In this episode, learn from Faris Khalifeh on why introverts make the best salespeople! We dive deep into who an introvert is and why they are an asset to any sales team!
On today's episode, we have Faris K, the go to expert on quiet leadership, you're not going to want to miss it.
Andy Chen :Tune in to learn the main differences between introverts and extroverts and why self awareness and energy management are crucial skills to have as you begin your career. Your success is our success. So let's get started.
Intro :From the heart of Silicon Valley in beautiful San Francisco, California. Welcome to the str Live podcast. with Mark goes and Andy.
Marcos Serna :Awesome. Well glad to be back on another episode of the SDR live today we have the man himself, Faris Khalifa, welcome to the show.
Faris K :Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Wow. Yeah, it's such a pleasure.
Marcos Serna :Awesome. I mean, Andy and I are super pumped because you're actually our teacher when we're SV Academy. And man, it was just like learning from you is probably, you know, one of the best experiences that I've ever been through. What about you, Andy?
Andy Chen :It was, it's great. Like I can't, I can express how excited I am today just because Faris was our instructor friend, teacher who, who really guided us as little tricks. And now we're having our own podcasts and being successful as an SDR. So you did.
Faris K :Thank you for the kind words.
Marcos Serna :Thank you. Yeah, no, for sure. And so today is going to be all about quiet leadership in sales. But before we start, I'd love to learn a little bit more about what you're doing. I know you have some awesome things brewing Faris, if you could start with that.
Faris K :Yeah, sure. Thanks for asking. So I call myself a quiet leadership coach. So what that means I coach introverts to embrace who they are and leverage their natural strength and traits. I've been doing that officially for six years now. Before that, I used to be in the corporate world. Maybe in marketing and advertising for almost 15 years, and then at some point in my career, I was unfulfilled. I know it sounds a bit cliche. So I thought, Alright, let me explore why I am not fulfilled and started some time off to explore and examine what's happening. And during that self exploration phase, I realized that I wanted to be a coach. And it all happened. It was a big aha moment for me. I was sitting in my living room, and I looked at my bookcase, and I had around maybe 1000 books, and all the books were on self development, self growth, coaching. Since I was a teenager. I knew I was passionate about this topic, but I never thought of pursuing it as a career. But that moment, it hits me Alright, let's switch gears and switch careers and only become a coach. So I quit my job, went to college to study coaching and counseling. I did both. It was one year intensive program. After I finished the program and got certified as a coach and counselor, I started my coaching practice. And my focus on introverts is because I realized a big factor of my unfulfillment was because I didn't understand. I didn't know myself and I didn't know what's my percentage. I know what an interview is or an extrovert. So I was operating now when I reflect back what happened, I was in a very extroverted environment, and probably culture, society, etc. We'll talk about that later. And I was operating as an extrovert, although I am an introvert. I didn't have the tools. I don't have the knowledge, what I need to do, how to take care of my energy, my trades, etc. So that led to burnout and fulfillment. So I thought, All right, let me focus my coaching on that and help other introverts understand themselves, embrace who they are, capitalize on their strengths, and also do like corporate training and workshops to teens in companies. So the extroverts understand introverts and introverts understand extroverts both, actually, because I see a lot of misunderstanding between both percenter types. So that's where I work with managers to close that communication gap between teams. So that's me in a nutshell.
Marcos Serna :Wow.That's, that's so awesome. I mean, I'm just super excited to learn from you on how you're, you know, meshing the two between an introvert and extrovert, like you very similar. When I was in college. I had no clue what introvert extrovert was, and somebody kept asking me, are you an introvert? Are you an extrovert and I'm just like, I what is what does that even mean? And so I guess we're gonna be able to really get a good background from you. And I mean, 1000 books. That's a lot but I'm sure a lot of the big big
Andy Chen :it's a big bookshelf.
Faris K :Anyway, I give them all away, but I'll leave that for a different day.
Marcos Serna :awesome. Well, I'm excited. If you want to start sharing your screen and get into the meat and potatoes, that'd be awesome.
