The Exploring Introvert with Mariella Franker, PhD

A lot of the times when we feel stuck, we think that motivation is the problem. It causes us to either sit there and wait until we feel motivated or until inspiration hits and we do nothing (procrastinating, sometimes overthinking). Or we're all over the place, doing lots of stuff but never feeling like we're actually accomplishing anything ("business", sometimes overthinking 😆)...

In this podcast, I share with you why I'm changing the focus of my coaching program to habits for introverts. The first little puzzle piece of the puzzle that I can give you is to reveal your habit style using a simple, short quiz. Book a free call to reveal your habit style and walk away with a 1-page pdf about your personal habit building process: https://forms.gle/XpVZp4LMPcBQGoVMA ▶️ Book...

**This episode is released later than planned due to technical issues with the editing software. Thank you for waiting!** Today, we’re talking about one of the biggest mistakes I see people make when they’re trying to decide what next step to take: they create “fake conditionality” between different actions. Surely in 80% of the situations when I see people do this, there’s really no conditionalit...

You have an exciting idea but then something unexpected comes up. But when you finally have time to work on it again, you draw a blank… If this happens to you regularly, check out this episode. We're going to talk about a simple habit that you can use to quickly get that focus back and to continue making progress on your exciting idea over time, no matter how much time (and life!) happens in b...

"What you do now is so different from what you did before, do you ever miss your old job?"   I get asked this question regularly by people who have known me a long time, especially family.   The short answer to this question is no.    The long answer is in this podcast episode 😉   I trained for 10 years as a molecular biologist and I used to spend my time either pipetting...

Why you need habits that are tailored to you? To tailor your habits to your personal situation, your personality and your life at the moment?   There is A LOT of information out there about habits and deep down we all know that our habits have a big influence on our lives. The tricky thing is that when we look at people we admire and try to implement their habits into our lives, it doesn’t al...

Procrastinating is not the same as needing to take a break. Just in case there were any doubts, I want to call that out right now. Those two things are not the same thing. There are clearly different signals when you’re either procrastinating on something or when you’re tired and you need to take a break. If you pay attention to them…! I learned this the hard way after I burned out and in today’s...

Today's episode is about how you can go from doubting your contributions to having an impact with ease. I'm going to be telling you about the Joyful and Impactful introvert system: my new signature program that has taken 2 years of development and training and countless years of research and experimentation. I've gone through this program myself - in a quite literal way - and it is now helping oth...

I used to think (and say) that I was a low energy person. I also used to think that all introverts were low energy people. This is not true. Through experimenting in my own life and coaching other introverted solopreneurs, I’ve seen that making a few key changes can actually skyrocket your energy. I’m not a low energy person and neither are you. You may be a person experiencing low energy right no...

**Technical issues this week, so bear with me on this one! The audio is a little bit wonky and isn’t synched up halfway through the video, so you’ll probably see some funny faces 😆 and hear a bit of static here and there. Sorry about this! Working on fixing it for fixed next week.** I work with a lot of introverted solopreneurs and a thing that comes up a lot is feeling more motivated to do certa...

And then there was silence… Have you ever thought about that moment when you’re in a conversation with someone and it suddenly becomes completely silent..? Yikes, ackward..! A few years ago, those were my first thoughts too. Afraid of the ackward silence, as soon as I caught a glimpse of it, I’d quickly try to make a (bad) joke (that no one got) in an attempt to escape it. Or the opposite: I’d be...

Do you feel you have harmony between work and home? I didn't have a real plan for this episode and decided to share some of the things that were on my mind. Lately, it has been a struggle to find a new rhythm between home life and work life. It had me thinking a lot about this idea of balance - or better yet - harmony between the different aspects of your life. If you're looking for support to fin...

I recently joined my very first panel discussion that was broadcasted live on LinkedIn. While decompressing at my dining table the next morning, I was thinking over some of the things that are helping me to feel good about “putting myself out there” as an introvert. I’ll share 4 of those with you in today’s podcast episode. Preparation is key but now in the way you may think Trust your gut and giv...

