Hello and welcome back to the awfully quiet podcast. I'm really excited for you to tune in today. I have just come back from holiday and as you can tell, my voice is a little bit affected by, I think at the end of the day it was, um, the ACs and the temperature differences between Los Angeles and Palm Springs, Las Vegas, and then, you know, being in and out of the car and, you know, my European self just not really being used to ACs in summertime yet.

So, yeah, I'm not complaining. I had a fun day. fabulous time off, really cherish this downtime and, you know, having some time away from the business and away from my corporate job to relax and unwind, which is really what I did. So I'm back today and I've been wanting to take this opportunity to just cheer where I'm at because I've had a lot of thoughts while I was out.

And this always happens to me when I'm on holiday is like, Once I have enough time to reflect, I keep thinking differently, or I start to think differently about my career and you know what I'm doing. And I think it's just that distance that we tend to get only really when we get some decent time off.

And you start to think about, You know, what you do, what your career looks like at the moment, whether you're happy, how you envision, you know, your future to be, what's, what's your ideal career, what, what is a scenario that you would love to come back to? what's the kind of job you'd like, you'd be looking forward to after, some time away.

And I'm glad that. For me at the moment, I really did look forward to a lot of the stuff that I'm doing, both in my corporate career and in my business. But while I was out, there was one piece of content that I posted on my Instagram on subtle careers that really resonated with you. And that I wanted to touch on today because it touches on exactly that idea of what's an introvert's idea of a fulfilling career.

What does a, what does career fulfillment look like for somebody like you and me, for somebody who's introverted. And I'm going to read this out to you real quick. And then. We're going to dive deeper into why this is so important for us to establish and then how you can move closer to this idea of a fulfilling career.

It says you're not after a job that pays the bills. You're after a career that plays to your strength and what you do really well. You're ambitious. But at the same time, aware of your energy and social battery. You like to work on high level projects that have the potential to make a real difference.

You don't mind the spotlight every once in a while, but there's nothing better than coming home, putting on a big shirt and eating dinner on the couch.

I hope this resonates with you to a certain extent, obviously this will not be one to one how you feel, but it's a little bit of a manifesto of how I feel and how I would like my career to look like. And quite honestly, I would have never published this a couple of years ago because I always had this idea of what a successful career looks like.

And I would often beat myself up for some of these behaviors around, you know, downtime and, you know, eating dinner on the couch or watching Netflix, after work and essentially doing things that are not productive or doing things that, are not in a way, you know, socializing in any way or not in any way beneficial to anyone else.

And I would also often beat myself up for needing that downtime, needing that time by myself and, not really understand that You know, it's something that ultimately fuels my career success and fuels my growth. So I've really seen a difference in starting to share. This is what it looks like for me.

And I've seen so many people resonate with this idea of career fulfillment. Now, there's a couple of elements in there. That are not surprising. So you will probably have guessed that an introvert is somebody who values their downtime and is somebody who, you know, needs that time alone to refuel and to re energize.

But some of the other things on there are unexpected and I think often overlooked from the outside. I think all those elements around. Introverts can indeed be ambitious about their career goals, even though they need their downtime. They are ambitious about their careers. They do want to progress. They do want to work on high level projects.

They do want to move the needle. There is quite a bit of ambition and rigor in introverts, but it's often overlooked because it's hidden by that quiet, it's hidden by us not openly sharing all of that ambition and not openly saying, here's who I am, here's what I'm here to do, here's what I do really well and here's where I'm headed.

So, that tends to be overlooked and, it often looks like. Introverts are, you know, not, not really interested in career growth, not really interested to be, working on high level projects and, don't really have the energy to do so. So, and I feel like it's so important to stress time and time again, that both is possible. You can be introverted and you can be hugely successful in your career. You do not have to pretend to be an extrovert. You do not have to stretch yourself to be outgoing and socializing after work. You can absolutely value and embrace your the need for downtime and be successful.

And, it's also what this podcast is here to do and what I'm here to, to say and share time and time again. But all too often I appreciate the gap looks really, really big. So you might be thinking to yourself, well, that's all great. And it's, you know, great that it seems to be working out for you, but how can I keep being who I am?

