Recently, after I gave a presentation, a few audience members came up to me and insisted that I couldn’t possibly be an introvert (could, too!). Why? They said I was “on fire”—fully engaged with my audience. I was giving a workshop on public speaking, and had a ball helping make such a universally feared activity accessible, and even fun. (more…)

Introverts and influence aren’t two words that you normally think of in the same blink. Yet, Jennifer Kahnweiler, Ph.D., in her book Quiet Influence, turns that misconception on its head. What can you learn about influencing others without necessarily making a peep? Check out the following exchange that Kahnweiler and I had on Twitter. An executive coach who speaks internationally, she is also the author of The Introverted Leader and has been recognized as a “champion for introverts.” As an introvert, I appreciate Twitter because I get to think before I tweet, and I enjoy doing so in 140-character bursts. Conversely, Kahnweiler says that she appreciates being forced to think before she tweets and being succinct, two challenges for her as an extrovert. (more…)

When fellow Psychology Today introvert blogger Sophia Dembling and I recently chatted by phone, we discovered that we both like communicating in sound bites—an efficient use of our introverts’ energy. So I interviewed Dembling, author most recently of The Introvert’s Way: Living a Quiet Life in a Noisy World, on Twitter. In case you missed it, I’ve excerpted our exchange below about fun, flâneurs, phones, and feeling good for introverts, even if life around you is, in Dembling’s words, “a Mountain Dew commercial.” (In case you don’t use Twitter, the @ symbol before our names is just the way our handles appear on that platform.) (more…)

You may enjoy contributing to communities like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, where you can expand your network by connecting from users around the world, share information, and raise your visibility. If you’re an introvert, you can use these venues to thrive quietly in your Batcave, devouring facts and figures, theorizing, and philosophizing online sunup to sundown. Each day you can wake up and read, research, and write some more. (more…)

Is it time for you to run your own business? Let’s say you dream of making a fortune manufacturing whizbang gizmos to make millions of lives easier. Or maybe you would be happier with something more pedestrian like running a dog grooming business or offering consulting services on your area of expertise. (more…)

Are you drowning in a sea of e-mails, text messages, and calls to return? If you’re an introvert, you can probably relate to the “fail whale” on Twitter, the seriously cute image that pops up whenever that popular social media site gets overloaded. The image, designed by Yiying Lu, depicts little red birds effortlessly lifting a whale in a net from the sea, and accompanies the message, “Twitter is over capacity.”

On this first of August, you may be overdue for some downtime. Of course, if you’re already on vacation, remember to get the quiet time you need to fully recharge. If you’re an extrovert, that could mean going from volleyball on the beach to a barbecue to drag car racing to cocktail parties until the wee hours. If you’re an introvert, it might be time to lift yourself out of the Sea of Too Many Inputs and curl up with your Kindle. Here’s to your inner fail whale!

Copyright © 2010 Nancy Ancowitz

“When I’m working I sit alone and write words that no one will see for months or even years,” says author Leah Stewart in her recent story titled, “One Author’s Journey From Twitter-Clueless to Organizing a 48-Writer Social Media Giveaway,” in the Huffington Post.
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