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Are you an exploring introvert and do you feel tired and unmotivated in your career?

Exploring introverts are often quiet, open-minded thinkers. They have a big sense of responsibility and it’s important to them to make meaningful contributions to others. They have many interests and tend to work on multiple projects at the same time.

This isn’t always visible to others because exploring introverts don’t like to talk about their achievements very much, especially in a group setting. They prefer to listen rather than speak and work diligently behind the scenes.

If this sounds like you, you may recognize these situations:

☑️ You feel unseen and underappreciated at work. You compare yourself to extraverted colleagues and you struggle with low self-confidence about your performance.

☑️ You overthink and doubt yourself. You know that you’re good at what you do but you’re worried if you’re good enough to really have a successful career.

☑️ You feel a disconnection between your professional role and your personal aspirations. You’re unsure about what direction to take and you procrastinate on important career and personal goals.

☑️ You feel unfocused. It’s hard to set and follow through on priorities and to know what to work on next. You're dealing with distractions all the time and feel overwhelmed by your workload.

☑️ You feel time pressure and wish there were more hours in the day. The constant pull of new projects, notifications, household chores, and the needs of friends and family makes you feel like you’re never doing enough.

☑️ You’re always ‘on’ and you feel exhausted. At the end of the day, you have no energy left and waste time doom scrolling or binge watching Netflix. Your energy levels are unpredictable and you regularly fall back into old, unhealthy patterns.

You want to get things done in your career with more ease and have energy left at the end of the day.

If you recognize yourself in the text above, you're not alone. In fact, many exploring introverts struggle with this.

I was no exception

Hi! My name is Mariella Franker and I’m an exploring introvert too. At 18, I immigrated from South America to Europe and I studied and worked primarily in the Netherlands. Throughout my career and in different professional roles, I was told that I performed well but that I needed to be more assertive. I tried to improve by copying my extraverted colleagues and, at first, it seemed to work. But after a while, I started to feel a disconnection between my professional me and my personal me. Pretending to be someone I really wasn’t, was exhausting. I felt unmotivated and doubted if I was cut out to have a successful career. Until I learned about an introvert’s Natural Advantage<sup>Ⓡ </sup>: what you naturally excel at and what you can do almost effortlessly. It’s like your 'Superpower'. I learned about the real differences between introverts and extraverts (some differences are surprising) and how introverts make meaningful contributions to others in a way that feels completely natural by working with their Natural Advantage. This approach completely shifted my perspective about being an introvert and gave me back motivation and enthusiasm for my career. I believe in this approach so much that I became a certified coach and started helping other exploring introverts to discover and apply their Natural Advantage. Later, I went on to develop the Habit Style profiles: the first step to creating habits that fit you like a glove. Together your Habit Style and your Natural Advantage are a roadmap for how you naturally build sustainable habits and what's needed for you to have a fulfilling career.

You can feel naturally motivated be get things done in your career In the past years, I’ve supported hundreds of introverts through my newsletter and podcast and coached dozens in 1-1 programs to be naturally motivated and get things done in their career. In my programs, I help you to: ✅ Reduce exhaustion and be successful in your career by working with your Habit Style and Natural Advantage<sup>Ⓡ </sup> as an introvert. Work costs less energy and your colleagues and clients see and appreciate your unique contribution. ✅ Understand what naturally motivates you so that you gain clarity about what’s important to you and how you can make progress toward your professional and personal goals in a sustainable way. ✅ Improve your focus and get things done with more ease. It becomes easier to set and follow through on priorities, get things done in your career, and support the people you care about. ✅ Strengthen your relationships in a way that feels natural. You learn to make space for your thoughtful and open-minded self and connect with others in a genuine way. ✅ Experience more calm and peace of mind. You’re less reactive to what’s going on around you and you gain trust in your ability to adapt, even when your circumstances or goals change. ✅ Have more confidence in yourself. You stop comparing yourself to others and gain more confidence in yourself as well as appreciation for others.

Articles for exploring introverts

From chaos to clarity: How Santiago transformed business uncertainty into focused direction

25/03/2025

Santiago learned how to embrace uncertainty and transform business chaos into focused clarity through understanding his natural way of working

Nice weather, huh?

18/02/2025

Nice weather today, huh? Or the more common: What a weather, today! (usually when he weather is crappy). When I first moved to the Netherlands, it really surprised me how much people talked about the weather here. It was so foreign to me and I found it really confusing.

Is building a second brain worth it?

03/01/2025

It’s frustrating when ideas slip away from us before we can do anything with them. Or when you can’t recall a key piece of information that you’d like to build on. That's where building a second brain comes in. But is it worth it?

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