PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

Ian Robertson
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Inspector Toolbelt Talk. I said welcome really weird. Good to have you back on, David.

David Nyman
Good to be here. And I’m starting to feel like you’re just being weird because I’m here.

Ian Robertson
Well, we kind of have a little bit of an energy that way. But you know, I wanted to start this podcast off by sending a shout out, David, not to you, but to our competition. Because you know what’s funny, when we, you know, we obviously have home inspection software, that’s what Inspector Toolbelt is. But when we came up with this podcast, I’m like, Okay, I mean, let’s do it. Let’s see where it goes. And it’s kind of exploded a little bit like we’ve had, we get, we get a lot of downloads, we have people all over sending in requests, and thank yous and all that stuff. But it’s interesting, a home inspector, a few weeks back, sent me a link. And they’re like, Hey, have you have you seen this video yet? And it was a video from one of our competitors, basically redoing one of our podcast episodes that we had done two weeks earlier.

David Nyman
That’s how good they are.

Ian Robertson
Yeah. So I take that as a compliment. So for all you listening out there of our competition, you know who you are. You’re listening right now. You’re welcome. It’s funny, it’s funny, because it happened again, like I forget which podcast it was probably in season one or something. But I made up a marketing term. And I even said, if you listen to the podcast closely, I said, I don’t know if this is a real term or not. And I just said it. And I looked it up afterwards. I’m like yeah, it’s not a real term. Somebody else used it. There was either in another podcast or a video. They started using it and talking about it like it was a real thing. And home inspector said, Hey, I don’t think they listen close enough to your podcast.

David Nyman
I think it’s time to start making up terms that, you know, can get them in trouble, like Ian-isms. I use that a lot. Yeah.

Ian Robertson
You really Ian’d that one up, didn’t ya. But anyways, here we are with another podcast. And this one I thought was a I thought this one was appropriate, marketing for introverts, because I don’t know how many of us would actually say that we’re a true extrovert. But, you know, you watch on Facebook, or Instagram or TikTok, or just anywhere. And you see all these extroverted home inspectors just killing it. They’re just talking to people, kissing babies, and shaking hands, and they’re just making it work. Are they a good home inspector? I don’t know. But they’re so extroverted, people are just drawn to them. So sometimes people, you know, we sit back and we say, that’s not, that’s not me. How am I going to make a success of business if I’m not extroverted? Well, I’ll tell you, I am not naturally extroverted. I turn on the buttons and the levers, and it comes out and then I’m completely mentally exhausted, and then I go into a dark corner, and hide away. So, like I said, I don’t think anybody’s a real extrovert, but we can use our introverted qualities, so to speak, to our advantage. I think that’s what we’re really going to delve into a lot today here, right, David?

David Nyman
Yeah. No, I’m with you there. I don’t I don’t view myself as an extrovert, extrovert. Sorry. That’s the Swedish coming out. But yeah, you can, you know, you can overcome some of it. But some of it, you just need to play with the cards you’re dealt, basically.

Ian Robertson
Well hang on a second. I don’t want this podcast to come off as overcoming being an introvert. Because my mantra is, introverts unite, separately, and in your own homes. But, you know, we see those, like memes and stuff, it’ll say, or like articles that will pop up in your Google News Feed and it will say, Are you introverted? Here’s three ways to become more extroverted. I’d like to see an article that says, Hey, are you extroverted and talk too much? Here’s three ways to become more introverted and hang out less with people. Yeah, nothing wrong with it.

David Nyman
Actually, I did read the article that we’re discussing earlier. And there’s one person that felt like, you know, their family were on their husband’s side, I think it was they’re all extroverts. But to her, it felt like they were being rude. So yeah, yeah, to an introvert, an extrovert is not what they aim to be. But more like, you know, their comfortable with their introversion. I don’t know if that’s a word.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, introversion.

David Nyman
But we might hear it in another podcast in the future.

Ian Robertson
There’s the word we’re going to hear in another podcast or video or marketing material, introversion. Maybe it’s a real word I don’t know.

David Nyman
Could be, could be. We’ll have to look it up.

Ian Robertson
Could be. It sounds good. But the point is, there’s been people that have often said play to your strengths. I’ve always said play to your weaknesses because it’s easy to play to your strengths. So oftentimes what we view as a weakness in our personality is often our strength. So we’re going to do a little bit of both play to our strengths and our weaknesses. So we did a bunch of research before this, we’re not psychologists, we don’t actually know how the human brain works. So we’re going to quote some people, but there’s four types of introverts according to a psychologist named Jonathan Cheek. So what were those four types of introverts there, David?

