Ep 255 - Your Introversion Is A Gift With Host David Hall

Have you ever wondered why you think, work, or recharge differently from others—and how those differences can actually make you successful? In this episode of The Quiet And Strong Podcast, host David Hall invites you to embrace your introversion as a powerful gift. Walking you through key concepts from his book, Minding Your Time: Time Management, Productivity, and Success, Especially for Introverts, David Hall shows you how understanding your unique strengths as an introvert can transform the way you approach productivity, time management, and personal growth.

You’ll discover how to harness your deep thinking, carve out meaningful recharge time, set effective priorities, manage ideas, and celebrate the ways your natural style of communication brings value to your work and relationships. David Hall breaks down common myths, clarifies what introversion really means (hint: it’s not shyness!), and shares practical strategies tailored for introverts who want to thrive.

Tune in to gain confidence, actionable tools, and a fresh perspective on what makes you uniquely strong as an introvert. Embrace your gifts—and be strong.

Episode Link: QuietandStrong.com/255

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Contact the Host of the Quiet and Strong Podcast:

David Hall

Author, Speaker, Educator, Podcaster

quietandstrong.com
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david [at] quietandstrong.com

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Transcript

David Hall [00:00:00]:
Foreign. Welcome to episode 255 of the Quiet and Strong podcast. I'm your host, David hall, and the creator of Quiet and Strong Dot com. This is a weekly podcast dedicated to understanding the strengths and needs of introverts along with strategies for success. As I always say, introversion is not something to fix, but to be embraced. Normally we release each episode on a Monday. Be sure to subscribe on your favorite platform, leave a review or a rating that would mean a lot to me and also help other people find the show, tell a friend about the podcast, and help get the word out there that introversion is a beautiful thing. I used to struggle with being an introvert.

David Hall [00:00:49]:
I didn't quite understand why couldn't I be more like this person or that person, you know, why can't I be more at ease in conversation and so many other things? And it was a long journey to figure out, you know what? I'm a deep thinker and a lot of great strengths come with that. I come up with some good ideas. I have a rich imagination, but I also have some needs. I don't want to be alone all the time, but I do need some alone time, and we'll get into that today. And as I'm figuring out that I'm an introvert, I'm also struggling with my time, my time management, my productivity. I have a job that I often spent more than full time at. I have a wife and three kids that were definitely keeping me pretty busy. I ran a company with my wife on the side.

David Hall [00:01:45]:
And so at the same time I was learning about introversion, starting to blog about introversion, I'm also diving into time management and productivity. And as I'm reading these different resources, I'm finding a lot of good information. But I'm realizing that as an introvert, these books and resources aren't specifically calling out my needs as an introvert. And as we'll talk about today, if you want to learn how to get better at something, one way can be to learn if you're an introvert. Learn from fellow introverts, whether that be time management, like we're going to talk about today. Leadership, networking, public speaking, what tips do other introverts have? And I've found that to be very helpful. So with that, I wrote my first book, Minding youg Time. Time Management, Productivity and Success, especially for introverts.

David Hall [00:02:46]:
Because there's certain things where our approach may look different from an extroverted colleague or friend. You can be wildly successful as an introvert, but you have to know what your path is, what your strengths are, what your strategies are, and not comparing yourself to others, but being your best. So today we're going to take a little walk through the book, all about how to mind your time and really be productive. And when I say productive, I'm not meaning busy. I'm not meaning just you're still overwhelmed and you're getting things done. I mean, you're getting the right things done. You're getting the things done that you want to do to. To propel you forward in the way that you want to be successful.

David Hall [00:03:37]:
We're going to take a walk through the book today. You know, Understanding Introversion. These are the chapters. The introvert difference. Focus on the important time to recharge, balance of quiet, avoiding overwhelm, managing ideas, getting organized, and preparing for your week. The approaches here are going to look different. So again, starting with the introduction. As introverts, we're deep thinkers.

David Hall [00:04:10]:
We think before we speak. Often we do want some time alone. On this show, we regularly bust the myth that introverts don't like people, because we absolutely do. We just may want people in different settings and different doses than our extroverted friends might. With that, we also do need some time to do a few different things. You know, we want to spend time with family and friends. We like to collaborate with co workers. But here's some areas where we do want some time alone.

David Hall [00:04:41]:
So again, I'm going to read a few parts of the book today. Time to clear your mind. Quiet focus, time for certain tasks and projects. Time to prepare, plan, reflect, and think. And time for recharge each day in order for us to be effective. So we want to spend time with others, but we definitely need some time alone. And the recharge aspect is very. But it's not the whole reason we need to be alone.

