Ep. 85: Channeling Your Main Character Energy as an Introvert
EPISODE 85
Channeling Your Main Character Energy as an Introvert
About the Episode:
The idea of Main Character Energy” is something that has become pretty prevalent and you may think that it doesn’t apply to business, especially if you’re an introvert, but I’m here today to tell you that Main Character Energy is something that you 100% should be leaning into – especially when fundraising for your nonprofit. I know that the very idea of this can feel so uncomfortable, in today’s episode of The Purpose & Profit Club I’m sharing a recent experience of when I was propelled into this energy and how it opened up a lot for me because here’s the thing, in order to get into the arena of wherever it is you want to be, you’ve got to pick up the mic, and it’s easier to pick up the mic when you are channeling your Main Character Energy. So let’s get into it, find out how to channel this energy and how it can elevate your mission on the newest episode of the podcast this week.
Topics:
How you can use Main Character Energy, especially as an introvert, when you’re prospecting and with vendors or wherever you have to cultivate relationship-building
Different shifts you can take when you experience projection to grow rather than shrink and plateau
The idea of unapologetic networking and why this space needs more introverts to diversify the work that gets noticed
The importance of finding your own people who have the energy that you want to inhibit so you can channel them in the moments that count
Why introverts struggle more with self-compassion, especially when we make mistakes
How to elevate the cause of your mission and get you in bigger rooms by leaning on your Main Character Energy
Think you’ve reached out to “everyone” in your network? Out of ideas to get noticed and get funded? Generate leads for your nonprofit or social impact business: https://www.splendidcourses.com/prospect
Christina’s Favorite Takeaways:
“You can still have Main Character Energy in your way and let that propel you forward when you’re developing relationships.”
“I’m somebody who also raises my hand in the room, who also has something to say.”
“In order to get into the arena of wherever it is you want to be, you’ve got to pick up the mic… and I find it’s easier to pick up the mic when I am channeling my Main Character Energy.”
“Whether or not my goal happens, I am still forward-focused. I’m still building on the momentum of having had the meeting in the first place.”
“People will be attracted to the personal brand, authority, and expertise that you show them.”
Episode Resources:
FREE Resources from Splendid Consulting:
How to Work with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
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00:02
Welcome to the purpose and profit club podcast for nonprofit leaders, mission driven creatives and social entrepreneurs get ready to stop dreaming and start doing here. ideas become action, we prioritize purpose and profit. You ready? Let's go. Today we're doing the 2.0 version of the concept of main character energy. And this was something that I talked about back on Episode 37, I introduced this idea of main character energy, which maybe you've seen a Tiktok or real or some sort of like quotable online about main character energy kind of shoulders back walking into a room. And I used that concept. When I ran outreach genius, my prospecting and outreach, live sprint, last year, we had a whole lesson on activating your own main character energy, and it works really, really well. So anytime you're having to take courageous action or really just, it's like you, you want to make sure you are.
01:04
You have your own back, you have your own sufficiency, you have your own self, like going into a meeting or something like that. Or you feel a little wobbly going into meeting a pitch funder conversation, sending an email, like you're feeling a little that doubts creeping it. I like to have like, who are my main characters? Or who is my main character that I can kind of pull on to go, Okay, what would she do in this system? Let me like put on that, that like armor that cloak that cape. So I wanted to do a 2.0 version of this because of a situation I experienced. And also because I realized that it can feel a little far to find your own and build upon your own main character energy, if you're an introvert. So if that's you, listen to today's episode. So I was going through my show notes, and I asked chat GPT to list some examples of introverts who have main character energy under the whole thing just froze, which made me kind of giggle because it's like, Ha, yeah, it's kind of like they're polar opposites. Because my go twos for main character energy would be like a Beyonce, right? Somebody who has a fierce confidence, who has a strong voice, who can command a presence in a room, who knows who she is. And who can handle
02:29
rejection, who can handle knows who can handle setbacks without making it mean something internally horrible about her or without giving up like she's a very resilient kind of person in a very, like, she commands a room Oprah, another great one, right? So I think of those people. And then I'm staring at my screen right now. And I hit refreshed. It's still like, I don't know, Christina, I don't know who has who's an introvert with me care for the energy. So we're talking about that today, because there are plenty. And I also want to shine the light on if you are not the type of person who's like, I want all eyes on me. Actually, that feels very uncomfortable to have all eyes on me. Maybe you're somebody who's like, yeah, I don't enjoy public speaking feels terrible. You can still have main character energy in your way, and let that propel you forward in these vendor meetings and in any sort of prospecting anything where you're like developing relationships, okay. And we want to get you to the point. And the reason why you would use this method is because it gets you to the point where you don't save the actual ask, or the actual, you know, invitation for somebody to make a donation or to become a partner or sponsor, or work with you in as your social street team or as an influencer. You don't wait for those things. In the last four seconds of the meeting. We've all done that before. We've all been in a meeting where you have 30 minutes with a person and you actually need to ask one big question or one big thing, and you save it for the last seven seconds because you're worried, you know, and you're like, oh, I don't want to feel rejected and right. So we want to activate and lean on main character energy, even if you're an introvert and even if that's something you've done before.
