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In this story, I share what goes on in my introverted head when I’m ‘forced” to meet new people in networking type situations and how I’ve learned to deal with it.
I know it’s not my “fault” that I’m an introvert but being so has made it difficult for me to enthusiastically seek out and meet new people.
Truth is that I’m embarrassed and anxious about the need I feel to be interesting to the people I meet, especially when I convince myself that there’s a good chance I won’t be.
I sometimes get red in the face, like a tomato and begin to sweat, as if the temperature in the room is quickly climbing, but it’s not.
I put myself in the shoes of the person I’m “meeting” and all my flaws are on display – wide out there in the open – and I can’t imagine how the other person can stand such a pathetic and sad sight. They must want to get away, because I would if I were them.
That’s only part of it. The other part is that I dislike small talk. I don’t like being asked what I do because the business that I’m in is unknown to most and hard to explain to the rest. I also don’t like to be asked about how my business is going.
It seems like such a waste.
Am I going to tell you that it’s cratering like a collapsing mine? Of course not.
I’m going to tell you that it’s going great and you are going to tell me the same thing. And after that, what do we really have to talk about.
I feel like I’m coming across as a pathetic and cynical sour puss, and I’d love to tell you that I’m joking about all this – so I will, but I’m not.
Despite the feelings Mike has described so far, find out what happened during these chance meetings and how it helped Mike and his company… by listening to the rest of this “.5 project” on the How’d It Happen Podcast, where every Tuesday Mike shares a story that relates to his entrepreneur experience starting a business in 1992 and growing it to a $50 million company over 22 years.
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