Lizzy and Lissa break down the hidden costs – financial and otherwise – of personality tests. From free quizzes to pricy corporate assessments, they unpack why we’re so obsessed with labeling ourselves and whether it’s actually helping. Are these tools guiding self-growth, or just giving us something to blame?
Lizzy and Lissa break down the hidden costs – financial and otherwise – of personality tests. From free quizzes to pricy corporate assessments, they unpack why we’re so obsessed with labeling ourselves and whether it’s actually helping. Are these tools guiding self-growth, or just giving us something to blame?
Main Topics
00:00 Introduction to Personality Types
01:18 Running The Numbers Segment
04:44 Criticisms and Limitations of Personality Tests
09:50 Personality Tests in the Workplace
19:58 Personality Profiles and Horoscopes
20:48 Myers-Briggs and 16 Personalities
23:08 Dating and Personality Compatibility
24:36 Validity of Personality Tests
28:07 Brand Archetype Quizzes
33:04 20 Cents Segment
References for Statistics
https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/all-things-work/assessing-personalities
Lissa: I am an ENFJ, but the E is kind of like 51%. So it's like half E, half I. What about you?
Lizzy: I am an INFP, but the IE and the P and J are all around the middle.
Lissa: Oh, 50/50?
Lizzy: Yeah.
Lissa: Well, if you have no clue what we are referring to, we're going to get into it in this episode because today we're discussing are personality tests worth it.
Lizzy: Let's talk about it.
Lissa: Welcome to Net Net with Lizzy and Lissa, where we analyze hidden costs and empower you to make your own damn decisions in life. Each episode covers a different facet of life, and at the end of each episode, we each give our takes on whether we think something is net positive or net negative.
Lizzy: I'm Lizzy, a strategist and consultant with almost 20 years of experience in finance and investing.
Lissa: And I'm Lissa, a personal finance expert and a certified financial planner. We're best friends who talk about money.
Lizzy: And everything else.
Lissa: And everything else, Liz.
Lizzy: Sorry.
Lissa: Are personality tests worth it?
Lizzy: First up, running the numbers on personality tests.
Lissa: Over 2 million people take the official Myers-Briggs type indicator, the MBTI every year. It is a popular personality assessment that sorts people into 16 types based on how they perceive the world and make decisions. This is the one that I was referring to when I said that I'm an ENFJ.
Lizzy: A 2017 survey from the Society for Human Resource Management found that about one third of companies use personality or behavioral assessments when hiring for executive roles, and nearly 28% use them for middle management too.
Lissa: When it comes to corporate assessments, Leaders.com reports that over 80 million people worldwide take some form of a personality test every year fueling a global industry worth more than $2 billion.
Lizzy: And it's not just the paid ones even free online quizzes are shaping how people think about their careers, relationships, and their sense of self.
Lissa: Well, we know there's more to life than numbers and statistics, so let's talk about it. Are personality tests worth it?
Lizzy: All right, everyone's going to know where I stand by the time we get to the end of this.
Lissa: Really?
Lizzy: I love personality tests. They're like kryptonite for me. I can't, the concept of doing this little thing and then getting a profile and understanding more about yourself, it just speaks so perfectly to how my brain works and my psychology that I've kind of always been that way, and I'm sure I've done most of them a million times, and I can also understand the criticism of it, but I still enjoy the process.
Lissa: That's interesting. I can see that because it does provide some structure and it has an element of reflection, which are things that I think help you. You have ADHD, so sometimes structure helps you. And then in terms of reflection, you do a lot of self-reflection. And so it's like you answer some questions and then what's reflected back to you is a take on you. And I can see that being beneficial for someone who likes to do reflection.
Lizzy: Yeah, it's funny actually, I haven't dug into this in therapy, but I'm sure there's a root there because I can think back to when I was a kid and trying to understand or having some perception of the roles people play in the world. And sometimes you see this in a very prescriptive sense in what's that movie where they all go to detention in high school from the eighties? Breakfast Club.
Lissa: Oh, yeah, yeah. Breakfast Club.
Lizzy: Yeah. Where it's like the jock. But I think I was always trying to figure out where I fit and what my identity was. And so it made a lot of sense that I ended up going into branding, which really, that's the whole premise of it is what role do you play? How do you define your identity? And so that's always been a very deep interest of mine.
