, were very much in line with her values.

     

    But now, as time has moved on and the company has gotten bigger, they have moved away from those core values and she's tried to tug them back time and time again, to let alone no success, to the point where she's wondering why she is the only one talking about the company's core values anymore. She has some options of she started a business on the side that she's got, but she's staying with the organisation right now because of stock options.

     

    And because she doesn't want to leave under bad terms, she would like to have a six to 12 month transition to go part time and then transition out of the organisation. And the CEO apparently agreed with this. However, as time has gone on, because she set up her particular department to be able to run without her and someone else is taking charge of her department, even the transition over for that, she wasn't she was cut out and it was just between the CEO and this new person and any other things that she's done.

     

    She now has a new role within the organisation, but it hasn't really been clarified or talked about. And so she's finding it hard to get anything done because anything that she says is not perceived as important anymore from what she was doing before. And she is staying with the organisation. She wants it to go. Well, there's another person who worked for the organisation who also has been there for a couple of years, again, wants to leave in a professional manner, wants to do a transition.

     

    And yet what is happening with this organisation is no decisions are being made, no information is being put across. Communication is very bad. And at the end of the day, most people that leave this organisation are escorted out. Basically, they are seen as dead to see suite of this organisation. They tend to blame whoever leaves for not sticking it out because. The culture of hustle and got to work harder, and if I can do this than everyone else can do this, which is pretty toxic and which is why people are leaving, they are tired and fed up of feeling underappreciated and underpaid, along with all the other things that are happening within this organisation.

     

    And so my question to these people are, what's stopping you from leaving now? And they both and some others have said, because I believe in the organisation, because I want to leave in a professional manner. And most people seem to think that living in a professional manner is giving notice and then seeing what is said and comes down from on high. And if he says, yes, that's great, awesome. But if On High has a reputation for not making decisions and not saying anything, people are left on the hook.

     

    So there are some people who have been left on the hook for over a month when they're trying to leave. Don't get yourself trapped in a situation where you think that you are worth...]]>Introvert today I'm going to talk about staying with your employer for sentimental reasons, and this has come up due to a couple of clients that I've been working with and. It's a case of I've got a client, she has been working with a Start-Up for eight years, she was an employee in about four or five. She's been with them through thick and thin. She's helped build processes, build the company that she's not a co-founder and worked 60, 70 hour weeks well, obviously at 40 an hour pay.

     

    And basically her life was consumed by this organisation. And she did rise up the ranks along the way due to experience within that organisation. It was like her first job and also due to just knowledge, she went and pulled together and created processes and documentation and programmes and figured out how to basically run this type of logistics company. And now it's got to a stage where the company is heading in a direction that she doesn't agree with. There are people have values, and this company, when she started with them, were very much in line with her values.

     

    But now, as time has moved on and the company has gotten bigger, they have moved away from those core values and she's tried to tug them back time and time again, to let alone no success, to the point where she's wondering why she is the only one talking about the company's core values anymore. She has some options of she started a business on the side that she's got, but she's staying with the organisation right now because of stock options.

     

    And because she doesn't want to leave under bad terms, she would like to have a six to 12 month transition to go part time and then transition out of the organisation. And the CEO apparently agreed with this. However, as time has gone on, because she set up her particular department to be able to run without her and someone else is taking charge of her department, even the transition over for that, she wasn't she was cut out and it was just between the CEO and this new person and any other things that she's done.

     

    She now has a new role within the organisation, but it hasn't really been clarified or talked about. And so she's finding it hard to get anything done because anything that she says is not perceived as important anymore from what she was doing before. And she is staying with the organisation. She wants it to go. Well, there's another person who worked for the organisation who also has been there for a couple of years, again, wants to leave in a professional manner, wants to do a transition.

     

    And yet what is happening with this organisation is no decisions are being made, no information is being put across. Communication is very bad. And at the end of the day, most people that leave this organisation are escorted out. Basically, they are seen as dead to see suite of this organisation. They tend to blame whoever leaves for not sticking it out because. The culture of hustle and got to work harder, and if I can do this than everyone else can do this, which is pretty toxic and which is why people are leaving, they are tired and fed up of feeling underappreciated and underpaid, along with all the other things that are happening within this organisation.

     

    And so my question to these people are, what's stopping you from leaving now? And they both and some others have said, because I believe in the organisation, because I want to leave in a professional manner. And most people seem to think that living in a professional manner is giving notice and then seeing what is said and comes down from on high. And if he says, yes, that's great, awesome. But if On High has a reputation for not making decisions and not saying anything, people are left on the hook.

     

    So there are some people who have been left on the hook for over a month when they're trying to leave. Don't get yourself trapped in a situation where you think that you are worth more to the organisation than you really are. If you want out for your own mental health, get out. Don't wait and rely on other people to get you out. It's not worth it. Both of these people are burnt out, they're tired, and now they're just frustrated and leaves a bad taste in their mouth that they would not recommend working for the organisation, which isn't great PR.

     

    So just a cautionary tale. For those of you who might be thinking of leaving your current employer, they won't care. I mean, some will, but most jobs won't care if and when you leave. So we do it when it's right for you. Thanks for listening. This is Janice at The Traveling Introvert. Looking forward to speaking with you soon. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>f8f142df-91b1-4e0a-94c0-ddae74528b87Tue, 08 Jun 2021 16:00:00 -050005:35falsefull    Toxic self care and self love adviceToxic self care and self love advicetoday I want to talk about some popular sort of self care and self love advice that is actually quite toxic. So this came about because a coach that I follow was very vulnerable and open about something that had happened. And one of the things she mentioned that had held her back from realising that this thing was happening is because she her mindset was very much about stay positive and no toxicity. And it's just a mindset thing.

     

    While all the time her body was giving her signals that something was wrong. And so this led me to dig a bit deeper about some things that we hear a lot. And one of those things is positive vibes only stay positive. People use it because they think it's uplifting, but it's actually quite dismissive. Often people say when people voiced sadness, frustration, emotional fatigue and anger, basically any other emotion but happiness, a positive attitude, yes, of course, can get you a long way, but took it, acknowledging it and letting yourself and others just feel those emotions is really, really important.

     

    And then some other things of there, how not to give a word in here. You know, you shouldn't care what people think. Of course, it's fine. You can enjoy a certain type of music, but not care about how your actions affect other people. It's basically just wrong. And it fortunately, it means that many people just take it to mean I don't care what happens, even if it might hurt other people in order to self care and self-love, it's important to consider what consequences your actions have on the world around you.

     

    It's almost like a narcissism of self-help. Basically, it boils down to everyone else is wrong. You were always right. And the only problem you need to fix is that you care too much about what other people think. And that's that's not correct. And then. There's some other things that come up. So the kind of thing where you are, huh, this is a really common one is a find, a job you love and you never work a day in your life.

     

    I mean, kind of. Sort of, but not really. Even if you do get a job that you love, it's going to suck sometimes because nothing is great all the time. I mean, that's why you get paid to do what you do. This advice makes you feel like a failure when you've had a bad day at work. Plus, there's a lot of value of working for a living and finding your satisfaction on a more personal level.

     

    So, you know, it's really, really important to just think about these things, because not every day is going to be wonderful, but every day is going to be perfect, no matter how much you might love your job. Stuff sucks sometimes because that's just the way the world works. And so that's really interesting about these sort of positivity things that kind of keep people down and the blood is thicker than water, especially when it comes to our family.

     

    And this is where you should feel obligated to be loyal to your family no matter what. But if they're toxic and abusive, then there's no reason for you to keep them around in your life, especially if it's detrimental to your own well-being and mental health. And not only that, you know, there's a family, you have the family, you choose. Not everyone happens to have blood relation, so they choose a family. So part of that is also the definition of family is can be a very grey, muddy area with a lot of people.

     

    So these are some things that are brought up time and time again that can be detrimental overall to how you feel and what you do. You shouldn't necessarily be thinking about these things in such a way that you forget about other people and how your actions affect other people, what you do and what you say affects other people. Yes, being positive is great, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be able to feel a whole range of emotions. And as some people also just would like to feel, no emotions, no emotions at all would be great...]]>today I want to talk about some popular sort of self care and self love advice that is actually quite toxic. So this came about because a coach that I follow was very vulnerable and open about something that had happened. And one of the things she mentioned that had held her back from realising that this thing was happening is because she her mindset was very much about stay positive and no toxicity. And it's just a mindset thing.

     

    While all the time her body was giving her signals that something was wrong. And so this led me to dig a bit deeper about some things that we hear a lot. And one of those things is positive vibes only stay positive. People use it because they think it's uplifting, but it's actually quite dismissive. Often people say when people voiced sadness, frustration, emotional fatigue and anger, basically any other emotion but happiness, a positive attitude, yes, of course, can get you a long way, but took it, acknowledging it and letting yourself and others just feel those emotions is really, really important.

     

    And then some other things of there, how not to give a word in here. You know, you shouldn't care what people think. Of course, it's fine. You can enjoy a certain type of music, but not care about how your actions affect other people. It's basically just wrong. And it fortunately, it means that many people just take it to mean I don't care what happens, even if it might hurt other people in order to self care and self-love, it's important to consider what consequences your actions have on the world around you.

     

    It's almost like a narcissism of self-help. Basically, it boils down to everyone else is wrong. You were always right. And the only problem you need to fix is that you care too much about what other people think. And that's that's not correct. And then. There's some other things that come up. So the kind of thing where you are, huh, this is a really common one is a find, a job you love and you never work a day in your life.

     

    I mean, kind of. Sort of, but not really. Even if you do get a job that you love, it's going to suck sometimes because nothing is great all the time. I mean, that's why you get paid to do what you do. This advice makes you feel like a failure when you've had a bad day at work. Plus, there's a lot of value of working for a living and finding your satisfaction on a more personal level.

     

    So, you know, it's really, really important to just think about these things, because not every day is going to be wonderful, but every day is going to be perfect, no matter how much you might love your job. Stuff sucks sometimes because that's just the way the world works. And so that's really interesting about these sort of positivity things that kind of keep people down and the blood is thicker than water, especially when it comes to our family.

     

    And this is where you should feel obligated to be loyal to your family no matter what. But if they're toxic and abusive, then there's no reason for you to keep them around in your life, especially if it's detrimental to your own well-being and mental health. And not only that, you know, there's a family, you have the family, you choose. Not everyone happens to have blood relation, so they choose a family. So part of that is also the definition of family is can be a very grey, muddy area with a lot of people.

     

    So these are some things that are brought up time and time again that can be detrimental overall to how you feel and what you do. You shouldn't necessarily be thinking about these things in such a way that you forget about other people and how your actions affect other people, what you do and what you say affects other people. Yes, being positive is great, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be able to feel a whole range of emotions. And as some people also just would like to feel, no emotions, no emotions at all would be great because emotions get you into trouble emotionally.

     

    You get hurt. Emotions lead other people to see what you're feeling and thinking. But being able to work through those emotions and have them is part of the joy of being human. So just a little rant, I guess, about toxic positivity. Thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com. If you have any questions or anything you would like me to answer in this podcast, email me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com.

     

     

     

    ]]>f214dc9d-7eaa-47c2-8e31-f14c94f8a06dTue, 01 Jun 2021 16:00:00 -050005:13falsefull    How many to do apps is enoughHow many to do apps is enoughor to do lists, apps. More to the point, we all have this running list of things that we need to do in our lives. Some of it may be work related. Some of it might be personal, some of it might be family related. But in general, I don't know anyone who doesn't have a running lists of tasks and or things to do, places to be.

     

    Stuff to do, things to remember. And what helps us not keep it all in our heads is to get it down somewhere so people have a journal, a book, a calendar. Some people have lists, they have project management tools. They have all sorts of different ways to remember all the little things that they need to do and a lot of the times. Get told that we should really dump everything in one place, so have that one tool to rule them all, for example, like they want to be everything to everybody and think it was a great tool.

     

    But sometimes your mind doesn't work that way because there's a difference between being reminded to take out the trash, for example, to be reminded that you have to record a podcast. There are two very different things and being reminded to take out the trash, you can probably be reminded about that a couple times on the same day or over a three day period. And that is fine. But record your podcast you probably have to do on a certain day just to make sure your editor can get stuff in and everything like works out in a certain way.

     

    But having those two reminders in the same app or doing the same thing at the same time might not be best for you and your brain. So I know a lot of people will use a project management tool for managing bigger projects, so to speak, bigger things that they need to do and then have a to do list type app where they can put in their personal to do this. And I know that to do to do list, for example, has multiple apps, multiple like you can have personal and business and colour code and different labels on all of that, but sometimes your brain just doesn't work that way.

     

    So one way that can help you is like separate these two things is using one app, I don't know, like tick, tick or what have you. And remember, the milk or whatever is useful these days for business stuff. And another app I like to do or whatever it might be for personal stuff. And that way you can separate these two things in your mind. And not only that, you can set up alerts differently. So if you want alerts for your personal stuff to keep bugging you until you do it, you can have that set up in one app.

     

    And if you want business stuff just to let you know what your overall day is supposed to look like, you can have that in a different app separating these things and making them different colours and having different icons and maybe having them in different places on your phone or maybe your personal reminder thing is only on your watch or your phone, but it's not on your desktop. Those little differences are a key reason why you should have two different to do list type apps for the kind of works that you do and personal stuff because you can just tweak things, notifications and how you input information in a very specific way by having these two separate things.

     

    And yes, it means you download another app and yes, it's another thing to remember, but at the same time the benefits can be huge. And also, you know, think about the kind of when you're thinking about these kind of apps, how do you like to input information? I have personal, like voice notes. I the kind of person needs to write out a detailed plan to do this. And these kind of apps are very, very personal.

     

    I need to figure out what works for you. You might need to try a couple to find ones that work for what you need, the type of reminders you need. Do you need things to run concurrently parallel? Do you need to have it? So if this thing happens, this next thing happens? Doesn't need to time as all of these things think about...]]>or to do lists, apps. More to the point, we all have this running list of things that we need to do in our lives. Some of it may be work related. Some of it might be personal, some of it might be family related. But in general, I don't know anyone who doesn't have a running lists of tasks and or things to do, places to be.

     

    Stuff to do, things to remember. And what helps us not keep it all in our heads is to get it down somewhere so people have a journal, a book, a calendar. Some people have lists, they have project management tools. They have all sorts of different ways to remember all the little things that they need to do and a lot of the times. Get told that we should really dump everything in one place, so have that one tool to rule them all, for example, like they want to be everything to everybody and think it was a great tool.

     

    But sometimes your mind doesn't work that way because there's a difference between being reminded to take out the trash, for example, to be reminded that you have to record a podcast. There are two very different things and being reminded to take out the trash, you can probably be reminded about that a couple times on the same day or over a three day period. And that is fine. But record your podcast you probably have to do on a certain day just to make sure your editor can get stuff in and everything like works out in a certain way.

     

    But having those two reminders in the same app or doing the same thing at the same time might not be best for you and your brain. So I know a lot of people will use a project management tool for managing bigger projects, so to speak, bigger things that they need to do and then have a to do list type app where they can put in their personal to do this. And I know that to do to do list, for example, has multiple apps, multiple like you can have personal and business and colour code and different labels on all of that, but sometimes your brain just doesn't work that way.

     

    So one way that can help you is like separate these two things is using one app, I don't know, like tick, tick or what have you. And remember, the milk or whatever is useful these days for business stuff. And another app I like to do or whatever it might be for personal stuff. And that way you can separate these two things in your mind. And not only that, you can set up alerts differently. So if you want alerts for your personal stuff to keep bugging you until you do it, you can have that set up in one app.

     

    And if you want business stuff just to let you know what your overall day is supposed to look like, you can have that in a different app separating these things and making them different colours and having different icons and maybe having them in different places on your phone or maybe your personal reminder thing is only on your watch or your phone, but it's not on your desktop. Those little differences are a key reason why you should have two different to do list type apps for the kind of works that you do and personal stuff because you can just tweak things, notifications and how you input information in a very specific way by having these two separate things.

     

    And yes, it means you download another app and yes, it's another thing to remember, but at the same time the benefits can be huge. And also, you know, think about the kind of when you're thinking about these kind of apps, how do you like to input information? I have personal, like voice notes. I the kind of person needs to write out a detailed plan to do this. And these kind of apps are very, very personal.

     

    I need to figure out what works for you. You might need to try a couple to find ones that work for what you need, the type of reminders you need. Do you need things to run concurrently parallel? Do you need to have it? So if this thing happens, this next thing happens? Doesn't need to time as all of these things think about what you would love in an ideal application, then see if you can find it. So I would love you, dear listeners, to let me know the types of to do list apps that you use because there are so many and there are new ones coming out all the time and some are also being defunct.

     

    So let me know. Email me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com. How can you build your brand and get hired and also be a little bit more productive? Thank you for listening. I look forward to hearing from you and have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>20a3ba36-a442-41e9-b038-5430db23330bTue, 25 May 2021 16:00:00 -050005:08falsefull    Earn or LearnEarn or LearnToday, we are going to talk about reasons people leave jobs and also more to the point, why people look at new roles. And this came about because I was I'm working with a client and they were talking about the two things they look for when they're looking for a new role. And I thought it was really interesting because what happened is she said that she either looks to learn or to earn. And I thought that was a really great thing.

     

    And I asked her to sort of expand on that. And she mentioned that, I mean, to earn it's kind of self-explanatory to earn more than she currently earns in benefits and stocks and actual salary. She would move to earn more so she can do more and and pay off a house quicker or have more time with her other family or her dogs or whatever it might be. And the learning point, she mentioned that she would stay in a role even if she got offered something of more money, if she felt she could learn from her manager or someone else within the organisation.

     

    And so at that point, money didn't matter quite as much because they felt that they could learn skills that would help make them better at their job and maybe take them, make them better at whatever their next job would be or give them an insight into how to be a better manager or better, whatever it might be. And I thought that was really interesting. So you either earn or you learn and reasons why people might think about leaving an organisation.

     

    Most of the time it is management. Your direct manager, because you're the direct manager, is normally the person you have a lot of contact with and decisions that your direct manager makes directly affect you. So that's one of the reasons why people talk about people don't leave jobs, they leave managers. But there's also leadership in general and it's becoming more and more common with the types of Small Start-Up companies that because there's a smaller gap between a member of staff and the CEO, for example, that the leadership or lack of leadership displayed by the CEO makes a huge difference on how staff think about their roles.

     

    And so there's someone else that I'm working with where at their organisation. They're currently going through some issues and they'll be going through some issues for a while. People are kind of burnt out. It's been a very hectic six or seven months with various fires always being burning. So people are tired. Even though this organisation has unlimited time off, people aren't taking it, people aren't being asked to take it. And when people do ask, can I take vacation?

     

    A lot of the time that got told, you can take one or two days, but taking a week is too much. And so they've also gotten the fact that they feel like the CEO isn't showing leadership skills, isn't being transparent, isn't giving people the information they need to do their jobs. Well, they know how much information their manager is getting. Maybe their manager is a good manager and is being transparent and has plans. But then the CEO isn't helpful, leading the manager and therefore things fall down now when there is a lack of trust between staff management and sea level, as in C suite level, not as in the sea level, then more issues become apparent and then people start to have one foot out the door all the time.

     

    And this affects productivity because searching for a job is hard, takes time and mental energy. If you are already burnt out worrying about the stability of your job and also looking for another job, you are not going to be productive in any way, shape or form. And so this is bad for the company overall. So if there are managers or c suite level people who aren't showing good leadership, this hugely affects the company and what people think about and if they want to stay.

     

    But not only that, it might stop them from working from other start-ups might stop them working with other types of...]]>Today, we are going to talk about reasons people leave jobs and also more to the point, why people look at new roles. And this came about because I was I'm working with a client and they were talking about the two things they look for when they're looking for a new role. And I thought it was really interesting because what happened is she said that she either looks to learn or to earn. And I thought that was a really great thing.

     

    And I asked her to sort of expand on that. And she mentioned that, I mean, to earn it's kind of self-explanatory to earn more than she currently earns in benefits and stocks and actual salary. She would move to earn more so she can do more and and pay off a house quicker or have more time with her other family or her dogs or whatever it might be. And the learning point, she mentioned that she would stay in a role even if she got offered something of more money, if she felt she could learn from her manager or someone else within the organisation.

     

    And so at that point, money didn't matter quite as much because they felt that they could learn skills that would help make them better at their job and maybe take them, make them better at whatever their next job would be or give them an insight into how to be a better manager or better, whatever it might be. And I thought that was really interesting. So you either earn or you learn and reasons why people might think about leaving an organisation.

     

    Most of the time it is management. Your direct manager, because you're the direct manager, is normally the person you have a lot of contact with and decisions that your direct manager makes directly affect you. So that's one of the reasons why people talk about people don't leave jobs, they leave managers. But there's also leadership in general and it's becoming more and more common with the types of Small Start-Up companies that because there's a smaller gap between a member of staff and the CEO, for example, that the leadership or lack of leadership displayed by the CEO makes a huge difference on how staff think about their roles.

     

    And so there's someone else that I'm working with where at their organisation. They're currently going through some issues and they'll be going through some issues for a while. People are kind of burnt out. It's been a very hectic six or seven months with various fires always being burning. So people are tired. Even though this organisation has unlimited time off, people aren't taking it, people aren't being asked to take it. And when people do ask, can I take vacation?

     

    A lot of the time that got told, you can take one or two days, but taking a week is too much. And so they've also gotten the fact that they feel like the CEO isn't showing leadership skills, isn't being transparent, isn't giving people the information they need to do their jobs. Well, they know how much information their manager is getting. Maybe their manager is a good manager and is being transparent and has plans. But then the CEO isn't helpful, leading the manager and therefore things fall down now when there is a lack of trust between staff management and sea level, as in C suite level, not as in the sea level, then more issues become apparent and then people start to have one foot out the door all the time.

     

    And this affects productivity because searching for a job is hard, takes time and mental energy. If you are already burnt out worrying about the stability of your job and also looking for another job, you are not going to be productive in any way, shape or form. And so this is bad for the company overall. So if there are managers or c suite level people who aren't showing good leadership, this hugely affects the company and what people think about and if they want to stay.

     

    But not only that, it might stop them from working from other start-ups might stop them working with other types of institutions that are like this. And so when people are thinking about leaving, if you're a good manager, you know, when people are thinking about leaving and you have that conversation with them about how to make things better. But if you don't realise when people want to leave, you are a bad manager. So just think about that. If you are a manager and you listen to this and people have left and you didn't see it coming, what were you.

     

    Missing and what can make you a better manager so you don't miss it next time. Thanks for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>c3b6a442-4123-4b1d-804c-0206bd841678Tue, 11 May 2021 16:00:00 -050005:31falsefull    Out Of OfficeOut Of Office, I want to talk about out of office. This has come up a couple of times this week.

     

    There was a tweet that I saw that said, European  out of offices. "I'm away camping for the summer email again in September". American out of offices. I have left the office for two hours to undergo kidney surgery, but you can reach me on my cell any time. And I sent this round quite a few friends and it's heartbreakingly true. And then something else happened. I sent out an email to my mailing list about an offer that I was doing and how things were going.

     

    And I said, you know, if you need anything, just just send an email, respond if you have any questions. And that goes to my personal email address. And I happen to have an office on my email address at the time because I was taking a couple of days off. And so I always have an out of office when I am not going to be responding in a timely fashion. And I got an email back saying, of course, you are taking time off.

     

    Can you possibly how can you not think about other people you shouldn't be taking time off when you've asked people to respond to X, Y and Z, and this made me feel guilty for like a split second and sad. And it was because this person was emailing out of frustration that they felt they couldn't take time off without losing pay or benefits or maybe they didn't get sick pay and with the.

     

    Tweet that I was talking about, where Americans out of offices feel like I'm doing this thing, but, you know, you can reach me any time, the feeling of having to be available at all times, whether you are an employee or a business owner. The pressure is huge and it's not healthy.

     

    And I was also giving support to a company in California this week, and they also had the same thing. Everyone was experiencing burnout. They couldn't set boundaries between work time and non-work time can take. There was one person who wanted to take a week vacation off and basically got told no, and they could only take three days off. But then that wasn't communicated to the rest of the team that they were on vacation. And then it looked like the person had left or been like fired suspiciously.

     

    It's a very weird situation. So my question to you is, what do you do in your life or what can you do to create a life where you can do more of the European style out of the office rather than the American style out of the office? Can you split up your vacation so that it's now one long weekend, a month or every two months and you work a different job, can you work towards a different job?

     

    Can you work towards working for yourself? I'm currently in the process of changing how my business works for various reasons. And this is one of the things that has come up is wanting more control over my calendar, not feeling that I'm doing things last minute for everybody because that causes me more stress and more like to make a mistake. To be fair, more pressure. You put people under there's a certain amount of pressure that is good and healthy, stress and pressure.

     

    And there is a set amount that isn't. And what is out of office look like, because it doesn't have to be out of office? I'm not here. It could just be I check my emails once every 24 hours or I check my emails at nine a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Anything else? You know, text me or give another way if it's urgent for someone to contact. It doesn't have to be out of office, per say. But reducing your instant availability could do wonders for your mental health, the feeling of having to respond instantaneously to everything, whether it is CELAC or email or messenger or or Instagram, Deanne's and Facebook, all of those things takes a huge toll.

     

    So what can you do to help set some boundaries about how quickly you respond to things? Because people that I've coached have found most of the time nothing is on fire and desperately urgent. And if it...]]>, I want to talk about out of office. This has come up a couple of times this week.

     

    There was a tweet that I saw that said, European  out of offices. "I'm away camping for the summer email again in September". American out of offices. I have left the office for two hours to undergo kidney surgery, but you can reach me on my cell any time. And I sent this round quite a few friends and it's heartbreakingly true. And then something else happened. I sent out an email to my mailing list about an offer that I was doing and how things were going.

     

    And I said, you know, if you need anything, just just send an email, respond if you have any questions. And that goes to my personal email address. And I happen to have an office on my email address at the time because I was taking a couple of days off. And so I always have an out of office when I am not going to be responding in a timely fashion. And I got an email back saying, of course, you are taking time off.

     

    Can you possibly how can you not think about other people you shouldn't be taking time off when you've asked people to respond to X, Y and Z, and this made me feel guilty for like a split second and sad. And it was because this person was emailing out of frustration that they felt they couldn't take time off without losing pay or benefits or maybe they didn't get sick pay and with the.

     

    Tweet that I was talking about, where Americans out of offices feel like I'm doing this thing, but, you know, you can reach me any time, the feeling of having to be available at all times, whether you are an employee or a business owner. The pressure is huge and it's not healthy.

     

    And I was also giving support to a company in California this week, and they also had the same thing. Everyone was experiencing burnout. They couldn't set boundaries between work time and non-work time can take. There was one person who wanted to take a week vacation off and basically got told no, and they could only take three days off. But then that wasn't communicated to the rest of the team that they were on vacation. And then it looked like the person had left or been like fired suspiciously.

     

    It's a very weird situation. So my question to you is, what do you do in your life or what can you do to create a life where you can do more of the European style out of the office rather than the American style out of the office? Can you split up your vacation so that it's now one long weekend, a month or every two months and you work a different job, can you work towards a different job?

     

    Can you work towards working for yourself? I'm currently in the process of changing how my business works for various reasons. And this is one of the things that has come up is wanting more control over my calendar, not feeling that I'm doing things last minute for everybody because that causes me more stress and more like to make a mistake. To be fair, more pressure. You put people under there's a certain amount of pressure that is good and healthy, stress and pressure.

     

    And there is a set amount that isn't. And what is out of office look like, because it doesn't have to be out of office? I'm not here. It could just be I check my emails once every 24 hours or I check my emails at nine a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Anything else? You know, text me or give another way if it's urgent for someone to contact. It doesn't have to be out of office, per say. But reducing your instant availability could do wonders for your mental health, the feeling of having to respond instantaneously to everything, whether it is CELAC or email or messenger or or Instagram, Deanne's and Facebook, all of those things takes a huge toll.

     

    So what can you do to help set some boundaries about how quickly you respond to things? Because people that I've coached have found most of the time nothing is on fire and desperately urgent. And if it is, then you know that and you can fix it. But most messages, emails, etc do not need to be responded to instantaneously. You can get back in an hour, three hours, four hours, 24 hours. So just take a look and see what you can do to set some boundaries around maybe your emails or not having the notifications on your phone so you can be a little bit more out of office.

     

    Thanks for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>b75f5179-7496-4036-ad08-d047cf4d216eTue, 04 May 2021 16:00:00 -050005:30falsefull    Input devices and RSIInput devices and RSI, I'd like to talk about repetitive strain injuries, this has come up because a lot of people have been working from home now for over a year. If due to world events and even though you might have been used to working in an office and you go into the office and work, say, 9:00 to 5:00 with a lunch break and occasional other breaks, watercooler breaks, and you come home and you might do some other things.

     

    But because of the tendency now for everyone to work from home, there is an increased tendency of their being blurred lines between work life and home life. And when do you start working and when do you stop working? I've been working with a lot of companies and organisations that just don't respect boundaries and people working 10, 12, 13, 14 hour days. And so this has led to increased increased incidences of repetitive strain injury. So repetitive strain injury is when you've been doing the same thing over and over and over again, that same movement, miniscule movement over again to the point that it ends up hurting you.

     

    One example of that is carpal tunnel syndrome. So one way that you can mitigate some of the injuries that are RSI related is, of course, not. Work is often how to work as much and spend as much time on the computer. However, that might not always be, you know, possible. So another way that you can do it is I have a friend, for example. They have a mouse. They have two mice. One is for the right hand and one's for the left hand, and so once a week they will swap input devices.

     

    So one week they will do work with their right hand and the mouse will be their right hand. And the next week they will do it where they use the mouse with their left hand. And they found because they've been doing this for years. This has made them, to a degree, ambidextrous. But they they get a lot of enjoyment of work done that way. Another ways that you can sort of switch up the input devices that you are using for your laptops and your computers, especially if then you do a whole day's work and then you go in game.

