Personality Facets: Your Not Just An Introvert or an Extrovert – Everyday Fulfillment
No Vacation Required
If you’ve ever thought, "There is absolutely no way a four-letter personality type can capture the nuances of who I am," we have some good news for you: you’re completely right.
Your personality type is just the beginning of the story.
This week, we are kicking off a brand-new, four-part series on personality facets. We’re breaking down the hidden layers of personality to explain why an introvert might look exactly like an extrovert in a crowd, and why a classic extrovert might secretly crave deep, one-on-one connections.
We dive deep into the introversion-extroversion pairing, exploring why knowing yourself is foundational to living a fulfilled life, and how understanding your unique facets can take you from being "one of 16" to truly "one in a million."
Onward and Inward,
COMMON QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN THIS EPISODE
❓What are personality facets? Personality facets are the hidden layers beneath your basic four-letter personality type. While your main type makes you one of 16, understanding your facets takes you to one in just over a million by showing where you fall on specific scales within each pairing.
❓ Can an introvert be an extrovert? While you have a core preference, you can be "out of preference" on certain facets. For example, you can be an introvert who is highly enthusiastic and expressive, or an extrovert who prefers intimate, one-on-one settings over large groups.
❓ Why do people criticize personality typing? Many critics argue that 16 types are too rigid to describe human complexity. However, good personality work uses the basic types as a starting point, using facets to explore the beautiful, messy multitudes that make you who you are.
CHAPTERS
(00:00) Mind Share: The Magic of Trail Conversations
(03:30) Why four letters aren't enough to capture you
(07:15) Understanding personality facets
(12:00) The Introversion-Extroversion pairing
(15:00) Real-life examples: The enthusiastic introvert
(17:00) Client story: The reflective ENTJ
(20:44) Mailbag: Clearing up the "Thinking vs. Feeling" confusion
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LINKS AND RESOURCES
🔗 Putting Your Tertiary Personality Trait To Work – Everyday Fulfillment
TRANSCRIPT
Kent (00:01)
If you've ever thought or said, it's impossible for a four-letter personality type to capture the nuances of who I am, you're right. Your four letter personality is just the beginning of the story, and that's why we are doing a four part series on personality facets, where we break down the hidden layers of personality Today we're kicking things off by exploring the introversion extroversion pairing to explain why an introvert
Kent (00:27)
might look like an extrovert and vice versa.
Caanan (00:31)
Okay, you wanna kick off this four part series with Mind Share?
Kent (00:36)
Yeah, I've got something that's been on my mind a lot lately. We've had some really nice hiking adventures recently. And we've not talked about this. I was thinking about how one time we obviously had the deep conversations with people like our best conversations ever happen on the trails. And remember that time when you said not too long ago, when you said, my gosh, we
Kent (01:02)
I always forget to get these people's information. Yep. And I was like, nope, I don't make that mistake anymore. These kind of magic things happen. Yeah. You spill your deepest, darkest everything, and people certainly do that with us. and then if we get info
Kent (01:25)
You know, it's all ruined. Then you're following them on Instagram and watching their posts about what flavor of LaCroix they think is the best.
Caanan (01:36)
The magic's gone.
Kent (01:37)
The magic's gone and you're like, my god, I was so much deeper with that person. They're so cool. And now I can't I mean, it's fine if you want to post about your favorite flavor of LaCroix, but but once you've gone there with somebody
Kent (01:53)
It's weird to be like, wait, I know blank about these people and this just Yeah. So I mean it's not so much about that as it is about the joy of letting those magic moments just be magic and and not turning everything into
Caanan (02:12)
Now we've got to be best friends forever. Now we're gonna follow each other on social.
Kent (02:16)
Yeah. The dental hygienist was really cool. So I've got to get her insta. Like, now you'll just be let down. So
Caanan (02:27)
So just let it be a magic moment.
Kent (02:28)
be cool.
Kent (02:29)
let them be cool and just have that magic moment. Yeah.
Kent (02:37)
I'm so excited about this four pack. Yeah. It's it's just it's the ussiest of usy that Usie can ever get E.
Caanan (02:50)
This is really us-y, for sure. In fact, I would say this is the heart of what we most love to talk about. And it's the heart of what we do with YouFinder. Because of course, you know, if you've listened to this podcast, that we're all about personality. We think knowing yourself. No, we don't think, folks, we know.
Caanan (03:16)
Knowing yourself is foundational to living a fulfilled life, to living a no vacation required life. And so we talk a lot about personality. And as Kent, you said in the intro, a lot of times people will say, Yeah, personality is cool and all, but I'm more interesting, I'm more complex than one of 16 types. How can four letters really capture me?