Lissa: That's so interesting. Well, okay, you're kind of giving away you're 20 cents already.
Lizzy: I know. I told you. I can't help it.
Lissa: So let me play some devil's advocate here. I want to touch on some of the reasons I've heard of why people roll their eyes at them and think they're stupid or whatever, because it puts you in a box. It says that of every single person in the world can fall into one of these one of 16 right. Now rather than being one of seven, 8 billion, you're one of 16.
Lizzy: For sure.
Lissa: And I think for some people it takes away what their sense of self is. They get to define what they are versus this thing telling them, "Well, you're this kind of person when..."
Lizzy: That's so interesting psychologically when you think about our human needs that every human has because for a different person, that same thing could say, "I belong. I'm not alone. I am not a completely shunned individual. I am one of these six people."
Lissa: Yeah, I'm not number 17 that's an alien. I'm a 16.
Lizzy: There are others like me, and so others will understand me. So it's just two sides of the same coin.
Lissa: Okay, well how about this one? So Enneagram is another popular one. It shoots out one of how many types? I don't even know.
Lizzy: Nine.
Lissa: Nine types.
Lizzy: Nine. Yeah.
Lissa: So you do this assessment and then you're either a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or nine. And I remember I did it one time and I got a three, which is you're an achiever. And I remember someone, a friend or someone saying, "Oh, that makes sense," because I don't think they called me an overachiever, but I was always primed for success, good grades, good college, good job, everything. I was voted most likely to succeed in high school and in middle school. And someone said that comment, I was like, "Damn, is that all I am to people is the achiever or the overachiever and all I want is success and That's all I'm driven by." And I didn't identify with that.
Lizzy: And it can be an oversimplification, right?
Lissa: Right.
Lizzy: Because that may be one part of you, but you contain multitudes and you have so many different levels.
Lissa: I'm not saying that doesn't exist, that exists, but I didn't want to be defined by that. And that's what this thing told me. And part of, I think I did that at work and we'll get to the work and career part of it, but I am pretty sure I did that assessment at work. And it was like the whole point was the more you know about yourself and the more what buckets you fall into, let's talk about your strengths and how you can utilize them at your job to perform well and to make more money and all that good stuff. So it had a good intent, but it was like, "Dang. But I don't see myself as that. How can I be one of the other numbers? What can I change about myself or what answers can I change to the assessment to change who I am?"
Lizzy: Well, and I think it's interesting that you said that with the achiever because I think another potential cost is that on some levels, society places more value on some types than others or even just thinking a capitalistic system. And so I think a lot of people might aspire to be that because they may perceive that that says good things about them, that they're going to be successful in life and you have the opposite experience. And so I think some of the dynamics that are labeling, and it is a cost for sure.
Lissa: Okay. So have you ever done a personality test of some kind and got a result that you were upset about or, "Ah, no that's not me?"
Lizzy: I think I have a specific mindset around it where probably because this is something I've always been interested in, it's more like exploratory. Like, "Oh, let's see what comes out of this." I have always felt like I am a whole lot of contradictions. I am introverted and extroverted, I am organized and also not at all. I like structure and I hate structure.
So I think that's one reason it helped me understand things about myself. But also I recognize these are actually all a spectrum and usually I can see myself in a few different things or as I'm doing the questions, I'm like, "Well, if I answered that one differently, I would've gotten this." And I'm able to handle that nuance with myself because I think they're fun.
I have had a couple where I didn't really identify it. I don't think I've had one that it bothered me, but another cost I can think of is over identifying with it. So sometimes you might say, "Well, I'm not like that. I'm this person, I'm not like that." And that can inform your choices if you over identify with a prescribed identity or an archetype and think, oh, well, I don't have to deal with those things. That's not my strength. Or I don't have to develop my weaknesses. And that was an interesting mindset thinking of the career one. There's one called StrengthsFinder that's really, really popular.
Lissa: Clifton.
Lizzy: Yeah.
Lissa: StrengthsFinder.
Lizzy: StrengthsFinder.
Lissa: Have you done that one?
Lizzy: I have. I can't remember the results, although I have them. And then another similar one, I think it's actually a related evolution called Standout, that one doing that for me was actually fairly transformative. It was really illuminating. These ones were much more detailed, but it came along with the mindset from organizational psychology that you're better off sharpening your strengths than trying to compensate for your weaknesses. That's going to be much more effective in the long run and that was a mind blown moment for me.