     

    And now if you are a PC gamer, you probably using your keyboard a lot and you might use your keyboard a lot at work. So think about the types of work that you were doing and try and get different input devices that you can switch around depending on the type of work that you are doing. Some people use the trackpad for some things and then other things. They'll use the mouse. Other times they'll use the keyboard and use shortcuts, shortcuts none of people use because they're very, very helpful keyboard shortcuts.

     

    Rather than using a mouse to click everywhere settings settings in such a way that you can get different types of mice. Now try and get one that has a more natural position for your hand. Logitech, do a nice little line of mice that have different input buttons that you can pre-programmed. So instead of you having to do click, click, click, it might be able to copy and paste for you just by clicking one button so these can help you reduce your repetitive like movements.

     

    The other thing is maybe to use a pen and a pen and a tablet to help with doing different inputs or touch screen will help you use a different form of input.

     

    And then when you are doing so, you are gaming. Maybe get a gaming controller. I know that like Steam has a controller if you have it. Like a. Like a. Thing on Xbox, you could use controls for that, so you using different movements and different ways with your hands, so you're not doing the same thing for 10, 10, 14, 16 hours per day. Repetitive strain injury is a real issue and it's just becoming more and more apparent and highlighted more and more because of the amount that we use computers.

     

    The other thing is doing exercises do take a minute, five minutes every hour or two hours to stretch out your arms and your wrists and rotate your wrist and to to try and]]>, I'd like to talk about repetitive strain injuries, this has come up because a lot of people have been working from home now for over a year. If due to world events and even though you might have been used to working in an office and you go into the office and work, say, 9:00 to 5:00 with a lunch break and occasional other breaks, watercooler breaks, and you come home and you might do some other things.

     

    But because of the tendency now for everyone to work from home, there is an increased tendency of their being blurred lines between work life and home life. And when do you start working and when do you stop working? I've been working with a lot of companies and organisations that just don't respect boundaries and people working 10, 12, 13, 14 hour days. And so this has led to increased increased incidences of repetitive strain injury. So repetitive strain injury is when you've been doing the same thing over and over and over again, that same movement, miniscule movement over again to the point that it ends up hurting you.

     

    One example of that is carpal tunnel syndrome. So one way that you can mitigate some of the injuries that are RSI related is, of course, not. Work is often how to work as much and spend as much time on the computer. However, that might not always be, you know, possible. So another way that you can do it is I have a friend, for example. They have a mouse. They have two mice. One is for the right hand and one's for the left hand, and so once a week they will swap input devices.

     

    So one week they will do work with their right hand and the mouse will be their right hand. And the next week they will do it where they use the mouse with their left hand. And they found because they've been doing this for years. This has made them, to a degree, ambidextrous. But they they get a lot of enjoyment of work done that way. Another ways that you can sort of switch up the input devices that you are using for your laptops and your computers, especially if then you do a whole day's work and then you go in game.

     

    And now if you are a PC gamer, you probably using your keyboard a lot and you might use your keyboard a lot at work. So think about the types of work that you were doing and try and get different input devices that you can switch around depending on the type of work that you are doing. Some people use the trackpad for some things and then other things. They'll use the mouse. Other times they'll use the keyboard and use shortcuts, shortcuts none of people use because they're very, very helpful keyboard shortcuts.

     

    Rather than using a mouse to click everywhere settings settings in such a way that you can get different types of mice. Now try and get one that has a more natural position for your hand. Logitech, do a nice little line of mice that have different input buttons that you can pre-programmed. So instead of you having to do click, click, click, it might be able to copy and paste for you just by clicking one button so these can help you reduce your repetitive like movements.

     

    The other thing is maybe to use a pen and a pen and a tablet to help with doing different inputs or touch screen will help you use a different form of input.

     

    And then when you are doing so, you are gaming. Maybe get a gaming controller. I know that like Steam has a controller if you have it. Like a. Like a. Thing on Xbox, you could use controls for that, so you using different movements and different ways with your hands, so you're not doing the same thing for 10, 10, 14, 16 hours per day. Repetitive strain injury is a real issue and it's just becoming more and more apparent and highlighted more and more because of the amount that we use computers.

     

    The other thing is doing exercises do take a minute, five minutes every hour or two hours to stretch out your arms and your wrists and rotate your wrist and to to try and strengthen them up, but also to give them some release that cramped over all the time to try and flex them out. There are many different ways that you can go about sort of reducing the likelihood of getting a repetitive strain injury. But it's something that you need to think about more and more these days with health.

     

    So that is what I wanted to talk about today. I'd love to know what other things people do to help prevent repetitive strain injuries. Please email me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com, helping people and introverts build their brand and get hired. I look forward to hearing from you and have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>ac902b49-1e17-4af3-a9e8-7d9847082716Tue, 27 Apr 2021 16:00:00 -050005:05falsefull    A CEO, Technician, and a manager walk into a barA CEO, Technician, and a manager walk into a bar, I want to talk about many hats as a business owner and most solopreneurs and entrepreneurs, especially at the start of their journey, you will find that you wear many hats.

     

    And this can be great to start with as you get to know what different parts of your business do and how to how it gets done and getting systems in place in that sort of a thing. But generally speaking, this is what happens. We had a day job. You were basically sort of the the person that did all the things at that day job. And then you took whatever you did at that day job and transposed it into a business. But what happened was you were like the technician.

     

    You were the person people went to for X, Y and Z, and you were good at that. And that's what you did. You had the tasks and you did the tasks. You had a manager and now you moved to this business where you're still kind of doing the tasks. But what you're forgetting about is managing and being the CEO. So when you are an entrepreneur, yes, you have to wear many hats. But there are three really important hats for you to wear.

     

    The technician hat, the technician hat is where you do the thing. The whatever the thing is that you do, you get paid for. That is the technician hat. Should you wear that all the time? No. Should you designate maybe certain hours of the day that you do that on certain days of the week that you do that?

     

    Yes. Then apart from a technician hat, there's the manager hat. The manager has sort of a better overview, like is a technician doing the thing? Is it the right thing that they're doing? Are they working with the right clients? How can I get more clients like that for the technician to work with? Do they have systems in place? Is a support? Do they have the tech or of those things? Those are managerial type things. You should definitely spend time during your week with your manager hat on thinking about you as a separate person, as the technician and how you need to manage the technician and their workload, because as the manager, that's what you're thinking about doing.

     

    So you have the technician and you spend, to be fair, most of your time being the technician. But then you also need to think about being the manager and having a manager hat on. And the third hat.

     

    And this is the hat that really is the hardest to start wearing. As someone who might have had a day job and watching a company and then running their own business is the CEO hat. And this is because.

     

    You tell know what you see if you work in a big company, you don't really know if he does. You've probably seen them got a newsletter from them. It's not really them and other things, but you don't really know what the CEO does. And so breaking out time in your schedule to be CEO is really nebulous.

     

    And so some of the things that you should be thinking about when you when your CEO hat is budgets and cash flow and partnerships and how you are going to grow the business. And what you can do to grow the business that might not only have that you, the technician person, may be the technician and somebody else, but the CEO hat is the hardest hat to remember because there are decisions that you might make as a CEO that you would not make as a technician or a manager.

     

    And you have to separate those things in your head. You always have to have three different personalities, almost, but definitely the CEOs, the vision, the CEO knows what they want the overall brand to be. They know what the company is going to do. They know the type of communication they want to go out. They they have this vision. And normally, as an entrepreneur, you're so stuck being the technician that you kind of forget all of those other things and you get in the week.

     

    And so making sure that you start out time every week where you where the CEO hat, the manager hat and the technician hat, it's...]]>, I want to talk about many hats as a business owner and most solopreneurs and entrepreneurs, especially at the start of their journey, you will find that you wear many hats.

     

    And this can be great to start with as you get to know what different parts of your business do and how to how it gets done and getting systems in place in that sort of a thing. But generally speaking, this is what happens. We had a day job. You were basically sort of the the person that did all the things at that day job. And then you took whatever you did at that day job and transposed it into a business. But what happened was you were like the technician.

     

    You were the person people went to for X, Y and Z, and you were good at that. And that's what you did. You had the tasks and you did the tasks. You had a manager and now you moved to this business where you're still kind of doing the tasks. But what you're forgetting about is managing and being the CEO. So when you are an entrepreneur, yes, you have to wear many hats. But there are three really important hats for you to wear.

     

    The technician hat, the technician hat is where you do the thing. The whatever the thing is that you do, you get paid for. That is the technician hat. Should you wear that all the time? No. Should you designate maybe certain hours of the day that you do that on certain days of the week that you do that?

     

    Yes. Then apart from a technician hat, there's the manager hat. The manager has sort of a better overview, like is a technician doing the thing? Is it the right thing that they're doing? Are they working with the right clients? How can I get more clients like that for the technician to work with? Do they have systems in place? Is a support? Do they have the tech or of those things? Those are managerial type things. You should definitely spend time during your week with your manager hat on thinking about you as a separate person, as the technician and how you need to manage the technician and their workload, because as the manager, that's what you're thinking about doing.

     

    So you have the technician and you spend, to be fair, most of your time being the technician. But then you also need to think about being the manager and having a manager hat on. And the third hat.

     

    And this is the hat that really is the hardest to start wearing. As someone who might have had a day job and watching a company and then running their own business is the CEO hat. And this is because.

     

    You tell know what you see if you work in a big company, you don't really know if he does. You've probably seen them got a newsletter from them. It's not really them and other things, but you don't really know what the CEO does. And so breaking out time in your schedule to be CEO is really nebulous.

     

    And so some of the things that you should be thinking about when you when your CEO hat is budgets and cash flow and partnerships and how you are going to grow the business. And what you can do to grow the business that might not only have that you, the technician person, may be the technician and somebody else, but the CEO hat is the hardest hat to remember because there are decisions that you might make as a CEO that you would not make as a technician or a manager.

     

    And you have to separate those things in your head. You always have to have three different personalities, almost, but definitely the CEOs, the vision, the CEO knows what they want the overall brand to be. They know what the company is going to do. They know the type of communication they want to go out. They they have this vision. And normally, as an entrepreneur, you're so stuck being the technician that you kind of forget all of those other things and you get in the week.

     

    And so making sure that you start out time every week where you where the CEO hat, the manager hat and the technician hat, it's separate times, separate places, and also for different types of meetings or certain meetings where it's really good for you to go in as a technician, like I know what I'm doing and here's stuff. And there's other times when it's really good for you to go into a meeting with the CEO hat on. And as an entrepreneur, you kind of forget that.

     

    So when you're thinking about a meeting or making a decision, think to yourself, am I making this decision as a CEO?

     

    Manager or technician, because that might change the type of decisions that you make and how you make them so that they really important distinct hats. Yes, you've got the sales hat and all the rest of it. But those are the three main distinct hats that you need to think about when you are moving from being an employee to running your own business and being an entrepreneur. Thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you and introverts build their brand and get hired.

     

    Thank you for listening and have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>ed5f0063-0426-4cec-bd3c-6e91855e4fbfTue, 20 Apr 2021 16:00:00 -050005:25falsefull    You don't need to know about my familyYou don't need to know about my family, I would like to talk about roles for you applying for roles as a freelancer or a small business owner. I saw a post sometime this week in a group and this particular person was looking for a service provider that could provide graphics and social media support, and they had a Web page with all the information on it. And at the end it said, if you are interested in this role, carefully read through this overview and then email me at and gave the email address.

     

    And then the first question was, tell me about yourself, family background, where you live and what you do. And this was for a. Social media manager, virtual for an organisation, and they're in the health and wellness space, so what I found interesting is the way I'm going to use about this was the tell me about yourself exclamation mark. OK, fine family. Why I should have to tell you anything about my family to be considered for a role in your organisation is beyond me.

     

    You might not be an employer and have to deal with the rules and regulations that generally come with applying for jobs. But the questions that you ask should be will still be relevant to the role that you are hiring. For my family, I mean nothing to you and should mean nothing to you and definitely have nothing to do with my ability or the other person's ability to do the real background. Background can mean many things. Dmae, my ethnic background.

     

    Do you mean my educational background? Do you mean something else? It's not specific. And it also makes me feel a little uncomfortable that you're asking these questions, bearing in mind on this particular website for this organisation, they were a, like I said, in health and wellness, but they didn't seem to be a lot of diversity in what they were doing. Where you live, where I live for virtual again, shouldn't matter if you need me to work in certain time zones.

     

    That is different. But I need you to work from this time zone. Time to this time zone time. But where I live, not necessarily your concern and what you do, that's the important part, what I did. So when you are looking for someone to work with you and you want information about them to find out if they might be a good fit for your role, please do not ask them about their family and their background. Only ask informational questions that are relevant to what you are hiring for and what work you need them to do, because nothing will turn off somebody quicker but is being asked about family.

     

    And I know there's the old saying that, you know, most small organisations make you feel like family. And I've said this before, the podcast episodes. The thing about family is they're overworked and underpaid and treated like trash. So don't treat me like family, treat me like an employee or like a freelancer or like the business owner that I am, whichever level it is there. But please don't treat me like family. And that is also going under the assumption that you have a functional family and not everyone has a functional family.

     

    A lot of people have dysfunctional families or split families or just issues with family or have no family. There's nothing more triggering if you do not have a family than people asking about and assuming about family and being upset when you tell them about your friends, who to you are your family. So just a small net to those of you who are looking to hire people. And for those of you who are looking to be hired, if someone asks about your family, a red flag, if you as someone who is going to hire us about family red flag, don't do it.

     

    I would love to know, dear listeners, are there any other questions or comments that you see from people who are hiring that make you second guess and then think, no, I don't want to work with that human? I would love to know. Thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired as an]]>, I would like to talk about roles for you applying for roles as a freelancer or a small business owner. I saw a post sometime this week in a group and this particular person was looking for a service provider that could provide graphics and social media support, and they had a Web page with all the information on it. And at the end it said, if you are interested in this role, carefully read through this overview and then email me at and gave the email address.

     

    And then the first question was, tell me about yourself, family background, where you live and what you do. And this was for a. Social media manager, virtual for an organisation, and they're in the health and wellness space, so what I found interesting is the way I'm going to use about this was the tell me about yourself exclamation mark. OK, fine family. Why I should have to tell you anything about my family to be considered for a role in your organisation is beyond me.

     

    You might not be an employer and have to deal with the rules and regulations that generally come with applying for jobs. But the questions that you ask should be will still be relevant to the role that you are hiring. For my family, I mean nothing to you and should mean nothing to you and definitely have nothing to do with my ability or the other person's ability to do the real background. Background can mean many things. Dmae, my ethnic background.

     

    Do you mean my educational background? Do you mean something else? It's not specific. And it also makes me feel a little uncomfortable that you're asking these questions, bearing in mind on this particular website for this organisation, they were a, like I said, in health and wellness, but they didn't seem to be a lot of diversity in what they were doing. Where you live, where I live for virtual again, shouldn't matter if you need me to work in certain time zones.

     

    That is different. But I need you to work from this time zone. Time to this time zone time. But where I live, not necessarily your concern and what you do, that's the important part, what I did. So when you are looking for someone to work with you and you want information about them to find out if they might be a good fit for your role, please do not ask them about their family and their background. Only ask informational questions that are relevant to what you are hiring for and what work you need them to do, because nothing will turn off somebody quicker but is being asked about family.

     

    And I know there's the old saying that, you know, most small organisations make you feel like family. And I've said this before, the podcast episodes. The thing about family is they're overworked and underpaid and treated like trash. So don't treat me like family, treat me like an employee or like a freelancer or like the business owner that I am, whichever level it is there. But please don't treat me like family. And that is also going under the assumption that you have a functional family and not everyone has a functional family.

     

    A lot of people have dysfunctional families or split families or just issues with family or have no family. There's nothing more triggering if you do not have a family than people asking about and assuming about family and being upset when you tell them about your friends, who to you are your family. So just a small net to those of you who are looking to hire people. And for those of you who are looking to be hired, if someone asks about your family, a red flag, if you as someone who is going to hire us about family red flag, don't do it.

     

    I would love to know, dear listeners, are there any other questions or comments that you see from people who are hiring that make you second guess and then think, no, I don't want to work with that human? I would love to know. Thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired as an introvert. Thank you for listening and have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>d2988613-a9e2-4a63-a7eb-36f8a42b6453Tue, 13 Apr 2021 16:00:00 -050005:19falsefull    What does a powerful woman look like?What does a powerful woman look like?. I want to talk about powerful women. What image is conjured up in your head when I say the words powerful women? This came around because I'm working with a client and she has this great little programme that she's running just over, I think two and a half weeks and it's cool. It's got a name, it's got the word Alpha in it. And she's running this group and she is looking for images or we are looking for images to use and social to kind of reiterate what we're talking about.

     

    And what we've discovered is if you go on and on Splash or even in Encounter and you put in powerful women, you generally get images of women with their arms crossed, looking vaguely happy or or looking down on somebody. I tend to be a woman alone or a woman in front of a group of people. And even when you do get those images of women with their arms crossed because a Pountney, that is a powerful stance. It tends to be women around the 20s, maybe no older than 30 or sort of 60s, 70s, kind of a vibe.

     

    Then there's another group where it's a group of women and they tend to be smiley laughy jokey again in the 20s with the age group, with different ethnicities. And that's in a more casual environment. It doesn't tend to be in a in a business environment. And then on the other hand, if you put in powerful women, you also get a lot of women weightlifters as images. So with what I've just said, when I say to you, what does the image of a powerful woman conjure in your mind?

     

    Was it any of those things? And if not, why not? And if so, why? So I feel but we feel I mean, my client feel that there is a gap somewhere in the market of general stock photography. I mean, there's many gaps, but powerful or confident women portrayals for stock photography, multi ethnicity that it has a business is really hard to find. And I don't know why that is. I don't know if, like whenever they say powerful, that people, like, cross their arms because it works well for certain things.

     

    Or this obviously the other thing where they have women dressed up as superheroes, that makes them powerful. But can't you be powerful and happy? Can't be powerful and confident. Why does your stance have to be aggressive to be seen as powerful? And why do you only have to be a 20 something to be seen as powerful according to stock images? So this is an ongoing conversation that we are having within her coaching group and that we are having with each other because we find it really fascinating.

     

    I know that there must be some other people out there who also have this thought that they're not finding the right stock photography. And I know there's a lot more like stock photography out there. That is an all white people, but there's a lot of it that is and it shouldn't be so difficult to find multi-ethnic stock photography shouldn't have to be specialised. It should just be. But listeners, I would love to know what image comes to mind when I say powerful woman and feel free to email me images or put it in the in the Facebook page or tweet it at me, Instagram at Atmeh, whatever it is, I would really love to know.

     

    So thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com. You can email me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com with your images of powerful women. Thank you and have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>    . I want to talk about powerful women. What image is conjured up in your head when I say the words powerful women? This came around because I'm working with a client and she has this great little programme that she's running just over, I think two and a half weeks and it's cool. It's got a name, it's got the word Alpha in it. And she's running this group and she is looking for images or we are looking for images to use and social to kind of reiterate what we're talking about.

     

    And what we've discovered is if you go on and on Splash or even in Encounter and you put in powerful women, you generally get images of women with their arms crossed, looking vaguely happy or or looking down on somebody. I tend to be a woman alone or a woman in front of a group of people. And even when you do get those images of women with their arms crossed because a Pountney, that is a powerful stance. It tends to be women around the 20s, maybe no older than 30 or sort of 60s, 70s, kind of a vibe.

     

    Then there's another group where it's a group of women and they tend to be smiley laughy jokey again in the 20s with the age group, with different ethnicities. And that's in a more casual environment. It doesn't tend to be in a in a business environment. And then on the other hand, if you put in powerful women, you also get a lot of women weightlifters as images. So with what I've just said, when I say to you, what does the image of a powerful woman conjure in your mind?

     

    Was it any of those things? And if not, why not? And if so, why? So I feel but we feel I mean, my client feel that there is a gap somewhere in the market of general stock photography. I mean, there's many gaps, but powerful or confident women portrayals for stock photography, multi ethnicity that it has a business is really hard to find. And I don't know why that is. I don't know if, like whenever they say powerful, that people, like, cross their arms because it works well for certain things.

     

    Or this obviously the other thing where they have women dressed up as superheroes, that makes them powerful. But can't you be powerful and happy? Can't be powerful and confident. Why does your stance have to be aggressive to be seen as powerful? And why do you only have to be a 20 something to be seen as powerful according to stock images? So this is an ongoing conversation that we are having within her coaching group and that we are having with each other because we find it really fascinating.

     

    I know that there must be some other people out there who also have this thought that they're not finding the right stock photography. And I know there's a lot more like stock photography out there. That is an all white people, but there's a lot of it that is and it shouldn't be so difficult to find multi-ethnic stock photography shouldn't have to be specialised. It should just be. But listeners, I would love to know what image comes to mind when I say powerful woman and feel free to email me images or put it in the in the Facebook page or tweet it at me, Instagram at Atmeh, whatever it is, I would really love to know.

     

    So thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com. You can email me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com with your images of powerful women. Thank you and have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>    ff40f3f8-48f6-48b2-be57-d65a481ea3d6Tue, 06 Apr 2021 16:00:00 -050005:05falsefull    Which is better failure or success?Which is better failure or success?today I want to talk about a quote I saw that was don't let the Internet rush you. No one is posting that failures. And I found that really interesting for many reasons, but mainly the fact that with social media, with Instagram and Facebook and we see we think we see so much of people's lives or how people run their business. And yet behind the scenes, even the behind the scenes shots are never behind the scenes shots of I failed at this or I tried this thing and it didn't work.

     

    It's always shots of I try this thing and look, I go, you know, 20000 people or 10000 people out, a six figure weekend or whatever it is, even when they're doing the behind the scenes, they're never doing the behind the scenes of failure. And here's the thing. As humans, we learn better from trying something and failing and making mistakes than we do from trying something and succeeding at it or seeing someone succeed at it. We just don't learn as well.

     

    So it's really interesting how people on Instagram, on Facebook or wherever that you're seeing slices of people's lives, it's always 90 percent of the time the happy stuff. And even if it isn't the happy stuff, the sad stuff isn't I try this thing. I lost a bunch of money. Normally it's I try to sing, lost a bunch of money, but was the best thing that ever happened to me because then I, you know, hustled and I did this thing and I did this other thing and everything's rosy.

     

    But as someone who's trying to learn things, how do you learn from that? Do you learn from that? Do you take away all the good stuff? And a part of it is this person did this thing and they succeeded. So I'm going to follow and therefore I should succeed. But once again, we are all individual. We have all our different paths and different baggage. So it probably doesn't work that way. And this also leads to the question about just viewing other people and viewing competition or just seeing where someone else is in their journey and being upset that you're not at that place within the journey or your journey.

     

    Envy and compassion, as I'm sure you've had before, comparison is the thief of joy. And so when you are looking on social media and you're seeing other people and their slices, they are just slices and slivers of other people's successes and very rarely their failures. How do you feel? What does it make you think? Does it inspire? Does it make you think you can do better or does it make you think I need that quick fix to go ahead and be do whatever it is that they did to get the same results?

     

    Would you, as an audience, as a listener, be interested or as interested in the people you follow? If they actually posted their entire process from start to finish, whether it worked or not, would you be as interested if they tried a thing and it failed? But you still got to see that process of them failing? Is this something that you, as a bystander, an audience member, would be interested in? Would you follow someone trying out different things just to try them, or would you only follow if people were successful?

     

    I think it was really interesting and it's a question that I've put out to to friends and acquaintances. And I've got a mixed bag of results. And I think it depends where you are in your journey and where you are in your self confidence about what you're doing and your role in either your career or in your business. But comparison doesn't help you. There are going to be things that you do that will be different from other people because that's what sets you apart.

     

    Yes, you can follow a system. And really, I do believe that system should be followed. You follow a system once through just to see how it works and get an idea of the mechanics. And then when you follow it through the second and third time around, you iterate so that it fits you well, your lifestyle, your business style or just your your personality or]]>today I want to talk about a quote I saw that was don't let the Internet rush you. No one is posting that failures. And I found that really interesting for many reasons, but mainly the fact that with social media, with Instagram and Facebook and we see we think we see so much of people's lives or how people run their business. And yet behind the scenes, even the behind the scenes shots are never behind the scenes shots of I failed at this or I tried this thing and it didn't work.

     

    It's always shots of I try this thing and look, I go, you know, 20000 people or 10000 people out, a six figure weekend or whatever it is, even when they're doing the behind the scenes, they're never doing the behind the scenes of failure. And here's the thing. As humans, we learn better from trying something and failing and making mistakes than we do from trying something and succeeding at it or seeing someone succeed at it. We just don't learn as well.

     

    So it's really interesting how people on Instagram, on Facebook or wherever that you're seeing slices of people's lives, it's always 90 percent of the time the happy stuff. And even if it isn't the happy stuff, the sad stuff isn't I try this thing. I lost a bunch of money. Normally it's I try to sing, lost a bunch of money, but was the best thing that ever happened to me because then I, you know, hustled and I did this thing and I did this other thing and everything's rosy.

     

    But as someone who's trying to learn things, how do you learn from that? Do you learn from that? Do you take away all the good stuff? And a part of it is this person did this thing and they succeeded. So I'm going to follow and therefore I should succeed. But once again, we are all individual. We have all our different paths and different baggage. So it probably doesn't work that way. And this also leads to the question about just viewing other people and viewing competition or just seeing where someone else is in their journey and being upset that you're not at that place within the journey or your journey.

     

    Envy and compassion, as I'm sure you've had before, comparison is the thief of joy. And so when you are looking on social media and you're seeing other people and their slices, they are just slices and slivers of other people's successes and very rarely their failures. How do you feel? What does it make you think? Does it inspire? Does it make you think you can do better or does it make you think I need that quick fix to go ahead and be do whatever it is that they did to get the same results?

     

    Would you, as an audience, as a listener, be interested or as interested in the people you follow? If they actually posted their entire process from start to finish, whether it worked or not, would you be as interested if they tried a thing and it failed? But you still got to see that process of them failing? Is this something that you, as a bystander, an audience member, would be interested in? Would you follow someone trying out different things just to try them, or would you only follow if people were successful?

     

    I think it was really interesting and it's a question that I've put out to to friends and acquaintances. And I've got a mixed bag of results. And I think it depends where you are in your journey and where you are in your self confidence about what you're doing and your role in either your career or in your business. But comparison doesn't help you. There are going to be things that you do that will be different from other people because that's what sets you apart.

     

    Yes, you can follow a system. And really, I do believe that system should be followed. You follow a system once through just to see how it works and get an idea of the mechanics. And then when you follow it through the second and third time around, you iterate so that it fits you well, your lifestyle, your business style or just your your personality or your humour. But having a bedrock of something, a system that you can follow is super helpful.

     

    But then you tweak it. And I think people kind of think, OK, I've tried this thing and it didn't work rather than I tried this thing. What did I learn about it so I can reiterate and change it next time around. So that's food for thought. I'd love to hear back from you about whether you would like to see someone just trying things and seeing what their failures and successes are. Or if you. Only like happy to see what the successes are, so you can then follow them and reiterate for yourself.

     

    Thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping introverts build their brand and get hired.

     

    ]]>17f0c02b-bc1c-4df2-a229-433e53714560Tue, 30 Mar 2021 16:00:00 -050005:32falsefull    When is your weekend?When is your weekend?I want to talk about recharge time and weekends. So I was recently working with a group during one of our online coworking sessions and the statement came up that weekends our social construct. And so why do weekends matter? Unlike sort of, you know, the 24 hour daily rotation of the Earth was a yearlong journey around the sun. The seven day week specifically is purely a social construct. The two day weekend was, in part, born from another economic crisis.

     

    So during the Great Depression in the 1930s, many industries that had not yet adopted the 40 hour work week cut in place schedules back from seven days to five days a week so that fewer working hours could be distributed among more people. And so this led to the weekend, these two days off that where people did not go to their regular jobs. However, speaking to a lot of people recently, I asked them what days do they take off? Because we happened to be working on a Saturday.

     

    And the overwhelming response was they did not take time off.

     

    They did not take one specific day off or two days off or even three days off in a week to recharge. They mentioned that they recharge by sleeping and also just by taking a little time every day to recharge rather than keeping two days at the end in the middle of wherever of the week to get that energy back. And so having a weekend wasn't really a thing for them, and this led to further conversation about weekends and why they're helpful, why they're not helpful.

     

    And right now, because there is such a blur between home life and work life and because people just don't see the blurred lines and the differences, that they don't tend to take weekends and they don't seem to see how that could have health effects later on down the line. Now, there is a couple of people who were wed the weekend day, and so they have Wednesday off and Saturday off, a Wednesday off and Sunday off. And so they split up their weekend.

     

    Some people have a three day weekend. So they have they work for days on three days or four days on three days off to recharge. I do think that recharge time is very personal and maybe having two days off at the end of the week doesn't work for you. It is your weekend doesn't have to be the weekend. And if it is not, if you do not take two days at the weekend, what do you call those days off that you take to call the midweek weekends?

     

    Do you call them Wednesdays? Like, what do you do? But humans are a creature of habit. So having a schedule when we work and when we don't work is hugely important. It doesn't matter what that schedule is, it's just that the schedule needs to exist. So try and figure out when you can do things that are creative, things that are fun. It doesn't matter what is in your routine, just the fact that you do have a routine, because that's how we work well as humans.

     

    So it doesn't matter if your weekends, all your weekends or you may recall your weekends or you take your only work four hours a day, whatever it is, figure out what works for you and use that to your advantage. How you recharge and what you're doing during those recharge is really important, but also having something to look forward to. One of the challenges people are currently facing is that every day kind of melds into another. If you ask them what they did last Tuesday, about Tuesday, when was Tuesday, what was Tuesday.

     

    So having these little pockets of time where you do things that are creative and then you recharge and you have something to look forward to, really helps your brain remember what happened when. And so even if it's appointments or virtual dates or games or whatever, it might be just baking at home like one day on this particular day, like every Tuesday, I bake, for example, having something to look forward to and having that delineation helps you remember and define a time that's just kind of the way our]]>I want to talk about recharge time and weekends. So I was recently working with a group during one of our online coworking sessions and the statement came up that weekends our social construct. And so why do weekends matter? Unlike sort of, you know, the 24 hour daily rotation of the Earth was a yearlong journey around the sun. The seven day week specifically is purely a social construct. The two day weekend was, in part, born from another economic crisis.