Faris K :All right, let's do it. All right. Let's get into it. So why introverts are great at sales? Let's find out. So before I get into that, I want to share with you roughly what we what we will be covering today. I'll talk a bit about what is an introvert define that because as I said, Marcus, there's a lot of misunderstanding and misconception. The second piece, I want to talk about some myths. There's so many I'll share with you today, the top two, then get into the meat of the discussion, which is why introverts are great at sales. And then at the end, I'll share with you a few resources that I think they're they're great to have. Here's a disclaimer. I put that here. So don't forget, I wanted to say that the focus of these This presentation is on introverts, because that's This session is about why introverts are great at sales. But that doesn't mean and extroverts are not great at sales too. And, and the second thing I want to mention about that, and I'm going to focus a lot on introverts, but that doesn't mean I have bias against extroverts. Of course not. Both percentage types are great. It's just simply they're different. And each personality has its own strengths and weaknesses. And so, so just wanted to put that out there. The second thing I wanted to mention that most of the stuff I'm going to share with you are common and common traits for introverts, but that doesn't mean it's black or white. So it doesn't mean an introvert they come with these set of traits, no question as Of course, it's not that black or white. We're humans, we're complex. So I'm going to share commonly what are the traits? And of course there'll be exceptions because there's so many factors that influence how does that sound?
Andy Chen :That sounds amazing. I love that you shared that before. Because for me as a self identified movie ambivert that that leans more towards extraversion, I would say like I'm excited to learn today because like as a team leader, and even as a seller as an SDR when I joined the team, I just expected to be around very like minded people who are high energy most of the time and come and walk into the room and, and just bring that energy but it wasn't like that at all. I like this will allow me to really understand my colleagues better be a better person, be a better worker, etc. So let's get right to it.
Faris K :Fantastic. Thanks for sharing that. All right. These are instrumental books in my learning. So I've been doing like studying introverts for six years, officially, and of course I did so many like research focus groups working with clients from different parts of the world's world. And but these four I love them. These are my favorite books. I met all these authors. They're awesome and their support What I do and so yeah, I wanted to bring that up because maybe not maybe, for sure I'm gonna reference that. Alright, so what is an introvert in a nutshell, introvert is a term defined by Carl Jung, the psychologist, but it's, it's more than this, but the gist of it or the core of what it means to be an introvert. introvert is a person that gains energy when they're alone. So they're away from stimulation, anything that stimulates the five senses, and they lose energy when they're estimating environments. There's nothing wrong with that. That's how we're wired as introverts. We need the solitude in order in order to recharge. extroverts are the opposite. They recharge when they're around stimulation, they love action and activities. It really gives them that motivation. And so this is the key difference in a very simplistic form. And of course, it's a spectrum. So it's not either or, like you both mentioned you resonate maybe more with an ambivert, which is somewhere in the middle. So you have both maybe traits, you can tap into both energies. The more introverted you are, the more time you need for by yourself. And the more extroverted The more you want that energy and the to be stimulated. So yeah, so it depends where you fall in the spectrum. So it varies.
Marcos Serna :Have a question off of that. So a new might show this as we go along. But is there any like statistic out there that shows like what the general population is? Is it Are they more extroverted? Are they more introverted, or is it tend to be a 5050?
Faris K :Great question. And I'm going to leave it for the next slide because I'm going to cover a gap and I want you to guess, okay, that comes up a lot. Awesome. All right. So before we get there, how about we play a quick game? Yes. Or if you have a piece of Big paper in front of you. Okay, notepad a pen. I would love to invite you to sign your name on that piece of paper, just the way you say the checkbook.
Marcos Serna :But do it in a marker so the audience can see it.
Faris K :You don't have to show it to me. Oh. All right. So my next question is, now sign your name with the other hand.
Marcos Serna :Oh, gosh. Okay. On the same piece of paper,
Faris K :you want to save trees? All right.
Marcos Serna :I think it'd be Yeah, that's true. Oh my gosh.
Andy Chen :I will definitely not show this part.
Faris K :All right. So my question to you now is, how do you feel the first time when you signed your name?
Marcos Serna :Like my initial impression I it's feels like it's the norm, right? Just so used to doing it. No, it's I don't think about it consciously. And then well, that's the first part.
Faris K :Cool. So it came naturally to you didn't think about it easy. And the
Andy Chen :same organic, I didn't even think about it. It just flowed well, and something that I need to do more often.
Faris K :Awesome. And how do you feel the second time? with other hand?
Marcos Serna :Yeah, for me. I felt like I was not in control. I don't know if that's pretty common, but also at the same point. Like I was thinking a lot trying to, like, do an M right for Marcos or doing a right so I was thinking about it. Well, thanks for sharing it.
