Female Disruptors: Jenny Alberti of Introvert On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Fail fast and often. Fear of failure has plagued me my whole life. I’ve been afraid of what failure means to me. During my entrepreneurial journey I have come to the understanding that failure is a necessary component of success. I had many failed launches and ideas that didn’t work out. Each failure brought with it data to analyze and with that data, I was able to refine and iterate. Failing often also eliminated options so the direction I was meant to go became more clear. You are always one step closer to a big success with each failure that you come across.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jenny Alberti.
Jenny is the CEO of Introvert, She Wrote Publishing and co-founder of the Women Writing Intentionally Collective. After fulfilling her childhood dream of publishing a book, becoming a 2x International bestselling author was the icing on the cake. As an Introvert, Jenny found that the marketing strategies dominating the online entrepreneurial space were challenging and a barrier to success. She believes that remaining in alignment with and celebrating who we are at our core is essential to fulfillment in business and life. It is her predominant intent to help amplify the voices of all women who are here to make an epic impact on the world.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I almost walked away from my business and my dreams. In 2021, I had a meeting with my mastermind coach that forever changed the trajectory of my business and my life.
In that meeting, I expressed how frustrated I was at the lack of success I was having acquiring new clients for my coaching business. He asked if I was using the program’s script and following the strategy of sending 100 cold direct messages on social media. When I explained no and that I couldn’t do that because it wasn’t in alignment with who I was, he said 7 impactful words. Those words were “Maybe you should rethink being a coach”. I closed my laptop, folded my arms on top of it, laid my head down and started sobbing. It felt like the whole world just collapsed into a dark abyss and my dreams went down with it.
As an introvert, it wasn’t just that it was draining for me to start and carry-on conversations at that rapid rate, but also, I was using a script provided in the program. A script that hundreds of other coaches who joined the mastermind used. The thought of me sending a script to hundreds of people each week made me want to jump out of my skin. Authenticity is important to me. It is one of my core values and this method of “prospecting” gave me anxiety.
For nearly an hour my body lay motionless on top of my laptop, even though my mind was moving at a rapid pace all over the place. I started planning what to say to my most recent boss to get my job back and I wondered how I would begin to explain to my partner that I just wasn’t cut out to be an entrepreneur. I thought about all of the money I invested and the bills that were accumulating. I asked myself “What is wrong with you, why can’t you just do what they tell you to do!?” This was rock bottom on my entrepreneurial journey.
But as my head rested on top of my laptop and the tears continued to fall, I decided I must advocate for every other introverted female entrepreneur that may quit because the marketing strategies and tactics taught to them aren’t in alignment with who they are.
A few months later, I contributed to my first multi-author book and leveraged it to grow my coaching business. I quickly recognized that it had never been easier to find clients and I didn’t have to do any of the strategies that made me feel anxious and uncomfortable. I knew that becoming a published author could bring success to women who want to build an impactful business but don’t want to betray who they are to do so.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
For generations society has favored the extroverted personality. We have been led to believe that the most successful people are those who are loud, talkative, and enjoy the spotlight. The marketing strategies being taught to online entrepreneurs follow the same belief. We are changing how people view marketing their business. By removing the narrative of gregarious means successful and emboldening women to embrace their unique traits, we are disrupting the online marketing industry and providing a platform for the quieter, more reserved entrepreneurs to get massive visibility on their terms. Simply put, we are helping visionary women become published authors and leverage their books to grow their businesses in a way that feels good. Introvert, She Wrote Publishing is launching a multi-author book September 23rd, 2022 titled Quiet & Badass: Visionary Women Embracing Their Uniqueness To Create Epic Impact.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Looking back on my first business, I started a digital marketing business for boutique fitness studios because I bought an online course and the advice was: “Go where the money is, not where your passion is”. I wanted out of my regular 9–5 career, which was in boutique fitness. I literally started my own business doing the same thing I wanted to get away from! I had the business 7 months before I shut it down to pursue my passions.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I have had the privilege of being part of many great coaching programs and blessed to have many brilliant individuals contribute to my growth on this journey. From accountability partners that bloomed into trusted friendships, to incredible clients in which I had the honor of learning their genius, people have mentored me without them even knowing it. I consider myself very lucky to constantly have people around me who encourage me to become the next best version of myself.
