Hello, and welcome back to the awfully quiet podcast. Today is a really special episode for me. Today marks the one year anniversary of the awfully quiet podcast. And I am not ready for this. I cannot believe this is happening exactly to this day. November 14th, 2023 is when I launched the first three episodes.

Of this podcast, and I can't believe it's been a year since then we've had 56 episodes. some of them solo episodes, some of them podcast interviews, amazing, incredible guests that I never thought I would land just one year in, or even, you know, less than a year in to this experience. And I. I'm so proud.

And can I just say, I'm very proud of myself, to have started this podcast, to have stuck to it, to have stayed consistent. I'm one of those people who will take ages, perfecting things, planning things, organizing, making it. You know, quote unquote, perfect before they launch it. And that was me one year ago.

I had this idea of starting a podcast for a really long time. I had the name, I had, the, the platform settled careers with life for some time. So I knew that this was content that kind of resonated and I wanted to bring it into a long form format, but it took me quite a while. some of it was fear, some of it is, you know, the usual procrastination.

and then some of it was, you know, you know, that, you know, hesitance to see whether it resonates, to see whether anyone tunes in and also knowing that I am quite an ambitious person. So I would want to see this, take off. And ever since we launched, there are so many learnings, so many things I learned about myself personally.

So many things I learned about podcasting, about, you know, interviews and solo episodes and speaking into a microphone. And there is still so much more for me to learn. It is such a humbling experience because going into it, I always thought, well, I don't Everybody has a podcast, can't be too difficult to, you know, speak into a microphone and just kind of speak about, you know, speak your mind, record these episodes, interview people.

But it's been really humbling to learn how hard this is and how hard it can be. And, you know, just kind of listening back to your own episodes can feel really traumatic, but I'm still at it and I'm still committed to, you know, But overall, I'm, I'm really proud and, even more so really, really grateful for the community that has been building around the podcast for each and every one of you tuning in on a weekly basis or whatever the cadence is.

But I'm seeing a lot more listeners, a lot more downloads recently, and that gives me a lot of confidence and a lot of. Gratitude because that kind of tells me it's content that resonates and it's an important topic and it's relevant and we keep moving forward with this. And this is exactly what I want to dedicate this episode to.

It's like moving forward, where is this going? What are we here to do together? And, what is this movement that we're creating here? Because if I'm honest, I do see it a little bit. As a movement, as something that can really make a difference, not only, you know, to your life, to your career, but to us introverts in general in the workplace.

And I want to call out an ambition and a mission that I'm on. Moving forward with this podcast, like what do the next five to 10 years look like? What do I want to achieve with you? What do we want to rally behind? What is the mission that we're on? And for me, it's quite, it is quite a bold mission, but you know me by now.

I like to be bold, but subtle. I like to be bold in an introvert friendly way. I like to be bold in a quiet way. And I kind of feel like. This is the way to go for us and it's, it's such a powerful style, such a powerful, you know, personality to be. So my mission is very simple. It's more introverts at the table.

Why is this so important? And I understand that there might be some of you out there. There might be introverts out there who will just go, you know what? I don't even want to be at the table. Because when we talk about the table, we often think of boards or leadership teams or, you know, positions that are super, super high up in the organization.

And that may not. Be what you strive for. That may not be what you want. But that is not quite what I mean by the table that I'm talking about. I do want you up there too. Let's not kid ourselves. Ultimately, I do want more introverts in boardrooms and in leadership teams and very high up, super high up.

But what I want to talk about today is More of, you know, introverts being represented in the corporate world and being represented when it comes to decision making and when it comes to impact that we have in the corporate world and in the workplace. In general, and that's not only through leadership roles.

That's not only through, you know, executive level roles. That is also through each and every one of your positions that you're in right now. You have an impact, you have value to add, you have something to give, you have something to bring, you have perspectives that you can share. And I feel like at the moment, All of this is a little underrepresented.

We're often getting underestimated. We're often getting overlooked. And it's a real shame. Because introverts bring something that is super, super valuable because it is so different from what extroverts bring. It's a different way to think. It's a different way to approach challenges. It's a different way to lead.

It's a different way to interact with others, to solve problems. It's a different way to lead meetings and to, you know, reach out via chat and via teams. And the list goes on and on. Introverts are just different from extroverts and the underlying difference here, and I think we've talked about this before, but I love to share it again is in where we focus.

