cover image The Introvert Entrepreneur: Amplify Your Strengths and Create Success on Your Own Terms

The Introvert Entrepreneur: Amplify Your Strengths and Create Success on Your Own Terms

Beth L. Buelow. Penguin/Perigee, $15.95 trade paper (272p) ISBN 978-0-399-17483-4

Buelow (Insight: Reflections on the Gifts of Being an Introvert), a professional coach and founder of a company called the Introvert Entrepreneur (as well as a podcast of the same name), makes a case for introvert-friendly entrepreneurship—including techniques for hustling, pitching, and networking—in this winning business manual. According to her, introverts can succeed, with careful planning, in building businesses that emphasize authenticity and relationships without draining all of their energy or feeling like they’ve given up their souls. Buelow adeptly and compassionately covers the basics of this personality type—a demographic estimated to constitute about 50% of the population but often overlooked and marginalized by extroverts—and dispenses advice, both high-level and granular, for entrepreneurial success. She describes networking and self-promotion, handling fear and doubt, finding your voice, collaboration, succeeding by staying in your comfort zone, and selling yourself and your product, this last task being one of the hardest things for introverts to face and achieve. This is a thoughtful, kind, and helpful guide for all those who are looking to strike out on their own, but concerned that their need for alone time may get in the way. Agent: Annie Bomke, Annie Bomke Literary Agency. (Nov.)