David Nyman
So they were social introverts, thinking introverts, anxious introverts, and reserved introverts. So quite a wide range.

Ian Robertson
Yeah. And you know, if you are introverted, or you know someone who is, you know that no two introverts are the same, just like no two, extroverts are the same, you know, we’re different people. My wife and I are both fairly introverted. She tends to be just very quiet and reserved, and just kind of watch a situation. And I get all awkward, get uncomfortable after a while and then, and then leave because I’m exhausted.

David Nyman
Or start making jokes.

Ian Robertson
Yep, dark humor. That’s how I compensate for, you know, being introverted.

David Nyman
So if anyone stays around, you know, they’re good people.

Ian Robertson
Exactly. Either dad jokes or dark humor, one or the other is going to come out. So there’s a wide range of introverts. So let’s talk about what each one kind of means, and see where we might fit in. And we might fit into more than one of these, like, we may say, oh, yeah, I’m kind of a social introvert, or, but I’m also a little bit of a thinking introvert or whatever it happens to be, cool. I find myself relating to at least two of these personally. But let’s see how we can take that type of introvert and use it to our advantage in marketing. So let’s talk about the first one, which seems like an oxymoron. A social introvert. What’s a social introvert?

David Nyman
It’s interesting, someone that likes smaller groups, or one on one situations, because large social situations drain their energy. So they they, you know, they can put up with it for a short while, but after a while, they’re just exhausted. They’re like, take all these people away from me, I need to be alone for a while.

Ian Robertson
I kind of I kind of think of, maybe you like that. Is that how you, one you related to, because you seem to be more so, you claim to be introverted, but you seem to be pretty social.

David Nyman
No, I don’t really identify with that one.

Ian Robertson
No, okay.

David Nyman
No, because I can handle, I can handle a large group. To be honest, part of my problem is my old age. I’ve just offended half our listening audience.

Ian Robertson
That’s called cantankerousness. That’s not introversion.

David Nyman
Nah, nah. Like, I have a hard time hearing people when there’s a lot of conversation going on. And I’m not very big on admitting that. So I just stand there and nod and it gets weird quick. I’ve agreed to a lot of things I didn’t know.

Ian Robertson
Okay, there may be five categories here.

David Nyman
Yeah, I got my own.

Ian Robertson
We’ve made up a new one for David. We’re gonna have to….

David Nyman
The Swedish introvert.

Ian Robertson
The Swedish introvert. We’re gonna have to call the psychologist and let them know. Hey, man, there’s a fifth one here.

David Nyman
(mumbles)

Ian Robertson
Is that your Swedish Chef?

David Nyman
Yeah I don’t do a good Swedish chef, which is because he’s not Swedish. But that’s another podcast.

Ian Robertson
That’s a whole other podcast. So basically, this, this type of introvert does enjoy being around people in small groups in metered amounts. I kind of related to this one little bit. I like having a few close friends. I like two people at a time, one person conversations. And then I like to move on. Like if like I’m a sprinter, you know, if it lasts more than 20, 30 minutes, I’m just looking for the exit not because I don’t like the person. And I may be deeply involved in the conversation. It’s just like, oh, man, there’s a, I don’t know, this is just got to stop. It’s a weird mental thing. So there’s a lot of things that we can do if we are what’s called a social introvert. And actually, this, this is based on what a lot of psychologists have talked about, in how they can use these things in life, but we’re going to apply it directly to marketing. One of the best things that a social introvert can do, ironically, is social media. They make great social media marketers because generally speaking, you know what a person wants to hear. You know how to keep a conversation going and keeping people intrigued. And you’d like that one on one connection. So sometimes an extrovert makes a video it’s like they’re talking to everybody. Watch an introvert who makes a social media video. It’s like they’re talking right to you, because that’s how they interact. Actually make some really, really good content.