Introverts focus inward and extroverts focus outward. Extroverts get a lot of their energy from the external world, from spending time with others, spending time socializing, networking in the company of others. That's where they draw energy from. It's where they come up with ideas. It's where they thrive.

But for us, it's different. We thrive by going We thrive and we get our energy from spending time alone. And unfortunately, in the workplace, in the corporate world, that is often seen as a hindrance to career success. And we are the, we are the guilty ones here too, because I think we often see that very fact.

As something that holds us back from career success from advancing our careers because we don't really see that as a power. We see that. As a blocker, as a hindrance, because we think that the only way to succeed in the corporate world, in workplaces in general, in our careers, is by being externally focused, by being outward, by socializing, by networking, by being loud, by being out there, by being charismatic.

All these things that extroverts thrive at. Because that's what we see, frankly, those are the examples that we see day in and day out. But what we underestimate. is that internal power, that inward focus. It is not something that holds us back. It's the only thing that will unlock success for us. This is our secret weapon.

It's the tool that we have to thrive. We will never thrive by trying to be externally focused by trying to be outward focused. Going inward is the only way for us to succeed and to thrive. And that is the message I want to land with you. That is the message I want to land with every introvert out there who is keen to advance their career, who is keen to find, you know, what we call fulfillment, to do what they do.

Best and, you know, to go out and do something meaningful, whether it be in the corporate world, whether it be in their own business, whatever this looks like, this is what I'm here to do is help you find that inward focus, embrace it and making something that becomes extremely powerful for you. Now, I think that's the only way we're going to be of service in the corporate world.

And we really need to be at those tables. We really need to be considered when it comes to decision making, when it comes to the way organizations are shaped, because at the moment we're underrepresented and we're overlooked. And if I'm being very honest, it's showing. I feel like It's showing in the world, it's showing in businesses, the organizations that I have been part of and then that I'm perceiving on a daily basis, it's showing that, you know, the overall culture and the overall, you know, growth is not going anywhere.

In the right direction. We're struggling quite a lot in the corporate world. We're struggling with meeting culture. We're struggling with office culture. There are a lot of debates about, you know, working from home or working from the office and. It's just not working because I think we're missing some very important, some very valuable and some out of the box perspectives and ideas here.

And it's the ideas that the introverts could potentially bring to the table, but currently aren't. I'm going to give you an example from my current role in the corporate world and the team that I work with. We, will often spend time as a team to look into, you know, how we collaborate and how we work together from a perspective of, you know, the shared ambition, the mission that we're on, the ways of working, the behaviors that we want to drive as a team in order to collaborate really well, and what I feel often , trips us up.

Is setting priorities. We will often set priorities at the beginning of the year and, end up completely derailed because there is always something that comes in that's suddenly more important. I don't know if that's your corporate experience too, but it's so hard to stay focused behind a set of priorities.

And if we're really honest. Priorities never really have worked because priorities were not a thing to begin with. Like when the word priority was first coined, I think this goes back to the 50s, is it was singular. It was just priority. That was the word, the term to begin with. There was no plural. There was no priorities.

Because if we're being honest, There can only ever be one thing that we credibly pursue. It's priority. It's one thing. But you know, in the corporate world, in the workplace, it's always three things at least. It's always like, you know, here are the three things that we need to do. These are the three big bets.

Here are the five things we need to, you know, do in order to crack this transformation, in order to achieve this turnaround, in order to grow. Everything is always. Priorities and I feel like this is something that introverts me certainly I'm always very attuned to I always. Go into these sessions and I think to myself, you know what, this is never gonna work.

I don't believe in three priorities. I really don't. I think this would be so much more impactful if we were all rallied behind one thing that we wanna achieve. One mission, one goal, one objective as the number one thing that we're pursuing. I'm, you know, not that delusional to think that, you know, there's only ever one thing that we're doing, but.

It's one priority. It's one focus. And that's the kind of thing I think we should really speak up about. I think that's the kind of perspective that we're bringing because we have this inward focus, because we have this perspective. There is no BS going on when we're internally focused. We are part of those meetings and we can call out the BS that's happening.