Lissa: Interesting. So you mentioned the Clifton StrengthsFinder. So I actually got access to this. God, how did I get access to it? Oh, I was part of some mentorship program where I got paired with a mentor and it was this nonprofit organization and I was a mentee. So they allowed us all to create a login. They had a license where they paid for it, and they allowed us to all do the StrengthsFinder to learn more about ourselves and how we can be leaders. And so one, it was cool that we got to do it for free. I don't have to pay for it or anything because some of these, you can't just rock up on the internet and find it.
Lizzy: No, you can't. Yeah.
Lissa: And take-
Lizzy: It's like enterprise only.
Lissa: Yeah. You have to actually take it through your job or pay for it or something. And so I got the opportunity to do it and I was really excited about it. And then when they sent me my results, when I went through it, I felt like there was nothing I didn't know already.
Lizzy: Interesting.
Lissa: And I was like, "Dang, people pay money for this stuff?" And I don't know if that's because I'm at a point in my career already where I have a lot of awareness or maybe this particular assessment didn't do anything for me, but I was just like, "Yeah, I already know that. Okay, now what?"
Lizzy: That's really interesting. But someone could have that same experience and that feels validating. I'm in the right place.
Lissa: Oh, I already know this about myself. Yeah, but I was [inaudible 00:12:03] more like, "Oh, I'm curious to learn some new things and what are my strengths and how can I use those strengths?" And you know what it was, it gave me stuff I already knew. And then if you wanted to unlock more...
Lizzy: Oh, that's annoying.
Lissa: To dig into what you can do with it, it was like another tier I think that you had pay for.
Lizzy: Oh yeah, that's annoying.
Lissa: Yeah.
Lizzy: Yeah.
Lissa: So it's the commercialization of this.
Lizzy: And of them have that. For sure. That made me think though, when you talked about the achiever hypothetically, I'm not saying this was your case, but that could still be useful information if you are like, "Okay, this is where I'm at now, or this is how people perceive me now, but I don't want that to be how people perceive me."
Lissa: To be achieve-less. Let me do less.
Lizzy: Or play up these other things. Make sure that other people know these other sides of me because I don't want to be pigeonholed.
Lissa: Yeah, that's true.
Lizzy: So it could be valuable information, but a lot of it is your mindset.
Lissa: Okay, that's a good call out. So another one that I remember taking at work years ago was this one called True Colors. It was like a team off-site and as part of our off-sites part, it was like we're doing work stuff and planning for the next year or whatever projects that we were working on. And then part of it was icebreakers, but also exercises to get to know ourselves better and one of them was assessment called True Colors. I can't remember the gist of it. I just remember that you either ended up being a red, blue, yellow, or green.
Lizzy: Interesting.
Lissa: It was one of these. I have to look into what it was again.
Lizzy: That's interesting just because people already have emotional associations with colors.
Lissa: With colors. Yeah. One, I don't remember what color I ended up. I think I remember not liking the color I got because it wasn't my favorite color. But something I remember too was that I was the same color as a couple of people and I was like, "Dang, I don't see myself as them at all."
Lizzy: I could imagine I would have that experience. I can't think of times when I've taken it with a group, to be honest. I did the StrengthsFinder through my job, but I think it was a leadership thing or an opportunity that, it wasn't all of us. I did then have been in positions where I've encouraged my team to do them, but that was more for me as a manager.
It's really helpful to understand some of those things of, here's an example I've used in business. For me, money alone is not very motivating. I need to enjoy the process or the challenge. And if you want to encourage me to do something or keep me engaged, that's the way to do it. For a lot of other people, money is highly motivating. And so if you say, "Hey, the first person to get here gets a bonus," that will work for those people, not for me. So for management or structuring a team, building culture, understanding some of those things can be really useful. And you don't always get that or can take a long time to get that in the course of business. So I've used it that way, but I've never had to look around and be like, "Ew."
Lissa: Yeah. Interesting. So this has made me think of how much do these assessments, these personality tests actually move a business forward? Because obviously they cost money. I actually don't know anything about how much they cost a company to license the test.
