Dear Friends & Colleagues:

News Flash!!!  My personal shipment of How To Win Client Business has finally arrived. Yes, after sitting in an Albuquerque, NM warehouse for 9 days – the pallet of books arrived yesterday afternoon.

I have to say, it is a wonderful feeling. This project began two years ago – in a pre-pandemic world. It’s been a long journey to publication and I’m so excited that the book is finally released. I am grateful for all the help & support you all have given me during this journey!

How To Win Client Business is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and independent book sellers all across the U.S.! It’s available now in both Kindle and Hardcover. The audiobook will be out in time for the holiday season.

To celebrate the launch of the book, I’m sharing an excerpt from my new book each week. This works out pretty conveniently to roughly 6 months – as there are 26 chapters. Last week I shared a sneak peek at Chapter 3 – you can check it out by clicking here.

This week’s peek is from Chapter 4: Rainmaking for Introverts and People Who Don’t Want to Sell. In this chapter I discuss the Myth of the Extroverted Ideal – the misconception that all great rainmakers are outgoing extroverts with a gift for gab.

Without further delay, here’s this week’s excerpt of Chapter 4. I hope you enjoy it!

Doug

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Chapter 4: Rainmaking for Introverts and People Who Don’t Want to Sell

Winning Client Business While Being True To Yourself

 

Carl Jung, the father of modern personality theory, first introduced the world

to the concept of introversion and extroversion in his 1921 classic Psychological

Types. According to Jung:

 

Introverts are drawn to the inner world of thought and feeling, extroverts to the

external life of people and activities.

 

If we accept the premise that we have to become rainmakers if we are to

become partner – or for our solo practice to thrive – this creates an interesting

conundrum for a big swath of us. Marketing ourselves is viewed as the realm of the

outgoing, the charismatic, those with the gift of gab. There’s a reason why we think

this way. And to understand why, we need to go back over 100 years.

 

According to cultural historian Warren Susman, Jung’s theories spawned a

shift in early twentieth-century American societal values away from a Culture of

Character to a Culture of Personality. In the Culture of Character of the 1800s, the

ideal self was serious, disciplined, and honorable. In the emerging Culture of Personality

of the twentieth century, Americans became captivated by those who were

bold and entertaining.

 

This shift in American thinking is exemplified by the success of Dale Carnegie.

Born into humble beginnings in rural Missouri in 1902, Dale went on to

become a best-selling author and leader of the emerging American belief that the

world is ruled by extroverts. According to Susman:

 

Carnegie’s metamorphosis from farmboy to salesman to public-speaking icon is

also the story of the rise of the Extroverted Ideal. Carnegie’s journey reflected a

cultural evolution that reached a tipping point around the turn of the twentieth

century, changing forever who we are and whom we admire, how we act at job

interviews and what we look for in an employee, how we court our mates and raise

our children.

 

America’s societal views on extroversion and introversion are evolving; the

pendulum is swinging to a more balanced perspective. Susan Cain, a leading twenty first-

century researcher on introversion, offers this perspective in her wonderful

book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking:

 

We make a grave mistake to embrace the Extrovert Ideal so unthinkingly. Some of

our greatest ideas, art and inventions – from the theory of evolution to van Gogh’s

sunflowers to the personal computer – came from quiet cerebral people who knew

how to tune in to their inner worlds and the treasures to be found there.

 

Furthermore, according to Cain, one-third to one-half of Americans lean

toward introversion – in other words, one out of every two or three people you

know. If these statistics surprise you, that’s probably because so many people pretend

to be extroverts. Cain’s research suggests that closet introverts pass undetected

in the corridors of corporate America.

 

I suspect that a healthy percentage of us in the professional services tilt toward

introversion. By nature, many professionals are cerebral, inward-focused problem solvers.

We live inside of our heads much of the time. We draw energy by wrestling

with thorny issues for hours, days, or weeks on end. Many of you may relate to what

I’m talking about.

 

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Click here to order your copy of my new book, How To Win Client Business, today!