Does My Personality Type Put Me in a Box?

In this episode of Marketing Personalities, Brit Kolo gets real about the common question, “Does my personality type put me in a box?” Listen in to hear Brit’s response to this question and how your personality type is less of a box and more of a tool for self-awareness. And with self-awareness comes conscious living.

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Links Mentioned:

Brit’s Interview on the Indie Law Show, hosted by Joey Vitale

Podcast Episode: #106 What do the letters of my personality type mean?

Find your Marketing Personality Type here!

Does My Personality Type Put Me in a Box? Episode Summary:

Welcome to another episode of the Marketing Personalities Podcast! I’m Brit Kolo and I’m here solocast style to get real about the common question, “Does my personality type put me in a box?”

A couple weeks ago I was interviewed by Joey Vitale on his Facebook Live show, called the Indie Law Show – I’ve linked to this interview in the show notes because it was such a great interview. We got to discuss a specific dynamic between Joey and one of his mentors and dissect what might be happening within their two different personality types, which was causing some tension. Really interesting stuff.

What we also got to talk about and what inspired the recording of this podcast episode was when Joey asked me what I had to say to anyone who asks, “Does my personality type put me in a box?” I thought that was such a great question, so relevant, and while I did answer the question in the interview with him, I wanted to come onto the podcast and answer that for you in greater length so you could really understand how I approach this question and how you can approach it as well.

The Marketing Personalities Podcast on Spotify

So, “Does my personality type put me in a box?”

And it’s funny how you yourself might react to that question. I can see the Analyst tribe – INTJ, INTP, ENTJ, ENTP – thinking, “No, no, I’m too smart to be put in a box. You want to put me in a box? Try me.”

And Diplomats – INFJ, INFP, ENFJ, ENFP – might respond with, “Oh no, no, it can’t be as simple as putting one into a box. There must be more to the story than that.”

Sentinels – ISTJ, ISFJ, ESTJ, ESFJ – might actually appreciate the box idea. Boxes? Boxes help with organization. Boxes are safe places to hang out in. They might welcome being put in a proverbial box, at least at first.

And Explorers – ISTP, ISFP, ESTP, ESFP – might chuckle and think, “Yeah, people have been trying to constrain me all my life and it hasn’t worked yet. Why would this box be any different?”

Isn’t it funny how we each look at things differently?

And just by giving you those examples of how I might expect you to react to the question at hand, you might think, “Wait did she just put me in a box?”

Ah, so meta, isn’t it?

Okay so really, “Does my personality type put me in a box?”

My answer to this question is – only if you let it.

Because, yes, your personality type can put you in a box if you perceive it to do so.

And fortunately, that also means your personality type doesn’t put you in a box at all if you don’t want it to.

Here’s what I mean by that.

Your personality type can be a box that you put yourself in – you can get your personality type results, accept it to all be total fact about you and go on with your life.

Very few people do this, though. Most of us realize there’s much more to the story than just what’s summed up in our personality type results.

On the flip side, instead of being a box, your personality type can be a tool that you use in your life to know yourself better, gain a greater sense of self-awareness, and through that self-awareness, make better decisions for yourself and ultimately craft and live a conscious, authentic life.

Now, let’s be clear – there are sixteen personality types according to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and over 7.5 billion people on the planet. So obviously there is no perfect personality typing system that really explains you as a human being. And honestly, I would hate it if that were possible. To be able to pinpoint every single little thing about each and every one us? Creepy.

So what the 16-type framework allows us to do is get an idea of what we prefer as we walk around, living our lives.

And to go even further down this road – I know the deep intuitive feelers who are listening, the Diplomats, will appreciate this – the 16-type framework allows us to get an idea of what our EGO prefers as we walk around, living our lives.

So no, personality typing is not a perfect science. Therefore, if it were a box, it would have really flimsy sides to it.

From my perspective, your personality type does not put you in a box.

Rather, it provides you a unique, multi-faceted tool for gaining greater self-awareness. And with greater self-awareness, comes greater consciousness. And when you’re more conscious within your day-to-day, you can make more true-to-you decisions. And as you make more true-to-you decisions, you craft and get to live a more authentic life.

Now, apply that greater self-awareness to your business and marketing strategy. Ultimately, you’ll get to craft and operate in a business more authentic, more true to YOU.

And when you feel good, your audience and your customers feel good.

That’s the whole point of Marketing Personalities. That’s what I’ve set out to bring to you.

Now the question becomes, “If my personality type is more of a tool than a box, how do I use this tool?”

First, I suggest understanding the different preferences that make up your own personality type – the letters. I went into detail about all ten letters that could be in your personality type, back in Episode #106, so if you haven’t listened to that yet, that’s where to start. By understanding the different preferences that make up your personality type, you get a real ground-level view of what makes up the real essence of you.

Next, dig into the detailed explanation of your personality type when all four of your letters come together. I recommend reading your results from 16personalities.com. I think they do a remarkable job with their result explanations, making them relatable in many different aspects of life like how your personality shows up at work, in relationships, in parenting, etc etc.

By understanding your personality type as a whole, you can then choose what you accept to be true about your genuine nature and what things don’t totally match up. Remember, we’re so so unique and individual. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator gives us a great idea of our preferences and how they show up in the world, but it’ll never tell us the entire story because we’re human and humans are a mixed bag, to say the very least.

And as you get more and more self-aware, you are able to then apply these different parts of yourself to the different parts of your life. Like your business, your business model, your marketing strategy, your daily routine, your business relationships, the list goes on and on and on.

All of this, in an effort to stop feeling fake, salesy, inauthentic, and to begin showing up and feeling good as your real self. Because when you feel good, your audience feels good.

And bonus, the more you really know about yourself, through the lens of your personality type, the better equipped you’ll be to dispel myths and misunderstandings about your personality type when someone does try to box you in. Right? So when someone finds out you’re an INFJ and assumes you’re a prolific writer, that may be true for most INFJs, but if it’s not true for you, you can dismiss their assumption or even speak up and correct them.

See? You get to choose whether your personality type puts you in a box or not.

Now, I’m going to be taking this conversation even further in an upcoming episode where I show you how to apply the attributes of your personality type to the specific industry you’re in. This is going to be so much fun – I’ve tested this on a bunch of my business friends and it’s always an eye-opening, inspiring exercise. So that’s coming for you on Thursday, July 18th.

And next week, we’ll be talking about why “Free Marketing” is not actually free!

Wut the wut??

So stay tuned for that. Talk to you next week!