"People do not decide their futures. They decide their habits and their habits decide their futures." - Frederick Alexander. I’m curious, what do you think about this quote? As a productivity coach, naturally, I think a lot about habits. Which habits help us to be more productive, which things keep us distracted, cause us to loose focus or drain our energy. And there are hundreds if not thousands...

This may be a controversial opinion: I don’t believe in new year’s resolutions. Granted, a new start can give an incredible boost in motivation. A new calendar year, a new quarter, the start of a new week. Sometimes it’s just that little bit of extra juice we need to start moving. If the new year is one of the things that gives you a motivation boost, then grab onto that and use it. But be aware:...

What would help you to ease into your week? Especially after a break, a weekend, a holiday, it can feel hard to get started again. Blue Monday doesn’t just happen once a year... It took me a while to embrace it but starting my week in a relaxed setting makes a huge difference for me. That’s why I’ve been starting my week on Sunday for the past couple of years. In this week’s episode, I share a bit...

When you feel like you have no control over your day and you kind of rush through it… In this week’s podcast episode, we talk about feeling rushed in our workweek but it also applies to the busy Christmas time. We talk about mindset and a few things to help you shift that rush to calm. ▶️▶️ Sign up for Productive Introvert Letters: https://www.thefrankermessage.com/subscribe ▶️ Book a free explora...

What’s a special Christmas tradition that you enjoy?   One of ours is decorating our tree with “unusual” Christmas tree decorations.   In this podcast episode, I take you into my home and share a bit of our Christmas preparations. I’ll show you some of the unusual Christmas tree decorations this year and what this tradition means to me.   Hope you’re enjoying the Christmas vibes thi...

“Are you in a sauna?” People regularly ask me this the first time we have a call or when they see one of my video’s. Although my little office cabin looks a bit like a sauna, it most definitely doesn’t feel like one in these cold winter months  😆 In this week’s podcast episode, I talk about why I choose to work in an uninsulated cabin even in freezing temperatures and what that has to do wit...

I first shared about my “failed” course launch with my mailing list and now I’m talking about it in this podcast episode. After months of preparation, several dedicated articles, episodes, social posts, and weeks of talking about nothing else, my online course “Energy management for ambitious introverts” got 0 (yes, that’s right, zero) sign ups. Was it hard to get that no? Yes. Did I feel like a f...

Today, we’re talking about the third thing that that will help you to stay focused and motivated when you’re taking on a big new challenge. Celebrating small wins and connecting with your deeper values. I get a lot of questions about deep values and core values. How do you know what your deep values are? How do you find your purpose? I think this is one of the misconceptions that we have around de...

There are 3 main techniques that have had a huge impact on my focus and motivation to work on my business. Last, week I talked about the first one: the business energy assessment. This week, I’m taking you through my morning reflection process (or better named start-up reflections). Where the business energy assessment is amazing for long-term adjustments, this one is key for day-to-day navigation...

How do you decide which activities to focus on when you can go in any direction with your business?   As a young entrepreneur, the idea that I can go in any direction I want can be both liberating and overwhelming. It’s very easy to loose focus and to start drifting. You may wake up one day and realize that you’ve been doing less and less of the things that really spark that joy in you. The t...

I’m writing this as I’m watching the sun rise. Soon, ships the size of a small flat, will start to make their way back and forth along the river in front of me. Hauling their cargo to and from the port in Rotterdam. We’re celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary. We’re staying in a little house appropriately named “Go with the flow”.  In this episode I talk about how I've landed at a new cross...

Today, I wanna tell you a bit more about my online course, Energy Management for Ambitious Introverts. Who is it for and what makes it different from some of the things that you might have learned before? In this episode, you'll learn ✅ Who this course if for ✅ Why most of what we learn isn't tailored to the introvert's natural process ✅ Why this is the last time I'm offering this course Relate...