Lizzy: I really don't know cost.
Lissa: Yeah, I don't know that. But is it worth paying for to have your employees all do an assessment and know a little bit more about themselves when you don't know for sure that the employees are actually going to take that and do something good with it?
Lizzy: I don't know the cost when we did it. It was part of a team building exercise that I think now this may be my bias because I was part of planning it, I think made people feel like we were more invested in them as human beings than just as the work product that they output. And we're more interested in helping them develop their career, which I truly was, and understanding how they're unique. So I think it did a good amount for the culture of my team. I hope it did. And it did give me some insight, but I don't know that there's a monetary cost to that.
Lissa: All right. Yeah. Okay. So let's talk through some of the costs. So cost of taking a personality test for an individual, sometimes you can find these for free online, but sometimes you actually have to pay.
Lizzy: Yeah. Or sometimes they hook you and then you can't really see the results.
Lissa: Oh. Speaking of, okay, this is a tangent, but I think someone had sent Allan a, was it a personality test? It was something about, it was some kind of personality test about your love language, maybe? It was love languages related, something like that. It was in that arena, and as soon as I saw it, I answered a question or two and I was like, "Oh, wait, no, they're going to require my email address or something to send me the results, if not more." And then Allan was having fun answering the questions anyway, because the questions are self-reflective a lot of the time. So he was having fun going through all these pages of questions, and it took him 15 minutes. I remember we were eating sushi or hand rolls. We were out, and he took it and he finally got to the end and he was like, "Oh, man, it is going to cost me 1.99," $1.99.
Lizzy: Yeah, I've totally done that.
Lissa: Relatively cheap. And he's like, "Oh, it's only $2 should I do?" And I'm like, "I don't know, because if it's only 1.99, something seems sketchy about it because I feel like they're going to try to upsell you on something else after because they're not going to make a profitable business on getting $2 from-"
Lizzy: A Tripwire product.
Lissa: Right.
Lizzy: Is what it's called. Yeah.
Lissa: So I was like, "I don't think this is worth it. This is stupid. I can tell you what," at this point, I was pissed. I was like, "I could tell you what your love language is, or personality is because I'm your partner."
Lizzy: Right. Okay. That sparked two thoughts for me. One for a potential cost of these is if you are not self-aware enough to know the truth about yourself, you're going to get an inaccurate result and it will reinforce those beliefs about yourself. So it can actually push you further away from real clarity if you're not being honest with yourself or if you just don't know yourself. And so that's a challenge. But the other one is sometimes they'll say they'll have personality tests, not so much the professional ones, but it'll be like, "Oh, you're compatible with this type.
Lissa: Oh, yeah.
Lizzy: And that can unconsciously or sometimes consciously inform how you're evaluating partners.
Lissa: You limit yourself because of that result.
Lizzy: Yeah. Or you can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. So I was going to bring this up separately, but horoscopes could be their own topic, but are very similar to these personality profiles.
Lissa: Oh, we got to do an epi-
Lizzy: That's its own episode.
Lissa: We got to do an episode on it.
Lizzy: But you definitely see that, and I can think of, I've dated so many Tauruses, but is that real or is that just something in my head?
Lissa: Well, that's so interesting that you bring up horoscopes because it's a thing. Well, it's a thing for the people who, it's a thing for. Some people don't give it to him, but for the people who care, it's like, "Wait, I'm a Gemini. You're an Aquarius. Oh, we should be good friends." that makes sense. It makes sense why we're friends. It's like confirmation bias sometimes.
Lizzy: Yes.
Lissa: Or...
Lizzy: And the power-
Lissa: It's the opposite.
Lizzy: And the power of suggestion, right?
Lissa: Yeah.
Lizzy: You are a Gemini, you're like this and you're like, "Oh, I am like this."
Lissa: I am like this.
Lizzy: And then you embody it. And that may not be bad, but it's influential.
Lissa: But I think that's similar. So I actually got confused. The 16 personalities thing is, these are the archetypes that are in Myers-Briggs, but I think the assessments are actually slightly different. I could be wrong. I remember taking the Myers-Briggs assessment in college, I think it was a thing as part of one of my classes, and I got ENFJ, and then later on in the future, this website popped up where I think you actually can do it for free.
Lizzy: You can. Yeah. I've done it there.
