Struggles of Being an Introverted Business Owner

00:00 – 00:04 Welcome to the designers plants and coffee podcast, where we discuss how to succeed as a designer   00:04 – 00:09 while staying true to yourself, finding peace in the process and making money doing what we love.   00:09 – 00:12 Subscribe on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.   00:12 – 00:20 For today’s topic, I was talking to a friend of mine’s and she went to a conference about businesses and entrepreneurs.   00:20 – 00:27 And she stood up and she said, well, the thing is, I have to come out my comfort zone because I am an introvert.   00:27 – 00:32 And the person replied and said, I am too, but my business is not.   00:32 – 00:40 Really made me think about the podcast, especially for creatives and how we can really utilize that.   00:40 – 00:46 How can we truly say, yeah, you may be a introvert, but your business is not.   00:46 – 00:53 One is really funny that you said that, because I also had a similar conversation with one of   00:53 – 00:56 my sisters and I’m, you know, I’m talking to her.   00:56 – 00:57 I’m like, I’m having creative block.   00:57 – 00:58 I don’t know what to make.   00:58 – 01:01 She’s telling me all these ideas and I was like, well, I don’t want to make that.   01:01 – 01:05 She said, you have to change if you want to make money. That’s number one.   01:05 – 01:12 And the other thing I like to tell people is yes, I’m an introvert, but I could talk about my business all day long.   01:12 – 01:15 I could talk about teaching all day long.   01:15 – 01:20 And then once I’ve expired and worn myself out from talking about my business and talking about   01:20 – 01:26 teaching, I’m going to go right back into my and lay under the covers and watch trash TV.   01:26 – 01:31 And it’s a different way of looking at, you know, say, Oh, I’m an introvert. Yeah, you are.   01:31 – 01:34 But at this point, when you’re trying to run a business, it doesn’t matter.   01:35 – 01:41 So, I mean, I think some, some remedies for that is like to hire out like the marketing or maybe   01:41 – 01:46 hire out the social media and basically tell the, give them your brand voice.   01:46 – 01:53 I mean, if you don’t like to do that kind of thing that I’m actually in the step forward, because   01:53 – 01:54 you can’t run a business.   01:54 – 01:59 If nobody knows who you are, you know, One of my other sisters pointed out to me, she said,   01:59 – 02:07 I had on the duster you made me and, and the person that I was with wanted to buy one.   02:07 – 02:10 But when I went to your Instagram, there wasn’t anything on there.   02:10 – 02:14 She said, the only thing on your Instagram for the past few months is your podcast and your events.   02:14 – 02:16 You don’t have any products on there.   02:16 – 02:18 And I was like, you’re absolutely right.   02:18 – 02:27 And so it puts you in that mindset of in this time that we’re living in, where everything is   02:27 – 02:33 very fast and three seconds on TikTok and 10 seconds on Instagram, and you’re real got to catch   02:33 – 02:35 their attention and you got to have the right music.   02:36 – 02:42 It will take me three days to do a real, like I can do it, but I do it when I want to, or when   02:42 – 02:46 I’m making something I’m like, this is hot, but it only happens when I’m making stuff for me.   02:46 – 02:48 So I got to get out of that too.   02:49 – 02:53 It has to be a consistent push to do it, right?   02:53 – 02:58 So I mean, honestly, I just got, I forgot the name of the app.   02:58 – 03:03 I know you can find it anywhere, but you can schedule your, your postings ahead of time, but   03:03 – 03:05 you can just start posting it to that.   03:05 – 03:08 And then it goes out, you know, so it’s consistency.   03:08 – 03:12 And as, as, as an introvert, you have to be in the mood to socialize.   03:15 – 03:17 It’s like, I tell my, my students all the time.   03:17 – 03:19 It’s not that we can’t do it.   03:19 – 03:23 And it’s not that in our case, it’s not that we don’t know how to do it.   03:23 – 03:26 It’s that we don’t want to do it.   03:26 – 03:28 And by we, I mean me.   03:28 – 03:31 And you know, I have hired a person, it didn’t quite work out.   03:31 – 03:36 So now I’m a little gun shy about spending money on somebody who’s not going to give me the   03:36 – 03:41 results that they because the other thing with being a small business is money is precious.   