     

    So during the Great Depression in the 1930s, many industries that had not yet adopted the 40 hour work week cut in place schedules back from seven days to five days a week so that fewer working hours could be distributed among more people. And so this led to the weekend, these two days off that where people did not go to their regular jobs. However, speaking to a lot of people recently, I asked them what days do they take off? Because we happened to be working on a Saturday.

     

    And the overwhelming response was they did not take time off.

     

    They did not take one specific day off or two days off or even three days off in a week to recharge. They mentioned that they recharge by sleeping and also just by taking a little time every day to recharge rather than keeping two days at the end in the middle of wherever of the week to get that energy back. And so having a weekend wasn't really a thing for them, and this led to further conversation about weekends and why they're helpful, why they're not helpful.

     

    And right now, because there is such a blur between home life and work life and because people just don't see the blurred lines and the differences, that they don't tend to take weekends and they don't seem to see how that could have health effects later on down the line. Now, there is a couple of people who were wed the weekend day, and so they have Wednesday off and Saturday off, a Wednesday off and Sunday off. And so they split up their weekend.

     

    Some people have a three day weekend. So they have they work for days on three days or four days on three days off to recharge. I do think that recharge time is very personal and maybe having two days off at the end of the week doesn't work for you. It is your weekend doesn't have to be the weekend. And if it is not, if you do not take two days at the weekend, what do you call those days off that you take to call the midweek weekends?

     

    Do you call them Wednesdays? Like, what do you do? But humans are a creature of habit. So having a schedule when we work and when we don't work is hugely important. It doesn't matter what that schedule is, it's just that the schedule needs to exist. So try and figure out when you can do things that are creative, things that are fun. It doesn't matter what is in your routine, just the fact that you do have a routine, because that's how we work well as humans.

     

    So it doesn't matter if your weekends, all your weekends or you may recall your weekends or you take your only work four hours a day, whatever it is, figure out what works for you and use that to your advantage. How you recharge and what you're doing during those recharge is really important, but also having something to look forward to. One of the challenges people are currently facing is that every day kind of melds into another. If you ask them what they did last Tuesday, about Tuesday, when was Tuesday, what was Tuesday.

     

    So having these little pockets of time where you do things that are creative and then you recharge and you have something to look forward to, really helps your brain remember what happened when. And so even if it's appointments or virtual dates or games or whatever, it might be just baking at home like one day on this particular day, like every Tuesday, I bake, for example, having something to look forward to and having that delineation helps you remember and define a time that's just kind of the way our minds work.

     

    So I guess the question is, do weekends really matter? Yes, to a degree, but it doesn't have to be at the weekend. I'd love to know what you do to recharge and what times of the week you set aside to do recharging. Thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>01f16c36-b6ed-4564-b41f-d56a49e31528Tue, 23 Mar 2021 16:00:00 -050005:18falsefull    When to grow your businessWhen to grow your businesscb8056fb-9375-4bf6-8b40-e3726b04a63fTue, 16 Mar 2021 16:00:00 -050005:04falsefullWhat is the difference between a Strategist, a Coach, and a Consultant?What is the difference between a Strategist, a Coach, and a Consultant?Introvert today I want to talk about the differences between strategists, consultants and coaches. So I'm going to start with strategists. Strategists are for when you have an unclear vision strategy plan or next steps for the big picture. Right. The whole idea is they kind of help you with breakthrough aha moments and then come up with actionable and customized strategies and plans to move your business forward generally with some sort of clarity, purpose and direction.

     

    The idea is to pivot you and set you on the right path. And when is the best time to kind of hire a strategist is normally at the beginning or early on when you're just trying to sort of figure things out or doing really big changes, pivots or growth like last year or when problems, challenges or dissatisfaction arises. And it can also be a regular touch points. Just to clarify and make sure you're still identifying the good opportunities and going in the right direction.

     

    And you know what's a really good time to get a strategist when you don't actually know what you need because they should be able to give like an overall sense and get information from you and then figure out, OK, well, this is how we're going to clarify your vision and this is how we're going to put you on the right path to what you want to be. The approach of most strategies will be to help you make thought, make sense of your thoughts, ideas and opportunities, kind of a sifter, and to find patterns, brainstorm ideas, analyse options, and guide you to making tough decisions based on your unique situation.

     

    They don't make the decision for you, but they do say, well, this is what you can do. What are you going to do about it now? Tends to be a lot of hands on one on one sessions, maybe with some like pre work or homework to do until clarity is achieved and sort of your plans are completed in place and then you ready to go off and complete. Those said things tend to be done in a sort of private workshop, one and one, and intensive anything of those sort of ways of doing things.

     

    And they tend to be business strategists, small business strategists, growth strategists. Basically, they have strategists in the title somewhere. And there is that does tend to be some fuzziness between strategists and coach. So now let's talk about coach. So coaches often navigating daily difficult issues when running your business and that I help holding you back from maximising your potential. They will help you reach goals or at least take meaningful action towards those goals faster than if you were doing it independently.

     

    And it has helped you improve your approach to managing your business. The best time to hire a coach is when you need to get from where you are to where you want to be. And you probably already have the strategists tell you what you need to do. It will hone in your approach to managing and growing your business and help you overcome any mental blocks that you might have or behaviours. So that's a really key difference between like just a full on strategist and a coach and coach will also give you ongoing support for self improvement and accountability.

     

    Now, that does tend to be, like I said before, a bit of a merge between those two. Now, their approach tends to be guiding you towards coming towards conclusions with insightful questions and maybe other approaches. They teach you proven methods to improve your mindset, behaviours, decision making and management of those sort of a thing. And they also help you clarify your goal and provide encouragement and accountability for making continued progress. And normally it tends to be with a coach's regular schedule discussion sessions until the goal is reached for a set period of time, normally about three months, and sometimes there will be homework and accountability.

     

    Check ins in between tends to be more of a group programme and...]]>Introvert today I want to talk about the differences between strategists, consultants and coaches. So I'm going to start with strategists. Strategists are for when you have an unclear vision strategy plan or next steps for the big picture. Right. The whole idea is they kind of help you with breakthrough aha moments and then come up with actionable and customized strategies and plans to move your business forward generally with some sort of clarity, purpose and direction.

     

    The idea is to pivot you and set you on the right path. And when is the best time to kind of hire a strategist is normally at the beginning or early on when you're just trying to sort of figure things out or doing really big changes, pivots or growth like last year or when problems, challenges or dissatisfaction arises. And it can also be a regular touch points. Just to clarify and make sure you're still identifying the good opportunities and going in the right direction.

     

    And you know what's a really good time to get a strategist when you don't actually know what you need because they should be able to give like an overall sense and get information from you and then figure out, OK, well, this is how we're going to clarify your vision and this is how we're going to put you on the right path to what you want to be. The approach of most strategies will be to help you make thought, make sense of your thoughts, ideas and opportunities, kind of a sifter, and to find patterns, brainstorm ideas, analyse options, and guide you to making tough decisions based on your unique situation.

     

    They don't make the decision for you, but they do say, well, this is what you can do. What are you going to do about it now? Tends to be a lot of hands on one on one sessions, maybe with some like pre work or homework to do until clarity is achieved and sort of your plans are completed in place and then you ready to go off and complete. Those said things tend to be done in a sort of private workshop, one and one, and intensive anything of those sort of ways of doing things.

     

    And they tend to be business strategists, small business strategists, growth strategists. Basically, they have strategists in the title somewhere. And there is that does tend to be some fuzziness between strategists and coach. So now let's talk about coach. So coaches often navigating daily difficult issues when running your business and that I help holding you back from maximising your potential. They will help you reach goals or at least take meaningful action towards those goals faster than if you were doing it independently.

     

    And it has helped you improve your approach to managing your business. The best time to hire a coach is when you need to get from where you are to where you want to be. And you probably already have the strategists tell you what you need to do. It will hone in your approach to managing and growing your business and help you overcome any mental blocks that you might have or behaviours. So that's a really key difference between like just a full on strategist and a coach and coach will also give you ongoing support for self improvement and accountability.

     

    Now, that does tend to be, like I said before, a bit of a merge between those two. Now, their approach tends to be guiding you towards coming towards conclusions with insightful questions and maybe other approaches. They teach you proven methods to improve your mindset, behaviours, decision making and management of those sort of a thing. And they also help you clarify your goal and provide encouragement and accountability for making continued progress. And normally it tends to be with a coach's regular schedule discussion sessions until the goal is reached for a set period of time, normally about three months, and sometimes there will be homework and accountability.

     

    Check ins in between tends to be more of a group programme and less one on one with the last part is a consultant. So when you don't know how to do something very specific or lack the ability to like, learn that thing. So this will help you have an increased understanding on how to do something and complete that very, very specific thing. You already will have like a strategy in mind. And they're just going to help you implement that thing.

     

    And they provide expert advice, recommendations or teaching on that specific knowledge that they have deep knowledge in. And they lean on their experience in their speciality to complete help you implement whatever it is that you need to do. Where's the time our consultant will do a presentation, a reporter consult or a training just to get you up and running and implementing support to get that specific project? Done and so examples of those tend to be like a DNA expert or specialist, a legal adviser or a consultant.

     

    So those are the differences between a strategist, a consultant and a coach. And when you might be looking to hire and get someone of that calibre onto your team to support you, get to your business goals. Thank you for listening. This was janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your day.

     

    ]]>3245824b-3a4e-4191-acd3-94c62753246bTue, 09 Mar 2021 17:00:00 -050005:49falsefull    Why you need to know how to use a calendarWhy you need to know how to use a calendarI would like to talk about calenders so some people are ruled by their to do list, some people are ruled by their project management and some people are ruled by their calendar. Regardless if you are ruled by any of these, when someone wants to set up time with you, your calendar is kind of important. And so nothing is more frustrating to somebody than having you send your in important information that's needed for a call in an email that isn't a calendar invite, considering so many people are working online these days.

     

    And if you do have even if you do have a simple Gmail account, your Gmail account is attached to a calendar. If you have an outlook account, your outlook is attached to a calendar. If you're on Apple, then it will be attached to Aikau like it goes hand in hand. It's very rare that you have access to like an email situation where you cannot add it to a calendar. If you don't if you send information just in an email, it means the person can lose that email.

     

    It means the person then has to copy and paste it into their calendar to make sure that it pops up. And they remember you are creating extra work for the other person that you want to meet. And the assumption is you want to make meeting with you as quick and painless as possible. So making that person have to open that email, open their calendar. And it's especially worse if they have to do a time zone conversion and put it in their calendar.

     

    So you've got a meeting. It's like two thirty UK time, but you're in central United States. You then have to go Google the time difference, put it in your calendar, hope it's right and then go ahead and copy and paste all the information. Why would you want someone to have to do that? That is that is painful and unprofessional and makes the person hate you just a little bit, to be fair. And then there's the other type of person who will send you an email going, hey, we should meet at this time.

     

    I'll send you a link closer to the time. So then again, you have to copy and paste the information. And then if you're preparing for the day and you want everything in order, but you don't have this link, and if you're jumping from meeting to meeting, you know, maybe you only check your email three times a day, maybe you only check your email once a day. But because of this particular person, you then have to go and look, try and find that email or wait for that email to come through, assuming it comes through on time, try not to get distracted by all the other emails you're seeing.

     

    Find that information and then copy and paste it wherever you need it. Again, frustrating people who do not send calendar invites. Please, please, please think about the person on the other end and what they have to go through just to attend your meeting, which I'm sure you have. It's very important for you and things that you want to talk about and will be great for everyone concerned. But at the same time, you are making it that much harder for someone to meet with you and do it with a good frame of mind and a good reference.

     

    So if you are that person that doesn't send Calenda invites and there might be a reason for it, maybe you don't you're not run by your calendar. Maybe you run by your to do list or your your email. But the thing is, you just making it hard for people to find that information. And if you are leading the meeting. Yes. You sending out that that link ten minutes before works for you. But do you think about other people, especially when they've message you to express this this problem, at least message them back and say, OK, well, this is why I do X, Y and Z.

     

    It could be the systems issue. It could be the way stuff is set up at work. But explaining it to somebody, especially when they've asked about it, is really helpful. Ignoring the email. That's not great. So thank you for listening. This is Janice at The Career...]]>I would like to talk about calenders so some people are ruled by their to do list, some people are ruled by their project management and some people are ruled by their calendar. Regardless if you are ruled by any of these, when someone wants to set up time with you, your calendar is kind of important. And so nothing is more frustrating to somebody than having you send your in important information that's needed for a call in an email that isn't a calendar invite, considering so many people are working online these days.

     

    And if you do have even if you do have a simple Gmail account, your Gmail account is attached to a calendar. If you have an outlook account, your outlook is attached to a calendar. If you're on Apple, then it will be attached to Aikau like it goes hand in hand. It's very rare that you have access to like an email situation where you cannot add it to a calendar. If you don't if you send information just in an email, it means the person can lose that email.

     

    It means the person then has to copy and paste it into their calendar to make sure that it pops up. And they remember you are creating extra work for the other person that you want to meet. And the assumption is you want to make meeting with you as quick and painless as possible. So making that person have to open that email, open their calendar. And it's especially worse if they have to do a time zone conversion and put it in their calendar.

     

    So you've got a meeting. It's like two thirty UK time, but you're in central United States. You then have to go Google the time difference, put it in your calendar, hope it's right and then go ahead and copy and paste all the information. Why would you want someone to have to do that? That is that is painful and unprofessional and makes the person hate you just a little bit, to be fair. And then there's the other type of person who will send you an email going, hey, we should meet at this time.

     

    I'll send you a link closer to the time. So then again, you have to copy and paste the information. And then if you're preparing for the day and you want everything in order, but you don't have this link, and if you're jumping from meeting to meeting, you know, maybe you only check your email three times a day, maybe you only check your email once a day. But because of this particular person, you then have to go and look, try and find that email or wait for that email to come through, assuming it comes through on time, try not to get distracted by all the other emails you're seeing.

     

    Find that information and then copy and paste it wherever you need it. Again, frustrating people who do not send calendar invites. Please, please, please think about the person on the other end and what they have to go through just to attend your meeting, which I'm sure you have. It's very important for you and things that you want to talk about and will be great for everyone concerned. But at the same time, you are making it that much harder for someone to meet with you and do it with a good frame of mind and a good reference.

     

    So if you are that person that doesn't send Calenda invites and there might be a reason for it, maybe you don't you're not run by your calendar. Maybe you run by your to do list or your your email. But the thing is, you just making it hard for people to find that information. And if you are leading the meeting. Yes. You sending out that that link ten minutes before works for you. But do you think about other people, especially when they've message you to express this this problem, at least message them back and say, OK, well, this is why I do X, Y and Z.

     

    It could be the systems issue. It could be the way stuff is set up at work. But explaining it to somebody, especially when they've asked about it, is really helpful. Ignoring the email. That's not great. So thank you for listening. This is Janice at The Career Introvert dot com helping people build their brand and get hired. I would love to answer any questions that you have here on the show. Please email me at Jannis at The Career Introvert dot com.

     

    Have a great rest of your day.

     

    ]]>405c3d27-dd8f-4fba-ad4c-67be426279a8Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:00:00 -050004:46falsefull    Using compassion to grow your businessUsing compassion to grow your businessIntrovert today I want to talk about developing compassion as an introvert, something happened to me this week where someone I was working with very last minute, like, had set them a deadline and the deadline came and the message that same day. And I was like, oh, I can't do this, I'll get back to you. And then disappeared for a couple of days now instead of viewing it and being like, OK, well, they missed a deadline.

     

    This is a problem. I tried to view it with compassion and curiosity. And so I message, hey, this isn't like you. I hope everything is OK. Please get back to me when you can. And just by doing that, the person said, Oh, you know what? Actually, I'm sick. I'm not feeling so good. Can we put this off for another couple of days so I can get better? So instead of me saying, oh, hey, you haven't done this thing, why haven't you done this thing?

     

    You're late. And I gave you a deadline a week ago. Why are you leaving it? Last minute I decided to be compassionate. And just by showing that compassion, the person came and showed up and said, hey, this is what's happened, which was great. And then when they were ready, they were like, hey, thank you for for asking. Yeah, I'm feeling better now. I'm ready to do whatever needs doing. And they came back and worked really, really hard.

     

    So developing compassion is something that can be hard for introverts because we might think in our own head and make assumptions. And so just stepping out a little bit and avoiding negative talk, for example, don't allow yourself to speak negatively about yourself or about others. It's OK to sort of there's this difference between derogatory statements and acceptance of a mistake. So and also practising self kindness and other kindness and practise being kind to others, not assuming that you know exactly what's going on and go with curiosity and ask questions, stop making assumptions, because that is what gets you and it can get you in a bad headspace and isn't fair to the other person because you are making assumptions on their behalf.

     

    So think about the same encouraging advice that you would give a friend or family member and do that maybe for people that you work with or for staff or for higher ups. The other thing that is really, really helpful when when developing compassion is not comparing yourself to other people. Comparison is the theft of joy. I know that's from somewhere. It's not me, but it really is all individuals. And we all have our own paths and things that have happened to us and things that we are going to do.

     

    We are all in different stages in our journey and that is OK. Comparing yourself and beating yourself up about different things isn't healthy for you and doesn't help you move forward. Everyone has different abilities and positivity about themselves. If you have something that you think is a problem, try and refocus it in a different way. And the other thing is to recognise your learning opportunities and be patient. So be patient not just with yourself, but with others, especially right now.

     

    There is a lot going on. So being patient and going in with curiosity, any time you want to make a change, remember, it's not going to happen overnight. I'm currently in a competition sort of with a group of people and we get to set our own targets. And people have tried to change five different things at once. And I found it very difficult. But they kind of set themselves up for failure by expecting that to work. So instead craft a plan that will enable you to tackle little things bit by bit.

     

    And over time you'll deal with one thing at a time, get one thing done, and then move on to the other self. Compassion and compassion for others takes time if you're not accustomed to thinking about yourself and or others in this way. And so it's really important to kind of do that both in work and personal life, because it will...]]>Introvert today I want to talk about developing compassion as an introvert, something happened to me this week where someone I was working with very last minute, like, had set them a deadline and the deadline came and the message that same day. And I was like, oh, I can't do this, I'll get back to you. And then disappeared for a couple of days now instead of viewing it and being like, OK, well, they missed a deadline.

     

    This is a problem. I tried to view it with compassion and curiosity. And so I message, hey, this isn't like you. I hope everything is OK. Please get back to me when you can. And just by doing that, the person said, Oh, you know what? Actually, I'm sick. I'm not feeling so good. Can we put this off for another couple of days so I can get better? So instead of me saying, oh, hey, you haven't done this thing, why haven't you done this thing?

     

    You're late. And I gave you a deadline a week ago. Why are you leaving it? Last minute I decided to be compassionate. And just by showing that compassion, the person came and showed up and said, hey, this is what's happened, which was great. And then when they were ready, they were like, hey, thank you for for asking. Yeah, I'm feeling better now. I'm ready to do whatever needs doing. And they came back and worked really, really hard.

     

    So developing compassion is something that can be hard for introverts because we might think in our own head and make assumptions. And so just stepping out a little bit and avoiding negative talk, for example, don't allow yourself to speak negatively about yourself or about others. It's OK to sort of there's this difference between derogatory statements and acceptance of a mistake. So and also practising self kindness and other kindness and practise being kind to others, not assuming that you know exactly what's going on and go with curiosity and ask questions, stop making assumptions, because that is what gets you and it can get you in a bad headspace and isn't fair to the other person because you are making assumptions on their behalf.

     

    So think about the same encouraging advice that you would give a friend or family member and do that maybe for people that you work with or for staff or for higher ups. The other thing that is really, really helpful when when developing compassion is not comparing yourself to other people. Comparison is the theft of joy. I know that's from somewhere. It's not me, but it really is all individuals. And we all have our own paths and things that have happened to us and things that we are going to do.

     

    We are all in different stages in our journey and that is OK. Comparing yourself and beating yourself up about different things isn't healthy for you and doesn't help you move forward. Everyone has different abilities and positivity about themselves. If you have something that you think is a problem, try and refocus it in a different way. And the other thing is to recognise your learning opportunities and be patient. So be patient not just with yourself, but with others, especially right now.

     

    There is a lot going on. So being patient and going in with curiosity, any time you want to make a change, remember, it's not going to happen overnight. I'm currently in a competition sort of with a group of people and we get to set our own targets. And people have tried to change five different things at once. And I found it very difficult. But they kind of set themselves up for failure by expecting that to work. So instead craft a plan that will enable you to tackle little things bit by bit.

     

    And over time you'll deal with one thing at a time, get one thing done, and then move on to the other self. Compassion and compassion for others takes time if you're not accustomed to thinking about yourself and or others in this way. And so it's really important to kind of do that both in work and personal life, because it will help you grow immensely as a person will help grow your business. So thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping introverts build their brand and get hired.

     

    If you have any questions, please email me at Janice@thecareerintrovert.com and I will answer your questions in the podcast. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>85a7037c-a034-4e4c-a55d-7d44d04e431cTue, 23 Feb 2021 17:00:00 -050004:59falsefull    Decision FatigueDecision Fatiguesurprise episode on travel. But this can be related to everyday things. So I was listening to a podcast the other day that made a light bulb go off in my mind. So travel can be especially fatiguing because of the amount of decisions you have to make that you wouldn't normally have to make. So, for example, every day you normally probably get up, go to work, come back from work, eat, brush your teeth, your shower, do all of those things.

     

    Some of it is probably rote and some of it is new things. But we know that we can only make a certain amount of decisions per day before we get decision fatigue. And so this is why people end up crying in airports out of frustration. Part of it can be the system. And part of it is when you are traveling, almost everything you do requires you to make a decision. What time are you going to the airport? When you get to the airport, you go left or right.

     

    Where's the check in desk? Which Check-In desk do you pick? Then you pick that check in desk, you load up all your stuff and then you go through. Which line do you pick for security? Do you which lounge do you go to? Where do you go and get food? What food do you get? What's available? Is it going to be food that you like? Oh, where's my gate finding my gate. How do I find my gate.

     

    Look left. Look right. Do I take the left, I take the stairs. All of these tiny tiny decisions. But you're making them almost constantly, which is not what you would normally be doing. And every day occurrences. And then there's the once you get on the plane, what do you do? Do you have like do you read, do you eat? Do you know what time you going to get set. Oh you get drinks.

     

    Is it different airline like all of these things that you have to make decisions upon and that's just if everything goes OK, hey, what happens if your flight then gets delayed?

     

    What if you have to stay overnight? What if you then have to pick a hotel to stay at? What if you then have to pick up when the next flight out? Which flight should I pick? Which airport when it go? Is it going to be direct? And do I have to pick new seats? What happens to my luggage? All of these things end up increasing your decision fatigue hugely. And that's why when you then have to make a decision of no eggs or no eggs, you kind of stand there going, I don't know, just feed me.

     

    I don't know, because you've had to make all of these little micro decisions so much. And this is why. Travel can be super stressful, so when you are traveling again, please keep that in mind. But in the meantime, let's take this decision fatigue and apply it to everyday life.

     

    This is why checklists and subtasks and managing your tasks is super, super important. Having like a task manager can help you immensely because you don't have to make all of these decisions planning the night before what you're going to do, putting it in your task manager and then the next day you just get up and work through the task. Yes, stuff will come up, but at the end of the day, you have less decisions to make off the cuff.

     

    So this is why planning your day is hugely beneficial, even if it's just three things. Three top things that you want to get done today can be top two things that you want to get done per day, put it on your to do list and then checking it off is a really good feeling. Anything that you can do to reduce the amount of decisions that you have to make per day will help you in the long run. Even something as simple as what to cook, I know a lot of people like when they're doing laundry, is launching a book and the podcast like have a really heavy week.

     

    They tend to meal prep for the entire week. So they don't have to think about food. They can just concentrate on that thing that they're doing or you have a regular delivery. So it's done like clockwork. So, you know, every other Saturday you just get...]]>surprise episode on travel. But this can be related to everyday things. So I was listening to a podcast the other day that made a light bulb go off in my mind. So travel can be especially fatiguing because of the amount of decisions you have to make that you wouldn't normally have to make. So, for example, every day you normally probably get up, go to work, come back from work, eat, brush your teeth, your shower, do all of those things.

     

    Some of it is probably rote and some of it is new things. But we know that we can only make a certain amount of decisions per day before we get decision fatigue. And so this is why people end up crying in airports out of frustration. Part of it can be the system. And part of it is when you are traveling, almost everything you do requires you to make a decision. What time are you going to the airport? When you get to the airport, you go left or right.

     

    Where's the check in desk? Which Check-In desk do you pick? Then you pick that check in desk, you load up all your stuff and then you go through. Which line do you pick for security? Do you which lounge do you go to? Where do you go and get food? What food do you get? What's available? Is it going to be food that you like? Oh, where's my gate finding my gate. How do I find my gate.

     

    Look left. Look right. Do I take the left, I take the stairs. All of these tiny tiny decisions. But you're making them almost constantly, which is not what you would normally be doing. And every day occurrences. And then there's the once you get on the plane, what do you do? Do you have like do you read, do you eat? Do you know what time you going to get set. Oh you get drinks.

     

    Is it different airline like all of these things that you have to make decisions upon and that's just if everything goes OK, hey, what happens if your flight then gets delayed?

     

    What if you have to stay overnight? What if you then have to pick a hotel to stay at? What if you then have to pick up when the next flight out? Which flight should I pick? Which airport when it go? Is it going to be direct? And do I have to pick new seats? What happens to my luggage? All of these things end up increasing your decision fatigue hugely. And that's why when you then have to make a decision of no eggs or no eggs, you kind of stand there going, I don't know, just feed me.

     

    I don't know, because you've had to make all of these little micro decisions so much. And this is why. Travel can be super stressful, so when you are traveling again, please keep that in mind. But in the meantime, let's take this decision fatigue and apply it to everyday life.

     

    This is why checklists and subtasks and managing your tasks is super, super important. Having like a task manager can help you immensely because you don't have to make all of these decisions planning the night before what you're going to do, putting it in your task manager and then the next day you just get up and work through the task. Yes, stuff will come up, but at the end of the day, you have less decisions to make off the cuff.

     

    So this is why planning your day is hugely beneficial, even if it's just three things. Three top things that you want to get done today can be top two things that you want to get done per day, put it on your to do list and then checking it off is a really good feeling. Anything that you can do to reduce the amount of decisions that you have to make per day will help you in the long run. Even something as simple as what to cook, I know a lot of people like when they're doing laundry, is launching a book and the podcast like have a really heavy week.

     

    They tend to meal prep for the entire week. So they don't have to think about food. They can just concentrate on that thing that they're doing or you have a regular delivery. So it's done like clockwork. So, you know, every other Saturday you just get the same veg every time stops you having to think and scroll through the list of veg that might be available to you. So I highly recommend just bit by bit in your everyday life, see what you can do to reduce the amount of decisions that you have to make daily.

     

    That way you will increase your creativity, space and bandwidth and decrease your likelihood of getting decision fatigue. Thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com. If you have any questions for me, please email me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com. Helping build Bill Brand and get odd. Thank you for listening. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>b288ae11-69ae-4202-af0d-37a7ca361716Tue, 16 Feb 2021 17:00:00 -050005:20falsefull    when your mind won’t get in sync with your plannerwhen your mind won’t get in sync with your planner, I'm going to talk about this particular topic, which was inspired by a friend of mine, which is when your mind won't get in sync with your planner. So I am one of those people that plans using my calendar every now and then. Your brain doesn't want to do what's on your calendar. For whatever reason, it might be a mental health session. So having a plan for when you got this stuff planned in your calendar and you've got things to do and you want to do this and that, maybe for your clients, for you business for yourself, but your mind's just like you're not having a good day to day.

     

    We don't necessarily want to do that. But even if we did, it would be do it poorly. It would take you three times the amount of time. So maybe you just shouldn't do it. Yes. Sometimes your mind just doesn't want to be in sync with your calendar. So what do you do? Do you have a plan? Do you have a way of do you are you transparent? Do you have a way of letting people know, you know what?

     

    Right now I'm not having a good mental health day, so I won't be able to do X, Y and Z until whatever time it is. Do you have that option in your business when you're building it around yourself? Do you have that option with companies? It's really important. There's a couple of companies that I've seen that are giving during this time of quarantine and lockdown to extra mental health days per day, per day. I wish per month that you can use at your discretion because sometimes you just just need that mental health day.

     

    You as a business owner, do you give yourself mental health days? Do you even give yourself vacation days? This is a question. So what do I do when my mind doesn't want to work with my current calendar? First thing I do is try and take two minutes and figure out what it is. Do I need a break? Do I need to do a different type of work? Do I just need to fix a thing that's bothering my brain or do I just need to take the rest of the time, day, week, month off?

     

    I sit still, figure that out. After doing that, write down anything that has to happen or the world will burn in the next twenty four hours. But those things, can you delegate them, communicate with the other person, say I can't do this until this time. Will the world still burn or can you do a different version of it? Does it have to be the full completed version or can you just send an email going. I've started.

     

    Well I've done this much. Can you do that so you can then go and take the time off that you and your brain require? After that, move everything out of your calendar that you don't need, put you out of office, can be out of office. That says I will get back to you within the next 72 hours. That gives you a little space. You have to say you're taking time off. Just say checking the mailbox for 72 hours or whatever it might be, and then move everything in your calendar over.

     

    So you have that free space. And then once that happens and you can then get everything to a brain dump, get everything out of your brain that's currently bothering it, toss that you have to do things that you're thinking about, all that other stuff, get it out, don't do anything with it. Just just just get it out. And then once you do that, go away and do something that is not related to your work but brings you peace and grounds you.