04:12
So
04:14
when I originally taught this concept, like I said, we had some examples like Beyonce Lizzo came up RBG came up. Sara Blakely is a great one. Her husband Jesse Itzler is a great one. These are people who have had doors slammed in their faces again and again and again saying nope, your ideas terrible. Your idea is no good. And even though the Sara Blakely 's of the world had lots of people say this is a terrible idea, no one's ever gonna buy your footless pantyhose. She was like, I'm onto something. I'm onto something. And these noes are just data. Let me improve my pitch. Let me get in front of the right people who obviously were weren't my people, right? Where can I improve upon instead of the people who hear those? No
05:00
was and they shrink smaller until the point where they sputter out or give up or just plateau.
05:07
So I was in a room a few months ago last year at a female founders dinner. And it was way bigger than I thought it would be what I signed up for versus what I walked into was just different. It was a couple, maybe 200 people I don't know. It's like a seated dinner. And you know, you have those round. Those round tables with 10 to 12. People tend to to 12 women per table and everybody is some flavor of an entrepreneur. There were people there were women and BC there are women in
05:39
everything at making apps tech brick and mortar e comm. Social impact. I mean, it was just all across. So there was really, really amazing people there. And we had these three problems. And so it was a great question. This was part of inclusive, the inclusive dinner theories. And so you have three kind of big questions. And it really gives a really nice amount of airtime for everybody to speak and get to know each other. And
06:10
at the end, there the host pass the mic, or really just ask people if they wanted to raise their hand and share like what was the biggest takeaway from their table. And there was like 30 minutes or what seems like a very long time, of just main character, energy after character energy of these absolute forces of nature, strong, bold women who are like, I'm gonna go give me the mic, I got this. And it was really interesting, because I watched these women not only share what they, what they, you know, some of the biggest takeaways from their table and what they were talking about, but they were also promoting their own business. So they would be like, Hey, I'm Christina. I'm the host of the purpose and profit club podcast here. Everybody follow me. Here's the handle. It was very like, on apologetic networking, unapologetic outreach, unapologetic everything. And it hyped everybody up a lot of the women had just like great stories to tell had us laughing had us. Some of us tearing up like it was just very, very, like, like almost intimidating after like the eighth person, it was like, whoa. And there was this moment in my mind where I was like, Where are my introverts? Like, what's happening here is we're passing the mic around to all of the same types of women who are very comfortable, clearly have all had lots of practice presenting, especially the ones who had pitched VCs before, because they had been in front of the making presentations of their pitch deck again, and again, and again, they were very comfortable. And then there was like, you know, that was the 20%. And the 80% of the room clearly wasn't. And so I in that moment was like, alright, Christina, here we go, Let's raise our hand. And I did it as a
07:58
opportunity to show myself like,
08:02
I'm somebody who also raises my hand in the room. I'm somebody who also has something to say, I'm somebody who's going to represent the introverts tonight, I'm somebody who is not well practiced in this type of environment. Very well practice on Zoom. Who's, who's gonna take a stab at it? I'm somebody who, even if this goes like, we're not that great, I got this. And I felt myself just energetically just beat up for that. And that moment, and that was my motivation to do it. And in that moment, that is when I would say to myself, Christina, how would Beyonce do it? What would Oprah say? What would somebody I, I admire, say or do or show up at this moment? I know Sarah, way back when when she was scrappy, knocking on doors, telling people about her footless pantyhose, she absolutely would have said give me the mic. Give me the mic. So I stood up. I was definitely nervous. And I said, Hey, you were my introvert that and there was a collective sigh their room of relief. And women raised their hands me too. I am. And it was like these women ahead of me are in credible. And so I talked about them I talked about, you know what I see I have no idea what I said because don't we all just space out in those moments. But in order to like get into the arena of wherever it is you want to be in that arena could be a funding goal, that arena could be a visibility goal. We want 100 monthly donors that arena could be an influencer goal. We want 100 Social street teamers. I want 100 major donor prospects, you've got to pick up the mic. You have to pick up the mic. And I find it's easier to pick up the bike, right? Whether it's like virtual or, you know, metaphorical, right? When I'm thinking about channeling my main character energy, okay. So
