Shadowing Practice: The EXACT System To Speak Like A PRO On YouTube (step-by-step) - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hey, it's Thomas.

I'm a coach and I've been bringing in between $20 ,000

and $30 ,000 a month from YouTube into my business for about 12 months now.

And if you're watching this, you're probably a coach not getting the traction that you deserve

and that you need on YouTube to start bringing in clients consistently.

So I wanted to make this step -by -step roadmap for you to show you

that this is probably a lot more simple than you think.

We need to address before we start a couple of elephants that are lurking in this room.

The first one is, yes, my name is Thomas.

My middle name is Alexander.

There's been a lot of innocent bystanders in the comments of my recent videos calling me Alexander.

If you call me Thomas, we're in the know.

The second elephant in this room is that you don't have a YouTube problem.

You have a speaking problem.

And before you bite my head off, I promise once you start seeing it through this lens, everything is going to click.

As a pre -warning before starting this video, this is the first coffee I've had in about six weeks

so if things get weird it's the coffee it's not me

so why is this a speaking problem you might be asking

you're like thomas what you want about speaking problem i speak all right

and i've got loads of other things

i don't know how to do why is this a speaking

problem what are you talking about well the first thing here is

that youtube is essentially about click -through rates

and watch time there's a bunch of other stuff going on

but if we boil it down that's what youtube is about right

and so you think you have a youtube problem and

so you're thinking right i need to have really good packaging

so to get like click -through rates and i need really good videos

and that's going to take care of watch time and

so you've you sort of split

it into all these sections where we need to get to nail the packaging

then we need to nail the watch time

and use loads of retention techniques

and that's going to be what takes care of our youtube

problem right instead let me show you how this actually works

on a human level not an algorithmic level on a human level in reality

you probably have some variation of a speaking problem

and the reason for this is

because all great speaking revolves around having a big bold idea

so it's having

that idea this is supposed to be a light bulb by the way right a big bright bold idea

and then you speak so you deliver that idea with clarity conviction authenticity

and so this is supposed to be a microphone you get the idea

if you can do those two things you've solved your youtube problem

you've got a big bold idea that's going to connect with people that's what great speaking does

and then you deliver that big bold idea with great speaking

if you can do that you've solved youtube now obviously this splits down into a few components

but if we see this as fundamentally what we are doing as creators

which is spending time talking to a camera in a room

or outside or in nature or wherever you want to do it

but that's the reality of what we're doing and if we ignore

that reality and try and focus on all this other stuff then we're ignoring the actual thing

that makes a difference the elephant in the room in this case

which is how we actually show up how we speak

so let's get on to the meat and butter the meat

and butter let's get into the meat and butter of of youtube

and how you can actually add 20k a month to your coaching business through youtube

so that's the main goal here let's put

that in 20k from youtube just to sort of reiterate we're going to remind ourselves

that this main goal here this triangle it is about speaking

so let's just sort of put that as a little reminder there

so the first problem that makes youtube feel impossible is you're probably if you're watching this not getting as many views

as you want to be getting this is a tough one

and if you're stuck in a plateau where you're getting like 200 views a video

or 50 views a video it can feel really hard to actually make anything happen

because you're getting one or two comments you don't even know

if people like your videos or not you're not getting

that feedback yet that people like this or they don't like this

and it just feels like you're invisible I've been there it sucks

so what do you what do you want what do you want to become here from YouTube well

you probably want to be I mean

and I say probably this is actually sort of a requirement

if this is going to work is you want to be the go -to expert in your niche.

You want to be the person that people think of

when they think of the problem that you solve and the dream or goal that you get people towards.

You want to be the person who people think, oh yeah, it's that person, right?

And this doesn't mean that you have to be world famous

and have a best -selling book because you can become the go -to expert in your micro niche, right?

It doesn't mean you have to have millions of views or be famous.

You want to be the go -to expert in your little corner, your little pocket of the internet.

So how do you actually go from not getting views to being the go -to expert in your niche?