Andy Chen :Yeah, for me, I almost felt embarrassed that it was so bad. And it took way too much thought and guilt in just writing my name and guilt. Oh, my God.
Faris K :All right. Thank you guys for participating in the section. Sakkas. So the purpose of this exercise I want to use that analogy analogy and say, it's similar to the I like being right handed or left handed is that similar idea to being an introvert or an extrovert, when you signed your name with your dominant hand, it's felt natural, authentic, organic, doesn't require thought it just natural to you. And easy. And the second time, it felt awkward on easy you had to think about it, and all that other stuff. So, so if you're an introvert, you're trying to tap into trying to be an extrovert, you would feel the same way. It's uneasy, hard or harder. And if you're just being yourself, it's easy, organic, natural, etc. So the idea here, like if you say I want to start using my other hand, but if your right hand and you say I want to start using my left hand, says if you're saying there's something wrong with my right hand, you never question that there's nothing wrong with being right handed. And there's nothing wrong with being an introvert or an extrovert simply different. And like I said, Before comes with The strengths and weaknesses. However, I understand in some cases, you need to tap into that energy or go there. Same with the hands, sometimes you use the other hand. However, the trick here is to be conscious of that shift. And so as an introvert, you tap into that energy which is stimulating and might drain your energy might be uneasy. But if you're conscious about it, you do it with the plan or mindful about it, and then shifts back to your original state. And when you shift back, you do the stuff that you need to get re energized. So if you have to, let's say my case, as an introvert, if I when I speak on stage or do other stuff that has stimulation, my energy get depleted faster, of course, but I'm doing it consciously and then once I finish that, whatever I need to do, then I give myself the time to be in solitude. Take care of myself, maybe before and after to energize me So, so as long as you do it with courses and mindfulness,
Marcos Serna :I was curious. You might cover this coming up, but are people born introverted or extroverted? Or is that something that is because like in sales, they always say, like, Well, everyone says, Oh, you have to be extroverted to get into sales, but from what I learned through books, is that not necessarily right? Actually, a lot of introverts are CEOs that are absolutely crushing it. But they've learned that over time, so I was just curious if you're born into introvert or extrovert?
Faris K :Yeah, that's a fantastic question. There's many studies and there's one I'm going to share a few slides. You are born either an introvert an expert and the biology the way the brain is wired and the way we process information and the neuro pathways. They're different than extroverts. However, you know, there's nature and nurture. So You can be born and an introvert but if society and culture and your surrounding and you as well, trying so hard to be an extrovert and letting letting that influence you, it's possible to shift. But originally you were born you're either this or that. And my like my thought on this is not trying to change, just accept embrace who you are. But yeah, it is possible, but you are born either this or that. Alright, so go to the next slide. Oh, that's the slide. Oh, good question mark. So yeah, it's a nervous system setting. So as you can see from this diagram, I don't want to go deep into it. But yeah, there's a different pathways and the way we receive and process simulation is different. And that's from the book, the introvert advantage. So yeah, let's move to the next one. I love this analogy. I use it a lot. It helped. It helped me and it helped many of my clients to think of their battery as think of their energy. As a battery and the more you get exposed to stimulation, the energy goes down and down. And that's normal. I guess that's normal for everyone, like even extroverts, of course, your energy supply is gonna go down. But introverts is much faster. And we're more sensitive to that. So the idea here is to be conscious of that battery and optimize it. So how can you do I'll give you a quick example. So to straight this point, so let's say you're an introvert, if you book back to back meetings, the first meeting, you go in, you're green, you're productive, sharp, awake, all that stuff created. And then you go to the next meeting, you wrote probably in the yellow piece, which is been depleted. So imagine that you go to the third meeting, then you really deplete it. So in that meeting, probably you don't say much you're not contributing, you're not as efficient, as productive as needed. So that's not a good scenario. So if you optimize that energy, you're always at a good level. So how optimized energy is different from one person to another. Now what I would suggest monitor your energy and see where where do you get energy? Where do you lose energy, and then have a mix of those. So for example, I personally, I would not have back to back meetings, I'll have 115 minutes buffer break in those 15 minutes. Sit in a quiet place, maybe if I if it's not a quiet place, use my noise cancelling headphones, then I'm energized. Then I go the next meeting again, productive and energetic. So So yeah, I will play around with it. So now on my calendar, actually, it's blocked like I want client session buffer, one client session. So that gives me the time to, to recharge. There's different ways to recharge, recharging aside from sitting in solitude. I find meditation helps. So if you're into meditation that helps, journaling helps. Maybe walking around the block and coming back up to the office helps. So yeah, you can Think of different ways and see what works for you. So play around with it.
