Since Contactually is all about relationship building, many initial conversations I have end up coming back to me and my own social skills. More often than not, it’s assumed that, with my startup’s focus, my role, my involvement as a connector and supporter of the local tech community, and general outgoing demeanor, that I’m a natural extrovert.
So it’s surprising for most when I reveal that, for all or at least most of, my life I’ve been an introvert. Introverted enough that I considered coming home each weekend during the initial few months of college.
There’s never been any concerted effort or intention to move from an introvert to an extrovert. In effort to understand how this can happen, I’ve identified a few key tactics that inadvertently helped me go from “shy software developer” to today:
- Joining a fraternity freshman year was a catalyzing experience. Forced me to leave my comfort zone, interact with others dissimilar to me, and gave me valuable leadership skills. I’m a big believer in the greek system.
- Curiosity about startups led me to, outside of my 9-5, start seeking out people who knew or were interested in the same topic. I was just trying to learn, but ended up making a lot of great contacts, and many friends. Dare I say, this is when I started “networking.”
- Being at the ground floor of a growing startup community. I never tried to “network my way in” to the community as I see many people doing now. Circa ’09-10, I just happened to be one of the earlier people actively interested in startups and talking to others about it. As more and more people got involved, followed by the DC Tech Meetup, ProudlyMadeInDC, DC Tech Summer, etc… people kept hearing that I was someone to talk to. Again, I never sought it out, but people came to me.
- Contactually and previous ventures have forced me out of whatever shell was left. Going above and beyond the average 9-5, being on screening calls with candidates all day long, getting introduced and pitching investors, putting on a visionary face for press, as well as countless public presentations (even just to our growing team) have continually hammered and refined an extrovert approach to the outside world.