Well, remember that little diagram that we drew earlier, this YouTube problem that's actually a speaking problem.

What we need is some big bold ideas to use as packaging.

So let's just put packaging here and we'll put big bold ideas.

This is a huge problem that most small creators have, which is their ideas that they are making videos around, the whole premise of their channel,

they're not big and bold enough.

They are not an innovative sort of groundbreaking idea that feels big and loud that's going to actually push through the noise.

Instead they'll make ideas that feel really safe and really small

and that's not what we want to do what's the point you know it's the difference between saying okay

if you're in fitness saying here's how to lose a bit

of weight in the next six months right why would anyone watch

that when it's next to a video

that says here's how to lose 10 pounds in the next two months

while still eating whatever you want right obviously we're not making promises here

that we can't back up

but we want to find the most biggest loudest most creative way of packaging what we actually do

so it cuts through the noise so packaging is our big bold idea that we're then going to speak about.

The next thing is your intros.

Intros are like the 80 -20 of YouTube.

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You want to put a lot of time into the first 20 seconds of your video

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and a good amount of time in the rest, but you want to put a disproportionate amount of time in

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that first piece because that's what really gets people hooked into your video and then gets them watching the rest of it.

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And the next thing is your actual content, right?

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Your speaking, it's your frameworks.

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Now I put frameworks here rather than your points

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because frameworks is a fundamentally different and better way of thinking about YouTube in general.

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So you can have points right you can have like tip one, tip two, tip three but

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if none of those tips are connected into a sequence

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then it just feels like you're sort of giving scattered points that are going to sort of vaguely surface level help people.

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Instead if you want to make money from YouTube and you want to bring in clients,

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you need to show that you can get people from their problem to their dream, right?

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And this involves a transformation.

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And so the difference between random scattered tips and a framework can be as simple as linking those tips together.

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So going from random scattered points to maybe something linear, something chronological, step one, step two, step three, or maybe cyclical,

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tip one links to tip two, which links to tip three, which links back to tip one.

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Creating these frameworks will allow your viewer to understand

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that you know what you're talking about and that you can actually help them.

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So these three things are what you're going to want to

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relentlessly focus on to go from not getting views to becoming the go -to expert in your niche

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and they all sort of fall under the umbrella of what.

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And the what here is creative, right?

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YouTube for me felt very boring for a long time and I was making sort of similar content over and over again.

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And the creative artists, the musician in me was slowly sort of fizzling out

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and dying because it felt a bit like I was on a content hamster wheel.

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So instead, if we view this as speaking, right, how can you get really good at coming up with big bold ideas and just speaking,

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sharing them to the camera through a framework, nailing your intros, nailing how you package the idea, then suddenly it becomes a lot more fun

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and you can get creative with it rather than just trying to replicate and copy whatever else is doing on the internet.

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Now you're probably thinking right now okay this all sounds great I like the idea of it

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but right now I'm stuck with writing scripts and reading them from a teleprompter and my big problem

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is that I can't speak freely and this is holding me back you know I see the creators

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Peter McKinnon, Casey Neistat, Alex Hormozzi, whoever, who can speak just really clearly and freely

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and they don't read scripts and they're just sharing their life stories and it somehow makes them millionaires.

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I can't do that.

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As soon as I stop reading from a script, my words are just filled with um, I fall down rabbit holes,

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can't finish my sentences and I just don't think there's any hope.

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But there is hope and you can learn it.

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Hundreds of my clients already have learned it.

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It's not as hard as you think.

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The goal here, instead of being not able to speak freely, is to be able to speak on camera with confidence, ease, and authenticity.

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That's how you want to be able to speak.

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The first thing I get all of my clients to do, and this is a really important step, I think, in the creator journey,

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is to go completely scriptless.

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If you're a beginner creator and you're reading from a script,

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there's a huge chance that your videos literally look a little bit like the AI slop

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that is flooding the platform right now, right?

