This is a common problem with working from the home office: how to get people to understand it is work time. But what if you have talked and explained with little to no results.

I found something that worked for some of my salespeople who worked in a bull pen: devise a signal that makes it so clear that you do not want to be disturbed. One of my salesman put a traffic light on his desk that he found in a novelty store. The red, yellow and green lights said it all. One of my coaching clients had a payroll clerk who couldn’t get employees to leave her to her work – even on pay day! She devised a sign that she flipped over as needed: one side said Knock lightly; the other said, DON’T even think about bothering me. In any cases where we create a signal, discussion and agreement with people was crucial before the new actions took affect.

Would it be any help if you could get your spouse to help you with setting some ground rules for him and the rest of your family? Often times getting people to be part of the process is enough of a kick-in-the-pants because THEY created the rules with you.

Have you tried a Family Summit where you bring in all family members to participate in a planning of how to make your work life and their life better with some Work Day rules? This would mean that you are clear on hours of work, what to expect when you take a break, agreed upon signals, etc

What are you doing that might be rewarding unwanted behavior? This may sound silly. When I was traveling the world doing management training we often talked about this issue. Here’s an example. What is one of the first things that happens when you bring a puppy home? House breaking. The puppy pees on the floor. #1- you ignore it – the pee continues. #2- you pay attention and take the puppy outside the moment you catch them in the unwanted behavior. Could it be that some of your family members are getting rewarded either by you ignoring them (eg, they LIKE being ignored) or maybe you are ALWAYS paying attention to them in some way, good or bad, when they interrupt you? We sometimes reward unacceptable behavior unknowingly.

Is the location of your office wrong? If it is near the family room or living room it’s inviting, even with a door, to be fair game to come in and break your privacy. If you have a door, is it shut?

Have you talked with other women in your community who might work at home to get some ideas? As an introvert, if you are, it’s so tempting to work in complete isolation with just the ideas bouncing around our heads, we often forget to get an outside opinion.

Bottom line: You want to find a way to get the family involved in the boundaries YOU want so you can reward them at the end of YOUR workday for respecting you.

If you work from home, would you let us know how you are able to successfully minimize family interruptions?

How do you minimize family interruptions when working from home? is a post from: Courage Coach for the Reluctant Marketer

You may have a business or life plan that you are studiously working to bring to reality. At some point in time, other voices, visions, and critques may get in the way of your process, take you off track or even muddle the results. However at critical points in the game, encouragement or critique is what we need to hear, either to get us jumpstarted or back on the path. When is it time to take the hard medicine?

Know Your Introvert Strengths

In the fast-paced and noisy world, introverts can feel alone. But the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator reports that the population is actually split 50/50 between introverts and extroverts. Both personality types are valid ways of experiencing the world. Introvert qualities include thinking before speaking, and then thinking about it again after you speak. They draw energy from quiet, focused environments, and becoming quickly drained of energy in highly active, people-filled environments. If critique comes from an extrovert extolling the virtues of their own extrovert qualities, you may ignore this. For example the virtues of technology like online social networking and email make business communication easier for introverts these days.

Introversion/Extroversion is a spectrum, extroverted qualities can be practiced and get stronger, although studies show that introverts who act like extroverts quickly use up their energy stores. If you would be more successful with more extrovert qualities, maybe seek help from or partner with an extrovert.

Use you Introvert Strengths

If someone comes to you with an offer to help, take the time to consider what this person is offering to give you. If you feel accosted, overwhelmed, defensive, or insulted do not melt down. Tell them you will think about it. Then take a step back to consider the situation, possibly at a later date and time when you can critically analyse what the other person is offering. Help may be a distraction, but it also may be what you need to clarify or push the project forward.

Introverts thrive on gathering and parsing information. If something feels like a problem, then it is okay to go to trusted friends, colleagues or family and ask them for honest advice. More information is usually the better option. If you need professional advice from a boss or stranger, you need to seek it out using a method that makes you feel comfortable. And always come prepared with questions and points of interest for the interview. Everything is progressive, if things are not feeling right and you need an outside perspective or expertise, go and get it. Your introvert brain will thank you for putting that critical piece of the puzzle into place.

