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I’m an introvert with high functioning anxiety. Here’s how my business has grown

I’m an introvert with high functioning anxiety. Here’s how my business has grown

April 22, 2022 By Walt wintertree Leave a Comment

For most of my life, I never thought I would be a business owner.

For starters, both of my parents started businesses, and I saw firsthand the emotional and financial toll it could take. But I was also an introvert who struggled with anxiety. All of the founders I saw were confident and charismatic, seemingly able to calmly handle every business challenge that came their way and pitch their business on a whim to any stranger they met.

Plus, when you’re dealing with anxiety mixed with introversion, you tend to talk yourself out of the risky moves and bold decisions that are often required to succeed in growing a company. It felt like starting a business would be even more of an uphill battle for me than it is for most.

But then I had the spark of inspiration that starts every entrepreneur’s story—the idea I just couldn’t get out of my head, the vision for the impact I wanted to make on the world. I had struggled so much with finding mentors through the various stages of my career, and I wanted to build a platform to make this powerful development tool easier for anyone to access, Dreami.

Around the same time, I was doing a lot of self-reflection around where I was in my life and my career. I suddenly felt this urge to step away from all the mental limitations I had and step into a more limitless version of myself—which is actually what my name means in Sanskrit: limitless. I wanted to embrace and honor my personality as much as I could, without letting it hold me back from taking steps that would make my life more fulfilling.

I had my vision and the fuel to drive me forward: Now, here’s how I actually overcame my challenges to get my company off the ground, land our early customers, and even get into a competitive accelerator.

Here's what fuels us, even when it's tough: we have the unique ability and opportunity to truly make a life-changing impact on someone's life. That is a privilege, and we won't take that for granted. #startups #mentorship

— Dreami (@JoinDreami) March 31, 2022


I started small to build my confidence

In the beginning, when I was just getting comfortable with the idea of being a founder, I spent a lot of time in Clubhouse rooms. In theory, this was the perfect platform for an introvert like me. The whole point of the app is to make the facilitation of conversation easier, and I already knew I had an interest in common with everyone in the room. I also didn’t have to show my face and could even have notes in front of me if need be.

Best of all, I was listening to all of these conversations that would be perfect for getting the word out about Dreami: women in tech opening up about how they feel unsupported and don’t know where to look for help.

But no matter how many times I found my finger hovering over the mute button, my crippling anxiety stopped me from pushing it. Who was I to say I had a solution? Where were my qualifications? What would others think of me? While anxiety was pestering me from one shoulder, frustration was shouting from the other. How could I keep letting great opportunities slide? Other people would love a forum to talk openly about what they’re working on!

Finally, frustration won, and I wrote down in my planner a small goal that day to speak up in just one Clubhouse room. It went great! The positive feedback and new followers I got from that pushed me to speak up more, and the ball was rolling. It’s not that every speaking gig from that moment went swimmingly, but I understood the power of putting my voice out there. And I had the practice and confidence to say yes when bigger opportunities came my way, like speaking at TEDx and pitching my company to the Techstars accelerator.

I delivered a TEDx talk about going from limited to limitless.

I built habits to support my mental health

Even with practice putting myself out there, sales were never going to be easy for me. My introversion made constantly being on sales calls very draining on my energy, and my anxiety made me take every conversation that didn’t end in a “yes” personally. I would sometimes have days when I couldn’t get anything else done because my self worth was deflated by a rejection or lack of response, and I was ruminating on what I could have done better.

I knew this wasn’t a good cycle and that it would lead to demotivation or burnout fast. But I also knew that sales is a numbers game, and that if I wanted to get us those early customers (to eventually be able to hire someone to delegate sales to), I’d have to find a way to make it work. While I worked internally on separating my self-worth from the success of my business, I also implemented some external habits to better take care of myself.



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Here I am on TikTok discussing making the ask.

I began by batching my sales calls towards the end of each week. This gave me a few days to do strategic work before any conversations got me down or tired. To help me manage my energy, I worked with a coach because this would have meant many days of back-toback calls. I should allow enough time for me to recharge between meetings. She suggested that I write in my planner, meditate, or walk around the block. It has been amazing to see the difference just five to ten minutes of “me” time can make between calls.

This need to be very intentional with my energy and time has turned out to be a great strength as a founder. While other business owners might spend years trying to figure out how to manage their time, for me it was an instant necessity that I found.

I was able to find mentors similar to me, and mentors who could push my limits.

Dreami encourages you to create your own board of directors. This means that you have multiple mentors with different perspectives. It was helpful to have a mixture of introverted and extraverted mentors when I was looking for other business owners to learn.

My introverted mentors helped me to be more comfortable saying no to meetings that didn’t help my business grow (even though it was tempting to say yes), so that my limited energy can be used for the most important tasks. I learned from them that it is okay to openly discuss my anxiety and introversion. It was always something I felt I had to hide. But, I have been amazed at how understanding people are of me when I am clear about my boundaries due to my personality.

My extroverted mentors on the other side give me something to strive for. When I am preparing for a speech or meeting, I try to channel the energy of the extrovert leaders I admire. My anxiety suddenly subsides, my voice becomes stronger and my presentations become more engaging. Although it sounds strange, it is what helped me get through Techstars’ final pitching process. It has also helped me whenever I feel nervous in front of a crowd.

I know this all sounds like a real fake-it-til-you-make-it story, but I won’t sugarcoat it: There are still hard days where my introversion is making me hesitate or my anxiety is throwing me into a spiral. With time and smart techniques, I have learned to overcome these challenges faster. They don’t have any place in my business success.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://onlinemarketingagencies.net/?p=4113

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