The Advantage of the Introvert's Strategy is Business Growth

✅ The Advantage of the Introvert's Strategy is Business Growth 

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Key Highlights: 📌
🧘 Introvert Insight: Matthew Pollard shares the unexpected edge introverts have in business, dismantling common misconceptions about introversion.
📊 The Introvert's Edge: Discover Matthew's strategy for turning perceived introvert weaknesses into strengths through meticulous planning and preparation.
🗣️ Power of Storytelling: Learn how storytelling can be a key technique for introverts to create rapport and ease anxiety in high-pressure situations.

In an enlightening episode of the Anxiety at Work podcast, we sit down with Matthew Pollard, the acclaimed "Rapid Growth Guy" and author of "The Introvert's Edge" series. Matthew demystifies the advantages introverts possess in business and explains how introversion, contrary to popular belief, is not a barrier to success but a different path to it. 
 By leveraging their natural tendencies toward careful planning and deep thinking, introverts can excel in roles traditionally seen as the domain of extroverts.

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#IntrovertsEdge #BusinessAdvantage #MatthewPollard #Networking #SalesStrategy #LeadershipDevelopment #AnxietyatWork #ProfessionalGrowth #Empowerment #BusinessPodcast

Transcript

So, people that know me and Adrian know that I'm the extrovert and Adrian is more of an introvert, but our guest today says introverts may have an advantage in business. We'll see about that. Hello, my name is Chester Elton and with me is my dear friend and co-author, Adrian Gostick. Well, thanks. Yeah, that's right, Ches. Our guest today is going to talk about how the quiet and shy among us, maybe they can just outsell and outwork, out network everyone else. Well, go figure. As always, we hope the time you spend with us will help reduce the stigma of anxiety at work and in your personal life. And with us is our new friend, Matthew Pollard, who is known as the rapid growth guy. Growth Guide. He is the author of the books The Introvert's Edge and The Introvert's Edge to Networking. He is also a serial entrepreneur with five multimillion dollar business success stories that are under his belt and all before the age of 30. Matthew, welcome to the show. We're delighted you found the time. I'm ecstatic to be here. Thanks for having me. I love the concept of reducing anxiety. And I'm committed to helping reduce the stigma around introversion. And I feel like there's so much anxiety even admitting that you're an introvert. So I'm ecstatic to be here. I think there's a good connection here. When our publicists all talked, we thought, oh, this is magic coming together. So first off, help us define this idea of introvert. Sometimes people might think they are just because they don't like to public speak or whatever. So how do I know if I'm an introvert or an extrovert? And you say it all starts with where we draw our energy from. Yeah, you're 100% right on that. And I think, look, don't get me wrong, psychologists have definitely made it too confusing these days. Maybe there's been too many research grants in the area. But the thing that I find, though, is yes, we can define it, but I think we actually have to remove the stigma first because if I was to do a personality test and I work for an organization the way most people see introversion right now, there is no way I would tell the truth on that because they'll say, oh, poor Sarah hit that introvert box. Oh, well, I guess she can never be a leader in the organization. The thing that I struggle with is, and actually, let me use an example. I spoke at the AAISP Leadership Summit, which think about, I mean, it's just a really long acronym, but basically it's the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals. I spoke at their national event, and then we did a leadership summit afterwards. This is the highest level senior leader in sales for every logo that you would recognize, the best in the business. I just asked a simple question, are you an introvert or are you an extrovert? I didn't actually put like pick A or B. I literally let them write answers. And you would be blown away at how many people said, I didn't know, or said these horrible, horrible things. I was introverted, but don't worry, I'm not anymore. Or, oh, I'm a recovering introvert. Like it's a disease that we need to recover from. And I think that's one of the biggest issues, especially in organizations, because we can't – well, firstly, a lot of us as introverts feel like we're second-class citizens, and that's just not true. Our path to success is just different to that of an extrovert. But more importantly, how would we ever be willing to say we're an introvert if our boss is an introvert that feels like they're recovering from a disease? It's just a horrible thing to think that you're part of. So introversion is just where you draw your energy from, and I hope – I mean, there are probably people listening right now that say, this person used to be an introvert, he definitely isn't now. And that's not true. I'm very passionate about what I do and try and get an introvert to shut up about anything they're passionate about and anything they know well. If you get me to talk about sports, you'll find I'm a very quiet, reserved person. But the thing is, is that if you get somebody that truly believes in themselves and