David Hall [00:05:13]:
Okay, as I just read, we need time to think, we need time to focus, we need time to plan. And we do better when we have some time alone for these kinds of things. And of course, we're going to get into knowing what drains you and then finding ways that you best recharge. So the second chapter is Understanding Introversion. You know the name of this show, Quiet and Strong. Let me just give you a brief story of where it came from. So I used to be quiet and shy when I didn't understand my introversion. But understanding things like, oh, I'm a deep thinker.

David Hall [00:05:53]:
I'm gonna think and then speak. I may talk a lot, but I may never share as much as my extroverted friend does just, it's natural. And so I'm at a three day workshop on strengths and I think I'm talking a lot to the group and my table. I think I'm participating a lot and it was a great workshop. I learned a lot about strengths. And you know, learning about strengths has definitely been one of the big light bulb moments for me as far as understanding myself. And the facilitator took me aside at the end of these three days and she was giving me a compliment. She said, you are quiet and strong and when you talk, people listen.

David Hall [00:06:40]:
And you know, I can be taken back by the quiet part because I didn't think during this workshop I was quiet. But again, it's relative. I am speaking as much as I want to, but I am going to spend more time thinking and less time speaking. But that was a powerful compliment that she gave me. And hence I named the show that. And I've talked to lots of introverts that people have told them something very similar, you know, and they know that that person that's built up that relationship, built up that reputation of sharing ideas, has some good things to say. They just need to make sure that they're allowing them time to say. I had somebody on my show where she'd say, you know, maybe she had been quiet the whole meeting.

David Hall [00:07:26]:
At the end of the meeting, the CEO would turn to her and say, hey, I know you have something to say. And she did. And you may find that yourself and we'll talk a little bit more about that. Also, I focus on introversion, extroversion, because you know, it's about a 50, 50 split in the population, maybe even a little bit more than 50% are introverts. And it's very misunderstood. You know, I definitely didn't understand that. I thought first and then spoke while my extroverted colleagues and friends are thinking out loud most of the time. So when you don't understand things like that, it really can take a hit on your confidence.

David Hall [00:08:06]:
You know, you can feel less than. But if you understand that how you communicate and that it's normal, that can make all the difference. But I will say that none of us are alike. We all have different personalities. No introvert is alike. We're going to talk a little bit about things where I think that introverts are the same. But there's some areas that people try to generalize to introverts that may not be true because there's other factors in our personality and we definitely talk about other factors in our personality on the show so you can go back and listen to some other episodes. For example, some people say, oh, introverts, they don't like to be in the spotlight.

David Hall [00:08:48]:
I do here on this podcast. And some introverts don't like to be in the spotlight, but some absolutely do. There's some awesome performers, actors, comedians, speakers out there. There's some things we can't generalize about. Another one I hear is that we prefer quieter environments. Not me, I do from time to time need quiet to think. But I don't want to be in a quiet environment all the time. My wife, who's an introvert, does so like I may be listening to music while I'm working and she wants quiet.

David Hall [00:09:23]:
So again, we're all different in a few different ways. But I've come up with six ways that that introverts and extroverts are different. I have a nice little chart here I'm going to go over. So, introverts naturally spend more time in their inner world of ideas. Extroverts spend more time focused on the outer world around them. Now, again, everybody does both. I definitely pay attention to what's going on around me, but my extroverted friend is going to spend less time tuned inward to their thoughts and their inner world. As I was already saying, we think first and then we speak.

David Hall [00:10:07]:
It's natural. It's not a matter of self censoring, thinking before speaking. It's just that's what we do. We let our wheels spin and think, put ideas together and then share what we think is most important. And extroverts, they speak in order to think most of the time again, they turn inward too. They're going to be more likely to talk out ideas. Now does that mean I never talk out? Sometimes I do, but a lot of times I'm thinking inside and having a brainstorming session with myself. Whereas extroverts like to have the back and forth in conversation and form their ideas that way.

David Hall [00:10:47]:
Introverts may prefer communication in writing rather than speaking. You can take time to think, compose that great email. Extroverts may prefer to communicate in speaking rather than writing. Introverts may be drained by social interaction, but engaged by time alone. And again, you got to know what drains you. So. And also, all people don't drain me. There's people that I can spend some quality time with and really recharge with their energy, with our energy together.

David Hall [00:11:22]:
But I might enjoy being in a big crowd at a loud party, but it definitely could be draining. I recorded a great Podcast this week and great conversation. I enjoyed it. But at the end I needed to recharge. I needed to go and switch off for a bit and reclaim my energy, even though I enjoyed the experience. So extroverts may be energized by social interaction, but may feel restless when experiencing excessive isolation. I was on a podcast and talking to a couple. One was an introvert and his wife was an extrovert.