How can I keep You know, embracing and valuing the time I need to spend by myself.the downtime I need, my quiet demeanor, my calm demeanor and be successful in business and be even considered as somebody who can work on high profile projects, even be seen as somebody who, you know, every once in a while would love to be in the spotlight, would love to be recognized for what they do, would love to have their strength visible to key stakeholders and decision makers.

And there are three things that. I want to leave with you today, and there's going to be more episodes on this topic in particular, but I want to start with this one just to, you know, dip our toe into this whole topic, because I think that part of the reason why introverts are often overlooked for opportunities and introverts are often only seen as the quiet ones, the shy ones, the ones who are not really interested in career growth is partly something that you can influence as an introvert and is in part something that we need to sensitize our corporate environments to.

So I'm not saying that it's all your fault. But I am saying, and most of what I am sharing in this podcast is something that you have in your hands, that you can influence, that you have under your control. And then together, and by building this community and by spreading the word about this podcast, together we can change the narrative of what it means to be introverted, of what it means to be awfully quiet and hopefully over time.

change the image and the reputation introverts have in the workplace and also make sure that corporations, managers and executives know about this and see introversion for what it is. It's an absolute, you know, powerhouse of personalities, qualities, traits, whatever you want to name it. So, What I'm, what I often see happen, when it comes to, you know, this idea of a, of a fulfilling career and this ambition to be seen this ambition to, you know, have a career that lights you up, that moves the needle, that makes a difference, but you're not really there yet.

I think what is missing, is really three key things. and three things that you should know about yourself. Three things that you should absolutely be aware of, but also leverage for yourself and to make sure others are aware of this. So there are three things. Number one is you need to really know who you are, your personality.

Number two is you need to know what you're really good at. your number one strength. And number three is you need to know where you're headed in your career. Where are you going? What's the direction that you're taking? Once you know these three things, once you have them clear, once you have that self reflection for yourself, these are the things that others need to know about you.

In order for you to be seen to be considered to be recognized and to ultimately build a career that feels fulfilling to you because right now some of these things are behind the curtain of that beautiful quietness. That I, believe is so powerful, but this is the one thing that I wish we could all change.

And this is the thing that you have under control is making sure that some of these elements are visible to the outside world, to outside stakeholders, to, decision makers in the business, to people that you work with. And I want to get into these three elements in a little more detail in this episode.

So starting with number one, you need to be aware. of who you are and what you stand for. And, you know, I'm pretty sure if you're listening to this podcast, you will already know a great deal about yourself. You'll already know a little bit about your personality. You're introverted. You're potentially, somebody with a quiet, calm demeanor.

you may be someone who, you know, is really ambitious about their career goals to and wants to progress and, is here to, you know, really move the needle and, to really lean into their careers.but you want to know a little bit more so you can do a lot of more work around your personality and to really bring this to life for others.

And. It's so powerful to do this. There are so many different ways you can do this. I often use the. the Myers Briggs personality type test, the MBTI test, because this is one that is also very known and very common in corporate settings and in the workplace to help others understand who you are and how you work.

there are so many other great personality tests as the Enneagram, there is the insights discovery test with the colors, so many other great personality tests.official tests that are recognized across corporate settings, but then also it doesn't have to be a strict personality type test. it could be something like really diving into who you are outside of work.

Like the question, that you can ask yourself is what do you do on a normal Saturday that you have, you know, just to spend. By yourself at your own time, if you could, spend your Saturday, however you want it, or you spend your free day, however you want it, how would you spend it? What would you do?

What would you, start the day out by doing? What would you do throughout the day? What are those kinds of activities you are naturally drawn to? What are the kinds of things that are fun to you? just kind of think about how would you say, spend a day off and what does this say about you? Some of these things, we tend to not share in the workplace and I'm not saying you have to potentially share everything about yourself with others.

I know that this is something that you wouldn't want to do. I certainly don't want to do that, but I will often pick elements of my personality that That I'm okay to speak about in a corporate setting. I'm going to give you an example here. I will often share my obsession with great coffee. Now. This is a tricky one because, many people will say about themselves that they're coffee lovers and many people will say, Oh, I really like a good coffee.

and that's quite generic. So you wouldn't want to, you know, pick something about yourself that, you know, it's just like everyone else. Like, Oh, I like to travel. Oh, my hobbies are, you know, I'm doing yoga on the weekends or I'm a coffee lover. Like you want to make it more tangible. There has got to be more meat on the bone.