has passion and then give them process and system, I believe they actually have the edge. The only difference is they're tired afterwards. So I can do something like this. I'm not as tired because I'm not as anxious before I get on anymore because I've done 150 of them and I've done what we introverts do really well. I've planned, I've prepared, and I've practiced. And because of that and the repetition of all of that, I get on these shows with very little preparation now and hopefully people are listening to this thinking I'm nailing it and I'm answering these questions clearly. And when I get off, I am going to be a little bit more tired than an extrovert, but nowhere near as tired as I was after my first interview. And especially if I hadn't planned and prepared. So I would suggest that's the answer to everything. It's not that you can't do these so-called extroverted arenas, it's just that those things take energy from you. You know, it's really interesting that you say that you know, we have a dear friend that we hired to be a presenter Scott Christopher, well, let's call him Scott Christopher because that's his name And he's really funny. He's a stand-up guy. He's definitely an introvert because when he's done he's exhausted Mm-hmm, and it was so interesting when I first met him. I said Scott that was amazing. Come on, let's go Let's go and talk to the guys and let's go here. Let's go there You know, I'm just gonna go to my room and I I found that really odd because as the extrovert in our partnership, when I present, it energizes me, which is the difference. Let's get back to this thing about your research that says that introverts can have an advantage in business. So why do the introverts have the advantage over the extroverts who think they have the advantage? Well, they do have – so this is a really interesting question because I believe that extroverts have an advantage initially, but over a time period, introverts have the advantage. And actually, let me just kind of confront you with a couple of realities first because I think this is important for people to hear. A lot of introverts believe that they're not great at small talk, yet Oprah Winfrey and David Letterman are introverts. I'm pretty sure they're pretty good at it. Then, okay, well, let's go, okay, well, we can't network. I mean, everyone knows that. Ivan Meisner, the founder of the world's largest networking group in the world, BNI, is an introvert. So, okay, so we can network. We definitely can't sell. Well, Zig Ziglar is an introvert. I'm an introvert. Half the people on the global gurus list of top 30 sales professionals, which I'm honored to be on, are introverts. So what is it that we actually can't do? Oh, we can't be dynamic. Bill Murray, the guy that we know from the Groundhog Day, is an introvert. So why is it that we think that we have a disadvantage? Well, I believe that we, well, let's face it, let's look at sales specifically. Introverts are kind of terrible at sales initially, and we also believe that sales is, in a lot of ways, this bad thing we do to people to make money for ourselves. And that's probably because the used car salespeople got hold of it. And if you read the article that harbored the birth of the salesman, it's really these people that used to walk door to door, that used to sell snake oil and then go to the next town. That's where sales kind of, people thought that sales was, and especially when manufacturing came into play. But the original word sales was derived from the Scandinavian term to serve. And the best way to serve your client, if your product or service helps them, is to get them out of their own way to use the product or service that you have. Now, if you sell something that people shouldn't want because your product doesn't help, stop listening, I don't want to help you. And go work for another organization. But the thing you've got to understand is that introverts firstly need to understand that sales is not about you, networking is not about you, public speaking is not about you. And some of the, I've got a podcast called The Introvert's Edge, and all the best speakers that I've met that are introverts, they went through the same period where they felt like they had to prove themselves and felt uncomfortable from stage, and then as soon as they realized it was about making a difference to someone else, all that stress and anxiety went away. And so once we realize it's not about us, and then what we realize is it's all about planning and process. See, a lot of extroverts, when they go up on stage, they do wing a lot of things. They do have a lot of things that just naturally happen. If I said, Chester, you did great. Can you do that exact same thing for this group tomorrow? You're like, what did I say? You've got to start to rethink about all the things that you did. If I asked Adrian, he'd be like, yeah, I can do that exactly the same way because I planned, I prepared, I worked out exactly what I was going to say. I did it in the exact same order. I did make it relevant and it came across dynamic, but that took thought and methodicalness to make that happen. So do you want me to do it again exactly the same way? Absolutely. You take me on a roadshow through five cities, I guarantee you're going to get 99% the same experience. Chester, you'll deliver five amazing experiences that are all kind of different and unique in their own way, and that is a difference. And of course, you may