What does it take for you to ask for other peoples' help? How is not asking for help working for you? Please let Jennifer and me know in your comments below.

This guest article was contributed by Jennifer Bell from Health Training Guide. Check out her site to learn more about medical office manager training and other exciting health careers.

It’s Okay to Accept Other People’s Offer to Help: When Introverts Acknowledge That They Can Use Some Encouragement is a post from: Courage Coach for the Reluctant Marketer

Sometimes it can feel like an introverted personality is at a distinct disadvantage in a fast-paced business environment. If you don’t have that “take no prisoners” attitude, you’ll just never get ahead, right? While that kind of personality can help in some cases, the simple fact is that an introverted personality has the same chances for success as someone who is far more outgoing. Common sense and dedication to your business can take you much further than a simple affinity for being comfortable in a room full of people.

Even so, should you express your concerns that your introverted nature may be holding you back you can find yourself bombarded with a lot of “just” advice. By that, I mean people will tell you things like: “Just do this,” or “Just try that,” or worst of all: “Just get over it.”

No one “Just gets over” anything. Overcoming any issues, whether it’s a tendency to be shy around new people or a habit of telling customers what you really think of them, will require a lot of effort and commitment. On the bright side, you don’t have to go over everything if there is a nice, clear path that will take you around it, and there are a few professional business resources that can help with things that are often particularly troubling.

Taking Calls

Nothing ruins a perfectly good work day like having to deal with rude, overbearing people on the phone. Sometimes it’s hard enough to deal with people face to face when you can see their expressions, let alone putting up with their rants on the phone. It’s not uncommon for people to develop an all-consuming dread of a ringing telephone.

There’s a simple way around this, though. Taking calls is a natural part of doing business, and you can’t cut it out completely, but you can get someone to do it for you. Whether you are an entrepreneur working from home or in a small office, you can get a small business answering service to take your calls, screen out the irate or irrelevant calls, and only send on the ones that are really important. This can free up a lot of your time to get on with running your business instead of answering unproductive calls.

Presentations

What could be worse than standing in front of a group of people and presenting your business plan or pitching a new product? The “just get over it” advice comes up a lot here, which may, in fact, be a little worse than the “picture everyone in their underwear” or “practice in front of a mirror” advice.

A little more practical advice is to use a good PowerPoint presentation. There are a range of business PowerPoint templates on the market and they will help you look professional (even if you don’t feel it yourself) and keep your thoughts organized. Also, a bright, shiny presentation will take their eyes off of you which can reduce a lot of the pressure.

Just Advice

If I were to leave some “just” advice about succeeding in business even with an introverted personality, it would be this: Just be yourself. You may have to work on developing some new skills and processes, any you may have to employ some new resources, but you shouldn’t pretend to be someone you’re not. That kind of act rarely fools anyone. If you are dedicated to your business and are determined to make it succeed, you can use a few of these options to go around those personal obstacles and reach your final goals.

Tiffany Miller is a mother of two from Salt Lake City, UT. Her and her husband have had many small business ventures over the years and will soon be launching their seventh website anniversaryhelp.com

Besides taking calls and making presentations, where else does the advice, "Just be yourself," work for you?

Could Introverted Personality Disadvantage Be Just a Feeling? is a post from: Courage Coach for the Reluctant Marketer

Most scientists believe introvertedness is a genetic trait. With a little effort though, you can add some extrovert tendencies to your introvert nature in the workplace and fit in well with you more extroverted coworkers. Even though you may have tendencies toward introvertedness, even shyness, do not allow them to keep you from pursuing professional or personal goals. Following are several tips to help you communicate more effectively in the workplace.

Find Your Strengths

Everyone has unique qualities and things they are good at. It is important to know and focus on the things you do well. In the workplace, this is especially true. Working at a job you are good at will improve your self-esteem and allow you to play to your strengths in the workplace.

