- Is English hurting your business?
I talk to a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners
who admit that, yes, their English is holding them back
from growing their business internationally.
Now, in today's lesson, you're gonna get one strategy
to help you overcome that problem
and actually give you a competitive advantage
over some native speakers.
And the good news is, of course,
you don't have to speak perfect English for this to work.
All right, let's go.
Hi, I'm Christina,
and welcome to "Business English with Christina,"
where in this special series
you're gonna see how other entrepreneurs
and business owners solved their problems in English,
got more clients so that you can do the same thing.
And this episode is just the first one
in this special series.
There's gonna be another episode.
There's gonna be a live webinar you can attend,
all of that exciting stuff
to help you grow your business in English.
And if you want to be sure to get your invitations,
to get those lessons, go over to my blog
and sign up for the newsletter so I can send them to you.
And I'll put the link, of course,
down below the notes from this video.
Now, how does it feel when you know
that English is hurting your business or holding you back?
Maybe you already feel this and hey, that's okay,
we've all been there, but maybe not,
I wanna share a story with you
and this is from a client of mine called Fatima,
not her real name, of course,
but this is the story from a real client.
So this client, she offered training services
to other businesses, entrepreneurs,
small businesses, professionals, et cetera.
And she noticed that several clients were seeing her on,
I don't know, social media, her website, whatever,
and they started contacting her and saying, "Hey,
we really like what you do,
but we've got some international people in our team.
Can you do your training in English?"
And well, she had to say no
because she felt like she couldn't do that.
And then she got another request
and she had to say no again.
And then another request
and she had to say no again.
And at that point she said, "All right,
I have to do something about this
because this is three potential contracts
that I've had to say no to
just because of my English level.
I mean, like if you have a business, I've got a business,
if in that position, it's like, ouch, like that hurts.
Let me tell you another story somewhat similar,
but not exactly.
This is the story of Manuel.
Again, real client, not his real name.
Now, Manuel was working with a lot of clients
who were based in the US
and he was always afraid
to actually like meet with them virtually on Teams
because he said he knew that he would have to listen to
and understand several Americans in the same meeting,
then he would have to also respond to them.
He was afraid of not understanding,
not responding with the right thing, et cetera.
And so he limited himself to interacting with his clients
in the US by email only.
Now, no judgements,
but I feel like that's not the best way to run a business
and to reassure your clients
because sometimes just being able to see
and to speak with someone face to face
or over Zoom or Teams, it's just reassuring.
It makes business more human, so you have to do it.
And now maybe you're thinking like,
"Yeah, but no, it's okay.
I don't really have to worry about things like that."
But there was this article
from the Harvard Business Review
called Global Business Speaks English.
And if you're kinda wondering, "Okay, yeah,
but does this apply for me?
Is it really important for my business?"
Here's something that they had to say in that article,
not speaking English means not being able
to reach an international market.
And it means that your business is less resilient.
It's gonna have more difficulty surviving
and even growing when the economy is difficult
because you're limiting yourself
to only clients who speak your native language.
And not speaking English it means that feeling afraid
and limiting yourself either in being proactive
and going out and finding those new clients
in different countries in a different language,
or simply saying no to someone who contacts you.
And I mean, for me I feel like
that would be the most difficult part
because it's like someone found your website,
they looked at your services,
maybe they compared you with several other services
and they chose you,
but just because of English you had to say, "No, thank you.
We can't work together."
But you know that you can do better
and you know that you deserve better.
And for a lot of these people and maybe for you as well,
the thing that stops you sometimes
from taking the step and making the change
in the right direction
is maybe this fear that it's gonna be hard,
it's gonna be long, it's gonna be difficult,
it's gonna be a lot of energy.
Yeah, it takes work and it takes energy
and it's not a fast process, but it is so worth it.
And I've seen a lot of people go through that process
and then realize, all right, yes,
this is the moment I've got to do something.
It's people like Fatima, it's people like Manuel,
it's maybe people just like you,
people who stop saying no,
and who start saying yes, instead of yes
to building their business, to getting more clients,
to really going after the dream that they have
for their company because they know that they can do it.
And like I said, no, it's not easy.
And yes, it takes work,
but I mean, if you're running a business,
I have absolutely no doubt that you're not afraid
of doing the work,
that you're not afraid of trying different things,
trying new strategies,
innovating in order to reach the goal
that you have for yourself.
