Pratica di Shadowing: THE VISIONARIES: Blake Mycoskie, Founder of TOMS - Impara a parlare inglese con i video
Caricamento...
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I think my entrepreneurial life started with a cookie stand when I was like eight years old, you know, typical story.
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And then my first real company was a laundry business that I started in college.
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And after running that for a few years, I got kind of fascinated with different forms of media
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and specifically how to kind of interrupt and kind of cut through the clutter of media.
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So started doing these massive wall installations in Nashville, specifically for country music stars.
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And that was kind of our niche that we focused on, and really putting their album covers larger than life on the sides of buildings
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and kind of cutting through and really getting attention in that regard.
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And ultimately ended up selling that company to Clear Channel, one of the larger media companies in the world.
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And from that went on a series of different other entrepreneurial ventures before landing with Tom's and down in Argentina.
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I think the thing interesting about the Tom's story originating in Argentina,
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and that's where I first encountered some children who didn't have shoes, is sometimes surprising to people because Tom's does so much work
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in places like Haiti or Ethiopia or Cambodia or places where you would think of much more intense poverty.
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And that in some levels is true, but also in some levels,
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the worst poverty that I've ever experienced and seen is actually poverty that is close in proximity to urban wealth.
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Because the people who are living in these either townships or ghettos see everything they don't have, and so it's really crippling for them.
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And so what I experienced just outside of Buenos Aires was, you know, kids living in the street, sniffing glue, not going to school, not having proper clothing or shoes.
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And that poverty now, after years and years of doing this, still to this day was some of the most heart-wrenching poverty that I've ever seen.
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And it's what ultimately kind of led me to want to help these children that I met.
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And, you know, for me, the vehicle was shoes.
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They didn't have shoes.
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They needed shoes to go to school.
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Not having shoes was kind of affecting their self-esteem, their self-worth.
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Really, someone without shoes living on the street is seen very differently than someone
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that has a pair of shoes and has the proper clothing.
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And so I thought that was a basic need that we all deserve to have. And ultimately,
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that's what led to the idea of starting a shoe company where the company would not be based on just selling shoes, but really providing shoes to those in need.
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So we would sell shoes to people who want them so that we could provide shoes to people who need them.
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And that's where the one for one idea originated from and this idea of what we called tomorrow shoes,
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which ultimately became Tom's.
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I think what's interesting, especially looking back to 2006 when we started,
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there was really nothing of this kind in the business world.
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It was either for-profit businesses that would write checks to charities at the end of the year for tax write-offs,
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or there were non-profits who subsided on donations all year long.
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And so Tom's was, I think, one of the first companies that was for-profit, but deeply rooted in purpose and mission.
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And not just purpose and mission from a philosophical standpoint,
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but actually dedicating a large percentage of our profits and our sales every year to fulfilling this mission.
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And that was with giving shoes every time we sold a pair.
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And so, you know, now there's many more companies that have followed Tom's, and that's something that we are very proud of
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and we think is really amazing to think that this little idea that we had, you know, 11 years ago has now not only provided 75 million children a pair of shoes,
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but it's also inspired thousands of businesses around the world to incorporate a real giving component to the sale of their product.
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But back then it was really a radical idea.
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I think it's an interesting question of where inspiration comes from.
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I mean, one of the most inspiring people I've ever met was Mohamed Yunus.
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I met him when I was at Richard Branson's safari camp.
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I mean, you know, it's like I'm inspired by both equally, I think.
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You know, I think that I'm inspired by the entrepreneurs that have disrupted industries that have done things differently.
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I'm definitely not inspired by the wealth they've created or, you know, the businesses they've built.
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It's more about the ideas and the courage it took to take that idea and turn it into a reality, which is the same thing for Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank.
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You know, it was an idea that, you know, we can help the poorest of the poor by extending them credit.
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And that was something that very few had ever done before
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and actually showed that it actually was a sustainable model as well.
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So I think what inspires me is really, you know, people who are willing to take risk
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and try business models and create businesses
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that most people would think would not work and to show that they can work by taking a non-typical approach.
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And so that's where I'm constantly pushing myself
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and trying to surround myself by is people who truly are thinking outside the box
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and who truly are willing to try things differently, to really think differently. Who gave us these?
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Nate did.
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Are they the same?
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They're the same ones.
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He just found another pair today.
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So he wanted to make sure that you had the blue ones too.
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I like them.
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I think that, I don't know, how do you think these got cut from the lines?
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I don't know.
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I think it could potentially be like the sole just for our market, but seeing them in person,
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I like them so much better than I do in the picture actually.
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Which color do you like better?
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I think that the way we've always approached our marketing is really just in kind of basic storytelling.
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I mean, first off, as the company's grown, we've recognized that we have to have amazing product.
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So we've hired more designers, more developers than we had in the early days so
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that we could really create desirable product that people really love wearing and are attracted to in its own merit and right.
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But then integrating our giving component and really making sure that it is relevant to our customers is all about storytelling.
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There's a lot of amazing things happening out there because of the giving that Tom's is doing.
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And while the numbers have gotten really big, what really resonates with people still are individual stories.
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And so whether we're using, you know, virtual reality technology to take you to a village in Peru
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and meet the kids that are getting the shoes or, you know, creating an online app or platform that allows you to choose where your gift is going,
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whether it's what country it's going to or what, you know, kind of product or issue you're most engaged in, I think it's about involving the customer in the story.
