Amplified Introvert EP2

Hello again, my beautiful amplified introverts. It was so amazing to connect with many of you after last week's podcast, the warm welcomes, God, are so appreciated, such gratitude, and it definitely validated the need for this community. I'm super excited to dive deeper into the topics that really matter to us, right?

Now, this week, I wanna talk about something that's been absolutely fundamental to my own journey as a marketer and has helped me to attain success that many can only dream about, right, and that's setting healthy boundaries to protect our valuable energy.

So when I first started out as a, uh, timid teenager, building websites for my bedroom, you know, the online world, it felt like a sanctuary.

But, the quiet space didn't last long, right?

Life happens. After high school, I decided to go into the Marine Corps, which is anything but quiet, you know what I mean?

And later I took a job as an art director in a small agency. So my career grew and marketing, you know, it's just really loud career, highly connected.

Highly stressful. You can make good money, but there's a lot of stress there.

And as my career grew, it eventually led me to a leadership role, um, in the harsh corporate environment of Houston, here in Texas.

And my stress and my income grew exponentially, right?

But.

So did the demands for constant freaking connection, quick responses all the time. The questions from my staff and endless damn meetings, half of which I never even had to be in, right?

I mean, I was going crazy with, with constant stress and, uh, I quickly learned that if I didn't actively manage my own energy. Holy shit, I would burn out faster than a poorly optimized ad campaign on a Sunday, right?

Check it out. And I learned that my energy definitely was not infinite. I mean, I might've thought I was a machine drinking Red Bulls, you know, lifting weights, drinking all the energy shakes, drinking, you know, kicking back protein powder.

But I'm just human, right?

Like all of us, and for all of us introverts, our energy is just a precious, finite resource.

Now, unlike extroverts who often get energized by social interaction, running around talking, and everyone having those meetings, they don't need to be in. They love that shit.

But for us introverts, um, we expend energy in social settings and we need absolute solitude to recharge. Right. And without clear boundaries.

This vital energy, it's gonna be easily depleted and this is gonna lead to overwhelm, stress, and we're just gonna burn out. Right? We're just gonna burn the hell out.

And I try to think of it like managing a marketing budget, right?

Sounds cheesy, but let me explain. You wouldn't waste. Precious funds on ineffective marketing tactics that didn't bring you one damn dollar, right?

So similarly, you need to be strategic about where and how you expend your social and mental energy. Don't have the time for people or conversations that don't bring you joy, that don't bring you, uh, some kind of cash in your pocket.

Some kind of opportunity, right?

Be transactional about it.

Now, I know it sounds selfish, but setting boundaries, it's not selfish.

It's an act of self-respect, and it's damn essential for your sustained creativity and your wellbeing as a human being.

Okay, so here's some effective strategies that I've found pretty stinking invaluable for protecting my energy as an introverted professional working in high stress field of marketing.

So for any of you introverts listening that are in marketing, you may find value in these strategies as well. Or if you work in another field or healthcare or something high stress that has a lot of demand, you might wanna listen up. All right, took me 30 years to figure this out. Let me save you some time.

So the first thing I really figured out that I needed to do, I needed to schedule solitude. Now, it sounds stupid, but you actually have to schedule that time, and this is non-negotiable. So just as you're gonna block out time for important client meetings, right, or you're gonna set your freaking pomodoro timer as so many people say on LinkedIn or you know how you're gonna guard your productivity.

You have to guard your lack of productivity too. You have to schedule that shit, okay? Schedule it throughout your day and your week. Now this could be 30 minutes of quiet reflection before work, alright? It could be a solitary lunch break. Eat a damn sandwich by yourself. Try it for a change. It's freaking amazing.

Or. Have a dedicated hour in the evening for just reading or some kind of hobby, right? Maybe you wanna make some beats with your iPad. Maybe you want to bang on some drums, or pet your cats. Whatever it is, protect it. Treat it as a sacred thing, and do it every day. All right. I literally put deep work recharge blocks on my own calendar every day, or I try to, and I protect them fiercely if possible.

Now sometimes things will come up, right? Vet appointment, doctor appointment, and really important stuff that is going to take precedence over that. Use your judgment on that, right? So the next thing I've discovered, um, and honestly it was hard for me for years because I'm a freaking people pleaser. Took years for me to figure out how to say no.

So. Learn to say no gracefully. Now, this was a tough one for me, uh, especially early in my career, and for a lot of people early in your career, it's easy to get burned out and say yes to everything, right? And that's just because you don't wanna miss out on things or disappoint others, but saying no to requests that are gonna drain your energy, right, without significant value is crucial.

Saying no to those meetings that you do really don't have to be in. There's ways you can do that, right? A polite and concise, "Hey, thanks for the invitation, but I'm not gonna be able to make it" right? That's usually enough because saying no to one thing, well, that's saying yes to your wellbeing and your own priorities.