David Nyman
Yeah. Yeah, I think the extroverts are probably more entertaining, but the introverts can be more engaging in that situation.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, by nature, I think most introverts are kind of a little bit. We’re gonna get into this a little bit later. But they’re a little bit more thoughtful, because they’re quiet, typically, they’re going to watch and see things. So they’re going to notice, oh, this is what people are thinking about right now, extroverts kind of sometimes just throw stuff out there, and they’re leading the way. Whereas an extroverts behind them saying, okay, they made 100 posts, but only two of them got a lot of likes. So I’m going to make a couple of posts that are just like that. And I’m going to get the same amount of overall likes that they got from two videos, or from two posts. So, a couple other things you can do. One on one meetings, like lunches with agents, these are fantastic. Generally speaking, a lunch is going to be about 30 to 40 minutes. Perfect time for the social introvert. You get in there, you’re at your best and just when you’re starting about about to wane, emotionally and mentally. It’s over. Shake hands and you go, it is the perfect marketing tool. So lunch with agents, you meet a new agent, invite him to lunch, he stopped by an office, ignore our podcast on how to properly visit offices if this is your thing. Find one person there, bring them to lunch. Lunch, lunch, lunch, 40 minutes at a pop.

David Nyman
Don’t do dinner. They’re too long.

Ian Robertson
Dinner is way too long.

David Nyman
And too intimate.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, exactly. But okay, that’s a whole different different avenue.

David Nyman
Another podcast topic.

Ian Robertson
Another podcast, we’ll talk about that. But lunch is perfect for you. So are you dreading the big meetings or the you know what I always used to hate. I say hate it. It was always great marketing. But you’d have these big events with all these real estate agents. And I used to hate that I’d stand there and make awkward conversation. One time I stabbed a lady who ran a water filtration company in the hand with a skewer for my shrimp. Because I’m like, I’m like gesturing? I don’t know what to do. My wife was there with me. She’s like, you just stabbed that lady in the hand. And it wasn’t, it was like blood. It’s like, okay..

David Nyman
You made an impression.

Ian Robertson
I made an impression. Avoid those situations, because then you’re gonna end up like me, keep it small. Couple of people at most, one on one is going to be best.

David Nyman
So is this why we haven’t had a booth yet at one of the shows for home inspectors?

Ian Robertson
Yeah, yeah, we need to work that in, everybody always asks, when are you going to be at the event? And then now you know why, if you’re listening..

David Nyman
You get stabbed.

Ian Robertson
Again to our competition, you get stabbed with the skewer with shrimp residue. See, this is why we can’t do podcasts together.

David Nyman
I forgot.

Ian Robertson
BNI groups. That’s another one. So you were asking me about that earlier today, David, about what a BNI group is. BNI group are business networking groups. So you get a small group of people, you’ll have like a doctor or a real estate agent, you know, you have about a dozen or two people in there, the meetings aren’t going to have everybody there, they’re usually going to have in my experience 10 to 20. And if you’re in like a bigger market, you might have some big groups. Like if you’re in Los Angeles, or Denver, New York City. If you’re in the average market, might get 10 or 15 people there, they last about an hour, you sit around a table, couple people do some presentations, you talk and you leave. That’s probably about as big of a group as I would recommend a social introvert to get into.

David Nyman
So what’s the “I” stand for then?

Ian Robertson
I don’t know. We’ll have to look that up if anybody remembers what the “I” stands for, because I don’t right at the moment. But I belong to several BNI groups, and they work out well. So it’s a compromise. Is this, you know, visiting 30 real estate offices in a week? No. Is it going to be as effective as visiting 30 real estate offices in a week? No. But that’s not what we’re talking about today. We’re not talking about how to become an extrovert. We’re talking about how you can as an introvert, market with your quote unquote, personality type. And for social introverts, it’s going to be lots of social media content. It’s going to be one on one meetings typically going to be lunches with agents, BNI groups, and ultimately, it comes down to seeking out your small tribe. Extroverts make good business because they have a big tribe. I always had a small tribe of referring agents and referring clients. That always did great by me, because they were super loyal. And it was super great. And I could scale my business properly. So seek out a small tribe. You know, if you have 100 referring agents, on average, that’s gonna be 1000 inspections a year. You don’t need that big of a tribe.

David Nyman
No, that’s true.

Ian Robertson
What’s our next for the introvert?

David Nyman
Next one is thinking introverts. So that’s someone that’s thoughtful, imaginative, introspective. So, in short, they don’t really need to hear other people’s opinions or their thoughts on things. But instead, they’re happy with what they have on their own.

Ian Robertson
You know, I picture my wife this way, I think this one best fits my wife. She’s just quiet. People think she’s shy, she’s not shy at all. She just sits there. Just watching, taking it all in, thinking about things, putting it together, and she doesn’t really care. You know, somebody has an opinion one way or the other, not that that she doesn’t care about their opinion. That person matters to her. It’s just okay, if you don’t like my opinion, great.