Focus on Others

Instead of focusing on yourself during conversations with coworkers, focus on what they are saying. Become interesting in learning about them. Ask them questions about themselves. Extroverted people will often find it rude if you don't reciprocate their interest and make conversation occasionally, so make an effort to reach out to them even if it feels awkward to you.

Practice Social Skills

As with any other skill, social skills can be refined with practice. The more you work at it, the more comfortable you will be the next time. If you have difficulty coming up with how to say things to your coworkers, practice what you want to say with them ahead of time. Extroverted coworkers are the perfect people to learn better social skills from. Observe how they interact with you and others around the office, then reciprocate these friendly gestures.

Make Contact with Others

Each day make it a point to talk with one or two of your coworkers. Whether for a few minutes as you arrive in the morning or in the break room for a snack, each time you make contact, you build rapport with your coworkers. It is important to develop relationships in order to get to better know your coworkers.

Speak Up at Meetings

It is easy for introvert workers to sit during meetings without speaking at all or only when being spoken too. Ask questions to show you are interested. Speak up to let your coworkers know you have helpful ideas.

Make Eye Contact

It is sometimes harder for introverts shy people to make eye contact. But force yourself to look your coworkers in the eye when talking with them. This will give the impression that you are friendly, trustworthy and confident. If you do not make eye contact, your coworkers could think you are being unfriendly or have something to hide.

Remember, with time and practice, you can work toward becoming the friendly, helpful coworker that others enjoy working with. You will feel more confident in both your professional and personal life.

It starts with you using your strengths. What do you think about just mixing in some extroverted tendencies? Does it make sense for you?

This article was contributed by Sierra Miller from Job Descriptions. The introverts out there might suited to some of the careers discussed in her IT job descriptions.

Introvert Tips for Communicating with Extroverted Coworkers is a post from: Courage Coach for the Reluctant Marketer

1. Within 24 hours either call or email any contact you want to get to know better merely thanking them for a “fabulous” meeting. Leave your sales pitch behind.

2. Within 48 hours send a handwritten note, you can use SendOutCards to make this easy, without even going to the card shop. Express your interest in a future discussion about what their needs might be. Yes; this is a more appropriate place to move the sales conversation forward.

3. Be sure to meet with anyone you believe you could refer business to or receive referrals from within about a week. Life goes on and so might their top-of-awareness of you.

After the 48 hour to one week follow-up plan, schedule your longer term follow-up.

4. Consider your average sales cycle. My sales cycle for my coaching and training services is long - sometimes 6 to 24 months. So in my plan, I have at a minimum, a quarterly follow-up. Even Internet products can have a long cycle so create 7 to 12 autoresponder emails to make this automatic and easy for you.

5. What on earth do you follow-up about over the long term? Start with your prospective clients interests. You are building a relationship and when that prospective client is ready to buy, you'll stand out from others when you show you were listening to their interests. For example, let's say you hear your prospect likes red wines. Something comes across your radar screen about a highly rated red wine. Call, email, Tweet or direct message your client to let them know you believe this little tidbit will be of interest.

Another example is to send them a birthday card. There is no better way than this to get more personal. I mean who doesn't like receiving a real paper greeting card in the mail?

6. If you purposefully reduce the information you share right from the get go, it will leave you other valid business reasons to follow-up. So you have maybe 10 products for people to consider. First of all, if you are other focused from the get-go you won't fall in the trap of letting loose a flock of pigeons, that is, just rattling off your offering in a long list. You do know what a flock of pigeons can do? Instead, focus on one or two offerings. This leaves you the opportunity for mention of 8 others in your follow-up.

Speed networking can put you on the fast track to more sales results when you plan out a system for your follow-up. Diversify the degree of closeness to your prospect and include everything from a spontaneous telephone call to meeting in-person for coffee or the like to anything that is more removed like email.

How will you use these ideas to act on a planned approach to your networking follow-up?

Speed Networking: 6 Tip Planned Approach to Networking Follow-up is a post from: Courage Coach for the Reluctant Marketer

Aye yae yae - all the time and energy goes to setting things up for someone else's timing.