Also, one of the things
that I've heard from a lot of people is,
"My English is not good enough.
I have to just go and live in an English speaking country
for a few weeks or a few months
and that's the only way I can solve the problem."
That is one way to solve the problem.
But if you don't have the possibility to do that,
then that just becomes an excuse.
And I know that hurts, but I'm sorry,
but that's the truth.
If you're saying the only way I can do something is this
and oh, I just don't have the possibility
to do that one thing.
Well, then you can find another way to do it
and it might not be the same exact approach,
but it will get you the same result.
You can start with the English that you have
because if you're watching this video, you've got a level
that allows you to follow an entire video in English
and that is already pretty good.
So I mean, be proud of yourself
and let's start with the English you have.
And like Fatima and Manuel,
the first thing that you need to do
is identify one problem to fix and focus on that
and maybe make it your biggest problem
so that you see results
and you see a change after you solve that problem.
And that's gonna keep you motivated
to continue working on solving your problems.
Pick the thing that's gonna have the most impact,
maybe that is focusing on putting your LinkedIn profile
in English,
maybe it's getting the right emails
to be able to contact potential clients confidently,
maybe it's putting your website in English,
whatever your one thing is,
start there and start with the English you have
to make that thing functional, let's say.
As we say, done is better than perfect.
And then when you've got that, what's gonna happen
is you're going to start having exchanges, conversations,
or contacts from international clients.
And at some point you will have to meet with them
maybe in person face to face,
but probably virtually on Zoom or Teams.
And yes, that can be scary,
but if you know how to do it the right way
and you've actually got a strategy,
that can help you actually have a competitive advantage
over some native speakers
who don't have these business techniques.
And in a lot of business conversations,
especially those first conversations,
the way that you begin your conversation
can determine the result,
the way that you end the conversation.
And if that sounds a little like, I don't know, meta,
a little like Yoda or just a little woo woo and you're like,
"I don't know what you're talking about, Christina."
Go over to the blog,
I've gone into more detail what that means
so that you can understand how important this is,
but also what you can do to put this in place
for your own business.
And I've put actually a link over to the article,
the original article that was the inspiration
for this episode.
And in that article they talk about superstar sellers
and what makes them different from, let's say,
regular people.
I don't know what makes them different from people
who don't have these strategies and these techniques.
And it's things that you can do already
with the English you have,
it's things like building rapport with the other person,
really listening and paying attention to them,
really focusing on making the first 10 minutes
of your conversation dedicated
to building, establishing rather,
establishing that relationship
so that you have the confidence of the person,
they feel like they like you, they can trust you.
And that can really make a huge difference
in the rest of your conversation.
And it also means that you are in control
of the success of your English,
the success of your business.
You're not just waiting for someone
to come and do it for you
or to present to you with the perfect opportunity,
you take action to make sure
that you create the right conditions for success.
So are you ready to give yourself this advantage
in doing business in English?
Maybe the way to find out is to take a little quiz
on your confidence in English
and that you will find over on the blog post
for this episode.
And of course, I will put the link down below this video.
Like I always say, if you don't use it, you lose it.
So here's your question for you today,
what is blocking you from reaching your business goals
in English or from contacting clients in English
or saying yes to international clients who contact you?
What is the thing that's stopping you from saying yes today?
Put it in the comments.
Like I said, don't be afraid, don't be ashamed.
We have all been there,
we all face these situations and these problems,
it's part of growing
and the more we share our experiences,
the more others will see, hey, this is normal,
but I can solve the problem.
So you can actually maybe be the inspiration
that someone needs.
And if this lesson was helpful for you,
I would love to know
and there are three ways that you can tell me.
You can give this video a thumbs up on YouTube,
YouTube love thumbs up and subscribes and all of that.
So if you do that, it will help me help more people
and that's what I'm all about.
You can go over to the blog and get the quiz
that goes with this lesson.
And you can watch this next lesson
all about how to pitch your product or service in English.
And of course, thank you for learning with me.
Thank you for improving your business,
improving your English.
Thank you for making it to the end of this lesson
because I feel like this is gonna be a longer lesson,
but it's an important one.
Anyway, thank you for all of that.
And I am very much looking forward to seeing you
in the second part of this special series very soon.
See ya, bye.