03:43 – 03:50 And if I hire you to do something and you are still coming to me every week and asking me for ideas.   03:50 – 03:54 Yeah, it is a want, it’s like, I don’t want to do it, but at the same time, I’m not comfortable   03:54 – 03:57 doing it because I don’t do it enough.   03:57 – 03:58 You know what I’m saying?   03:58 – 04:00 So it was just like, you have to get out of your comfort zone.   04:00 – 04:03 And every time you post, you say, okay, I have to get out of my zone.   04:03 – 04:05 I have to do this because this is my business.   04:06 – 04:12 My business is not, you know, and you, so people can see what you do, see your products, see all of this stuff.   04:12 – 04:16 So it was just like a reminder that you have to really get out of your comfort zone to start   04:16 – 04:18 doing stuff, even when you don’t want to.   04:18 – 04:26 I mean, there are so many things online, like how to schedule your Instagram posts.   04:26 – 04:30 And, you know, we just got to do it, carve that time out.   04:30 – 04:35 We all live by a calendar and say Monday from 9 to 9.30, I’m going to do one Instagram post.   04:36 – 04:40 Wednesday from 9 to 9.30, I’m going to do one Instagram post because now it’s all integrated.   04:40 – 04:44 If I put it on my fearless threads Instagram, it’s going to automatically go to my personal   04:44 – 04:48 Instagram, which is going to go to both threads, which is going to go to Facebook, which I don’t   04:48 – 04:50 even go on Facebook anymore.   04:50 – 04:55 And Twitter X, I don’t, I don’t even know my password for Twitter X.   04:55 – 04:58 So I just don’t love social media in general.   04:59 – 05:04 I just feel like if we are going to be successful business owners, it’s necessary.   05:04 – 05:07 I still don’t have TikTok. I don’t want TikTok.   05:07 – 05:10 I don’t have the brain capacity for TikTok.   05:10 – 05:15 But on the other hand, it’s like, if I get TikTok, I’m going to be blowing up when I get all these views.   05:15 – 05:22 So, you know, but you have to do so much work to get to that number of views where you’re blowing up.   05:22 – 05:24 I mean, I wouldn’t say, I mean, to get successful.   05:24 – 05:26 I mean, we do have a level of success.   05:27 – 05:30 It’s just to get to the next level of success.   05:30 – 05:31 You know what I’m saying?   05:31 – 05:36 So it’s just to that consistency because, you know, word of mouth, all this, I mean, you don’t   05:36 – 05:38 necessarily have to be on social media to run a business.   05:38 – 05:40 You can be successful without it.   05:40 – 05:46 But you know, social media is like a linchpin in a lot of things.   05:46 – 05:46 You know what I’m saying?   05:46 – 05:52 Cause if you don’t have any following or you don’t have that platform, some people look at you   05:52 – 05:57 sideways, you know, you, it’s actually the new business card.   05:57 – 06:03 I will have people say, what’s your Instagram before they say, what’s your website? Absolutely.   06:03 – 06:05 I’m on all of those platforms.   06:06 – 06:14 I’m on every platform, TikTok, LinkedIn, even though I don’t, I think I’ve only posted the podcast on TikTok. Yeah.   06:14 – 06:17 On LinkedIn, I think I’m like, you’ve got to do better.   06:17 – 06:21 You’re like, you’re on episode, like number three, and we just passed 25.   06:22 – 06:28 So, um, I know like that it has to be consistent because that’s where my clientele is.   06:29 – 06:34 And my clientele is on Instagram and on Facebook and on TikTok.   06:35 – 06:40 TikTok is like watching a child just run in circles all day long until they get tired.   06:40 – 06:42 That’s what TikTok feels like to me.   06:42 – 06:46 I think this will go into our accountability session.   06:46 – 06:52 It puts on the business because, um, for Region Design Lab, LinkedIn is my, you know, my go-to.   06:52 – 06:56 I mean, I have Instagram, but it’s not really, but LinkedIn is where I need to be.   06:56 – 07:03 Um, but with Cover Me Chic, it’s just, it’s like Naima said, it’s Facebook and Instagram, you know?   07:03 – 07:09 And I mean, of course, threads when I sign up. Oh, okay.   07:09 – 07:14 I’m Zaheer from Cover Me Chic and Region Design Lab along with Naima from Fearless Threads and   07:14 – 07:17 Letitia from Keeping You in Stitches. See you next time.