10:00
Take some time in today's episode and ask yourself like, who are the people that are those for me? So let's, let's look at some examples I already mentioned, like Oprah, I mentioned, Beyonce, I think RBG is a great one. Brene Brown is a great one. It could be a celebrity, it could be a thought leader, it could be a community member, a council person, it could be your aunt, just somebody who you're like, they have it. Right. They have an energy, they have a confidence. They have a vibe, an aura or something. What would they do in this situation? Give me the mic. And I will tell you, there's the outward part of it of like, what would they do Brene. Brown, even in that situation? would take the mic and be like, let me let me talk. Let me speak for the courageous people who are working towards this goal. Let me speak and embrace authenticity. That's what she would do. The other piece that she would do, and we know this from her TED talks, like crazy viral is she would be very, very honest. She would not say the thing that she thinks people want to hear, she would say the thing that's true, Glenn, and Doyle is another example of that, right. So that honesty, that radical honesty, by the way, is how you develop
11:18
profitable, valuable relationships with your donors, supporters, followers, and super fans that, right, when we actually let the guard down, we let the wall down, we let the authenticity shine. The other piece of it is when she gets up there, and she takes the mic, or she makes the pitch in the donor meeting, or she asks for the meeting itself. And she fumbles, she maybe doesn't say exactly what she hoped or practiced or wanted to say. She talks kindly to herself in the process. She also talks kindly to herself after the process. And I do think that introverts in particular, maybe we struggle with this a little bit more, because we're in our head a little bit more naturally, right. And because it takes a little bit more energy to be the person who is commanding the presence, who is who is taking a mic, even if it's just a one on one coffee, right, that can get back and feel energetically hard. So it's really important to decide, before you actually sit down in the donor meeting, how you're going to treat yourself when you fumble on the words, if you fumble on the words if you forget to mention the program, if you forget to do X, Y or Z. So I like to decide that ahead ahead of time, go back to the courage sandwich series, if you want more tips on that. That was a while back. And the other piece is how am I going to talk to myself afterwards. So no matter what happens, so using Sara Blakely as example, even if I have the 100th person say No, I will not make these footless pantyhose for you. It's a terrible idea. How am I going to talk to myself afterwards. And you know, she's a self made billionaire, because she figured out that piece, she figured out, I'm going to talk to myself kindly. I'm going to use the no as data, I'm going to keep going, going to keep going. And it's the same thing in this whether it's like you want to speak on a stage or you want to invite the you want to invite maybe a group of prospects to attend a virtual a virtual meeting with you. So you can tell them about your program, right? How am I going to treat myself before, during and after the process, so that whether or not my goal happens, I am still forward focused, I'm still I'm still building on the momentum of having had the meeting in the first place. Because isn't that isn't that the first step is like taking the mic taking stepping into the spotlight because it's the first step. And it's such a big step. And it's such an important part of your growth. So take some time to notice some of the thought leaders like I said, or even personal friends, family members, authors you admire and ask yourself, How can I lean on them? There is a book by Vanessa Van Edwards and I really love it. It's called cues. And she she says she was a former awkward person.
