What It Really Takes To Stand Out As Introvert In An Extroverted World – 12 Ways

When Covid-19 hit and lock down was announces, I felt like I was preparing for it my entire life. Whilst so many struggled with social distancing, not being able to go out and socialise, for me it was the dream that I never thought became a reality.

However, as much as the introverts amongst us thrive in peace and quiet, enjoy our own company and can work on their own without constant noise, input or stimuli from others, working from home can also limit options for introverts to demonstrate the tremendous value they deliver. 

So how can you brand yourself and make yourself visible, whether you work from home or you want to increase your public visibility but the thought of having non-stop face-to-face interactions and constantly being ‘on’ already sucks the daylight out of you?

I’ll share with you 12 ways to stand out as introvert in today’s blog.

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If you were amongst those who celebrated when your daily commute changed from the highway (or the subway) to the hallway and you enjoy being able to fade into the background in online meetings, then you want to bookmark this blogpost as being able to blend in also means that you run the risk of being out of sight also means out of mind. 

Good news is that you don’t have to be overly social, nor always be ‘on’ to stand out. It comes down to being intentional about how you communicate, where and how:

1. Let your online profile speak do the heavy lifting. Most first interactions and with that, first impressions have gone online which should be music to the ears of introverts. That means that – when you’re intentional and mindful about setting up and managing your online profiles - you can create a powerful impression to your decision makers even without you having to be online 

To make the most of this, focus on the two most important elements of your online professional identity.

i.     Your LinkedIn profile. When people want to check you out professionally, they’ll often start at LinkedIn—and even if they don’t, that’s where they’ll end up. That’s because your LinkedIn profile will be one of the top results they’ll see in Google results. Focus on having a compelling headshot (face forward, smile, and don’t forget to crop the photo so your face is about 60-80% of the image). Brand your LinkedIn background image so that it reflects you and stands out from the myriad others. And focus most of your attention on your LinkedIn About section. It’s the place where you tell your story, and it will be the most-read version of your bio.

ii.    Your overall Google results. What comes up when you google yourself, your name? And what about the images associated with your name? Do you own it and are you associated with topics that you want to be known for? Or is your name owned by someone else? Ways to take control and ownership over your name is to create content across different channels and platforms, including guest contributions to industry magazines, publications, be a guest speaker at panel discussions, podcasts and conferences, be a member of an association etc. This is where social proof comes in which is a critical aspects of being a trusted authority. 

2. Create consistency in all aspects of your communication. More meetings and interactions happen online and in virtual meetings. So no longer does only your actual words, the tone & voice and your body language matter when getting a message across but also your set up and backgrounds. What’s behind you in a virtual meeting sends a message about who you are and you need to be intentional how you leverage it. It’s a choice how you want to come across and creating this consistency, across online and offline interactions is key.

3. Do the prep. If introducing yourself or speaking up in meetings to share your ideas and insights is hard for you, prep for it. The more prep ou do and the reps you get in, the easier you’ll find it in the ‘real’ situation. When I give keynotes, I rehearse quite a few times as this is what makes me confident in the content I deliver and I can focus on how I deliver it.

There is the saying: Amateurs wing it, professions prepare. Whilst it doesn’t apply for everyone- I know people who can speak freely and record a podcast episode or just show up to an event without rehearsing. However, they are usually on the extravert spectrum and/or they are professionals in that space. So take out the guess work and prep – doing research, analyse gaps and working on improving it is an introvert’s trait. Use it to your advantage but don’t get stuck with the analysis paralysis and not do anything with the knowledge.

4. Show up early. Wait what? You try to avoid people and then a tip is to increase your time spending with them? Yep- that’s correct. When you join a meeting, whether it’s online or offline a little earlier than the rest, you usually have the chance to casually engage with the host or people attenting the meeting and that builds rapport and confidence.

Coming back to the preparation stage: You can also put together some go-to questions that you can use to start conversations or ice breakers to set the mood. Examples that I often use are:Love the mic set up- looks super profesh or that painting looks amazing, what’s the story with it?

Anything that you pick up – see how important also your backdrop and set up is – is a good conversation starter.

5. Know where and how you can add value. Usually, introverts aren’t constantly contributing in meetings. I usually waited until after the meeting when I approached the host or team leader when I was still in corporate. I hardly spoke up. How I switched it when I wanted to increase my visibility to a wider part of the organisation was that I volunteered to take notes and send them out.

