Shadowing Practice: Best Advice to Small Business Owners - Learn English Speaking with Video
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48 sentences
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the best advice to a small business owner or for
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that matter to a large business owner is never stop thinking
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about how to delight your customer not to satisfy your customer
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but to delight your customer and
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when you wake up in the morning start thinking about it
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during the day think about it at night think about it
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and then dream about it and no company's ever failed but
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that had millions of delighted customers and you start with them and you get them one at a time.
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There's no substitute for hard work.
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The best time you're ever gonna have is
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when it starts out just you and it'd be great
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if it grows into a wonderful big profitable company
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but you're never gonna be happier
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and more satisfied than you are in the first year or
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so of getting your business going because you do every single thing.
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You sweep up when everybody goes home, you're the first one in, you plug in the coffee pot so
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when your people come in they have hot coffee
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and can get straight to work work through lunch set an example for them
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but there's no substitute for hard work people say luck yes
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but the hardy work the lucky you get my advice to a small business owner
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or any entrepreneur would be not to be discouraged
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if the business you end up with is not the one you started out to to pursue because so often
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you encounter difficulties you encounter failures
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and the important piece is to learn from each of those very quickly
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and to pivot and to move on to the idea
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that works of course you have to be close to your products close to your customers
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and think about them that's the most important
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but don't forget to think about your business what your plans
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are what you want to do next how to take your
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business to the next level again think about being in your business
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but think about your business as well my best advice is
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to really work hard to clarify what your purpose is
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and be able to articulate that be able to communicate it in a simple sentence
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and the reason that's important is as you bring people into
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your company I think the most important question you ask them
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is why are you here why do you want to join this company and if you hear that purpose back, if you hear that passion around that purpose,
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it makes everything a whole lot easier.
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Any skill can be learned and taught, but passion cannot.
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Being an entrepreneur can be a roller coaster ride at times.
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You will have great days.
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You will have not so great days.
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You may even from time to time have an awful day.
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You've got to stay focused and stay level -headed and keep your feet on the ground.
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Companies that do well at some level, even though it may not be written down on a piece of paper, need to have kind of a clear strategy of why they're different,
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why they're adding value, why they're producing something special that customers need that they're not getting now.
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So I think if there's a clear sense of strategy and you can get all the people aligned around that,
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then you get a lot more power than if you're just scrambling and working harder and harder and without that clear direction.
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So that's my one piece of advice.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 48 sentences and 587 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:11. The speaker talks fast, about 185 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 92% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| delight noun | /dəˈlaɪt/ | Joy; pleasure. |
| passion noun | /ˈpæʃən/ | A true desire sustained or prolonged. |
| encounter verb | /ɪnˈkaʊntɚ/ | To meet (someone) or find (something), especially unexpectedly. |
| substitute noun | /ˈsʌb.stɪ.tʃuːt/ | A replacement or stand-in for something that achieves a similar result or purpose. |
| entrepreneur noun | /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ/ | A person who sets up a business; generally, a person who owns and manages a business and assumes its financial risks. |
| satisfy verb | /ˈsætɪsfaɪ/ | To be enough (for) |
| awful adjective | /ˈɔːfʊl/ | Very bad. |
| skill noun | /skɪl/ | A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate. |
| difficulty noun | /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/ | The state of being difficult, or hard to do. |
| pursue verb | /pɚˈsu/ | To follow urgently, originally with intent to capture or harm; to chase. |
| communicate verb | /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/ | To impart or transmit (information or knowledge) to someone; to make known, to tell. |
| plug noun | /plʌɡ/ | A pronged connecting device which fits into a mating socket, especially an electrical one. |
| profitable adjective | /ˈpɹɑ.fɪ.tə.bl̩/ | Producing a profit. |
| roller noun | /ˈɹoʊlɚ/ | Any rotating cylindrical device that is part of a machine, especially one used to apply or reduce pressure. |
| sweep verb | /swiːp/ | To clean (a surface) by means of a stroking motion of a broom or brush. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| start out verb | To emerge suddenly; to jump out. |
| work through verb | To get past a difficult or stressful situation by thinking or talking about it. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 13 contractions and reduced forms, such as they're, you're, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: entrepreneur /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ/, difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/, communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/, articulate /ɑːɹˈtɪk.jə.leɪt/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like delight, passion, encounter.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.