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Your sort of eyes are moving slowly across the camera screen.

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You're sort of putting on vague, generalistic expressions of excitement that you're putting into your video because no one actually enjoys reading from a script.

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And it all just starts to look a little bit robotic.

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If you can stop doing that and speak as yourself, as if it was like you on a podcast, but you to the camera,

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that's when you're going to be able to start building connection

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and that's what's going to allow you to stand out and start getting clients with a small amount of views.

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You go unscripted, it's going to build that human connection much faster.

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And the best way to do that is getting in camera reps.

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It's a semi -intensive process that we do inside the natural speaking system,

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which will allow you to get those camera reps in quickly whilst you're practicing these skills

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and be able to accelerate your speaking progress really fast

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so you can start making YouTube videos to get you views and sales quickly.

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And this is the exact process that my client, Kian, went through when he was learning how to speak to camera.

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He got in the camera reps, he followed the Watt system, and he went from getting 200 views over seven days,

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being stuck in that sort of purgatory, to now getting 1 to 2 ,000 views in the first 24 hours

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and then videos growing to 10 ,000 views and beyond and getting hundreds of leads through his YouTube channel.

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And by the way, if you want to find out what it might look like for you if we work together,

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enter your email below and I'll send you a doc that will outline the process and what to expect.

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Next, we need to develop your superpower, which is going to be authenticity.

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It's one thing to be able to go scriptless and speak fluently off the cuff, but it's another thing to actually be yourself on camera.

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And the process of finding yourself

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and who you are on camera can be a long one for a lot of people it's something

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that takes some people years to actually discover

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and what you want to do is go through a specific process where you're getting in these camera reps

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and not only looking for that fluency

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but also looking for authenticity what is it that makes you you

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and how can you amplify that because

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when you amplify your authenticity it creates charisma

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which magnetizes your ideal viewers to you I'm not talking about amplifying your voice

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and being more than who you are you want to speak with a specific tone of voice

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that we're going to get onto in a second

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but you want to directly know who you are

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and be able to share

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that with your audience finally here we're working on your tone of voice as a speaker

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and a creator and this is both literal and metaphorical this can mean

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that you are literally working on the cadence and rhythm of your speech

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so it's clear and it feels like you it feels right

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but it's also working on your tone of voice in relation to your avatar

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and in relation to who you're actually speaking to all of this links together

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and i'll show you how in just a sec all of this part here encompasses the how

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and the how is authentic

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so the meat and bones or the meat

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and butter of our content is creative and how we present

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that is authentic now even if you start getting more traction on your videos

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and you're able to speak freely you're able to do this without a script

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which is awesome you're still always inevitably going to run into the third problem

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which is you're not getting what is it clients

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also a nasty feeling I've also been there getting plenty of views

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and no clients this is even more confusing

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and it feels like you've done everything right

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but you're still not being rewarded for it it also sucks

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so what's the golden zone here instead of not getting clients we want a high

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percentage whoa yeah that'll do high percentage of views converting to sales in this process

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we want to first clarify your niche

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so we want to get razor sharp on who we're talking to

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and why they're listening you want to be able to nail this down to one person with one problem

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and you might be thinking, Thomas, what you promised at the beginning of this video isn't true.

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You're saying this is all a speaking thing and now we're talking about niching and business stuff.

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But this is all just speaking.

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The foundation of any good speech is who you're talking to and why they're listening.

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You cannot ever make a speech to the whole world.

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It's not going to work.

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You're encompassing too many people and it's not going to have that punch.

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Instead, you need to figure out who you're talking to before you write a great speech.

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And that's what you need to do here.

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You need to clarify that niche.

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And usually the more clear that is, the more potent and powerful it is going to be to those people.

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Will you lose people on the periphery?

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Absolutely.

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That's literally what you want.

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The worst mindset that you can have when you're speaking to camera is thinking you're speaking to the whole internet.

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It's an impossible task.