Marcos Serna :So the question here and you mentioned this idea of where do you gain your energy. And a lot of this has to deal with, I think self awareness in yourself. But say, for example, our audience or they're just starting their, their career, and they're not sure how they gain energy. So what would you say is a good you know, way for them to go about this to find that energy. And
Faris K :honestly, the best way is to monitor so maybe, because maybe the person, let's say listening to this, never thought about it. So they didn't pay attention to it. You know, when you, for example, buy a red card and you start seeing it everywhere, same idea. Now you're conscious of it, if you consciously and mindfully start monitoring. Alright, how am I feeling now? Let's say after two meetings or let's let's make it relevant to sales, of course. Let's say after one hour, Have back to back hold. See how you feel if your energy is a bit low, doesn't hurt to go take a 10 minute break, and then come back to doing the cold calls. So something like that. And if you're introverted, most probably solitude or away from stimulation with energize you, but that's something like I said, it goes through self awareness and self monitoring and understanding, but generally speaking, staying away, getting away from stimulation, energizes.
Marcos Serna :Okay, now that's great. Um, and I just want to say something here, because when I started my career Early on, I didn't know how I gained my energy. And this is like a plug in for a book but I read a book called The untethered soul. And it really helped me figure out like, where I am in the world, right what I wanted to do, but also like, who I am as a person and what I like, and so I'm actually more introverted, even though you know, think I'll probably turn it on for this podcast. But to hear like this whole battery analogy has been so refreshing because I think I need to start incorporating having these like micro breaks after each meeting. Because if I'm in back to back, like after the day, I'm just completely wasted and I don't want to talk to anybody.
Faris K :Thanks for sharing. And yeah, that's a beautiful book. And you recommended that book to me, actually. And it's now one of my favorites. So thank you. But like you said, micro breaks is a great idea.
Andy Chen :My question was, like, as an extrovert, I'm curious because sometimes after meetings, I can if I feel happy, because the call went, well, I'll have way more energy than before the meeting, but if it goes badly, then sometimes I'll actually feel down and and not want to speak to anybody. I'm not sure if this is relevant, but um, does that mean that like when I'm sad, more of my introversion comes in or this is just totally unrelated, more that if I'm sad, I probably will have less energy.
Faris K :Yeah, we'll see. Say unrelated and probably because you're sad you have a lot. And so that could be applicable to both introverts and extroverts. And it's common. If you have a when your energy is going to spike, you're going to feel better and more energized regardless. So that's a great point. But yeah, if you have didn't go well. That's okay. You just go and you know that we spoke about that before. We just keep going till we get the width.
Marcos Serna :Yes, I love it. The persistent key.
Faris K :The numbers gives all right, yep. All right. Let's go to the next slide. Speaking of energy, that's a great book about energy. It doesn't talk about introverts specifically, but the gist of the book is all summarized in the subtitle, which is that managing energy, not time is the key to high performance and personal renewal. So that's why energy is crucial. When you have the energy you can be performed on a better level and gives you that person in you. So it is is important to have the energy. So that's why pay attention to the battery life. And in a nutshell, introversion is all about, it's not all about but a big factor. It's about energy management, how you manage your energy. And saying you're an introvert or an extrovert. It's not about putting a label on yourself or putting yourself in a box to restrict you. On the contrary, the way I see it is another piece of information. Like I said, there, Marcus E, learning about yourself having that awareness, so you can do something about it. So it's not about labels, and because like you will as well sell my opinion, self knowledge is the basis of personal empowerment. The more we learn about ourselves, the better we become, the more confident we become as well. So that's one part of the puzzle piece of the puzzle. Understanding yourself I love the clapping thinking.