have learned, Chester, that the system is the right process for you as well. I still remember, I was on a podcast interview with Jeffrey Gidimore, who's one of the most- We know Jeffrey, yeah. Yeah, he's a sales guy, right? But he said, like, when I used to wing things, I was a great salesperson, but until I learned a system, I was never a great sales leader, and I could never have been the guy that I am today. And I think that's the same in all of these so-called professions. An extrovert has an advantage at the beginning because they just naturally are better at winging things. But just like anything in business, like sales and networking are these magical fields, system and process always win. Brian Tracy, who's a big extrovert, says the top 10% of all sales performers have a planned presentation. Well, who's better at planning? Who's better at preparing? That's an introvert. So what you'll find is the bottom 80% that just say whatever comes out of their mouth, the extroverts are definitely at the top of that because we're terrible at sales without a planned process. But the top 10% is actually predominantly introverted in all of these so-called extroverted fields. Now, do extroverts fit into that top 10% too? Absolutely. But the ones that have gravitated to process, their Achilles heel is they don't want to. So they keep pulling away from it wing things. I can just see, yeah, there's such an applicability in what you talk about in your books, yeah, to our worlds and this is great. So one of the questions that comes up to me as a manager, and I can just see this in sales too where there's a definite bias towards, for example, hiring the extrovert because they maybe come off so well in the interview and yet this mindset can be really powerful. So if I have introverts in my midst as a manager, how do I bring out the best in them? How do I identify them? Give me some thoughts for a manager. Yeah, absolutely. Well, firstly, if you're a manager that thinks you're a recovering introvert, you need to come to terms with that first. Because if you're uncomfortable about being an introvert yourself, then how can you really have an open dialogue with your team about the fact that you want them to be honest so that you can see that they have a disease. So you have to understand that there's nothing wrong with being introverted. Now if you're an extrovert, you need to be honest about the fact that we all have our burdens to bear. Like some might say that extroverts aren't the best listeners. They're not the most empathetic people in the world. Where we introverts have that in spades. The difference is that an extrovert will believe that they can learn to be more empathetic. They will believe that they can learn to be more of an active listener. The problem is that an introvert doesn't believe they can learn to sell. They don't believe that they can network. And once they realize that they can, and belief is 90% of the battle, that's why in The Introvert's Edge, I just keep interviewing these titans of industry, like billion dollar brand founder of Ugg boots, Brian Smith, you know, people like that, that aren't just tech professionals, because everyone knows you can be successful in tech if you're an introvert, but outside tech, there's so many people just dominating. So belief is the most important thing. But because they don't have belief, they don't try. And what's worse, especially in global organizations, HR says, oh, Chester is working for us. He just started, and he clearly doesn't know how to listen that well, but because he's a very strong extrovert, so we'll put him through an active listening class. Oh, Adrian though, he's very introverted, so we're just going to have to accept subpar performance from him. That's the problem that we have. I actually wish you'd repeat what you just said because I didn't hear a word you said. I just heard subpar performance from me. I'm going to go into my shell because of that. You've talked about the selling part, how introverts are better at selling because they practice and they've got a methodology. Is that really the key for introverts? Is that having a model, having a practice? I live just outside New York City. The joke is how do you get to Carnegie Hall, right? Practice, practice, practice. So is that the key for introverts? Is that role modeling and practice over and over again for selling in particular, right? It absolutely is. So, I mean, in all of these so-called extroverted arenas, the answer is a profound yes. And going back to your question about leadership, Adrian, it's about firstly becoming comfortable if you're an introvert or extrovert, and then having an open dialogue that there's nothing wrong with either. And then helping an extrovert, because that's the same, extroverts have the same problem. They know that systems will work better for them, but they like winging things. So they need coaching and assistance to help follow a working process to become the best in the business. An introvert needs to believe in themselves and then follow a working process. Now, the truth is, you know, one of the things I say from stage all the time to people is I'm like, you don't need to buy my book. Like just firstly, you know, just download the free chapter at theintrovertsedge.com. You'll realize that you can sell as an introvert. That's important. But then I give you a full seven-step process. Now I'm not recommending my seven-step process. Well, I probably