     

    And so maybe you just need that time alone. Maybe you just need to listen to music. Maybe you just need to need some dough, whatever it might be that brings you peace and calmness and centers you go ahead and do that. That is what I recommend when when your mind just wanted to do what you set out for it. And sometimes that can just be because you've over estimated like how much you can do in a day, or it could be because you just have a foggy day that happens and that's OK.

     

    So if this is something you haven't thought about before, maybe think about it now....]]>, I'm going to talk about this particular topic, which was inspired by a friend of mine, which is when your mind won't get in sync with your planner. So I am one of those people that plans using my calendar every now and then. Your brain doesn't want to do what's on your calendar. For whatever reason, it might be a mental health session. So having a plan for when you got this stuff planned in your calendar and you've got things to do and you want to do this and that, maybe for your clients, for you business for yourself, but your mind's just like you're not having a good day to day.

     

    We don't necessarily want to do that. But even if we did, it would be do it poorly. It would take you three times the amount of time. So maybe you just shouldn't do it. Yes. Sometimes your mind just doesn't want to be in sync with your calendar. So what do you do? Do you have a plan? Do you have a way of do you are you transparent? Do you have a way of letting people know, you know what?

     

    Right now I'm not having a good mental health day, so I won't be able to do X, Y and Z until whatever time it is. Do you have that option in your business when you're building it around yourself? Do you have that option with companies? It's really important. There's a couple of companies that I've seen that are giving during this time of quarantine and lockdown to extra mental health days per day, per day. I wish per month that you can use at your discretion because sometimes you just just need that mental health day.

     

    You as a business owner, do you give yourself mental health days? Do you even give yourself vacation days? This is a question. So what do I do when my mind doesn't want to work with my current calendar? First thing I do is try and take two minutes and figure out what it is. Do I need a break? Do I need to do a different type of work? Do I just need to fix a thing that's bothering my brain or do I just need to take the rest of the time, day, week, month off?

     

    I sit still, figure that out. After doing that, write down anything that has to happen or the world will burn in the next twenty four hours. But those things, can you delegate them, communicate with the other person, say I can't do this until this time. Will the world still burn or can you do a different version of it? Does it have to be the full completed version or can you just send an email going. I've started.

     

    Well I've done this much. Can you do that so you can then go and take the time off that you and your brain require? After that, move everything out of your calendar that you don't need, put you out of office, can be out of office. That says I will get back to you within the next 72 hours. That gives you a little space. You have to say you're taking time off. Just say checking the mailbox for 72 hours or whatever it might be, and then move everything in your calendar over.

     

    So you have that free space. And then once that happens and you can then get everything to a brain dump, get everything out of your brain that's currently bothering it, toss that you have to do things that you're thinking about, all that other stuff, get it out, don't do anything with it. Just just just get it out. And then once you do that, go away and do something that is not related to your work but brings you peace and grounds you.

     

    And so maybe you just need that time alone. Maybe you just need to listen to music. Maybe you just need to need some dough, whatever it might be that brings you peace and calmness and centers you go ahead and do that. That is what I recommend when when your mind just wanted to do what you set out for it. And sometimes that can just be because you've over estimated like how much you can do in a day, or it could be because you just have a foggy day that happens and that's OK.

     

    So if this is something you haven't thought about before, maybe think about it now. Do you have a foggy brain day or mental health day plan or an emergency mental health plan? Sometimes you wake up in the first half of days. Great. And the second half of the year, like, I can't deal. Do you have a plan checklist of things that you can do to relieve the pressure from you so you can go ahead and take that rest that you need?

     

    If not, I highly recommend you do that now. It's like a disaster recovery plan. What do you do? Right, because you and your mental health come first, because if that doesn't work, nothing else will work in your business life. Same with your career. Pick jobs or companies, if you can, that do care about mental health. If your accountant in a position and I know a couple of my clients are where they are in a position where they can't move and be, mental health isn't a priority.

     

    See if you can get vacation days on a regular basis every Saturday by Friday, whatever it might be to help give you. And release that pressure and give you the space that you need to recharge. Thank you for listening. This is Janice from The Career Introvert dot com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>a38a0ade-1031-4de2-bdbf-0766f37c8a7fTue, 09 Feb 2021 17:00:00 -050005:31falsefull    Deep research tips for job huntingDeep research tips for job huntingI'd like to talk about a couple of things you should do when you're looking into moving jobs and looking at new opportunities. If there is an organization that has posted a position, that's great, see how long that position has been posted and then do your research on the company.

     

    And most of the time people will kind of look on Glassdoor and that's it. Or look on LinkedIn and that's it. Or go search the company's website and that's it. But really think about where they really should be looking to go to somewhere like trust pilot and see what customers are saying about the company. Are they saying good things? Are they saying bad things? Even if they are saying bad things? How is the company responding to that feedback?

     

    Are they giving the same response time and time again? Are they actively responding or have they not responding at all? That's very interesting. And what departments are people complaining about? Are they complaining about logistics, other complaining about customer service or complaining about management? Because that will give you a really good idea of where the trouble spots are in that organization. Another thing that you can do is sometimes depending on the organization, they might have a Facebook group.

     

    So it's a really good idea to see if you can be part of that Facebook group. And again, see what people are talking about. Are the comments free or are people being muted or what kind of discussion is happening there? Is it positive? Is it happy? Is it saying nice things? How involved is the company in this Facebook group that, again, can tell you a lot about how they deal with conflict, which is really important?

     

    Some organizations will go ahead and just ban and mute everything and tamp it down and others will come back and join it and talk to and build into a discussion and a learning opportunity. Those are the kind of organizations that you really want to work for, whereas if you see that they're trying to reach people and stifle what they're saying, that's probably what happens within the organization itself day to day. Another place to go is the Better Business Bureau, because that's an unbiased place.

     

    And again, take a look and see what's being said and how people are responding. So those are just three really key things that you can go ahead and do. I guess you could go on Twitter and Reddit as well. But those trust pilot, Facebook group and Better Better Business Bureau are three really good places for unfiltered and unbiased customer feedback. And don't get me wrong, I do know that customers generally will complain when something negative and won't say positive things.

     

    It takes far more effort. However, knowing how a company deals with conflict or bad news and negative information is really interesting and gives you an insight into the company culture and can also give you fodder to ask questions. Should you get that interview? And it could be like, Oh, I saw that. I know six months ago you had this problem. Has this now been resolved or how did you go about resolving it? Is this why I'm the new hire?

     

    Like, you can give you a really good insight. If they've been having a specific problem and you're being hired for a role that is really linked to it, that you will have a very clear idea of maybe what needs to be responded or what needs to happen, and that can give you a leg up. So these are things to think about when you are looking for new roles. Of course, go ahead and see if you can talk to people who've worked there.

     

    Go on, Glassdoor, do as much research as you can. But those are three very specific things that you can do that gives you an insight that isn't the norm of games. Look at their website and seeing what their vision and mission statement is is helpful to know what that is. But are they living up to that vision and that mission, or how can you help them]]>I'd like to talk about a couple of things you should do when you're looking into moving jobs and looking at new opportunities. If there is an organization that has posted a position, that's great, see how long that position has been posted and then do your research on the company.

     

    And most of the time people will kind of look on Glassdoor and that's it. Or look on LinkedIn and that's it. Or go search the company's website and that's it. But really think about where they really should be looking to go to somewhere like trust pilot and see what customers are saying about the company. Are they saying good things? Are they saying bad things? Even if they are saying bad things? How is the company responding to that feedback?

     

    Are they giving the same response time and time again? Are they actively responding or have they not responding at all? That's very interesting. And what departments are people complaining about? Are they complaining about logistics, other complaining about customer service or complaining about management? Because that will give you a really good idea of where the trouble spots are in that organization. Another thing that you can do is sometimes depending on the organization, they might have a Facebook group.

     

    So it's a really good idea to see if you can be part of that Facebook group. And again, see what people are talking about. Are the comments free or are people being muted or what kind of discussion is happening there? Is it positive? Is it happy? Is it saying nice things? How involved is the company in this Facebook group that, again, can tell you a lot about how they deal with conflict, which is really important?

     

    Some organizations will go ahead and just ban and mute everything and tamp it down and others will come back and join it and talk to and build into a discussion and a learning opportunity. Those are the kind of organizations that you really want to work for, whereas if you see that they're trying to reach people and stifle what they're saying, that's probably what happens within the organization itself day to day. Another place to go is the Better Business Bureau, because that's an unbiased place.

     

    And again, take a look and see what's being said and how people are responding. So those are just three really key things that you can go ahead and do. I guess you could go on Twitter and Reddit as well. But those trust pilot, Facebook group and Better Better Business Bureau are three really good places for unfiltered and unbiased customer feedback. And don't get me wrong, I do know that customers generally will complain when something negative and won't say positive things.

     

    It takes far more effort. However, knowing how a company deals with conflict or bad news and negative information is really interesting and gives you an insight into the company culture and can also give you fodder to ask questions. Should you get that interview? And it could be like, Oh, I saw that. I know six months ago you had this problem. Has this now been resolved or how did you go about resolving it? Is this why I'm the new hire?

     

    Like, you can give you a really good insight. If they've been having a specific problem and you're being hired for a role that is really linked to it, that you will have a very clear idea of maybe what needs to be responded or what needs to happen, and that can give you a leg up. So these are things to think about when you are looking for new roles. Of course, go ahead and see if you can talk to people who've worked there.

     

    Go on, Glassdoor, do as much research as you can. But those are three very specific things that you can do that gives you an insight that isn't the norm of games. Look at their website and seeing what their vision and mission statement is is helpful to know what that is. But are they living up to that vision and that mission, or how can you help them rise to that occasion? So thank you for listening. This is Janice from The Career Introvert dot com helping you build your brand and get hired.

     

    Should you have any questions, please email me at Janice@thecareerintrovert.com. Have a great rest of your day.

     

    ]]>eaacf639-27d8-457d-a5b3-9d2922f04089Tue, 02 Feb 2021 17:00:00 -050005:15falsefull    Don't tell me to get out of my comfort zoneDon't tell me to get out of my comfort zoneToday, I want to talk about comfort zones, and the reason this came up is because recently I was speaking at a UK startup event and I was talking about how when you're building your business as an introvert, as a human, you should be building your business around you, your likes, you wants and your needs.

     

    And some of that was talking about time blocking, setting boundaries, using systems and generally making a list of things that ground you and recharge you. And on the other hand, making a list of things that are deal breakers for you, things that you don't like doing are not good at doing, because those are things that should not be the core of your business that you are building for yourself.

     

    And it so happens, as I was giving this talk that there was a comment in the comment section and someone said, but getting out of your comfort zone is where you learn the most. Surely it's better to learn all the things that you don't know so you can become good at them. And so here is my pushback towards that. Yes, you can push yourself out of your comfort zone to learn new things, but you don't have to learn everything.

     

    The whole point of being a business owner is that you don't do all the things because you know what you are good at and where your zone of helping people is. And there's a reason why you pay people to be accountants because they're good at that. You, as a business owner might need to just know a general idea of what your accounting should look like. But you are not an accountant and might not file your own taxes depending on which country you're in.

     

    But in general, that is not something that is in your zone of expertise.

     

    So while, yes, get out of your comfort zone can be good to a certain degree, but not if it is at the detriment of your business. So if this means that you are learning how to do email marketing, for example, but you don't like writing, then that's probably to the detriment of your business because you could be spending two, four, six, eight, 10 hours on this email marketing that you don't enjoy and are not good at when you could be spending those two, four, six, eight, 10 hours with your clients providing excellent service doing what you do best.

     

    Now, don't get me wrong, I am not totally against get out of your comfort zone. But it is one of those phrases that gets tossed around a lot, especially when we're talking to introvert entrepreneurs or even just introverts in general in regards to networking or public speaking or talking to people on the phone, cold calling.

     

    A lot of the time you will find and I'm generalizing here, extroverts very much like what do you just need to get out of your comfort zone and do blah, blah, blah, or even people who just don't necessarily have an understanding of what introversion means to you might say, well, just get out of your comfort zone and do this, that and the other. We are all individual. We all have things that we like to do and don't like to do.

     

    That is just life. We also have things that we are good at, things that we are not good at. That is just life telling people to oh well, just suck it up and get out of your comfort zone isn't supportive and isn't constructive. A different way of going about that conversation is finding out. OK, so you don't like networking. What is it about networking that you don't enjoy? Is a specific type of networking? Is it that you don't like going to a new venue?

     

    Is it that you don't like talking to people and then drilling down to find out what exactly it is specifically about networking that that person doesn't like, and then coming up with finding out if it's something that's important to them and they want to do, and then coming up with a solution together, working with them on what it would take to make that happen in that thing a reality. Is it going with somebody else? Is it]]>Today, I want to talk about comfort zones, and the reason this came up is because recently I was speaking at a UK startup event and I was talking about how when you're building your business as an introvert, as a human, you should be building your business around you, your likes, you wants and your needs.

     

    And some of that was talking about time blocking, setting boundaries, using systems and generally making a list of things that ground you and recharge you. And on the other hand, making a list of things that are deal breakers for you, things that you don't like doing are not good at doing, because those are things that should not be the core of your business that you are building for yourself.

     

    And it so happens, as I was giving this talk that there was a comment in the comment section and someone said, but getting out of your comfort zone is where you learn the most. Surely it's better to learn all the things that you don't know so you can become good at them. And so here is my pushback towards that. Yes, you can push yourself out of your comfort zone to learn new things, but you don't have to learn everything.

     

    The whole point of being a business owner is that you don't do all the things because you know what you are good at and where your zone of helping people is. And there's a reason why you pay people to be accountants because they're good at that. You, as a business owner might need to just know a general idea of what your accounting should look like. But you are not an accountant and might not file your own taxes depending on which country you're in.

     

    But in general, that is not something that is in your zone of expertise.

     

    So while, yes, get out of your comfort zone can be good to a certain degree, but not if it is at the detriment of your business. So if this means that you are learning how to do email marketing, for example, but you don't like writing, then that's probably to the detriment of your business because you could be spending two, four, six, eight, 10 hours on this email marketing that you don't enjoy and are not good at when you could be spending those two, four, six, eight, 10 hours with your clients providing excellent service doing what you do best.

     

    Now, don't get me wrong, I am not totally against get out of your comfort zone. But it is one of those phrases that gets tossed around a lot, especially when we're talking to introvert entrepreneurs or even just introverts in general in regards to networking or public speaking or talking to people on the phone, cold calling.

     

    A lot of the time you will find and I'm generalizing here, extroverts very much like what do you just need to get out of your comfort zone and do blah, blah, blah, or even people who just don't necessarily have an understanding of what introversion means to you might say, well, just get out of your comfort zone and do this, that and the other. We are all individual. We all have things that we like to do and don't like to do.

     

    That is just life. We also have things that we are good at, things that we are not good at. That is just life telling people to oh well, just suck it up and get out of your comfort zone isn't supportive and isn't constructive. A different way of going about that conversation is finding out. OK, so you don't like networking. What is it about networking that you don't enjoy? Is a specific type of networking? Is it that you don't like going to a new venue?

     

    Is it that you don't like talking to people and then drilling down to find out what exactly it is specifically about networking that that person doesn't like, and then coming up with finding out if it's something that's important to them and they want to do, and then coming up with a solution together, working with them on what it would take to make that happen in that thing a reality. Is it going with somebody else? Is it only doing networking events from where I mean now from home, but only doing networking events that apply to certain topics, maybe networking events that are not business related, and then you just grow your friendships, which will help grow your business.

     

    That is a supportive way of helping someone get out of their comfort zone. But just telling someone you should get out of your comfort zone doesn't do it. Thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>9584561d-5904-4ade-b762-de12ad6b640aTue, 26 Jan 2021 17:00:00 -050005:15falsefull    Introvert intuitionIntrovert intuitiontoday I want to talk about Introvert instinct  something that I I guess for the longest while I don't have and now I'm starting to believe I do have to a certain degree. And I don't know whether it's because I reflect this kind of thing or because stuff has happened. But learning to trust your emotions is really interesting because we are all born with a certain amount of intuition. The problem is from a very young age, we're often told to maybe ignore our feelings or our feelings are not justified or our feelings are just wrong.

     

    Much like force feeding, an infant can cause the child to start ignoring the natural hunger control mechanisms. It's the same with emotions. The more we're taught to push down our feelings, the more likely we are not to trust our emotions. Sometimes you get a gut feeling, a feeling in your gut, a gut feeling that something is wrong. Everyone has a natural ability to know that something's sort of not right in any given situation. The problem is, over time, you may have pushed down those feelings as maybe wrong or crazy.

     

    You might meet a new person who you've no real known reason makes you feel like something's a little off. You could talk to someone and believe that they're lying. Wait, while you may not want to react to these instances because they are not cause for immediate danger, keeping an open mind and keeping your eyes open, chances are you might find out that you write more than you're wrong. Sometimes you might feel a tug to help somebody. TV commercials are really good at like using these emotions when they want you to send money to the starving children in Africa or donate to save abused animals feelings.

     

    What you feel when you're watching those commercials are normal and you should respect them. However, when you do feel compelled to help people, don't push it down, really offer help. But just keep in mind what you're thinking about things. And another thing that our intuition helps us with is maybe we feel pulled to do something different, you might be sitting in a cubicle, bored to tears, waiting desperately to do something different, but you're kind of afraid to change and you're not sure what to do.

     

    You feel that you're being pulled in a different direction, but you just don't know what to do about that feeling. And maybe you don't even recognize it as a feeling. Maybe you just think that you're having a bad day. If you do feel pulled in a new direction, take the time to give it some real consideration instead of nixing it. Because if you go ahead and fix it immediately, it's not necessarily the best thing to do. And also, you might not feel confident in your abilities.

     

    That's something we kind of learn at a young age and that it's really hard to unlearn when you're not feeling confident. Don't push those feelings down or away. You're right to feel that way. But you need to think why you're feeling that way when you feel good about yourself is not misplaced pride or bragging. And so often people, especially women, are taught from a young age not to boast about their abilities. This tends to put young women at a disadvantage from their male counterparts when it comes to job and fair pay.

     

    Allow yourself to feel confident when it is appropriate and acknowledge the different emotions you experience. Don't push away any emotions that you have about drugs, alcohol or food. Instead, allow yourself to experience a full range of emotions as appropriate, because learning what these feelings and emotions are and how to deal with them is super, super important to knowing when you're just having a bad day or when you're just feeling off. Write down your feelings, keeping a feeding's journal for yourself to help you process different feelings that you're having and different things that you note other people might be having reactions to, situations can be useful as datapoints.

     

    Your...]]>today I want to talk about Introvert instinct  something that I I guess for the longest while I don't have and now I'm starting to believe I do have to a certain degree. And I don't know whether it's because I reflect this kind of thing or because stuff has happened. But learning to trust your emotions is really interesting because we are all born with a certain amount of intuition. The problem is from a very young age, we're often told to maybe ignore our feelings or our feelings are not justified or our feelings are just wrong.

     

    Much like force feeding, an infant can cause the child to start ignoring the natural hunger control mechanisms. It's the same with emotions. The more we're taught to push down our feelings, the more likely we are not to trust our emotions. Sometimes you get a gut feeling, a feeling in your gut, a gut feeling that something is wrong. Everyone has a natural ability to know that something's sort of not right in any given situation. The problem is, over time, you may have pushed down those feelings as maybe wrong or crazy.

     

    You might meet a new person who you've no real known reason makes you feel like something's a little off. You could talk to someone and believe that they're lying. Wait, while you may not want to react to these instances because they are not cause for immediate danger, keeping an open mind and keeping your eyes open, chances are you might find out that you write more than you're wrong. Sometimes you might feel a tug to help somebody. TV commercials are really good at like using these emotions when they want you to send money to the starving children in Africa or donate to save abused animals feelings.

     

    What you feel when you're watching those commercials are normal and you should respect them. However, when you do feel compelled to help people, don't push it down, really offer help. But just keep in mind what you're thinking about things. And another thing that our intuition helps us with is maybe we feel pulled to do something different, you might be sitting in a cubicle, bored to tears, waiting desperately to do something different, but you're kind of afraid to change and you're not sure what to do.

     

    You feel that you're being pulled in a different direction, but you just don't know what to do about that feeling. And maybe you don't even recognize it as a feeling. Maybe you just think that you're having a bad day. If you do feel pulled in a new direction, take the time to give it some real consideration instead of nixing it. Because if you go ahead and fix it immediately, it's not necessarily the best thing to do. And also, you might not feel confident in your abilities.

     

    That's something we kind of learn at a young age and that it's really hard to unlearn when you're not feeling confident. Don't push those feelings down or away. You're right to feel that way. But you need to think why you're feeling that way when you feel good about yourself is not misplaced pride or bragging. And so often people, especially women, are taught from a young age not to boast about their abilities. This tends to put young women at a disadvantage from their male counterparts when it comes to job and fair pay.

     

    Allow yourself to feel confident when it is appropriate and acknowledge the different emotions you experience. Don't push away any emotions that you have about drugs, alcohol or food. Instead, allow yourself to experience a full range of emotions as appropriate, because learning what these feelings and emotions are and how to deal with them is super, super important to knowing when you're just having a bad day or when you're just feeling off. Write down your feelings, keeping a feeding's journal for yourself to help you process different feelings that you're having and different things that you note other people might be having reactions to, situations can be useful as datapoints.

     

    Your journal can help you work through your emotions in a healthy way, as well as give you something to look back on when you're having trouble. And one thing that's really helpful is to test your judgment, accuracy. So if you're afraid to go with your gut due to having pushed down the skull from a young age, pick one thing to test. For example, if you feel the need to switch jobs, start job hunting in earnest, it won't help to go on some job interviews and test your intuition.

     

    You might find the job of a lifetime. Or if you feel strange, then then don't go ahead and do it. As you learn to trust your emotions by practicing actually feeling them, you're going to get better at discerning what's right from wrong and what's just like a weird feeling. And that's what I've been learning. I've had some gut instincts about a couple of things and I've been afraid to move forward with them. And I've had someone point out to me that any time I've had that feeling have been more or less correct.

     

    So I should just go with it and said, that's what I'm doing over a couple of things these next few months. I hope you have a great week. Feel free to reach out to me at Janice@thecareerintrovert.com, helping introverts build their brand and get hired.

     

    ]]>ba126dd7-1643-4533-b217-eb0ec2aa331eTue, 19 Jan 2021 17:00:00 -050005:25falsefull    Interview red flagsInterview red flagsInterview questions or things that might come up that are a red flag, that you probably shouldn't work for that organization or company. And this has come about because of various clients that I've worked with and various people that it's the start of the year. People are looking for new jobs. They want to make sure they have some sort of job security. But at the same time, they don't want to just say yes to anything.

     

    So what could be a red flag when you were in the interview stage or even just reading through the job description stage of a role? So any time a role says, you will be wearing many hats. This is normally a sign that they're going to assign you two or three positions worth of work, rather, for the wage of one. It's one of those things. It's like, what do you do a little bit of this or a little bit of that.

     

    But you also might be going to this team, another really big red flag that the company hasn't thought through. What that role actually is going to do is when they say that you'll be reporting to two or more people because it means they're not sure what you're going to be doing that have enough work for one full well under one department. So they're kind of splitting you up into two different departments. And then either both departments try and take ownership of you and your work or neither takes ownership of you on your work.

     

    And then it gets really, really weird.

     

    Another phrase that comes up a lot that is can be a red flag is everyone's like family here. So here's the thing. With organizations that tend to treat their workers like family is that means they expect you to work overtime or give up your weekends or be at your beck and call because family is available all the time. Right. You can call your mom, dad, sister, whatever, and any time of the night and they will back you up.

     

    And so that is seen as a very big red flag. Also underpaying most people who work for a family organization or work for like my mom, dad, sister, whatever, a they might be qualified for the job. And B, they do it not realizing their worth and therefore are underpaid and overutilized. So we treat everyone like family here, not necessarily always the best sign or also when you are required to wear company logo clothing that you must purchase yourself from the company.

     

    I've heard that come up a couple times when they're really, really happy that someone actually turned up for an interview because it means that maybe no one's turning up for the interviews or they're really desperate to hire. And most of the time when someone is desperate to hire, it means they haven't thought through what the world's going to do, where it resides, or the person who used to have that role left for a very good reason. And therefore, it's possibly not the best thing to be getting into.

     

    So one thing, when you are also interviewing the company, a good question to ask your interviewer is, hey, so what do you like about working for this company if all they do is talk about the location and everything except the actual work and the job or the like? Oh, that's a good question. And they're like, the people are nice and run run for the hills because they can't tell you where they fit in the culture of the organization, how they make a difference and why they really enjoy working for that particular organization.

     

    And so. Also, if you do get a video interview, see see if the person you're talking to looks tired because that that can be a thing, I ask them when they last worked weekends. Ask them what time they finished work. Ask them what time everyone else finishes work if you get to always finish at 5:00. But most of us are still here, eight or nine, because we had this project. And then if that's a one off, the next question obviously is how often does this happen in the past six months?

     

    And if they like we've always]]>Interview questions or things that might come up that are a red flag, that you probably shouldn't work for that organization or company. And this has come about because of various clients that I've worked with and various people that it's the start of the year. People are looking for new jobs. They want to make sure they have some sort of job security. But at the same time, they don't want to just say yes to anything.

     

    So what could be a red flag when you were in the interview stage or even just reading through the job description stage of a role? So any time a role says, you will be wearing many hats. This is normally a sign that they're going to assign you two or three positions worth of work, rather, for the wage of one. It's one of those things. It's like, what do you do a little bit of this or a little bit of that.

     

    But you also might be going to this team, another really big red flag that the company hasn't thought through. What that role actually is going to do is when they say that you'll be reporting to two or more people because it means they're not sure what you're going to be doing that have enough work for one full well under one department. So they're kind of splitting you up into two different departments. And then either both departments try and take ownership of you and your work or neither takes ownership of you on your work.

     

    And then it gets really, really weird.

     

    Another phrase that comes up a lot that is can be a red flag is everyone's like family here. So here's the thing. With organizations that tend to treat their workers like family is that means they expect you to work overtime or give up your weekends or be at your beck and call because family is available all the time. Right. You can call your mom, dad, sister, whatever, and any time of the night and they will back you up.

     

    And so that is seen as a very big red flag. Also underpaying most people who work for a family organization or work for like my mom, dad, sister, whatever, a they might be qualified for the job. And B, they do it not realizing their worth and therefore are underpaid and overutilized. So we treat everyone like family here, not necessarily always the best sign or also when you are required to wear company logo clothing that you must purchase yourself from the company.

     

    I've heard that come up a couple times when they're really, really happy that someone actually turned up for an interview because it means that maybe no one's turning up for the interviews or they're really desperate to hire. And most of the time when someone is desperate to hire, it means they haven't thought through what the world's going to do, where it resides, or the person who used to have that role left for a very good reason. And therefore, it's possibly not the best thing to be getting into.

     

    So one thing, when you are also interviewing the company, a good question to ask your interviewer is, hey, so what do you like about working for this company if all they do is talk about the location and everything except the actual work and the job or the like? Oh, that's a good question. And they're like, the people are nice and run run for the hills because they can't tell you where they fit in the culture of the organization, how they make a difference and why they really enjoy working for that particular organization.

     

    And so. Also, if you do get a video interview, see see if the person you're talking to looks tired because that that can be a thing, I ask them when they last worked weekends. Ask them what time they finished work. Ask them what time everyone else finishes work if you get to always finish at 5:00. But most of us are still here, eight or nine, because we had this project. And then if that's a one off, the next question obviously is how often does this happen in the past six months?

     

    And if they like we've always had this big project, there's always something going on that means that over time is just normal, but probably not paid for it because you are salaried. So these are just things to think about when you are applying for a new job. One last one, if there are new hires and people have been there for 15 years, but nothing in between, it means there's no room for advancement. People are believed to be advanced and those who've been there for 15 years just keep their jobs.

     

    So if you're looking for somewhere that you can move up, probably not the best fit for you. All right. Thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. I hope you have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>4ebe1e73-25fa-4fa8-a87c-2ee568acc8c6Tue, 12 Jan 2021 17:00:00 -050005:26falsefull    Bait and SwitchBait and Switch, I kind of want to talk about the bait and switch. This is something that I've experienced a couple times over the years. And just when I think I know when I'm going to be baited and switched on, I kind of have an idea, bam, it happens again. So let me give you an example of what a bait and switch might be. Someone reached out to me on LinkedIn and said, Oh, I heard about you through mental health, remote working.

     

    I love that you work that you're doing and your values love to speak with you further, because I'm currently writing a book on these things and I want to talk to experts about the different views on mental health, remote working and that sort of a thing. Great. I'm like, here's my email address. Set up some time and then I say, OK, here's my calendar. OK, let's set up some time to talk. And the calendar actually says interfere with coaching expert, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

     

    And they mentioned you be speaking to one of my members of my team because I'm super busy, but they'll be doing the interview and that's fine. They have my blessing, OK? And, you know, I get my two day warning, my day warning, my No. Ten minute warning, get on the call. And the person admits it's the first day that it's not a problem. So we go through, he asks me, does it stop recording?

     

    We say hello. We talk about general staff. Then halfway through, he starts recording. He asked me three questions, did not ask any follow up questions and or any sort of good interview techniques. It was, you know, ask question A I sort of answer, but not really. And then he doesn't answer ask any follow up questions. Now, bearing in mind that blocked off forty five minutes of my time for this interview. This interview consisted of three questions.

     

    Then as soon as that was over, maybe seven minutes into the call, this person was so sure. I'd like to know more about X person's work. Would you like me to set up an interview with them? And I'm like, can you tell me more about the book? And so they said, I just started. I don't really know. And it's really, you know, passionate about and they want to do and they want to speak to people like you.

     

    If anything comes up from the book, you know, we'll let you know so you can we can quote you and what have you. But would you like to speak to this person about what they want to do? Part of their membership group is bla bla bla bla bla. I say, wait a minute, you blocked out forty five minutes, of which you barely used seven to speak to me about my expertise, and now you're plugging a membership group to help me grow my business.