Caanan (03:45)
And as you also said in the intro, we're like, yeah, you're right. 100%. And that's why we love facets. Yep. So as we say, your personality type makes you one of 16. And that's cool. And there's a lot to take away from it. But facets take you to the one in a million
Kent (04:10)
Yeah. Place. I wish I had the number. it's literally a number. Makes you one in just over a million. And I love it. Keep going. Yeah.
Caanan (04:19)
Yeah, so this is what we're talking about in this four-part series. We're kicking today off explaining facets, but also we're going to get into the I/E introversion and extroversion pairing. Yeah. And break that down a little bit. And each week we'll take one of the other four pairings or three remaining pairings, and get into how there's a lot more to it than you may
Caanan (04:48)
realize than you may have been told before. Yep. So Kent, do you wanna like get into do you wanna explain facets a little bit? Yeah.
Kent (04:56)
I'm coming clean. Okay. Yep.
Caanan (05:00)
Doing
Kent (05:02)
Coming clean is to why I said I'm so excited about this four pack because something that you don't know, Caanan I was just reading or vetting another book
Kent (05:13)
that got into personality and the person just trashes personality and invokes the name of all these gurus, people some of them who you and I both have great respect for, who have similarly trashed the idea of personality. But doing a real heavy lean in into it's so unbelievable that people would fall for this trap of thinking that one in 16
Kent (05:39)
personality types describes them. what a croc we've been sold. yeah and I think, you know, if you want to have anger about things, you there's a lot more things you should be angry about, like late stage capitalism and all this stuff. But if you want to come for personality, great. I'm even going to defend that it depends on what personality battery you use. You know, the one in eight, one in four, one in ten, one in sixteen...
Kent (06:04)
nobody, well, only a bad practitioner says this is you a hundred percent. Like nobody is saying this is you. But what I think people actually don't know, and what these professionals don't bother to say in their critique, is that that is the beauty of
Kent (06:22)
actually knowing your specific personality type and behind the scenes, the deep work that we do with organizational groups and people.
Kent (06:35)
We can get your personality down to that one in just over a million because you have facets. So this week we're talking about the extroversion, introversion scale. And if you haven't listened to our last four-pack where we get into the four pairings – extroversion / introversion was week one, sensing / intuition, week two, thinking / feeling was week three, And
Kent (07:04)
perceiving and judging was week four – You learn about those basic components. This week we're getting into more the nitty-gritty of the E/I pairing. So you have five facets
Kent (07:18)
That help to discern where you as an individual fall on the E/I scale. This is why
Kent (07:27)
You can see, most people see bits of themselves in each end of the scale, but you end up having a clear preference. So each of those five facets in each of the four pairings, and again this week we're talking about introversion and extroversion, you can be totally in preference, you can be mid-zone.
Kent (07:51)
Or you can be out of preference. So you can learn if you're doing this with an appropriately knowledgeable person, you can really learn the specifics of where you shine in preference, meaning the assessment will tell you if you're a introvert or an extrovert overall, but you learn how that is made up. So for instance, with the introverted.
Kent (08:16)
Extroverted pairing, one of the things we talk about is if you're more expressive or more contained, those are facets. That's one facet scale of the E/I pairing. Another one is whether you're more enthusiastic or quiet presenting. So it's these nuances that take you
Kent (08:41)
To this place where you're not just a basic personality type. And again, we think there's a lot of there's a lot of good information in that basic information. We have a product called Typefinder that stops at that one in 16 place. And that alone is enough to blow the minds of people left, right
Kent (09:08)
And center. So this next level that we go to in YouFinder with YouFinder, as Caanan mentioned, gets to that one in just over a million. And it's why we love to talk about it because the more you know, the more you can funnel this into your life.
Caanan (09:26)
I think a lot of people stop at the one in sixteen. Again, that's fine to know your broad personality type. I think that's very helpful. Any work you do to know yourself, no matter how surface, is still good work. But I think a lot of people get stuck at that one in sixteen because that's what's being offered everywhere because it can be automated. Yeah.
Caanan (09:49)
We don't do that with TypeFinder but most of the places you go to get your personality type, that's all automated. and again, that's fine.
Caanan (09:58)
But when you get into facets, and I'm just gonna repeat what facets are because it's a it is a little confusing, but when you get into facets, that requires some interpretation. Yeah. And that's why
Caanan (10:11)
you need a practitioner to help you understand facets. And that's why we love doing it, So I just want to wrap this up by repeating that as we're talking about this, we're talking about the five different facets of the IE pairing. We won't get into the details of all those different facets because that'll get confusing.
Caanan (10:32)
But we're gonna be talking about how a person can be an introvert or an extrovert, but have parts of their introversion or extroversion, that are in preference, meaning aligned with their introversion or extroversion, mid zone, which means they can go kind of either way toward introvert or extrovert, and out of preference, where some part of them
Caanan (10:59)
is not directly aligned with their overall type.