David Hall [00:12:04]:
And his wife said, you don't like to go dancing with me? And he told me, yeah, I do like to go dancing with my wife, but maybe by midnight I'm done. And she 3 o' clock in the morning, she's just getting started. So again, there's differences. And introverts prefer deep conversation over small talk. We do need to be decent at small talk. It's needed for to build relationships, to start conversations. And if you struggle with small talk, definitely you can listen to some episodes on this podcast where there's different tips to get better at it. But what the difference is, we don't want to stay there.

David Hall [00:12:45]:
We don't want to have a really long small talk conversation. We want to get to deeper stuff, stuff that's really important to us. But we love to talk. We just don't like to small talk endlessly. That's a big difference. It's not that we don't want to talk, because we do. We have a lot to say because we're always thinking, but we don't want to get in a loop of just talking about the weather for hours. And extroverts in general, they like most types of conversation, which is good.

David Hall [00:13:16]:
They like the small talk, they like the deep talk. It's all good. Again, introverts, we just don't like to stay there for a long time. Another thing is a difference. Introverts usually prefer a close circle of friends and extroverts enjoy having many friends and acquaintances. So again, we need people. We like people. We just often, as introverts want deeper conversations.

David Hall [00:13:44]:
We want to sometimes even skip the small talk and go right into the good stuff. And extroverts have lots of friends so often, which is. And there's not a good or bad sometimes if you have a tight circle of friends, you may be made to feel like something's wrong with you, you should have more friends. But that's like, are you happy? What makes you happy if you aren't satisfied with your life? There's things to do and that's part of listening to this podcast. There's things to do to get what you want out of life. But you have to start with, what are my strengths? What are my needs? So that's a little bit about introverts and where we might differ from extroverted colleagues and friends. And let me just hit home, another thing. Introversion is not shyness.

David Hall [00:14:51]:
Please stop saying that. It is if you call introversion shyness, if you're equating them and you say that to me, I'm going to teach you a lesson about it. I'm going to talk to you about that, I'm going to correct you. Because shyness is where you're not confident. Maybe you're afraid to approach a situation, you're afraid to speak up at some point, you're afraid to approach a certain person. And introversion is not shyness. And one way to prove this is I know shy extroverts and they lack confidence. So don't use shyness and introversion synonymously because they're different.

David Hall [00:15:40]:
Introversion just means we tune inward more often than not. We're deep thinkers. We probably have great imaginations. I know some really loud and outspoken introverts that they're deep thinkers. So if you hear someone saying that introverts are shy or all shy, correct it. Let them know. No, that's not the case. Now, if you are shy, whether you're introvert or extrovert, there's things that you can do to gain confidence.

David Hall [00:16:16]:
Part of it is getting to know yourself, getting to know your personality. For me, oh, I'm a deep thinker. That's a good thing. I have a gift. I. I'm gonna need to take some time alone to use that gift sometimes, which is fine. It's not weird. It's just something I need.

David Hall [00:16:35]:
And like we've been talking about, I often am going to think deeply and then share with you what I think is most important and not share everything in a talking out loud kind of way. So introversion is not shy. So chapter four of the book focus on the important. We only have so much time and we can't do everything. Have you tried to do everything? I have, and it doesn't work. What often happens when we try to do everything? We do nothing. We get nothing done. And so we really need to take some time and set some priorities.

David Hall [00:17:21]:
And often people do this once a year, but it's definitely more than a once a year type of activity. And the good news is, as introverts, we're great at reflection. So find some quiet time where you can think about your projects at work. Maybe you Have a side hustle, your projects that you really want to get done that are important to you, something you want to give to the community, of course, your relationships with your significant other, with your kids. You know, what do you want to happen? Because again, a lot of the times we're trying to do too much and we end up not doing anything well. So find a quiet time. However often that is, you know, definitely not once a year, it's more frequent than that. And just really reflect on your priorities.

David Hall [00:18:11]:
Get them written down so you can look at them. You can look at the things that you thought about that you came up with. Of course, Chapter five is time to recharge. We do need time to unwind. You know, like I said, I had a great episode with the gentleman this week, and beforehand I gave myself hour where I could just get in the right mind frame, get in the right head space and get ready, and then I enjoy the conversation. But afterward, I needed to take a break. And you got to figure that out. What is it that drains you? In the book, I gave a couple examples.

David Hall [00:18:55]:
You know, maybe when you're trying to think and you can't, there's too many interruptions, it's too loud. That could be draining. You know, I love talking to people, but I don't love talking to people in a really noisy room where I can barely hear them. I don't enjoy that at all. And so trying to carry on conversation in a loud environment, or you can't really hear the other person, that's straining to me, strained conversations. Maybe you're making small talk with someone. Maybe it's someone you don't even know or know well, and you're just trying to think of things to say and it's, you know, you're feeling awkward. Those can be draining.