You have got to be more specific. So it's fine to say, you know, I really appreciate a good coffee, but then maybe you can paint more of a picture. Like I will always say, in interview settings or in career conversations that I'm somebody who you'll see on the weekend, you know, with an early morning oat milk, flat white from the cafe around the corner in the dog park, walking my dog, appreciating my time off and, really valuing that, time listening to a podcast, and, you know, strut is trotting through the fields with my muddy shoes.

so something like that. So, making sure you bring to life who you are and what it looks like. And I'm sure just by, by just saying that I gave you a little bit of an impression of who I am as a person. And. This is so, so important in the workplace. This is so, so important for you to build a fulfilling career, to be seen and to be considered because more often than not.

This is something that others don't know about you because you are less vocal about what you do on the weekends. You are less vocal about the things that you love and really appreciate outside of work. But, it sometimes makes it difficult for stakeholders and for people to grasp you, to see who you really are.

And that is also important. to be remembered, to be seen for people to see common ground that they have with you. You know, you might just have a boss or a stakeholder at work, that resonates with you. I, now that I'm saying that I'm gonna have to give another example that is mind blowing to me, but that just fits perfectly to this, what I'm just trying to explain.

So recently. I had a big workshop at work, with some big global stakeholders and with some, you know, senior stakeholders in the room. And we did, a little bit of an icebreaker and everyone was meant to share one of their favorite songs. and we just kind of collated a playlist together and.I shared as one of my favorite songs, a song by Taylor Swift and just kind of basically outed myself as a Swifty who has tickets to the hes tour this summer, to the entire group.

And while this is obviously something that I'll share with my friend group and everybody knows about me, I'm a huge Taylor Swift fan. I have never really said that in an environment like this with super, with, you know, senior stakeholders in the room. But I, seeing that there was a specific question around the kind of music you listen to and the kind of songs that you like, I said that I'm a huge Swifty.

And then, Another person in the room, a senior Segoda I had previously worked with, and basically said that, Oh, I'm a huge Swifty too. I have tickets to the ERAs tour too. And so this sort of set the scene for, we would have loads and loads of conversations throughout the day around, obviously Taylor Swift and the Arrows tour and what we're planning on wearing to the concert and all sorts of things.

And I have never had that type of connection to this person. And as I said, it's a senior stakeholder in the business. and now we have this connection. That's the common ground we have now, whenever we pick up the phone to each other or whenever I. want something, or they will always remember that I'm a swifty too.

And so it can be something so, you know, so small, so easy, something that connects you with somebody else. That is a huge advantage, in business. And it's just part of building relationships and part of building common ground that ultimately helps you Build a fulfilling career. Do not underestimate this.

yeah, that, that was mind blowing to me. how sharing something that, you know, I wouldn't normally share in, in a, in a setting like this unlocked like this huge, this huge connection. so number one, I'm going to

What you stand for, something that's tangible about yourself, something that paints a picture about who you are, and then openly sharing that with others, giving them little, little nuggets of wisdom of who you are and, yeah, what it is that you stand for. Now, number two is, knowing. what your strengths are, knowing what you do really, really well.

This is something that I know many of you struggle with because Unfortunately, this is something that doesn't come naturally to us. It's like talking about our strengths, articulating what we do really well, this whole idea of self promotion of, you know, just kind of, you know, putting ourselves in a spotlight.

We don't really do that. We don't really like that. And I'm here to say that you don't have to do that. There are a lot of ways. Of showing people and demonstrating your strength without having to be icky or salesy or just kind of talking about it or shouting it from the rooftops. And we're going to cover this in a lot more episodes and in a lot more detail, but it's really about making sure that first and foremost, you are aware of what it is that you do really well.

Transcribed You are aware of that, that strength and, it is really something that stands out about you. It's really something that, you are not only great at, but you also like to do. So you want to make sure that whatever you pick for this purpose is something that you want to be known for. Now, don't make it too complicated.