David Nyman
Wait, are you saying is your wife is a psychopath?

Ian Robertson
No, she, but she’s very sweet. She’s got, she’s gonna listen to this and say, Oh, right.

David Nyman
That’s the last podcast you’re getting to do in your pillow fort.

Ian Robertson
Exactly. In my pillow fort. But this type of introvert has a great deal of marketing power, we call it. Because it’s not just, they don’t sit there and just take it all in and not do anything with it. It’s like, static energy. It’s, it’s there ready to be released. So if we’re this type of introvert, we’re the thinking introvert, we watch people, watch how things happen. As I mentioned before, we can move the levers on a situation and talking with people and push buttons to make things happen. We’re probably a thinking introvert. So those type of people generally are very creative. And they know ways to differentiate themselves. You know, one of the things I always talk about on this podcast are septic inspections. Everybody’s a septic inspections now in my area, it’s a big thing. We started like, 10 years ago, nobody did it. And we’re like, Let’s do septic inspections. Why not? Everybody give us a million reasons why. And I’d be like, Okay, why not? And that, that made us a ton of money over many, many years, more than, almost as much as home inspections but more than any other ancillary inspection. Yeah. So thinking introverts, generally speaking, have that kind of power. What’s going to differentiate us? What’s gonna make us stand out? There was an inspector that I knew that was a thinking introvert, he probably wouldn’t agree. But he used to dress in a bolo hat and a scarf. He didn’t hide it. He was just who he was, just sit quietly in a corner, wearing a scarf and bolo hat. And people loved him because it was just him. And he would even say, people like the bolo hat. And weirdly enough, they did.

David Nyman
That’s another thing I should have looked up. What is a bolo hat? I never seen one, I think, or I might have seen one and not have it named.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, it’s like, it’s like those rounded, like, fedoras almost I think. Maybe I called it something wrong. Maybe it’s not a bolo cap, maybe it’s a fedora.

David Nyman
Bowler hat.

Ian Robertson
But either way, bowler hat, see.

David Nyman
Google to the rescue.

Ian Robertson
You learn something new here on Inpector Toolbelt all the time.

David Nyman
Maybe it was a YOLO hat you were thinking of.

Ian Robertson
A hat that can only live once. So let’s take, let’s take what this type of introvert’s advantage is. So this type of introvert can kind of go into a room and figure people out and patterns, and imaginative ways to utilize those patterns. Now remember, there’s lots of famous introverts, they just learned how to pull the levers and push the buttons. So things like we talked about on this podcast a lot are scripts, and charts, we talked about that, actually, on our psychology for home inspectors podcast, not long ago. Watch what people do. And build that out, write it down. If you’re really observant, you know, every agent, I walk into this office and they go and do this, write that down, then next time you go in, do something else and watch what they do. As you write that down, you build out a lot of patterns. And you can pull the levers and push the buttons on human behavior. This is how I ended up getting to the manager’s office and doing an office presentation. Or this is why this agent started referring me or when people call this is my chart to to, you know, seal the deal. Following the little bubble ladder chart, so to speak. We can use that to a lot of our advantage because to be honest with you an extrovert, they just kind of walk into a situation to see what happens. Whereas the thinking introvert says okay, they’re missing sewer lateral scopes in this area. How can I use that to my advantage, and then work out a plan. They’re very planned, organized and creative. Use that to your advantage. So the best part, the best kind of marketing that you can do is basically inbound marketing, which is, leads that have already already come in, find ways to close those better by following human behavior. Cold calling agents will work really well for you. It sounds counterintuitive to send an introvert into an office. But it actually works because you can watch the behavior, don’t go for the whole group and see what happens and who you can grab. Also, this is one of the few times that cold calling agents via phone is something that I recommend. Because if you have a script, every agent to call, you’re just refining that script until you have it down pat. Now you’re taking them out to lunch, or you’re being referred by them, or whatever else happens to be. So those are the ways that you can really mark it. Cold calling office visits, and inbound marketing like scripts for your phone calls and things like that.

David Nyman
Yeah, I thought it was interesting, too. There was a point there that thinking introverts don’t care that much about rejection, I guess, when you are very happy with yourself. You’re not extroverted, but you feel like you know, you have it down and you’re thinking about it. Someone saying no, it’s not going to hurt your self esteem or anything.