Kent (11:05)
In everything we've done, in our personal lives and as sought after business and career development consultants, we've learned one consistent thing. Most people just don't know themselves. NoVacationRequired.com is where we talk about how you too can build a life that you don't need a break from and how it all starts with knowing yourself. There you'll find all of our podcast episodes, information on services, and the scoop on us. And to really raise the bar, we model this as a couple.
Kent (11:35)
To show that a relationship doesn't have to be a compromise or a counterproductive union. When two people are each doing their own work, the heightened connection becomes a shortcut to building a no vacation required life.
Kent (11:47)
I wanna start by saying that I'm probably gonna end up saying this in each of the four coming episodes. So if you listen to all four episodes, you're gonna hear this four different times, but
Caanan (11:58)
You've been warned.
Kent (12:00)
Yeah, well, because there's also this kind of other strange thing happening. And I would make this a mind share, but it's just so important to this topic. And that is well, of course, we like to be true experts. So we're each reading a lot about our field and and this kind of legacy. We consider this legacy work that we're doing.
Kent (12:27)
So something's gotten in my head lately and it's it's you know, concern and questioning about
Kent (12:33)
no, if you go too deep into yourself, you create neurosis or psychosis. Right. Like, like, yeah, right. Yeah. So not only there's this baseline thing that we talked about, which is like, well, the idea that you can be captured in a in a personality is is offensive. And then there's this approach, this thought that says, and and to do this is almost what's the word? Not criminal.
Caanan (13:04)
Selfish?
Kent (13:05)
no demented. Like it's it's it's
Caanan (13:08)
like yeah. Yeah.
Kent (13:10)
Neurotic. Neurotic.
Kent (13:11)
Yeah, well, I already said that. But this idea, and I just want to make it clear, I guess it can be that for people, but the idea is using this knowledge, and this is the way we set up this practice when we do this work, using this knowledge to serve all the parts of you, and to in opposition to those ideas
Kent (13:36)
Actually make you calmer and more informed and more certain and able to leave
Kent (13:43)
hyper introspection on the sidelines because now you know who you are. You've got Caanan and I call it, you've got your now operating manual. That's what we call our YouFinder product because people look at it like, now I know how to do life. You're able then to put that mental turmoil aside. Yeah. And you're from our clients' reports clearer
Kent (14:10)
More certain and it takes away those voices in your head saying, Who am I? Am I doing the right thing? Am I doing the right job? Should I quit my job? Why do I do this job? So you always want to be sure that this information is serving you to live your life, not serving you to become crazy. so I wanted to say, yeah, as we kick off this talk about facets, as it relates to introversion versus extroversion.
Kent (14:38)
Caanan and I are both quite balanced because you tend to grow more and more into your type in life and then you
Kent (14:49)
gain such balance and appreciation for the opposing facets of who you are that you become extremely balanced. We're both extremely balanced, generally speaking. But an example of how this facet thing works that I want to talk about is that I happen to be a very enthusiastic or a quite enthusiastic introvert, which is confusing and it's confusing. Yeah.
Kent (15:14)
to people who know me. You know, people are basically convinced that both Caanan and I are raging extroverts because as we've talked about before, we know who we need to be and how we need to be and how we want to show up when we're around other people. We're very much the people who congeal with people and make the group come together and find common ground. But I think it's my enthusiasm, my kind of
Kent (15:41)
Rallying ability people see, and it's confusing to them. And it was confusing to me before I knew all this stuff that I now know about personality. Learning about facets, this is perfect. I'm still an introvert. But in this facet, enthusiastic versus quiet, and one other, to be honest, I have some pretty strong
Kent (16:08)
Extroverted vibes.
Caanan (16:10)
So
Caanan (16:11)
you're out of preference in a way, meaning you have some extroverted qualities that actually make you a very good leader because and I'm saying this to you, so you can be modest.
Kent (16:26)
Thank you for coaching me.
Caanan (16:28)
Because you can bring a level of enthusiasm that makes people want to buy in, especially when you're doing one on one or small group thing, which makes sense for an introvert, and your passion comes out in a way that makes people really lean in and care to hear what you say. I do that while we listen to this podcast.
Kent (16:53)
That's funny. Yeah.
Kent (16:55)
And I know there's a a client example that you want to share. And before we wrap up this
Kent (17:00)
segment, I want you to do that because I think it's a really great example.
Caanan (17:03)
Yeah,
Caanan (17:04)
I will be very careful when talking about clients. but I wanna share something about a client who is an extrovert. They're an ENTJ, which is classic executive quote unquote personality type.