Okay? Remember that saying no to the thing that sucks is saying yes to yourself, and you always wanna say yes to yourself, and you always want to guard that time with vigilance. Alright? Schedule it, try it.

Try it for a week, try it for two weeks. Try it a few times a week. Schedule 30, 40, 50 minutes. Whatever you can do. Maybe it's a workout.

Start putting time on the calendar for you. You need that.

All right. Third thing I learned to do, um, and you would think, I wouldn't need to know how to do this because I work in communications and I have a degree in communications, but I had to learn to, go figure, communicate.

Um, communicate your needs gently. All right. And communicate them clearly.

I found a lot of introverts, uh, including, you know, myself and many others that I talk to, we feel misunderstood, people just don't understand us, yada ya blah.

Maybe it's because you're expecting the other person to read your mind. Maybe it's because you are expecting them to understand you and know what your needs are. But I'm here to tell you that's usually not gonna be the case. Okay?

So communicate your preferences, communicate your needs calmly to colleagues, friends, and family. Now you might say, "I find that I'm most productive when I have some uninterrupted time to focus".

That's a good thing you can say.

Or after a busy day, "I need some quiet time to recharge". That's another good thing you can say. The key to understand here is most people are usually pretty cool and understanding about it if you just articulate your needs tactfully, clearly, and respectfully. Okay? So remember that a little bit of communication can go a long way.

Now, another thing, um. There's actually probably the most important thing on here. I didn't know why I didn't make it number one, because of the world that we live in.

All right. Hyperstimulation, I mean everything is around you. Notifications going off, your phone's, going off. Social media, you know, we have open office environments, um, which is actually the worst thing for an introvert.

So noise canceling headphones are gonna be your best friend. Okay? Turning off your non-essential notifications. It's gonna be your best friend setting. No screen times before bed. It's gonna be your best friend. Don't be up all night or two, three hours before bed scrolling social media, looking at threads.

I do it myself. All right? So I'm guilty too and I know that when I do this, um, it's really damaging to my energy the next day. It really fucks with my sleep, right?

So try to really be mindful of that, creating physical buffers, digital buffers, noise buffers. You know, some people, I used to be really into spirituality years ago, and we used to be, um, really keen on visualizing a shield of energy around your body that, you know, negative energy can't get through, whatever, whatever you have to do to create that buffer.

Do it. Okay? Protect your space and manage your output. All right?

And that is the last thing. So you do all of these things to protect your inner space and to gain some energy to get those reserves. All right. Don't turn around on the other end and burn yourself out on the output. All right?

When you're expending energy, like content creation, for example, batch it, you know, instead of daily pressure of every day, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Have to make a post today. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Have to do this every day. Boom. Be consistent. Be consistent. Be authentic. Be consistent. Be consistent.

The most consistent, authentic damn thing you can do for yourself is batch scheduling content. So you're gonna want to get a tool like. Buffer, uh, buffer.com.

It's amazing actually. And it's free for up to three social accounts and like 200 posts. Check it out. What it allows you to do is you can schedule your content in advance, or you can use a tool like Hootsuite. Again, it's just like Buffer, but it costs a little more, it has better, uh, analytics. Either way, what I'm trying to say is you wanna batch schedule your work, okay?

So take a day, three, four hours, one, two hours, however long it takes. Batch out the work. Batch out the posts. Get it done right. Maybe you have some phone calls for some sales. Batch those up. Get it done.

Manage your time. Manage your output, okay? Don't burn yourself out.

Remember, this is a journey, not a quick fix.

All right? You're not gonna have 35 minutes of meditation and wake up tomorrow and be some fucking mega guru loaded with energy and go run a quarter mile in three minutes. It's not gonna happen. You're not Roger Banister, all right? You're not Superman. You're not the X-Men. But what you are, you're a human being, right?

So be fair to yourself. Understand that it's gonna take time, 1% each day.

I know it's cliche, but it makes the shitty go away.

I totally just made that up, but it's real, right?

Focus on a little bit each day.

Segment everything out.

Remember, it's a journey, and you're gonna find yourself with more energy. You're gonna find yourself with greater clarity, and you're gonna find yourself with the ability to truly amplify your voice in all areas of your life, all relationships at work and at play.

So I'd love to hear from you.

What's one boundary that you're gonna try to set this week to protect your energy?

What's one thing you're gonna do for yourself this week?

I'd love you to share your thoughts in the subscriber chat, go to amplified introvert.com and let me know in the chat.

Let me know in the comments. I might use it in my next episode.

I might drop you some props, baby. So let's hear it.

Go to amplified introvert.com and let me know in the chat.

Now until next week, keep amplifying your quiet strength.

Again, thank you for listening. I'm Robert Rupp, the "amplified introvert" with another episode of the Amplified Introvert.

Big surprise. Bye-bye now.

Alrighty, queue the podcast end song.

Just kidding. Oh, maybe I'll produce one.

That's the goal for next episode.

Hey, introverts, love y'all. Thank you for listening.

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See you next time.