“In today’s world, if you don’t have a presence online, you basically don’t exist.” Wow. How does that statement make you feel? Do you agree or disagree?
Nowadays, more and more people are interested in building an online presence and there is a lot of misinformation about how to do this. In today’s episode, Foster and Jackie share their personal stories about building an online presence and a list of 5 common mistakes that people make while trying to grow their online presence.
Here’s the list of 5 things that you should NOT do:
- Don’t act desperate or pushy. – Don’t buy followers, trade likes for likes or harass people to share your content. – 3 real followers are better than 30,000 fake followers.
- Don’t be a copycat or an actor/actress. – Don’t copy other people or try to be someone that you are not.
- Don’t sell your soul for fame or money. “It takes years to build a reputation and a minute to destroy it.”
- Don’t try to attract or please everyone. Be very clear about who your ideal client is and focus on him/her while producing content.
- Don’t fall into the comparison trap. You should definitely feel inspired by others but don’t feel inferior just because you are in a different stage than someone else. Focus on yourself and keep moving forward.
Homework: Have you considered doing any of these 5 things? Or have you done any of these 5 things? If so, that’s okay! Make a list of the things you need to stop doing and listen to the next episode for some solutions.
TRANSCRIPT WITH HIGHLIGHTS
Welcome, everybody, to another episode of “Improve Your English, Improve Your Life”. I’m Jackie, and I’m here with…
Foster. Hey, Jackie.
Hey, Foster. So, today’s episode is… is a juicy one. And we were just talking about how nowadays, in today’s society, if you don’t have a presence online, it’s almost like you don’t exist. And Foster, what was the example you just gave about the restaurant?
juicy = literalmente “suculento”, usado de maneira informal para falar que algo é interessante e com bastante substância
– I’m reading a juicy story right now about a detective trying to find his biggest enemy.
First, I just gave a big, long sigh of… “If you don’t have an online presence, you don’t exist”.
sigh = suspiro
– Marcie sighed, tired from working all day.
I know. Bad.
Ah…But I – we were talking about this subject and I gave the example of a restaurant in the past. I don’t know, if you saw a new restaurant or a friend told you about it, you tried it out. But nowadays, if I’m going to a restaurant, beforehand, I almost always search on Google and then I look on Google Maps and I read the reviews. And if they do not have a presence on Google or at least, like, a few reviews or a website, I instinctively think, like, “Hmm. This place is not legit. It’s not a real restaurant”. Yeah. So if we like it or not, especially if you’re doing any type of business, an online presence is… kind of comes with the territory nowadays.
beforehand = de antemão
– If you come to visit, can you tell me beforehand? I may not be home.
reviews = literalmente “revisões”, é o equivalente às “avaliações” que podemos deixar para produtos, locais, etc.
– Before I buy a product, I always read the reviews. I want to make sure it’s a good product before I spend money.
legit = forma curta e informal de dizer “legitimate”, significa “legítimo”
– Do you think this site is legit? It looks a little suspicious to me…
comes with the territory = (lit. “vem com o território”) expressão idiomática que significa que algo “faz parte”
– Being a mom can be really hard, but that’s normal; it comes with the territory.
Exactly. And we both have online presences. Yours is more in the audio world. Mine I guess is more video and in social media world. But it’s something that everybody nowadays is… is trying to do. They’re trying to grow an online presence. They want to show the world who they are, what they do. But there’s a few mistakes that people make that probably prevent them from growing as fast as they would like to do. And we ourselves have made mistakes because there’s no guidebook, there’s no manual on… on what you should do and what you shouldn’t do. And if there is, it’s probably something that’s just trying to… “Give me your money and I will tell you all the shortcuts”. But there really are not many shortcuts.
shortcut = atalho
– Take a left here, it’s a shortcut to the museum.
Yeah, that… that’s kind of the dilemma that we find ourselves in. It’s not a lack of information. But, for example, if you’re trying to grow a business on Instagram and you search for how to do that, you’re going to find a lot of information, like, probably a pyramid scheme of like, “Hey, buy my course, about how to grow followers on Instagram”.
pyramid scheme = lit. “esquema pirâmide”, ou “pirâmide financeira”, uma espécie de fraude que atrai pessoas com promessas de ganhos rápidos ao indicar novos clientes para o esquema
– Do you think this site is legit? It looks a little suspicious to me…
Exactly.
So, I think just having our personal stories might contribute.