We can literally see when the same conversations go on and on and on. You know, when the same set of people, drives the same set of approaches, has the same set of ideas, the same set of perspectives, it's a constant cycle and it's the same. It's always the same and therefore it's so crucial for us to step up, to lean in, to share our perspective and to make things different.

And I feel like when it comes to the workplace and what I certainly want to achieve in the next 10 years or so on where I see this movement, become really impactful is in the way we transform. Meeting culture and communication culture. It's a mess right now. Just think the amount of emails that you get on a daily basis.

The amount of meetings you're in. It's always back to back to back. The amount of messages you get via, you know, so many different channels, the amount of phone calls, the amount of, Can I call you real quick? Do you have a second? Do you have two minutes, whatever it is. And it's something that is obviously still quite new in the workplace.

I feel like virtual communication, in the grand scheme of things is still pretty new and there are no set rules around this, but I think if somebody is going to establish rules or somebody is going to optimize those processes. It ain't going to be the extroverts in the room. It has to be the introverts.

Like, I think transforming meeting and communication culture can be so, so powerful. Just think of this. Meeting free Mondays. I already see that coming. Like, I would love that. A cap on the amount of emails that you can send. rules around, you know, how many, how many teams chats there's going to be at any given point in time, obviously this needs some thinking.

And obviously I don't have the answer to all of this and this will be very individual to each team, to each company, to each organization as to what is possible here. But I often feel like. You are in these meetings and you see things go wrong and you can put your finger exactly on where things go wrong.

You see it, you perceive it, you probably have an idea or you have a question or you have a challenge and it just kind of doesn't sit well with you but still you don't speak up. You keep that to yourself, and at the end of the day, you're frustrated, you don't feel engaged, you don't feel like you belong there, because it's just, it's just not working, and you feel like it's too much of a bother for you to speak up, voice your opinion, and potentially be faced with opposing opinions from the other side.

But if we never speak up, these things are never going to change. And I feel like as, you know, an awfully quiet community, this is something that we should be able to transform together that we should be able to bring. And I would love moving forward to work together with you to work together with organizations and companies on, really making communication and meeting culture, something that works for everyone.

And at the end of the day, something that drives a meaningful change. That drives growth, that drives an impact and makes, you know, win, win, win makes everyone's life better. What I also think could be really impactful is for us to help change the way we collaborate, the way we meet, the office spaces that we're in.

Like I mentioned this before, I think there's this whole debate now on post COVID, every organization is asking their employees to come back, work at the office, you know, not work from home anymore. And I feel like as introverts, we collectively enjoyed working from home. Didn't we? Like, I'm often asked, I work from home full time.

There will obviously be times in the year that I travel a lot and interact with my team, and I always enjoy that. I love that, but I am not ever going to get lonely or bored or whatever when I work from home. I love this. I get my daily dog walks. I get To be efficient and effective, I am somebody who is in a lot of calls on the daily basis, who is in a lot of interactions and conversations with people.

I will be the last to say I feel lonely or, you know, not effective working from home. Now I do get that there needs to be, both focus work, deep work and healthy collaboration and interaction. But even that, I feel like. When we go to office spaces and when, when we go into these corporate workspaces, it's often these big spaces that obviously allow for communication that allow for collaboration.

there are some meeting rooms, there are some meeting spaces, but there's very little room to think individually and to work for yourself. And, there's very little quiet spaces and it's a big miss, especially for introverts. back when I used to work at an office, I would often find myself like trying to find a meeting room somewhere that, you know, there, there was nobody in, and I could just go with my headphones on and work quietly.

And obviously. This is not the idea necessarily, but I needed that because I couldn't just be in an open office all day long and I know how bad it can look like to sit in an open office space with your headphones on and not really available or approachable for anyone else. So it's just a struggle and we need more space and more rooms in corporate and in the workplace to be quiet.

And to think and to, you know, sit there with our headphones on and do some deep thinking and some deep work if we can't do that at home. And this is something else that I would really like businesses and organizations and companies to understand. It's not that people want to go and and work in a quiet place because they are anti social or they don't want to interact.

It truly fuels. those original ideas and that those, you know, that unicorn thinking and really allowing for new ideas to pop up because when we're always in conversation, when we're always interacting with others, we never really have the time. To be with ourselves, to think to ourselves, to have this inward focus.