The pace of your follow-up after any kind of meeting, speed networking or networking in general, should match both your style and your prospective customers. Everyone is unique. How do you know then whether the schedule might be monthly, quarterly or something else? How do you know what to include in your follow-up plan?

Several criteria to consider:
- Have you asked your prospective customer or client their preference of follow-up? Some people do better with telephone, others email and others in-person.
- Is your follow-up message weighted more toward building a relationship or just asking for a decision? The follow-up is both about selling and building the relationship at the same time. NOTE: shift your focus to helping the person buy and it will minimize you possible queasy factor with selling. When you help another person to buy you can't help but want to understand their needs more.
- Will your frequency be enough to cut through the clutter and keep your name at the top of your contact’s mind? You need to understand your prospects style to tailor this.
- Are you mixing educational or editorial messages with advertorial or marketing information? If all you are going to do is talk about about you, your company, your sale, yourself, it's weighted too heavily on one side. Talk with you prospective client about things that you heard them say interested them.
- Are you being yourself? If you are an introvert the follow-up is where your strengths with shine: listening, being more curious and wanting to maintain the relationship to preserve your own energy. If you are an extrovert you may want to strengthen your: focus on the planning and then be your natural gregarious self while you strengthen you listening.
- Are you being personal?

Follow-up can be systematized and within the system you can tailor to each person's unique buying style.

Yes; you can send too many messages, leave too many voice mails, send too many cards. The likelihood of this with most people is slim because anywhere from 80% to 99% of business owners and salespeople don’t follow-up at all!

No; you can't necessarily follow-up too quickly. You want to follow-up according to the other person's seeming decision making style. Some follow-up will be speedy, some follow-up will be slower. Take the pace of your prospect.

Maybe; if you start following up mid-year with all the people you have already net through any networking, you won't need to attend any new networking events! You will begin to help prospects make decisions that favor purchasing your product or service which you introduced to them earlier in the year. No curdled cream.

We'll be wrapping up this series with a follow-up plan that you can fit your own product or service.

But what other criteria do you believe you want to consider to continue to be the best you that you can be in your follow-up?

Speed Networking: How to Plan Your Follow Up and Follow Through is a post from: Courage Coach for the Reluctant Marketer

1. When you network you are beginning a conversation, and if you've followed some of the other tips to prepare, you've likely stirred someone's curiosity to know more. NOTE: Introverts, networking is a place to begin a deep conversation not to attempt to have the entire discussion. Put on your planning forte when networking. The first encounter is not filled with small talk but instead a small amount of meaningful talk.
2. If you leave your networking at the event, or even worst, make one feeble attempt with email or voice mail to follow-up with someone, you've now possibly created a conundrum for the other person in new relationship.
3. If you haven't focused your niche, your target, you'll leave thinking, "All of these people are my prospects!" That can be your Achilles heel because of the overwhelm feeling of some much to do now that can lead to inaction.
4. The very nature of speed networking is an organic process. To avoid follow through that moves things along to the next likely action is like a cream beginning to curdle.
5. Your time and energy at any one singular event are just planted seeds of the networking process. For those seeds to grow into any might oak tree, a trusting and meaningful relationship, you have to nourish those seeds. Nourishing any relationship that you deem you want to take further means - a planned follow-up that you purposefully act on.

Okay, are you thinking any differently about your speed networking?

Have any of these questions taken your focus off of you? I'm asking you to consider what you have stirred up in other people with your exuberant enthusiasm during any one singular event.

Are you thinking about what your follow-up plan might include? Great! Because that's where we are headed in the last of this series of making your speed networking most effective for you.