     

    But ask me if that was a problem in the first place and why would I go to you for help? But that's what they did. They baited and switched. They made it look like they wanted my expertise on remote work because I've been doing it before. It became hip.

     

    But really, they wanted me to join their membership group to help grow my business within their business. And it kind of started small l m me like you pay into it and then we might give you some stuff, but then you have to get other people. Well that's how we get people out. I don't know. So this was a bait and switch, but apparently they're fully aligned with my values and et cetera, et cetera. And would I like to set up some time to talk with boss person or actually both persons lead team?

     

    Because obviously I'm not talking to her. So part of me wants to say no, but I'm going into this year with a open curiosity and discovery. This is my theme for this year of year of discovery. So what I want to do is go to the next section and see what this call will bring, what is their membership, how much it is, because nowhere on any websites that I have looked at has pricing, which is something that I should talk about in the next episode and what it is they're expecting from me.

     

    And no, they did not make me...]]>, I kind of want to talk about the bait and switch. This is something that I've experienced a couple times over the years. And just when I think I know when I'm going to be baited and switched on, I kind of have an idea, bam, it happens again. So let me give you an example of what a bait and switch might be. Someone reached out to me on LinkedIn and said, Oh, I heard about you through mental health, remote working.

     

    I love that you work that you're doing and your values love to speak with you further, because I'm currently writing a book on these things and I want to talk to experts about the different views on mental health, remote working and that sort of a thing. Great. I'm like, here's my email address. Set up some time and then I say, OK, here's my calendar. OK, let's set up some time to talk. And the calendar actually says interfere with coaching expert, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

     

    And they mentioned you be speaking to one of my members of my team because I'm super busy, but they'll be doing the interview and that's fine. They have my blessing, OK? And, you know, I get my two day warning, my day warning, my No. Ten minute warning, get on the call. And the person admits it's the first day that it's not a problem. So we go through, he asks me, does it stop recording?

     

    We say hello. We talk about general staff. Then halfway through, he starts recording. He asked me three questions, did not ask any follow up questions and or any sort of good interview techniques. It was, you know, ask question A I sort of answer, but not really. And then he doesn't answer ask any follow up questions. Now, bearing in mind that blocked off forty five minutes of my time for this interview. This interview consisted of three questions.

     

    Then as soon as that was over, maybe seven minutes into the call, this person was so sure. I'd like to know more about X person's work. Would you like me to set up an interview with them? And I'm like, can you tell me more about the book? And so they said, I just started. I don't really know. And it's really, you know, passionate about and they want to do and they want to speak to people like you.

     

    If anything comes up from the book, you know, we'll let you know so you can we can quote you and what have you. But would you like to speak to this person about what they want to do? Part of their membership group is bla bla bla bla bla. I say, wait a minute, you blocked out forty five minutes, of which you barely used seven to speak to me about my expertise, and now you're plugging a membership group to help me grow my business.

     

    But ask me if that was a problem in the first place and why would I go to you for help? But that's what they did. They baited and switched. They made it look like they wanted my expertise on remote work because I've been doing it before. It became hip.

     

    But really, they wanted me to join their membership group to help grow my business within their business. And it kind of started small l m me like you pay into it and then we might give you some stuff, but then you have to get other people. Well that's how we get people out. I don't know. So this was a bait and switch, but apparently they're fully aligned with my values and et cetera, et cetera. And would I like to set up some time to talk with boss person or actually both persons lead team?

     

    Because obviously I'm not talking to her. So part of me wants to say no, but I'm going into this year with a open curiosity and discovery. This is my theme for this year of year of discovery. So what I want to do is go to the next section and see what this call will bring, what is their membership, how much it is, because nowhere on any websites that I have looked at has pricing, which is something that I should talk about in the next episode and what it is they're expecting from me.

     

    And no, they did not make me sign anything for their book. So far there's been no contract because I ask the question, have they done something like this before? Because I have and I don't think you're doing it right. Not can get a straight answer on that. It was more like I know they're very passionate about it, but it's my first like any started with the last week, so I don't really know. PORKED, I don't know has had any onboarding.

     

    Is that those, in fact the company culture or knows anything about the project that he is currently working on. That's really interesting. Um, so yes, if you have been the subject to a bait and switch, I would love to hear about it. Please email me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com. I know what happened, what you did. I will not mention companies or organizations, but please be aware that this happens. And it is it gives people a bad name.

     

    Thanks for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com.

     

    ]]>423756b7-b061-4738-aeb8-566d3bab3fafTue, 05 Jan 2021 17:00:00 -050005:23falsefull    Life HappensLife Happenstoday I talk about dreams, it's the end of the year. It's that kind of a thing going on. And one of the things that I got asked to do as part of a planning exercise was to write down things that I want to do in the next 12 months. And they wanted me to write down a list of things that might be obtainable or unobtainable just just to put it all out, get it on a piece of paper, all the things that I would like to do that I want to do sometime in the next 12 months.

     

    And so I scribbled away, got about 10 and scribbled away more about 15, scribbled away a little bit more, got to about 17. And then I went to look at the next set of instructions and the next set of instructions was, you should have at least 50, at which point I was like, oh, 50 50 things that I would like to happen in the next 12 months. And they say, well, that's OK, go away.

     

    Sometimes you think about things when you go when you're not thinking about it, this exercise should be done in one day. So you've made a start and I go away and come back with anything else that you think about. So I did and I got up to about 22 and even that was pushing it. And so I wrote to a friend of mine and I said, I'm doing this exercise about dreaming. And, you know, I've been accused of not dreaming big enough before.

     

    And so I have this list and I've got twenty two. And she's like, oh that's good, that's twenty two. It's a good place to start. You can always add as the year goes on. So it's like, OK, that's, that's good. So then I went back to the exercise and the next step of the exercise was OK, now that you've got your list of 50 things that you would like to happen sometime in the 12 months, go ahead and cross off some things that are really just not going to happen.

     

    Those pie in the sky dreams, for example, maybe some travel plans or some things that are not possible without gobs of money going to space, for example, probably not going to happen. So I went through my list and I scrubbed off three, three things, maybe four. That definitely, almost definitely not going to happen. And these were things that were travel related or things that I had, like, no control over. And I was going to move on to the next stage.

     

    And I have these things and and eighty to ninety five percent of them are fairly obtainable. My dream list was a list of obtainable things that I could do. So I wrote to my friend again and I was like, so get this list and it's it's my bed and dream big enough. But I was like, what am I doing wrong here? And she said, All right, let me go look at the list. Let me look at the list.

     

    Look how bad could the list be? And so I sent her this tiny list of twenty two things that I would like to do in the next year. And she was like, it's a great list. There's lots of like aspirational stuff on this list. Like, I don't I don't see why this is this is a problem that some of it is practical. Yes. But it is dreamy. Some of the things that you have and having, you know, and without having time to fill it all that that's great.

     

    That is dreamy to make sure that you have space and time to do all of this stuff. So I go, OK, then there's some other steps to go and some more planning that I was doing a different exercise. And this exercise was about my business and about what I'm doing. And I had one goal for my business and it turned out that that wasn't the right goal. After going through and checking off and thinking about other things, I had like these three or four other things that were supporting my overall goal.

     

    But at the end of the day, no matter how much planning you do, how many dreams you have and many goals you have, things will always change. And that is OK. And I think we forget that, especially when we think like New Year's resolutions and themes, this and that and the other. If this year has not taught us anything more, then things will...]]>today I talk about dreams, it's the end of the year. It's that kind of a thing going on. And one of the things that I got asked to do as part of a planning exercise was to write down things that I want to do in the next 12 months. And they wanted me to write down a list of things that might be obtainable or unobtainable just just to put it all out, get it on a piece of paper, all the things that I would like to do that I want to do sometime in the next 12 months.

     

    And so I scribbled away, got about 10 and scribbled away more about 15, scribbled away a little bit more, got to about 17. And then I went to look at the next set of instructions and the next set of instructions was, you should have at least 50, at which point I was like, oh, 50 50 things that I would like to happen in the next 12 months. And they say, well, that's OK, go away.

     

    Sometimes you think about things when you go when you're not thinking about it, this exercise should be done in one day. So you've made a start and I go away and come back with anything else that you think about. So I did and I got up to about 22 and even that was pushing it. And so I wrote to a friend of mine and I said, I'm doing this exercise about dreaming. And, you know, I've been accused of not dreaming big enough before.

     

    And so I have this list and I've got twenty two. And she's like, oh that's good, that's twenty two. It's a good place to start. You can always add as the year goes on. So it's like, OK, that's, that's good. So then I went back to the exercise and the next step of the exercise was OK, now that you've got your list of 50 things that you would like to happen sometime in the 12 months, go ahead and cross off some things that are really just not going to happen.

     

    Those pie in the sky dreams, for example, maybe some travel plans or some things that are not possible without gobs of money going to space, for example, probably not going to happen. So I went through my list and I scrubbed off three, three things, maybe four. That definitely, almost definitely not going to happen. And these were things that were travel related or things that I had, like, no control over. And I was going to move on to the next stage.

     

    And I have these things and and eighty to ninety five percent of them are fairly obtainable. My dream list was a list of obtainable things that I could do. So I wrote to my friend again and I was like, so get this list and it's it's my bed and dream big enough. But I was like, what am I doing wrong here? And she said, All right, let me go look at the list. Let me look at the list.

     

    Look how bad could the list be? And so I sent her this tiny list of twenty two things that I would like to do in the next year. And she was like, it's a great list. There's lots of like aspirational stuff on this list. Like, I don't I don't see why this is this is a problem that some of it is practical. Yes. But it is dreamy. Some of the things that you have and having, you know, and without having time to fill it all that that's great.

     

    That is dreamy to make sure that you have space and time to do all of this stuff. So I go, OK, then there's some other steps to go and some more planning that I was doing a different exercise. And this exercise was about my business and about what I'm doing. And I had one goal for my business and it turned out that that wasn't the right goal. After going through and checking off and thinking about other things, I had like these three or four other things that were supporting my overall goal.

     

    But at the end of the day, no matter how much planning you do, how many dreams you have and many goals you have, things will always change. And that is OK. And I think we forget that, especially when we think like New Year's resolutions and themes, this and that and the other. If this year has not taught us anything more, then things will always change. Things will not always go as you planned. So sometimes it's better not to have that hard core, rigid plan and just to have a vague idea of the direction that you.

     

    Want to go in, I was doing planning I a planning session, and one person was very much like, I just want to have three months where I'm not launching and I'm not doing this and I'm just working. And that was great. And that works for her. Have another person that I plan planning with and she's very much like, no, I to do these eighteen thousand different things in this, I'm going to do it and this is what we're going to do that works for her.

     

    But there are definitely clients that I work with where they have all these plans and they don't put in before time and don't put in time for life just happening and they get really frustrated with themselves when it doesn't work out. And that's something that I teach my clients, but also want everyone else to know life happens and being able to roll with it is a far better skill than having to stick to a rigid idea. And things have to be done a certain way.

     

    Anyway, that's my thought for today. Thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. I wish you a great year to come. Thanks for listening.

     

    ]]>0b933b1e-d08a-4c5a-abdd-93b2075713dbTue, 29 Dec 2020 17:00:00 -050006:26falsefull    Introvert IntentionsIntrovert Intentionstoday I would like to talk about intentionality, something that I was thinking about, one of those shower thoughts where right now I'm currently starting taking some time off. I'm taking about two weeks of client work. And yesterday I spent the day resting a little and pottering around and doing stuff. And I wasn't on the verge of being bored because I was tired. And so I napped, you know, read a little.

     

    And that's more played some games, a trend. But I realized because I hadn't planned my day, I had to be really intentional in what I was going to do with my time. I was intentionally napping. I was intentionally going to eat now and then eat again in three hours or prepare whatever it was. I was intentionally attending a planning session. Even though the end of your planning session will start of your planning session really was a five hour session.

     

    I was tired, but I was enjoying what I was doing. So I intentionally stayed and focused on that work and the process that I was going through with my cohorts. So what I realized is when I'm not officially working, I have less control maybe over what I am intentionally doing and how I am intentionally spending my time. And so this is making me think about how I want to set up my time next year, next week, next month.

     

    And I can intentionally work with clients and be very much I'm here to intentionally do this thing. And maybe that's a slightly different mindset to, OK, I'm going to do this thing because it pays me money or because it makes somebody happy or it helps them with their business. And so the intentionality around intentionally napping, because my body is telling me that I am tired, even though I had a good night's sleep or intentionally spending time on crochet or intentionally spending time planning X, Y and Z, because I didn't have a jam packed calendar.

     

    And normally I'm a very strict calendar person. So I'm wondering, do I need my calendar to be as strict as it has been? And is it stopping my intentionality or how can I breathe intentionally out intentionality into my calendar? That's something I was thinking about and also intentionality in my time off. I do have a bunch of stuff planned that I want to do that I'm excited about, but I actually get to choose the time when I'm going to do it, how long I'm going to take on it.

     

    And it's it feels very different to me and I can't quite explain why. I've had people talk about intentionality before and I didn't fully understand it. And now I think I'm starting to get a little idea about intentionality and what that might look like in general.

     

    So, listeners, what question I have for you is. While you are thinking about what you want to do in the future this week, this month, this year, except that you always have choices, even if you don't like the choices that are available to you, you still have them. Any time you tell yourself that you must do something because you have no choice, it's a lie. It's not true. The thing is, you may not have a choice that you like, but there is always a choice between things and it is yours to make get to know yourself if you don't know yourself and what you want from your life, your morals, your values and that sort of thing, that is hard to make choices and you kind of make random decisions.

     

    It's hard to live a life of intention if you don't know where you want to end up and you don't know what success is or happiness is to you, you won't be able to get there because you won't have an end point and learn how to set your goals and understand what it takes to reach those goals. You set goals and make it the smart method and all that good stuff, but make sure that you track it so you know when you've succeeded it.

     

    Small daily actions that impact your goals will get you somewhere further than hodgepodge here, there and everywhere, doing random things to get towards...]]>today I would like to talk about intentionality, something that I was thinking about, one of those shower thoughts where right now I'm currently starting taking some time off. I'm taking about two weeks of client work. And yesterday I spent the day resting a little and pottering around and doing stuff. And I wasn't on the verge of being bored because I was tired. And so I napped, you know, read a little.

     

    And that's more played some games, a trend. But I realized because I hadn't planned my day, I had to be really intentional in what I was going to do with my time. I was intentionally napping. I was intentionally going to eat now and then eat again in three hours or prepare whatever it was. I was intentionally attending a planning session. Even though the end of your planning session will start of your planning session really was a five hour session.

     

    I was tired, but I was enjoying what I was doing. So I intentionally stayed and focused on that work and the process that I was going through with my cohorts. So what I realized is when I'm not officially working, I have less control maybe over what I am intentionally doing and how I am intentionally spending my time. And so this is making me think about how I want to set up my time next year, next week, next month.

     

    And I can intentionally work with clients and be very much I'm here to intentionally do this thing. And maybe that's a slightly different mindset to, OK, I'm going to do this thing because it pays me money or because it makes somebody happy or it helps them with their business. And so the intentionality around intentionally napping, because my body is telling me that I am tired, even though I had a good night's sleep or intentionally spending time on crochet or intentionally spending time planning X, Y and Z, because I didn't have a jam packed calendar.

     

    And normally I'm a very strict calendar person. So I'm wondering, do I need my calendar to be as strict as it has been? And is it stopping my intentionality or how can I breathe intentionally out intentionality into my calendar? That's something I was thinking about and also intentionality in my time off. I do have a bunch of stuff planned that I want to do that I'm excited about, but I actually get to choose the time when I'm going to do it, how long I'm going to take on it.

     

    And it's it feels very different to me and I can't quite explain why. I've had people talk about intentionality before and I didn't fully understand it. And now I think I'm starting to get a little idea about intentionality and what that might look like in general.

     

    So, listeners, what question I have for you is. While you are thinking about what you want to do in the future this week, this month, this year, except that you always have choices, even if you don't like the choices that are available to you, you still have them. Any time you tell yourself that you must do something because you have no choice, it's a lie. It's not true. The thing is, you may not have a choice that you like, but there is always a choice between things and it is yours to make get to know yourself if you don't know yourself and what you want from your life, your morals, your values and that sort of thing, that is hard to make choices and you kind of make random decisions.

     

    It's hard to live a life of intention if you don't know where you want to end up and you don't know what success is or happiness is to you, you won't be able to get there because you won't have an end point and learn how to set your goals and understand what it takes to reach those goals. You set goals and make it the smart method and all that good stuff, but make sure that you track it so you know when you've succeeded it.

     

    Small daily actions that impact your goals will get you somewhere further than hodgepodge here, there and everywhere, doing random things to get towards your goal. But the main thing is stay focused and be mindful because these will have a long term effects on your goals and your plans just being intentional in what you do and why you do it. Can change the world, thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping us build our brand and get hired. I look forward to getting your e-mails.

     

    If there's anything you want me to talk about on the show, please email me at Janice@thecareerintrovert.com. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>e989ed34-1084-4209-9aae-f960c4913068Tue, 22 Dec 2020 17:00:00 -050005:40falsefull    How not to prepare for sales callsHow not to prepare for sales callsI want to talk about sales, doesn't matter how amazing your business or your product is if your sales guy sucks. So I've been looking to work with a company about a project that I've got coming up next year. I've been vetting them out. I loved the mission. I loved the values. I loved what they stood for and I loved the product. And so I was on this page and I needed to get in contact with them.

     

    So they have a contact form and the contact form asked the usual questions. Name company. Why you how did you find us and any other questions that I would like to ask to make the call? You know, better for everybody. And so I put specific questions. I wanted to know about time zones. I wanted to know about opening hours, and I want to know about invoicing and hours. And I put that in the form along with my name, my company.

     

    You are well, that sort of a thing that then led me to a calendar link and like a great perfect. Now I get to look at a calendar link straight away. Wonderful. I go. And I booked time with someone who wasn't who they said I was going to talk to, but that was fine. So far, so good book. The time I get a confirmation email to my email address. Great email confirmation is from a name dot company at Gmail dot com, a bit of a red flag because this company has been around for at least four years.

     

    Kind of thought I would get a domain name. So it should be name and company name, dot com or Gmail or whatever it might be. But fine, what have you next day I have the call now bearing in mind that it asked me some questions and got me to fill out a form so soon as we get on the call, the first thing the sales person says is, please tell me about your business. I'm already like and I just sent you a bunch of information about me and you can take the two minutes to go and Google company name or me my name.

     

    I happened to be lucky enough that my name is unique enough that you pull up something. And so I ambivalent about something that is not exactly my business. It's just part of what I do. We continue on with the core. They ask me what my requirements are and I, I tell them what I'm looking for and then the person is very much like, OK, well, we think we're going to be a very good fit for you. And so I said, well, as you think, you're going to be a good fit for me and my organization.

     

    Please tell me like what the top thing is that my clients are looking for, not persons response was. Well, they're looking for your unique service proposition and your offerings. Now, if you've been listening to this long enough, you would know they only had to mention the word introvert. That's it. That's all they had to say. But they obviously, even during that twenty minute call, couldn't be bothered to Google my name or Google my my company.

     

    And so they tried to B.S. me some now really annoyed about it. And so they asked me if I have any other questions and I'm very much like, well I did ask questions in the form. And you haven't answered those questions because we still hadn't talked about when they open timezones that their staff are in and invoicing. And so the person got defensive and said, well, what do you think? I haven't answered. And so I repeated my questions and they sort of kind of answered them.

     

    Then they said, OK, so when can we get back to, you know, to get this ball rolling, really have very limited spots, yada, yada, yada. Hartsell and I said, well, this week is very busy. I'm doing this for my clients and then I'll be working on this sort of thing the week after that. And so the person then says, OK, so I can contact you at the end of this week.

     

    No, you obviously weren't listening. I just said I'm busy this week and then you can contact me next week. So I had to reiterate, we close the call normally most salespeople at this point, we then go ahead and send it if formational email that says, hey,...]]>I want to talk about sales, doesn't matter how amazing your business or your product is if your sales guy sucks. So I've been looking to work with a company about a project that I've got coming up next year. I've been vetting them out. I loved the mission. I loved the values. I loved what they stood for and I loved the product. And so I was on this page and I needed to get in contact with them.

     

    So they have a contact form and the contact form asked the usual questions. Name company. Why you how did you find us and any other questions that I would like to ask to make the call? You know, better for everybody. And so I put specific questions. I wanted to know about time zones. I wanted to know about opening hours, and I want to know about invoicing and hours. And I put that in the form along with my name, my company.

     

    You are well, that sort of a thing that then led me to a calendar link and like a great perfect. Now I get to look at a calendar link straight away. Wonderful. I go. And I booked time with someone who wasn't who they said I was going to talk to, but that was fine. So far, so good book. The time I get a confirmation email to my email address. Great email confirmation is from a name dot company at Gmail dot com, a bit of a red flag because this company has been around for at least four years.

     

    Kind of thought I would get a domain name. So it should be name and company name, dot com or Gmail or whatever it might be. But fine, what have you next day I have the call now bearing in mind that it asked me some questions and got me to fill out a form so soon as we get on the call, the first thing the sales person says is, please tell me about your business. I'm already like and I just sent you a bunch of information about me and you can take the two minutes to go and Google company name or me my name.

     

    I happened to be lucky enough that my name is unique enough that you pull up something. And so I ambivalent about something that is not exactly my business. It's just part of what I do. We continue on with the core. They ask me what my requirements are and I, I tell them what I'm looking for and then the person is very much like, OK, well, we think we're going to be a very good fit for you. And so I said, well, as you think, you're going to be a good fit for me and my organization.

     

    Please tell me like what the top thing is that my clients are looking for, not persons response was. Well, they're looking for your unique service proposition and your offerings. Now, if you've been listening to this long enough, you would know they only had to mention the word introvert. That's it. That's all they had to say. But they obviously, even during that twenty minute call, couldn't be bothered to Google my name or Google my my company.

     

    And so they tried to B.S. me some now really annoyed about it. And so they asked me if I have any other questions and I'm very much like, well I did ask questions in the form. And you haven't answered those questions because we still hadn't talked about when they open timezones that their staff are in and invoicing. And so the person got defensive and said, well, what do you think? I haven't answered. And so I repeated my questions and they sort of kind of answered them.

     

    Then they said, OK, so when can we get back to, you know, to get this ball rolling, really have very limited spots, yada, yada, yada. Hartsell and I said, well, this week is very busy. I'm doing this for my clients and then I'll be working on this sort of thing the week after that. And so the person then says, OK, so I can contact you at the end of this week.

     

    No, you obviously weren't listening. I just said I'm busy this week and then you can contact me next week. So I had to reiterate, we close the call normally most salespeople at this point, we then go ahead and send it if formational email that says, hey, great talking to you today. We covered X, Y and Z. I will follow up with you on this day. No email. Oh, wait, no, I lied.

     

    I did get an email, but I got an email from a different person in the company saying, hey, I noticed you filled out this form and one of our team would love to speak with you. Please click on this link to put the time.

     

    Really, really, it's not only does the left hand know what the right hand is doing, the systems are messed up and the sales guy blew it. I was so happy I was going to throw money at the most happy to work with them because I loved their vision and their mission. But he couldn't be bothered to just Google my name or my company name. Instead, he tried. They got defensive and then tried to to be asked me to be fair.

     

    And that's how not to run your sales process, or at least the sales guy. He didn't use any common sense. It would've been better if he admitted and said, you know what, I just hopped on this morning. I didn't have a chance to look you up. I'd love to know more about you. Or can you give me a second while I do it? Now, that would be better. Coming clean would have been better, but the lying and the squirming around kind of made it look kind of sleazy and unethical.

     

    And now I don't want to work with the organization and I don't care how much I love the mission and what they do, I now don't want to work. And actually there was a point where I was like, maybe I'll just email someone higher up and explain the situation. And then the other email came through the automated. Only one of our team would love to speak with you. And I was just like, oh, I'm done. So that's what I wanted to talk about today.

     

    Thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get high. If there's any questions on topics that you want me to cover on this podcast, let me know. Email me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>09563f7b-c2a5-4525-a44f-240d8b0a524bTue, 15 Dec 2020 17:00:00 -050006:19falsefull    Why You Need to Regularly Assess Your SkillsWhy You Need to Regularly Assess Your SkillsToday, I'm going to talk about why you need to regularly assess your skills. I think something that happens as we go through life and we come across a problem, we deal with it, we move on to the next problem or move on to the next thing. And now's the time of year where people are planning for the next year and not just out and looking back from the previous year.

     

    And we tend to look at what we've done, what we've accomplished. And one thing that really needs to happen is to really assess what skills you have and what you've learned or what you need to change or what isn't useful anymore. And we don't do this enough. Anyone who wants to improve and prosper in your professional or your personal lives, you need to make time to assess your skills. And this can be an every quarter is a good way of doing it.

     

    I mean, when you're an employer, you know, often employers will have a yearly assessment feedback, so on and so forth, to make sure that their employees are learning and growing with the new company. This is because it benefits the company as a whole. You know, if you improve your team, the company improves and the bottom line improves. And so whether you're an employee or an employer or just a solar panel, regularly assessing your skills is really important.

     

    And so think think about these things. When you are assessing your skills, what can you do to improve your quality and speed? Productivity? Productivity is a crucial attribute for successful people. And to do this, you must improve your quality. And by doing so, you'll take less time doing things. After all, getting more done isn't good enough if it's not done well. Also, you know, when you're regularly assessing your skills, use it as a time to self reflect.

     

    Self reflection is vital for successful career business life in general. It provides time to look within yourself and see where you can improve and what you've accomplished. So putting this in your calendar on a regular basis and making it a non-negotiable is a way of doing this. Now, when you are thinking about assessing your skills, also think about your strengths and how you can maximize those and all lead to new ones. Competing daily life stuff can make things easy to ignore what you are truly good at.

     

    So reflecting and testing your skills and reassessing your abilities will allow you to focus even more on areas that you are great at, allowing you to perfect that skill even more. And on the flip side, of course, is also understanding your weaknesses and how to improve them. Just how looking back and reassessing your skills will highlight what your strengths are. It should also highlight what your weaknesses are, your shortcomings, and make them far more visible to you.

     

    This is great because if it's done more than once a year, your ability to work towards bettering them or having a plan to mitigate your weakness. If you are a partner, if you are bad, a certain thing, you can outsource it or you can learn to make it better. Often, if you reassess this in a more regular basis, you'll figure out where that gap is. And outsourcing is fine. But the sooner you figure that out, the sooner you know things can balance out and work out better.

     

    Also, when you are assessing your skills, it allows you to take education and learning into your own hands. It provides you the ability to be more self-aware and acknowledge your achievements as well as your failures, and also give you a clearer, more defined path to learn and develop yourself into personally and professionally. If you want to grow as a person and have a more successful career or business or, you know, work on your life goals, you need to continually make time to evaluate your abilities so that you know where to improve and where you lack.

     

    You can go ahead and look for online skill assessments or personality tests. Ask friends and...]]>Today, I'm going to talk about why you need to regularly assess your skills. I think something that happens as we go through life and we come across a problem, we deal with it, we move on to the next problem or move on to the next thing. And now's the time of year where people are planning for the next year and not just out and looking back from the previous year.

     

    And we tend to look at what we've done, what we've accomplished. And one thing that really needs to happen is to really assess what skills you have and what you've learned or what you need to change or what isn't useful anymore. And we don't do this enough. Anyone who wants to improve and prosper in your professional or your personal lives, you need to make time to assess your skills. And this can be an every quarter is a good way of doing it.

     

    I mean, when you're an employer, you know, often employers will have a yearly assessment feedback, so on and so forth, to make sure that their employees are learning and growing with the new company. This is because it benefits the company as a whole. You know, if you improve your team, the company improves and the bottom line improves. And so whether you're an employee or an employer or just a solar panel, regularly assessing your skills is really important.

     

    And so think think about these things. When you are assessing your skills, what can you do to improve your quality and speed? Productivity? Productivity is a crucial attribute for successful people. And to do this, you must improve your quality. And by doing so, you'll take less time doing things. After all, getting more done isn't good enough if it's not done well. Also, you know, when you're regularly assessing your skills, use it as a time to self reflect.

     

    Self reflection is vital for successful career business life in general. It provides time to look within yourself and see where you can improve and what you've accomplished. So putting this in your calendar on a regular basis and making it a non-negotiable is a way of doing this. Now, when you are thinking about assessing your skills, also think about your strengths and how you can maximize those and all lead to new ones. Competing daily life stuff can make things easy to ignore what you are truly good at.

     

    So reflecting and testing your skills and reassessing your abilities will allow you to focus even more on areas that you are great at, allowing you to perfect that skill even more. And on the flip side, of course, is also understanding your weaknesses and how to improve them. Just how looking back and reassessing your skills will highlight what your strengths are. It should also highlight what your weaknesses are, your shortcomings, and make them far more visible to you.

     

    This is great because if it's done more than once a year, your ability to work towards bettering them or having a plan to mitigate your weakness. If you are a partner, if you are bad, a certain thing, you can outsource it or you can learn to make it better. Often, if you reassess this in a more regular basis, you'll figure out where that gap is. And outsourcing is fine. But the sooner you figure that out, the sooner you know things can balance out and work out better.

     

    Also, when you are assessing your skills, it allows you to take education and learning into your own hands. It provides you the ability to be more self-aware and acknowledge your achievements as well as your failures, and also give you a clearer, more defined path to learn and develop yourself into personally and professionally. If you want to grow as a person and have a more successful career or business or, you know, work on your life goals, you need to continually make time to evaluate your abilities so that you know where to improve and where you lack.

     

    You can go ahead and look for online skill assessments or personality tests. Ask friends and co-workers to assess you, look at past reviews, past things that you've said about yourself. These are just a few ways that you can get valuable feedback on your current abilities so that you can enhance your career, advance your business and accomplish your goals. Reviewing is crucial. Thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com and helping you build your brand and grow your business.

     

    Have a great rest of your day.