14:15
And so she talks a lot about you know, just starting conversations and, you know, the science of being an introvert and things like that. And she would be a good person to think about as like, Okay, what would Vanessa do in this instance? Right? How would she show up and now I mean, she's, she's on the conference speaker circuit. So she has a habit for for preparing for that boat before, during and after a process. But the value here is really, really important. People will be attracted to the personal brand and authority and expertise that you share with them. This is the same concept by the way that I teach my email marketing program is emails, right is we want to peek behind the curtain right? We
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Want to know the day to day or, or week to week challenges, or that Zoom call you got just had with with somebody in programs like we want to know what it's really like we don't want the completely glossed over the completely stripped down version of your mission your cause and something that it's like almost it's like, not easy to permeate, right? We want to connect with you the fastest, easiest, best way to connect with you is when you let people in. And letting people in does require some main character energy, it requires finding the finding a way to be comfortable in the spotlight, whatever that is, the spotlight can be your words, the spotlight can be a donor meeting, the spotlight can be a phone call. So it helps to build that piece. It helps to set you apart and your organization apart. As exceptional in the industry you serve versus, hey, here's what we do in our sector. And there's like 510 20 other organizations that do that do this No, how are you? How is what you do exceptional, how is what you do different How is what you do more nuanced, how is what you do faster, how is what you do more upstream, right and actually speaking to the cause of this, this need in to begin with.
16:20
Also, this just popped into my head, when you start to think this way, when you start to lean on main character energy, even if you're an introvert, it actually puts you in the room and elevates your self concept and your organization self concept. So I'm thinking of an organization that I've worked with. And one of the things they started doing was
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working with other whether it would be thought leaders, journalists, industry experts to come in and talk about that have a like minded
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overlap with with the cause area they serve, right. So imagine you're in healthcare, and there is like a top Doctor, let's This one comes to mind. You're in women's health, and there's a top menopause expert. And it's like having your own main character energy to not say to yourself, well, we're just a small nonprofit, how am I going to get get get in front of her, versus there is something very valuable here. And there's something very valuable there. There's a huge alignment, and I'm going to pitch a collaboration, I'm going to pitch a workshop, I'm going to pitch a a guest interview, I'm going to pitch a guest blog, I'm going to talk about collaborating with her. Right, it actually elevates your own concept of your organization, your mission, and gets you in the room where maybe you didn't have a seat at the table before. So it's like it's like you create seats at the table when you are leaning on this main character energy. So coming up very soon, we are doing the live version of what brought this all on to begin with a feared a few years ago, of my sprint, it's called an outreach sheet. Yes, it says my prospecting and outreach program, I run it inside the purpose and profit clubs, you have to be in the purpose and profit club to join us, we will link in the notes here. So you can get all of the information and get on the waitlist for the for the club. And in it we do what I call a sprint. And a sprint is to me, it's a short period of time where we're going to do high impact activities together in prospecting and outreach. And I teach it in two different ways. So we prospect using your sphere, your circle of influence people, you know, okay, people, you know, and then we also prospect outside. So just as that doctor example that would be outside, right, we don't currently have a relationship with this thought leader, this expert this person, so we do it from inside and outside your sphere of influence. So we find out who are those prospects, I get you outreaching to those prospects very, very quickly. The last time I ran this, after two sessions, one person had upgraded a donor believe it was from 2500 to $125,000. I gotta go back and look, another person after one session got a $10,000 gift. These are not like unicorn crazy examples. This is the power of like collectively coming in for one specific purpose in a sprint. I love a sprint for this where you're just like, Alright, here we go. I'm willing to do some daring action and willing to lean on some main character energy, I have the support and guidance with Christina to do it. And we go. So if you've ever said to yourself, I have a feeling there are people in our world in our donor base, who could give a lot more, but a dot dot dot right but I'm not sure how or I'm not sure what to say and I don't want to bother them. Whatever the budget is. You need to sign up for it.
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The purpose and profit club and come to outreach genius, okay? If you've ever said, I wish we had more donors, we're fatiguing our donors. This is for you, if you're like, because that's the other circle, right? That's the new sphere. How do I get new prospects in our world? I teach you that. If you've ever said and we did have quite a few organizations not do this for fundraising, but they actually did it for either media placements, or to build out their social street team, which is your influencer and digitally ambassador program. A sprint was great for this, because what are we doing in those scenarios? We are prospecting and outreach prospect and outreach. We are finding the people who have a natural alignment with your cause. Those may be influencers, local businesses, media outlets, depending on your goals, and we're pitching them. And I give you the tools and the scripts to figure out what the heck do I say? How do I say it? And how do I talk kindly to myself before after, before during and after the process? It is a pretty high impact, like short term intensive. I love it. I love it. I love it. So you know what I'm picturing right now that couch to 5k.
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It's like the couch to 5k It's like zero to 5k Here we go. So come join us sign up for outreach genius and take some time to figure out who are some of the main character energies that I want to lean on in outreach to come. I'm cheering yeah, see you next time.