Yes, I agree. There’s a lot of ads I see all the time on Instagram; “How to grow a million followers”. But again, it’s not the number of followers. It’s, like, the people that are true followers, not just paid robots following you to try and trick people into thinking that you’re more credible or…
ads = forma informal e curta para “advertisement”, que significa “propaganda”
– Ugh, I hate it when there are this many ads in the videos. It’s hard to watch!
trick = aqui, o verbo “to trick someone”, que significa “passar a perna em alguém”, ou “usar de maneira desonesta para instigar alguém a fazer algo”
– Peter tricked William into giving him some money, even though he said he wouldn’t.
It sounds… sounds like a cult. “Your true believers!”
cult = seita
– This book is about a person who escaped from a cult. It was really scary!
Your true believers! I know! Oh, my goodness! All right. Well, let’s dive in here. So, guys, if you are interested in building an online presence, we’re going to start out with five things, five “don’ts”, five things that you should avoid or that you should not do. And if you’re doing these things, do not feel bad about it. I myself have done things that, looking back, I regret. I just didn’t know any better. So it’s just to learn, and – and now you guys will learn how to grow the right way.
Oh, my goodness! = lit. “ah, minha bondade!”; expressão equivalente a dizer algo como “minha nossa!”
– Did you see that enormous bear? Oh my goodness!
I didn’t know any better = lit. “eu não sabia melhor”, expressão que significa que a pessoa não tinha noção nenhuma de algo que fez
– His parents made a lot of mistakes with him, not because they were terrible people, but just because they didn’t know any better.
Yeah. So, “Jackie’s list of five things not to do when growing an online presence” in our podcast. Whenever we have a list, I always ask Alexia, my partner and co-host, if she can give me a drum roll.
drum roll = lit. “rolar do tambor”, é o som de tambores normalmente feito antes da revelação de algo impressionante
– It’s time to reveal the winners of the Oscars. Can we have a drum roll, please?
Oh!
Because I can’t make the drum roll sound. I don’t know if you can roll your R’s like a…
Like that?
Yeah. Perfect! Or what does a drum roll sound to you like?
Yeah, it’s actually like that. Like the R’s. It’s a pretty bad drum roll!
Okay, Jackie, kick us off: What is the first point on your list of things not to do?
kick us off = expressão idiomática que, neste caso, significa algo como “dê partida no que vamos fazer”. Vem da expressão “to kick off”, que expressa “dar partida/largada em algo”
– We’re going to kick off the new school year with a lot of interesting activities!
Number one, don’t act desperate or pushy. Some examples of this would be sending messages to every single person you know or all of your followers on Instagram or WhatsApp or wherever, begging people to share your videos, to like your videos or to buy something. Most… This could work a little bit, but I do think most of the time it has the opposite effect and people get annoyed by this. I, for example, receive messages all the time from people asking me to “Share my video, share my content, help me grow, help me, help me, help me!” And it’s overwhelming. And it doesn’t make me… I mean, I want to help people, but when you get 50 messages a day, it’s… it’s too much. And – what we will talk about in the next episode – it should be mutually beneficial. You don’t want to just ask people to help you all the time. It should have some benefit to them as well. Another example that I see is people trading likes for likes, follows for follows; like, “Like and I’ll like back, follow me and I’ll follow back”. Okay, I get it. But why do you want people that are liking your content or following you just because you… you like them or are following them?
begging = forma -ing do verbo “to beg”, que significa “implorar”
– Dogs are always begging for food.
overwhelming = forma -ing do verbo “to overwhelm”, que significa algo como “sobrecarregar”
– I have so much work to do, I don’t think I can do it. I’m completely overwhelmed.
Right. And I think this will probably be a recurrent theme throughout all of your points. But I think, at least, the fundamental question in my perspective is “Why are you doing this in the first place?” So if you’re trading likes for likes, that kind of misses the point if you’re trying to get people to actually like you.
to miss the point = lit. “errar o ponto”, tem o sentido de “errar o objetivo” ou “não entender o sentido de algo”
– If you are working during your vacation, you are missing the point of a vacation. You’re supposed to relax!
Exactly.
Yeah. Great advice.
Yeah. And to me, it just sounds like whoever is… is wanting to grow, they’re more interested in their fame and their perceived popularity than actually helping or delivering content. So that’s just another thing to be careful of. Also, buying followers and likes, people do that. They pay followers, they pay for likes as a way to trick people into thinking that they’re better or more reputable than they actually are.
Yeah, I remember when… Two questions. First, Jackie, I want to put you on the spot. Have you ever paid for followers? Have you bought followers?
to put someone on the spot = colocar alguém em uma “saia justa”
– I hate to put you on the spot, Mark, but I need you to decide about this right now.