     

    ]]>ae9ce1f7-dc65-49fa-9e7a-d72061f5dacfTue, 08 Dec 2020 17:00:00 -050005:00falsefull    Unsubscribing from black FridayUnsubscribing from black FridayI'm actually recording this on Thanksgiving, so actually it's midnight. So Black Friday and what I am doing is unsubscribing from Black Friday. And what I mean by this is Black Friday week and Cyber Monday. Tuesday tends to be the time that any mailing list that you are accidentally or on purpose on will send you an email or 15, because this is the time when people who have these mailing lists that they've left dormant for months or years or whatever will be like, oh, but Black Friday, I need to do a sale.

     

    I need to do this a promotion or whatever it might be. So you're almost guaranteed to get an email from companies, organizations that you haven't heard from in a long time, or also companies that you have been hearing from on a regular basis. So what I've been doing is using this as an opportunity to unsubscribe from organizations, people that I haven't been engaging with, that content is no longer relevant for me. It's a really interesting thing. Now, there are some people who I have been reading the emails on a regular basis.

     

    And yes, they happen to be doing a promotion or they are specifically doing a promotion for Black Friday. And I will just delete the email, but I won't unsubscribe because I've been in regular contact with things have been going on. But Black Friday is a great time to unsubscribe and clean out your mailbox. And also you'll find that the amount of emails that you get will be more. Now, there are a lot of organizations that decide Black Friday is a thing.

     

    This is what I'm going to do. They have amazing discounts of 25, 50 percent of whatever it might be, or they put together bundles or they do lifetime deals or they work with other competitors or other organizations to put together this Black Friday deal. Um, some other deals that are just available on the Black Friday. Some have been known to up their prices before Black Friday and then discount this amusing bunny ears, discount those things afterwards. And so when you're looking and thinking about your Black Friday deals, I think it's really good to take a look and think about the kind of organizations that you want to work with are the ones that try and do.

     

    It's only nineteen dollars to sign up and then, you know, your next payment is three hundred and something where they do the bait and switch or that they decide, no, I'm not going to, you know, live into the Black Friday and fade into the Black Friday sales thing. And my prices are my prices. And this is just what your pay. Maybe I'll do a special on offer something extra, but I'm not going to discount my base prices.

     

    And I think that is a good way to go, because all in all, what Black Friday encourages, especially with software deals, is for people to buy something cheaply, not really see it at its true value, because even if someone says, oh, it's nineteen dollars, but really it's five hundred and sixty eight dollars, you know what it's worth. People don't perceive it that way and they'll buy it at the eighteen dollars and then be shocked the next year or the next quarter whenever the next billing cycle is, when the price is whatever it is and they won't see the inherent value in that particular item.

     

    So it goes with courses and with coaching sessions or with branding, whatever it might be that you have as a business, it is better to offer a bonus like a bonus, one on one session or a bonus workbook that only comes out once a year or something of that nature. Offer more instead of discounting your prices, because people will see that, oh, this is your price and you're going to offer this extra thing, Black Friday. So you're still getting paid your worth.

     

    That's my viewpoint on it. And the other thing is it's overwhelming. There were so many emails and so many Black Friday deals that you don't know what might be good for you and your business. And you might buy something on...]]>I'm actually recording this on Thanksgiving, so actually it's midnight. So Black Friday and what I am doing is unsubscribing from Black Friday. And what I mean by this is Black Friday week and Cyber Monday. Tuesday tends to be the time that any mailing list that you are accidentally or on purpose on will send you an email or 15, because this is the time when people who have these mailing lists that they've left dormant for months or years or whatever will be like, oh, but Black Friday, I need to do a sale.

     

    I need to do this a promotion or whatever it might be. So you're almost guaranteed to get an email from companies, organizations that you haven't heard from in a long time, or also companies that you have been hearing from on a regular basis. So what I've been doing is using this as an opportunity to unsubscribe from organizations, people that I haven't been engaging with, that content is no longer relevant for me. It's a really interesting thing. Now, there are some people who I have been reading the emails on a regular basis.

     

    And yes, they happen to be doing a promotion or they are specifically doing a promotion for Black Friday. And I will just delete the email, but I won't unsubscribe because I've been in regular contact with things have been going on. But Black Friday is a great time to unsubscribe and clean out your mailbox. And also you'll find that the amount of emails that you get will be more. Now, there are a lot of organizations that decide Black Friday is a thing.

     

    This is what I'm going to do. They have amazing discounts of 25, 50 percent of whatever it might be, or they put together bundles or they do lifetime deals or they work with other competitors or other organizations to put together this Black Friday deal. Um, some other deals that are just available on the Black Friday. Some have been known to up their prices before Black Friday and then discount this amusing bunny ears, discount those things afterwards. And so when you're looking and thinking about your Black Friday deals, I think it's really good to take a look and think about the kind of organizations that you want to work with are the ones that try and do.

     

    It's only nineteen dollars to sign up and then, you know, your next payment is three hundred and something where they do the bait and switch or that they decide, no, I'm not going to, you know, live into the Black Friday and fade into the Black Friday sales thing. And my prices are my prices. And this is just what your pay. Maybe I'll do a special on offer something extra, but I'm not going to discount my base prices.

     

    And I think that is a good way to go, because all in all, what Black Friday encourages, especially with software deals, is for people to buy something cheaply, not really see it at its true value, because even if someone says, oh, it's nineteen dollars, but really it's five hundred and sixty eight dollars, you know what it's worth. People don't perceive it that way and they'll buy it at the eighteen dollars and then be shocked the next year or the next quarter whenever the next billing cycle is, when the price is whatever it is and they won't see the inherent value in that particular item.

     

    So it goes with courses and with coaching sessions or with branding, whatever it might be that you have as a business, it is better to offer a bonus like a bonus, one on one session or a bonus workbook that only comes out once a year or something of that nature. Offer more instead of discounting your prices, because people will see that, oh, this is your price and you're going to offer this extra thing, Black Friday. So you're still getting paid your worth.

     

    That's my viewpoint on it. And the other thing is it's overwhelming. There were so many emails and so many Black Friday deals that you don't know what might be good for you and your business. And you might buy something on impulse and then realize it's not a good fit. Oh, it's not exactly what I need. And so unless you've done your research in advance and had a game plan or I'm only going to spend this amount on Black Friday, this tends to be a time of year where people impulse spend and then regret later.

     

    And maybe you don't want to be that organization that people regret buying later. Just just something to keep in mind. So thanks for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping people, mainly introverts, build their brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>e4925670-d426-48e0-bb0f-0e1f2ed1fec6Tue, 01 Dec 2020 17:00:00 -050005:11falsefull    How to Learn from CriticismHow to Learn from CriticismToday, I want to talk about learning how learning from criticism, how to take criticism, how hard you try, it's often difficult to hear any type of criticism, especially when it's about your work. And if you are creative, even more so because you are your work and it's very personal, it can cause us to second guess ourselves. And worse, it might even make you stop doing whatever it was that you wanted to do.

     

    It might send you into a tailspin and like wondering and thinking and round and round it doesn't have to. In fact, the most criticism can be turned into like valuable feedback even. It sometimes feels like a very negative experience. One thing we really have to remember is that most of the time when someone is giving you feedback, it's not usually an attack. Most critiques are not about attacking you. The person, even sometimes when it's given negatively, they're often like kernels of truth that you can gather from it.

     

    You just have to let go of the emotion. And even if you pretend it's not an attack and lies with the critique was without passion and emotion, without being personal about it, it's normally about your work and or how you're doing something, not about you. The person. Something else that you can do when reacting to criticism is listen carefully and try not to react when the critique or that feedback happens. Either listen or read it with a minimum emotion as possible.

     

    You want to take or take all of the information in and just listen to it for complete understanding. Don't make assumptions or rush through. If it's a conversation, it's OK to ask questions, but don't interrupt. If you're reading it, that's usually easier. Just read it out loud and let it rest and sit for a bit, then come back and read it again to make sure what you originally thought when you're just like rushing through is exactly what's being said.

     

    Once you allow yourself to kind of sit and understand as much as you can, as much as you think you can, now you can ask for clarification of things that you're not sure about and you do this carefully without sounding defensive. The idea is to say, OK, I've I've heard this feedback. I just want to clarify X, Y and Z. I just want to check is this exactly what you meant? Because your understanding of what they have said or written might not always be the same thing.

     

    Now, as I mentioned before, try not to take it personally, even if it's someone trying to get under your skin with their feedback and usually they're not don't take it personally. Often criticism and feedback is more about the person delivering it than about you, the person, unless you have a mentor or coach giving you feedback and then that's a little different. Now, one really important thing is. Letting go of things that aren't factual, focus on the meat of the feedback at first, if the entire thing is someone's subjective or like just what they're thinking about, then you only need to talk about it with the person because it's just their opinion.

     

    But and because it's not like truth, you know, it's OK. But if it is actual facts, that is what you need to focus on. One tactic is if someone is mad and they're giving you, the feedback is to mentally and physically delete anything that's not factual and just mean what they read and process the rest. So you just need to process the things that are facts and not subjective. And whenever you do get feedback, always, always say thank you what someone has given you and taken the time to give you feedback, it's vital that you thank them and follow up with them, especially if you can tell them how it helped you improve and or change something.

     

    Getting feedback is an important part of improving yourself. No one ever gives you any type of feedback.

     

    If no one ever gives you any type of feedback that doesn't make you uncomfortable, then you might be hanging out with the]]>Today, I want to talk about learning how learning from criticism, how to take criticism, how hard you try, it's often difficult to hear any type of criticism, especially when it's about your work. And if you are creative, even more so because you are your work and it's very personal, it can cause us to second guess ourselves. And worse, it might even make you stop doing whatever it was that you wanted to do.

     

    It might send you into a tailspin and like wondering and thinking and round and round it doesn't have to. In fact, the most criticism can be turned into like valuable feedback even. It sometimes feels like a very negative experience. One thing we really have to remember is that most of the time when someone is giving you feedback, it's not usually an attack. Most critiques are not about attacking you. The person, even sometimes when it's given negatively, they're often like kernels of truth that you can gather from it.

     

    You just have to let go of the emotion. And even if you pretend it's not an attack and lies with the critique was without passion and emotion, without being personal about it, it's normally about your work and or how you're doing something, not about you. The person. Something else that you can do when reacting to criticism is listen carefully and try not to react when the critique or that feedback happens. Either listen or read it with a minimum emotion as possible.

     

    You want to take or take all of the information in and just listen to it for complete understanding. Don't make assumptions or rush through. If it's a conversation, it's OK to ask questions, but don't interrupt. If you're reading it, that's usually easier. Just read it out loud and let it rest and sit for a bit, then come back and read it again to make sure what you originally thought when you're just like rushing through is exactly what's being said.

     

    Once you allow yourself to kind of sit and understand as much as you can, as much as you think you can, now you can ask for clarification of things that you're not sure about and you do this carefully without sounding defensive. The idea is to say, OK, I've I've heard this feedback. I just want to clarify X, Y and Z. I just want to check is this exactly what you meant? Because your understanding of what they have said or written might not always be the same thing.

     

    Now, as I mentioned before, try not to take it personally, even if it's someone trying to get under your skin with their feedback and usually they're not don't take it personally. Often criticism and feedback is more about the person delivering it than about you, the person, unless you have a mentor or coach giving you feedback and then that's a little different. Now, one really important thing is. Letting go of things that aren't factual, focus on the meat of the feedback at first, if the entire thing is someone's subjective or like just what they're thinking about, then you only need to talk about it with the person because it's just their opinion.

     

    But and because it's not like truth, you know, it's OK. But if it is actual facts, that is what you need to focus on. One tactic is if someone is mad and they're giving you, the feedback is to mentally and physically delete anything that's not factual and just mean what they read and process the rest. So you just need to process the things that are facts and not subjective. And whenever you do get feedback, always, always say thank you what someone has given you and taken the time to give you feedback, it's vital that you thank them and follow up with them, especially if you can tell them how it helped you improve and or change something.

     

    Getting feedback is an important part of improving yourself. No one ever gives you any type of feedback.

     

    If no one ever gives you any type of feedback that doesn't make you uncomfortable, then you might be hanging out with the wrong people. Then yes, people instead of those who really want you to succeed, can really give you critical feedback. So consider hiring like a coach or a mentor or someone or having a group of people that are willing to give you regular critical feedback that is honest, transparent and upfront. This can only help you moving forward, because one thing that we're not taught is how to take feedback and to learn from it to improve ourselves.

     

    Our writing, our reading, our business, our everyday lives, we can all improve. None of us is perfect. So take what is given to you as feedback, work on it, adjust and move forward and reiterate. Go back and check with a person if that's what they meant. That's the way to move forward and improve. Thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com. If you have any questions for me, you want me to answer on the podcast, email me at Janice@thecareerintrovert.com.

     

    Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>eb942ed9-d198-48e3-868f-39e044b3624fTue, 24 Nov 2020 17:00:00 -050005:08falsefull    Plan your client journeyPlan your client journeytoday I want to discuss your customer journey. A lot of people, when they're thinking about starting a new business, they get very excited to do the website. They do the logo, they they have the product and they go out there and try and sell it, which is great.

     

    But a lot of the time they don't think about the journey that the customer has to make. Either before or after or during the sale, and that's where you can figure out where there might be some issues. So, for example, OK, your client finds you, happens to find you via a blog post on that blog post page. Is there a way to contact you? Is there a way to grab your freebie? Is there a way to get one on one time with you?

     

    If they own if the only thing they see is that blog post, how can they then get a hold of you? Is that even an option? Does a blog post lead to something that carries on from what the blog post topic was about, or is it something unrelated? Is there a special offer at the end of the blog post is an option to sign up for your newsletter. If they do sign up for your newsletter, do they get put into a welcome sequence or do they go straight into a sequence that leads on from that particular newsletter?

     

    And if so, when do they get the welcome sequence to find out a little bit more about you? Do they get tagged in the system? If they do get Tegner system, what's the tag? Where's the workflow? You need to think about the workflow for your customer, your potential customer to make sure that you have everything in place required to make that happen and flow easily. You want your customer to find out more about you to feel like, know and trust, but also have a very consistent experience.

     

    And so along with the emails, how do they then maybe buy a course from you or set up time with you? Is it easy? Do you always promote within your newsletter that the newsletter doesn't have to be happy about the course, but at the bottom of your newsletter, are there calls to action? Like if you want this information, click here. If you're more interested in this, click here. How do you go about segmenting your clients?

     

    Because you might have people who are interested in travel overall, for example, but some might be more interested in train travel or plane travel. How do you go about segmenting people in that way and keeping them engaged? So the other thing is once they pay for a product, what happens? Do they get a welcome sequence from paying for that product or do they get something else or something similar as some of you could duplicate across all of your all of your products?

     

    But they sort of get an email that's slightly tweaked. And what help and support do they get after that? Are all of your newsletter emails just by friendly neighborhood Spider-Man emails, or are they some of those kind of emails?

     

    But every month you give an overview of what you're doing that month. How do you break up the information that you give to your potential clients and your newsletter followers? Do you have different newsletters for different things?

     

    Once someone does start working with you, do they get a regular email? Do they get reminders for their appointments? How does that flow? What about payments? How do they regularly pay you? Do you invoice or is auto payment is a subscription.

     

    So many coaches I know do manual payments and so they're sitting there once a month on different days of the month, like figuring out how much someone needs to pay and then running their credit card manually instead of just setting them up with paper subscription. So they pay once and then it comes out. And at the same time, every month, there are so many different ways to make your life easier and your client's life easier. But if you don't figure out your clients flow and how they get to you and what different ways they can get to you and their client journey, you]]>today I want to discuss your customer journey. A lot of people, when they're thinking about starting a new business, they get very excited to do the website. They do the logo, they they have the product and they go out there and try and sell it, which is great.

     

    But a lot of the time they don't think about the journey that the customer has to make. Either before or after or during the sale, and that's where you can figure out where there might be some issues. So, for example, OK, your client finds you, happens to find you via a blog post on that blog post page. Is there a way to contact you? Is there a way to grab your freebie? Is there a way to get one on one time with you?

     

    If they own if the only thing they see is that blog post, how can they then get a hold of you? Is that even an option? Does a blog post lead to something that carries on from what the blog post topic was about, or is it something unrelated? Is there a special offer at the end of the blog post is an option to sign up for your newsletter. If they do sign up for your newsletter, do they get put into a welcome sequence or do they go straight into a sequence that leads on from that particular newsletter?

     

    And if so, when do they get the welcome sequence to find out a little bit more about you? Do they get tagged in the system? If they do get Tegner system, what's the tag? Where's the workflow? You need to think about the workflow for your customer, your potential customer to make sure that you have everything in place required to make that happen and flow easily. You want your customer to find out more about you to feel like, know and trust, but also have a very consistent experience.

     

    And so along with the emails, how do they then maybe buy a course from you or set up time with you? Is it easy? Do you always promote within your newsletter that the newsletter doesn't have to be happy about the course, but at the bottom of your newsletter, are there calls to action? Like if you want this information, click here. If you're more interested in this, click here. How do you go about segmenting your clients?

     

    Because you might have people who are interested in travel overall, for example, but some might be more interested in train travel or plane travel. How do you go about segmenting people in that way and keeping them engaged? So the other thing is once they pay for a product, what happens? Do they get a welcome sequence from paying for that product or do they get something else or something similar as some of you could duplicate across all of your all of your products?

     

    But they sort of get an email that's slightly tweaked. And what help and support do they get after that? Are all of your newsletter emails just by friendly neighborhood Spider-Man emails, or are they some of those kind of emails?

     

    But every month you give an overview of what you're doing that month. How do you break up the information that you give to your potential clients and your newsletter followers? Do you have different newsletters for different things?

     

    Once someone does start working with you, do they get a regular email? Do they get reminders for their appointments? How does that flow? What about payments? How do they regularly pay you? Do you invoice or is auto payment is a subscription.

     

    So many coaches I know do manual payments and so they're sitting there once a month on different days of the month, like figuring out how much someone needs to pay and then running their credit card manually instead of just setting them up with paper subscription. So they pay once and then it comes out. And at the same time, every month, there are so many different ways to make your life easier and your client's life easier. But if you don't figure out your clients flow and how they get to you and what different ways they can get to you and their client journey, you have no way of plugging those gaps and no way of making it a seamless and hopefully mostly automated experience for your customers.

     

    So before you get into selling in the flash sales on the phone, all of these things, figure out what your client journey looks like and then figure out if you have the tech stack to go with it, because that's the important thing. And once you figure out what you need, then you can make sure that you have a tech stack to support the framework that you have for your clients. Thank you for listening.

     

    This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com.

     

    If you have any questions for me to answer on the show, please email me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com

     

    Thanks for listening and have a great rest of the week.

     

    ]]>6c9bfd8f-98db-4245-aee8-c8e9837ec4dfTue, 17 Nov 2020 17:00:00 -050005:10falsefull    Why you should have more than one incomeWhy you should have more than one incomeI want to talk about how your money shouldn't come from just one place. If recent events have taught us nothing, it is that nothing is guaranteed. So even if you do have that day job that that 9:00 to 5:00 paycheck, having that as the only way that you earn money is not a great thing, is having all your eggs in that one basket. And the reason why this might not be optimum for a lot of people is when that basket goes, you might be prepared, you want to have savings, and then you are left in this position where things are very dire very quickly.

     

    And so while you're in that panic mode, it's very, very hard to go ahead and think clearly about what steps that you need to do next and how you need to move forward to make your situation better. And so there's a couple things that I'd like to talk about. One is sort of, yes, you can have your nine to five job as do you get money from other things, be it interest on some savings that you have, or do you have stocks where you you get dividends, maybe you rent out a place, maybe you have a little side business where you create jewelry and sell it on Etsy and whatever it is, it's something that is very low for you to maintain.

     

    It is really interfere with your day job, but you get joy from it and it brings you in a little bit of income in some way, shape or form. And if you don't have that right now because you think it will take up too much time or money or resources with that sort of thing, something to think about is at some point in the future, it might be helpful. What happens if you cannot do your current role? So, for example, if your role is very much computer based, what happens if your eyesight goes or you get carpal tunnel syndrome?

     

    Do you have something that you can do that uses different a different skill set or different physicality so that if one thing goes, you are still capable of doing other things? That is something else to think about. For example, if you super into your own health and you like writing books, yes, it's great that you can maybe write it using a computer, but could you write it? I'm doing voice to text. It's doing the same role, but doing it in a different way in case something happens.

     

    You never know. Also, you know, do you have enough savings for six months worth of paying your bills, for example, should something happen and you don't work for six months, can you survive? Will you be OK? Because sometimes six months is that job search process, sometimes at six months, is being sick and getting better again and not having the pressure of going back to work too soon, which will make you ill again. These are all really important things to think about.

     

    So many different ways that you can go ahead and start to think about different methods of having income and learning different sorts of money. And it's the same that goes for you. If you don't have that nine to five job and you are working for yourself as a business owner, you could have a couple of different income streams. Yes, you might be a musician, but maybe you could also do production work or live streams or teach. There are so many different ways that you can use your skills to help other people, but also to earn money.

     

    It's really important to have that that variety and that diversity within your portfolio of the things that you do so that at any given time you can pivot and or switch depending on maybe your energy, how you're feeling, your health, your finances, the weather, where you want to be in the world or, you know, a global pandemic. This what's happened recently has caught a lot of people off guard, but it's also made a lot of people very, very quick decisions that I wouldn't normally make.

     

    Some of it has been good and some of it has been bad. But just, you know, with this upcoming year, take a second and think about how financially secure are you? Is there any changes that...]]>I want to talk about how your money shouldn't come from just one place. If recent events have taught us nothing, it is that nothing is guaranteed. So even if you do have that day job that that 9:00 to 5:00 paycheck, having that as the only way that you earn money is not a great thing, is having all your eggs in that one basket. And the reason why this might not be optimum for a lot of people is when that basket goes, you might be prepared, you want to have savings, and then you are left in this position where things are very dire very quickly.

     

    And so while you're in that panic mode, it's very, very hard to go ahead and think clearly about what steps that you need to do next and how you need to move forward to make your situation better. And so there's a couple things that I'd like to talk about. One is sort of, yes, you can have your nine to five job as do you get money from other things, be it interest on some savings that you have, or do you have stocks where you you get dividends, maybe you rent out a place, maybe you have a little side business where you create jewelry and sell it on Etsy and whatever it is, it's something that is very low for you to maintain.

     

    It is really interfere with your day job, but you get joy from it and it brings you in a little bit of income in some way, shape or form. And if you don't have that right now because you think it will take up too much time or money or resources with that sort of thing, something to think about is at some point in the future, it might be helpful. What happens if you cannot do your current role? So, for example, if your role is very much computer based, what happens if your eyesight goes or you get carpal tunnel syndrome?

     

    Do you have something that you can do that uses different a different skill set or different physicality so that if one thing goes, you are still capable of doing other things? That is something else to think about. For example, if you super into your own health and you like writing books, yes, it's great that you can maybe write it using a computer, but could you write it? I'm doing voice to text. It's doing the same role, but doing it in a different way in case something happens.

     

    You never know. Also, you know, do you have enough savings for six months worth of paying your bills, for example, should something happen and you don't work for six months, can you survive? Will you be OK? Because sometimes six months is that job search process, sometimes at six months, is being sick and getting better again and not having the pressure of going back to work too soon, which will make you ill again. These are all really important things to think about.

     

    So many different ways that you can go ahead and start to think about different methods of having income and learning different sorts of money. And it's the same that goes for you. If you don't have that nine to five job and you are working for yourself as a business owner, you could have a couple of different income streams. Yes, you might be a musician, but maybe you could also do production work or live streams or teach. There are so many different ways that you can use your skills to help other people, but also to earn money.

     

    It's really important to have that that variety and that diversity within your portfolio of the things that you do so that at any given time you can pivot and or switch depending on maybe your energy, how you're feeling, your health, your finances, the weather, where you want to be in the world or, you know, a global pandemic. This what's happened recently has caught a lot of people off guard, but it's also made a lot of people very, very quick decisions that I wouldn't normally make.

     

    Some of it has been good and some of it has been bad. But just, you know, with this upcoming year, take a second and think about how financially secure are you? Is there any changes that you can make? Can you do courses online? Can you create PDS for other people? How can you be of assistance to others? That's one way of being able to possibly make money in a different way if you are a teacher. I know that there was a lot of unpaid work with being a teacher, but can you create resources for other teachers that other teachers can use and pay for?

     

    So you have a little bit of money on the side. These are all just things to think about for your mental health and your financial health. Thank you for listening. This is Janice at The Career Introvert, helping introverts build their brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>670d94aa-5f21-4a1d-a08b-9ecf3b82b043Tue, 10 Nov 2020 17:00:00 -050005:11falsefull    Why You MUST Treat Your Business Like a ClientWhy You MUST Treat Your Business Like a Client. Today, I want to talk about why you must treat your business like you would a client so many times when you have a couple clients, you're getting money coming in. You tend to go ahead and forego everything that you were working on with an on your business to have that time to work on your client's business, which is great. You are trying to keep your clients happy doing what you said you were going to do, hitting those targets and maybe exceeding those targets and keeping your clients happy, because keeping clients happy means that you will get paid.

     

    But if these are one of jobs, something you need to think about is where is the next job coming from? And yes, you could think, well, if I do a good job at this client, there will be a referral involved, or maybe they'll have another project for me to do or maybe something else will happen. But you can't always rely on that. And so when you first starting out, you should be spending at least 40 to 50 percent on revenue generating stuff, marketing yourself, blog post, getting yourself out there, being a podcast, whatever it is.

     

    But you should be out there trying to generate as much business and drum up as much business as possible. And so the further along in you are in your business is spending less time on generating leads. There are some businesses out there that very much work on. They generate all the leads all the time and they have stuff or a team that will go ahead and execute on the systems and the strategies that they are selling to that leads there other people who might get someone in to go ahead and generate leads for their business.

     

    But you have to be really fine tuned to know what you're going to get them to sell and how they're going to sell and how it's going to work. So make sure now when you have a client on board them and you give them some milestones and you say this is going to happen at this date, at this time and these things are going to happen, you need to do the same thing for your business. So set up some time on your calendar.

     

    That is non-negotiable. This is going to be time that you are going to sit and be like, I'm going to work on X, Y or Z on my business to move my business forward, to get more clients, to make myself more visible, to get myself out there, to write a case study, to write a couple blog posts, to schedule my Instagram, whatever it might be, but set aside this non-negotiable time at least once a week.

     

    And it can be for an hour, an hour, week. It all makes a difference. We go ahead and set up this time in your calendar that is non-negotiable, that you will spend working on something for your business. Now, the other thing is don't just sit down and be like, OK, so this is my allotted time now. What do I do with it? You should have a clear plan of what you're going to do. So, for example, if you're thinking at a summit coming up and so I sit down like, OK, so I could finish the landing page or I could create a form or I could create a feedback loop or I could you know, there's all sorts of things that I should do, but I should have a very clear plan of action, of what needs doing when.

     

    And so I'll sit down and do the first thing. Once I've finished that allotted time, I will go ahead and make a note of what the next step is. So when I sit back down a bit like, OK, now that's been done, I now need to do this other thing. Even if you finish like a part of a project, there's always something else to do. So make a note of what that is. And so, you know, the next time you sit down in your allotted work on your business time, that that happens because you don't want that famine and drought and feast thing go on feast and famine, low time, lots of businesses, one where they have all I have lots of clients and all the things and feeling overwhelmed.

     

    But the money's coming in and then there's a drop off because you haven't been...]]>. Today, I want to talk about why you must treat your business like you would a client so many times when you have a couple clients, you're getting money coming in. You tend to go ahead and forego everything that you were working on with an on your business to have that time to work on your client's business, which is great. You are trying to keep your clients happy doing what you said you were going to do, hitting those targets and maybe exceeding those targets and keeping your clients happy, because keeping clients happy means that you will get paid.

     

    But if these are one of jobs, something you need to think about is where is the next job coming from? And yes, you could think, well, if I do a good job at this client, there will be a referral involved, or maybe they'll have another project for me to do or maybe something else will happen. But you can't always rely on that. And so when you first starting out, you should be spending at least 40 to 50 percent on revenue generating stuff, marketing yourself, blog post, getting yourself out there, being a podcast, whatever it is.

     

    But you should be out there trying to generate as much business and drum up as much business as possible. And so the further along in you are in your business is spending less time on generating leads. There are some businesses out there that very much work on. They generate all the leads all the time and they have stuff or a team that will go ahead and execute on the systems and the strategies that they are selling to that leads there other people who might get someone in to go ahead and generate leads for their business.

     

    But you have to be really fine tuned to know what you're going to get them to sell and how they're going to sell and how it's going to work. So make sure now when you have a client on board them and you give them some milestones and you say this is going to happen at this date, at this time and these things are going to happen, you need to do the same thing for your business. So set up some time on your calendar.

     

    That is non-negotiable. This is going to be time that you are going to sit and be like, I'm going to work on X, Y or Z on my business to move my business forward, to get more clients, to make myself more visible, to get myself out there, to write a case study, to write a couple blog posts, to schedule my Instagram, whatever it might be, but set aside this non-negotiable time at least once a week.

     

    And it can be for an hour, an hour, week. It all makes a difference. We go ahead and set up this time in your calendar that is non-negotiable, that you will spend working on something for your business. Now, the other thing is don't just sit down and be like, OK, so this is my allotted time now. What do I do with it? You should have a clear plan of what you're going to do. So, for example, if you're thinking at a summit coming up and so I sit down like, OK, so I could finish the landing page or I could create a form or I could create a feedback loop or I could you know, there's all sorts of things that I should do, but I should have a very clear plan of action, of what needs doing when.

     

    And so I'll sit down and do the first thing. Once I've finished that allotted time, I will go ahead and make a note of what the next step is. So when I sit back down a bit like, OK, now that's been done, I now need to do this other thing. Even if you finish like a part of a project, there's always something else to do. So make a note of what that is. And so, you know, the next time you sit down in your allotted work on your business time, that that happens because you don't want that famine and drought and feast thing go on feast and famine, low time, lots of businesses, one where they have all I have lots of clients and all the things and feeling overwhelmed.