Ian Robertson
Oh, that’s a beautiful point that I forgot about. Yeah, you can deal with rejection a lot better as a as a thinking introvert. Because yeah, it doesn’t bother you as much. I mean, it bothers everybody. It’s not like it’s gonna not affect them at all. But an extroverted person, or even somebody in the social introverts, rejection affects them. Thinking introverts, you know, it’s like, oh, well, you think I’m a big turd? I don’t think I am. And here’s my, here’s my empirical data to support my assumption, and then you move on with life. You know, so that’s a huge advantage, use that your, your lack of sensitivity to rejection. That’s a beautiful quality of a thinking introvert. Now, let’s talk about the classic one. One that we all think about. What’s that one?

David Nyman
Yeah, this one might be one of the harder ones to deal with. Being an anxious introvert, can even be as strong as having a physical reaction when you’re in a large group, being very self conscious, having a hard time to build a confidence to deal with a situation like that.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, I’ve talked about this on this on this podcast before too, when I was younger, I was an anxious introvert. Just the thought of a person being around just, you know, made my head spin, I’d get really anxious and I overcame it. But this is by far the hardest introvert type to market with. Because there’s a fear of people and this is a people business. So what are some things that an anxious introvert can do, David?

David Nyman
So a lot of times, it will help to take advantage of your opposite, an extrovert, so you know, one on one, finding an extrovert that is good at what they do, either, whether it’s, you know, social media, networking, all that. Just letting someone else do those things are difficult for you. And it’s interesting, too, because it mentions that an anxious introvert will will analyze everything that they’ve done in a social situation and, and then ruminate on that and just constantly, like build, lower their own self esteem. So the best way to deal with it is to remove yourself from that situation and have someone else go in and take the fall for you.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, and I think maybe some of us are probably thinking, Boy, that’s really passing the buck. Maybe that’s not an advantage just telling somebody else to do it. But here’s the thing about an anxious introvert that you just mentioned, anxious introverts, almost invariably walk away from every social situation and over analyze the tar out of it. But out of that, over analyzation comes better planning, and better understanding than almost any other introvert type. Because even the thinking introvert, they’re watching objectively, and after they’re done, they’re done. But the anxious one ruminates over it and it comes back and it comes back and it comes back even years later. So that can help you team up with an extrovert. Oftentimes, I see the anxious, anxious extroverts, you know, the classic sitcom, family style where you know, the wife or the husband is the extrovert and then the other one is the anxious introvert. By nature, I think this type may be drawn to extroverts, because extroverts, it completes them. It’s a complement. It’s like an extrovert is like, Okay, how do I plan this out? And what do I do here and the introverts whispers to them quietly, you know, sashay to your left, make sure you compliment him on his shoes and make sure you mentioned this particular real estate transaction at the end of the conversation. It’s like planning and execution all in one. So it’s a beautiful marriage, if you can find a business partner, to do that with somebody to be the extrovert, who maybe is really bad at business, really bad at planning and the financials and how to do all the rest of the stuff for the business. Whereas you walk into the room as an introvert, and you’re like, oh, man, I should have charged an extra $50, because they had a lot of questions. The extrovert is not thinking about that, they’re just talking.

David Nyman
Yeah, and like you said, you know, a lot of times they’re drawn, drawn to each other. Opposites attract, I guess. So, you know, at times, this could be your marriage partner, your wife, or your husband, depending on who you are, and they could be there by your side to do their work.

Ian Robertson
You know, I, when I was contracting, I used to partner with this guy who was a real extrovert, like just the classic, atypical extrovert, he’d show up on site, you know, sometimes 11 o’clock in the morning, and you know, the job would be going south or whatever. And you just walk in and talk to the homeowner or the business owner, whoever we’re working with, and not even think there’s a problem, just show up. And then by the time he was gone, everybody was happy. But he also would charge like, $300 for a $3,000 job, you know, not keep any receipts. So like I said, show up at 11 o’clock in the morning. And, you know, it’s like, okay, so I was always the, here’s what we’re gonna do, here’s the plan for the job. Here’s the product, here’s this. And he be like, okay, yeah, that’s, that sounds cool. And he was perfectly comfortable with me doing that, and him just being him. And it worked really well for many, many years. So, if you can be the planner and strategizer, and give an extrovert the opportunity to do the execution of what you plan, it actually works out really well, ironically, too, networking with individuals, not groups in any form. Even if you’re networking one on one with somebody, it’s got to be in a solo location, not in the middle of a busy restaurant or something. But if you can find extroverted agents, and you’re introverted and you meet them, and common ground, like outside seating or something for lunch, or whatever, and I keep bringing it up, because it’s easy, then extroverts are typically going to be warming up to you and you’re going to be warming up to them because they’re extroverted, they carry the conversation for you. Try to find extroverted agents and do one on one marketing with them. But ultimately, yeah try to find someone to work with because you are the perfect half of another person if you’re an anxious extrovert. What do we got for our last one, David?

