Extrovert introvert – I’m a bit of both!

Extrovert introvert – How can I be both? Well, first of all I would say I’m mostly introvert and shy, I really dislike being among people for a long time. I rather stay at home and watch a movie with my girlfriend than going out and having to entertain people. I have thousands of thoughts in my head at the same time and I tend to drift away thinking about all of them at the same time. Being an extrovert introvert do have some great things tho, being an introvert means that I can (mostly) focus on whats important and really figure things out in my head. I plan ahead and always stay one step ahead of everyone else.

Although being an introvert do have some downsides as well. I rarely interact with people at work, other then saying good morning and goodbye, I almost never sit and eat with co-workers or random people. Sometimes I buy some food and drive away to a secluded spot and eat my lunch in peace and quiet. At after work gatherings I keep to myself and try to look busy and like I’m having a good time, but I really look at the time and try to figure out an excuse to go home. It’s not that I don’t want to hang out with them, it’s just that I do not like social gatherings like that, but that might have to do with my social anxiety I had growing up.

BUT, this weekend my extrovert introvert really shined through. I work as an Art Director on a tractor magazine, where… well, everything is about tractors. Tractor pulling, veteran tractors, custom built tractors etc. My editor asked me a few weeks ago if I could work the booth at Ljusdal Traktor Power Show, a tractor pulling festival held in the next town over. A few weeks ago I said “of course, I can work the booth”. Come Friday afternoon setting up that said booth I felt a chilling sensation creeping over me, making me cold sweat, feeling nauseous, anxiety and hyperventilating, WHY did I sign up to do this?! And alone as well, again, why did I sign up for this?….

Anyway, I thought to myself, what the heck, I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna make it through the weekend, it can’t be that many people attending, can it? Well, it turned out to be pretty heavily crowded with over 1000 people at the event, and I’m not joking when at least half of them stopped by our booth, wanting to talk to me about tractors…. I don’t know anything about tractors, haha. Other then that I had to sell stuff, stuff that had no price tag on them, but I got told the price beforehand, all I had to do now was to remember them…

After a few customers, learning the credit card machine and selling some random stuff I started to feel comfortable, very comfortable. In some mysterious way I became the greatest salesman who ever walked the earth, or at least at the event. I started talking, making jokes, selling stuff, joke some more and just kept on doing that for two whole days. I was on fire!!!!

I surprised myself, I did not know I had that in me. Or, I did know that I could act professional when needed to, but this was something else, this was like I was watching myself in an out of body experience, I could se myself charging people money for merchandise, talking about tractor DVD’s I’ve never seen, but acting like I did, selling t-shirts like there was no tomorrow and smiling… I smiled like crazy and I was such I nice person to everyone. I’m always a nice person, but often it doesn’t show because I have this gloomy approach, but on this day I was on top of the world.

I guess thats why I from this day call myself an extrovert introvert. An introvert who can put on a mask, a character and a show to become an extrovert and a real professional seller. I even convinced several people that I know stuff about tractors, it was hilarious!

I put some pictures up on my Instagram page, so be sure to follow me there!