Never. Never.
Good for you. Yes. I have never done that, either. But I remember I remember a while back, Alexia found a tool that, like, you can see if people… like, if their followers are real or if they’re paid for. And it’s kind of crazy how many people are buying followers these days.
Yeah. And what’s interesting is… at first, like, if you enter an account, you could see like, “Oh, wow, this person has 20,000 followers!” And sometimes you can hide the like count so you don’t even know how many likes they have. But you can tell, you know, if there’s zero comments or one comment. You know, it just… it doesn’t… I mean, and people are getting smarter about it. But to me, the number of followers and the number of likes is not important. It’s, like, the quality of the people that are following you; if they’re engaged, if they’re interested in what you’re posting, even if it’s three people, like, focus on those three people. Don’t try to buy 30,000 more just to trick people into thinking that you’re better than you are.
Exactly. So does that all fall in the category of Point One?
Yes.
“Don’t be pushy or don’t act desperate”.
pushy = demasiadamente insistente
– I don’t like going to that store; the salespeople are so pushy!
Desperate? Yes. Yeah, it is. And I actually have one more point to go under this one. And this happens a lot on… actually, on YouTube… Well, Facebook and Instagram – like, videos. When I post videos, there’s always people that comment on the video with their videos or their WhatsApp group or their whatever. And again, I just don’t… to me, that just requires so much effort. First of all, maybe it’s a robot that does it. I’m not quite sure. But I’m like, “You’re taking advantage of another person’s video to push your own product or push your own thing”. It just seems desperate to me, and I don’t think people need to do that.
desperate = lit. “desesperado”, no sentido de “querer algo a qualquer custo, principalmente quando não se tem mais boas alternativas”
– When Katie didn’t find her money in her purse, she started to desperately search all over the house. She needed that money!
Yeah. Yeah. Another personal question for you, Jackie: Do you comment on things on the Internet? So it could be Instagram, YouTube, but do you leave comments for people that are not your friends? Like, I’m thinking from my personal experience, I’ve never left a comment, like, for someone famous.
Hmm. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I’ve never commented on, like, a famous person’s post necessarily, but there are people who I don’t know personally that I’ve bought their courses or I really follow their work and sometimes I’ll comment, but it’s usually just emojis. It’s like a heart or a smiley face or a laughing face. I don’t really ever give any opinion other than that.
smiley face = lit. “um rosto sorridente”, nome dado ao emoji que tem uma carinha de sorriso
– He didn’t say anything to my text, he just sent me a smiley face.
laughing face = lit. “um rosto rindo/dando risada”, nome dado ao emoji que tem uma carinha dando risada
– That was so funny! I answered him with a laughing face!
Yeah, yeah. No, I’m just always… amazed by the amount of time and effort and energy people put into commenting on, like, anonymous, random stuff on the internet. The whole thing makes me a little bit sad, but okay. Point number one.
It’s… Point number one.
Don’t be pushy. Don’t be desperate. And I want to ask, Jackie; so we… we have five things that you’re recommending we should not do when building an online presence. The next episode, we’re going to give five things you should do.
Exactly.
Okay. Because I want to ask you for all the answers right now.
I know! I’m holding back!
to hold back = lit. “segurar para trás”, expressão que significa “se conter”
– If you need to cry, don’t hold back; cry as much as you need!
But today, let’s stick with the no-no’s.
no-no’s = plural de “a no-no”, expressão que significa “algo que não se deve fazer de jeito nenhum”
– Kissing people that you are meeting on the cheek is a big no-no in the USA.
Yes. So these are the no-no’s. You guys can create a list, like, “Do not do these things”. And then in the next episode, we’ll tell you what you guys could do and should do that are better options.
Perfect.
All right. Number two: “things that you should not do” is to be a copycat or to be an actor or an actress. And I’ll explain this. So, for example, someone who is a copycat is always watching and copying what other people are doing. And a lot of times they even use their same content. They have a profile, for example, that’s other people’s content as a way to… to grow. The actor is someone that plays a role that they are not. And sometimes you might even end up in a partnership. I, myself, before I even started my YouTube channel way, way back, I had partnered up with someone – you know, wanted me to create a course and do all these things. But he was really pushing me to be someone that I’m not. He kept telling me, “I need I need to wear a suit, and on my videos, and I need to…”, just sales tactics, like “Remind them of all the opportunities they’re missing because they don’t speak English” and “Tell them how horrible their life is”. And I just remember that I was, like, “Oh my gosh, this is not me!” And I felt so uncomfortable! And… and I know a lot of people that have been in similar situations, especially when they partner up with a marketing agency. The marketing agency wants them to be someone that they’re not. And to me, that’s not a good partnership. It… you should be with someone who lets you be yourself because that, first of all, is more sustainable, and no one can copy you. You’re just you.
a copycat = lit. “um gato de cópia”, uma expressão idiomática bem informal que significa “imitador”
– Don’t be a copycat! You can make your own design, don’t copy mine!
a suit = um terno
– Wow, doesn’t Jordan look handsome in his suit?