Lissa: And throughout 20 years of doing these things, I've been a hundred percent, I've been one of two ENFJ or INFJ and it's very interesting to me that I've identified as that. I've met other ENFJs. Like Liz told me that she's an ENFJ, and I was like, "Wait, that doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't click for me that you're an ENFJ when I know three other close friends who are ENFJs, it makes more sense to me that we have similar tendencies." So even then I'm discounting what you have.
Lizzy: But to your point, mine has changed. So the first time I did it, or I just looked in my Gmail, it was from 2017, so eight years ago I was ENFJ, and I remember always the E and the I are...
Lissa: Almost 50/50.
Lizzy: Almost equal. And I think sometimes, which is extroverted, introverted.
Lissa: Yeah, for those who don't know.
Lizzy: Yeah, and then-
Lissa: So, each of the letters for the 16 personalities is one of two. So the first letter is either extrovert or introvert, E or I. The second letter N or S is intuitive, even though it's I.
Lizzy: Yeah.
Lissa: Yeah. The N for intuitive, I forget what the S is for.
Lizzy: Yeah, I don't remember the S.
Lissa: The F versus the T.
Lizzy: Feeling or thinking.
Lissa: And then the P or the J is perceiving or judging.
Lizzy: Or judging. Yeah.
Lissa: So you slid on the extrovert introvert that goes back and forth for you.
Lizzy: Yeah.
Lissa: As well as the perceiving and judging.
Lizzy: Thinking and feeling has always been close and perceiving and judging, I flipped. So now I'm more perceiving.
Lissa: So Liz has 16 personalities, basically. It could be any-
Lizzy: But that's an interesting thing though, when you're kind of borderline.
Lissa: Cusp. On the cusp.
Lizzy: Yeah.
Lissa: So interesting. So the ENFJ thing, I brought that up because when you said about dating with horoscopes, when I used to be on dating apps back in the day, I don't think I ever put mine, but I noticed when people would put theirs on there like, "Oh, I'm a ISFP, or I'm a whatever," and then there's actually websites to tell you, would an ENFJ be compatible with this? And then you read into it, like you said because you think it's true, it's factual.
Lizzy: So I think at the root of these, you're trying to get some understanding about yourself and how you navigate the world. And then in that example, how you interconnect with other people and how compatible you'll be. So I think the sentiment isn't wrong, but it's the idea that encapsulates all of you, that there isn't nuance within that or that those are the most important things in determining compatibility.
Lissa: And the funniest part about this particular assessment is when you take this one, it's a lot of hard questions sometimes where it makes you pick between two statements and which one you're closer to. And sometimes you're like, "Well, both statements are very true, so am I smack dab in the middle or do I lean slightly towards this one?" And so if your answers change on a daily basis then your output is going to change also.
Lizzy: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I am curious. I'm sure there have been studies on this and I know, so I do have a friend who has a PhD in organizational psychology. She did tell me that most of these are bullshit academically. However, the StrengthsFinder is very well respected. I took that and I respect her opinion, and I also think I find value in them for what I find value in them for. Does that make sense?
Lissa: So do think when they were created, there wasn't a bunch of scientists in a room actually making sure it's a legit assessment?
Lizzy: I don't know the origin of Myers-Briggs. I think it has an academic origin, but...
Lissa: I think it does.
Lizzy: I think the science has evolved beyond that, and I'm going to misspeak, but I think there's something to, it has kind of been debunked or it doesn't hold up academically, but that doesn't mean that you can't-
Lissa: Doesn't have value.
Lizzy: Can't identify.
Lissa: Right, right. Okay.
Lizzy: So I think not to jump ahead to horoscopes, I think of that similarly of there are a lot of people who are like, "That's so stupid." And I'm like, "I can enjoy it for what I enjoy it for. Not that it has to be true or not, it's I think there's something interesting in this, or it lends some insight, or I get some pleasure from identifying with this thing, so why not?"
Lissa: Okay, that's a good call out because I think some people, I've run into people who think horoscopes are dumb and who think personality tests are dumb is like, "Oh, that doesn't describe me at all, whatever." And to me it's like, "Cool, that's fine. That's your opinion, that's your take." But also in the back of my head, I'm like, "You just don't get it." Whereas I'm like, "Well, I get it. So that's why it has value to me."