Andy Chen :That's, that's a that's a quote that I need to put on my wall. self knowledge is basically personal empowerment. The more you Know about yourself, the better you can either interact and just engage with other people. I was gonna say I love that you shared energy management. That's something that I've been constantly working on especially as an SDR you have a million things that you have to do per day. And a big part of me was focus more on time management before I even learned that energy management was a thing. And the idea that energy management is kind of leveraging when you have the most amount of energy to do kind of your most quality or most demanding tasks, such as cold calling or prospecting and like now that I learned about energy management, I don't, I don't cold call or prospecting right after lunch, because I know that I've identified that my energy is super low, so it's not as productive.
Faris K :That's a fantastic example. And like you said, when we have energy, put that like utilize that time and like you said, so those that that Things that require energy, like let's say cold, cold, yeah, do them and get it over with or just do them. And then when you need that, break it maybe you don't have to take a break view, then you shift another task, which is that say, prospecting through emails or doing research. So then that's how you also manage your energy differently. You do one task that requires energy that can deplete you then you move to the other one that doesn't deplete you and usually introverts, they're good at writing because it gives them that space to reflect and articulate what they want to say. So that's a nice mix between cold calling and an email.
Marcos Serna :So I have a question here and Andy think thanks for sharing that kind of sparked my my brain. So if anyone like knows me at Optimizely, then notoriously known for just cranking through everything and trying to go full blast 100% but that actually lead to burnout, I would say like six months into my role, and actually like didn't hit quota. I think I got like one opportunity to hold Mind. And so if you don't find your energy, right, like, I'm sure that greater the chances of you leading to burnout. Is that the case?
Faris K :Yeah, exactly. And that's what's happened to me in the corporate world after 15 years of doing that and not like being so driven, not taking breaks, etc. and not paying attention to my trade, I got burnt out. And that's the part that I said, I'm fulfilled, it was burnt out as well. I couldn't even go to work. So it could lead to that if you're not paying attention and not taking care of so taking care of yourself. So self care is crucial to keep you going. I'm going to use like a dad. It's like a car you don't you know, you need to stop that and fill it with gas. Same idea. If we keep going at some point points, we're gonna like crash. So that's a great point. Thank you.
Marcos Serna :Thanks for sharing that the car analogy. All these analogies. Amazing.
Faris K :All right, I'm glad you like that. Alright, let's move to the next Oh, gametime. We'll take a quick game. So what I'm going to put on screen a famous person, and I guess if the person is an introvert or an extrovert, are you ready guys? Do it. Alright, first one. Richard Branson
Andy Chen :extrovert?
Marcos Serna :extrovert.
Faris K :All right. Let's see. introvert white. All right, let's go to the next one. Steve Jobs.
Marcos Serna :extrovert.
Andy Chen :I could see him as an introvert.
Marcos Serna :I'm an ambivert.
Faris K :Either or extrovert, white. So what's interesting about this case, there's some case studies to talk about. One of the factors of Apple success having an introverted and extroverted people on top which is Steve Wozniak is an introvert and he was an extrovert. So that mix really does it. makes a difference. And that's something usually I talk about. It's important to have both personality types on teams. That's how we complement each other. So, all right, Marcus is winning so far. All right
Andy Chen :definitely yet extrovert.
Marcos Serna :Oh my gosh
Unknown Speaker :Most like,
Marcos Serna :let me guess. You're an introvert. I knew it.
Faris K :Just in case you didn't believe me. All right, Nick. Rene Brown.
Marcos Serna :Great TED Talk. I'm gonna say extrovert.
Faris K :All right, let's see.
Marcos Serna :Oh my gosh.
Faris K :We can do this. I love this. How many of you know that I'm super introverted?
Marcos Serna :handy when I'm traveling because like I'll be sitting next to someone and Bill So what do you do? Not shame. What do you do? You're just like
Unknown Speaker :wow, okay.
Faris K :All right. Rosa Parks
Marcos Serna :introvert.
Faris K :You're getting the hang of it and imagine how powerful and what changes he made and just by being gentle and soft spoken and introverted. So yeah, that proves the point. All right, I'll go quickly. Guy Kawasaki introvert, are about to auto. Enter, but that's a joke. He's all introverted.
Marcos Serna :Oh man, I love that.
Faris K :But it's been hard for him to hide these days with social distancing. So you got the gist. These are introverts too. So the idea here
Marcos Serna :is Michael Jordan is an introvert.
Andy Chen :What, Gandhi
Marcos Serna :That's crazy.