should, but it doesn't matter which process you follow. What's important is that you follow a methodical system because what I find, especially a lot of salespeople, they don't really have a rhyme or reason for saying what they do. They know they've got to say a certain series of things, but they don't know what order to say them in a lot of the times. So what I say is, grab this order or grab somebody else's process you can believe in, put what you currently say into it. You'll quickly realise some things don't fit. That's all the jargon you're throwing at the customers, by the way. And that's the stuff they won't remember. That's the stuff that's causing them to ask for proposals. Then you'll realise there's some things out of order, which is probably why they're asking for price way too soon or asking for a discount. And then you'll realise there's some gaping holes. One of the things that I do all the time, I just got, Selling Power Magazine just called me the sales kickoff speaker of the year for this one presentation I do on storytelling. Most people think they tell stories, but it's like, customer wanted this, so we gave it to them. They're not really stories like the story of how you met your husband or wife. They should be. They should be these well-practiced theatrical masterpieces where you tell the same story over and over again. Usually that's what's missing from a sales process or even a networking process. So what I say is once you get the order right, once you fill in the gaps, you'll double your sales in the next 60 days. This same thing applies to networking. The key that I would say is you need to follow a – firstly, you need to follow someone that you believe in. So if you're an introvert, you really need an introverted process to follow. And while I'm the only one with the word introvert stamped on my book, I'm definitely not the only introverted sales professional out there that's teaching it. As I said, like half of the global gurus list are introverts. But once you do that, realize, and this applies to all those so-called extroverted arenas as well, is it's not mixed martial arts, right? What you need to do, like a lot of people, and I call this busy procrastination, but what I find is a lot of people say, oh, I'll read that book on sales, then that book on sales, and then that book, and then I'm going to blend it together into the best format. No, all you're doing is confusing yourself. Follow one person, believe in them, and then follow their methodical process and have that mindset of Henry Ford. Any color car you want, as long as it's black. I'm gonna follow and not worry about the bells and whistles, build that basic system, and once I've nailed that, then I'll step forward. Believe it in that process and make sure it's a process that's authentic to you. And truthfully, that applies to networking, to leadership, to any of these so-called extroverted arenas. It's practice and planning through a process that you have faith in. Let me jump in here and ask a little bit about, first off, tell us, before I get into, I want to talk about the side of accelerating growth, but before I do that, tell us where people can learn more about your work, Matthew. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I would suggest that people that don't believe in themselves as introverts or extroverts that have to figure out how to navigate the puzzle of getting introverts and extroverts to work well together because everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. They should definitely check out the Introverts Edge podcast. But for those people that don't believe that they can sell as an introvert, go to the Introverts Edge. Just read the first chapter and you'll have undeniable evidence. Or if you're a career professional that believes you can't network, especially if you're a career professional that's not in sales, go check out the Introvert's Edge to Networking first chapter. What's really interesting is how little planning and preparation people put in. I remember when I spoke at Intel and somebody shared with me afterwards, they talked to me for like half an hour, and they're like, oh, I can do that with you because I know all about you because I saw you speak for an hour. And I'm like, hang on a second, like what I know about Intel is that you're considered a newbie if you've been there for less than 20 years. How did, could you not research who was coming? Wasn't the guest list the same last year? Could you not have got on LinkedIn and found out what books they'd read or what careers they had and then had more meaningful conversations? What I find is most people just don't believe, they feel like it needs to be organic in the conversation. And truthfully, I find organic conversations are much easier if you've planned and prepared and researched. Absolutely, yeah, helpful. Okay, so one last, bigger question here. A lot of your work is in accelerating growth, so give us some things maybe businesses are doing wrong. We focused a lot on what people can do right, but what are, say maybe some things that businesses right now are doing wrong that can get in the way of rapid growth? Yeah, so I think the biggest issue, and it's funny, this actually applies to career growth as well. And originally, my books were really written for small business owners, and what I found was career professionals had the same problem. Like when you're trying to get to those top-tier jobs, if you call