Can You Be a Successful Freelancer… and an INFJ?
I had no idea I was an INFJ until I was forced to take a personality test for work.
The company believed that the best way of ensuring workplace harmony would be to force everybody on its payroll to take a personality test, then share the results.
If we could just treat our colleagues according to their specific ‘types’, we’d never argue or mis-understand one another again… or so the MD’s logic went.
(Think of those ‘hot drink’ charts in office kitchens. Instead of “Adam: tea with milk, one sugar”, you’d have “Adam: prickly, extremely quick to take offence, probably best not to invite him to after-work drinks.”)
So, we faithfully took our individual Myers-Briggs Type Indicator tests, then convened in the meeting room for the Big Reveal. A chart was drawn up on the huge whiteboard, and we were each asked to get up and indicate our places on it.
Not only was I the only introvert in the 50-strong pack, but I was also the only INFJ.
I felt horribly, gut-wrenchingly, flame-cheekingly exposed, as I marked my singular position out on the chart, several blank spaces away from the triumphant glut of ENTPs and ESTJs.
As it turned out, my personality type wasn’t only rare in that office, it’s actually rare. We INFJs only make up 1–3 per cent of the global population, apparently, and as such we’re frequently mis-understood — by ourselves as well as others.
I hadn’t wanted to take that fluffy “business horoscope” test (“Nina: deeply cynical, mistrustful of groupthink, probably best not to invite her to happy clappy team-building events”.)
But the result had ended up as a revelation, because I finally had an explanation for why I’ve always been so… weird.
If you’re a mis-understood INFJ too, you might be labouring under the mistaken belief that you can’t work for yourself.
What about all the ‘hustling’, you might think, because you hate that word.
You can’t imagine having to publicly declare yourself open for work (a gargantuan task in itself), then constantly talking yourself up to glassy-eyed strangers, making shallow connections founded on a bland combination of meaningless small talk, and the dry mechanics of business.
Then there’s all that falling in with other people’s hectic schedules and unreasonable demands, and how would you cope if a client criticised your work?
You’d ruminate on that for days… weeks… even years.
But after living the life of an INFJ freelancer for the past five years, I can tell you this: it works.
Here are a few suggestions to help you channel your own INFJ-ness into an independent and meaningful working life.
Swap face-to-face networking for something more creative
When I started my freelance writing business, I knew I’d have to network.
But discussing the weather over tepid coffee didn’t do it for me, so I stopped.
Instead of beating yourself up about gearing yourself up to attend networking meetings, only to feel horribly drained of life and energy after just one conversation, do something else — because there’s more than one way to make connections and find work.
In my case, that involved finding and researching people I wanted to talk to, then sending each one a personalised, written introduction.
It’s not universally recommended, but I also made up some paper leaflets that described my writing services in detail, then spent hours posting them through strangers’ letterboxes (anything to avoid talking myself up in person!)
I only got one job doing all that, but it was a big enough job to keep my bills paid until I found others.
Understand what you’re best at, then work it
For example, INFJs are great listeners, but we also naturally hear what isn’t being said, loud and clear.
If you let them, traits like these will help you build deeper rapport and add unique insight to your client conversations.
So much so, that you could end up producing work others aren’t capable of, which is how you’ll win repeat business and client referrals.
Value whole relationships
You’re precise, you’re all about the detail, and you will not let anybody down.
Ever.
Clients, meanwhile, are sloppy timekeepers, they’re forgetful, they don’t brief you properly, they’ll contact you at ungodly hours of the day and night, and some are allergic to paying invoices on time.
But if you learn to value client relationships as whole entities, it’ll be easier to forgive those picky annoyances…
…as clients will hopefully forgive you for being a finicky perfectionist who tends to go all grumpy and defensive about last-minute changes.
Remember that client deadlines aren’t your deadlines
I don’t mean you shouldn’t care if a client needs a piece of work urgently.
I just mean that you shouldn’t absorb others’ urgency as though every last drop of it was yours, because if you do that all the time, you’ll saturate your senses.
If you need to detach yourself and say no for the sake of your own health and sanity (your deep INFJ intuition will tell you exactly when that is), then do it.
It’s taken me nearly five years, but I’ve finally learned how to say no when I need to, without enduring guilt-rashes and weeks of sleepless nights afterwards.
It’s not easy, but it’s necessary, and you’ll also find that the world doesn’t stop dead in its tracks, which is a nice bonus.
Don’t keep stress to yourself
Find someone to talk to when things start getting a bit too much.
It won’t feel comfortable at first, because you’re an INFJ, so you like to keep things nice and private, and you don’t think anyone else will quite ‘get it’, and you really don’t want to bother or inconvenience them, and besides, you can handle it by yourself.
Maybe you can, but it does help to share that mental load every now and again.
Honestly, it does.
The daydreaming INFJ may not spring to mind when you picture a ‘thrusting entrepreneur’, but our unique attributes are more than enough to help us succeed in business in our own sweet ways.
So, don’t be afraid to dive right in.