Faris K :So the point of this game is to demonstrate that we have that misconception immediately we think if a person is in the spotlight or someone is on a CEO or someone like Michael Jordan mackley extrovert, and as if so here, that's a misconception, because you can't tell from the outside, actually, because introversion is about expertise about the energy management and it's internal. It's where you gain and lose energy. So has nothing to do how you show up from the outside. But that's, I guess, because of society, and I'll talk about that in a second. Yeah, that's what I would say. So why do we have this misconception and bias? We think introverts are the antisocial they don't know how to talk they're hiding in the basement. There's many reasons for that. I'll share with you a few. This is from quiet. the book by Susan Cain says one factor is the childhood and upbringing and usually the parents they encourage their kids To be like out there, they tell them, you want to be great, you need to be bold. If you want to be happy, you need to be sociable have many friends. And usually not usually, most parents get worried when their son or daughter like playing them by themselves or doing something that doesn't require friends. And if they have like one or two friends, they worry as well, like, why don't you have 10 friends? So we have that, yeah, thought that the more the better, and you need to be out there. And there's nothing wrong with that. Of course, it's important to be social and have friends. But there's less focus on the other stuff, solitude time, being in the room by themselves, doing something and maybe drawing, playing music, etc. So that's one factor. And then society doesn't tell because when you grow up, same thing you hear from people and of course the media they portray, usually they show the successful people are extroverted, loud, bald, dominant, etc. And they don't showcase the other successful people that are introverted. Quiet, soft spoken. And that doesn't mean extroverts are not successful. Of course they are. And there is also successful extroverts. But as you see in this on this screen, for example, extroverts are highlighted more, and the books as well. So that's another unconscious thing. We start picking up between childhood, parents, media, books, TV shows, etc. Susan Cain calls this era the extrovert ideal, because the errors before that, for the 21st century, that wasn't the case, there was people used to look up to, like introverts and, and quite people, but then in the 21st century, after indirect industrialization and all that,
Andy Chen :it's just so interesting that we're socially conditioned to kind of think a certain way. And that that's definitely as you can just see the front of the bottom right that the friends kind of influence that has on us on what kind of ideal groups should be on how you should unwind with a group of friends. No, it's it's everywhere. And thank you for bringing this up.
Faris K :No, thanks for listening
Marcos Serna :me. I was about to say the same thing. But yeah, I think it's so interesting how the media and external forces could shape your perception of life. That's why like that self awareness is so important. So appreciate thanks for sharing. You're welcome. Probably maybe it's intentional. So it is not like, that's how it is. And unconsciously we're picking up these messages.
Faris K :All right. I'll share with you two myths. What do you think is the most common myth?
Andy Chen :I'd say? There's more extroverts and introverts.
Faris K :that's a misconception too. Thank you for sharing that. So I have both. You mentioned one. So the one here which I get all the time, and it's so common, introverts are shy. So I think that's the major misconception. People think introverts me means shy and they're different. About introverted it's about the energy piece and where we get it to lose it. shyness is about the fear of social disapproval and negative judgment and humiliation. So it's different than that. There's nothing wrong with shyness. I'm not saying that choice is bad thing, but it's different than introversion. And there is shy extroverts and there's shy introverts, but it's different. So introvert doesn't mean you're a shy person from the outside world, they might look the same. So in this example here from the book, quiet, you see on the left are shy extrovert and the reason why they're quiet because they're afraid to speak. And then you see a calm introvert overstimulated, and probably the energy level is low. They're not speaking as well as from the outside, they look the same. So that also maybe helps with the misconception, Myth number two, which she said what's the percentage people think introverts are the minority and they're, they're not we are almost 50% of the population. There's some studies say 45. Some studies say for seven, so more or less around half the population. It's interesting how people think they're, we're the minority. And the reason maybe people think that we're the minority, because people don't talk about it. I from my work, my focus groups and the clients I work with, they tell me in private that they're ashamed of being, not all of them, most of them, or half of them say they're ashamed of being an introvert. And they think it's a weakness, especially at work. They tell me they act as extroverts, all day. And imagine how hard that is when you're old day operating on. If we go back to the analogy with the right or left hand, you're operating from a level that it's not authentic to you, and it's not natural. So imagine by five o'clock you're like, so depleted, because Yeah, because you were not too so that's so that's part of the work I'm trying to do just to maybe shed light that there's no shame, it's just a different percentage type and there's nothing wrong with that.
