Elizabeth Shih
A few nights ago, I was leaving a friend’s apartment on the third floor of my building. My arms were filled with the leftovers of a pan of lasagna that I had contributed to a small, “socially distant,” dinner gathering.
I had four floors to go to return to my unit: ordinarily, I’d take the stairs. But the messy, tomato-drenched sauce that was swirling in the lasagna pan made me think: “No, this would be a good time to use the elevator.”
So I did. Or rather, I tried to.
Updating a blog posting from May 15, 2014
Since I started my copywriting business nearly 10 years ago, I have been interested in the format of electronic newsletters. Why? They’ve “hooked” me with their capacity to share knowledge and insight from my clients with their prospects–to sell indirectly, based on a relationship filled with valuable knowledge and skill.
And, at the end of the day, who doesn’t love reading a short, informative e-newsletter?
Continue reading “Are e-newsletters still worth your investment?”
In the May 5th episode of the online show, “Harvard Business Review Quarantined” hosts Adi Ignatius (editor) and Joshua Macht (publisher), aimed to address how entrepreneurs can cope with the Covid-19 crisis. They interviewed psychologist Angela Duckworth (University of Pennsylvania) on the topic of “how to find your grit in a crisis” like the 2020 pandemic.
Duckworth is best known for her 2013 TED Talk, “Grit: The power of passion and perseverance.” It received 20 million views and was followed by a bestselling book of the same name (published in 2016). Duckworth also runs the non-profit organization, “Character Lab,” that researches practices that develop human character.
In these Covid-19 times, I have heard numerous entrepreneurs comment that “social distancing” is especially hard on extroverts, while introverts are thought to be “lucky” to thrive in reduced social connection with others.
But in an April 16th article in The New York Times, American organizational psychologist Adam Grant argues that such assumptions (about extroversion and introversion) are inaccurate. He writes: “It’s often said that extroverts get their energy from people, while introverts are energized by solitude.” But current research shows “that’s a myth.” Studies show that both extroverts and introverts feel “more energized “when they are “being talkative and outgoing” amongst colleagues, friends or family.
So being an introvert has nothing to do with wanting to be alone. Instead, the wish for aloneness comes from the personality trait of “independence.” People who are independent of others find “their behaviour, values and interests” align. These people are “resistant to pressure from others” and want to learn more about their own experiences and feelings. Those who possess autonomy enjoy solitude more than people who seek it out (Jarrett in Grant, 1). 
So, Grant writes: “Introverts crave connection” as much as extroverts do. “We just need more boundaries.”
Introversion, he says, is about limiting sensory and/or psychological stimulation, especially from other people or settings that feel overwhelming. Introversion is not about whether a person needs others or requires solitude. (All humans are social beings and need both contact with others and time spent alone.) Introverts as well as extroverts can be lonely, but solitude for either personality type is only painful or problematic “when [they] want connection but can’t find it.”
Grant describes a time during his first year of graduate school when he struggled to get his papers published and to feel accepted by new classmates. During a “cold, grey Michigan winter,” he felt “completely isolated” when his roommates left on holidays. I remember a similar feeling of loneliness, myself.
Introverts, Grant asserts, are more sensitive to external, sensory stimulation than extroverts are. If exposure to others goes on for several days (e.g. at a conference or a family reunion), introverts start to feel more pain, “exhaustion and less authenticity.” Sensory overstimulation does not as frequently occur to extroverts. 
Although Grant does not refer to them in his article, there are also “ambiverts” who fall someplace between introverts and extroverts, along a continuum of identity and sensory receptivity.
Curiously, Grant’s colleague, psychologist Jane Dutton, has found that quality interactions with other people do not require a lot of time. As little as “forty seconds— a positive, caring interaction—has measurable impacts on both people.” So we don’t need to devote hours in others’ company to overcome loneliness or isolation.
No one is immune to loneliness and psychologists in recent years have published much on the damaging effects it has on us. But Grant emphasizes that no huge effort is needed for people to shift from loneliness to connectedness.
For instance, online meeting platforms like Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, etc., although in some ways exhausting and limited, can still help introverts, ambiverts and extroverts to connect, even during times of a pandemic, when physical distancing is key to our survival.
And now it’s your turn: Do you agree with the insights Grant shares on personality types, loneliness and boundaries? How do they influence your daily life? Please reply on my “contact” page. I’d be delighted to extend this conversation.
Earlier this month, I participated in a “First Things First” Group Huddle—a “Mastermind Call” facilitated by entrepreneurial expert and professional coach, Deanna Litz (of “Powerful Nature”).
The session allowed participants to discuss, in a supportive atmosphere, some of the struggles and accomplishments that come with working as entrepreneurs in a global pandemic. While much of the content was confidential, I secured permission to speak about some of the broader outlines of the group “mastermind” in current times. 
Before we can think about entrepreneurial strategy in a pandemic, Deanna suggested that entrepreneurs must remember to acknowledge and “honour who and what we are.” This includes identifying whether we are introverts, extroverts or somewhere in-between (“ambiverts”); and how to cope with the excesses and stresses each of our own personalities feels when we must isolate ourselves—for months. These are factors to consider before we can even begin to think about our marketing strategy as entrepreneurs.
An accomplished small business coach and an excellent facilitator (at the Praxis School of Entrepreneurship), Deanna reminded us that in so-called “normal” times, entrepreneurs always provide services (or products) for our clients. So even when choppy waters might tempt us to suspend our business planning and work (or, in others’ cases, to jump ship for a “day job”), we must stay connected with our prospect base. We also need to ask where our clients are at and how we can best serve them, in this crisis period. To lose that vital communication is to lose everything.
Citing “Pareto’s Law,” that 20% of one aspect of one’s biz (e.g. customers) are responsible for 80% of our activity (e.g. sales), Deanna reminded us that most of our functioning is determined by our finite capacity to regulate and manage our emotions. When we cannot do that emotional work over long periods of time, we face the brink. This is where we need to seek external, therapeutic help. 
The reality is that we need to find strategies to tap into our positive feelings when the entrepreneurial world (and those in it) push our buttons or provide us with daily triggers that can subvert our efforts to succeed and to be well.
Deanna cited psychological studies that find that people’s responses in crisis times often fall into 3 groups (those who fight; those who take flight; and those who freeze). She encouraged us to look at the colossal disruption of Covid-19 as an opportunity to do more than those three things.
She invited us to “pivot” or deliberately move out of the fearful places where we feel tempted to hide. “Pivoting” by definition means to prioritize the most important aspect of a situation and to use that as a point on which our business processes can turn and move. She added that “the energy we bring to our pivoting can greatly influence our outcomes.”
Citing celebrity coach Marie Forleo, Deanna said that “Everything is figure-out-able.” We can meet challenges, even in pandemic times. And I would add that even if it isn’t (as argued by philosophers and theorists like Jacques Derrida), “it” will become grist for the mill of entrepreneurial growth.
As one participant stated, “the obstacle is the way” (citing the book by Ryan Holiday, that I reviewed in an earlier posting). The only way around life’s greatest challenges is to go through them. 
An unnamed source (but not Deanna, herself), says that we should “never let a good crisis go to waste!” This observation sounds to me like it came from Oscar Wilde (or, maybe more recently, Bette Middler). And it applied to us: By “masterminding” the challenge of Covid-19, as nuanced and directed by (the talented) Deanna Litz, a small group of world-weary entrepreneurs found our “ground legs” needed to plan and act with courage and hope.
And now it’s your turn: Have you fought, fled or frozen your way through the past weeks of the Covid-19 Pandemic? How do you keep on, keeping on, as a small business or entrepreneur?