Newly Discovered Personality Type Reveals: The Best Consultants Don’t Belong

If you are a subscriber to my blog and reading this, you also might be one of these rare personality types they have just discovered.

Does this story resonate with you?

I was on stage in a hotel ballroom. Bright lights. Big crowd. I told a story about a client who tripled revenue from a trailer. People laughed. People were off the chairs. They danced. I wrapped. Applause.

After my talk, I headed straight to the restroom. Not because I needed it. Because I needed the quiet.

That’s the tell. If you are an extrovert on stage and an introvert off, you might be an otrovert.

You can tune into one mind like a Bluetooth signal. But you can’t connect with a crowd like Wifi.

For example, I dislike the standing part of receptions with superficial small talk. I am the guy with a glass of red wine in his hands somewhere on the edge of the crowd. I don’t know how to connect with the collective. But I am known for my Mr. Spock-like ability to mind-melt with individuals. That’s why I love the sitting part.

If you’re like me, you’ll readily volunteer for a job at a party. Host. DJ. Bartender. Coat check. It separates you from the crowd, and you can powerfully tune in and connect with another person’s mind.

If that sounds familiar, you might be an otrovert. A non-belonger.

Comfortable alone. Fiercely independent. Warm one-on-one. Lost in groups. You don’t want to be in the circle. You want to look from the outside in.

Being an otrovert means you are wired for entrepreneurial consulting. That wiring is a gift and a governor. It gives you focus. It can also cap your growth.

Client acquisition, for example, loves noise. Rooms. Small talk. Self-promotion. You do not.

Conference chatter drains your battery. Small talk with a crowd feels fake. Put you with one buyer and you lock in. Put you in daily stand-ups with ten people and you count minutes.

On stage versus off stage. One mind versus the crowd. Bluetooth versus WiFi.

You did not stumble into these lanes. Otrovert wiring pulled you in.

You did not fit because you were never built to belong. Corporate rewards belonging. You do not belong. Promotions favor consensus. You question consensus. Culture celebrates meetings. You create in silence. Politics values visibility. You value results. The org wants you in the circle. You think better outside it. You finished the work early. They filled the calendar anyway.

In a corporation, your strengths looked like defects. Independence looked like noncompliance. Focus looked like aloofness. Original thinking looked like a risk, sometimes even insane, or too much ahead of time. You were told to be more visible, more social, more available. You tried. It drained you. It did not move the needle.

In these lanes, your strengths are assets. Independence equals speed. Focus equals throughput. Original thinking equals edge. Silence equals authority. You are not avoiding the team. You are protecting the result.

But you see what the room cannot. That is why boutique consulting felt right before you had a name for it.

The buyer is close to the money. The noise is low. You diagnose thoroughly unfazed by public opinion and statements like: “We’ve never done this before.” or “We’ve always done it this way.” You prescribe as an original thinker. Your originality lands without a committee sanding it down

Groups protect consensus. Breakthroughs require outsiders. Einstein did not whiteboard the New Theory of Relativity with a task force. He walked and thought. Then he wrote. Boutique lets you do the same.

That is why fractional work fits. You show up for the critical moments. You steer. Then you disappear into deep work. No water cooler. No theater. Just weekly wins the whole company can count. No standing meetings. No committee ritual. Your value is clarity delivered fast, not hours logged slow.

You collect frameworks in notebooks. You reduce chaos to checklists. That is the knowledge business calling you. Assets compound. Calendars do not. You package what you know so ideas travel farther than you do. A model sells while you sleep. A short training turns strangers into buyers before the call begins. Calls start at decision, not discovery.

Cause and effect. Otroverts are original thinkers. Original thinkers make leaps alone. Leaps build value. These lanes preserve your independence so your originality can pay. They keep the room small so the signal stays clean. They multiply your impact without dragging you back into a crowd that would dull it.

How to win in consulting as an otrovert.

Build your game on three pillars.

First, control the environment. In a job, the group sets the rules. In consulting, you do. Pick the problem. Pick the client. Pick the tempo. Design your week around deep work, not meetings. Long thinking produces simple moves. Simple moves produce big outcomes.

Second, unless you are allowed to own the stage, sell trust in small rooms. Small meetings are power. You can connect to each participant like Bluetooth device. You listen. You see what others miss. You say the thing no one says. The buyer feels seen. The deal closes.

Third, cash checks for original thinking. Most advice is copied advice. You do not accept “everybody knows.” You test. You strip the fluff. You present the clean version. Clients pay for clean.

Cause and effect. Control your environment. Sell in small rooms. Deliver original thinking. That is consulting. That is otrovert fuel.

A story from the hallway

After that ballroom talk, I was headed for the exit. A COO stopped me in the corridor. No small talk. Just this: “Our pipeline is stacked. Our team is fried. If we grow, we break. If we slow down, we die. What would you do?”

We found an empty breakout room. You know those with leftover food that no one wanted to take home, and still lukewarm coffee. Twenty minutes later, I sketched a three-step fix on a flip chart. No slides. No buzzwords. She took a photo. Hired me that week.

That is the otrovert edge. Alone with a real operator, the noise drops. The signal gets loud. You make the hard call. They feel relief. You become the person they text when it matters.

“But I hate networking.” Good. Stop doing the kind that doesn’t work.

You don’t need a bigger network. You need a smarter system.

Build an AI-assisted appointment engine that scales without you working the network. It finds and filters prospects so only a few serious leads raise their hands to talk to you. You focus on those buyers. One on one.

In the meeting, you lead with results, not a pitch. You share a specific observation. You offer a short decision. A teardown. A live audit. A keep-or-kill call. Not a pitch. A result.

Check out this event to help you do that: https://www.teamlawless.com/5-day-lead-getting-challenge-live-sign-up

The real reason consulting fits otroverts

We are outsiders who like to help insiders. We respect the craft more than the party. We enjoy a mic and a stage because it separates us from the crowd, not because we want to mingle after. We leave the ballroom, find the quiet, and do our best work in rooms with a door that closes.

Consulting gives us those rooms. It rewards depth over noise. It rewards clarity over consensus. It rewards being useful over being popular.

You do not need to be affiliated with a company. In fact, not belonging is why you can be trusted me. You are not protecting your place in a tribe. You are protecting the result.

We are built for a different game. Consulting is that game. It is not about being loud. It is about being right, being useful, and being relentless about outcomes.

If you have spent years feeling like an outsider at work, take this test from the Otherness Institute to see if you are in fact an otrovert: https://www.othernessinstitute.com/the-otherness-scale/

I did. It was the most liberating day of my life.