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Instead, if you focus on one specific person and more than that, who has a specific problem, then you can adjust everything,

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your tone of voice, your packaging, your intros, your frameworks, you can adjust all those things to speak to

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that person and if you imagine

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that person in their problem state who are almost reaching out

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for help then you can speak to camera with a warm charismatic confidence that's going to magnetize them into your world.

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So this is all linked together.

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The next thing is to sharpen your offer.

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We're going to be able to look at your overall YouTube channel

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and see that all of your videos target this exact person with this exact problem

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and then when we click through to your offer we want to see that your offer,

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your coaching doc or your sales page or whatever it might be is exactly in line with all of your YouTube videos.

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It's pretty simple, but not many people do it.

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We want to audit your channel and website and make sure this has no leakage.

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The final thing here is to really look at your...

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credibility.

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Now credibility isn't just your wins.

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Your credibility is also your losses.

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It's all of the failures that you made along the way to actually get where you want to be.

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Now your credibility, the best way to think about credibility is not to think,

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oh I'm going to talk about my university degree or my certification that I got here.

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None of that stuff.

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The best credibility comes from simply having done stuff, learned things from it and then share

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that with your audience whether those are wins

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or losses a great idea here to boost credibility is to create a doc where you simply collect stories

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and these stories are from your past or stories

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that are happening to you right now in your day -to -day life

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that you could share in your youtube content

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if you're sharing stories it means you are sharing what's actually happened to you and how

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that can help people in the future rather than just sharing theory theory doesn't get you credibility stories do now

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if you're feeling extra sharp today maybe you're a bit caffeinated as well you might have guessed that this is the who.

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All of this side of the triangle encompasses who you are talking to and why they're listening.

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And when we're talking about who, the word here is impactful.

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This is where we can actually change people's lives.

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It's very unlikely that we can change a bunch of different demographics or different problems and different solutions lives.

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Instead, if we focus on a niche and we clarify that niche, we can really help those people

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and we can have impact being the go -to expert we can have impact in those people's lives

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and that can nourish us and nourish them so

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when we get creative in what we say

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when we are authentic in how we say it and

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when we start creating impact with who we're talking to that's

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where we can start making thousands of dollars every month through YouTube now I hope you're feeling inspired right now

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and you can see here that this isn't just about being some robot hustle bro

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and copying loads of outliers and selling your soul

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and using AI all the time to just try

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and like grind out 20k a month from YouTube in this strange sort of dehumanized way.

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Instead if we focus on human creativity, human authenticity and human impact that is

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when you really start making a difference in your life and in the lives of others.

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The awesome thing about having this map is

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that now I've got it you can use it to identify your constraints

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because if you have all of these nine things dialed in

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and nailed you are well on your way to making $20 ,000 a month

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or much more through YouTube in your coaching business

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but right now you might see okay cool one of the things

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I can't do is I can't speak to camera off the cuff that's a huge constraint for me

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another one might be frameworks I feel like the way

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that I'm presenting my information is actually just like random tips

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and that's kind of getting in the way

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and maybe the other thing is is my packaging maybe

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I'm not having like big bold ideas in the first place

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and that's a real constraint and if I did

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that I have a good feeling

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that I'd be well on my way

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you could also mark other things in green like okay

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I actually already feel for example this is just an example

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it might be completely different for you feeling pretty authentic on YouTube I think my offer is great

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and I'm also really clear in my niche too cool

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and then other things in yellow yeah credibility might use a

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bit of work intros all right tone of voice definitely could work on that as well

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So now we've got the three things

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that you could focus on in the next one to three months

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that if improved could massively move the needle for your business and your YouTube results.

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And inside the natural speaking system for every single one of these nine key areas

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that we need to work on we have systems,

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templates, tools and expert feedback from both YouTube strategists and speaking instructors to help you with any single one of these points.

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And once you fix those bottlenecks within your own YouTube channel

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and your own speaking process

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then you'll be well on your way to adding $20 ,000 a month to your coaching business through YouTube.

