Shadowing Practice: BILLIONAIRE Sara Blakely on using THE LAW OF ATTRACTION & MANIFESTING WEALTH - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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I ended up writing in my journal, I'm going to invent a product and sell it to millions of people that will make them feel good.
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I ended up writing in my journal, I'm going to invent a product and sell it to millions of people that will make them feel good.
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And then I asked the universe for an idea and I was very specific.
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You have to embrace not knowing.
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A lot of times when we don't know something, especially, you know, most people in society,
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we end up being afraid of what we don't know or we take that as a negative.
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it can hold us back.
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Whereas if you let what you don't know become your greatest asset, you are bound to do things very differently.
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There was a moment when I was selling fax machines door to door
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and I was constantly being escorted out of buildings or sometimes people would rip up my business card in my face, which was a typical occurrence.
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And one day I pulled off the side of the road and I literally thought I'm in the wrong movie.
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Like, this is not my life.
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Cut, called the director, called the producer.
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How did this happen?
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This is not supposed to be my life.
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I went home that day and wrote in my apartment, in my notebook, what my strengths were.
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And the only thing basically in the strength column
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that I was sure about was sales and I said okay
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and what can I do with that
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and I ended up writing I want to invent a product
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that I can sell to millions of people
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that will make them feel better and it was two years later
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that I cut the feet out of control top pantyhose to wear white pants to a party.
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Banks started way before I cut the feet out of my pantyhose that's the sound bite in the press
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that everybody's talked about for almost 20 years, but it actually started fundamentally on when I was 16.
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I worked on mindset for myself, and I'm such a believer in mindset is almost everything, and it just happened to be a set of circumstances.
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I was riding my bike with one of my best friends at 16, and she was run over by a car and killed in front of me, and then a few months later,
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my dad left home, and my parents separated and ultimately got divorced.
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And when my dad moved out, he came into my bedroom
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and he handed me a cassette tape series called How to Be a No Limit Person by Wayne Dyer.
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And he said, sweetie, I wish I discovered this when I was your age instead of the age of 40.
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And then he moved out.
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And so I started listening to this How to Be a No limit person, which was talking about visualization, law of attraction, not caring about what other people think about you,
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the fear, you know, not being consumed by the fear of failure.
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And it just, the clouds parted for me, and I thought, you know, I've spent a lot of time being taught what to think, but no one's really teaching me how to think.
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And at 16, that was so incredibly important.
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So in this digital platform, It's kind of passing on a lot of these insights
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that deal with mindset that I think is the real reason that Spanx exists.
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It's that failure is nothing more than life's way of nudging you
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and letting you know that you're not on the right path.
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So here I am because of that.
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And the second thing is visualization.
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I visualized this for myself.
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When I was selling copiers door to door, I had a very clear vision of what my life was going to be like.
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And I encourage everyone to do it.
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Take a snap photo of what success looks like for you.
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How many employees do you have?
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How much are you making?
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Where do you live?
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Are you sitting at a table with world leaders?
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Are you standing on a stage in New York City giving a speech?
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And hold on to that snapshot and you will subconsciously start to make decisions
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that get you there and so my snap photo for myself
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when I was going door-to-door to sell copiers was to be self-employed invent a product
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that I could sell to lots of people
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and not just one copier to each person
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and create a business for myself that would continue to fund itself
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if I wasn't present I wanted money to be generated without me having to be there I was
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that specific in my vision the third thing is goal setting it It sounds so cliche, but it is so true.
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The two things I want to say about that is if you write your goals down, it makes all the difference.
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Harvard did a study in 1973.
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They took the graduating class and asked how many of them had goals.
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100% of them had goals.
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Well, they asked how many had written down their goals upon graduation.
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Only 5% of the class had.
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In 1993, 20 years later, they followed up with the class.
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found that the 5%
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that had written down their goals 20 years prior upon graduating
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were worth more financially than the other 95% of the class put together.
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So I have always written my goals down about what I wanted to achieve and I really attribute a lot to that.
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And then aim high!

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Context & Background

Sara Blakely, the dynamic entrepreneur and founder of Spanx, shares her inspirational journey that intertwines personal challenges with her deep belief in the power of mindset and the law of attraction. Through her experiences, she emphasizes the significance of visualization and embracing uncertainty. Blakely's story begins during her teenage years, marked by loss and emotional upheaval, which ultimately led her to explore concepts like visualization and personal development. This foundational belief system would guide her as she navigated the trials of selling products door-to-door, ultimately leading to her success in creating a revolutionary product that transformed her life.

Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication

  • "Embrace not knowing." - This encourages openness to new experiences.
  • "Your greatest asset is what you don’t know." - A reminder to view uncertainty as an opportunity.
  • "Take a snap photo of what success looks like for you." - Visualize your goals clearly.
  • "Failure is nothing more than life's way of nudging you." - Understanding failure as part of the journey.
  • "Mindset is almost everything." - An affirmation of the importance of a positive mindset.

Step-by-step Shadowing Guide

To effectively enhance your English speaking practice using Sara Blakely's inspiring dialogue through shadowing, follow these steps:

  1. Listening: Begin by watching the video attentively, focusing on Blakely's tone and pronunciation. Pay close attention to her use of intonation and rhythm.
  2. First Shadow: Repeat her phrases without pause to emulate her speech. This “shadow speech” method helps to improve English pronunciation.
  3. Pause and Repeat: After listening to a segment, pause the video and repeat what you heard. This will help you articulate her words and improve your fluency.
  4. Write it Down: Note down key phrases and their meanings. This reinforces your learning and aids in vocabulary building.
  5. Practice Regularly: Incorporate this shadowing process into your routine. Consistent practice on a shadowing site can dramatically enhance your speaking skills.

Utilizing these steps will allow you to better connect with the material and improve your overall proficiency in English. Harness the power of visualization as Blakely suggests, imagining yourself successfully engaging in conversations and expressing your ideas with confidence. Embrace this journey with passion, and you may find that your proficiency continues to grow!

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.

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