And as a result, we will always have, you know, the same old conversations, the same old interactions, the same workshopping, the same post it notes, the same ideas at the table. We need. To build these spaces, we need to give the freedom and we need to set introverts up for success and setting introverts up for success looks different than setting extroverts up for success.

And this is what needs to be clear. This is what leadership teams need to understand what CEOs need to understand what businesses and HR departments need to understand in order to set introverts up for success. It needs a different approach. It needs a different office space. It needs different approaches, different meeting cultures, different communication cultures.

And that's what I want a lot more of. I want a lot more conversations with companies and with organizations to help drive that knowledge and to help them notice, and then to also work on ideas of how to improve that. And I feel like, you know, this is something that we can obviously do on a bigger scale and, you know, with this show and with this podcast, but each and every one of you has these ideas and has little nuggets of wisdom when it comes to small improvements that you can bring.

And it's down to you to voice them, to speak up. To say, share that one idea with your manager or with your team when you next connect on, you know, how collaboration works and how the team works together, some of the behaviors and so on. So that's the step that you can take. Share the idea that you have, share your opinion, say out loud that sometimes there needs to be space for you in the day to think and go inward because that's where you thrive and that's the only way you can be powerful.

Now, the final point that I want to cover is on networking and building community and mentorship. Among introverts, because that is where I really see this going in the future. I, I'm obviously pretty humbled. And just one year into this journey, but I want to make it many, many more years. And I also have the, A platform on Instagram, subtle careers, which is growing, which is seeing, you know, so many introverts interact and reach out to each other, which is beautiful.

And I love that. And I am seeing this become a community one day where there is more open interaction and where there is potentially also more networking. I think, you know, networking events obviously get a bad rep for, for good reasons, because. Again, I feel like they are made by extroverts for extroverts, and they've always been the same kind of thing.

You know, company gatherings freak me out. And I've talked about that plenty on this show and in this podcast, but I'm thinking, you know, how about networking events, but make them introvert friendly, make them something that we actually enjoy. And again, we need to come up with an approach that we all can enjoy and that we love, but why not bring the podcast and the show together?

Into the real world here and there, why not think about networking approaches that can be, you know, really meaningful for you. Why not build something where you can find introverted mentors and introverted leaders who have been where you are in your career and match them up and, you know, really make it meaningful, like a meaningful collaboration, meaningful interactions.

I certainly would love that I would have loved that early into my career because I felt like in corporate, I always just saw extroverts that inspired me. I always just saw the big speakers, the loud leaders, and don't get me wrong. I am impressed by them. I am impressed by anyone who is charismatic and great on stage and a great public speaker, love them.

And I will always look up to them. But I don't see myself in them. I will often look for somebody that I see myself in and there's very little in the corporate space, that, you know, that I can identify with. So I want to help create that. I want to match, you know, people who are early in their career with people who are, you know, in leadership positions already.

And it can, you know, say a little something about. Their journey and what has helped them and what hasn't helped them. And to foster those, yeah, to build a real community and to help you interact. I think that, you know, obviously at the moment it's very introvert friendly, you're just tuning in quietly and, you know, it's hopefully something that you can, you know, take.

Useful tips and advice from and feel like potentially even, you know, a connection with this community, but I see the, you know, the numbers behind, I see the people listening and tuning in on a weekly basis. And I often feel like how powerful it could be if they would know each other, if they had a way to connect and to reach out and to ask questions.

So. That's certainly something that I want to build as an additional element over the next couple of years. And, I don't quite know yet how, but I wanted to paint the picture. I wanted to let you in on some of the thoughts that I have and where I see this going and how I see this become of movement that leaves you feeling empowered and energized and powerful.

And with that, I think I'm going to leave you. This was very much, well, I would say a very low key, a very casual career conversation. I hope it inspired you. I am so thankful that you're tuning into this podcast. I cannot believe that we are one year in. Here's to hopefully many, many more. I am certainly enjoying this ride with you.

If you know anyone. Who would benefit from tuning in and from listening in and who would resonate with this content. Please share the episode with them or any other episode that you have liked and that has resonated with you. It means the world to me. It means the world to this movement. And at the end of the day, it's going to make this more powerful and it's going to help us get there faster.

So introverts take your seat at the damn table. Let's get this done and I'll see you next week.