yourself a marketer, then you've commoditized yourself, just like small businesses commoditize themselves. And what I found is also that they communicate their value bases based on feature and function rather than passion and mission. And I think that is the biggest way of commoditizing yourself. So I call myself the rapid growth guy, which means that I don't have to call myself a sales trainer, which if I say that, people look at me like I'm one step above a scam artist. If I say I'm in marketing, people are, oh, I need that. How much do you cost? Now I'm talking about price. I just met them. But what I find is when you get past this concept called the unified message and people say, oh, what exactly is that? What's the rapid growth guy? I find that if you go with what I call I love to see, I hate to see, and I'm on a mission two framework as opposed to the elevator pitch, it firstly isn't about you which is far better because I believe the elevator pitch is so I, I, I, I, I, which is why people hate doing that. It's why they have those shallow conversations like, oh, my day job is this because they don't want to sound pitchy. So what I will frame it with is something like this. Well, one of the things I love to see more than anything in the world is an amazing introverted service provider with enough talent, skill and belief in themselves to start a business of their own, I just find though that they end up often stuck in this endless hamster wheel of struggling to find interested people, trying to set themselves apart, trying to make the sale, feeling like people only care about one thing, price. Do you know anyone like that? Now, if I've done my research, I'm probably having a whole bunch of pre-set meetings in a networking room with people exactly like that. So when they respond in the affirmative, I'll say, well, I'm on a mission to help. Introverts like yourself realise that you really can have a rapid growth business doing what you love, but not by getting better at your functional skill. You're probably amazing at that, but instead by focusing on just three things outside the scope of your functional skill that really allow you to build a business that revolves around you, your family, and your life, not the other way around. Actually, let me give you an example, and then I'll tell a story. Okay. Go ahead. No, I was just going to say the difference is I didn't actually tell you what I do at all because nobody cares. I don't care how hard it was for you to learn those things or how long you took. What they do care about is whether I care about them. So what I'm actually imposing, and I've seen this happen even when people are selling insurance, I'm like, well, why do you care about selling insurance? They're like, well, you know, I want to help people. Sure you do. It ends up all being about money. And so once you get down to a certain group, all of a sudden they're like, well, you know, my grandfather had a second class retirement because of this, and they actually know about the products that would have helped that person. So you build the passion and mission structure around that and then all of a sudden, they're having a lot more authentic dialogue about the change they want to see in the world. That's intoxicating for the person that's listening to it. Yeah, I agree with you 100%. When you're more mission-driven, when you're passionate about the mission, everything else kind of follows. Obviously, the name of our podcast is Anxiety at Work. And when you're talking about introverts, we often think that introverts are obviously gonna be more anxious because they hold back, they're worried about what they're gonna say. What you're saying is, look, have some practice, have some thought, have some preparation. So I'm curious, what are some of your personal practices that you put in place to keep your anxiety low and your energy high? Yeah, absolutely. So firstly, I mean, if I think about where I got the most anxious, it would have been speaking in front of a thousand people, ten thousand people. And for me, storytelling really solved that for me. And the reason for it, so I get on a stage, I have this one line I would say instantly, and it would be thanking somebody for the introduction, and then I would say, how do I live up to such a great introduction? I know, let me tell you about Alex. And I would then go straight to a story, because stories activate the reticular activating system of the teller and the receiver's brain, creates artificial rapport. It makes me calm and I feel all the audience warm to me and feel calm too. So I use story in sales, I use story in networking, I use story even when I'm trying to inspire my team towards a certain goal because I find that if I know I'm going to go into that activity and tell a story, I'm going to feel much more comfortable. But I think the biggest practice, and I think this is critical, it's been especially critical for me, is I feel that most introverts ruminate about what could have gone better and they beat themselves up about it. I actually think that's a superpower if we use it as a continuous improvement opportunity. I don't think that this works if you're just winging things, but if you have a system and process then it becomes external. It's like what was broken in that process? Like a scientist, instead of ruminating that night, we can be thinking about that one improvement opportunity. Extroverts don't do that, where introverts do. Now, extroverts