So a couple of months ago I wrote this post on how learning about my Money Archetypes has helped me to better understand my identity when it comes to doing business online and how I deal with money in general. However, through doing this work, a single question gnawed at me:

How can my INFP gifts support and even empower the way I show up to share and sell my work online?

True, I did experiment with mapping my Money Archetypes to the functions of my INFP personality type, and that brought out some interesting stuff, but that alone wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to go deeper, and I wanted to do so through using the Myers-Briggs personality type framework.

I couldn’t find any resources that correlated the strengths of MBTI personality types with what they have to bring to being entrepreneurs in the online space. Much of the information has to do with how personality types show up in traditional work environments, usually office jobs that require some kind of team work. All very generalized stuff. Not helpful at all.

There is information out there on which side-hustle to choose based on your personality type. For INFPs, I think having a side-hustle is especially attractive because we are very creative, are often dissatisfied with having a “normal” job, and need outlets to put our work out into the world and receive recognition. And then also, in our modern landscape, it’s common to have some kind of side-hustle. It’s necessary to pay the bills. “Normal” jobs don’t cut it anymore.

Then there are people like me who were pushed out of the workforce due to health issues. I still want to work, earn income, and contribute to society, but I can’t do so in any way that is traditional. Entrepreneurship is the only way for me.

So with all of that in mind, my curiosity around how my INFP gifts relate to the world of online business just wouldn’t stop growing!

I remembered a book I read a long time ago when I was first starting my deep dive into the MBTI. The book is Creative You: Using Your Personality Type to Thrive by Otto Kroeger & David B. Goldstein. I immediately sensed that this book could have the kind of information I was looking for, and I totally devoured it, taking some serious notes.

However, this book is written in the language of general creativity and not in the language of online entrepreneurship. But thanks to taking in so much information on how to run an online business, I was able to translate the ideas this book shares on the creative strengths of INFPs into the language of the online business landscape.

And when I did so, I was left totally stunned.

The parts of my business that I’ve been undervaluing are actually some of my biggest assets. And even more amazing is that the gifts my personality has to bring are perfect for doing business in the Age of AI. As expected, the way I need to approach online business is very non-traditional, but being non-traditional is the key to using my strengths well.

Through this book, I got a whole new view of how to approach marketing and creating products while keeping the strengths of my personality in mind, and the insights are extensive—waaaay too long for a single blog post!

But I will share some of my favorite insights. So here’s some key elements as to what running an aligned online business can look like for an INFP.

Autobiographical

I really love how the writers of Creative You describe the work of INFPs as generally being autobiographical, yet abstracted. Meaning INFPs often put their life experiences and emotions into their work in veiled ways. Like for example, creating a fantasy fiction story that reflects themes from your personal problems.

As an INFP, this autobiographical slant I give to my work isn’t always conscious. It’s simply the most natural way for me to express myself.

My blog is obviously autobiographical. I’m sharing my personal stories all the time! Same with my books. The whole reason why I created my audiozine was to give myself room to experiment with the autobiographical.

Even my more “practical” projects, like planner sheets and such, spring out of methods that I’ve found personally helpful at the time of creating them. I am taking my audience with me as I learn and experience life.

As an INFP, it’s important to let your work spring out of your soul and life experience, even if it’s so abstracted that others can’t recognize that’s where it’s coming from.

Being autobiographical in your work is especially important right now because with the rise of AI, people are getting unhappy with straight up information that lacks the human touch. The first thing that comes to my mind is how people have been using Google to search for answers on Reddit, because they want to hear opinions from real people, not robot-made listicle articles. People enjoy browsing Quora, not just to find answers but to experience personal stories that share a lesson.

Being autobiographical reminds people that you are real. What you make is real. And that what you have to offer is real.

Talking about yourself creates the human contact people crave. They want to hear your opinion and your experiences as a living being. Share how your life is inspiring your work, and you will inspire others as well.

However, doing this isn’t easy. To let your work bloom from your life experiences, you will have to detach yourself from performance metrics. It’s no longer the numbers and algorithms that are dictating what you should create but the rhythm of your life and your heart.

It’s Okay to Have a Niche, but It Doesn’t Really Matter if You Don’t

If you’ve been following me for a while, you probably know that I’ve been struggling with having a “niche”–a single point of focus for my online business. I create for INFPs, Sensitive people and scattered Multipotentialites. I create for people who are experiencing burnout. I even started creating a little bit for disillusioned Enneagram 3’s.

I am all over the place, and I’ve spent so much time trying to figure out what to do about it! If you have a niche in mind for your business, that’s great! Go for it.

But if you’re like me, struggling to narrow it down but can’t seem to no matter how hard you try, this concept might resonate with you:

If you cannot narrow down your niche, it could be that your life is your niche.

My niche is sharing lessons from my life with you. That is what I do. As my life changes, so does my work. As I unearth more about my identity, that changes what I have to create and share. As an INFP, I am taking you for a ride. My creative work comes from what I’m experiencing, learning, and feeling day by day, and year by year. Just like a singer has songs on their album that point to different life moments, my body of work, from fiction to non-fiction to courses, springs from the different moments and learning experiences of my life.

And as far as people not finding your work if you don’t stick to a niche, that’s absolutely not true. Tech wise, the internet is designed to deliver to people whatever it is that they are searching for. It doesn’t matter if you have a hodgepodge of products, as long as they’re positioned so that the right people can find them, that’s all that matters.

Pay Attention to Putting Your Emotions into Form

This is the true magic of being an INFP Entrepreneur, online or in person.

One of the most amazing gifts that INFPs have is to turn personal emotions into non-verbal communication.

For example, my favorite way to give my emotions form and express them is through writing. I blog, journal and do fiction and non-fiction. I occasionally write poetry, and I love a good metaphor. Stories and characterization is how I also work with my inner-self and understand problems.

