Being An Introverted Influencer

This blog post will be a little bit more personal.

I get asked quite a bit how I expect to be a public figure/influencer while also being introverted.

First, let's discuss what introverted means.

Introverted means I charge my batteries and find my most comfort and peace being alone.

Does it mean I am isolated and anti-social? Not necessarily. What this basically means is that I am the type of person who is more concerned with being by myself in my own time than being around others. However, I am not a "shy" person.

So, today I am going to kind of dive into my experience as a social media influencer, entrepreneur, etc as an influencer.

BEING AN INFLUENCER

To be honest, I have a lot of difficulties as a business woman doing what I do being so introverted. But, most people who meet me would never guess that I am. Why? Because like I said, being introverted does NOT mean unable to socialize. I've met people who thought I was very outgoing and outspoken, but the problem lies in my nature.

My nature is to be alone. It is to be quiet and relaxed doing things like watching TV or sipping wine and listening to music. Once I am out for longer than an hour... I long for solitude. That is the life of an introvert. Of course when I meet people I can laugh, joke, be loud, or whatever. But it won't last long.

FOR EXAMPLE: When I lived in my hometown, Huntsville, Alabama, most of my friends would come to my house and hangout and see me laying around doing nothing. It took a long time before my friends realized that I was not crazy about going out where there's a lot of noise and people. I'm not crazy about parties. I don't like huge group functions.

When me and my fiancé first met and began dating, I would go with him to hang out with his friends. And they would HANG. It would be midnight and all I want is to be alone, but we are still at someone's house and they are all still enjoying themselves. So, I would take myself away from everyone else and go sit in the car. Was I upset? No. Was I angry? No. I just CRAVED being alone, even after only a few hours.

How does this impact my career as an influencer?

Social media socializing, I'll admit, is a lot easier for me. I can reply when I am good and ready and I don't have to be ready to communicate just because my phone dings.

The problem comes when I have to work with brands. do collabs, and network. It is constant meeting after meeting (for some reason it seems every time I have brands or collabs I end up having to do it all at around the same time). So, now I have to be social and full of customer service for consecutive days and it is so extremely draining for me I will feel PHYSICALLY exhausted after 3 meetings.

I struggle to go to networking events because the thought of having to smile at multiple people is absolutely exhausting to even THNK about. I get uncomfortable and sometimes people wanna talk and talk and talk and I just want all the noise to stop.

Whenever I go to family events or groups, I literally need two weeks by myself (or just me and my fiancé) in order to recuperate. This is a truth. Some people don't understand this. I hear "you've gotta get out your comfort zone" and I do. I consistently try and connect with others despite having no desire to actually socialize and be around people. But in order to recharge or in order to even feel like myself again, I need to be alone, not talkin to anybody.

STORYTIME: Once I had a YouTube subscriber call my phone and I was so thrown off and scared because I had no idea how she got my number. It caused me to make a video about privacy and respecting the privacy of influencers.