Two benefits; it forced me to pro-actively listen and not drift off (hey, when you sit in 5-8 meetings a day, it happens!) and also gave me an excuse to pop up in people’s inbox that usually wouldn’t see my name. So this is one way to increase your visibility without having tob e loud. That approach work for company meetings as well as for associations you are involved with, like as a volunteer, a board member, in a mastermind etc

6. Build close connections. As I mentioned earlier, I usually approached the event host or team leader after the meeting was already over in a 1:1 setting as I feel more comfortable rather than speaking up in front of a gazillion people. I even did that in Clubhouse rooms as I still feel uncomfortable to speak when thousands of others are in the room and you can’t read the mood, their body language etc. It’s a lot easier for me to speak up when I actually see people. However, a way around it is to still check out those rooms for example but also scan the audience who’s there (may it be in a corporate meeting, at an industry event or conference) and connect with them 1:1.

Not only will you know already someone when you join the meeting but those 1:1 conversation is what makes you visible to the right people when done intentionally. This again comes down to knowing how your ideal decision maker is, peers you want to be associated with, industry leaders you want to learn form and eventually even collaborate with. 

7. Focus on written content over video. Especially as introvert, it’s a lot easier to write vs showing up on camera so if you want your insights to be recognised, respected and trusted, share written content where you can prepare for it rather than going straight to video. Once you build up your confidence muscle – and writing content does that a lot – you can eventually venture into video but don’t start there when its intimidating as you won’t be able to make it consistent.

8. Improve your storytelling and visual communication skills. Images speak louder than words and if you want to cut through with your message, use visuals for it. It may be in form of stories you tell that creates emotions in your listener’s head as well as actual visuals, like graphs, charts, infographics etc. This way, your message doesn’t rely solely on your actual words but can be delivered as a package.

9. If you can’t hide it, feature it. Everyone struggles with something. May it be their accent (this bothered my for good 5 years when I came to Australia), their different educational background or professional experience to everyone else or their habit to speak fast when they’re nervous (that’s also one of my traits), etc.

Instead of spending all your energy on hiding it, feature it and address it head on. This is usually my ice breaker when I give a keynote and say ‘now when I’m excited, I speak really fast so hold onto your hats. You’re in for a wild ride. Or something like that. It’s funny, it shows self-awareness and makes you human – again, that’s something that people remember because it makes you stand out.

10.  Make time and space for activities that charge you. If you’ve been following me for a while you know that I have dedicated days for dedicated activities. So for example, I only do 3 days client facing activities including teaching. The other days are for content creation, admin, and all the backend office tasks that don’t require me seeing others.

Plus- the non-negotiables for me, no matter how busy my day is, include exercise (usually twice a day, in the AM and PM, sometimes 3x when I’m really busy), walk & talk with my partner and learning something (usually through listening to podcasts). These activities fill my cup which is why they are non-negotiables. Sometimes they do require sacrifices – for example: I got up at 1.15am to go for a run before we started a long day driving through Europe with everyone followed by a 22h flight back from Europe to Australia.

I knew that being surrounded with 9 other people for such a long-time span would suck the day light out of me. So you see- it’s not just in a professional setting but also in your private life very useful and necessary to know your boundaries and ways how to manage them.

11. Create social media content without showing your face. One of the best and easiest ways to show rather than tell is to let people behind the scenes and focus on how you do what you do. That doesn’t require you actually showing your face either. Simply having your hand in the picture or doing a time lapse where you work on a project helps to make others connect with you because they see you and get an idea of your personality and approach. Again- think of your set up. If you’re a UX designer, you could use post it notes to  map a customer journey and you record your process how you go about mapping it.

12. Become the connector. This final tip that I share is a double-edged sword because when I say connector, I mean a connector of people but also of dots. In episode 34, I discussed the trait that sets apart technical experts from trusted authorities: and that is being the translator of knowledge, insights as well as experience so it matters to your decision makers.

Especially as introvert, you don’t enjoy being the centre of attention so by introducing people with each other, you don’t need to be in the spotlight directly but you still are indirectly as those who you connect with each other, will of course speak about you – how you met, any stories you share, etc. So think of people who can benefit from each other and send them an email or LinkedIn message.

I’d recommend you making this a habit anyway as it keeps you on the radar of people, you have a good excuse (just make sure those introductions are actually mutual beneficial and not just when you get asked by someone to do them a favour because that gets old quickly).

Now over to you! What are some of your strategies and tactics to stand out as introvert or have seen worked for others who call themselves an introvert. I’d love to hear from you and extend this list. Connect with me on LinkedIn and share your tips & tricks. Until next week!