can learn to do it, but introverts are cursed with the fact that it's going, they're gonna go through that process anyway. So why not use it as an opportunity for continuous improvement and growth? And I feel like that's my biggest success factor. I'm always ruminating on an improvement opportunity, not beating myself up about that thing I should have said that I didn't say. Yeah, what can I learn from this situation, which is a wonderful tactic for self-improvement and being a great leader. Well, listen, our guest has been the Rapid Growth Guy. He's the author of The Introvert's Edge, The Introvert's Edge to Networking. Matthew Pollard, you've been a delight. We would love to continue the conversation and next time if you could just talk a little faster. I think that would really get more information. You get a little bit excited about stuff, Matthew. Get passionate about your subject. It's really been a delight. Thank you so much. And again, he's got wonderful resources. Follow him wherever you can be followed. And listen to his podcast. The title again is? It's called The Introvert's Edge. Perfect. The Introvert's Edge. See you there. Thanks so much, Matthew. It's been a delight to have you on the podcast. Well, Jess, I don't believe Matthew is an introvert, but I know, I mean, you know, we can, like I said, being an introvert myself, we can train ourselves to be more extroverted. You know, recently I was at an event and they just hosted the great actor Steve Martin. And they said, after his presentation, he was to mingle around, they said, he didn't know what to do with himself. He was absolutely lost, you know, and she's, you know, the order and I just said, he's an introvert. And we're really quite surprised, but so many famous people are. And I think they're successful because of what Matthew talks about. They get a process. Right, right. Yeah. You know, I think, too, he says, you know, tap into what you think are disadvantages, they really are advantages. The fact that you will ruminate and you'll go through and say, what could have been better? How could I have been better prepared? Did I do my research? Did I figure out who was in the room? Did I Google him? Did I look him up on LinkedIn? All those things that introverts are more prone to do. It was a great wake-up call, I think, for a lot of us to be more prepared when we go into whatever situation we're going into. He does talk about the idea that take comfort, at least I did, take comfort in the fact that a lot of really brilliant people are introverts. He talked about Oprah, he talked about Letterman, he talked about Zig Ziglar, the great sales guy, that they all have that introvert part of them that actually has created that advantage. That was my biggest takeaway. There was, it was a big takeaway, yeah. And one of the things too is practice, that people who are introverted, if you are that way or if you're leading somebody or a team that way, people need a working process. And I noticed this with you and I, that I have a process and I think a lot about it. And so I remember you and I, I think it was last year or the year before, we were giving a presentation together, and the room, we were far away from the audience, the room was kind of dead, and 20 minutes in, you said, we gotta shake this up. And you jumped off the stage, and you went, and I started doing the same, and that would be out of my realm normally. But I learned from you is that, look, sometimes you gotta break the flow, and as introverts, we love our flow, and so there are ways that we can learn I think as well from extroverts and introverts and create a great team. Yeah. Speaking of great teams, our wonderful producer Brent Klein, would you say introvert or extrovert? I would say just brilliant, genius. What a great response and clearly practiced. We want to thank Brent Klein who really does make our podcasts wonderful and to Christy Lawrence It finds us amazing guests and pretty particularly for all of you who listened in if you like the podcast, please share it We'd love to have you come visit our website the culture works calm for some free resources They help you in your team and your culture thrive as always buy our book the anxiety at work We've got a wonderful new platform called lit video books called Lit Video Books. Look for us there and as always, follow us on LinkedIn and follow our Gratitude Journal, which comes out every other week. Adrian, what else would we like people to know? Oh my gosh, there's so much more. Yeah, Chancellor's, yeah, in addition to our wonderful books that we've got, please, you know, searches on wherever you find books. We love speaking to audiences, so come to thecultureworks.com and just let us know what kind of events you have coming up. We would love to give a talk on leadership, culture, resilience, wellness, teamwork, whatever you have. We've been doing this for 25 years. We'd love to get out and work with audiences to really get them to understand how to be better leaders, how to build great cultures. Yeah, and I would be remiss if I didn't say we've got a wonderful new gratitude journal. You know, in our book, Anxiety at Work, we talk about gratitude rituals can lower your anxiety. It's a wonderful daily practice. Look it up. It's called the Gratitude Habit. 90 days to a more grateful life. Adrian, give us the last word. Well, thanks everybody for joining us today. Until next time, we wish you the best of mental health