What do you see that others don’t see? That’s your gift! That’s what you can build your consulting business around.
Like many introverts, Trish’s superpower was to quickly “game out” the consequences of new initiatives organizations would adopt and see all the pitfalls.
While everyone else was getting high on the rah-rah demanded by the executives, she could see why it was going to fail. Out of loyalty, conscientiousness and integrity, she would speak up and say what was going to happen if they didn’t make some course corrections from the get-go.
Her insights were not appreciated. People resented what they called her pessimism, they discounted her wisdom, and labeled her as a Negative Nelly.
It didn’t feel good to be shunned and feel that nobody liked her. In fact, she began to buy into that label of being negative and unlikeable, and she felt bad about herself.
However, in every case, what Trish said would happen did come to pass, and after the organization had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, the initiative would fail.
But Trish never enjoyed what could have felt like an “I told you so” moment. She says, “In every case, it was so obvious to me. Yet you feel crazy for being right.” And anyway, no one wanted to do a post-mortem; they were on to the next initiative.
Tired of the dysfunctional idealism she encountered in organizations, she finally bailed out and became a consultant instead. At first she doubted her ability to succeed, because she’d internalized the notion that she was negative and that people didn’t like her.
I immediately saw that this ability to see the downside by gaming things out is her superpower – a superpower that some organizations in trouble would value – and pay for.
They didn’t listen to her when she was an employee, but now as a consultant she can own that superpower and serve those organizations who appreciate a troubleshooter who can come in and quickly see what’s gone wrong and what needs to happen to turn things around.
What is YOUR unique superpower? What is clear to you that isn’t clear to others? How can you own it and capitalize on it?
If you want to identify your introvert superpower and turn it into the cornerstone of your solopreneur consulting/coaching business, let’s chat! You can start by filling out the short form here: Exploratory Consultation