David Nyman
So this one is reserved introverts, or you could also call them restrained introverts. So this is someone who usually spends a lot of time thinking before they speak or act. And it’s a, I kind of feel like part of this might be like a mental introversion, instead of using that word, but more like a choice. You know, not completely by choice. Of course, we all have, you know, things that were affected by our environment or upbringing. But this is more someone that chooses to be this way than any of the other introverts.

Ian Robertson
Yeah. So I think a good example of what this means is a reserved introvert, is this type of introvert is someone who works at a slower pace, and they they like to think and even on the cusp of overthinking each and every step. I have, I have a friend like this, not you, but I have a friend like this who you ask him a question. And he doesn’t answer you. It’s so weird. And the first time I met him, I’m just like, this guy, just like just not paying attention. And then like, a day later, I get a message from him. I was thinking about what you said. Here’s my thought on it. I’m like, Dude, I was just making conversation. But that’s, but that’s how he goes through life. He never answers without thinking, which is actually a beautiful thing. So yes, he’s very reserved.

David Nyman
Very annoying too, at the same time.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, it can be because, I mean, in normal conversation, he still does normal conversation, but if you ask for his opinion, he’s gonna give it a lot of thought. I think I think most home inspectors that are introverts kind of fall into this category, because we work with a lot of home inspectors, right. One of the classic questions that we asked them is, it’s not even with the app, but like, with a website, hey, can you just give me one or two sentences about yourself? We’ll expand on it. Just tell us, do you have construction experience? Where do you live, whatever. And some guys will spend days and I’ve had guys spend weeks on those two sentences. One guy would message me every other day and say, I’m almost done. And then when he sent me the message, it was, I have 20 years of construction experience, I’m InterNACHI certified. I’m like, okay, and he’s a super intelligent guy, but he’s very reserved and introverted that way. So, I guess the question is, if you’re not a quick starter, and you go out a little slower pace, what’s the advantage in marketing your, your business that way, David? What would you say?

David Nyman
The one thing is, you want to make sure you spend the time to prepare, where do you want to spend your energy? So if you’re going to take a longer time, okay, what is going to give you the best payback on that effort? So what type of marketing do you want to go into? And also, how long are you going to be willing to spend on each of these, so maybe put up a schedule, this is what I’m going to do this week. I’m not going to spend any more time than that. But I’m going to do a really good job on each of those, and also having a consistent schedule. So you know, every Monday I do this, you’re aware of that, well, well in advance, so you can spend some time thinking about what you’re going to do. And having that schedule that’s going to help you to make sure that you you punch above your weight class.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, so I guess the point is, schedules. Reserved introverts typically live and die by schedules. So if we find ourselves being a slow starter, we’re a bit reserved, we like to think things over and mull things, write a schedule, I need to have this decision by Monday. Now you want to start visiting. Interestingly enough, this type of introvert usually has no problem with larger social situations. It’s just that they’re so busy thinking and planning and being reserved before they do anything, that they’re, they appear introverted.

David Nyman
So I guess the social situations have a hard time with them.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, well, but um, if you put things on a schedule, so I’m going to visit my first real estate office on Tuesday. So now you’ve planned it out, two weeks in advance, everything you’re going to do and say, You go do that one. The next week, I’m going to visit five real estate offices on that Tuesday following the same procedure. And here’s exactly what I’m going to do and say, each time. As you build your schedule, you will actually be more planned out than just about any other introvert and definitely more planned out than an extrovert. Extroverts, by nature. And if you’re an extrovert, I’m sorry, I’m not bashing you. Because you have all the advantages, to be honest with you. That’s, you know, like the guy that worked for me or work with me rather we work together, he, he would just go out there and get work and he just randomly be getting workplaces. I’m like, How’d you come up with them? I don’t know. I just, it just happened.

