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Improve Your English by Acting Like a Salesman

Gabby: This is an All Ears English Podcast, Episode 103: “Improve Your English by Acting Like a Salesman.”

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Gabby: Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, where you’ll finally get real, native English conversation with your hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the ‘English Adventurer’ and Gabby Wallace, the ‘Language Angel,’ from Boston, USA.

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Lindsay: In this episode, you’ll learn four ways to chase your English goal like a salesman chases his commission.

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Lindsay: Hey, Gabby. What’s up?

Gabby: Buon giorno (Good day), Lindsay.

Lindsay: Okay, hello.

Gabby: Okay, we’re getting a little crazy.

Lindsay: Yes. No, you’re a little crazy.

Gabby: We, we – okay, we’ve been recording all day because we love you guys and we love making episodes, but…

Lindsay: Yeah.

Gabby: …I am a little…

Both: Crazy.

Lindsay: That’s good. It’s good to be crazy. So, let’s talk about the four things that our listeners can learn from a salesman.

Gabby: Yeah, I think this is an interesting strategy and a way to keep motivated…

Lindsay: (Mm-hm).

Gabby: …for learning English. There are four qualities of a good salesman or woman, which you can apply to improve your English skills. So, take it away, Lindsay.

Lindsay: All right. So the first one is confidence. But actually it’s something a little bit more than confidence. It’s ‘arrogance.’

Gabby: Just a little bit. A little bit of arrogance could be healthy.

Lindsay: Arrogance (kind of) has a negative connotation…

Gabby: Yeah.

Lindsay: …but in this context it’s a good thing.

Gabby: Yeah.

Lindsay: So to be arrogant is to be what?

Gabby: To be arrogant is overly confident.

Lindsay: Overly confident.

Gabby: It means you may not have the skills but it doesn’t matter. You are confident, as confident, or more confident than someone who has the skills. So, let’s say you’re still learning English and you may not know every single word in the English language – nobody does.

Lindsay: (Mm-hm). Yeah.

Gabby: But, it’s okay. You have to be arrogant about your skills and, and say, “You know what? I can do this.”

Lindsay: Yeah.

Gabby: “I got this.”

Lindsay: Exactly. So you would just jump into a situation and start that conversation and not really care if you make…

Gabby: Yeah.

Lindsay: … a mistake. So be arrogant.

Gabby: Yeah. Know that you are good enough, if not the best.

Lindsay: (Mm-hm).

Gabby: Repeat to yourself, “I am the best English speaker.” And believe it.

Lindsay: Yes.

Gabby: Nice. The next quality that a great salesman have, has that you also want to have is ‘empathy.’ Why is empathy important when you’re speaking to other people?

Lindsay: So, I think empathy is really key to any kind of communication, right?

Gabby: Yeah.

Lindsay: Anytime that we’re talking to anyone in any language it’s really about feeling what the other person’s feeling in that moment.

Gabby: Right. And considering their viewpoint, their background, what they might want to get out of a situation, what is that person looking for – when you’re a salesman, you have to think from the point of view of your customer.

Lindsay: (Mm-hm).

Gabby: What do they want? What do they need? So when you’re speaking English it would be to your benefit to think about what your conversation partner or your audience wants to get out of your interaction. Do they wanna (want to) be friends? Do they, (you know), what, what else? Are they…?

Lindsay: Yeah.

Gabby: It depends who they are.

Lindsay: Just for example, thinking about what your boss wants. If you’re working…

Gabby: Yeah.

Lindsay: …here in the US, what does your boss want? What do, what do…?

Gabby: What does your…?

Lindsay: …your colleagues want?

Gabby: What does your English teacher want?

Lindsay: What does your client want?

Gabby: Yeah.

Lindsay: Right? That’s really important.

Gabby: So that determines how you speak to the person.

Lindsay: (Mm-hm). And it’s a good way to just get back to the whole taking the spotlight off of, off of yourself and on to someone else.

Gabby: Yeah. How can you help that person?

Lindsay: (Mm-hm).

Gabby: Great.

Lindsay: ‘Resilience’ is the next one.

Gabby: Yeah. Resilience is key because you’re going to make mistakes, you’re going to fall down, you’re going to experience setbacks. But resilience means that you pick yourself back up, you stand up again.

Lindsay: Yes, awesome.

Gabby: You keep going.

Lindsay: Love it.

Gabby: Yeah. So obviously learning a language, you’re going to make mistakes.

That’s good, that’s normal, but keep going.

Both: Don’t give up.

Gabby: Oh. That wasn’t planned.

Lindsay: The last one is the ‘hunter’s mentality.’ What does a hunter do?

Gabby: Well, a hunter is always going out, taking action, going after something. A, a hunter is usually, (you know), maybe someone who hunts for deer. (Um) there’s (there are) some people who go out with their rifles and they shoot deer or, or perhaps an animal like a lion is a hunter and they run after gazelles or something. So…

Lindsay: Oh, nice.

Gabby: …you’re going after…

Lindsay: Yes.

Gabby: …something.

Lindsay: And you’re willing to (kind of) – as we said, (like) go through the details, right, to get that thing. You’re always keeping your eye on the ball…

Gabby: Yeah.

Lindsay: …or keeping your eye on the goal.

Gabby: Right.

Lindsay: I think we have an expression, “Keep your eyes on the prize.”

Gabby: Yes. Yes, the prize.

Lindsay: All right. So, you’re willing –so the details would be for example – I don’t know – learning those conjugations that you have to…

Gabby: Right.

Lindsay: …learn or, (you know), getting into it.

Gabby: Doing whatever it takes to get that goal, right. The lion wants its next meal and you want to be fluent in English.

Lindsay: (Uh-huh).

Gabby: So what is it going to take to get there?

Lindsay: Yeah.

Gabby: Figure it out and do it.

Lindsay: So there you have it. Those are the four qualities of a salesman. Let’s go back through them one more time. Gabby, what was the first one?

Gabby: Confidence and even arrogance.

Lindsay: Empathy.

Gabby: Resilience.

Lindsay: And the hunter’s mentality. Woo-hoo!

Gabby: Yes.

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Gabby: If you love All Ears English and you want to seriously improve to the advanced native-like level of English, we made a premium subscription package for you with more support. What do you get? You get audio and text transcripts of each new episode when they’re released. You get practical learning tips every week. You get an exclusive subscriber’s version of our e-book, “How to Improve Your English with a Podcast” and you get all the previous text transcripts, Episodes 1-88 and you guys can ask direct questions – you can communicate directly with Lindsay and myself, Gabby, to ask any question about English. So it’s a huge value. You can find that subscription package on our website at allearsenglish.com/conversations. That’s c-o-n-v-e-r-s-a-t-i-o-n-s. See you there.

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Lindsay: If you wanna (want to) put your ears into English more often, be sure to subscribe to our podcast in iTunes on your computer or on your smartphone. Thanks so much for listening and see you next time.