Lizzy: It's funny because I have that thing, and it happens all the time in dating with horoscopes is like, "Oh, I've noticed a lot of men associated with women liking them and being this frivolous, 'Oh, it's not backed by any science.'" Okay, sure. And if you don't have enough imagination or open-mindedness to understand why someone might enjoy this, that says a lot about you.
Lissa: And what is science anyway? There has to be experiments run on this. If you read something and it rings true to you, who care cares?
Lizzy: Or gives you some insight.
Lissa: Insight. Yeah.
Lizzy: Or gives you some comfort?
Lissa: Yeah.
Lizzy: Wonderful.
Lissa: All right. See, look at you trying to sway me on this.
Lizzy: I know.
Lissa: All right, let me think of what are other costs to taking personality tests? I guess primarily is if you have to pay for them in any way. There are a lot of scams out there.
Lizzy: Yeah, definitely.
Lissa: All these made up ones online that are like, "Oh, we'll tell you which-"
Lizzy: And there's so many now.
Lissa: Yeah, which type you are of this? Just put in your email or pay a dollar or $5 or whatever. So small monetary costs. Time.
Lizzy: [inaudible 00:27:31]. Time.
Lissa: Time. Because some of these assessments take-
Lizzy: Some of them really do. I swear I did the same one or from the same company as the one Allan did, and I don't think I paid for it.
Lissa: But it was a lot of questions.
Lizzy: Yeah, it was a lot. It was like, this is an investment. And usually I'm like, "Okay, I'll give them my email at the end." I didn't think I was going to have to pay at the end.
Lissa: Or by the time you get to the end, you're like, "Dang, I've already put some and time."
Lizzy: They know what they're doing.
Lissa: Yeah. I was like, "I already put in 30 minutes. I might as well pay $2 to see what this is."
Lizzy: Actually a very smart business tactic. But yeah.
Lissa: Okay. Oh. Speaking of, there's another tangent. Speaking of business tactics, I want your thoughts on brand archetype quizzes or archetype quizzes, because I actually wanted to make one for my business as a lead magnet where I can tell people, "You're this type of financial person." However, I kept getting in my own head about doing it because I felt like I wasn't doing research, I was just making stuff up that I felt was true. So I haven't done it yet, but what do you think about those types of quizzes?
Lizzy: Yeah, so from a branding standpoint, brand archetypes are rooted in psychology. They're based on the Maslow's hierarchy of needs and some inherent personalities and roles that you see throughout human history. So for example, the most famous one is the hero, the hero's journey. They're all kind of pieces of the same pie, and so they don't just apply to brands, but you typically see businesses strategically play up a certain identity, the role that they're going to play. So the hero would be like a Nike or a democratizer is one of them, the magician.
The idea behind them is that without even saying it, there are things that are familiar to people that are universal across humanity because of storytelling. And if you can get your business to share those characteristics and fill that mold, it's going to be a lot more readily accessible to people, more memorable, all of those things. They're automatically going to know where to place it. Kind of like I mentioned earlier, like the jock, the cheerleader, and that's a psychological function that people use to categorize information. The flip side of it is stereotyping, but that's actually how our brains work in order to take in lots of new stuff. So anyway, these key in on that.
I've used them extensively. When I would do a brand identity for someone, I would often include their brand archetype if it really lended itself. I had the quiz on my website for a long time. So I think they're helpful for people who are new to something to orient themselves. And so I think it could be worthwhile in your business for someone to say, "I don't even know. I've never considered myself in this way, but you see me, you see this thing about me and recognize this, so that makes me trust you."
Lissa: Yeah, I mean, so if I've confused anyone, it's kind of similar to a personality test. It's like an assessment you take and then it spits out some reflection about you that's in an easy to understand, easy to read way.
So my idea would be a money personality assessment where I have you answer a bunch of questions like how do you feel when it's payday? How do you feel when you run out of money? How do you feel when you see something you want but you can't afford it? You answer all these questions on a scale and then it spits out, "Oh, you are a frugal spender or, "You are a," whatever. But I'd have to come up with what those archetypes are to actually make it meaningful. And I feel like there's a lot of responsibility that comes with that to I give someone an identity if they're going to take it that way, where I just want to use it as a tool to help guide you.
