Introvert Insights - We Speak for the Introverts - Why We Started Introvert Insights

Why We Started
Introvert Insights

Why did we start Introvert Insights? It boils down to four primary reasons:

We got tired of hearing — and occasionally even dispensing! — career advice we'd never, ever use ourselves. Example: Cold calling for job leads. Does this strategy work for some people (particularly extroverts)? Of course. Would we ever actually do it ourselves? Very doubtful. Why not find ways to put an introverted spin on such strategies, we reasoned.

We noted a remarkable lack of focus on the unique career-related concerns of introverts. Most introverts simply aren't going to go about their career exploration, career decision-making, and job search activities the same way extroverts do. But you'd never know it based on the current crop of career-related books, for example, or on the many discussions taking place at career development conferences.

We worked with too many introverted clients who saw themselves as being somehow inherently flawed or odd. Many, if not most, introverts have been saddled their entire lives with labels like "reserved," "shy," or even "stuck up" and "standoffish." Most introverts also groan when they hear terms like "networking" and wonder why they can't seem to get fired up about what they see as a process of smarmy gladhanding and backslapping. We want all of our fellow introverts to understand a simple truth: There's nothing wrong with you! You're just an introvert.

People kept saying to us, "You two are really onto something. Keep it up!" In our many workshops and seminars over the last two years, we've been getting wonderful feedback — from our fellow career practitioners as well as the introverted job seekers we've spoken to. The general reaction: "Why hasn't anyone identified — and talked about — these issues before?" One introverted job seeker came up to us after a recent seminar and, with tears in her eyes, told us how much it meant to her to learn that a) there was nothing wrong with her, and b) she could look for a job her way. We were stunned — and even more motivated to launch Introvert Insights.

There's an old saying that goes, "It's nothing personal, it's just business." Well, when it comes to Introvert Insights, the opposite is true as far as we're concerned: For us, it's not just business; it's personal.

Peter Vogt & Pamela Braun
Introvert Insights

"[Introversion is] not better or worse [than extroversion], it's different. Unfortunately for the introvert, our society is geared toward extroverts."

~ Craig Rider
"Solitary Serenity"
Dayton Daily News (Ohio)
October 20, 2002