MyPunchblog

This post written by Stephanie Fader, Marketing & PR Manager

I know this might be hard to believe given that I’m in marketing and pr, but I’m a total introvert. There are several definitions of an introvert, but here’s one that I like (and describes me pretty well): “a person who tends to shrink from social contacts and to become preoccupied with their own thoughts.” For those who know me—friends, family, and even my coworkers at MyPunchbowl—they would probably say that I’m pretty social and outgoing. But like many people, I’m very different with people I don’t know.

While being an introvert has its advantages (we tend to think before we speak and focus our attention more readily and for longer periods of time), there are certainly disadvantages. The first that comes to mind is that entering a room where I don’t know anyone is a bit daunting. I also prefer to be more private, less public. This explains why I recently struggled with preparing a simple video of myself to demonstrate how to include video with your eCards in MyPunchbowl eCard Studio. It was torture!

The good thing is being able to recognize my personality type as it relates to my position at MyPunchbowl and deciding to do something about it. So far I’ve attended two networking events by myself to practice and get more comfortable around strangers. The first event I attended was a meetup for Boston area internet marketing professionals. The meetup was held at a restaurant near my home so the barriers to attending were nil (as in I couldn’t talk myself out of it). I was nervous going in but realized that most people there didn’t know anyone either. I ended up speaking with 5 or 6 people before the presentation started, exchanged business cards, and even got a tip on a good book. Now that’s success.

Tonight I had plans to go to the Web Innovators Group meeting. I’ve signed up to attend previous meetings but always seemed to get tied up and therefore missing the event. I had originally planned to go with coworkers but when it came time to leave it was just me. I was extremely close to skipping the event. Then I realized that this would be another great opportunity to practice my networking skills. I definitely felt a little more uncomfortable since it did appear that most people knew each other, but I managed to speak with a few people. One guy told me about his experience using MyPunchbowl to plan his New Year’s party. After speaking with another woman for a few minutes, we realized with knew some of the same people. Pretty cool.

I know you can’t change who you are, but as with anything “practice makes perfect.” I realize that at times being a little more outgoing is a good thing is this business. Hopefully with a little practice, I’ll be more outgoing. Who knows, maybe you’ll see some videos of me on MyPunchbowl soon…

This entry was posted on March 10, 2009 at 9:32 pm and is filed under Marketing, Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.