David Nyman
Yeah, we’re not bashing extroverts. We’re just telling introverts how to beat you.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, exactly. We’re giving them all the secrets on how to beat you extroverts. But I was very planned. And I could mark it and tell you where every lead and every job came from. Use that to your advantage, say, Okay, here’s my schedule, then go after high value targets. So, extroverts use a shotgun, you’re going to have a rifle and you only have a couple bullets. Extroverts are just shotgunin’ into the woods, seeing what comes out, and are always going to hit something at that, at that rate. If you’re only firing two bullets, make them high value targets. So don’t just walk into the office and try to get everybody, every real estate agent to refer you, walk into the office and determine who are, likely if you’re a reserved introvert, you’ve looked it up ahead of time, who are the high performers, who have been around here for 20 years, who’s on a team with a high performer that other people may not be marketing to right now. Use that to your advantage, because that extrovert is going to walk right by that person just shotgunning and have eight people by in. Who are the people, who are the other people besides those eight, that aren’t glomming on to the extrovert. Those are your targets. So make your blows count. And yeah, the math adds up eventually. Extrovert gets 100 referring agents. He gets 1000 inspections a year. Introvert, the reserved introvert maybe gets 10 agents but maybe they all send, sell 100 houses a year, you still get your 1000 inspections.

David Nyman
And you have less people to deal with.

Ian Robertson
Exactly, which is great for introverts. One thing I will mention, the reserved introverts are really effective at going to open houses. Go, if you’re a reserved introvert, if you relate to this, you’re a slow starter and you’re just, I say slow starters like just you’re just thinking about things, it’s just what we mean by that, go to open houses, because you’re going to do really well, because it’s a planned and metered atmosphere, you can count on nine times out of 10, the same thing happening, and there only being one person there. And you already know who that target agent is, typically anyways, or whose team they’re on. Remember, agents work on teams, you have an agent or broker, and they might have five other agents working with them. You only see that, you know, Susie Lou, she sells all these houses. But Bobby Joe is on her team. And she’s doing all the referring to the real to the home inspectors. So open houses are good for this type of introvert. Also, SEO and strategic blogging. So strategic blogging is, we’ll have another podcast about that. But basically, what keywords people might be looking up other than home inspections, while they’re still looking for a home inspector, so that they find your website, while they’re in that process, you know, mortgage rates and news articles and because reserved introverts are very strategic. This works very well for them. Can you think of anything else, David, or are you kind of curling up into a ball right now? Exhausted from conversation.

David Nyman
I still haven’t really seen my, I really haven’t seen my niche introversion, introversion.

Ian Robertson
See you keep saying you’re, you’re an introversion fellow, but I don’t see it.

David Nyman
Yeah. I think I’m a mix between like a slow starter, the reserved introvert. And maybe I think, I don’t know if I think. I’ll think about it.

Ian Robertson
Get back to me in two weeks with an answer. So we’re, we may not fall into one of these categories, or we may, we may relate to all four. Who knows. But the point is, if we’re an introvert, marketing is not impossible. don’t view it as a hurdle. play to your strengths and your weaknesses. Take your weaknesses and make them stronger. Take your strengths and utilize them. Because extroverts, yeah, they have a wide net, and they catch a lot of fish. But you as an introvert, you have a lot of advantages with the lures that you use, strategic locations, and whatever to catch the same number of fish, it can be done. So this just kind of scratches the surface. And this is just one psychiatrist’s idea of four types of introverts. I thought it was interesting, and I thought it applied a lot to our industry.

David Nyman
Yeah, no, definitely. I do wonder though, you said make your weaknesses stronger. I’m not sure if that’s a positive thing or not. I gotta think about that one, too.

Ian Robertson
I think that’s just semantics, would it make your weaknesses less weak? Make your weak quality stronger qualities? How’s that?

David Nyman
Yeah, it’s better, but it’s kind of convoluted.

Ian Robertson
All right. Well, this was another episode of Inspector Toolbelt Talk. Again, our mantra is, introverts unite separately and in your own homes. Thank you very much, David. Appreciate you being on the show again.

David Nyman
Thank you, Ian.

Outro: On behalf of myself, Ian, and the entire ITB team, thank you for listening to this episode of inspector toolbelt talk. We also love hearing your feedback, so please drop us a line at [email protected].

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*The views and opinions expressed in this podcast, and the guests on it, do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Inspector Toolbelt and its associates.