Caanan (17:22)
But this person came to us kind of confused because they felt quite introverted in many ways. And so it didn't make sense to them. they weren't as comfortable leading big groups or being sort of the party starter, if you will. Turns out, when we look at their facets, that they're out of preference in the scale that is
Caanan (17:49)
Gregious versus intimate. And they're out of preference on the scale between active and reflective. And so this client is
Caanan (18:00)
an extrovert. There's no question about it. But they also have this part of their personality that really prefers small intimate groups and to be able to connect one on one and to be reflective. And
Caanan (18:15)
that makes them feel at times
Caanan (18:17)
like an introvert. So their confusion
Caanan (18:19)
was completely understandable.
Kent (18:21)
Yeah, thinking about this client, it reminds me of the feeling I had and that I just shared partially, everything completely clicked for them. I was like, okay, boom. now that that's being taken care of and this helps to define the kind of leader, the kind of executive I am, this makes total sense. But because this client valued those more intimate, deep, meaningful, one-on-one
Kent (18:48)
moments they couldn't accept the idea that even they could be both and similar to the experiences you and I have it created some confusion within them because it's like am I crazy to see myself this way because it feels strange to label myself fully one way. But now that this client saw these facets attached to these different
Kent (19:11)
pieces of their introversion extraversion scale, everything clicks.
Caanan (19:17)
Thanks for listening. We'd be honored if you'd subscribe, like, and share. It means the world to us.
Kent (19:23)
Okay, so that gives you an idea of
Kent (19:26)
facets as it relates to particularly this extroversion, introversion pairing. So if you take anything away from this...
Kent (19:35)
Today's the day you stop thinking that extroverts are loud or introverts or shy making those broad assumptions. Yeah. because you just have to look at yourself. And I would bet that no matter where you land on this pairing, you're going to have a facet or two or maybe three that is a little conflicting and will blow up
Kent (19:59)
in the best way possible, in an illuminating way, how you relate to your own extroversion and introversion.
Caanan (20:08)
Yeah.
Caanan (20:09)
And then going forward through the rest of this series on facets, it's just important to remember that like we've said before, I didn't come up with this quote. We contain multitudes, and you can be a quiet extrovert, and you can be a gregarious introvert. Yeah. Those things are not mutually exclusive. and allow
Caanan (20:33)
yourself to
Caanan (20:35)
look at your personality from a place of yeah multitudes and allow yourself to be who you are and facets help make sense of that.
Kent (20:50)
Mailbag time. I've been laughing about this ever since we got an email from somebody about earlier I talked about our last sequence, our last four pack as we call them. And in the third of that four pack, we talked about the thinking versus feeling pairing.
Caanan (21:10)
Wait, I'm gonna stop the podcast right now and I'm gonna insert what you said right
Kent (21:17)
I laugh at this is you and I both have ⁓ thinking in our in our tertiary. And at one point in my life I remember thinking ⁓
Kent (21:25)
I wanna be a lawyer, one of those things like that that came up that was like a great thinking kind of position. And I kind of well, you had talked about this regarding feeling in the last episode. I kind of fashioned myself as like, okay, so to do the kind of jobs I think I wanna do, I have to be a thinker. Yeah. So
Kent (21:47)
Honestly, ⁓ I always felt kind of disadvantaged. Like I was getting great grades and, ⁓ you know, all that stuff. ⁓ All the accolades and awards. ⁓ But I felt like I couldn't ⁓ think like a normal person. Yeah. Lo and behold, I figure out my personality a little bit later in life. And it's because ⁓ thinking is not ⁓
Kent (22:14)
your dominant strength! A dominant strength or even an auxiliary ⁓ strength.
Kent (22:19)
Thank you. Okay. So now we're back from that. And you can hear. And the minute I said that, I thought, no. We're like teaching people through this podcast. And now I'm sounding like I'm saying I don't think. So somebody sent an email saying, wait a minute, I had an idea about personality, but
Kent (22:40)
Like were you saying what you can't think or you don't think? And this is know that when we talk about personality, remember we all carry all of these strengths. Yeah. We're talking about preference. So as I should have made even more clear, really, in every one of these episodes, we all carry all these things
Kent (23:03)
functionally, but we're talking about what you have a preference for. And by preference we mean not picking, we mean a natural ability for. So in that case, when I'm thinking about something there, I using I'm using the word thinking, when pondering something, I tend to think values aligned, does the most good feeling centric.
Kent (23:29)
vibe-centric. Yeah. I do not tend to ponder it from a black and white, quote unquote thinking point of view. So yeah, just to clear this up, we all contain all these things. And we're most of us pretty good at all of these things. Right. But the joy of this personality work is determining what your natural preference is
Kent (23:53)
So that you can always lead with that and not lead with pieces that you're slightly less natural at.