A few weeks ago, NPR ran a story about the “slow internet movement,” describing internet cafes that charged 99¢ an hour for you to plug your laptop into an old-fashioned modem and experience the World Wide Wait from the 90s all over again. And I’d forgotten about the story until yesterday, when someone at a training I was facilitating offered up an interesting metaphor. He said that introverts process information more slowly, like a dial-up modem. I thought that was a brilliant comparison, and shared it on Facebook – that’s when the fun really began…

Last week, I attended a workshop about how to create a compelling business vision and purpose. As part of the process, we were asked to name our core values, going so far as to narrow it down to one, unshakable value that we held near and dear.

Even when faced with a long list of lovely words, such as abundance, creativity, excellence, innovation, quality and winning (Ha – I’ll never look at that word the same way again – thanks a lot, Mr. Sheen), I found it simple to name my #1 value. Here’s how that value flies in the face of conventional wisdom.

When we spend most of our days with our colleagues, coworkers and computers, it’s easy to understand how our personal relationships can take a back seat. If we’re in a committed relationship, we can grow apart from the people we love most because we’ve not made it a priority to focus on them in a loving, intentional way. And what if we’re single? In that case, we want to attract that ideal partner while being true to who we are.

My conversation today is with Sarah Anma, Relationship Mentor and founder of Art of Relationship. We talk about being an introverted single, what makes committed relationships work, and how to balance introvert/extrovert partnerships.

Do you have a message you want to shout from the rooftops? Since shouting isn’t usually a way introverts communicate, we’re lucky there’s a more subtle way to get our message across: writing a book. Laurie Helgoe, Ph.D., author of “Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life is Your Hidden Strength,” is passionate about helping writers become authors and guiding you through the journey from idea to publication.

Laurie and I talk about introverts and publishing in this lively conversation. The focus of our chat is on lifting the veil of mystery on the process of getting a book published through a mainstream publishing house.

You know how sometimes a word keeps popping up over and over, so much so that you have to stop a moment and wonder why? Over the past few weeks, my word-pop has been “fierce.” It’s not a word I’ve used very much, and I’ve certainly never used to describe myself or anyone I knew.

I mean, really, come on… I’m an introvert!! Can a “good girl” who’s also an introvert be fierce??

So I did what we do these days: I took the question to my Facebook community. Here’s what happened…