Yeah, that’s great advice. A couple of questions; first, the… the notion of being a copycat – I totally agree. Like, never steal other people’s stuff and pretend that it’s your own. In a lot of cases, that is illegal, but at the very least, it’s unethical and not a smart way to… to go about things. But I do think it is… Hmm. At least, I know a lot of people that say “I can’t do this because other people are already doing that”.
unethical = anti-ético
– That company was investigated because they were using unethical practices.
to go about things = uma expressão que significa “maneira de fazer as coisas”
– We don’t have any money, so how do you think we should go about getting some?
Okay.
So, I think it’s important to differentiate copying someone directly. And putting your own spin on something that someone is already doing something similar, but… you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, is what I’m trying to say.
to put your own spin on something = lit. “colocar seu próprio giro em algo”, expressão que significa “dar seu próprio toque em algo”
– I used a recipe to make this chocolate cake, but I put my own spin on it, so it’s a chocolate and strawberry cake.
wheel = roda; “to reinvent the wheel” = reinventar a roda
– A tricycle has three wheels, while a bicycle only has two.
Exactly. Yes. I’m glad you made that point, because, for example, in in my situation, being on YouTube, I teach English. So if I have a video about the verb “get” and its seven main meanings, there are probably hundreds of other videos on YouTube with the same title, the same content, because that’s what it is, you know? It’s… I can’t invent new meanings for the verb “get”. So I do think… of course we are – as English teachers, we’re going to end up teaching the same thing, and it doesn’t mean we’re copying each other, but I do think, like you mentioned, put your own spin on it. You know, say I want to teach this… and we can get ideas from other people. We can be inspired by other people. But you can tell when someone is just, you know, taking an idea and putting their own spin on it, or they’re literally copying verbatim the same examples, the same explanations as… as somebody else. And… but, yeah, I’m glad you asked about that, because that’s very good to clarify.
Yeah, of course. So point number two, can you give me a quick summary?
Yeah. “Just be yourself”, I guess, would be the…
That’s exactly what I wanted to say.
The… the advice.
“You do you”.
you do you = lit. “você faça você”, expressão que significa algo como “faça as coisas do seu jeito, seja você mesmo”
– I’ve never seen a wedding with donuts instead of a cake, but you do you. I’m sure it’ll be great!
Yeah. “Do you, don’t worry about what everybody else is doing”. And especially if you find yourself in a partnership with a marketing agency or something like that, if they’re trying to push you to be someone that you are not and it makes you feel uncomfortable, maybe have a talk with them or consider working with someone else.
Yeah. Honestly, if you are just starting to build an online presence, you probably should not have a marketing agency.
I know, but a lot of people do because they feel insecure with their own ability. But you can work with somebody else, but they just need to help you. Basically show the world who you are, not try to put you in a mold.
Right? Right. Okay. I have a lot of questions, but I think a lot of them will fall into the things you should do. So, Jackie, give us point number three.
Point number three is basically, “Don’t be so fame-hungry or money-hungry that you forget to be careful with your reputation”. So… there was… I remember I was listening to – I think it was Tim Ferriss, his podcast, a while back when I first started. And I remember he said, you know, “It can take years, decades, a lifetime to build a reputation and only one minute to destroy it”. And I love that because a lot of people are anxious or they really want to get to a million followers, or they want this video to go viral so they do polemic or shocking things as a way to get famous fast. But at what cost? You know, the cost is your reputation. So you have to be really careful, especially on the Internet. People will fact-check you. And there’s a lot of self-proclaimed experts out there that are being destroyed because people are checking them and putting them in their place. And if you do something silly or stupid or shocking and then afterwards your goal is to sell a serious product, you kind of shot yourself in the foot, so to speak, by ruining your reputation.
to be fame-hungry/money-hungry = ser “faminto por fama/dinheiro”
– The CEO was so money-hungry that he ended up making a lot of unethical decisions.