     

    But the money's coming in and then there's a drop off because you haven't been doing those those activities that help keep you top of mind with potential clients and keep you visible. So that is a delicate balance that you need to do and treat your business like a client you would hate if you missed a deadline for your client for doing whatever it might be, the blog post, the Instagram feed, whatever it might be. So why is it so easy for you to say it's OK?

     

    It's for my business. It's OK because you're already working on something else that isn't how it should be. You need to think about your future self and your future self as a client and how you want to do the best for you as your business. Never mind your clients and you can't do that if you're wondering about where the next paycheck is coming from. So set aside time every week, even if it's just thirty minutes, preferably more, where you work on your business and treat yourself and your business like a client.

     

    Treat it like the best client you ever had and you will see results. Thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping introverts build their brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>da6ae857-755f-4012-8e73-7b8bb5e7209eTue, 03 Nov 2020 17:00:00 -050005:19falsefull    What to charge your friendsWhat to charge your friendsI want to talk about friend rates, something happened recently and. Wanted to talk about how to deal with it when your friends ask you for work and they don't want to pay. So I was part of an online virtual summit and there was a pre-recorded section where I gave advice on finding businesses online. And then there was a free live Q&A segment where people could type in whatever questions they had, which was played directly after my pre-recorded session.

     

    And a lot of people ask questions and some of that I knew from a long time ago. Maybe I hadn't spoken to them in maybe eight years as I go, hi, nice to see you, blah, blah, blah. OK, I didn't ask any questions, but this was a Q&A free for all and it lasted about 30 thirty to forty five minutes. And then after that I was answering specific questions within a Facebook group. This person decided to not ask questions during the Q&A, but go ahead and type in the Facebook group.

     

    Oh hey, long time no see. I'd really like to pick your brain. Can we arrange some time to chat? And so they didn't ask a specific question that they wanted me to answer, they just wanted to pick my brain in general for free. Well, that's what it seemed they wanted to do to get some consulting, OK. Of course, here's the link, you know, to my calendar so you can set up some time. Here's like, oh, oh, but there's there's a cost.

     

    I just I just wanted to pick your brain. And my response was, well, that wouldn't be fair to my paying customers and clients. I give away a lot of free content via email on my podcast. Why this particular summit that you attended for free and yet you would like to pick my brain for an hour with no cost. And I did not get a response from that person since, and I have not heard from them since now. One of my friends does when she has friends that ask for stuff like that is if you're doing a trade, for example, if you're saying I will do this thing, if I get this thing in return, she still invoices that because even though it's a trade and it's not necessarily cash going, she wants them to know the value of what she's doing.

     

    So she'll still send them an invoice, an invoice for xx work that I did with the cost, but have how much it would be normally, but then have it like zeroed out. So people are aware of the cost of what you do. So when they refer you to other people, they can say, hey, she costs around this much to do this sort of work, because otherwise when you do get referrals, they have no idea of what you charge and what value you bring.

     

    So that is a very, very good tip. You can give the friend discount if you wish, but make them aware of what you and your services are worth. Always invoice, even if they invoice get zeroed out or there's a discount. Put how much the discount is. If it's 70 percent, 50 percent, 20 percent, no discount because no one says you have to give your friends a discount is the other thing you can if you wish, or you can give them a rate that is compatible for where they live.

     

    For example, if you have people who live in different countries, you might not want to charge US dollars. If your friend is living in a Gasca or whatever you think about it and be kind and sensible, but at the same time you know your worth and people will not know your worth unless you charge for it. So going back to the person who I gave my calendar link, what they did not know is I gave them a reduced rate calendar link.

     

    They didn't even have the usual price that my clients pay. And I told them it was a reduced rate.

     

    Still not enough interest. I highly recommend that to let people know what your worth is, charge them and if they say they want to pick your brain, let them do it for 50 minutes and then let them know that the next 50 minutes will cost X amount. No harm in letting people pick your brain a little bit, but don't let it get out of hand. Thanks...]]>I want to talk about friend rates, something happened recently and. Wanted to talk about how to deal with it when your friends ask you for work and they don't want to pay. So I was part of an online virtual summit and there was a pre-recorded section where I gave advice on finding businesses online. And then there was a free live Q&A segment where people could type in whatever questions they had, which was played directly after my pre-recorded session.

     

    And a lot of people ask questions and some of that I knew from a long time ago. Maybe I hadn't spoken to them in maybe eight years as I go, hi, nice to see you, blah, blah, blah. OK, I didn't ask any questions, but this was a Q&A free for all and it lasted about 30 thirty to forty five minutes. And then after that I was answering specific questions within a Facebook group. This person decided to not ask questions during the Q&A, but go ahead and type in the Facebook group.

     

    Oh hey, long time no see. I'd really like to pick your brain. Can we arrange some time to chat? And so they didn't ask a specific question that they wanted me to answer, they just wanted to pick my brain in general for free. Well, that's what it seemed they wanted to do to get some consulting, OK. Of course, here's the link, you know, to my calendar so you can set up some time. Here's like, oh, oh, but there's there's a cost.

     

    I just I just wanted to pick your brain. And my response was, well, that wouldn't be fair to my paying customers and clients. I give away a lot of free content via email on my podcast. Why this particular summit that you attended for free and yet you would like to pick my brain for an hour with no cost. And I did not get a response from that person since, and I have not heard from them since now. One of my friends does when she has friends that ask for stuff like that is if you're doing a trade, for example, if you're saying I will do this thing, if I get this thing in return, she still invoices that because even though it's a trade and it's not necessarily cash going, she wants them to know the value of what she's doing.

     

    So she'll still send them an invoice, an invoice for xx work that I did with the cost, but have how much it would be normally, but then have it like zeroed out. So people are aware of the cost of what you do. So when they refer you to other people, they can say, hey, she costs around this much to do this sort of work, because otherwise when you do get referrals, they have no idea of what you charge and what value you bring.

     

    So that is a very, very good tip. You can give the friend discount if you wish, but make them aware of what you and your services are worth. Always invoice, even if they invoice get zeroed out or there's a discount. Put how much the discount is. If it's 70 percent, 50 percent, 20 percent, no discount because no one says you have to give your friends a discount is the other thing you can if you wish, or you can give them a rate that is compatible for where they live.

     

    For example, if you have people who live in different countries, you might not want to charge US dollars. If your friend is living in a Gasca or whatever you think about it and be kind and sensible, but at the same time you know your worth and people will not know your worth unless you charge for it. So going back to the person who I gave my calendar link, what they did not know is I gave them a reduced rate calendar link.

     

    They didn't even have the usual price that my clients pay. And I told them it was a reduced rate.

     

    Still not enough interest. I highly recommend that to let people know what your worth is, charge them and if they say they want to pick your brain, let them do it for 50 minutes and then let them know that the next 50 minutes will cost X amount. No harm in letting people pick your brain a little bit, but don't let it get out of hand. Thanks for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>3e85e6d7-a09a-44f1-b4e8-2cebff98b501Tue, 27 Oct 2020 16:00:00 -050005:13falsefull    Due DiligenceDue DiligenceToday, I want to talk about due diligence, and it's not a subject I've talked about before, but something happened recently that made me think this would be a good topic for everyone to think about right now, especially with more people working online and the holidays are coming, a lot more scams are out there. And so recently I got an email saying, hey, I was recently a business manager of successful Game of Thrones podcast.

     

    And while I was there, I was able to bring in a certain amount of sponsorship money in just six weeks of the last season. I mean, it's a Game of Thrones podcast. You're probably going to bring in money regardless because it's jumping on something popular. But anyway, you said I've reached out now because I've launched a podcast network and would love for your podcast to be part of it. We currently have over 20 podcasts on the network and adding more shows weekly and in partnership with the podcasting platform.

     

    And we are able to give all the podcasts in the network to ads. And they gave a certain amount of money for click click Theroux's per hundred thousand listeners. And so they were saying, you know, we'd love to have you on board. Essentially, we're bringing together, you know, high quality podcasts of different genres and that sort of a thing. And it will be great to have your podcast on there, too. And they wanted to say that, you know, because they'd have because there'd be a network that have better reach and better ability to go and like, fight in your corner and that sort of a thing, they think that my content is great and they would never ask to change anything about it at all.

     

    In fact, I shouldn't even mention the network, but the thing I would have to do is move my podcast over to anchor from whatever I am hosting now.

     

    And they said they have a, you know, an easy converter and all you have to do is do this thing and and it will happen. And then you'll be available on all platforms, know maximize your exposure on Apple, Spotify, overcast pocket cards, radio, public, et cetera, and you get real time stats and all these wonderful things. And again, it went on about how I could earn money through advertising, through my podcast. And they would also help with, like banners and logos and audio quality and all of these things.

     

    And if interested, that I should respond to the email and they'd be happy to jump on a call that was a name. And there was a website like, have they really listen to my podcast? But OK, sure, whatever. And I went to the website and the website because really you get excited like, oh, you know, someone thinks I'm wonderful, I'm going to offer me money. So really, my first thought would have been to possibly just jump on a call, but no due diligence.

     

    I went to look at the website and the website was terrible. It wasn't even a website. You know, those websites where they've got they haven't figured out what they're going to put yet. It says the ipsum and blah, blah, blah, because they haven't figured it out on the website. That's what happened. And interestingly enough, the email came from a Gmail account. They gave a name of a podcasting network. And the name of the podcast network also doesn't really go with my brand.

     

    So I found that really interesting. And so I went and used the website address. In fact, now when I look at it again, the site cannot be reached. Originally it just had this, like, fake site up there with no information, no podcasts, and it was like a slap up landing page. And so they were asking me to move my podcast over and possibly give up like access to my podcast so I could be on their network, which doesn't exist.

     

    So due diligence, friends and people, I highly recommend this is something you you should do. Whenever you are making a business decision, go and look at the website. Go and see if you know anyone who knows this...]]>Today, I want to talk about due diligence, and it's not a subject I've talked about before, but something happened recently that made me think this would be a good topic for everyone to think about right now, especially with more people working online and the holidays are coming, a lot more scams are out there. And so recently I got an email saying, hey, I was recently a business manager of successful Game of Thrones podcast.

     

    And while I was there, I was able to bring in a certain amount of sponsorship money in just six weeks of the last season. I mean, it's a Game of Thrones podcast. You're probably going to bring in money regardless because it's jumping on something popular. But anyway, you said I've reached out now because I've launched a podcast network and would love for your podcast to be part of it. We currently have over 20 podcasts on the network and adding more shows weekly and in partnership with the podcasting platform.

     

    And we are able to give all the podcasts in the network to ads. And they gave a certain amount of money for click click Theroux's per hundred thousand listeners. And so they were saying, you know, we'd love to have you on board. Essentially, we're bringing together, you know, high quality podcasts of different genres and that sort of a thing. And it will be great to have your podcast on there, too. And they wanted to say that, you know, because they'd have because there'd be a network that have better reach and better ability to go and like, fight in your corner and that sort of a thing, they think that my content is great and they would never ask to change anything about it at all.

     

    In fact, I shouldn't even mention the network, but the thing I would have to do is move my podcast over to anchor from whatever I am hosting now.

     

    And they said they have a, you know, an easy converter and all you have to do is do this thing and and it will happen. And then you'll be available on all platforms, know maximize your exposure on Apple, Spotify, overcast pocket cards, radio, public, et cetera, and you get real time stats and all these wonderful things. And again, it went on about how I could earn money through advertising, through my podcast. And they would also help with, like banners and logos and audio quality and all of these things.

     

    And if interested, that I should respond to the email and they'd be happy to jump on a call that was a name. And there was a website like, have they really listen to my podcast? But OK, sure, whatever. And I went to the website and the website because really you get excited like, oh, you know, someone thinks I'm wonderful, I'm going to offer me money. So really, my first thought would have been to possibly just jump on a call, but no due diligence.

     

    I went to look at the website and the website was terrible. It wasn't even a website. You know, those websites where they've got they haven't figured out what they're going to put yet. It says the ipsum and blah, blah, blah, because they haven't figured it out on the website. That's what happened. And interestingly enough, the email came from a Gmail account. They gave a name of a podcasting network. And the name of the podcast network also doesn't really go with my brand.

     

    So I found that really interesting. And so I went and used the website address. In fact, now when I look at it again, the site cannot be reached. Originally it just had this, like, fake site up there with no information, no podcasts, and it was like a slap up landing page. And so they were asking me to move my podcast over and possibly give up like access to my podcast so I could be on their network, which doesn't exist.

     

    So due diligence, friends and people, I highly recommend this is something you you should do. Whenever you are making a business decision, go and look at the website. Go and see if you know anyone who knows this person. Go on LinkedIn and see if you have similar connections, see if there are any referrals or testimonials. Also, go with your gut. You know, sometimes it still looks so nice and shiny, but you got so they're not really doing your due diligence because really what I should have done or emailed them back.

     

    What do you love about my podcast? Because ninety nine point nine percent of the time, whenever I do that, people don't have a clue because I also get a lot of people going, hey, I want to be a guest on your podcast. I really love your podcast. And I think blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And of course, I respond, oh, tell me which episode that you listen to that you liked.

     

    Because obviously if they want to be a guest, they haven't listened to my podcast. So during due diligence, doing due diligence is something that is highly important. I will stop you going down some black holes and getting ripped off. That was a quick rant. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions or anything you want me to cover on the podcast, message me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>893e61e2-be03-457e-b936-921b22e44ba0Tue, 20 Oct 2020 16:00:00 -050005:35falsefull    Why all businesses should have a podcastWhy all businesses should have a podcastToday, I'm going to talk about a little give you a little slice of something that I talk about very often in front of other professional groups. That's podcasting. Surprise, surprise. And the reason I talk about it and this little snippet is I feel like almost every business should have a podcast  every business I hear you cry. Yes. And this is the reason why there's many reasons. One of the reasons is accessibility.

     

    And so a podcast doesn't have to be a podcast in the traditional sense that you are listening to right now. A podcast could simply be having your your blog and having an audio version of your blog so that people can listen to it rather than read it. It's about accessibility, but other reasons why all businesses should have some form of a podcast is a lot of people have smart speakers in the House, especially in the United States. And so smart speakers are evolving.

     

    Now, you get families listening to podcasts, the elderly who can't like press buttons, they can now just talk to their smart speaker and say, I would like to listen to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the smart speaker will play it for them. It's a great one on one medium. There's nothing like feeling that you have that personal connection with the podcast that you are listening to that in your ears and in your head.

     

    It's very, very personal and in this day and age right now. But we are not doing a lot of in-person stuff. Getting to you reach your clients and your potential customers personally is great. It's not necessarily better than being in person, but it is an actual other way to get in that gives people a look behind the scenes of what you're doing and what you're talking about and gives them a real insight into what it might be like to work with you if you have a service business.

     

    But even not just that, it could be, you know, what your thoughts are, what your ethics are, what you stand for and you believe in all really important. There are definitely companies that I refuse to work with because I do not like the ethics or the way that they do things. And so having a podcast is a different way to get that information. Or you can use it to highlight your clients. You can use it to highlight your customers and give when stories.

     

    Everyone needs a little cheering up right now, so why not bolster other people? But one thing that I have seen that has been amazing is some podcasts create resources for other people so they become a resource hub. And so not only do they have the podcast, but then you can download PDF and worksheets and things to go and work on whatever it is that they're talking about. And so they could be a resource hub on travel that could be a resource hub on working from home, whatever it might be, they are the go to place to do that thing.

     

    Another way thing could be it could drive forward your mission. If your mission is to feed 50 people a week or show 50 people how to do X, Y and Z will be financially accurate or do the taxes or whatever it might be. This is a great way to reach more people that aren't in your sphere and your circle. Another website that I've seen that has used podcasting in a really unique way. Well, until, like I tell everyone now is it's a service provider and you can work one on one with her as a business coach.

     

    You can do a group program with her or she has this like DIY section. And the DIY section is literally a podcast embedded in her website. I don't know if it's available anywhere else and it's embedded in her website. And so she walks you through sort of working with her. But because it's very general, it's not tailored as it would be if you were working with her one on one. But it gives you a great idea of the things you could learn and what it's like working with her, but kind of for free.

     

    It's wonderful. So there are so many different ways that you can use the...]]>Today, I'm going to talk about a little give you a little slice of something that I talk about very often in front of other professional groups. That's podcasting. Surprise, surprise. And the reason I talk about it and this little snippet is I feel like almost every business should have a podcast  every business I hear you cry. Yes. And this is the reason why there's many reasons. One of the reasons is accessibility.

     

    And so a podcast doesn't have to be a podcast in the traditional sense that you are listening to right now. A podcast could simply be having your your blog and having an audio version of your blog so that people can listen to it rather than read it. It's about accessibility, but other reasons why all businesses should have some form of a podcast is a lot of people have smart speakers in the House, especially in the United States. And so smart speakers are evolving.

     

    Now, you get families listening to podcasts, the elderly who can't like press buttons, they can now just talk to their smart speaker and say, I would like to listen to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the smart speaker will play it for them. It's a great one on one medium. There's nothing like feeling that you have that personal connection with the podcast that you are listening to that in your ears and in your head.

     

    It's very, very personal and in this day and age right now. But we are not doing a lot of in-person stuff. Getting to you reach your clients and your potential customers personally is great. It's not necessarily better than being in person, but it is an actual other way to get in that gives people a look behind the scenes of what you're doing and what you're talking about and gives them a real insight into what it might be like to work with you if you have a service business.

     

    But even not just that, it could be, you know, what your thoughts are, what your ethics are, what you stand for and you believe in all really important. There are definitely companies that I refuse to work with because I do not like the ethics or the way that they do things. And so having a podcast is a different way to get that information. Or you can use it to highlight your clients. You can use it to highlight your customers and give when stories.

     

    Everyone needs a little cheering up right now, so why not bolster other people? But one thing that I have seen that has been amazing is some podcasts create resources for other people so they become a resource hub. And so not only do they have the podcast, but then you can download PDF and worksheets and things to go and work on whatever it is that they're talking about. And so they could be a resource hub on travel that could be a resource hub on working from home, whatever it might be, they are the go to place to do that thing.

     

    Another way thing could be it could drive forward your mission. If your mission is to feed 50 people a week or show 50 people how to do X, Y and Z will be financially accurate or do the taxes or whatever it might be. This is a great way to reach more people that aren't in your sphere and your circle. Another website that I've seen that has used podcasting in a really unique way. Well, until, like I tell everyone now is it's a service provider and you can work one on one with her as a business coach.

     

    You can do a group program with her or she has this like DIY section. And the DIY section is literally a podcast embedded in her website. I don't know if it's available anywhere else and it's embedded in her website. And so she walks you through sort of working with her. But because it's very general, it's not tailored as it would be if you were working with her one on one. But it gives you a great idea of the things you could learn and what it's like working with her, but kind of for free.

     

    It's wonderful. So there are so many different ways that you can use the product, you can use it to tell stories. You have a book maker podcast out of it. Reading to kids, reading stories to kids has been used as a podcast. There are so many different things that you can do. Someone did stories from chefs like while they were making food, they could tell you the story behind like the the thing that they were making wonderful thing.

     

    Then they could turn it into a magazine. Then you can do other things with it. But all businesses should have audio available in some way, shape or form for people to consume content about either them or their clients, their mission, their products, anything of that nature, their processes. And yeah, that is what I think is really helpful, especially now. So you're going to go and start a podcast. Do you want to know how to do that?

     

    You can contact me, but thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com. Do you have any questions? Feel free to. Email me at Janice@thecareerintrovert.com or anything you want me to cover on the podcast. Thanks for listening and have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>50a369f5-128e-47f3-a697-c15b6d3a16eaTue, 13 Oct 2020 16:00:00 -050005:28falsefull    Why have a personal development planWhy have a personal development planToday, I'm going to talk about personal development plans, and the reason I want to talk about this is because development plans tend to be something that I've seen very negatively, especially in the workplace. If you are put on a performance development plan or a performance improvement plan, it means that your role at work is at risk. But having a personal development plan is something that you should have anyway. And so I want to talk about some ways of how you can go about building your own.

     

    It's a process that you will work on for your entire life, but it will help you assess skills and qualities that will help you build the lifestyle and the career that you want and that you will make you happy and give you a high quality of life. A personal development plan can help you with all aspects of your life and help you become more self aware not only at home, but at work. So a well-designed personal development plan will address your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and roadblocks, just like a SWOT analysis.

     

    And so the idea is identifying your strengths so you can improve on them your weaknesses so that you can make up for them in some way, shape or form, whether that be learning or doing something else, also explore new opportunities so that you realize when a door window is open and you can go ahead and explore something else, as well as noting any roadblocks, threats that are in along the way. Now, this is something that you should actually do on a regular basis.

     

    And then the other thing, or one of the really great things about creating and the purpose of having a personal development plan is to recognize those development areas. So once you've performed your SWOT in each area of your life, you'll discover internal and external things that are blocking your success. And these can be things like you might have a belief that you hold on to own insecurity, and so it could be something like you might hold the belief that you will never have enough money to save for the future.

     

    And because of that, when you do get, like extra unexpected money, you tend to blow it right away on things that you feel you've missed out on before or just spend it. Now, this is a somewhat limiting belief about money. And a lot of people have it because most people think that money is a finite source. And, you know, you do have the opportunity to make more in various ways. So that's something to think about when you are creating a personal development plan.

     

    The other great thing is it helps you identify your resources. So when you are creating a personal development plan, you might do some work that helps you look at the resources that you have available to a specific task. For example, if you decide you want to start a coaching business, what resources do you have where you can start straight away or and what things do you need? What things can you live without? One, a nice house. What are deal breakers?

     

    What can you do for yourself and what does somebody else need to do? And this works in almost every single aspect of your life. You may realize you already have the skills to do exactly what you wanted to do. However, you might also realize that you need to pay for additional brainpower, i.e. resources of other people or a course or workbook or something of that nature. But identifying the resources you have and what you need to get where you want to be is crucial in developing a plan that will work for you.

     

    Also, doing a personal development plan will help you create better relationships. And this is because you then have a clearer idea of what you need to move forward. And so when you're managing your relationships, it helps you realize, OK, well, I'll need this for the future or this might be useful for right now. And just becoming self aware enough that not everyone likes what you say or do and you need to treat people...]]>Today, I'm going to talk about personal development plans, and the reason I want to talk about this is because development plans tend to be something that I've seen very negatively, especially in the workplace. If you are put on a performance development plan or a performance improvement plan, it means that your role at work is at risk. But having a personal development plan is something that you should have anyway. And so I want to talk about some ways of how you can go about building your own.

     

    It's a process that you will work on for your entire life, but it will help you assess skills and qualities that will help you build the lifestyle and the career that you want and that you will make you happy and give you a high quality of life. A personal development plan can help you with all aspects of your life and help you become more self aware not only at home, but at work. So a well-designed personal development plan will address your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and roadblocks, just like a SWOT analysis.

     

    And so the idea is identifying your strengths so you can improve on them your weaknesses so that you can make up for them in some way, shape or form, whether that be learning or doing something else, also explore new opportunities so that you realize when a door window is open and you can go ahead and explore something else, as well as noting any roadblocks, threats that are in along the way. Now, this is something that you should actually do on a regular basis.

     

    And then the other thing, or one of the really great things about creating and the purpose of having a personal development plan is to recognize those development areas. So once you've performed your SWOT in each area of your life, you'll discover internal and external things that are blocking your success. And these can be things like you might have a belief that you hold on to own insecurity, and so it could be something like you might hold the belief that you will never have enough money to save for the future.

     

    And because of that, when you do get, like extra unexpected money, you tend to blow it right away on things that you feel you've missed out on before or just spend it. Now, this is a somewhat limiting belief about money. And a lot of people have it because most people think that money is a finite source. And, you know, you do have the opportunity to make more in various ways. So that's something to think about when you are creating a personal development plan.

     

    The other great thing is it helps you identify your resources. So when you are creating a personal development plan, you might do some work that helps you look at the resources that you have available to a specific task. For example, if you decide you want to start a coaching business, what resources do you have where you can start straight away or and what things do you need? What things can you live without? One, a nice house. What are deal breakers?

     

    What can you do for yourself and what does somebody else need to do? And this works in almost every single aspect of your life. You may realize you already have the skills to do exactly what you wanted to do. However, you might also realize that you need to pay for additional brainpower, i.e. resources of other people or a course or workbook or something of that nature. But identifying the resources you have and what you need to get where you want to be is crucial in developing a plan that will work for you.

     

    Also, doing a personal development plan will help you create better relationships. And this is because you then have a clearer idea of what you need to move forward. And so when you're managing your relationships, it helps you realize, OK, well, I'll need this for the future or this might be useful for right now. And just becoming self aware enough that not everyone likes what you say or do and you need to treat people differently is super helpful.

     

    Now, whatever you want to work on and however you want to build up your career, what you're doing can be done by using a personal development plan. Whether you want to lose weight, start a business, change jobs, go back to school or anything else. The goal doesn't matter as much as developing the plan that you need to get where you want to go. Your plan will not be the same as anyone else's because it's unique to you, because you are different.

     

    And that's why it's so unique and important that you create your personal development plan. Thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com. If you have any questions, please email me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com. Anything you want me to say on the show. Apart from that, have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>a3374e8b-7e08-4b10-914c-28b705f53ffdTue, 06 Oct 2020 16:00:00 -050005:08falsefull    How to improve creative thinkingHow to improve creative thinkingHello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today, I want to talk about ways to improve your creative thinking. So for the longest while I've always said that I'm not creative and I realize now it's a slightly limiting belief that I have on myself, I don't see myself. See, even now I'm saying I don't see myself as being creative, and yet people will point out all the things that I have created. So here are some things that I have done that have helped me improve my creative thinking.

     

    So you might find times when you find yourself lacking creativity and it can be for different reasons. Or it could be that you haven't been using your creative muscles regularly and you've forgotten how to tap into those things. And so there are many things that you can do to sort of improve and dig into doing that creative thinking.

     

    Again, one of the best ways is to keep yourself inspired. And so I create a ritual every day that you can use and regularly and routinely several routines that inspire you, condition your brain to tap into your creativity easily. And some examples of a ritual might be reading in the morning or listening to music every day or meditating for five minutes, or just sitting and being and deep breathing throughout the day. So if you can see if you can create something every day, even if you only have five or 10 minutes to do so, it keeps your creativity muscle, so to speak, alive and inspired.

     

    And you don't have to be creating a masterpiece. This is this is something that people sort of get caught up on. They think it has to be this wonderful thing, whatever it is that you create, it could be something as simple as a doodle or writing a short article, drawing a mind map in meetings, developing new product ideas, or reorganizing your files, taking photographs of the sunset or, you know, a plant that's growing in your house.

     

    These are all ways of being creative. Everything is to take breaks often, and I can't recommend this enough, especially when you feel stuck with a problem and can't kind of figure out the solution. And I think I've spoken about this before. Taking breaks allows your mind to focus on something else while getting inspiration and like working in the background. It's also good to take a break from all the digital chatter that allows regularly has. So getting outside and unplugging at least once a week just for work.

     

    You know, if you can do it at some point daily or even if it's 10 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour, whatever it is to help build your creative thinking muscle without digital binging and annoying you all the time. And whenever you do feel inspired, make a list of these ideas on a notebook or an app or something. Uses ideas as a launching pad for new ways of doing things or new products or new podcast episodes, whatever it is that inspires you.

     

    The other thing that your creative mind loves and thirst for, which is probably being a little hard recently, is to have fun, have fun regularly, and finding different ways to do that, depending on the circumstances you're in, can be difficult. But laughing a good conversation, bouncing ideas off each other, bills and inspires your creativity while relaxing and having fun in different ways. It can be with other people. You can have a back and forth conversation on what's up with someone.

     

    It doesn't have to be real time, but finding a way to instill and inspire fun and relaxation in your life will help you. The other thing you can do, and this is really interesting, is the three F's to ask questions, to inspire your thoughts on a concept. And it helps build your creative thinking by answering things like this. What would happen if I change X, Y and Z, like the software, the color, the whatever it might be?

     

    But what would I change or improve about it if I wanted to use it in 10 years? This is really good for software like you...]]>Hello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today, I want to talk about ways to improve your creative thinking. So for the longest while I've always said that I'm not creative and I realize now it's a slightly limiting belief that I have on myself, I don't see myself. See, even now I'm saying I don't see myself as being creative, and yet people will point out all the things that I have created. So here are some things that I have done that have helped me improve my creative thinking.

     

    So you might find times when you find yourself lacking creativity and it can be for different reasons. Or it could be that you haven't been using your creative muscles regularly and you've forgotten how to tap into those things. And so there are many things that you can do to sort of improve and dig into doing that creative thinking.

     

    Again, one of the best ways is to keep yourself inspired. And so I create a ritual every day that you can use and regularly and routinely several routines that inspire you, condition your brain to tap into your creativity easily. And some examples of a ritual might be reading in the morning or listening to music every day or meditating for five minutes, or just sitting and being and deep breathing throughout the day. So if you can see if you can create something every day, even if you only have five or 10 minutes to do so, it keeps your creativity muscle, so to speak, alive and inspired.

     

    And you don't have to be creating a masterpiece. This is this is something that people sort of get caught up on. They think it has to be this wonderful thing, whatever it is that you create, it could be something as simple as a doodle or writing a short article, drawing a mind map in meetings, developing new product ideas, or reorganizing your files, taking photographs of the sunset or, you know, a plant that's growing in your house.

     

    These are all ways of being creative. Everything is to take breaks often, and I can't recommend this enough, especially when you feel stuck with a problem and can't kind of figure out the solution. And I think I've spoken about this before. Taking breaks allows your mind to focus on something else while getting inspiration and like working in the background. It's also good to take a break from all the digital chatter that allows regularly has. So getting outside and unplugging at least once a week just for work.

     

    You know, if you can do it at some point daily or even if it's 10 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour, whatever it is to help build your creative thinking muscle without digital binging and annoying you all the time. And whenever you do feel inspired, make a list of these ideas on a notebook or an app or something. Uses ideas as a launching pad for new ways of doing things or new products or new podcast episodes, whatever it is that inspires you.