And obviously you can always tweak and you can always change. But what I'm essentially asking you to do is moving forward is to position yourself against this thing that you are good at and making sure that other people know about it. So you could potentially, seek out opportunities to develop the skill or you could tell stakeholders and people that you're really looking to strengthen your strength in X, Y, and Z, and therefore looking for more opportunities to develop and grow in this area.

And by that you will have already told them that this is a strength and you're looking to develop it. And hone it over time without really, having, you know, self promoted too drastically or without being, awkward or salesy in any way. You're basically asking for an opportunity to develop something that you're already great at, but you're looking to become even better at it.

So. In my opinion, that's a really introvert friendly way of putting yourself out there, of letting other people know, here's something that I really, really like doing and I want to become better at it over time. when it comes to finding your strength, and again, we will do this at another point in much more detail, but, something that I always find.

helpful is the question of when do I lose track of time? What are the things that I do on a day to day basis that kind of put me in a, in a flow state that kind of put me in a state of, I, you know, I completely lose track of time. I could do this for hours. I would do this even if I weren't being paid for it.

and it's often something that others will call out about you. that others will come to you for naturally that others will ask for advice about. So maybe ask yourself that question over the next one, two weeks at work and in your day to day and see what comes up for you or see the kind of tasks that you feel like that put you in a flow that put you in the zone and what are they?

Is there a strength in them? Is there something in that you do differently than anyone else. Is there something that could potentially be, a strength that stands out about you? And then number three is you want to know where you're headed in your career. You want to know the direction that you're going to in your career.

And this is another one that tends to be a little tricky because

A lot of the rejections or objections that I will get on this is like, come on, I have no idea where I'm going to be in five to 10 years. There is no way of telling, there is no way of planning. I do not know. I do not care. why do I need to know this? But it's really, really important. from the lens of you wanting to build a fulfilling career, you wanting to be considered, you wanting to be the person they reach out to and they call when great opportunities come up.

So it's so, so important for you to have an idea of what your career is going to look like in the next five to 10 years. Now there's always this classic question of where do you see yourself in the next 10 years? And I know you dread it, but those who can. You know, provide an answer to that question will often be the ones who are considered for promotions who are considered for the next steps simply because their trajectory is more tangible to senior stakeholders.

Once you tell somebody here is, you know, the direction that I'm going into here is the kind of position that I want to, to develop to five to 10 years down the line that gives them. A really good idea of, you know, what does that next step look like for you? What is an opportunity? What is a development project that you would need to be on in order to develop the skills, the experiences that are going to be needed to move towards that?

future ambition. Now, I'm not saying you need to draw a line in the sand and you need to put like, you know, a position down on paper that you're aspiring to. More often than not, the positions that you have in mind right now will not even exist anymore, five to ten years down the line. But it's really only about, A direction and for you to say, look, here's the kind of setting I see myself in, in five to 10 years.

this is the kind of responsibilities I want to have. These are the kind of tasks that I want to do. This is how I want my day to look like. This is who I want to work with. And this is potentially some of the, you know, the function or the industry that I want to be and the kind of thing that I want to do.

So career clarity is super, super important. And I will not get tired of saying this, but. knowing for yourself what you're striving for and, the kind of, you know, positions you want to have, in a couple of years time is only half the job done. You need to let others know. And this is something that extroverts do naturally and they do it openly and boldly and they will come in as juniors and tell senior leadership that they want to be the next GM and that they want to be the next CEO.

And they say it so convincingly that everybody believes it. And it's just, I mean, it's just like, yeah, I'm sure you will be. and I'm not saying, you know, you have to go in with a bold claim and Bold ambition. But I am saying you should say boldly what you really, really want. I already said why this is so important.

If you think about it from a manager's perspective as somebody who leads a team, and obviously part of your job is to support your team members in their development to make sure they are being promoted and managers are often being assessed. On their ability to promote their people into, you know, new roles and to develop their people.

So it is. It's a big ambition of, somebody, who manages you to make sure that development is being enabled. And you know, somebody like that, if you, if you tell them, you know, I don't really know where I'm seeing myself, I'm not really sure what I want to do next. It's probably fine. But when new opportunities come up, you're likely not going to be just, considered right away.