Lizzy: Yeah, so I use mine multipurpose. The one I had on my website was like, "Where are you in your branding journey?" And so I would work with small businesses and people that were literally just had an idea, people that were further along, but there's a big emotional journey with that. "I'm really anxious about this. I'm excited. Where's your budget?"
And so I would find that a lot of people were brand new, they didn't need a lot. And so that helped align them with a certain type of service, whereas people who were further along and were trying to grow their business maybe needed something more. And so I used it as a segmentation tool to understand, "Oh, I'm attracting people that are here," or, "This person is better aligned with this service." But it also helped them understand where they sit. In this timeline, I think of, oh, okay, I'm not there yet, but I'm right here and here's the next logical step.
Lissa: I was going to give, my response was going to give away my answer, so maybe we should just do 20 cents.
Lizzy: 20 cents.
Lissa: Okay, 20 cents. 20 cents is a segment of the show where both Lizzy and myself, Lissa, each get 60 seconds to give our 2 cents on today's topic, whether it's a net positive or a net negative for personality tests. Where does 20 cents come from?
Lizzy: Because y'all get the opinion of two dimes.
Lissa: Two dimes. All right, Liz, you're up first. I feel like this is going to be a short one, at this moment in time for you. Are personality tests worth it?
Lizzy: Okay. You know what's funny, I am generally the person that does not want to be put in a box. I'm not going to do what everyone else does, so it's really interesting that I enjoy these so much. But yeah, I already showed my hand. I am net positive. I love learning about myself and understanding how I present the world, understanding myself better, and I see value in these even if it's not prescriptive, and I enjoy the experience of it, so I'm big on personality tests. Net positive.
Lissa: Net positive.
Lizzy: Yeah, no surprise there.
Lissa: No surprise.
Lizzy: All right. I don't know what you're going to say.
Lissa: Okay, so going into the episode, I was about 50/50, not because I don't like them, I enjoy them as well. Maybe primarily because the latest one I took the StrengthsFinder I didn't get a lot out of, and then I'm like, "Dang, people pay a lot of money for this stuff," so I was kind of 50/50. I think after this discussion, I lean towards net positive because you made some key points about what they can be used for, and I think they're a tool. I think if you rely on them to tell you about you because you don't have a sense of self, I think that's not so great. Maybe you should do some other soul-searching.
But if you're using it as a means to reflect back and to see another person or system's perception of you and you're ready and willing to welcome that, then I think that makes you actually a stronger person because you can try to look at yourself from an objective point of view, from someone else's objective, supposedly objective point of view.
Lizzy: Yeah, all subjective, but that one. Yeah.
Lissa: It's subjective, but another person's point of view. Anyway, so that's where I land net positive.
Lizzy: All right. I'm kind of surprised. Yeah.
Lissa: I don't think I'll go out of my way to pay for them unless I think it's a really legit one or if it's really backed by research or from a reputable source.
Lizzy: I don't think I'd pay for them. But I do find myself, every once in a while I'll in my email, see the results and I look back and I'm like, "Oh."
Lissa: Interesting.
Lizzy: It's like a recurring, not regularly, but a theme for me in my life.
Lissa: I think next time I do one, that's one of the ones they use a lot in corporate, I'm going to make a concerted effort to use that to my advantage to build my business or to do something in my life, use that actual strength or whatever.
Lizzy: I'm so curious. You've changed and just on every level so much in the past five years, I'd be very curious to see how it would be different now that you found different balance, your priorities have shifted. Would you even be the same?
Lissa: On which one on the scale?
Lizzy: On the StrengthsFinder, for example?
Lissa: Yeah. Interesting. We'll have to see. Well, this is what we think right now at this moment in time, but no one can make that decision but you. What do you think? Are personality tests worth it?
Lizzy: Hit us up. Let us know what you think. DM us on Instagram @netnetpodcast or email us at hi@netnetpodcast.com. And if you want to follow us individually, here's where you can find us.
Lissa: I'm @wealthforwomenofcolor on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
Lizzy: And I'm @live_well_lizzy on Instagram and TikTok.
Lissa: All references, statistics and resources mentioned can be found in our show notes. This podcast is for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only and should not be constituted as financial advice. Remember to always do your own research, consult a professional as needed, and feel empowered to make your own damn decisions.