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And the more that it becomes their story and part of their identity and not something that Tom's is doing, I think that is a big part of the future of the way
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that we will market and the way we will sell our products.
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Because I think people don't want to be sold to, they want to be involved in or invited to be part of the story.
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So, what are we trying to do?
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Show us the rest of this week.
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So we got, okay, chat tomorrow morning, Pat and I'll He gets in at 8.30 tonight.
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Great.
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And you have guest speaker tomorrow.
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Yeah, I'll take that and read how I'm going.
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Okay.
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And doctor's appointment.
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H&S calls from the house.
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From the house.
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Cool.
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Okay, great.
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Cool.
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I'm going to take off.
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Okay.
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Sounds awesome.
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See you tomorrow.
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As I consider myself, you know, the brands that I have engaged in, and it's probably no surprise are ones that have some real purpose.
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There's an awesome denim company called Height Denim out of Wales.
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There's like nine people that work there and they have this deep mission of bringing back denim manufacturing to their town.
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Their town used to make hundreds of thousands of jeans a year
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and then as so much of production went to the Far East and places like that, the town literally shriveled up and died.
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And these amazing entrepreneurs have really brought back the craftsmanship of great denim.
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And every pair is very handmade.
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Every pair has a history tag in it.
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So you can tag photos with your denim.
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And so if you sell them or give them away, then the next person picks up the tag.
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And so now you can see all the pictures of someone else wearing your jeans, which is really cool.
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And so each pair where the denim has this life.
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And I think they do a great job of storytelling, they're building their brand on purpose, they really have a social mission that I think is important for that town.
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And they're just doing it in a really smart, smart way.
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And so they're a small company, but to me, they have all the ingredients of what I think makes an important brand.
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On a bigger company scale, but still a mid-sized company, is Patagonia.
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They're just up the road from us.
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I think they have continued to really walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
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And I really admire how they have also gone from a company
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that had good product and an amazing story to a company that has great product and a great story.
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And so I think as Tom thinks about our trajectory and going forward, we are really on that same journey, maybe a decade or two behind them in terms of when we were founded.
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But it's a company that I admire a lot.
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Okay, bye again.
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Bye, see you tomorrow.
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Yeah, that's the best part about, I think, the TOMS model, and I think the thing I'm most proud of from a
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legacy perspective of how we've affected business culture is now there's far more humanitarian efforts
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and aid funded by business than just charitable donations and that kind of endless need to fundraise.
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And so now you're having people who might have started a non-profit a decade or two ago say,
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actually, I'm going to start a business and that business is going to fund my philanthropic goals and desires.
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And I think that's a more sustainable way long term.
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And I also think it's an interesting value proposition to where you're asking someone to buy your product
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that they are going to get to use and enjoy versus just writing a check to your charity.
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One of the things that's really wonderful about my life
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and work with Tom's is that kind of most of my interest
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and passions as entrepreneurs could be kind of explored underneath the Tom's brand.
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But at the same time, you know, I'm open to the idea that I'm young
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and there's a lot of exciting ideas and opportunities out there
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and there might come a time where I do something besides Tom's or outside of Tom's.
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But right now at this point, I'm kind of most interested in really helping this next chapter of Tom's.
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It's almost like a a parent, right?
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It's like I gave birth to Tom's and I was there in the early years and now Tom's is like,
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you know, kind of going off to college and I still want to stay connected to my son or daughter at college,
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but I also need to know that it needs to go learn its own things and be able to, you know, take care of itself without me.
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And so that's, I think, goes back to that same analogy of feeling more like a coach and less like the athlete.
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Thank you.
Lo scenario: Storia di un imprenditore con un missione
Il video racconta la vita di Blake Mycoskie, fondatore di una famosa marca di scarpe, e come un viaggio in Argentina lo ha ispirato a creare un modello d'affari unico: per ogni paio di scarpe venduto, ne dona uno a un bambino bisognoso. Attraverso la sua narrazione, si possono ascoltare esempi reali di come le esperienze personali e le emozioni influenzano le decisioni imprenditoriali, con un linguaggio colloquiale ma ricco di espressioni utili per chi vuole migliorare la pronuncia inglese e la comprensione del discorso spontaneo.
Frasi e collocazioni utili da memorizzare
- Cut through the clutter: "Riuscire a emergere dal caos" (es. "Come interrompere e cut through the clutter dei media").
- Heart-wrenching poverty: "Povertà straziante" (es. "Quella poverta' e' stata una delle piu' heart-wrenching che abbia mai visto").
- Radical idea: "Ideazione radicale" (es. "A quell'epoca, era un radical idea nel mondo degli affari").
- Disrupt industries: "Rivoluzionare gli industrie" (es. "Gli imprenditori che hanno disrupt industries con idee nuove").
La tua sfida di shadowing: Ripeti e imita
Per esercitarti con il shadowing in inglese, scegli un frammento del video (ad esempio, la parte dove parla della poverta' a Buenos Aires) e segui questi passaggi: 1) Ascolta attentamente la frase, notando l'intonazione e il ritmo. 2) Ripeti immediatamente dopo, cercando di imitare la pronuncia e la velocita'. 3) Ripeti il processo 5 volte, finche' non senti che il flusso diventa piu' naturale. Questo esercizio, detto anche shadow speech, aiuta a migliorare la pronuncia inglese e la capacità di rispondere in tempo reale. Se vuoi approfondire, usa un shadowing site o impara l'inglese con i video di questo tipo, che combinano storie reali con pratiche concreta.
Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?
Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.