Whereas somebody who says to their boss right away, you know, look, this is something I aspire to in the future. therefore I'm going to need this experience. I'm going to need, need to work on a project like X, Y, and Z. Here's the kind of skills that I have. These are the kinds of skills that I still need to build.

That gives your manager an instant. Understanding for what it is that you need and almost like a checklist of here's a project. This person needs to be on here is a kind of experience. They need to, make on my team in order to enable this in the future. Here's the kind of position or here's the kind of next move that they would be suitable for and that they would need in order to move towards that long term ambition.

So it's almost like, you know, very tangible list of things that you almost give to your manager on a silver platter and it makes it extremely easy for them to support you. It makes it easy for them to help you. And that's exactly what you want to do because managers often. Do not only are not only responsible for your development, for your growth, they're responsible for a wide variety of business objectives as well.

And they often manage teams that are bigger. It's not just you on the team. So the clearer you can be to your immediate manager, but also to senior leadership and senior stakeholders in the business in terms of where it is you are headed, what it is you want.that gives them everything they need to know.

And then, once, you know, opportunities come up, they will mention your name, they will put your name forward and they can help with positive word of mouth and making opportunities happen that, you know, otherwise would have just flown into thin air. So yeah, that's why it is so important to know your, where you're headed.

And to actually say it out loud, you can use your, development check ins with your manager to do that. you know, if you do, mid year conversations or year end conversations, you could even use career conversations you have with senior leaders or coffee connects, whatever it is, you can even drop something like this.

In a casual conversation, you could say, look, I'm really passionate about what I'm doing right now because in the future I'm looking to, you know, be a leader in this field. And I have so much fun working on X, Y, and Z and I'm really looking to position myself as an expert here. I'm really looking to become a thought leader in the future.

I wanna do this and that. So, it's really important for me too.be sure that, I deliver great work on this and, yeah, I'm having a lot of passion for this. So I think this is something that introverts can really start to do more off and start to learn how to say things and how to, just kind of mention.

some of their, you know, who they are, their personality, some of what they do really well and where they're headed, what they want to do next, what they want to do in the future.

These are the three things that I wanted to cover today. And if I'm being very honest, what this is, is it's building a reputation. It's being upfront and it's being intentional with Who you were being remembered as, and, it's building essentially, it's building a personal brand. Because a personal brand is nothing else than what others remember you by.

It's that image, that reputation that you have. It's what other people think about you and say about you when you're not there. And everybody has a personal brand. It's not just for business owners. It's not just for fancy entrepreneurs. You have a personal brand. in the work environment that you're currently in.

You're currently being remembered as somebody. And worst case, you're currently remembered as the person who is awfully quiet and introverted. And that is not how I want to leave things. I want you to be remembered for who you are. I want that introversion to shine. And for people to know what's beautiful about your introversion, like, you know, who are you behind the curtain?

I want them to know what you do really, really well. And I want them to know where you're headed, what you want to do next and where you see yourself in the future. Because then you're actually intentional about your personal brand. You want to have some control and some influence over. Who people think you are and, you know, what you stand for and where you're headed, what you want to do next, because otherwise it's a guessing game.

That's why I feel like it's so important to do this work. It's so important to be intentional about your personal brand. It's so important to deliver these three elements. And, yeah, this was, really important for me to share with you today. It's, it's a little bit of a starter, into the whole topic of personal branding for introverts and what I believe it comes down to.

It's really these three elements, you know, we don't have to, it's not rocket science. And this is what I believe is a great way to start into this whole sphere of Self branding, personal branding, it often sounds so scary, but it really doesn't have to be. So what I'm hoping is that you're inspired to think about what is a fulfilling career for you.

What is that ideal scenario of. you know, challenging work and doing what you do best, but then coming back home, putting on your oversized shirt, watching, a movie and having dinner on the couch. it may be that it may be something entirely different, but what I want you to do is have a think about what does a fulfilling career look like for you?

And then these three elements, map them out. Have a think about. Who you are, what stands out about you? What is something that you do really well? Where are you headed in your career? And then I want to you to start to weave some of this into the conversations that you have at work. Some of the things you share about yourself in presentations, whenever you introduce yourself and some of the conversations that you have with your boss and senior leadership in the workplace.

Now, thank you for tuning into this episode. I wish you a great rest of your week and I'll see you next week.