Marcos Serna :And then if I could add something here, just because our audience is primary, primarily in sales, Like have no shame in being introvert, right? Because everyone sees like, oh, like you shut it right Wolf of Wall Street, right? That's what everyone like thinks of a salesperson as like, I'm going to call this person and close them and make millions of dollars. Right. But to hear that 5050 I actually know a lot of friends that have confided in me that they are also, you know, ashamed to be introverts. And I think once you really like own it and understand it, then you know that energy, right that you're talking about, so thanks for sharing this that.
Faris K :Yeah, it's the misunderstanding. I think that's what adds to it. And speaking of salespeople, which is the next section, and I know plenty of successful salespeople in SDR, that are account executives that are crushing it, and they're introverts. There's different ways I'm not saying there's different ways of doing anything. There's different ways to leadership. There's different ways to doing sales. So if you embrace who they are, you are, you can do sales in your own way. Alright, let's then go to the next piece. So now probably, I'm assuming you understand now you understand the energy management, the myth and all that, then now it makes sense that, you know, sales has nothing to do with being an introvert or an extrovert. We have to believe that Yeah, like you said, salespeople are experts and great talkers. But you know that well, now that sales is more about listening, especially these days, like the past 40 years sales shifted. It's not like the old school way of just talking and being aggressive. You need to listen understand your prospects. So the idea and like Andy mentioned, it's so ingrained in us so don't we don't even question but they they've done so many studies. There's a study that was published on Harvard Business Review, and I have the resource at the bottom. And they didn't study to see who are who are better groups. introverts or extroverts, and there was zero evidence to support it. Like, there's no correlation. But like you said, we have that impression we people, especially people that are not in sales, think this is how sales is aggressive, bold, you're trying to manipulate. And that's not the case. That's probably old school. And that's me, mainly the media or the stereotype. It's not what sales actually is. And there's plenty of other studies. I'll share with you here, another one that was published on Washington Post. They did a study where 35 studies and they interviewed 4000 salespeople, and guess what was the conclusion? There was no correlation between successful salespeople being introvert or extrovert. The last study I have here, was done by Adam Grant. A lot of Island grant aren't too familiar with him. He is the author of these three books, side note, but he did a study with a group of people to assess the same thing and the results. were the same. There's no difference between introverts and extroverts. In a separate study he did on introverts in leadership related. He said that introverts can be better than experts for the following reasons. He said they're better listeners. They embrace solitude. They're Wizards of preparation and they exhibit calmness. So as you can see, these courses can be an advantage to you as an introvert.
Marcos Serna :So interesting. Ah, yes, great book.
Faris K :So if you read the book, you know, Jim Collins referred to five levels of leadership and level five is the highest and I know it's leadership. But again, leadership can mean different things. It's not about ranks and titles doesn't mean that CEO is a leader. It could be an SDR in the leader. leader is a person that self aware of themselves and their self leaders, because how can you lead others if you don't lead yourself first. So, of course, leadership can mean many things and there's different definitions. However, In this context, he was talking about leaders did well, in the top 30. Companies that they always outperform their competitors have these qualities they were quiet, they had empathy. They're humble, reserved, modest. And that doesn't mean experts don't have these qualities. Of course they do. But again, this comes so natural to to introverts. And Simon Sinek. Same thing. He talks a lot about leadership. And again, if you pay attention, same thing, he talks about empathy, being humble, all the other stuff. So that reconfirms that these are great qualities for leadership and for sale. So building on that, let's talk about what are the natural traits and strength that you can use as an introvert, to crush it in sales, and these are the reasons why introverts can be great salespeople. Number one, we're introspective, and I love this quote by Beth below. She's the author of the book, the introvert interview. From her, she says that telling introverts to sacrifice reflection is like asking us to stop breathing. It's that drastic. Honestly, I personally, I don't take a time, like one hour a day of self reflection that I don't do. So, it is crucial for us and why is it important, because it is a catalyst to innovation when you are in solitude and introspecting you can revisit your sales calls your emails, your how you approach things, and can come up with different ideas and learn from the mistakes, you become better at problem solving, and decision making. And of course, enhance the learning. You also with introspection, you can increase the understanding of yourself which established crucial, and others which means clients prospects, etc. So that's why it's a great trade. So if you have it, embrace it, capitalize it.