I sometimes use visual art and fashion to express my emotions too, but writing is my favorite medium.

But writing and art aren’t the only ways to give form to emotion. Just about any craft can become an outlet for emotional expression, from dance and acting to cooking and coding. The key is finding what medium you prefer using to transform your feelings into something that can reach others.

Once you figure out your favorite ways of channeling your emotions into art, your work can become a very powerful extension of yourself.

First, as an INFP, expressing your emotions through a medium is very cathartic, and because of that you will end up feeling a strong drive to master that skill. And second, modern society right now is a ball of emotions under pressure. Many people have no safe outlet for working with what they truly feel.

Channeling your emotions into work that others can see creates a sense of connection. We connect with art that is born from emotion. Expressing how you feel through creativity is healing for others and yourself.

This is a gift that I’ve greatly underestimated in my business and in myself.

Also this is another skill that will give you an edge in a world where AI is everywhere. AI simply cannot do this. Machines have no real and raw human emotions that can be transmuted into art. Machines can’t mirror emotions back to others through their work because they don’t have any. They lack the ability to initiate emotional healing through deep resonance.

This is special. Take advantage of it.

Embrace Spontaneity and Improvision

INFPs are Perceivers, which means that we are always open to new experiences and information. I like to imagine all the information in my life as a flowing river and my mind as a sieve dipped into the waters. I am always analyzing and sifting through the flow of information: from what happened to me today to what I’m reading. This is an ongoing process, impossible to turn off.

As a result, I start a project, but then stop because I find a new piece of information or realization that changes everything. Often I feel like I’m trying to build my projects on top of shifting sands of ideas and information.

Obviously, this makes sticking to things really hard!

In response to this, I often keep my projects short and sweet so that I can complete them before I change my mind.

This also makes it challenging to write blog posts, although I love creating them. I often go through a few half finished blog posts before I can nail one down to write from start to finish.

However, in trying to plan out my posts and failing because my plans always change—I became blind to another way to do things:

Spontaneity.

My short attention span lends itself to being spontaneous and creating fully in the moment.

If I allowed myself to completely write blog posts as they came to me, I wouldn’t have to fight as much with figuring out which half-done post I should complete. Honestly, the only reason I hold back is because of fear. I’m scared to be spontaneous and just do the thing, although looking at the way my mind works, doing so would be more efficient.

I need time to contemplate and reflect. That’s important. But I also can’t let my need for reflection to allow the creative spark to pass me by.

I know I’m good at improvising and being spontaneous, but so much business advice tells me not to trust that. The common advice is to plan your social media and blog posts and products to keep everything neat and tidy.

But as an INFP, it’s important that I follow my creativity, and for me, creativity is wild and messy. And a business that is truly aligned with my skills and abilities will reflect that wildness and my humanity.

Although I do have systems in place to keep up a kind of controlled chaos, I want to give myself room to be wild. Being wild in a business space that’s looking more and more uniform is greatly needed right now. And many of my favorite (and best) products arrived out of the blue. I didn’t plan them into existence. They found me when I wasn’t looking.

If you’re stuck in analysis paralysis, just deciding to be a little spontaneous and do the thing with what you already know will help you to make real steps forward in your business. You can always improvise and tweak things as you go.

Keep Your Inner Vision Clear

Another point made in Creative You that really resonated with me is the observation that INFPs create from their inner vision. We imagine, daydream, and contemplate, and what we create comes from that mysterious place of nothingness. INFPs excel at creating things that are new, unexpected and that don’t exist yet because we tend to create directly from our imagination and the mental images we see.

And as I shared in my post on why I don’t share my projects in progress, I highly value keeping my vision clear.

Another thing I’ve done to maintain my mental vision is to unfollow artists and writers who are always complaining about how hard it is to make money. It’s true that it is challenging, but so is all business and in reality the ways to make income are endless. I don’t want my mindset to be thrown off by people who haven’t found what works for them yet.

In online business especially, mindset is very important. If your mindset isn’t clear, you can easily get swayed by what other people are (or are not) doing. I’ve also found that limiting the amount of information I take in also helps me to have better focus when it comes to my projects.

And a Quick Word About Branding

For INFPs, branding presents an awesome opportunity. You can use the aesthetics of your business to reflect your life experiences and/or the kinds of emotions you want to share with your audience.

So many online business websites look the same! This is a good opportunity to break that trend and use your website to reflect the kinds of visuals you love and your values.

Currently purple is the main color on my site because that is the color I’ve loved since childhood, and I like the meanings associated with it. And my silly cartoon profile pic reflects my love of comic art and the autobiographical (yes, it’s a self-portrait). My layout is minimalist because I love minimalism, and it reminds me of a blank canvas. I keep my website light because I value fast loading times and international accessibility (not everyone has high speed Internet!).

INFPs are Feeling Precievers, and FPs tend to hop from style to style. So if you find yourself aching to try new aesthetics for your business, this is normal and it’s your way of trying to find your own business identity. It’s helpful to ask, “What feels the most authentic to me right now?” and go with it. What feels authentic for you right now is all that matters.

So this is a general overview of the insights I’ve had about doing online business in a way that uses my strengths as an INFP. There are still many nuances and details that I wasn’t able to cover here.

This research has made me aware of how much potential I have, and how much I’ve been missing out on! And honestly, I feel a deep sense of relief. I’ve never seen an autobiographical business before, but the title fits so well with what I actually do. I create from my life experiences. I feel like now, I can create from a place of more clarity and confidence.

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Free Resources…

So…What’s Your Story? A Guide to Creating Powerful Personal Essays as an INFP Writer

Discover Your INFP Archetypes Test and Workbook

Hush Zine Issue 1: Crying is Awesome Free to listen 🎧