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If you'd like to find out what it would be like to actually work together, enter your email in the description below.

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I'll send you over that doc that I mentioned that will outline everything that you need to know to get started.

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We're looking forward to meeting you there.

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Again, email in the description below.

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I'll send you over that doc and let's get this thing going.

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Cheers.

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I'm feeling a little bit decaffeinated now after sharing that with you.

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That was fun.

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Look forward to meeting you.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

The speaker keeps coming back to these words: youtube, speaking, speak, camera. This video has 303 sentences and 3872 words to shadow. The speech runs for 19:11. The speaker talks fast, about 202 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 88% 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
bold adjective	/ˈbəʊld/	Courageous, daring.
niche noun	/nɪt͡ʃ/	A cavity, hollow, or recess, generally within the thickness of a wall, for a statue, bust, or other erect ornament.
package noun	/ˈpæk.ɪd͡ʒ/	Something which is packed, a parcel, a box, an envelope.
credibility noun	/kɹɛd.əˈbɪ.ɫɪ.ti/	A reputation impacting one's ability to be believed.
framework noun	/ˈfɹeɪm.wɜːk/	A support structure comprising joined parts or conglomerated particles and intervening open spaces of similar or larger size.
script noun	/skɹɪpt/	A writing; a written document.
creator noun	/kɹiːˈeɪ̯təː/	Something or someone which creates or makes something.
nail noun	/neɪl/	The horny plate or appendage at the ends of the digits of various animals, including most reptiles, birds, and mammals (both nonhuman and human).
authenticity noun	/ɑθɛnˈtɪsɪti/	The quality of being genuine or not corrupted from the original, of having the same origin (or attribution, commitment, intention, etc.) as claimed.
tone noun	/ˈtəʊn/	A specific pitch.
intro noun	/ˈɪntɹoʊ/	An introduction.
butter noun	/ˈbʌtɚ/	A soft, fatty foodstuff made by churning the cream of milk (generally cow's milk).
rep noun	/ɹɛp/	A fabric made of silk or wool, or of silk and wool, and having a transversely corded or ribbed surface.
freely adverb	/ˈfɹili/	In a free manner.
authentic adjective	/ɔˈθɛn.tɪk/	Of the same origin as claimed; genuine.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
find out verb		To discover, as by asking or investigating.
go through verb		To travel from one end of something to the other.
look forward to verb		To anticipate, expect, or wait for, especially with a feeling of approval or pleasure; to be excited or eager to.
work together verb		To be coworkers with someone; to share a workspace with someone.
back up verb		To move backwards, especially for a vehicle to do so.
come up with verb		To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it.
cut through verb		To take a shortcut through.
fall down verb	/fɔl ˈdaʊn/	To fall to the ground. To collapse.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

Your speaking, it's your frameworks.
It's not as hard as you think.
That's how you want to be able to speak.
Will you lose people on the periphery?
That's literally what you want.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	There's been · I've had · you've solved
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	are connected · are just filled · being stuck
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	person who people · have, which is · superpower, which is
Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form	start bringing · start seeing · stop reading

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 106 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, we're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: authenticity /ɑθɛnˈtɪsɪti/, authentic /ɔˈθɛn.tɪk/, rhythm /ˈɹɪð.əm/, algorithmic /ˌælɡəˈɹɪðmɪk/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: sharp /ʃɑɹp/, relation /ɹɪˈleɪʃ(ə)n/, traction /ˈtɹæk.ʃən/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, transformation /ˌtɹæns.fɔɹˈmeɪ.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: credibility /kɹɛd.əˈbɪ.ɫɪ.ti/, authenticity /ɑθɛnˈtɪsɪti/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, consistently /kənˈsɪstəntli/, transformation /ˌtɹæns.fɔɹˈmeɪ.ʃən/

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 bold, niche, package.

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: The EXACT System To Speak Like A PRO On YouTube (step-by-step) - Learn English Speaking with Video

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