Speed Networking: What IS the Point Without the Follow Through? is a post from: Courage Coach for the Reluctant Marketer

1. If you are a slower speaker, there are about 175 words in a typical 60 second elevator pitch and if you hail from the north, like New York, you can squeeze in about 225.
2. Try, just do it, and allow the other person to talk first if you tend to normally gobble the time. It’s fine to say who you are, your company name and the WHAT you solve for your perfect client. But save your full pitch until a follow-up time. Laura Sherman comments on a previous post about why this works so well.
3. As an extrovert it’s quite likely you love going first, often to the detriment of the either shy or introvert person. Look at tip #3 again and converse in this way.
4. As an introvert, you may be hesitant, but if you find the person you are partnered with going on and on and possibly intruding on your time, take a stance. Politely pipe up with, “Wait, I would like for you to at least know my name and who my best clients are.” You’ll have their attention.
5. This is not the time to go into details. After hitting on the highlights about yourself, who your ideal client is, take more interest in the other person.

Being a giver when speed networking includes giving a balance of sharing the time that you talk with still asking for what you want. When you take the time to prepare you’ll find it easy to do. If you write your pitch out and read it, you most likely won’t be your natural self. But if you write out your pitch, practice it, and then just take key points written down with you, you’ll manage your time better, make your need known and manage to share the time.

Speed Networking: Launch Your Elevator Pitch Rocket with Care is a post from: Courage Coach for the Reluctant Marketer

Extroverts (energized most by other people) love:
- Networking with more people.
- Networking with new people.
- Networking CAN get loud at times.
- Networking in a large group is what you start and end with.

Introverts (energized most by their own thoughts and selves) thrive with:
- Networking in a designated time.
- Networking with structure.
- Networking without small talk.
- Networking is 1 to 1!

And what works for anyone, introvert and extrovert alike:
- The overall structure, typically you meet 15 to 20 people in 4 to 6 minute conversation rounds, is a comfortable and less intimidating environment than typical free for all events.
- A person can learn effective networking techniques through each conversation, repetition and a facilitator.
- The math works for everyone. Connections you make of 15 to 20 people in an hour, times an average of 250 if you have been in business for a year or two.

Networking, if it is in your strategic plan for marketing and business development, tends to lead to a lot of make-me-puke-but-I’m- listening kind of small talk, can wear out an unprepared introvert and because of distractions from the fast fun of it can leave the most ardent type cheerleader, an extrovert, weary. The train is in – speed networking has arrived and gets better with each round.

How else do you see think it benefits either the introvert or extrovert?

Speed Networking: You Can Connect Introverts and Extroverts for Fun and Success is a post from: Courage Coach for the Reluctant Marketer

Introvert-itude©: Masterful questions come naturally and can help you keep the focus off of you and on the other person.

1. One question which is just above small talk radar for meeting new people which can yield valuable insights, "How is it you're here at this event tonight and not doing something else?" At first they might laugh. Then you hear, they're a member of the group, they serve on the speakers committee, one of their partners loves the group or they just popped in because there was nothing better to do. Listening to a person's response will give you a bit about their style, their connections and them as a person.

2. My guess is most of us, introvert and extrovert alike, have little problem connecting with friends when networking. If you're like me though, falling into the "How are you?" often gets that stare into nowhere, hidden behind a smile on someone's face even if you know them. Yield, can't stand the answer. I often like surprising my friends and instead ask, "So why haven't I see YOU lately?" Much better because it starts with a laugh and then moves to the real nitty gritty of why they've been missing in action.

3. If I like who I'm face-to-face with, friend or new acquaintance, one of my favorite questions is, "Who can I introduce you to here tonight?" I've been in business in my community for 30 years so I do know many people. My reason for asking this question is to determine if I am going to be able to help this person and to discover how clear they are about who their customer is. It helps with assessing the mutual benefit of deepening the relationship.

Two thoughts so you don't work so hard with this:

Small talk is just that; small. That's why we can't stand those answers to many small talk questions. You don't need a lot of questions, you just need a few information gathering rich questions.

Build up to power question that dig deep. One Stephanie uses most, "What are the 3 things you are most passionate about?" This will shine on a light on a more meaningful conversation and be a question you want to have the answer to.

Will any of these questions work for you?

What are some questions YOU can stand the answers to when you network?

Introvert-itudes©: What Networking Questions Can You Stand Answers To? is a post from: Courage Coach for the Reluctant Marketer