Tim Ferriss = empreendor, investidor, podcaster e “guru de estilo de vida” americano que ficou famoso pela sua série de livros de auto-ajuda de “4 horas”
– Have you read any of Time Ferriss’ books?
to fact-check = lit. “checar fatos”, verbo composto que significa l”checar se o que a pessoa/artigo/vídeo/etc. diz é fato”
– It’s very important to fact-check anything you see or hear on the internet!
self-proclaimed = lit “auto-proclamado”, adjetivo que significa que alguém se auto-intitula alguma coisa (ex. alguém que se auto-intitula como expert)
– That guy is a self-proclaimed expert on bitcoin, but I don’t think I trust anything he says.
to shoot yourself in the foot = expressão idiomática que significa “dar um tiro no pé”; “shot” é o passado do verbo “shoot”
– If a company doesn’t take care of its employees, it is shooting itself in the foot!
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, if we think about building an online presence, essentially what you’re doing is building your reputation.
Right.
That people will trust you and feel like they know you. And I think it can be very tempting, especially nowadays, just to, like, talk about something that you probably don’t know a lot about, but everyone else is talking about it, so, you know, it will get attention. That seems like a slippery slope to me.
slippery = escorregadio
– Be careful! The floor is very slippery!
slope = inclinação, morro
– Cindy rode down the slope on her bike when she was a child. Thank goodness she didn’t get hurt!
a slippery slope = no contexto, significa “algo meio perigoso” ou “uma situação meio perigosa de se meter”
– Talking about politics with my family is a slippery slope. I’d rather not risk it.
Right. It’s basically an easy way to get your 15 minutes of fame. But if you want longevity in a long career, you have to just be patient. And there are ways –we’ll talk about it in the solutions when we get to that point – there are ways that you can be creative with your titles and thumbnails and things like that, that are not going to destroy your reputation, so….
thumbnail = a pequena imagem prévia de algo; por exemplo, a imagem de um vídeo de Youtube que aparece antes de você clicar para assistir o vídeo
– Having an attractive thumbnail helps a lot when you want to attract viewers, customers, or clients!
Yeah.
Something to be careful of.
Okay, Jackie, quick question. When did you start on YouTube?
About five years ago.
Great. I think I started podcasting five and a half, six years ago. So I think we are good case studies that it takes a really long time. So if you want your 15 minutes of fame, you can probably get that relatively easily. But it’s going to be just that – 15 minutes.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Until the next viral video comes around.
Yeah. Literally, like, 30 seconds later.
Yeah, exactly. All right. We go on to number four.
Yeah, give us a point number four of things not to do when building an online presence.
Okay. So another common mistake is not knowing who your audience is or what your niche is. So people who are all over the place with their content, are inconsistent with their posting schedules – it’s confusing. A person may really like a video, but then they go to their channel or their profile and they don’t know… “Is this English? Is this exercise? Is this a makeup tutorial channel? Like, what’s going on over here?” So people usually follow you for one reason. One reason only. You need to know what that one reason is, and you can show other parts of your life and stuff like that if you want to. But I would say keep the focus on that one reason 99% of the time.
to be all over the place = lit. “estar em todo lugar”, significa “ser desfocado, sem foco, bagunçado”
– Mike’s presentation yesterday was all over the place! I couldn’t understand anything he was trying to show us!
what’s going on = expressão bem comum que significa “O que está acontecendo”
– Hey, do you know what’s going on in the meeting room? The boss is yelling at someone!
That’s really good advice and I find myself falling into that all of the time.
It’s hard.
Because when I think about our work, we are in the business of language teaching. But we do that through sharing our everyday experiences and having conversations. So yeah, a lot of people, we don’t make it clear as to exactly what it is we do. And that’s something we could definitely do a better job of. So great advice.
But I think the fact that, you know, like you’re sharing your life with people who want to improve their English. So I think that already helps you focus a little bit. And maybe cut out things that would not be interesting to them. But it is hard, it is hard to find that line… because people like to know who you are and what you do in your life as well.
Yeah, this is a complicated point, because… can you repeat the bullet point?
Yeah. So mistake number four is you don’t know who your audience is or what your niche is, so…
Okay.
You know, all over the place.
So I would ask… it’s just complicated for me. Like, I think the first question for a lot of people is, “What if I don’t know who my audience is?” Or, like, “My audience could be the entire world”. How would…
entire = inteiro
– Did you really eat the entire cake? That’s crazy!
