Was a busy day yesterday and by the end of it I was OUT! Sorry for the lack of posts.
Back to our list…
4. Networking makes you feel like a phony.
Does. It. Ever.
I don’t like selling and I don’t like being sold to. Sometimes the honesty that comes out of my mouth does more harm than good, but I never have to worry about keeping up a pretense about myself. What can I say, I was raised to be honest!
I have had the opportunity to be a part of business networking before and thankfully the crack-of-dawn meetings never worked with my schedule. I had kids to take care of and a husband who left for work at zero-dark-thirty anyway.
Just the thought of putting on that fake smile and trying to “sell” myself gave me the creeps.
At the time, I was a studio and wedding photographer. I had a decent amount of business and to have a ton more would have destroyed me. Taking the photos is the easy part – it’s the hours of processing and taking/filling orders that is the hard part.
I worked so hard that, in my mind, my work should sell itself. Ordering consults with clients I didn’t know prior to their were agonizing for me because it was full of small talk. And I had no desire to “sell.” What I offered I had and I didn’t want to have to convince someone into buying. I just wanted them to fall in love with the photos, as I had, and that be all.
I really wished I could have had a salesperson to do all of that for me, but I was barely making enough for mad money, let alone an employee with a salary and taxes and blech! I was perfectly content behind the camera rather than in front of my business.
Networking in other situations is tough, but I force myself to do it and usually there are great icebreaker activities that force me to talk. Different church retreats and workshops I attend do this often and it really helps me. Otherwise I’d be just sitting quietly where I am and I’d be OK with that.
Being an introvert is exhausting. I hope some extroverts out there are finding this blog and understanding a little more about their more withdrawn counterparts. 🙂
Thanks for reading!
Image Credit: ArleenBradley.com
Silently Outspoken 