That said, I would be remiss if I did not mention one of the biggest sources of guidance & support for me, my co-founder in the Women Writing Intentionally Collective, Tracey Rampling Brown. Tracey and I first bonded over shared experiences and wanting to provide better solutions for women in the Indie publishing industry. I will never forget the first call I ever had with her. She provided me with so many revelations. I remember getting off the call and thinking “Wow! I should have paid her for that”. We have since developed a strong relationship where we provide each other with honest feedback and challenge each other frequently. Opposite sides of the same coin, we are continuously helping each other evolve, thus our vision for what is possible continues to evolve.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
When the status quo is keeping people from advancing. I believe that disrupting an industry is positive. For example, the changes we are seeing in the publishing industry, less relying on traditional publishing houses and more Indie publishers and people self publishing allows more stories to be out in the world. Traditional publishing houses have been the gatekeeper for a long time. They tell people what stories are and are not worthy, and take a lot of the creativity out of the hands of the creatives. Gone are the days of needing to be picked up by a traditional publishing company in order to become a published author, and this is a disruption that I believe is positive.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
1. Run your own race. When I first pivoted my business from digital marketing to coaching women, I joined a mastermind. I quickly took note of all the other female coaches that were in the program with me, how long they had their business and how successful I perceived them as. It was on a coaching call that someone else said to our coach, “I see everyone else in this program sharing all their wins, and I feel like I am behind”. The coach said to him, “Run your own race, don’t look left and right. It doesn’t matter where anyone else is at because they are running a different race than you. You are the only one running your race, no one else.” I’ll never forget it, because it felt like he was speaking right to me even though I wasn’t the one who brought it up on the call. This interaction completely changed my perspective. I realized I don’t know everyone’s unique situation to even think to compare where I am to where they are. I have held that bit of advice close to me on my journey and have even shared this story with clients who’ve needed it.
2. If you wait until it’s perfect, you waited too long. A common personality trait of an introvert is wanting things to be just right. No, Perfect! I have learned that if you wait to get things perfect before putting them out into the world, it means you have missed out on opportunities. Nothing should ever be perfect the first time, done will beat perfect every single time. You could miss out on connections, money, and valuable feedback and even worse, maybe you never take action at all because you were waiting for it to be perfect first.
3. Fail fast and often. Fear of failure has plagued me my whole life. I’ve been afraid of what failure means to me. During my entrepreneurial journey I have come to the understanding that failure is a necessary component of success. I had many failed launches and ideas that didn’t work out. Each failure brought with it data to analyze and with that data, I was able to refine and iterate. Failing often also eliminated options so the direction I was meant to go became more clear. You are always one step closer to a big success with each failure that you come across.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Many of the secrets to success in the publishing industry are being kept secret by gatekeepers who provide the what, but not the how to their own authors. The Women Writing Intentionally Collective is committed to providing community members with all of the secrets that will empower them to write, publish and monetize their books. We are not afraid of sharing what we know and bringing in experts to provide even more support.
We are creating a safe platform for women to share their stories, knowledge and truth without fear of judgment, criticism, or betrayal. By coming together in the genuine spirit of collaboration, we provide opportunities for growth, healing and transformation that benefits ALL women, authors and readers alike.
We are choosing collaboration over competition. The more women we can help publish their books whether they publish with us, other publishers or on their own, the better off the world will be.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
Disruptors have big visions for themselve, for others, and for the world. Being visible is a massive and necessary component in being able to create real change and shake up the status quo. Unfortunately, most women have a fear of visibility, and for good reason. Fear and trauma has been imprinted in our generational DNA.
Think about it, what have we seen happen to women who have stood up, been visible, and spoken their truth? Historically, they have been punished, humiliated, and physically harmed. Being seen, heard, visible and disrupting industries is quite literally something that women are not supposed to do. I can’t possibly think of any bigger challenge for women than having to heal and overcome this fear.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
Susan Cain’s, Quiet, made everything about my introverted personality make sense. I felt seen and understood. I finally knew for a fact that there was nothing wrong with me. I was just introverted. Her stories were similar to my own and resonated deeply. Often while reading I found myself resting the book on my lap as memories popped into my head of times in my life when someone was questioning why I was being quiet, or telling me I wasn’t assertive enough. It felt like at the completion of each chapter, I was awarded a puzzle piece that brought so much clarity to the experiences I had in life and why I had them. Until reading this book, I saw being introverted as a disadvantage. That perspective flipped when I read Cain’s, Manifesto For Introverts. The last line of the manifesto is a quote by Mahatma Gandhi, “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”. I credit this book with giving me the permission to simply be myself and the confidence to contribute what I am meant to contribute to the world.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
There is so much shame around women making money for their gifts. I would love there to be a movement centered around women making lots of money from their writing. So often I hear a gifted female writer say that “The money isn’t important, it’s how many people are impacted that matters”. While impact is absolutely important, I don’t want to continue to see women settle for not making money as if that is how it should be. No, you should share your gift of writing with the world- uplift, inspire and also make loads of money from it. I would love to remove the shame, normalize and celebrate women writers of all kinds making money. We need more support in general for women writers.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
A couple of years ago my mom and I started reading and listening to Abraham Hicks. As a matter of fact we still text each other links to videos that seem to be helpful and timely. There is a particular quote that instantly felt important, for both me and my mom, “You can’t get there from here.”.
We tend to focus our attention and energy on what we don’t want in our life and wonder when we are going to have the things we do want instead. The reason we aren’t seeing the things we want is because we can’t focus on the people, things, and situations we don’t want and expect the things that we do want to show up. I remember this quote any time I catch myself giving energy to the things I do not want in my life. This quote recalibrates my energy so that I can shift back into focusing on what I want and align my thoughts with them.
Having this quote in my back pocket has helped me course correct as needed throughout my personal and entrepreneurial journey. It reminds me to keep my eye on the prize.
How can our readers follow you online?
Instagram: www.instagram.com/_jennyalberti/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thejennyalberti
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/womenwritingintentionally
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Female Disruptors: Jenny Alberti of Introvert On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.