Welcome to the 5th muse on the Introvert Biz Growth podcast, the show where I talk to introverts who grow their business and make a difference.

I’m Sarah Santacroce, your host. If you’re new here, then I want you to know that this is not the usual format of my regular episodes.

I post a new show every other Friday, and it’s always a conversation with a fellow introverted entrepreneur who uses his or her introverted superpowers to make a difference.

These shows are edited by Tim, my professional podcast editors who also creates amazing shownotes pages.

But today’s episode is a muse, unedited, raw content. No editing. No intro music. No bells and whistles.

I share these muses to make you think, to inspire you, to break the rules and to eventually invite you to the Gentle Business Revolution, when it’s ready.

Today’s muse is again composed of 2 parts: first I muse by myself about the fear of rejection and then I’ll also share a quick conversation I had with Lou Bortone, another previous podcast guest, fellow introvert and friend of mine about the topic ‘Marketing with Integrity’.

So let’s talk about this fear of rejection.

As conscious entrepreneurs we truly care about our contributions to the world. So if people don’t like what we share, it strongly affects us - more than others. Why does it hurt us more? I think it’s because of our higher level of empathy. We truly care and want to help people. And if they don’t let us help them, or don’t see the value in what we’re trying to share, it really hurts us. It also impacts us more because when we decide to share our gifts with the world and create something (a program, a course, coaching, a book etc.) it takes us a lot more courage to go public than our extroverted counterparts. Which is why it then also hurts more to get rejected.

So how do we deal with this fear of rejection?

As Lauren Sapala says in her book ‘Firefly Magic’ “If we want to clear the blocks around marketing and fear of rejection, we have to go back to the root. We have to go inward.”

So true. We all have our own personal story with rejection. Mine started with my emotionally unavailable dad. Not feeling wanted or loved. What’s yours? What’s your earliest memory of rejection? Take a moment to journal about it.

And once you’ve done that deep inner work, it’s time to take out your list of Rejection Healers. These are people you love and trust, mentors, friends, family members… Give them a call or simply imagine them talking to you as you would talk to your own child who experienced a rejection. Soothing, loving and encouraging.

In order to make a difference you need to put yourself out there – with vulnerability. And the more people you reach, the more rejections you will get. It’s the law of the universe.

So if you don’t have your list of Rejection Healers yet, start writing it now.

And now as promised, here’s my conversation with Lou Bortone about the topic ‘Marketing with Integrity and what that means to him.

Thanks for listening !

Thanks so much for listening to this muse.

Don’t  forget to reach out to me and let me know what you think about these Muse episodes. Yay or Nay? So far the feedback I’ve been getting is positive. Iris said that without the editing it feels even more real, as if I was talking to you directly. Which I am ;-)

Have a great week

Warmly Sarah