     

    The other thing that your creative mind loves and thirst for, which is probably being a little hard recently, is to have fun, have fun regularly, and finding different ways to do that, depending on the circumstances you're in, can be difficult. But laughing a good conversation, bouncing ideas off each other, bills and inspires your creativity while relaxing and having fun in different ways. It can be with other people. You can have a back and forth conversation on what's up with someone.

     

    It doesn't have to be real time, but finding a way to instill and inspire fun and relaxation in your life will help you. The other thing you can do, and this is really interesting, is the three F's to ask questions, to inspire your thoughts on a concept. And it helps build your creative thinking by answering things like this. What would happen if I change X, Y and Z, like the software, the color, the whatever it might be?

     

    But what would I change or improve about it if I wanted to use it in 10 years? This is really good for software like you might have software you like. How does it work now when it works for me in five years, 10 years, think about those things. What would I do if I had a one million dollar investment to improve it or at twenty dollar investment to improve it? These are really the what if questions these questions or ones like them can be powerful tools to help you think just a little bit differently repeatedly using these questions and these types of questions test in all type of situations, ideas will begin to flow and enable you to think more creativity.

     

    The other thing is take advantage of the peak hours when you feel most productive and creative, when you need to find a solution. Some people are more creative during times of emotional stress or whatever that time is. Use it to let your creative juices flow, put on some music, surround yourself with inspiring things and be creative. Interact with creative and inspiring people on a regular basis just to get fresh ideas and outlooks and perspectives. These interactions and exchange of ideas will help you refocus on the creative ideas that work best for you and help you narrow down what you want to do.

     

    And don't be afraid of taking risks to improve your creative thinking. When you avoid taking risks, you end up suppressing your ideas. Risks give you permission to think so to speak outside the box and embrace your creative ideas. So people are more creative than others, naturally, and that is fine. But anyone can be a creative thinker. Build your creativity in ways that help you to be inspired and create all the time. Thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com.

     

    Looking forward to hearing from you. If you have any questions, email me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>e55da704-f013-45aa-9775-0f57c9ac2c87Tue, 29 Sep 2020 16:00:00 -050005:58falsefull    Introvert ways to deal with overwhelmIntrovert ways to deal with overwhelmHello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today, I want to talk about different ways to deal with overwhelm and overwhelm can come in many different shapes and sizes. It could be overwhelmed from all the tasks and the projects that you've taken on and not setting good boundaries. It could be overwhelmed from overstimulation, from too much music, noise, crowds, that sort of thing.

     

    There are so many different types of overwhelm and know the difference between what that experience is and how you feel after that experience is highly important. But one of the things that's really helpful is, you know, acknowledging the chaos outside or inside. Be honest with yourself about it. If you're feeling overwhelmed, overstimulated, pushed to the brink, acknowledge that fact instead of trying to push through and just getting it done, acknowledge how you're feeling, get in tune with it, maybe sit for a minute and think, why might I be feeling this?

     

    Is it the music or is it the type of music or is it the volume of the music? It could be a small thing that needs changing that would make all the difference. Is it because you're hyper focused on it and you need to just go somewhere else? Acknowledging it and and not pushing through is a great thing.

     

    Pushing through can be detrimental. Pushing through stops you from adjusting your actions and prioritizing yourself. So don't do it. Stop. Take a breath. Figure out exactly what it is that is causing that discomfort, that overwhelmed that feeling of that feeling, of of that brick wall, that tiredness that you're feeling. That's really helpful. Getting in tune with that. If you don't acknowledge what you're feeling, you can still burn out and then you can easily go about berating yourself or feeling down about it rather than acknowledging it going, OK, this is what's happening.

     

    What steps do I need to do to make that change? And something to think about also is a lot of the time when we're feeling overwhelmed, overstimulated, the the thing that we like to do is just shut everything down, like I'm going to go into a cold, dark place and leave me the hell alone.

     

    You don't necessarily need to do that. Sometimes you do. But once you kind of pull in, maybe you end up not seeing the bigger picture, maybe go on a downward spiral. Maybe everything he's thinking just, you know, you start overthinking and thinking bad thoughts.

     

    So, yes, you might need to shut down and get some inner peace, but also reach out, explain yourself, tell another person, say, hey, I'm going to do X, Y and Z because I need a B, and F, whatever that might be. Letting someone else know what you're doing, why you're doing it and how you're feeling is huge. Because then next time, if you say to that person, hey, I'm doing this because of X, Y and Z, they might say, well, last time you did this, this and this, did it not work out for you or is a different thing or what should we try this time?

     

    And just making people aware of how you're feeling lets them know that you care and that you are including them and you're not just blocking everybody out. So that is something that I highly, highly recommend.

     

    Now, that's just some like spur of the moment feeling overwhelmed sort of a thing. But what about enable yourself to prevent exhaustion and overwhelm to a degree, because you can't always know that it's going to happen. I know I've definitely tried some things sort. I've been consistent that one day it's like, no, this week has been different and so it's not working.

     

    So it's really important to schedule some you know, they call it self care time. Your own time, whatever it is, is sort of a mini retreat, even if you don't have the time or finances or things to do it like a vacation, you can probably set aside a day or two for a mini you retreat. And here's some things that you can do for that...]]>Hello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today, I want to talk about different ways to deal with overwhelm and overwhelm can come in many different shapes and sizes. It could be overwhelmed from all the tasks and the projects that you've taken on and not setting good boundaries. It could be overwhelmed from overstimulation, from too much music, noise, crowds, that sort of thing.

     

    There are so many different types of overwhelm and know the difference between what that experience is and how you feel after that experience is highly important. But one of the things that's really helpful is, you know, acknowledging the chaos outside or inside. Be honest with yourself about it. If you're feeling overwhelmed, overstimulated, pushed to the brink, acknowledge that fact instead of trying to push through and just getting it done, acknowledge how you're feeling, get in tune with it, maybe sit for a minute and think, why might I be feeling this?

     

    Is it the music or is it the type of music or is it the volume of the music? It could be a small thing that needs changing that would make all the difference. Is it because you're hyper focused on it and you need to just go somewhere else? Acknowledging it and and not pushing through is a great thing.

     

    Pushing through can be detrimental. Pushing through stops you from adjusting your actions and prioritizing yourself. So don't do it. Stop. Take a breath. Figure out exactly what it is that is causing that discomfort, that overwhelmed that feeling of that feeling, of of that brick wall, that tiredness that you're feeling. That's really helpful. Getting in tune with that. If you don't acknowledge what you're feeling, you can still burn out and then you can easily go about berating yourself or feeling down about it rather than acknowledging it going, OK, this is what's happening.

     

    What steps do I need to do to make that change? And something to think about also is a lot of the time when we're feeling overwhelmed, overstimulated, the the thing that we like to do is just shut everything down, like I'm going to go into a cold, dark place and leave me the hell alone.

     

    You don't necessarily need to do that. Sometimes you do. But once you kind of pull in, maybe you end up not seeing the bigger picture, maybe go on a downward spiral. Maybe everything he's thinking just, you know, you start overthinking and thinking bad thoughts.

     

    So, yes, you might need to shut down and get some inner peace, but also reach out, explain yourself, tell another person, say, hey, I'm going to do X, Y and Z because I need a B, and F, whatever that might be. Letting someone else know what you're doing, why you're doing it and how you're feeling is huge. Because then next time, if you say to that person, hey, I'm doing this because of X, Y and Z, they might say, well, last time you did this, this and this, did it not work out for you or is a different thing or what should we try this time?

     

    And just making people aware of how you're feeling lets them know that you care and that you are including them and you're not just blocking everybody out. So that is something that I highly, highly recommend.

     

    Now, that's just some like spur of the moment feeling overwhelmed sort of a thing. But what about enable yourself to prevent exhaustion and overwhelm to a degree, because you can't always know that it's going to happen. I know I've definitely tried some things sort. I've been consistent that one day it's like, no, this week has been different and so it's not working.

     

    So it's really important to schedule some you know, they call it self care time. Your own time, whatever it is, is sort of a mini retreat, even if you don't have the time or finances or things to do it like a vacation, you can probably set aside a day or two for a mini you retreat. And here's some things that you can do for that retreat. Maybe take a two day hiatus from social media, an email or just like devices so that you can read and wander and daydream and do whatever it is that makes you and your body feel good rather than being at the beck and call of your devices.

     

    You know, do a lot of brainstorming and reading outside or in bed, so it feels like it's a treat rather than a chore, you know, take yourself and do cool stuff for the day, go for a picnic, go for a walk, treat yourself to ice cream or whatever it is.

     

    These are things that give you the space and the brain space as well to go ahead and deal with everything else in your life, giving your brain that time to think and do what it pleases without being at the beck and call of a device or other people is invaluable. So thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping introverts build their brand and get hired.

     

    If you have any questions for me or things you'd like me to cover on the show, please email me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com.

     

    Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>3e255e87-5c88-429e-a37f-ddd75a4db373Tue, 22 Sep 2020 16:00:00 -050005:24falsefull    Partitioning work and non-workPartitioning work and non-workHello and welcome to the traveling introvert, today, I want to talk about separation of business and personal, and I want to come around to it from a tech point of view. So I was remembering the days when I used to go to work at a desktop computer, do the work, finish the work, go home, go about my life. And then SARS happened and I had to bring my desktop computer home. So at work, my desktop computer, I had my own personal laptop.

     

    So I do the work finished on that. I put my laptop.

     

    Never the twain should meet. Let's go forward another few years, then I have a work laptop and a home laptop, and again, I would do my work on my work laptop and I would do non-work stuff on my home laptop. Never the twain should meet somewhere along the line that got blurred. I started my own business and then I had one laptop and that one laptop did business and personal. And it happened so gradually that you don't even realize that it's a problem.

     

    And that's how the line between personal and business gets really blurred, especially now using this one particular laptop for everything. So one thing that I've been told can be useful I'm actually going to try it is to have separate user logins for my laptop. So one user will be all business, the suit and the tie. It will have all my logins, my last pass, access to whatever it is I need all the software installed a certain desktop image all that good stuff.

     

    And then another user on the same laptop, but with a different desktop, maybe beach or traveling or, you know, whatever latest book that I want to read. And it could have like my gaming accounts and access to my gaming accounts, because then what I could do on my business side is to block certain websites. So there's websites that I probably shouldn't be looking at, or rabbit holes that I shouldn't be going down while I'm working so I could block that access, but then have that access on my other user account to try and get that separation between work and non-work, especially just for like personal learning or watching YouTube videos.

     

    Because I have access to a lot of different accounts in general because of my work and the work that I do for my clients. So making sure that I'm not accidentally watching a certain video on my clients like YouTube channel because I was working on it during the day and then in the evening I just went and looked at YouTube. This is a really easy way of keeping that line of delineation. And I've heard about this from a I was gonna say fellow podcasting and I was like, I don't know the person, but technically they have podcasts, content creators.

     

    They are fellow podcasts. And I think it makes a very valid point. Demarcating the difference between personal and business is, I think, good for mental health gives you more space. And you you feel that break, OK I'm not working anymore because even though I might not look at my business email, I know it's there. I can access it at the click. And yes, a user isn't quite as good. Obviously, I would love a separate laptop, but not on the cards.

     

    Right now, though, what I could do in time is what I do like to do is to buy a laptop, a new laptop before my old one dies. And I some people like to wait until their actual laptop dies and then panic and buy a new one. But I you know, you see the warning signs. It's been three to five years , probably starting to run a little slower. So maybe at that point what I would do is make one laptop, a work laptop, the brand new one, and the fresh install and the fun stuff, and then keep my old laptop just for fun.

     

    That is something that I'm also thinking about doing after I get through a couple of financial stuff that I think is a good idea.

     

    So moving forward, I'd love to know what you do to delineate or stop, you know, the bleed between work life and non-work life. Any tips, any hints, anything...]]>Hello and welcome to the traveling introvert, today, I want to talk about separation of business and personal, and I want to come around to it from a tech point of view. So I was remembering the days when I used to go to work at a desktop computer, do the work, finish the work, go home, go about my life. And then SARS happened and I had to bring my desktop computer home. So at work, my desktop computer, I had my own personal laptop.

     

    So I do the work finished on that. I put my laptop.

     

    Never the twain should meet. Let's go forward another few years, then I have a work laptop and a home laptop, and again, I would do my work on my work laptop and I would do non-work stuff on my home laptop. Never the twain should meet somewhere along the line that got blurred. I started my own business and then I had one laptop and that one laptop did business and personal. And it happened so gradually that you don't even realize that it's a problem.

     

    And that's how the line between personal and business gets really blurred, especially now using this one particular laptop for everything. So one thing that I've been told can be useful I'm actually going to try it is to have separate user logins for my laptop. So one user will be all business, the suit and the tie. It will have all my logins, my last pass, access to whatever it is I need all the software installed a certain desktop image all that good stuff.

     

    And then another user on the same laptop, but with a different desktop, maybe beach or traveling or, you know, whatever latest book that I want to read. And it could have like my gaming accounts and access to my gaming accounts, because then what I could do on my business side is to block certain websites. So there's websites that I probably shouldn't be looking at, or rabbit holes that I shouldn't be going down while I'm working so I could block that access, but then have that access on my other user account to try and get that separation between work and non-work, especially just for like personal learning or watching YouTube videos.

     

    Because I have access to a lot of different accounts in general because of my work and the work that I do for my clients. So making sure that I'm not accidentally watching a certain video on my clients like YouTube channel because I was working on it during the day and then in the evening I just went and looked at YouTube. This is a really easy way of keeping that line of delineation. And I've heard about this from a I was gonna say fellow podcasting and I was like, I don't know the person, but technically they have podcasts, content creators.

     

    They are fellow podcasts. And I think it makes a very valid point. Demarcating the difference between personal and business is, I think, good for mental health gives you more space. And you you feel that break, OK I'm not working anymore because even though I might not look at my business email, I know it's there. I can access it at the click. And yes, a user isn't quite as good. Obviously, I would love a separate laptop, but not on the cards.

     

    Right now, though, what I could do in time is what I do like to do is to buy a laptop, a new laptop before my old one dies. And I some people like to wait until their actual laptop dies and then panic and buy a new one. But I you know, you see the warning signs. It's been three to five years , probably starting to run a little slower. So maybe at that point what I would do is make one laptop, a work laptop, the brand new one, and the fresh install and the fun stuff, and then keep my old laptop just for fun.

     

    That is something that I'm also thinking about doing after I get through a couple of financial stuff that I think is a good idea.

     

    So moving forward, I'd love to know what you do to delineate or stop, you know, the bleed between work life and non-work life. Any tips, any hints, anything you want to try, anything you've heard about to try, any experiments? Because I think it's it's hugely important and it's an area we forget about. Like with your phone, my  phone specifically. I know with Android I have the option of having a work profile and a non profile, and I use them very, very separately on purpose on my phone.

     

    Why don't do that on my computer. I don't know. This is just a little light bulb moment that I wanted to share with you all. So thank you for listening. If you have any questions, please email me at Janice@thecareerintrovert.com. Have a great rest of your week and thanks for listening.

     

    ]]>e747b61b-1580-4a8d-a3a8-b15b02477d08Tue, 15 Sep 2020 16:00:00 -050005:10falsefull    Days offDays offHello and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today, I want to talk about time off. It was Recently brought to my attention that I don't take a lot of time off. And looking back at it, it's been for a couple of reasons. So for the past month, I have been trying to take Sunday as my day off where I don't do I don't respond to emails. I don't look at business stuff. I might dabble with some new software, but I generally get up late and let the day flow where it may.

     

    I mean, I generally don't have to cook because we've gotten takeout for the whole weekend. I might bake, but because I enjoy doing it, there is nothing that is specifically calling my attention. My mind can wander where it wishes and I can do what I feel like. I could get up, go out, take a walk, exercise all that stuff. I could stay in bed and do nothing. And depending on the weeks I have done many, all or none of those things.

     

    There was also one week where I did work on that Sunday as a favor for somebody, and it ruined my week afterwards and from then on, because, you know, when you take time off, you don't realize how beneficial it is. So you think, oh, no, it's OK. Like just this once it will be fine. No, never again. It ruined my week afterwards. So I then realized, OK, this is something that I need to keep, which is great.

     

    But Sunday is just one day. And as someone who no longer does nine to five, I forget, you know, it didn't really do not have long enough. I forget that a lot of people have two or three days off a week. And when you're running your own business and your computer is always on and everything else, you kind of don't. And I know I talk about having better boundaries. So this is this is a thing. And I've talked or will be talking about how how I'm going to separate my computer.

     

    But let's talk about days of actual full days off. So I don't think I can figure out in my calendar two full days off that would disrupt me and all my clients. And I don't think I'd get the full benefit from it. I love Sundays A because I Sundays B because other people aren't going to be harassing me on Sunday. But also it's a time in our household where, like I said, this food already sort of have to think about cooking and other stuff.

     

    But I think for another full day off, I don't think it would work. But I'm quite happy to take maybe two afternoons off a week, and it doesn't mean I won't work. It just means I will maybe ignore business stuff or I will only work on or read stuff or just, you know, try and meditate or do stuff for me and my mental health and my physical health.

     

    So I was looking at my calendar and trying to figure it out and along with fitting in with meetings that I already have a lot of standing meetings. And so this also came about because for the past couple of months, you know, with everything that's been going on in the world, I haven't had as intense work as I would normally. And that now seems to be back on the upswing. I've got maybe three or four projects that in the next will be finalized in the next week.

     

    That could make my life very busy. If I am not organized and me being me, I will take on these projects and then not have time off or just, you know, power through which can be done, but isn't necessarily the best thing to do. Also, over these past few months, I've discovered better ways of working and that I need like a two hour block to get stuff done. If I'm doing hotchpotch stuff, I just I don't feel as productive.

     

    I'm not working as well. So I need like maybe block out my clients two hours for this client, two hours for that client to hours for the other client. And that should work better for the kind of work that I want to do and mentally keeping me like sharp. So my plan is to have my one day off a Sunday, which I currently have for various reasons, and then to take two afternoons off a week. Now I say...]]>Hello and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today, I want to talk about time off. It was Recently brought to my attention that I don't take a lot of time off. And looking back at it, it's been for a couple of reasons. So for the past month, I have been trying to take Sunday as my day off where I don't do I don't respond to emails. I don't look at business stuff. I might dabble with some new software, but I generally get up late and let the day flow where it may.

     

    I mean, I generally don't have to cook because we've gotten takeout for the whole weekend. I might bake, but because I enjoy doing it, there is nothing that is specifically calling my attention. My mind can wander where it wishes and I can do what I feel like. I could get up, go out, take a walk, exercise all that stuff. I could stay in bed and do nothing. And depending on the weeks I have done many, all or none of those things.

     

    There was also one week where I did work on that Sunday as a favor for somebody, and it ruined my week afterwards and from then on, because, you know, when you take time off, you don't realize how beneficial it is. So you think, oh, no, it's OK. Like just this once it will be fine. No, never again. It ruined my week afterwards. So I then realized, OK, this is something that I need to keep, which is great.

     

    But Sunday is just one day. And as someone who no longer does nine to five, I forget, you know, it didn't really do not have long enough. I forget that a lot of people have two or three days off a week. And when you're running your own business and your computer is always on and everything else, you kind of don't. And I know I talk about having better boundaries. So this is this is a thing. And I've talked or will be talking about how how I'm going to separate my computer.

     

    But let's talk about days of actual full days off. So I don't think I can figure out in my calendar two full days off that would disrupt me and all my clients. And I don't think I'd get the full benefit from it. I love Sundays A because I Sundays B because other people aren't going to be harassing me on Sunday. But also it's a time in our household where, like I said, this food already sort of have to think about cooking and other stuff.

     

    But I think for another full day off, I don't think it would work. But I'm quite happy to take maybe two afternoons off a week, and it doesn't mean I won't work. It just means I will maybe ignore business stuff or I will only work on or read stuff or just, you know, try and meditate or do stuff for me and my mental health and my physical health.

     

    So I was looking at my calendar and trying to figure it out and along with fitting in with meetings that I already have a lot of standing meetings. And so this also came about because for the past couple of months, you know, with everything that's been going on in the world, I haven't had as intense work as I would normally. And that now seems to be back on the upswing. I've got maybe three or four projects that in the next will be finalized in the next week.

     

    That could make my life very busy. If I am not organized and me being me, I will take on these projects and then not have time off or just, you know, power through which can be done, but isn't necessarily the best thing to do. Also, over these past few months, I've discovered better ways of working and that I need like a two hour block to get stuff done. If I'm doing hotchpotch stuff, I just I don't feel as productive.

     

    I'm not working as well. So I need like maybe block out my clients two hours for this client, two hours for that client to hours for the other client. And that should work better for the kind of work that I want to do and mentally keeping me like sharp. So my plan is to have my one day off a Sunday, which I currently have for various reasons, and then to take two afternoons off a week. Now I say afternoons for some of you that mean from midday.

     

    But as I don't really like to get up before 10:00, that would really be like a whole day off.

     

    So I kind of me from like 4:00 in the afternoon, which does count as a half day because some of my clients are in California. So, yeah, still a half day. That's what I am thinking of doing. If you do not work nine to five and you do work for yourself, I'd love to know when the last time you took a day off was. Do you take half days off in the middle of the week? Do you take full days off in the middle of the week?

     

    There is someone I know that is taking weekend Wednesday and having Wednesdays off in the middle of the week also. And I hate to say this because I don't really see this in my future, but when's the last time you took a whole week off and the world did not burn? I would love to know. Please message me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com. Thank you for listening and have a great week.

     

    ]]>ee434b00-05d6-4bb1-9da8-a2459e441026Tue, 08 Sep 2020 16:00:00 -050005:16falsefull    What I have learned about inbox zeroWhat I have learned about inbox zeroHello and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today, I want to talk about things I've learned about inbox zero, and I previously done an episode on inbox zero and am it inbox zero? I totally understand. Does not work for everybody. I just want to talk about my experience with Inbox Zero. So for the past, I guess six months I've managed to hit Inbox zero. You know, I'd say consistently two or three times within that time period and I would get it. And I would be

     

     like, yes!  Give it two or three days or a week. And it's back to inbox, not zero. I want to put any numbers in there, but and I didn't mind. I was like, OK, well, I got to inbox zero, but stuff's going on and, you know, so on and so forth. However, I'm happy to say this is the first week that I've managed to have inbox zero all week. And I'm so stoked about it because it means that it is for me anyway, obtainable and sustainable, which is really important.

     

    So here are the few things that I have learnt from my experience with Inbox zero. One. It's much harder for emails to get lost in the shuffle or get further down my inbox because my inbox is zero. Most of the time when it isn't like Oh, I got this email great, I don't check my mailbox as often because I don't feel overwhelmed by all the emails that are there. Or I might miss something and it might slip down the rabbit hole.

     

    And one thing I really realized is how much easier it is for me to unsubscribe to emails that I don't want anymore. I know that there are apps out there that you can use to help you unsubscribe from things, but you might not get emailed as frequently or you might forget or it slips through the cracks. And so when you see an email and I'm like, who is that person? Why am I getting emails from them? It is so much easier for me to just go and click, unsubscribe and then never see it again because it has popped up in my mailbox.

     

    And I think that is one of the key things about having inbox zero. Now, the first few days I'd go to sleep and then wake up and obviously have 40 or 50 or 60 emails in there. And I would make a point of being like, I am going to go in there and clear them out. And as the days have gone by, when I wake up in the morning, there are less and less emails in there. It's also part of the process was moving some of my business emails to my business email and keeping some of my personal emails in my personal, because that was a can be a blurred distinction sometimes because, you know, some people in person.

     

    But you want to do a business thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So those are the things that I have learnt from my experience with Inbox zero in my personal mailbox. Now in my business mailbox, I also got to mailbox zero there, but it has been harder to maintain and I haven't figured out why yet. It could be because a lot of things that I want to get back to and I do use the snooze function, which I love, but it still doesn't quite work.

     

    I also use streak for Gmail because I'm currently creating a lot of events and all those people I want to keep track of and see what stage they're at. So that helps with reminders. But I still haven't been as consistent with inbox zero, so I haven't gone above, say, mailbox ten, but it's still not the pretty mailbox zero thing. So that's what I'm working on for my business email. I mean, there is obviously the you know, I have multiple emails that I check, but these are my two main ones of my business, my personal, so personal.

     

    I think I have nailed it, it is that the business needs a little more tweaking. So maybe it takes two weeks instead of one week for me to deal with mailbox zero. Now, like I said before, it is not and will not work for everybody. It happens to work for me right now and I look forward to continuing to work for me in the future. I know people that don't archive their mail or they don't go in and ruthlessly unsubscribe...]]>Hello and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today, I want to talk about things I've learned about inbox zero, and I previously done an episode on inbox zero and am it inbox zero? I totally understand. Does not work for everybody. I just want to talk about my experience with Inbox Zero. So for the past, I guess six months I've managed to hit Inbox zero. You know, I'd say consistently two or three times within that time period and I would get it. And I would be

     

     like, yes!  Give it two or three days or a week. And it's back to inbox, not zero. I want to put any numbers in there, but and I didn't mind. I was like, OK, well, I got to inbox zero, but stuff's going on and, you know, so on and so forth. However, I'm happy to say this is the first week that I've managed to have inbox zero all week. And I'm so stoked about it because it means that it is for me anyway, obtainable and sustainable, which is really important.

     

    So here are the few things that I have learnt from my experience with Inbox zero. One. It's much harder for emails to get lost in the shuffle or get further down my inbox because my inbox is zero. Most of the time when it isn't like Oh, I got this email great, I don't check my mailbox as often because I don't feel overwhelmed by all the emails that are there. Or I might miss something and it might slip down the rabbit hole.

     

    And one thing I really realized is how much easier it is for me to unsubscribe to emails that I don't want anymore. I know that there are apps out there that you can use to help you unsubscribe from things, but you might not get emailed as frequently or you might forget or it slips through the cracks. And so when you see an email and I'm like, who is that person? Why am I getting emails from them? It is so much easier for me to just go and click, unsubscribe and then never see it again because it has popped up in my mailbox.

     

    And I think that is one of the key things about having inbox zero. Now, the first few days I'd go to sleep and then wake up and obviously have 40 or 50 or 60 emails in there. And I would make a point of being like, I am going to go in there and clear them out. And as the days have gone by, when I wake up in the morning, there are less and less emails in there. It's also part of the process was moving some of my business emails to my business email and keeping some of my personal emails in my personal, because that was a can be a blurred distinction sometimes because, you know, some people in person.

     

    But you want to do a business thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So those are the things that I have learnt from my experience with Inbox zero in my personal mailbox. Now in my business mailbox, I also got to mailbox zero there, but it has been harder to maintain and I haven't figured out why yet. It could be because a lot of things that I want to get back to and I do use the snooze function, which I love, but it still doesn't quite work.

     

    I also use streak for Gmail because I'm currently creating a lot of events and all those people I want to keep track of and see what stage they're at. So that helps with reminders. But I still haven't been as consistent with inbox zero, so I haven't gone above, say, mailbox ten, but it's still not the pretty mailbox zero thing. So that's what I'm working on for my business email. I mean, there is obviously the you know, I have multiple emails that I check, but these are my two main ones of my business, my personal, so personal.

     

    I think I have nailed it, it is that the business needs a little more tweaking. So maybe it takes two weeks instead of one week for me to deal with mailbox zero. Now, like I said before, it is not and will not work for everybody. It happens to work for me right now and I look forward to continuing to work for me in the future. I know people that don't archive their mail or they don't go in and ruthlessly unsubscribe or think they're going to come back to a thing.

     

    And as someone mentioned that they have a deal with or next folder, that they put some things in that they want to do or deal with when they they have a time set aside for things to do with my email. And they go in the next folder. I might play with that for my business, for my business email, but I'm scared that I won't check the next folder. So I need to figure out a way to, like, either put it in my calendar, like check next folder and there's a set time every day or I don't and I make it a color and then have a notification or reminder or something.

     

    I mean, I know there's multiple ways of doing this. I just haven't figured out what's going to work for me. But that is my experience and the things that I have learnt from Inbox zero. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions or anything you want me to answer on the podcast, email me at Janice@thecareerntrovert.com Helping introverts build thier brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.

     

    ]]>d99b2b1e-bad6-4952-956e-c1b4012e7cebTue, 01 Sep 2020 16:00:00 -050005:23falsefull    Don't work on your passion project on the weekendDon't work on your passion project on the weekend8ed891b6-abec-4651-af9e-e3caaa23e7b2Tue, 25 Aug 2020 16:00:00 -050005:02falsefullTraveling Saved My PostureTraveling Saved My Postureb6317223-845e-4650-a233-be969d57378fTue, 18 Aug 2020 16:00:00 -050005:34falsefullJob Hunting for College StudentsJob Hunting for College Studentsc1c7ba7a-2301-4c15-bd20-bb85d02520d3Tue, 04 Aug 2020 16:00:00 -050005:28falsefullHow to make your work life sustainableHow to make your work life sustainable48a3c4bc-e6a7-4dfb-8e49-36b526d563b9Tue, 28 Jul 2020 16:00:00 -050005:23falsefullHow monthly planning can ease stressHow monthly planning can ease stress2b57c8eb-e093-441b-8135-28e2ee6ba088Tue, 21 Jul 2020 16:00:00 -050005:36falsefullIntrovert Remote Leadership CommunicationIntrovert Remote Leadership Communication2ce68489-6a26-46f1-bdb1-7a1197659dfdTue, 14 Jul 2020 16:00:00 -050005:16falsefullThe Future of CoworkingThe Future of Coworkingdacbef31-1253-45ee-a46a-beaa390046ebTue, 07 Jul 2020 16:00:00 -050005:11falsefullHow to avoid burnout as an introvert leaderHow to avoid burnout as an introvert leaderc498c8ff-cb5a-482e-b906-257efae28de2Tue, 30 Jun 2020 16:00:00 -050005:20falsefull