Well, I do explain that. I know! That’ll be in the next… You gotta wait! I do have that as a… as part of number…the “do’s” I’m sorry, “The do’s – things that you should do”. And there are some ways to help you figure out who your audience is.
Excellent. A lot of teasers.
Yes!
In this episode.
People will finish this episode frustrated. Then they go to the next one and they’ll feel good. All right. So the last one –
Is that point number five?
So, this one is, basically, you fall in the comparison trap. So the comparison trap.
the comparison trap = lit. “a armadilha de comparação”
– Don’t fall into the comparison trap; remember that each person is different and has a different story!
Guilty.
guilty = culpado (o adjetivo)
– The dog looks really guilty. Maybe he was the one who ate the bread that was on the counter.
Oh, for sure. I think all of us are guilty of doing this. And it’s… I mean, comparing yourself to others can be helpful sometimes, you know, to – for inspiration or to learn from other people or just to see like, “Am I doing something completely wrong here?” But most of the time we compare ourselves with people that are on Chapter ten while you’re still on Chapter one or vice versa, and you just feel bad.
What do you mean by that? Can you unpack that just a little bit?
to unpack = lit. “desfazer as malas”; aqui, significa “destrinchar”, mas no sentido de “falar com mais detalhes sobre esse determinado assunto”
– Wow, did you hear what he said? Yeah, there’s a lot for us to unpack here.
Yeah. So, for example, you and I have been doing what we do for five years or five or six years. If someone just started now posting videos and they’re comparing their views and their engagement with mine, or if they’re starting a podcast now and they’re comparing their engagement with your engagement, you’re going to feel like a failure. But you have to remember, like, we’ve been doing this for much longer, so it’s not a fair comparison.
Yeah, it really doesn’t make sense to… I’m imagining, like in the context of athletics. If you just started playing tennis and you’re comparing yourself to Nadal or something? Of course you’re going to be disappointed with your results.
Rafael Nadal = jogador de tênis profissional da Espanha, esteve em primeiro lugar no mundo por anos
– Rafael Nadal is probably one of the best tennis players of all time.
Exactly. And I know people say all the time, “You know, just compare yourself with yourself”. If you are a little bit better today than you were yesterday, if you’re learning, if you’re moving forward, if you’re improving, you’re good. That’s it. And be in it for the experience, not for the end result. That’s definitely – I’m jumping to the solutions again! But the comparison thing, it’s very normal. Even with language learning. You could be in an English class with someone who speaks better than you and feel really bad about it. But rather than feeling bad, try to figure out what they do, what works for them, and apply that to your life as well.
Yeah, I fall into this all of the time. Just last week I met another American from the southeast of the US and he speaks really good European Portuguese. And I was like, “Ah, like his European Portuguese is better than mine”.
But I bet your Brazilian Portuguese is better than his.
Honestly, he learned in Brazil and then transferred and, like, he…he has both. Yeah. So instead of being impressed and motivated, my first instinct was to, like, be angry and down on myself.
to be down on myself/yourself/himself/etc. = ser negativo consigo mesmo
– Don’t be so down on yourself. You’re doing your best, I’m sure you’ll have a better result next time!
Yeah.
And then when I thought about it, thinking, like, “Yeah, this is crazy!” It actually motivated me to… to try to improve my Portuguese.
Exactly. Exactly. And I think it’s normal to have that initial reaction, just like if I’m in a dance class or anywhere and I see someone who’s like, really good. Initially I’d be like, “Oh, I wish… I wish I was like that person”. But then afterwards you just think, “Okay, this is my inspiration, like, my goal. I want to be where this other person is at”. And that can help you stay motivated.
Precisely. Okay, Jackie, so I appreciate the list of five things you should not do. As always, we like to leave our audience with a bit of homework and I’m curious, do you have… is the homework not to do anything? Because this entire episode seems about… is based on the premise of not doing.
No, the homework – actually, I do have a good homework assignment. It’s basically to reflect if you do any of these things, maybe write down a list of, “Okay, these are the things I need to stop doing” and, and then, obviously, listen to the next episode so that you know what to do instead. But yeah, homework, guys: write down a list of the things that you need to stop doing immediately, especially if you identified with any of these things on this list.
Yeah. Super interesting concept. Having a “not to do list” instead of a “to do” list. It can be quite powerful.
Yes, absolutely. Thanks, Foster.
Awesome. Thank you, Jackie. And I guess we will see everyone in the next episode, that should be much more positive and solutions-based.
Exactly. All right, guys, we’ll see you in the next episode.
Yeah.
Bye.