David Hall [00:19:36]:
Again, there's ways we can get better at small talk, but no matter how good we get, some conversations with some people are going to be draining. Like I said, I don't fear the spotlight. I like to speak and do this podcast. But sometimes, you know, just being in the spotlight, maybe all the attention's focused on you. You're giving a presentation, you may be doing great, you might be enjoying it, but you might need a break afterwards. So you got to figure out what. What are the things that drain me and how do I recharge? What are things that you do? And sometimes it might just be setting aside some time in your calendar for focused work. So maybe it's not a break, but you're doing quiet work, which can be Recharging.

David Hall [00:20:31]:
Maybe you want to watch some Netflix. Maybe you want to play video game something, listen to music, stare off into space, figure out what works for your recharge and how often you need to do that. And we'll talk a little bit more about this and when we get to the planning your week section, and we've said this, so chapter six is balance. We want to spend time with people. I love my family, I love my friends, I enjoy working with my colleagues. But we gotta find what that time is that we need, get some work done. You know, we need time to focus. There really is no such thing as multitasking.

David Hall [00:21:15]:
It's. We can think of one thing at a time. And when we're trying to switch back and forth, it's often not effective. Oh, where did I leave off? So we need time to focus, we need time to think, need time to reflect. Like I said, when you set your priorities, you need some space to give your mind some time to think about that. So we need to find that balance of quiet and with all these things. Chapter seven is about avoiding overwhelm. If you set your priorities, give yourself some time to do things, to recharge, that can definitely help with overwhelm.

David Hall [00:21:55]:
And sometimes we just need to change our thoughts. Maybe we're telling ourselves, oh, this is the end of the world if I don't get this thing done. You could really think, okay, I'm going to do my best here, but if I don't get this thing done, here's what I'm going to do about it, or it's going to be okay, or whatever the thought is that you're having that's causing overwhelm. Chapter eight is about managing ideas. As introverts, we have a lot of great ideas. We're thinking all the time. Sometimes those ideas are gonna come when we're supposed to be doing something else. Maybe we're in a meeting, we're supposed to be focusing on the meeting.

David Hall [00:22:33]:
You know, maybe we're trying to get some work done. It's important to capture those ideas because they might be really good. It's just now is not the time, you know, so write them down. Make sure you get them into a space where you can look at them again. I'm gonna talk a little bit about David Allen in his book Getting Things Done. But something that really helped me from his work is a someday maybe list. So we might have all these great ideas. Again, we can't do everything.

David Hall [00:23:05]:
So write that great idea down and then focus on what you're supposed to be doing and then go back to that someday maybe list and maybe you can. Maybe the time for that particular idea has arrived. And of course it's all about getting organized. I do a weekly review again, I got a lot of great ideas from David Allen's book Getting things done where I look ahead at the week and I look at or maybe even more than a week out, but I look at, okay, what do I got going on? Do I need to plug in some time for recharge here or there? Do I need to make blocks of time for certain projects and block those off? One of the best things I did was I set aside the first 90 minutes of my workday. It's time to focus. So I blocked it off so people, unless they ask, can't schedule time with me. And it's never been a problem. No one's ever complained.

David Hall [00:24:11]:
I've still have plenty of time for meetings and projects, but I really have some time to think and get going on my day in a good way. That's been one of the best things ever. And at the end of the week I reflect, okay, how did I do? What did I get done and what do I need to do next week? And just kind of look at your to do items, look at the projects you're on, look at the things you want to accomplish and getting ready for the next week. So I at the beginning of the week I take a look and at the end of the week I take a look and reprioritize. Make sure I capture everything that I need to do. And then chapter 11, it's just called be strong. So we've talked about some tips again from my book minding your time, time management and success, especially for introverts and your path to success. Whether it's time management and productivity or leadership, public speaking, networking, building relationships, your path to success as an introvert may look different than an extroverted colleague or friend.

David Hall [00:25:20]:
And that's great. Be yourself. Figure out your strengths and then figure out what you need. Don't compare yourself to others. Just get better yourself. So get to know yourself, you know, keep listening to the podcast. I have great guests. Most of them are introverts that have really learned to lean into their introversion or great success in some area.

David Hall [00:25:49]:
Sometimes they're introvert experts, but often they're just. They're introverts that know how to successfully run a business, though, are great at leadership or they're excellent public speakers or they're public speaking coaches, but they've learned to tap into their introversion. So you can too. Keep listening. I appreciate you. I would love for you to reach out, David, at quietandstrong.com or you can go to the website quietandstrong.com there's also a free type finder personality quiz on the website. It'll give you a free. Or it'll give you a four letter Myers Briggs code.

David Hall [00:26:28]:
So get to know your introversion. Get to know your introversion and your great gifts and be strong.